这个应该说不是董卓要换皇帝的真实原因，因为董卓的心思很清楚，他是要把皇帝捏在自己的手心里，让皇帝做个傀儡。既然是做傀儡的嘛，傻一点不是更好吗，不像皇帝不是更好吗，干吗要换一个聪明一点的、像一点的呢？当然董卓这种人，他凭着自己的一时好恶老子就是要换，那也不是没有可能，但是我觉得他真实的原因还是要树立个人威望，控制中央政权。因为董卓是西北来的一个军阀，非常野蛮，在京城里面根本就站不住脚。董卓当然也懂得这个道理，懂得自己带来的这个军队是不足以成大事的，也要依靠当时王朝的那些名流、士大夫，所以董卓进京以后大量地起用这些名流、士大夫。但是名流、士大夫不愿意跟他合作，在骨子里面看不起他。董卓只好耍野蛮，比方说他聘请了蔡文姬的父亲蔡邕，这是一个大名士，请蔡邕出来做官，蔡邕说哎呀，老夫就不去了吧，董卓说你不去吗？我这个人脾气不太好，喜欢灭人九族。蔡邕只好去做官。你说这样一个人，他怎么和当时的士族阶级——用现在话说就是知识界——合作呢？
This should not be said to be the real reason why Dong Zhuo wants to change the emperor, because Dong Zhuo’s mind is very clear. He wants to hold the emperor in his own hand and make him a puppet. Since you are a puppet, isn’t it better to be foolish, and not like an emperor? Why change to a smarter and more like one? Of course, Dong Zhuo is a person who, depending on his temporary likes and dislikes of Lao Tzu, wants to change, which is not impossible. However, I think the real reason for him is to establish personal prestige and control the central government. Because Dong Zhuo was a warlord from the northwest, he was very barbaric and could not stand up in the capital. Dong Zhuo certainly understood this truth, and understood that the army he brought was not enough to accomplish great things. He also relied on the celebrities and scholarly officials of the dynasty at that time. Therefore, after entering Beijing, Dong Zhuo employed a large number of these celebrities and scholarly officials. But celebrities and scholarly doctors were unwilling to cooperate with him and looked down upon him in their bones. Dong Zhuo had to be brutal. For example, he hired Cai Yong, Cai Wenji’s father. This is a great scholar. He invited Cai Yong to come out and become an official. Cai Yong said, “Oh, I won’t go, won’t I?” Dong Zhuo said, “Don’t you go?”? I have a bad temper and like to exterminate the nine races. Cai Yong had to become an official. You say that such a person, how could he cooperate with the gentry class at that time – in modern words, the intellectual community -?
董卓这个人野蛮是野蛮，他也有狡猾的一面。董卓当时到洛阳来的时候带了多少人，三千人，董卓马上明白，这三千人是镇不住的，他采取个什么办法呢？他让这三千人每天晚上换成便装出城，第二天早上换上军装大张旗鼓地进城，一连四五天天天如此，洛阳城就不知道董卓带来了多少人马，因为每天都有董卓的军队开进来。所以他也是很狡猾的，他这么一弄他发现他忽悠成功了，也发现洛阳城的什么士大夫、知识界没有他以前想象得那么了不起，也是可以忽悠的，那我这回就忽悠个大的，换皇帝。董卓想你们不是都不听我的吗？我不是没有威望吗？你们不是都崇拜皇帝吗？你们不都是听皇帝的吗？要是我连皇帝都能换，看你们听谁的！但是董卓没有想到，这个皇帝是不可以随便换的，所以董卓这个提议提出来遭到了整个士大夫强烈地反对和抗议，硬是逼得他大开杀戒，这才是把皇帝换掉。但是从此，他变成了人民公敌，全国人民都在说董卓随随便便就把皇帝换了，这不是乱臣贼子还是什么东西！因为在当时人的眼睛里皇帝是一国之君，也是一国之本，换皇帝就等于动摇国本，只能造成天下大乱，这是绝对不能同意的，哪怕你换上去的还是姓刘的那也不行。
Dong Zhuo is a barbaric person, and he also has a cunning side. When Dong Zhuo came to Luoyang, he brought three thousand people with him. Dong Zhuo immediately understood that these three thousand people couldn’t live in town. What method did he take? He asked these 3000 people to change into civilian clothes every night and enter the city with great fanfare the next morning. This happened every day for four or five days in a row. Luoyang City did not know how many people Dong Zhuo had brought, because every day Dong Zhuo’s army came in. Therefore, he is also very cunning. He found that his deception was successful, and he also found that some scholar-bureaucrats and intellectuals in Luoyang City were not as great as he had imagined before, and could also be deceived. So this time, I will deceive a big one and change the emperor. Don’t you all listen to me, Dong Zhuo? Am I not without prestige? Aren’t you all worshipping the emperor? Aren’t you all listening to the emperor? If I could even change the emperor, who do you listen to! However, Dong Zhuo did not expect that the emperor could not be changed casually. Therefore, Dong Zhuo’s proposal was strongly opposed and protested by the entire literati, forcing him to commit murder, which was to replace the emperor. But since then, he has become a public enemy of the people, and the whole country is saying that Dong Zhuo casually changed the emperor. This is not a disorderly subject or a thief, or something! “Because in the eyes of people at that time, the emperor was the ruler of a country and the foundation of a country. Changing the emperor would be tantamount to shaking the foundation of the country, and would only cause chaos in the world. This is absolutely unacceptable, even if you change the name to Liu.”.
这个事情其实以前也有人做过的，东汉灵帝末年，有一个冀州刺史叫做王芬的他就准备换皇帝，他准备在汉灵帝出巡的时候阴谋把汉灵帝干掉，换一个叫合肥侯的人去当皇帝。这个合肥侯是谁呢？现在不知道了，弄不清楚了，反正也是他们刘家的一个宗室。参与这个事情的就有后来背叛袁绍投奔曹操，最后又被曹操杀掉的那个许攸，所以曹操和许攸确实是老朋友。他们做这个事情想拉曹操入伙，写信给曹操。曹操马上回了一封信，开头就说：
“废立之事，天下之至不祥也。”
In fact, some people had done this before. In the late years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a Jizhou governor named Wang Fen who was about to change the emperor. He was about to plot to kill the Han Ling Emperor when he was on patrol, and change his name to the Duke of Hefei to become the emperor. Who is this Duke of Hefei? “I don’t know now, I can’t figure it out. Anyway, it’s also a royal family of their Liu family.”. One of the people involved in this matter was Xu You, who later betrayed Yuan Shao and defected to Cao Cao, and was eventually killed by Cao Cao. Therefore, Cao Cao and Xu You are indeed old friends. They did this to attract Cao Cao into the gang and wrote to him. Cao Cao immediately replied to a letter, beginning with:
“The matter of abolishing legislation is the most ominous in the world.”
