The aristocracy that has persisted since the end of the Han dynasty monopolizes political power through the official selection system.
Sima Zhao killed the emperor in public, seized power, and in order to control the court, killed many people. The famous Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, including Ji Kang and others, were chopped by him, weren't they?
Yet even so, the Sima family could not escape the aristocracy. They could kill individuals, but they couldn't kill all the aristocrats.
Therefore, to consolidate their rule, the Sima family had no choice but to govern jointly with the aristocracy.
However, after Emperor Hui ascended the throne, the aristocracy began to be harvested like chives.
Whenever a king rebelled, a crop was cut down. The worst was when Shi Le and Liu Cong marched south, especially during Shi Le's interception and killing of Sima Yue, where seventy percent of court officials and eighty percent of aristocrats in Luoyang died at his hands.
