The stories in history are embarrassing, because there are too many hidden secrets behind those stories, and there are complex interests and power relationships involved. In troubled times, how a person can protect himself, perhaps Chang Yu's experience can give us some enlightenment.
Chang Yu's success is closely linked to Lü Buwei, but in the same way, Chang Yu's failure also stems from Lü Buwei. It can be said that "success is not good, and failure is not good", but between this success or failure, it is more worthy of us to think deeply about the complexity of human nature.
When Zichu died, Yingzheng became the king of Qin, and he needed Lü Buwei as an assistant to the state at a young age. Lü Buwei leaned towards the government and the opposition and reached the pinnacle of his life. However, the relationship between Lü Buwei and Zhao Ji made Yingzheng quite dissatisfied. The scandal spread, and the outside world talked about it, and Ying Zheng was very unhappy about it. In order to curry favor with the Empress Dowager Zhao Ji, Lü Buwei decided to find a powerful figure to serve her, so he chose the Great Yin Man Chang Yu.
With her special skills, Chang Yu has become Zhao Ji's close person. However, in order to keep this secret, Lü Buwei had to resort to some means. He bribed the corrupt master to make Chang Yu accept the fake corrupt punishment and become a eunuch. This ploy allowed Lü Buwei to skillfully arrange everything, and Chang Yu successfully approached Zhao Ji.
However, power often makes people lose themselves. Chang Yu gradually forgot that he was just a plaything that Lü Buwei dedicated to Zhao Ji, and began to have whimsical ambitions, wanting to make the child born to the Queen Mother the king after Ying Zheng's death. After all this was discovered, Chang Yu was in great danger.
Ying Zheng was extremely angry and carried out capital punishment on Chang Yu and others, and killed the two sons born to Chang Yu and Zhao Ji. However, Ying Zheng did not stop, he also believed that Lü Buwei was the mastermind behind all this, and decided to severely punish him. Yingzheng wanted to kill Lü Buwei, but under the plea of the ministers, he finally deposed Lü Buwei as minister and was demoted to a fief.
Lü Buwei was not honest in the fiefdom, but became more and more arrogant. He summoned his disciples to compile the Lü Chunqiu in an attempt to make this idea the dominant power of the Qin state. Ying Zheng was dissatisfied with this and wrote a letter to remind Lü Buwei and warn him not to overstep his bounds. Lü Buwei understood the hint and felt very frightened. There are words in Ying Zheng's words, reminding Lu Buwei that even if he is his biological father and son, he can't think of anything wrong.
Faced with the pressure of Yingzheng, Lü Buwei finally chose to commit suicide. He knew that the only way to keep a secret was to die, so he chose to do it himself before Ying Zheng came to kill.
Life often requires caution. In the midst of conspiracy, selfish desires often make people forget their original intentions. The endings of Chang Yu and Lü Buwei are all because of their own choices, one is self-inflicted, and the other is self-inflicted. Chang Yu's death and Lü Buwei's suicide are all tragedies in history.
The Historical Records records more stories about Lü Buwei, Chang Yu and Ying Zheng. Reading history can comprehend the way of governing the country, and can also draw wisdom from it. Therefore, I recommend you to read the "Historical Records", a set of 6 volumes, which compares the vernacular text with the original text, so that you can appreciate the ancient wisdom and understand the vicissitudes of history. Feel free to click on the bottom right.
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