Why is Qin Shi Huang's biological father the king of Qin Zhuang Xiang in "Qin Shi Huang Benji", but in "The Biography of Lü Buwei", he alludes to Lü Buwei?Why did Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty have four sons, but he was written as a childless queen?
The above mentioned are all self-contradictory or Spring and Autumn penmanship in the "Historical Records". Note: Spring and Autumn penmanship refers to the writing style that skips or abbreviates certain events when writing a book, and deliberately ignores them.
As the first biographical history book in China, Mr. Lu Xun praised it".The swan song of the historian, the rhyme of the separation”。But it is such a classic of celebrity historiography through the ages, how can there be these mistakes and omissions?
In fact, most of the contradictions and mistakes were made by Sima Qian as a last resort, and even some of them would have ended up dead if he had written them truthfully.
But if Sima Qian only revised history according to the falsified historical facts, it would be impossible for the historical records to have such a high evaluation, in fact, these mistakes and omissions are the code words left to us by Taishi Gong, revealing the true face of the event.
Let's start with the early Han dynastyIn addition to the change of the palaceThis is a typical case.
After Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, defeated Xiang Yu and dominated the world, he only sat in the country for seven years and traveled westward. Emperor Hui Liu Ying inherited the unification at the age of sixteen, relying on his mother Lv Hou auxiliary government, after the death of Emperor Hui, Lv Hou was a monopoly of power, set up Liu Ying's young son as the emperor, and welcomed Zhu Lu (Lu family relatives) into the palace.
After Empress Lü became the ruler of the dynasty, he sealed the cronies of the Lu family, and even despite the opposition of the ministers, almost all of his immediate family members were crowned kings, which completely violated the alliance between Liu Bang and the ministers during his lifetime"If the surname Liu is not the king, the world will fight against him. ”
This seriously aroused the disgust of the hero group, but Empress Lu's political skills and strength made everyone dare not make trouble, so they could only secretly accumulate strength, and as soon as Empress Lu died, they would no longer suppress it, and they would start to kill!
In 180 BC, Empress Lu died, and the change in the palace was launched!
The group of heroes led by the first generation of founding fathers Chen Ping, Zhou Bo and others and the clan of King Qi joined forces to attack and pacify Zhulu. And set up Liu Heng, the son born to Liu Bang and Bo Ji, to inherit the unification, that is, the later Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty.
And then the question is in front of us,Liu Ying had four sons at this time, and these heirs could not be removedIf it is not removed, the legitimacy of Liu Heng's ascension to the throne will be completely lost, and it can only be called a usurpation;Second, Liu Ying's lineage is the descendant of the first emperor, and no one can guarantee that they will take revenge in the future by borrowing their identity to gain power?
Except for this problem, Chen Ping did not hesitate, and directly slaughtered Liu Ying's lineage. But to pay attention to the teacher, Chen Ping used a simple sentence".If the foot is not Liu's son, it should not stand. "Settled everything.
And Tai Shi Gong also showed his superb skills in the Spring and Autumn Period brushwork at this moment. The statement about Liu Yingwu in the historical records is recorded according to the words of the imperial court:
"The young emperor and Liang, Huaiyang, and the king of Changshan are not true filial piety. Empress Lu used tricks to deceive his son, killed his mother, and made filial piety. ”But for the title of Emperor Wen Liu Heng on the day he entered the palace, Taishi Gong used the title of "acting king", which is actually a clear definition of orthodoxy. Because on the day Liu Heng entered the palace, he had been regarded by hundreds of officials as the legal framework for welcoming the Son of Heaven, and he was the Son of Heaven in law, and although the original Son of Heaven was in the palace at the moment, he was already regarded as a different species.
In the follow-up Ban Gu version of the "Book of Han", the "acting king" was changed to "emperor", and the incident was placed in the "Biography of Zhou Bo", the meaning of evasion is self-evident, and Ban Gu is in the Zhao Xiushu, and his position represents the position of the entire Han court.
In the change of the palace, Tai Shi Gong first showed a bloody coup d'état in front of us, and then used textual techniques to vaguely express his attitude, and after reading this story, it is not difficult for readers to introduce the truth of the matter.
In addition, all elements of the historical record are taken care of, and clues are left everywhere to string together a major event.
For example, the light and fluttering sentence in "The Book of Filial Piety".If the king of Wu was sick and did not go to court, he gave him a few rods. "To translate, King Wu pretended to be sick and did not meet the Son of Heaven, so Emperor Wen gave him a few crutches. From this point of view, Emperor Wen is still strange, but this is indeed in line with Emperor Wen's consistent style.
But the advantage of historical records is that he has a record of every important person, such as King Wu, who has an exclusive biography. In this biography, it is written in detail why King Wu dared to defy the holy will. Why did Emperor Wen not punish him, but also appease him.
The matter is actually very simple, King Wu's sister-in-law died, who killed him?was killed by Emperor Wen's sister-in-law, how could he be killed?Why smash people with a chessboard?Playing chess is not in a hurry.
That's right, you read that right, it's such a simple and ridiculous reason, directly copy the chessboard and smash it at the brothers of the same clan, and don't stop when you smash it, and then stop until it's silent. Can you guess who this tyrannical crown prince is?That's right, it is Liu Qi, the emperor of Han Xiaojing, who was praised by later generations.
Combined with the content of King Wu's biography, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty is worth thinking about, his son died, and he didn't come to the court when he was angry, so Emperor Wen sent crutches to comfort, but what use can a few crutches be, the prince didn't even punish him, what's the matter?This hatred of Wu Guo has been remembered since then.
After the death of Emperor Wen, three years after Emperor Jing ascended the throne, he began to cut the feudal domain by force, and the state of Wu, which had long been dissatisfied, directly raised troops and united the other six vassal states, and called the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, which once endangered Kyoto.
All this, although it cannot be said that Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty had any big driving effect, because the policy of cutting feudal domains implemented by him would have angered the various feudal states, and the big princes could only raise troops if they did not want to sit idly by. However, Wu's leadership and the strength accumulated early undoubtedly added fuel to the flames of this rebellion.
Moreover, in this battle, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty directly killed Chao Cuo in order to ask for peace, you know, it was because Emperor Jing had the intention of cutting the feudal domain, so he enabled Chao Cuo, and at this moment, in order to seek peace, he directly sold people, which is evident in the injustice and shame.
Through a small sentence in the emperor's book, to push the personal biography of ** and the princes, and then ** the biographies of other people, you can connect the major events that happened at that time, which is also the unique charm of Sima Qian's original biography history book.
There are many examples of such a grass snake gray line, and sometimes people do not realize that they are reading a boring historiographical biography, but a literary work with diverse characters and three-dimensional images. This is also what distinguishes the Records of the Historian from other works of historiography.
Do you remember the question we asked at the beginning?Why in the historical records, in two different biographies, the biological father of Qin Shi Huang is recorded differently, on one side is the orthodox Qin royal bloodline, and on the other side is only the son of Lü Buwei, a merchant and concubine.
Of course, it was not explicitly stated in "The Biography of Lü Buweilie", but it was only vaguely mentioned:"Ji hid himself, and when he was older, he gave birth to a son. Zi Chu then made Ji his wife. ”
Roughly speaking, Lü Buwei gave his favorite concubine Zhao Ji to Zichu, that is, the king of Qinzhuang Xiang, but when Zhao Ji went, he concealed the fact that he was pregnant, and finally gave birth to Yingzheng, and Zichu also gave Zhao Ji the title of mother and son.
The question of who Qin Shi Huang's biological father is has not yet been determined. Although Sima Qian's time was only more than 100 years before Qin Shi Huang, it was difficult to verify the old events of the previous dynasty, so for the sake of rigor, the two accounts were recorded in different biographies.
There are many records of this kind of multi-narrative in historical records, and the reason for this is largely the lack of historical evidence.
Due to the 400 years of conquest in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, coupled with the burning of books by Qin Shi Huang, a large number of precious books were scattered and lost, including a large number of historical books.
Sima Qian was born 57 years after the founding of the Han Dynasty, at this time, under the call of several generations of emperors, the restoration of classics has achieved certain results, such as the reappearance of the Analects, but there are still a large number of historiographical classics and past historical facts submerged in the historical trend.
However, Sima Qian was not discouraged, he traveled through the mountains and rivers of the Han Dynasty, visited places of interest, consulted local elders, investigated social customs, and compared them with the many historical books he had read before.
After ascending to the position of Taishi Ling, he took advantage of his position to read all the royal classics, and under these strong accumulations and rigorous errata, he had today's first history in the world - "Historical Records".
There is another family that faces the same dilemma of revising history as Sima Qian, a historian of the Tang Dynasty.
The rebellion of the Eight Kings of the Western Jin Dynasty directly opened the era of the Five Hu Chaohua, followed by the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and it was a 400-year chaotic era.
After the unification of the Tang Dynasty, he began to prepare for the work of revising history, Taizong Li Shimin personally issued an order, edited by Fang Xuanling, a total of 21 scholars participated in the compilation, which lasted two years to compile a masterpiece - "Book of Jin".
What is the quality of this work?Let's take a look at its reviews first!
Catalogue of Magic Jin Books "" is unparalleled in the world, similar to the romance of the gods. "It's too absurd, and many places don't match the previous historical books, so it's not worth reading. ”
When you see magic and absurdity, you know how unreliable this "Book of Jin" is. It is mixed with too many ghosts and gods, and there is no logic in many places, such as a general leading his troops to kill tens of thousands of horses on the opposite side, and then suddenly defeated.
Another example is Yao Chang, the founding ancestor of Later Qin, whose position was usurped by the former Qin Emperor Fu Jian. The Book of Jin describes that the cause of Yao Chang's death was because Fu Jian's ghost came back at night to take revenge and stabbed him to death.
With the "Book of Jin" view of the "Historical Records" can deeply understand the attitude and necessity of Taishi Gong's rigorous management of history, although there are some ghosts and monsters in the historical records, but they are basically the myth of the birth of the emperor, which has nothing to do with the general trend of the whole history, and even some mysterious things are explained.
Just like Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's "Da Chu Xing, Chen Sheng Wang." "To tell you bluntly, let people pretend to be foxes in the middle of the night, and the fish will break the plug note in the stomach first. The White Snake Uprising was also, Liu Bang didn't take it seriously after he killed the White Snake, and a fellow villager said that he was the White Emperor in order to cling to him.
In the "Han Gaozu Benji", Liu Bang is arrogant and chivalrous, and the sword slashes the white snake, which does show the mighty and domineering, but for the scene of the white snake's manifestation, Taishi Gong wrote it in the way of other people's words, which has already shown his attitude.
There are many places in the historical records that are very scary, as long as you study carefully, you will find something different from your usual cognition, if you are interested, you may wish to read it!