China has had fatalism since ancient times, and the same is true for major events in the world, and the rise and fall of almost every dynasty is accompanied by mysterious prophecies, often in the form of diagrams or nursery rhymes. Of course, some of them were faked by participants in major historical events, or "afterthoughts" by good deeds, but it is difficult to deny them in their entirety.
This kind of prophecy first appeared in the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the later years of King Xuan of Zhou, a nursery rhyme circulated in Wangcheng that said, "檿 (yǎn) arc 箕服, the actual death of the Zhou state", which means that the mulberry bow and quiver will eventually destroy the Zhou state.
When King Zhou Xuan heard about it, he ordered to search for the hawkers who sold these two things, and a couple of hawkers picked up a baby girl on the way to Baoguo. King Zhou You smiled for the Pomeranians, and did not hesitate to "play the princes of the beacon fire", and finally the country was broken and died.
As an ancient Chinese metaphysical culture, arithmetic divination was born from the theory of yin and yang and the five elements, combined with Zhou Yi, and was very valued in ancient times.
There is no shortage of masters in this area in various dynasties. Such as Jiang Ziya in the Zhou Dynasty, Yuan Tiangang in the Tang Dynasty, and Liu Bowen in the Ming Dynasty.
The famous prophecy "Song of Qiankun Ten Thousand Years" circulated by the folk is said to have been written by Jiang Ziya, which has such a sentence, "In the past four hundred years, the world has been changed, a song has been poisoned on the day, a branch has been lost to Xichuan, and the three branches have been passed down for two generations", predicting the history from the Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms.
Liu Bowen (Liu Ji) of the Ming Dynasty was also a great wise man and left behind the prophetic book "Song of Baked Cakes". It is rumored that once Zhu Yuanzhang was eating baked cakes, Liu Bowen came to see him, Zhu Yuanzhang covered the bitten baked cakes with a bowl, and asked Liu Bowen to guess what it was. This is the origin of the name "Song of Baked Cakes".
The more famous prophecy book is the "Tui Bei Tu", which, according to the records of the wild history, was written by Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang of the Tang Dynasty. Yuan Tiangang is Li Chunfeng's **, it is rumored that Tang Taizong Li Shimin once asked him, how long is the national honor of the Tang Dynasty? Yuan Tiangang deduced it, but the heavenly opportunity could not be leaked, and he could not say it explicitly, so he only said a hidden sentence: When the pig went up the tree, the Tang Dynasty died. Tang Taizong didn't understand.
Before talking about this matter, you might as well get to know Yuan Tiangang and his person.
According to the records of the "Old Tang Book", Yuan Tiangang's real name is Yuan Tiangang, a native of Chengdu, Yizhou, and he is very knowledgeable, especially good at physiognomy. During the great cause of the Sui Dynasty, he served as a small county commander. When Yuan Tiangang was in Luoyang, the three ** Du Yan, Wang Qi and Wei Ting asked him to look at their faces, and Yuan Tiangang calculated the ups and downs of their careers, which was very accurate.
At the end of the Sui Dynasty, Dou Liang (later a general in the early Tang Dynasty) also looked for Yuan Tiangang, and Yuan Tiangang looked at his face and said that his future fame was in Liangzhou and Yizhou. During the reign of Tang Gaozu Wude, Dou Liang was named the servant of Yizhou Xingtai, and found Yuan Tiangang and expressed his deep respect.
The Old Tang Book records that when Wu Zetian was a baby, Yuan Tiangang went to the Wu family to show several children. After watching Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang, Yuan Tiangang said that these two children are the masters of the family and can be a third-grade official. looked at Wu Zetian's sister and said that she would be able to be expensive in the future, but it would not be good for her husband.
Wu Zetian was held by his nursing mother and wore a boy's clothes. Yuan Tiangang walked up to take a look, at first there was no distinction between men and women, and exclaimed: "This child has dragon eyes and phoenix neck, and he has a noble appearance!" He looked at it again and said in amazement: "If it is a girl, it is unspeakably expensive, and she will become the lord of the world in the future!" As Yuan Tiangang said, Wu Zetian later became a generation of empresses.
In addition, according to the record of "Neng Gaizhai Manlu", in the last years of the Sui Dynasty, Yuan Tiangang lived in Panlong Mountain, Langzhou, and Li Chunfeng, a native of Qiyang, went to apprentice with gift money and got the true biography of Yuan Tiangang. Li Chunfeng was proficient in astronomy, calendar, mathematics, etc., and was later awarded the title of General Shilang by Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, and worked in the Taishi Bureau for many years.
Once, Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang were walking in the wild and saw traces of cow hooves on the ground. Yuan Tiangang said, can you tell whether a cow is a male or a female based on hoof prints? Li Chunfeng said, how can you see it. Yuan Tiangang said: Let me tell you, this is a cow, and she is pregnant with a calf, and her left eye is injured, and she will give birth to a bull calf soon.
Li Chunfeng was suspicious, so he found the cow, and at first glance, it was exactly the same as Yuan Tiangang's description. He thought that Yuan Tiangang had another secret technique that he hadn't taught himself, and Yuan Tiangang sighed
It's not a secret art. If the cow is pregnant, if the left side of the body is heavy, it means that it is pregnant with a bull, and if it is heavy on the right side, it is a cow. I saw the cow's hoof print deep on the left foot, so I knew it was a cow. There is also grass on the ground that has been eaten by cows, and only the grass on the right side has been eaten, indicating that it has a problem with its left eye. Your knowledge is sufficient, but your wisdom is not enough. ”
According to this record, Yuan Tiangang is not only inquisitive, but also has strong observation skills, and if he changes his career to solve cases, he is also an outstanding talent.
In the eighth year of Zhenguan, Tang Taizong heard about Yuan Tiangang and sent someone to invite him to the palace. At that time, Li Chunfeng was already an official in the capital, and it is rumored that Tang Taizong had asked the two of them to calculate the national fortune of the Tang Dynasty, and "Tui Bei Tu" was born at that time. Tang Taizong also asked Yuan Tiangang, when will the Tang Dynasty perish?
Yuan Tiangang knew the end of the Tang Dynasty, but he couldn't divulge the heavenly secrets, otherwise there would be serious consequences. Furthermore, to tell the emperor this kind of thing, you have to pay attention to the rhetoric, not too direct. Yuan Tiangang thought about it, and had to answer in a hidden language: When the pig goes up the tree, the Tang Dynasty will die. Everyone knows that pigs can't climb trees, and pigs climbing trees are used as a metaphor for the impossible.
Li Shimin is a generation of virtuous monarchs, although he knows that the Tang Dynasty will not be eternal for thousands of generations, but when he heard Yuan Tiangang say this, he felt that the national honor of the Tang Dynasty was still growing, so he was very happy, so he didn't think much about it.
In fact, Yuan Tiangang's "pig on the tree" is a homonym, and the pig is "Zhu", and Yuan Tiangang deduced the major event that Zhu Wen ended the Tang Dynasty more than 200 years later.
Zhu Wen was a hero in the troubled times of the late Tang Dynasty and the founding emperor of the Later Liang during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. During the reign of Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty, Zhu Wen rose in the chaos of war, and after taking refuge in the official army, he was given the name "Quanzhong" by the emperor and became the envoy of the festival. At that time, the Tang Dynasty was already in turmoil, and Zhu Wen took the opportunity to expand his power and gradually developed into the largest warlord in the late Tang Dynasty.
Later, Zhu Wen led a large army into Guanzhong, hijacked Tang Zhaozong, took control of the imperial court, and Zhu Wen was named King of Liang. In the first year of Tianyou (904), Zhu Wen forced Tang Zhaozong to move the capital to Luoyang, and then sent people to kill Tang Zhaozong and renamed his son Li Ji as the emperor, that is, Emperor Tang Ai. In 907 A.D., Emperor Ai of the Tang Dynasty took the throne, Zhu Wen became the emperor, the country was called Daliang, and the Tang Dynasty perished.
Yuan Tiangang's prediction of "pigs on the tree", Tang Taizong didn't understand, even if he understood, he knew that the person who threatened the Tang Dynasty in the future was surnamed Zhu, what could he do, there was no way to prevent it.
And this is a legend after all, no one can say whether it is true or not. Even the "Tui Bei Tu" is controversial, and some scholars in the Ming and Qing dynasties believe that it was forged by later generations, not by Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng. In any case, there is no doubt about the true talent of Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng, and the official history is clearly recorded. Such strange people did exist in ancient times.