January 9, 1283 A.D., was the day of Wen Tianxiang's righteousness.
On this day, the Chai City Execution Ground in Yuan Dadu was full of heavily armed guards and was heavily guarded. Tens of thousands of citizens in the capital heard the news that Wen Tianxiang was about to die, and they gathered on both sides of the street.
On the way from the Terracotta Prison to the execution ground, Wen Tianxiang walked calmly and behaved peacefully.
Before the execution, the prison officer asked Wen Tianxiang: "What do you have to say?" Echo to avoid death. ”
Wen Tianxiang ignored the supervisor and beheaded the officials, but asked the onlookers, which side is the south?
Someone pointed out to him the south, which symbolized the Great Song Dynasty, and he immediately bowed to the south a few times. Then he calmly took justice at the age of forty-seven.
Hearing the news of Wen Tianxiang's death, Kublai Khan sighed, good man, it's a pity!
A few days later, when someone was sorting out Wen Tianxiang's relics, he found a unique letter written on the clothes belt:
Kong said to be benevolent, Meng said to take righteousness, only its righteousness is exhausted, so benevolence is the best. What do you learn when you read the books of the sages? Now and then, there is almost no shame. ”
This is the process of Wen Tianxiang's death.
Because of this sincere heart, Wen Tianxiang has also become a representative of Haoran righteousness and iron bones.
Some of us today, from the perspective of God, know that the Han nation later established the Ming Dynasty and rose again, so they feel that Wen Tianxiang's behavior before his death is very contrived.
If you are bent on dying, why not just commit suicide?
In fact, at the beginning of his capture, Wen Tianxiang did think about suicide.
He initially took a poison called borneol and fainted on the spot, but did not die.
Later, on the way to Yuan Dadu, he calculated the time and went on a hunger strike in advance, planning to starve to death in his hometown of Ji'an when he passed by.
But the heavens did not obey people's wishes, Yuan Bing pinched his nose and forcibly poured porridge, so that Wen Tianxiang, who had been on hunger strike for eight days, failed to commit suicide, and his hometown had passed.
This experience of failing to seek death made Wen Tianxiang wake up.
Since the Anshi Rebellion, the Han people have lost the Western Regions, Hetao, Liaodong, and Yanyun.
After the Jingkang Rebellion, the Central Plains were lost.
Now, even the last Jiangnan has been lost.
Faced with this unprecedented scene in history, many people are desperate, have lost hope for the future, and have lost faith in the rejuvenation of the nation.
This is the case with Wen Tianxiang when he is bent on death.
He lost hope, he lost faith. At this time, death is not only not terrible for him, but also a relief.
But an experience of begging for death made Wen Tianxiang understand the meaning of life.
Since ancient times, no one has died, and everyone will eventually die. The point is that what people want to die must be meaningful.
Wen Tianxiang, who had figured out the meaning of life, decided not to die.
He wants to live, so that he can do a little more meaningful thing for the suffering nation behind him before he dies.
On the first day of October 1279, Wen Tianxiang was escorted to the capital of Yuan.
Kublai Khan had long heard of Wen Tianxiang's name, and Wang Jiweng, the Fujian envoy who had previously descended to the Yuan in Fuzhou, had told Kublai Khan more than once: "Among us Han people, there is no one who can compare with Wen Tianxiang." If Your Majesty can recruit this person, he will be able to stabilize the rule of the Great Yuan in Jiangnan."
Under the influence of Wang Jiweng and other Southern Song Dynasty ministers, Kublai Khan became interested in luring Wen Tianxiang to surrender.
At this time, Kublai Khan actually understood a truth: it is not easy to conquer territory, and it is even more difficult to conquer people's hearts.
In order to get Wen Tianxiang to surrender, Kublai Khan first sent Liu Mengyan to persuade him to surrender.
Liu Mengyan, like Wen Tianxiang, was the prime minister of the Southern Song Dynasty.
In terms of qualifications, Wen Tianxiang has to call him a senior.
But in terms of integrity, Liumengyan is very different from Wen Tianxiang.
Before the Yuan army captured Lin'an, Liu Mengyan abandoned his official position and fled back to his hometown, refusing the Song court's call.
After the fall of Lin'an, he saw that the general trend had gone, and actively organized villagers in his hometown to welcome the arrival of the Yuan army.
Later, the Yuan court recruited him as an official, and he agreed without thinking about it.
A person with such a low temperament dared to come and persuade him to surrender. The result of his persuasion was naturally to be scolded by Wen Tianxiang and left in shame.
Seeing that Liumengyan could not persuade him to surrender, Ahma, the Pingzhang political affairs of the Yuan Dynasty, immediately summoned Wen Tianxiang again.
After seeing Wen Tianxiang, Ahma said domineeringly: When you see Prime Minister Dayuan, why don't you kneel?
Wen Tianxiang was not to be outdone, and said: "The prime minister of the Southern Dynasty does not kneel to the prime minister of the Northern Dynasty. “
In this regard, Ahmad was furious and threatened, "When death is imminent, you dare to be hard-mouthed, your life and death are decided by me"!
In the face of the threat of death, Wen Tianxiang continued to say fearlessly: "People who have lost the country, if you want to kill, kill them, don't tell me anything, it's up to you or not!" ”
Ahmad knew that Kublai Khan had no intention of killing Wen Tianxiang at this time. He's actually posturing.
Seeing that Wen Tianxiang was unlucky, he had to get up and go back. A word of persuasion was not uttered.
Seeing that Ahma's persuasion to surrender was fruitless, Kublai Khan devised a poisonous plan, that is, to threaten the lives of Wen Tianxiang's wife and daughter to force him to surrender.
When Wen Tianxiang learned about the situation of his wife and children, he choked up with tears, but for the sake of integrity, he decisively refused Kublai Khan's temptation.
Seeing that Wen Tianxiang was still unwilling to surrender, Kublai Khan made a killer move and asked Emperor Song Gong to persuade him to surrender.
Aren't you Wen Tianxiang a loyal minister? I'll now let your Emperor himself give the order and see what you do!"
When Wen Tianxiang saw Emperor Song Gong appear in front of him dressed as a Mongolian, he immediately knelt in front of Emperor Song Gong and burst into tears.
He said: "The minister can't protect the Great Song Dynasty, so Your Majesty is deeply ashamed today. Holy Driver, please return, Holy Driver, please return! ”
It can be said that at this time, Wen Tianxiang's allegiance was no longer to the Zhao Song royal family.
In Wen Tianxiang's view, it is very important to serve the king, but the interests of the nation are more important than being loyal to the emperor. You Emperor Song Gong can be embarrassed, but I, Wen Tianxiang, must guard my integrity and be worthy of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the Great Song Dynasty before.
Several attempts to lure him failed, and Kublai Khan gradually lost his patience.
In November 1279, Kublai Khan ordered Wen Tianxiang to be sent to prison, and this pass was locked up for three years and two months.
During this period, Wen Tianxiang never gave in. and wrote "Song of Righteousness" in prison.
Heaven and earth have righteousness, and miscellaneous manifolds. The lower part is the river mountain, and the upper part is the sun star.
Yu people say Haoran, full of gloom. Huanglu when Qingyi, Han and Tuming Court .......
Seeing that the physical torture could not convince Wen Tianxiang, Kublai Khan wanted to stop there and let Wen Tianxiang become a Taoist monk.
If you don't fall, you won't fall, if you have returned to Dayuan today, a Wen Tianxiang must not be able to set off any storms.
When things come to this, if they develop normally, Wen Tianxiang is likely to become a monk as a Taoist priest, and then he will live his whole life, and there will be no later murder.
However, just when Kublai Khan intended to release Wen Tianxiang, there were frequent accidents in various places.
First, a monk in Fujian said that Saturn offended the emperor and threatened that someone would rebel.
Soon after, an armed force of more than 1,000 people emerged in Hebei and threatened to rescue Wen Tianxiang.
Immediately afterwards, rumors of soldiers rebelling were also rife in the capital of Yuan.
At the same time, Liumengyan, who had previously persuaded Wen Tianxiang to surrender to no avail, also jumped out to fan the flames, he said: "Tianxiang is out, and in order to call on the righteous people in Jiangnan to resist the Yuan, where will my generation be placed?" ”
This means that Wen Tianxiang must die. If he doesn't die, where should we, the traitors of the Great Song Dynasty, be placed?
Liu Mengyan's shameless words can be said to express the voice of the Southern Song Dynasty's ministers.
If Wen Tianxiang doesn't die, what face do they, the ** thieves who surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty, have in this world? Wen Tianxiang's existence, for them, is a stark contrast, it is a great humiliation, so Wen Tianxiang must die!
By the way, because Liu Mengyan lost his life when the Song Dynasty was in danger, and he was demoted to the Yuan Shiyuan as the prime minister of the Song Dynasty, he had no character at all. Therefore, in the Ming and Qing dynasties after the Yuan Dynasty, all descendants of those who left their surnames to participate in the imperial examination had to write a letter of guarantee, which stated that they were "not the descendants of Mengyan" before they were allowed to enter the examination room.
It is just that the people of the Ming Dynasty despised Liumengyan, and even the rulers of the Qing Dynasty despised him as a person, which shows the low character of Liumengyan.
In a sense, Liumengyan also lives in the hearts of future generations. It's just that his image is negative.
Bewitched by Liumengyan and others, Ahma, the prime minister of the Yuan Dynasty, asked Kublai Khan for an edict and asked for the death of Wen Tianxiang.
Kublai Khan thought twice and decided to summon Wen Tianxiang in person.
After the two met, Kublai Khan said to Wen Tianxiang: As long as you surrender, I will keep you as prime minister.
Facing Kublai Khan's **, Wen Tianxiang replied: "I am deeply favored by the Song Dynasty, as the prime minister, how can I serve the second surname, and I will be satisfied as soon as I die." ”
Seeing that his personal persuasion was fruitless, Kublai Khan also lost the little patience he had left, and finally approved Ahma's proposal.
Immediately, Wen Tianxiang was escorted by Yuan Bing and calmly took justice.
Speaking of which, I don't know if you have noticed.
At that time, the people who most wanted Wen Tianxiang to die were not actually the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty, but the capitulation factions and hypocrites of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Among the representative figures, in addition to the previously mentioned Liumengyan, there is also a strategist of Wen Tianxiang, this person is called Wang Yanwu.
Regarding Wang Yanwu's early experience, it can be described as bland.
At the beginning of Wen Tianxiang's tenure as the right prime minister and privy envoy, he took the initiative to vote. However, he didn't have any too eye-catching performance under Wen Tianxiang's account. Later, what really made him angry was that he persuaded Wen Tianxiang to commit suicide many times.
In December 1278, after Wen Tianxiang was defeated and captured at Wupoling, the Yuan court was bent on persuading him to surrender.
The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty knew that if Wen Tianxiang could be subdued, it would mean that the Southern Song Dynasty had completely lost its backbone.
And this is exactly what Wang Yanwu is worried about: if Prime Minister Wen really surrenders, then the hearts of the people of the Great Song Dynasty will really be over. Instead of this, it is better to persuade Wen Tianxiang to commit suicide as soon as possible, in order to arouse everyone's fighting spirit, and sacrifice one person to keep the country, it is worth it!
Later, in order to let Wen Tianxiang die early, Wang Yanwu wrote a "Life Sacrifice Wen Prime Minister's Text".
The so-called "sacrifice of life" is a eulogy that is given before a person dies.
Wang Yanwu published this life sacrifice article, nearly 2,000 words, the specific content will not be repeated here, the core meaning is one sentence: "Prime Minister Wen, you are all here, hurry up and commit suicide, suicide is not difficult, you can die of heat and freeze, drown and suffocate, crash into the wall to death, be killed by thieves, and be bitten to death by poisonous snakes and beasts." You committed suicide, and it's a good thing for you and for the country."
According to the records of wild history, after Wang Yanwu wrote the "Life Sacrifice Wen Cheng Xiangwen", he had hundreds of copies copied, and sent people to post them along the way on the road that Wen Tianxiang had to pass to the north, and every word was the size of a fist, for fear that Wen Tianxiang would not be able to see it clearly, and others would not be able to see it.
What's even more exaggerated is that Wang Yan heard early in the afternoon that the Yuan army escorting Wen Tianxiang was going to board the ship at the Ganjiang wharf. So he deliberately arranged a huge sacrificial activity, and scattered the "life sacrifice text" and paper money all over the ground on the Ganjiang wharf, so as to force Wen Tianxiang to commit suicide.
However, according to the official history, Wen Tianxiang did not see Wang Yanwu's life sacrifice.
Personally, I think that the statement of the official history is more reliable. After all, for an article of nearly 2,000 words, if each word is the size of a fist, how big a page does it have to be?
Of course, although the records of wild histories may have elements of fiction. However, Wang Yanwu wrote "The Essay of the Prime Minister of the Life Sacrifice", which made everyone know to the world, and the intention to force Wen Tianxiang to commit suicide by creating a sensation must exist.
How to say it, if it is said that Liumengyan is a representative of hypocrisy and shamelessness. That Wang Yanwu is a representative of hypocrisy and **.
In this world, people like Wang Yanwu are often the most terrifying.
Because this person is accustomed to standing on the moral high ground and pointing at others. Get used to holding others to high standards.
We know that from the moment of **, Wen Tianxiang had already made up his mind to die. Otherwise, he would not have committed suicide twice.
But since his second unsuccessful suicide, Mr. Wen has changed his mind.
He realized that when a person died, there was no hope. As long as he is alive, there is still a glimmer of hope that calls on the people to stick to the bottom line of integrity.
Many people choose to commit suicide before being captured, in large part because they fear that they will not be able to endure the torture and defect, and end up in disrepute.
Wen Tianxiang's ability to face the torture directly proves that his will is very strong.
However, Wang Yanwu didn't understand such a simple truth. He underestimated Wen Tianxiang's sincerity, and he put on a posture of a "patriot" and doubted Wen Tianxiang's will in every way.
However, when Wen Tianxiang later calmly accepted righteousness, Wang Yanwu failed to practice it.
After Wen Tianxiang's death, Wang Yanwu not only did not die, but lived peacefully for another 41 years.
Compared with Liu Mengyan, Wang Yanwu did keep the bottom line, he did not surrender, nor did he become an official in the Yuan Dynasty.
But his hypocrisy far exceeds that of Liumengyan, he demands others with the standards of a saint, but he demands himself with a very low standard of ordinary people.
And the most creepy thing is that Wang Yanwu doesn't feel that he has any problems. He firmly believed that he was doing what a scholar should do, and he moved himself.
So, does Wen Tianxiang have to die?
Not really. As mentioned earlier, the effect of being captive and committing suicide are always two different things.
Once Wen Tianxiang committed suicide, the Yuan court could discredit him at will.
However, as long as Wen Tianxiang is captured and refuses to be co-opted by the Yuan Court, it will be the Yuan Court that is passive. And Wen Tianxiang can lead by example to awaken the belief of the people of the world in recovering the country.
In all dynasties of China, there have always been some backbones of the nation, so that future generations know the national righteousness, and it is precisely because of their loyalty to the country that the Han nation has gone through hardships but will never die!
Wen Tianxiang knew the consequences, but dared to make the decision to live, which is enough to show that his will is strong, his personality is great, and he is really a real husband!