Excellent horse aid, helpless to be wronged. Environmental adaptation is the best policy.
Ma Yuan was an important figure in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and his historical status was lofty. However, some people may wonder: why was he not selected for the "28 Generals of Yuntai"? Why was he slandered after his death?
Actually, it's a question of being recognized. Although Ma Yuan has merit and qualifications, and he also knows how to behave in the world, why was he framed? In my opinion, to understand Ma Yuan's unjust incident is to understand some deep-seated social logic.
The reasons why Ma Yuan was wronged are worth pondering.
Ma Yuan was in the twenty-fifth year of Jianwu and successfully pacified the ** of Wuxi Man in Wuling County, but he and his deputy general Geng Shu had a disagreement on the path of the march. Although Liu Xiu finally supported Ma Yuan's plan, this incident later became the fuse for Ma Yuan's injustice.
Ma Yuan insisted on his opinion and led the army to advance towards Hutou Mountain. However, the barbarians' steep terrain and strong passes prevented the army of horse reinforcements from advancing.
If Ma Yuan chose to bypass Hutou Mountain, his boat could not move forward due to the strong current. Therefore, Hutou Mountain became an obstacle to the dilemma of the horse aid army. Ma Yuan knew the art of war very well, and he knew that if the problem of Hutou Mountain was not completely solved, his lone troops would face the dilemma of being attacked from front to back and backward and logistics would not continue.
Therefore, he decided to wait for the moment. However, the deep mountains and old forests in the south are a miasma of smoke, and many northern soldiers are not accustomed to water and soil, the weather is very hot, and the summer epidemic is rampant, and many soldiers have lost their lives, including Ma Yuan himself, who also contracted a serious illness.
Geng Shu wrote a letter to complain to Ma Yuan, and Liu Xiu sent his son-in-law Liang Song to investigate, and Ma Yuan died of serious illness. Liang Song took advantage of this to frame Ma Yuan, and Liu Xiu took back the new Hou Yin ribbon. The ministers severed ties with the Ma family one after another, and no one attended Ma Yuan's funeral.
Ma Yuan's family was confused and frightened by his death, and they feared that it would cause trouble for the family, so they did not dare to bury his body in the family cemetery, but simply buried him.
Later, Ma Yuan's nephew and family pleaded guilty to the imperial court, and Liu Xiu ordered him to be reburied. Although his grievances were redressed, the imperial court did not restore his honor and conferred the title.
It wasn't until Ma Yuan's daughter became empress that the imperial court began to actively restore his reputation, but claimed that it was to avoid suspicion. It was not until the death of Madame Ma Yuan that the imperial court built an ancestral hall for him, piled up mounds as his burial ground, and planted trees as markers.
In the second year of the founding of the first year (78 years), Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty finally began to officially restore the reputation of his grandfather, and sent the five official Zhonglang to add the canonization of the festival, and posthumously praised Ma Yuan as "Zhongcheng".
After 29 years of being wronged, Ma Yuan, a generation of famous generals, finally gained the respect he deserved. Although the direct cause of Ma Yuan's posthumous death seems to be Geng Shu's narrow-mindedness and Liang Song's communiqué personal vendetta, is it really that simple?
Why did Geng Shu and Liang Song refuse to let go of the dead horse aid? How can they so easily let a veteran who has fought for the country for many years and has made great achievements suffer so many grievances after death?
For the logical analysis of Ma Yuan's injustice, we need to think deeply.
Although Ma Yuan's injustice seems to be caused by the three major promoters of Geng Shu, Liang Song and Liu Xiu, in fact, we must also understand that no slap can be slapped, and we also need to find the reason from ourselves when we encounter problems.
Next, let's analyze the underlying psychological and behavioral logic of these three major drivers. First, let's take a look at Geng Shu. He was the younger brother of Geng Yi, the fourth general of Yuntai, and the son of Geng Jing, the former Shanggu Taishou, and their family was one of the important sponsors of Liu Xiu's regime.
This kind of background and status has made Geng Shu a hot son of the powerful. However, this status can also make his self-esteem very sensitive, and it will be difficult for him to accept disobedience or denial from others, as it will hurt his pride and self-esteem.
Although Geng Shu did not have a deep grudge against Ma Yuan on the surface, they only had differences of military opinion. However, Geng Shu's behavioral logic and underlying psychology make him unable to accept this disagreement, so he may throw dirty water on Ma Yuan.
After all, the final opinion is still to be decided by Liu Xiu himself, so why contradict Ma Yuan for such a trivial matter? To sum up, although Ma Yuan's injustice seems to be caused by the three major promoters on the surface, in fact, we also have to find the reason from ourselves.
At the same time, we also need to understand the psychology of the children of the powerful, who may have a sensitive sense of self-esteem and find it difficult to accept the disobedience or denial of others.
There is no right or wrong in the adult world, only interests. The root cause of the grievances and hatred between Geng Shu and Ma Yuan lies in the conflict of interests. The Eastern Han Dynasty established by Liu Xiu was similar to a joint-stock company or a joint venture company.
Liu Xiu relied on his charm and ability to attract Haoqiang investment, and finally successfully went public. However, this seemingly beautiful script is actually very complicated and troublesome. With the expansion of the company's scale, the issue of shareholder dividends is the most likely to cause problems.
The slightest imbalance will lead to huge contrasts and contradictions.
Liu Xiu's capital camp consisted of the Nanyang faction, the Jizhou faction, the Youzhou faction and the Longxi faction, of which the Nanyang faction had the greatest support, so they received the most dividends after the establishment of the Eastern Han regime.
The Youzhou faction came second, the Jizhou faction again, and the Longxi faction could only be relegated to the last place because they joined late. The famous "Yuntai Twenty-Eight Generals" are all from the first three factions. Although Liu Xiu's roots are in Nanyang County, his rise is in Hebei, so he relied more on Youzhou and Jizhou forces in the early stage.
On the issue of establishing the empress and the crown prince, he sacrificed the interests and emotions of Yin Lihua and the Nanyang faction in order to accommodate the Hebei forces. Deng Feng's rebellion was actually a grievance for the Nanyang faction.
When the time came for the world, Liu Xiu deposed the former empress Guo Shengtong and the crown prince Liu Jiang, and replaced Yin Lihua and her son Liu Zhuang, which was just to balance the interests of shareholders of various factions.
Liu Xiu has been committed to recovering the military power of various factions, although he only retains the dividend rights of the original shareholders, but weakens their management rights. This is to ensure the relative stability of the situation and to avoid more rebellions caused by unfair distribution of benefits.
After Liu Xiu balanced the interests of all parties, the Longxi faction that Liu Xiu finally accepted, although his power was weak, was his most trusted ally. In order to weaken other forces, he gave the Longxi faction more opportunities and benefits to make contributions, and at the same time, it would not threaten the best interests.
Therefore, in the later period of Liu Xiu's reign, representatives of the Longxi faction, such as Ma Yuan, frequently came forward to quell the rebellion, and their influence gradually increased. This made the other factions unhappy, and although they had conquered the country with Liu Xiu, they were now spectators, watching the power of the Longxi faction grow stronger and their own interests diluted.
This kind of injustice is the reason why Geng Shu and others sued Ma Yuan.
Liang Song's dissatisfaction with Ma Yuan was not for deep-seated reasons, but because he was angered by Ma Yuan's arrogance and disrespect. Liang Song was Liu Xiu's son-in-law, born in Anding County, and had a close relationship with the Longxi faction.
However, these powerful children usually think very highly of themselves and get very angry if others don't respect them. Ma Yuan was sick, and Liang Song went to visit him and saluted him at the bedside, but Ma Yuan did not return the salute.
After Liang Song left, Ma Yuan's son asked him why he didn't return the gift, and Ma Yuan explained that he was friends with Liang Song's father and could not forget his seniority because of Liang Song's status. However, Liang Song was not satisfied with Ma Yuan's explanation, and he thought that Ma Yuan was self-righteous in front of him and did not respect him.
Ma Yuan warned his nephew not to follow the example of Sima Dubao, who rode Yueqi, because making friends such as Liang Song and Dou Gu might be regarded as a party for personal gain. Liu Xiu was very angry about this, summoned Liang Song and Dou Gu, and showed Ma Yuan's family letter, and finally Liang Song and Dou Gu were exempted from the crime because they kowtowed to the head and bleed.
Liang Song was narrow-minded, angry with Ma Yuan, and went to investigate him with a sense of revenge. Unfortunately, Ma Yuan died before Liang Song could reach the army, and the outcome of the investigation was entirely up to Liang Song.
This shows that when a person has evil thoughts in his heart and finds that the cost of doing evil is low, evil deeds are difficult to avoid. Liang Song took this opportunity to put all the responsibility on Ma Yuan and vented his personal anger.
Liu Xiu's performance in dealing with the Ma Yuan injustice incident is a little incomprehensible. As a famous Ming Jun and Ben Jun in history, he is generally considered wise and just, but in this incident, his reaction seems somewhat irrational.
Ma Yuan's march route was personally approved by him, why was he so angry when he received Geng Shu's letter of complaint? As a military expert, he should know that the situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, and the situation of unfavorable melee combat due to unadaptability to water and soil is a frequent occurrence in military operations.
In addition, he has always known people well, and he should have a good understanding of Ma Yuan. Even if you want to investigate the situation, there is no need to send Liang Song, who has opinions with Ma Yuan! Wouldn't it be more reasonable to send a few more or choose someone else?
After receiving Liang Song's report, Liu Xiu carried out a series of almost insulting treatments against the meritorious veteran Ma Yuan. You must know that Ma Yuan had passed away at that time, but people sacrificed their lives for the country, and the dead were the greatest, so is it necessary to be concerned about this?
However, Liu Xiu's series of strange reactions are actually balancing interests. Although many people in history say that Liu Xiu is perfect and very tolerant and generous to heroes and generals, Liu Xiu is also a flesh-and-blood mortal man after all, and he also has his seven emotions and six desires.
Especially as a man at the helm of an empire, he had to learn to make trade-offs in many cases. Although Liu Xiu is generally grateful and benevolent in his life, he has actually failed many people, such as Liu Yang, the king of Zhending, Peng Chong, the Taishou of Yuyang, the former queen Guo Shengtong, the queen Yin Lihua, Deng Feng, who was forced to rebel, and Ma Yuan, who was wronged after his death, and so on.
In fact, there is no way to do this, as a politician, he must abandon the small and grasp the big, and he must make sacrifices.
Liu Xiu was well aware of the complexity of the political struggle, and saw through at a glance that the situation in which everyone sued Ma Yuan was the struggle for profit between Youzhou and Guanlong power groups. He understood that this was a reproduction of the open and covert struggle between the Hebei and Nanyang power groups.
When Liu Xiu saw that Geng Shu's complaint letter was forwarded by his brother Geng Yi, he already understood that this was because the Hebei forces were being chased by the Nanyang and Guanlong forces, and decided to unite to suppress the Guanlong forces.
If this was just a personal disagreement between Geng Shu and Ma Yuan, Geng Shu could directly appeal to the emperor, so why use his brother's status in the court to influence Liu Xiu's decision? As the king of a country, Liu Xiu finally chose to sacrifice the interests of the Guanlong group and confiscate the marquis of Ma Yuan.
Although the Ma family redressed their grievances six times after pleading, Liu Xiu only symbolically relieved himself and allowed a funeral for Ma Yuan. In fact, there is no absolute fairness in the world, and many things are a balance of interests.
Therefore, we should learn to look at problems with the thinking of the golden mean, avoid going to extremes, and do not pursue a single and ultimate fairness and freedom.
When Ma Yuan is confronted with being framed, he exposes his flaws in not fully understanding human nature. This upright and quick-witted man has made achievements in the fields of military, economy, agriculture and animal husbandry, Soma, education, and literature.
However, he usually pays too much attention to the underlying logic, that is, because of his position, it is sometimes difficult to completely shake off his class stigma. For example, for someone like Liang Song who likes to show off his superiority and desire to be sought after by others, there is no need to pose as an elder.
Doing so is actually stimulating him. Therefore, in interpersonal communication, we must learn to talk to each other from the perspective and level of each other, so as to achieve the same frequency communication and avoid contradictions due to sticking to our own positions.
Each of us is a role in life, and sometimes we need to think about some issues in order to protect ourselves. For example, sometimes when evaluating people around us, we don't have to name them directly, we can use ancient stories or historical events as metaphors to express our opinions.
However, we must recognize that others may use our words for political purposes, and this requires us to be cautious. In addition, we should also realize that everyone is a pawn in the eyes of others, and try not to give others the opportunity to take advantage of us.
For example, when dealing with the children of the powerful, we should try to coordinate and solve the problem, rather than directly resisting. While the sons and daughters of the powerful may be just trying to gain military merit, we can prevent them from interfering with us by coordinating and appeasing them.
However, if we don't communicate well with them, they may take the opportunity to fall into the trap. In general, the incident of Ma Yuanmeng's injustice is a complex game of human nature and interests, and we need to think about it from multiple angles.
In the workplace, it is actually very common for Ma Yuan to be wronged. In this case, a veteran employee who has made great contributions to the company and has both ability and seniority may suddenly be calculated by other colleagues behind his back.
This phenomenon is subjectively infuriating and complaining, but objectively, it is unavoidable. Therefore, we should not stop at simple anger and complaining, but should go deep into the logical reasons behind it in order to effectively prevent it.
Human beings are social creatures, and we have to deal with complex social relationships, and workplace relationships are only part of it. We can't simplify the working relationship, some people think that "you're the best, I'll do mine, the well water doesn't interfere with the river water", this view is too naïve.
Work is not just about work, and working relationships are not just about everyone doing their own thing.
Understanding that the essence of work is to obtain subsistence resources through labor is a profit-seeking behavior. In the process of pursuing profits, we need to consider conflicts of interest. Sometimes, the most motivated, capable, and high-performing person in a department may also be the least welcome.
This is because their positive performance can squeeze the interests of other colleagues. Some people may think that I am just doing my own job, why would I squeeze the space of other people's interests?
In fact, because under normal circumstances, the interests and resources of a department are limited, and the part you get is snatched from others. So, is it okay for everyone to eat a big pot of rice?
That's not true. I just want to remind everyone that when you are aggressive, you must be clear about where your new benefits come from. If you make the cake bigger through your own efforts, then you can take as much as you want.
However, if you take more through positive performance and other ways while the total amount of benefits remains the same, there is actually a considerable risk.
Ma Yuan was framed by Geng Shu and Liang Song for being overly involved in the national cause. It's not because he made a mistake, but because in that environment he was part of the whole game, and in the limited space and on the stage, he was too focused on moving forward, thus crossing the line and touching the interests and emotions of others.
Therefore, when dealing with social relationships, we should learn to control our emotions, constantly change positions and identities, and understand the perspectives of others. There are things that you take for granted may not be acceptable in the eyes of others.
How to get rid of the shackles of self-centeredness? This is a complex and difficult task. First of all, we need to learn to communicate on the same frequency, that is, to communicate with others on an equal footing.
The most decent and superlative communication is to reasonably give up the sense of superiority and satisfaction, so that the other party can find superiority and obtain satisfaction from you, not to show off your superiority or force others to satisfy your satisfaction.
Therefore, we need to adjust our state at any time and choose the corresponding communication method according to the level of the interlocutor. For example, if you are a Ph.D. and you need to communicate with a farmer, you should lower your profile and talk to him about some trivial things in life that he can understand and accept. If you communicate with white-collar workers, you can talk about economics, sociology, and so on; If you chat with an expert, you can ** some professional questions that everyone agrees on.
Ma Yuan did not do these things when communicating with Liang Song, and as a result, he angered Liang Song, so sometimes, even if you think you are right, if the other party can't understand and accept it, then you are wrong.
Whether at work or in interpersonal relationships, we need to stay rational and sober, analyze the level and objective situation of the other party, and adjust our state to match it.
Otherwise, it will be like a chicken talking to a duck, everyone will not be able to communicate, and no matter how much you talk, it will be in vain. If Ma Yuan could understand that his courageous progress had actually caused damage to the interests of the Hebei group, then before his last expedition, if Liu Xiu had taken pity on him for his old age and infirmity and asked him to rest at home, he might not have been actively fighting for it, so that he would not have the opportunity to be framed by Geng Shu.
Therefore, staying sane and sober is the key to avoiding misunderstandings and contradictions.
If he can understand that when dealing with people of unequal status, it is up to the person of higher status to make compromises, he will not be embarrassed in his relationships. In this way, he will not have a grudge with Liang Song because of seniority.
If he could understand the truth of "gossip and don't talk about people's wrongs", he would not have suffered Liang Song's anger because of Du Bao's problem. We must understand that not everyone is a righteous man, and we must be defensive.
While we can't be sure which way of life is best, we need to learn to understand and adapt to others so that we can navigate relationships.