Everyone has multiple facets and has a different image on different occasions and to different groups of people. In public, he may be a good and faithful official, but in private he may be a violent husband and an unfilial child. This is where human nature is complicated. Today, we will look back at those figures in history who have shocked the world but have worrisome personal virtues, and see how many you can think of?
Everyone is familiar with the "first four histories" in Chinese history, including the Records of the Historical Records, the Book of Han, the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, and the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms. Among them, the author of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty is the highly respected Fan Ye. His Book of the Later Han Dynasty has been widely praised by the historiography and literary circles, and is known as "the judge of historiography is like a model, how many people can there be in the ages?" ”
Fan Ye is talented, but that seems to be his only positive label.
However, greedy for money, lustful, disloyal and unfilial, and afraid of death, these three labels were attached to him.
Greed for money and lust may be interpreted as the true character of a talented man, but it is unforgivable to treat his family unfilial piety. When his mother-in-law died, Fan Ye not only did not go to the funeral in time, but also took the purchased concubine to attend the funeral.
Even if he has no feelings for his mother-in-law, his disdainful attitude towards his biological mother is even more outrageous. He enjoyed a luxurious life, and even his concubines lived a life of fine clothes and food, while his mother was placed in a humble house, and there was no quilt even in winter. When his mother died, he had no grief and even sang at the funeral, which made even Liu Yikang, the king of Pengcheng, who was also of poor character, couldn't help but reprimand him and demoted him.
Fan Ye's hatred for Liu Yikang can be described as unforgettable, but when faced with money and beautiful women, his greedy and lustful nature was revealed again, which eventually led to his "apostasy" and pushed the entire Shunyang Fan family into the abyss of rebellion.
At that time, Fan Ye controlled the forbidden army, while Liu Yikang had been in power for a long time and had considerable power. It can be said that the possibility of success in the rebellion is not small. However, on the day of the incident, although Emperor Wen's guards, who had been rebelled, repeatedly signaled to take action, Fan Ye flinched, leading to the failure of the coup.
Two months later, Fan Ye and others were denounced by Xu Zhanzhi and finally imprisoned. In prison, his performance was even more brilliant, which can be called "breathtaking".
Fan Ye initially adopted the strategy of saving himself from the vicious dog, trying to bite indiscriminately. He made it clear to Emperor Wen that the rebellion was planned by Kong Xixian and that he was only framed. However, when Kong Xi took out the rebellion deployment written by Fan Ye (he was jokingly called the dog-headed military division), Fan Ye was speechless.
Later, the case dragged on for various reasons, and Fan Ye thought that he could escape, so he regained his strength and kept pleading for mercy. He even sent a letter to Emperor Wen, showing the demeanor of a great writer, and also presented a fan, and inscribed his own poem on it: "Go to the Zhaozhao of the day, attack the long night", hoping that Emperor Wen can leave him a way to live. However, Emperor Wen was unmoved.
On the execution ground, Fan Ye's performance was even more eye-catching. He first raised an objection and asked whether the order of punishment should be determined according to the size of the official position, which caused his nephew Xie Zong to be angry and scolded. When he was about to be executed, Fan Ye began to cry bitterly, which aroused the dissatisfaction of Xiao Kong and Xiao Xie, who criticized him for thinking very highly of himself in the past, but now he is so afraid of death.
Subsequently, Fan Ai was escorted up, implicated and executed, Fan Ye began to be angry when he saw him, and did not understand why his son hated him so much, and even spit on him. This scene caused Fan Ye to worry, and he tried to appease his son through his identity.
In the end, Fan Ye's wife summed up his life, believing that although he died, the sins after death were not enough to offset the merits and demerits of his life, and also complained that the Son of Heaven did not give him the favor he deserved.
Wu Qi, on the same level as Sun Wu, was a military theorist who wrote the classic "Wu Zi" on the art of war, and his reforms were as famous as Shang Ying, which made the Chu State rise rapidly and become one of the five hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period.
Wu Qi lived in the three kingdoms of Shilu, Wei, and Chu, and became a general, showing extraordinary military talent and political wisdom, which had a profound impact on later generations. He led the weak state of Lu to defeat the powerful state of Qi, and created the Wei Wushu in the state of Wei, achieving amazing military exploits and being invincible; In the state of Chu, he leveled Baiyue in the south, the three Jin in the north, and the Qin in the west, and assisted the mourning king to change the law and make the state of Chu strong.
However, in addition to Wu Qi's great achievements, his character is also controversial.
When he was young, Wu Qi's family was wealthy, and in order to seek official positions, he ran around, exhausting his family wealth but gaining nothing. The local villagers teased him, but he killed dozens of people to vent his anger, which Sima Qian called inhumane.
Due to a series of events, Wu Qi was forced into exile. His mother was so worried about him that she died soon after. However, Wu Qi refused to go home for the funeral after learning the news, which made his teacher Zeng Shen feel very contemptuous of his behavior, and the relationship between the two was severed.
Later, Wu Qi's status in the state of Lu gradually rose and became a doctor, but he was still not satisfied. In 412 BC, Qi Guotian Bai attacked the Lu State, and Mu Gong wanted to send him as a general, but after learning that his wife's family was in the Qi State, he dispelled this idea. When Wu Qi heard about this, he resolutely drew his sword and killed his wife, exchanging her head for the general's seal.
Fang Xuanling, a famous minister of the Tang Dynasty, once pointed out in the Book of Jin: "Wu Qi was corrupt and perverted the law, his mother was mourned and did not return, he killed his wife to seek office, he was extremely unfilial, cruel and ruthless." ”
Because of this incident, Zhao Kuangyin expelled him from the martial temple.
Cai Lun's contribution is self-evident, and his papermaking skills have had a profound impact on the entire human civilization. In Mike Hart's list of the 100 people who influenced the course of human history, he was ranked seventh, ahead of many well-known figures such as Columbus, Einstein and Darwin. And the American magazine "Time" also regarded him as "one of the greatest inventors in the history of mankind".
However, Cai Lun's conduct has been criticized.
Cai Lun entered the court at a young age and was soon promoted to the position of Xiaohuangmen, but his ambitions did not stop there. In order to curry favor with the Dou family, who was favored at the time, he devised a conspiracy to frame the Song nobles for using "witchcraft", which led to the suicide of the Song nobles and the deposition of the crown prince Liu Qing. Then, he became involved in a conspiracy against Liang Guiren, which led to her death due to grief.
After the death of Emperor Zhang, Dou became the empress dowager, and Cai Lun also gained power, was named a regular servant, and had considerable power in the court.
In 92, Liu Zhao came of age and hoped to be able to monopolize power. However, at this time, Dou Xian, the elder brother of the Empress Dowager Dou, conspired to raise a rebellion. After hearing the news, Cai Lun did not hesitate to turn to Liu Zhao's side. In return, Liu Zhao promoted Cai Lun to Shang Fangling, thus making him a member of the ruling and opposition powers.
It is worth noting that Cai Lun's improvement of papermaking was not out of genuine concern for human well-being or the spread of civilization, but only to cater to the then Empress Dowager Deng.
In 106, Liu Zhao died of illness at the age of 27. His son Liu Long ascended the throne and was assisted by his mother, Empress Dowager Deng.
In order to implement the new policy, Deng summoned a group of scholars to revise the scriptures and publish them throughout the country, which required a large amount of paper**. Cai Lun saw this opportunity to curry favor with the Queen Mother, so he used his position to improve the ancient papermaking technology.
He provided a new type of paper called "Caihou Paper", which won the admiration of the Empress Dowager Deng, and was named the Marquis of Longting, with an actual fief of 300 households, and his power reached its peak.
Cai Lun has been insidious and cunning all his life, and he is good at changing positions, but life is unpredictable, and sooner or later he will pay the price for his actions.
In 121, Empress Dowager Deng, who had been sheltering Cai Lun, died, and Emperor Liu Hu of Han ascended the throne, the son of Liu Qing, the king of Qinghe, because Liu Long had no heirs.
After Liu Hu ascended the throne, he began to re-examine the witch Gu case in which his grandmother Song Guiren was involved in her early years. Cai Lun realized that he could no longer change his position, so he chose to drink poisoned wine and voluntarily committed suicide.
Li Si contributed greatly to Qin Shi Huang's unification of China, and his contribution can be called a great contribution through the ages. He advised Qin Shi Huang to stop the policy of exiling guests, so that talents from all over the world gathered in Great Qin; He advocated the abolition of the sub-feudal system and advocated the unification of writing and standard tracks, which laid a solid foundation for the unification of China; He meticulously revised Qin laws and banned private schools, and was the main mastermind of a series of policies that drove the Qin dynasty.
In addition, his achievements in the fields of literature, calligraphy, philosophy and other fields are also brilliant in the annals of history, "The Book of Exhortations to the Guest" and other works have become masterpieces of ancient prose, "Mount Tai carved stone", "Langxie Tai carved stone" and other inscriptions are also praised by later generations, "Cangjie Chapter" seven chapters are known as "Qin Dynasty enlightenment science readers" one of them.
However, Lis's character has been criticized and controversial for thousands of years. He loves to be swaggering, pursues vanity, and spends money like dirt, so Qin Shi Huang has a lot of criticism about him; He was narrow-minded, jealous and jealous, and even framed Han Feizi; He sought personal gain and conspired with Zhao Gao to tamper with the edict of Qin Shi Huang, which led to the killing of Fusu and the murder of his evil brothers, which eventually led to the destruction of the Qin state.
Unfortunately, he himself failed to die well, and was finally framed by Zhao Gao, forced to admit to rebellion, and finally died without a place to be buried.
Shi Lang is a well-known historical figure who is credited with assisting the Kangxi Emperor in recovering Taiwan"National hero"。Even more striking, however, was his statement that not ruling Taiwan would lead to the remnants of the Ming Dynasty establishing a base there. These words caused Kangxi to change his original plan to send Taiwan to the Dutch, and instead chose to bring it under the rule of the Qing Dynasty.
From this point of view, he has indeed made great contributions to the Chinese nation, and his contribution is indispensable.
However, his personal character is highly controversial.
Shi Lang was originally a general of Zheng Chenggong's subordinates, and then surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. However, due to his failure to be reused by the Qing Dynasty, he switched to Zheng Chenggong and participated in the anti-Qing restoration activities.
Many people mistakenly believe that Shi Lang returned to the Qing Dynasty because his entire family was killed, but the opposite is true. After Shi Lang joined Zheng Chenggong, he was not reused, but was wary of Zheng Chenggong, because his arrogant attitude made Zheng Chenggong feel uneasy. Shi Lang was very dissatisfied with this, so he proposed to become a monk as a test of Zheng Chenggong's attitude towards him. However, Zheng Chenggong ignored this, which made Shi Lang furious, and he resolutely shaved his hair and never went to see Zheng Chenggong again.
In the ninth year of Shunzhi, Zeng De, who was controlled by Shi Lang, in order to escape punishment, "took the opportunity of being close to the Zheng family and fled to Zheng Chenggong's location". Shi Lang ignored Zheng Chenggong's strict order "not to kill" and decisively arrested Zeng De and executed him.
This incident infuriated Zheng Chenggong, who ordered Huang Ting, the right vanguard, to arrest Shi Lang and his son and imprison them. Later, with the help of some of his cronies, Shi Lang managed to escape and surrender to the Qing Dynasty again. In retaliation, Zheng Chenggong executed all Shi Lang's father and brothers. Because of this incident, Shi Lang held a grudge against Zheng Chenggong and was determined to stand against Zheng.
Shi Lang had just begun to surrender to the Qing Dynasty and was not reused. However, he spared no effort to slap in with the then powerful ministers Ao Bai and later Mingzhu and Suo Etu. Despite this, the Qing Dynasty was highly wary of this man who had repeatedly surrendered, so he was never given a chance to reuse it. It wasn't until Emperor Kangxi planned to recover Taiwan that Shi Lang was reused and became the main general of the Taiwan Raiders.
However, even with an excuse for revenge, Shi Lang's later actions showed his true character.
According to historical records, after Shi Lang conquered Taiwan, he took the means of forcible seizure and occupied a large amount of land, which was almost equivalent to half of Taiwan's reclaimed land, and named it "Shi Hou Rent Garden". What's more, he even extorted "rules" from Penghu fishermen and embezzled the proceeds.
Shi Lang has been negatively evaluated in history for his repetitive, domineering, and money-greedy image, until the 80s of the last century, when he successfully "recovered Taiwan", he was able to rewrite his image and become a national hero.
Zhang Juzheng, an important auxiliary political figure after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, is known for the implementation of a whip law and great reform measures, is the core promoter of Wanli Zhongxing, and is known as the hero of "extending the life of the Ming Dynasty for a hundred years" by later generations.
However, Zhang Juzheng has been criticized for his personal morality.
In the power struggle between Xu Jie, he secretly colluded with Gao Gong, but on the surface he maintained a close relationship with Xu Jie's teachers and students. After Xu Jie's retirement, in order to squeeze out other cabinets** and consolidate his position, Zhang Juzheng conspired with Li Fang, the celebrant to reintroduce Gao Gong into the cabinet.
During Gao Gong's reign, Zhang Juzheng skillfully used his power to let Gao Gong play the role of a front-line charge, to do some tasks that might provoke right and wrong, while he established a good relationship with the master of ceremonies and the harem behind the scenes. At that time, Zhang Juzheng waited for the time to be ripe, and cooperated with Feng Bao and Empress Dowager Li to successfully overthrow Gao Gong, the ruthless first assistant, and successfully ascended to the position of prime minister.
However, in addition to this kind of scheming, Zhang Juzheng also has some deficiencies in his personal style.
Especially in his later years, Zhang Juzheng was too arrogant because of his favor, showing an arrogant and domineering attitude. He once claimed to himself: "I'm not a photograph, but a photograph." He even openly hung a couplet given by others at home, with the upper couplet written "The sun and the moon are the same light, and all countries look up to the great tomorrow", and the lower couplet reads "The mountains and rivers are celebrated, and the four sides praise the prince of Taiyue". This behavior not only shows his disrespect for the emperor, but also clearly shows his arrogant and arrogant attitude, and it can even be said that he thinks very highly of himself, does not take the emperor in his eyes, and even claims to be the emperor's father.
Another area of interest is his extravagant life. Whenever he returned to his hometown to worship his ancestors, he always sat in a gorgeous sedan chair carried by thirty-two people, which was more magnificent than the emperor's sixteen sedan chairs. Moreover, he spares no effort in his pursuit of beauty, and his family is even more spoiled. According to Wang Shizhen, a famous writer in the late Ming Dynasty, Qi Jiguang bought a daughter Ji many times to give to Zhang Juzheng, and even sent a fur dog kidney from his hometown Penglai.
Zhang Juzheng's death is also closely related to his indulgent life. According to Wang Shizhen, the cause of his death was related to aphrodisiacs, "the Chinese medicine of the day bait house, strong yang and dryness, then drink cold agents to vent it, and it became hemorrhoids", which eventually led to the deterioration of his condition and finally his death.
Regarding Zhang Juzheng's character, Ai Zixiu, a talented talent at that time, once commented sharply: "Zhang Juzheng, he is not upright, and the black-hearted prime minister is lying on the dragon bed." ”
He was a famous mathematician in the Southern Song Dynasty and famous for his outstanding contributions. His technique is known as the "Chinese Remainder Theorem", which is hundreds of years ahead of the West; And his "positive and negative prescription technique" has been handed down to this day in the name of "Qin Jiushao Procedure"; His famous book "Nine Chapters of the Book of Numbers" is known as one of the treasures in the history of Chinese mathematics, JA and even the history of mathematics in the world, and has had a profound impact on the development of mathematics in later generations. Sutton, an American historian of science, regarded him as "one of the greatest mathematicians of all time".
However, despite such brilliant achievements, Qin Jiushao was a complete villain. The evaluation of him by the people of the time was: "Violent as a tiger and wolf, poisonous as a snake and scorpion, and no longer human." Such an evaluation is unique in history.
His actions are embarrassing, such as ordering his subordinates to kill his own son, and devised a variety of murder schemes, such as poisoning, self-cutting with a sword, drowning, etc. When his subordinates couldn't bear to carry it out, he even offered a reward for hunting down his son and those subordinates all over the world.
In addition, he has a soft spot for poisons and even makes them himself. Whenever someone offended him, his favorite solution was to "test the poison" to see which poison would make people extremely painful. Once, he had a private meeting with his favorite concubine in the courtyard and was bumped into by a servant who was drawing water, and he not only let the servant test the poison, but also sent him to the official for stealing. Although the government believed that sin did not lead to death, he held a grudge and tried to poison him. At that time, it was written: "Whoever stores up more poison, and if he does not like it, he will be poisoned by it."
His misdeeds were not limited to this, but also included attending banquets with prostitutes, bullying his subordinates, usurping people's fields, and building estates in luxury.
His character is beyond words.
Yang Su, an outstanding figure with all-round military and political powers, wisdom and bravery. In history, he was not only the founding father of Emperor Wen of Sui to unify China and defeat the Turks, but also assisted Yang Jian in creating the "prosperous era of the emperor".
Initially, Yang Su accompanied the famous general Wei Xiaokuan on the Eastern Expedition and successfully killed the Northern Zhou clan Yuwenxuan, making immortal contributions to Yang Jian's seizure of power in Zhou. In the Battle of Chen, he attacked ** by surprise at the mouth of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River and destroyed his Yangtze River fleet, and the soldiers of the Southern Dynasty feared him like a god and called him "Jiang Shen". With the capture of Empress Chen, all parts of Jiangnan surrendered, but there was also resistance. After a hundred battles, Yang Su trekked through mountains and rivers to quell rebellions one by one, so that China was reunified. After Yang Guang ascended the throne, Yang Liang, the king of Han, rebelled in Bingzhou, Yang Su led tens of thousands of people to suppress the rebellion, first attacked the enemy army on Zhongshan Road in the Battle of Gaobi, defeated Zhao Zikai's 100,000 army, and then in the Battle of Qingyuan, completely defeated Yang Liang's 100,000 army with frontal forces, and captured Xiao Maha, the world's first fierce general. After that, Yang Su made two expeditions to the north, the first time with cavalry to meet the Datou Khan, which was heavily damaged and forced to retreat, and the second expedition to the Turks, the surprise attack broke it, and since then the Turks have fled far away, and there is no more invasion in Monan.
Although Yang Su made significant contributions to both the Great Sui and the Chinese nation in terms of merits, his conduct was widely criticized.
He is notorious for playing conspiracies and framing Tadashi. In pursuit of military merit, he treated his soldiers brutally and ruthlessly, and beheaded them once they lost the battle; In order to seek power, he framed loyal ministers and good generals, causing innocent people to be wronged and causing the world to shake; In order to curry favor with Yang Jian, he abused the people's power to build the palace, resulting in the death of tens of thousands of people, and then burned the bones, and even angered Yang Jian himself, who was accused: "I actually ruined the people for the construction of the palace, and I caused the resentment of the world because of this"; In order to curry favor with Yang Guang, he did not hesitate to frame Yang Xiu, help him seize power, and even falsely sent a holy decree to support Yang Guang's accession to the throne when Emperor Wen of Sui was seriously ill.
In terms of character, Yang Su can be described as a complete villain.
There is a very influential figure in the history of Chinese science, and he is also known as the most comprehensive genius in history. In foreign affairs, he was an envoy to the Liao State; In the military field, he defended Western Xia; Politically, he served as the third envoy and actively participated in Wang Anshi's reforms. In the academic field, he has an outstanding achievement. In mathematics, he pioneered the study of stacking; In the field of physics, he was the first to prove the existence of magnetic declination and made an accurate and vivid description of the principle of small hole imaging. In chemistry, he proposed the method of wet copper smelting for the first time and introduced the concept of "petroleum"; In astronomy, he improved the armillary sphere and the leaky pot, and discovered the difference in the length of the true solar day. In addition, he also has profound attainments in the fields of calendar, geography, water conservancy, and medicine. His book "Mengxi Writings" is regarded as a milestone in the history of Chinese science, and in his honor, the Chinese Academy of Sciences also named a discovered asteroid "Shen Kuo".
Despite Shen Kuo's wide range of achievements and influence, his character has been questioned.
When Su Shi was demoted to Hangzhou, he and Shen Kuo got together, and the two talked about poetry and wine, and the atmosphere was very harmonious. On the occasion of parting, Shen Kuo asked Su Shi to show his poems so that he could appreciate them. Su Shi readily agreed and showed his work without hesitation.
Regrettably, however, Shen Kuo copied Su Shi's poems that night, and marked out some verses that might have been seen as anti-imperial court, and then presented the move to the emperor. Su Shi was thrown into prison because of this, but later fortunately Wang Anshi and others interceded, so he was able to reduce his sentence and was demoted to Huangzhou.
Including to Hangzhou, discussing the old with Shi, seeking to record a close poem. If you return, you will sign and post to advance, and the cloud words are all scolded. Later, Li Ding and Shu were good at discussing Shi poems and putting them in prison, which was actually based on Kuoyun. ”
Yuanyou Supplement "Wang Anshi and Shen Kuo are fellow villagers, Shen Kuo has always supported Wang Anshi's changes, and the relationship between the two is very good. However, when Wang Anshi was deposed, Shen Kuo immediately changed his position. He secretly presented a 10,000-word letter to the prime minister at the time, listing in detail the disadvantages of the change, and in order to clear himself, he even attacked Wang Anshi in turn, mercilessly.
Zai was deeply dissatisfied with Shen Kuo's behavior and made his book public. Wang Anshi bluntly said that he was a capricious villain, and Shenzong also vowed never to use such a shameless renegade again.
Shen Kuo's personal credibility collapsed completely, and he was not recognized among the old-fashioned and reformist. Although the two factions are incompatible in terms of political positions, they are unanimous in their contempt for Shen Kuo and criticize him one after another. Soon after, he was expelled from the capital and relegated to Xuanzhou.
Later, after Zhezong ascended the throne, he granted amnesty to the world, and the people in the court and China wrote one after another to list Shen Kuo's crimes. Zhezong said that although all sinners in the world can be forgiven, there is an exception for Shen Kuo. At this time, Shen Kuo's corrupt image has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and has become a well-known fact.
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