Eunuchs, or eunuchs, as we are more familiar with them, have always left a bad impression on people, and they all seem to be big villains. This impression is probably instilled in us by works of art such as film and television, literature, etc., which are deeply influenced by historical books, and most of them are written by Confucian scholars. So we can conclude that it is only the opinion held by Confucianism that eunuchs are villains, but Confucianism has monopolized ** for most of the history of our country, so their words seem to have become the truth.
There are few good eunuchs in film and television dramas.
Just like Confucianism has produced saints, great men, and gentlemen, but most of them are mediocre, and there is no shortage of villains and duplicitous traitors, eunuchs, as a group, naturally cannot be simply and rudely characterized by loyalty, treachery, good and evil. In fact, although there have been many great traitors and evil people among the eunuchs in history, there has never been a shortage of outstanding figures who are loyal and righteous, wise and brave, such as those who have been called loyal since ancient times, and those who can be called the right of the eunuch Zhang Chengye in the late Tang Dynasty; There may not be many who can fight well and are loved by the soldiers, comparable to Qin Han, the eunuch of the Northern Song Dynasty; One of the four great inventions, papermaking, came from the hands of Cai Lun, a eunuch in the Eastern Han Dynasty, not to mention Zheng He, a three-treasure eunuch who could go to the West seven times.
Even eunuchs like Gao Lishi and Wang Chengen, who are either mediocre in ability or have a loss of personal morality, can finally die of martyrdom, at least they are much better than the vast majority of scholars who only talk about loyalty, filial piety, and righteousness.
Zheng He, who has been to the West for seven times, is an insurmountable benchmark figure among eunuchs.
However, probably because of their physical disabilities, the mental and mental state of most eunuchs is very different from that of ordinary people. Therefore, as the servants of the emperor, on the one hand, they have to spare no effort to maintain the imperial power, on the other hand, their selfish desires are heavier, greed for money and power is the norm, and they often do some incredible things.
For example, the first recognized traitor in Chinese history was a eunuch.
A traitor refers to a scum who takes refuge in the enemy, acts as a lackey, and betrays the interests of our nation. In fact, the term "traitor" appeared much later than our general impression, and was first recorded in the annals of the Song Dynasty and the early Yuan Dynasty
"Li Gu wanted to go to the traitor but was stingy by the small group, but he was determined to go to the traitor, what is the blame for Yu Yi? Ge Liang wanted to kill the thief and was poisoned by the street pavilion, but he was determined to kill the thief, what is the blame for Yu Yi? (Zhou Yiyanyi, Vol. 6)."Zhou Yiyanyi" was written in the ninth year of Yuan Dade (1305 AD). At this time, it was less than 30 years after the death of the Song Dynasty, so although the word "traitor" that appears here seems to correspond to "Han thief", referring to Dong Zhuo, Cao Pi and other forces that overthrew the Han family, but in fact, it is likely to imply something.
In the earliest days, the meaning of traitor was basically equivalent to "traitor", for example, Lao Cao could also be called "traitor" at that time
After all, in the same period, in an anonymous inscription poem that appeared on the monument of merit and crime at the site of the Battle of Yashan in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the word "traitor" already had a different meaning:
"Canghai is fortunate to keep loyal bones, and stubborn stones innocently remember traitors.The "traitor" in this poem obviously has nothing to do with the "thief", because Zhang Hongfan, the commander of the Yuan army in the Battle of Yashan, is a Han. After he destroyed the last resistance of the Southern Song Dynasty and forced the last emperor Zhao Yu to death, he proudly carved on a stone wall on the battlefield "Zhang Hongfan, the general of Zhenguo, destroyed the Song Dynasty here" - this guy with a different brain circuit may think that he will go down in history because of this, but he knows that it is a thousand years of stench, which is the famous stone of merit and crime.In the past, merit and crime were reversed, and right and wrong are in the world after all. ”
In the Ming Dynasty, someone once added the word "Song" in front of the Gong Gong Stone, so the text on the stone carving became "Zhang Hongfan, the general of the Song Zhenguo, destroyed the Song Dynasty here" - the writing skills are first-class, and the satirical effect is even more superb, but it is a pity that it does not conform to historical facts. Zhang Hongfan's ancestral home is Dingxing, Zhuozhou (now Dingxing, Hebei), and his ancestors have been Tang people, five generations, Liao people, and Jin people, but he has never been a Song person, because the Song people can't beat his family alive or dead. His father Zhang Rou was a general of the Jin State to resist Mongolia, and then the army was defeated and surrendered, Zhang Hongfan was born in Mengyuan, never a Song person, and never held an official position in the Song Dynasty. 】
Zhang Hongfan's brain-dead exaggerated behavior has become ironclad evidence that he is a traitor.
In the Yuan Dynasty, which was ruled by the Mongols, the word traitor naturally could not be spread in a bright way. At the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the political situation was very complicated, on the one hand, a large number of so-called "celebrities and scholars" still regarded the Yuan Dynasty as Zhengshuo and refused to serve the Ming Dynasty; On the other hand, some people played the banner of "reviving the Song Dynasty", so that Zhu Yuanzhang, who had always been tough, had to make compromises on issues such as imperial examinations and official appointments, and at the same time hurriedly asked Song Lian and others to revise the "History of the Yuan Dynasty". The History of the Yuan began to be revised in the first year of Hongwu (1368 AD) and was compiled three years later, almost the most hastily compiled of the 24 histories, with the aim of quickly confirming the orthodox status of the Yuan Dynasty, so as to determine the orthodox status of the Ming Dynasty in terms of "great righteousness".
The Yuan Dynasty must be orthodox, then many problems cannot be settled, so naturally no one cares about the traitor. However, this situation changed at the end of the Ming Dynasty - with the weakening of the national strength of the Ming Dynasty, various incidents of treason to the enemy emerged one after another during the Chongzhen Dynasty, and the word traitor appeared more and more frequently in people's mouths and words. It's just that with the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the Manchurians becoming the rulers of the land of China, the word quickly became sensitive and gradually disappeared in public.
The Manchurians, on the other hand, did not mind much of the term "traitor", and did not blame their enemies for being traitors.
However, unlike the Mongols, who professed themselves to be barbarians and were proud of themselves, the Manchurians were not at all out and claimed to be Chinese orthodoxy, so they were not as sensitive to the term traitor as one might think. For example, during the Kangxi period, Guizhou Governor Zhang Wenhuan repeatedly used the word traitor to refer to the Miao people who rebelled against the government in "Song Chen's Journey Through Guizhou Xinjiang to Witness the Situation of Important Places". Even the emperor of the Qing Dynasty was not shy about the word traitor, such as Emperor Qianlong, who was more serious to the extent of ***, but seriously accused his enemies of being traitors:
"The Minister of Military Aircraft said: Wen Fu and others have attacked Brown Guo Zong Dimuda and other village monks, and Zewang, the father of Gesang, has already been obtained. Tusha Andur is against the party and helps the evil, and wants to commit a common affair, and he goes to the mainland, and now he is in charge of the affairs of the thief chieftain, that is, it is no different from a traitor, and he should be punished in Beijing. (Pingding Liang Jinchuan Fangqi, Vol. 46).With the opening of the Qing Dynasty by the Western powers during the Daoguang period, all kinds of Chinese people who forgot their ancestors and worked for foreigners appeared again. At this time, the meaning of traitor was roughly the same as today, and in order to make up for the regret of history, the coffin board of Qin Hui, Zhang Hongfan, Wu Sangui and others was reissued with the label of traitor.
When it comes to the biggest traitor in Chinese history, it should not be much controversial to say that "there was Qin Huizhi in ancient times, and Wang Zhaoming in the near future". However, if you ask who the earliest traitor in China is, I am afraid that some friends will have a question mark on their faces - because although the guy in the answer has done a lot of bad things, he has little impact and fame, and even his surname is rare.
There should be no controversy about these two as representatives of traitors.
His name is Bank of China said.
How did the Bank of China become a traitor? It is not an exaggeration to say that it was forced.
Bank of China (pronounced the same as "Hang") is a compound surname, derived from the surname Xun, which can be traced back to the Bank of China, one of the six secretaries of the Jin State in the Spring and Autumn Period. In the Iron War in the nineteenth year of the reign of Jin Ding (493 BC), the Zhongxing clan was the first to be killed among the six Qings, and the patriarch Zhongxing Wenzi fled to the Qi State, and the Yanzhi was extinct in the Western Han Dynasty. But the clansmen of the Bank of China are scattered all over the place, and the Bank of China is one of them.
The actor who played the BOC appeared to have deliberately shaved his beard, which may have been an unnecessary move.
During the period of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the Bank of China said that he entered the palace and became a eunuch. It must be explained here that the use of eunuchs by Chinese emperors has a very long history, most likely dating back to the Xia and Shang periods. However, if you want to be a eunuch, you must first take a knife, the rule is only available to Emperor Liu Xiu of the Han Guangwu Dynasty, and the eunuchs before this are not necessarily eunuchs, on the contrary, those who have to give themselves a knife are likely to be criticized for this behavior. For example, the first eunuch who left his name in the history books, because of his self-harm to show loyalty, Guan Zhong's great vigilance, and before he died, he did not forget to warn Qi Huan Gong to stay away from this kind of villain:
"(Qi Huan) Gong said: 'Then what is the erection of the man? Guan Zhong said: "No." The affection of the lady is not to love her body. The public is jealous and good inside, and he thinks he is in the country. If you don't love your body, can you love you? Han Feizi, Ten Over the Tenth).And Zhao Gao, a eunuch who is more famous than Ji Diao, probably did not suffer that knife, because he also gave birth to a daughter who married Xianyang Ling Yan Le. Later, it was this Weng and son-in-law who teamed up to launch the Wangyi Palace Rebellion and killed Hu Hai, the second emperor of Qin.
Zhao Gao is likely to be from the Qin State clan and has also given birth to a daughter, so the probability of being stabbed is very low.
Therefore, it can be confirmed that the Bank of China said that he was a eunuch, but it is difficult to say that he is not a eunuch. However, this guy's personality is very much like a eunuch, that is, psychologically twisted, paranoid, and retributive.
Since the siege of Baideng, the Western Han Dynasty has fully shifted to strategic defense against the Xiongnu, and at the same time has continuously tried to prevent the latter's southern invasion through peace and bribery, but the effect is not good. The Huns' appetite was insatiable, and the slightest dissatisfaction sent troops to invade the territory, wantonly burning, killing and plundering, this extremely humiliating situation for the Han people lasted for nearly 70 years, until Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, launched a large-scale counterattack, so that the Xiongnu troops were extinct in the Han land.
So during the period of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the Huns were still very arrogant. When Mao Dun Shan Yu hung up and his son Lao Shangshan Yu ascended the throne, Liu Heng hurriedly picked a clan girl and sent it to Lao Shang to be the Que clan (that is, the wife of the Xiongnu Shan Yu, equivalent to the queen. Unlike the customs of the Central Plains, the Xiongnu Shan Yu's Que clan was not the only one, and the number of many could reach hundreds). Here is another gossip - when Mao Dunshan named Princess Lu Yuan, the daughter of Liu Bang after the siege of Baideng, who was Lao Liu? Before becoming the emperor, he was a famous old prank, and he was very handy in dealing with this kind of thing, so he casually sent a clan girl to be the princess of Lu Yuan. Since then, it has become a common practice to take the daughter of the clan to pretend to be the princess of the Han Dynasty, and the relatives of the old Liu family have suffered, and more than ten clan girls have been given to the Huns. The fate of these women was very miserable, not only were they abused, but according to the Hun custom of "son marrying mother, brother marrying sister-in-law", they were often sold as cattle and sheep-like goods, which can be said to be humiliating.
Heqin is one of the most humiliating and miserable experiences in Chinese history, and it has never been as beautiful as some people say.
As the master, the "princess" has suffered such a big crime, and the fate of the eunuchs, palace maids and other slaves who marry is even more miserable, even worse than pigs and dogs. Therefore, not only the daughters of the old Liu family regard harmony as a daunting path, but the servants in the palace are even more afraid of it.
The Bank of China said that it was obviously not good in the palace, so unfortunately he was selected into the dowry group and went to the Huns. In this regard, the Bank of China said that the reaction was very fierce and resolutely refused to go. However, as a lowly eunuch, his voice was so weak that no one paid attention to him at all. In order to save his fate, the Bank of China said that he would simply break the jar and break it, and put down a cruel sentence:
"Said that he didn't want to do it, Han Yi made it. He said, 'I will do it, for the Han patient.' 'Historical Records, Volume 100, Biography of the Huns, No. 50).- If you have to force me to go to the Xiongnu, I will definitely become a scourge of the Han Dynasty! It can be seen that the Bank of China said that he really didn't want to go to the Xiongnu, so that people were still in the Han Dynasty, so they threatened to commit treason, which can be called rather than obey. It stands to reason that if someone makes such a rebellious remark, they will definitely be investigated and punished, so it is not surprising that they were beheaded, but until the Bank of China said that they were still stuffed into the dowry group and sent to the Huns, no one reacted to this.
The fate of the princess is miserable, and even worse than her are the people who marry with her.
Why is that? The Great Han Dynasty has never lacked rebellion, the most famous ones are Han Wangxin (not the Han Xin of the three heroes of the early Han Dynasty), Yan Wang Lu Xuan, etc. Especially the latter, as Liu Bang's iron buddies back then, they all ran to the Huns, causing Lao Liu to become suspicious, so he forced everyone to sign a white horse alliance, stipulating that "those who are not the kings of the Liu family, if they do not have merit and do not wait, the world will punish them" ("Historical Records, Volume 17, Chronology of Princes and Kings since the Han Dynasty, No. 5"). Even after the large-scale counterattack against the Xiongnu in the Western Han Dynasty, there were still people such as Li Ling, Li Guangli, Wei Lu and others who rebelled against the Han and defected to the Huns, so angry that Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, gritted his teeth and wanted to break them into pieces. However, these people are either in high positions and have heavy troops, or they are talented and influential, so they will attract attention. And the Bank of China said that he was just a humble and weak eunuch, even if he really went to take refuge in the Huns, no one might want it. After all, there is no shortage of Han people among the Huns, in addition to the perennial captivity from the Han territory, there are many people who ran over by themselves because of famine, enslavement and other reasons.
Moreover, no one was willing to marry the unlucky place of the Huns, and it was not easy to catch the Bank of China and say that such an unlucky bastard, how could there be a reason to let it go easily? It's too wasteful to slaughter, it's better to take it to fill a quota, even if he really rebels, it's not a big deal, originally even the princess and the dowry group were treated as a basin of water spilled by the Han Dynasty, and they didn't expect them to do anything at all.
After Li Ling surrendered to Hungary, he often went to Beihai to see Su Wu who was herding sheep, and I don't know what mood he was in at that time.
So the Bank of China said that he was so unwilling and reluctant to be driven to the Huns. And no matter whether he was stabbed or not, anyway, the Bank of China said that he acted like a man, at least he did what he said - when he arrived at the ground, he immediately announced his betrayal of Han and defection to Hungary, and I don't know why he was favored by Lao Shangshan Yu and regarded him as the mastermind.
It can be said that if he hadn't been shoehorned into the dowry group, the Bank of China said that he would have no chance or qualification to be a traitor. And after he announced that he was going to be a traitor like looking for death, he was ignored by Huali, and the Bank of China said that he became a traitor as he wished, and soon made those who looked down on him pay a heavy price for it.
As mentioned earlier, there are many rebellions in the Han Dynasty, both earlier and later than the Bank of China said, and when it comes to the negative impact and damage to the mother country, the Bank of China says that it cannot be compared with them. Then why is the big hat of the traitor only buckled on the head of the Bank of China?
I have to say that the main reason is that the historian's ass is a little crooked.
It is better to believe in books than to have no books", at least for history books.
For example, Han Wangxin's defection to Hungary directly led to the siege of Baideng, but Taishi Gong's evaluation of him and Lu Juan was "Isn't it sad", he just felt pathetic; And Li Ling because he is a descendant of Li Guang (I don't know why, almost all literati and doctors are diehard fans of Li Guang), and was captured by exhaustion, and later although his family was killed and surrendered to Hungary, he gained the sympathy of countless literati, such as the famous poet Du Fu bluntly said "Li Ling Su Wu is my teacher" ("Su Wu and Li Ling Poems Four"). And Li Guangli, the general of the Second Division, who was also forced to surrender to Hungary because of his family's injustice and defeat, was ridiculed by people because of the label of his relatives (of course, this product is really not good at fighting), and the treatment he received from Li Ling is very different.
Another example is another big traitor, Wei Lu, who said that if he failed to surrender to Su Wu, he was scolded by all kinds of stinking; On the other hand, Wei Lu was jealous that Li Guangli's status was higher than his own, so he slandered Shan Yu and killed Li Guangli, but he was called guilty of deserving.
So the Bank of China, who has neither a family background nor a backer, and has the identity of a eunuch who is most hated by literati and doctors, said that after his death for more than 2,000 years, he was called the first traitor in Chinese history.
What bad things did the Bank of China say?
First of all, as a eunuch, Bank of China said that he was very familiar with the affairs of the Western Han court. Before his defection, although the Xiongnu had an absolute advantage over the Western Han Dynasty in terms of military strength, they completely exposed their hillbilly nature in politics, culture, and especially strategy, and were often coaxed and played by the envoys of the Han Dynasty. However, the Bank of China said that this situation changed after gaining the trust of the old Shangshan Yu.
The Han envoy can be regarded as one of the powerful weapons of the two Han Dynasty, sometimes more powerful than the army.
For example, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty wrote letters to the old Shangshan Yu on a one-foot-one-inch wooden slip, and the Bank of China said that he asked Shan Yu to write a reply letter on a one-foot-two-inch wooden slip, and also made the size of the seal and sealing mud larger than that of the Han Emperor; In the letter written by Liu Heng to the old Shangshan Yu, the opening sentence was "The emperor respectfully asks the Huns Dashan to be safe", and the Bank of China said that Shan Yu replied with a higher attitude in the reply letter, saying, "Heaven and earth placed the Huns Dashan in the birthday month and asked the Han Emperor to be harmless" - don't underestimate these little tricks, the so-called diplomacy is no trivial matter, and there is no exception in ancient and modern times. Especially in the Central Plains Dynasty, the etiquette was important, and although the actions of the Bank of China did not make the Western Han Dynasty look down on the Xiongnu, at least they could no longer underestimate these barbarians.
Secondly, although the Xiongnu could not be defeated at that time, the Western Han Dynasty still had a magic weapon, that is, the Han envoy. These guys who are not afraid of death often go to the Huns to give full play to their invincible specialties, making those uneducated Huns blushing and thick-necked, and can only retaliate by seizing and killing them. However, since the Bank of China said, the good days of the Han envoys doing whatever they wanted in the Xiongnu came to an end, because this product was also very neat, and often won big victories in debates with the Han envoys. Even if you can't win the quarrel, the Bank of China said that it doesn't bother to use violent means, but directly detains the life of the Han people - there is a kind of let's fight, and if you can't win, you will honestly send the good things of the Central Plains to the Xiongnu, otherwise don't blame us for taking it ourselves:
"Since then, the Han envoy wants to debate, and the Bank of China said: 'The Han envoy has nothing to say, and Gu Han lost the Xiongnu silk rice ball, so that in its quantity, it will be good and beautiful, how can it be said? and what is given is good; If you are unprepared, bitter and evil, you will wait for the autumn, and you will be ravaged by riding and galloping. 'Historical Records, Volume 100, Biography of the Huns, No. 50).Between countries, in the end, it is necessary to rely on hard power to speak.
In addition, the Bank of China said that although he was a eunuch, he was a literate eunuch. After he arrived in the Xiongnu, he taught the Xiongnu how to keep records in order to account for their population and the number of livestock. This incident may seem insignificant, but it is of great significance to the Xiongnu, who are still in the extremely low stage of civilization.
Finally, the Bank of China said that it was worried that the Xiongnu aristocracy was obsessed with the exquisite food and clothing contributed by the Western Han Dynasty. He once admonished the old Shangshan Yu, believing that if the Xiongnu gave up their customs and accepted the luxuries of the Central Plains in their entirety, they would eventually become vassals of the Han Dynasty. The Bank of China said that the Xiongnu should wear sturdy and durable jackets and eat their own cattle and sheep dairy products, so as to maintain the strength of the Xiongnu.
I have to admit that the Bank of China said that this guy is really a talent, and he is a visionary, patterned, and talented doer, which can be called a capable assistant. Therefore, he was very important to the Xiongnu, even after the death of the old Shangshan Yu, the successor military minister Shan Yu still trusted him and reused him, which is a very rare treatment for a defector Han Chinese.
But if the Bank of China had said that he had not been driven to the Huns as he wished, what would have been the fate that awaited him?
In the Central Plains Dynasty, even if a eunuch reached the height of Zhao Gao and Wei Zhongxian, he usually couldn't escape infamy.
He will probably be in the court for the rest of his life, and he may also stand out with his own abilities. But even so, the position of the Bank of China in the history books is probably that of a "power eunuch", and it seems that the reputation is not much better than that of traitors.
Writing this, I can't help but think of another famous traitor - Zhang Yuan, who defected to Western Xia during the Northern Song Dynasty. This Zhang Yuan was an ordinary scholar in the Northern Song Dynasty, who tried and failed to meet talents, so he angrily defected to Western Xia, and was soon reused by Li Yuanhao, and finally defeated the Song army in the Battle of Haoshuichuan.
After the war, Zhang Yuan inscribed a poem on the wall of Jieshang Temple with great interest:
"Xia Zhu has shrugged, Han Qi is not surprised.Xia Zhu was the envoy of the Southern Court of Xuanhui in the Northern Song Dynasty and the envoy of the Shaanxi Fourth Route Jingluo to pacify and recruit the Yongxing Army, and Han Qi was the deputy envoy. However, it is really embarrassing that these two "famous ministers" who were touted by the history books were defeated miserably in the hands of a guy who had no future in the Northern Song Dynasty and could only run to a foreign country to be traitors.The dragon and tiger in the river are still talking about military aircraft. (Psalm 1).
"Famous ministers" like Xia Zhu and Han Qi were defeated at the hands of Zhang Yuan, the first son in the past, which is really a huge mockery.
Whether it is the Bank of China or Zhang Yuan, there is no doubt that he has suffered a loss in the big festival and has become a traitor who forgets his ancestors. But why did they do nothing at home, and only after they had surrendered to the enemy? This is something that we need to think about and summarize, otherwise maybe one day another BOC and another Zhang Yuan will emerge.