The work "Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties" should be everyone's old friend, and the image of the eighteen heroes of the Sui and Tang dynasties created in the book is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
The real "Four Famous Generals" in history: Li Yuanba, Yuwen Chengdu, Qin Qiong, Wei Chigong, these four famous generals, have you heard their names?
These four generals did have their own people in history, but their deeds were not real, and they were imagined and adapted by later generations, and became legends passed down by word of mouth.
Among them, Li Yuanba, with his invincible courage and strength, is known as "the ultimate in force". In his debut competition, he easily defeated Yuwen Chengdu and showed extraordinary strength.
These legendary generals, their heroic deeds and legendary lives, are breathtaking, and they have also become heroes in our hearts.
Li Yuanba: The true character of a fierce general, he became famous in a fight. bravely exterminated Yu culture and, captured Yuwen Chengdu in one round; When he was escorting in Yangzhou, he smashed Qin Shubao's 80-pound tiger head gun with a hammer, and he was dumbfounded; fought against Wu Yunxi, and lost after one round; During the battle between the thieves, one person suppressed the eighteen anti-kings and forced them to kneel and surrender to the table.
The hero's death is equally unique, not in battle, but in a lightning strike, full of mystery. However, it is a pity that Li Yuanba is not a real figure in history.
In the writer's pen, Li Yuanba is not a real figure in history, but combines the characteristics of Li Yuan's second son Li Shimin, his third son Li Xuanba, and his fourth son Li Yuanji.
Li Shimin's bravery has become Li Yuanba's signature feature. In the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Li Yuanba's bravery and good fighting benefited from Li Shimin's military exploits. At the same time, Li Yuanba borrowed the name of Li Xuanba, and the difference in the name stemmed from the evasion of later generations, and chose a different word from Emperor Kangxi Aixin Jueluo Xuanye.
Despite the fact that the two share the same name, Li Yuanba and Li Xuanba have few other similarities. Because as early as three years before Li Yuan's uprising, Li Xuanba had died, he was only sixteen years old at the time, and he had not even left an heir.
Finally, Li Yuanba also drew on some of Li Yuanji's life experiences. Li Yuanji was shot and killed in the Xuanwumen Incident, and Li Yuanba was killed by a thunderbolt, both reflecting the fate of "fate and self-destruction".
He attaches great importance to love and righteousness, and has a deep meaning for brotherhood; Dedication and loyalty to superiors; Love your family and love your loved ones; For his sweetheart, he is even more wholeheartedly.
Luo Cheng, a hero with clear eyebrows, white teeth and red lips, and a face like a ball of powder, although he is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people with his heroic and fearless image in "Speaking of Tang", there is actually no such person in history.
And it is widely believed that his prototype is Luo Shixin, because the two have a striking resemblance in bravery and force. Luo Cheng is the 7th heroic figure among the 18 heroes of the Sui and Tang dynasties, who defeated Li Yuanba, and Luo Shixin's bravery is also well documented.
The two also had similar experiences, they once stayed in the Wagang Army, and later took refuge in Wang Shichong, because they despised Wang Shichong's personality, and finally defected to Tang and were killed in the battlefield at the age of 20.
Although Luo Cheng and Luo Shixin are different in some ways, such as Luo Cheng is Luo Yi's son, and Luo Shixin and Luo Yi are not related, and although the two died in the same place and year, but the way of death is different, the two have enough in common for them to be regarded as the same person.
In history, the story of Luo Shixin was adapted into the legend of Luo Cheng, and Luo Shixin was not mentioned in "Speaking of Tang". Another character, Yuwen Chengdu, was given by Yang Guang"The first in the world is brave and invincible"Gold Medal is the strongest villain in the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, with strong force and a prominent family background, but as a villain, all this makes him seem boring.
In the 17th chapter of "Speaking of Tang", Yuwen Chengdu, a fierce general with a height of one zhang, a waist of ten girths, and thick eyebrows, he held a gilded bell weighing 200 gold, and was known as the second good man of the Sui Dynasty.
Before Li Yuanba appeared on the stage, Yuwen Chengdu became a representative figure among the generals at that time with extreme force, and was therefore named an invincible general by Emperor Yang of Sui. However, when Li Yuanba appeared, Yuwen Chengdu's fate began to take a turn.
Not only did he make a fool of himself in front of everyone, but he even got the satirical name of "the second fierce general in the world", and his career became bumpy. In fact, the reason why a character like Yuwen Chengdu was created in the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties was mainly to set off Li Yuanba's strength.
Putting aside Li Yuanba's opponent identity, Yuwen Chengdu's life trajectory can be said to be ordinary, at most a villain thug or a senior bodyguard. So, who is the prototype of this virtual character?
In history, Xue Dingshan is not the heroic and indomitable hero in the legend, but a general who served as the Yunzhou Assassin in the early years of the Tang Dynasty and played an important role in the battle to pacify the Turks and Tuyuhun.
In "Speaking of Tang", Xue Dingshan's image has completely changed, he has become a heroic and indomitable hero, portrayed as the right-hand man of Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, who has participated in many counterinsurgency wars, and finally succeeded in quelling the great turmoil in the last years of the Tang Dynasty, making great contributions to the unification and development of the Tang Dynasty.
Xue Dingshan is the son of Xue Rengui, but he is younger and is portrayed as the "finishing" character in the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. He is strong in martial arts, and once went to Taihang to shoot geese to subsidize his family.
Unfortunately, he was shot by his father and fell off a cliff and disappeared, and later worshiped Wang Ao Laozu as a teacher to continue to hone his martial arts. After completing his studies, he followed his father to make great achievements and was deeply loved and trusted by Gaozong.
After making the contribution of pacifying Xiliang and being ordered to support Li Zhi, he gradually became another fierce general of the Tang Dynasty. However, his son Xue Gang killed a prince because he was drunk, which led to the death of Tang Gaozong.
Although Li Zhi had explained to everyone before his death that only Xue Gang could be held responsible for this matter, those forces who wanted to get rid of the Xue family did not agree. In the end, the matter came to Wu Zetian, and Wu Zetian had already intended to get rid of the founding heroes and their descendants, so in the end, all 285 members of Xue Dingshan's family died.
Although there is no such person as Xue Dingshan in history, his image is adapted from the art of Xue Rengui's son Xue Ne. Xue Ne, like Xue Dingshan, was also a calm and calm Tang Dynasty general, full of a sense of justice, and did not like to be inflammatory.
During Xue Ne's tenure as the county magistrate, there was a good story. At that time, a wealthy merchant bribed the powerful minister Lai Junchen, and Lai Junchen promised to take out dozens of stones of rice grain from the righteous warehouse to the rich merchant.
However, when the order reached Xue Ne, he resolutely refused, and finally forced Lai Junchen to retract his order. As a result, Xue Ne gained a reputation for uprightness. However, as a general, Xue Ne's experience is very different from that of Lai Junchen.
When the Turks invaded in Hebei and the border pass was in an emergency, Wu Zetian decided to use Xue Ne and let him lead his troops to the battle. He was awarded important positions such as the Governor of Youzhou, the Protector of Andong and the General of the Left Guard, demonstrating his military strength and leadership skills.
In the war against the Khitans, Xue Ne was stripped of his title and demoted to a commoner for his defeat. Until the Tibetans invaded again, Wu Zetian activated him again. Later, he was awarded the title of Duke of Pingyang County for his meritorious service in guarding the frontier, and returned to his hometown in his old age, living to be in his 70s.
In fact, not only the four famous generals, but also many famous characters in the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties are also fictional. For example, there is no trace of Xiong Kuohai, Wu Yunzhao and Wu Tianxi in the historical records, and they only have some similar "copycat" stories at most.
Therefore, we can see that much of the content in the romance is fictional. In addition, the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties is ** after all, and many of the things described in it cannot be taken seriously.
For example, although they are all eighteen heroes of the Sui Dynasty, those who rank in the top three on the list can easily defeat the bottom 15. Even, Xiong Kuohai, Wu Yunzhao and Wu Tianxi were powerless in front of Li Yuanba and Yuwen Chengdu.
In addition, on the list of the 18 heroes of the Sui Dynasty, only about 10 people clearly indicated their names and rankings, and the other positions were vacant. Some people think that the vacant positions should be Ding Yanping, Zuo Tiancheng, Lai Hu'er and Liang Shitai, and some people think that Qin Qiong's archery skills were taught by Wang Bodang, and Wang Bodang also shot Wei Wentong, so his name should be on the list.
In short, there is a lot of controversy on this issue, and so far there has been no clear conclusion.
Although not all fictional characters have this phenomenon, even some real characters in history may also have some stories added to them in the romance. Cheng Yanjin is a typical example, in real history, he used a horse lance, not a double-plate axe.
He is only a general of Wadang, and he has not been a soil emperor, and there are not a few such examples, so we must look at Romance rationally. However, it is these descriptions that make the characters more vivid and also give us an idea of the history of the Sui and Tang dynasties.