Chairman Mao commented on the ancient and modern historical figures, Emperor Xin

Mondo History Updated on 2024-03-08

Di Xin, the last monarch of the Shang Dynasty, was generally called the King of Shang in later generations.

Emperor Xin of Shang is described as a tyrant in many historical records. Historians describe him as "greedy and lustful, reckless and tyrannical", coupled with heavy taxes and harsh punishments, which led to public resentment within the Shang Dynasty, causing widespread dissatisfaction among the people of the Shang Dynasty, and even betraying relatives and destroying the country.

Xu Zhonglin, the first family of the Ming Dynasty, in "The Romance of the Gods", the king of Zhou was unreasonable, indiscriminately killed loyal ministers, favored Daji, and appointed traitors Fei Zhong, You Hun and others, which eventually led to the resentment of the people.

Xunzi described King Xun in his work "Xunzi Fei Phase" as "a giant and beautiful, the best of the world; The strength of the muscles is superb, and the enemy of a hundred people is also".

It can be seen that the king of Shang is a brave and resourceful king, not so unbearably written in literature.

However, is the historical Shang king Di Xin a tyrant as the mainstream says, except for immorality, he didn't do anything serious?

It is said that history is written by the victors, and the rulers of the Zhou Dynasty, after defeating Di Xin, would certainly portray the King of Zhou as a tyrant in order to promote the legitimacy of the Zhou regime.

In fact, the reason for the fall of the Shang Dynasty was not caused by the mediocrity and incompetence of the Shang Dynasty, but the rigidity and self-use and disobedience to advice, which led to the intensification of internal contradictions in the Shang Dynasty.

During the reign of Emperor Xin, the king of Shang Dynasty, he repeatedly attacked the Dongyi tribe in the Jianghuai region, and at that time Dongyi belonged to a barbaric and uncivilized alien race, and the king of Shang Dynasty won a great victory in Dongyi many times, and also made contributions to the unity and unification of the Chinese nation.

The fundamental reason for the final defeat of the Shang Dynasty in the Battle of Muye to King Wu of Zhou was that the attack on many tribes in Dongyi consumed too many troops, coupled with the strict punishment of the Shang King, large-scale civil engineering, labor and loss of money, which led to the intensification of internal contradictions in the Shang Dynasty, and most of the Shang Dynasty troops surrendered to King Wu of Zhou in the Battle of Muye, which eventually led to the defeat of the King of Shang and finally committed suicide.

**The evaluation of Shang Emperor Xin is also biased towards a positive image.

** In a November 1958 article, referring to the Shang Dynasty, he said: "It is wrong to think of the Emperor of Shang, Qin Shi Huang, and Cao Cao as bad people, but in fact, the King of Zhou was a very capable person, a man who could write and martial arts." He managed the southeast and consolidated the unification of Dongyi and the Central Plains, which was meritorious in history. ”

**In a conversation with Wu Zhipu in June 1959, he also mentioned King Zhou, saying: "King Zhou is very talented, and those bad words in the back are said by the people of the Zhou Dynasty, don't listen to them." Why did the Shang Dynasty fall? There are mainly three people who oppose it, Bigan, Miko, and Weizi, of which Weizi is the worst and is a traitor. ”

**Comprehensive evaluation of the king of Shang: "Shang Wen can be martial and very capable".

**Summary of the experience of the failure of the King of Zhou: First, the King of Zhou did not have enough vigilance against King Wu of Zhou's efforts to train soldiers and horses;

2. Stubbornness for self-use, not listening to advice, killing loyal ministers, causing the people to rebel and leave their relatives;

Third, the king of Zhou will not do the work of prisoners, many captives are concentrated in the capital, and the Zhou Dynasty did undercover work in the prisoners of war, when King Wu of Zhou invaded, the main force of the Shang Dynasty army was still fighting in Dongyi, and he would not be able to come back for a while and a half, and the king of Zhou could only arm the prisoners of war to meet King Wu of Zhou, and the prisoners of war on the way turned to King Wu of Zhou, and the king of Zhou was defeated and committed suicide.

People who read a lot can have a lot of temperament

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