Can Zhang Hongfan, who destroyed the Song Dynasty, be considered a traitor? Before talking about this question, we must first know what a traitor is. A traitor in the narrow sense must first be a Han Chinese, and then betray the Han dominated regime and state. Traitors in a broad sense include various ethnic groups, such as today's 56 nationalities, all of which are Chinese.
Zhang Hongfan. Zhang Hongfan was born in Zhuozhou, Hebei Province, and when he was born, the capital of Jin had already perished for 4 years. Under the historical circumstances at that time, his nationality was Mongolian, and he could only be regarded as a Han Chinese in Mongolia, and it was normal for him to serve Mongolia. He was born and raised in Mongolia, and has been eating Mongolian food and receiving Mongolian education since he was a child. What kind of feelings can he have for the Southern Song court?
Yurt. As early as the Later Jin Dynasty, this place in Zhuozhou in Hebei Province was ceded to the Khitan in the north by Shi Jingjiao, and the Han people in that place were first the people of the Liao Dynasty and later the people of the Jin Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty never recovered them. Even if he is a Han Chinese, he can't be said to be a traitor.
Let's talk about Zhang Hongfan's father, his father Zhang Rou is a local tyrant under the rule of the Jin State. When his father was born, it had been more than 60 years since the Jingkang Change. How can he feel about the Northern Song Dynasty regime, his father is a Jin countryman! Moreover, when Qin Hui controlled the government, the Southern Song Dynasty regime also issued the national policy of "southerners return to the south, and northerners return to the north", which means that the Han people who stayed in the homeland of the Northern Song Dynasty no longer considered them to be Song people, not to mention the farther land of Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures. Do you still expect him to be born in the Jin Kingdom, grow up in the Jin Kingdom and have the Great Song Dynasty in his heart?
Qin juniper. Zhang Rou once pulled up a team to fight against Mongolia, but later was defeated and captured, surrendered to Mongolia and became an official of the Mongols.
Just like one of our ethnic minorities today is called the Korean ethnic group, in the northeast and the outer northeast area, in fact, there are many Korean ethnic groups living in our country, and there are Korean ethnic groups in Russia. The same ethnic Korean, in different countries he has different ideologies. For example, if you ask the Korean ethnic group in our country whether he loves South Korea, North Korea or China, he must love China. In 1963, Chinese Korean athlete Luo Zhihuan won the men's 1500m championship and broke the men's all-around world record, and was the first torchbearer at the 2022 Winter Olympics. The Korean athletes of our country helped China win a gold medal and defeated the athletes of South Korea and North Korea, can you say that he is a "traitor"? It's definitely not suitable, he's a hero of our Chinese, right? North and South Korea won't say he's a "traitor", right?
Luo Zhihuan. When I was in graduate school, I had a Korean classmate in Vladivostok, Russia, and his Korean level was basically the first volume of standard Korean Chinese. The biggest influence on me was his left-handed writing, and I used to eat with this guy and two Korean female classmates. This guy opens and closes his mouth to say how we are in Russia, and in his consciousness he has nothing to do with North Korea, South Korea, or China, he is an authentic Russian, and their home was crossed over in the late Qing Dynasty when the "Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty" was crossed. At that time, he told me that his family had been Russian for more than 150 years, and that his parents were both ethnic Koreans and could not speak Korean at all.
Vladivostok. At that time, I thought to myself, in fact, you should have been a Chinese, but he didn't know it, he thought that their family used to be Korean. Although this attitude may seem a little chilling, but in fact this is objective, I think "born in Si, grown up in Si, loyal to Si" is fine, no matter which country, it is its own master, there is nothing to blame.
In the process of destroying the Song Dynasty, Zhang Hongfan performed well in several key battles, such as the Battle of Xiangyang, the Battle of Jiaoshan, and the Battle of Yashan. After the destruction of the Song Dynasty, he also wrote "Zhang Hongfan, the general of the Song Zhenguo, destroyed the Song Dynasty here". This made the majority of Han compatriots very angry and hurt the feelings of the Han people, so Zhang Hongfan was labeled a traitor. But in fact, after we understand the history, you will find that it is really inappropriate to say that Zhang Hongfan is a traitor, he is just an excellent general of Mongolia, of course, as an enemy party, you hate him, hate him, this is no problem. But the traitor's hat is really inappropriate to button him.
Wang Jingwei. If you want to talk about real traitors, I think it should be Wu Sangui, Wang Jingwei and others, of course, including Qin Hui, these people are outright traitors, and they will be nailed to the pillar of shame forever.