In the history of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Bowen was evaluated like this: astronomy, geography, and the art of war are all incomprehensible, and he also has the ability to never forget; Most of the people around Zhu Yuanzhang who fight the world are reckless people who have never read books, and Liu Bowen is naturally different from others in the way he thinks about problems, which means that Liu Bowen has a "unique" role for Zhu Yuanzhang.
Therefore, the world's evaluation of Liu Bowen is extremely high: he is the same strategist as Zhuge Liang during the Three Kingdoms period.
Zhuge Liang is divided into three parts of the world, and Liu Bowen dominates the country.
Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang called Liu Bowen"My Son's Room"., It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang himself also admits Liu Bowen's influence on him and the entire Ming Dynasty, which is equivalent toZhang Liang's influence on Liu BangThe same. is such a legendary figure, but he did not enjoy happiness when he should have been happy, not only in his later years, but also died for unknown reasons.
In January of the eighth year of Hongwu, Liu Bowen began to be sick in bed, and after Zhu Yuanzhang learned about it, he sent Prime Minister Hu Weiyong to visit; And let the imperial doctor prescribe a prescription for Liu Bowen's condition, and let Liu Bowen take the medicine according to the prescription prescribed by the imperial doctor. But Liu Bowen took the medicine prescribed by the doctor, not only did his body show no signs of improvement, but became more and more uncomfortable.
Three months later, Liu Bowen died.
The record of Liu Bowen from illness to death is not complete, so it can't help but make people think:
Some people say that Liu Bowen died of normal illness, some people say that Hu Weiyong killed him, and some people say that Zhu Yuanzhang actually poisoned him to death.
In his later years, Zhu Yuanzhang launched the Hu Weiyong case and convicted Hu Weiyong of five major crimes, the fourth of which is ".harm colleagues, the party fights against differences".One of the colleagues who did the harm was Liu Bowen.
But was it really Hu Weiyong who killed Liu Bowen?
Let's take a look at this article, who is the culprit?
Liu Bowen, Xu Da and Li Shanchang are known as the "Three Masters of the Ming Dynasty", but those who know the history of the Ming Dynasty should know:
Xu Da was canonized in the third year of HongwuWei Guogong
Lee Sun-chang was canonizedXuan Guogong
And Liu Bowen was just canonizedSincerity Uncle
The title rank of the Ming Dynasty was like this: king and duke, marquis, uncle, son, and male.
It is reasonable for Zhu Yuanzhang's son to be crowned king, after all, he is the son of Taizu; In addition to the sons of Taizu, the highest title is "duke", Zhu Yuanzhang was awarded six dukes in the third year of Hongwu, in addition to the six dukes, there are twenty-eight marquis and two counts.
No matter how much Liu Bowen contributed to Zhu Yuanzhang before and how much influence he had on Zhu Yuanzhang, he was only made an earl, not a "duke", not even a "marquis".
In fact, it took a lot of effort for Zhu Yuanzhang to invite Liu Bowen, the "Zhuge Liang", to his command: in the last years of the Yuan Dynasty in eastern Zhejiang, Liu Bowen, Song Lian, Zhang Yi and Yechen were called "the four gentlemen of eastern Zhejiang".
After Zhu Yuanzhang captured Chuzhou, he already had Tang He, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun and other brave generals around him, but there were only two Wenchen: Li Shanchang and Zhu Sheng. Zhu Yuanzhang is a person with great ambitions, and he also knows very well that if you want to achieve great things, you need to recruit more and more talents to help you, especially resourceful strategists.
After all, for Zhu Yuanzhang at this time, most of the people around him are reckless people who have never read, and they are really thirsty for talent.
Hu Dahai and Zhu Yuanzhang recommended "Mr. Zhedong Four", and Zhu Yuanzhang asked people to invite them, except for Liu Bowen, the other three all took refuge under Zhu Yuanzhang.
Hu Dahai recommended four virtuous people, so he sent an envoy to collect them with book coins.Liu Bowen did not unify with Taizu at the beginning, Taizu thought: If he Liu Bowen is really a talent, it doesn't matter if he asks for a few more times.
So Zhu Yuanzhang sent a person named Sun Yan to invite Liu Bowen, Liu Bowen didn't want to see Sun Yan at first, but he didn't want to offend people, so he asked Sun Yan to send a sword. But Sun Yan didn't accept Liu Bowen's sword, because Sun Yan felt that this sword should be given to the Son of Heaven, and I was a courtier, so I really didn't dare to accept it. Sun Yan returned the sword to Liu Bowen, and along with the sword there was a long letter, and after Liu Bowen read the letter, he made up his mind to follow Zhu Yuanzhang.
It was not Taizu who went there twice, but Zhu Yuanzhang's sincerity can also be seen; Moreover, the reason why Liu Bowen asked Zhu Yuanzhang to "look at the thatched house three times" is not because he is arrogant, but because he is also observing the current situation, which one of the heroes can achieve great things; Now that the investigation of Zhu Yuanzhang has ended, Liu Bowen is naturally willing to follow Taizu's side.
Facts have proved that Zhu Yuanzhang's sincerity was not in vain, and Liu Bowen is indeed a great talent; In every subsequent battle, although Liu Bowen did not personally go to the battlefield to kill the enemy, his role was indeed worth thousands of troops and horses, helping Taizu to make suggestions, not everyone can do it, and it requires the ability to strategize.
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang began to seal the heroes in the third year of Hongwu, and Liu Bowen was named the sincerity of the uncle. It stands to reason that a genius like Liu Bowen is not too much to be named a duke, but we analyze that the six dukes canonized by Zhu Yuanzhang are actually the first heroes to follow Taizu to fight the world. Liu Bowen followed Taizu relatively late, and even if the credit is great, it is only an earl's title.
Purely from the point of view of knighthood, there is indeed some grievances for Liu Bowen; But as a courtier of the founding emperor, perhaps even if he is wronged in his heart, he can't show it; Because it is easy to get rid of the "meritorious master". This is not very soon, Zhu Yuanzhang started """Qingjun side".
Liu Bowen's life can be divided into three stages:
The first stage: the youth is full of pride and ambition.
The second stage: When he was young, he cherished Taizu, and Maxima met Bole and showed his strength.
The third stage: After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, it was difficult and ended in tragedy.
After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, the Ming court began to appear: the Huaixi Party and the Zhedong Party.
The Huaixi Party was headed by Li Shanchang.
The Zhedong Party is headed by Liu Bowen.
Liu Bowen held the position of imperial history, and the nature of this position determined that Liu Bowen would definitely make many enemies in the court. After all, most of the founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty were reckless and often arrogant.
For Liu Bowen, who often ** himself, he naturally hates the root of his teeth.
Liu Bowen even proposed to Taizu to take over the military power of the generals, which naturally made these heroes of the Huaixi Party hate him to the core.
In the struggle between the Huaixi Party and the Zhedong Party, Liu Bowen was not allowed to leave his post and return to his hometown "due to illness". In the fifth year of Hongwu, when Liu Bowen returned to his hometown to recuperate, there was a place called Danyang about 170 miles south of Putian. Danyang is located at the junction of Zhejiang and Fujian, the situation is more complicated, it is the place where Fang Guozhen, one of Zhu Yuanzhang's fierce rivals before becoming emperor, and there is also a place called "Salt Nest".
Liu Bowen asked his son to investigate this place, and then wrote a memo and handed it to Zhu Yuanzhang.
At this time, Hu Weiyong (a member of the Huaixi Party) was in power, and the twists and turns were directly sent to Zhu Yuanzhang without going through Hu Weiyong, which made Hu Weiyong and others very dissatisfied.
Hu Weiyong grasped this matter and joined other ministers of the Huaixi Party to sue Liu Bowen: Liu Bowen is good at feng shui fortune telling, and found that this place exudes royal energy, and he actually wants to take it for himself and use this place as the cemetery of their Liu family in the future; He even let his son expel the local people for this reason.
Not to mention anything else, just the word "Wang Qi" touched Zhu Yuanzhang's sensitive nerves;
If Liu Bowen plans to take this place of Danyang as his own, isn't there any rebellion?
So Zhu Yuanzhang "invited Liu Bowen back" to Nanjing and continued to recuperate in Nanjing; In fact, it is convenient for Zhu Yuanzhang to look at Liu Bowen all the time.
Hu Weiyong's side is in charge of Zuo Cheng to save trouble, saying that there is a royal spirit in the foreign land, the base map is the tomb, and the people are with, so please set up a patrol to drive out the people.Later, Hu Weiyong of the Huaixi Party was promoted to the prime minister of the left, Liu Bowen was extremely disappointed, and his inner hope was shattered; As time goes by, the anxiety becomes more severe.
In the eighth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang learned that Liu Bowen was seriously ill, so he asked Hu Weiyong, the prime minister of Zuo, to visit. But after Liu Bowen took the medicine prescribed by the doctor, his condition became more serious, and his health became worse and worse.
In fact, Liu Bowen once went to Zhu Yuanzhang because of this matter, and told Zhu Yuanzhang that his health became worse and worse after taking the medicine prescribed by the imperial doctor. Unexpectedly, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't take it seriously, and he didn't care about Liu Bowen, which made Liu Bowen very disappointed.
At this time, Liu Bowen was very cold, and in March, Liu Bowen got Zhu Yuanzhang's permission to return to his hometown to recuperate. In addition to his son, there were also people sent by Zhu Yuanzhang to escort Zhu Yuanzhang back to his hometown.
After returning to his hometown, Liu Bowen no longer took medicine and refused to be prescribed by anyone; He forced himself to have a normal routine and diet, but only a month later, Liu Bowen realized that his time was running out and began to explain the aftermath to his sons.
After I die of illness, you must immediately hand over the heavenly documents to the emperor, and you must not delay for a moment; In the future, none of the descendants of our Liu family can learn this knowledge again. ”
He also instructed his sons to be both rigid and soft, respect the law and morality, and be generous to the people.
Liu Bowen wrote a letter before he died, and there were ten countermeasures. Liu Bowen instructed his son Liu Lian that he could only hand over this recital to the emperor after Hu Weiyong's death, otherwise the emperor would not be able to see it.
On April 16, Liu Bowen died of illness.
After Liu Bowen died of illness, later generations continued to posthumously seal him:
Wu Zong posthumously recognized him as a Taishi.
Sejong let him deserve to enjoy the temple.
This shows that Liu Bowen's merits can actually stand the test of time, and have also been recognized and appreciated by the world.
What is recorded in the history books is that Hu Weiyong killed Liu Bowen:
"Ming Taizu Record": "Cheng Tu Jieyan in history: The former sincerity Bo Liu Ji was poisoned, and Guangyang should know the situation. Ask the ocean, and the ocean will be right'It's nothing'. When Shang Po heard that (Liu) Ji Fang was ill, Prime Minister Hu Weiyong waited for the doctor because he drank poison. It is to blame the vast ocean for deception, unable to be loyal to the country, and sitting back and watching the rise and fall.
The translated meaning of this passage is: Tu Jie said that the former sincerity Bo Liu Ji was poisoned, and Wang Guangyang should have known; But Zhu Yuanzhang asked Wang Guangyang, and Wang Guangyang said that there was no such thing. When Zhu Yuanzhang heard that Liu Ji was sick, Prime Minister Hu Weiyong took the imperial doctor to see Liu Ji, and Liu Ji was poisoned to death after taking the medicine that Hu Weiyong brought to the imperial doctor. Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry and reprimanded Wang Guangyang for being disloyal.
As can be seen in this passage,It was indeed Hu Weiyong who killed Liu Ji, and he did have a certain degree of credibility
But some people said: The reason why Liu Bowen was poisoned was actually Zhu Yuanzhang's conspiracy.
Zhu Yuanzhang knew very well that Hu Weiyong had always had a holiday with Liu Bowen, and when Liu Bowen was seriously ill, Zhu Yuanzhang also asked Hu Weiyong to visit Liu Bowen, obviously inused Hu Weiyong's hatred of Liu Bowen to get rid of Liu Bowen
Obviously, Liu Bowen's death is actually inseparable from Zhu Yuanzhang.
But if the reason is investigated, in fact, Liu Bowen himself is also responsible.
Liu Bowen has been upright all his life and has great ambitions.
When Zhu Yuanzhang fights the world, whether it is a military general or a civil servant, he is an indispensable talent for Zhu Yuanzhang, and he will naturally regard it as a treasure in his heart; But after Zhu Yuanzhang sat firmly in the world, these capable ministers who fought the world became "dangerous ministers" and people who threatened the imperial power.
If Liu Bowen can learn from Zhang Liang and retire when Liu Bang is proclaimed emperor, he may really be able to die a good death.
Ming Dynasty writerWang Shizhencommented on Liu Bowen like this: Some people compare Liu Bowen with Zhang Liang, saying that Liu Bowen's strategy is indeed not lost to Zhang Liang; But if it is said that the integrity of being an official, Liu Bowen is indeed much worse than Zhang Liang.
Liu Bowen is talented, and he also wants to show his talent in the court and go down in history. As everyone knows, his "knowing the world" is no longer needed after Zhu Yuanzhang sits firmly in the world.
Liu Bowen "annoyed" the king of a country step by step above the court, and its ending may have been doomed when Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne. Liu Bowen was confused for a while, and he didn't recognize that his talent and responsibilities were actually inconsistent with the environment in which Zhu Yuanzhang governed the worldIt's a pity to end up with a rabbit dead and a dog cooking
Of course, if Liu Bowen could meet a more open-minded founding king, maybe he wouldn't have ended so badly!
Life is indeed different and so complete, giving a body of talent and being able to leave a name in history, but it does not end well; It is enough to see that everyone will have more or less shortcomings in their lives, and for Liu Bowen, the biggest regret is: there is no rapid retreat!