Thanks to the romance of the Three Kingdoms novels and TV series, many people know that Zhuge Liang has an embarrassing nickname: Zhuge Village Fu. Cao Cao, in particular, was defeated and often pointed his fingers and scolded, using this nickname to express insults.
What is a villager, naturally a farmer. Cao Cao's scolding naturally has its origin. The "Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang's Biography" says: "Xuan Pawn, Liang Gong Cultivated Longmu." "How do you say that?" Zhuge Liang lost his father at a young age, his uncle Zhuge Xuan has been raising him, Zhuge Xuan initially entrusted himself to Liu Biao in Jingzhou, after Zhuge Xuan's death, Zhuge Liang and Zhuge Jun's brothers retired to Xiangyang, because they had no plan to get out, they cultivated in Longzhong for a living.
Zhuge Liang himself did not shy away from this, and he described himself in the "Table of Teachers": The subject is clothed and cultivates in Nanyang.
Does that mean that Cao Cao was right to scold and that Zhuge Liang was really from a pure peasant background?
Apparently not.
First, Zhuge Liang's bull qi ancestor
The Three Kingdoms, the Two Jin Dynasties, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties were the era of the scholars, and the vast majority of those who came to the political stage were scholars with family heritage and fame, and although ordinary peasants also had hope, they had absolutely no possibility of stepping into the political center. Without him, the government needed to learn, and at that time, the level of social education was seriously unbalanced, and all cultural resources were monopolized in the hands of the family clan, and ordinary civilians had no opportunity to study at all.
This is judged from the big picture.
Then judging from Zhuge Liang's specific body, the chain of evidence is also very clear.
Zhuge Liang claimed to be cloth cloth, but his origin was not small. The "Book of The Three Kingdoms Zhishu And Zhuge Liang's Biography" says: "Zhuge Liang, a lieutenant of the Han Dynasty, Zhuge Fenghou. "Zhuge Feng served as a lieutenant during the reign of Emperor Yuan of the Western Han Dynasty, and although his officials were not large, because their duties were to supervise the capital division, their status was very sensitive, so they needed people with fame and ability to calm the field. Shu Han Zhang Fei and Zhuge Liang both held this official position, and the weight of the weight is self-evident.
Of course, Zhuge Feng's most cattle place is not here, his foundation is the "Ming Jing", that is, the study of scriptures is good. That's a shame! Why?
The premise of practicing politics in ancient times was to study the classics well, and the Four Books and Five Classics of Confucian scholarship were the basic theories for practicing politics. However, before the Wei and Jin Dynasties, papermaking was not yet popular, and books were carved on bamboo, which was very expensive, which made ordinary people have no access to books at all. It's remarkable to be able to recognize a few words, let alone to learn the classics of the sons. Therefore, those who study the classics, in modern times, are all golden diplomas such as Tsinghua Peking University.
Because Zhuge Feng was well educated, his family became more and more prosperous, and many of his descendants had a career. By the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Zhuge family was still very prosperous. Zhuge Liang's father Zhuge Gui served as a Taishan Commandery, and his uncle Zhuge Xuan also served as Yuzhang Taishou.
The Three Kingdoms era was the most family origin, and people befriended each other, mainly depending on whether each other's identity was equivalent to their own. More friends, help each other, learn from each other, communicate with each other, the reputation is getting bigger and bigger, and they have become "celebrities". In the Three Kingdoms, mingshi was synonymous with reserve cadres, and at that time there was no imperial examination, and the selection of officials mainly relied on the recommendation of various levels, and those who were well-educated and famous were naturally the first choice.
Cao Wei invented an official system based on this: the Nine Pins Zhongzheng system. The core meaning is that whoever has a strong family can become an official.
Second, the dragon and tiger dog of the Zhuge family
In Zhuge Liang's generation, their family produced three great figures: Zhuge Liang, Zhuge Jin, and Zhuge Birthday. Zhuge Liang and Zhuge Jin are brothers, and Zhuge Zhi may be related by blood, but they all have the same ancestor: Zhuge Feng.
The three were from the same family, but they were officials in Shu, Wu, and Wei, and people called him a dragon, a tiger, and a dog, Zhuge Liang was a dragon, Zhuge Jin was a tiger, and Zhuge Shi was a dog (not ironic, but said that he was a "gong dog", which means a person with meritorious service).
The monarchs of the Three Kingdoms were not difficult for these three Zhuge Ge, Zhuge Liang and his brother Zhuge Jin were still very close, Zhuge Liang was childless in his early years, he thought of succeeding his brother's son, Zhuge Jin reported to Sun Quan, and then sent his son Zhuge Qiao to Shu Han. Unexpectedly, the disaster of extinction was avoided later. Later, because Zhuge Jin's other son Zhuge Ke was killed, along with the whole family, Zhuge Qiao's son, who was far away in Western Shu, was safe and sound, and later returned to the original branch and inherited Zhuge Jin's incense.
Of course, the political ethics of these three Zhuge were quite good, and they did not depose the public for personal gain. Zhuge Jin's son Zhuge Ke (Zhuge Ke) was fighting Against Wei, and the Wei general Zhuge Shi did not have the slightest weakness and fought with Zhuge Ke with the same desperate effort.
You can imagine that Zhuge Shi, a large family that has been famous since the Western Han Dynasty, has had great officials and celebrities for generations, how can it be a villager.
So why does Zhuge Liang still call himself a villager? Isn't he farming in Longzhong?
Farming is farming, but Zhuge Liang is not an ordinary farmer who only faces the loess and turns his back to the sky, but travels while planting. Otherwise, where did the later famous "Longzhong Pair" come from? There is no way to learn in the soil, and nature is learned.
During this period, Zhuge Liang also did a very important thing: to make friends with celebrities.
Third, Zhuge Liang's circle of friends
For example, the famous soldier who served as an official: Liu Biao, the Assassin of Jingzhou. Although this Liu Mingshi fought a war and wasted firewood, his reputation was also leveraged at the end of the Han Dynasty. Liu Biao had a good relationship with Zhuge Liang's uncle Zhuge Xuan, so his relationship with Zhuge Liang was extraordinary.
For example, dang's celebrity: Hannan Huang Chengyan. This old gentleman, who was also a well-versed scholar, asked Zhuge Liang: I heard that you want to please your wife, my daughter is ugly, but she is very talented, I don't know if you are willing to marry. This old man is real enough, and Zhuge Liang is more real than him: marry! In fact, this marriage is also a door-to-door pair. In other words, Huang Chengyan still can't look at it.
Looking at the group of celebrity friends Zhuge Liang made, it is even more remarkable.
The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms records that Zhuge Liang's friends mainly included Boling Cui Zhouping, Yingchuan Shi Guangyuan, Xu Shu, Meng Gongwei and others.
Although Cui Zhouping's name is not very high, the Cui clan in Hebei is the highest surname in the north. From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, there were talents emerging from generation to generation in more than four hundred years, and later Tang Taizong Li Shimin formulated a hierarchy for the surnames of the world, and at that time, all the courtiers pushed the Cui clan as the first, which shows the strength of his family.
Yingchuan these three, Xu Shu everyone is very familiar, Liu Bei's early number one think tank. The hometown of Xu, Shi, and Meng, Yingchuan (in present-day Xuchang, Henan), was a super talented place during the Three Kingdoms and Two Jin Dynasties.
Several of Cao Cao's ministers Xun Yu, Guo Jia, Xun You, and Zhong Xuan were all from Yingchuan, and Yuan Shao's famous scholar Guo Tu was also from here.
With such a large group of celebrity friends, zhuge Liang's fame of Wolong naturally spread. Therefore, Liu Bei, an outsider, could also hear Zhuge Liang's great name.
As for Zhuge Liang, who calls himself Cloth Cloth and calls himself a cultivator of Longmu, he is just modest. None of the people in the Three Kingdoms era dared to underestimate Zhuge Liang's origins.