To say who is a general in Chinese history who can be called "both literary and martial", many people may think of Yue Fei. Indeed, Yue Fei is not only a generation of famous generals, but his "Man Jiang Hong", which was included in the middle school textbook, is also a popular literary masterpiece.
But fame aside, the general who is more worthy of this title than Yue Fei is today's protagonist, Du Pre.
Who is Du Pre- He lived during the Wei and Jin dynasties, when people gave him the nickname "Du Wuku". What do you mean? It is said that he is very knowledgeable, and his knowledge is like an arsenal.
However, many people know Du Xian, largely because he has a famous thirteenth grandson, Du Fu. During the Tang Dynasty, the great poet also boasted everywhere as a descendant of Du Pre.
To say that Du Pre is "complete in both literature and martial arts" does not mean that he can not only lead soldiers to fight, but also write articles.
Du Pre was not only a good fighter, but also a first-class scholar. In addition to his status as a general, he was also a famous historian and scribe, especially his annotations to the Zuo Chuan, which is still the authority of China in the field of Zuo Chuan research.
If you don't go to the battlefield, today only people who study "Zuo Zhuan" or "Spring and Autumn" will probably know the name of Du Pre. If this were the case, his life would be much more uneventful.
What is even more bizarre is that as a general, Du Preyi could not ride a horse, and the second could not shoot arrows, but he could command thousands of troops and horses, and made an immortal contribution to the unification of the whole country by the Jin Dynasty.
As an outlier among famous players, Du Pre's success has a great enlightening significance for us. Of course, what we have learned from him is not just as simple as "both culture and martial arts".
1/5 of a noble student
Like many Wei and Jin celebrities, Du Pre was born into a family of official eunuchs. His grandfather was Du Qi (杜畿) who was a Shangshu servant during the Cao Wei dynasty, and his father Du Shu (杜許) was a Youzhou Assassin. Grandpa is a Beijing official, dad is a local official, Du Pre, this proper "official three generations", from an early age to eat and clothe worry-free.
Although he lived a life of bell ringing and eating, Du Pre was very different from those stupid children. He is not only strict with himself, but also a notorious bully. At a young age, he read a lot of books, and there was no omission in the subset of history, and he also studied astronomy, geography, engineering, and mathematics.
However, the good times did not last long, although Du Pre had not yet been involved in the whirlpool of court politics when he was young, he still tasted the dangers of the officialdom early.
His father, Du Shu, was attached to Cao Shuang's camp. Later, Sima Yi staged a coup d'état to kill Cao Shuang, and Du Shu's career also ended here, and he was demoted to a commoner, and finally ended up depressed. Because his father was on the wrong side politically, Du Pre was also difficult to get the reuse of Sima Shi.
Perhaps it was this experience that made Du Pre realize that the life of the noble family was bright and beautiful on the surface, but in fact it was a dark tide. Game of Thrones is like gambling, there are far more losers than winners, and if you are not careful, you may lose. If you want to make a difference in this dangerous environment, you must stand tall and see far. Therefore, Du Pre had the following bold words:
"Virtue cannot be attained, but meritorious deeds can be made."
Du Pre was determined to make meritorious contributions to the country, and heaven finally took care of him. After Sima Zhao came to power, Du Pre became Shang Shulang and married Sima Zhao's sister. Although at this time, Sima Shi had not yet been proclaimed emperor, but the power was tilted to the opposition, and his status was no different from that of the emperor.
Du Xuan was older than Sima Zhao, because he had both moral integrity and ability, and Sima Zhao also regarded him as an important staff member. Later, Du Pre was transferred to the Zhenxi general Zhong Huifu and held the post of Changshi.
We have introduced this bell in a previous article, this person is a bully, and a very vengeful guy. During the Shu Dynasty, he had a conflict with the famous general Deng Ai, framed Deng Ai and occupied Shuzhong, trying to raise an army to rebel, and was later killed by the rebels.
Due to the suddenness of the incident, many of Zhong Hui's staff members were killed in the chaos. Du Xian, on the other hand, was lucky to survive, not knowing whether it was luck or wisdom. This unrest not only did not implicate Du Pre, but also received a reward from the imperial court for adding 1,150 households to the imperial court.
Du Pre's first demonstration of governance skills was during his tenure as the Anxi Military Division. The imperial court sent him to Chang'an to deal with the ethnic minorities who rebelled in the northwest.
Who expected that Du Pre had just taken office, and he was worn by his superiors with small shoes. At that time, General Anxi was a man named Shi Jian, and Shi Jian and Du Qian had always been at odds. For the purpose of revenge, he ordered Du Pre to attack the enemy with only three hundred infantry and one hundred mounts, and Du Pre of course knew Shi Jian's purpose, so he knew the stakes and argued according to reason, which made Shi Jian very unhappy.
Later, Shi Jian accused the imperial court of deposing Du Qian's officials on the charge of staying in the military quarters. However, during his tenure, Du Pre did a lot of good things for the local people, including approving the number of acres of land, flattening grain prices, formulating tax regulations, and putting forward dozens of suggestions that are conducive to border stability, which are deeply loved by local residents.
However, after Shi Jian returned to the imperial court, he did not truthfully report the merits of this subordinate. Du Xian was convinced, and he immediately wrote to impeach Shi Jian. The two quarreled endlessly, and both Du Pre and Shi Jian were dismissed from their posts, and this battle could be described as a lose-lose situation, but fortunately, Du Pre quickly returned to the official field by virtue of his in-law relationship with Sima Shi.
2/5 Commentary on the Jin Law
Although Du Pre was a famous general of a generation, his early talent was not reflected in the military, but in the law. In today's parlance, Du Pre was a legal expert during the Wei and Jin dynasties.
Du Pre was once asked to annotate the laws of the imperial court, you know, this is a very technical task, and the annotation of the laws is equivalent to the judicial interpretation of the regulations issued by the government today. In Du's report to the imperial court, he wrote:
"Dharma, the broken example of the cover rope ink, the book of non-exhaustive reasoning." Therefore, the text is about to be straight, and it is forbidden to be simple and simple to listen to the province. The example is straightforward and easy to see, and the prohibition is difficult to violate. ”
What do you mean? That is, the law is a criterion, and the language should be simple, the regulations should be clear, and it is easy to distinguish. After stating a bunch of truths, Du Pre finally said:
All the notes today are based on the meaning of Luo Fa, and the name of the character is divided. The person who uses it holds the example to judge the fun house, stretch the rope of ink straight, and analyze the reason for salary.
This means that those who use the law should examine and choose according to the name regulations, eliminate those trivial truths, and highlight the directness and justice of the law.
Please note, however, that the law that Du Pre appreciates is still different from our law today.
Although there was no shortage of laws in ancient China, it was generally more favorable to rule by man. Compared with the law, Du Pre believed more in the power of morality, and in his view, using the law to regulate human behavior was the practice of the last days. The more detailed your provisions are, the more hypocritical the officials will be, which will not be conducive to the selection of talents.
Such a view seems somewhat inconceivable today. Because the modern rule of law society is precisely supported by cumbersome legal provisions, are today's people "hypocritical" than the ancients?
In fact, we have to look at this problem from another perspective. Although modern laws are cumbersome, they do not reflect the will of the rulers. What the law ensures is only the common bottom line of social security.
But in the time of Du Pre's life, the so-called "Dhamma" was largely in the service of the king. The "dharma" in the traditional sense is not the "law" of the so-called law today, but more like the "law" of the king's rule and the "law" of governance, which is essentially to consolidate the rule of the emperor.
The Cao Wei regime, which replaced the Eastern Han Dynasty, had a certain degree of legalism. Cao Cao, who was from the Han ethnic group, held high the banner of "meritocracy" and tried to destroy the traditional door valve politics in a utilitarian way of employing people. Therefore, Cao Wei's laws were meticulous and strict, especially the assessment of officials, even to the point of extreme triviality, but they were also criticized for it.
Du Believes that the core of rules and regulations is people. If the promotion and appointment of all officials depend on the system, it will be a huge burden on both the imperial court and officials. Therefore, Du Pre proposed that important officials should be appointed, and then they should evaluate the officials in their jurisdictions. It is evaluated once a year, and after six years, the appointment and dismissal of officials is decided according to the situation of the calendar year.
You may ask, isn't that a reversal of history? Although the original system-based management method is cumbersome, it is at least in line with the spirit of the rule of law. Isn't it encouraging nepotism to let officials evaluate their subordinates now?
But then again, Du Pre's statement was aimed at the actual situation at that time.
During the Wei and Jin dynasties, the political arena restored the aristocratic monopoly of the late Han Dynasty, and the high-level people were related to each other and knew the roots. Friends familiar with history may know that during the Cao Wei period, there was a famous "Nine Pin Officials and People Law", which actually stipulated the criteria for selecting talents and using energy. This is an effective approach for a relatively narrow circle of acquaintances.
If you don't understand it anymore, look at the recruitment of executives in large companies today, how many of them are found by HR online resume search? Basically, it is introduced by acquaintances. Because this is the best way to find good people, you can greatly save the cost of obtaining information.
Therefore, Du Pre's thinking only continued the spirit of the "Nine Pins Official And Human Law", and on this basis, it was simplified to a certain extent.
3/5 Involved in the cutting of Wu
We have spent so much ink to introduce Du Qian's legal thought, in fact, we want to tell everyone that whether it is governing the country or leading soldiers to fight, a person's understanding of the system also determines to some extent the degree of his understanding of politics.
Du predetermined the formulation of laws, also has rich experience in local governance, and knows how to select and employ people, which gives him an incomparable advantage over ordinary generals. Therefore, in the current war, he is more adept at starting from the overall perspective and looking at the problem from multiple levels.
Clausewitz said that all wars are nothing more than an extension of politics. Du Knows This Well. On the eve of the Western Jin Dynasty's conquest of Wu, it was precisely his accurate judgment of the political and military situation in the front that strengthened Sima Yan's confidence in marching south.
In the previous wars against Wu, Cao Wei did not achieve much success. Sima Yan, the emperor of the Jin Dynasty, wanted to attack Wu from the south, but was opposed by many ministers.
Why would a minister object? The main thing is the fear of taking risks. After all, before Cao Cao Cao Pi and their repeated attacks on Wu were fruitless, how could Sima Shi win?
At the crucial moment, it was Du Xian who gave Sima Yan a shot of strengthening the heart, and he said to Sima Yan: The Eastern Wu Emperor Sun Hao was cruel and faint, and his rule was no longer popular with the people. More importantly, Eastern Wu had insufficient troops for various reasons in the past two years, and now had to focus its defense on Jingzhou. This means that its capital Jiankang is empty of troops, and at this time, it should be promising to go south.
In order to reassure Sima Yan, Du Pre further said that if Wu wu succeeded, it would be a great cause of a thousand autumns. Even if it fails, it will only waste a month.
Sima Yan was not the lord of great talent and strategy, but after all, the Jin Dynasty had many generals and had the advantage, and if he hesitated at this time, he was afraid that he would not be able to say it. In the end, Sima Yan made up his mind to cut down Wu.
In 279 AD, the Jin Dynasty launched an attack on Eastern Wu from Duolu, and Du Pre served as the general of Zhennan, and the direction of his attack was from Jingzhou, which was heavily guarded by Eastern Wu.
Although he had considerable superiority in troops, Du Pre's battle was unexpected. Instead of taking a strong attack, he sent eight hundred soldiers to make a surprise attack at night, and after landing on the shore, he set up an ambush and captured Sun Xin, the governor of wu. After that, Du Pre saw through the fraudulent surrender of the Wu general Wu Ting, and annihilated the Wu army's troops in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River with the momentum of ploughing the court to sweep the caves.
Du Pre fought this battle cleanly, and more importantly, the Jin army paid only a very small number of casualties. At this time, the Jin army was already in sight of victory, and there were still people in the DPRK who wrote to suspend the attack, because the weather was warmer and the epidemic in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River was rampant, which would affect the combat effectiveness of the soldiers, and Cao Wei repeatedly hit a wall.
However, Du Xian was not impressed, and he wrote to other generals on the way east, asking them to attack Jiankang quickly. In the end, the Eastern Wu army collapsed under the multiple combined attacks of the Jin army, Eastern Wu perished, and the situation of the three kingdoms dispute ended.
Although it was not Du Xuan who finally conquered Jiankang, his role in this war should not be underestimated. At the beginning of the war, Du Pre sat in Jingzhou, which was the defensive stronghold of Eastern Wu. However, Du Xuan was able to quickly annihilate the enemy here with very few casualties, laying a solid foundation for the victory of the entire war. The wisdom and boldness of his performance also left a deep impression on the enemy.
There is a saying that Du Pre's neck has a sarcoma, and in order to curse him, Wu Jun will cut it down whenever he sees a bulge similar to a tumor on the trunk of the tree, and write the three words "Du Pre Neck", which shows that the enemy has hated him to the bone.
As we said at the beginning, Du Qian was a man of letters, and he could neither ride horses nor shoot arrows. But it can still strategize and win a thousand miles. It can be seen from this that fighting wars is first and foremost based on wisdom and strategy, not courage and force. In "Sun Tzu's Art of War", Sun Tzu said: Generals, wisdom, faith, benevolence, courage, and yanye. Sun Tzu regarded "wisdom" as the primary quality of generals, and Du Pre was the best interpretation of this.
4/5 Retire
After the unification of the whole country, Du Pre returned to Jingzhou. At this time, he was in a high position of power and was also a hero of Wu Wu. But he knows the truth that a country will be in danger if it forgets the war. Therefore, he managed the army as in the past, still trained strictly in peacetime, and did not relax the garrison of each city.
In addition, Du Pre also did a lot of practical things in the field of people's livelihood, including carrying out water conservancy projects to irrigate farmland and dredging inland shipping, so that Jingzhou's economy has developed by leaps and bounds.
Du Pre's doing so may seem to win a lot of applause today, but you must know that it was more than a thousand years ago in ancient times. You are a founding general, and you are training troops on your own turf, and you are also attracting people's hearts and minds, what do you think the emperor will think?
Didn't several generals at the beginning of the Han Dynasty end up being beheaded by the emperor because they supported the army and respected themselves? Far from it, there are lessons from the clock meeting. At that time, Zhong Hui would cut down Shu, and also wanted to be the second Liu Bei after occupying Chengdu, but he was killed by a random knife before he succeeded.
Of course, is Du Pre's emotional intelligence comparable to that of Zhong Hui? During his time in Xiangyang, in addition to doing good deeds for the people, Du Did not forget to send gifts to officials in the capital, which was a bribe to put it bluntly.
Why did DuPre do this? The reason is very simple, only by giving sufficient benefits can those officials prevent those officials from making small reports in front of the emperor. As long as they are served well, Du Pre's seat can be firmly seated.
In addition to giving gifts to officials, Du's ability to pre-pat the horse's ass is also first-class.
In ancient times, the Yellow River had a famous ferry port, called "Mengjinkou", because the water was turbulent, and if the boat passed, there would often be a capsizing accident. At this time, not long after the establishment of the Jin Dynasty, Du Pre believed that a bridge should be built on the river.
However, Du's proposal was again opposed by many ministers. Their reasons were very similar to those of later opposition to Wu Wu. In the eyes of these people, Mengjinkou has not had a man-made bridge for thousands of years, so it can be seen that there must be no bridge built here.
Indeed, with the ancient bridge building technology, it is indeed difficult to build a bridge in a place where the water is turbulent. But it is not absolutely insurmountable. Du Pre said that the boats can be connected and fixed, so that they can act as bridges, that is, the so-called "boat building as a beam.".
In the end, this "boat bridge" was really built on the Yellow River. Sima Yan was overjoyed when he heard that the bridge was completed, and he actually took a hundred officials to hold a banquet on the edge of Mengjinkou. At the banquet, Sima Yan congratulated Du Pre and praised him: "If it were not for you, this bridge would not have been built." ”
Guess what Du Xian said, he gave the emperor a rainbow fart in time, "If it weren't for The wisdom of Your Majesty, the minister wouldn't have been able to perform such a small skill." ”
This ass sounds good, but it's not numb. Indeed, without Sima Yan's permission, Du Pre would not have been able to build this bridge. But Du Pre cleverly attributed the credit for building the bridge to the emperor's vision, which not only made people feel comfortable, but also said some of the facts correctly. If you are Du Pre's boss, you will be very comfortable listening, right?
However, Du Pre's ability to give the emperor a slap on the ass is more than that. In ancient times, there was a timer called 欹器, which was said to be placed in the Taimiao Temple of the Zhou Dynasty. This thing was still seen in the court until the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it disappeared at the end of the Han Dynasty because of the war.
Although the antiques can no longer be found, they can be copied. At this time, Du Pre played his wisdom again, what your emperor wants, I Du Pre can give anything. He actually made a tool for Sima Yan with his own hands, and Sima Yan, after receiving a surprise, had to admire Du Qian's craftsmanship.
Speaking of which, have you noticed that Du Pre is simply a robot cat-like figure, and Sima Yan is like the Nobita who always wants to encourage and help. Don't have confidence in fighting? Is there a do-in; need to enact laws? Have du pre-built in; need to build a bridge? Have Du Pre-is there; want a gadget to relieve the boredom? There are Du pre-existing. I am afraid that we cannot call him General Du Pre, but dr. Du Pre.
5/5 Summary
Finally, let's talk about the origin of Du Pre and the Zuo Zhuan.
Du Pre loved to read "Zuo Biao", which was famous. He claimed to have a "left-handedness" fetish. To this end, he also wrote a special book called "Spring and Autumn Left Transmission Collection", which was also used as a textbook in the Tang Dynasty.
"Zuo Chuan" is a history book written more than 2,000 years ago, you may ask, Du Pre, as a famous general of a generation, why did he like to read "Zuo Chuan" so much? For a military general, how can a history book written by the ancients help in fighting a war?
In fact, for the ancients, the significance of history books is far more than understanding the past. Because the ancients needed to borrow wisdom from history. In fact, in addition to the status of a military expert, Du was also an excellent scribe and jurist, and in this sense, it may be understandable that he liked to read the "Left Biography".
However, this does not obscure the military value of the "Zuo Zhuan", because in this ancient history book, a large number of wars in the Spring and Autumn Period are recorded, and for future generals, this is equivalent to a "case collection", which can be used for reference from time to time and command battles.
On the other hand, in addition to the military, "Zuo Biao" also talks about politics and concepts, and these are the basic elements that affect war. Therefore, there is a saying that the reference value of the Zuo Zhuan to ancient generals is no less than that of Sun Tzu's Art of War.
In this sense, you can understand why Du Pre likes to read "Zuo Biao" so much, in his opinion, this is a great book, worth reading again and again, you can learn politics, learn history, learn to fight. Some scholars even believe that the "Zuo Zhuan" hides the code of Chinese culture.
Maybe we have gone a little far, but it is certain that "Zuo Biao" taught Du the wisdom to deal with things and fight wars, not only making him invincible on the battlefield, but also navigating the official arena. This enabled him to surpass ordinary military generals and outperform ordinary civilian officials.
What is "both literature and martial arts" and not narrowly understood as "being able to fight" and "being able to write" are only appearances.
The so-called "noh martial arts" refers to a person's ability to make decisions on the spot and command thousands of troops and horses. The so-called "noh wen" is the ability to care for the people, set the system, and think deeply. It was these abilities that made Du Pre a first-class figure in the history of Wei and Jin.
Generals from the literati either don't fight wars, they just talk on paper. Anyone who can fight is often an outstanding general. Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi during the Three Kingdoms period, to Zeng Guofan at the end of the Qing Dynasty, are among the representatives.
In the "Biography of the Seventeen Histories and Hundred Generals" written by Zhang Pre-written by the Song Dynasty, the author included Du Pre,along with Sima Yi, Zhuge Liang, and others in the biography of famous generals. Personally, I think that on military strategy, Du Pre and Sima Yi are closer. In terms of temperament, the future Zeng Guofan may be more like him, but Zeng Guofan's learning cannot be compared with him.
Whether it is Du Pre, Sima Yi or Zeng Guofan, they also have one thing in common, that is, they all understand politics, and they all rewrite the history of the dynasties in their own ways. The stories of these people tell us that if you want to become a "capable minister" in the organization, in addition to being able to "fight", that is, excellent business ability, it is also a compulsory course to know people, employ people, and how to manage your boss.