If you want to comment on history, many people seem to have opened the conversation box, they talk about the past and the present, no matter which historical figure can talk about it, and then look at the historical figures they are commenting on, more or less like that.
Since the founding of New China, the average education level of the Chinese people has continued to rise, and many people have the ability to evaluate historical figures, combined with the life of a character, the true image of such a figure seems to be about to come out.
However, if modern people want to evaluate the ancients, they still have to rely on the written records left by these ancients, and the written materials about the ancients are sometimes not limited to historical biographies, and more materials often come from some rumors.
After all, sometimes the source and authenticity of the information we obtain are often unverifiable, and it is also because of this that it is difficult for historians to easily conclude historical figures like the people.
Stereotypes of characters
This will inevitably lead to some biased conclusions, and even some folklore, which do not clearly explain the original role played by a historical figure in history, but are mostly artistically processed.
For example, "Journey to the West" is an overhead novel born from reality, it is impossible for Master Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty to really take three apprentices with high skills to the West to learn scriptures, and even about Master Xuanzang himself, we don't know much at all, and there is an image of Master Xuanzang in the book, which is also apocryphal.
There is a good saying that history is written by the victors, and the history we know may not be true, but some people take this sentence as a guideline and fabricate the history in their own minds, which is a bit ridiculous.
This has led to some extreme examples of overkill, for example, in recent years, the interpretation of some historical figures on the Internet has been subverted from time to time, and the evaluation of Zhu Youzhen, the deceased king of the Ming Dynasty, is an excellent proof.
Although the Ming Dynasty finally fell under Zhu Youzhen's governance, there are also some voices on the Internet who call Zhu Youzhen the Ming Jun.
However, even so, it still can't cover up the biggest stain such as the subversion of the country under his rule, and some voices that call him the living Mingjun are obviously overkill, after all, Zhu Youzhen has not made actual achievements, and we can't give him a Chongzhen prosperity in the hypothesis.
There are countless examples of attempts to overturn the case of a historical figure who has done nothing, and it is not convenient for us to list them all here. But is the assessment of history really biased?
In fact, it is also possible, sometimes in some historical characters, there will also be some due to the limitations of the times at the time, due to short-sightedness led to the wrong evaluation of some historical figures, this evaluation may be excessive praise, sometimes it may be excessive belittlement, the well-known Hu Yanqing is an example.
Famous diplomat
Speaking of Hu Yanqing, this historical figure is already a common cameo image in various entertainment activities, in the literary history of the Qing Dynasty, Hu Yanqing's artistic image is varied, if it is more serious, I am afraid that Hu Yanqing's fame in the Qing Dynasty far exceeds that of any other historical figure.
A large number of novels and commentaries rushed to tell stories about Hu Yanqing to the common people, and through these stories, Hu Yanqing was portrayed as a "national hero" in the Northern Song Dynasty.
After reading the story of Hu Yanqing, we can know that Hu Yanqing is a loyal person who is willing to throw his head and spill his blood for the sake of the country's righteousness, and the image of Hu Yanqing in major film and television dramas is no different, which makes the people rush to the story of Hu Yanqing and his people.
However, as a romance novel, the stories of Huyanqing that ordinary people can access also have some fictional elements, due to word of mouth, there are stories about Huyanqing, many of which do not have much authenticity.
What kind of image is Hu Yanqing in history, is it really like a romance novel, holding a double whip, vigorous and resolute, exuding a unique character charm?
In fact, although Hu Yanqing was born in a family of Jiangmen, he did not inherit his father's bravery on the battlefield, after all, martial arts talent is still born, Hu Yanqing was not born with such a good backbone, and can only become a diplomat of the Song Dynasty when he grows up, such a reality is obviously inconsistent with romance novels.
Even the exploits left by Hu Yanqing do not stand up to scrutiny, and the greatest diplomatic achievement of Hu Yanqing's life is to establish a connection between the Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty.
At that time, the Jurchen people were gradually growing, and the borders of the Song and Jin dynasties were violated by the Jurchens from time to time, in order to solve the worries on the border, the two countries each sent diplomats to negotiate, among them, the diplomat sent by the Song Dynasty was Hu Yanqing, and finally the negotiations were a complete success.
Consequential loser
Perhaps it is precisely because of this epoch-making establishment of diplomatic relations that Huyanqing has ushered in such a high reputation, and it is reasonable to think about it, after all, in that era of war and chaos, it was already indispensable to be able to make a non-aggression treaty of equality with another regime that often conflicted.
Even after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, they also discussed how to deal with some other forces in the surrounding areas that could pose a threat to themselves, and the first was the Liao State, which had frequent conflicts with both sides.
The signing of this covenant is called the "alliance of the sea", and the covenant has indeed reaped the results quickly, and some small tribes around it have been directly wiped out under the strong alliance, which makes the rulers also overjoyed, and perhaps it is these visible benefits that make Huyanqing touted as a great loyal minister with eternal merits.
Hu Yanqing himself must be very satisfied with his diplomatic achievements, in fact, even if he changes any famous historical general, I am afraid that he will be blinded by the temporary gain.
However, whether it was Hu Yanqing or even Song Huizong, who was in power at the time, under the impact of the joy of victory, he completely forgot the biggest threat to the Jin Dynasty around him.
We all know that there is a famous saying, called "there are no eternal friends, only eternal interests", in the final analysis, the reason why the Jin Dynasty established diplomatic relations with the Song Dynasty was also to eliminate the low-hanging fruit of the surrounding tribes, and the biggest beneficiary of this benefit was the originally relatively weak Jin Dynasty.
Moreover, it is obvious that in essence, the relationship between the two countries is not the same as that of the two countries, so after the surrounding tribes were pacified, the strength of the Jin Dynasty after the blood transfusion of the fruits of victory was also extraordinarily strong.
The most fatal thing is that the Song Dynasty at that time was complacent for a while due to the good surrounding situation, completely ignoring the growth of the Jin Dynasty, and finally, after the Liao State fell to the country, the Jin gave up the covenant, and then went south to attack the Song Dynasty, which brought disaster to the Song Dynasty.
From this point of view, Hu Yanqing is not only not the image of the savior hero in the novels of the Qing Dynasty, but is closer to the identity of the culprit who led to the demise of the Song Dynasty, and is a well-deserved "historical sinner".
From the perspective of consequentialism, Hu Yanqing really shouldn't be praised so much, and if there are beautiful words about him, they probably have to blame the secondary creation of later generations.
Brief summary:
Although the big hat of "historical sinner" is fastened on Hu Yanqing's head, it seems to be a little too harsh, and those historical figures in the past cannot predict the future, which is understandable to cause some embarrassment.
However, the reason for emphasizing this point is, after all, to wake people up, some historical figures that exist after artistic processing, their images may not be real and effective, if you want to really evaluate a historical figure, you still have to combine the real history, inherit the past, in order to gain something.