Source: CNKI
Liu Bei's "Yong'an Tuogu" is a very famous event in Chinese history, and the reason is that he said to Zhuge Liang, "If you are not talented, you can take it yourself".
From the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties to the late Qing Dynasty, China's imperial succession has always been hereditary.
However, Liu Bei broke the tradition and was willing to pass on the throne to a person with a different surname who had no blood relationship with him, such a selflessness can be said to be an unprecedented supreme realm.
So, is that really the case?
It's finally time to leave this chaotic era
After the defeat of the Yiting, Liu Bei retreated to Yong'an.
Later, he did not return to Chengdu, but built a palace city in Yong'an, and ordered the whole army to strengthen the defense of the gorge to guard against Soochow.
At this time, Liu Bei's heart was very complicated.
He was ashamed, regretful, and guilty, and these emotions were superimposed, which made Liu Bei's spirit tortured, and further affected his physical condition.
Liu Bei knew in his heart that he was going to leave this chaotic era after all, so he hurriedly summoned Zhuge Liang from Chengdu. In addition to saying goodbye to Kong Ming for the last time, in addition, it is to explain the matter of orphanage.
In this regard, "Three Kingdoms. The Biography of Zhuge Liang is recorded in more detail:
Liu Bei believed that Zhuge Liang's talent was ten times better than Cao Pi's, and he would definitely be able to complete the great cause of Kuang Fu Han. He said to Zhuge Liang: "If the heir (referring to the son Liu Chan) can be supplemented, supplemented; If you are not talented, you can take it yourself. ”
We know Zhuge Liang's high wind and bright festival, of course he will not agree to Liu Bei's request, saying that he will do his best to assist the queen, and will always remain loyal and loyal until he dies.
Subsequently, Liu Bei issued an edict to Liu Chan in Chengdu, warning him that in the future, he should serve Zhuge Liang like his own father.
Sincerity or hypocrisy?
Liu Bei's words of encouragement to Zhuge Liang can be described as the greatest generosity in the world.
The country he worked so hard to build was willing to give it to his subordinate Zhuge Liang, who was at most a close friend.
It's the equivalent of a super-rich man who is willing to pass on all his wealth to the best employees in the company, rather than his own children.
The reason why I say this is because Liu Bei's "you can take it yourself" will make many people's first reaction be "let Zhuge Liang take his place".
In this regard, the historiographers have given different views, believing that the "take" here should be interpreted as "choosing". In other words, Liu Bei only gave Zhuge Liang the right to abolish the establishment: if Liu Chan was not talented, Zhuge Liang could set up a new monarch from Liu Chan's two younger brothers.
Whether it is the meaning of "replacement" or "selection", we can see Liu Bei's supreme trust and sincerity in Zhuge Liang.
Chen Shou, the author of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", commented: "The relationship between monarchs and ministers has reached the greatest public heart between Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, and it is the best example of the past and present. ”
Seeing this, some people may wonder: Is everything really so pure and beautiful?
Let's take a look at "Three Kingdoms. In the annotation part of "The Biography of Zhuge Liang", Sun Sheng, a historian of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, held a negative view, believing that Liu Bei's mouth was full of "false words", and Liu Bei was testing Zhuge Liang.
Fortunately, Liu Chan is dim and cowardly, and Zhuge Liang has prestige and strategy, otherwise he is likely to fall into a crisis of suspicion.
Sun Sheng's point of view may not be convincing, so let's take a look at the views of Liu Bei's "peers".
Kangxi, who also served as an emperor, wrote in the "Imperial Approval of the General Collection": "With Liu Bei's understanding of Zhuge Liang on weekdays, he must know Zhuge Liang's loyal qualities, so since he knows, why bother to test it again?" ”
Kangxi thinks that Liu Bei Tuogu is not sincere, only deceitful.
Reason 1: Maintain balance between all parties
Liu Beituogu's "conspiracy theory" also originated from two other records in the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms".
First in "Three Kingdoms. The Biography of the First Lord", there is such a sentence in it: "The first master is ill, and he is lonely in Prime Minister Liang, and Shangshu makes Li Yan his deputy." ”
That is to say, in addition to Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei also entrusted the "Shangshu Order" Li Yan at the same time and asked him to serve as his deputy.
According to normal logic, these two should have accepted the edict at the same time in front of Liu Bei's hospital bed.
As for the other record, it is in the "Three Kingdoms. Li Yanchuan": "Take strictness as the protection of the central capital, unify the internal and external military, and stay in Yong'an." ”
The five big characters of "unification of internal and external military" are particularly eye-catching, if understood literally, Liu Bei handed over the supreme military power of the Shuhan group to Li Yan.
Obviously, Liu Bei intended to organically separate the imperial power, the political power, and the military power: Zhuge Liang was in charge of political affairs, Li Yan controlled the military power, and Liu Chan was in Chengdu.
Delve into the reason why Liu Bei set Li Yan as his deputy and handed over the military power to him, the first thing is to balance the factional forces within Shu Han.
There were three major groups within the Shu Han regime:
(1) [Yizhou Group] - a native of Yizhou, that is, "Sichuan Shu people". Some of them are bureaucrats, and some are big local families in Yizhou.
(2) [Dongzhou Group] - an external force that followed Liu Yan and Liu Zhang's father and son.
Liu Zhang's father, Liu Yan, was previously appointed by the Eastern Han court to govern Yizhou. As an outsider, he was ambitious and eager to cultivate his own power, so he showed special preferential treatment to those outsiders who were not from Yizhou.
At that time, it was the chaos of the Central Plains, and tens of thousands of displaced people poured into Yizhou from Nanyang and Guanzhong. Liu Yan accepted them one by one and incorporated them into a force named "Dongzhou Bing".
Later, as Liu Yan's son Liu Zhang inherited the "Yizhou Mu", a new group of foreign forces began to emerge. These new forces, together with the "Dongzhou soldiers" in the Liu Yan period, constituted the so-called Dongzhou Group.
(3) [Jingzhou Group] - the person Liu Bei brought with him when he entered Shu.
After the Battle of Chibi, Liu Bei occupied the five counties of Jingzhou, and then he took Yizhou according to the law. But later we learned that Guan Yu, who was guarding Jingzhou, couldn't bear the "loneliness" and attacked Xiangfan in the north by himself, which led to the careless loss of Jingzhou.
As a result, those who stayed in Jingzhou before had to squeeze into Yizhou, such as Zhuge Liang, Wei Yan and others, all of whom belonged to the Jingzhou Group.
Originally, during Liu Zhang's time, there was already a conflict between the Yizhou faction and the Dongzhou faction, but now, with the addition of the Jingzhou faction, the political situation has become even more chaotic.
A regime like this, full of internal contradictions, undoubtedly has a potential crisis.
In addition, the fiasco of Yaoting and the vitality of Shu were greatly damaged, which further led to the disunity of people's hearts, so Liu Bei's biggest worry when he was dying was not "outside", but "inside".
Among the three major groups, the Jingzhou faction is undoubtedly the closest to Liu Bei and has made the most contributions to Liu Bei, so in Liu Bei's heart, the Jingzhou group must occupy the dominant position in the regime. Under this premise, it is compatible with Dongzhou and Yizhou Group as much as possible.
Between Dongzhou and Yizhou, Liu Bei prefers the former, believing that the Dongzhou Group, as an external force, is the object that the Jingzhou Group can unite, and the local Yizhou Group needs to be guarded against.
Li Yan, as the auxiliary minister designated by Liu Bei before his death, was a member of the Dongzhou group.
Li Yan and Zhuge Liang are fellow villagers, both from Nanyang, Jingzhou.
When Cao Cao went south to Jingzhou, Li Yan did not surrender to Cao with the current, but went to the west to take refuge with Liu Zhang. Later, when Liu Bei entered Shu, Li Yan surrendered to Liu Bei again.
It can be seen that Li Yan, who is a native of Jingzhou, is the most closely connected member of Liu Zhang's old department with the Jingzhou Group, and he also has certain talents, so Liu Bei chose him as the deputy of the auxiliary minister.
Liu Bei's arrangement of orphans is actually a well-formulated political layout aimed at maintaining balance between all parties.
He hoped that Li Yan would act as an intermediary, acting like a lubricant to ensure harmony and stability within the Shu Han regime.
Reason 2: Value Li Yan's military talent and guard against Eastern Wu
The reason why Liu Bei arranged Zhuge Liang to govern and Li Yan to unify the army also stemmed from their respective specialties.
Zhuge Liang was known for being good at governing civil affairs, but he had no experience in leading troops to fight alone. In contrast, Li Yan has experience in military combat.
For example, in the twenty-third year of Jian'an (218), when Liu Bei was still in Hanzhong, there was a rebellion in Yuxian County, Sichuan and Shu, and the thieves Ma Qin, Gao Sheng and others gathered tens of thousands of troops and attacked Zizhong.
Li Yan, who was the county governor of Qianwei at that time, led only 5,000 soldiers in the county and staged a good show of winning more with less. They successfully put down the rebellion and beheaded Ma Qin, Gao Sheng and others.
Later, Gao Ding, the leader of the Yi tribe in Yueshan County, sent an army to surround Xindao County, and Li Yan also went quickly to the rescue, and finally defeated the thieves.
These two counterinsurgency battles both showed that Li Yan had a certain talent for using troops, so Liu Bei put him in charge of the military was to promote his strengths.
Judging from Liu Bei's arrangement of ordering Li Yan to "stay in the town of Yong'an", he obviously hoped that Li Yan could guard against Eastern Wu. Yong'an is known as the danger of Jiangguan, which is the east gate of the land of Bashu. Only by holding Yong'an can we keep Wu soldiers out of the door.
Reason 3: Check and balance Zhuge Liang and prevent him from acting arbitrarily
The third reason contradicts what Liu Bei said before his death, "If he is not talented, you can take it yourself", the implication of the words: Since Liu Bei is willing to pass on the throne to Zhuge Liang, why does he have to set up another minister to balance Zhuge Liang?
This brings us back to the topic mentioned above - is Liu Bei sincere to Zhuge Liang, or is it a hypocritical temptation?
In fact, long before Tuogu, the relationship between Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang was not what many people think is "good and close" and "like fish in water".
After the Battle of Chibi, Liu Bei did not seem to reuse Zhuge Liang.
For example, when Liu Bei entered Shu, the person he brought was Pang Tong, and when Liu Bei attacked Hanzhong, the person he brought was Fazheng. In contrast, Zhuge Liang is only responsible for logistics support.
Later, we all knew that Pang Tong died of an arrow, and Fa Zheng also died at the age of 45.
In this case, Zhuge Liang became the head of the civil officials. When Liu Bei was proclaimed emperor, Zhuge Liang became the prime minister naturally.
But as long as one of Pang Tong and Fa Zheng is still there, the position of prime minister may not be Zhuge Liang's turn.
After the founding of the Shu Han Dynasty, although Zhuge Liang served as the prime minister, Liu Bei never let him open the government to govern affairs.
Moreover, Liu Bei also revoked the Great Sima Mansion and let Zhuge Liang handle government affairs in Shangshutai in the future (Zhuge Liang previously "acted on the affairs of the Great Sima Mansion").
The Shangshutai was set up in the palace, and Liu Bei's move was obviously to move the central organ that handled important military and political affairs to his side, so as to manipulate and strengthen the centralization of power.
And Liu Bei is also wary of Zhuge Liang.
Take Emperor Guangwu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, as an example, the imperial court had "three dukes" at that time, and each "three dukes" had their own office offices.
By the time of Liu Bei, his approach was different. He only set up the prime minister and the "second duke" of Situ, and did not establish an independent government for them.
This means that a prime minister like Zhuge Liang must go to Shangshutai to work, which shows how far Liu Bei has taken Zhuge Liang's power.
Taking a step back, if Liu Bei asked Zhuge Liang to be in charge of logistics because he regarded him as "Xiao He", if Liu Bei did not open the mansion to Zhuge Liang because Shu Han had just established the country and the foundation was unstable, then the next matter would not make sense.
When Liu Bei insisted on crusading against Eastern Wu and avenging Guan Yu, why did Zhuge Liang, as the minister of a country, not dissuade this obviously wrong military action?
Whether it is the official history "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" or other more reliable historical materials, we cannot find even a single record of Zhuge Liang persuading Liu Bei.
On the contrary, Zhao Yun, whose status was far lower than Zhuge Liang, once advised Liu Bei to put aside his personal enmity, think about the country, and destroy Wei first and then Wu.
speculated that the reason why Zhuge Liang did not persuade Liu Bei was probably because he knew that even if he did, Liu Bei would not listen.
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In the Fa Zheng Biography, after Zhuge Liang was defeated in Yaoting, he said such a sentence: "If the law is filial piety, he can stop the lord and let him not march eastward; Even if it is a crusade, it will definitely not be in danger of overturning. ”
It can be seen that Zhuge Liang is self-aware: in Liu Bei's heart, Fazheng's status is higher than his. Liu Bei only listened to Fa Zheng's words, and as for others, including him Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei did not necessarily obey.
This explains why Zhuge Liang was silent when Liu Bei attacked Wu, because he didn't have the confidence to move Liu Bei.
At this time, Zhuge Liang may vaguely feel that Liu Bei does not trust him 100%, at most it may be seventy percent.
So in this case, why does Liu Bei still trust Zhuge Liang alone?
It's because those who trust 100% are dead - Fa Zheng is dead, Pang Tong is dead, and the "Quartet Generals" have also passed away (i.e., Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao, and Huang Zhong).
Ignoring the will, the desire for power is extremely strong
Zhuge Liang seems to have a lot of complaints about Liu Bei's deathbed arrangements.
After returning to Chengdu, he immediately used his identity as a "father" to let Liu Chan hand over all the military and political power to himself, and Liu Chan, who was only 17 years old, was also completely excluded from the decision-making level.
In this regard, Mr. Yin Yungong, a well-known historian of the Three Kingdoms, commented that Zhuge Liang "has a strong desire for power and a strong desire for power".
As for Li Yan's situation, due to his qualifications and prestige, he was unable to truly grasp the command of the Shu Han army after Liu Bei's death, and his leadership was limited to the Yong'an region.
It is important to note that being appointed to power and actually owning it are two different concepts.
Whether Li Yan can actually hold power or not, Liu Bei certainly can't influence, but this does not prevent the fact that Liu Bei granted him military power in Shu Han on his deathbed.
Reference: Wang Yingxue, "Questioning the Relationship between Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by CNKI