Why is it that the Shu Han in history is the weakest, not the ultimate victor, and the earliest to perish, but the reputation among the people is the best?
Some people say that it was all blown because of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Indeed, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has a total of 120 episodes, the first 30 episodes are about Cao Cao's unification of the north, and the middle 70 episodes describe the 27 years from Liu Bei's entrepreneurship to Zhuge Liang's Qiufeng Wuzhang Plain, and finally only more than 10 chapters will be used to bring over the 40 years of the post-Three Kingdoms period, and the protagonist is still Jiang Wei.
But the question is, why did the author Luo Guanzhong choose Shu Han as the protagonist, instead of Cao Wei, Sun Wu or the ultimate winner Sima Shi?
Su Shi recorded a story in "Dongpo Zhilin", which roughly means that "the neighbor children listened to the commentary, and when they heard that Liu Bei was defeated, they were sad and wept, and they were elated when they heard that Cao Cao had lost the battle." So Su Shi sighed, "I think I know the gentleman and the villain, and I will not be cut for a hundred years." ”
The big people often have their own trade-offs and choices, while ordinary people have other scales in their hearts, that is, what we often call "simple morality". Nowadays, the standard by which people judge friends is still "this guy can fight, can deal with, and is benevolent".
When I was a child, I watched the romance of the story, and everyone loved the brave generals of Wanfu, such as Li Jing and Li Ji, who were far ahead of other Tang generals in the official history, but their popularity among the people was far inferior to Qin Shubao and Wei Chigong, who were the gods. After all, it is more enjoyable to kill the enemy general in the army than to manage the army by skill.
In terms of being able to fight, Shu Han has Guan Zhang Zhao, who is the enemy of 10,000 people, Ma Chao, who is strong and fierce, and Huang Zhong, who is a brave and resolute champion.
In terms of ability, Shuhan Group has its own heroic spirit, full of heroism and idealistic romance that it knows cannot be done.
Zhuge Liangfa is a wealthy family who fled, Guan Yu is an outlaw, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun are the eldest brothers in society, Ma Chao is a failed prince, Huang Zhong is a late-blooming veteran, Wei Yan is a pawn, and Jiang Wei is a general of Cao Wei.
Liu Bei himself is a veteran oilman, before the age of 47, he was displaced and had no place to stand. But after meeting Zhuge Liang, the wind tiger and the cloud dragon, the eternal monarch and minister. and the righteousness of Guan Zhang, unswerving to death. Ba Wei Yan was the Taishou of Hanzhong, and Huang Zhong was named the rear general, and the whole army was shocked. Someone made a rumor that Zhao Yun defected to the enemy, and Liu Bei fought without saying a word. Later, Huang Quan really demoted Cao, but Liu Bei said, "It's me who is sorry for Huang Quan, he is not sorry for me." Because of this, Huang Quan stayed in Shu Han's son Huang Chong, and died on the battlefield when Shu Han perished, in order to repay the favor of the first emperor.
In terms of benevolence and righteousness, Cao Wei and Sun Wu have many records of slaughtering the city, but Liu Bei not only did not slaughter the city, but also more than 100,000 people helped the old and the young to run away with him. It can be seen that who is the jackal and who is the master, the people at that time knew better than us. Those people who fled with Liu Bei would not feel that "it is true to be a hypocrite who crosses the river with the people, slaughtering the city and killing people." ”
In order to avenge Guan Yu's revenge, Liu Bei was defeated and killed by Wu, although there was no Taoyuan righteousness in history, but Liu Bei was also worthy of Guan Zhang.
Later, Emperor Bai entrusted Gu, and Liu Bei's sentence "The heir is not talented, you can take it yourself" has become a beautiful talk of "the monarch and the minister are the princes, and the ancient and modern are prosperous". Zhuge Liang did his best, the stars fell to Wuzhang Yuan, 30 years later, the former Cao Wei general, Jiang Wei, in the case of the emperor has surrendered, he is still pursuing the Han family to regain his sight until his death.
It is said that success or failure is a hero, but if the success is not achieved, the people who eat melons do not value it, and the people have always admired the frustrated heroes.
In terms of merit, Bai, Han, Wei, and Huo are all famous generals of the Kuang Dynasty, but the folk worship is Guan Yu, who is righteous, Yue Fei, who died in the Storm Pavilion, Wen Tianxiang, who kept Dan's heart, and Yu Qian, who saved the Ming Dynasty but was unjustly killed!
As the saying goes, "those who achieve great things are not informal", and the big people are more or less Machiavellian. Therefore, if you feel that you are a big person, or put yourself in the perspective of a big person, you will think that as long as you do great things, you can do whatever it takes. As Ma Ningyuan said in "Ming Dynasty 1566", "It is the national policy of the imperial court to change rice to mulberry, and a thousand people will die, ten thousand people, and the people of Zhejiang will have to change if they die!" ”
But as an ordinary public, when you are not so utilitarian and unscrupulous, you will like Shu Han's "can fight, can deal with, and is benevolent".
Even the Sima clan, which started by usurping the throne by plotting the dynasty, is also guarding against the appearance of Sima Yi-style people. After hearing what Wang Dao said about the bad things that the Jin Dynasty did when the Jin Dynasty was founded, Sima Shao, the Ming Emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, hid his face and lay on the bed and said, "If it is really as you say, how can the country last long." ”
Emperor Jianwen's deathbed edict also hoped that Huan Wen could take Zhuge Liang as an example. Later, when Emperor Wen of Song wanted to kill the famous general Tan Daoji, there was also the so-called "An Zhifei Sima Zhongdaye". It can be seen that the three words "Sima Yi" have become curses by the time of Liu Song.
Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang are also old enemies, but the emperor of the Jin Dynasty hopes that the auxiliary ministers will follow Zhuge Liang's example, and the Sima family, who is probably not in the right position, also understands who Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi are loyal ministers.