Reading history can tell you the present. Today, the author continues to explain Sima Guang's masterpiece of historiography, "Zizhi Tongjian".
In 220 AD, in the first year of the reign of Cao Wei and Huang, Cao Pi accepted the Zen concession of Liu Xie, the Emperor of Han, and ascended the throne as Emperor Wen of Wei. Subsequently, Cao Pi immediately identified the candidates for the Three Dukes, with the former Taizhong Grand Master Jia Xu as a Tai wei, the former Imperial Grand Master Hua Xin as Xiang Guo, and the former Dali Wang Lang as the Imperial Grand Master.
It is said that after Jia Xu was honored as a lieutenant, there was also a small episode. The history books record that when Sun Quan of Eastern Wu heard the news, he actually "laughed" and commented that "Cao Pi's talent was not as good as one-tenth of Cao Cao's: "Cao Wei will surely perish." ”
As we all know, Jia Xu is a brilliant strategist, a brilliant strategist, an all-rounder in literature and martial arts, and a master of Zhang Liang and Chen Ping. Such a powerful strategist, standing in the third duke, Sun Quan should be afraid, but why would he "laugh"? And this has to start from Jia Xu's body level.
Jia Xu was born in a Han family in Wuwei, Liangzhou, and was not well-known in the local area. At the end of the Han Dynasty, who focused on his family lineage and discriminated against the people of Liangzhou, Jia Xu was originally difficult to get ahead, but the chaotic world gave him a chance.
In his youth, Jia Xu and dozens of his companions were unfortunately held hostage by a group of Gangsters. In the face of this group of Hu people who kill people without blinking, Jia Xu said:
"You've heard of Duan Xi, the Great Han Taiwei!" He's my grandfather, and if you let me go, I'll give you a lot of money!" ”
When the people heard it, they all looked at each other, because they knew that this Duan Xi was not good. During the Qiang rebellion, Duan Xi killed the Qiang people's relatives, the Qiang people, to the point where people's heads rolled and blood flowed. The robbers only want to rob a fortune, not a life. Therefore, the Yu people quickly released Duan Xi and then killed all his companions.
In this tragic case, Jia Xu showed extraordinary wisdom. But at the same time, we also find that Jia Xu is a refined egoist who only cares about himself and does not care about his companions. With Jia Xu's wisdom, he may not be able to save his companions. However, Jia Xu didn't seem to even have this heart. And this kind of personality of his also laid the groundwork for his "chaotic martial arts".
Fast forward, more than a decade later. A generation of tyrants Dong Zhuo was killed by Wang Yun and Lü Bu, and his subordinates in Liangzhou were all panicked. At this time, Wang Yun said fiercely, "We must curse the people of Liangzhou." Hearing this news, Liangzhou officers Li Dai and Guo Feng quickly led their subordinates to flee in the direction of their hometown.
On the way to escape, Li Dai and Guo Feng happened to meet Jia Xu, who had entered Beijing to run errands. Hearing that Wang Yun wanted to punish all the people of Liangzhou, Jia Xu was also shocked, so he gave Li Dai and Guo Feng an idea:
"Wen Chang'an deliberately wanted to curse the people of Liangzhou, and the kings abandoned the crowd and went it alone, that is, a pavilion was able to bind the king. It is better to lead the crowd to the west, collect troops, attack Chang'an, avenge Dong Gong, fortunately, serve the country to conquer the world, if not, go away later. ”
Jia Xu believed that if he fled back to Liangzhou in this way, Wang Yun only needed to send a pavilion chief to kill you. It was better to lead the crowd to attack Chang'an and avenge Dong Zhuo. If we are fortunate enough to succeed, we can conquer the world by the country; if we do not succeed, it is not too late to flee. When Li Dai and Guo Feng heard this, they thought it was very reasonable. So they regrouped and went to Chang'an to kill, only to defeat Lü Bu and kill Wang Yun.
Originally, the chaotic era at the end of the Han Dynasty could end here. However, Jia Xu single-handedly created an even more terrifying chaotic world. As the saying goes, "There is no chicken chirping in a thousand miles, and white bones are exposed in the wild; more than one hundred people are born, and the thoughts of breaking people's intestines" are broken. After Li Dai and Guo Feng entered Chang'an, instead of helping the world and the people, they intensified their massacre of the people in Chang'an, holding the Son of Heaven hostage, and committing all kinds of evil deeds. Hundreds of thousands of people in Sanfu fell into the tragic situation of "cannibalism" under the scourge of Li and Guo Er thieves.
When Jia Xu saw this situation, he knew that it was not good. Because Li Dai and Guo Feng were both brutal warriors, the final result must be to be killed. And as an accomplice, he certainly did not have a good ending. Therefore, Jia Xu used a ruse to help Emperor Xian of Han escape the control of Li and Guo Er, while Jia Xu himself defected to his fellow countrymen, Duan Sheng and Zhang Xiu.
Under Zhang Xiu, Jia Xu beat Cao Cao almost to death, and also killed Cao Cao's eldest son Cao Ang, nephew Cao Anmin, and the general Dianwei. When Jia Xu discovered that Cao Cao had the potential to dominate the world, he quickly threw Zhang Xiu into surrender to Cao Cao.
Cao Cao also wanted to unify the world, so naturally he would not openly kill Zhang Xiu because of his personal vendetta, but this by no means meant that Cao Cao would not stab the knife in the dark. At a banquet, Cao Pi pointed at Zhang Xiu and scolded: "You killed my brother, and you still have your face standing here?" After listening to Cao Pi's words, Zhang Xiu knew in his heart that this was not that Cao Pi could not tolerate him, but that Cao Cao behind him could not tolerate him, and Cao Pi was just a knife that killed people. In despair, Zhang Xiu had to commit suicide.
In Cao Cao's camp, Jia Xu was still valued, and whenever he faced a major problem, Cao Cao always had to ask Jia Xu for advice. But Cao Cao did not ask, Jia Xu never took the initiative to offer advice, on the contrary, he always shut himself in the house, no one saw, the family was not allowed to combine with gaomen, only wanted to be low-key, low-key, and then low-key.
The reason why Jia Xu was so low-key was because he knew that he was not an old vassal of Cao Cao, and he also had a vendetta against Cao Cao for killing his son. The reason why Cao Cao did not kill him was because the world had not yet been unified, and Jia Xu was indeed useful. And Jia Xu understood that when the world was unified, it must be his own death.
In the Battle of Chibi, Jia Xu was also in the army, and Cao Cao, as usual, asked him for advice. However, Jia Xu said: "Now that Yuan Shao and Liu Biao have just been destroyed, they should rest and recuperate the people and not fight." ”
In fact, with Cao Cao's strength at that time, there was still a considerable chance of eliminating Sun Quan and Liu Bei. However, Jia Xu not only did not offer a plan, but instead asked Cao Cao to retire. It can be seen from this that Jia Xu did not want Cao Cao to unify the world at all. No wonder after the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao angrily scolded his advisers: "If Guo Jia was there, he would definitely not let me fall into the field I am now." Compared with Guo Jia, Jia Xu's wisdom is even better. But Jia Xu definitely did not have the loyalty of Guo Jia.
After that, Jia Xu helped Cao Cao pacify Ma Chao and Han Sui and "liberate" his hometown of Liangzhou. In the battle between Cao Pi and Cao Zhi, Jia Xu cleverly sided with Cao Pi and successfully won Cao Pi's favor. Sure enough, after Cao Pi succeeded to the throne, he immediately returned the favor and made Jia Xu a lieutenant.
But when Jia Xu was awarded the post of Lieutenant, could he really convince the public? Obviously not! The three dukes are the auxiliary stars next to the son of heaven, and they should find benchmark figures with perfect virtue and irreproachable deeds, who are not bureaucrats who do specific things, but should be moral and ideological spokesmen, and should have a "public heart" rather than a "private heart". Only in this way can the country be directed in a good direction.
Some people may have to ask, shouldn't we advocate "meritocracy", why do the three dukes need virtue? But in fact, Chairman Mao once said: "The line is wrong, and the more knowledge there is, the more reactionary it becomes." Although people with talent and no morality have the ability to pacify the world and have insights that exceed ordinary people, they do not have the noble qualities of serving the country and the people regardless of personal gains and losses. The starting point of their actions is entirely for their own selfish interests.
The reason why people like Jia Xu submitted to Cao Wei was not to end the chaotic world and appease the people, but to save their lives and hunt for wealth. If they can get benefits for themselves, even if they are wrong about the strategy of harming the country and the people, they will not hesitate to contribute; if they cannot get benefits, they will mean so much, even if they already have a plan in their hearts to benefit the country and the people, they will choose to remain silent.
The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. If the world is unified, Jia Xu can be like Zhang Liang, who is closed behind closed doors and does not ask about the world' affairs; but when the world has not yet been unified, Jia Xu, who ranks among the three dukes, should actively contribute to the country's ideas and suggestions, so as to achieve reunification at an early date and let the people suffer less. However, Jia Xu, who had such a powerful ability, did not say a word, did not give a single plan, and lived in his own small world. After all, for Jia Xu, maintaining a state of division in the country seems to be more beneficial to him.
Jia Xu is in a high position but the corpse is vegetarian, and Sun Quan will naturally "laugh". He laughed at Cao Pi's use of inhumans and appointed Jia Xu as a lieutenant, posing no threat to Eastern Wu; he laughed at Cao Pi for laying the foundation for his own regime and placing talented and immoral people in the highest position in the imperial court, which was tantamount to laying a time bomb. Because the talented and immoral have milk and are mothers, they have no loyalty to speak of.
After 45 years, the Cao Wei regime was indeed usurped by Sima Shi, and Sima Yi, who cao Pi later entrusted to the orphans, was also a selfish and refined egoist like Jia Xu, a talented and unscrupulous villain. And Sun Quan's Eastern Wu? Guo Zuo was even 8 years older than Cao Wei. In this way, Sun Quan was indeed prescient.
After reading the story of Huo's illness and self-defilement, do you have any feelings? In order to help everyone learn history, here, I recommend Sima Guang's "Zizhi Tongjian". But after all, ordinary history lovers have not developed the habit of reading texts and texts, so we can use this set of "Vernacular Zizhi Tongjian" as a transition.
This set of books was co-translated in the 1980s by Huang Jinfeng, professor of Chinese language and doctoral supervisor of National Taiwan University, and gathered 27 professors and scholars from many colleges and universities in Taiwan. This book respects the original text, translates word by word, and adds no more than one word, in order to get closer to and restore the original meaning of the "Zizhi Tongjian". It is not explained by a "modern vision", and it is even more uneven. And it's the whole book.
As a history lover, it is very cost-effective to start this set, because this set of activities in the headlines, a set of ten books, the original price of 498, now the headline readers as long as 208, it can be said that it is very valuable. You can click on the horizontal bar below to buy.
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Vernacular Zizhi Tongjian [a full set of 10 books] ¥208 to buy