In 1971, the tomb of Wei Chigong was excavated, the epitaph reappeared in the sky, after cleaning, it was found that in the place of name and character, there were obvious alterations on the stone stele, and the changed text was not much the same as the surrounding font, but it clearly recorded "Rong, the word Jingde", that is, his name on the epitaph was Wei ChiRong, not Wei Chigong.
The Old Book of Tang only records "Wei Chi Jingde" and never mentions Wei Chi Gong. The "Wei Chi Jingde Monument" and the "New Book of Tang , Wei Chi Jingde Biography" record: "Wei Chi Jingde is named Gong, the word Jingde. "The Old Book of Tang was compiled during the Five Dynasties, the New Book of Tang was compiled during the Northern Song Dynasty, and the two history books may have mistaken The name of Wei Chi Jingde, but the "Wei Chi Jingde Monument" was written by Xu Jingzong (592-672), and Xu Jingzong and Wei Chi Jingde were in the same era, so it is impossible to mislead Wei Chi Jingde's name, so from the historical data, Wei Chi Jingde's name is "Gong".
The epitaph is buried in the ground by the family and sleeps with the deceased, so Wei Chi Jingde's close relatives must do the final review check, and it is impossible to mislead the names of the ancestors.
This is puzzling, the history books record "Wei Chigong", and the closest relatives think that "Wei Chirong", so what is the matter? In fact, there should be no mistake in both, but Wei Chi Jingde changed his name in his later years and has not been announced to the outside world, and the reason for changing his name is closely related to Wei Chi Jingde's miserable experience in his later years.
During the change of Xuanwu Gate, Wei Chi Jingde made great contributions, and afterwards Li Shimin gave a heavy reward, and the Old Book of Tang , The Biography of Wei Chi Jingde " records that "on merit, Jingde and the eldest grandson are the first ... In the first year of Zhenguan (627), he paid homage to the great general Wu Hou and gave him the title of Duke of Wuguo, together with the eldest grandson Wuji, Fang Xuanling, and Du Ruyi, and sealed 1,300 households. ”
After that, Zhenguan's eldest son Wuji "baishang shu right servant shooting", Fang Xuanling "dai Xiao Yu as Zhongshu Ling", and Zhenguan second year Du Ruyi "inspection school attendant, regent Shangshu", all three were the position of prime minister, but Wei Chi Jingde had always been a general of the Right Wu Hou. The so-called Right Wuhou General, one of the Twelve Great Generals of the Sui Dynasty, placed a member, Zheng Sanpin, and the Left Wuhou Grand General drove out of the camp guard in the same car, divided the provincial soldiers, and the status was undoubtedly lower than that of the prime minister.
As a result, Wei Chi Jingde was unhappy in his heart, "Whenever he sees the shortcomings of Wu Jie, Xuan Ling, and Ru Obscure, he must face to face and argue, and it is not even with the ruling government." Wei Chi Jingde likes to expose the shortcomings of others, and is proud of his own merits, and whenever he discovers the faults of the eldest son Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruqian, and others, he will inevitably speak out and accuse himself, so he is at odds with the prime minister. In the third year of Zhenguan, Li Shimin transferred Wei Chi Jingde out of Chang'an and served as the governor of Xiangzhou, and in the sixth year of Zhenguan (632), he was transferred to Tongzhou. Compared with the eldest son Wuji, Fang Xuanling, and Du Ruyi, Wei Chi Jingde had been seriously left behind, and he had slowly become an insignificant local official from a central magnate.
The career path was not smooth, so that Wei Chi Jingde's mentality was unbalanced, and a violent conflict occurred in front of Li Shimin. In the year that Wei Chi Jingde was promoted to the assassin of Tongzhou, Li Shimin threw a big banquet, Wei Chi Jingde returned to Beijing to attend the banquet, and found that someone was seated in front of him, Wei Chi Jingde said angrily at that time, "What merit do you have, worthy of sitting on my upper seat?" Li Daozong, the king of Rencheng, sat down on his lower seat and explained it to him. Wei Chi Jingde was furious and punched Li Daozong in the eye, almost blinding him, which made Li Shimin very unhappy and he stopped the feast. After that, Li Shimin sternly said to Wei Chi Jingde, "After you became a high-ranking official, you constantly violated the laws of the land, and I understood that the killing of Han Xin and Peng Yue was not the fault of Han Gaozu, and governing the country requires clear rewards and punishments, and you must be strict with yourself and do not do anything that you regret." Wei Chi Jingde felt frightened and restrained his behavior.
In the thirteenth year of Zhenguan (639), Wei Chi Jingde was transferred to the post of governor of Yan Prefecture (鄜州, in modern Fu County, Shaanxi), and in that year he was falsely accused of rebellion. Li Shimin said to Wei Chi Jingde: "Some people say that you are plotting rebellion, why not?" Wei Chi Jingde said angrily, "The minister is indeed plotting rebellion!" The subject followed His Majesty in his conquests, experienced hundreds of battles, and now his body is left with the traces of blades and arrows. If today is settled, will you begin to suspect that I am plotting rebellion? So he took off his clothes and put them on the ground, showing the scars on his body. When Li Shimin saw this, he wept and said, "I don't doubt Qing." Later, Wei Chi Jingde was appointed as the governor of Xia Prefecture.
In the seventeenth year of Zhenguan (643), Wei Chi Jingde resigned and returned home to retire, but Li Shimin did not completely approve it, or granted Wei Chi Jingde the kaifu Yi Tongsan Division, allowing him to enter the palace on the first and fifteenth day of each month to worship. This year, on the Twenty-Four Meritorious Statues of Ling Yan Pavilion, Wei Chigong ranked seventh, far lower than The Eldest Sun Wuji and others.
From these incidents, it can be seen that Wei Chi Jingde has always considered himself to be outstanding in merit and indignant about the inferiority of his official position. However, under Li Shimin's "threat and suppression", Wei Chi Jingde had no choice but to sulk, and finally saw through the red dust, and directly resigned from the government and retired at the age of less than 60.
Perhaps because Wei Chi Jingde's political path was too bumpy, he had already seen through the official road, so after his retirement, he indulged in Taoism, did not ask about political affairs and did not interact with others, the Old Book of Tang recorded: "Firmly believe in the immortal fang, fly alchemy stones, take mica powder, wear a pond platform, worship Luo Qi, taste the Qing shang music to support himself, do not communicate with outsiders, and for sixteen years." ”
Looking back at the second half of Wei Chi Jingde's life, we can see that after the change of XuanwuMen, he reached his peak, and then his career went down, and the ups and downs made Wei Chi Jingde indignant, but when Li Shimin analyzed why Liu Bang killed Han Xin and Peng Yue, he began to worry and fear, and let Wei Chi Jingde restrain a lot, which was Li Shimin's first beating; in 639, someone falsely accused him of rebellion, Li Shimin asked him to complain in person, ostensibly trusting, but in fact it was the second beating, and four years later Wei Chi Jingde "begged for bones" and resigned from his official post to go home and indulge in Taoism. So, what does the name "Wei Chirong" have to do with this life experience?
First, the name "Wei Chi Rong" is related to Taoism
According to Tang Dynasty customs, the name of the channel was often changed after the channel. During the Wu Zetian period, wu youxu, the son of her uncle, was "idyllic and widowed, good for yi" and "Zhuang Zhou" books. Change your name less". In the late Tang Dynasty, the famous talented female Yu Xuanji, whose real name was Yu Youwei, was renamed Yu Xuanji in 866 (the seventh year of Xiantong) after becoming a monk in Xianyiguan. Therefore, the name Wei Chirong may have changed during this period.
The reason for this is that from the Taoist doctrine, the word rong has a long-term meaning, in the name of fusion, to express the pursuit of eternal life, in line with the ultimate pursuit of Taoism; at the same time, The Taoists originally advocated the harmony of chong and void, and from the Tao Te Ching's "Zhi Chang Rong, Rong Nai Gong, Gong Nai Wang, Wang Nai Tian, Tian Nai Dao, Dao Nai Jiu." Looking at the "No Body", "Rong Naigong" can be read as "Rong Nai Gong".
Second, "Wei Chi Rong" reflects his mentality
For the sentence "Zhi Chang Rong, Rong Nai Gong", the Wei and Jin Daoist Scholar Wang Bi interpreted it as "omnipotent and all-encompassing." If you are all-encompassing, then even if you are fair", that is, "packaged" will feel frank and fair.
After the change of Xuanwu Gate, Wei Chi Jingde's career was bumpy, which once made him feel aggrieved and believed that Li Shimin's handling was unfair. However, after Eun Hai looked back halfway through his life, Wei Chi Jingde or saw through the official path and found that he should face it frankly, that his indignation was unnecessary, or that he found that he believed that he was wronged, but in fact he was wronged......... In short, the phrase "Zhi Chang Rong, Rong Nai Gong" hit his heart, so he changed his name in his later years.
According to the Tang Dynasty system, officials with more than five pins had to report every time they changed their names, and the Tang Hui Zhi recorded: "The five pins of the Jingchang counselor and the foreign officials have been on the top, and every time there is a worship, there are books under the Zhongshu Gate, which is called 'personnel'." Wei Chi Jingde's colleague Cheng Zhijin, who later changed his name to Cheng Zhijie, reported it to the chancellor and the emperor, so the old and new Tang books recorded "Cheng Zhijie". After Wei Chi Jingde resigned, Li Shimin also granted him the title of Kaifu Yi Tongsan Division, and when Zhenguan was in the nineteenth year (645) to conquer Goguryeo, Li Shimin also paid tribute to Wei Chi Jingde to "take this official as a tai changqing and be the commander of the Zuo YiMa Army", indicating that he was still nominally an official, so it was reasonable that Wei Chi Jingde's name change should be reported. Then, after Wei Chi Jingde changed his name, why didn't he report it?
In 646, Zhang Liang, the sixteenth of the heroes of Lingyange, served as the governor of Xiangzhou, and the prefecture of Xiangzhou was the capital of Eastern Wei and Northern Qi during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and Gongsun Jie, the righteous son, said a proverb to him: "The lord of the bow should be the capital." "The length of the bow is Zhang. Later, Zhang Liang asked the warlock Cheng Gongying, "You used to say that Your Majesty is the true Lord of the World, how did you say that you were so godly?" Cheng Gongying knew Zhang Liang's intentions, so he said that he lay like a dragon and would be able to be noble. Zhang Liang also said to Gongsun Jie's brother Gongsun Chang, "I have a concubine, and the fortune teller said that she will definitely become Wang Ji." Gongsun often claimed that there was Zhang Liang's name in the Book of Sayings, and Zhang Liang was overjoyed. Later, someone accused Zhang Liang of secretly raising 500 righteous sons, which greatly shocked Li Shimin, and both Cheng Gongying and Gongsun Chang accused Zhang Liang of rebellion, so they executed Zhang Liang.
Whether Zhang Liang has a conspiracy or not, and a benevolent person sees a wise person, but presumably Wei Chi Jingde has a taste in his heart, because he has been falsely accused of rebellion, and it is easy to be compared with Zhang Liang by people with ulterior motives. More importantly, "Zhi Chang Rong, Rong Nai Gong, Gong Nai Wang, Wang Nai Tian, Tian Nai Dao, Dao Nai Jiu", if Wei Chi Rong's name is reported, then it may be interpreted as "Rong Nai Gong, Gong Nai Wang" and make a big fuss, so Wei Chi Jingde may not dare to report the name change because of this.
Due to various scruples, Wei Chi Jingde changed his name without reporting it, and the public name was still Wei Chi Gong, so the history books have not recorded the name "Wei Chi Rong". For his family, Wei Chigong was a former name, and Wei Chirong was the current name, but he did not dare to disclose the name of Wei Chirong, so he used Wei Chigong on the tombstone and Wei Chirong on the epitaph. And because of the fear of being known, the epitaph was first inscribed with Wei Chigong, and then the closest relatives personally changed it to "Rong, the character Jingde", so that there will be alterations and inconsistencies with the surrounding fonts.
Wei Chi Jingde, who was once a quick-talking and straightforward personality, became cautious and cautious after decades of eunuchs, and even dared not disclose the name used in his later years until his death, and his family could only use this sneaky method to record the history of Wei Chi Jingde's name, which inevitably made people sigh.
References: "New Book of Tang", "Old Book of Tang", "Epitaph of Wei Chigong", "Wei Chigong or Wei Chirong: Thoughts on the Renaming of Wei Chi Jingde", etc