At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Yellow Turban Rebellion affected most of China, and the control of the central Han Dynasty gradually weakened. The Eastern Han government had no choice but to delegate military power to the localities, and the local assassins, state pastors, Taishou, and county officials soon realized their own warlordization. After becoming a prince of the party, they also began to disobey the edicts of the central government. At that time, the eunuchs such as the Ten Permanent Attendants in the Central Committee and the Ministers of Culture and Military Affairs headed by He Jin were in a state of flux, attacking and killing each other. The direct impact of this was that Dong Zhuo entered the capital, Yuan Shao begged Dong, the legal foundation of the central government was destroyed, and the Han Xiandi became a banner for all parties to compete. Later, Cao Cao's power rose, first inheriting the position of Yanzhou Assassin after Liu Dai, and then starting the conquest against Tao Qian in Xuzhou. This paragraph is also an important part of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and various TV drama versions of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, including the revenge of his father Cao Cao to send troops, Tao Gongzu's three let Xuzhou, and Lü Bu's death of baimen tower all occurred in this period. Cao Cao, Tao Qian, Liu Bei, and various forces have successively appeared in this land. Implicit in these plots is a geographical problem, which is the concept of Xuzhou City. In today's society, Xuzhou is a concrete city with a long history and deep heritage, and the famous Battle of Huaihai was fought nearby. The existence of "Xuzhou City" has also been introduced in various versions of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" TV series, but it is difficult to find a city named "Xuzhou" in the real history of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Nowadays the beautiful city of Xuzhou
Historically, Xuzhou is a term proposed by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty when he established the History of the Thirteen Prefectures, and the Book of Han and the Chronicle of Emperor Wu of Han contains:
"(Yuan Feng 5th year) Initially placed the Thirteen Prefectures of the Assassin History Department." Shi Gu said: "Han Yi Yun: Initially divided into thirteen states, false thorn History Seal Silk, there is a Permanent Governance Office. Often used the Autumn Branch Department, The Imperial History as the driving of the four seals of the transmission. To the headquarters, the county and the country each sent an official to greet the boundary, and inspected the six articles. ”
The thirteen prefectures were: Jizhou, Qingzhou, Yanzhou, Xuzhou, Yangzhou, Jingzhou, Yuzhou, Yizhou, Liangzhou, Youzhou, Hezhou, Jiaojiao, and Shuofang. At that time, the history of thorns was not an administrative official but a supervisor, and the Xuzhou Thorn History Department had counties, five states, and sixty-two counties, counties, yi, and houguo. The Book of the Later Han Dynasty records that the main counties in Xuzhou were state-owned: "East China Sea Lang Evil Pengcheng Guangling Xia Pi". During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the post of Assassin Shi had already appeared as a local official, responsible for assessing prisons and going to Beijing to make plans. As recorded in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Hundred Officials:
"Emperor Xiaowu initially placed thirteen assassins, ranked six hundred stones. Emperor Cheng was more pastoral, with a rank of two thousand stones. In the eighteenth year of Jianwu, he was restored to the history of thorns, and twelve people each dominated a state, and one of them belonged to the lieutenant colonel. The states often patrolled the counties in August, recording prisoners, and examining the temples. At the beginning of his life, he did everything in Kyoto. ”
Due to the excessive authority, the thorn history of the Eastern Han Dynasty could already restrain the county taishou in the states, as if it were already a local official. Xuzhou is naturally no exception, and the historical Xuzhou Taoqian followed Emperor Fusong's eastern expedition to the west in his early years, first worshiping the history of Xuzhou. Later, he broke the Yellow Turban Army in Xuzhou and restored the tranquility of Xuzhou, so the imperial court crowned him as the general of Andong, Xuzhou Mu, and the Marquis of Liyang. According to the historical records, his seat of government should be set up in Tan County under Donghai County, and there is no city in the entire territory of Xuzhou called "Xuzhou". Although there is Xu County in Xia Pi County, it does not have the words "Shi ZhiShou". Therefore, we can see from this that Xuzhou's thorn history at that time was Tan County, not Xuzhou City. So, "Xuzhou City" should be a literary language, is this really the case?
Qing, Xu, Yan, Yu Four Prefectures Assassin History Department
Nowadays, most of the film and television versions of the Three Kingdoms theme are from the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by the writer Luo Guanzhong in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties, which is a classic literary work, and he paints a magnificent picture of the Three Kingdoms with literary imagination and special rhetorical techniques on the basis of the basic historical materials of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". In the original text of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the concept of "Xuzhou City" did appear, and it was written in the eleventh "Liu Huangshu Beihai Rescue Kong Rong Lü Wen Hou Puyang Breaking Cao Cao"
It was Ri Xuande and Zhang Fei who led a thousand men and horses into the edge of Cao Bing's village. Between the lines, a drum sounded in the village, and the horse army infantry, like a tide, rushed out. When the first general was Yu Ban, Lerma shouted, "Where are the maniacs! Go there! Zhang Fei saw it, and even more did not answer, and took it directly from the prohibition. The two horses intersected, and the battle reached a number of rounds, and Xuan De's two-stranded sword soldiers advanced in a big way, and Yu was defeated and left. Zhang Fei is currently pursuing and killing until the city of Xuzhou falls. ”
This sentence should be the basis for the interpretation of later versions, so why did Luo Guanzhong in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties make such a major mistake? This is mainly related to the evolution of China's ancient geographical history.
This situation is mainly dominated by geographical factors. In fact, China's geographical administrative divisions change very frequently, because the administrative names and administrative divisions of various regions may change at any time due to political evolution within the dynasty, the division of princes and princes, droughts and floods, and other reasons. Names change very frequently, and sometimes the same names refer to different locations. For example, the Huainan Kingdom in the Western Han Dynasty was changed many times in just a few decades, the earliest Huainan Wang Yingbu and Liu Chang had the four counties of Jiujiang, Lujiang, Yuzhang, and Hengshan, and later in the Liu An period of the King of Huainan, huainan had only one county, Jiujiang County. Although the name is still Huainan Kingdom, the power is no longer the same. There were such great changes in a dynasty in the Western Han Dynasty, not to mention that in the more than a thousand years from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it was also very normal for changes to occur. In the middle and late Three Kingdoms period, the word "Xuzhou" officially appeared as the name of the city, and has since existed in the long river of history. By the Yuan Dynasty, Xuzhou was already one of the four prefectures and four counties under the jurisdiction of GuideFu, and belonged to the "Lower Prefecture" of the Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, it was understandable to regard Xuzhou as a city in the consciousness of people at that time. Luo Guanzhong's reference to the city where Xuzhou's assassin history was located in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms as Xuzhou City must have been influenced by the geography and politics of the Yuan Dynasty. In addition, Luo Guanzhong himself has no meritorious name, is not a scholar of Haoshou's exhaustive scriptures, and may not have a comprehensive grasp of the details of history. Moreover, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the princes were in turmoil and the education system was destroyed. Therefore, Luo Guanzhong mistakenly believed that Xuzhou Zhi of the Eastern Han Dynasty was "Xuzhou City", and the author believes that it is also reasonable. The Xuzhou City of the Yuan Dynasty is also the predecessor of today's Xuzhou City, which was called Pengcheng in the Han Dynasty.
Xuzhou City is actually Pengcheng
Speaking of Pengcheng, everyone must not be unfamiliar, during the period of Chu-Han rivalry, Xiang Yu called himself the Overlord of Western Chu, and the capital of the country was in Pengcheng. Under this city, Xiang Yu defeated hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses of Han Gaozu with tens of thousands of cavalry, shocking the world in one fell swoop. Pengcheng also has the title of "the key to the northern country and the gateway to the southern country", which is a place where soldiers must fight. Due to its dangerous geographical location and proximity to Pei County, the township of the Western Han Emperor, Han Gaozu divided the land into his younger brother Liu Jiao, the Prince of Chuyuan, for administration in the sixth year of the Han Dynasty. Geographically located on the shores of Surabaya, Pengcheng is easy to defend and difficult to attack, coupled with the fertile land nourished by the river, it is a truly rich place. In the history books of the late Eastern Han Dynasty, it is recorded that "there was iron ore in Pengcheng". This shows that at that time, the iron smelting technology in the region was very developed, and if you mastered it, you could have rich weapon resources and armor supply, and it was also a major place for soldiers.
The misunderstanding of film and television themes is also mostly due to the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"
In addition, Luo Guanzhong misunderstood the "Xuzhou City" (Pengcheng) for the influence of political factors in xuzhou. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, The political status of Xuzhou was very unique. The three prefectures of Qing, Xu, and Yan were the most rampant areas where the Yellow Turban Army was raging, and the state made a lot of investment, sending elite generals like Tao Qian to garrison Xuzhou. In addition, Xuzhou connects the north and south states, and the east sea has the advantage of fish salt. This was also the reason why Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and later Lü Bu fiercely competed for Xuzhou, which Cao Cao controlled could be linked to his own Yanzhou territory. Liu Bei and Lü Bu could get a place to live in all directions. Therefore, the forces on all sides refused to easily abandon the counties of Xuzhou. However, with the development of history and the unification of the Jin Dynasty, the political power tilt of the country has changed. After the Wuhu Rebellion, Xuzhou was devastated by war and was a key area of contention between the Han Zhao and Xianbei Murong clans. After the Sui and Tang dynasties , the Guanzhong policy caused the core area of the country to fall in the Guanzhong region , and counties such as Xuzhou ( Pengcheng ) gradually fell behind , and the political status was constantly dwarfed. During the Five Dynasties period, Xuzhou had only six counties except for Pengcheng, the seat of governance. From the Han Dynasty to the five dynasties to the five dynasties, the difference can be said to be the difference between the heavens and the abyss. In the Yuan Dynasty, Xuzhou was defined as a xiazhou, "Pengcheng and the Record Division were merged into the prefecture", and the word Pengcheng was inundated by history. Therefore, the word Pengcheng does not appear throughout Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is due to the gradual decline in the status of Xuzhou (Pengcheng).
Luo Guanzhong's such clerical errors are not unique, and subjects such as "novels" in the Ming and Qing dynasties were the protagonists of the literary world, but most of them were not very rigorous. Historical novels had a wide readership audience in the society of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, and were deeply loved by the masses of the people. In the "Four Masterpieces", even the divine and demonic novel Journey to the West has a historical background that is very close to reality, and Tang Taizong and Master Xuangui, two real characters who appeared in history, intervened in a magnificent Tang Dynasty for "Journey to the West". In addition, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin" and "Dream of the Red Chamber" have a strong historical background and traditional factors, which is also an important reason why these novels have continued for a hundred years. However, the literary form is relaxed and ethereal, but the historiography is serious and serious. Perhaps it is because the situation of "replacing history with literature" in society is becoming more and more serious, and ordinary people treat the historical stories in the scripts, dramas, and novels as real historical events and circulate them. Therefore, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was a school of examination evidence that was known for its meticulousness and rigor, especially in the Qianjia period, which can be said to be three points into the wood, and every historical detail was studied in depth, but it sought "no word and no source." It is likely that such an academic atmosphere also came into being in view of the situation in the literary world. Since then, historiography has laid a research atmosphere based on research, and historical works in the literary world are also in the ascendant. The two avenues run parallel, adding a strong touch to Chinese culture.
The Qianjia School became popular
In summary, due to the changes in administrative divisions and the influence of political factors, Tan County, the seat of the Xuzhou Thorn History Department during the Two Han Dynasties, became "Xuzhou City" in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" at the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. The "Xuzhou City" should be Pengcheng under the jurisdiction of Xuzhou during the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties when Luo Guanzhong lived, only Xuzhou City under the jurisdiction of GuideFu existed, and "Pengcheng" had also been incorporated into the title of Xuzhou City. This is mainly due to the decline in the political status of the region from the Han Dynasty to the Song Dynasty. Although this is a small historical misunderstanding in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it has a major impact on the literary and historical circles of later generations. The popularity of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" reveals the development of literary historical novels in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In order to correct certain historical details, a wind of examination has also been set off in the field of historiography, and the Qianjia school is the best among them. These two avenues have produced many people, and have made indelible contributions to the development and dissemination of Chinese culture and the establishment of a rigorous study style of history.
References: Book of Han, Book of the Later Han, Romance of the Three Kingdoms