One
Hua Xin was a famous scholar and important minister from the end of the Han Dynasty to the early years of the Three Kingdoms of Cao Wei, and an official to the Three Dukes. In the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he is a character who does not appear much, but is quite impressive.
In the sixty-sixth episode of the novel, "Guan Yunchang Single-handedly Went to the Meeting and Empress Fu Sacrificed Her Life for the Country", Cao Cao wanted to kill Empress Fu of the Han Dynasty, and the Empress was frightened and hid in the wall of the pepper room behind the palace. Hua Xin, cao cao's favorite courtier, entered the harem with five hundred armored soldiers to search, found the queen's hiding place, and "Xin personally took matters into his own hands and dragged it out with a bun on the back of his head." The empress pleaded for her life, and Hua Xin rebuked, "Ru Zi saw Wei Gonggong sue!" ”
This plot, however, is also found in the main history, see The Book of the Later Han Dynasty and the Chronicle of empresses. However, the time when the Book of the Later Han Dynasty was written was very far away from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and there were many hearsay things in it. The source of information for this story is the "Biography of Cao Cao" written by the Eastern Wu people, which is a famous work that discredits Cao Cao. Hua Xin had served as an official under Sun Ce, but was later named and demanded by Cao Cao, and gladly left. The people of Eastern Wu were likely to hold a grudge against him because of this, and when he black Cao Cao, he conveniently blacked a handful of Hua Xin and killed two birds with one stone.
In the eightieth "Cao Pi Deposed Emperor Usurped Yan Liu Han Wang's Reign and Continued Unification", when Cao Pi usurped Han, Hua Xinchong was at the forefront, humiliating and intimidating Emperor Xian of Han, seeing that the other party was still hesitating: Xin stepped forward, pulled the dragon robe, changed color, and said: "Allow or not, say a word early!" The emperor trembled and could not speak. In ancient times, when "loyalty" was regarded as the core value, these words and deeds could be described as the most heinous crimes, and they especially made ordinary readers with simple emotions and clear love and hatred hate Huaxin.
However, Hua Xin in the history books is not like this at all. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms writes Hua Xin as a key figure in forcing Emperor Xian of Han to abdicate, probably because the great ceremony of Emperor Xian of Han to Cao Pi is Hua Xin's "ascension to the altar" and plays a role similar to today's host. But according to Hua Xin's grandson Hua Yu, at that time, his grandfather and another "old drama bone" Chen Qun performed the same, "although the heart is happy, righteousness is colorful", not only happy for Cao Pi to be emperor, but also showed the appearance of a loyal subject of the Han Dynasty - in short, a person with a good rhythm.
In this way, the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" ugly Hua Xin is not mainly to smear his character, but to demean his acting skills. In fact, most of the characters who can be mixed into this position pay attention to eating pictures, and they will not be the fierce and vicious appearance in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
Two
This is handled much better by The New Language of the World. There are five records of Hua Xin in the "New Language of the World", most of which regard him as a positive character, such as: Hua Xin and Wang Langju took refuge in a boat, and one person wanted to be attached. Lang Yue: "Fortunately, why not?" "After the thief came, the king wanted to give up the people he was carrying. Xin Yue: "Ben is suspicious, and it is for this ear." Having accepted his self-trust, would you rather abandon evil in a hurry? "So the salvation was as good as ever. The world determines the merits and demerits of Hua and The King.
Hua Xin and Wang Lang took refuge by boat together. There was a man who wanted to take their boat, and Hua Xin seemed very embarrassed. Wang Lang said: "Fortunately, there is enough space on the ship, why not?" Later, when the thieves approached, there were many people, and the ship was not moving fast, Wang Lang wanted the man to get off the ship. Hua Xin said: "The reason why I hesitated just now is that I am worried about the current situation. But now that he had accepted his request to support himself, how could he abandon him because of the critical situation? So he still carried and supported the person as before. The world also judged the realm of Hua Xin and Wang Lang to be high or low.
The Wang Lang in this story is the same Wang Lang who was scolded by Zhuge Liang as "the old thief with hair, the first pifu of Hao" in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and was finally scolded to death. Of course, he wasn't old at this point.
And that popular comment, "I've never seen such a brazen person," is also incompatible with Wang Lang. He is a typical ordinary person: first, he is kind, so he is willing to pay cheap sympathy; second, he is simple, so he is not a brain, and he does not know how much it takes to do a good deed and how much risk he takes; third, he is fragile, so he wants to pick a fight when the crisis comes. "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" designed the plot of Wang Lang being scolded to death by Zhuge Liang, perhaps inspired by this story: this psychological quality is indeed easy to be scolded out of three long and two short.
In this matter, Hua Xin's performance is indeed outstanding. At first, I did not agree to help others, because I had a long-term view and thought about the possible consequences early; later, I insisted on helping others, and I was responsible: although the initiative was proposed by you, since I agreed, I had to take responsibility.
But there are some doubts about the authenticity of this matter. First, looking at the resumes of Hua Xin and Wang Lang in their early years, the two people may not have the opportunity to take refuge together. Second, Hua Xin's grandson Hua Yu wrote a book called "Genealogy", which told a similar story, but what set off Hua Xin's tall image was a character with no name, not Wang Lang.
Wang Lang admired Hua Xin very much and liked to imitate Hua Xin's behavior, but the evaluation he got was: "Wang ZhixueHua, all of them are outside the skeleton, and the reason why they go farther." "Wang Lang studied Huaxin, not even the skin phase, and the more he learned, the greater the gap. It can be speculated that Wang Lang is a celebrity, and in the story of touting Hua Xin, pulling Wang Lang in to play is definitely better than others.
Three
In "The New Language of the World", the only story of Hua Xin playing the villain is what happened before he was a teenager: Guan Ning and Hua Xin hoe vegetables in the garden, there is a piece of gold in sight, pipe hoe is no different from the tile stone, Hua catches and throws it. And tasted the same seat to read, there are people who have passed through the door, rather read as before, the book is discarded to see, rather cut the seat and sit separately, I know: "The son is not my friend!" ”
Hua Xin was a native of Gaotang County, Pingyuan (present-day Gaotang County, Liaocheng, Shandong), guanning was from Zhuxu County, Beihai County (present-day Anqiu, Shandong Province, southeast of Linqu), the two were of similar age, studied together, plus Guan Ning's compatriot Feng Yuan, the three of them were called "one dragon": Hua Xin was the dragon head, Bing Yuan was the dragon's belly, and Guan Ning was the dragon's tail. Some people think that this ranking is unreasonable in the case of Virtue; others point out that it is ranked according to age, and there is no need to think too much.
Guan Ning and Hua Xin were hoeing vegetables together in the garden, and saw that there was a piece of gold on the ground, Guan Ning only managed to wield a hoe, and there was no difference between seeing tiles and stones, but Hua Xin picked up the gold and then threw it away. When two people were reading, they used to sit on the same seat. An official passed in front of the door in a luxury car, Guan Ning was not moved, but Hua Xin put down the book and went out to watch, and when he returned, he found that Guan Ning had cut the seat into two pieces, indicating that he had broken off relations, saying: "I don't have a friend like you." ”
This story is based on Hua Xin's obscenity and vulgarity, lining Ning Yujie Bingqing's noble discipline. But by today's standards, both men's actions are a bit odd. Gold is of course a good thing, found in the home, there is no problem with ownership, pick it up, why does one seem not to see, one pick up but throw it away? Hua Xin saw that the senior official couldn't help but look around, he wasn't calm enough, but why did Guan Ning make trouble to the point of breaking off relations?
Or to understand the atmosphere of the times. The ethos of the Eastern Han Dynasty was to pay attention to the "Qing Festival" and always show that they did not care about money. At that time, the soldiers led their horses through the river, and the horses bowed their heads and drank a few sips of water from the river, and they all threw copper coins into the water, indicating that the gentleman would never take advantage of it in vain. In this fashion, picking up gold on the ground, of course, will be laughed at. Guan Ning's personality has a heartfelt identification with this trend. Hua Xin was different, picking up gold because it was his nature to love money; throwing away gold was because of fear of public opinion in Shilin. The action of "catching and throwing it away" shows the entanglement between his nature and the trend.
Four
The example of looking at a luxury car is similar. The government asked you to become an official, and you could not resign, which was almost a certain move that celebrities in that year would have done. Although many people are hypocritical and pretentious, there is no lack of sincerity, and to do this, there is no need to be particularly high-minded. After all, this was the time when the government had the least authority after the Qin Dynasty and the clan had the most social resources, and if the family could rely on it and did not become an official, the life would be quite moist; although the benefits of being an official were still greater, the risks and pressures of the officialdom were also much greater. That is to say, if you pursue profit maximization, of course, you still have to be an official; but from the perspective of risk minimization, it is easy to choose to stay at home.
According to the description here, Guan Ning broke off relations with the other party in a way that was very hurtful to Hua Xin's dignity. But looking at the biographies of the two people in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the relationship between the two people was not bad later.
Hua Xin is a very good official, and he always has to show his high purity, which can be said to have been acting for a lifetime. At the end of the Han Dynasty, he fled to the south, first serving under Yuan Shu, then to Sun Quan, and later to Cao Cao's side, and then all the way up.
When Hua Xin left Sun Quan, many guests and old people gave him gifts, and Hua Xin began to accept them, but when he left, he said to everyone: "Your gift money, originally I did not want to refuse, unconsciously I received too much." But now I'm on a bicycle, and to go so far, it's dangerous to have too much to carry. "So I refunded everyone's gift money, so that I didn't receive gifts and didn't hurt people's faces."
During the Cao Wei era, the emperor gave Hua Xin a lot of rewards, but he gave them to relatives and deceased people, "the family has no stone reserves". So much so that some colleagues commented that Hua Xin's wisdom and hard work can still catch up; Hua Xin's honesty is really incomparable to others.
Judging from these examples, Huaxin's attitude toward wealth has always been "caught and thrown away".
Guan Ning, who broke off relations with him, went into exile in Liaodong, became a moral idol in the folk, kept a distance from the local powerful, but never sinned, and was also a figure who understood people's feelings and sophistication. After Cao Pi became emperor, he asked Gongqing to recommend a "lone gentleman", Hua Xin recommended Guan Ning, who had been in Liaodong for more than 30 years, accepted the conscription and returned to his hometown with his family, but did not agree to come out as an official. By the time of Cao Pi's son Emperor Wei, Hua Xin, who was already 70 years old, offered to cede his position as a lieutenant to Guan Ning, 69. Of course, Guan Ning would not accept it, but this incident would naturally further enhance the prestige of both Hua Xin and Guan Ning.
According to ancient standards, Hua Xin lived a long life, living to the age of 75, and Guan Ning was more alive, 84 years old. After Hua Xin's death, there were still many people who recommended Guan Ning as an official— anyway, everyone knew that he would not agree, and writing a letter of recommendation was actually to brush his moral points and take the opportunity to show his literary talents.
Source: Magazine of All Walks of Life, Issue 7, 2021
Author: Liu Bo