The story of Shi Chongdou, the richest man in the Western Jin Dynasty, has always been talked about, and it was previously believed that this person was nothing more than an ignorant and fearless upstart, who was the same age as Sima Zheng, the "Meat Emperor", and it was estimated that he was also a man of the brain. However, a recent look at the "Book of Jin" suddenly found that this person not only looked great and handsome, but also an all-rounder who was both literate and martial, and his poetry was also quite outstanding. Looking at his family history, it is not a family of nibblers who lie in the shade of their ancestors and eat ready-made, and the huge wealth he has accumulated is still white (black) hands. Then his life trajectory is worth exploring, especially after he developed, why did he invite the disaster of killing, or even affect the door?
Shi Chong, born into a rich family, was a studious teenager. His father, Shi Bao, was a famous general of the Wei and Jin dynasties, and was ranked as the Third Duke of The Great Sima (大司馬). The Book of Jin records that "Ya Kuang has a wise bureau, Rong Yi weili", which means that his father is dignified and elegant and open-minded. Shi Chong, the eldest of the six sons, had the demeanor of his father, known as "Wind and Fortune", had courage and strategy, served as the commander of Xiuwu County in his twenties, and later participated in the cutting of Wu Yougong, and was named the Marquis of Anyang Township. Emperor Wu of Jin valued his talents and promoted him all the way from the generals of Nanzhong Lang and Jingzhou Assassins to the position of wei of one of the nine secretaries, and this position in charge of the palace guard was his biggest official.
Shi Chong's talent was rampant, at that time there was a group of literati known as "twenty-four friends", all with the foreign relative Jia Mi, he was also one of them, of course, he can not be regarded as an indiscriminate number, his works "Si Gui Yin", "Ming Jun Ci", "Jingu Poetry Sequence" and "Wang Ming Jun Ci" and so on are all popular masterpieces, some people praised him "not under Pan (Yue) Lu (machine)", which is a bit boastful, but he still deserves to call a "talented son".
Overall, Shi Chong is a smart person, but why did he embark on the road of no return? Could it be that the law of "the richest man must die" began to play a role in the Western Jin Dynasty? The author analyzes the whole process of Shi Chong's "rise and fall" from the relevant records, and summarizes his lessons with four points for mirroring:
As mentioned in the previous article, Shi Chong's "self-made family" was impossible, after all, his father was an extremely popular subject, how could he not leave a fortune? According to the Book of Jin, when Shi Bao was dying, he did give his family property to his sons, but he did not give it to Shi Chong. Shi Chong's mother also held a grievance for Xiao Liuzi, and Shi Bao said, "Although this child is small, he can get it later." "Although this child is the youngest, he will be able to earn money in the future, so there is no need to give it to him."
This is a bit strange, is this Confucian general's father still a divine operator? I consulted the "Biography of Shi Bao" again, and did not record that he had this special function, but found that Shi Chong's body had a huge rich mole. scold! Interestingly, this mole is actually named after Shi Chonglai, also known as Shi Chonglai, and it is said that its location is near the bottom of the right shoulder blade near the spine. At this time, the official may wish to loosen his clothes and look for someone to see, if there is such a one, huh! Then congratulations on your big hair.
In fact, this mole may not be so magical, Shi Chong's fortune is because of black hands, "Chongying has talent, and RenXia has no inspection." In Jingzhou, robbing merchants and customers can not get rich. This sentence is to say that Shi Chong is not the kind of weak scholar who does not dare to catch the dead and does not dare to take the living, but he has an evil spirit, saying that "Ren Xia" is good to hear, and saying that misconduct is polite. When he was the assassin of Jingzhou, the money of the white road and the underworld was not spared, in addition to the scavenging of the people's fat and people's ointment, he even did the business of killing people and goods, and organized a group of people and horses to rob the merchants, so he became rich.
The assassin Shi Jia robber, Shi Chong's first bucket of gold came from this way, soaked in the blood of the merchants. Money comes so dirty and bloody, but he can enjoy peace and wealth, isn't it a strange thing to be aggressive?
There is also a saying that Shi Chong, in the process of his crusade against the State of Wu, also plundered property on a large scale. No matter how the money is accumulated, to a certain extent, it is "more wealth and good jia", and it is relatively easy to use money to make money, so as Wang Yin wrote in the Eastern Jin Dynasty: "Shi Chongbai dao makes a living, and accumulates wealth like a mountain."
Qinghua Yao's "Jingu Garden Map", the person in the painting is "Shi Chong"
To say that Shi Chong's hands are black, there is Cao Cao in front of him as an example, he once set up military ranks such as General FaQiu Zhonglang and Lieutenant Colonel Touching Jin, specializing in stealing tombs for wealth and supplementing military salaries. But one of the things that Cao Cao is stronger than Shi Chong's is that his hands are black and his neck is also hard, and he would rather bear the burden of the world, which is a hard bone in a thief, but Shi Chong's character can be ashamed of his ancestors.
After he became a wei lieutenant, Emperor Hui of Jin was weak, Empress Jia Nanfeng was monopolistic, and Shi Chong, who did not look at what kind of virtuous people were, was willing to attach himself to Jia Nanfeng's nephew Lu Gong Jia Mi, who inherited the title of his maternal grandfather Jia Chong, "the lord of power, the power is incomparable", and he was also good at vassalage and elegance, and also created a well-known literary circle, called "Article Twenty-Four Friends", including Pan Yue, a handsome talent who was known as the world's first.
Pan Yue is also a light and thin disciple, "mild temperament, trend profit", and Shi Chong's complicity, very good at the skim, bent on Jia Mi, "every time he comes out, he and Chongyuan look at the dust and worship" - as long as they see Jia Mi come out, they can't wait to kneel down, prostrating their heads like pouring garlic.
Not only that, but what is even more disgraceful is that every time Jia Mi's maternal grandmother Guangcheng Junguo Huai (Jia Chong's wife) comes out, Shi Chong always gets off the car and stands on the side of the road when he meets him, sorts out his clothes, and looks at the dust and worships, "His humble is so."
Shi Chong's relationship with the emperor's uncle Wang Kaidoufu has many passages, and it seems that he always has the upper hand. In terms of quantity, wang kai had to build a purple silk barrier of forty miles, and Wang Chong had to lay fifty miles with more expensive colored satin. In addition, in terms of speed and rarity, he also had to overwhelm the other party - the guests came to drink the hard-to-cook bean porridge, he gave a command, and the next person immediately served it hot; in the winter, he could still eat the green leeks in his house; the same ox cart (at that time, the rich man played personality), Wang Kai's family ran slower than Shi Chong's family.
Shi Chong was very proud of this, and Wang Kai spent a lot of money to bribe Shi Chong's subordinates and got the so-called secret. In fact, it is not so clever, but the boiled bean porridge is the trailer to prepare the cooked bean powder, the leek is the leek root mashed and mixed in the wheat seedling, and the ox cart runs fast, the driver is good, the cow is not controlled, let it spread the joy and run on it. After Wang Kai knew about it, Shi Chong, who lost his advantage, was annoyed and chased it to the end, and actually killed the person who leaked the secret because of such a little breaking!
According to a news in the "New Language of the World", every time Shi Chong invited guests, he always had to use all the beautiful women he had trained, and the task was to toast the guests. He had a liquor order in Jingu Garden, and he couldn't make a poem to punish the wine three buckets, but here, the guests did not drink, and the beautiful woman who was ordered to toast could be scattered. Because Shi Chong's family law is, directly push out to kill!
Ordinary people see this situation, even if they are not able to drink, they have to drink it, for example, Wang Dao, who later became a famous minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was reluctant to get drunk. But Wang Dao's cousin Wang Dun is a rather unruly guy, he doesn't drink, it's useless to come with three beautiful women in a row, he wants to see if you Shi Chongzhen can kill beautiful women? Shi Chongguo was really "domineering" and ordered all the beautiful women to be dragged out and cut! But Wang Dun still said that he would not drink, and Wang Dao felt that this was too special! Is it just a drink to persuade Wang Dun? Why? Wang Dun said lightly: "Suicide Yi family, He Pre-Qingshi!" What does he have to do with us when he kills people in his own family!
One is a heart like a snake and scorpion, and a heart like an iron stone, so that people who regard human life as grass and mustard will inevitably die well, and later, Shi Chong's three clans were destroyed, and Wang Dun was dissected from the coffin and killed, which was also a karmic manifestation.
Shi Chong's later period operated a huge industrial empire, his manor alone has more than thirty large water cones, with thousands of acres of fertile land, and wealth naturally rolls in.
The lavatories of Shi Chong's family were extremely luxurious, and there was a heavy minister in the dynasty, Liu Yuan, who came from a cold and bitter background, and came to visit on this day. Talking about a moment of internal anxiety, I went to the toilet. As a result, he was dazzled by this toilet, which not only had large mosquito nets, mats, mattresses and other extremely luxurious, but also a variety of rare perfumes and balms for guests to wash their hands, and what was even more embarrassing to him was that when he came out, there were a group of beautiful women holding sachets to serve, and they also had to change his clothes. Liu Yu couldn't resist, got out of the way, and came back to Shi Chong: Did I enter your inner chamber? Shi Chong shook his head, it was just a toilet for guests.
The climax of Shi Chong's and Wang Kaidoufu's reign was after Emperor Wu of Jin assisted him. Emperor Wu saw that his uncle was eating in front of Shi Chong, so he wanted to help him pull it back for a while, and gave Wang Kai a coral tree more than two feet high collected in the palace, and asked him to go to Shi Chong's front to show off.
As a result, Shi Chong came, looked at it, smiled slightly, and actually smashed the coral tree directly with the iron ruyi in his hand.
Wang Kai was horrified, but Shi Chong said, "Not enough to hate, now I am still Qing." Don't be so nervous, isn't it just a coral tree, just you!
He turned around and ordered his men to bring a bunch of coral trees, six or seven of them were three feet and four feet tall and dazzling, and Wang Kai could only smile bitterly.
The ancients had a saying: Heavenly dao is jealous, don't do things too full. Shi Chong," who is poor and extravagant, does not know anything about introversion, and "does not give birth to internal changes, but will summon external worries."
Book of Jin, Vol. 33, Liechuan No. 3: "In the beginning, the Chongjia rice was on the ground, and all the people in the jingsu were turned into snails, and people thought that the clan should be destroyed. ”
Shaanxi Luonan Shichongmiao mural
In 300 AD, Shi Chong's "external worries" did come knocking on the door.
The apparent cause was that after Sima Lun, the King of Zhao, launched a coup d'état, he killed Jia Hou and others, and Shi Chong's patron Jia Mi was also killed. Sima Lun's henchman Sun Xiu demanded Shi Chong's concubine Lu Zhu, who was beautiful and good at playing the flute, and Shi Chong, who had always been pampered and of course refused to respond. Enraged, Sun Xiu persuaded Sima Lun to kill him.
On that day, Shi Chong and Lu Zhu were feasting and drinking upstairs. Seeing the armored men who had captured him flock to him, he said to The Green Pearl, "I have now sinned against Er. ”
Looking at the problem is indeed very shallow, even blamed on the woman, did not think about how evil he was, even without the green pearl he could not escape this fate.
What was admirable was the green pearl, who said generously: "Dang Gong died in front of the official." Since it was for me, I will die to show you, so I "throw myself downstairs and die."
Shi Chong's shamelessness lies in the fact that when Lu Zhu jumped off the building, he did not know that he would be dragged to dongshi and beheaded, thinking that he was just exiled to the smoky miasma in the south, but he did not stop Lu Zhu's suicide at that time. Therefore, the relationship between the two is only selfish and possessive, and it cannot rise to the height of love, and Lu Zhu only maintains Shi Chong's face with his life, and he dies a very bad death.
Fifty-two-year-old Shi Chong pushed the whole family to the execution ground. Unfortunately, he did not understand the cause of his death until his death, and he sighed, "Slaves benefit my family's wealth." He thought that people were looking at his property, but a small soldier next to him was dumbfounded by a sentence: "Knowing that wealth is harmful, why not disperse it early?" You also know that property is a scourge, so why not get rid of it sooner?
Today's testimonial: There is a word called "Heavenly Envy Talents", some talented people with splendid articles have disappeared at a young age, and people always feel that they have been taken away by God. Shi Chong, in fact, is also very talented, and his poetry is very good, but his death is purely self-inflicted. There are also people who excuse him, saying that he is self-defiled to protect himself, huh! The author simply does not dare to agree with this view, thinking that even the level of that little soldier is not as good, poor desire, showing off wealth can fool the imperial court, but can robbery and murder blind God?
References: "Book of Jin", "Spring and Autumn of the Wei Dynasty", "The New Language of the World", "Caigen Tan", "History of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Two Jin Dynasties"