Yan Bao's life is a collection of countless "stories".
These stories are densely arranged in various ancient books, especially "Yanzi Spring and Autumn", and from all angles, they show the wisdom, integrity, caution and extraordinary political talent of this Qi person. People with stories are very enviable, but there are also disadvantages to too many stories — many stories are too similar or too legendary, thus detracting from the authenticity. Moreover, these stories are scattered and lack of relevance to each other, and it is impossible to find the trajectory of Yan Bao's growth and the context of ideological changes.
Thus, the more stories that are obviously processed and transformed, the more abstract the image of Yan Bao becomes, as if he was born so wise, so alert, so perfect.
Baby Portrait
Among the many stories, the most famous is undoubtedly "Yan Zi Zhi Chu".
When Yan Bao went to the Chu State for an envoy, he was ridiculed and harassed by the Chu people. The King of Chu first opened a small door next to the gate and asked the servant (the person responsible for receiving the guests) to guide The baby Yan into the palace through the small door. Yan Baby said: When you go to the dog country, you will go to the dog hole, and it is not appropriate to go here, right? Speechless, the servant led Yan Bao through the gate into the Chu King's Palace.
The King of Chu fixed his eyes on it, so that he was short in stature, his appearance was not proud, and there was a hint of sarcasm between his words: Is there no one in the State of Qi?
Yan Baby: The population of Linzi in Qidu is large, Zhang Yuan is yin, sweat is raining, and pedestrians on the street are rubbing shoulders, what is no one?
King Chu: Even so, why did you send you as an envoy?
Yan Bao: We in the state of Qi are very particular about appointing envoys, and when we send envoys to a country with high morals, we send those who are shrewd and capable, and when we go to a country without morality and rudeness, we send stupid and incompetent people; the subordinates are so stupid and incompetent that they can only come to your country.
In the story contained in "Yanzi Spring and Autumn", the two sides are sharp and harsh, although it sounds very enjoyable, but it is so subtle, it is not like the style of dialogue between the nobles in the Spring and Autumn Period, not to mention, it is still on such a solemn and solemn occasion.
Qidu Town, Linzi District, Zibo City, Shandong Province, the ruins of the Ancient City of Qi
In contrast, another "confrontation" between the King of Chu and Yan Bao was more credible. The king of Chu feasted on Yan Bao, and while he was drunk, a soldier escorted a prisoner through—of course, this was a "play" specially arranged in advance; the king of Chu stopped the soldier and asked: Who is that person?
The soldier replied: Qi people.
The king of Chu asked again: What crime has been committed?
Soldier: Steal.
After the play was over, the King of Chu turned his head and asked Yan Bao: Do the Qi people like to steal things so much?
Yan Bao avoided the table (leaving the seat and prostrating himself on the ground to show respect) and said: Subjects, tangerines born in Huainan are oranges, born in Huaibei are oranges, although similar in appearance, but the taste is very different; why? Water and soil are different; people are the same reason, in the country of Qi an security to keep to themselves, but in the country of Chu but stealing as a profession, can not be the water and soil of the country of Chu make people like to steal?
King Chu laughed and said, "Joking with the saint is really boring!"
Han portrait stone related to Yanzi: two peaches kill three soldiers
According to Confucius's standards, Yan Bao was certainly not a saint, but Confucius had a high opinion of Yan Bao. Of this person who was in the same era and had contacts, Confucius said:
Yan Ping Zhongshan befriended people and respected them for a long time.
Confucius took him as a model to follow, a total of six, Lao Tzu of the Zhou Chamber, Shu Boyu of the Wei Kingdom, Lao Laizi of the Chu Kingdom, Zi Of Zheng Guo, Meng Gong of the State of Lu, and one, Yan Bao.
Confucius was a nostalgic school, and in his view, the saints and benevolent people who were admired and worshipped were all dead people in ancient times; the living people, to be precise, the "rulers of the present", can receive very little praise from Confucius. It was not easy for Yan Bao to be used by Confucius as a model to learn from.
In fact, the glorious Yan Baby in the story, whose long political career, is not easy in itself.
It is difficult to determine the specific year in which Yan Bao was born, but it can be roughly inferred. In 550 BC, when the State of Qi took advantage of Luan Ying's rebellion to conquer the Jin Dynasty, Yan Yi,the son of Yan Bao, had already gone out with the army and was killed in battle. Even if Yan Yi was only fifteen or sixteen years old, at that time, Yan Bao was at least thirty-five or six years old, because according to the weekly ceremony, a man had to perform a crowning ceremony before he could have a child, and the crowning ceremony had to be at the age of twenty.
It is speculated that Yan Infant was born around 585 BC, which was the last few years of the reign of Jiang Wuye, the Duke of Qi.
When Yan Bao was about thirty years old, in 556 BC, his father Yan Wei died. In 592 BC, he and Gao Gu, Cai Chao, and Nan Guo Yan went to join the alliance convened by the Jin State, and in the case of Gao Gu fleeing halfway, Yan Wei and the other three people ventured to go to the Jin State for the sake of constant jin, and were detained by the Jin State, and later returned to China under the mediation of Emperor Miao.
As the eldest son of a concubine, Yan Infant inherited his father's throne and became the doctor of the State of Qi, officially stepping onto the stage of history.
Yan Baby Tomb, located in Qidu Town, Linzi District
He caught up with a very bad era, the Qi civil unrest was frequent, the Shiqing clan was fighting openly and secretly, and the monarch was also faint. Years later, Yan Bao called the era in which he lived "the end times." In the first ten years after Yan Infant entered the political arena, the State of Qi experienced the rebellion of Cui Zhujun and Qingfeng successively, during which the Tian clan developed and grew with great care, and the State of Qi was in turmoil. In the case of Cui and Qing's monopoly, it was a fluke that Yan Bao could survive. Fortunately, this situation did not last long, and after a series of major events experienced by the State of Qi, the chaotic State of Qi was finally reversed back to the normal track, and Yan Baby finally ushered in the golden age of his life.