<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > preface</h1>
In 284 BC, King Qi Min died.
In that year, the State of Qi was attacked by the Five Kingdoms Alliance led by Le Yi, and King Min of Qi fled and was killed by the Chu general Huan Ya at ju (jǔ) City. He was nine years old at the time of Chinese New Year's Eve and reigned for seventeen years.
King Min of Qi, surname of Concubine (gui), tian (田氏), name di (often referred to in history books as tiandi). He was the son of King Xuan of Qi and the sixth monarch of the State of Qi during the Warring States period. He was a very famous monarch during the Warring States period. The reasons for his fame are more peculiar: one is the way of death, and the other is that death is ugly.
In order to explain why he died so ugly, let's first look at what kind of person King Qi Min was.
Ancient war diagram
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > King Qi Min was a very arrogant man. </h1>
King Qi Min was very arrogant, just like Zhi Yao of the Jin Dynasty in the early Warring States period. Zhi Yao was arrogant, and as a result, the family was destroyed; King Qi Min was arrogant, and as a result, the country was destroyed. After Zhi Yao's death, his head was cut off by Zhao Wuxi to make a wine jug, and King Qi Min... (We'll go into more detail about his ugly death later.)
Arrogance is "very self-righteous", that is, you feel that you are very powerful. There are two technical terms in psychology to explain this manifestation.
The common result of these two psychological phenomena is "inability to get along with people, to cooperate with people, and to adapt to life." Such a person is still very tolerant of hatred.
Arrogant people, to a lesser extent, tend to be a little more "self-serving biased" and don't even have "delusional personality" disorder. Those who are severely arrogant have both and are heavily inclined to "delusional".
King Qi Min just happened to belong to the heavy arrogance.
Rome was not built in a day, and the arrogance of King Qi Min also developed step by step.
When he ascended the throne, the State of Qi was very powerful. After he came to power, he rolled up his sleeves and did it: the Battle of Chusha defeated the Chu state, the Battle of Hanguguan defeated the Qin state, the Yan state was defeated by taking advantage of the rebellion of the Yan state, and the rich Song state was annexed.
From some victories to "cutting the Huaibei of Chu in the south, invading the Three Jins in the west, wanting to merge with the Zhou Dynasty, and calling himself the Son of Heaven", he felt more and more that he was incomparably excellent and that the world was the only one who respected himself. Self-esteem is like a balloon of hydrogen, getting bigger and bigger, and it is about to explode.
Stills of King Qi Min
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > King Qi Min was a man who was good at pulling hate</h1>
After a few victorious battles, the Qin state immediately seized the opportunity of the Qi state to make enemies on all sides and made up its mind to eliminate the biggest enemy in the Central Plains. So King Zhaoxiang of Qin began to persuade the State of Yan to attack the State of Qi together with the three kingdoms of Wei, Zhao, and Han.
Prior to this, in order to protect itself, the State of Yan sent a spy, Su Qin, to vigorously encourage King Qi Min to continue to fight everywhere, exhausting the national strength of the State of Qi and making enemies on all sides. It was not until the Five-Nation Alliance reached the door of the Qi state that King Qi Min discovered that Su Qin was a spy. He was very angry, and felt that such a powerful person was tricked by Su Qin, so he put Su Qin in the punishment of car splitting, and the violent anger jumped on the paper.
Su Qin died, and the Five-Nation Alliance did not stop.
King Qi Tang ordered the song's meritorious servant Tentacles to be generals. Tentacles originally wanted to take advantage of the danger of Jishui to confront the coalition forces, and then wait for the coalition forces to have a flaw before striking. However, the King of Qi, who was eager to win, threatened to "exterminate the clan" and demanded that the tentacles go to war. Touch fled after the war and disappeared. The Qi soldiers were defeated.
King Qi Min, whose country was destroyed and his family was destroyed, began his jaw-dropping journey of death and escape.
Ancient scene map
He first ran to Weiguo, and the Weiguo monarch treated him with courtesy, gave up the palace to live for him, and called himself a "subject" to supply all his supplies. However, he did not take the Weiguo monarch seriously at all, and drove the high-ranking officials of the Weiguo as slaves. Seeing his evil words, the defending officials immediately turned their lips back and cut off their supply to him. He could not stay any longer, so he had to continue to flee to the country of Lu.
When he arrived at the border of the State of Lu, he asked the State of Lu to serve him with the etiquette of the Son of Heaven, and also asked the King of the State of Lu to go to the kitchen in the morning and evening to inspect the cooking, stand under the steps and wait for him to eat, and when he finished eating, the King of the State of Lu could retire and go to his own business. In the face of such an unscrupulous person, Lu Guo of the State of Etiquette could not stand it anymore and quickly drove him away.
King Qi Min continued to flee to the state of Zou. Coinciding with the death of King Zou Guojun, King Qi Min, a king of the fallen country, actually asked to be mourned as the Son of Heaven, asking the new monarch of Zou Guo to turn his back to the coffin, stand on the western steps, and weep to the north. He sat at the altar on the north side, accepting the cries of the new monarch and raising his hands in condolence. Zou Guo really couldn't stand his arrogance and powerlessness, and drove him away.
Finally, he ran to Jucheng. Jucheng was one of the five administrative regions established by the State of Qi and was the territory of King Qi Min himself. King Min of Qi then continued to play tricks and appoint the general sent by the State of Chu to rescue (divide) the State of Qi as the Minister of the State of Qi.
The performance of the tooth was simple and rude, and he accepted the seal and then killed King Qi Min.
The performance of King Qi Min is properly the performance of a heavy arrogant person, which can be called a textbook-level classic demonstration of "if you don't die, you won't die", adding laughter to future generations.
However, regarding his death, posterity cannot laugh.
Ancient Pass Map
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the death of King Qi Min</h1>
There are several versions of King Qi Min's death.
Version 1, Warring States Policy, Vol. XIII Qi VI:
Wang Benju. The number of teeth is known: "Between Fu Qian and Bo Chang, hundreds of miles in the square, rain and blood stained clothes, wang zhizhi? Wang Yue: "I don't know." "Between Yin and Bo, the earth is in the spring, and the king knows it?" Wang Yue: "I don't know." "There are those who weep when they are que, but they cannot ask for it, but if they go, they hear their voices, and the king knows what they want?" Wang Yue: "I don't know." "Whoever is stained with rain and blood in the sky will be told by heaven; he who crucifies the earth to the spring will also be told by the earth; and he who weeps when he is in the midst of the gap, and he who will be sued." All the people of heaven and earth have told each other, but the king does not know how to take precautions, so why should he be unspeakable? So he killed King Min in Yuli.
We don't need to understand the meaning of the text verbatim, but it is good to know these two points:
1. When The tooth asked him, he replied "I don't know."
2. There is no detailed description of the killing of King Qi Min in the text.
Version 2, Zizhi Tongjian:
The Kingdom of Chu sent the general Shuya (淖牙) to lead an army to rescue the Kingdom of Qi, and Tian Di appointed The Great General of the Qi Kingdom as the prime minister of the Qi Kingdom. Instead, He secretly allied with the Yan Kingdom in an attempt to divide the Qi Kingdom. Therefore, he arrested the field and reprimanded him: "Between Qiancheng (Gaoqing County, Shandong Province) and Bochang (Boxing County, Shandong Province), hundreds of miles in the land, the sky is raining blood, and the clothes are polluted, do you know?" Tian said, "I know." "Between Yingyi (Laiwu City, Shandong Province) and Boyi (Tai'an City, Shandong Province), the land has collapsed and sunk, and you see the spring water, do you know?" Tian said, "I know." "Someone is crying outside the palace gate, and when they are looking for someone, they can't see anyone, and when they don't look for it, they hear crying, do you know?" Tian said, "I know." The tooth said, "The rain of blood has fallen from heaven, and it is the heavens that warn you." The earth is sinking, yes the earth warns you. Someone is crying at the palace gate, and it is the person who warns you. The people of heaven and earth warn you, but you don't care, how can you not kill? "Just in Guli (south of JuXian County, Shandong Province), Tian was put to death.
In this version, we find:
1. When He asked him, he replied "I know."
Version THREE, The Chronicle of History (vol. 46, Tian Jingzhong's completion of the family), has no dialogue and no details:
Forty years later, Yan, Qin, Chu, and the Three Jins conspired to defeat Jixi. The king was relieved. Yan sent Le Yi into Linzi and took the treasure of Qi. The King of Tang is out of the way, the Guardian. Wei Jun's palace was called a subject. The king of Tang was not inferior, and the defenders invaded him. The king of Tang went, took Zou and Lu, there was arrogance, Zou and Lu Junfune, and then walked Ju. Chu sent the generals to rescue Qi, because xiang Qi Washu King, HuanYa killed the King of Xiang, and the invasion of the earth with Yan was divided.
Old books
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > we have a few questions about these three versions:</h1>
I. For the question of the tooth, did King Qi Min answer "know" or "not know"?
Although judging from the logical outcome of their conversation, the answer is the same:
Answer "Know" – since you know everything, why don't you save the people from fire and water? Heaven, earth, and man have warned you, but you have turned a deaf ear and should be killed.
Answer "I don't know" - you don't care about the lives of the people at all, the heavens, the earth, and the people have warned you, but you have turned a deaf ear and should be killed.
But why?
1, as mentioned earlier, he is an arrogant person, he feels that he is very good, how can those situations occur in his country? Moreover, as a king, there is no need to care about those "little things". Therefore, the answer "I don't know" is more in line with his arrogant personality.
2, the answer "do not know" is a manifestation of pride and arrogance, and the answer to "know" has the intention of compromise: "I am not a person who does not care about the people, you say that I know all this..." Answering in this way may give you a way to live. But King Qi Min was not a man who knew how to compromise.
I believe Sima Guang also knows this, so we have a second question:
Why did Sima Guang change Liu Xiang's "not knowing" in the Warring States Policy to "knowing"?
On this issue, my corollary is that Sima Guang is a relatively kind person.
Sima Guang hoped to write a little less about King Qi Min's arrogant behavior, so that the reader might look at the hilarity and not delve into the details of his murder. Because this detail is very cruel, and Sima Guang also knows it clearly.
The death of King Qi Min was not a one-click knife, but a very bloody and violent one:
(The following text content is too violent, but in order to restore the truth of history, I have to write it, I hope that readers who oppose bloody violence will not complain about me, thank you!) ）
Su Qin stills
King Qi Min died of his own arrogance and arrogance. He did die for the rest of his life. But we can't help but ask:
Third, why did The Tooth Treat King Qi Min so cruelly?
This reason is really difficult to analyze. However, from the perspective of psychology, it is still possible to find a little clue.
As mentioned earlier, King Qi Min was a very poor character and very arrogant. But if you encounter a normal enemy, you will also click and stab him to the end. The tooth he encountered was not a normal enemy.
Toothless, definitely not a good man, on the contrary, he is a cruel man. King Qi Min was so hated by the people that after killing him according to reason, the Qi people would rejoice. However, it didn't take long for him to cause public outrage, and he was shouted by the 15-year-old boy Wang Sun Jia Zhen and led the people to kill him, and the place where he died was also in the drum (the place where he killed King Qi Min).
This shows that after he killed King Qi Min, what he did in Jucheng must have deeply resented the people.
Therefore, the cruelty of King Qi Min with such appalling torture was the result of brutality against arrogance.
Some people speculate that at that time, King Qi Min may have had some very arrogant remarks about The Tooth, and arrogantly said: "If you don't listen to me, I will cramp you." The brutal teeth then...
I think this speculation is still a bit reasonable. Because of his teeth as a villain, when he is not respected by King Qi Min, his "dark side of self-esteem" is triggered: when people find that their self-esteem is threatened, they often react in a way that suppresses others or even violently. (Social Psychology)
However, some people said that the time that Tooth Tooth spent with him was very short, and it was impossible to have a deep hatred in the sea of blood. Even if the conflict of interests is ordered to be killed on the spot, it is enough, why should it be poisoned? Not to say that dealing with a monarch, even if it is against a bandit, with this torture, is also a horrific atrocity. Therefore, regarding the death of King Qi Min, it is likely that it was fabricated by later generations, otherwise, why did Tai Shi Gong not write it in the "Records of History"? (fourth question)
Ancient battlefield map
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Sima Qian's "Easter egg"</h1>
Regarding the death of King Qi Min, there are indeed few records in the main history.
Although it is recorded in Xunzi's letter to Chun Shenjun in the Warring States Policy, Vol. XVII, Chu IV, that "the teeth were used together, the tendons of the king of Min were suspended on the beams of his temple, and he died at nightfall." However, because Sima Qian's "Records of History" is not recorded, some people believe that this passage in the "Warring States Policy" was written by Liu Xiang himself.
So, in the end, did Sima Qian write in the "Records of History" how King Qi Min died?
In the "Records of History" volume 46 "Tian Jingzhong's Complete Family", Sima Qian does not describe the details of the tragic death of King Qi Min. Not even the dialogue between The Tooth and King Qi Min was written. It is not that Sima Qian did not know the details of the tragic death of King Qi Min, I think, but more that he was unwilling to write in this volume.
However, in the "Nineteenth Biography of Fan Sui Cai Zelie" in the seventy-ninth volume of the "History of History", he still could not help but describe the details of the tragic death of King Qi Min to the readers through Fan Sui: "Cui Zhu, Shu Tooth Guan Qi, Shoot Wang Stock, Promote Wang Jian, County to Temple Liang, Su Xi died." ”
This is the "Easter egg" he left for posterity, but it is buried deep enough that many people do not notice it at all. The rigor of Sima Qian's history of governance really makes us awe-inspired.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > postscript:</h1>
The Greek philosopher Socrates advised, "Know thyself." ”
Qi Min Wang and Tooth Tooth are both people who fail to "know" themselves, and their final results do not deserve our sympathy. But in contrast, the behavior of the tooth is closer to that of the beast. We also sigh that King Qi Min fell into the hands of such a person. But if King Qi Min was not an arrogant and arrogant person, how could he meet such a beastly person as HuanYa?
Just as a dirty and humid environment is always prone to breed harmful bacteria, it will also give inhuman people such as tooth decay a chance. To avoid encountering such people, we need to:
1, know yourself, do not fall into the "self-service bias".
2. Love the motherland and make our country more stable, more prosperous and stronger.
Bibliography of this article: "Zizhi Tongjian", "Warring States Policy", "Social Psychology", "History", "Modern Psychology"
Ancient palace diagram