Wu Qi was a famous military figure, politician, reformer and representative figure of ancient warriors during the Warring States period, and was known as the "Yasheng" of the "Four Saints of Soldiers".
He was well versed in the three schools of thought, military, legal, and Confucian thought, and had extremely high achievements in internal affairs and military affairs.
In his lifetime, he "fought seventy-six battles with the princes, won sixty-four victories, and drew one hundred and twenty", which can be said to be undefeated, and he was an undefeated general in the true sense, the most important of which was the famous "Battle of Yin and Jin" in history - leading 50,000 soldiers to break the Qin army by 500,000.
He participated in the Wei state of Li Wu's transformation of the law, rectified the wei military system, established the first professional army in Chinese history, the Wei Wu pawn phalanx, and created the first strong army for the state of Wei at that time, making the state of Wei the first vassal state to dominate among the seven warring states - the west suppressed Qin and the east was strong Qi.
He later presided over the change of law in the State of Chu, and in a short period of time reversed the weak image of the State of Chu, which greatly increased the strength of the State of Chu and made other princely states jealous.
His "Wuzi Art of War" was selected by the Song Dynasty into the "Seven Books of the Martial Classics" and was a compulsory subject for martial arts. For the first time, the book creatively proposes to "cultivate civil virtue within and govern weapons externally", attach equal importance to politics and military affairs, and put politics first the concept of war, which is called "Sun Wu's Art of War" together with "Sun Wu's Art of War".
So the question is, if Wu Qi had such high achievements, why was he removed from the "Ten Philosophers of the Martial Temple" in the Song Dynasty?
Originally, at the beginning of the establishment of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin once visited the temple of King Wucheng and pointed out that "the killing has fallen, not even the martial arts, what is to be enjoyed here", which roughly means that the white killing pit pawn is not worthy of enjoying the martial temple, plus Zuo Shizhi zhizhi system Gao Xiyin said that "the wang monk argues that it is not good to die well, and it is not appropriate to be among the people who deserve to enjoy the martial temple", so Zhao Kuangyin believed that those who deserve the martial temple should not have private moral problems, so as not to mislead future generations, so he re-ruled the list of martial temples.
After such an operation, Wu Qi, who had a loss of private morality, was naturally excluded. So what kind of life stain does Wu Qi have?
For the sake of face, killing the township is unkind
According to the "Records of History", "When he was young, his family was tired of thousands of dollars, and the travelers did not succeed, so they broke his home, the township party laughed at it, and Wu Qi killed more than thirty of his slanderers, and went out of the east to defend Guomen." "The gist is that when Wu Qi was young, he scattered his family wealth in order to obtain an official position, but he did not get anything, and then he was ridiculed by the villagers, and in a fit of anger, he killed all the more than thirty people who laughed at him, and then began to flee.
Wu Qi killed people simply because others laughed at him and was angry because he couldn't get over his face, which was a thing that could never be tolerated by the Song Dynasty, which ruled the world with Confucianism and the scholars and doctors occupying the absolute right to speak, and also violated the Confucian concept of "benevolence" as the core.
Especially in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the national policy of "emphasizing literature and suppressing martial arts" has been initially formed, the harm caused by the military power of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and the special situation of Zhao Kuangyin's own "yellow robe plus body", the defense against military generals is almost the peak of all dynasties, and Wu Qi's act of killing people to vent his personal anger has touched the sensitive nerves of the ruling class of the Song Dynasty at that time.
For the sake of the future, the mother's funeral does not return, which belongs to filial piety
After Wu Qi killed people, he fled the Wei kingdom and studied Confucianism under Confucius's disciple Zeng Shen (later known as "Zeng Zi"), during which Time Wu Qi's mother died, but he did not go back to mourn for his studies, which caused Zeng Zi's displeasure. Zeng Zi believed that Wu Qi did not even keep the most basic Confucian principle of loyalty and filial piety and was not worthy to be a Confucian disciple, so he severed the master-apprentice relationship with Wu Qi.
As a disciple of Confucius, Zengzi had a high status in Confucianism, and since Zengzi did not agree with Wu Qi's character, later Generations of Confucian students would naturally not recognize Wu Qi. In fact, before Wu Qi left weiguo, he had sworn to his mother that "he would not rise up as a secretary of state and would not return to wei", and at that time, Wu Qi was obviously not yet at the time of his achievements and fame, which also reflected from the side that Wu Qi did not run to the funeral, but also in order not to violate the original oath and bear a "letter" word.
However, because Confucianism has always believed in "filial piety first", Wu Qi, who violated filial piety, has truly crossed the moral red line of Confucianism, so that his deeds have always been despised by future generations.
For the sake of official positions, killing wives and asking for generals is unrighteous
The matter of killing his wife and seeking an official is definitely the most criticized place for Wu Qi.
In 412 BC, Duke Xuan of Qi sent a large army to attack the state of Lu, and Duke Mu of Lu wanted to appoint Wu Qi as a general, but feared that Wu Qi would secretly communicate with the state of Qi, because Wu Qi's wife at that time was a native of the state of Qi.
After Wu Qi knew about it, in order to show his loyalty to Lu Mugong, he actually killed his wife directly. Although Wu Qi later led an army to a great victory over the powerful State of Qi, his act of killing his wife became the reason for the Political Circles of the State of Lu to attack him, and they believed that Wu Qi was mean and unkind and unsuitable for important positions, so as not to be eaten back.
Unlike Dayu San who crossed the house and did not enter, Wu Qi killed his wife purely to win the opportunity to get ahead of himself, no matter how much merit he later gained, he could not cover up his personal lack of morality, and the idiom "killing his wife and seeking a general" was also compared by later generations to unscrupulous means for success, and he did not hesitate to hurt nature and reason for fame and fortune.
For Houlu, loyalty to the Three Kingdoms is disloyalty
Wu Qi served as an official in the State of Lu, the State of Wei, and the State of Chu, and in the State of Lu, he was deposed from his official post because he was jealous of Lu Mugong. So he went to the State of Wei to seek an official, participated in the change of law, established the Wei Wu pawn system, and later fled the State of Wei after a failed competition with Gong Shu for the throne. In the end, while the Chu state was reused by the king of Chu and presided over the change of law, the strength of the chu state was greatly increased, but it was also hated for infringing on the interests of the nobles of the chu state. After the death of King Chu mourning, who supported the change, Wu Qi was also shot and killed by the nobles who united to resist the change, thus ending his glorious and controversial life.
In fact, in ancient times, especially the feudal dynasties, they attached great importance to "eating the king's lu and being loyal to the king." "Qu Yuan's loyalty to the Chu state of Chu to throw jiang zi ji was praised by the ages, and Zhuge Liang bowed to death and has been remembered by thousands of people, so a person like Wu Qi who is super capable and has personal morality is very unpopular with the rulers.
In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhang Fei once scolded Lü Bu as a "family slave with three surnames", which has clearly risen to the level of insult of personality. Of course, although Wu Qi is also a "three-surnamed family slave", what is different from Lü Bu is that Lü Bu is not only unfaithful, but also has the habit of "recognizing the dry father and killing the dry father", which is even more disdainful to the world.
From ancient times to the present, no one will deny Wu Qi's ability, and his colleague Li Wu said that he "cannot pass by sima tho with soldiers", and Wei Jizi praised him as "who has raised seventy thousand people and the world is not dangling?". 'Wu Qi' also". However, in terms of personal morality, he has also been criticized by people, Bai Juyi scolded him for "his heart is not as good as a bird", Cao Cao said that he was "a greedy general, self-confidence in killing his wife, scattering gold to seek officials, and his mother died and did not return".
Wu Qi was enshrined as the "Ten Philosophers of the WuMiao Temple" in the Tang Dynasty under wubu because of his outstanding military talent, after all, his status in the bing family was second only to that of "bing sheng" Sun Wu, but later because of the indelible private moral problems in his body, he was removed from the list of "ten zhe" by the Song Dynasty, which flaunted "benevolence and righteousness".
References: "History", "Warring States Policy", etc