Song Xianggong's ideals

One

Song Xianggong had an ideal:

Become the king, the king of the generation of anti-Zhou Restoration Shang.

The State of Song was not a state of Zhou Tianzi with the surname of Emperor Ji, nor was it a state of merit like the State of Qi of Taigong Jiang, and her founding monarch was Wei Ziqi, a descendant of Shang Tang and the elder brother of king Shang. After King Wu of Zhou destroyed Shang as king, Feng Dayu's descendant Donglou Gongyu (東楼公于杞地) divided Shangqiu, the birthplace of Shang, into Weizi Qi, and asked them to worship their ancestors.

After the fall of the Shang Dynasty, there was a prophecy among the old people of Yin Shang: in five hundred years, there will be a king who will prosper.

Song Xianggong believed that he was the king of prophecy.

Two

The Three Character Classic says, "Tang Fa Xia, the state name shang, six hundred years, to the king of Lu". Dong Zuobin, a historian of the early years of the Republic of China and a native of Nanyang, calculated according to the calendar that the time of the Shang Dynasty should be from 1766 BC to 1111 BC, a total of 655 years. Taiwan's historians adopted Dong's theory and wrote it into Taiwan's textbooks. However, the Xia-Shang-Zhou Dynasty Project believes that the Shang Dynasty replaced the Xia Dynasty in about 1556 BC, and that the fall of the state on January 20, 1046 BC, guozuo is 510 years to be precise.

The history books do not record the date of birth of Song Xianggong. In 650 BC, Duke Xiang of Song succeeded to the throne. No matter which algorithm is used in later generations, this time is not a complete 500 years from the fall of the Shang Dynasty, according to the Xia-Shang-Zhou Dynasty Project Year Representative calculation is even farther, only 396 years, even if you add the age before Song Xianggong succeeded to the throne, it will not be 500 years.

Of course, people at that time were also very good at calculating the four o'clock replacement of winter and summer. In short, whether others believed it or not, Song Xianggong believed it anyway: the 500-year period had arrived, and he was the king who shouldered the mission of reviving Yin Shang.

The "five hundred years" in the prophecy may only be a false reference, so if we really use this as a basis to break the dynasty and determine that the Yin Merchants have been dead for 500 years at that time, it is really possible to "fault the year".

Three

Since you want to revive the king, of course, you must draw a clear line with the last monarch of the fallen country.

Song Xianggong had many mysterious behaviors, and he could not understand them when reading history before. This time, I tried to compare him with the King of Shang, and suddenly I understood a little: Shang Lu lost the country with inhumanity, and he preferred to carry the banner of benevolence and righteousness.

The first is the act of ceding the country.

Song Xianggong's name is Zifu, and he is the eldest son of Song Huan, and according to the inheritance system of the eldest son, he should naturally be the successor to the throne, which is no doubt. However, he pleaded in front of Duke Huan that he should give the position of crown prince to his brother Muyi, and said, "Muyi is older than me, and he is loyal and benevolent, so please make Muyi the king of the country." ”

Look at the King of Lu again. Prince Xin had two half-brothers, and when they gave birth to these two brothers, their mother was not yet a queen, and when she gave birth to a son, Xin, she was made a proper wife. For this reason, the ministers elected him crown prince. Zi Xin's eldest brother was the later founding monarch of the Song Dynasty, Wei Zi Qi.

You Shang King does not let the prince's position, I let! My position as prince is still upright and undisputed.

Of course, the position of prince was not given up. Mu Yi was not resigned, he was not crazy, he wanted to grab a seat from his brother who was just and righteous. Helplessly, he avoided fleeing to defend the country for a while.

Song Xianggong held high the banner of benevolence and righteousness all his life, and the more people there were and the greater the matter, the higher the banner was raised.

Finally, it was the Battle of Hongshui.

Some people commented that this was the most incomprehensible war in the Spring and Autumn Period: Song and Chu were at war in Hongshui, and Song was weak and Strong. Muyi, that is, the Middle Ziyu in the "Ziyu Controversy", at this time as the Great Sima and proposed to launch an attack when the Chu army crossed the river, Song Xianggong did not agree; after the Chu army crossed the Hongshui, Muyi again proposed to launch an attack, and Song Xianggong did not agree, and had to wait for the Chu army to set up a position before attacking. As a result, the Song army was defeated by the powerful Chu army and was defeated.

Song Xianggong's guards were all killed, and he was wounded in the thigh, and died the following year.

Four

Mao Zedong once said: "We are not Song Xianggong, we don't want that stupid pig-like benevolent morality."

In fact, under the banner of benevolence and righteousness, Song Xianggong also did a commendable thing.

When Duke Huan of Qi, the first overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period, was alive, because Song Xianggong had always followed him and had the name of benevolence and righteousness, he instructed Song Xianggong to take care of Crown Prince Zhao.

In the winter of 642 BC, Duke Huan of Qi was seriously ill, his sons fought each other for the throne, actually starved the Duke of Qi Huan alive, the body of Duke Huan was released for sixty or seventy days with insects, and no one went to collect the body, and finally the prince succeeded in inheriting the throne without loss, and Prince Zhao fled to the Song Kingdom for help.

Compared with Qi Chu, the State of Song was only a small second-rate state, but in order to abide by the agreement, Song Xianggong united with the Wei State, the State of Cao, and the State of Qi, and the four-nation alliance invaded the State of Qi, and the Prince was killed by the nobles of the State of Qi without loss, and Gongzi Zhao succeeded to the throne as the Duke of Qi.

It was this incident that made Song Xianggong, who was known for his great ambitions, burst with self-confidence. He felt that the position of the lord of the princes' alliance could also be thought of by himself.

Alliances and wars were the two means of hegemony of the princes in the Spring and Autumn Period. In 639 BC, Song Xianggong invited princes from various countries to establish an alliance in Luhui to establish a hegemonic position. Song Xianggong did not bring soldiers to participate in the alliance, at which Song Xianggong wanted to present himself as a hegemon, but was opposed by King Cheng of Chu, who simply led his troops to detain Song Xianggong, and later at the mediation of various princes, Song Xianggong was released and returned to China. In order to shame, Song Xianggong began to attack the Allied State of Zheng of the State of Chu in the second year, and the State of Chu attacked song to save Zheng, and finally severely damaged the Song army at Hongshui.

Five

Song Xianggong, who bore the order of benevolence and righteousness, was also cruel at times.

In 641 BC, before the Lu Alliance, Song Xianggong had summoned the princes to the alliance in Caonan, and only the four small states of Cao, Yi, Teng, and Huan agreed to participate. The alliance was very unsuccessful, and the Tengguo Monarch was late, and the Guojun of the Eun Kingdom did not come for the reason. On the spot, Song Xianggong ordered the arrest of the late Teng Guojun. After hearing the news, Yu Jun was frightened and still rushed to the meeting. As a result, as soon as he arrived at the venue, Song Xianggong ordered Yu Jun to take Yu Jun to the outskirts of Suishui and kill him to sacrifice heaven and earth.

Su Shi scolded Song Xianggong for pretending to be benevolent and falsely righteous, and was Wang Mang and the like, "A gentleman who kills a cow is still unbearable, and Song Gonggong is a monarch of a country who is a dog, and this is forbearing, and there are those who cannot bear it in the world!" ”

Since then, China has abolished the system of "human sacrifice and martyrdom". No wonder later generations felt that Song Xianggong's move was cruel. However, the Song Dynasty was a descendant of the Shang Dynasty, and the Shang Dynasty attached great importance to the sacrifice of people to martyrdom. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the Zhou royal family existed in name only, and Song Xianggong, who was bent on reviving Yin Shang, ignored Zhou Li and killed Yu Jun, the purpose of which was probably to show his determination to restore business and awaken the national consciousness of the remnants of Yin Shang.

One more word. The kingdom was founded by descendants of the Xia Dynasty—in today's Fangcheng, Nanyang, which is also regarded as the "ancestral root of the Zeng clan"—it was destroyed by the Shang, and after the death of the Shang dynasty, it belonged to the Zhou Dynasty. The fact that The State of Yan was a remnant of the Xia Dynasty was probably also the reason why Song Xianggong was killed.

However, at this time, hundreds of years after the implementation of the Zhou rites, Mu Yi had stood up to dissuade them, saying that the gods should not be sacrificed, and that they should be virtuous in the world to cultivate obscurity and subdue people's hearts, but Song Xianggong did not listen. At that time, almost all the princely states were extremely dissatisfied with song Xianggong's approach.

Before the Battle of Hongshui, Mu Yi had persuaded this stupid brother: "The heavens have abandoned the shang for a long time, the king will be prosperous, and the fu ke will be forgiven." In the end, Song Xianggong failed to reverse the situation and became the "king" of his heart and mind in the context of "the abandonment of the shang for a long time" in the context of "the abandonment of the shang for a long time".