The famous General Zu Di of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was a well-known figure, although he failed to realize the ideal of recovering the Central Plains, he left behind such ancient stories as "smelling the chicken dancing", "the middle stream striking the tree", and "the whip before me". In 321, due to the suspicion of the Eastern Jin court and the learning that the Eastern Jin Dynasty was full of contradictions, Zu Di became angry and angry, and eventually fell ill and died at the age of 56. At the beginning of the uprising, Zu Ti brought the entire clan to participate, so what would be the end of his descendants and clans?
Speaking of which, the fate of the Zu Di family and their descendants was very tragic, they first became traitors to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and then they were tragically destroyed. The matter has to start from zu ti's death, his half-brother Zu Yue was appointed as the general of Pingxi and the assassin of Yuzhou, "leading the people". This caused the displeasure of Zu Ti's half-brother Zuna, who secretly reported to the emperor: "The heart of the mausoleum is cherished within the heart, or it is possible to make it possible." Now the manifestation of the servants, pretending to be powerful, will be chaotic. ”
At that time, people thought that Zuna was jealous of his younger brother Zuyo, so no one paid attention to it. After Zu Ti's death, the situation in the north began to deteriorate, and Later Zhao continued to send troops to fight, but Zu Yue could not resist and was forced to lead his troops to retreat south. At this time, the Eastern Jin Dynasty broke out the Wang Dun Rebellion, the imperial army was defeated, and the Jin Ming Emperor had to recruit Zu Yue, Su Jun and other troops composed of northern displaced people, and the result was victory. After that, Zu Yue was appointed as the general of Zhenxi, "making Tun Shouyang and defending the northern realm".
In 325, Emperor Ming of Jin fell ill and died, leaving Wang Dao, Xi Jian, Yu Liang, Bian Xi, and others to assist him. Zu Yue was very unhappy after hearing the news, because his seniority and reputation were not under Xi Jian and Bian Xi, so he asked the imperial court for the right to open the palace, but he was rejected again, and he began to be dissatisfied. The following year, Later Zhao sent troops to attack Shouchun, the situation was very urgent, Zu Yue sent people to the imperial court for help many times, but the Eastern Jin Dynasty never sent rescue troops.
After the Later Zhao army retreated, the Eastern Jin court planned to build Tutang in the Jiangnan area to resist Later Zhao. Zu Yue's garrison, Shouyang, was in the Jiangbei region, and in Zu Yue's view, the imperial court's construction of fortifications in Jiangnan was obviously to abandon itself, so his heart was even more angry. In 327, Su Jun first launched a rebellion and sent people to contact Zu Yue, and the two immediately agreed, and Zu Yue sent Zu Di's son Zu Zhuo and son-in-law Xu Liu to lead troops to support Su Jun, and the Zu family became traitors to the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
However, Su Jun's rebellion did not succeed, and at the same time, Zu Yue was attacked by Later Zhao and fell into the dilemma of fighting on both sides. Under the blows of the Later Zhao regime, Zu Yue lost his division and was forced to lead hundreds of his clan relatives to surrender to Later Zhao's Shi Le. Shi Le despised Zu Yue's personality so much that he did not receive him for a long time. Under the persuasion of the general Cheng Xiao, Shi Le killed Zu Yue and sent someone to deceive Zu Yue, "Zu Hou came far away, and he did not like it, but he could gather his disciples for a while."
On that day, Shi Letui said that he was ill, and asked the general Cheng Xi to "ask for an appointment with his clan room". Zu Yue knew that he would not be able to escape death, so he drank a lot. After arriving at the execution site, Zu Yue shed tears in his arms, and then more than a hundred members of the zu family, including zu ti's children and grandchildren, were killed. Only one person survived, and he was Zu Daozhong, the youngest son of Zu Di! It turned out that when Zu Di was fighting in the north, there was a Hu slave named Wang An.
Zu Ti was very kind to Wang An, and gave him a lot of money, and then released him. Later, Wang An became a general in Later Zhao. When Zu Shiyi was killed, Wang An also took his men to observe the execution, and he did not forget Zu Ti's kindness to him, so he secretly saved Zu Ti's young son Zu Daozhong, who was only ten years old, and then sent him to the monastery as a monk. After the demise of Later Zhao, Zu Dao returned to the south to explain his true identity to the world.
References: 1. Book of Jin, 2. Zizhi Tongjian