Speaking of the emperors of ancient China, some of them were wise and wise, and with their shrewd political minds, they opened up territory and expanded the territory and stabilized the country and the people. And some of them are also born cruel and ruthless, levying heavy taxes and miscellaneous taxes for their own selfish desires, enslaving the people, and making the people live in the depths of the water. Today we will talk about the kings of bad reputation in history, are they really as brutal and have no merit as history says?
1. The King of Shang
When we think of the King of Shang, we will first think of the story of him and the demon concubine who brought calamity to the country and the people. However, judging from the historical description of these two people, it seems that there is an example to follow, and the story of the two of them is exactly the same as the "plot" of Xia Jie and Mei Xi in the previous period. They are all the same indulgence in beauty and disregard for the government and politics, they are all the same ruthless and unjust, they are all indiscriminately killing innocents, they are all the same enslavement of the people, and they are loyal and treacherous.
From this point, we can see that history actually has an unreal side. Turning to the pages of history, it is not difficult to find that there are almost no positive remarks in history about the evaluation of the last monarch, most of which are negative and demeaning. Therefore, the King of Shang, like Xia Jie, was also the king of the subjugated country, and naturally did not have any good evaluation in history.
Therefore, we cannot guess whether the King of Shang was as virtuous as history says. Because according to the above statement, history is basically a unified negative evaluation of the last monarch, so we cannot accurately infer who the King of Shang is based on history alone.
2. Qin Shi Huang
According to historical records, Qin Shi Huang was a tyrant, let's first talk about where the "tyranny" of Qin Shi Huang's rule is. First of all, Qin Shi Huang was very belligerent. As the founding monarch of the unification of the six kingdoms, he often launched various wars to invade other countries, causing the people to live in dire straits. Second, Qin Shi Huang enslaved the people. He often levied miscellaneous taxes to satisfy his own selfish desires, without the slightest regard for the living conditions of the people.
The laws promulgated by Qin Shi Huang were very strict, even to the point of being unreasonable. The above are all historical records, but when we think about these issues from another perspective, we will find that history actually has two sides. From the other side of Qin Shi Huang's belligerence, if Qin Shi Huang did not start a war and conquer the surrounding countries, how could he unify the whole country and better govern the entire society? Judging from the laws promulgated by Qin Shi Huang, perhaps some laws are indeed impersonal, but there are also progressive aspects, such as the Qin Dynasty law that overturned Sima Qian's stipulation that criminals must be executed after the deadline.
3. The Sui Emperor
Historical evaluation of the Sui Emperor has always escaped one word, that is, the abuse of people's power. For example, the events recorded in history, such as the Sui Emperor's thousands of miles to move the capital Luoyang, and the waste of a lot of financial and material resources to build the Grand Canal, all of which labeled the Sui Emperor as a tyrant. But most of us only look at the results and do not look at the process, have we carefully thought about why the Sui Emperor moved the capital to Luoyang, why he built the Grand Canal?
Combined with the social background at that time, in addition to the imperial family and the Han gate clan, there was also the door valve group. The gate valve group here actually had an extremely adverse impact on the highly unified centralized system, so the successive monarchs of the Sui Dynasty wanted to solve the door valve group through some means. Because of this, the Sui Emperor adhered to his father's legacy and did everything he did to get rid of the control of the Gate Valve clique politically.
From this point of view, history is often very harsh on monarchs who do more right and wrong things. Even if this person has contributed to the country and the people, because this person has done too many bad things, the good things he has done are not worth mentioning. This is also the legend that good things do not go out, and bad things travel thousands of miles. People are often not so interested in good things, but as long as there is a bad thing spreading, people will become instant gossip, and even add oil and vinegar, afraid that others will not know.
Therefore, in summary, when each of us faces history, we should use our own pair of eyes to distinguish between right and wrong, and we should not judge the people or events in history based on historical records alone. Although it is often said that reading history makes people wise, if we blindly follow the footsteps of history without dialectics, we will eventually bury our own thinking.
Conclusion: In addition, we should also break some incorrect historical rumors in time and speak with facts. This can not only restore the innocence of some historical figures, but also avoid future generations from going astray and causing unnecessary misunderstandings. Therefore, we must learn to use our own thinking to look at the people and events in history dialectically.