Li Guang is a tragic figure in the history of the Western Han Dynasty. He fought all his life and made many military achievements, but he could not be crowned. In the end, he accompanied Wei Qing to attack the north of the desert, and because he lost his way, he actually committed suicide and died, leaving people with eternal regrets. What is strange is that Li Guang has a high popularity among the later border poets, and his famous poems describing him are popular. However, in contrast, Wei Qing and Huo, who really drove the Xiongnu out of the desert, rarely wrote poems to commemorate them. Speaking of the reasons, we can only say that some characteristics of Li Guang's body are very appetizing to the poets.
The first feature: Li Guang's personal force
Li Guang's ability to lead troops may not be top-notch. But when it comes to the value of personal force, he is definitely not inferior to any general. Of course, the strongest technique in his arsenal is the near-invincible archery technique.
When stationed in Shangjun, Li Guang led a small number of people to patrol the border and encountered the enemy's "archers". Behind the archers, there was a large number of Hun cavalry. Li Guang and dozens of people first used the tactics of suspicious soldiers, and the enemy decided to be deceived and then struggled to catch up. Li Guang bent his bow and arrows, firing arrows outside the enemy's range, and each arrow could kill an enemy soldier. It was precisely because of the shock of his own shooting that the enemy did not pursue closely, and Li Guang and these dozens of people were able to escape.
There is also a story that Li Guang was hunting one night, and found something like a tiger in the grass, so he shot an arrow. Because it was too late that day, he had to return to camp. The next morning, Li Guang came to see what he had shot last night, only to find that the feather arrow he had shot yesterday had plunged into the stone. The Tang Dynasty poet Lu Lun followed this story and wrote the famous poem "He Zhang Shu Shoots the Next Qu Qi":
The forest dark grass is frightening, and the general leads the bow at night.
Ping Ming looked for white feathers, not in the stone edge.
From these two stories, it can be seen that Li Guang's bow and arrow are both accurate and fierce, unparalleled in the world. And people with high force have a romantic chivalry in themselves. This kind of chivalry is exactly in contrast to the kind of freedom that poets pursue. Therefore, the high strength of Li Guang is more popular with a characteristic of the poet.
The second feature: the spirit of the bright sword
The "bright sword spirit" of the Li Guang family is in the same vein. From Li Xindang in the Qin Dynasty who only led 200,000 troops to destroy the Chu State, to Li Ling who led thousands of infantry to dare to fight against 100,000 Xiongnu cavalry, the people of their family seemed to have not cared about the difference in strength between themselves and their opponents. The same is true of Li Guang. During Emperor Wu of Han's first tentative attack on the Xiongnu, Li Guang's 10,000 soldiers encountered the main Xiongnu force. Li Guang is also not soft in the face of opponents ten times his own, and still chooses to fight with them. The final result was that the entire army was destroyed, and Li Guang was spared.
Judging only from the results of the battle, Li Guang's campaign was undoubtedly a failure. For those who are great generals, striving for victory is the first priority, and they cannot work recklessly when conditions are insufficient and fight for their own family foundations. However, if it is understood from the perspective of combat spirit, Li Guang's behavior is lofty. Just like the "bright sword spirit" mentioned by Li Yunlong in "Bright Sword", knowing that he is invincible, he must also bravely show his long sword and fight with his opponent to fight for your life! And this "bright sword spirit" is another spirit that the poets of the border plugs advocate: bravery. In this regard, there is indeed no one who has done a better job than Li Guang. This is the second characteristic of Li Guang's favorite poet.
The third feature: approachable and informal
Among the famous generals of the Han Dynasty, Li Guang's military discipline was relatively poor. In the previous battles against the Xiongnu, Li Guang's soldiers were not in order, moving around at will, so they often got lost. Turning over the history books, we can see that Li Guang would almost get lost every time he went out on a campaign, which was the main reason why he often lost time in battles and did not get the battle achievements.
But why did Li Guang's soldiers have poor military discipline? That's because Li Guangzhijun is too wide, too good for them! According to the "Chronicle of History", li guang would give any reward to his soldiers, so that for many years he was in a high position and had no money left at home; if a water source was found on the march, and the soldiers did not drink the water, Li Guang would not drink it. When the army eats, all the soldiers do not finish eating, he will not eat. At the same time, he often fell from a wide hair to soldiers who violated military discipline. So his soldiers liked him and were willing to die for him. It can be seen that although Li Guang's military discipline is not good, his personal popularity is particularly good.
In the final analysis, the poets are actually Confucians, and they accept Confucius's style of "treating others with leniency". Then, they must return to Li Guang, who is approachable and informal, and has an innate sense of closeness. This is the third characteristic of Li Guang's favorite poet.
The fourth feature: Li Guang's story and tragic ending
Li Guang was the most storytelling of the famous generals of the Han Dynasty, and his life was full of ups and downs. When he was young and should be doing something, he could not catch up with the strength of the country and could not make progress. When Li Guang saw Emperor Wen of Han, Emperor Wen of Han once sighed: "Unfortunately, such a brave general was not born at the right time." If it was in the time of Han Gaozu, the Marquis of Wanhu was he foot Daoya"; during the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wuchu, Li Guang fought under Zhou Yafu and was too brave to be valued by Liu Wu, the King of Liang. After the war, the King of Liang gave him the seal of general, and Li Guang did not resign, thus offending emperor Jing of Han and entering a strange circle of merit without reward; during the period of Emperor Wu of Han, the country was strong and willing to send troops to fight the Xiongnu, but Li Guang had already passed the peak period, and everything was in a hurry, but it was counterproductive, and he was never able to make meritorious contributions and could not be crowned marquis. A general with super ability like him, who has never been knighted, is very dramatic in itself. What's more, he, such an old general, actually ended up with a forced death ending, which naturally made people cry.
The story and the tragic ending are actually the most resonant with the poets. Only when a person has many stories, the poet will have more material; a person can only be tragic enough to make his story fascinating. Negative emotions often have a much greater impact on a person than positive emotions. This is the fourth characteristic that Li Guangzhao poets like. It is also this that makes the poets always avoid Wei Qing and Huo Qi, because these two people are too successful.