Real Liu Bowen.

Liu Ji, the word Berwyn. Now many books say that he was brilliantly intelligent, that he was like a god, that he was rich in literary and martial arts, that he had made strange plans and ingenious plans in the major battles of the past, that he had assisted Zhu Yuanzhang in calming down the various rebel forces in The Universe, and that he had established a complete system for the new dynasty in the military, political, financial, and other aspects, creating the first prosperous era of the early Ming Dynasty. Say what "former Dynasty military division Zhuge Liang, later Dynasty military division Liu Bowen". So, is the historical Liu Bowen really so great? Recently, the writer Tong Ping wrote an article pointing out that the historical Liu Bowen was neither a strategist with outstanding military talents, nor a successful politician, not even a noble hermit, he was just a Confucian with a great official addiction.

Is Liu Bowen really a genius military master?

Most books mention Liu Bowen's military talents and say that he was "radiant and flying, his personality was resolute, and his ambitions were extraordinary; Zhu Yuanzhang was overjoyed at first sight, and he worshipped Liu Bowen as a military teacher, and Zhu Yuanzhang was able to sweep away the masses at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and unify the world, and Liu Ji's merits were no less than those of Zhang Liang in the early Han Dynasty." ”

Tong Ping pointed out in the article that Liu Bowen had written two books related to the military. One is "A Hundred Battles and Strange Strategies", and the other is "Eighteen Strategies for Current Affairs". However, these two books not only have no historical record of citations, but now even the specific content is rarely mentioned, so it can be seen that they are two books of little value.

Judging from Liu Bowen's actual military records, some of them served as military staff officers in the official palace of the Yuan Dynasty to suppress peasant uprisings; and some of them defected to Zhu Yuanzhang, a peasant rebel army, as a staff officer of the rebel army.

Judging from his three or four years of military experience in the Yuan Dynasty government, he did not show any outstanding military talent.

From 1360 to September 1363, he served as Zhu Yuanzhang's military staff officer, of which he still had more than half a year to go home to keep filial piety, in fact, the time of joining the army was barely close to two years, and he was only one of Zhu Yuanzhang's many military staff officers, or even just one of the ordinary staff officers without any official title. In September 1363, when Zhu Yuanzhang went out again, he was no longer needed to accompany the army, and at this time, Zhu Yuanzhang's battle was far from being completed, so it is not difficult for us to see that Liu Bowen, a military staff officer, was actually almost dispensable for Zhu Yuanzhang.

Did Liu Bowen formulate a "great plan to pacify the world"?

Some books describe Zhu Yuanzhang's first elimination of Chen Youyu and then zhang Shicheng as a grand plan formulated by Liu Bowen to pacify the world. He even equated this grand plan with Zhuge Liang's Longzhong pair.

Tong Ping believes that this is purely a statement that is chiseled and does not conform to historical facts.

This great war took place in 1363, Liu Bowen was serving as a military staff officer under Zhu in early 1360, and by this time he had been serving for three years, but when Chen Youyu came to the door, Zhu Yuanzhang hurriedly built warships to meet the battle. What is even more frightening is that in this great battle, Zhu Yuanzhang was once surrounded by enemy regiments on a command ship, and if it were not for the subordinate general Han Cheng and Zhu Yuanzhang changing their robes and pretending to be Zhu Yuanzhang to commit suicide by diving to deceive the enemy, Zhu Yuanzhang would probably have been killed in this big battle. If Liu Bowen is really an excellent military master, can he let the manager take risks like this?

The victory of this great war basically laid the foundation for Zhu Yuanzhang to seize the world, if Liu Bowen was really the main hero of this war, not just an ordinary military staff officer, could Zhu Yuanzhang not think of Liu Bowen when he was a great meritorious man? However, in Zhu Yuanzhang's list of heroes in 1370, there was no name of Liu Bowen at all, and it was not until 20 days after the completion of the award that two third-class uncles were reappointed, and the last of them was ranked liu Bowen.

Tong Ping believes that the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang was made the last count of Liu Bowen was mainly not to value his military contributions, but more to see his achievements in preparing for the throne, building the city of Nanjing, serving as a royal history order, building the "Great Ming Law", and restoring the imperial examination, plus his special status in the Yuan Dynasty, following Zhu Yuanzhang for 10 years, when he was already 60 years old, so he symbolically gave him a knighthood.

Is Liu Bowen a retired hermit?

Liu Bowen's meritorious retirement and repeated resignations are also a highlight that people talk about, especially the literati of the Ming and Qing dynasties who advocated Confucianism, and even deliberately dressed Liu Bowen as a hermit who retired like Zhang Liang.

Tong Ping pointed out in the article that just a little analysis of Liu Bowen's performance in each resignation and each "resignation without reluctance" can be seen that every time he resigns from the official position has almost nothing to do with being a hermit.

Liu Bowen's first resignation was in 1340, after four or five years of county decrees in the Yuan Dynasty, he resigned on suspicion that the official position was too small, there was no opportunity for promotion, and he had a bad relationship with his colleagues. In 1349, he resigned for the second time because he had to resign because he had crossed the line to report that other officials were being reprimanded by his superiors. Although he had resigned twice, he still couldn't see it, and in 1352, as soon as a friend recommended him to be an official to "quell the chaos", he immediately agreed to do it without hesitation.

Liu Bowen resigned for the third time in 1358 because he was once promoted to five pins, then demoted to seven pins, and was also deprived of the qualifications to participate in the military, so he resigned in anger. Fortunately, thanks to this resignation, he may later be hired by Zhu Yuanzhang to become an official.

Liu Bowen served as a local official in the Yuan Dynasty for 25 years and a central official under Zhu Yuanzhang for 10 years. Although Liu also belonged to one of Zhu's founding fathers, he did not expect to be symbolically sealed in the last place, which was probably a deep loss for Liu Bowen, who had a strong sense of official desire. It was this sense of loss, coupled with the fact that he was already 60 years old at the time, and seeing that he did not expect to get a greater promotion, he wanted to try the trick of resigning from the official to see if Zhu Yuanzhang would particularly retain him and give him an official because of this, unfortunately, Emperor Zhu immediately did not care to let him go home.

Why did the Ming court think of deifying Liu Bowen?

In 1514, 139 years after Liu Bowen's death, the Ming court suddenly granted Liu Bowen the title of Grand Master, Yuwen Cheng. It is said that he was "generous and ambitious, resolute and resourceful, and learned to be an imperial teacher, before he was called Wang Zuo", "a strategist who crossed the river was unparalleled, and the founding scholar was the first". Why did the Ming Emperor suddenly think of giving Liu Bowen a gift after his death 139 years later?

Tong Ping believes that there may be the following factors:

First, among the founding heroes who followed Zhu Yuanzhang, many were killed by Zhu Yuanzhang, so it was Liu Bowen's turn. According to historians' statistics, of the 37 meritorious men who were appointed in 1370, 31 were killed, charged, or stripped of their titles before Zhu Yuanzhang's death, or their father or son, including those who were assassinated. Since these people have been designated as bad people by Zhu Yuanzhang, when deifying Zhu Yuanzhang, they naturally can no longer be used as foils, so that Liu Bowen, who was originally ranked after 40, will be mentioned as "the strategy of crossing the river is unparalleled, and the founding minister is the first".

Second, Liu Bowen's responsibility under Zhu Yuanzhang was the Taishi Ling, an official position that, in addition to compiling almanacs, was also responsible for observing celestial phenomena, as well as drafting documents, planning orders, recording historical events, compiling history books, state classics, and sacrifices. Predicting that Zhu Yuanzhang is the "true son of heaven" through Liu Bowen is even more deceptive