Fate, the future, prophecy, prophets, these words are often associated with metaphysics, and when it comes to metaphysics, there are many famous metaphysicians in ancient China, who seem to have some special method, which can see the deeper historical laws through the appearance of things, so as to make predictions in advance of some major historical events.
Liu Bei had been prophesied to "be the son of heaven", Cao Cao had been evaluated as "a capable minister who ruled the world, a traitor to the chaotic world", and Liu Bang's father-in-law Lü Gong felt that he had a good appearance the first time he saw his appearance, and had to marry his daughter to him; there are countless similar examples in the history books, which are all concluded in the records because of the face, and in the Old Book of Tang, there is also a mention of a face-to-face master Yuan Tiangang.
Yuan Tiangang has a great reputation in the folk, not because he has done many vigorous and great things, such as creating a dynasty and the like, but because his "prophecy" and "face-to-face" are very accurate, not just accurate in folk rumors, so simple, if it is true and then it will become blind, the Old Book of Tang remembers very clearly those things that Yuan Tiangang met, such as Yuan Zengxiang Wutian:
"So he stepped in front of the bed, still raising his eyes, and Tiangang was astonished: 'This lang gentleman has a dragon's eye and a phoenix's neck, and the noble man's extreme is also."' ”
"Turning his side to look at it even more, he was shocked: 'If she is a woman, she will not be able to see it, and then she will be the Lord of the world!' ”
Wu Zetian was born in 624, and according to historical records, Gao Shilian (575-647), the chancellor of the early Tang Dynasty, once asked Yuan Tiangang about his life expectancy, and when he asked this question, he was the Duke of Shenguo (638), although the history books do not record the year of Yuan Tiangang's birth and death, but we can speculate that Yuan Tiangang should have been born during the period from the Northern Weekend to the beginning of the Sui Dynasty, and Tang Taizong died during his reign.
According to the Taiping Guangji, Yuan Tiangang liked the art of Taoism, although he was lonely and bitter from an early age, he practiced Taoism very hard, which books he read we do not know, but for Xiang shi, it is easy to understand astronomy these are necessary skills; none of those who Yuan Tiangang has seen and accurately predicted his future fate are idle people:
Du Yan, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, the uncle of Du Ruyi in the "Fangmou Du Duan", was appointed imperial master during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang, and then to the official Shangshu who participated in the government, this person was not very clean and did not come with Tang Taizong's wife and uncle, Changsun Wujie, and died of illness in 628, that is, the second year of Tang Taizong Zhenguan's illness;
Dou Rail, the governor of Luozhou in the Tang Dynasty, his ancestors were officials in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the official was the supreme pillar state, Dou Rail fought with Li Yuan, and also fought with Emperor Taizong Li Shimin, quelled the rebellion of the Qiang people, participated in the attack on Xue Rengao, Wang Shichong, etc., and made many achievements, but this man ruled the army particularly harshly, was removed by Li Yuan because of lack of attention to restraint, and then resumed his official position, becoming the governor of Yizhou, etc., and died in 630.
Coupled with Wu Zetian,a figure of considerable weight, Yuan Tiangang accurately predicted their fate one by one, making him more and more famous, and even alarmed Tang Taizong, and the anecdotes of Yuan Tiangang's dialogue with Taizong were also passed down.
"Poor night half empty seat, do not ask Cangsheng to ask ghosts and gods", ancient emperors more or less have such a habit, although Tang Taizong is not an emperor who does not care about the suffering of the people, but he asked Yuan Tiangang not about civil affairs, but the problem of the state of the Tang Dynasty. This question is very difficult to answer, if you tell the truth, I am afraid that it will annoy the emperor, but if you do not say anything, it may also cause the wrath of the Son of Heaven.
The wrath of the Son of Heaven lay down millions of bloody corpses, Yuan Tiangang knew it, so he gave a plausible answer, when the pig goes up the tree, Tang will die! No matter how many things you do, you can't leak the sky again. So what did Yuan Tiangang mean by these words?
The "History of the Old Five Dynasties" records the answer: "The first month of the first year of the Heavenly Emperor ... When the time comes, it will be discussed to drive east of Luoyang. ”
This is said that after the Later Liang founding emperor Zhu Wen was enfeoffed with Tang Jiedu, his power gradually expanded, and he dared to force emperor Tang Zhaozong to move the capital to Luoyang, following Cao Cao's example of "holding the son of heaven hostage to order the princes", and soon Tang Zhaozong was killed by Zhu Wen's orders, and Zhu Wen li Zhaozong's 13-year-old ninth son Li Li became emperor, known in history as Emperor Tang Ai, and by 907, Li Fang was forced to give the throne to Zhu Wen, and the Tang Dynasty collapsed, and Li Tao was also killed the following year.
So from this point of view, the "pig" in Yuan Tiangang's mouth is "Zhu", that is, zhu Wen, but unfortunately Tang Taizong failed to understand the deep meaning, mistakenly thinking that the matter of the pig on the tree is simply impossible, so Tang Will never die. Yuan Tiangang escaped the disaster.
This story is widely circulated in the folk, but the authenticity is very doubtful, neither the Old Book of Tang nor the New Book of Tang is mentioned, but the rumor of the "heroine Wu Clan" is recorded in the main history, then we can completely conclude that Yuan Tiangang predicted that Wu Zetian could get the world is true, and predicting that Tang's national fortune will end in the hands of Zhu Wen is false.
As for why this prophecy can be as deeply rooted in the hearts of the people as the "heroine Wu Shi", it is likely that Yuan Tiangang is shrouded in too many mysteries, mysterious, famous, all the metaphysics associated with him has become reasonable, someone has borrowed his name to create anecdotal stories to attract people's attention, if the real Yuan Tiangang knows, I am afraid that he will laugh at the world for worshiping himself too blindly.