Because Sima Qian was punished by the palace, he gave the impression that he would not have offspring, but this was not the case. Born in 145 BC or 135 BC, he lobbied for Li Ling in 99 BC and was sentenced to prison for false accusations. At this time, he should be in his 30s or 40s, and in that era, he could not have not started a family.
Although the Book of Han is a biography of Sima Qianli, it is more inclined to his history, thoughts and spirit of writing history, perhaps out of some taboo, and does not mention his wife's surname and name, nor does it tell his "love story", so this leaves a lot of room for imagination for folk history.
However, Sima Qian's daughter Sima Ying, as recorded in the Book of Han, married Yang Chang, the chancellor of the Han Zhao Emperor, and her descendants became the famous Hongnong Yang clan, and the Sui Wen Emperor Yang Jian and the Sui Emperor Yang Guang also came from this lineage. During the Tang Dynasty, this family produced 11 prime ministers, known as the "Family of Prime Ministers", and even Tang Taizong Yang Concubine, Wu Zetian's mother Yang Shi, Tang Xuanzong's beloved concubine Yang Yuhuan and others were related to this family. The well-known Yang surname Wenhao in history includes Yang Xiu, Yang Jiong, Yang Ningshi, Yang Shi, Yang Wanli, Yang Dayi, etc. also from this Yang surname.
Such a prominent family may be able to give Sima Qian under Jiuquan some comfort, and Ye Shi also weaves a beautiful marriage story for him, in which he not only has a wife and a concubine, but is also rumored to be a beautiful person in the world, and all belong to the category of daring to love and hate, silently dedicating himself to his husband and even sacrificing. Let's start with his wife.
How beautiful Sima Qian's wife looked, it was not said in folk stories, but she was given a very exciting name - Liu Qianniang. Today, some local history experts say that this Liu Qianniang is a native of Qin'an, Gansu Province, the granddaughter of Li Guang, and her father is named Liu Zhenting, who is a reader who loves calligraphy and painting. Born in such a family, Liu Qianniang received the influence of culture from an early age, and also learned to paint, and before marrying Sima Qian, she became a famous local painter and talented woman. This, in our words today, is a young woman in literature and art.
When she was about fifteen or sixteen years old, Liu Qianniang was invited by her cousin Li Ling to visit her grandfather in Chang'an. Li Ling was born in 134 BC and was good friends with Sima Qian. After liu Qianniang's arrival, her cousin Li Ling took her on a sightseeing tour in Chang'an, and also let her know Sima Qian, who was full of learning and talent, and from then on, the two fell in love with each other and married. This meant that Sima Qian and Li Ling had relatives, and Li Ling became Sima Qian's brother-in-law. According to this, some good people later defended Li Ling and was punished by the palace because of this relationship.
However, Sima Qian defended himself on this issue before these good people. He said in the "Book of Baoren An": The husband and servant and Li Ling live under the door, and they cannot be kind to each other. Fun to give a different way, did not taste a cup of wine, and received a lot of hospitality. However, the servants look at him as a man, keep himself a stranger, do filial piety, be faithful to the soldiers, be honest with the wealth, take the righteousness, give the right, let go, be courteous and frugal, and often think of fighting hard in spite of himself, in order to martyr the country's urgency. The accumulation of its elements also thinks that it has the style of a national soldier. The lady's courtiers have died in spite of their life's plans, and the difficulties of going to the public house have been strange. Now the deeds are not done properly, and the servant who protects his wife with all his body follows the iniquity of his shortcomings, and the servant is sincere and selfish.
Meaning: Li Ling and I were both officials in the DPRK and China, and we never had much contact, and the goals we pursued and opposed were different, and we never raised a glass of wine together and expressed friendly feelings for each other. However, when I observe Li Ling's personality, he is indeed an unusual person who observes discipline and ethics: he serves his parents and preaches filial piety, communicates with friends and keeps promises, is very honest when he encounters money, or takes or gives it to him, is courteous and humble, is humble and courteous, respectfully and humbles himself, and always considers the urgency of going to the country regardless of his body. The virtues he has accumulated throughout his history, I think, have the demeanor of a national soldier. It is rare for a person to be a subject, from going to the country for the sake of death and disregarding the consideration of life, which is already rare. Now, as soon as he has acted improperly, and those courtiers who are only concerned with preserving their own lives and the interests of their wives and children, they will follow suit, stir up right and wrong, exaggerate their mistakes, and cause trouble to others, and I really feel deep pain from the bottom of my heart.
In this regard, what we want to say is that when some people read history, they always like to dig up some "scraps" to restate and analyze at the bends in the song or on the sheep intestine trail, but they don't know that it is just some fun after tea and dinner, and it does not affect the macroscopic history at all, nor is it the correct attitude required for reading history and learning history, which is not a big mistake, but what excavators should not forget the most is that they present people with some beautiful things in the "scrap material", not similar to Sima Qian's vulgar relationship with Li Ling's brother-in-law.
Detour and we will come back again. It is said that after Sima Qian and Liu Qianniang formed a good relationship, he began his "internship career", which should be practice in ancient words, which is different from what we have now, graduating from college and going to a unit for internship, and then going to work. The ancients are actually a kind of practice, the so-called reading thousands of books to travel thousands of miles, we understand that it is reading thousands of books is equal to walking thousands of miles, not so in the ancients, after reading thousands of books to go thousands of miles, after reading the need to travel through the famous mountains and rivers, the knowledge learned and the reality of the combination, in order to be considered "graduation". Otherwise, people will say that you are an unqualified "graduate".
At the same time, the ancients treated marriage and things differently from those we have now. The ancients said that starting a family means to establish a family in order to create a business. Starting a family comes first, and entrepreneurship comes later. Now it is just the opposite, first find a unit to go to work, or open a company or something, have a career to earn money, and then consider starting a family. I think that this can at least make the wife financially secure, so one by one has become an unmarried older youth on the road to entrepreneurship. It's hard to tell who's good and who's bad.
With a home, Sima Qian began his own travels, Liu Qianniang took care of the affairs of the family, waiting for her husband who returned from the internship to become a great instrument and contribute to the country and society. At that time, this point should be called "learning and excellence". On the way to travel, Sima Qian met another beautiful love of his own.
It is said that Sima Qian came to a ferry port one day and needed a ferry, and the ferryman was an old man who took the initiative to talk to Sima Qian. Chatting and chatting, the two had a good feeling for each other, and the old man who ferry asked Sima Qian if he had a family, and Sima Qian told the truth. The old man of the ferry was silent for a while and said, "Son, I can see that you are a good person, and it is nothing to start a family... I have been alone all my life, only such a daughter, I can't let go of her... In the future, if I go, I don't know who she will be bullied... A few days ago, a prince from the government came and tried to rob her... If the prince is not disgusted, is it okay to take the little girl into the door as a concubine? ”
Before Sima Qian could say anything, the old man's girlfriend who was ferrying the ferry drank a voice, oh yo, this voice roared so green that it was full of green mountains and mist, and the mist flowed white, and at once the soul of Sima Qian was hooked. This voice may be similar to the trumpet of gonggong in the book, after which the girlfriend sang a mountain song, singing the river water jubilantly, singing Sima Qian's heart fluttering, and finally agreed to this family affair.
Since then, Sima Qian had a wife and a concubine, and he returned home with a concubine named Sui Qingyu from the boat family, who soon gave birth to two men and a woman for him, and the family's life was happy and harmonious. But later, Sima moved to prison, and his family, anticipating the impending disaster, began to flee and take refuge. His two sons changed the two characters in "Sima" separately during their escape, adding the word "Si" to "Tong" and the word "Ma" to the first name of "Feng", which became another source of these two surnames, but there is no following in the long river of history. Her daughter Sima Ying married Yang Chang, the chancellor of the Han Zhao Emperor, and saved the Records of History and allowed it to be passed on to future generations. His wife and concubines all escaped into the empty door to cut their hair as nuns.
This matter should be said to have ended here, but in the Tang Dynasty, Sima Qian's concubine Sui Qingyu "appeared". Legend has it that in September of the second year of Yonghui (651 AD), the great Tang Dynasty calligrapher Chu Suiliang was demoted to a position in Tongzhou because of his dissatisfaction with Wu Zetian's rule. One evening, I suddenly dreamed of SuiQing entertainment, and there was a conversation between the two. This leads to the later "Epitaph of Sima Qian's Concubines with Qing Yu", which reads:
In September of the second year of Yonghui, Yu Stabbed Tongzhou and sat quietly in the West Hall at night. If there is none, yu dreamed and woke up, saw a woman with high hair and makeup, and wept Yu Yue: "Concubine Han Taishi Sima Qian's concubine, Zhao Zhi Pingyuan, surname with the name Qing Entertainment." In the seventeenth year, he moved to the famous mountains and brought concubines here. Will move to Beijing, concubines live in the same place, and later move, concubines are also sad, looking for a reason, buried in the west of Changle Pavilion. The Heavenly Emperor's concubines did not finish the heavenly years, so they sied this land. Time shifts, who knows for me? Where is blood food? The king will also take the lord and his land, and do not divide the people and gods, and beg for a word to be inscribed on the tomb, so as to be immortal. "Yu Felt Mingzhi. Inscription: "Lady of the World, the posture of the world." The gentleman of the matter, the final ambition. For tens of billions of years, blood has eaten in Si. ”
Translation: In September of the second year of Yonghui, I served as the assassin of Tongzhou. One night, I was sitting quietly in the West Hall, and in that trance, half dreaming and half awake, I saw a woman with high hair and a dress, and she cried and said to me: "I am the concubine of Sima Qian of the Han Dynasty, a plain man of ZhaoDi, whose surname is Qingyu with his name." When I was seventeen years old, I began to serve Sima Qian, because he traveled around the famous rivers and mountains and brought me here. Just at this time, he went to Chang'an, and I stayed in Tongzhou. Later, Sima Qian died, and I was also overly saddened, and soon died and was buried on the west side of the Changle Pavilion. Heaven, having mercy on me for not being able to enjoy my full years, put me in charge of this land. But times change, who knows me? Where are the sacrifices? You will also be in charge of this place, regardless of the separation of man and god, and I beg you for a word inscribed on the tombstone in order to pass on immortality. "I sighed and understood, and inscribed this matter. The inscription reads: Sigh, you lady, with an immortal appearance; serve the gentleman, but you have not fulfilled your heart; for hundreds of billions of years, enjoy the sacrifice here.
Tongzhou , now Dali County , Weinan City. How authentic is the "Tombstone of Sima Qian's Concubine with Qing Entertainment"? People today study it more as a work of calligraphy. In addition, in June of the sixteenth year of qing shunzhi (1659 AD), Xu Qilin, the governor of Taiyang County, also had a similar dream to Chu Suiliang. In the dream, Xu Qilin, who was accompanied by Qing Yutuo, carved the epitaph written by Chu Suiliang for her on a stone stele and embedded it in the Sima Qian Ancestral Hall a hundred miles away. Although Xu Qilin had no belief in the things of the gods and ghosts, out of pity and admiration for Sui Qingyu, he complied.
At this point, we may be able to understand the truth that people always like to make up for the lack of spread of canonical history, because it seems that only in this way can history be complete. In sima Qian's legendary love story, people have both sympathy for the injustices he has suffered, and even more respect for his writings and singing of ancient and modern songs. Why? For the human heart is always good and beautiful, and history should be like this.
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