The feudal autocracy that has lasted for more than two thousand years since Qin Shi Huang in ancient China seems to have an unavoidable fate that plays an important role in it — every dynasty, whether strong or decaying, will eventually be replaced by new forces.
Take, for example, the Tang Dynasty, the most powerful of China's great unification dynasties. The Tang Dynasty was seized and established by Li's father and son from the hands of the Sui Emperor and various princes, starting from the founding of li yuan, to the wise and divine Li Shimin who created the rule of Tang Zhenguan, coupled with the diligence and earnestness of posterity, Datang became a rare era in Chinese history in which the economy and people's livelihood were strong.
But even such a dynasty still cannot escape the fate of collapse. Although the final collapse of the Tang Dynasty was due to the fact that its political system gave them too much power, resulting in their self-respect, Tang Xuanzong could not escape the main responsibility. Such a prosperous dynasty was finally destroyed under the internal and external attacks.
There is also a law of history - whenever a long-term and stable unified dynasty collapses, there will always be a period of war and chaos in which warlords are divided and wars are fought for years. The fall of the Qin Dynasty led to the chu-Han struggle, and the overthrow of the Great Han emerged from the three kingdoms for hegemony, and the same was true of the Tang Dynasty.
When the Tang Empire was completely overthrown, some of the great generals who once supported the army and respected themselves began to establish themselves as kings, and China entered the five generations and ten kingdoms of war. After years of conquest, the Northern Zhou general Zhao Kuangyin swept through the countries and added a yellow robe to establish a new generation of great unified dynasty, the Great Song Empire.
In the later years of the Tang Dynasty, the Huangchao Rebellion, which directly buried the fortunes of the Tang Dynasty, broke out. Although the momentum of this uprising was finally put down by the Tang army, it also directly dragged down the last barrier of the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Empire never had any power to fight back.
The following year, the region to which Datang belonged was born a rare wizard, although he came from a humble origin, his life deeds were rare "miracles" in the entire history of the world. No one, including his parents, had ever imagined that he would have such a great deal of energy.
This wizard is known as Hou Yi.
Hou Yinian was born into a peasant family, but he has been an extraordinary person since he was a child. At a young age, he was not willing to live a life facing the loess with his back to the sky, while others could eat and drink spicy. Therefore, when he grew up, he took advantage of the opportunity that appeared at the end of the Tang Dynasty due to the war and the fires, abandoning the peasants and joining the army.
Hou Yi was a proud and courageous man, plus he loved to dance knives and guns since he was a child, and he had trained a good skill since childhood, and he soon became an official and a half-post in the Tang Dynasty army.
But at that time, the Tang Empire was already a surviving force, and even the emperor could not protect himself, let alone serve as an official in the army. As mentioned above, after the Huangchao Uprising, the Tang Empire completely lost all its energy, just a fish meat to be slaughtered, and soon after, the glorious century-old Tang Dynasty collapsed, and history entered the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period was a rare period of war and chaos in Chinese history, and its degree of chaos could not be compared even with the famous Three Kingdoms period. In this era, dozens of large and small military separatist forces appeared in the Central Plains, and wars broke out against each other for power and wealth, and the people everywhere in the world lived in the depths of the water.
Not only the common people, but also the local separatist forces, the number of emperors who appeared in this period was even far more than the total number of emperors of the previous Tang Dynasty, but they were basically short-lived emperors - today they are called emperors, tomorrow they fall.
The people of that era were all following, or being forced to move forward in the course of history, and the same was true of Hou Yi.
But Hou Yi was a very intelligent person, he not only served in the Tang Empire, but also tried his best to successfully survive the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.
At a time when everyone felt precarious for their lives, he wandered between various forces, enjoyed glory and wealth, and finally lived to the establishment of the Great Song Dynasty.
When he lived to the establishment of the Song Dynasty, because of his special status, he was also treated with courtesy by Zhao Kuangyin, the founder of the Great Song Empire, and named him an important member of the Great Song Dynasty. In the end, this Tang Dynasty warlord passed away as a Song Dynasty official and enjoyed glory and wealth for a lifetime until he died of old age.
The story of Hou Yi's life cannot be included at all from a single history book of The History of Tang or the History of Song.
Why can Hou Yi live so gracefully? And can you survive the chaos and continue to serve as an official in the Great Unification Dynasty?
Except for his longevity— according to historical records. He was eighty years old at the time of his death—one of the most important reasons besides that was that he had never been loyal to any of the emperors. Different from the ancient belief in the way of loyalty to the king, Hou Yi completely went against his way, living only for himself all his life, and summed it up in the evaluation of him by the Later Han Emperor Liu Zhiyuan, which is eight words - "The Court of Maoshun, with a heart of two".
How did Hou Yi do it? His vision was very unique, always able to correctly judge the hour and size up the situation, and when the Later Jin Dynasty fell, he immediately defected to the Khitans; when the Khitan was defeated, he immediately defected to the Later Han. In his lifetime, he served a total of 13 emperors.
Hou Yi's actions were actually disgraced by everyone, but this was also caused by the persecution of the chaotic world. If it were not a chaotic world, how could he do such a scrupulous thing in order to save his life? However, his infamy for thousands of years is also worthy of his sacrifice of shame in exchange for a lifetime of wealth.