As an ancient Festival in China, the Cold Food Festival originally appeared in the image of a festival day, and was sacrificed by a person named Jiezi Tui, a sage of the Jin Dynasty during the Spring and Autumn Period. The story of Meson Tui and Jin Wengong was almost a household name in China during the Han and Tang dynasties. Everyone says that this festival was set up by Jin Wengong to commemorate the meson who was burned to death by himself. But when we look at the history books, we will find that the truth of the matter is not so.
Heavy ears may not be "arsonists"
JieZi Tui was a sage of the Jin Dynasty during the Spring and Autumn Period, and the story about him was first found in the Zuo Zhuan, which is very concisely recorded. The story goes something to the effect that:
In his early years, Jie Zitui went into exile with Duke Wen of Jin, and after Duke Wen of Jin returned to China, he rewarded those who had followed him into exile. The meson pushed lu without saying a word, and Lu also went into hiding with his mother, and died soon after. Jin Wen went to look for Mezi Tui afterwards, but did not find it, so he sealed a piece of land for him, which was a reward to remind him of his mistakes.
This is the most primitive and authoritative material about the history of meson pushing.
From this passage of material, we do not see the author describing the cause of death of meson push. The original proponent of the claim that he was burned to death was Zhuang Zhou (Zhuangzi) in the middle of the Warring States period. Zhuangzi in his writings
The Zhuangzi mentions the cause of death of Mezi Tui, saying that he was "burned to death by holding a tree".
After Zhuangzi, Qu Yuan was there again
In the "Chu Ci", he continued to invent and create a new method of death for meson pushing- "Standing Dry",
It is said that the meson push was burned to death while standing.
As we all know, Zhuangzi was a famous thinker and writer in the middle of the Warring States period. People who have seen "Zhuangzi" know his literary imagination like Kunpeng spreading its wings and hanging down to the sky. Qu Yuan was the greatest poet of the Warring States period, and the Chu Ci itself was a literary work, so there was no need to explain it more.
Therefore, the claims of Zhuangzi and Qu Yuan are not recognized by later historians. In Sima Qian's "Records of History", the theory that Mezi Tui was burned to death was not adopted, or according to the "Zuo Zhuan", it is said that Mezi Tui only went into hiding and finally died. since
According to Shinshi, then The Heavy Ear had never found the meson push, and there was no way to say that he had been set on fire.
Second, the historical evolution of the meson push legend
The meson push legend we see today is actually created after thousands of years of collective processing by various thinkers and writers. Where He was originally from, where he was born and where he died, there was no clear record of him, but he was written into the book "Zuo Zhuan"
。 Later, in the Warring States period, he suddenly became a "red paragraph", and many classic works, including Zhuangzi, Chu Ci, and Lü Shi Chunqiu, quoted his story.
However, when citing this story, scholars have encountered a big problem. Scholars cite stories to prove that Meson Tui is the Sage of the Ancients, or to prove that Heavy Ear is a Ming Jun who knows what can be changed. But, from either angle, the story is mutilated and vague. Because
Although the "Left Biography" explains the characters, time and places in the story, it does not explain the "process" in it.
Why Jie Zitui did not want to accept the reward, and why he finally left the Jin Kingdom, these are not explained.
To cite such an example is not to be trusted. So scholars have launched a "relatively reasonable" historical speculation on the basis of the original story. In terms of the death method of meson pushing, Zhuangzi first proposed that the ending of meson pushing was "burned to death", that is, it was burned; later Qu Yuan said that the meson push was "standing dry", that is, holding a tree and being burned to death.
In addition to proposing the death method of meson pushing, Zhuangzi also added details of the story, such as "cutting his shares to eat Wengong".
In this way, scholars shape the image of the magi of the meson.
Modern people generally think that this is impossible, and you can't cut your thighs anywhere, because if you cut the arteries, you will die if you lose too much blood. However, later scholars thought that this detail was very typical and retained it.
The author of "Lü's Spring and Autumn" felt that it was not enough to say that the meson pushed "cutting the stock", so he added a new detail, saying: "(The meson pushed) hanging at the door of the palace and lying down the mountain", explaining his motives for fleeing. The Western Han Dynasty's "Saying Garden" re-embellished this detail, and it became the door pushed by the meson to hold him unevenly, and the book was hung under the palace.
This book is written in the legendary "Dragon and Snake Poem", which is about the legend of the meson push. The original version of the original version before the Western Han Dynasty is relatively easy to obtain on the Internet, and now the translation is listed below for your reference.
O healthy dragon, you were displaced. Five magi follow you, desperate for the end of the world. You are hungry, your life is on the verge of death, and a magi (meson push) cut off his leg to feed you. Later you ascended the throne, and all four magi were enfeoffed. The man who cut the flesh and fed you got nothing. He's crying in the field right now, do you hear me?
Third, the literary theme and derivative supporting roles of the meson push legend
1. Keep your promises
Having said the historical speculation of ancient philosophers and thinkers on the meson-pushing legend, let's talk about some of the "literary imagination" of this story in later generations.
Although the "dragon and snake poems" in the Western Han Dynasty's "Saying Garden" also belong to literary processing, on the whole, they are still a "reasonable imagination" of real history. However, in the "Biography of Han Shi", the author Han Bao has begun to add more details to the story of the meson letter. For example, it is mentioned that he was starving and begging for food from the villagers, only to be teased and ridiculed with dirt blocks. Later, he ate the meat of the meson push and promised to repay the meson push in the future, but he reneged on his promise.
The whole story seems to be getting more and more rounded, as if the author saw it with his own eyes, and distilled a theme for the story - Jin Wengong did not keep his original promise to meson Tui. In ancient times, confucianism was most important to faith and righteousness, because with this excellent theme, the meson push became the object of the cold food festival sacrifice, and it became more convincing.
However, the ancients did not stop in this place, and the further back they went, the bigger their brain holes opened. Later, they were not satisfied with creating side plots at all, and they began to create "new characters" for this story!
2. The legend of the meson push and the "jealous woman" and "jealous woman"
Chao Ye You Zai is a Tang Dynasty novel. The novel mentions: "It is said that the jealous woman, the sister of the meson push." ”
It says that the "jealous girl" is the sister of the meson, which has never been mentioned in the previous literature. In the folk legend, the "jealous girl" and the meson push the fighting bridge section, the meson push does not let the fire, the sister has to make a fire.
In the Qing Dynasty, there was a legend of "Meson Pushing Fire Sealed Jealous Woman", saying that the wife of Meson Tui was a jealous woman. Because meson pushes often ten days and half a month without going home, she suspects that her husband has someone outside. So she pushed the meson and tied it up and tortured him. Just happened to come to the middle of the ear to push, and if you can't find it, you set it on fire. As a result, the bound meson could not escape, and the jealous woman could not escape, so she threw herself into the fire and hugged him and was burned.
epilogue
The legend of Mezi Tui originated in the Zuo Zhuan, which flourished mainly in the middle and late Warring States period and the Han Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty and before, it was closely combined with the Cold Food Festival. By the time of the Song Dynasty, the Cold Food Festival had been forgotten. However, in the first-hand historical material "Zuo Biao", in the end, Jin Wengong did not find The Mezi Tui, so he did not have the opportunity to set fire to the Mezi Tui.
The fire and meat cut by the meson push were just imagined by Zhuangzi, Qu Yuan and other literati to help him "complete". On this basis, the story of the meson push has gradually become a variety of "entertainment novels". However, it does not matter whether the meson pushes whether he has cut meat or not, whether he is burned to death, what is important is his own deeds and the influence of the deeds created by the literati!