Liu Wenbinggui was the Earl of the Ming Dynasty, why did all 42 members of the family commit suicide in the end?
According to Liu Wenbing's biography, when Li Zicheng attacked Beijing at the end of the Ming Dynasty, all 42 members of Liu Wenbing's family committed suicide and ended their lives.
Speaking of Liu Wenbing's identity, it can be said that it is quite prominent. The daughter of Liu Wenbing's grandfather Liu Yingyuan became empress and became the Virgin of Zhu Changluo. Because of this relationship, Liu Wenbing's family became counts and continued until the Chongzhen Dynasty.
During the Chongzhen period, Liu Wenbing was still more heavily used. Liu Wenbing's brothers followed the ancestors to guard the Dong'an Gate of the Imperial City, Wen Yao guarded the Yongding Gate, and Yonggu guarded the Chongwen Gate. When the city of Beijing was destroyed, Chongzhen asked Liu Wenbing, can your family's Ding fight in the streets? He replied that he was outnumbered, but his home was already full of firewood and ready to set himself on fire behind closed doors. Thus there is a bridge section where the monarch and the courtiers meet and commit suicide.
The city of Beijing was destroyed, some of Liu Wenbing's family members hanged themselves, some people set themselves on fire, and Liu Wenbing himself committed suicide by throwing himself into a well. When the Southern Ming Dynasty was established, Zhu Yousong gave Liu Wenbing the nickname of "Loyalty".
If you summarize the reasons for the suicide of Liu Wenbing's family, in fact, there are only three points:
1, the emperor is generous, and shows loyalty with suicide, indicating that he will never surrender to the rebel army.
Feudal society placed great emphasis on personal dependency. Liu Wenbing's aunt was Chongzhen's grandmother, so she was a relatively powerful person in the Ming Dynasty. Now that the Ming Dynasty has fallen, he has martyred the country by suicide, which can also be regarded as a reward for the Chongzhen Emperor.
2, the rebel army into the city, I am afraid that the fate of suicide is not much better.
Usually, peasant rebels were demonized as cannibalistic thieves. It was Li Zicheng, who had stewed and eaten Zhu Changxun, the Fu king of Luoyang, who had attacked Beijing. Later facts showed that those princes and nobles who did not commit suicide were severely tortured, and all their family property was confiscated, and it was better to live than to die.
3, Liu Wenbing did not commit suicide, surrendered to the rebel army, and will also be laughed at.
Liu Wenbing is a Confucian intellectual who pays attention to loyalty and filial piety and benevolence, and the surrender of the rebel army is ""attached to the rebellion", which is disgraceful, even if he survives and achieves higher honors, he will still be shamed by posterity. Relatively speaking, choosing suicide is an act of small input and large output.
The governor said:
What should we do if we are invaded by a foreign enemy?
Wang Jingwei during the Xinhai Revolution said that we should sacrifice! We are willing to turn into firewood and dedicate our lives to cooking the rice of the revolution. However, what Wang Jingwei didn't know was that when the firewood died, it was dead, and the most painful thing was the iron pot.
It was only in the new-democratic revolution that we gradually realized this truth: "Only by surviving can we strike at the enemy!" ''
Therefore, from today's point of view, Liu Wenbing's death is not worth it!