Yang Shen of the Ming Dynasty wrote in "Linjiang Xian , Rolling Yangtze River East Passing Water" that "Rolling Yangtze River East Passing Water, Waves Panning Gold Heroes." Success or failure turns empty. The green mountains are still there, and the sunset is red several times", using this verse to express the generosity of the impermanence of the world, the change of heroes from generation to generation, but the green mountains and green waters are always present.
It is true that in the history of China for thousands of years, I don't know how many amazing heroes and heroes have emerged, but in the end they still can't beat the washing of the times and disappear into the long river of history. The Liu Chan we want to talk about is exactly the pearl of history, most people only know one of them, thinking that he has no ambition and no political talent, but in fact, the real Liu Chan is also a wise and foolish character.
First, after Liu Chan surrendered, he avoided death with three characters
The Eastern Han Dynasty was a very glorious and chaotic era in ancient Chinese history, when Emperor Xiandi of Han was weak and incompetent, and many warlords frequently rose up, and Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, Liu Biao and others all began to accumulate power at this time. In the later period, it became the song that sang that "the three kingdoms were divided at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty", and the three families of Cao Wei, Shu, Han, and Sun Wu stood in the three sides of the mainland, fighting wits and courage to clamp each other down.
We will not repeat the process of the Three Kingdoms struggle for hegemony, and the most dramatic thing is that the final outcome of the Wei Shu Wu Three Kingdoms Struggle for Hegemony is not that one of the three parties dominates, but instead makes a wedding dress for the Sima family. What is even more interesting is that after Sima Zhao became emperor, the State of Shu, under the leadership of Liu Chan, directly surrendered to the State of Wei, but Sima Zhao not only did not kill Liu Chan, the king of the fallen country, but even made him a Duke of Anle.
There is an interesting story recorded that when Liu Chan was imprisoned in the Wei Imperial Palace, Sima Zhao once suspected that he had the intention of restoring the country. And Liu Chan himself is also very aware of Sima Zhao's ideas, so he simply hung a sign at the door of his room, on which were written "Zhongshan Village" three big characters, so that many people think it is very funny, this is to give their own house a name?
So someone reported this matter to Sima Zhao, who thought that Sima Zhao would order someone to thoroughly investigate this matter, but he did not expect that Sima Zhao would start laughing after listening to it, and with a wave of his hand, he decided to save Liu Chan from death. This made his ministers very puzzled, and only after Sima Zhao laughed enough did he explain that the original three words of "Zhongshan Village" were pronounced backwards, and it became "in the mountains", which was Liu Chan's expression that he wanted to return to the mountains and forests, and he had no two hearts.
This small story of avoiding death is very interesting, but in fact, there was a story of "happy not thinking about Shu" before this, which also made Sima Zhao dispel a lot of doubts.
At that time, Sima Zhao set up a banquet in the palace, inviting Liu Chan and the old ministers of the Shu Kingdom to dinner, and whether it was the songs played or the dances rehearsed at the banquet, they all had a strong Shu style. At that time, all the former ministers of the Shu Kingdom were a little nostalgic and put down their chopsticks one after another, but only Liu Chan was still as usual, and even when Sima Zhao asked him if he missed his homeland, he said a sentence of "Happy not to think of Shu", which instantly reassured Sima Zhao a lot and spared himself from death.
Second, how to evaluate Liu Chan?
In fact, from these two short stories, we can see that Liu Chan is not just a wine bag, although he himself has no lofty ambitions, but his ability and intelligence are still worthy of affirmation, otherwise how can he become a rare kind of king of the fallen country who lives well in history?
In fact, Liu Chan, the "unsupportable Ah Dou", did not want to lead the Shu kingdom to glory, but the development of a country was not only determined by the emperor alone, and the situation at that time was also very important. At that time, the Sima family was powerful, and basically there was no chance to overthrow it, and Liu Chan's choice to surrender at this time was actually the choice that was most in line with the interests of the moment under the balance.
What's more, after the two pillars of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang passed away one after another, Liu Chan, relying on the "talent of Ah Dou", actually continued the Shu kingdom for more than thirty years, which can also prove that Liu Chan did have some talents, which we can analyze in detail.
The first is that he knows how to delegate power and know how to use people well. After Liu Chan inherited his father's throne, he was not carried away by power, but very obediently chose to believe in Zhuge Liang, basically everything was left to Zhuge Liang to deal with, and he was also responsible for some sacrificial matters.
The second is Liu Chan's generosity and benevolence. Because everyone calls Liu Chan "the Ah Dou who can't be supported", he has not actually been influenced by any power since he was a child, but is very close to the people. Therefore, after he ascended the throne, he focused on improving the quality of life of the residents of the Shu kingdom, building water conservancy projects, reducing taxes, etc., so that the people of the Shu country could at least spend a period of stability and prosperity in that chaotic world.
In the end, he knows how to be patient and can let go of his own selfish interests. In fact, when Sima Zhao was in power in power of the State of Wei, the general trend of the world had basically been determined, and if Liu Bei was still in power, he would definitely choose to fight with the State of Wei to break the net, until the death of the country could not be stopped.
But Liu Chan did not think so, he understood that it was difficult to overthrow the State of Wei with his own strength, so he did not stay in his position as emperor, nor did he force his civilian officials and military generals to fight for themselves or for the Shu State, decisively chose to surrender, preserved the names of the Wenwu Hundred Officials and the Shu State Cangsheng, and later did not hesitate to pretend to be stupid and protect himself, becoming the Duke of Wei, looking at it, Liu Chan was definitely one of the kings of the fallen country with a good fate in history.
III. What happened to the kings of the fallen kingdoms in history?
Speaking of this problem, don't look at the beautiful scenery of the emperors when they were in power, the whole world can not be the royal land, but once there is a coup, they are driven off the dragon throne by their nemesis or even their brothers, then their fate is really worse than the ordinary people at the lowest level, not only to suffer humiliation, but even to die a very tragic death.
Some emperors were imprisoned after losing their position as leaders, and their status and status were really inferior to those of slaves, often in a state of hunger and five meals for three days, especially those small officials responsible for delivering meals would deliberately rebuke them, often deliberately not to send them food, such as Emperors such as King Wuling of Zhao and Duke Huan of Qi, who were eventually starved to death.
There are also some emperors who are pulled down by their nemesis, and their fate will be even more tragic, and they will be directly tortured to death or poisoned. For example, Emperor Xiaowu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Emperor Jianwen of Southern Liang were finally smothered alive. In addition, hanging is also one of the very common endings, such as the Sui Dynasty Emperor Yang Guang was hanged by Bu Bao, and the Southern Ming Yongli Emperor was strangled alive by Wu Sangui with a bow string.
Of course, compared with these methods, it seems that poisoning has become the most "gentle" method of killing, such as Tang Zhongzong, who was poisoned in food by Empress Wei and Princess Anle, and Li Yu, the famous southern Tang dynasty lord in history.
There are also some kings who have a lot of backbone, and are determined to disappear with their own country, they will choose to self-immolate, such as the famous Emperor Shang, who self-immolated in his own wine pond meat forest. However, this kind of behavior has also been interpreted by many people as saying that he knows that he will never live well in the hands of the enemy country, so it is better to simply "guard the gate of the country with the son of heaven" and finally get a good reputation.
4. Summary
Whether a country can persist, in fact, the influencing factors are multifaceted, some people are determined to win the heavens, naturally some people are not as good as the heavens, so there will be a change of dynasties in history, and there will be a game between successive monarchs. And things like Liu Chan's surrender with the whole country are not nothing, but they are indeed in the minority.
But we can't judge liu chan as a dimwit, from another point of view, he already knows that he can't defeat Sima Zhao, then if he still insists on changing his life against the sky, basically 99.99% of the probability is that the whole army will be destroyed. At that time, not only will they surely die, but the people will also suffer from war, so why should they? Therefore, Liu Chan's choice to surrender is really not necessarily a bad thing.
References: "LinjiangXian Rolling Yangtze River East Passing Water", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"
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