The Yang family sang the story to the famous generals of the Yang family who defended the country during the Northern Song Dynasty, and the dramas, commentaries, film and television works derived from them have always been loved by everyone. In the story, the four generations of the Yang family are loyal to the country, which is deeply moving. In order to shape the image of the Yang family, it is inevitable that several major villains will appear in the story. In addition to the enemies on the battlefield, the Yang family also had several sworn enemies in the middle of the dynasty: Pan Renmei, the master of Pan Taishi, forced Yang Linggong Yang Ye to kill yang, and shot Yang Qilang; Wang Taishi Wang Qin, who was an internal traitor of the Liao state; Pang Taishi Pang Wen, who opposed the Yang family at every turn; Di Qing, because he was jealous of the Yang family, designed to frame the Yang family and robbed the Yang family of credit.
Among the four enemies of the Yang family, the prototypes of Wang Qin and Pang Taishi Pang Wen have not been determined, and the prototype of Pan Renmei is Pan Mei, a minister of the early Northern Song Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song, the Northern Song dynasty soldiers sent three roads to attack the Liao state, and then due to the great defeat of the Eastern Route Army, Pan Mei was ordered to withdraw, and in the process of retreat, due to careless use of troops, Yang Ye was put in danger, and as a result, Yang Ye's entire army was destroyed, and Pan Mei was also punished. Since the Yang family sang the story in praise of Yang Ye and Yang Ye's descendants, it is natural to understand that Pan Mei was set as a villain.
However, Di Qing and the Yang family were not involved at all, so why were they set as villains? Moreover, in the story, since the creators have changed Pan Mei's name to Pan Renmei, why did they directly use Di Qing's name in the story?
Di Qing (狄青), courtesy name Hanchen, was a native of Xihe (present-day Shanxi) in Fenzhou and a famous general of the Northern Song Dynasty. Di Qing was born into poverty and joined the army when he was a teenager. After Li Yuanhao rebelled, he was transferred to the northwest front. In the course of the war with Western Xia, Di Qing dared to fight and dare to rush, and repeatedly made battle achievements. Every time he went into battle, Di Qing was wearing a cloak and a copper mask in and out of the enemy position, and no one could stop him. Later, Di Qing became acquainted with Fan Zhongyan and Han Qi for some reason, and both of them were very attached to Di Qing, and Fan Zhongyan even gave the "Book of Han" and "Zuo Zhuan" to Di Qing, encouraging him to read more history books, so that he would not only have the courage of Pifu.
During the reign of Emperor You, Anthony Nong Zhigao, an ethnic minority leader in Guangxi, rebelled against the Northern Song Dynasty, captured several states in succession, and even besieged the city of Guangzhou. The imperial court sent troops to suppress the rebellion one after another, but was frequently frustrated. Seeing this situation, Di Qing took the initiative to ask Song Renzong for a battle and went to Lingnan. After arriving at the front line, Di Qing quickly took over the command and restrained the whole army from going to war without authorization. After severely punishing several generals who did not obey the orders, Di Qing gathered his forces, made a surprise attack on Kunlun Pass, seized the key place, and then took advantage of the victory to pursue, defeating the rebels in a row, and all the rebel generals of Nong Zhi were killed.
It can be said that Di Qing was a rare famous general during the Northern Song Dynasty. But it was this famous general who became a villain in "The Evolution of Yang Family House", and even snatched Di Qing's credit and installed it on Yang Zongbao and others. According to the "Romance of Yang Jiafu", Di Qing was repeatedly frustrated when he pacified Nong Zhigao, and had no choice but to ask the imperial court for help, so the imperial court sent Yang Zongbao to replace Di Qing, and Di Qing was dissatisfied. Later, the Yang family will quell the rebellion, the whole family will be rewarded, Di Qing is jealous, and began to target and frame the Yang family everywhere.
After "The Romance of Yang Family House" portrays Di Qing as an enemy of the Yang Family, this image of Di Qing is basically determined. Although in later works, Di Qing's negative role has changed, and there are even versions that say that Di Qing and the Yang family eventually feel sorry for each other, turning Gan Ge into jade and fighting the enemy together, but Di Qing's desire to rob Yang Jia Pingnan's merits has basically not changed.
From the historical point of view, Di Qing did not have any intersection with the true descendants of Yang Ye, and it was indeed Di Qing's merit to pacify Nong Zhigao. So why does "Yang Family Mansion Yanyi" say that Di Qing robbed the Yang family's exploits?
Judging from the creative needs of the Yang family's story, the Yang family has made many military achievements, and the imperial court has also rewarded the Yang family many times, and the Yang family lord should be very trusted by the imperial court. But in order to strengthen the dramatic conflict, the creators need to create enemies who can frame the Yang family. Therefore, there were four people, Pan Taishi, Wang Taishi, Pang Taishi, and Di Taishi. The four were deeply trusted by the emperor, so when they framed the Yang family, the emperor was able to be confused. If the four eunuchs were replaced by ordinary courtiers, how could the emperor easily believe their words? Before his death, Di Qing was very appreciated by Song Renzong, and for a long time served as a privy councillor and privy councillor, which was very in line with the needs of the creators.
Moreover, throughout the history of the Northern Song Dynasty, the military victories achieved by the Northern Song Dynasty were very limited. One was the unification war in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the other was the war in which Di Qing pacified Nong Zhigao. The Yang family put the creators of the story in order to add battle merit to the Yang family, and they needed to put the victory of pacifying Nong Zhigao under the name of the Yang family. In order to maintain consistency with the history books, it can only be said that Di Qing robbed the Yang family of credit.
From Di Qing's side, because Di Qing had made many military achievements in the northwest front and Lingnan, and because his relations with Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan were good, when Di Qing was serving as a privy councillor, some people began to slander Di Qing, especially some of the courtiers at that time, believing that Di Qing's high power was not conducive to the stability of the imperial court, so they tried to suppress Di Qing. At that time, the officials even directly asked Song Renzong to transfer him out of Beijing, but Song Renzong never agreed. Later, when there was a flood in Jingshi, Di Qing had no choice but to move his family to the Xiangguo Temple and live on the main hall, and the Korean and Chinese officials took the opportunity to write a letter to attack Di Qing, and Song Renzong had no choice but to dismiss Di Qing from his position as a privy envoy and demote him to Chen Prefecture, and Di Qing also died of illness shortly after.
After Di Qing's death, people's attacks on him still did not stop, and there were still many stories of slander against Di Qing in the notebook novels at that time. Although these stories are not many, they have a great impact. Later, some people were influenced by this, and when creating the story, Di Qing was completely portrayed as a negative character. The "Yanyi of Yangjiafu" is an example. However, Di Qing is a loyal and brave general after all, and there are many folk legends that praise Di Qing, and it is not realistic to portray Di Qing as a complete villain, so later people gradually changed the hostile relationship between Di Qing and the Yang family when enriching the story of the Yang family, but the merit of pacifying Nong Zhigao was always reluctant to return to Di Qing.