As the saying goes: people cannot be disguised, and the sea is incomparable. This means that when we interact with strangers, we must not judge people by their appearance. Although some people are dignified, they have no real talent and practical learning; some people, although their appearance is not proud, they have a splendid chest. The three men mentioned in this article, in terms of appearance, all belong to ugly men, but their achievements are higher than one, and one of them has become an emperor for eternity. So who are these three people?
Pang Tong, the top strategist of the Three Kingdoms. In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Pang Tong is a wise man alongside Zhuge Liang, and Sima Hui, the water mirror, once said, "Fu Long and Feng Chi, two people get one, can be safe in the world"! Although Pang Tong had a splendid heart, his career was not smooth, and he was directly driven away by Sun Quan when he surrendered to Sun Quan, and after he defected to Liu Bei, Liu Bei only let him be a small county order at first. A very important reason for this result is that Pang Tong is too ugly.
In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Pang Tong's appearance is described as "thick eyebrows and nose, black face and short hair, described as strange", no wonder Sun Quan and Liu Bei are not cold to him. Let's look at Zhuge Liang, who was juxtaposed with Pang Tong, and when Liu Beisan took care of Maolu, Luo Guanzhong described it like this: "Xuande saw that Kong Ming was eight feet long, his face was like a crown jade, his head was wearing a scarf, he was covered with cranes, and he had the outline of a god and a god." Look, one is "described as weird", the other is "there is a god and immortal", no wonder Liu Bei wants to favor one over the other. Fortunately, Pang Tong later conquered Liu Bei with practical actions and made a first contribution to his pursuit of Xichuan, if it were not for his untimely death, history could be rewritten.
Late Qing Dynasty heavy minister Zhang Zhidong. Friends who are familiar with the history of the late Qing Dynasty know that Zhang Zhidong, Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang were known as the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty. But compared with the other three, Zhang Zhidong's career path is much more tortuous, and at the age of 43, he was still just a washing horse of the Sijing Bureau, a small official from Wupin. After Chonghou signed a traitorous treaty with Tsarist Russia, Zhang Zhidong put forward many practical suggestions. Cixi discovered Zhang Zhidong's talents and decided to summon him alone.
At this summons, Zhang Zhidong played a proper role, and Cixi was very satisfied, but did not promote Zhang Zhidong. A very important reason is that Zhang Zhidong is too ugly. In the historical records, Zhang Zhidong is described as "less long than a middle man, with thin shoulders, extremely short legs, and incongruous up and down." A thin horse face with a large flat nose and a wide mouth under the nose. Zhang Zhidong's first impression of this honorific appearance on Cixi was very bad, so it also affected his promotion. Later, Zhang Zhidong showed great talent on many major issues, which changed Cixi's impression of him and eventually became a powerful member.
Yang Jian, the Emperor of the Ages. Yang Jian was born because he looked so ugly that he almost frightened his parents. So how ugly is Yang Jian? According to the Book of Sui, Yang Jian "was a human dragon jaw, with five pillars on his forehead, his eyes shooting outward, and his writing was in his hand, and he was long and short, and his depth was serious." "A man with 5 pillars of flesh on his forehead, whoever sees it is estimated to be afraid." In terms of appearance alone, Yang Jian is much uglier than Pang Tong and Zhang Zhidong, but his achievements are the largest of the three.
Yang Jian destroyed Chen, ended the long-term division of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and established the great unified Sui Dynasty; during his reign, he made great efforts to govern, and the social economy developed greatly, creating a prosperous era of the Kai Emperor. The implementation of the imperial examination system has given people from the cold door the opportunity to enter the career and serve the country. At the same time, he also exerted his en-wei on the surrounding ethnic minority regimes, and was known as the "Sage Khan". From these performances, it is not too much to call Yang Jian an emperor for thousands of years.