"Gai Qi's use is also close to the habit, and his heart is also dedicated and forbearing", this is Ouyang Xiu's summary of the eunuch group in the "Preface to the Eunuchs", which can also be regarded as the general view of the ancient scholars on eunuchs.
On the stage of ancient Chinese history, eunuchs have always been a stigmatized group.
People know how to divide the Xiangbai officials into loyal and traitorous parties, and know that the queen concubines are divided into concubines and concubines, only for eunuchs, they generally adopt a stigmatizing attitude, and put one big hat after another for eunuchs.
However, there are exceptions to everything, and eunuchs are not all a bunch of vicious villains, and there are also benevolent people among them.
For example, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, there was a eunuch, and a eunuch risked killing his head and secretly changed a word of the holy will, thus saving more than a thousand lives.
This person is Zhang Juhan. It can be said that Zhang Juhan is a rare positive image in the eunuch group described in the history books.
So, in the traditional understanding, what kind of group is the eunuch?
Historically a group of eunuchs
In fact, eunuchs are probably the most miserable group of people in Chinese history, who have to endure not only physical disabilities, but also psychological contempt.
First of all, eunuchs were often despised by the literati and even the lower classes for physical reasons.
Because in ancient times, it attached great importance to heirs, and eunuchs, as people who were left behind, did not have the ability to extend their heirs, so this also led to eunuchs naturally inferior in traditional society.
This kind of inferiority has nothing to do with status, but is a kind of personality discrimination, even if the eunuch achieves a high position of authority, it cannot change this social discrimination.
Secondly, eunuchs are also looked down upon by people professionally, because eunuchs do the work of waiting for people, so everyone has formed a stereotypical image of eunuchs who are condescending and condescending.
In fact, this is all prejudice against eunuchs, and there are many loyal martyrs among eunuchs.
Moreover, even if the eunuchs were really servile to a certain extent, it was also caused by the oppression and cruelty of the feudal system to them, how can it be used as a reason to discriminate against them?
Of course, the eunuch group was most attacked by the literati doctors or the chaotic dictatorship. Starting from Zhao Gao of the Qin Dynasty, there were indeed many great eunuchs in China's feudal society who controlled the imperial program. For example, the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty all had serious disasters of eunuch dictatorship, and even the demise of the Tang Dynasty was largely related to the eunuch dictatorship.
However, after all, there are a few eunuchs who can monopolize power and chaos, and more eunuchs still live diligently at the bottom, doing all kinds of dirty work every day, and finally enduring accusations from public opinion.
Moreover, in history, there are not only eunuchs, but also civilian officials and military generals, but why do we not see that some people have labeled the entire group of civilian officials and military generals as the "source of disaster to the country", which can be seen because of people's prejudice against eunuchs in their hearts.
In short, the group of eunuchs in ancient times was really unhappy, not only had to endure all kinds of suffering and torture when they were alive, but after they died, they also had to be labeled by literati and inkers with various stigmatizations, and on top of history, after a thousand autumns, they endured all kinds of unwarranted insults, even if many loyal and filial piety and righteous people among the eunuchs could not change the society's group prejudice against eunuchs.
However, good people will never lose their benevolence in their hearts, even as the most shameless eunuch of people, they can also do acts of great benevolence and righteousness, such as Zhang Juhan.
Zhang Juhan "change one to save a thousand"
Among the group portraits of eunuchs in the entire Twenty-Four Histories, Zhang Juhan, a eunuch of the Five Dynasties period, is one of the few completely positive images.
First of all, he knew how to be kind to others, did not pride himself on his identity, and finally saved his life because of this. He was given a robe by the Heavenly Son, and went to the local area to supervise the military, and Zhang Juhan got along well with the local festivals that made Liu Rengong get along well. Later, the situation changed, and the courtiers threatened Tianzi to kill all the eunuchs, but Zhang Juhan survived under the protection of Liu Rengong.
Secondly, he is low-key and introverted, never monopolizing on trouble. He was repeatedly rewarded for his military merits, and finally became a privy councillor, holding in his hands the power to handle the government. But Zhang Juhan is very low-key. He never went out of his way and tried to treat himself as a lump of air, and it was in this way that he did not suffer from the hunger of others and survived the political struggle.
Of course, if this is the case, Zhang Juhan is not enough to spread to future generations. The reason why Zhang Juhan can go down in history is that he did a big thing that many people did not dare to do, that is, in order to save the lives of many people, he did not hesitate to risk the disaster of killing his head and tampering with the holy will.
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Later, Emperor Zhuangzong of Tang sent a general to attack Shu, but Wang Yan, the king of Shu, was powerless to stop it, so he had to suspect that the country would surrender.
So Emperor Zhuang issued an edict naming the King of Shu to go to Luoyang to meet him, but at this time, the news of the rebellion suddenly came from Wei Prefecture, and Emperor Zhuang had to personally lead a large army to quell the rebellion.
However, at this time, there was a problem, Zhuangzong led a large army to quell the chaos, then the interior would appear to be empty, and at this time, the King of Shu, Wang Yan, came to surrender, but there were many clan parties, if Wang Yan took advantage of the false chaos, then the consequences would be very serious. Therefore, in the end, Zhuangzong followed the advice of his subordinates and decided to kill all of Wang Yan's group of people to avoid any trouble.
At that time, Zhang Juhan was in a position of secrecy, and the edict must pass through his hand when he sent it, and he was also shocked when he saw this holy will, not to mention that the act of killing and descending was not in line with the will of Heaven, that is, the more than a thousand people brought by Wang Yan were also innocent lives.
In the end, Zhang Juhan made a bold move, he secretly erased the "line" in the "Wang Yan Yixing" on the Holy Will and changed it to a "home" character. In this way, although Wang Yan's family still could not escape the fate of being killed, the remaining more than a thousand people in their company were saved.
In short, because of the little intolerance in his heart, Zhang Juhan changed a word, and finally successfully saved more than a thousand people. However, although this matter seemed simple, it was very dangerous to operate, because once the matter of tampering with the Holy Will was discovered, not only would Wang Yanxing not be able to be saved, but Zhang Juhan himself would also have the misfortune of killing himself.
So was Zhang Juhan finally discovered? What was his end?
Zhang Juhan's ending
Because Zhang Juhan was honest and honest in his usual duties, others did not expect that he still had the courage to tamper with the Holy Will, so they did not suspect him. And Zhuang Zong himself was busy with the war at this time, did not have much energy, and could not care whether it was Wang Yan's family or Wang Yan's party that died, so Zhang Juhan's secret modification of the Holy Will was not discovered, and finally this matter was considered to have passed without danger.
Later, When Emperor Zhuangzong was killed and the regime changed again, Zhang Juhan had no intention of participating in the political whirlpool again, so he asked the new emperor to return to the countryside and live forever. The new emperor did not embarrass her and readily agreed to his request. Zhang Juhan returned to his hometown and finally died at the age of seventy-one.
In short, although Zhang Juhan died, the story of his changing one and saving a thousand has been passed down and has always been admired by people.
Later humanities also praised Zhang Juhan when they evaluated zhang juhan, and even Ouyang Xiu, who wrote the "Preface to the Eunuchs", believed that eunuchs were extremely harmful to the regime, also gave him the evaluation of "gentleman" after reading Zhang Juhan's deeds.
Therefore, as long as a person has good intentions, he can do good deeds, pass on good names, and enjoy the reputation of future generations.
epilogue
In the traditional perception, eunuchs are indeed not a good image, they are often crowned with various negative adjectives, criticized, and ugly.
However, Zhang Juhan used his own actions to make himself a clear stream among the eunuchs, a gentleman among the eunuchs, and let everyone know that there are also benevolent and righteous people among the eunuchs.
In fact, it is not very important what kind of environment you live in, and how the world evaluates the group you are in is not the most important, what matters is what kind of person you think of yourself in your heart. As long as you firmly believe in benevolence and righteousness in your heart, then there will be a day when you will be seen by others and successfully justify yourself.
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