introduction
In the "Historical Outline of Chinese Novels", Lu Xun once said in his evaluation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms: "Zhuge Liang is wise and close to a demon. Saying that Zhuge Liang is "more wise and close to the demon" is mainly reflected in the fact that he is not only loyal to the king and patriotic, bows down to the country, knows geography from top to bottom, but also knows divination and the mandate of heaven, and it can be said that he is almost perfect at both ability and political integrity. And Zhuge Liang could not only predict the war, but even his own life and death were expected by him, one day he was looking at the sky at night, and suddenly entered the account and said to Jiang Weiyue: 'My life is at stake!' So what did Zhuge Liang see?
That was what happened during Zhuge Liang's last Northern Expedition, when Zhuge Liang was too worried and overworked, and he fainted on the ground after learning that the war was unfavorable. On this night, after Zhuge Liang observed the stars, he said the above sentence to Jiang Wei. Of course, Jiang Wei was puzzled and asked Zhuge Liang why, and Zhuge Liang said: "I saw that among the three stars, the guest star was brighter, the main star was hidden, and the light was dim. The heavens are like this, and my life is known. ”
▲Zhuge Liang stills
01
The ancients believed that from the celestial signs can find the law of things, and find a solution to the problem, Zhuge Liang is particularly good at this, so when he found that the celestial signs were unfavorable to him, he prayed in the tent for the Beidou, if the main lamp representing him did not go out within 7 days, he could live another 12 years. But this method failed, the main lamp was accidentally extinguished by Wei Yan, and Zhuge Liang could only sigh, this is providence, even if it is a divine trick, he cannot go against the sky.
Sima Yi also saw a strange celestial phenomenon at this time, a large red star in the sky, sliding from the northeast to the southwest, and finally falling into the camp of the Shu Kingdom, this big star tried to rise again three times but finally fell. Sima Yi's skills were not under Zhuge Liang's, and he immediately concluded that Zhuge Liang was dead, and was overjoyed, and immediately issued an order, preparing to personally lead a heavy army in pursuit.
▲Sima Yi stills
Unfortunately, Sima Yi was too suspicious, although he already knew that Zhuge Liang's health was not good, and his death was sooner or later. However, when he suddenly learned of this, he began to suspect that Zhuge Liang was deliberately causing the death of the celestial phenomenon to lure him to attack, so he temporarily changed his mind and decided to send someone to Gojohara Mountain to listen to the news.
02
This is the description of the celestial signs that Zhuge Liang saw himself and Sima Yi saw before his death in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In fact, in the main history, Zhuge Liang also recorded a natural vision before his death. The Third Chapter of the Book of Jin records: "There are long stars and red horns, flowing from the northeast and southwest, throwing bright camps, three throws and then return, to the big or small... In September, Liang died in the army. ”
▲Red meteor photo
That is to say, there was a red glowing meteor that slid down from the northeast to the southwest, dropped into the camp where Zhuge Liang was stationed, and then jumped back into the sky after falling, back and forth three times, but the amplitude of the fall was relatively large, the amplitude of the jump was relatively small, and finally it fell. Not long after, Zhuge Liang fell ill and died in the army. From this record, it seems that before Zhuge Liang's death, he was indeed born with a vision, not a fabrication in the novel.
The world that is generally recorded in the history books can be explained with modern astronomical knowledge, but the world recorded in the history books before Zhuge Liang's death has not been completely cracked so far, and has become a mystery for eternity. Was the strange thing that happened before Zhuge Liang's death a coincidence or a harbinger? Experts say that although it is still impossible to explain. However, for the celestial phenomenon of that night, people generally summed up two speculations.
03
The first is that before Zhuge Liang's death, there was indeed a meteor falling, and it may have been a meteor shower. In ancient times, meteors and meteor showers were not uncommon, and have been recorded in many texts; nowadays, we can often observe meteor showers from different constellations. Modern astronomy has long told us that meteors are actually space matter composed of dust particles and solid blocks in the universe, they drift in space, when they approach the earth, they will be affected by the earth's gravity to fall to the earth, when they enter the earth's atmosphere at high speed, they will rub and burn with the atmosphere, and look like a starlight on the ground, flashing from the night sky. Most of this space material has been burned to ashes by the atmosphere before it falls to the ground, but a small number of them will turn into meteorites and fall to the ground.
Therefore, the celestial phenomenon observed before Zhuge Liang's death was likely to be a small meteor shower, but the time was more coincidental, so it was recorded in the history books and linked it to Zhuge Liang's death.
▲ Meteor shower photos
The second speculation is that this statement is exaggerated on the basis of facts, and its purpose is to highlight Zhuge Liang's extraordinary. The birth and death of great figures in ancient times were usually accompanied by visions. For example, in the "History Books", it is recorded that Liu Bang's mother dreamed of meeting the gods and men, and only then gave birth to Liu Bang. Even Liu Adou was able to conceive him after Lady Gan dreamed of swallowing the Beidou. It can be seen that even in the records of the main history, there are many exaggerations and inaccuracies.
epilogue
Now there is a Zhuge Liang Ancestral Hall in Wuzhang, and in addition to Zhuge Liang's cloaked tomb, there is also a Falling Star Pavilion. A stone now placed in this pavilion is said to be the general star that fell from the sky before Zhuge Liang's death. However, this statement is estimated to be to set off the atmosphere for tourists, and it is not certain whether there is this star in history, let alone talk about its traces.
Resources:
A History of chinese Novels
Book of Jin