introduction
Mencius wrote: "It is better to believe in the Book than to have no Book." I am in "Wucheng", take two or three strategies. "The Book of Which refers to the Book of Shang, which we now extend to the book, meaning to do learning or studying. The meaning of this sentence is complete, that we cannot fully believe the records in the books, but must have a critical spirit and our own opinions, not to mention that there will be errors in the records in the books, not to mention that there will be people who will fabricate some words in order to support their own statements. For example, about the descendants of the famous generals of the Shu state, the ancestors of the Mamikonyan family, the Armenian noble family.
01
The source of the matter has to start with a book called "The Complete Book of World Military History", the authors of this book are all Americans, one is a retired military officer, one is a Harvard professor, although the preface of the book is extremely respectful of both authors, and also praises them as the world's leading authority on military history, the book is also praised as the premier authoritative work. However, many of the contents of the book are highly controversial, including the history of The Three Kingdoms period of China, especially a period of historical facts after the fall of the Shu State.
▲Zhuge Liang stills
There is a record in the book that after Zhuge Liang's death, the Shu kingdom soon declined, and the princes and nobles took refuge with their families. One of the Shu princes, who led his men to flee westward, crossed Xinjiang to Reach Persia, where they were known in Persian history as "Mamugo". Later, when sima Yan, the emperor of the Jin Dynasty, learned of this news, he sent people to Persia to beg the Persian king Shapur I to hand over Mamuge and his family, otherwise it would be resolved by force.
Image of the Ruler of Persia (painted by present-day people)
Shapur I was embarrassed by this, and was not willing to betray Mamugo, but was also forced by the pressure of the Jin Dynasty. In the end, he came up with a foolproof solution and sent someone to tell Sima Yan that he had exiled the Mamuge family to the land of death, and it was estimated that he would not live long, so the matter was prevaricated.
02
Later, Mamgö was sent by the Persian king to Armenia as governor, and soon after the Armenian prince returned to the country, Mamugo chose to defect to the prince, thus betraying the Persian king. Soon after, Armenia became an independent state, and Mamugo became a hero of Armenia's founding. This is the whole story recorded in the book about the descendants of this Shu kingdom that fled from China to Armenia. However, this historical record never appeared in China's canonical history or wild history, but the author saw the record in other countries' history books, so some experts have proposed that the authenticity of this history needs to be examined.
Yerevan, the capital of Armenia
Secondly, according to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Chan had seven sons, of whom Liu Chen, the king of the Northern Lands, committed suicide at the Zhaolie Temple, Liu Xuan died in the "Zhonghui Rebellion", the third son Liu Chan died of illness before the fall of Shu Han, and the other four sons followed Liu Chan to Luoyang. Later, during the Yongjia Rebellion in the Western Jin Dynasty, most of Liu Chan's descendants were killed, and only Liu Xuan fled back to Shu. However, there is no record of Liu's descendants fleeing to the Western Regions in various historical records in later generations, so some experts believe that Mamuge was the prince of Shu Han at all.
▲Liu Chan stills
Another point is that Sima Yan sent people to Persia about the third century, but it should be known that the distance between us and Persia is 108,000 miles. At the same time, even if this person fled to the Western Regions at that time, but the transmission of information was not developed, how could The Great Sima Emperor in the Western Regions know where he had gone, and why did he have to talk about asking for people?
03
Later, this legend was rewritten to the effect that Ma Mu Ge was a Chinese, originally surnamed Ma, and a descendant of Ma Chao, a famous general of the Three Kingdoms of Shu and Han, named Ma Kang, who fled to Central Asia for generations and evolved into a family family in present-day Armenia - the "Ma mi Konyan family" is the descendant of "Ma Mu Ge" Ma Kang. Some people say that there are historical records, in the "Shu Genealogy": "Ma Chao from the brother Dai, the word Bo Zhan, the son of Teng Brother Yi also." His father's wing entered Xu as a lieutenant in the Northern Army, and later Liangzhou, Liangzhou was in turmoil, and dozens of relatives were sent westward. Dai Di resisted, followed the wings westward, or to the West Sea. But later, according to the data, this text did not appear in it, so the expert proposed: This is most likely false, all of which were fabricated by later generations.
▲ Ma Chao stills
Of course, the Mamikonyan family contributed to the establishment of Armenia's independence, and Valdan Mamikonyan led an insurrectionary army against the oppression of the Persian Empire, although the uprising failed at that time, but after this battle, the Persian side had to re-examine armenia's strength and reconsider its policy towards Armenia.
Thirty years later, Mardan's nephew, Vaan Mamikonyan, again waged a war against Persia, and in the end, Armenia won the right to autonomy, followed by members of the Mamikonyan family as the governor of Armenian autonomy. In honor of the great exploits of these two national heroes, armenians also erected a huge statue for them in the capital Yerevan, as if they were still telling passers-by their legends.
epilogue
The suggestion that Mamikonyan was a descendant of the Makon may be to accommodate the claim that the Central Asian nobleman Mamikonyan was a Chinese mentioned in the History of Armenia, and perhaps to add some legendary color to the life of this hero. As for whether this is the case, it will need to wait for further examination by historians.
Resources:
Mencius
The Complete Book of World Military History