In Chinese history, there is no shortage of literary forms such as wild history, rendition, and storytelling. For ordinary people, these literatures provide entertainment and entertainment for their daily lives, and become the main talk of their tea and dinner.
Compared with the main history, the objective authenticity of wild history, interpretation, and commentary is not strong and entertaining, whether it is for the politicians and literati at that time, or the current historians, these are still not enough things on the table.
However, it is precisely because the overall cultural level of society at that time was not high, the lives of ordinary people needed entertainment and recreation, or the real requirements of the characters in the book were passed down from generation to generation, so that folk literature had a reason for production and development space. After all, even if the content is crazy, no one will deliberately examine its authenticity.
At the same time, folk literature is not useless, it helps the current historians to restore the relatively real social environment to a certain extent, analyze the psychology of ordinary people, and partially supplement the history.
Flipping through these folk literature works, there are often images of gods and demons, such as "Journey to the West" and "Liaozhai Zhiyi"; or various "heroic" images, such as "Yugong Moving Mountains" that struggles with nature, and "Water Margin" of the grassroots peasant uprising. The emergence of a large number of "hero" images reflects the ordinary people's desire for heroes.
The tyranny of the Qin government led to the uprising of Chen Sheng and Wu Guangzexiang, and gaozu beheaded the white snake to establish the Western Han dynasty. Sima Yan ended the chaotic situation of the Three Kingdoms and established the Western Jin Dynasty, and the world had a relatively calm time.
As the opening chapter of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" said, "the general trend of the world, the division of the long time will be united, the long time will be divided", the common people yearn for peace, then there must be a "hero" to achieve this peace, so the "hero" image in folk literature is constantly born. Ordinary people beautify the stories they hear, and then circulate them through book reviews.
There is such a person who has been glorified as a national hero in the folk, but in history, he is a sinner who has misled the country and the people. He was the Northern Song Dynasty warlord, Hu Yanqing.
Hu Yanqing
Who is Hu Yanqing
In folk literature, Hu Yanqing lived in the northern Song Dynasty from Emperor Renzong to Emperor Huizong after Hu Yanzan, the founding general of the Northern Song Dynasty. His family was once destroyed by the framed by Taishi Pangji, and more than three hundred mouths of the family were buried in one place, forming a huge "meat mound tomb", only the two brothers Huyan Shouyong and Huyan Shouxin successfully escaped, and Hu Yanqing was Hu Yan Shouyong's son.
Hu Yanqing and several of his brothers of the same ethnic group, together with Meng Qiang, Yang Wenguang, and others, married Jinlan, and with the support of patriotic loyalists such as Bao Zheng and Kou Zhun, they fought against the traitorous party and finally won the victory and were crowned as the King of Zhongxiao.
In this way, Hu Yanqing is indeed a heroic national hero. He often appeared in the national literature of the Qing Dynasty and had a high popularity among the people. Out of the yearning for heroes, the people made the three words "Hu Yanqing" a household name, and children regarded him as a representative of the warriors.
But how much authenticity is there in such a seemingly perfect character image? Truth and fairy tales are often very different.
Huyan praise
The real Hu Yanqing
In the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty, political corruption, the power of ethnic minorities in the north continued to grow, and the court of the Northern Song Dynasty was in jeopardy. Historically, Hu Yanqing served as the commander of the Ping Navy, was familiar with foreign Chinese, and was appointed by the imperial court many times to talk as an envoy. Hu Yanqing repeatedly asked to see the jin lord and debate with him, and then returned to the Song Dynasty due to fruitless negotiations.
Subsequently, the Northern Song court again sent emissaries to negotiate with the Jin regime, and finally signed an agreement, known as the "Alliance on the Sea". This agreement also became the fuse for the later Jin Dynasty to attack the Northern Song Dynasty. At this time, the poor and weak Northern Song dynasty regime was crumbling, and it was difficult to escape the fate of its final destruction.
Looking back at the whole incident, the agreement signed by Hu Yanqing and others, because the Jin State felt that the Northern Song Dynasty had reneged on the agreement, gave it a sufficient reason to attack the Northern Song Dynasty, which became the direct cause of the "Jingkang Change", and the "Jingkang Change" also became a scandal in the history of the Central Plains for thousands of years. As a result, Hu Yanqing's heroic image has been completely broken.
The change of Jingkang
Analysis of the Impact of Folk Literature
In addition to Hu Yanqing being glorified from a sinner who misled the country and the people into a national hero, there are also a large number of historical stories that have been turned upside down.
Cao Cao
Whether in ancient times or in modern times, such things are common, and alternate history is just a category of literary works, with its attractiveness. Therefore, from ancient times to the present, the novels of interpretation, commentary, and alternate history can attract a large number of followers. But from the perspective of the audience, we need to maintain a sober understanding.
In ancient times, due to the limitations of the social environment, the people could not receive higher education, and the low productivity of society and class differences made them have the greatest pursuit of folk literature.
The significance of the birth of folk literature is not only to provide entertainment and entertainment for the society, but also to provide a place for the cultural people in the society at that time to vent their emotions and pour out their ambitions, such as "Journey to the West" expresses the resistance and courageous spirit of the people of China's feudal society.
Today, with the continuous improvement of social culture, we already have other forms to vent emotions and stretch our ambitions. Stories of alternate history have become more of an entertainment pastime. In view of the works of interpretation that have been handed down from ancient times to the present day, we have the ability to distinguish between the stories that do not correspond to the historical truth, and we should no longer let the wrong character images and fictional stories be circulated.
None of us may be professional historians, but we should have a certain cultural literacy of our own. Now that the talk after tea and dinner is diverse, if you still tell the story of the interpretation that is inconsistent with the historical truth as before, it will inevitably seem uncultured.