Although many people say that human life is the most important thing, there is also a saying that it is better to die than to live, but from the perspective of the traditional thinking of ancient China, there are more precious things than life, that is, a person's dignity and integrity, and the story behind the idiom of not eating Zhou Su expresses the trade-off between morality and life of the ancients.
According to the Records of History, in the last years of the Shang Dynasty, there was a pair of brothers named Boyi and Shuqi, and the two of them heard of the virtuous reputation of Ji Chang, the king of Zhouwen, and came to defect to King Wen of Zhou. After the death of King Wen of Zhou, his son Ji Fa the Prince of Zhou Wu decided to raise an army to attack the Shang Dynasty, and the two believed that King Wu's behavior was not filial piety, and they always dissuaded King Wu. After the success of the Wu King's cutting, the two of them
He still insisted on his opinion, believing that King Wu of Zhou was a filial son. In the end, the two refused to eat the grain sent by King Wu and starved to death on Shouyang Mountain.
Similar to the story of not eating Zhou Su, there is also the story of Su Wu shepherding sheep, which also expresses the indomitable integrity of the ancients in our country who would rather die than yield. According to the Book of Han, Su Wu was born in Xi'an in 140 BC to a family of eunuchs. Because of the care of his father Su Jian, Su Wu and his two brothers had already entered the imperial court at a very young age, and had become a lang general in their twenties.
Su Wu was in the early days of the succession of Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty, Huo Zhiyi had not yet completely defeated the Xiongnu wolf Juxu, the Xiongnu were still the immediate robbers who made the han dynasty border people feel frightened, and from then on Su Wu made a wish to eliminate the Xiongnu. After Huo's death, the Courage of the Xiongnu grew fat again, and they began to harass the borders of the Han Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu had also been fighting. BC
In 100 years, the Xiongnu offered to exchange prisoners on both sides with Emperor Wu of Han, and Emperor Wu of Han accepted this proposal and sent Zhonglang to send Su Wu to the Xiongnu.
After Su Wu went to the Territory of the Xiongnu, the Xiongnu repented of their previous decision and instead imprisoned Su Wu. At that time, in order to humiliate the Han Dynasty by humiliating Su Wu, Shan Yu imprisoned Su Wu in a dungeon, did not give Su Wu food, and wanted Su Wu to ask the Xiongnu for forgiveness. Unexpectedly, Su Wu did not want to surrender at all, and he ripped off the felt in his cell and ate it with the snow. Seeing that Su Wu was so fierce, he admired su Wu but did not want to let Go of Su Wu, so he sent Su Wu to beihai and told him that if the ram gave birth to a child, he would release him to the Han Dynasty.
After arriving in the bitter cold of the North Sea, Su Wu still adhered to his own ethics, eating wild grass seeds to survive, and five or six years later, Su Wu still had a large herd of sheep. When he heard the news of Emperor Wu of Han's death, Su Wu also cried bitterly and vomited blood to the south (in the direction of Chang'an), and had to cry about the death of Emperor Wu every day for several months. Emperor Wu of Han zhao also specifically inquired about the whereabouts of Shan Yu Su Wu, but Shan Yu deceived that Su Wu was dead.
Later, Emperor Zhao of Han was furious when he learned of Shan Yu's exile of Su Wu to Beihai, and ordered the Xiongnu to hand over Su Wu. Su Wu, who had lived in the Xiongnu for 19 years in 81 BC, finally returned to the Han Dynasty, where he was a vassal of the han dynasty and died after 21 years of life at the age of 81.
Some people once heard about Su Wu's deeds of eating grass and wondered why Su Wu did not eat sheep, and historians thought so: "The Xiongnu have been monitoring Su Wu, and eating sheep is equivalent to infringing on their property, so that there is a handle to punish them." Su Wu represented the Great Han and certainly did not want the Huns to insult his honor. ”