Little A commented on the Three Kingdoms figures: Yuan Shao (ELEVEN) Bohai Taishou
Text: Little Stephen
In September 189, shortly after Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, Yuan Shao secretly left Luoyang City with his family's mission.
When Yuan Shao left Luoyang City, according to the Later Han Book of Yuan Shao, there was a move to "hang the knot at the Upper East Gate".
The so-called Upper East Gate is the first city gate east of Luoyang City, and it is also called the North Head Gate in the history books. When Li Xian was commenting on the Book of Later Han, according to the records in the Records of the Duke of Shanyang, it was believed that Dong Zhuo changed the flag on the city gate to "Chi Xu" because Yuan Shao abandoned this act of printing the rune here. The original record goes like this: "Zhuo took Yuan Shao's abandonment of the festival and changed the first Bao to Chi Xu." ”
"Bao" is pronounced (bǎo) and means protection, so "First Bao" should have the meaning of the first barrier of Luoyang City. "旄" is pronounced (máo), which is an ancient flag decorated with the tail of a yak. Personally, I feel that "Akatsuki" may be a serious manifestation of military intelligence.
That is to say, Dong Zhuo strengthened his garrison of Luoyang City because of Yuan Shao's departure. This shows Dong Zhuo's sense of crisis about Yuan Shao's sudden escape from the capital of Luoyang, and he also made a move to "buy and raise Shao", that is, to order the local prefectures and counties to arrest Yuan Shao.
Dong Zhuo's behavior is also easier to understand, after all, a court official suddenly leaving the imperial court without a trace is a major crime of disobeying the emperor's orders, and it is also an act that makes people overwhelmed. What's more, Yuan Shao's behavior of "hanging on the Upper East Gate" is a provocative demonstration.
Although Chen Shou does not admit in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms that Yuan Shao had such an act of "hanging on the Upper East Gate", we cannot completely rule out the possibility of such behavior. However, Yuan Shao's behavior may only be caused by a whimsical whim, not the result of the Yuan family meeting. Yuan Shao's personal reckless behavior made him a wanted object and brought him a lot of trouble.
Therefore, after Leaving Luoyang, Yuan Shao should not have gone directly to Jizhou as recorded in most history books, but under the pressure of arrest in various prefectures and counties, he fled back to his hometown of Ruyang in Runan, Ruyang, to hide and wait for the opportunity.
However, the time will soon come. Because Dong Zhuo immediately began the ruling policy of appointing famous scholars under the advice of Zhou Yi ( Zhou Yi ) , Wu Qiong , a lieutenant of the City Gate School , and He Yong ( He Yong ) of the Huilang Commandery .
According to the Zizhi Tongjian, "In the beginning, Shang Shu Wuwei Zhou Yi and The City Gate Colonel Ru Nan Wu Qiong said that Dong Zhuo corrected Huan huan and Ling Zhizheng, and promoted the world's famous scholars to gain the expectations of the people, Zhuo Congzhi, Ming Yi, Qiong, Shang Shu Zheng Tai, Chang Shi He Yong and other sands and evil, showing stasis. So he recruited xun shuang, Chen Ji, Han Rong, and Shen Tupan. ...... Zhuo also made Shangshu Hanfu the pastor of Jizhou, Liu Dai of Shizhong the history of Yanzhou, Chen Liukong as the history of the Yuzhou assassin, Dongping Zhang Miao as Chen Liu Taishou, and Yingchuan Zhang Zhi as Nanyang Taishou. ”
Although there is no clear record in the history books, personal speculation is that the reason why Dong Zhuo appointed these famous scholars to important positions should be inseparable from the support he obtained from Taifu Yuan Kui.
Yuan Kui
As we already said in the previous article, according to the decision of the internal meeting of the Yuan family, the Yuan family is to stand on the position of supporting Dong Zhuo's abolition of emperor. Therefore, in the records of Yuan Honghan, Yuan Kui will take a "discussion" attitude toward Dong Zhuo's move to depose the emperor and set up a separate emperor. In the Zizhi Tongjian, Yuan Kui was even a minister who supported Liu Xie to declare himself a vassal to Liu Xie.
As the leader of the scholar class at that time, since the Yuan family showed support for Dong Zhuo's abolition of the emperor, it also meant that Dong Zhuo had won the mainstream support of the scholar class. Correspondingly, Dong Zhuo must give these scholars and masters certain political benefits. This was the fundamental reason why Dong Zhuo appointed the famous scholars.
In this process, the scheming Taifu Yuan Kui naturally did not forget to excuse Yuan Shao, who was "the body of the sin". Thus there was an incident in which the famous scholars of the shi clan interceded for Yuan Shao.
This incident is recorded in the original text of the "Biography of Yuan Shao in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms" as follows:
"Zhou Yi, Wu Qiong, the lieutenant of the City Gate School, and He Yong, the speaker lang, were all famous scholars, Zhuo Xinzhi, and Yin Weishao, but said Zhuo Yue: 'The abolition of the great affairs of the husband is very human.' Shao Buda, in general, is afraid to run out, not to have his own ambitions. The urgency of today's purchase is bound to change. Yuan Shu'en IV, the door of the world," if the harvest of Haojie to gather disciples, heroes rise up because of it, then Shandong is not public. If it is better to forgive it, and worship a county, then Shao is glad to be free from sin and will be free from trouble. 'Zhuo thought so, but he was too defensive of Shao Bohai and was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Fengxiang. ”
From this record, we can clearly see that what Zhou Yi, Wu Qiong, He Yong and others said to Dong Zhuo not only had factual reasoning, but also showed the relationship between interests and stakes. That is, he welcomed Dong Zhuo's temperament and disposition, and passed on the energy of the Yuan family to Dong Zhuo, which was almost threatening. So basically a slightly smarter person wouldn't refuse to oppose such a proposal. Therefore, Dong Zhuo would accept the suggestion of these famous scholars, worship Yuan Shao as the Taishou of Bohai, and be given the title of Marquis of Kàng Township.
Personally, I feel that this edict issued by Dong Zhuo to reward Yuan Shao should be sent to Yuan Shao's hands very smoothly. Yuan Shao was supposed to be in his hometown of Ruyang in Runan, where he received the order to appoint him as the Taishou of Bohai and the Marquis of Fengxiang. And it was also here that he set off for Jizhou. And Yuan Shao would not get up alone, but led many of his supporters to set out together. These people were all the basic team that Yuan Shao later competed for the world.
After Yuan Shao arrived in Jizhou, as a Taishou under the rule of Jizhou, he naturally had to report to Jizhou as usual. This is a normal process of appointment. So he came to Yicheng, the seat of jizhou, to meet the state pastor at that time.
At that time, Jizhou Mu was Han Fu, who had just been appointed by Dong Zhuo.
Han Fu, Ziwen Jie, a native of Yingchuan, Yuzhou. He was originally a former official of Yuan Men, and once held positions such as Yushi Zhongcheng and Shangshu. I specifically talked about Han Fu in this series of articles two years ago. The original title was "Little A Short Comment on the "Fan Wei" Han Fu of the Three Kingdoms Heroes". If you are interested, you may wish to search out and take a look.
Because Han Fu had a relationship with Yuan Men's former official, for Yuan Shao, whether from the perspective of normal procedures or personal relationship with Jizhou Mu Han Fu, the two people should have a meeting after coming to Yicheng. In Yuan Shao's thinking, since Han Fu was a prerequisite for Yuan Men's former official, this meeting, or reporting in, should have been very smooth. Therefore, he would come directly to Yecheng without any worries and come to see Han Fu.
However, for Han Fu, it was the opposite attitude. Personally, I felt that Han Fu should be one of the few scholars who accepted Dong Zhuo's appointment in the capital Luoyang, and left Luoyang for Jizhou after the appointment. In his thoughts, he should remember Dong Zhuo's order to arrest Yuan Shao in various prefectures and counties. So when facing the arrival of Yuan Shao and Yuan Shao's team, it had to be said that it was a big problem for Han Fu. Because according to what he knew, Yuan Shao was a wanted criminal, but now he was holding the runes and edicts that he had been appointed as the Taishou of Bohai, which could not help but make Han Fu suspicious. Therefore, although he was once a former official of Yuan Men, in the face of a wanted criminal, he would not easily let Yuan Shao go to the Bohai Taishou no matter what. He will definitely do some verification, which is also the common sense of man.
As a result, here there was a historical disagreement over Han Fu's attitude towards Yuan Shao.
In the Records of the Three Kingdoms, after Yuan Shao was appointed as the Taishou of Bohai, Chen Shou directly recorded: "Shao Sui raised an army with Bohai, and he would be a warrior." On the surface, Yuan Shao should have started an army against Dong Zhuo after he arrived at the post of Taishou of Bohai. In the records of the Later Han Dynasty Yuan Shao Biography, a similar expression is also used: "In the first year of the First Ping Dynasty, Shao Sui raised an army with Bohai.". It felt that Yuan Shao was indeed Dong Zhuo, who had only started an army after arriving in Bohai County.
However, is the so-called "raising an army with Bohai" mentioned here equivalent to Yuan Shao's raising of troops after he arrived in the Bohai Sea? In the Zizhi Tongjian, Sima Guang gave a definitive judgment on this issue: "When it was time, Hao Jieduo wanted to raise an army to seek the outstanding, and Yuan Shao was in Bohai." That is to say, Sima Guang believed that Yuan Shao was indeed Dong Zhuo who rebelled after arriving in Bohai County.
However, if this is the case, the next record in the Later Han Book Of Yuan Shao's biography will have a very big contradiction. Let's first look at this contradictory account:
"It is shi Haojie who not only has a lot of attachments, but also feels his family disaster, people think of retribution, and the prefectures and counties are swarming, and they are not named after the Yuan family." Han Fu saw that people were returning to Shao, jealous of his people, afraid of himself, and often sent to guard Shaomen and did not listen to the dispatch of troops. ”
This account appears behind Dong Zhuo's murder of Yuan Kui and Yuan Ji and the Yuan family at the Gate of the Jingshi. Literally, after Hao Jie heard that the Yuan family was exterminated by Dong Zhuo, he chose to support Yuan Shao from the perspective of justice, and they all planned to raise an army against Dong Zhuo in the name of revenge for the Yuan family.
There was nothing wrong with this in itself, but what was strange was Han Fu's attitude and approach.
Han Fu believed that Yuan Shao's state of "winning the hearts and minds of the people" might endanger his own position and interests, and was afraid that Yuan Shao would try to kill himself. Therefore, he often sent his subordinates to "guard Shaomen" and preventEd Shao from sending troops.
The reason why I say this paragraph is very contradictory is because if we understand the previous record of Yuan Shao "raising an army with Bohai" to mean that Yuan Shao has arrived in Bohai County and already has his own army, then with Yuan Shao's character, in the state of his own family being destroyed, Han Fu's practice of "guarding Shaomen" is very unwise, even if Han Fu really does this, whether he can succeed or not, and even there may be a military conflict.
Therefore, if Yuan Shao had already mastered the soldiers and horses of Bohai County at that time, he would definitely not allow Han Fu to hinder him from going on a crusade against Dong Zhuo.
However, judging from the state of "Qiao Mao was fraudulently made the Three Gongs transfer the book and passed on Yizhou County" after Han Fu lifted the control of Yuan Shao and "listened to Shao raise troops", Han Fu's "guarding Shao Gate" against Yuan Shao at this stage was very successful, effectively stopping all of Yuan Shao's movements. From this, we can deduce that until Han Fu "listened to Shao raise troops", Yuan Shao's hands should not have any soldiers and horses, at most a number of followers he brought from ru nan's hometown.
That is to say, after Yuan Shao came to Yicheng in Jizhou to report to Han Fu, he did not go to Bohai County as expected, but was controlled by Han Fu, or a kind of house arrest. We can even judge that until the end of the Kwantung rebels' crusade against Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao did not go to Bohai County, where he was appointed as Taishou.
Therefore, the Yuan Shao recorded in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of Later Han "raising an army with Bohai" should not mean to raise an army with the strength of Bohai County, so how to understand this paragraph? Personally, I believe that the record of Yuan Shao "raising an army with Bohai" should be understood as the meaning of Yuan Shao's rise of troops as a Bohai Taishou. This should be the real situation in history.
So, why didn't the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of later Han directly and clearly record the fact that Yuan Shao raised an army as a "Bohai Taishou"? Why do we have to adopt this form of documentation, which is easily confusing?
In fact, I have read many translated versions of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, which translate this passage into a meaning similar to "Yuan Shao raised an army in Bohai County", which has become a mainstream idea in the academic community now. The reason for this phenomenon, in addition to the boosting effect of the Zizhi Tongjian, is caused by this vague record in Chen Shou's Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Fan Ye's Book of the Later Han Dynasty.
On this issue, I think there are probably three possibilities. One possibility is that in order to facilitate the copying and inheritance of ancient history books, the word "Taishou" in "Shao Sui started with Bohai (Taishou)" was omitted. This situation is indeed a precedent in the process of editing ancient documents. However, this explanation is obviously very far-fetched. The second possibility is chen shou and Fan Ye's inadvertent move. Neither Chen Shou nor Fan Ye expected that such a simplified approach to the record would cause later generations to disagree on this passage.
The final third possibility is that Chen Shou and Fan Ye did it on purpose. That is to say, they deliberately did not add the word "taishou" to this account. Personally, I prefer this possibility. The reason I gave began with "Heroes".
According to the "Hero's Record", "Yuan Shaozhi was in Bohai, and he was afraid of his troops, so he sent several troops to guard them and could not waver." ”
According to this record in the "Hero's Record", Yuan Shao had been to Bohai County before he started his army, and indeed relied on the soldiers and horses of Bohai County to raise troops. Although this record is contrary to the conclusions I have drawn earlier, I am afraid that it will be the mainstream ideological cognition of the Three Kingdoms Wei and Jin Dynasties. Even in the official revision of the history book of the State of Wei, the Book of Wei, it should be a record of Yuan Shao's body rising up in Bohai County.
The reason why I think so is because in the dominant ideology with Cao Wei as the orthodox, Yuan Shao, as a loser who lost to Cao Cao, lost the right to dominate the historical truth. His deeds could only be whitewashed and distorted by the Cao Wei officials according to their own needs. As a monograph produced in the same era, and its author is a subordinate of Cao Cao, the founder of Cao Wei, most of the records should still represent the views officially recognized by Cao Wei.
That is to say, Cao Wei officially needed Yuan Shao to be in a state of freedom at the beginning of the rebellion against Dong Zhuo. Therefore, there is a record of "Yuan Shaozhi in Bohai" in the "Hero Record", which should also be the earliest appearance in the "Book of Wei" of the official history of Cao Wei. It was also a common perception at that time.
Chen Shou
When Chen Shou compiled the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, he had deep doubts about the record of "Yuan Shaozhi in Bohai", and finally came up with his own judgment. However, Chen Shou's judgment was seriously contrary to the historical views of scholars at that time. Therefore, in order to reduce unnecessary trouble and the possibility of being attacked by himself, Chen Shoucai gave a vague record of "Shao Sui raised an army with Bohai".
This kind of record is not untrue, and it feels satisfied with the censorship of the ruling people at that time in the mainstream historical ideology.
The later Fan Ye also inherited and adopted Chen Shou's practice in the Book of Later Han.
Then, in the era of ideology with Cao Wei as the orthodox, why did it be necessary to freeze the time of Yuan Shao's rise to the army after he arrived in Bohai County? What exactly is their intention? Please read the next article, the Commentary on the Three Kingdoms of the Chronicles, for your continued interpretation.
Little Stephen was published on April 23, 2020.