During the Three Kingdoms Period, at the end of the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an (219 AD), Guan Yu defeated Maicheng after "carelessly losing Jingzhou", was captured by the Eastern Wu general Lü Mengsheng, and was later killed by Sun Quan for refusing to surrender to Eastern Wu.
In order to avenge the second brother of the "Taoyuan Three Knots", Liu Bei did not listen to the persuasion of Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun, and personally led the elite troops of Shu Han to personally conquer Eastern Wu, only to be defeated by Lu Xun in the Battle of Yiling by "burning the camp for seven hundred miles", and Liu Bei fled back to Baidi City (白帝城, in present-day Fengjie County, Chongqing).
The Battle of Yiling marked the turn of the Shu Han regime from prosperity to decline, and Liu Bei's painstaking management of most of his life's inheritance was almost lost, and he was full of remorse in the White Emperor's City and could not afford to fall ill.
In March of the third year of Zhang Wu (223), Liu Bei knew that he was not cured, so he summoned Zhuge Liang, Li Yan and other ministers to rush to the White Emperor's City, entrusted him with the orphans on his deathbed, entrusted him with the aftermath, and left a famous testament in the history of our country to his son Liu Chan.
There are two copies of Liu Bei's will, please read the full text below:
One of the Two Commandments of the Dying
At the beginning of the disease, but diarrhea in the ear, and then turned to miscellaneous diseases, and could not help themselves. Fifty people are not called dead, they are more than sixty years old, and they hate what they hate, and they no longer hurt themselves, but they think of the Qing brothers. Shooting Jun arrived, saying that Xiang Xiang sighed that Qing Qing's wisdom was very large, and the increase was too much to hope. If this is the case, I am not worried! Mian Zhi! Mian Zhi! Do not do it with evil and smallness, do not do it with good and small, but be virtuous and virtuous, and be obedient to others, and do not imitate it!
You can read the "Book of Han", "Book of Rites", and "Six Tao" and "Book of Shangjun" in the interspersed time, which is beneficial to people's minds. Wen Cheng xiang has completed the writing of "Shen", "Han", "Guan Zi", and "Liu Tao", but he has not sent it, and he has died, but he can ask for Wen Da even more.
The Second Commandment of the Last Commandment
Ru and Xiang are engaged, and things are like fathers.
In the first edict, Liu Bei placed high hopes on the successor Liu Chan and put forward strict requirements:
"Don't do it with evil and small, don't do it with good and small", "Only the wise and virtuous can serve people"
He exhorted Liu Chan to accumulate virtue and do good deeds and make a difference.
Moreover, Liu Bei also recommended several classic books to Liu Chan, hoping that he would be able to learn the book and better inherit the shu Han regime, which shows Liu Bei's good intentions for his successor Liu Chan before his death.
In the second testament, Liu Bei did not engage in any long-winded discussion, and directly and simply said a sentence, that is, he hoped that Liu Chan would treat him like a father when he handled major state affairs with Zhuge Liang.
Liu Bei was well aware of Zhuge Liang's talents, as well as the talents of his son Ah Dou, and feared that after his son succeeded to the throne, he would not listen to Zhuge Liang's advice and the conflict between imperial power and power would occur, which would bring ruin to the Shu Han regime that he had painstakingly managed.
Liu Chan also really obeyed his father's will, and after he succeeded to the throne, all the military and political affairs of the Shu state were decided by Zhuge Liang, and he played with the palace door behind closed doors, and finally made Zhuge Liang tired and sick, and died of illness at the age of fifty.
In fact, the story of Liu Beibai's emperor entrusting himself to be orphaned, what people in later generations are more familiar with is the passage that Liu Bei said to Zhuge Liang after he completed his will:
"The king is ten times more than Cao Pi, and he will be able to secure the country and finally set great things." If the heir can be supplemented, he shall be supplemented; if he is not talented, he may take it upon himself. ”
(Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Book of Shu, Biography of Zhuge Liang)
Liu Bei said to Zhuge Liang in front of his close courtiers, "Jun can take his own life", and put Zhuge Liang on his knees in shock and cried:
"The subject dares to exert all his strength to be loyal to the Festival of Chastity, and then die!"
Before Liu Bei died, he gently said a word, warning Zhuge Liang that he did not dare to have two hearts, and could only "bow down and do his best, and after death", he assisted the incompetent Ah Dou, Liu Bei, who was worthy of being the most knowledgeable and employing generation of tyrants in the Three Kingdoms era.
This article refers to: "The Words of the King under the Contemporary Perspective: Interpretation of the Classic Texts of Chinese Edict Culture"