Cui Yan was born in the Qinghe Cui clan, which was one of the most prominent warriors in the north throughout the Wei and Jin dynasties. As a Member of the Shandong Wang, the Cui clan has always been listed as the first class of the first class surname "Cui Lu Wang Xie". Tang Taizong was very angry when he saw it, saying: "The Cui clan has long since declined, and there are no prominent officials and no talents, so why is it listed as the first?" Am I the Son of Heaven of li, and I am still inferior to the Cui family? "This is evident from this.
The ruling pillar of the Eastern Han Dynasty was the Shijia clan, and the connotations of the Shijia clan and the Shi clan were not the same. The family clan relies on its political identity, but mainly in the economic sense, emphasizing that its family has a large business, has a large amount of land, and controls a large number of dependent peasants. The gentry, on the other hand, are based on political and economic power, but mainly in terms of cultural and social identity. By the time of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, a Shu clan with a high-ranking official mansion was also looked down upon by the already declining scholar clan, which clearly shows this point. The transformation of the Shi family into the Shi clan occurred around the Time of the Three Kingdoms, and mainly within the Cao Wei forces. Cui Yan's actions and encounters from the family clan also show the arduous process of the beginning of the formation and transformation of the family clan to the shi clan.
There is also an important internal difference between the Shijia clan and the Shi clan, that is, the classics that are their ideological resources are different, and the Shijia clan inherits the tradition of the Han Dynasty, establishes a family with scripture and learning, and adheres to etiquette. And the wei and Jin warriors like Lao Zhuang, Shang Xuan talked, in order to put up the glory. The transition from the two Han classics to the Metaphysics of Wei and Jin is precisely the evaluation of human objects. Cui Yan's last practice of scripture, and the beginning of the evaluation, is also a transitional figure in the history of thought.
Shi Zai Cui Yan "twenty-three years old, reading the Analects and Han poems." By the twenty-ninth year, Gongsun Fang and others were educated by Zheng Xuan. "Youth is the right way to follow the scriptures. However, due to the yellow turban rebellion, he failed to study and dropped out halfway through. Later, he was better than the commentary on human objects, such as Sima Lang on Sima Yi: "The younger brother of the son, Congzhe Mingyun, just broke the Ying, and was not within the reach of the son." Sun Li and Lu Yu of Zhuo County first entered the military palace, and Yan was also known as "Sun Shuliang is fierce, just simple and can be judged, Lu Qing is clear and reasonable, and all are public talents." "Hou Lin, Li, Yu Xian to DingFu."
The evaluation of human objects focuses on individuals at the temperament level, which is fundamentally different from the Spring and Autumn Principles of Righteousness that sutras focus on. But Cui Yan is still a temperament in terms of righteousness, showing its excesses. As far as his personality is concerned, he has both a polite and uninhibited side. When he first served Yuan Shao, he was still a completely Confucian scholar, and saw that the war had led to the violent bones of the road, that is, the admonition: "Yi Shu County, I buried the hips, showed the love of hatred, and pursued the benevolence of the king." "A corrupt atmosphere.
And Cao Cao broke the Yuan clan, led the Ji Prefecture Pastor, and pei Yan was engaged in other driving, saying: "Yesterday's case household registration, can get 300,000 people, so it is a big state." Yan said: "Today the next fall, Kyushu is split, the Eryuan brothers are looking for Gange, and Jifang is steaming the bone wilderness." I didn't hear Wang Shiren's voice go first, asked about customs, and saved him from ruin, and the school planned the armored soldiers, only this was the first, si yi despised the state soldiers and women looked forward to Ming Gongya! Although it is still a Confucian principle, it has shown the resistance of personality. On the one hand, as a local family, it shows that it spares no effort in safeguarding local interests, and on the other hand, it is a display of identity, and with this kind of righteous and stern accusation, it shows the spiritual superiority of the famous scholars in the face of Cao Cao, a local warlord from the Shu clan. In the era of warlord chaos, the family clan not only lost political power (whoever is strong in force is the overlord), but also suffered serious economic damage, and they must rely on spiritual superiority to re-establish their identity, which is exactly such an effort.
The more He reached the twilight of Cui Yan, the more obvious it became. Cao Cao was called the King of Wei, and a man whom Cui Yan had recommended issued praise for his merits and praise for Shengde. Cui Yan said, "When the time comes, there will be a change." Cui Yan said that the original meaning of this sentence is difficult to verify. The Three Kingdoms Chronicle says that "yan originally meant to ridicule the commentators and not seek reason", which is only Chen Shou's speculation. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it is also known as "there are white Yan who are proud of this book", and Cao Cao also killed Cui Yan for this reason. Interestingly, Cao Cao asked the jailer to hint at Cui Yan that he had made a decision, but he did not expect that Cui Yan would be completely wrong, and he received guests in prison as usual, talking and laughing as usual. When Cao Cao sent another clear will, Cui Yan immediately took the steel knife from the jailer's hand and wiped his neck in a posture that was more elegant and natural than lighting a cigarette.
In his twilight years, Cui Yan was already completely the image of a Wei and Jin celebrity, and under Cao Cao's authoritarian regime of random life and death, Cui Yan had a very weak view of the actual status of merit and fame, but his belief in maintaining his own sense of spiritual superiority was stronger. For the slander of the villain and Cao Cao's misunderstanding (in fact, the misunderstanding is basically an excuse, which Cui Yan must have known very well in his heart), Cui Yan disdained to explain, calmly faced death, and the death of the flesh showed and reflected the arrogance and freedom of the spirit.
After Cui Yan, there was Ji Kang, only then did there be Wei Jin celebrities, and only then did there have a generation of Xuan Feng.