The ninth Xiongguan of the Great Wall - Niangzi Pass
Princess Pingyang Zhao is a strange woman! She was the first princess of the Tang Dynasty to be given the title of "Zhao" after her death.
She was the only daughter of four men and one daughter from Li Yuanzheng's wife Dou. Among the four men, except for Li Yuanba, the Prince of Wei, who died at the age of fifteen (614), the other three, Li Jiancheng, the second son of the Prince of Qin, Li Shimin, the second son of the Prince of Qin, and Li Yuanji, the third son of the Prince of Qi, all had great fame, and the princess of Pingyang also had meritorious service. As for her ranking position, whether she was Li Shimin's sister or sister, the history books do not explain. However, it is generally believed that she should have been born between 590 and 596, that is, the period between Li Jiancheng's birth and Li Shimin's birth. Because her husband Chai Shao was the same age as Li Jiancheng, as Li Yuan's daughter-in-law, naturally honorable, when marrying Chai Shao, Chai Shao was nothing more than the Yuande Tianzi guard in the imperial family of the capital - Zuo Qianniu was prepared, not prominent, Pingyang and Chai Shao should belong to a normal marriage match of similar age and family lineage, "When Gao Zuwei was young, his wife was his daughter, that is, Princess Pingyang. (Old Book of Tang) Therefore, it is more reasonable to calculate that Princess Pingyang was born between 590 and 596. Because Chai Shao served in Chang'an, Princess Pingyang made her home in Chang'an City with her husband. In 617, Li Yuan's father and son Li Shimin decided to raise an army at Jinyang and join the ranks of the anti-Sui rebels. In April, Li Yuan thought that Chai Shao "had courage and courage, and Ren Xia was smelled in Guanzhong", and that he was his son-in-law, and was bound to reuse it, so he secretly sent someone to send a letter to Chai Shao and his wife. After the two received the letter, Chai Shao responded resolutely and was eager to rush to Jinyang immediately, but worried that the princess of Pingyang would not be able to travel and safety. Princess Pingyang encouraged him to defect to her father and asked him not to worry about himself: "Jundi hurry up, I am a woman, easy to hide." Chai Shao went all the way east, past the Yellow River to Jinyang. An interesting episode is that he actually met the brothers Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji on the way, and they did not receive a letter from their father, and the matter of starting an army was not as good as that of his son-in-law. The two brothers were in chaos in the world, and the four sides were vying for glory, and they didn't know what to do, and the headless flies were ready to defect to the thieves and fall into the grass. Chai Shao persuaded the two to go to Jinyang together, saying that their father might have raised the flag and raised an army. Sure enough, they arrived in Jinyang in June, Li Yuan and Li Shimin had already announced the start of the army, and everyone rejoiced and clapped their hands in celebration.
Princess Binh Duong film and television image
The Princess of Pingyang, who remained in Chang'an, has also returned to the Li manor in Yanxian County, scattered her family wealth, and recruited soldiers and horses. Li Yuan's cousin Li Shentong was also living in Chang'an at the time, and when he heard the news, he fled into the mountains of YanXian and responded with Shi Wanbao, the great hero of Chang'an, and others. At that time, a Hu man from the Western Regions, He Panren, entered Sizhu Garden (present-day Zhouzhi County) as a thief, and there were also tens of thousands of people, who kidnapped Li Gang, the former Shangshu Right Minister, as a long history. Princess Pingyang then sent her family slave Ma Sanbao (who was also a Tang Dynasty hero) to persuade He Panren to join her in attaching himself to Li Shentong, and it was clear that several joint troops had captured Yan County. Princess Pingyang also sent Ma Sanbao to persuade the thieves Li Zhongwen, Xiang Shanzhi, Qiu Shili and others to lead the people to their annexation. Princess Pingyang led an army to attack Xu, Wugong, and Shiping, all of which were victorious, and her men slowly reached as many as 70,000 people. When Li Yuan crossed the river to capture Chang'an, princess Pingyang sent people to meet her father, and Li Yuan ordered Chai Shao to lead hundreds of cavalry to Nanshan to meet her--after the victory returned, and the husband and wife met happily, which was a great happiness. Princess Pingyang captured Chang'an for her father and brother, bringing a large number of soldiers and horses, and finally Princess Pingyang handed over all her soldiers and horses to her brother Li Shimin. The two brothers and sisters fought side by side in Chang'an City, which is also a good story.
At this point, Masashi's record of the merits of Princess Pingyang came to an abrupt end. It's been five years since her name reappeared. In February of the sixth year of Wu De (623), the history books recorded that "Princess Xue" was buried on the twelfth day. Staggering. As for the cause of her death, it is not stated. According to the projection that she was born between 590 and 596, she died not enough to be 30 years old, and there is a high probability that she died of illness, but another association is that she died in war.
Because just a month before her death, Li Jiancheng's army defeated Liu Hei's army at YongjiQu, and the battle was dark, severely losing most of Liu's army. Liu Heimin only had a few hundred followers left, and fled to Raoyang. Arriving in Raoyang, Liu Heimin was trapped and sent to Li Jiancheng by Zhuge Dewei, who pretended to invite him into the city for repairs, and was beheaded in February.
Liu Heimin film and television image
The news of the death of Princess Pingyang just appeared in early February, whether it was related to Liu Heimin's serious injuries in the final battle, it is imaginable. Because in the legends of later generations, there is a story about the fierce battle between Princess Pingyang and Liu Heimin, which is "Rice Soup Retreats from the Enemy". It is said that after the Princess of Pingyang led the Niangzi Army to garrison Niangziguan, it encountered a large-scale attack by Liu Heimin's troops, and the Princess of Pingyang commanded the Niangzi Army to die, but the military strength was insufficient, and the situation was very dangerous. Faced with an army several times larger than her, Princess Pingyang inadvertently saw the grain on the field in the distance, and she was in a hurry, and she ordered the soldiers and civilians in the city to immediately harvest, set up pots, and boil rice soup with new rice, and after the rice soup was boiled, she ordered the people to pour all the people from the guan to the gully in front of the guanqian in the night. The next day, the rice soup in the ravine in front of niangziguan was overflowing, and when the enemy sentries found out, they suspected horse urine and hurriedly reported to the commander. The commander-in-chief went out to watch, only to see the flags on the city towers, the shouts of the soldiers and the people shaking the sky, and the beating of war drums, so he misjudged that the reinforcements had arrived, and quickly withdrew his troops and left.
The NiangziGuan associated with this story is located in the foothills of Mianshan Mountain in the northeast of Pingding County, Yangquan City, Shanxi, opposite the Jingjing Pass, the same military stronghold, guarding the Taihang Mountain Jingjing Pass, one of the few passages between Shanxi and Hebei, the Ming Dynasty built the Great Wall, which is an important pass of the Inner Great Wall, which is the famous ninth pass of the Great Wall. Niangziguan was originally named "Wei Ze Guan" (named after the Sui Dynasty), and according to legend, Princess Pingyang once led troops to garrison here, and Princess Pingyang's troops were called "Niangzi Army" at that time, hence the name.
But the authenticity of this story is unknown, at least there is no canonical record. Since the Battle of Chang'an, Princess Pingyang has not appeared in the war recorded in the history books, did her career as a horse warrior end because of the establishment of the dynasty? Is she returning to the family life of raising her children? It's all a mystery.
As for the origin of Niangziguan, there is also a theory, focusing on the female symbol "Niangzi", saying that there was originally an ancestral hall here, which was built for the sister of The Mianshan Jiezi Tui, who died in the Spring and Autumn Jin Dynasty, but somehow, whenever a "woman dressed beautifully" passed through the ancestral hall, the place "Must Xing Thunder and Lightning" (Gu Zuyu's "Minutes of Reading the History of Public Opinion"), like jealousy, frightened beautiful women to lose their faces. Later, this shrine was called the "Jealous Daughter Ancestral Hall", and Niangziguan got its name.
I prefer this folk ancillary talk that prevails because of a natural phenomenon of some natural coincidence. First of all, the earliest appearance of the name of Niangziguan was already the time of the Golden Yuan, and the poem "You Chengtian Hanging Spring" has the sentence "Only know that the western world of Jinyang City is rare, and the Niangzi Guantou is even more strange", which is the earliest written record. Yuan Haowen settled in Pingding for ten years, and when he was young, he traveled to Niangziguan, and writing this poem was revisited by him forty years later. The "Great Qing Unification Chronicle" compiled and revised by Qianlong in the twenty-ninth year (1764) was the first official revision document under the name Niangziguan.
Spanning the long Tang Dynasty, and even the Song Dynasty, for five hundred years, the name "Niangziguan" has not been heard, which shows that its fame is relatively late.
Another reason is that princess Pingyang died, and her burial specifications were very high, and she was buried with a military ceremony, which was different from the general princess ceremony. Li Yuan ordered that military music be played at the Dachang Temple: According to the ceremonial system, women do not have to play music. Li Yuan replied, "Advocate, military music also." Princess Yu Sizhu raised an army to the banner of Righteousness, personally held the golden drum, and had the order of Keding. Zhou Zhiwen's mother, listed in the Ten Chaos; the princess Gong Sangsa, very woman's match. What a bravado! ”
Please note that Li Yuan's praise here is also the merits of Princess Pingyang in the Sizhu uprising to cooperate with the army to conquer Chang'an, as for other re-establishment meritorious deeds, it is not mentioned, if it is to block Liu Heimin and sacrifice, Gao zu has nothing to hide, but can also be praised.
The hero of Pingyang, the dangerous Niangziguan, the rebel Liu Heimin who swept through Hebei, the war, the blood, the sword and light sword shadow war horse roared, a turbulent era of great opening and closing, these elements easily constitute a magnificent picture that moves people' hearts, and its authenticity takes a back seat.
Princess Pingyang was the first princess of the Tang Dynasty to be given the title after her death, and the only woman in Chinese history to adopt military funerals. And the connection with the ninth Xiongguan of the Great Wall, NiangziGuan, is also caused by the admiration of posterity for her.
Historical evidence of this article: Zizhi Tongjian, Old Book of Tang
August 4, 2021