For ancient history, the folk are most familiar with the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, about the Three Kingdoms period of film and television, games, music, drama, articles, etc. emerge in an endless stream, there seems to be endless topics, even young children who have just been literate, but also the Three Kingdoms characters are cherished.
For the figures of the Three Kingdoms period, people supported and sympathized with Liu Bei's Shu Han side, and hated and denigrated Cao Wei's side. In people's cognition, Liu Bei's side represents loyalty, benevolence, and orthodoxy, while Cao Cao's side represents treachery, cruelty, and rebellion. Therefore, for Liu Bei's side, the words of praise were extremely praised, so that Guan Yu, Zhuge Liang and others became god-like beings; for Cao Cao's side, it was all kinds of ridicule, ridicule and derogatory, and in theatrical stage performances, Cao Cao showed people with a treacherous image of "white face".
However, everyone who has really read the correct history knows that this is not the original face of history, so why did this ideological tendency of "supporting Liu and opposing Cao" be formed? When did the ideological tendency of "supporting Liu and opposing Cao" first appear? How did it evolve? Why are the images of "Liu Bei's Benevolence" and "Cao Cao's Adultery" so deeply rooted in the hearts of the people?
This ideological tendency of "supporting Liu and opposing Cao" pushed it to a climax was the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", a classical novel that has been widely popular and achieved unprecedented success since its birth, and this non-mainstream novel created by folk literati at that time has now been classified as a "masterpiece" and has become a palace-level work. This novel was swept and popularized in the whole society, and its obvious tendency to "support Liu and oppose Cao" solidified the image of the historical figures of the Three Kingdoms in people's minds.
However, freezing a thousand feet is not a cold day. The tendency to "support Liu and oppose Cao" is gradually brewed and evolved, and it is not achievable in a novel. In fact, in the long historical period before the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was written, the folk began to gradually have this tendency, and the earliest can be traced back to the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
I. The Initiator of "The World Speaks a New Language"
The Later Han Dynasty written by Yuan Hong of the Eastern Jin Dynasty negates the inevitability and rationality of the Cao Wei Dynasty Han Dynasty. In the "Spring and Autumn of the Han Dynasty" written by the Eastern Jin Dynasty historian Xi Chisel, which was written by the Eastern Jin Dynasty historian xi chiseled tooth, in order to maintain the han rule, the Shu Han regime was "orthodox", and since then, Liu Bei's concept of the Shu Han regime as "orthodox" has begun to circulate. "Xi Chisel's writing of "Han Jin Spring and Autumn", with Wei as a puppet state, this covers the path of evil and righteousness, and the reason for ming and obedience." (Tang Dynasty Liu Zhiji," "Stone Detective Chapters").
During the Southern Song Dynasty, Fan Ye's Book of the Later Han Subverted the legitimacy of the Cao Wei regime and further solidified the orthodoxy of the Shu Han.
Although these previous works began to "support Liu", they have not yet made up an obvious "demeaning Cao" story. The earliest work that obviously began to appear "degrading Cao" was the note-taking novel "The New Language of the World" written by Liu Yiqing of the Southern Dynasty Song Dynasty.
(The World Speaks a New Language)
The framework of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is basically "according to the correct history", while the specific stories are mostly "collecting novels", and the stories collected are firstly derived from the blueprint "Three Kingdoms Zhiping Dialect", and the second is derived from the note novel "ShiShu Xinyu".
Before the "New Language of the World", Chen Shou's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" basically maintained an objective account of the characters of the Three Kingdoms, and affirmed Cao Cao's achievements and achievements, and people at the time called Cao Cao "Cao Gong", and later historians also honored Cao Cao with "Wei Wu" and "Emperor Wei", which shows that in the main history, Cao Cao's image is basically a literary, political, and military leader with achievements and achievements.
In the Southern Dynasty and Song Dynasty, Liu Yiqing's notebook novel "The New Language of the World" had a lot of opinions on Cao Cao and Cao Pi's father and son, and compiled a lot of "black materials" for them. There are 25 articles on Cao Cao in the "New Language of the World", which mostly depict the treachery, suspiciousness, cruelty and wandering in his personality. For example, in the "World Speaking New Language, Zhijian", when it comes to the comments of the scholars on Cao Cao, it is recorded that Qiao Xuan called Cao Cao "the hero of the chaotic world and the traitor who ruled the world". Pei Songzhi's commentary on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which records the Similarities and Differences, records that Xu Shao called Cao Cao "a capable minister who governs the world and a traitor to a chaotic world."
In the "New Language of the World", the person who evaluates and the language of evaluation are all tampered with, especially the change of "adulterous male" to "adulterous thief", which is very obvious to Cao Cao.
The "New Language of the World" is also mostly demeaning to Cao Pi, and 5 of the 10 deeds of Cao Pi depict his unkindness, filial piety and meanness. What is even more outrageous is that the story of persecuting Cao Zhi's "Seven Steps into Poetry" and "Jujube Killing Cao Zhang" was fabricated out of nothing, and Cao Pi was also criticized by posterity.
(Stage play "Water Moon Luoshen" Cao Pi forced Cao Zhi to take seven steps into a poem)
Why did Liu Yiqing repeatedly denigrate the Cao father and son in "The New Language of the World"? The reason is that Liu Yiqing was born in the royal family of Liu Song of the Southern Dynasty and was the nephew of Liu Yu, the Emperor wu of the Southern Dynasty. Although the Liu family established the Liu Song Dynasty, they were born into a "low-level scholar clan", so they had an obsessive concept of "orthodoxy" in their hearts. The Liu family wanted to prove and maintain the legitimacy and legitimacy of their political power, so they used the inheritance of the Liu family and the Han Dynasty as a banner to criticize and resist the Cao dynasty of Han Jianwei.
Moreover, the Eastern Jin Dynasty made Wudi the political and cultural center of the Southern Dynasty, and the Wu people and Cao Wei were hostile for many years, and the Wu people naturally belittled the Cao family, and the Liu family and the Wu people found a common enemy, which aggravated the social atmosphere of "degrading Cao".
Second, the climax of the idea of "supporting Liu and opposing Cao" in the Song and Yuan dynasties
During the Southern Dynasty Liu Song Dynasty, the idea of "degrading Cao Cao" did not last forever, and during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, although people praised Liu Bei, they rarely belittled Cao Cao. Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, denounced not Cao Wei Daihan, but Sima Shi's usurpation of Wei. When discussing Cao Cao, Great Poets such as Li Bai and Du Fu often used honorific titles such as "Wei Wu" and "Wei Zu" to affirm his deeds in unifying the north.
(Cao Cao's tragic and majestic song in "The Alliance of Military Divisions")
However, in the period of the song and yuan dynasties, the idea of "supporting Liu and opposing Cao" reached a climax, especially in the folk. Since then, this concept has been passed down to this day, and it is difficult to reverse and change.
Su Dongpo's "Zhilin Huaigu" records:
"The children in TuXiang are inferior, and their families are tired of suffering, and they are tired of money, so that they can sit together and hear the old sayings." As far as the Three Kingdoms affairs are concerned, when Liu Xuande is defeated, there are people who have snot, and when they hear Cao Cao's defeat, they sing happily. ”
This shows that at that time, in the mouths and books of folk storytellers, a strong tendency of "supporting Liu And opposing Cao Cao" had already formed, and the ordinary people in the streets and alleys listened to people's lectures and heard Liu Bei's defeat, and even cried sympathetically, while when they heard Cao Cao's defeat, they rejoiced and rejoiced. The balance of emotions seriously fell to Liu Bei's side.
(Statues of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei)
During the Song and Yuan dynasties, not only the folk were like this, but also in the literary works of the literati, there were few honorific titles for Cao Cao, but a large number of contemptuous titles such as Cao Cao as "Ah Qi" and "Old Thief". In Li Chunfu's "Chibi Wind and Moon Flute Diagram", there is a sentence that "the old fox fell to Wuchangdong". (The image of the fox is a negative symbol of cunning and treachery.)
So, why was it that during the Song and Yuan dynasties, the ideological tendency of "supporting Liu and opposing Cao" was rampant?
At the time of the song and yuan dynasties, the sentiment of "supporting Liu and opposing Cao" was unprecedentedly high. The reason for this is that during the period when the contradictions between the Hu and Han nationalities were acute, the Shu Han was regarded as "orthodox" and a clear banner in the great cause of "rejuvenating the Han Dynasty and destroying Hu" and "restoring the Central Plains."
The Zhao and Song dynasties, although the economy was unprecedentedly prosperous, were militarily weak and were deeply invaded by ethnic minorities such as the Liao, Western Xia, Jin, and Yuan. At the time of the life and death of the Han people, the slogan of "rejuvenating the Han Dynasty" put forward by the Shu Han regime made the Han literati in the Song and Yuan Dynasties find spiritual resonance and comfort.
Especially the Southern Song Dynasty, the southern part of the Anjiang River, is so similar to the Shu Han Dynasty! Pity with the same disease, naturally in agreement.
In order to "support Liu", people had to "degrade Cao".
The great literary hero Zhu Xi inherited the orthodox view of "Han Jin Spring and Autumn", and even more proposed
"Emperor Shu Kou Wei Theory"
After that, the Cao father and son turned over hopelessly.
(Portrait of Zhu Xi)
The Han people, who were under the rule of foreign nationalities in the Yuan Dynasty, were thinking of their homeland, so they held high the banner of "supporting Liu and opposing Cao".
By the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the idea of "supporting Liu and opposing Cao" was still popular in the world. Under the influence of this political environment and social atmosphere, Luo Guanzhong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" naturally inherits this ideological tendency. After all, people are the products of the times and society, and no one can jump out of the influence of the times.