Zhang Xuecheng commented on the
Three kingdoms
" when said, "
Seven points of historical facts, three points of fiction
”
However, the author Luo Guanzhong's scandalization of Cao Cao, the glorification of Liu Bei, and the myth of Zhuge Liang are still quite puzzling.
Bloodline angle - Liu Bei is 'descendants of the imperial family'", after Liu Sheng, the King of Zhongshan Jing
There were a total of 29 emperors in the Han Dynasty, Liu Heng gave birth to Liu Qi, Liu Qi was also the Han Jing Emperor, and Liu Sheng, the King of Zhongshan Jing, was the son of the Han Jing Emperor, so Liu Bei was related to Liu Bang by blood.
Liu Bei was a descendant of Liu Sheng's branch, the seventeenth generation of Liu Sheng's grandson, the eighteenth generation of Emperor Jing's grandson, Liu Bei's father was named Liu Hong, and his grandfather Liu Hong once held up filial piety and achieved the county order level. In short, thanks to Liu Bei's liu, he had some kinship with the emperor of the Han Dynasty.
What about Cao Cao's blood relations? After the Romance of the Three Kingdoms refers to him as The Han Xiang Cao San, Cao Cao's father Cao Song was the adopted son of the eunuch Cao Teng, and Cao Cao's grandfather Cao Teng was a member of the Ten Permanent Attendants of the Eunuch Group at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and a descendant of the Han Xiang State Cao Gan. However, due to his father Cao Song, he was Cao Teng's adopted son. Therefore, Cao Cao and Cao Shen were not directly related by blood. Cao Cao's father, Cao Song (曹嵩), was a member of the Peiguo (沛国谯郡人氏). His father Xiahou Rui and his mother, Yan Shi, cao song were Xiahou Rui's second son. Xiahou Rui was originally a Nanyang County Commander, for the official clean and honest, the family was very poor, and then because of the party dispute between the DPRK and the CENTRAL, he was deposed, and when the Yan clan gave birth to a son Song, he could not raise him, so he had to leave his eldest brother Xiahou Wei and give Song to his friend Cao Teng for adoption. So Xiahou Song changed his surname to Cao Song.
Sun Quan's father was named Sun Jian, a warlord general at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who participated in the joint army of Changsha Taishou to honor Sun Jian. The history books say that he was "extraordinary in appearance, broad in nature, and curious", and in the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Sun Jian is called a fierce tiger in Jiangdong. Zhongping joined the battle against the Yellow Turban rebel army in one year, and later rebelled against Dong Zhuo. In April of the second year of Chuping, Sun Jian, under the orders of Yuan Shu, conquered Liu Biao's Jingzhou, and Huang Zu was defeated and fled to the Da Shan Mountains, which Sun Jian pursued. Huang Zufu's soldiers fired flying arrows from the bamboo forest, Sun Jian hit the arrow, and the brain plasma was killed in the reverse current, at the age of Chinese New Year's Eve seven. According to the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, he was a descendant of the military scholar Sun Wu.
The perspective of social background - since the Song and Yuan dynasties, ethnic contradictions have been sharp, and people are thinking of Han
From the Tang and Song dynasties to the Jin Yuan, folk rap literature has always had a tendency to respect Liu and degrade Cao. Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, when ethnic contradictions were sharp, "people think of Han" and "restore the Han room" were the common aspirations of the Han people at that time, and Liu Bei was always known for "Hongyi and generosity, knowing people and treating soldiers", so it was in line with the public's acceptance psychology and desire to enshrine Liu Bei as an orthodox benevolent king.
Since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Han people who suffered from the division of the country and the invasion of foreign nationalities wanted the unification of the world, Luo Guanzhong used the tendency of "supporting Cao and opposing Liu" to reflect the unorthodox rule of the Yuan Dynasty according to many materials, and at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Luo Guanzhong combined the Confucian concept of politics and morality with the people's desire for the Ming Emperor and the sages, and regarded Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and others as the sustenance of beautiful ideals. The logic of Confucian thinking is that "the Heavenly Dao has no relatives, and is always with good people" and "Heaven and earth, only the virtuous dwell in it". This tendency to think is obvious.
Before his death, Zhuge Liang lamented: "I wanted to do my best to restore the Central Plains and revitalize the Han Dynasty, nai providence, and I will die." The author helplessly attributes this historical tragedy to "Providence" or "number of days". The so-called "number of days"' is not so much an affirmation of the rationale of objective historical progress, but rather a kind of confusion and pain felt by the disillusionment of ideals, the loss of morality, and the reversal of values.
Perspective of Historical Development - Since Zhu Xi's "Outline of General Studies", the Shu State has been regarded as orthodox
Cao Liuwei has always had a different view on the issue of orthodoxy. In orthodox historical works, roughly from Zhu Xi's "Outline of Tongjian", the Shu state is generally regarded as the orthodox, with Wei and Wu as the tyrant states. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, when Mao Zonggang revised the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he also intensified the ideological tendency of "supporting Liu and opposing Cao", and his thoughts and national sentiments of the homeland of "returning my great Han" with the idea of supporting Liu and anti-Cao are obvious in the works.
As for the folk stories, from the Tang and Song dynasties to the Jin Yuan, the tendency to "support Liu and oppose Cao" is completely consistent, which is related to the reasons why people have suffered foreign invasions since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Han people want the world to be unified, and "people think of Han".
Zhu Xi's Tongjian Gangmu had a great influence on the historiography of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, and the Han Confucians of the Yuan Dynasty mainly elaborated the idea of "Yixia Discernment" by studying the calligraphic purpose of Zhu Xi's Tongjian Compendium.
The ideas, viewpoints and contents described in the "Outline of General Criticism" fully meet the requirements of successive rulers, and are a textbook for maintaining the order of feudal rule, which is very conducive to the rule of the feudal state, so it has always been valued, respected and advocated by successive feudal rulers. As the author of this book, Zhu Xi, later, in the later period of the entire feudal society, was naturally pushed to the sacred throne second only to Confucius and enjoyed the lofty honor second only to Confucius.
In fact, when Luo Guanzhong wrote the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, there was still a certain objective angle, for example, when he wrote Cao Cao in the early stage, he did not vilify Cao Cao, and Mao Jiagang's revision of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms strengthened the tendency of "respecting Liu and degrading Cao", in order to meet the needs of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty.
As for why the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" mythologizes Zhuge Liang, there have always been several different voices. There is a folk legend that Luo Guanzhong was once a strategist under Zhang Shicheng, and after Zhang was defeated by Zhu Yuanzhang, Luo Guanzhong's dream of building a meritorious career failed, and he became a novelist, his experience and inner emotions were extremely similar to Zhuge Liang, so he borrowed the myth zhuge liang to express his regret that he had talent but did not achieve a great cause.
In ancient times, there was also a tradition of judging people by their appearance, and the history books recorded: "Liang is eight feet long and has a great appearance." ''He has learned to be rich in five cars, how can a man be perfect?' But Kong Ming is a near-perfect person, he has such an image, temperament, and conversation that Sun Quan wants to get him the first time he sees Kong Ming. Such a quick-witted and loyal person, the author will inevitably have more preferences when writing novels.
Zhuge Liang is actually a figure with great political achievements in history, but can the novel write that he managed the country, governed Tiansang, and developed salt and iron? Obviously not, considering the acceptance group of the novel, you talk about some particularly high-end governing strategies, not many people will be interested, but talk about some divine tricks, strange tricks, can arouse the interest of the public, so Zhuge Liang's image will be deified, even to the extent of demonization.