Gao Li (高俅; 1126) was a powerful official of the late Northern Song Dynasty, an official of the Song Huizong period, and a native of Bieliang (汴梁; present-day Kaifeng, Henan). There are indeed people in history, but under the pen of Mr. Shi Nai'an, he harmed Lin Chong, killed Lu Junyi, poisoned Song Jiang, and became the main villain of "Water Margin" and was widely known. There are many opinions on right and wrong, so today I will restore to you a real gao li in history.
According to the Southern Song Dynasty Wang Mingqing's "After the Wave", at first, he was not popular in Tokyo (Kaifeng). Just accompany other male brothers, cockfighting and horses, wind and snow and moon to walk around. Later, he was sent out of bounds and had to go to Huaixi Liu Dalang to settle down. Three years later, Song Zhezong granted amnesty to the world, and he also wanted to go home, so he sent a letter from Liu Dalang to the home of General Dong in Tokyo. General Dong saw that he was a broken settler, afraid that staying at home would bring bad children, so he sent him another letter to Su University.
In the eighth year of the Northern Song Dynasty (1093), Gao Li had been following Su Shi for many years, fighting cocks and horses, not thinking of making progress, also in order to get rid of this big trouble, Su Shi also went to a letter recommending Gao Li to his friend Xiao Wang Du Tai wei Wang Yi (that is, Wang Jinqing). He was sent to the mansion of the little prince. At this time, Gao Li, like a leather ball, was passed around by people, and his life was not good. Wang Yi was the brother-in-law of Emperor Shenzong (said to be emperor Zhezong's brother-in-law in the Water Margin) and the brother-in-law of Duanwang Zhao (later Emperor Huizong of Song). This Wang Yi was a "master of calligraphy and painting", and was closely related to The Duanwang Zhao Yao (Emperor Huizong of Song), who sat on a cold bench on the side, and the two often exchanged calligraphy and painting together. One day, Wang Yi and Zhao Yi waited together for the Upper Dynasty, and Zhao Yi forgot to bring a grate knife, so he asked Wang Yi to borrow a grate knife to repair his sideburns. Wang Yi's grate knife was beautiful, and Zhao Yi liked it. It just so happened that Wang Yi had two of the same ones, and the next day he asked Gao Qi to go to the Duanwang Mansion to deliver the grate knife. When Gao Li arrived, Duan Wang, who liked to play football, was playing football. Although Duan Wang loves to play football, he is only at the amateur level. And Gao Li is a master of playing football, naturally dismissive. Duan Wang noticed Gao Li's expression and invited Gao Li to kick together. This kick made Duan Wang greatly appreciate. So he sent someone to send a message to Wang Jie: "Thank you for sending the grate knife, along with the people you sent, I accepted it together." In this way, Gao Li stayed in the Duanwang Mansion and became a close associate of the Duanwang Zhao Tuo.
Soon, Emperor Zhezong of Song died of illness, and King Zhao of Duan became Emperor Huizong of the Great Song Dynasty. Huizong was originally a neglected and neglected person, who had just ascended to the throne, and all around him were new faces, and he naturally had to cultivate his own henchmen. After going down to the court, I saw Gao Li, a friend who had been playing together for a long time, and naturally I was particularly kind. Therefore, Emperor Huizong had the intention to promote Gao Qi and become his right and left arm, but the Song Dynasty had a system for promoting cadres, and it was not entirely by the emperor's nature. Qipin County officials must have a jinshi origin, while Gao Li has no meritorious name, and the civilian official's road is not feasible, so he has to find another way and take the road of military attaché, because the military attaché does not have strict requirements for birth, as long as he has a meritorious name, in a word, the flexibility is relatively large. In the Biography of the Ten Generals of Song Nandu, Volume 1, "Biography of Liu Kun", it is said: "First of all, the officials of the Duan And duan kings' residences were subordinated, and they took the throne, and they wanted to be promoted. In the old law, unless there is a side merit, it must not be three ya. When Liu Zhongwu was a bian shuai, he was subordinate to the upper side, and he was actually a bian gong to the palace marshal. Emperor Huizong of Song only asked Gao Li to go to the border pass to be gilded so that he could be promoted later. Liu Zhongwu and others knew that Gao Li was sent down by the emperor to be "gilded", so he was particularly helpful. It just so happened that when Gao Li was at the border pass, the Great Song Dynasty fought a few rare victories on the border. The capital of Gao Li's promotion was undoubtedly due to his experience in Liu Zhongwu's army, and he finally became a palace marshal, and he was in charge of the forbidden army for more than 20 years.
When Gao Lirong was promoted to lieutenant and took charge of the military power of the Great Song Dynasty, the Great Song army had long been corrupt and degenerate, and there was not much combat effectiveness. Gao Li was not a military man, and naturally it was impossible to bring obvious improvement to the military training of the Great Song Dynasty, but he was not entirely a saint who was in a high position by kicking a good ball. Gao Li was not an ordinary person, and he had some means in obtaining power for officials. First of all, he was well-behaved and good at what he wanted, and he did everything he could to please his superiors, especially Emperor Huizong, and cater to Emperor Huizong's psychology of good name and greed. Secondly, Gao Li has an advantage in that he does not forget to repay the deceased who has been kind to him. Before, Liu Zhongwu was promoted to him at the border pass, and since then he has maintained a close relationship with Liu Zhongwu's family. Liu Zhongwu lost the battle in the fifth year of Zhenghe (1115), but his career was not affected, because Gao Li had said good things for him in the court. After Liu Zhongwu's death, Gao Li strongly recommended his son Liu Kui to Emperor Huizong as a general. Cai Jing and others brutally persecuted Su Shi and his family, and Gao Li, who was also a courtier, did not fall into the well for Su Shi's family, but extended a helping hand, Shi Zai, he "did not forget the Su clan, and every time his sons entered the capital, they gave a pension and diligence", which was quite praised by the people.
The reason why Gao Li in history was processed by later people and artists as traitors was that he was too easy to obtain a high-ranking official Houlu because he was good at keju; second, perhaps because his greed for officials was indeed exposed by the chancellor during the Jing Kang period. Gao Li has been in charge of the Forbidden Army for more than 20 years, not only building the land of the military camp into a private residence, but also treating the Forbidden Army as a private service, regardless of training, and the special manager contributes to his private work. So the army (discipline was abolished), (the military and government were not repaired), became (people do not know the soldiers), there is no one to use" useless decorations, so that when the country faced the attack of the Tiger and Wolf Division Jin Army, hundreds of thousands of forbidden troops in Kaifeng City quickly disintegrated, as one of the supreme military commanders of the Great Song Dynasty, Gao Li was obviously to blame. It's no wonder that the impeachment was exposed. Gao Li's historical ending was his death in Kaifeng in 1126. The coffin concluded that the evaluation of him by the people of the time was that he was not lost, and on the whole he was still a good person.
In fact, in the main history, gao li's record is not very much, which is very strange, because an official position as large as a lieutenant is not listed. And his historical assessment is vague, that is, he is not a traitor. Because this kind of character has room for free play, "Water Margin" calls him the four traitors together with Tong Guan, Cai Jing and Yang Jian.
Jin Shengsi said in his comment on "Water Margin": "If You don't write About Gao Qi, you will write one hundred and eight people, which is chaotic; if you don't write one hundred and eight people, if you write Gao Li first, you will be chaotic and self-made." Therefore, it is not surprising that gao li played a clown emperor of the feudal dynasty in the novel "Water Margin".