Fatalists believe that death is prearranged by some supernatural force, "what dies in the well, what dies in the river." However, it is not always as Jia Baoyu said, "red stripes come and go without concern." There are many people in history who are not willing to be mediocre and choose to use death to complete their unfinished business, such as Jing Ke, who sacrificed himself to stab the King of Qin, and Wang Zhaoming, who "generously sang and sang, and threw his head lightly".
However, often the ideal is very full, but the reality is very bone. So much so that the way some heroes die does not match their great lives, and even some funny and humiliating, such as Brahe, who was killed by urination out of courtesy, and Zhang Fei, who was killed by two nameless pawns after being drunk.
Therefore, in order to match their identities, posterity always likes to make some fictional or exaggerated descriptions of their bizarre deaths. Although there are truths and falsehoods, it reveals people's infinite admiration, contempt, or hatred and regret for them. There are many factors such as personal feelings, national beliefs, history and religion, and I will introduce you to some bizarre and interesting death stories to see which are true and which are false.
The "man who urinated to death"
Tycho Brahe was born in Denmark and initially studied Latin, philosophy and law. But when he first saw a partial solar eclipse on August 21, 1560, he immediately turned his attention to astronomy and was hailed as "the first competent man in modern astronomy to be passionate about precise empirical facts."
On October 13, 1601, Brahe attended a family banquet for a wealthy nobleman in Prague. He drank so much wine at the banquet that he couldn't get up because urine filled his bladder. But out of respect for his master, he insisted, because according to the etiquette of the time, it was impolite to get up before the end of the banquet.
No one expected that just 11 days later, he would die of a bladder infection. On his deathbed, he wrote an epitaph for himself: "He lived like a saint and died like a fool". Many at the time speculated that Kepler had added too much mercury to his food because he was jealous of his astronomical achievements.
However, when Gu's body was exhumed in 2010, chemical analysis overturned conspiracy theories. It turns out that nephritis or cystitis due to urinary holding is the direct cause of his death.
A samurai killed by a teapot
Matsunaga was the "most famous" conspirator and betrayer of Japan's Sengoku period, and was once awarded the "Flat Spider" of the national treasure-level teapot. Just like Zhuge Liang's seven captures of Meng, he betrayed Oda Nobunaga several times, but strangely enough, he was forgiven every time. In the fifth year of Tenshō, when Uesugi Kenshin launched the second "Nobunaga Encirclement Network", he rebelled again and launched an attack from the rear.
As in the previous times, it didn't take long for him to lose, surrounded by Oda Nobunaga's army in the castle. Matsunaga knew that Oda Nobunaga had been coveting the "flat spider" for a long time, so this time he did not surrender and did not cut his abdomen. Instead, it filled the "flat spider" with gunpowder and detonated it.
The one who dies best
Diogenes was a Greek philosopher, one of the founders of cynicism, known as a cynic. He insisted that the artificial development of all people in society was incompatible with happiness, and that morality meant simplicity of returning to nature. In his words, "Man has complicated every simple gift of God."
Thus, after being exiled, he has been living a "dog-like life". Living in the bathtub and eating onions; carrying lanterns in the daytime to look for honest people in the street, quite Xu Wenchang's demeanor. On another occasion, someone took him to a palatial place and warned him not to spit on the ground. So he spit phlegm into the man's face and declared, "I can't find a dirtier place than this."
He was such an alternative person. So much so that when people jokingly asked him how he wished to bury himself after he died, he said he could throw himself outside the wall so that the animals could enjoy a picnic on him, just give him a stick. Thus, although his contemporaries said that he "choked" himself to death because he could not bear the pain. But there are still people who believe that he was bitten by a mad dog and died of rabies.
The greatest last words
In 212 BC, after a two-year siege, the Roman army, led by General Marcus, captured Syracuse. Subsequently, General Marcus ordered a soldier to go to the city to find the great mathematician Archimedes and instructed him to be treated kindly. When the soldier stood in front of Archimedes after much effort, he was studying a mathematical chart.
The soldiers showed him their intentions, but Archimedes was indifferent. Finally, the soldier, enraged by his indifference, raised his sword and stabbed him in the abdomen. It is said that the only words Archimedes said after he fell down were: Do not step on my circle.
The most legendary death
Aeschylus was an ancient Greek tragic writer whose in-depth analysis of human nature rivaled that of philosophers, including the famous Persians and The Bound Prometheus. His life, like the tragedy he wrote, has always been in a state of war and threat.
In 458 BC, Aeschylus returned to Sicily for the last time. There, he received a prophecy: you would soon die of a collapsed house or an object that fell from above. Therefore, with the encouragement of his friends, he spent most of his time outdoors to avoid prophecies. However, one day, while sitting in an open, sunny spot in the middle of the field sunbathing, an eagle with a turtle flying overhead spotted him and mistook his bald head for a rock.
So the eagle threw the turtle down, hoping to knock the shell open to eat the turtle inside. But instead of thinking that the turtle meat was not eaten, it was accidentally killed by a tragic writer. Although many people believe in his authenticity, some scholars have pointed out that this bizarre death story may have been invented by later generations based on Aeschylus's tragedy "The Necromancer".
Laugh at the dead
Chris Persia was the central philosopher of early Stoicism and wrote hundreds of important philosophical works. The Stoics teach that one should seek to make decisions in an indifferent, objective, emotionless state of reason. However, in 206 BC, the young donkey not only lost his reason, but also lost his life.
He was coming home with a plate of figs that day, and a passing donkey took a keen interest in it and tried to eat it. Seeing this scene, ChrisPos felt very funny and did not stop it. Then he said to the slaves around him: What are you still doing standing there? Why not give the donkey some wine to accompany the figs!
After that, he kept laughing until he fell to the ground trembling and foaming at the mouth. Later, the authorities announced that the philosopher had died of laughter and was recognized by the public. Although some scholars infer from his death that he died of emotional epilepsy, some scholars believe that this is a deliberate story orchestrated by people hostile to the Stoics, with the aim of satirizing the Stoics as hypocrites.