During the Jin Dynasty, the poisoning of the palace that occurred in 656 BC directly led to the death of prince Shensheng, and the princes of the Jin state were expelled, and there was no public clan in the country from then on. This is a confusing case, and history says that it was Li Ji who planned this conspiracy, and we try to restore the real face of this event from those overlooked details.
The lonely prince Shensheng
In the early years, Shen Sheng was often educated in public schools. There were many people who studied around him, including the children of the Huan and Zhuang clans, and the sages of the Gong clan served as Gong Clan, Yu Zi, and Gong Xing (Gong Clan officials) respectively, teaching them the Six Arts. Later, the school had more heavy ears and Yiwu, but there were fewer people, and the three gong clan teachers either died or left the Jin kingdom.
He liked to be with his brothers, Heavy Ear, Yi Wu and the other five younger brothers, who would accompany The Marquis of Jin to the Feast every year, and he would take Xi Qi and the other younger brothers on the carriage to ride together. They sang together: "Why don't those who walk on the road stand shoulder to shoulder with their brothers, and who doesn't have brothers, why can't they help each other?" (Whoever walks, Hu Is not better than Yan?) No brothers, no nonsense? From "Tang Feng Yu Du"
At that time, even if his stepmother Li Ji looked at him with suspicion and hatred, he didn't care.
Shen Sheng is lonely, his mother Qi Jiang left him very early, his sister Bo Ji married into the Qin Kingdom, in the palace, is not willing to reveal his inner father and reject his stepmother, and the former brothers also began to have their own thoughts.
Shen Sheng wrapped up this loneliness and deep fear in his heart, etiquette, loyalty, and responsibility were his armor, and he hoped that he could curl up inside and get safe.
Two versions of the "Attempted Assassination of Prince Shensheng" case
The "Chronicle of History" says: In the twenty-first year of the reign of King Hui of Zhou and Duke Xian of Jin (656 BC), Ji Shensheng, the crown prince of the Jin Dynasty, received a message from his stepmother Lady Li Ji, who said that she had dreamed of Shen Sheng's mother, Qi Jiang, and asked him to quickly sacrifice and give it to the monarch. After Shen Sheng's sacrifice, he personally packed the wine and meat for the sacrifice, brought it to The Capital, and sent it to the palace, where the Marquis of Jin was hunting, and Lady Li Ji of the Jun accepted the wine and meat in place of the monarch, and praised Shen Sheng's filial piety, saying that when the Marquis of Jin returned, he would definitely convey the filial piety of the prince on his behalf. Shen Sheng thanked the lady of the monarch and returned to the residence of Dai du to wait for the news.
Two days later (six days in zuo zhuan), when the Marquis of Jin returned to Daidu, the head cook (Zairen) brought wine and meat, and Lady Jun said, "The sacrificial meat comes from Quwo, so we should try it first." The Marquis of Jin then sacrificed the land with wine, and the ground immediately bulged, and the Marquis of Jin, confused in his heart, threw the meat to a dog, and the dog soon struggled to die, and ordered a young minister to do another experiment, and the young minister ate it in despair and fell to the ground and died.
Lady Jun wept and accused Shen Sheng of being a king killer. The Marquis of Jin was furious and ordered the crown prince to be arrested, and the prince had fled to Quwo, and the Marquis of Jin killed the prince's master Du Yuanqian. The crown prince did not plead his case and refused to flee to the other princely states. In December, Shen Sheng committed suicide.
In the "Chinese", in addition to the beginning of "Li Ji's life by the king's destiny", the other narratives are also very different, and the "Chinese" mentions:
Li Ji put the hair or feces of the bird in the wine and made poisonous wine; the root juice of the aconitum (堇) was coated on the meat.
After the return of the Marquis of Jin, he summoned Shen Sheng to make offerings. The monarch sprinkled wine on the ground for sacrifice, and the ground suddenly bulged. Shen Sheng was stunned and ran out of the palace in a panic, and Lady Jun ordered a dog to be brought to test the sacrificial meat and let a young minister taste the wine. Both the dog and the petty minister were dead. The Marquis of Jin ordered Du Yuanqian to be executed, and when Shen Sheng heard about it, he hurriedly fled to Quwo.
This is the famous "Prince Assassination Attempt case" of the Jin Dynasty, and the "Zuo Zhuan", "Chinese" and "Historical Records" record the history of the case, and directly determine that the culprit behind the scenes is Li Ji.
From the comparison we know:
In the "Records of History", the wine and meat have been preserved in the palace, so li ji's poisoning is very suspicious; in the words of the Chinese, the wine meat is not necessarily in the palace, because after Ji Wei returned, he also summoned Shen Sheng to hold a gift.
In "The Chronicle of History", Shen Sheng is not present, everything is Li Ji is performing; in "Chinese", Shen Sheng is present.
In the Chronicle of History, Shen Sheng fled to Quwo after hearing that the monarch was angry; in the Chinese, Shen Sheng, after witnessing the poisoning case, fled the court safely and waited until the monarch killed Du Yuanqian before fleeing to Quwo.
Poisoning cases ignore etiquette
After comparison, we find that this "attempted murder" involves four or more ceremonies.
One is the sacrifice ceremony, which belongs to a kind of ji li, in the historical data, all the doubts believe that Shen Sheng's sacrifice was planned by Lady Li Ji, and the "History" describes that Li Ji directly ordered the sacrifice to Shen Sheng; other historical sources wrote that it was Ji Wei Zhu who gave the order, but they believed that it was Li Ji who pretended to entrust Ji Ji zhu's orders, or Ji Ji Zhu was ordered by Li Ji's deception. This sacrifice should be a normal arrangement, Shen life and death in December Pengshen, there are four festivals in the week, spring, summer, autumn, winter each have sacrifices, called the temple, the temple, the taste, the steaming, considering that the Jin state may be the summer calendar, Sima Qian said that the weekly calendar December, according to the summer calendar should be October, Shen Sheng should be tasted or steamed sacrifice. "Spring and Autumn Dew" said that October entered the first rice. Since Shen Sheng built the Jiang Temple, it was a very normal thing to sacrifice some new rice to his mother on time. The description here actually determines whether Jin Xiangong will accept Shensheng's wine and meat with formal etiquette.
The second is Guifu, which belongs to a kind of auspicious ceremony. This is a long-standing ritual, the return is the gift, and the blessing is the wine and meat in the sacrifice. It is a blessing for the sacrificer to give the unused wine and meat to relatives and friends. Now in the countryside, after the family sacrifice, the sacrifice is given to the relatives and friends who assist the sacrifice, which is probably a legacy of this ritual. Shen Sheng sacrificed his mother in Quwo and gave him a blessing gift, which was also normal.
The third is diet or swallow ceremony, which belongs to a kind of Jiali. In all the narratives, Ji Wei zhu has the action of "sacrificing the ground", which proves the existence of this ritual. Wei Zhaoyue said, "I will drink first and sacrifice first, and show that there is a first sacrifice." It is mentioned in the "Chronicle of History" that Li Ji persuaded Ji Wei to test whether the wine was poisonous, and then poured the wine on the ground. This detail is not mentioned in the Chinese, and it is clear that they understand that this sentence cannot be possible. Before eating and drinking, greet the ancestors first, which is a courtesy. Whether Li Ji reminds or not, Ji Ji will pour the wine on the ground to greet the spirit of heaven that his father Ji called.
The fourth is to enjoy (offer) gifts, which clearly state in the Chinese that after the return of the Jin Dynasty, the return of the blessing will become a sacrifice, and the prince needs to wear a dress and respectfully offer wine and meat to the monarch.
The dedication was important in this case because it proved that wine and meat did not stay in the palace. Obviously, Shen Sheng's Guifu did not stay in the palace. Zhou Li said, "Whoever sacrifices the blessings of sacrifice receives and eats." "After the Jin Xiangong returned to the palace, he heard that there was a prince's blessing, which would be accepted and eaten, and there was no need for the later offering; however, the sacrifice was arranged by the Jin Xiangong himself, and Shen Sheng personally sent the blessing to his father, and a gift was inevitable. If there is a gift, then Li Ji has almost no chance of poisoning the wine meat. The "Chronicle of History" recognized the contradiction of the "Chinese", so it did not choose to record the enjoyment (offering) of the gift.
If these rituals existed, Shen Sheng's return and dedication might have been witnessed by the presence of many ministers of the Jin Dynasty, especially the officials in charge of the state ceremonies. It also means that this event is not a long-planned event, but a sudden event in normal etiquette.
Judging from the situation at the scene, The Marquis of Jin and Lady Jun have always controlled the situation, and the crime scene has been orderly and there is no sign of chaos. The strange thing is that the suspect Shen Sheng actually escaped from the Jin Palace; what is even more strange is that the prince stayed in The Capital after escaping the palace room, and only fled to Quwo when he heard that Du Yuanqian was about to be killed; the most strange thing is that the Marquis of Jin has not sent anyone to guard, track, and arrest the prince, and before he died, he received the last words of his teacher Du Yuanqian, and he also discussed with his close ministers how to deal with it, and at the same time wrote a letter to Fox Tu. Only to commit suicide calmly.
After the incident, Jin Xiangong reacted strangely
Although the narratives in the "History" and "Chinese" have contradictions, the "Chinese" obviously explains more details, so we will focus on Chinese when discussing.
When the poisoning and liquor incident occurred, the Jin Dynasty was extremely shocked. Almost no one thought that Shen Sheng had poisoned his father. These people said: If it was poisoned by Shen Sheng, he was very familiar with the etiquette of the court, and understood that the Marquis of Jin would definitely sacrifice the land before drinking, and how he would poison the wine. Without asking Yuanfang, I also know that there must be something strange in it. Therefore, Ji Weizhu decided to launch an investigation, and the prince's master Du Yuanqian was captured, and the prince was able to leave the Jin Palace.
In the investigation, the investigators identified two poisons, under the wine is the duck, the duck is a legendary poisonous bird, its feathers are highly poisonous, people often put the feathers in the wine to make poisonous wine, used to kill people and kill the mouth; under the meat is the viola, said to be aconitum, a kind of grass containing high poison, the main toxic component is aconitine, until now there are people who have aconitine poisoning.
Du Yuanqian experienced a cruel punishment. I am not sure whether this Du Yuanqian was a descendant of Du Bo, Uncle Kui, or Shi Huan, but I think that in that year, Du Bo was killed by King Xuan of Zhou, Uncle Kui fled to the Jin Dynasty to serve as a scholar and was in charge of punishment, and Shi Fan formulated the law of Shi Fan, and today, the people of the Tang Du clan still have to suffer from the torture of criminal law.
Before Du Yuanqian died, he saw Xiao Chenyuan. Xiaochen is also an official position, and the Jin wen of Jinguo Archaeology has the terms "Xiaochen" and "Large Chamber Xiaochen", but scholars have not yet reached a conclusion. According to the "Zhou Li", xiaochen belonged to the Xia official system, and his duties were more numerous, mainly to convey the king's small orders at the side of the king of Zhou, correct the etiquette of the king's walking, control the letters of the three dukes and his courtiers, and play an auxiliary role in holding sacrifices and hajj.
Xiao Chenyuan came on the orders of the Marquis of Jin, to convey the orders of the Marquis of Jin, which shows that he is a close subject of Ji Weizhuo. Maybe it was ordering Du Yuanqian's execution, or maybe it was to give Du Yuanqian some explanation. I prefer the latter, because Du Yuan asked Xiao Chenyuan to give Shen Sheng a message.
The prince received the news of Du Yuan's death, and he began to run to Quwo. Xiao Chenyuan saw him in Quwo. The act of the young minister was tacitly approved by Ji Weizhuo, because the time to pass orders to the cell and the time to deliver messages to Quwo could not be the same. After the young minister passed on his order, he would definitely go back to his life, and if he had not received the instructions of the monarch, he would not have run out of the capital to quwo to see Shensheng. Du Yuanqian advised Shen Sheng to commit suicide in a message: "I did not have insight into the king's thoughts, let you go to other countries." Causes you to be framed by Li Ji's rumors. I hope that you will choose to die, and when you die, do not forget your loyalty and love for the monarch, which is a filial piety. After you die, your name will be circulated among the people of the Jin Dynasty, and it is also worth it. ”
I have heard that gentlemen do not sympathize, do not regurgitate, and slander and die. It's like a name. Death does not move, strong also. Keep the heart and say father, filial piety. Kill to become a zhi, Ren also. Death does not forget the king, respect also. The widow is barely here! Death will be loved, the thoughts of the dead, can't it be? "Chinese"
"Chinese" says that in order to force Shen Sheng to die, Li Ji personally ran to Qu Wo to teach this stepson a lesson, and I believe that Li Ji's lesson occurred when Shen Sheng was still in Dai du. Li Ji was also persuading Shen Sheng to commit suicide: "You want to kill your father and gain the support of the people, how can someone like you live?" ”
Is there a father who endures, but what about the people of the country? Endure the father and seek good people, who is good? Kill the Father for the benefit of others, but who will benefit him? The evil of all the people is also difficult to live forever!
The most bizarre thing was that Ji Weizhu did not send someone to arrest Shen Sheng from beginning to end, he did not arrest Shen Sheng when he was in The Capital, and he did not arrest Shen Sheng when he was in Quwo. This is the opposite of how he behaves to his other sons. Upon hearing of Shen Sheng's death, Zhong'er and Yiwu immediately returned to Pu and Qu, and Ji Weizhu quickly sent troops to attack Pu and Qu (since Shen's life and death were in December, it was already the second year since shen was born and died). What he did was to tolerate xiao chenyuan sending a message to Shen Sheng, conniving at Lady Li Ji to humiliate him in front of Shen Sheng.
Who is the biggest suspect
Ji Weizhu's series of strange operations after the poisoning case just proved that the biggest suspect was himself. Among all the suspects, those who had access to Shen Sheng's wine and meat were Shen Sheng and his subordinates, as well as li Ji, who was extremely unlikely, the little minister, who also managed "small sacrifices, guests, food, and guest shooting." "If we assume that there was no greater change in Zhou Li's official system in the Jin State at this time, we know that this little person is closely related to this incident, and everything that happened that day is under the control of Ji Weizhuo.
Ji Weizhuo's main goal was to add the most vicious crime to the morally pure Shen Sheng, while he himself did not have to be held responsible.
Therefore, after receiving a scolding from Lady Li Ji and a letter from her teacher Du Yuanqian, Shen Sheng committed suicide. Before he died, he asked his subordinates to send a message to Fox Tu: "Shen Sheng is guilty, and he does not listen to Bo Shi, so that he dies." At that time, Fox Tu persuaded him to reach a compromise with Ji Weizhuo and then run away, he chose to trust his father, and now, you can imagine how desperate his heart is, his father personally smashed his spiritual pillars, the so-called etiquette, loyalty, and responsibility are vulnerable in the face of no relatives.
The jin monarchs heard the message relayed by Hu Tu and believed that although Shen Sheng was guilty, he could repent of his previous mistakes and get a "communist" title. "It's a common man."
Therefore, Ji Wei told the Zhou royal family and princes about this matter, and the prince of the Jin State, Shen Sheng, committed suicide in fear of sin. The State of Lu received a notice from the State of Jin shortly thereafter. Even Bo Ji, who had just married into the Qin Kingdom, heard the news.
The Marquis of Jin sued for the murder of his eldest son, Shen Sheng. (The Left Biography)
Therefore, Ji Weizhu used this as an excuse to fight against the fleeing Zhong'er and Yiwu, and expelled all the princes of the Jin state except Xi Qi (Zhuo Zi was not yet born).
Ji Weizhu made a vow before the gods: the Jin kingdom would never take in the princes other than the crown prince. After most of the Jin Dynasty, he obeyed his oath of alliance, and from then on, the political pattern of "no gong clan in the Jin State" was formed.
(Image from the Internet)