The fable of "Ye Gong Good Dragon" is well known, the fable says that Ye Gong is very fond of dragons, all the Liang purlin utensils in the family are carved with dragon patterns, but when they see the real dragon, they are frightened and run away, and then people use "Ye Gong Good Dragon" to describe a hypocrite with two sides and three knives and different appearances.
In fact, the historical Ye Gong is definitely not like this, he is diligent in government and loves the people, loyal to the country, courageous and frank, high wind and bright festivals, widely admired and loved by the people of the territory, "Ye Gong good dragon" This fable, let Ye Gong suffer injustice, and for no reason to carry the "black cauldron" for more than two thousand years.
Ye Gong family lineage
Regarding the Ye Gong family lineage, there is still a debate in the field of historiography, and most historical materials show that it should be traced back to one of the five ancient emperors. The youngest son of Emperor Huan was named Ji Lian and was given the surname Qi. Ji Lian's descendants were enfeoffed by King Zhou Cheng at Jingzhou Mountain, and the state was established as Jing, with the capital of Danyang, and later moved to the capital Ziying, changing the name of the country to Chu. During the Spring and Autumn Period, King Zhuang of Chu had a great-grandson named Shen Yinshu (沈尹戌), king of Chu Zhao, who died on the battlefield while leading his army to fight against the Wu army, and in 524 BC, King Chu Zhao enfeoffed Shen Zhuliang, a son who was only in his early 20s, to Yeyi (present-day Ye County, Henan Province), a border town in the Chu state, so he was called Ye Gong.
Ye Gong Shen Zhuliang, born about 546 BC, died in 470 BC, surnamed Qi, Shen, name Zhu Liang, zi Gao, military, politician, thinker of the Chu state in the late Spring and Autumn Period, the first administrative governor of Yedi since there are written records in Chinese history, and the ancestor of the Chinese surnamed Ye all over the world.
Diligent Yin Ye
According to the "Ye County Chronicle", Princess Ye zhengye County for more than 40 years, can be described as "the world's hard work" and "the twilight of the green silk into snow". During the period of Ye Gongyin, Ye Gongyin was diligent in government affairs, valued virtuousness, opened up speeches, observed the people's feelings, repaired water conservancy, and persuaded farmers to do so, and had considerable political achievements. In particular, he adopted the strategy of recuperating with the people, raising soldiers and resting the people, developing agriculture, and enhancing national strength, which played an important role in improving production conditions, improving people's livelihood and well-being, and stabilizing the border of the Chu state.
Regarding the water conservancy project built by Ye Gongyin Yeshi, it is also recorded in the "Notes on the Water Classics" written by Northern Wei Li Daoyuan. The East and West Erpi, which he personally led the people to build, can irrigate hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, and is one of the earliest farmland water conservancy irrigation projects in Chinese history, more than 200 years earlier than the Dujiangyan built by the famous Shu Shou Li Bing, and more than 300 years earlier than Zheng Guoqu. So far, the sites of Dongpi and Xipi built by Ye Gong are still well preserved, which is a vivid historical witness of Ye Gong's control of water disasters and the rejuvenation of agriculture and help the people.
In 479 BC, Ye Gong was nearly old. At that time, Bai Gongsheng, a major minister who was on the border of Wu and Chu, launched a rebellion in the capital of the Chu state, killing Ling Yin Zixi and Sima Ziqi, and kidnapping King Hui in order to establish himself. When Ye Gong heard the news, he resolutely sent troops to suppress the rebellion despite his old age and infirmity, and made a meritorious contribution to the establishment of the country.
Ye Gong was reinstated by King Hui for quelling the rebellion of Bai Gongsheng, and the officials were Ling Yin and Sima And combined military and political power. However, after quelling the chaos and eliminating the disaster, rectifying the situation in the dprk, and stabilizing the regime of the Chu State, he took the initiative to give way to others, and returned to Yeyi himself, and he grew old on the shore of the Lishui River. This act of open-mindedness and virtuousness has been praised by future generations of experts and scholars as putting the country first, not loving power, understanding the great righteousness, and being generous and selfless. When Ye Gong was dying, he left a last word: "Don't use small plots to defeat big things, don't use the Imperial Guards to be sick, and don't want to be the Imperial Guards, Doctors, and Secretaries of State." According to the Zhou Li regulations, after Ye Gong's death, he was sacrificed at the shrine.
Ye Gong asked about politics
According to the Analects and other historical sources, in the autumn of 489 BC, when Confucius led his disciples to travel around the world, he made a special trip to Yedi to visit Ye Gong and hoped to reuse it. After Confucius arrived at Ye, he talked with Ye Gong many times about the way to cultivate himself as a government. Confucius told Ye Gong that the effect of government made "the near one happy, and the far one comes."
During this time, Ye Gong and Confucius conducted many fierce debates on what is meant by "loyalty" and the standard of human beings. Ye Gongyue: "There are those who have a straight line in our party, and their fathers carry sheep, and the son proves them." Confucius did not think so: "The straight of our party is different, the father is hidden for the son, and the son is hidden for the father, straight in it." Ye Gong said that there was a righteous man in his hometown, and his father stole the sheep of others and denounced his father. Confucius said that the righteous people in his hometown were different from Ye Gong's, the father hid it for his son, the son hid it for his father, and integrity was among them. Ye Gong wanted to know confucius's personality, and one day, he asked Confucius's disciple Zilu, but Zilu refused to answer. When Confucius learned of this, he blamed Zi lu and said, "Ru Xi is not right, 'He is also a man, angry and forgetful, happy to forget his worries, not knowing that old age is coming to 'Yun'er?' Because the views of the two were very different, Confucius's trip to YeYi found nothing, and he immediately left Ye with regret and resentment.
Although the Scythians went, Chu di was safe. Yexian is the docking and intersection of the northern and southern cultures, in the long two thousand years, no matter how the complex cultures collide and change and blend and penetrate each other, "near and far" has become the core and essence of Yexian's long and rich culture, which has long been engraved into the blood and bones of this ancient land.
Fables
After Confucius left Ye in anger, his disciples and disciples were also greatly dissatisfied with Ye Gong, and some Confucians also complained about Confucius and complained about Ye Gong. The Zhuangzi Yi chapter says that "Ye Gong Hao Long" originated from the mouth of Zhang Zhi, the son of Confucius, and also said that it was fabricated by Han Xiangshen during the Warring States period and included in the book "Shen Zi". This fable was later edited by the Han Dynasty minister and literary scholar Liu Xiangtian and deliberately changed it, and compiled it into his "New Order and Miscellaneous Matters" and was widely circulated. There is also a view in the historical data that Ye Gong devoted himself to the construction of water conservancy, and he worked hard at night, and even his home was full of various construction water system maps, as if the dragons danced and flew, and the visitors laughed after seeing it: "The dragons are soaring and the clouds are coming." Later, after Being fabricated and interpreted by Liu Xiang and others, it became "Ye GongHaolong".
The original text contained in the New Preface and Miscellaneous Affairs reads: "Ye Gongzi Gao HaoLong, hook to write dragons, chisel to write dragons, and house carvings to write dragons." So Tianlong sniffed it, peeped his head at Mu, and Shi Tail yutang. Ye Gong saw it, abandoned it and left, lost his soul, and had no master. It is Ye Gong who is not a good dragon, and a good husband who is like a dragon and not a dragon. This means that Ye Gongzigao likes dragons very much, the hooks on his clothes are carved with dragons, the wine pots and wine glasses are painted with dragons, and the eaves are carved with dragon patterns. The Heavenly True Dragon was touched by this, so he descended to Ye Gong's house, the dragon head was on the windowsill to visit, Ye Gong saw that it was a real dragon, frightened, turned around and ran, it turned out that he did not really like the dragon. The fable of "Ye Gong Hao Long" is used to describe people who are duplicitous, inconsistent in words and deeds, show off and pretend. The image of Ye Gong in the fable is fabricated, which is incompatible with the historical Ye Gongfeng and cattle, and is at odds with Ye Gong's government, behavior, and discipline, and they are not a type of person at all, let alone confuse the two. However, the parable of "Ye Gong Good Dragon" made Ye Gong inexplicably lie on the gun, suffered slander and slander, became a "historical injustice", and stubbornly carried the "black cauldron" for more than two thousand years, while Ye Gong was ignorant underground, allowed to be ridiculed, silenced for a thousand years, and suffered contempt, grievances and blasphemy in his name.
Later influences
In the canonical history, Ye Gong was passed down as a "minister of the society" and "a person who is close to the people and good to the people". Historians believe that Ye Gong did have the good of painting dragons, but the dragon is a deified auspicious thing, a totem of the Chinese nation, and it is impossible to descend to The Ye House, and "Ye Gong Good Dragon" reflects the rich connotation of the dragon culture where Ye Gong is located and the era in which he lived. Experts also pointed out that this fable story fabricated by Liu Xiang in the Han Dynasty reflects the unremitting and derogatory rebuke of other schools such as the Chu Dao Style after Confucianism in the Han Dynasty moved to the position of supremacy.
The ancient land did not see the year and the month, and the people of the past had passed away and thought about the past. Today, the green mountains are still the same, the water is playing the strings, the sunset is several degrees, the years are smoke, still reminiscing about the vicissitudes of the distant human world, chanting Ye Gong's meritorious work.
In order to commemorate the virtue of the ancestors and the ancestral residence, the descendants of Ye Gong changed the surname of Shen to Ye, and Ye Gong Shen Zhuliang has since become the recognized ancestor of the Chinese surnamed Ye in the world. Since the first World Ye Clan Friendship Association was successfully held in Ye County in 2000, there have been continuous descendants of the Ye Clan from all over the world to seek their roots and exchange friendships on the banks of the Li River in Ye County.
In recent years, Ye County has actively excavated, sorted out and protected Chu culture and Yegong culture, held a series of cultural exhibition and exchange activities, and continued to strengthen the rescue and restoration of cultural relics and monuments, and Yegong Cemetery and other relics have become well-known tourist attractions in Ye County. On September 30, 2020, the list of key projects of the Great Wall National Cultural Park was released, and the "Yexian Chu Great Wall Tourism Scenic Road" was listed. The Yexian section of the Chu Great Wall was announced by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage as "the first batch of important points of the Great Wall in the country", which is a major event in the economic and social development of Yexian County. At present, Yexian Chu Great Wall National Cultural Park is stepping up planning and construction, I believe that in the near future, Yexian Chu culture and Yegong culture will become a major landscape of cultural tourism in the Central Plains, attracting tourists at home and abroad with unique charm. (Kingdom Stem)
(References: "Analects", "Zuo Zhuan", "Xunzi", "Warring States Policy", "Historical Record", "Notes on the Water Classic", "Yexian Zhi", etc.)