In the five thousand years of The history of Yangyang Huaxia, in these five thousand years, there have been many powerful legends and sages throughout the ages; their deeds have spread all over the world, and their stories have been passed down through the ages; some of them are qiankun masters, some of them have been flowing through the ages, some have ascended to the peak of power, and their hands have covered the sky; they have briefly crossed the sky of history like shooting stars, but they have left a strong mark on Chinese history.
In the five thousand years of Chinese history, there are such four historical figures, and their appearance is like a flat thunder, earth-shaking; but their disappearance is silent and foggy.
We cannot be sure that the records in the history books are all historical facts; many characters and examples are not very in line with the real historical truth; and even many great historical figures are buried by the dust of history and gradually disappear into the long river of history, and there is no longer any sound.
So, who are these four people who suddenly disappeared? They were: Lao Tzu went west, Xu Fu crossed to the east, Jianwen went to sea, and the king died. Why is their whereabouts still a historical mystery? Where did they go?
Today, let's explore together what happened to these four people who suddenly disappeared in ancient history.
The image comes from the Internet
One: Lao Tzu went west out of Hangu Pass
Lao Tzu (c. 580 BC – 500 BC), surnamed Li Ming'er (李名耳), was the founder of the Taoist school and a great philosopher and thinker of ancient China.
Lao Tzu is a world cultural celebrity, and the "Tao Te Ching" he forged has influenced China for thousands of years, and its influence can be described as very huge, of which "rule by doing nothing" has a very profound impact on the development of Chinese philosophy. The famous sentence "Governing a big country is like cooking a small fresh" is still regarded as a classic!
Lao Tzu was so knowledgeable that even Confucius once asked him. He once served as a librarian (equivalent to the current librarian) in Luoyi, the capital of the Zhou Kingdom, and Confucius once visited Laozi when he traveled around the world, which is also known as the allusion "Confucius Greeting Ceremony".
In Taoist myths and legends, Lao Tzu became Taishang Laojun.
According to historical records, in his later years, Lao Tzu saw that the Zhou Dynasty was weakening day by day, and he made the decision to flee. In 518 BC, the world was in civil strife, and Lao Tzu resigned due to dereliction of duty, and then traveled the world by the Green Bull Cloud and traveled from Hangu Guanxi to the Qin State.
At that time, the Hangu Guanguan Order was called Yin Xi, one night, Yin Xi looked at the sky at night, and suddenly saw the purple clouds gathering in the east, which were thirty thousand miles long, shaped like a flying dragon, rolling from east to west, and said to himself: "Purple qi comes from the east for thirty thousand miles, and the saint travels west through this place." The green bull slowly carried the old man, hiding and hiding the mixed vitality. Yin Xi had heard of Lao Tzu's name earlier, and thought to himself, could it be Lao Tzu's future? So he sent people to sweep the road for forty miles, and burn incense in the middle of the road to welcome the saints.
A few days later, there was indeed an old man outside the Guanwai riding a green bull. The old man's white hair is like snow, his eyebrows are hanging down, his ears are hanging on his shoulders, his whiskers are hanging down to his knees, and his red face is plain robe, simple and clean. Yin Xi looked up at the sky and sighed, "I was blessed to be born to see the saint!" So he knelt down in front of the green cow and prayed, "Yin Xi saw the saint." ”
A few days later, Lao Tzu stayed at Hangu Pass, and Yin Xi pleaded with Lao Tzu to write a book for the hereafter, saying, "Sir is the great sage of today!" The saints, who do not take the wisdom of oneself as their own, will take the wisdom of the world as their own responsibility. Now Ru will live in seclusion and be unkind, and those who seek advice will be hard to find! Why not write the holy wisdom of Ru as a book? Although Guan Yin is shallow, I hope that Mr. Dai will be passed on to future generations, passed on through the ages, and benefit all generations. ”
Lao Tzu agreed to Yin Xi's plea, taking the rise and fall of the dynasty and the safety and woes of the people as a mirror, traced its origins, and wrote two parts, totaling 5,000 words. The beginning of the first part is "Dao Ke Dao, Extraordinary Dao; Name Can Be Named, Extraordinary Name". It was called the Tao Jing. The beginning of the next part is "The upper virtue is not virtuous, it is virtuous; the lower virtue is not moral, it is unethical." The late people called it the "Dejing", collectively known as the "Tao Te Ching". The "Tao Jing" says that the root of the universe contains the opportunity of the change of heaven and earth, and contains the magic of yin and yang; the next "Tao Jing", the way of dealing with the world, contains the art of advancing and retreating in personnel, and contains the way of eternal life and long-term vision. Guan Yin obtained it, and if he received the most precious treasure, he recited it silently all day long, like hunger and thirst.
This is the famous "Tao Te Ching" that has been passed down through the ages.
After Lao Tzu left the Tao Te Ching, he rode out of the pass on a green bull and went all the way west, never knowing where to go and disappearing into the long river of history.
No one knows exactly where Lao Tzu went, which has also aroused the interest of many archaeologists and historians, and there is no conclusive evidence to prove the final whereabouts of Lao Tzu, but there are several theories.
The first theory is that Lao Tzu forged the Tao Te Ching at Hangu Pass at the request of Yin Xi, after which Lao Tzu felt that Yin Xi was a material that could be made, and Yin Xi also hoped to be able to worship under LaoZi; therefore, Lao Tzu enlightened Yin Xi, and then Yin Xi resigned from the government and followed Lao Tzu west to Zhou (zhou) (present-day Zhouzhi County, Shaanxi Province).
Lao Tzu Guan Qiao is surrounded by mountains and rivers, undulating peaks, and the scenery is extremely beautiful, so he stopped here and formed grass as a hut, and in the years to come, Lao Tzu practiced the scriptures here until he was feathered; the ruins are the LouGuantai that exists today. After Lao Tzu was feathered, he was buried in the West Louguan, eight kilometers away from the Louguantai, so later generations designated this place as the birthplace of Taoism.
Another theory is that after Lao Tzu left the customs, he rode a green bull all the way west, went straight to India through quicksand, and stayed in India to preach in his later years. Some people also say that Lao Tzu in his later years settled in Lintao, Gansu Province, studied health with some old people who returned to the countryside, cultivated the Tao into immortals, and after attaining the Tao, "soared" into immortals in Lintao Chaorantai.
The third theory holds that Lao Tzu did not go west, but returned to the east. There is a passage in the Zhuangzi Heavenly Fortune that tells that after leaving the Zhou royal family, Lao Tzu returned to his hometown of Song Guo peidi to live in seclusion; and Lao Tzu's hometown was not far from Qufu, where Confucius was located. When Confucius was 51 years old, he still had not obtained the Dao, and after hearing that Lao Tzu was living in seclusion in his hometown, he and his disciples visited Lao Tzu for the second time and asked Lao Tzu again. This matter is recorded in zhuangzi, Han Feizi, Lü Shi Chunqiu, or in the Confucian work Li Ji Zengzi Qing, indicating that Lao Tzu's account of returning to the east after his retirement is more reliable.
Judging from the historical data currently available, whether it is Lao Tzu's feathering and ascension, or his westward journey to India, or his settlement in the lu, it is not very reliable, because there is no specific documentary record; only the claim that Lao Tzu returned to the east after retiring has a documentary basis.
Therefore, the final destination of Lao Tzu, I personally think: the possibility of returning to the East is the greatest and the most convincing.
Two: Xu Fudong crossed the Penglai Mountain
Xu Fu is also a relatively famous person in history, I believe that most people know him, he is a famous alchemist during the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, who served as the imperial physician of Qin Shi Huang; according to legend, he was a closed disciple of Ghost Guzi.
He was erudite and knowledgeable in astronomical geography, medicine, navigation and other fields, and had a high reputation among the people.
Xu Fu's deeds were first found in the "Qin Shi Huang Benji" and "Huainan Hengshan Liechuan" in the "Records of History" (called "Xu Wei" in the Qin Shi Huang Benji, and "Xu Fu" in the Huainan Hengshan Liebiography). According to the "Records of History", "Qin Shi Huang Benji", Qin Shi Huang hoped to live forever.
In the 28th year of Qin Shi Huang, Xu Fu wrote that there were three immortal mountains in the sea, Penglai, Abbot and Yingzhou, and there were immortals living on the mountain, as long as the immortals were found, they could find the elixir of immortality for Qin Shi Huang. But Xu Fu returned from a few years out of the sea, claiming that there were big fish in the sea blocking him, and he did not find the immortal.
In 210 BC, Xu Fu once again led thousands of virgin boys and girls and more than 3,000 craftsmen to the sea in search of elixirs. I didn't expect this to go, and since then there has been no news, no one knows where he went, and he has disappeared into the long river of history.
Regarding the disappearance of Xu Fu, there are several theories in history:
The first is to escape evil. Under the rule of Qin Shi Huang, the Qin state was severely taxed and taxed, and the tyranny of the First Emperor, the people's life was miserable; in the coastal areas, there were many people who longed for immigration; and Xu Fu was an alchemist, he was dissatisfied with Qin Shi Huang's tyranny, but he was powerless; so he took the opportunity to go to the sea to find immortal medicine for Qin Shi Huang, in fact, he was looking for a suitable place for immigrants. At present, there are still many people who hold this view.
The Book of Han says: "Xu Fu and Han Zhongzhi belong to the sea of multi-child boys and women, and seek divine medicine." Because they can't escape, the world is resentful. The Tang Dynasty poet Wang Zun's poem "East Sea" also wrote: "The snow and waves of the Yangzhou boat reflect the flowers, and Xu Fu will not return it." Avoid Qin guests in times of danger in the same boat. This trip is like Wuling Beach. The author compares Xu Fu's disappearance after going to sea to Tao Yuanming's "Record of Peach Blossom Origin" about the fishermen of Wuling County who moved to Taohuayuan to avoid the Qin chaos. Some people also believe that Xu Fu was a native of the State of Qi, and that the State of Qi was destroyed by the State of Qin, and that Xu Fudongdu was planning an act of rebellion against the evil rule of the First Emperor in order to avenge the destruction of the State of Qi by the State of Qin and eliminate the hatred of the clan.
The second theory is the overseas development theory. Because in the Qin Dynasty at that time, the theory of Kyushu was very popular, believing that the world was divided into nine major states. And what Qin Shi Huang longed for was that all the places illuminated by the sun and the moon were the territory of the Qin Kingdom, and all the places where people's footprints could reach were his subjects. Therefore, in order to expand his territory, Qin Shi Huang sent Xu Fu out to sea under the guise of seeking immortals and asking for medicine; in fact, he was to realize his ideal of the unification of the world.
The "Lü's Spring and Autumn for Desire" also pointed out the ideal of the rulers of the Qin state at that time: "The north is to Bactria in the north, to the north to the north, to the three dangers in the west, and to the east to Fumu, and dare not mess around." "East to Fumu refers to Fuso, and Fuso is later Japan."
The third theory is closer to the factual basis, saying that Xu Fu was indeed looking for the elixir for Qin Shi Huang.
Sima Qian's description of Xu Fu's Dongdu incident in the Chronicle of Hengshan in Huainan includes Xu Fu's dialogue with the god of the sea from the southeast to Penglai, and the sea god asking Xu Fu for virgin boys and girls as gifts, etc., but later generations generally believe that this is Xu Fu's lie to Qin Shi Huang. The "Chronicle of History" also records that Xu Fudong crossed the sea to carry a large number of grain seeds, as well as various types of skillful workers, and after going to sea, he came to "Plain Guangze" (probably the Japanese island of Kyushu); after coming to "Plain Guangze", Xu Fu felt that the climate was warm, sunny, and the people were friendly, so he "stopped the king from coming", that is, he established himself as king in the local area, and educated the local people, teaching what farming techniques, fishing and other methods.
There is another version of the third theory, which says that after Xu Fu came to "Plain Guangze", he regarded Mount Fuji as Penglai; after not finding the elixir of immortality, Xu Fu was afraid to return to the Qin State and be held responsible by Qin Shi Huang, and the Qin State punished him severely, Xu Fu did not complete the task given by the First Emperor, and returning was the end of his death; so he simply stayed in "Pingyuan Guangze".
In Japan, there are also relevant records about Xu Fu, according to the "History of Japan": "In the seventy-second year of Emperor Xiaoling, Xu Fulai of Qin. ”
It is said that Xu Fu brought thousands of boys and girls to Japan, and paid tribute to the Three Tombs and Five Classics to seek the immortal medicine, but did not seek the immortal medicine, and had to settle down. In the Fuji Book, it is said that Xu Fu came to Japan to assist local farmers in farming and bring some new agricultural techniques. After that, he settled in Japan and never returned to China; moreover, Xu Fu did not get the elixir of immortality, feared being hunted down and killed by Qin Shi Huang, and asked the men and women of his companions to change their surnames to "Qin", "Tenant", "Futian", "Haneda", "Futai", "Fukuyama" and other surnames.
Here, there is a phenomenon, that is, before Xu Fu came to Japan, Japan was already inhabited and had its own culture, not after Xu Fu came to Japan, there is today's Japan. The arrival of Xu Fu and thousands of boys and girls was at best an intermarriage with the locals to produce offspring.
Now many people think that Xu Fu came to Japan, created the Yamato nation, and is the ancestor of the Japanese emperor, which should be inaccurate, at most, The Chinese led by Xu Fu has become one with the locals.
Others say he went to Taiwan or Ryukyu and became one with the locals; in short, Xu Fu went abroad, but no one knows exactly where.
The current mainstream theory is that Xu Fu led three thousand boys and girls from the coast of Shandong, traveled all over Korea and Japan, and became a good story of cultural exchanges between China, Japan and South Korea in history, and has been a hot topic of study and discussion for thousands of years.
Personally, I think that it is most likely that the end point of Xu Fu's final stay is Japan, because both Chinese history and Japanese history have records about Xu Fu, and in today's Japan, there is xu Fu's tomb. If Xu Fu only had a short stay in Japan, it is unlikely that he will leave a record in Japanese history; only if he eventually stays in Japan and has made great contributions to the current situation in Japan will there be a history recorded and in gratitude for his contribution, there will be the construction of Xu Fu's tomb.
On the other hand, Xu Fudongdu not only created a historical pioneer for mankind to control the ocean, but also the first person in history to open Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges, which is of great historical significance.
Three: Jianwen went to the sea to go to the South China Sea
Zhu Yunjiao (5 December 1377 – ?) He was the grandson of Zhu Yuanzhang, the ming emperor, the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who reigned for four years, and was known in history as The Jianwen Emperor.
Emperor Jianwen is also the only emperor in history who has mysteriously disappeared, and Zhu Yuanzhang's posthumous succession was located in Zhu Yunjiao, which was for Emperor Jianwen.
Emperor Jianwen was intelligent and studious from an early age, extremely filial piety, and was deeply loved by Zhu Yuanzhang, and when he was fourteen years old, the crown prince Zhu Biao fell ill, and Zhu Yunjiao served day and night, and in 1392, the crown prince Zhu Biao died of illness; in September, Zhu Yunzhao was made the emperor's grandson.
In 1398, The Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang died, and Zhu Yunjiao became emperor and pardoned the world.
Zhu Yunjiao was a good emperor, and during his reign, he implemented many new policies that were beneficial to the people's livelihood, lenient punishment and provincial prisons, reduced taxes, reduced redundant palace personnel, and changed some of the harsh policies of his grandfather Zhu Yuanzhang, known in history as the "Jianwen New Deal".
However, the policy he pursued to cut the domain touched the sensitive nerves of many clan kings.
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang crowned several of his sons as the kings of the domain, among which the kings of Qin, Jin, Yan, Dai, Gu, Liao, Ning, Qing, and Su were the nine kings of Sai, and led troops to garrison the border areas, and these clan kings all had "guards" as few as a thousand, as many as 19,000 people.
After Zhu Yunjiao succeeded to the throne, he was worried that the king of the clan would support his own army and respect himself, and his throne would be very unsafe, so he began to implement the strategy of cutting the clan; but this cut of the clan did not matter, and he directly cut his own throne.
In 1399, Zhu Di, the King of Yan, took the oath of disobedience with 800 soldiers, and raised an army under the banner of "Qing Jun's Side", which is known in history as the "Battle of Jingnan".
The "Battle of Jingnan" lasted for three years, in 1402 AD, Zhu Di led a large army to attack the city of Nanjing, in the melee, the palace of the city of Nanjing, a fire broke out, when the fire was extinguished, several charred remains were found in the ashes, which could not be recognized, according to eunuchs, they were the corpses of the emperor, the empress and his eldest son Zhu Wenkui.
But Zhu Di did not see the body of his nephew Emperor Jianwen, and he never believed that Zhu Yunxiu was really dead, believing that he had escaped. However, after the "Battle of Jingnan", Zhu Yunjiao did mysteriously disappear and disappeared into the long river of history.
In order not to leave the reputation of "killing nephews and seizing the throne", Zhu Di painstakingly searched for the whereabouts of Zhu Yunjiao, and thus became a historical mystery.
Regarding the mystery of the disappearance of the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao, there are several theories in history:
The first theory is that Emperor Jianwen became a monk. It is said that after Zhu Yunjiao fled the capital, he tried every means to escape the pursuit and killing, lived a life of upheaval and displacement, and later lived in seclusion in the Guanyin Cliff area of the Meijiang River. Sincerely to the Buddha, throughout his life, the famous Cave of the Emperor of Tibet was also named after it.
In the long process of exile, Zhu Yunjiao has been spurring himself with the story of the Jin Gongzi's heavy ear, hoping to make a comeback one day; but in the years to come, Zhu Yunjiao found that in the Ming Dynasty under Zhu Di's management, the people's well-being, the people's livelihood is stable, the country is strong, his ability is much stronger than his own, and later slowly dispelled the idea of restoring the country. There is a combination as evidence: "There are dreams that are difficult to fulfill, the earthly world is enchanted by the woodiness; it is easy to wake up without wind, and the cave spring enlightenment is quiet." This means that the dream in his heart is already difficult to realize, everything in the world is just a passing cloud, immersed in nature, no matter what imperial power and wealth, is his lifelong pursuit.
There are also historical records that the place where Zhu Yunjiao became a monk was not in the Meijiang River, but in today's Dongming Temple in Zhejiang.
Wanli's "Chronicle of Qiantang County" records: "Dongming Temple was in front of Anxi Dasha Mountain, and Jianwenjun was a monk here, and there was a statue." (Hangxian Chronicle, vol. VIII) "According to legend, Zhu Yunjiao disappeared to this point, when the sun rises and the sun begins, the inscription Is Dongming. After returning to China, Fang Knew to be emperor. Now Fan Qi's portrait. There are hand-planted peonies, and the color is as white as silver."
The Chronicle of the Dongming Temple (three volumes) of the Qing Dynasty(3 volumes) of the Qing Dynasty(1674) edition records that: "The Jinchuan transformation of the Noonday Jinchuan, the Initiation of Yang Yingneng and the shaving apparatus, the Buddha's knowledge of the number of fortunes, the monk's clothes out of the Sun, from Wu Xing to Qiantang to perch on the Dongming Mountain, the pro-Moxibustion Ancestral Seat, all six years, the traces gradually became resigned." It can be seen from this that Zhu Yunjiao's escape to Dongming Temple to become a monk is not an empty wind, the possibility is very huge. At that time, all the monks honored Zhu Yunjiao as "should be able to ask the question of the old Buddha", and the temple chronicle also specially arranged the "should be able to ask the old Buddha" in the second position of the zushi hall, second only to the opening ancestor huimin of the Dongming Zen Temple, which clearly and unquestionably determined the close relationship between the Dongming Zen Temple and the Jianwen Emperor.
Moreover, there is a statue of Zhu Yunjiao on the right side of the Daxiong Treasure Hall of Dongming Temple, and the following couplet is engraved on the pillar of the temple: the monk is the emperor, the emperor is also a monk, repeatedly passed on, the mantle is given, the mantle is given, and the nephew is left behind; the uncle bears the nephew, the nephew does not live up to the uncle, three hundred years, the country and the mountains are still the same, and the old are empty.
The osmanthus flowers planted by Zhu Yunjiao himself were burned by the Japanese Kou, leaving only the trunk of the tree. But the great difficulty does not die, the next year again bloomed new branches, now the branches are high and leafy, autumn flowers bloom, incense overflows the wild, and gold and silver are half-colored, rumored to be a good story.
The second theory is that after Zhu Yunjiao fled the capital, he did not take refuge in Buddhism, but fled to the Daomen.
It is said that in his later years, Zhu Yunjiao, alias Zhan Biyun, presided over the Taoist priest on the Sanqing Mountain in Shangrao, Jiangxi, and built the mausoleum of "Zhan Biyun Hidden Bamboo in Meiji Mountain" and more than 260 other related stone carvings and Links in Sanqing Fudi under the cover of building a Taoist palace view, leaving a series of stone carvings and hidden cultural codes that can be studied, such as "Wind and Water Building Water Weng Chengzan, Bottle Wine Thesis Thousand Years The same".
But this claim lacks factual basis, there is no evidence, and I personally find it quite credible.
The third theory is self-immolation and death. After Zhu Di's troops approached the city of Nanjing, Zhu Yunjiao sent people to ask for peace, and after receiving a clear refusal, he had to order the city of Nanjing to die; at this time, Zhu Yunjiao was surrounded by Zhu Di's army and had no chance to escape. Later, the commander Li Jinglong opened the Jinchuan Gate to welcome the Yan King's army into the city, and the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu surrendered to Zhu Di. Zhu Yunjiao saw that the general situation was gone, he could not be caught by Zhu Di alive, otherwise Zhu Di would never let him go in order to become emperor for himself, and he would not have a good end in life, it was better to die; so he ordered the palace to be burned, and under the raging fire, Zhu Yunjiao and his concubines and attendants were burned to death.
The possibility of such a statement is still relatively large. Because at that time, the city of Nanjing was surrounded by groups, the possibility that Zhu Yunjiao wanted to escape was relatively small; and after the city was destroyed, the body that Zhu Di saw had been burned to the point of being inconfigured, but the eunuch proved that it was Emperor Jianwen, although the physical evidence was not very complete, but the possibility was relatively large.
However, due to Zhu Di's suspicious personality, there was Zheng He in the back and went to the West.
The fourth theory is also a more legendary one, saying that after Zhu Yunxiu fled the capital, he went to the sea and went to Nanyang and settled overseas.
This statement is legendary and has a high degree of credibility at that time and in later generations, mainly because Zheng He went to the West. Compared with becoming a monk or self-immolating and dying, Zhu Di believed that Emperor Jianwen had gone to Nanyang, because after Zhu Di succeeded to the throne, he had been looking for the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen for many years, but he had not been found, so he set his sights on overseas, thinking that the possibility of Emperor Jianwen going to sea was very large.
This is why Zheng Hehui went to the sea seven times to the West, nominally to expand outward, but in fact to find Emperor Jianwen, which also shows the weight of Zhu Di's suspicions.
But I personally do not agree with this statement, not to mention that at that time, the city of Nanjing was besieged to death, And Emperor Jianwen could not escape, even if he really escaped overseas, with Emperor Jianwen's "cowardly" personality, he could not make a comeback without any foundation overseas;
And Zhu Di succeeded to the throne in 1402, Zheng He went to the West in 1405, it has been three years, Zhu Di's throne has long been secured, even if Emperor Jianwen is not dead, it is no longer a threat to Zhu Di's throne. Therefore, this statement lacks historical data as a support, and I personally think it is nonsense.
As for the final outcome of the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao, I personally think that the possibility of self-immolation and death is the greatest, after all, at that time, the city of Nanjing was surrounded by death, and the possibility of wanting to escape was relatively small, and after the Jianwen Emperor set himself on fire and died, the emperor was naturally Zhu Di's, and the palace people in the palace did not dare to deceive the emperor on this.
Secondly, what is more convincing is that Emperor Jianwen did escape and became a monk at Dongming Temple, after all, this has a historical basis and the possibility is also very large.
As for the people of later generations, they also compiled a lot of statements, such as Emperor Jianwen crossed to modern times, which is basically nonsense, and in the TV series "Love Through Time and Space", this bridge section was indeed added. But that's because the TV series imagines adding a bridge in order to show the beauty of love and give the male and female protagonists a happy ending.
Reading history and expounding history, we must follow the historical basis, the mystery of the disappearance of the Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunjiao, caused a great sensation in later generations, and countless scholars have joined the study of this mystery; a big reason is because the jianwen Emperor, the ill-fated emperor, has a large number of legendary stories, people sympathize with his suffering, and are attracted by his mysterious fate. Therefore, later generations could not bear that this legendary emperor really died like this, and there were many legends about the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen later.
Four: The life and death of the king has become a mystery case
Li Zicheng (李自成) (22 September 1606 – 17 May 1645) was the leader of the peasant revolt in the late Ming Dynasty.
In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, natural disasters and man-made disasters continued, the people were not happy, and the masses rose up, of which Li Zicheng was definitely the most powerful one, he led a group of peasant troops to attack Beijing, and successfully killed the Chongzhen Emperor.
Today, we will understand how legendary this legendary leader of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties was, how legendary his life experience was, and why his later death became a mystery for thousands of years.
Li Zicheng grew up poor, unable to be sent to the temple by his parents to become a small monk, when he was 21 years old, he went to the Gansu border to become a soldier, and then launched a mutiny and participated in the peasant uprising.
In 1633, Li Zicheng led his troops across the Yellow River to shanxi to join his uncle Gao Yingxiang.
In 1640, Li Zicheng took advantage of the Ming army's siege of Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan to garrison the starving people. "Hungry people near and far are hoeing, and those who respond are like flowing water, day and night, calling out to millions, and their momentum is invincible." Since then, Li Zicheng has completely become a climate, the army has grown to tens of thousands, and put forward the slogan of "equal fields and no endowments", that is, the folk song "Meet the king, do not pay grain".
In the first month of 1640, Li Zicheng conquered Luoyang, killed Zhu Changxun, the son of the Wanli Emperor, and got a few deer from the back garden, which were cooked with the meat of the Fu King, named "Fulu Feast", and shared with the soldiers.
In 1644, Li Zicheng proclaimed himself emperor in Xi'an and established Dashun; from then on, Li Zicheng marched south to fight in the northern war; in March 1644, he captured the city of Beijing and forced the Chongzhen Emperor to die.
After Li Zicheng entered the city of Beijing, he was intoxicated by victory, coveted pleasure, and ignored the great enemy outside Guanwai; in 1645, Wu Sangui led Qing troops into Guanguan, and Li Zicheng was quickly defeated.
Li Zicheng was a great figure in the history of the peasant revolution. He launched a revolution from northern Shaanxi, took the call to resist grain Juntian, fought for more than ten years, and finally overthrew the rule of the Ming Dynasty in March 1644. But he was short-sighted and did not know how to consolidate power and rest with the people; in less than 2 months after he was stationed in the Forbidden City, he was defeated like a mountain, chased and beaten by the Qing army behind his ass, and finally completely defeated at Jiugong Mountain and committed suicide.
When the Qing army reported, it said that Li Zicheng had committed suicide in a desperate situation at Jiugong Mountain. Then even if he committed suicide, such a big person died, he had to verify his identity, but this aspect was not recorded in the history of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, Li Zicheng disappeared in this way.
However, it has always been rumored that Li Zicheng did not die, but his subordinates died for him, and after he escaped from the Nine Palace Mountain, he hid his name and became a monk. As for what happened to the king in the end, no one in the future knows.
Regarding the cause of Li Zicheng's death, it is recorded in many historical books such as the History of Ming, the Outline of the Qianlong Imperial Approval, the Addendum to the Chronicle of the Late Ming Dynasty, and the Narrative of the Death of the Ming Dynasty: Li Zicheng was killed at Jiugong Mountain in Tongcheng County, Hubei Province. However, exactly how Li Zicheng died has always been debated, and the "Biography of Li Zicheng" cannot find out his martyrdom, and only a few historical records have several records:
The first: hang yourself. This statement is based on the words of a commander of the Qing army at that time named Azig in his recital to the imperial court: "... When he left, he took only twenty of his own pawns, trapped by the villagers, and could not get out, so he hanged himself. "But many people in later generations believe that Li Zicheng has been in the battlefield for a long time, bold and strong, and the possibility of suicide is almost nothing, only the king who died in battle, and the king who did not commit suicide." Moreover, this commander named Azig did not personally see Li Zicheng commit suicide, so the authenticity of this statement is relatively low.
The second: the theory of death in battle. The Tongshan County Chronicle records that "Jiu Bo gathered a crowd to kill the thief at Xiaoyuankou"; while the "Genealogy of the Cheng Clan" records it like this: "Li Yan, a thief who broke into the thief, was under the Niuji Ridge"; the records of these two documents do not clearly indicate that this Cheng Jiu bo killed Li Zicheng, but only said that he killed Li Yan. And Li Yan was the Marquis of Dashun Zhao, not Li Zicheng. So this statement is also not credible.
The third type: death by mistake. In the Suikou Jiluo, it is said that Li Zicheng rode twenty to the Nine Palaces Mountain in Tongcheng, and he asked the soldiers to stay under the mountain and go up the mountain himself to pay homage to the Temple of the Yuan Emperor. However, the local villagers regarded him as a robber, and when Li Zicheng knelt down to worship the statue of Emperor Yuan, some villagers injured Li Zicheng on the head with a lotus shovel behind him, and Li Zicheng immediately fainted and "could not get up". At this time, the villagers rushed up and "broke their heads" and died. When the villagers searched for their money and belongings, they found the golden seal, and only then did they know that they had killed the wrong person, "horrified, and fled from behind the mountain."
The credibility of this claim is also not high, if Li Zicheng was really killed by the villagers, his subordinates would have known later.
There are also several theories, some saying that Li Zicheng became a monk at Jiashan Temple, when it was proved by later generations that he was not; some said that Li Zicheng went into hiding in Qingcheng Mountain, but later it was confirmed that the one under Qingcheng Mountain was indeed called Li Zicheng, but the information about his place of origin, hometown, ancestors, parents and other information in his Li family tree was all unequal, so it was not Li Zicheng.
The last theory is that after Li Zicheng's army defeated Jiugong Mountain, he personally led more than 20 people on light horseback to climb the mountain to explore the road, and was killed by the local militia armed Jiang Dayan, and his body was also secretly buried. The "History of Ming" also records that Li Zicheng died in Tongcheng, Hubei Province, and his tomb has always been on Jiugong Mountain.
At present, this statement has a clear historical record, and the credibility is relatively large. However, because there is no evidence, it cannot be completed to prove that Li Zicheng died in this way.
But in any case, Li Zicheng was a great leader of peasant uprisings in Chinese history.
postscript:
Regarding the mystery of the disappearance of the above four people, history has not given a final conclusion, but through the bit analysis of posterity, we can roughly know their final destination and ending.
In fact, in the long history of China's five thousand years, there are many celebrities who have mysteriously disappeared. In the eyes of our descendants, their sudden appearance and sudden departure are elusive.
But that is only because there was a short gap in that period of history, perhaps in the hearts of people at that time, this person was only an ordinary person, not worth mentioning at all; therefore, there is no need to record his ending so clearly; or, after a long thousand years of time, those historical documents have disappeared into the long river of history, so that future generations cannot reproduce the whole scene of that year.
In the long river of history, after 5,000 years, Chinese civilization has experienced a thousand years of baptism, countless sages have emerged, civilization has never flourished, and countless legends have been born.
Those great people who come and go in a hurry, although they cross the sky like shooting stars, forever frozen in the eternal moment, but their shining light can make people remember and forget. Their contributions to future generations are more noteworthy than their endings.
It doesn't matter what a person's true experience is, what matters is that their spirit can remain in this heaven and earth forever.