Wu Qi was the most famous military and reformer in the early Warring States period, and he served the States of Lu, Wei and Chu successively, and made great achievements in politics and military affairs. Especially in the military aspect, he successively allowed the Wei and Chu states to rise in the early years of the Warring States, defeating the powerful Qin and the Three Jins, and greatly expanding the territory of these two countries. Therefore, Wu Qi lived a lifetime of "seventy-six wars with the princes, total victories sixty-four", and Sun Wu and called "Sun Wu", became a representative figure of military experts in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, and became one of the ten philosophers in the temple of Wucheng King in later generations. Later generations of military fans admired Wu Qi and also regretted his turbulent and displaced life. In particular, after he made great achievements in the State of Wei, he was excluded from the State of Wei and had to flee the State of Chu, which made people feel indignant.
As for the reasons for Wu Qi's escape from the State of Wei, most of the history books quote Sima Qian's statement in the "Records of History", believing that Wu Qi was ostracized by the uncle of the Duke of Wei, and then gradually snubbed by Wei Wu Marquis Wei, and finally had to flee the Chu State. This statement has almost become a conclusive conclusion in historical circles, so GongShu is considered to be the culprit of the brain drain of the Wei state. However, a careful analysis of historical materials other than the "Records of History" and comparison of the historical materials of Gong Shu and Wei Wuhou found that this statement could not be established. Mainstream history books believe that Uncle Gong's exclusion of Wu Qi was because Wu Qi's exploits threatened his status as a country. However, from the historical point of view, this statement has no tangible evidence, and it is entirely the result of the subjective speculation of historians.
The "Records of History" does record a passage in which Gong Shu used the method of marrying a princess of wei to test Wu Qi, but this passage does not fully explain the problem. Judging from this passage, Gong Uncle Huan did follow the advice of the servants and proposed to Wei Wuhou to test Wu Qi by marrying a princess, and then used the example of himself being slighted by the princess's wife to stimulate Wu Qi. Judging from this passage, it is precisely because Wu Qi saw that his uncle Was despised after marrying the princess, he refused to marry the princess of the State of Wei, so he was snubbed by the Marquis of Wei, which eventually caused him to flee the Chu State. However, from the perspective of Wu Qi's life course, this matter does not mean that Uncle Gong acne is squeezing Wu Qi, but it shows that Uncle Gong Acne promoted Wu Qi's idea.
Wu Qi was a Native of the Wei Dynasty, and later came to the State of Lu to study Confucianism as the son of Zeng Shen, a disciple of Confucius. Because he did not return to his hometown to fulfill his filial piety when his mother died, he was expelled from Kongmen by Zeng Shen, so he abandoned Confucianism and eventually became a generation of military masters. Wu Qi became famous in the war against the State of Lu by Duke Xuan of Qi, and Duke Yuan of Lu used Wu Qi to defend the State of Qi against the march of the State of Qi. Wu Qi was thus able to defeat the powerful State of Qi, became famous in World War I, and became a famous general in the early years of the Warring States. Later, because Ji Sunshi, a powerful minister of the State of Lu who was dependent on Wu Qi, was killed, he had to flee from the State of Lu to the State of Wei in order to protect himself. Then, in the qin state's war against the state of Wei, he was appointed as the main general by Wei Wenhou, broke the Qin army and pursued it all the way to Zheng County, which made all the hexi lands of the Qin state fall into the hands of the State of Wei.
When Marquis Wenhou of Wei set the land of Hexi in the Qin state as Xihe Commandery(xihe Commandery), Wu Qi was appointed as a county sheriff for his military merits. During the period of the county guard, Wu Qi made great efforts to establish the earliest professional military system in Chinese history, Wei Wupao, and repeatedly repelled the counterattack of the Qin state and built the city of Wu. Then Wu Qi destroyed the Qin army by 500,000 in the Battle of Yin and Jin, knocking the Qin state down from the list of powerful countries. After that, under the leadership of Wu Qi, the Wei army reached the peak of history, defeated the powerful State of Qi, and swept through the entire Central Plains, which can be described as invincible. Just as he was full of ambition to invade the hinterland of the Qin state and prepare to destroy the Qin state in one fell swoop, he was dismissed by Wei Wuhou and recalled to the capital of the Wei state. Then there is the story of Wu Qi being tempted by gong uncle Acne's strategy and then being forced to flee the Chu state.
First of all, from the perspective of historical research, we must abide by the principle of isolated evidence. Although Sima Qian's "Records of History" records that his uncle Zhen tested Wu Qi, and he personally believed that it was to force Wu Qi away, it was unreasonable from the historical background. This historical material is the only one in the historical classics, and there is no circumstantial evidence to assist it, so it is believed that uncle Acne excludes Wu Qi, which is inevitably unconvincing. In fact, it is recorded in the "Spring and Autumn of the Lü Dynasty" that it was not gong uncle who slandered The Marquis of Wei Wu, but Wang's fault. This wang is also very famous, especially his son is the famous oniguzi wang xue. And both of these things are isolated evidence, and it is difficult to fully believe them. And the two say two more facts, and with the principle of not standing alone, only two are not adopted.
If you have to choose one of them, then the king's wrong theory is more credible than uncle acne. Because the production of "Lü's Spring and Autumn" was hundreds of years earlier than the "History", and during this period, it had not yet gone through qin shi huang's book burning pit Confucianism, Xiang Yu's plundering of the Qin Palace, and the peasant war at the end of Qin, the materials in the literary and historical classics were relatively more complete. The "Records of History" was produced during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, during which it underwent many devastating destructions, leaving Sima Qian with very limited things. In the "Records of History", there is a considerable part of the pre-Qin content, which he collected everywhere. The south of these things is uneven, coupled with his subjective speculation, the conclusions drawn are debatable. Judging from modern archaeological discoveries, there are many false contents in the "Shi Ji", so the "Lü Shi Chunqiu" is more reliable than the "Shi Ji".
Secondly, judging from the consistent performance of Uncle Gong's acne, there is insufficient evidence to say that he is jealous of Xian Xian and can exclude Wu Qi. In addition to the above-mentioned orphan evidence, there is no more record of Uncle Gong and Wu Qi opposing each other. On the contrary, after Wu Qi's death, there are records that Gong Uncle Huan took good care of Wu Qi's descendants. In the eighth year of The Reign of Wei Hui, the State of Wei engaged the combined forces of Han and Zhao, and Gong Uncle Huan led an army to break the combined forces of Han and Zhao and captured the general Le Zuo of the State of Zhao. When King Hui of Wei wanted to vigorously reward Gong Shu's envoys, Gong Shu said that he would resign, and he gave all the credit to Wu Qi and His subordinates Ba Ning and Cuo Xiang. He believed that the victory of the Wei army was the credit of Wei Wu's pawns left by Wu Qi, and the two subordinates also made great contributions in the war. In the end, King Hui of Wei rewarded Wu Qi's descendants with 200,000 mu of land, and each of his two subordinates was 100,000 mu.
If Uncle Gong and Wu Qi were at odds, and there was even suspicion and hatred between the two sides, then why did he give credit to Wu Qi's descendants? At that time, Wu Qi had already died in the State of Chu, and later in the State of Wei, he was also helpless and had no use value. Under such circumstances, uncle acne takes the initiative to give up credit, is not it superfluous? Even if Gong Gongxuan wanted to buy people's hearts, then why did he find the descendants of Wu Qi who had been angry, instead of his own confidants in the Wei army? This historical material comes from Liu Xiang's Warring States Policy of the Western Han Dynasty, although it is slightly later than Sima Qian, but it is also the result of his collation of the Western Han Imperial Collection. Judging from the sources, the reliability of the historical data is no worse than that of Sima Qian. And the obvious difference between the uncle's acne recorded here and the "History", which also makes the record in the "History" form a controversy.
Judging from the above historical data, it is completely subjective speculation without evidence to say that Gong Shu was squeezing Out Wu Qi for his position as Xiangguo. Judging from more historical materials, Wu Qi was forced to flee the Chu state, and the fundamental reason for this was the employment strategy of Wei Wuhou Wei. During the reign of Marquis Wen of Wei, the national strength of the State of Wei soared, attracting a large number of talents, and Wu Qi was a typical example. Many historical books say that when Wei Wenhou was in power, Shi Zixia, Youtian Zifang, and Li Duan Ganmu; there were also famous ministers such as Li Wu, Wu Qi, and Ximen Leopard; Wu Qi and Le Yang made their soldiers; each performed his duties, and the culture and martial arts were harmonious, and the Wei state was greatly ruled, and the territory was expanded, and it flourished for a while. However, after Marquis Wu of Wei ascended the throne, he changed the strategy of employing people in the State of Wei, so that the situation of "a wise man is a courtesy, the people of the country are benevolent, and the upper and lower levels are harmonious" no longer existed.
Wei Wuhou's employment was not meritocratic, but meritocracy and nepotism. He was so happy that he liked to listen to flattery, and appointed Tian Wen, who was from a noble family, to be the xiangguo. After Tian Wen's death, he appointed his uncle Xiangguo (相国) only because his wife was a princess of the State of Wei. When Tian Wen was in charge, he clashed with Wu Qi many times, and Wu Qi believed that Tian Wen was weak and decaying, and did nothing militaryly and politically. Although Tian Wen also admitted that this was inferior to Wu Qi, Wei Wuhou insisted on appointing him Xiangguo. Tian Wen later also explained the reason, "The Lord is suspicious of the country, the minister is not attached, and the people do not believe." As a result, The Marquis of Wei wu used people to trust officials from noble and Gongqing families even more, but they were full of distrust of outsiders like Wu Qi.
Wu Qi, on the other hand, had many conflicts with Wei Wuhou on his ruling philosophy not only because of his own outsiders. In the story of Xihe's discussion of politics, Wei Wuhou believed that relying on the dangers of mountains and rivers could dominate for a hundred years like the Jin state, but Wu Qi believed that political efforts to govern were the root of the country's strength. Many losers in history, such as Sanmiao, Xia Jie, and Shang Yi, occupied the dangers of the mountains and rivers, but were defeated by the latecomers, the main reason for which was political corruption. Although this story seems to be Wu Qi's victory, in fact, he is gradually snubbed by Wei Wuhou. From this incident, it can be seen that Wei Wuhou was very distrustful of Wu Qi. In particular, Wu Qi was not only an important defender of Xihe County, but also the commander of the leading army against Qin.
Before Wu Qi was dismissed from his post, the State of Wei was at a time when its military strength was strong, suppressing the State of Qi in the east, breaking the State of Qin in the west, defeating the combined forces of Han and Zhao in the north, and defeating the powerful State of Chu in the south, which can be described as sweeping the invincible hand of the Central Plains. What worried Wei Wuhou even more was that at this time, Wu Qi's army had penetrated deep into the hinterland of the Qin State, and was only one step away from destroying Qin. In such a historical background, coupled with his own distrust of Wu Qi, there will naturally be acts of suspicion. Wu Qi, on the other hand, is not clean in this regard, and has a historical stain. When he was in the State of Lu, in order to lead an army against the State of Qi, he first killed his wife from the State of Qi and expressed his loyalty to Duke Yuangong of Lu. His black history makes people think that he will stand on his own if he destroys the Qin state. When Marquis Wuhou of Wei suddenly summoned him back to the State of Wei, he did not have such a consideration.
Judging from the historical environment at that time, Gong Uncle Huan tried to test Wu Qi by marrying a princess, in fact, he was helping Wu Qi gain the trust of Wei Wuhou. If Wu Qi married a princess of the State of Wei and naturally became a relative of Marquis Wu of Wei, it would be obvious to gain trust. If Wu Qi refused this path, then Gong Gongxuan also expressed a reminder to Wu Qi in behavior, asking him to leave the State of Wei as soon as possible to protect himself, which had the same effect as later when he persuaded Shang Martin to leave the State of Wei. Judging from the matter of Uncle Gong's acne on Wu Qi and Shang Martin, he personally cherished talents and hoped that Wei Guo would use these two talents. But for the sake of the country, he had to advise the King of Wei to get rid of it first when he didn't get it. Therefore, Uncle Acne will prompt these two to flee as soon as possible in private, which is an operation of public and private poop.
But Wu Qi did not accept the kindness of his uncle Acne, but understood the other party's hints. Uncle GongXuan deliberately let Wu Qi see that he was despised by the princess, that is, to tell him that what Wei Wuhou valued was not talent, but origin. During the Lu Kingdom, Wu Qi, in order to gain the opportunity to win the trust of Lu Yuangong, even did not hesitate to kill his wife. Even so, he was still implicated when the Jisun clan was destroyed, and had to flee the State of Wei to save his life. With the lessons of the past, Wu Qi naturally did not pin his hopes on Wei Wuhou. Since he knew that Marquis Wu of Wei was nepotistic, then he would have no future in the State of Wei and it would be logical for him to flee the State of Chu. From this point of view, what forced Wu Qi to flee was not Gong Uncle Or Wang's fault, but the nepotism strategy of Marquis Wu of Wei.