In the previous article, I started with Xue Baoqin's first nostalgic poem "Chibi Huaigu" and recalled a period of history during the Three Kingdoms period with you.
Of course, Xue Xiaomei's ten nostalgic poems are not necessarily entirely writing history, nor are they necessarily just riddles for entertainment. The ten "riddles" that have not been published and no one has guessed are more likely to be: they carry more "preview" content, helping readers to more thoroughly understand the ending of the whole book and the fate of the important people in it.
In today's article, I would like to use the book "Dream of the Red Chamber" to talk to you again about a fragment in the long river of history.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" >1 What exactly is the place of the toe</h1>
If we trace back to the roots, the ancient Chinese toe was part of the "Luo Yue" branch under the "Baiyue" branch in the pre-Qin era, and its geographical location was in the area of the Red River Valley in present-day northern Vietnam.
With the change of the times, by the Qin Dynasty, the Luoyue branch was established as "Jiaotong County", and the scope was expanded; later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent troops to destroy the State of Nanyue and established Jiaozhi County, Jiuzhen County, and Ninan County in northern Vietnam; and jiaotong County in the Eastern Han Dynasty was renamed "Jiaozhou", covering the northern part of present-day Guangdong Province and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Understanding the geographical location of the cross-toe, let's take a look at what this place name really means.
There is such a record in the "Book of Rites and The Royal System": "The south is barbaric, and the carvings are crossed." Among them, the "carving" is the tattooed face, and the "cross-toe" is the feet facing each other after sitting cross-legged. According to the records of the Book of later Han, the local custom of "Southern Man" at that time was "men and women bathing in the same river", so it was called "cross-toe".
There is one more thing that must be mentioned about the place of cross-toe.
For more than a thousand years after the destruction of the State of Nanyue, many dynasties in ancient China, including the Han Dynasty, Eastern Wu, Jin Dynasty, Southern Dynasty, Sui Dynasty, and Tang Dynasty, Southern Han Dynasty, and Ming Dynasty, exercised direct administrative jurisdiction over Jiaotong. Although the Jiaotong region will also resist, it has never been separated from this administrative jurisdiction.
After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, it reached the Southern Han Dynasty of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. The Southern Han Dynasty Emperor Liu Gong (Yin Yan) took the Annam region into the possession of the Southern Han Dynasty. Speaking of this Southern Han Gaozu, everyone may think that this is a "person with a story" just by looking at the name. Indeed, there is an interesting thing about him. Liu Gong is particularly superstitious and likes to be fine. "Zhou Yi" said that "the flying dragon is in the sky", the Southern Han Gaozu looked at it, ah, this meaning is good, so he created a word "龑" according to this sentence, stipulating that the pronunciation of this word is "rock", and since then he has called the name Liu Gong.
"Flying Dragon in Heaven" did not give the emperor any particularly good luck. In 937, a warlord in the Jiaozhou region named Wu Quan took the lead in provoking a rebellion here and established himself as the envoy of Jiaozhou Jiedushi. Liu Gong made his son Liu Hongcao the King of Jiao, and led his troops to quell the rebellion. Who knows, the emperor who called himself "Flying Dragon in heaven" gave birth to a son who could not fight, and Liu Hongcao did not last long before he was killed. This defeat made the superstitious emperor even more withdrawn, believing that the defeat was an "ominous omen." Therefore, he immediately gave up the recovery of Jiaozhou. This decision laid the hidden danger for the independence of the Annan region later.
Just two years later, Wu Quan split off from the Southern Han Dynasty of the Fifth Dynasty. It also means that the heart of Vietnam has bid farewell to more than a thousand years of Chinese rule. However, at this time, the toes did not establish their own national name.
After Wu Quan became king, he was unable to unify the entire Vietnamese region, and the real power was actually controlled by the local magnates, and Wu Quan could only be regarded as one of the local "Twelve Princes" at best, but the power was temporarily ahead.
And the harmonic sound of his name (no right) does not know whether it really played a role - Wu Quan died after only seven years on the throne, and the throne was usurped by Yang Sange. Not only that, but the local magnates did not recognize Wu Quan's sons Wu Changquan and Wu Changwen as the heirs of the monarch. The second son, Wu Changwen, was firmly controlled by Yang Sange, while the eldest son, Wu Chang, was forced to flee. A few years later, about 950 AD, the Wu brothers had accumulated enough strength to overthrow Yang Sange.
From these histories, the independence of the cross-toe region has already begun.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" >2 Status of the vassal state</h1>
Since we talked about the "Twelve Lords" in the Jiaozhou area, we have to mention the Ding family.
The Ding family can be said to be a warlord of generations, and its military strength in the local area is very prominent. Among the descendants of the Ding family, there is a person named Ding Buling, who has loved to play the game of "leading soldiers to fight" since he was a child, and fights with the naughty children in various villages.
After the Ding clan grew up, the local famous and prestigious clans were very dissatisfied with Wu Quan's rule and began to show their favor to the Ding clan. At this time, Ding Shi needs to elect a leader to lead everyone to "do things" together. After several rounds of conflict, Ding Buling finally defeated his uncle Ding Pre and became the leader. After annexing the forces of other ethnic groups, the Ding clan became more powerful.
As the saying goes: the gun hits the head bird. After Yang Sange usurped power, Ding Bu gradually replaced the local officials and became the real rulers of the Hualudong area. As we said above, Wu Quan's two sons finally overthrew Yang Sange, and the limelight was in full swing, but a Ding bu leader came out of nowhere, and he made a "national China" and became the leader, and he was dissatisfied. As soon as the brothers discussed, they sent troops together to attack Hualudong.
At that time, Ding Bu was very arrogant, but he did not dare to take the enemy lightly—from this point of view, this person had the quality of a leader. He did not want to engage the Wu brothers when the foundation was not completely stable, so he quickly sent people to ask for peace, and also gave his only son to the Wu brothers as a hostage to show his sincerity. Ding Buling had originally planned that if his children were given to the enemy army, then the enemy army should retreat, let himself rest for a few more years, and it was not too late to start a war when the strength was further strengthened.
Who knows, the Wu brothers did take Ding Buling's son hostage, but they had no intention of retreating at all and continued to attack Hualudong. The Ding commander was not happy, and led the local people to resist vigorously, but he resisted with a small number of troops for more than a month and did not surrender. In history, the example of less winning more may not be uncommon, but this battle can also be seen in the determination of Ding Buling.
This time it was the wu brothers' turn to be ashamed and angry. They threatened that if Ding Buling did not surrender, it was okay, then his son would be killed! As an ordinary person, he may immediately retire, surrender, and then quickly take his son home. However, Ding Buling is a tyrant. The tyrant would not do that.
To the surprise of the Wu brothers, Ding Buling directly ordered the archers of the army to shoot arrows at their sons, thus breaking the threat of the Wu brothers. And the people of Hualudong saw that their leaders were able to stubbornly resist the enemy in this way, and their morale suddenly soared. The Wu brothers had no choice but to retreat first with the son of Ding Buling.
Later it turned out that the Wu brothers wanted to make a comeback again and capture Hualu Cave, which had become an impossible task.
By 965, Wu Changwen was killed in battle, and the Wu clan was in a state of internecine warfare. At this time, Wu Shi was too busy to take care of himself, and had long forgotten the importance of Ding Bu's son as a hostage, so he let him go home.
Ding Buling did not have any worries in his heart, so he began to prepare to pacify the "Twelve Juns", of course, his plan once again showed the "temperament of a tyrant" in his bones.
Among the twelve monarchs, the strongest of the troops was Chen Lan. With the strength of Ding Bu's leader, it was almost impossible to take Chen Lan's territory by force. So what to do?
Chen Lan was old, childless under his knees, and such a large family business saw no successor. Ding Buling took his son to defect and expressed his willingness to give Chen Lan an adopted son. It is worth mentioning that Ding Buling was already in his early forties at that time, and it was not appropriate to think about it at this age to recognize "dry father". However, Chen Lan actually agreed. What the reason for this is, no one knows, but Ding Buling did become Chen Lan's adopted son, and after Chen Lan's death, he justifiably took over all of Chen Lan's troops, territories, and family property, in the current Internet language, Ding Buling was simply "getting rich overnight", instantly becoming the most powerful warlord, without one.
Subsequently, Ding Bu led his troops to attack the weaker Fan Baihu's troops, causing Fan Baihu to be defeated and surrendered, and became a general of the guards in the army led by Ding Bu. In the following year or so, Ding Bu led the recruitment of sages and soldiers, continued to accumulate troops, gradually took down the remaining ten people of the Twelve Emperors, and established the Ding Dynasty in 968 AD, with the name of the state as Daqu Yue. Only two years later, he was proclaimed emperor, with the name Taiping (太平) and the capital Hualu (華闾). At this time, Vietnam officially broke away from China and began the beginning of autonomy.
Later, The Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin was made the king of Jiaotong County. The Jiaotong region also officially became a vassal state of China. In the centuries that followed, the supreme leaders of Jiaotong called themselves kings in China, while both internally and in other countries called themselves emperors.
During this time, a lot of things happened in the toe area, and we will not talk about it here. It should be noted that in 1802, Nguyen Phuc Anh established the Nguyen Dynasty with the support of France, and later he accepted the canonization of the Qing Dynasty's Jia Khanh Emperor and became the "King of Vietnam", and since then the new state name "Vietnam" has been officially established.
The name of Vietnam, that's where it comes from.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" >3 Xue Xiaomei's "Cross-toe Nostalgia"</h1>
Since we have probably figured out the geographical location and simple history of "cross-toe", it is time to look at Xue Baoqin's "Cross-toe Nostalgia" in "Dream of the Red Chamber". The full poem is as follows:
"Bronze cast gold Zhen Ji Gang, sound spread overseas to spread Rong Qiang." Ma Yuanzi is a great credit, and the iron flute has no trouble saying the sub-room. ”
At first glance, the poem mentions the names of two historical figures: Ma Yuan and Zhang Zifang. The important historical event of jiaotong nostalgia is the "battle of jiaotong" in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
During the reign of Emperor Guangwu in 40 AD, there was a rebellion in Jiaozhi County. The cause of this rebellion was a woman named Zhengbian, whose husband was killed by the Taishou of Jiaotong County, and in anger, Zhengbian rebelled, and her sister Zhengyi immediately joined in.
The rebels led by the sisters called for support from Jiaozhi County, Jiujin County, Nichinan County, and Hepu County, defeating the Han forces stationed there. Zhengbian established himself as the "King of Conquest", and the number of cities captured reached sixty-five.
When this news reached Emperor Guangwu, he immediately ordered the southern counties to begin building roads, building cars, and storing grain, so as to lay the foundation for the future suppression of the rebellion.
About two years later, Emperor Guangwu made Ma Yuan, the founding hero of the Eastern Han Dynasty, "General Fubo", and ordered him to personally lead the Han army of 8,000 people, unite the 20,000 people of the Jiaotong army and 2,000 vehicles and ships to attack Jiaotong. At that time, Ma Yuan was already in his fifties, but he was still very brave and good at war. He led the army along the waterway, and after going deep into the hinterland of Jiaotong, he opened up a mountain road for more than a thousand miles, directly attacked the lair of the two sisters on the side, and captured these two people.
The following year, the two sisters were beheaded and put down.
After the victory, General Ma Yuan did not immediately return to the dynasty. He schemed deeply and led his troops to continue to go deeper, eliminating all the henchmen of the second sister of the conscription side to avoid any trouble. Before returning to the Dynasty, General Ma Yuan ordered people to erect bronze pillars in the local area to commemorate their merits and use this as a symbol of the Han Dynasty. There are four copper pillars, one in the west of Qinzhou is the "eastern boundary"; one is in the "southern boundary" of Pingxiang Prefecture; one is in the north of Linyi is the "sea boundary"; and the other is in the south of Linyi is the "mountain boundary". In addition, the copper pillar is also engraved with the words: "The copper pillar is folded, and the toes are destroyed."
After this battle, Ma Yuan also taught farming techniques to the people along the way, helped them govern the city, and dredged channels on the way back, so his reputation was doubled and he was very loved by the people of Lingnan. In order to reward Ma Yuan's merits, Emperor Guangwu specially made him the Marquis of Xinxi.
Not long after the Battle of Jiaotong, the "Wuxi Barbarians" launched a rebellion again, and the local Han army had no way to quell it. When General Ma Yuan heard about it, he did not care about his serious illness and the strong opposition of his family, and he must once again ask for war and serve the country. However, more than a year after his expedition, he unfortunately died of illness in the army at the age of sixty-four. The other generals in the army continued to fight according to the deployment left by General Ma Yuan's lifetime, and finally quelled the rebellion created by the Wuxi barbarians.
Before his death, General Ma Yuan believed that heroes died in battle, and Ma Ge wrapped his body, never greedy for life and afraid of death. He lived a simple life throughout his life and achieved outstanding military feats, but after his death, he was framed and reclaimed by the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu the title of "New Marquis". When emperor Zhang of Han arrived, Ma Yuan was eventually rehabilitated and posthumously awarded the title of "Marquis of Zhongcheng". During the Tang Dynasty, Ma Yuan became one of the "Sixty-Four Generals of the WuMiao Temple"; in the Song Dynasty, Emperor Huizong of Song posthumously named him "King Zhongxian Youshun" and one of the "Seventy-two Generals of the Wumiao Temple"; during the Qing Dynasty, he was enshrined in the Imperial Temple of the Past Dynasties.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" >4 Zhang Liang Zhang Zifang</h1>
The two sentences "Ma Yuanzi is a great merit, and the iron flute has no trouble saying zifang", in addition to mentioning Ma Yuan, who quelled the rebellion of foreign nationalities in the Eastern Han Dynasty, also mentioned Zhang Liang, a famous strategist of the Western Han Dynasty.
Zhang Liang was one of the founding heroes of the Western Han Dynasty, and was known as the "Three Masters of the Early Han Dynasty" along with Han Xin and Xiao He.
He came from an aristocratic family, his grandfather was re-elected as the prime minister of the three koreas during the Warring States period, and his father succeeded him as the prime minister of the two koreas. One of the most famous deeds about Zhang Liang is probably that he scattered his family assets and carefully planned to assassinate Qin Shi Huang. In this operation, Zhang Liang first asked a Hercules to build a large iron hammer weighing one hundred and twenty kilograms for him, and then took the opportunity of Qin Shi Huang's eastern tour to ambush him in advance with Hercules. After determining that Qin Shi Huang's convoy had arrived, Zhang Liang asked Hercules to hold a hammer and smash it into the most luxurious frame, and the people in the car fell to the ground and died on the spot. It is a pity that because Qin Shi Huang has been assassinated many times and has accumulated "rich experience", the car is not sitting in Qin Shi Huang himself.
Zhang Liang took advantage of the chaos to escape into the reeds, and although Qin Shi Huang was furious and ordered the assassins to be wanted, he could not find out. The case was closed, and Zhang Liang was able to "get away with it."
Later, Zhang Liang met the reclusive Gao Shi Huangshi Gong and won the approval of the Huangshi Gong for patiently helping huang shi gong pick up shoes and wear shoes. Huangshi Convention Zhang Liang met again, who knew that twice in succession, Zhang Liang was one step later than Huangshi Gong. Although he did not know the old man's intentions at that time, Zhang Liang still insisted on waiting for the old man at the agreed place in the middle of the night for the third time.
His sincerity and sincerity finally touched the Duke of Huangshi, so he obtained the Taigong Art of War. After this, Zhang Liang showed amazing perseverance, studied the art of war day and night, and paid attention to the major events of the world, and finally became a strategist with both culture and martial arts, profound understanding and wisdom. In the chaotic world, Zhang Liang turned to Liu Bang, which further shows that he has a very clear mind and a unique vision. Liu Bang also relied heavily on Zhang Liang, and with Zhang Liang's assistance, Liu Bang eventually won the Chu-Han War and won the world.
We are familiar with historical events such as "Zuo Ce Entering the Customs", "Douzhi Hongmen", "Ming Burning Boardwalk, Darkness Chen Cang" and other historical events, Zhang Liang has played a very important role in them.
After Liu Bang's power was gradually consolidated, the heroes Han Xin, Peng Yue and others were stripped of their military power for various reasons, and the outcome was tragic. Zhang Liang realized that his long-cherished wish in life had basically been fulfilled, and the fate of the ancient heroes was not optimistic. "Birds are exhausted, good bows are hidden; enemy countries are broken, and plotters are killed." Zhang Liang understood the philosophy of this, and was also worried that his future fate would be like Han Xin's, coupled with his consistent frailty and illness, so he asked himself to quit, and from then on he concentrated on cultivating and living quietly.
Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, had a very high evaluation of Zhang Liang, saying: "In the midst of the husband's planning and planning, the decisive victory is thousands of miles away, and I am not as good as the sub-room." ”
After Zhang Liang's death, he was posthumously given the title of "Wencheng". Among the three masters of the early Han Dynasty, Han Xin was killed for the crime of treason, and he was also accused of exterminating the three tribes; Xiao He was finally punished and could not escape the disaster of imprisonment; only Zhang Liang, who remained behind, was deeply trusted by Liu Bang from beginning to end, and was able to be alone.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" >5 The long river of history</h1>
When I read history, I always have a feeling: the long river of history is like a brilliant galaxy in the universe, in which bits and pieces, big or small, are gathered together, and the small shows greatness in the small, and the greatness is full of smallness.
Zhang Liangxiongtao of the Western Han Dynasty was strategic and strategic, assisting Liu Bang in overthrowing the Qin government and opening up the history of the Western Han Dynasty. However, with the passage of time, the three masters of the early Han Dynasty passed away one after another; General Ma Yuan, who "cast gold in bronze and zhen zhen jigang, and spread the voice of overseas rong qiang", made outstanding achievements in the Eastern Han Dynasty, put down the rebellion of the toe, and spent his life fighting horses and serving the country. During the southern expedition, General Ma Yuan left behind a miscellaneous ancient poem called "Wuxi Shenxing", which described the difficulties and obstacles of the journey. The "iron flute" in Xue Baoqin's poem "Iron Flute Does Not Need to Say Sub-Room" refers to the "Wuxi Deep Journey" created by General Ma Yuan.
The poem "Crossing the Toes and Nostalgia for the Past" compares Zhang Liang with Ma Yuan, and at the same time seems to imply to the reader: the back wave of the Yangtze River pushes the front wave, in the long river of history, no event or character can cross the ancient times; the passage of time will inevitably make some things and some people be gradually forgotten.
So, does the "copper cast gold" at the beginning of this poem have any special meaning? "Jin Yong" refers to the gorgeous big bell, and Zhang Heng, an outstanding astronomer, inventor and writer of the Eastern Han Dynasty, once wrote a magnificent "Tokyo Fu", which covered many customs and folklore of the time, and also wrote the sentence "Palace Hanging Golden Yong".
Looking at "Dream of the Red Chamber", the important people related to Gong Min are probably Jia Yuanchun. Emperor Qiwu of the Southern Dynasty placed the Golden Bell in the Jingyang Palace, where people were required to get up and dress up as soon as the minute sounded at dawn. And General Ma Yuan's "voice spread overseas" seems to correspond to the prominent momentum when Yuan Chun was promoted to a noble concubine; later, Ma Yuan, who was trusted by the emperor, suddenly died of illness on the way to the expedition, and Yuan Chun also died suddenly in the palace.
If the "Chibi Huaigu" in the previous article made me feel deeply heavy, then the "Cross-toe Nostalgia" written in this article has sounded a wake-up call for me. "When the water is full, it overflows, and when the moon is full, it loses", the world is impermanent, and the only eternal thing is constant change.
History is like a mirror that illuminates our hearts and guides us in the direction of progress.
In the next article, I will continue to analyze Xue Baoqin's nostalgic poems. Thank you all for your attention and reading!