The first time I came into contact with historical works was in the years when Tang Guoqiang's version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was broadcast on TV.
I was young at the time, and although I spent most of my time in my study, whenever I had the opportunity to turn on the TV, I would be glued to it and reluctant to leave.
In those years, it was either "Journey to the West" or "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" that was broadcast on TV.
It was as if an invisible hand was pressing me in front of the TV and forcibly instilling in me the history of the Three Kingdoms period.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" aroused my interest in learning about history, and I found that outside of history textbooks, there are actually many historical stories that can touch my heart, and there are also some resourceful historical figures worthy of my respect and emulation.
In the years when I was obsessed with "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", I bought an original novel of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", I thought that what I saw from these books and TV series were all real stories that happened in history, and I couldn't help but keep those classic storylines in mind.
When I started reading serious books in college, I found that "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was just a fictional novel under the guise of history, and many of the stories were imagined by Luo Guanzhong himself. In order to elevate some roles, Luo Guanzhong also put the important events promoted by others on the protagonist he likes out of thin air.
This is the classic evaluation of Mr. Lu Xun's later sentence "I want to show Liu Bei's strength and thickness, and he is wise and close to a demon".
Interestingly, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which tells the real history, has not been read by many people, and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which tells fictional historical stories, has not only become one of the four famous novels, but also derived many movies and TV literary and artistic works.
This seems to make a point:
In the field of literature and art, real things may not be passed down through the ages, but interesting stories with no obvious logical loopholes are likely to be widely disseminated and have far-reaching influence.
one
This article will not talk about the successful enlightenment of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", but I would like to talk about a book I read recently:
Ma Boyong's "Secrets of the Three Kingdoms".
If I'm not mistaken, this is the fifth work of Ma Boyong that I have purchased and read.
In this work, the author uses his imagination to tell the story of the last Han emperor of the Three Kingdoms period.
Liu Xie, the son of the Han Dynasty, was controlled by Cao Cao in Xudu, and Cao Cao controlled the princes in the name of the Son of Heaven.
In history, this emperor of the late Han Dynasty had no real power, and could only be manipulated by Cao Cao to make a living, but in fact, such an emperor is not uncommon in history.
But since there are historical records, Liu Xie is still the first emperor to be so restrained by local princes.
Ma Boyong's brushstrokes start from this son of heaven, but the protagonist of the story is not Liu Xie, but Liu Ping, a twin brother who looks like Liu Xie.
After Liu Ping was born, he was adopted by a loyal minister surnamed Yang, and in order to avoid being chased and killed, Lord Yang put Liu Ping in the Sima family for foster care. In the name of Yang Ping, Liu Ping has been inseparable from Sima Yi, the second son of the Sima family, since he was a child, and has become a very good friend.
After Liu Xie became seriously ill, a group of people who supported the Emperor of Han decided to urgently welcome back Yang Ping, because Yang Ping and Liu Xie looked the same, so it was natural for Yang Ping to change into court clothes and continue the influence of the Han Dynasty royal family as Liu Xie, looking forward to finding the right time to regain control of the rule.
I thought that Cao Cao would be head-on with Liu Xie, but after reading the whole novel, I found that Cao Cao had no chance to meet Liu Xie at all, Cao Cao was fighting a war with Yuan Shao in the north, and it was Xun Yu, Guo Jia, Jia Xu, Man Chong, Chen Qun, Kong Rong, Yang Xiu, and Cao Pi who blocked Liu Xie.
Among these people, especially Guo Jia, Yang Xiu, Jia Xu, and Cao Pi have the heaviest roles.
Guo Jia was Yuan Shao's advisor at the earliest, but there were too many generals and strategists under Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shao had a good face and didn't know how to make good use of people, so Guo Jia left Yuan Shao and came to Cao Cao's staff officer.
When I first came into contact with the story of the Three Kingdoms, I vaguely felt that Guo Jia was no less capable than Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi, and Guo Jia became famous several years earlier than Zhuge and Sima. In this "Secrets of the Three Kingdoms", Guo Jia is not only built to be extremely powerful, but also becomes a man with a story.
Two
In "Secrets of the Three Kingdoms", Ma Boyong used his most commonly used brushwork, that is, filling.
The history of the Three Kingdoms or the widely circulated stories of the Three Kingdoms are actually familiar to everyone, and Ma Boyong did not overturn these stories, but he added a lot of details to many classic scenes. After these things are added, they magically do not violate the harmony, so I have to admire Ma Boyong's full research on the materials of the Three Kingdoms.
Ma Boyong avoided Liu Bei's perspective, but creatively used Liu Xie's perspective to tell the story of the Three Kingdoms, and he also focused on Cao Pi, Yang Xiu and Sima Yi when he was young, reshaping and enriching Guo Jia's image, so that these supporting roles of the Three Kingdoms, who had been ignored or had no chance to be fully displayed, were fully displayed at one time.
For example, Guo Jia.
I believe that many people who have watched the Romance of the Three Kingdoms will not be too impressed by Guo Jia, but I remember that when Cao Cao did not express his stance of "fighting Yuan Shao, or surrendering Yuan Shao", he said the classic theory of ten victories and ten defeats, to the effect that although Yuan Shao has many generals, there are ten unstable factors that can directly lead to defeat, and on the contrary, Cao Cao has ten chances of victory. This made Cao Cao finally make up his mind to fight Yuan Shao.
We will also remember that although Guo Jia was extremely wise, he died of illness at a young age. Cao Cao lamented that if Guo Fengxiao was alive, there would never be a subsequent defeat of Chibi.
Objectively speaking, Guo Jia's life has too many things to fill in, although his life is short, but there are more than these two classic fragments.
So, Ma Boyong made a filler in "Secrets of the Three Kingdoms", and Guo Jia was portrayed as the biggest villain in this historical romance novel.
In order to highlight Guo Jia's wisdom, this novel has made a lot of romantic plot insertions, such as Yuan Shao's core strategist, Cao Cao's strategist Guo Jia, and Liu Xie's companion eunuch actually all became Hua Tuo's disciples.
In this novel, Hua Tuo has many disciples, but only Guo Jia is not a eunuch, and Guo Jia's other brothers and sisters were all punished by Hua Tuo. This is really off the beaten track.
When I read this book, on the one hand, I was lamenting Ma Boyong's scribbling, and on the other hand, I found that he was able to justify himself very skillfully.
Later, after reading the whole novel, I found that Ma Boyong used an incredible story design at the beginning of the novel.
Who would have thought that Liu Xie, the real emperor of the late Han Dynasty, was not forced to die by Cao Cao's son Cao Pi, but died of illness in Xudu early?
Who would have thought that there was a man who looked exactly like the Son of Heaven at the end of the Han Dynasty and could seamlessly connect with his brother's death. After the death of his brother, he continued to revitalize the Han family as an elder brother?
Because we were shocked by this plot at the beginning of the novel and couldn't help but believe in this plot, we may not be able to help but snort coldly when we see the incomprehensible story arrangement in the back:
The Son of Heaven can have a younger brother who looks the same, and he can pass on the throne without knowing it, so compared to other plots, it is not very absurd.
Ma Boyong's ability to tell stories is indeed breathtaking.
He obviously uses the synopsis of the historical story that everyone is familiar with as the basis of the novel, but he can add his own carefully set plot in the connections and blank spaces that are not fully displayed in historical books, which is very skillful.
Three
Reading historical novels is always inseparable from a discussion of "whether you are reading cool texts".
I thought about why I fell so deep into Ma Boyong's novel?
A very important reason is that Ma Boyong takes into account logical rigor and sincere expression when telling stories.
I don't read many books, but I find that the first thing that can move me is that the logic is rigorous, and the author's narration and description make it impossible for people to play easily.
And because there are constant reversals, and there are also constant storylines that are seductive, so at least in the process of reading, I can be deeply immersed in the story, and I will not and cannot find too obvious logical flaws.
When I read "Secrets of the Three Kingdoms", I obviously felt that Ma Boyong arranged a lot of his own ingenuity in the process of filling in the story.
When I even watched "Secrets of the Three Kingdoms", I found that it was Ma Boyong who let us see many unknown but real stories of small people during the Three Kingdoms period.
When I think back to the original novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" that I read, I will find that this work, created from Liu Bei's perspective, ignores the coherent and detailed description of Sun Quan and Cao Cao's forces from the beginning of its creation.
We only remember some classic scenes where Cao Cao and Sun Quan appeared as tool men, but in the original novel, Cao Cao and Sun Quan many times just appeared passively.
For example, Sun Quan only has two highlight moments, one of which is that after Liu Biao killed Sun Jian, Sun Quan sent Liu Biao alone to ask Liu Biao and Sun Ce to temporarily stop fighting.
For example, when Liu Bei raised a large army to crusade against Sun Quan and was ready to avenge Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Huang Zhong, Sun Quan could rush to power and promote Lu Xun to retreat from the enemy.
Cao Cao's sense of presence is also very weak.
Cao Cao did not appear in the original novels of the Three Kingdoms novels, and there were only pictures of Xuzhou defeating Lu Bu, Guandu defeating Yuan Shao, Chibi defeating Sun and Liu's coalition army, and Liu Bei Qingmei cooking wine and discussing heroes.
There are still a lot of gaps to be filled between these classic scenes, and Ma Boyong chose a relatively short historical period, that is, the period of the great war between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, to focus on depiction.
"Secrets of the Three Kingdoms" can be said to carefully restore the story of the time cycle of Cao Cao and Yuan Shao's war with hundreds of thousands of words, mainly including two fragments of short standoff and surprise attack on Wuchao.
At the beginning of the novel, Cao Cao had already led his army to leave Xudu and began to arrange troops with Yuan Shao to prepare for war, and at the end of the novel, it was Cao Cao who led the army to put down the monstrous fire in Yuan Shao's granary and turned the tide of the war in one fell swoop.
Rao is Liu Xieyi is a bold man, with the help of Cao Pi, Yang Xiu, and Sima Yi, he came to Yuan Shao's territory, intending to reap the benefits of the fisherman when Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were fighting.
Although Liu Xie ruthlessly brushed a wave of presence during the war between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, and gained the affirmation of many people, history could not be changed, Liu Xie finally failed to keep the glory and halo of the Son of Heaven in the late Han Dynasty, Sima Yi also chose Taoguang to raise obscurity, and devoted himself to business for many years, and finally completed the usurpation of the dynasty from Cao Cao's grandson.
Sima Yi and Cao Cao, two ruthless people in history, did not become emperors, but Cao Cao's son Cao Pi and Sima Yi's descendant Sima Yan became emperors respectively, which is also the drama of history.
Ma Boyong begins with Liu Xie's rebellion against Cao Cao, and ends with Sima Yi agreeing to subvert the rule of the Cao family for Liu Xie, allowing us to see another possibility of the direction of the story of the Three Kingdoms.
Four
Closing "Secrets of the Three Kingdoms", I couldn't calm down for a long time. I was blown away by this completely fictional historical story.
One is the ingenuity of the story structure.
I have continued to deepen my understanding of the history of the Three Kingdoms through many works, including creative works that insist on imaginative expression, such as "Seeing the Dragon Unloading the Armor", as well as new expressions with rich and diverse perspectives, such as "Military Alliance" and "The Roar of the Tiger and the Dragon", as well as Tang Guoqiang's version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and Lu Yi's version of "Three Kingdoms", which are similar to the expression of the main drama.
These works have deepened my understanding of the story of the Three Kingdoms and broadened the boundaries of the story of the Three Kingdoms. Many paper-based and one-sided historical figures have become concrete, and some of their persistence and pursuit are full of practical reference significance.
I know the importance of realism and historical works, but I didn't understand historical works like "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" that move between fiction and reality, and I always felt that they were just tools to pass the time.
But after seeing a lot of things, I found that the related works of the Three Kingdoms seem to have a kind of magic of their own, which makes me can't help but explore, and when these works that have nothing to do with reality are watched, they can always lead us to combine our current confusion to make new thinking.
The second is the persistence of the "Tao".
I've always said before that a good film and television work is a dream factory. They continue to attract people with emotional, logical and rigorous stories, and to put it bluntly, let us empty ourselves and get a chance to ask ourselves about our hearts.
Modern society is fast-paced, and few people can slow down.
Everyone is carried forward by the people and things around them, and you can neither stop and think, but even the opportunity to slow down is a luxury. However, reading these story-driven texts, I will find that I have managed to slow down.
Looking back at "Secrets of the Three Kingdoms", what moved me the most was Liu Xie's younger brother Yang Ping, he is the protagonist of the story, he has experienced all kinds of trials and tribulations, of course, he has the confusion and confusion of being a chess piece, and he has also experienced all kinds of difficult choices and temptations.
Yang Ping is not a simple person, the complex environment he is in does not allow him to survive secretly, the people around him have forced him into such an embarrassing position that he cannot retreat and can only enter, he has shown hesitation and weakness, he once suppressed himself in the process of adapting to the environment at first, and let himself adapt to the role of his tool man, he also wanted to be able to continue the last glory of the Han Dynasty like the brother who did not speak in person.
But when he figured out the rules and accepted countless threats of being debunked and even killed, he quickly completed his growth.
In order to fulfill the dream shared by him and his brother, it is impossible for him to treat everyone sincerely, especially people like Guo Jia, Feng Ji, and Yang Xiu, but he jumped out of the expectations imposed on him by everyone and insisted on the benevolence and sincerity he wanted.
He can give up fleeting fighters for the sake of the friends he cares about, and he can also do his best to save and make up for some seemingly unimportant scholars who go and return again and again.
Yang Ping doesn't want any senseless sacrifices, even if choosing and saving again and again means that he has to put himself in danger, but he still has no regrets and runs without hesitation.
It's all because he wants to stick to his heart, he doesn't want to step on someone else's shoulder or a corpse to continue to pursue his ideals, because he knows that his brother can have that kind of determination, but he doesn't have to.
He can rely on his own "way" to change his path and method to achieve his ultimate goal.
In the end, he gave up revitalizing the Han family for his brother, and when he first saw this plot, he sighed a little, but immediately became enlightened.
Looking back at the road that Yang Ping has traveled in "Secrets of the Three Kingdoms", I found that there were too many moments when he almost died on the road of pursuing his ideals, but he turned evil into good fortune again and again, on the one hand, because of his insistence on his "Tao", and on the other hand, because many people believed in his "Tao". Those who have attained the Tao have a lot of help, and friends have helped Yang Ping escape from danger again and again.
In the end, Yang Ping did not continue the glory of the Son of Heaven in the late Han Dynasty, and when he was about to realize his ideals, he took the initiative to choose to give up.
But not everything has to be done successfully, and the process of hard work itself is already meaningful.
It's not all persistence that has to last until the end of life, and there is nothing embarrassing about changing paths at the right time.
As long as you are still running, as long as there is still light in your eyes, the road under your feet will continue to spread forward.