Let's focus today on a rarely mentioned period in Chinese history – the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. This is a complex and challenging era, with a level of chaos and cruelty even greater than that of the Wuhu Rebellion, but why is this history so unpopular?
The primary reason is the negative image of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in the public and historical circles. The famous historian Qian Mu called it "the darkest age", and although this assessment may be slightly biased, it undoubtedly reveals the bad impression that this period left on people's minds. Compared with Luo Guanzhong's popular "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", his book "Romance of the Five Dynasties of the Remnant Tang Dynasty" about the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms is rarely interested, which shows that the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms are obviously insufficient in public attention, and people have little interest in this period and lack the willingness to understand it in depth.
Second, the brutality of the warlord rulers of the period exacerbated the antipathy of the era. Take Zhu Wen as an example, although he came from an ordinary background, he betrayed his old master with his cunning scheming, and finally created the appalling "White Horse Post Disaster", massacring Tang Dynasty nobles on a large scale, which caused a nationwide shock at the time. Such a warlord leader is destined to bear a thousand years of infamy.
In addition, the "innovation" of the rulers of the five dynasties and ten kingdoms in the methods of violence is outrageous. Liu Ling, the ancestor of the Southern Han Dynasty, was fond of watching all kinds of severe torture punishments, such as beheading, cannon branding, and splitting the corpses of five horses, and even took pleasure in it, and its cruelty was jaw-dropping. How can such rulers expect them to bring well-being to the people?
What is even more alarming is that this period saw a large-scale cannibalism. Li Zanhua took pleasure in drinking human blood, and his concubines often pierced their arms for him to suck; Zhao Siwan liked to eat people's liver and gallbladder raw, and openly took live human gall and swallowed them with wine; and Chang Congjian was keen on cannibalism, plundering folk children as rations everywhere he went. These appalling acts not only caused extreme panic at the time, but also changed the color of future generations.
The horror of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms is also that it completely subverted the values and morals that Chinese civilization had long upheld. At this historical juncture, ancient Chinese society gradually lost faith, and the law of the jungle became the only law of survival. In these troubled times, people's worries go far beyond basic survival issues such as displacement and hunger, and their constant fear of becoming food for others is unprecedented in any previous troubled times.
So why is this history so neglected? There are three reasons:
- The historical drawbacks are significant: during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the Central Plains fell into division, social order was wiped out, and the people lived in dire straits. This state of affairs is seriously contrary to the idea of great unification pursued by later generations and the people's desire for a stable life.
- Internally lackluster: Most of the emperors of this period were mediocre, and there were only a handful of outstanding figures. Taking Feng Dao as an example, although his official position is high, his conduct and behavior are difficult to win people's respect. In such an era, it is naturally difficult to attract the attention of later generations.
- Literary and artistic works are scarce: Ancient literati believed that the values of the Five Dynasties period were contrary to the traditional Confucian principles of loyalty, filial piety, and righteousness, so few literary works depicted them. Even in contemporary times, although some online novels have begun to dabble in the background of the Five Dynasties, in general, the related themes are still unpopular.
In summary, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms have been marginalized from the public eye due to their prominent historical shortcomings, lack of positive deeds within the country, and scarcity of literary and artistic works. Although this history is full of suffering and cruelty, it provides us with a profound warning of the horrific consequences of a disorderly and morally degraded society. By understanding this history, we should appreciate our lives more today and learn from them in order to prevent the recurrence of historical tragedies.