In China's 5,000-year-long history, a large number of outstanding figures have emerged who have changed the course of history, either the emperors and nobles who changed the dynasty, or the capable ministers who ruled the country through the state, or the handsome generals who opened up the territory and expanded the territory, or the peerless heroes who turned the tide of the world.
But in the midst of so many fresh faces, we can't help but be surprised to find that in the history of China, there are such people, who once ushered in the highlight moment of life with their beautiful appearance, illustrious and wealthy life experience or ingenious deception, but as time went by, a sudden change suddenly changed the trajectory of their lives, and even they who had left a touch of color on history were actually swept into the scraps of history by the torrent of the times, and since then they have "disappeared" without a trace......
Who are they, and why did the incredible disappearance happen to them?
Xi Shi: The first "political victim" in Chinese history
Xi Shi is very well-known in Chinese history, and she is also the "Internet celebrity lady" with top traffic in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period that belongs to her, and even her fan Dong Shi looks up to her everywhere, so she also attracts ridicule from her fellow villagers.
In fact, Xi Shi was originally an ordinary village girl, if she did not encounter changes, she would spend the rest of her life calmly and calmly in the beautiful idyllic scenery. But in that era when there was no online self-media, her beautiful appearance also made her involved in the whirlpool of the treacherous court.
After Goujian, the king of Yue, was defeated by Wu Wangfucha, after several years of lying on the salary and tasting courage, Taoguang raised obscurity, and already had the strength to compete with his husband and take revenge, but for the sake of insurance, he listened to the advice of the minister Wen Chong and decided to use the most vicious beauty trick for the weakness of the husband's lust, in order to achieve the greatest harvest at the lowest cost.
Under the influence of the idea of "under the whole world, it is not the king's land, and the shore of the land is not the king's minister", Gou Jian spread the scope of the beauty pageant to the entire territory of Yueguo, and Shijia Village, where Xi Shi lives, is naturally also within the scope of the selection.
The person in charge of the beauty pageant is the famous Fan Li, when he saw Xi Shi for the first time, he was amazed by Xi Shi's beauty. So, he disobeyed the king's order and couldn't help but fall in love with Xi Shi, and in that era, he also paid attention to buying one get one free, and incidentally included Zheng Dan from the same village.
Fan Li's appearance and talent also made the two naïve village girls fall in love, and the tornado of love soon made Xi Shi and Zheng Dan fall in love and couldn't extricate themselves. Fan Li should be Xi Shi's first love, so she cherishes this sudden relationship. She simply thinks that she and her good sister Zheng Dan can spend a long time with her sweetheart Fan Li.
But as the so-called "love does not know what to do, it goes deep; love does not know where it ends, and it passes away suddenly", as a doctor of the Yue country, Fan Li was cowardly after all, and he finally used a noble reason of "loyalty to the country" to play the most advanced "chaos and abandonment", so that the two lovers willingly became spies, and entered the palace of the husband openly and honestly.
In such an era, Xi Shi and Zheng Dan, the two weak women, where else could they choose but to obey? Moreover, before entering the palace of King Wu, the two had also received systematic training from King Yue, so they had two other "sharp weapons" in addition to beauty - beautiful posture and exquisite dance skills.
In addition, it is estimated that Gou Jian also instilled "patriotic" ideas in these two sisters, and even made the two simple village girls suddenly become "revenge machines", so that the "beauty plan" set up by the literary genre went quite smoothly from beginning to end.
After the fall of the Wu Kingdom, the history books came to an abrupt end with Xi Shi's next story, and she seemed to have evaporated from the world, and was thrown into a corner of history by the historians of the past dynasties with disdain.
But the kind people did not forget this simple girl, they arranged a romantic and happy ending for Xi Shi, so that she and the lover who dreamed of the twilight met unexpectedly in the depths of the flowers of Gusutai, the two set up a flat boat, and traveled to Taihu Lake with double accommodation and double enclaves, and lived a happy life since then.
Of course, under the influence of the idea of "male superiority and inferiority of women", many ancients also regarded Xi Shi as a "red face and troubled water" similar to Daji and Bao Xi, perhaps in order to vent their dissatisfaction, or in order to maintain feudal rule, they set all kinds of tragic quatrains for Xi Shi: He was sunk in the lake by Fan Li, sunk in the river by the people of Wu State, or executed as a "demon" by Queen Yue!
This is really unfair to this simple Shih Tzu girl!
Zhu Yunwen: The most worrying loser
Zhu Yunwen is Zhu Yuanzhang's very optimistic successor to the throne, just as Emperor Kangxi is optimistic about the young Qianlong Emperor Hongli, so Zhu Yunwen, who grew up with a golden key, has been given high hopes to push the Ming Dynasty to prosperity since he was a child.
However, his father, the crown prince Zhu Biao, was too uncompetitive and had not yet become the emperor, so Hongwu died early due to illness in the 25th year, so Zhu Yuanzhang took the pain of losing his son and established Zhu Yunwen as the emperor's grandson.
Six years later, Zhu Yuanzhang died, and Zhu Yunwen, who was only 21 years old, officially ascended the throne and became the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty. At this time, Zhu Yunwen and Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, faced almost the same situation, the same vassal kings were lined up, eyeing the same tiger, posing the same threat to the imperial power.
So, Zhu Yunwen took the same means as Liu Che - to withdraw the feudal domain, to eliminate his own henchmen, in the early stage, this great cause went quite smoothly, the king of Xiang self-immolation, the king of Qi, the king of Dai, the king of Min was deposed, it seems that everything is under Zhu Yunwen's control.
However, what Zhu Yunwen did not expect was that in Beijing, Zhu Di, the originally honest Yan King, openly rebelled at the instigation of the monk Yao Guangxiao, and led the army to attack the Beijing Division in the name of "King Qin" and launched the "Battle of Jingyan".
In the face of Zhu Di's ruthless offensive, Zhu Yunwen was moved by compassion, and he gave the most bizarre order in history, it is okay to fight with Zhu Di, but not to hurt his uncle Zhu Di at all.
So, in the confrontation with Zhu Di's army, the soldiers of the Ming army were timid, and they did not dare to use artillery and strong bows.
So, everything was as Zhu Di expected, and he successfully captured the city of Nanjing, but unfortunately, just when Zhu Di was about to enjoy the fruits of victory, add the yellow robe, and ascend the throne as emperor, a terrible thing made him sleep, like a fish in his throat!
Zhu Yunwen disappeared, although some subordinates said that Zhu Yunwen may have been buried in the fire in the palace, but strangely, when the fire was extinguished, Zhu Yunwen's body was not found.
So, with the determination of "seeing people alive and seeing corpses when dead", Zhu Di started a large-scale "search for people" operation, it is said that after turning the whole country "upside down", to no avail, he instructed Zheng He to drive a dragon boat to search for overseas.
Who would have thought that a "seafaring feat" that took place in the thirteenth century A.D. was originally intended to find a benevolent, cowardly, indecisive loser.
Don't think that Zhu Di is doing a meaningless stupid thing, in fact, Zhu Yunwen's life will directly affect the stability of Zhu Di's throne, if he is really alive, he can call on the world as "orthodox" at any time to kill himself in the name of "rebellion".
In fact, Zhu Yunwen's influence is indeed beyond people's imagination, and even in the next two hundred years of the Ming Dynasty, how many people raised troops in the name of Emperor Jianwen, and even after the death of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Cijiong, the third prince of Zhu of the Southern Ming Dynasty, also claimed that he was a descendant of Zhu Yunwen, Emperor Jianwen, and had been seeking the opportunity to drive away the Manchu Qing Dynasty and rebuild the Ming Dynasty.
As for where Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen wen, the most common folk saying is: After Zhu Yunwen escaped from the palace, he became a monk incognito......
Xu Fu: The legendary transformation from a liar to a Japanese pioneer
Compared with Xi Shi and Zhu Yunwen, Xu Fu's story is more legendary. He was just a swaggering and deceitful alchemist, but because of Qin Shi Huang's diligent pursuit of immortality, he ushered in one of the most peculiar experiences in his life.
Xu Fu was born in today's Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, and devoted his life to the study of the strange book "Guiguzi".
Among all the monks, Xu Fu was the most daring, he even pointed to a vast sea, claiming that there were Penglai, abbot, Yingzhou three immortal mountains at the end of the sea, this statement is very to Qin Shi Huang's taste, so he prepared a thousand boys and girls, as well as a large number of grain, clothing, and farm tools, so that Xu Fu led the fleet to seek immortals overseas.
The first time he went to sea, Xu Fu was extremely unhappy, it is said that he arrived in Laoshan, where he married a wife and had children, and later generations took "Lao" as their surname.
A few years later, Xu Fu led the ship to sea again and never returned. It is said that Xu Fu's fleet landed in today's Japan, and the 500 boys and girls on board lived here, and their names were quite casual, and the house was built under a pine tree, so the surname was "Matsushita", and there was a well next to the house, so the surname was "Inoue".
"A Brief History of Japan" has this description: In the seventy-second year of Emperor Xiaoling, Xu Fulai, a Qin man. Judging by this, Xu Fu may have really become the ancestor of the Japanese.
However, some scholars pointed out that with the shipbuilding and navigation technology of the Qin Dynasty alone, it was almost impossible for Xu Fu to cross east to Japan, so where Xu Fu went is still an unsolved mystery!
epilogue
A period of past history has made the Chinese national culture splendid and colorful, and those deeds that have not been recorded in the history books have added a mysterious color, but also made the Chinese culture show a lovely, cordial and real side.
Whether it was Xi Shi, who was regarded as a political victim, or Zhu Yunwen, the loser who made Zhu Di restless, or Xu Fu, who made Qin Shi Huang furious and led to the "book burning and Confucianism" incident, although the historical chroniclers have always been secretive about their later experiences out of some political considerations, they still constitute a shining page in Chinese history and are talked about by later generations.
Resources:
Encyclopedia of China: Xi Shi
"Ming History"
Historical Records