Disclaimer: The content of this article is written with authoritative sources combined with personal opinions, and the source of the literature has been marked at the end of the article
When it comes to the Wumiao, almost everyone can think of Guan Yu, because he is not only known as "Second Master Guan" among the people, but the emperors of successive dynasties have also continuously given him titles, the red-faced Guan Gong, loyal to the liver and guts, he is a veritable military general in the minds of the Chinese.
But you know what? The Vietnamese people also worship the generals very much, and they even built a martial arts temple, just to express the pursuit and yearning for martial arts in their hearts, in the Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam, the Vietnamese martial arts temple even became the supreme existence in the country.
What is unbelievable is that there are 18 generals enshrined in the Vietnamese Martial Temple, but 12 of them are from China.
1. Why can a martial temple have such a huge impact?
Vietnam Vu Temple is located in Hue City, Vietnam, in ancient times, Hue City is the capital of the Nguyen Dynasty in Vietnam, Nguyen Phuc Thanh is known as Emperor Minh Minh, he is the second emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty period of Vietnam, Nguyen Phuc Dart in the sixteenth year of the Ming Dynasty actually built a Wu Temple in the capital, and called on the whole country to add the Wu Temple to the Spring and Autumn Sacrifice.
According to the Western Han Dynasty's "Huainanzi Tianwenxun" record: "On the fifteenth day after the spring equinox, the fighting finger B, then the Qingming wind arrives" The Vietnamese obviously attach great importance to this activity, so the Vietnamese martial arts temple has also become the supreme existence in the minds of the Vietnamese.
On the one hand, it was because Vietnam had just established a dynasty at that time, and the society was in turmoil, and the old Nguyen regime often clashed with the Tay Son dynasty in the north, and large-scale peasant uprisings broke out frequently in the North Thanh area.
In 1833, the Le Wai Leong Rebellion, led by Le Van Kui, set up a hundred officials in Pan An City, Le Van Thieu called himself the generalissimo, Nguyen Phuc Thanh encircled and suppressed many times to quell the rebellion, and finally exiled the rebels to Quang Nam, Quang Yi, Binh Dinh and other places.
Although the perennial war friction will not hollow out the national strength, but also make the people's hearts worried, at that time in Vietnam there is only a seven-story brick pagoda Fu Yuan Pagoda, used to inherit Mahayana Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism emphasizes no desire and no desire, this concept obviously can not alleviate the worries of the people, but the establishment of the Wu Temple can meet the people's expectations for peace.
With the establishment of the martial temple, a large number of people who believe in the martial gods began to appear in Vietnam, and they believed that the brave martial gods had the courage to "kill the Buddha when they meet the Buddha, and kill the gods when they meet the gods", and they can expand the territory to protect the family and defend the country.
On the other hand, because the people of Vietnam often strengthen their bodies, the Vietnamese boxing developed under the influence of Shaolin and Muay Thai in southern China is widely popular among the people, and Vietnamese boxing is also called Yue Wudao.
In actual combat, Vietnamese boxing with scissor legs, can subdue the enemy on the largest scale, Vietnamese boxing also has a set of unique attack routines, the entry is very easy, almost no martial arts foundation ordinary people can also practice, to achieve the purpose of physical fitness, the Vietnamese people out of the worship of martial arts, thus turned to the worship of the martial temple.
A total of 18 famous generals are enshrined in the Vietnamese Wu Temple, namely the main worship of Jiang Taigong Jiang Ziya, Zhang Liang, Sun Wu, Guan Zhong, Sima Sui Tho, Han Xin, Zhuge Liang, Li Jing, Guo Ziyi, Li Sheng, Yue Fei, Xu Da Ten Chinese generals and Chen Guojun of the Vietnam Chen Dynasty, Li Kui of the Li Dynasty, Ruan Youjin, Ruan Youyi, Zun Murihui, and Nguyen Van Zhang of the Nguyen Dynasty.
Second, 12 of the 18 famous generals are Chinese, why is this?
This is to take a look at the history of Vietnam, in ancient times, Vietnam was actually a part of the mainland, belonging to the territory of the mainland, called Bai Viet, this state lasted for a full 100 years, and then Vietnam and the mainland split, became a vassal state of the mainland.
The vassal state had to pay tribute to the suzerain, and it had to go to the suzerainty regularly to report on various daily affairs, and the vassal state was subject to the jurisdiction of the suzerain, and although it had sufficient autonomy, it did not have the right to complete independence, and this state lasted until 214 BC.
In 214 BC, Zhao Tuo, a general of the Qin Dynasty, came to the southwest region, where he was awarded the title of county taishou for his meritorious service in quelling the rebellion. At that time, there were two counties here, namely Guilin County and Xiang County, but Zhao Tuo was not an honest man who kept to himself, and he wanted to establish himself as a king and break away from the jurisdiction of Qin Shi Huang.
At that time, Qin Shi Huang was building the Ling Canal, and he did not realize Zhao Tuo's conspiracy under his lack of skills, and Zhao Tuo took the opportunity to establish himself as the king in Nanhai County, known as the Wu King of Vietnam, and Zhao Tuo established the Nanyue Kingdom here.
However, during World War II, Vietnam did not escape the fate of being colonized due to its small size and economic backwardness, and in 1885 Vietnam became a colony of France, which the French called French Indochina.
It was not until the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 that Vietnam was liberated, ending the turbulent situation and establishing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
3. Why is the Vietnamese Vu Temple set up like this?
If you carefully study these 12 Chinese generals, it is not difficult to find that these 12 Chinese generals are arranged according to the chronological order.
And the earliest of them is Jiang Ziya, the character of Jiang Ziya appeared in the pre-Qin period, he can speak well, read through the book of soldiers, and was appointed by King Wu of Zhou, and the temple that was referred to when the Vietnamese Wu Temple was built is the Taigong Temple in the mainland, so the character of Jiang Ziya must be ranked first.
Next to Jiang Ziya is Zhang Liang, the founding hero of the Western Han Dynasty, Zhang Liang is an outstanding military strategist, with a very deep cultivation of Chinese culture, Zhang Liang and Xiao He, Han Xin are known as the "Three Masters of the Early Han Dynasty". During the reign of Qin II, Zhang Liang became an important advisor to Liu Bang.
When Chu and Han fought for hegemony, he also secretly negotiated with the Xiang clan to disintegrate Xiang Yu's strength from the inside, and finally the overlord of Chu was forced to kill himself in Wujiang, Liu Bang won the final victory, and the Western Han Dynasty was established, Zhang Liang's personality charm should not be underestimated, so the second general enshrined in the Vietnamese martial arts temple is Zhang Liang.
The 12 Chinese generals enshrined in the Vietnamese Wu Temple not only have outstanding military exploits, but also write military books, the most famous of which is Sun Wu, Sun Wu is the author of "Sun Tzu's Art of War" thirteen articles, known as the holy book of military science, and the "Thirty-six Strategies" in "Sun Tzu's Art of War" has also been continued to this day.
The fourth famous general, Guan Zhong, is not exactly a military strategist, he is also a politician, Guan Zhong as the strategist of Qi Huan Gong in the Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons, has a very deep research in astronomy, economy, agriculture and other fields.
The allusion of "Guan Bao's Friendship" has gradually spread in Vietnam, and it is precisely because of Guan Zhong's noble character, loyalty and dedication to the monarch, and his friends that he was selected by the Vietnamese people to be enshrined in the Martial Temple.
The rest of the eight generals, Sima Sui Tho, Han Xin, Zhuge Liang, Li Jing, Guo Ziyi, Li Sheng, Yue Fei, and Xu Da, all have countless military exploits, and some of them can also write military books.
Some make good use of the art of war, Han Xin commanded a large army to attack the east and west in the Wei capital Anyi, Zhuge Liang offered advice to Liu Bei many times, and was respected by the world as the wisdom saint, and some were indomitable, Li Jing resisted the Eastern Turks.
In the Zhenguan period, Guo Ziyi defeated Gao Xiuyan in the crusade against An Lushan and recovered the Jingbian Army, if these 12 Chinese generals are outstanding figures with high achievements, then General Bai Qi who appeared in the Warring States Period should also be among them.
However, such an excellent general did not appear in the Vietnamese Martial Temple, why on earth? In fact, it was because of the controversy surrounding this character, although he won the Battle of Changping and had outstanding feats, he was not accepted by the Vietnamese because he slaughtered too many prisoners.
Bai Qi served as a general in the Qin State for more than 30 years, and the number of prisoners killed by him was close to one million, which is dozens of times more than the number of people killed in the Nanjing Massacre, and the Vietnamese people think that Bai Qi is cruel by nature, and his hands are stained with the blood of innocent people, and he should not be placed in the Wu Temple to worship, so there is no Bai Qi in the Vietnamese Wu Temple.
In the later period of the establishment of the Vietnam Martial Temple, there were also 6 local Vietnamese military generals, the most famous of which was Tran Quoc Jun of the Tran Dynasty, who repelled the Mongol army twice in the 13th century, and in order to defend the territory of Vietnam, he swore not to retreat, and became a national hero of Vietnam.
When fighting with the Mongolian army, Chen Guojun only led 20,000 soldiers, but he took advantage of the mountainous southwest region to trap the enemy in the depths of the dense forest, and the Mongolian army had no way to counterattack because of the water and soil adaptation, so he had to retreat one after another.
In the mid-17th century, Nguyen Thien participated in the Nguyen Trần civil war, he was not afraid of life and death, actively organized the army, killed fugitives near the Trung River in Quang Binh Province, and strictly guarded the border, and finally brought peace to Vietnam for a hundred years.
IV. Conclusion
But whether it is a Chinese military general or a Vietnamese local military general, all those who can be placed in the martial temple are all excellent military strategists and outstanding famous generals.
They symbolize the people's worship of martial arts, but also symbolize the heroic spirit in everyone's heart, in recent years, the relationship between China and Vietnam has begun to become more and more intimate, if you travel to Vietnam you will be able to experience the "comrade plus brother" warm and friendly.
Resources:
Baidu Encyclopedia entries Bai Qi, Zhang Liang, Jiang Ziya, Chen Guojun, Nguyen Phuc Dan, Vietnam Martial Temple, Sino-Vietnamese relations.
He is the author of "General History of Vietnam", Commercial Press
CCTV News Client 21:02 on December 15, 2023 The new positioning of China-Vietnam relations is the aspiration of the people