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Li Yuanba is an original character who appears in the novel "Speaking of the Tang Dynasty", the commentary "The Biography of the Xingtang Dynasty" and "Wagang Heroes", and is also the first fierce general of the world's military generals in the Sui and Tang dynasties in the story.
According to the introduction in the book, Li Yuanba's face was like a sick ghost, and he was skinny, but he was born with divine power.
It is said that his weapons were hammers weighing 400 pounds each, and he easily defeated Yuwen Chengdu, the first in the world at that time, and ranked first among the 18 heroes of the Sui and Tang dynasties. And according to rumors, his peak record was to break the 18-way anti-king in Siming Mountain.
So how did such a powerful character die?
Died of thunder
Li Yuanba is an apocryphal character, and its real prototype is Li Yuan's third son, Li Xuanba, and the only similarity between the people may be his untimely death.
Li Xuanba is different from Li Yuanba, this is a very smart and eloquent guy, and he was endlessly favored when he was alive.
It is said that if it were not for his untimely death, the winner of the future changes in Xuanwumen is not yet known. And Li Yuanba is famous for martial arts, and his fame is completely stepping on the shoulders of Yuwen Chengdu.
Yuwen Chengdu has the name of the world's number one general, and he has been burdened with this reputation for many years and is unwilling to take off, so when he learned that the world's first was robbed by others, he naturally became angry with Li Yuanba.
And Li Yuanba's appearance was very deceptive, so that Yuwen Chengdu looked down on him at first, and later when he failed miserably at the hands of Li Yuanba, he felt insulted.
In the competition between the two, whether it was Wendao or martial arts, Yuwen Chengdu was defeated by Li Yuanba, and finally the first meeting between the two ended with Yuwen Chengdu covered in blood.
In the second fight, in the face of the gilded pistol that frightened the world, Li Yuanba took it empty-handed, and finally Yuwen Chengdu knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.
As for the third fight, Yuwen Chengdu was directly beaten without arrogance, and he was black-handed behind his back, and was finally torn apart alive by Li Yuanba.
There is a saying in literary works that Li Yuanba was attacked by Heaven for killing Yuwen Chengdu.
On the way back to the city with the army to eliminate Wagang, a thunderstorm suddenly fell from the sky, and the arrogant Li Yuanba was not convinced, so he raised his hammer and wanted to duel.
The hammer that I didn't want to erect directly became an excellent conductor, and directly led the heavenly thunder down, and Li Yuanba was directly chopped to death.
There is actually another way of saying that he died because of thunder.
The previous content is roughly the same, and I will not repeat it, and the difference with the former is only in the process of raising a hammer and scolding the sky.
Li Yuanba saw the thunder rolling in the sky, and it rumbled overhead after a while, as if it was about to come down. Li Yuanba destroyed Wagang, and he was arrogant, so he pointed his hammer at the sky and scolded:
"Why is heaven so hateful? Ringing on my head. ”
After that, the two of them directly threw the hammer in their hands into the sky, and in an instant they were submerged in the sea of dark clouds and thunder, and Li Yuanba looked up on the ground in a daze.
After a short time, the 400-pound hammer that had disappeared suddenly became bigger and bigger, and finally smashed straight into Li Yuanba's face, resulting in death.
Yu Jura killed with a trick
This statement originates from the book of Tang Dynasty, and there is a strong view of fate and world view flowing in the whole book, and Li Yuanba's true body is also a god in the heavenly realm.
In this book, the generals also pay attention to mutual restraint, otherwise they will be contaminated with karma. Li Yuanba's master, Ziyang Zhenren, once told Li Yuanba before the picture was released:
All heroes in the world can be slaughtered, but only the person who uses the gilded pistol must let him live, otherwise Li Yuanba will definitely not die well.
After touring the world, Li Yuanba completely followed the teachings of his master, so he let him live in the first two battles with Yuwen Chengdu.
It's just that as the name of the world's number one fierce general became more and more famous, and more and more enemies were killed, Li Yuanba's pure conscience was gradually blinded by killing intent, and finally broke the precepts.
There are so many heroes in the world who use gilt pickaxes, Li Yuanba not only killed in the end, but more than one hero died in his hands, and at this time he has completely forgotten the teachings of his master.
At that time, Wu Tianxi, who used mixed gold hammers, had desperately begged for mercy, but he was still torn alive by Li Yuanba, how similar this death method was to Yuwen Chengdu's death.
In the end, Yujuluo complied with the mandate of heaven and killed the invincible Li Yuanba with a weak body.
There is another way of saying it.
In his early years, Yujuluo followed Yang Guang for half his life, and was a famous military general in ancient times.
After the death of his mother, he was a filial piety keeper for three years according to ancient customs, but at this time it coincided with the Turkic invasion of the border, so Yujuluo went out with the army, took the lead, killed the enemy, and was defeated.
However, such a general, in the end, because of his brother's cruelty and greed, he had a dislike for the emperor, and was finally dismissed by Emperor Yang of Sui.
The former No. 1 master of the Sui and Tang dynasties retired to the rivers and lakes, and only his apprentice Yuwen Chengdu was left in the court.
When he learned that his lover was killed by Li Yuanba, Yu Juluo came out of the mountain angrily, as the so-called fist is afraid of Shaozhuang, and the stick is afraid of Lao Lang, Li Yuanba couldn't help but despise Yu Juluo when he saw it, and the latter saw this opportunity and quickly killed Li Yuanba.
After Li Yuanba's death, the 90-year-old Yu Juluo died of Li Yuan's revenge, but in terms of storytelling, the ending of Yu Juluo's killing of Li Yuanba is not tragic enough compared with the previous two, and it is far from interesting or imposing.
This ending is also the least well-known one.
Li Yuanba and Li Xuanba
In fact, in the original literary image, Li Yuanba still uses Li Xuanba's name, so why did it become Li Yuanba's name in the end?
All thanks to traditional Confucian culture.
Since the Han Dynasty overthrew the Hundred Schools of Thought and respected Confucianism alone, the concept of class in Confucian scholarship has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and one of the many traditional ideas has been used since the time of Confucius, which is to avoid the emperor.
As the name suggests, the words used in the emperor's name should not appear on ordinary people, but due to the iteration of the imperial power, in fact, there were later cases where the emperor of the later dynasty changed the name of the emperor of the previous dynasty, and Li Yuanba's name came from this.
It is said that the two novels of Tang and Xingtang were all written during the Qing Dynasty, so the names of the Qing emperors must be avoided when creating.
The name of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty was Xuanye, so Li Xuanba and Emperor Kangxi's names conflicted, if they were not changed, they might be wiped out.
As a result, the author of the novel changed Xuan to Yuan, which made the connection between the two characters fade, so far the world only knows Li Yuanba, how many people know Li Xuanba?
As for why the author arranged for Li Yuanba's early death, and his death was so peculiar, it may be because Li Xuanba died early at the age of 16.
As the setting of the novel, Li Yuanba's force value has reached its peak, and there is no one in the world who can deserve it, so he will be very careful in the choice of opponents.
As the reincarnation of the Golden-winged Dapeng, only a genius is worthy of being an opponent, so there is such a tragic ending.
epilogue
Putting aside the historical truth, Li Yuanba is a very successful character, so much so that he successfully was able to completely cover up the light of the prototype.
As a fictitious character, his death is the product of literary processing, so the reader does not necessarily have to trace the cause of his death.
As a fictional character, the more tragic he is, the more indicative of his success, so three endings came into being, which essentially appeared to cater to different readers.
So, which ending do you like, which one is the cause of Li Yuanba's death.
Resources:
Baidu Encyclopedia - Li Yuanba