Zhang Yi stills
Mencius's historical record of looking down on Zhang Yi comes from a debate between Mencius and Jing Chun in the book Mencius. Jing Chun said, "Aren't Gongsun Yan and Zhang Yi sincere about their husbands?" Angry and fearful, the world is extinguished. In Jing Chun's view, Gongsun Yan and Zhang Yina are both great heroes who can make the earth move three times by stomping on one foot, and they are idols he worships. Mencius's view was diametrically opposed to Jing Chun's, who simply looked down on these two people, believing that Gongsun Yan and Zhang Yi were: "Is it because of the big husband?" In a rhetorical tone, he affirmed, "They are not big husbands at all!" Then why did Mencius look down on Zhang Yi? We might as well go into history and see what happened.
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Speaking of Zhang Yi's struggle history, it is also quite inspirational. At the beginning, Zhang Yi, as a child of a poor family, not only studied hard, but also had lofty ambitions. However, if people with low social status want to succeed, they must encounter more hardships than others and pay more efforts than others. Zhang Yi is no exception.
After Zhang Yi finished his studies, he wanted to go to the Chu state to seek an official and a half-job. At first, it was not bad, Zhang Yi could not only meet Lord Chu Xiang, but also eat and drink with Chu Xiang. Just when Zhang Yi thought that he was about to take root in the Chu Kingdom and grow step by step, misfortune came. It turned out that during the drinking, Chu Xiang's jade bi was gone. That's a baby! Chu Xiang summoned someone to solve the case. Everyone analyzed and analyzed, and unanimously believed that Zhang Yi had stolen it. The reason is simple: "If you are poor and have no deeds, you will be a thief." "Zhang Yi is a poor egg, if he didn't steal it, who would steal it?" Therefore, under this preconceived inference of guilt, the crowd arrested Zhang Yi and beat her up, "plundering hundreds", hoping to make Zhang Yi admit that she stole yubi. But Zhang Yi is also a man with iron bones, and when he is killed, he also insists on a sentence: "I didn't steal!" I just didn't steal! "These people can't do it, so they have to let Zhang Yi go." Back at home, the wife saw that it was very painful, and complained: "Zi does not read and lobby, and ann gets this insult?" "If you are not in a hurry to lobby for office, how can you be insulted like this?" Zhang Yi, on the other hand, didn't care, saying, "As long as I still have three inches of uncorrupted tongue, I can achieve great things!" Later, Zhang Yi, under the secret support of his old classmate Su Qin, who "gave the money of the carriage and horses, used whatever he wanted, in order to get it, and told him to give", pretended to be a brother of a broad prince, sought development in the Qin kingdom, and became the guest secretary of King Hui of Qin.
Although Zhang Yi is like a "little strong who can't die", and the fighting spirit of not recognizing his fate in adversity is worth learning, in Mencius's view, his path to seeking a career does not conform to the gentleman's way of seeking a career. In Mencius's view, as a sage himself, he cannot do the "straight looking for the ruler" in order to become an official, because if a person is bent on "profit" in order to be an official, he will do everything, and even do the ugly thing of "drilling holes and peeping into each other and following the wall". This is what Mencius said: "The ancients did not want to be evil, and they could not help themselves." Those who do not go by their way, and drill holes and the like. So, what is this "way" of being an official that Mencius speaks of? That is, the monarch respects the sages and "pays homage to the sages"; if the sages do not receive the respect they deserve, then do not go to the monarch, and the monarch cannot "receive them". Otherwise, if the monarch does not "respect the virtuous", but he himself is strong and wants to come out as an official, he will certainly humiliate himself.
Mencius said and did so. When Mencius came to the State of Qi, King Xuan of Qi wanted to show the world that he was a noble monarch, but he did not want to lower his value, so he sent someone to say to Mencius: "I originally wanted to visit you, but I occasionally felt cold and it was not convenient to go out." If you come to see me, I will go up to the court to receive you. As soon as Mencius heard this, he knew that King Xuan of Qi was acting, so he also told a lie, saying: "Unfortunate and sick, you can't build a dynasty." "I'm sorry, you're sick, but I happen to be sick too."
Compared with Mencius's integrity, we can look back at Zhang Yi's path of seeking fame and see why Mencius looked down on him.
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Zhang Yi's proud work in the Qin Kingdom was nothing more than deceiving the King of Chu Huai.
The State of Qin wanted to attack the State of Qi, but Qi Chu was an alliance, and if it wanted to win the victory in attacking Qi, it was necessary to destroy the Qi-Chu Alliance. Therefore, Zhang Yi was ordered to send an envoy to the State of Chu and said to the King of Chu Huai: "If the Great King can cut off contact with the State of Qi, I can bring two great benefits to the Great King, one is to cede the six hundred miles of the land of the State of Qin to the State of Chu, to greatly enhance the strength of the State of Chu; the other is to send a beautiful Qin daughter to the King as a concubine, so that the two countries can become relatives and can be friendly for generations!" I don't know what the king intended? ”
When King Huai of Chu heard that as long as he cut off contact with the State of Qi, he could get land and beautiful women, and if there was such a good thing in the world, he not only promised it with his mouth, but also sent people to follow Zhang Yi back to the Qin State to handle the land transfer procedures.
Zhang Yi is an excellent actor. Back in the Qin Kingdom, he pretended to fall out of the car, and under the pretext of recuperating from illness, he did not go out to the court for three months. The emissaries of the Chu state waited for Zhang Yi to go out, and the right waited for Zhang Yi to go out, so they quickly reported this news to the King of Chu Huai. When King Huai of Chu heard this, he thought to himself, "The reason why Zhang Yi stayed at home and didn't go to the court and didn't hand over these six hundred miles of land with us is probably because I didn't have a thorough enough friendship with the State of Qi, right?" Therefore, he specially sent people to the state of Qi and scolded the king of Qi with pain and pleasure. In this way, Qi Chu completely broke off diplomatic relations.
As soon as Zhang Yi saw that her goal had been achieved, she came out to work. The emissaries from the Chu kingdom rushed to see him and asked Zhang Yi to fulfill his previous promise. But Zhang Yi pretended to be surprised and said, "Where is the matter of these six hundred miles of land?" I'm talking about dedicating my Six-Mile Fief to the Chu Kingdom! The news reached the Chu state, and the king of Chu Huai was so angry that he jumped on his feet and scolded his mother, and he had to "send troops to attack Qin".
Although Zhang Yi gained benefits for the Qin state through his own conspiracy, in Mencius's view, there should be a bottom line for being a man, that is, "people cannot be shameless, shameless shame, shameless", like Zhang Yi to deceive the king of Chu Huai by shameless means, that is the real shamelessness. Regarding "shamelessness", Mencius also said such a sentence, that is, "shame is too great for people, and those who are clever in their chances are useless and shameful." Translated into the vernacular, shame is very important to people, and those who specialize in scheming and deceit have no shame. Although we do not know whether this sentence was specifically used by Mencius to evaluate Zhang Yi, judging from Mencius's sentence "no shame, non-human beings", in Mencius's heart, people like Zhang Yi who have no shame are simply beasts.
How could Mencius look up to beasts?
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He also continued the above thing about Zhang Yi deceiving the King of Chu Huai. King Huai of Chu was very angry when he saw that he had been deceived by Zhang Yi, so he decided to send troops to teach the Qin state a lesson. However, the Chu state was hastily dispatched troops and did not make careful preparations in advance. On the other hand, in the Qin state, Zhang Yi and the King of Qin had long anticipated that the Chu state would send troops to attack after being deceived, and they had long been prepared for battle. And because the State of Qi was humiliated by the State of Chu and also threw itself into the arms of the State of Qin, therefore, as soon as the State of Chu sent troops, it was attacked by Qin and Qi, and it was a general who lost soldiers, was beheaded by 80,000 people, and was also captured by the State of Qin in danyang and the land of Hanzhong. King Huai of Chu fought a defeated battle, and his heart was even more angry, and he added troops to fight with the Qin state in Lantian, and as a result, "Chu was defeated". King Huai of Chu was hit twice, and he was a little sober, thinking that he could not defeat the prepared Qin state like this, so he "cut off the two cities to make peace with Qin" and ended the war.
Whether it was Zhang Yi deceiving the King of Chu Huai or the Qin-Chu War caused by it, Zhang Yi's purpose in doing so was nothing more than to open up territory for the Qin State. In fact, since Zhang Yi was reused by King Hui of Qin, he had been committed to opening up territory for the Qin state. In order to expand the territory of the Qin state, he not only "took Shaanxi for the Qin generals" and personally led the expedition to lay the foundation for the Qin state, but also lobbied everywhere, provoked the relationship between the princes, and created opportunities for the Qin state to attack them to expand their territory. It can be said that Zhang Yixiang Qin was a key stage in the rapid expansion of the Qin State to become strong.
Ordinary people will think that Zhang Yi has made great contributions to the strength of the Qin state and is a capable subject. However, Mencius did not think so, in his view, as a gentleman, the first job of assisting the monarch was to "lead his monarch to be in the right place, and to be benevolent", that is, to guide the monarch to practice benevolent government, rather than to expand the territory through war. Mencius not only directly called the so-called "good minister" like Zhang Yi, who "can fight with the country for the king, and fight for the country", as a "thief of the people", but also further said, "Fight for land, kill people and win the wilderness; fight for the city, kill people to win the city." This so-called cannibalism of man by taking the land is not to be punished by death." From this, we can see how much Mencius hated Zhang Yi, who "rates the land and eats human flesh"!
After reading the above analysis, we will understand that Mencius's contempt for Zhang Yi is also reasonable. In Mencius's view, Gongsun Yan's behavior was no different from Zhang Yi's, so he looked down on Zhang Yi and also looked down on Gongsun Yan, so when he debated with JingChun, he said that the two of them were "a big husband"!
Author: Zhao Xianwen, our special guest author