It is not advisable to evaluate the good and evil deeds of historical figures from a subjective point of view.
Today, we only take Xiang Yu as an example, from ancient times to the present, the evaluation of Xiang Yu is divided into two arguments, praise and criticism, but we cannot evaluate whether these two arguments are right or wrong, and everyone's understanding from different stands cannot be synchronized.
Some people feel that Xiang Yu slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Qin pawns before entering the customs, and after entering the customs, burned the Xianyang Palace and the Qin Tomb, and killed the Qin princes and babies, this series of practices is not the work of heroes. Moreover, Xiang Yu lacks personality charm, is suspicious and obedient, and even rebels.
Therefore, his failure is completely doomed.
There are also people who believe that Xiang Yu was the "first hero" of the late Qin Dynasty, and he had great wisdom in breaking the cauldron and sinking the boat, and his Chu army was invincible, and he contributed the most among the princes of all walks of life, so it was up to him to determine the Central Plains.
No matter what the world says, the reality remains unchanged.
The 30-year-old Xiang Yu was defeated by Liu Bang in the next battle, and although he arrived on the bank of the Wu River by fleeing from his own soldiers, he had no possibility of overturning at this time. Fate gave Xiang Yu the opportunity to rise again, and when the chief of Wujiang Pavilion persuaded him to return to his homeland to recuperate, Xiang Yu refused to get on the ship on the grounds of "heaven kills me, not a war crime" and "heaven dies for me, how do I cross", and generously dies.
The reason why I mention this is because I want to make a point: I look at things from different angles, so the conclusions are also inconsistent. Look at how Du Mu, Wang Anshi, and Li Qingzhao, three literary scholars, have different evaluations of Xiang Yu's life.
"Title Wujiang Pavilion" - Du Mu
The victorious and defeated soldiers are not expected, and the bag of shame is a boy.
Jiangdong's sons are multi-talented, and their comeback is unknown.
In 844, Lao Du, who had passed the age of confusion, was transferred to Chizhou by the imperial court, and Du Mu, who was proud of his ambition, stopped at the historical place for a while while passing by Wujiang Pavilion and drank a few drinks.
We don't know how many glasses of wine Lao Du drank in Wujiang Pavilion, but his mood must be quite comfortable, so he thought of the Western Chu Overlord king a thousand years ago.
Thinking of this, Du Mu found a pen and paper and wrote down his thoughts on Xiang Yu:
The situation on the battlefield is complex and rapidly changing, and no one can predict the direction and outcome of the war. Therefore, it is the true hero who can identify with and endure failure. As long as you can return to your homeland, are you still worried that you can't gather a group of heroic and good soldiers?
In Lao Du's view, fighting a war has always been difficult to win or lose, and from ancient times to the present, there has never been an invincible and victorious general, nor has there ever been a nest of thieves who have been repeatedly defeated in battles, who can say the future direction? If Xiang Yu could calm down and plan for the future, return to Jiangdong and gather a vote in the name of the Western Chu Overlord, it would not be difficult to repeat the central plains again. He already has the experience and lessons of chasing deer in the Central Plains, so starting a business again will undoubtedly be more effective with half the effort.
Obviously, Du Mu scoffed at Xiang Yu's arguments of "Heaven kills me, not the crime of war" and "Heaven dies of me, I am how to cross", although we cannot see Du Mu directly criticizing this, but the question at the end of the poem is clearly satirizing Xiang Yu's lack of mentality to bear failure, and his mind is not broad.
In the process of analyzing the verse, we cannot consider the content of the verse alone, but also combine the background and encounter of the poet's time.
At that time, Du Mu was proud of chunfeng and had just received a letter of appointment from the imperial court, although it was only dispatched from Huangzhou to Chizhou, and the official position had not changed, but for Du Mu, this was not a setback, just a new beginning.
He had been an assassin in Huangzhou for so many years, and the local governance was orderly, and now, being dispatched to Chizhou was just a "comeback", and he firmly believed that his efforts could be rewarded, and one day the imperial court would appreciate his political achievements.
Therefore, the focus of Du Mu's poem is that Xiang Yu's behavior of "refusing to cross Jiangdong" lacks responsibility, lacks courage, and does not have the courage to do it again.
"Overlapping Title Wujiang Pavilion" - Wang Anshi
Hundreds of battles are tired and heroic, and it is difficult to return to the Central Plains once defeated.
Although the sons of Jiangdong are here now, are they willing to come back with the king?
In the blink of an eye, more than two hundred years had passed since Du Mu's inscription and poem, and in the autumn of 1054, the scenic spot of Wujiang Pavilion welcomed a literary leader - Wang Anshi.
In 1042, Wang Anshi was admitted to the throne through the imperial examination, and could have entered the political arena. However, Wang Anshi, who was worried about the country and the people, did not go directly to Beijing, but chose to go to the remote grassroots level to start from scratch and go through some training.
Before writing this "Overlapping Title Wujiang Pavilion", Wang Anshi had been a general judge in Shuzhou for three years, during which time he had achieved remarkable political achievements. The reason why Wang Anshi was able to be promoted was not only because of the suggestions of Vice Chancellor Ouyang Xiu and Prime Minister Wen Yanbo, but also because of his ability and achievements.
Therefore, when he came to Wujiang Pavilion to commemorate Xiang Yu, he considered not only "making a comeback unknown", but something deeper.
In the chaotic world, the princes and princes fought back and forth, and the people cried bitterly about the war. Xiang Yu pulled away a large number of Jiangdong Zhuangding, but let them all be buried in the Central Plains. Even if he planned to start all over again, how many young talents did Jiangdong have? After witnessing so many deaths and separations, will Jiangdong people still use their lives as chips to accompany Xiang Yu to make another big gamble?
The word "stacked" in the title is obviously Lao Wang's response to Lao Du's "Title Wujiang Pavilion", and it is not too much to say that it is aimed at.
Who is Wang Anshi?
His ability to be listed among the "Eight Greats of the Tang and Song Dynasties" is enough to show that his literary talent is extraordinary.
However, in history, Wang Anshi's political ability is stronger than that of writing, and his essence is a politician, not a literati. Those verses of "Spring breeze and green river south bank, when will the bright moon shine on me" are just his emotional expressions of the future and the future. In other words, Wang Anshi is not a literary and artistic youth who takes poetry as a profession, he is a doer who puts the national economy and the people's livelihood first.
In the eyes of the doer, the imperial inheritance is not a problem he should consider, and his thinking is focused on all sentient beings. For thousands of years, every time the war was fought, the king was defeated, but who considered the ordinary people living in the fires of war? They provided food and manpower for the king's war, and because of the king's world, they lost their homes and lives. If you think about it from a deeper level, Xiang Yu in Wang Anshi's eyes is an ambitionist who launches an unjust war.
After all the sons of Jiangdong who followed the overlord died, and Xiang Yu killed the Queen of Chu, who was used as a puppet, even if he wanted to make a comeback, who else would want to accompany him to play for his life?
This is both a reflection on the war and a criticism of Xiang Yu's character.
It can be seen from this that according to Wang Anshi's understanding, Xiang Yu's failure is an inevitable result, and he has no qualifications to overturn the market at all.
"Summer Sentences" - Li Qingzhao
Born as a master, dead as a ghost.
Still thinking about Xiang Yu, he refused to cross Jiangdong.
Li Qingzhao is one of the few female poets in China's ancient literary circles, and as a woman who grew up in the background of the patriarchal society (especially the prosperity of Cheng Zhu Lixue), Li Qingzhao's perspective on the problem is quite unique.
Before taking into account why Li Qingzhao wrote this poem, let's take a look at the background of the times as usual.
During the Liao-Jin War, the Northern Song Dynasty mistakenly chose to ally with the Jin Dynasty, prematurely exposing its national strength, so that the Jin soldiers divided into two routes, from Taiyuan and Yanjing to the Central Plains, subverting the Northern Song Dynasty. Emperor Huizong of Song and Emperor Qinzong of Song became prisoners of the order, and the rest of the courtiers fled with the Great Song Emperor's chamber to the small imperial court in Hangzhou.
After this history of humiliation, although the Great Song Dynasty still maintained the national rule, it could only live in a remote corner, and the history was called "Southern Song Dynasty".
Li Qingzhao's husband, Zhao Mingcheng, was a Song Dynasty minister, and after fleeing to the south, Zhao Mingcheng was appointed prefect of Jiankang. In 1129, civil unrest broke out in Jiankang, and Zhao Mingcheng and his wife, who were forced to be helpless, had to abandon the city and flee. In the process of fleeing, the two came to Wujiang, where Xiang Yu committed suicide.
At the Wujiang Pavilion, Li Qingzhao felt inspired and created "Summer Sentences":
To live, you must be a master of the world; when you die, you must become a hero among ghosts.
Why are so many people still remembering Xiang Yu until now?
It was because he would rather die than choose to return to Jiangdong to survive.
Is Li Qingzhao's work really praising Xiang Yu?
not necessarily.
At that time, the Southern Song Dynasty was facing internal and external troubles, and the scholars and doctors with Cheng Zhu Lixue as the mainstream might not agree with the legitimacy of Xiang Yu's regime. Therefore, Li Qingzhao's praise for Xiang Yu obviously has some special meaning.
In Li Qingzhao's view, the Battle of Jingkang caused great harm to the people of the Great Song Dynasty. At a time when the country was in danger, the choice of the Zhao and Song Dynasties was not to fight the Jin people to the end and defend the living space of the northern people with the attitude of the son of heaven guarding the country, but to flee to the south to survive. Li Qingzhao and her husband must have witnessed many people displaced and their families destroyed when they went south, so in her eyes, the rulers who abandoned the rivers and mountains regardless of the people's lives and deaths were shameful.
Therefore, their behavior of continuing to be partial to a corner after "crossing the Jiangdong" was ironed by Li Qingzhao with "Summer Sentences".
Admittedly, Li Qingzhao's brushwork raises this poem in memory of Xiang Yu to a new height, making it a classic in modern language textbooks.
However, is this really the case?
Xiang Yu was cruel and cruel, slaughtering the city at every turn, and the people living in the Chu-occupied areas may not be able to live a peaceful and contented life. Therefore, even if Xiang Yu "crossed the Jiangdong", its nature was fundamentally different from that of the Southern Song Dynasty court. Although the practice of using Xiang Yu to borrow ancient irony from the present is not rigorous, the sense of mission and responsibility revealed in this poem is worthy of affirmation.
Therefore, in Li Qingzhao's view, it is very stupid to measure a hero by success or failure. Xiang Yu had already anticipated the consequences of "crossing the Jiangdong", but he refused to go along and steal peace, a kind of integrity that was unmatched by the small court of the Southern Song Dynasty, which adhered to the doctrine of escape.
Du Mu, Wang Anshi, and Li Qingzhao each evaluated Xiang Yu from their own standpoints, but as a latecomer, we cannot say who is more intelligent. After all, we live in a completely different environment, and our life circumstances are very different, and our understanding of things can only be that of the benevolent and the wise.
Resources:
【Title Wujiang Pavilion", "Overlapping Title Wujiang Pavilion", "Summer Sentence", "History of Song"】