The god man Zheng Xuan and his teacher who hunted down him

About 1600 years ago, Liu Yiqing, the king of Linchuan during the Southern Dynasty and Song Dynasty, organized scholars to compile a collection of short stories, "The New Language of the World". This interesting work records anecdotes about well-known figures from the late Eastern Han Dynasty to the last 200 years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, mainly from the scholar class. The readability of "The New Language of the World" is close to that of today's short stories, but the authenticity is completely incomparable to the novel, because the characters recorded have really existed, and their deeds are roughly based.

Zheng Xuan is an earlier figure recorded in the "New Language of the World". Zheng Xuan (127-200), who lived in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, was a famous classicist from Gaomi in Beihai (present-day Gaomi, Shandong), a famous scribe—this famous, not like the frivolous "famous" abused by modern people, it is really famous, quite famous. He first entered the Taixue to learn the modern literature and classics, and then learned the ancient texts and classics from Ma Rong, and after completing the study, he gathered disciples to teach, and there were thousands of disciples. Zheng Xuan did not seek vanity and adhered to the right path of Confucianism. During the turmoil at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zheng Xuan was repeatedly recruited as an official, refused or fled many times, and was appointed as the Grand Si Nong when he was dedicated to the emperor, but did not take office.

Since it is said that Zheng Xuan is a scribe, here we must explain what is sutra. Originated in the Western Han Dynasty, the classics originally referred to the essence of the various schools of thought in the pre-Qin period, and after Dong Zhongshu proposed the "deposing of hundreds of schools and the exclusive respect of Confucianism" in the first year of the Han Dynasty (134 BC), the study of classics specifically referred to the study of interpreting Confucian classics. Early classics were divided into modern classics and ancient texts. Modern classics refer to the fact that some elderly Qin Dynasty doctors and other Confucians in the Western Han Dynasty silently recited oral scriptures that were burned by Qin Shi Huang by memory, and recorded them by special people; or took out the classics that someone risked hiding when Qin Shi Huang burned books and passed them on to the world. Ancient classics refers to the period of Emperor Jing of Han, Emperor Wu, and Emperor Xuan, who found some classical documents from the old houses of bad houses, including the Book of Shang and Zhou Guan, which were written in warring states scripts, so they were called ancient classics, and the learning of interpreting these classics was called ancient classics.

Zheng Xuan's research is mainly based on ancient classics, and also adopts modern classics. He did not stick to the doctrine of one school and one school, was eclectic, eclectic, and absorbed the strengths of all, bridging and dissolving the division of modern and ancient classics, and was the master of Han Dynasty classics. He summed up the classics and was known as "Zheng Xue". Because of Zheng Xuan's contribution and fame, he was called "Jing Shen" by the people of the time; Zheng Xuan was listed in the Twenty-two "First Masters" in the Tang Dynasty and deserved to enjoy the Confucius Temple; the Song Dynasty posthumously named Zheng Xuan as Gao Mibo.

After half a day of historical background, it's time to tell the story. There are three stories in "The New Language of the World" with Zheng Xuan as the protagonist, and the first story is very mysterious. The original text is as follows:

Zheng Xuan was under Ma Rong's door and could not see each other for three years, and the disciples of Gaozu only taught him. If you try to calculate the discord between the heavens and the heavens, the disciples will not be able to understand. Or those who are able to speak mysteriously, melt the summons and count, and make a decision at one turn, and the crowd is shocked. And Xuan Yecheng resigned, and even with the sigh of "Li Le Is East", he was afraid that Xuan Ye was good at fame and jealous. Xuan also suspected that he was chasing, but sat under the bridge and took a foothold on the water. The fruit of the melting turned and turned to the left and right, telling the left and right: "Xuan is on the water under the soil and according to the wood, this will die." "Then he gave up the chase, and Xuan was spared."

Translated into the vernacular, the story goes something like this:

Zheng Xuan studied scriptures under Ma Rong's door, and did not see Ma Rong's face for three years, but was only taught to him by Ma Rong's proud disciples. Once, Ma Rong's calculus Of the Hun Heavens (ancient celestial cosmology) was not correct, and none of the disciples could figure it out. Some disciples said: Zheng Xuan should be able to solve this problem. Ma Rong ordered someone to call Zheng Xuan to calculate. Zheng Xuan turned the plate and came up with the correct result, and everyone, including Ma Rong, was surprised and admired. When Zheng Xuanxuecheng resigned to Ma Rong, Ma Rong sighed, "The center of Li Le will go with Zheng Xuandong!" Ma Rong was afraid that Zheng Xuan would enjoy his fame alone, and his heart was jealous to the point of jealousy, and he wanted to get rid of Zheng Xuan. Zheng Xuan was already on his way back to his hometown, and he suspected that Ma Rong would send someone to hunt him down, so he left the main road, sneaked under a bridge and sat down, floating on the water according to the clogs. At this time, Ma Rong did indeed turn the tray to divinate Zheng Xuan's whereabouts, and when the divination was completed, he said to his henchmen: "Zheng Xuan is on the water under the soil, relying on wood, and he is bound to die." (Press: This is a gua elephant: man is under the loess soil, above the yellow spring, already in a wooden coffin, naturally a dead man.) So he ordered his men to stop chasing, and Zheng Xuan finally had to get out and avoid being killed.

The historical fact that Ma Rong was jealous of his disciples and wanted to hunt them down is controversial. Ma Rong (79-166), also known as Ji Chang, a native of Maoling County, Fufeng County (present-day Xingping, Shaanxi Province), was a famous Eastern Han Dynasty classicist who was also famous and would not have become Zheng Xuan's teacher. Ma Rongjun was good at writing, especially good at ancient classics, and ancient classics reached maturity in his hands, so he was known as "Confucianism". He had a complicated experience, having entered the shogunate of the great general Deng Ji, holding many official positions, and was also exiled for offending the great general Liang Ji, and attempted suicide on the way, and was later recalled to avoid his crime. Later, he drafted for Liang Ji a recital to frame Li Gu, a famous minister in the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty, so that Li Gu was killed; he also wrote the great general "Ode to the West" for Liang Ji, which was very despised by the upright people at that time.

Ma Rong resigned from the government in his early years and starved because of it, but he regretted it at that time, and the "three views" have changed since then. This was the foreshadowing of his later submission to the magnates and even for the tiger. Judging from Ma Rong's experience, his integrity is not good, and there is a great possibility of intentionally killing his proud protégé.

In addition, Ma Rong's "festival of the informal Confucian", after becoming famous, lived a luxurious life, often sitting in a high hall, hanging a red yarn tent, teaching apprentices in the front court, and setting up female music behind the account, which was very lethal. It is said that this kind of behavior of his influenced the later Wei and Jin Qing tanners to ignore etiquette and go wild and wanton.

Such a talented but stained figure actually lived to be 88 years old, I don't know if it is because of his genes are too good - his ancestors, that is, his grandfather's brother, is the famous Han Dynasty general Ma Yuan, the founding hero of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the allusion of the old man and the strong man, Ma Ge's body wrapping, is from Ma Yuan.