During the Spring and Autumn Period, there were only two outstanding monarchs in the State of Qin: one was the Duke of Qin Xiang, who moved east to protect the King of Zhou Ping and thus established a state; the other was the Duke mu of Qin, who dominated the west.
However, some historical books regarding Qin Mugong's records refer to him as "Qin Mugong", such as the Zuo Shi Biography and the Chinese.
Some history books write him as "Duke Miao of Qin", such as "Biography of the Ram" and "Biography of Grain Liang".
Some history books simply use a mixture of "Qin Mugong" and sometimes "Qin Miaogong", such as the "Records of History".
It's a bit confusing and confusing.
Is he "Duke Mu of Qin"? Or "Duke Miao of Qin"?
This thing really has to be cleaned up.
Some people say that he is both "Duke Mu of Qin" and "Duke Miao of Qin". Among them, "Mu Gong" is the temple number, "Miao Gong" is the nickname, and "Qin Mu Gong" and "Qin Miao Gong" are all the same person.
What is the temple number? What is the nickname?
Ci Haili's explanation is: "After the emperor died, he was enshrined in the Taimiao Temple, and the name of a certain ancestor and a certain sect was posthumously honored, called the temple number. Beginning in the Yin Dynasty, the subsequent feudal emperors all had temple numbers. ”
Ci Hai's explanation of the title is: "After the death of an emperor, nobleman, minister, and scholar, a title given according to his deeds during his lifetime." ”
It is not difficult to see that the temple number only refers to the ranking of the temple and the god lord; or during the sacrifice, the descendants perform rituals in the order of Zhaomu, which is only a kind of arrangement of the left and right elders and children, and does not involve the size of the merits and the reputation.
And the title is strictly prescribed, and it is a title given according to the deeds of this person, and there are both beautiful and evil titles.
In the Yi Zhou Shu Tan Fa Xie, it is said, "Bude Zhiyi Yue Mu" and "Name and Reality Shuang Yue Miao".
That is, "Mu" is a good word, used as a nickname, is a beautiful name.
"Miao" is a bad word, used as a nickname, is a bad word.
"Qin Mugong" and "Qin Miaogong", the difference between beauty and evil between the two is huge, as a nickname, historians are unlikely to make mistakes and lead to mixed use, and also used on the same person.
Then, between "Qin Mugong" and "Qin Miaogong", only one can be a temple number and the other is a temple number.
The reason why it is believed that "Mu Gong" is the temple number and "Miao Gong" is the nickname. That's because in the "Biography of Meng TianLie", Meng Yi once said to Hu Hai's emissaries, "Xi Qin MuGong killed Sanliang and died, and the sin was a hundred miles rather than his sin, so he was called 'Miao'" and so on.
It is not difficult to see that the reason why Qin Mugong "established the name 'Miao'" was because he had done the two disgraceful things of "killing Sanliang and dying, sining a hundred miles instead of his crime". This is a title based on personal deeds, of course, it belongs to the nickname.
Moreover, the two things that "Qin Mugong killed Sanliang and died, and the sin was a hundred miles rather than his crime" were both stains on Qin Mugong. That is, because Qin Mugong had these two stains, "he was called 'Miao'". It can be seen that "Miao Gong" is an evil rumor.
Since Qin Mugong had the evil title of "Mu Gong", he should no longer have the beauty of "Mu Gong".
In the Book of Rites, it is said: "There is Zhaomu in the husband sacrifice, 'Zhaomu, so there is no chaos in the order of father and son, near and far, elder and young, and relatives and relatives."
In the ancient patriarchal system handed down from the Western Zhou Dynasty, "the father is Zhao, the son is Mu; the left is Zhao, and the right is Mu." That is, the relationship between "Zhaomu" only refers to the ranking of the Zongmiao temple and the god lord. Duke Mu of Qin was the son of Duke De of Qin, and there were brothers Qin Xuangong and Qin Chenggong on it, and according to the ranking of the Zongmiao Temple, there was nothing wrong with calling him "Mu".
However, the use of temple trumpets only spread among the emperors after the fall of the Han Dynasty. In the pre-Qin period, according to the standard of "ancestors have merit and ancestors have virtue", it is generally the founding monarch who is called "ancestor"; among the heirwart monarchs, only those who can govern the country can have it.
Throughout the history books, the only people who owned the temple number in the pre-Qin period were a few emperors of the Shang zhou, such as Emperor Taipeng of Shangzhong, Emperor Wuding of Gaozong, and so on.
Even in the Han Dynasty, the honor of the temple number was very strict, and only a few outstanding meritorious people were posthumously honored, such as Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, and Liu Xiu, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty.
That is to say, the Qin State during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period did not have the qualifications to establish a temple number at all.
Taking a step back ten thousand steps, even if the Qin state disregarded the Western Zhou patriarchal system and secretly gave its monarch a temple number, then even if Qin Mugong had the temple number of "Mu", he could only be called "Qin Muzong", not "Qin Mugong".
Therefore, "Qin Mugong" cannot be a temple number, but only a courtesy name.
The problem goes back to the beginning.
If "Qin Mugong" and "Qin Miaogong" are both nicknames, then they can only choose one of the two, and they cannot have both.
However, some people believe that there are two kinds of nicknames, one is "birth" and the other is "death".
Without specific mention, the usual titles belong to "death titles", that is, after the death of emperors, nobles, ministers, and scholars, others give him titles based on their deeds during their lifetime.
This title is relatively fair and just.
And "shengyu" is the title that emperors, nobles, ministers, and scholars received before they died.
Has this been the case in history?
Yes.
For example, the Prince of Chu killed his father, and his father was called "Ling". But his father had not yet closed his eyes, and although his mouth could not speak, he blinked his eyes as if he had a point. The deceased was the eldest, and the prince quickly changed his name to "Cheng", and he was blinded.
This king of Chu is the king of Chu Cheng recorded in the history books.
For another example, Wei Linggong fled in a hurry due to the chaos in Wei Province, and later Beigong Xi and Zhu Feng helped him quell the chaos and welcomed him back to China. Wei Linggong was overjoyed, and gave Beigong Xiyu the title of "Zhen" and Zhu Zhen as "Cheng".
In addition, two years before the death of the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui, he had already established his title as "Ming".
It is not difficult to see that a "shengyu" like Cao Rui, the Emperor of WeiMing, is simply a self-proclaimed title, and must be a good title and a good name.
In fact, according to wang guowei and other scholars, the earliest era of application of the tantric method in ancient China was not the "Wei Zhou GongDan, Tai Gong Wang, Kai Si Wangye, Meritorious To mu zhi ye, and eventually buried, it was a system of tantra", but appeared in the Western Zhou Dynasty.
However, the emperors of the Shang and Zhou dynasties had numbers other than their names, such as Wen, Wu, Cheng, Kang, Zhao, Mu, etc., which were all aliases or titles before the emperor's death. At first, only the King of Shang and the King of Zhou had titles, but later the Gongqing followed suit and took their own names, such as the Duke of Qi Huan, the Duke of Jin Wen, the Duke of Song Xiang, and so on.
Then, the "Mu" character of Qin Mugong is likely to be his honorific title and beautiful title before he died, and it can also be said to be "shengyu".
Unfortunately, after searching through the historical materials related to Qin Mugong, there was never a record of him calling himself or others honoring him as "MuGong".
Therefore, "Qin Mugong" can only be a "death sentence".
In the end is "Qin Mugong"? Or "Duke Miao of Qin"?
In the Yi Zhou Shu Tan Fa Xie, it is said that "Victory over the Enemy Zhi Qiang Yue Zhuang", "JingWei Heaven and Earth Yue Wen", "SuiRou Shi Min Yue De", "Mighty Enemy De Yue Wu", "An Min Li Zheng Yue Cheng", "An Le Fu Min Yue Kang", "Bu Yi Xing Gang Yue Jing", "Breaking the Land and The State Yue Huan", "Loving the People and Benefiting".
According to these statements, it can be seen that among the dukes of the Qin state, Qin Zhuanggong, Qin Wengong, Qin Degong, Qin Wugong, Qin Chenggong, Qin Kanggong, Qin Jinggong, Qin Huangong, and Qin Huigong are all beautiful people, but the merits of these people are far inferior to those of Qin Mugong.
Although the Biography of The Chronicle of Meng Tian mentions that Qin Mugong had two stains of "killing Sanliang and dying, sin hundreds of miles rather than his crime", these are only small stains.
It should be known that the martyrdom system of the Qin State began during the Qin Wugong period, and a large number of martyrs also appeared in the excavated Qin Jinggong No. 1 Tomb, and Qin Wugong and Qin Jinggong all got proper praise.
Among the dukes of the Qin state, those who were slandered were Qin Ligong, who "killed innocent people", and Qin Mangong, who "changed the people and was impatient".
Comparing the two mediocre lords of Qin Mugong and Qin Ligong and Qin Mangong with great talent does not make sense at all.
The reasonable explanation is that Qin Mugong's nickname is "Qin Mugong". "Duke Miao of Qin" is a mixture of use and miswriting by later generations.
The "History of Qin Benji" contains Qin Xiaogong's "Order to Recruit Talents", which says: "In the past, I Miao Gong from QiYong, cultivated virtue and martial arts, Eastern Ping jin chaos, with the river as the boundary, the west hegemony Rong Zhai, Guangdi Qianli, Tianzi Zhibo, princes Bihe, for future generations to open, very beautiful." ”
Qin Xiaogong was vigorously praising Qin Mugong's merits, but he used the title of "Miao Gong", and if "Miao Gong" is a bad name, it is not reasonable at all.
The poem "Yellow Bird" accuses and scolds Qin Mugong for killing the three good deeds, but in it it writes: "Hand over the yellow bird, stop at the thorn." Who is from Mugong? The sub-car is dying, the dimension is this, and the dying centurion is specially present in its cave. Reasoning, since you are going to spit on a person, and he has a bad name "Miao Gong", you did not adopt it, but adopted his good name, which is equally illogical.
Obviously, there was only one reason, at that time, "Miao" passed "Mu".
What can explain the connection between "Miao" and "Mu" is also ironclad evidence.
That is, in the "Shangshu Zhoushu Jinteng" section, it is recorded: "In the second year of Keshang, the king had a disease and Fu Yu. The Second Duke said, "I am King Mubu." ’”
What is said here is that two years after King Keshang of Zhou Wu fell ill, taigong and zhaogong prepared to hold a solemn divination activity for him.
Sima Qian recorded this incident in the "History of the Lu Family", which read: "The king of Wu has a disease, he does not hesitate, the subjects are afraid, and the prince and the summoning prince are Mu Bu." ”
It can be seen that "Miao" is "Mu"; "Mu" is "Miao".
In addition, the "Four Classics of the Yellow Emperor" excavated from the Mawangdui Han Tomb wrote the now well-known "Mu Mu Heavenly Punishment, Non-Moral Must Be" as "Miao Miao Heavenly Punishment, Non-Moral Must Be Qing". ”
This also proves once again that in the pre-Qin period, "Miao" and "Mu" were equated.
Similar to confusing "Qin Mugong" with "Duke Miao of Qin", there is also Song Mugong, the father of Duke Zhuang of Song, "Spring and Autumn" is written as "Song Mugong", while "Biography of ram" and "Biography of Gu Liang" are written as "Duke Miao of Song".
Finally, a problem arises here: the Yi Zhou Shu Tan Fa Xie clearly mentions: "Bude ZhiYi Yue Mu" and "Name and Reality Shuang Yue Miao". Why did Sima Qian and others turn a blind eye and mix "Miao" with "Mu"?
There is only one reason: the text of the Yi zhou shu is often mistaken, and there are many works that have been supplemented and changed by posterity, that is, the sentence "Name and Reality Shuang Yue Miao" is most likely added by people after the Han Dynasty.
A very obvious example: the Yizhou Shu Shixun uses rain as the middle of the first month and the sting as the February solar term, which is not the pre-Qin calendar at all, and is obviously added by the Han Dynasty.
It can be seen that sometimes it is better to believe in books than to have no books.