In the folk after the Ming Dynasty, there was such a proverb as "Three points of the world Zhuge Liang, one unified Jiangshan Liu Bowen; the former imperial military division Zhuge Liang, the later dynasty military division Liu Bowen." Not only the people, but also in the officially written "History of Ming", the evaluation of Liu Bowen's literary style is also outstanding: "The articles he has done are prosperous and strange, and they are the same as Song Lian and the sect of the same generation." "It can be said that Liu Bowen is to be resourceful and do learning full of economy. So who is Liu Bowen? Why is there such a high praise?
The word "Berwyn" in Liu Bowen is actually liu ji. Liu Ji was born in Wuyang Village, the capital of Qingtian, Zhejiang Province, in the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1311). According to folklore, Liu Ji's mother Fu Shi became pregnant with Liu Ji after moving the grave for Liu Ji's grandparents, and this pregnancy was twelve months. It was not easy to give birth, but little Liu Ji did not cry, but just looked at it with his eyes wide open, until the "Midwife Daoist" stabbed Liu Ji with a needle and began to cry.
Liu Jizu had produced many military generals and famous courtiers. Liu Yanqing, the seventh ancestor, was a military general at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, an official to the zhenzhen navy, who guarded the capital during the Jing Kang Disaster, and the later city was killed on the way to escape. Liu Guangshi, the sixth ancestor, was even more remarkable, a famous general of the Southern Song Dynasty who resisted the Jin Dynasty, known as one of the "Four Generals of Zhongxing", an official to the Taishi, and the Duke of Yang. His grandfather, Liu Tingling, was a Former Yuan Dynasty Taixue Shangshe and made achievements in astronomy, geography, yin and yang, and medical divination. By the time his father, Liu Zhao, served as the head of Suichang, the family was still quite well off.
Influenced by his family, especially his father, Liu Ji was enlightened very early. Liu Ji is talented and intelligent, not only reading fast, but also has the ability to never forget. At the age of twelve, the little Liu Ji passed the Xiucai examination and was a famous prodigy within a few miles. In the first year of Taiding (1324), the fourteen-year-old Liu Ji entered the county to begin further study, Liu Ji's learning progress was rapid, and teachers praised him. In the fourth year of Taiding (1327), at the age of seventeen, he worshiped the master of science Zheng Fuchu and the famous Confucian He Qingchen as his teachers, and Zheng Fuchu praised Liu Jicai for his outstanding learning and his ability to shine in the family.
In the first year of the Yuan Dynasty (1333), the twenty-three-year-old Liu Ji went to Beijing to participate in the examination and won the Jinshi in one fell swoop, but was not appointed by the Yuan Dynasty. Later, in the second year of zhiyuan (1336), the third year of Zhizheng (1343), and the twelfth year of Zhizheng (1352), the imperial court used Liu Ji three times. However, the chaos, corruption and gray situation in the official field of the Yuan Dynasty made Liu Ji discouraged every time, and he accepted the use three times and resigned indignantly. After his last resignation, he returned to his hometown and lived in seclusion, during which time he wrote down his thoughts and opinions and wrote a book called "Yu Ion". Later, Liu Ji was also listed as one of the "Three Great Poets of the Early Ming Dynasty", and was equal to Song Lian and Gao Qi, which showed that his talent was high.
Liu Ji's secluded life is very peaceful, but the outside world has long been full of war. The rule of the Yuan Dynasty was increasingly collapsing, and warlords and peasants in various places revolted one after another and occupied one side after another, and Zhu Yuanzhang was also one of them. By the nineteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1358), Zhu Yuanzhang attacked Liu Ji's Chuzhou Road, where Liu Ji was located, and Liu Ji's peaceful life was broken. Zhu Yuanzhang had long heard of Liu Ji's name from Song Lian, and wanted him to go out of the mountains to serve himself, and after several persuasions, Liu Ji did not agree. It was not until later when Liu Ji and Zhu Yuanzhang's subordinate Sun Yan were drinking, that they were impressed by the pride and talent of the other party, and they officially came out of the mountain to assist Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang wanted Liu Ji to come out of the mountains, and the most important reason was that Liu Ji was a famous warlock of the Zhejiang generation. Almost all the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty had the habit of raising warlocks, and Zhu Yuanzhang asked Liu Ji to be influenced by this social atmosphere at the beginning. So how did Liu Ji go from warlock to counselor? It is said that in the twentieth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1360), Liu Ji went to Yingtianfu to meet Zhu Yuanzhang, borrowed a poem "The Han family has been in the world for four hundred years, all in the borrowing room of Liu Hou", telling his ambitions with the allusions of Liu Bang and Zhang Liang, and turning Liu Ji from a simple warlock into a strategist with lofty ambitions.
Subsequently, Liu Ji made several suggestions, but did not receive special attention. It was not until Zhu Yuanzhang's battle with another warlord, Chen Youyi, that Liu Ji was entrusted with a heavy responsibility, and he served as a military division. Liu Ji quickly saw through the situation on the battlefield, formulated appropriate strategies, and made great achievements. The Records of the Ming Dynasty records: "More than 20,000 people were captured by Chen Youyou, more than 100 giant ships and hundreds of warships were captured. This Longjiang-Longwan Battle laid a solid foundation for Zhu Yuanzhang's later victory in Chen Youyi's decisive battle at Poyang Lake. In the twenty-seventh year of Zhengzheng (1367), Liu Ji participated in and formulated the strategy of destroying the Yuan, which was the founding of the country.
Although Liu Ji was the founding father of the country, he was too upright. After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he was dissatisfied with Xiang Xiang several times, so he asked Liu Ji about Yang Xian, Wang Guangyang, and Hu Weiyong, and Liu Ji truthfully stated their respective shortcomings, believing that they could not be compared. Although Zhu Yuanzhang did not give his attitude on the spot, he later appointed these people successively. And liu ji's words passed into the ears of these people, coupled with the political groups behind them, Liu Ji naturally did not have a good life as an isolated island. Coupled with Zhu Yuanzhang's suspicious personality and the multiple reasons why Zhu Yuanzhang began to suppress and purge the heroes after the overall situation was stable, Liu Ji was given back to his hometown in the fourth year of Hongwu (1371), and the government had little to do with him from then on.
However, the people of the court would not let him go, and in the first month of the eighth year of Hongwu (1375), Liu Ji suffered from wind and cold, and Zhu Yuanzhang sent Hu Weiyong, who was then the prime minister, to visit him with an imperial doctor, but Liu Ji's condition was more serious. Liu Ji dragged the sick body into the pilgrimage to see Zhu Yuanzhang and told him about his suffering, but Zhu Yuanzhang only lightly asked him to go back to recuperate. Liu Ji also seemed to understand something at this time, and when he returned to his hometown, he refused all medicines to treat the disease, and died in April of the same year at the age of sixty-five.
Regarding the posthumous gift of the later lord, it was not until the eighth year of Zhengde (1513), when Emperor Mingwuzong, the tenth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, gave him the title of Taishi (太師) and his courtesy name Wencheng (文成).
Yang Shouchen, a famous compiler of the Ming Dynasty, wrote in the "Preface to the Collection of Collected Works of Heavy Gong Sincerity": "In the han dynasty, the ancestors of the Zuo Ming dynasty rose to the grass and the armies, those who were familiar with literature and ink were rare, the strategy of the sub-room did not see the dictionary, the text of Xuan Ling only did fu, and the articles that did not see the founding of the tree and the articles that were passed down to the world were like gongs, and the gong (Liu Bowen) could be described as a man of eternity. ”