The "Testament" about Qian Qianyi

Author: Wu Zisheng

Speaking of celebrities in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Qian Qianyi's great name is known to everyone, Donglin giant, literary leader, Swen Suzerain, but this person's character has always been widely criticized, in his early years he was a "prodigal son" on the blacklist of the castrated party, in middle age he was a politician who was attached to the enemy, and in his later years he was a traitor who defected to the enemy and betrayed the country. Some notes and miscellaneous works of the Qing Dynasty record many "relics" about him, reflecting his two-sided life from one side.

Mu Weng Tour Tiger Hill, dressed in a small collar and large sleeves, Shi Qian asked what is this style? Mu Weng said to him: "The little leader obeys the system of the king of the time; the big sleeve does not forget to face the ear first." Shi Mu changed his appearance: "Gongzhen can be described as the leader of the two dynasties." ”

The story comes from the "MuZhai Testament", in which the "Mu Weng" is this famous money man, at this time the money has been reduced and will become an official. In the eyes of others, the two dynasties of money and life, betraying the motherland, and betraying the personality and soul can be described as a great loss. However, in Qian's view, there is nothing wrong with lowering Qing, he is still an official, still playing in the mountains and rivers, so he does not feel ashamed of the ridicule and disrespect of the future generations. The incorruptibility and shame of money is really incomparable, and it is no wonder that future generations have always despised him as a person. Interestingly, Wu Weiye, another big man who went hand in hand with Qian, also had such embarrassing encounters, and the location was in Tiger Hill, which is found in the "Miscellaneous Records of Guangyang":

During shunzhi, Wu Meicun (Weiye) was summoned. The three Wu Shi masters all gathered the Tiger Hill to meet the feast, and suddenly the teenager threw a letter, QiZhi, and got the absolute sentence cloud: "A thousand people sit on the stone of a thousand people, half of the Qing Dynasty and half of the Ming." Message to Lou Dongwu Bachelor, two dynasties tianzi and one courtier. "The seat was silent.

Wu Weiye originally retired to the forest, because he could not withstand the coercion and inducement, and could not keep the festival, so he had to go to become an official and become a guozi supervisor. A thought of the difference on the thief ship, the name of half a life to be smeared, in his later years deeply remorseful, "floating life owes a death", his inner torment and pain is far above Qian Qianyi, dying made a desperate word: "Dissect the heart and liver to the ground, ask Hua Tuo, untie my intestines, chase hatred, double miserable, the old man is generous and strange, for the year of moaning continuously, grass stealing, Ai hot brow melon spray nose, today must be difficult to know, early suffering to a thousand folds, shedding my wife and baby is not an easy task." Why should it be said that a penny is not worth anything; how many things in the world are lacking? Shame and self-blame are palpable, but who does "Kusama steal" blame?

Qian Qianyi is from Donglin and is incompatible with the castration party. After the death of Ming, he first supported King Lu as emperor, but was unexpectedly preempted by the Ruan and Ma castration parties and supported King Fu to ascend to the throne, which was for the southern Ming Hongguang regime. Qian saw that the situation was not good, immediately turned the rudder, and made a big turn of one hundred and eighty degrees, praising Ma Shiying's merits and shouting injustice for Ruan Dacheng, lest the horse's ass not make a sound. The more Ruan did not appreciate it, the more trembling Qian became. Later, without doing two things, he simply took his own concubines into it, so that he became the Rebbe Shangshu of Nanming. This incident is recorded in the History of The Southern Ming Dynasty:

Qian (Qianyi) entertained himself, and at the end of the road, he threw himself into Ruan Dacheng and served wine with his concubine Liu Shi (as it was). Nguyen gave a crown of beads, worth thousands of gold. Qian ordered Liu Ji to thank Nguyen and ordered him to move closer to Nguyen. Its ugliness is disgusting.

In the second year of Shunzhi, the Qing army marched into Nanjing, Liu Ru persuaded Qian to martyr the country, Qian hesitated, Liu did not want to live, and jumped into the river, but did not die. In May, when the soldiers of Duoduo, the king of Yu, arrived at the city, Qian Qianyi led the Wenban ministers to open the city in the torrential rain and personally presented a great gift to the king of Yu. According to the "Muzhai Testament", the gift list given to King Yu included a gold pot, a silver pot, a dragon jade cup, a dragon rhino cup, a sunflower rhino cup, a Falang Ding cup, a Wen Wang Ding cup, an enamel crane cup, and so on, as well as a hundred precious fans and ten pairs of silver ivory chopsticks. Wang Yingkui's "Essays on Liu Nan" also "captured" a detail at that time: "It was the Ri Qian Gong who entered the palace, prostrated his head, and gave a speech in front of the king." The king was moved, and the etiquette was very happy. At that time, Qian Qianyi was sixty-five years old.

After Qian Qianyi was demoted, he was bent on making meritorious contributions to the new dynasty as a sign of loyalty. To this end, he did three things, the first was to write a letter to king Lu to induce him to surrender, falsely saying that as long as he surrendered, he would be able to save half of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and as a result, King Lu's family was captured and went north; the second thing was to send people around to post notices to persuade the people not to make senseless sacrifices; and the third, among the surrendered widows, the first one shaved his braids, indicating that he had completely become a subject of the Qing Dynasty. Stern's "Mourning Miscellaneous" records this scene:

King Yu went down to Jiangnan and ordered his head to be shaved, and everyone was fierce. Qian Muzhai suddenly said that 'the scalp is very itchy. 'Boom. Man is like his grate head also. Whiskers, stiff hair (yin kun, shaved hair) braided into the woods.

Qian spent a lot of money, full of great merit, the Qing court will definitely reuse, entering the cabinet should not be a problem, unexpectedly, left and right, until the third year of Shunzhi, only to inform him to be a ceremonial attendant, which made him disappointed, emotionally fell to the lowest valley. The official Xiao Fell, and he was charged with the crime of "a second minister", such as a stab in the back, and was ridiculed and scolded by people all day long, and his life really could not go on, and he struggled for half a year, so he went back to his hometown to recuperate. Speculated all his life, he was not happy to be an official, he did not behave like a person, he was sorry for the old and the young, and he died without the face to see his teachers and friends of that year. "No sorrow, no song", in addition to suffering, deeply blame yourself and repent for your sins. At the age of eighty, he evaluated himself like this: "Less stealing false reputation, long dust and glory, glory and disgrace, hardship and danger, nothing to live in, no word to book the house, dying on the verge of death, secretly born to live." In the few remaining days, Qian Yi prayed to the Buddha and looked at his face until his death.

Qian Qianyi served Qing, how did the Qing court evaluate him? In the thirty-fourth year of Qianlong, more than a hundred years after Qian's death, he preached: "Qian Qianyiben, a man with talent and no deeds, was a teddy soldier in the former dynasty. And at the beginning of the reign of this dynasty, he took the lead in surrendering to Shun, and he was a great loss, which was really not enough for human beings. "Forty-three years later, he decreed that the money should be included in the Biography of the Second Minister, and it was part B, which was inferior to Hong Chengyu and the like. Qianlong also wrote a poem specifically, mocking his life: "Talk about righteousness in your life, and two surnames are kings." There is no basis for going in and out, where is the light in the article? It is really covered with urn wine, and it is often seen that the sachet is sachet. The end of the road to escape Zen, originally Meng Balang. ”

Qian, who was both a former dynasty and the head of the Donglin Party, prided himself on being a "clean stream," but did not hesitate to castrate the party and show his face and beg; when the country was in trouble, he made a generous statement denouncing those who deceived the monarch and betrayed the country, and stole things and thieves, but as soon as the Qing soldiers arrived, he took the lead in raising the white flag; after renegade and became the leader of the "two dynasties," he was heartbroken, had eaten lawsuits and was imprisoned, and the new dynasty despised it, so he threw himself into the old dynasty again, and in the years of decay, he did not die, and he rebelled against the Qing Dynasty and regained his mind. Qian's life was capricious, with no political stance or personal integrity, and he never cared about anything but wanting to be an official. Qianlong saw through the speculative nature of money, specialized in it and did not count the rest, intending to set up a negative teaching material throughout the country as a "model" for the precepts. Chai Calyx's Brahma LuLu Series contains clouds:

Mu Zhai tasted the return, the boat passed through the mouth of the li, and there was no way to go in front of the passenger boat. In the passenger boat, all the people who took refuge in Su Changshizi came out. Asking who comes to the boat for, the boat is fair to Changshu qian. More than ten scholars pretended not to know and moved boats to visit. Mu Zhai Day: "A certain Ming Dynasty prince Taibao, Libu Shangshu, the current Libu Waiter, Hanlin scholar Qian Mouye." The scholar was astonished: "Taibao is not dead yet?" It's a celebration! "Say goodbye." The shepherd has been a long time.

Writing this short article, I have no intention of turning over the old historical accounts, and judging Qian Qianyi again with "fame and honor", such as his teachers and friends who generously died for a decadent dynasty to be counted as a complete person, but only from his attitude at both ends of the head, his shameful and incorruptible character, and thought of the persistence of being a man. For people who disregard their conscience regardless of morality and morality and blindly pursue fame and profit, beyond the bottom line, what is fame and fortune! Throughout the ages, how many people have resorted to unscrupulous means to achieve their personal goals, speculated and stabbed, and finally ended up in disgrace, living shyly, and being humiliated after death, this is a little inspiration I got from Qian Qianyi's "legacy".