Text/Lord of Blue Dream Island
Original article, has opened the whole network rights protection, plagiarism must be investigated!
The first time I saw the name "Liu Bingzhong" was when I was reading the History of Ming.
The Biography of Yao Guangxiao of Ming Shi records that when Yuan Jue first met the Daoyan monk, he made a famous assertion: "It is He Yi monk!" Eye triangle, shaped like a sick tiger, sex will be murderous, Liu Bingzhongliu also. Yao Guangxiao's reaction after hearing this was "great joy."
This assertion translates roughly to mean: You (Dao Yan) are really a strange monk! The eyes are triangular, like a sick tiger, and they must be cruel and murderous, and they are the same people as Liu Bingzhong.
In this short account, three important historical figures appear, one is Yuan Jue, a famous Xiangshi in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties; the second is the Daoyan monk, that is, Yao Guangxiao, the number one military master who later helped Zhu Di successfully usurp the throne; the third is Liu Bingzhong, who although he appears in the "History of Ming", he is not a Ming Dynasty person, but it is not difficult to see from Yuan Jue's words and context that Liu Bingzhong is by no means a good person, but an evil person.
So, who is this Liu Bingzhong? Why did Yuan Jue say that Yao Guangxiao was "Liu Bingzhongliuye", and that Yao Guangxiao would be "overjoyed" instead of being angry?
Liu Bingzhong, a native of the early Yuan Dynasty, was born in Ruizhou and moved to Xingzhou (邢州, in modern Xingtai, Hebei Province) during his great-grandfather's reign. Liu Bingzhong was born in a family of eunuchs, whose ancestors had been a large clan of the Liao state for generations, and changed from his great-grandfather to the Jin Dynasty, and the official was envoy to Xingzhou Jiedushi.
Such a family, Liu Bingzhong is not bad, he has been intelligent and studious since childhood, and at the age of seventeen, he did the Xingtai Jiedu envoy lingshi. However, Liu Bingzhong looked down on this little clerk very much, believing that he was born at the wrong time and did not meet Huai Cai, so he abandoned the official and lived in seclusion in Wu'an Mountain, worshiped the Zen master of Tianning Temple as a teacher, and officially became a monk.
During his ordination, Liu Bingzhong was more enthusiastic about reading, especially the two strange books of the I Ching and the Book of the Classics, so that he not only knew everything about the world, but his degree of clever calculation was not inferior to that of Zhuge Liang in the previous life and Liu Bowen in the later life.
Later, Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, recruited talents, and Liu Bingzhong quickly became the first adviser of Kublai Khan's side under the recommendation of Master Haiyun Zen. At this time, Mongolia had not yet entered the Central Plains, and Kublai Khan had not yet taken the throne.
After following Kublai Khan, as a Han Chinese, Liu Bingzhong helped the Mongols destroy the Southern Song Dynasty, formulated a full system of the Yuan Dynasty, personally planned the city of Beijing (Yuan Dadu), and also took the meaning of "Dazha Qianyuan" in the "I Ching" and renamed Mongolia "Dayuan", which is the origin of the name of the Yuan Dynasty.
It can be said that without Liu Bingzhong, there would be no nearly a hundred years of foundation of the Yuan Dynasty, so Liu Bingzhong has always been known as the "chief designer of the Yuan Empire".
Liu Bingzhong is a very complicated person. As a Han Chinese, on the one hand, he loved and studied sinology, and on the other hand, he helped the foreign tribes to destroy their own state, so his name was not good in later generations.
Liu Bingzhong is also a very simple person. He was not greedy for money, he only wanted to do something amazing, and in the end, he succeeded.
Liu Bingzhong was distinguished in meritorious service and was an extremely popular subject, and was deeply trusted and valued by Kublai Khan. As mentioned above, Liu Bingzhong was already a monk when he followed Kublai Khan, although he had great talent, he did not pursue fame and profit, and did not care about the official Feng Lu, and for a long time afterwards he always stood by Kublai Khan's side as a monk. Later, it was Kublai Khan who felt that it was inappropriate, so he made the decision to let Liu Bingzhong return to the world, not only to give him a good field and a beautiful house, but also to give him the daughter of Dou Mo, a scholar of Hanlin, as his wife. In addition, Kublai Khan also worshipped Liu Bingzhong as the Grand Master of Guanglu, and was appointed to the position of Taibao and led the political affairs of Zhongshu Province.
Liu Bingzhong was a very popular subject in the Yuan Empire, but strangely, he actually died without illness at the age of 59, and Kublai Khan was devastated when he heard the news, and cried out to the group of ministers: "Bingzhong has been loyal to the people for more than thirty years, careful and cautious, not avoiding hardships and dangers, and has no hidden feelings, and his knowledge is so deep that he only knows it." ”
After Liu Bingzhong's death, Kublai Khan posthumously gave him the title of Taifu (太傅) and the Duke of Zhao (赵国公), with the posthumous title of "Wenzhen", and later generations posthumously gave him the title of Taishi (太師) and the King of Changshan (常山王), with the courtesy name "Wenzheng". Readers who are familiar with literature and history know that this "Wenzheng" is the highest title of the ancient wenchen, and only a very small number of meritorious ministers such as Fan Zhongyan and Zeng Guofan in history can receive this honor. Moreover, throughout the Entire Yuan Dynasty, among the Han people who were able to take the throne of the Three Dukes, liu Bingzhong was the only one who could be crowned the third duke, which shows the wealth of his exploits.
There is no doubt that Liu Bingzhong was a hero and hero of Mengyuan, but at the same time, he was also an enemy and traitor of the Han people. Not only did Yuan Jue think that he was a murderous maniac, but most people in later generations also regarded Liu Bingzhong as a national scum. It is precisely because of this mentality that although Liu Bingzhong's merits do not lose to Xiao He Zhangliang, and only then can he learn not to lose Zhuge Liang Liu Bowen, his historical popularity is not high, and his historical reputation is even worse.
In fact, not only Liu Bingzhong himself, but also his ancestors have served the foreign dynasty for generations. The influence of the original family on a person is huge and far-reaching, for him, whether it is the Liao Kingdom or the Jin Kingdom, or the Mongolian Yuan, as long as he trusts him and reuses him, he is his master. Although he is Han Chinese and identifies with Han culture, he has no national concept in his heart.
The famous Xiangshi Yuan Jue was indeed a strange person, and he said that Yao Guangxiao was the same person as Liu Bingzhong, which was not wrong at all. The biggest thing that Yao Guangxiao and Liu Bingzhong have in common is not that they are both cruel and murderous, but that they do not care about the Heavenly Dao, as long as they succeed.
Yao Guangxiao and Liu Bingzhong are both monks, but they are completely devoid of Buddhist benevolence, they are eager to succeed, and are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, but strangely, after they succeed, they do not covet wealth and beauty, and still live a hard and simple life. They don't want fame and fortune, not even the name of the hereafter, they just want to prove themselves.
Such a person makes people respected, makes people afraid, and makes people shudder. They are capable people, but they are not good people, they are special beings in history.
References: History of the Ming Dynasty, History of the Yuan Dynasty
The pictures in the text originate from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author.