Author: Fu Anping
This time I wanted to write about Xiang Yu, but I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to write him well, because there were too many people who wrote him, not the usual ones.
Although the name Xiang Yu appeared in the comic strips I read in elementary school, in Li Qingzhao's poems in middle school, and in Sima Qian's literary texts, what really impressed xiang Yu as a person was a movie I saw in the open-air theater in college, "Overlord Farewell", which felt very shocking and impactful, and the feeling of the Western Chu overlord was just right for that prosperous age.
But when I opened the "History of Xiang Yu Benji" again, I first saw the head of the "Western Chu Overlord", and I couldn't help but laugh in my heart, Xiang Yu's life was very short, he only lived for thirty years, and his eternal life was stuck in that age of the battlefield, why did the painter paint him like an old man of seven or eighty? Oh, I really don't understand. The painter was so stupid that he only knew how to stereotype the face of an ancient emperor according to the rules of the ancient astrology.
Xiang Yu is actually the most carefully portrayed and vivid character in the "Records of History", and when you read it, you can read the appearance of the chaotic overlord who often stares at the beads of anger, not to mention the advantages and disadvantages that he shows without false concealment. Throughout Xiang Yu's life, it is inseparable from these three keywords: Qiu Qin, Bullying, and Cruelty.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > (1) The first keyword: Qiu Qin</h1>
Compared with Liu Bang's ancestral genealogy can not be examined, can only rely on the fabrication of Liu Mi's dream and god encounters liu Bang a series of myths to maintain the dignity of Han Gaozu's natural identity, Xiang Yu's aristocratic status is real, dating back to the Zhou Dynasty period, is the zhou dynasty Ji surname royal descendants, was originally sealed in the Xiang state, after the Xiang state was destroyed they changed their surname to Xiang, generations of Chu subjects.
Starting from Xiang Yu's grandfather, the Xiang family has seen three consecutive generations of heroic figures: Xiang Yan, Xiang Liang and Xiang Yu, these three people just run through the era of the late Qin and early Han Dynasties from the storm to the beginning of the world. Although the three generations of the Xiang clan were not the final victors, they were the absolute protagonists of that era, and it could even be said that at that time, it was impossible to find a second family whose influence could exceed the Xiang family, not even Liu Bang. Liu Bang was just lucky to finally pick up the fruit of victory from the Chen Sheng uprising and the Xiang family, if Xiang Yu could be a little more rational, the fruit would not fall on the head of the Liu family.
First, let's look at Xiang Yan, this Chu general faced the ambition of Yingzheng to sweep through the six kingdoms to unify the world, and once defeated the Qin army led by the young general Li Xin, who had high hopes for Yingzheng, and his name shocked the world. However, he then made a mistake in using his troops, lost to the hands of the veteran general Wang Qi, and committed suicide in defeat.
As soon as Xiang Yan died, in the same year, the State of Chu died under the iron hooves of the Qin army, and Xiang Yan became the last lament of Yang Yang Dachu, hurting the hearts of the vast number of people in Chu. This year, Xiang Yu was already 9 years old, just an age that could remember the hatred of the country and the family, which undoubtedly planted the seeds of hatred for Qin in his young heart, and analyzing the internal motives of many of Xiang Yu's major actions later, there was no way to get rid of this profound fact.
In addition, Xiang Yu's father also died around this period, no matter what the real cause of his death was, in Xiang Yu's heart, he would also remember the pain of his father's loss to the head of the Great Qin Empire.
Therefore, when Xiang Yu was 24 years old, as long as his uncle Xiang Liang gave a look, he would pull out his sword with heart and calmness, stab Hui Taishou to death, without any hesitation, or that Xiang Yu had practiced pulling out this sword of revenge countless times after he was 9 years old, until he was 24 years old. At first, when I read this passage, I was deeply puzzled by the fact that Huiji Taishouming had clearly expressed his desire to oppose Qin to Xiang Liang, and had also issued an invitation to Xiang Liang and Xiang Yu's uncle and nephew to jointly agree to oppose Qin, so why did Xiang Yu kill him? Later, I understood a simple truth, it was hatred that made Xiang's uncle and nephew decide to do this, because they had always harbored a bitter hatred for the Qin Dynasty official system in their hearts, and that sword was to sacrifice Xiang Yan's spirit in heaven with the blood of the head of the Qin governor.
Then Xiang Yu started the first killing of his life, he slaughtered all the doormen and guards in the Taishou Mansion who dared to stop them, those people, like Hui Ji Taishou, were originally undeserving, and could have become fighters who participated in the anti-Qin struggle with Xiang's uncles and nephews, but they all became the ghosts of Xiang Yu's anger against Qin. In this way, Xiang's uncle and nephew successfully controlled the Huiji Taishou Mansion and controlled the large territory of Huiji County, which was a very successful start.
Then, in accordance with Chen Sheng's "correctional edicts", they led eight thousand sons of Jiangdong to cross the river to the west and began a journey to destroy Qin, with many vassals, defeating Qin Jia, attacking Xiangcheng, establishing the king of Chu, and collecting Chengyang, Puyang, and Yongqiu, all the way to conquer everything. and to dingtao. Xiang Liang was overwhelmed by the victory and despised the Qin army's mobilization of reinforcements, only to be surrounded and annihilated by the Qin army and killed. Xiang Yu lost his mentor of life enlightenment, and the only main backbone in the world that could control him, and began to walk on the stage of history alone.
As soon as Xiang Liang died, Xiang Yu was initially despised by the King of Chu. The king of Chu made Song Yi a general, this Song Yi was "too clever", leading the rebel army to fight hesitantly, Xiang Yu killed Song Yi and replaced him, this bold and fearless style was as direct and crisp as the first time he killed Hui Ji Taishou, so that all the rebel generals were intimidated, and even the King of Chu did not dare to oppose. Then the giant deer fought a battle against the water, Zhang Handan surrendered, Xiang Yu was brave and powerful, and the world did not dare to disobey.
It is recorded in the chapter, "(Xiang Yu's army) marched slightly to the Qin land. There are soldiers guarding the pass at Hangu Pass, and they are not allowed to enter. Hearing that Pei Gong had broken through Xianyang, Xiang Yu was furious, causing DangYang Jun to wait for him to strike. Xiang Yu entered", why was Xiang Yu not only not happy after hearing that Liu Bang had attacked Xianyang first, but was angry? Then he attacked Xianyang with all his might, why did Xiang Yu behave so strangely? Was he worried that Liu Bang had taken the lead and seized the position of the co-lord of the world? I think it is not mainly this reason, Xiang Yu did not show all-out ambition for the position of emperor from beginning to end, but Xiang Yu regarded Xianyang as a thorn in his heart, and had to be removed quickly, and now the bone spur in his heart was suddenly pulled by others by Liu Bang, and the pleasure of revenge that he had been expecting for more than twenty years suddenly disappeared, could he not be angry?
Then you see Xiang Yu's performance after entering Xianyang, except that he did not dig up the corpses of Qin Shi Huang and Qin II like Wu Zixu and whip them, he did all the other capable acts of venting hatred, including the massacre of the people in Xianyang City, and the Qin Prince Baby Family that had surrendered, more than a little hysterical. That deep hatred for Qin made Xiang Yu do stupid things that ordinary people would not do, and also destroyed the culture of the Qin State that ordinary people would not destroy.
The massacre and fire in Xianyang was the middle watershed in Xiang Yu's combat life, before that, he was invincible, invincible, and supported and followed; after that, he only thought of "returning to the east with his heart in his heart", only thinking of returning to his hometown with riches and nobility, losing the core goal and motivation to continue the struggle, and did whatever he wanted, causing everyone to rebel and abandon. After the Qin state was destroyed by Xiang Yu himself, Xiang Yu no longer had hatred for Qin, but instead of his personal arrogance and conceit, he would continue to slaughter the army and the people for the sake of pain, and he would also easily let go of sworn enemies like Liu Bang and Zhang Handan for the sake of face.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="53" > (2) The second keyword: ୱ</h1>
We often hear a saying that "obviously you can eat by your face, but you have to rely on your talent", which is used in Xiang Yu is "I can completely rely on courage to eat, and what kind of brain do I have to use". Xiang Yu basically thought and did this throughout his life, especially after Xiang Liang died. He had always believed that he could solve all the problems of the chaotic world through his super courage blessing, and it was precisely his god-given courage that masked the wisdom and power that he should have had, and there were gains and losses.
How did Xiang Yu run amok and lazy to use his brain and wisdom to solve problems? Just look at how he treats his superiors. From the day Xiang Yu rebelled with Xiang Liang, he had brazenly killed his "superior leaders" four times, namely Hui Ji Taishou, the general Song Yi, the Prince of Qin, and the Yi Emperor Chu Huai Wang, in fact, these four people originally did not have to die, they were not Xiang Yu's enemies before they were killed by Xiang Yu, but they were all simply disposed of by Xiang Yu. You said that no leader in this world would dare to accommodate a subordinate like Xiang Yu, didn't you? Staying with him was really ten times more dangerous than keeping Lü Bu, the "three family slaves", and maybe at some point the leader's head would be cut off by Xiang Yu casually.
Xiang Yu's bravery ran rampant in the next few years, needless to say, he was such a person. For example, Xiang Yu patted his head and came up with the matter of dividing the eighteen kings, which seemed to be mighty and reached the peak of his life, but it was actually a thankless thing to make enemies in all directions. "People's hearts are not enough for snakes to swallow elephants, and all snakes bite people", which sealed local king will really be satisfied or grateful for Xiang Yu's division? On the contrary, they had secretly begun to grit their teeth at Xiang Yu. Each of them was not satisfied or satisfied, the kings centrifuged, calculated and attacked each other, and Xiang Yu's authority was frustrated. From this incident, it can be seen that Xiang Yu does not understand human nature, does not understand politics, is simple and naïve in political operation, and is self-righteous.
Since the kings of the world have been divided, you Xiang Yu is only a king, not an emperor, and there is no clear provision in the world that it is your Xiang family, so why do you Xiang Yu then treat yourself as the emperor of the world and go around fighting fires and destroying strength? Are you so angry that the other kings did not submit to your might and did not listen to you honestly? Why can't you learn from the failure of Chen Sheng's uprising and not go around and lose your strength? Why don't you let the kings attack each other first, and then slowly and focus on attacking, and collect the fruits of victory as easily as Liu Bang? The world is already so complicated, it is no longer a big victory like you Xiang Yu engaged in one or two giant deer battles can be completely calmed down, this time you have to use wisdom and techniques, that is more important than fighting and killing, and it is also more effective with half the effort.
After Han Xin took the opportunity to fight the rear of the Qi state occupying his rear, and sent the dragon to destroy Han and was destroyed by Han Xin, Xiang Yu's situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and he had become a weak side, and he was more and more unable to move. At this time, Xiang Yu still rarely thought about the problem of plotting, still looked down on those conspiracies and plots, and he always thought and clamored for a direct life-and-death duel with Liu Bang. Liu Bang, who was twice as old as him, did not pay any attention to Xiang Yu's brave and brutal set at all, but only used all kinds of tricks to slowly consume him, walk him, and play him to death.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="54" > (iii) The third keyword: brutality</h1>
Sima Qian began to elaborately describe Xiang Yu's life since the events of the "Liechuan" genre (in fact, it was only those five or six years), but after writing it, he felt that it was not enough to classify Xiang Yu, a figure who changed the history of the late Qin Dynasty, only by the standard of the column biography, so he put Xiang Yu into the category of "Benji", making him juxtaposed with the emperor, and even placed in front of Liu Bang. The reason why Sima Qian attached so much importance to Xiang Yu and used thick ink and heavy colors to portray Xiang Yu in detail was mainly based on three reasons:
Xiang Yu was indeed a superhero, and the Chu army he led was extremely successful in the cause of destroying Qin. In the three waves of the late Qin and early Han dynasties, Chen Sheng moved the foundation of the Qin state, Xiang Yu destroyed the main force of the Qin army, Liu Bang picked the peaches of the Qin Dynasty, in fact, Liu Bang was the easiest, Xiang Yu was the most difficult, and Chen Sheng did his best.
Xiang Yu's spirit of preferring to die in battle rather than live in the end is indeed worthy of great admiration. Others described this spirit of Xiang Yu as the spirit of nobility, and they would rather die than surrender to a villain like Liu Bang.
Xiang Yu's fate can arouse Sima Qian's deep sympathy and resonance, because Sima Qian was also treated tragically by the Liu family court. The grand portrayal of Xiang Yu, despite the taboos of the Han Dynasty, is obviously accompanied by Sima Qian's strong personal love and hatred.
So is this character carefully shaped by Sima Qian really a big hero? I don't think so, because even in terms of Sima Qian's most important "people-oriented thinking", Xiang Yu was not a rebel leader who loved the people and served the people, on the contrary, he often regarded the lives of soldiers and civilians as grass and slaughtered them in military operations. He also did not attach much importance to the various talents necessary for the team, he only attached importance to those who were close to him, which was far from Liu Bang. Although Liu Bang often played hooligan tactics and did chicken and dog theft, he was still relatively kind in his treatment of people's livelihood and life, and he was a person who had a reverence and wanted to build a great cause.
As explicitly mentioned in the "Xiang Yu Benji" alone, Xiang Yu commanded more than a dozen massacres:
Massacre of the Inspector Taishou and the people in the government, "killing dozens of hundreds of people in the house";
Slaughtering the soldiers and civilians of Xiangcheng, "Xiang Liangqian made Xiang Yubei attack Xiangcheng, and Xiangcheng could not hold on. Pulled out, all pitted";
Massacre of The Chengyang soldiers and civilians, "Xiang Liang made Pei Gong and Xiang Yu bei attack Chengyang and slaughter them";
Massacre of Yongqiu soldiers and civilians, "West slightly to Yanqiu, greatly break the Qin army, behead Li You";
The Battle of Julu broke the Qin army and slaughtered the soldiers and civilians of Julu;
Pit killing Zhang Handan's subordinates, "it was the Chu army that attacked more than 200,000 Qin pawns in the night to the south of Xin'an City";
Entering the capital of the Qin state, slaughtering the xianyang officials and soldiers, destroying countless people, "staying for a few days, Xiang Yu led the army to slaughter Xianyang in the west, killing the prince and baby of Qin, burning the Qin palace, and the fire was not extinguished for three months; receiving its goods and treasure women and going east";
Pit killing Tian Rong descended to pawn, "Suibei burned Yiqi City Guo Room House, all pit Tian Rong descended pawn";
When returning to pengcheng, he slaughtered the Han army between Grain and Surabaya, "killing more than 100,000 Han pawns";
Hunt down and drown the Han army in Suishui, "but the Han army, squeezed by Chu, killed more, more than 100,000 Han soldiers into Suishui, Suishui did not flow";
If it weren't for a child standing up and persuading, Xiang Yu would have almost killed all the adult men in Waihuang County...
Before xiang Yu died, he said: "I have been an army since I was eight years old, and I have been in more than seventy battles, and those who have been struck have broken, those who have been struck have served, they have not tasted defeat, and they have dominated the world.", but behind the pride of "more than seventy battles, those who should be broken, and those who have not tasted defeat in the north" are how many ghosts and ghosts are there? Didn't he Xiang Yu want to overthrow the violent Qin? Seeing all the above facts, can we still call Xiang Yu a real hero? The degree of Xiang Yu's brutal slaughter far exceeded that of Bai Qi, the "God of War" of the Qin Kingdom, and he was the first in the "Records of History". Moreover, before Xiang Yu died, he still blamed Providence for embarrassing him, did not reflect on the blood on his hands, his life realm was far inferior to Bai Qi, and Bai Qi only lamented that he had killed Zhao Guo's surrendered pawn before he was killed.
To be precise, Sima Qian did not think that Xiang Yu was a great hero, but admitted that he was a "overlord" and that "he was self-effacing and meritorious, striving for his own wisdom and not learning from the ancients, calling it the cause of the overlord, wanting to run the world with force, dying in his country in five years, dying in Dongcheng, still not feeling lonely and not self-blame, too much", such an evaluation is very pertinent. Xiang Yu could have become a great hero of the world, but instead he became a fierce villain, "Oh Pi Gaidai, the pawn is a fierce erection", all because he did not love to read at the beginning and did not know the truth that benevolence and righteousness can settle the world.
Classifying Xiang Yu as a great hero is the emotional worship made by some people later based on the spirit of some aspect of Xiang Yu, such as Li Qingzhao. Zhuge Liang, the sage of the Three Kingdoms, commented on Xiang Yu as "all do not take righteousness, and abuse the emperor on the tomb", and the poem of the great man also said that "it is advisable to chase the poor and the poor, and not to be the overlord of the famous school", and do not appreciate Xiang Yu. Those who echo the idea that Xiang Yu is a big hero actually do not really understand what Xiang Yu has done, but only appreciate Xiang Yu's extraordinary courage and personal cool behavior from a superficial point of view, the movie "Western Chu Bawang" is like this, and "Overlord Farewell" is even more ridiculous. The real Xiang Yu is more like a tyrannical chaos demon king, who hardly cares about the lives of the people and the future of society. Brutality is also a summary of Xiang Yu's life's character.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="55" > (iv) summary</h1>
How many people can be loaded in a person's heart, how much can he achieve, from Xiang Yu's employment and platoon, you can see his mind and strength. Before Xiang Yu committed suicide, he only cared about the eight thousand Jiangdong disciples who had originally accompanied him on the expedition, and did not think that there had been a large number of capable warriors who had also loyally followed him, such as Han Xin Zhang Liang Fan Zeng Chen Ping Chen Baby and so on. Xiang Yu did not trust foreign talents, and even Fan Zeng, the "ya father" who Xiang Liang personally selected for him to assist in the heavy responsibility, could be abandoned by Liu Bang and successfully Xiang Yu was not used. Xiang Yu's five great generals Long He, Ying Bu, Zhong Li, Zi Qi, and Ji Bu, three of them were successfully countered by Liu Bangce, how big a career do you think such a Xiang Yu can achieve in the end? Therefore, Sima Qian was very amused by Xiang Yu's exclamation before his death, "Heaven has killed me, and it is not a crime to use soldiers" to exclamate, "Isn't it absurd?" Xiang Yu's death was really self-inflicted.
Xiang Yu has almost no merit in presiding over big things and seeking great causes, and the biggest advantage of him is that he can drive people with energy, and he can be invincible, but it is a pity that the only Xiang Liang who can control him is killed in battle. Xiang Yu's life, sometimes without his life, could have become a generation of emperors, but the result was to be divided into five parts, and his fate of great compassion made generations of people sigh endlessly.
What we should learn most from the "Xiang Yu Benji" is Sima Qian's respect for the objective contributions of the losers of that era, and the respect for the subjective spirit, without being forced by political prejudice or the ugly view that "the winner is the king and the loser is the coward", and the hero is not discussed by the criterion of success or failure. The "Xiang Yu Benji" best embodies the characteristics of Sima Qian's compilation of the "History of History" as "its writing is straight, its core is not vain, and it is not hidden." What has changed is only historical scenes and events, and what has not changed is the human heart and human nature.
【About the author】Fu Anping, born in 1974, a native of Huanggang, Hubei Province, bachelor of engineering. Now freelance, amateur writing.
Tips: If you like this article, please forward and comment.