The story of "The Princes of beacon play", everyone must be very familiar, it is about the last monarch of the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Zhou You, married a princess named Qiu Ji, but this princess was depressed all day, and King Zhou You saw the pain in his eyes, so he came up with the ghost idea of lighting a beacon on the beacon tower in order to attract princes from all over the world to work for the king, so as to win the beauty of laughter.
It is precisely because of the clear record of the "Records of History", because this child's play directly led to the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty, so that King Zhou You became the eternal laughing stock of future generations, and also made the woman of praise become the first woman in Chinese history to have a red face and a bad water.
As the first of the twenty-four histories, the "History of History" has always been recognized as low in historical works, but at the same time we must realize that this is only a history book written by Sima Qian himself, and the record of this matter is relatively simple, and it has not been written in depth, which is the confusion of our modern people, such a big thing, we want to know more details, the author himself did not write, this is the sad point of history.
In fact, thinking about it carefully, I have always had some doubts about this matter, and even doubted whether this story really happened, and I always felt that Sima Qian hid too many details, and even out of the historical limitations of the time, there was no comprehensive, true, objective, and fair in-depth investigation of this matter, and only the rumors of the predecessors or the hasty record of this matter in the historical records, causing a lot of trouble to future generations. So I would also like to raise my point of doubt:
First: What we have to suspect is the IQ problem of King Zhou You, for a woman, light a beacon at every turn, causing the world to shake, to know that this vibration is not only the shock of the following princely states, but also the shock of the northern enemy Inuyasha, which can easily cause bad effects and extremely bad consequences? As a king, the ass decides the head, and he doesn't have a little sensitivity? Doesn't he know that doing this is harmful and useless?
Second: We must know that at that time, the kingdoms of Western Zhou were all Hojing, which is now Xi'an, and most of the princely states were outside Hangu Pass, the distance was too far, and the beacon towers were lit up one by one, and we did not know when they would be able to be seen by the princely states?
Third: We know that King Zhou Youwang let the princes come to Beijing in order to win a smile, maybe today the princes are not happy, today the beacon is lit, the road is so far away, not to mention the road is bumpy, there is no ten days and a half months, how can the princes rush to Hojing so quickly?
Fourth: The ancient information is not smooth, the traffic may as well be good, the first time was deceived, the princes can panic and lead the army to qin the king, but in a short period of time to receive the news of the beacon several times in a row, will the princes first send a forward officer to confirm whether the news is true? There is no need to send troops again and again. Or did the princely states not have an office in Beijing in the capital? Don't get exact information?
Fifth: According to the Records of History, "The king of You said (Tongyue) that he was counting the flames. In order to be happy, King Zhou You actually lit the beacon fire many times. We can't help but wonder, interesting things will do once or twice, many times this is not interesting. In order to change the beauty of a smile, can you change the way?
In short, there are too many suspicious points, the most important thing is that we think that King Zhou Youwang is too mentally retarded, even if King Zhou Youwang is mentally retarded, so many of his ministers should know that they can't make this kind of joke again and again, this kind of joke is too much, it is not good for anyone. So it's necessary to dig a little deeper into the things behind this. I believe that there are still many articles and doubts behind this matter.
In addition to the so-called "Records of History", in fact, there are still many books that record this matter, as well as "Chinese", "Bamboo Book Chronicle", "Lü's Spring and Autumn", etc. The details they record are not necessarily the same, but one thing is basically common, that is, the problem of power struggle. I think that many things that happened at that time should be viewed, analyzed, and understood around the contradiction and focus of power struggle and succession to the throne.
The original queen of King You of Zhou was Empress Shen, the daughter of Marquis Shen of the State of Shen, who had a son, Yi Usu, who was originally the crown prince of Li, but since he favored Empress Dowager Shen's son Bofu, he deposed Empress Shen and the status of her son Yi Usu as crown prince, and when the power struggle reached a certain level, Empress Shen and her son Yi Usu fled to Shen Hou's hometown of Shen Guo.
Everyone knows that the book "Bamboo Book Chronicle" was written during the reign of King Wei of the Warring States, and it is an official history book, and its credibility is relatively high. According to the records of the Bamboo Book Chronicle, in fact, King Zhou Youwang also had his grievances and important reasons for doing so, not just like to praise her and set up her son:
Everyone knows that King Zhou Xuan likes to use soldiers, but there are fewer victories and more defeats, and the direct consequence is to damage the authority of the royal family and damage his own authority. In fact, King Xuan of Zhou also fought a battle with Shen Hou at that time, and the result was also a failure. Failure with the use of troops comes at a cost, and King Xuan of Zhou remembered the political marriage to ease the tension between the two families, so he let his son King You of Zhou marry the daughter of Marquis Shen.
Their marriage was based on such a foundation, so the marriage between King Youwang of Zhou and Queen Shen was a completely political marriage, and it was still a marriage full of shame for King Zhou Youwang, so it was said that this marriage was unhappy and could not be happy. After King Zhou You succeeded to the throne, he also worked hard, until he felt that he had the strength to defeat Shen Guo, so he must take this breath, so he said that he married Qiu Ji and became the queen, and it was also logical to make Bao Ji's son the prince.
Moreover, in the "Bamboo Book Chronicle", there is no such thing as the "Princes of Beacon Theatre", in fact, I think it is normal that there is no such thing, because no matter who King Zhou You marries as a wife, whether it is Qiu Ji, or Zhang Ji, or Li Ji, in short, it is necessary to abolish Shen Hou and his son, this is the previous grudge doomed, the abolition and the abolition of the prince must be like this with the development of time, it is unchangeable. This is not necessarily related to the "Princes of Beacon Theatre", and there is no need to let the story of "Princes of Beacon Theatre" carry this big black cauldron.
After Shen Hou and his son returned to Shen Guo and told their father about this matter, Shen Hou was originally a victor and a local power faction, and he could not swallow this breath, so he united with Xi Rong and Ji Guo and sent troops together to destroy King Zhou You.
There is also a relevant record of this material, that is, in the history book "The Year of the Lineage" compiled by King Su of Chu (380-370 BC), there is also a relevant record of this matter. This set of bamboo janes was donated to Tsinghua University by outsiders, and Tsinghua University has studied its contents, which has such a record of this history:
King You of Zhou took his wife Yu Xishen, the king of life, the daughter of the king or the king, who was a concubine and a son of a bopan. The king and Bo Pan chased the king, and the king went to Xishen. The King of You, the King of Huiping, Yu Xishen, the King of Shen, and the Zengren nai descended to Xi Rong to attack the King of You, and the King of You and Bo Pan were destroyed, and Zhou Nai died.
It and the "Bamboo Book Chronicle" do not have a record of the "Princes of beacon drama", the difference is that king of Zhou You, in order to avenge his father's failure and political marriage, he knew that after Shen Hou and his son fled to Shen Guo, he took the initiative to send troops to attack Shen Guo, and as a result, he was defeated by Shen Guo's joint alliance with Xi Rong and Xi Rong and Jiao Guo, and King Zhou You and Bo Pan, the son of Qiu Ji, were killed together, and Western Zhou perished.
Both the Bamboo Book Chronicle and the Chronicle of the Lineage are official history books of the Warring States period, and they are closer to the Western Zhou Dynasty than the Sima Qian period, and the closer the time, the greater the reliability of the records, and Sima Qian's "Records of History" is still a personal work, not to mention that the time has been delayed by about 100 years, which makes us more reason to doubt.
Moreover, these two historical materials do not directly record the matter of the "Princes of Beacon Theatre", but not recording it does not mean that this event did not happen, of course, the "History" recorded does not mean that this matter must have happened. It doesn't matter in my opinion whether this happens or not, what matters is that the essence of this matter is the power struggle between new and old hatreds.
In the end, it is still a matter of succession to the throne, if King Zhou You can endure it and be a person who understands. He could spoil Qiu Ji, but he could take a firm stand and let Empress Shen's son Yi Usu take the throne, and it would not lead to the destruction of the country and the tragedy of his own being killed.
We should not put the responsibility on this woman, she is just an ordinary woman, it is normal for a woman to be pampered, but she is passively involved in the new and old hatred of the Zhou royal family and Shen Guo, and has to be a victim in this whirlpool, which is really a sad thing.