The Yu opera "Cheng Baby Saves orphans" is a rare drama that has been praised and applauded in recent years. The real event "Orphan of Zhao", which occurred in the history of the Jin Dynasty, was brilliantly interpreted by the artists, and people were full of anger and blood boiling. However, whenever he saw the end of the opera, after Cheng Bao was stabbed by Tu Anjia with a sword, he inserted the sword deeply into his body, and when he returned to heaven in the last life, he always felt that such an ending was too cruel, the orphans had grown up, the grievances had been revealed, and Cheng Baby had reached the time to enjoy the fruits of victory, so why did the screenwriter have to let him die? This is so unreasonable!
So how did the historical Cheng Baby die? Reading history with this question, I found that Cheng Nian's real method of death was more unacceptable than the death method in the opera- it turned out that Cheng Infant in history actually insisted on committing suicide despite the bitter persuasion of orphans.
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Cheng Bao, who could have lived well (the historical TuJia was killed 5 years before Cheng Bao committed suicide, and Cheng Bao could not have been stabbed by the Tu Jia) Why did he have to die? This has to start from why Tu Anjia wanted to drive the Zhao family to extinction and Cheng Bao to save orphans.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, the national conditions of the Jin state were somewhat different from those of other princely states, and most of the time in other princely states was decided by the monarch, but most of the time in the Jin state was decided by the ruling ministers, which is why there were later three reasons for the division of the Jin.
During the Jin Dynasty, the chancellor Zhao Dun not only had great power, but also had the ability to depose the crown prince. When Duke Xiang of Jin died, Zhao Dun wanted to depose the crown prince and let his younger brother succeed him. However, later, the mother of the crown prince pleaded bitterly, and Zhao Dun let the prince succeed to the throne, which was the Duke of Jin.
Although Jin Linggong was not impressed, he was very afraid of Zhao Dun. Once, Jin Linggong did something bad and was met by Zhao Dun. Although Zhao Dun didn't say anything, the weak-hearted Jin Linggong was afraid that Zhao Dun would destroy himself, and decided to kill Zhao Dun first.
Although Zhao Dun was strong, he did not want to kill jun, so he fled. But before he could escape from the country, a member of the Zhao family jumped out and killed Jin Linggong. After Zhao Dun returned, he acquiesced to this matter, so people ridiculed Zhao Dun, saying that he "as a Zhengqing, he fled without leaving the country, and did not rebuke the rebel thief when he returned", and even the historian recorded that "Zhao Dun killed his monarch". Sometimes things are like this, zhao dun who didn't do it, carried a black cauldron of killing the king.
During the Reign of Duke Jing of Jin, Zhao Dun died, and his son Zhao Shuo inherited the title, and Shunyi became the de facto ruler of the Jin state. In order to seize power, another chancellor of the Jin Dynasty, Si Kou Tu'an Jia, took advantage of the fact that Zhao Shuo was less powerful shortly after he came to power, and turned over the old account of the murder of the Jin Linggong, saying that Zhao Dun had not liquidated the jin Linggong when he killed him, and now that he was dead, "the father's debt was repaid" and he had to kill his son's family.
At this time, Tu An Jia was powerful, and no one in the court dared to listen to his words, so Zhao Shi was killed by Tu An Jia, and only Zhao Shuo's pregnant wife escaped to the palace because she was a member of the royal family. In order to cut the grass and remove the roots, Tu Anjia always stared at Zhao Shuo's wife who was hiding in the palace, waiting for her to give birth and kill the baby. At this time, there were also a group of righteous soldiers who were also thinking about how to protect this widow, and Gongsun Pestle and Cheng Bao were among the representatives.
As soon as Zhao Shuo's wife gave birth, Tu Anjia, who learned the news, took someone to search the palace. Fortunately, Zhao Shuo's wife hid the baby in the crotch of her pants and escaped the disaster.
According to Sima Qian, Gongsun Jiusu was Zhao Shuo's protégé, and Cheng Bao was a good friend of Zhao Shuo. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the real friend was to be martyred for the friend, and the reason why Cheng Bao wanted to live in the world was to protect Zhao Shuo's widow, and he said to Gongsun Jiuusu: "The wife of Shuo has a widow, if you are fortunate to be a man, I will serve it, that is, a woman, and I will die." ”
When the news of Tu'an Jia's palace came, Cheng Bao was extremely anxious, he knew that hiding the baby in the crotch of his pants was "hiding from the first one, not hiding from the fifteenth"! What to do? He went to gongsun pestle to find a way.
Gongsun Pestle asked Cheng Bao after some thought, "Is it difficult to protect orphans?" Or is it hard to die? ”
Although Cheng Infant listened to her friend's question, she was puzzled, but she still replied: "Of course, it is easy to die, and it is difficult to protect orphans!" ”
Hearing Cheng Bao's words, Gongsun Pestle and Pangu told him about his plan to save the orphans. Then, he said to Cheng Bao, "Zhao Shuo has a deep affection for you, so you will do this difficult thing!" I'll do this simple thing, die first! The two discussed it and went their separate ways.
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Gongsun Pestle found a baby (said to be Cheng Bao's child in the opera), pretended to be Zhao Shuo's widow, and hid in the mountains. Cheng Baby, on the other hand, pretended to betray her friends for money and went to report to Tu Anjia. Tu Anjia was satisfied after killing Gongsun Pestle and the so-called widow, thinking that from now on, the Zhao clan would become extinct, and he could sit back and relax. Cheng Bao, on the other hand, bears the notoriety of being ungrateful and selling friends for money, and bears the burden of humiliation and raises Zhao Shuo's true widow, Zhao Wu.
When Zhao Wu reached the age of 15, Zhao Yimen's grievances were snowy, and Cheng Bao and Zhao Wu led people to attack and kill Tu'an Jia and exterminate his entire clan. To say that at this time, the revenge of his friend Zhao Shuo was repaid, Zhao Wu had grown up, and he was also re-established as a member of the Jin Dynasty and listed as a secretary, Cheng Baby did not say that he enjoyed the wealth of the world with these merits, right? You can also enjoy the blessings at home and spend your old age in peace. However, just after Zhao Wu held the 20-year-old coming-of-age ceremony, Cheng Bao made a surprising decision - the orphan of that year had grown up, he had fulfilled the vow of that year, and there was no point in living anymore, and he was going to follow Gongsun Pestle, who had gone before him.
Zhao Wu heard this, and bitterly persuaded me, saying, "You raised me to adulthood and suffered so much, I have not repaid you!" How can you be willing to leave me? Cheng Baby looked at Zhao Wu, who was crying into tears, and comforted him: "When you Zhao family were killed at the door, the reason why I didn't follow and die was not that I was greedy for life and afraid of death, but that I wanted to protect you, the widow. When Gongsun Pestle died, I lived in the world because he believed that I could raise you to adulthood. Now that you have come of age and my long-cherished wish has been fulfilled, I will go down to the earth to report this situation to your ancestors of the Zhao clan and gongsun pestles!" As a result, Cheng Baby committed suicide.
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Seeing this, you may understand that the reason why Cheng Bao chose to commit suicide because he chose to commit suicide because he wanted to use his own death to show that he had lived in the world all these years not to live secretly, but to fulfill the common wish of protecting orphans with Gongsun Pestle - to repay his friend Zhao Shuo, so that Zhao Shi would not be extinct. Now that the task has been completed, he no longer covets the glory and wealth of the world, and resolutely follows his friend Gongsun Pestle with his death. It can be said that Cheng Bao's spirit of sacrificing himself to save others and unswervingly showing his own death to save orphans has been sublimated. The last line of the Yu opera "Cheng Baby Saves orphans" sings" "A promise of a thousand gold weights, taking righteousness and giving up life, going through all kinds of disasters without frowning, leaving a cavity of great righteousness through Changhong", is a brilliant summary of the meaning of why Cheng Baby had to die.
Cheng Bao is gone, but the spiritual wealth he left us to "sacrifice his life for righteousness" is still touching generations of Chinese. Because of this, Cheng Bao's deeds have been widely praised by later generations, and have been compiled into operas, appeared on the stage, and even spread to overseas foreign countries, which is talked about by people today.
Author: Zhao Xianwen, our special guest author