Why did Monty die so tragically? Sima Guang and Sima Qian were wrong

Why did Monty die so tragically? Sima Guang and Sima Qian were wrong

Qiao Zhifeng

Meng Tian was a famous general of the Qin State (Qin Dynasty), and his main "merits" were, first, to lead an army to break through the State of Qi, and to make great contributions to Qin Shi Huang's unification of China and the establishment of an authoritarian and centralized rule; second, to lead an army of 300,000 people to attack the Xiongnu in the north and recover the land of Henan; and third, to supervise the repair of the Great Wall. Meng Tian was ordered by Qin Shi Huang to build the Great Wall, connecting the original walls of the three kingdoms of Qin, Yan and Zhao into one, and adding a new city, "starting from Lintao, ending in Liaodong, and extending for more than 10,000 miles", which took ten years to complete. Today I will talk about the glory and death of Monty.

At first, Qin Shi Huang trusted Meng Tian and his younger brother Meng Yi very much. Meng Tian served as a general, and Meng Yi served as an internal minister in the court, and even other generals or even ministers, none of them dared to compete with them for favors.

And Zhao Gao (that is, the one who refers to the deer as a horse), was born into the palace. When the First Emperor heard that he could do things, especially in criminal law, he promoted him to the post of Commander of the CRRC Government and taught his son Hu Hai to learn to try cases. Hu Hai and Zhao Gao established a very close relationship. Once, Zhao Gao committed a crime, and the Shi Huang sent meng Yi to deal with it. Meng Yi sentenced Zhao Gao to death according to law, but Qin Shi Huang pardoned Zhao Gao on the grounds that he was flexible and could do things, and also reinstated him as an official. In an authoritarian society, wherever there is a law, the emperor's views and ideas are the supreme "law."

Since Qin Shi Huang didn't want to deal with Zhao Gao at all, why did he give it to Meng Tian to discuss the crime? Since it was handed over to Meng Tian to discuss the crime, why did he wait until Meng Tian made a judgment in accordance with the law, but Qin Shi Huang jumped out to overturn the verdict, sheltered Zhao Gao, and did not let him move a single hair? Perhaps, this is related to Qin Shi Huang's moody and perverted personality, which is based on personal likes and dislikes, and often has repetition. But it is more likely that Qin Shi Huang originally did not want to treat Zhao Gao, but he did not want to be pardoned by his own direct order, so he entrusted the task to Meng Tian to handle. Unfortunately, Meng Tian did not understand, had to deal with it according to law, Qin Shi Huang could not do anything, and finally came forward to protect Zhao Gao himself. This reflects from one side that in terms of observing the color and speculating on the holy will, Meng Tian is far less exquisite than Zhao Gao, which is why Zhao Gao was able to turn over the clouds and rain and cover the sky with one hand, but Meng Tian died a miserable death.

Before Qin Shi Huang died, he was originally succeeded by his eldest son Fu Su. However, Zhao Gao was close to Hu Hai and was extremely resentful of the Mengtian brothers (at this time, Fu Su was overseeing the army in the Mengtian army), so he instigated Hu Hai to falsely claim that Qin Shi Huang had killed Fu Su and became emperor himself. Hu Hai, of course, readily agreed. Zhao Gao went to lobby The Chancellor Li Si again, knowing the pros and cons: "Your talents, strategies, merits, popularity, and trust in Fu Su are not as good as Meng Tian." As long as Fu Su is on the throne, the position of the prime minister must be tranquil, and your ending is not obvious? Li Si woke up like a dream, and immediately agreed with Zhao Gao, falsely claiming that Qin Shi Huang had left a will and made Hu Hai the crown prince, and then tampered with Qin Shi Huang's edict to Fu Su, reprimanding him for not being able to open up territory and make meritorious achievements, but causing a large number of casualties in the army; and also slandered his father and emperor many times, and made many complaints. The general, However, not only did not correct FuSu's mistakes, but also colluded with Fusu in an attempt to misbehave. They were therefore ordered to commit suicide immediately, and the army was handed over to the deputy general Wang Li.

Fu Su received the forged edict and came to the back room crying bitterly, planning to commit suicide. Meng Tian advised, "Your Majesty (Qin Shi Huang) inspected outside and did not determine who the crown prince was. He sent me to lead 300,000 troops to guard the border and sent you to serve as a superintendent, which is a heavy responsibility under the heavens. If you don't believe us, how can you be entrusted with a heavy responsibility? Just one messenger comes to preach the book, and we commit suicide easily, so how can we know if there is deception in it? We might as well play again, please confirm it, and then it is not too late to commit suicide. But the emissary was ordered by Zhao Gao and Li Si to repeatedly urge them to commit suicide. Fu Su said to Meng Tian, "The father let his son die, what else can he say!" "He committed suicide immediately. Still unwilling to die, the messenger handed him over to the officials to discuss his sins and imprisoned him. Hu Hai knew that Fu Su was dead, knew that the threat had been removed, and planned to release Meng Tian. Just as Meng Yi returned after going out to pray for the mountains and rivers in place of the First Emperor, Zhao Gao said to Hu Hai, "Emperor Xiandi has long wanted to make you crown prince, but Meng Yi has always been opposed. Why don't you kill Meng Yi!" Hu Hai was furious and killed Meng Yi, who immediately took poison and committed suicide.

The "Chronicle of History" records the scene before Meng Tian was dying—Meng Tian sighed: "How did I offend the heavens and end up with a guiltless and executed?" After a long silence, he said, "My sins deserve to die." I built the Great Wall, from Lintao to Liaodong, stretching for more than 10,000 miles, and it is impossible that I did not cut the earth's vein, this is my sin! ”

The so-called "earth vein", originally referring to the terrain, was later used as a feng shui word. Digging up the vein of the earth means that the feng shui is broken. Apparently, Meng Tian believes that the reason why he died so tragically is because the construction of the Great Wall destroyed the country's feng shui.

What does Sima Guang think of this? He first quoted a passage from Yang Xiong's "Sayings of the Law"—someone asked: "Meng Tian was loyal but was still killed, what is the use of loyalty?" He replied, "Meng Tian repaired the Great Wall, opened mountains and filled in valleys, started from Lintao in the west, and connected to Liaoshui in the east, but there were more than enough corpses caused by insufficient power, and this loyalty of Meng Tian was not enough to assist the king." ”

Then Sima Guang said: When Qin Shi Huang was harming the world, Meng Tian was willing to be driven by him to help him abuse, and Meng Tian was unkind and unjust. But Montien knew the morality that a human subject should observe, and though he was executed without sin, he would rather die than remain faithful and not rebellious, so it was also commendable.

Let's look at the views of the real historian Taishi Company Ma Qian. Sima Qian said: Along the way, I made a field investigation of the Great Wall and the border fortress built by Mengtian, excavated mountains, filled deep valleys, and penetrated straight roads; these were all major projects, which consumed a lot of manpower and material resources. When the State of Qin had just destroyed the other princes, the hearts of the people in the world had not yet been settled, the wounds had not yet healed, and everything was in ruins waiting to be revived, and Meng Tian, as a famous general, did not try his best to persuade Qin Shi Huang to relieve the people's emergencies at this time, to sympathize with the elderly and raise orphans, and to spend his energy on creating a stable life and recuperation for the people, but instead flattered and catered to Qin Shi Huang's atrocities of good and great achievements, to build the Great Wall on a large scale and build a large number of civil engineering, and it was not a natural thing that their brothers were killed? Where is the sin of digging up the veins of the earth?

The southern Song Dynasty poet Liu Kezhuang's view is completely consistent with Sima Qian's, and he has a poetry cloud: "Although the great indifference is great, the Great Wall is also deeply resentful." But knowing the wounds of the earth, do not understand the loss of people's hearts. ”

Based on the above evaluation, we can see that almost all people (including Mengtian himself) think that Mengtian deserves to die, and the reason for the damnation points to the construction of the Great Wall. But the same is about the Great Wall, but the reasons are different. Meng Tian thought that he deserved to die, that he had cut off the earth's veins and offended the heavens by repairing the Great Wall, that he was superstitious and illusory. Others, on the other hand, believe that the greatest sin of building the Great Wall is that it has brought heavy burdens and deep disasters to the people. Undoubtedly, the latter is more realistic. Of course, the reason why Monty wanted to say that was on the one hand self-consolation, and on the other hand, it was just to shirk the guilt.

Still have to say a few words about Sima Guang. This time, his old man was rarely in tune with normal thinking in the general direction, believing that Qin Shi Huang had harmed the world, and that He had been abused, unkind and unjust, and had more than enough to die. But after he expressed this meaning, he did not stop there, but said a few more words, saying that Meng Tian would rather die than rebel, so it is also very commendable. Isn't this advocating and encouraging "foolishness"? His old man's insight really ended here, and he turned over and over again from the position of the supreme ruler and preached the hypocritical and foolish preaching of Confucianism.

And my opinion is different from the above. Why Meng Tian died so tragically, Yang Xiong, Sima Guang, Sima Qian, and others were all wrong. He did not die by repairing the Great Wall to cut off the earth's veins, nor was he punished for poisoning the people and committing too many evils, he only offended the powerful minister Zhao Gao, and was suspected by Hu Hai because of his close relationship with Fu Su. If Meng Tian had been Zhao Gao's dog-legged son and Hu Hai's supporter since the beginning, if he had built a few more Great Walls, and if he had harmed more people, and still promoted to an official and made a fortune, at least he would not have died so early. In the final analysis, he died of political upheaval, the loser of the political struggle, nothing more. Don't lean on "justice" in everything, don't always want to dig out the so-called "educational significance" from historical events, such an interpretation is too far-fetched and hypocritical.