There is a folk saying: "Jiang Taigong fishes, and the willing one takes the bait." "This Jiang Taigong is The Founding Hero of the Western Zhou Dynasty and Taishi Lü Shang." In the Ming Dynasty novel "Fengshen Yanyi", Jiang Ziya is also a central figure in communicating with gods and demons and history. The "Fengshen Yanyi" itself is a representative work of the "generational accumulation" novel, and its writing has undergone a long process; at the same time, Jiang Ziya, as an assistant to the Wu King, has also made a big fuss in literary works and become the protagonist of the altar and the gods. So, what kind of character is Jiang Ziya in history, and how does it change into the image of the immortal in the novel?
I. The confusion recorded by Lü Shang during the Warring States Qin and Han Dynasties
First of all, we should say that Jiang Ziya is not a correct name. It is true that he is surnamed Jiang, but the surname and surname of the Zhou Dynasty are different, in short, the surname represents the blood origin and is unchanged; the surname represents the social group and is changing. Men generally call themselves by surname and not by surname. For Jiang Ziya, his surname is Jiang, Lü, Shang, and Ziya, so Lü Shang and Lü Ya are the correct names. After that, he was sealed in Qi, then Qi was also his clan, so he was also called Qi Taigong. Regarding the titles of "Jiang Ziya", "Jiang Shang", "Jiang Taigong" and so on, they all come from the confluence of surnames in the Han Dynasty, such as the Eastern Han Dynasty Wang Fu "The theory of The Hidden Husband", which says "Wen and Martial Master Jiang Shang".
Therefore, in order to be accurate, we still call it Lü Shang, the Prince of Qi.
Let's turn the camera back to the "History" of two thousand years ago, which has a "Qi Taigong Family", which is about the joint biography of Lü Shang and the later Qi Jun. However, even if it is listed as a canonical history, there are still many storylines for Lu Shang's narrative eight hundred years ago. At the beginning of lü shang's cooperation with Zhou, Tai Shi Gong himself recorded three theories, one is the most familiar to everyone, Tai Gong fished in Weishui and met with King Wen of Zhou; one is that Lü Shang once served King Huan and defected to King Wen because King Huan had no way; the other said that after King Wen of Zhou was imprisoned by King Huan, San Yisheng, Hong Yao and others found Taigong for help.
Jiang Ziya stills
Among these three theories, the Weishui Fishing King Wen's theory is the most common, which is recorded in the "Lü Shi Chunqiu", "Han Feizi", "Warring States Policy", and "New Order"; the theory of active defection is the earliest, "Mencius Li Louxia" said that Lü Shangben lived in the East China Sea to avoid the Lu, and later heard that King Wen Shangxian went to take the initiative to defect; in addition, "Chu Ci Departure", "Tianwen" and the Han Wang Yizhu provide a fourth theory, saying that Lü Shang was originally slaughtering cattle in the market, because he drew the attention of King Wen by drinking with his sword, and Lü Shang told King Wen that he could "slaughter cattle under the slaughter." Shangtu Tu Tu Guo", which was thus requisitioned by King Wen.
For The age of Lu Shang's entry into the week, there are also many opinions. The Qi Taigong Shijia only says that Lü Shang is old, while other documents indicate Lü Shang's specific age. According to the Han Dynasty's Shuoyuan, Lü Shang met King Wen at the age of seventy; in Kong Congzi Taigong met King Wen at the age of eighty; and according to the Warring States Xunzi, Lü Shang was seventy-two years old.
Before Lü Shang met King Wen, his experience was also colorful. In addition to the poverty theory and the matter theory provided by the "Qi Taigong Shijia", the "Warring States Policy" even said that he was "qi zhi zhi fu, chao song of the abolition of slaughter, zi liang of the subject, thorn jin of the chicken is not mediocre", what does it mean? It turned out that he had been driven out of the country by the Humble Woman in the Country of Qi, and he had a bad business as a butcher in the Shang capital Chaoge, and he was fired again when he defected to the Ziliang clan, and finally no one wanted to sell himself in Zhijin. However, "Mencius Leaving Lou Shang" also said that he was "the great elder of the world", so Lü Shang was a very prestigious elder in the world before he met King Wen.
The above disturbing remarks indicate that in the Warring States and Western Han Dynasty, Lü Shang's story was already very messy. Of course, we know that Jiang Ziya of the Fengshen Yanyi is a deified historical figure, but how can the Hundred Sons and Hundred Families and The contradictory Lü Shang in the "History" be regarded as a history of faith? We must continue to peel back the cocoon and look for a real Qi Taigong.
Jiang Ziya Fishing Platform
2. Lü Shangben was a magnate of the Lü clan
The earliest and most credible historical information about Lü Shang is in the Book of Poetry, Daya Daming:
"Makino Yangyang, Tanche Huanghuang, Donkey Pengpeng." Wei Shi Shang Father, Shi Wei Ying Yang, Liang Pi Wu King. Wantonly cutting down big businessmen will be clear and clear! ”
This poem is about the Battle of Makino, where the Zhou army's chariots were magnificent and majestic, and shi Shangfu, like an eagle, assisted King Wu of Zhou in his conquest of the Shang Dynasty, and was victorious at dawn the next day.
Shi Shang's father was Lü Shang, his father was his honorific title, and Shi was his official taishi, not the teacher of King Wu of Wen as later said. The word "division (division)" is derived from the "" that represents the mound to the army stationed in the mound. The Shuowen Jiezi says that "two thousand five hundred people are divisions", and to this day the "division" is still a military establishment. On the one hand, military commanders also have the responsibility of teaching the army, so later generations have the meaning of teachers. Many people in the Western Zhou Dynasty called "divisions", they were all military commanders, Lü Shang was a Taishi, was the highest military commander, not the later Zhengyi Pin Wenchen "Taishi", which was the beginning of Lü Shang's image being misunderstood.
Oil painting of the Battle of Makino
The military activities of the three generations of the ancients were actually less ingenious and more likely to be dueling between the two armies, and song Xianggong in the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period still insisted on the "war of gentlemen". Although the "Qi Taigong Shijia" says that "Shi Shang's father is the majority of plots", the same "History of Zhou Benji" records that King Wu of Zhou ordered Shi Shang's father and Bofu to "give a teacher" to a merchant, and "to the master" is a single challenge, and Lü Shang, with the respect of the etheric master, actually went down to single out. It can be seen that at that time, the force was very admired, and Lü Shang's force value seemed to be not low, so he would be praised by the poet as "Shi Wei Ying Yang", and at the same time let us think: Such a commander who personally killed the enemy on the front line may be an old man with a broken candle?
Apparently not.
The ancient book "Bamboo Book Chronicle" gives a clue: "In the sixth year of King Kang, Prince Taigong of Qi looked forward to death. "King Kang of Zhou is the grandson of King Wu of Zhou, so the elder Lü Shang is actually the elder of the Four Dynasties!" It can be seen that Lü Shang should still be young when King Wu was cutting down the silk. Another clue is that King Wu of Zhou's queen, Yi Jiang, was lü Shang's daughter according to the Jin dynasty emperor Fu Mi and Du Xian. There is also a passage in the Zuo Biography that Lü Ling assisted King Kang of Zhou, and Lü Ling was Lü Shang's son, the second monarch of the State of Qi. There was also Lü Shangfeng who also fought against Dongyi Laihou when he was fengqi. Of course, these records cannot be said to be historical facts, but it is no problem to prove that Lü Shang will not be too old when he enters the Zhou Dynasty.
Since Lü Shang's age was in question, how did he meet King Wen of Zhou? This is to say that Lu Shang's origin.
According to the above, except for Mencius, who says that Lü Shang is the "big man under the heavens", Lü Shang in other historical sources is more miserable than the other. It is hard for us to believe that as a commoner, we would have won the high-ranking official Houlu at the time of the Shang Zhou. At that time, it was still a typical clan society, and the clan was both a social group and a political group. From the perspective of social groups, Lü Shang could not live independently from the clan of "Lü", because at that time it had not yet entered the Iron Age, individual families could not rely on farming to survive, and as for cattle slaughter and trafficking, it was even more impossible, at that time there was no individual business existence, more from the exchange and tribute between clans.
From the perspective of political groups, the patriarch is the head of his clan on the one hand, and on the other hand, he has relations with other clans as his own representative. Lü Shang was able to become the Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty, in addition to his superior ability, more importantly, he himself was a disciple of the Lü clique, and it was even likely that he was the patriarch. Only when he himself was in a prominent position, he had the capital to serve as the supreme military commander of the Zhou Dynasty. The sons of the Warring States all hoped that they could be used by the monarch, which promoted some legends of the promotion of civilians, such as many historical records that Shun, Yi Yin, Fu Shu, Guan Zhong, and Sun Shu'ao were born in a humble background, but in fact, it was unrealistic in the blood clan society.
Portrait of Lu Shang
3. The Taishi Shang Father who heroically killed the enemy in the Battle of Makino
The Lü clique itself is also a Western clan. In the oracle bones, we often see a "Qiang fang" who is hostile to the Shang Dynasty, and many "Qiang people" are also captured by merchants to make human animals. This Qiangfang is located in the West and is the collective name of merchants to Western peoples. The word "Jiang" is derived from "Qiang", the surname Jiang is derived from the name of "Qiang", and the Tianshui Jiang clan where Jiang Wei is located is a local clan. By the Zhou Dynasty, jiang surnames included the princes Qi Guo, Shen Guo, Lü Guo, xu Guo, and the uncivilized Shen Rong and Jiang Rong. The "Chinese Zhou Yuxia" says that Emperor Yao feng Bo yi "zuo si yue kingdom, ordered Hou Bo, gave the surname of Jiang, and the surname of Lü you", and traced the history of the surname Of Jiang and the Lü clan back to the time of Emperor Yao.
The Zhou were originally an obscure tribe, and the origin of the Zhou people cannot be determined so far. However, after The Emperor Tai's father moved from Qi to Qi, the strength of the Zhou people increased by leaps and bounds. King Wen was the grandson of King Tai. Therefore, some historians such as Mr. Xu Zhongshu speculated: "Gong Qi's father moved from Yingdi to ZhouYuan, intermarried with the Jiang people, and the Zhou people accepted the higher agriculture of their mother's family from then on, and only then did they develop into a highly developed agricultural country." King Tai's wife Tai Jiang is a woman surnamed Jiang, and the Zhou people also say that the mother of the first ancestor Hou Ji is called Jiang Yuan, so Ji Jiang may have intermarried earlier, and the two clans have intermarried for generations, somewhat similar to the relationship between the Yelü clan and the Xiao clan of the Liao Dynasty.
This also involves the issue of Lu Shang's place of origin. According to many historical sources such as the "Family of Qi Taigong", Lü Shang lived on the coast of the East China Sea, which is today's Shandong people. The Northern Wei Dynasty Daoyuan's "Notes on the Water Classics" says that Lü Shang's former residence was in Ji County, which is today's Weihui, Henan, which may be the legendary residence of Lü Shangliu, not the birthplace. However, according to the above analysis, Lü Shang was born in the Western Jiang ethnic group, so his place of origin should be in today's Shaanxi Province, up to the western part of Henan and the southern part of Shanxi. Historical records say that Lü Shang lived in Qidi, when it was influenced by Lü Shang's sealing in the State of Qi, and shandong had the most legends about him during the Warring States Qin and Han Dynasties.
Now let's restore the situation at that time, the Ji surname and the Jiang surname were married for several generations, and by the time of King Wen of Zhou, the most outstanding person in the Jiang surname group was Lü Shang, the patriarch of the Lü clan, so Lü Shang served as the Zhou Dynasty taishi at the same time as the king of the Lü state. His status as a Taishi came from his intellect on the one hand, and from the strength of the Lü clan he belonged to on the other hand. In the Battle of Makino, Lü Shang took the lead and soared like a goshawk in the battlefield. His image is more of a prime-age samurai than an elderly courtier. His bravery played a key role in Makino's victory. Of course, Lü Shang was able to serve as a taishi, definitely more than a warrior, and later generations should have a prototype for his strategy.
Map of the Spring and Autumn State of Qi
After King Wen of Zhou returned to Zhou from Qili, he and Lü Shang planned to destroy the Shang Dynasty. According to the Shuoyuan, Lü Shang on the one hand advised King Wen to practice benevolent government in order to bring the world back to his heart; on the other hand, he suggested that King Wen attack disobedient princes, such as the Mishu clan disobeying Zhou and being destroyed first. It is Lu Shang's policy of carrots and sticks that has formed a situation of "three points in the world, and two of them return to Zhou". After King Wen's death, Lü Shang continued to assist his son-in-law King Wu.
The "On Balance" records that before the King of Wu cut the silk, the King of Wu had divination, but the result was a great murderer, and when he was hesitating, Lü Shang thought that "the dead bones and dead grass, He Zhi Ji Was fierce", and insisted on sending troops; later, the Zhou army crossed the river from Mengjin and encountered the nine-headed monster Cang Wu, the soldiers were intimidated, and Lü Shang was not moved, and still affirmed the march. Lü Shang was able to judge the hour and size up the situation, as the "Liutao Military Posture" said, "Those who are good at war, see the benefits and do not lose, and do not doubt when they encounter the time." Lü Shang may also have engaged in counter-insurgency work, "Sun Tzu" says "Zhou Zhixingye, Lü Ya is in Yin", "Xunzi" says "Lü Shang recruited Yin Minhuai", and the Shang army collapsed at the first touch of the Battle of Muye, which may also be related to Lü Shang's activities.
Fourth, the historical Lü Shang went to the mythical Jiang Ziya
The "Records of History" says that after the fall of the Shang Dynasty, King Wu enfeoffed the princes, which is not true. At that time, the Zhou people only captured the hinterland of Yin Shang, and could not rule directly, so King Wu gave Shang's son Wu Geng the rule of control with Wu Wang's younger brothers Guan Shu, Cai Shu, and Huo Shu respectively. King Wu died three years after his death, and at this time the core of the Zhou Dynasty was the three major forces of the Taishi Lü Shang, the Taifu Zhou Gongdan, and the Taibao Zhao Gongyi, representing the three major forces of the foreign relatives Jiang, the Wen Wang's clan, and the old Zhou clan. Duke Zhou was the younger brother of King Wu and was regent due to his closest blood relationship. After that, Wu Geng united with the Three Prisons and Dongyi to rebel, so the Duke of Zhou went on a crusade to the east, sealing Lü Shang to Qi, Zhou Gong to Lu, and Zhao Gong to Yan.
At that time, the division of the seal was quite different from that of later generations, and the later generations were often divided by the emperor to unify the whole country. At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, the division of the feng was more about establishing a military stronghold, and the "Qi Taigong Shijia" said that Lü Shang fought against Dongyi Laihou after sealing Qi. Lü Shang's fiefdom of the State of Qi was the homeland of Pugu, and he also encountered the non-cooperation of the local natives, and the Han Feizi said that Lü Shang killed the madman and the Huashi to deter him. Later, Lü Shang adopted a gentle policy of "simplifying his customs and etiquette" according to local conditions, and stabilized the situation in only three months; while Lu Houbo, the son of the Duke of Zhou, next door, "changed his customs and changed his etiquette", so that it took three years to stabilize the situation. After Zhou Gong knew about it, he also sighed and said, "Lu Hou's northern side is in full swing!"!
There is also a saying that Lü Shang said that the way of Zhiqi was "honoring the sages and shanggong", while Zhou Gong said that the way of Zhilu was "respecting and respecting relatives". Lü Shang therefore said that the national strength of the Lu State was weakened, while the Duke of Zhou sneered that the State of Qi would be usurped by foreign surnames. These words may not be historical facts, but the customs of Qilu and Lu in the Spring and Autumn Period did have great differences, perhaps derived from the different styles of Lü Shang and Zhou Gong Shangwu and Shang Wen. In addition, Lü Shang also adopted the economic policy of "connecting industry and commerce, and benefiting from fish and salt", developing industry and commerce in addition to agriculture according to local conditions, and later Qi Huan became the first hegemon of the Spring and Autumn Period, which was unrelated to Lü Shang's founding policy.
"Fengshen Yanyi" book shadow
Why is it that the Ruler of the State of Lu is Bo Bird and not the Duke of Zhou? Because although the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Zhao were fenglu and Yan, they were still assisted by Zong Zhou, and the feudal state was actually governed by the eldest son. Therefore, Lü Shang was actually expelled from the political hub by the Ji clique. Later, the Duke of Zhou was replaced by the Duke of Zhao, so later the Duke of Zhao appointed Lü Shang as the head of the Eastern Princes by the order of the Son of Heaven, the so-called "East to the sea, west to the river, south to MuLing, north to Wudi, the fifth marquis and nine uncles, and shi de zhengzhi". However, lü Shang was still buried in the West after his death, and the Book of Rites said that "Taigong was sealed in Yingqiu, and Bi and V were buried in Zhou", which Mr. Lü Simian believes is also evidence that Lü Shang came from the West.
Because the land of Qilu has always been the cultural center of the Zhou Dynasty, the State of Qi during the Warring States period even built the Jixia Xuegong. Therefore, the historical figures of the State of Qi, such as Lü Shang, Guan Zhong, and Yan Bao, have also been given more legendary colors, and in fact, scholars have also tried to sell their own doctrines. The "Family of Qi Taigong" says that Lü Shang proposed many ingenious schemes, which were regarded as ancestors by later generations of military strategists and military conspirators. The Book of Han and Yiwenzhi has two hundred and thirty-seven taigong articles, which no longer exist; the surviving "Taigong Liutao" is included in the Sui Shu Jingshu and may be a forgery of the Six Dynasties; even if it is not a forgery, it should only be a togu work of the Warring States Qin and Han.
By the Tang Dynasty, Lü Shang was included in the state ceremony, and Emperor Suzong of Tang made Lü Shang the King of Wucheng (not Huang Feihu), and Confucius the King of Wenxuan was established as the Second Saint of Wenwu. Later, Emperor Zhenzong of Song was crowned king of Zhaolie Wucheng, and during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song, the Liutao was included in the Seven Books of the Book of Wujing and became a compulsory bibliography of martial arts. The Yuan Dynasty's "Wu Wang Fa Shu Ping Dialect" is the predecessor of the "Fengshen Yanyi", but its content is relatively plain, and the color of gods and demons is less. The Ming people absorbed the story of Emperor Xuan's collection of demons and further transformed it, so that they had the "Fengshen Yanyi", and Jiang Ziyadi thus became a bridge between the mythical world and the historical world.
bibliography:
Gu Jiegang: "Taigong Wangnian Shou"
Li Yihui: "Examination of the Evolution of the Fengshen Gods"
Yang Junru: "The Nation of Jiang and the Story of Jiang Taigong"
Yang Kuan: History of the Western Zhou Dynasty
Warring Army: "Character History of the State of Qi"
Zhou Shucan: "On the Issue of Jiang Taigong's Life, Origin and Longevity——— and on the Ambiguity of Ancient History Research"