As we all know, the Song Dynasty was a dynasty that attached great importance to the rule of civilization, and the rulers learned the lessons of the demise of the Tang Dynasty, suppressed the development of military generals, and attached importance to the rule of the world by civilians. But the rulers of every dynasty immediately won the world, and the Song Dynasty was no exception. Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, was born as a military general, and before becoming a military general, Zhao Kuangyin was also a chivalrous guest who walked the rivers and lakes, serving people for righteousness and fighting grievances.
According to legend, Zhao Kuangyin's martial arts are very high, and even the most classic Shaolin boxing technique in the Shaolin Temple was created by him. The full name of this set of Shaolin boxing techniques is "Song Taizu Thirty-two Long Fists", also known as "Taizu Fist". When Zhao Kuangyin ended his chivalrous life and officially became an officer, he summarized what he had learned in his life and created this set of martial arts in combination with the actual conditions of the battlefield.
Later, Zhao Kuangyin developed and became an emperor, and his original subordinates openly publicized this set of martial arts and taught it in the folk. At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, in order to revitalize the Shaolin Fist Technique, the abbot of the Shaolin Temple invited the major martial arts masters in the martial arts to come and practice martial arts, and the "Taizu Fist" was also in the invited team. After that, the host watched each martial art, learned from each other's strengths, and carefully compiled them into the "Shaolin Fist Score".
This is the origin of Shaolin Boxing, and the "Taizu Long Fist" in Jin Yong's novel is from the "Shaolin Fist Spectrum".
Zhao Kuangyin married at the age of eighteen, and three years later, he bid farewell to his wife and began his chivalrous life. However, a year before Zhao Kuangyin went out to go on a rampage, the Khitan army not only attacked the capital of later Jin, Kaifeng, but also captured the later Jin emperor Shi Chonggui. Later, the Later Jin Dynasty withdrew from the historical stage, and the Khitan clan established a new dynasty in Kaifeng, known as the "Liao State".
However, the courtiers of the Later Jin Dynasty did not despair, and they established a new dynasty in Jinyang, known in history as the "Later Han", and the founder of the dynasty was Liu Zhiyuan. However, the Khitans did not gain a foothold in Kaifeng, because their monarch Yelü Deguang burned and plundered everywhere, committing public anger and being driven out by the people of the Central Plains. Later, Liu Zhiyuan took the opportunity to occupy Kaifeng, and after Liu Zhiyuan's death, his son Liu Chengyou succeeded to the throne.
As we all know, Kaifeng is Zhao Kuangyin's hometown, and Zhao Kuangyin's father, Zhao Hongyin, was also an officer in the Later Han court. After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the world fell into chaos, and various local forces competed to divide and conquer the world. Therefore, at that time, the establishment of dynasties and the overthrow of dynasties were very common things, and the people often suffered from various wars. In that case, the officer was the most popular profession, they had enough salaries in their hands, and they were not afraid of bullying by any force. As a result, officers' families are generally more substantial.
When he was young, Zhao Hongyin was just a prodigal son wandering the rivers and lakes. Once, in order to avoid heavy snow, he hid in front of Dujiazhuang on the outskirts of Luoyang. And when the servants of Dujiazhuang saw this strong man in distress, they not only did not dislike him, but also invited him into the house and entertained him with good wine and good dishes. In addition, his luck was also good, and he was favored by the owner of Dujiazhuang and became the son-in-law of the owner. After that, Zhao Hongyin became the husband of the fourth daughter of the Du family, and the two fell in love with each other and gave birth to three boys and two girls.
After the death of the eldest son, the remaining two sons were Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Kuangyi, who became Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong of the Northern Song Dynasty, respectively. According to legend, there is a small pond in front of Dujiazhuang, known as "Double Dragon Tan", which seems to indicate that there will be two emperors in Dujiazhuang, and this is also the case.
Then, why did Zhao Kuangyin, who came from an officer's family, go out to be a chivalrous guest?
Some people believe that Zhao Hongyin is unwilling to arrange a position for his son because of his unsuccessful career.
Actually, this is not the case.
Zhao Hongyin has been in this industry for many years and knows the situation well. If he immediately arranged his son into the military camp, Zhao Kuangyin must start from the soldiers, so it is difficult to have a good future. He believes that instead of this, it is better to let him go out and break in, maybe he can meet noble people and escort his future.
At that time, there was a novel called "Zhao Taizu Feilong", which recorded Zhao Kuangyin's situation when he was a child. When he was a child, he was naughty, did not like to read, and often worked against his parents. Since he was a child, he liked to hang out with the prodigal sons on the streets, often planning to do something illegal. Therefore, Zhao Hongyin was very angry and wanted to break off the father-son relationship with Zhao Kuangyin.
The description of this novel is very much in line with the situation at that time: Zhao Kuangyin ran away from home because his family relationship was frozen. This is like the plot in "Water Margin": the good man of Liangshan was forced by this world to be cornered, and could only fall into the grass and become an outlaw. However, Zhao Kuangyin's younger brother Zhao Kuangyi is different from him, he likes to read, and he is very hardworking, and is the image of a "good child" in the hearts of his parents.
Zhao Kuangyin is tall, open-minded, and most importantly, strong in martial arts. After he left his hometown, he broke out of the world on the rivers and lakes and left many legendary stories. In the end, these stories were put on the stage of performance.
In fact, in metropolises like Kaifeng and Hangzhou in the Song Dynasty, there are entertainment venues in the city, which are called "tiles" by locals. There are many stages dedicated to performance in the tiles, and the stages vary in size to supply different performance needs. In addition, there are many performance projects inside the tile, including dances, songs, dramas, storytelling, etc., which attract many people.
Dramas on stage to tell stories began to rise from the middle of the Song Dynasty, and their contents are not only "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the customs and customs of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, but also some celebrity stories. Through his own skills, the play brings the audience into the immersive scene, so that the audience can see the excitement and inexhaustibility. Later, these stories not only added marriage stories, demons and ghosts, and Qingguan judgments, but also told novels such as "Water Margin" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". And there are many story books preserved today, such as: "The New Compilation of the Five Dynasties of Shi Ping dialect", "Jingben Popular Novel" and so on.
However, the "Tale of Zhao Taizu's Flying Dragon" has been lost. At the time, the book was a best-seller, and in a Chinese textbook dedicated to North Koreans, the Commentary on Park Tong's Affairs, there was a dialogue: "I went to the market to buy books, and Bought the Tale of the Flying Dragon of Cho Tae-tae and Journey to the West." ”
In addition, there is a reading book that records the story of Zhao Kuangyin's heroic deeds and righteousness, as well as "Zhao Taizu Sends Jing Niang thousands of miles".
The book records that Zhao Kuangyin was a warrior who would draw his sword to help him when he saw the road unevenly, and he was highly skilled in martial arts and could defeat thousands of people. Because, he ran into trouble in Kaifeng, and had to run away from home to start his own wandering life. Along the way, Zhao Kuangyin will surely punish local bullies and rule them obediently. When he came to Taiyuan, he met his uncle Zhao Jingqing.
Zhao Jingqing became a Taoist priest at the local QingyouGuan, and he left Zhao Kuangyin in the Guanzhong for a few days. Later, Zhao Kuangyin met a beautiful girl in the view, and when he inquired, he realized that she had been robbed here by thieves, and now he did not dare to go back by himself. Zhao Kuangyin sympathized with the girl's plight, so he took the initiative to shoulder the task of escorting her home. On the way, they encounter thieves who robbed the girl, and Zhao Kuangyin beat them back and safely escorted the girl home.
The girl's parents were very happy to see her return, warmly entertained Zhao Kuangyin, and left him behind. After that, the old couple expressed their willingness to marry their daughter to him, but Zhao Kuangyin politely refused and got up to leave. The old couple felt that they could not understand: the two accompanied each other all the way, walked thousands of miles, the relationship must be unusual, why did this strong man abandon his daughter and go away? Immediately, the old couple thought that Zhao Kuangyin was a ruthless and unrighteous person.
Moreover, they also scolded their daughter and forced her to tell her about their relationship. The girl said that Zhao Kuangyin was a righteous gentleman, and the relationship between the two was very normal, but her parents did not believe it. Later, in order to prove the pure friendship between the two, the girl chose to commit suicide.
A Japanese scholar has studied these stories specifically, and in his opinion, these stories mainly show that the rulers of the Song Dynasty did not covet women. Although the Song Dynasty was in many ways inferior to the powerful Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, the rulers' cleanliness and self-improvement were incomparable to those of the rulers of the previous two dynasties. Moreover, in the opera, Zhao Kuangyin is a heroic figure holding a stick, and even a brother with the rogues in the streets and alleys.
Perhaps, everyone feels that the image in the opera does not match the history, but in fact, it is consistent, and this image has also been recognized by many historians. In addition, after Zhao Kuangyin became emperor, the historians intended to maintain his image, so they retained his bold habits when he was a ranger, and removed the scene of mixing with the rogues in the city. Moreover, his lavish habits determine many of his behaviors, including making decisions at the wine table, micro-service private visits, etc.
It can be said that these are all habits left over from the early years and are difficult to change for a while.
Resources:
["Song Shi Vol. 1 , Benji No. 1 " Song Shi Taizu Ji I " , "Compilation of Anecdotes of the Song People"]