The late Tang Dynasty poet Hu Zeng had a poem: "The Guangwu business has not yet developed, and Wang Lang Bingge is relying on the tomb." It should be known that the strength of the Later Han Dynasty is not as good as the Tuotuo piece of ice. The "Guangwu" in this is about Liu Xiu, the founder of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and this poem tells the story of Liu Xiu's crossing of the Tuotuo River during the battle in Hebei. Rendered by generations of literati and rulers, the story became widely known.
【Wang Lang catches Liu Xiu】
In October 23, Emperor Liu Xuan appointed Liu Xiu as a general to come to Hebei. At this time, Liu Xiu was facing not only a miscellaneous army and a strong enemy from all over the place, he was Wang Lang who was entrenched in Handan City.
Portrait of Liu Xiu
When Liu Xiu first arrived, Liu Lin, a member of the Han Dynasty clan, supported Wang Lang of Handan City as emperor, and falsely claimed that he was Liu Ziyou, the illegitimate son of Liu Xiao, the emperor of Hancheng. Wang Lang gained power and announced to the outside world that those who received Liu Xiu's first rank could be rewarded with 100,000 households, which made many people salivate.
For a time, Liu Xiu became a wanted criminal. This is quite a bit of the goblin in "Journey to the West" vying to arrest Tang Monk for eating meat. In Hebei folk, the story of Wang Lang sending people to arrest Liu Xiu is known as "Wang Lang chasing Liu Xiu".
In the first month of 24 AD, Liu Xiu went all the way south, and the weather was cold and cold, and he wanted to eat and sleep in the wind, which made the young Liu Xiu miserable. The Book of the Later Han Dynasty and the Chronicle of the Guangwu Emperor (Part I) once recorded that "morning and night, frost and snow, cold weather, and cracked faces", the cold weather was not enough, and the Tuotuo River flowing through Jizhong blocked everyone's way.
【Liu Xiudu River】
In the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty, the Biography of Wang Ba" recorded the story of Liu Xiu's crossing of the river in more detail. The book said that wang lang was rumored to be chasing after the soldiers in the army, which made everyone panic. Liu Xiu asked his men to go to the Tuotuo River to check it out, and came back to report that the river was soupy and there were no boats to cross, and uneasiness spread among the soldiers. Liu Xiu was not in a hurry, and he sent a capable general, Wang Ba, to let him check again. Wang Ba came to the river, only to see that the river water still did not change. He knew that if he reported it according to the truth, it would make the army unstable, so he lied that the river could cross the river if it froze.
Liu Xiu led everyone to the river, and the river was miraculously frozen. The crowd crossed the river, and when the last cavalry crossed the river, the river magically thawed, and the Tuotuo River returned to its turbulent state. According to the records of the "Biography of Wang Ba", Liu Xiu's crossing of the river occurred on the way from Xiaquyang (the county rule was in present-day Gucheng Village, Jinzhou City, Shijiazhuang) to Shenzhou, and the crossing of the river was most likely in the area of present-day Jinzhou.
In the Qing Dynasty Gu Zuyu's "Minutes of Reading the History of Fang Public Opinion, Beizhi (V)", it is recorded that the "frozen river head" in Jinzhou is the place where the story of crossing the river takes place.
After crossing the Tuotuo River, Wang Ba and Liu Xiu did not forget to "blow each other commercially". Liu Xiu said that it is your credit for all of us to cross the river safely. Wang Ba replied, This is the god protecting you, and it is your benevolence that has touched the heavens.
However, the Book of Continuation of the Han Dynasty by Sima Biao of the Western Jin Dynasty reveals another detail of the river crossing: "When the ice is slippery and the horse is stiff, it is each with a sac to hold the sand, and the cloth is on the ice." The cavalry was the elite unit at that time, and because they were afraid of being injured by the war horses, they used sand to spread on the river to prevent slippage to cross the river. So the question is, where is the sand in the cold environment? Where did the cloth wrapped around the horseshoe come from?
Liu Xiu's troops could not have taken the sand on their own expedition, and the most reasonable explanation was that the sand was dug by the river. According to this inference, Liu Xiu had sufficient time to prepare for crossing the river, and if Wang Lang was eager to chase after the soldiers, then Liu Xiu had no time to prepare. It is conceivable that the situation when Liu Xiu crossed the river was indeed not so critical, and the rumored Wang Lang pursuing soldiers did not appear from beginning to end.
The history books do not explain the distance from Liu Xiu's station to the river and the time of coming and going, and in the process of Wang Ba's return from the river to the station, because the temperature plummeted, the river was likely to suddenly freeze. After arriving at the river, everyone did not hurry to prepare the materials for crossing the river, and after a long period of crossing the river, the river water thawed due to the warm weather. In fact, this is a very normal natural phenomenon, and it is only because the author has compressed the time and geographical spatial distance of the frozen time on the river in accordance with the principle of thrift due to the limited space of the book, that it has been interpreted into a supernatural phenomenon.
After Liu Xiu successfully crossed the river, he said to the crowd: "The king hegemony is to help things, and the heavens are also destroyed", which means that the freezing and thawing of the river is the auspicious rui of heaven. In the context of the danger encountered by Liu Xiu Group and the inability to unify internal thinking, Liu Xiu wanted to take the opportunity to hype the illusion of heavenly blessings, so that everyone believed that he had received help from mysterious forces from the outside world and was a hero who could achieve great things. This is of great benefit to strengthening internal unity.
【The Story of Liu Xiu's Crossing the River】
This normal natural phenomenon of freezing and thawing on the river was hyped up because Liu Xiu eventually became the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the process of such a story being spread, the upper-class rulers wanted to convince the people that Liu Xiu was able to get out of danger with the help of heaven at the time of doom, which made the story itself endowed with a certain magical color.
At the turn of the two Song Dynasties, Emperor Gaozong of Song, who was bent on becoming emperor, also took Liu Xiu as an example and repeatedly publicized Liu Xiu's magic of crossing the river in Hebei, yituan himself and Liu Xiu were also the lords of Zhongxing, and won the hearts and minds of him and finally ascended the throne to create public opinion. In 1169 AD, when the Southern Song Dynasty envoy Lou Key passed through Zhending Province (present-day Zhengding County, Shijiazhuang), there was a record that "there was Kailing Village on the side of the (Tuotuo) River, crossing the river with Guangwu, not necessarily counting the cars and falling into ice, and it is said that the river ice was demolished with the car, hence the name". This shows that as early as the 12th century, there were already villages in Hebei that got the name of Liu Xiudu River, which shows how far-reaching the influence of such stories is.
【Villages in Hebei because of Liu Xiu's crossing of the river】
In the context of the great migration in the early Ming Dynasty, the people of Hebei accelerated the spread of Liu Xiu's story with the regional flow of immigrants and word of mouth. At the time of the establishment of the new village, everyone was also keen to attach the story of Liu Xiu to add historical and cultural connotations to the new village, so that there were many villages in the land of Hebei because Of Liu Xiu crossed the river.
To some extent, this reflects the people's love for Liu Xiu, the good emperor, and also shows how eager the people of feudal society are in their hearts to have an emperor who attaches importance to people's livelihood and let them live a peaceful and stable life.
Today, there are many villages along the Tuotuo River in Hebei Province, where Liu Xiu crossed the river. These include Kujing Village in Lingshou County, Shijiazhuang, Frozen Hetou Village in Jinzhou City, Shijiazhuang, South, North, and Zhongluoling Villages in Shijiazhuang's Luquan District, and East and West Lingjie Villages in Hengshui Shenzhou City. In addition, Taipingzhuang Village in Zhengding County, Shijiazhuang and Lingtuo Village in Chang'an District of Shijiazhuang are also related to this story.
In May 2016, on the north bank of the Tuotuo River in the south of Taipingzhuang in Zhengding County, a cultural landscape of "Liu Xiudu River" was established to commemorate the event, adding a new scenery to the ancient city. Lingtuo Village also explained the connection between the village name and Liu Xiu's story at the entrance of the village. In the new historical period, the story of Liu Xiu's crossing of the river still spreads a different kind of brilliance on the land of Hebei.
The relevant references and citations of this article: "Later Han Shu Guangwu Emperor Ji (Part 1)", "Later Han Shu Wang Ba Biography", "Reading the History of Fang Public Opinion Minutes , Beizhi (V)".
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