The nobles we can see now include the William family of the British royal family, the Japanese emperor family, etc., which represent honor and elegance, which are the envy of countless people. However, few people have heard of who is aristocrat in China, is that because China has not had an aristocracy since ancient times? The answer is definitely not, there were aristocrats in ancient China, but with the development of history, the group of Chinese aristocrats gradually disappeared, replaced by the Hao family, a word difference, but the meaning is very different! Because the Hao represent only the dignity of money and power, not the personality and spiritual dignity represented by the nobility. So, how did the Chinese aristocracy fall? Or who was the last nobleman in China?
British royal family
To answer this question, first clarify a few questions:
1. What is the spirit of nobility?
The spirit of nobility should have three important pillars.
1) Cultural upbringing, resisting the temptation of materialism, not taking pleasure as the purpose of life, cultivating noble moral sentiments and cultural spirit, so ancient wars are not called wars with modern eyes, at best they are sports competitions. In the Spring and Autumn Period, war is to pay attention to etiquette, before the war, the two sides must issue a war book, agree on the time and place of the battle, if the other side has something inconvenient, hang up the "no war card", you can not fight again. In 597 BC, the Jin and Chu states broke out at the Battle of Wu. The Jin state could not work together, and the infighting continued, and the Chu state seized the opportunity to break them one by one. When retreating, many of the Jin state's chariots fell into the mud pit and could not be dragged out, which greatly delayed the speed of the withdrawal, and after the Chu people caught up, they did not use knives and guns, but used to guide the Jin army how to dig pits, throw heavy objects, and remove the horizontal wood in front of the car, after the Jin army got out of the predicament, the Chu people laughed and ridiculed the Jin people for having time to play often, and the Jin people turned back while driving the car and said: "I am not as good as the number of big countries running" (we are not as experienced as your country's escape).
2) Social responsibility, as a social elite, strict self-discipline, cherish honor, support vulnerable groups, and assume social and national responsibilities. For example, in the Spring and Autumn Period, civilians were not allowed to go to the battlefield, they participated in the war but did not fight, mainly responsible for carrying luggage, feeding horses, cooking and other logistical work. The combat mission was performed by the soldier, that is, the lowest adult aristocratic man, called "warrior". When fighting on the battlefield, it is also necessary to pay attention to etiquette, not to fight blindly, the basic combat unit is "one ride", a chariot, equipped with more than twenty infantry, representing a most basic aristocratic unit. Among them, there are three personnel on the chariot, the royal hand is responsible for driving, is the nobleman's courtier, the archer is the nobleman himself, the halberd is the nobleman's deputy, generally a close family subject, and the infantry who fights with the chariot is served by the noble's slaves. In the battle, the people on the chariot can only fight the people on the chariot, the pawns under the chariot can only fight with the pawns under the other chariot, the shooter on the chariot fights with the other shooter, the halberd and the halberd fight, and the victory or defeat mainly depends on the results of the engagement between the two noble shooters. Therefore, when it is the turn of such a big thing as war, the nobility should not give in.
3) A free soul with an independent will that dares to say no in the face of power and money. Moreover, it has intellectual and moral autonomy, can transcend fashion and trends, and is not enslaved by political power and the opinion of the majority. During the Spring and Autumn Period, taishi gong of the state of Qi truthfully recorded a scandal about Cui Zhu, which provoked Cui Zhu to be furious and killed Taishi. Taishi's two younger brothers, Taishi Zhong and Taishi Uncle, are also truthfully recorded, both killed by Cui Zhu. Cui Zhu told Taishi's third younger brother, TaishiJi, "Your three brothers are dead, aren't you afraid of death?" You should still write it according to my request, TaiShi Ji Zhengse replied, "According to the matter, it is the duty of the historian to write straight, and it is better to survive derelict in duty than to die." Sooner or later, this thing you do will be known to everyone, and even if I don't write it, I can't cover up your guilt, but instead become the laughing stock of eternity." Cui Zhu had nothing to say and had to let him go. Tai Shi Ji walked out and encountered Nan Shi Shi Shi Zhi Jian, who thought that he had also been killed and had come to continue to write about this matter.
This is the standard of aristocratic spirit recognized in China and the West, in the words of Mencius: "The rich and the noble cannot be adulterous, the poor cannot be moved, and the mighty cannot be bent"!
Spring and Autumn Warring States Period
Who was the last nobleman in China?
Since the Spring and Autumn Warring States began to collapse in China, people gradually abandoned the morality of benevolence and righteousness, and adhering to the morality of benevolence and righteousness will suffer failure and will be laughed at. For example, Song Xianggong's aristocratic spirit of "not seriously injuring and not capturing Ermao" embodied in the Battle of Hong. Since then, the aristocratic culture began to crack, until the Qin Empire unified the six kingdoms, and the aristocratic culture began to decline. It was not until the time of the First Emperor's inspection that two people appeared in the crowd, and the history of their development really determined the demise or rise of the aristocratic spirit. The two men at the time let out different exclamations. As a grassroots civil servant, Liu Bang served in Xianyang for a year and saw the frame of Qin Shi Huang's yingzheng. Seeing that the guards were mighty and majestic, the carriages were luxurious, and the peasants were born, he couldn't help but sigh: "Oh, the big husband should be like this!" ”。 Xiang Yu was a nobleman of the Chu State, and seeing such a Qin Shi Huang felt that it was nothing more than that, so he said dismissively: "He will certainly be able to take his place!" ”。 Later generations analyzed that the two said different words often attributed the problem to the difference in personalities of the two people, saying that from here it can be seen that Xiang Yu's rigidity and self-use are cloudy. In fact, the fundamental reason is that the classes represented by the two people are different, Xiang Yu is an aristocrat of the Chu State, as explained above, they are noble with personality and spirit, and naturally they will not look up to the posture of the First Emperor, or do not have too much envy for it. And the subsequent historical story also happened among these two, and their struggle was actually the final struggle of the aristocratic group! Therefore, the development of history has become that either Xiang Yu will win and the Chinese aristocratic culture will continue; or Xiang Yu will fail, and the Chinese aristocratic culture will wither away. In subsequent history, everyone knows that Xiang Yu failed, the Chinese aristocratic culture disappeared, and Xiang Yu became the last nobleman in China.
Xiang Yu
Third, the decline of the Chinese nobility caused Xiang Yu's sorrow
Xiang Yu (232 BC – 202 BC), a descendant of the Zhou dynasty prince xiangguo, was a descendant of the Zhou dynasty princes, with the surname Ji (姬), the Xiang clan (湘氏), the name of the family, the character Yu, and the people of Xiaxiang County, Surabaya County (present-day Suqian, Jiangsu Province). Politician and military figure at the end of the Qin Dynasty, grandson of the famous Chu general Xiang Yan. This is the basic information of Xiang Yu, we all know that Xiang Yu's family is an aristocrat, and Xiang Yu is the representative of the Xiang family, so our analysis of the decline of the Chinese nobility may be able to find clues from the Xiang family and Xiang Yu himself.
1) The splendor of the family
Xiang Yu, as the grandson of the famous Chu general Xiang Yan, had superior conditions since he was a child, receiving an aristocratic education, Xiang Yu was extremely intelligent from an early age, especially in learning the art of war, he had his own unique insights, believing that soldiers are impermanent, and real battles cannot be learned from books, which also laid the foundation for him to fight in a non-formal manner and open up the "military situation" of Chinese military thinking. If there is no accident, he will become a generation of famous generals when he grows up, inheriting the glory of the family, but it may be just that, and there will be no more records of him in future generations. The glory of the Xiang family is also the glory of the aristocratic culture of that era, and if there is no rise of the Qin Empire, perhaps the aristocratic culture will continue for a long time.
2) The decline of the family
In 224 BC, the Qin general Wang Qi personally led an army of 600,000 to attack the State of Chu, and the People of the State of Chu heard that Wang Qi had increased his troops, so they sent all the troops in the country to resist the Qin army. Wang Qi ordered to hold the camp and not to engage the Chu army. Xiang Yan repeatedly challenged the front of the camp, and the Qin army never fought. Every day, Wang Qi let the soldiers rest, wash and enjoy a good diet, comfort and comfort them, and personally eat with them. After the generals had rested, they began to attack Xiang Yan, at which point the Chu army could not engage the Qin army, so they waved their divisions to the east. Wang Qi immediately led the army to chase, causing the brave men to launch a surprise attack and defeat the Chu army, until the south of Pu County, Xiang Yan was killed, the Chu army was defeated and fled, and the Chu state was also destroyed. Since then, the Chu state has fallen, and the Xiang family has also fallen. The victory of the Qin Empire also means the defeat of the Six Kingdoms of Shandong, which means that the Tiger and Wolf Kingdom defeated the other six kingdoms represented by the noble spirit, which is the decline of the nobility.
3) Revival of the family
After the First Emperor unified the Six Kingdoms, he began to build a large number of civil engineering, build the Great Wall, build the Apan Palace, repair the Emperor's Mausoleum, and so on, and the people of the world could only endure in silence when they feared the power of the First Emperor, until The Second Qin Emperor Hu Hai intensified in the morning, and the world suffered for a long time. Daze Township Chen Sheng Wu Guang unveiled the pole, and the world responded. Among them, there was the army of the Xiang family, under the leadership of Xiang Liang, the Chu army was victorious step by step, and slowly played the first role in the rebel army in the world, and the Xiang family at this time had begun to move towards revival. Of course, this is the aristocratic spirit of social responsibility that made the Xiang family go to the anti-Qin road, and also led to the revival of the aristocratic spirit.
Chen Sheng wu guang revolted
4) The family's glory again
The xiang family's glory again is because of Xiang Yu!
Battle of Julu: After Xiang Liang's death, the Qin army crossed the Yellow River north and attacked The Zhao kings Xie and Zhang Er, who rebelled against Qin, and besieged the Zhao army at Julu (julu) (present-day Pingxiang, Hebei). King Huai of Chu appointed Song Yi as a general and Xiang Yu as a second general, and led troops to rescue him. When Song Yi led his army to Anyang (安陽, in present-day southern Anyang, Henan), he cowered and flinched and fought for forty-six days. At that time, the rain was continuous, and the rebel army was short of food and clothing, and it was in a difficult situation. Xiang Yu immediately made a decision, killed Song Yi, forced King Huai of Chu to make him a general, and then marched north to save Zhao. Xiang Yu led his army to the south bank of the Zhanghe River to confront the Qin army. He personally led the main force to cross the river, and with a thunderous momentum, he surrounded the Qin army. Xiang Yu was the first soldier, charged into the battle, nine battles and nine victories, and defeated the Qin army, which solved the siege of the giant deer. After that, Xiang Yu became the actual commander of various rebel armies.
Burn one's ship
Western Chu Overlord: After the Battle of Julu, Xiang Yu relied on strong troops to lead troops into Xianyang, "killed the qin princes and infants, burned the Qin palace, the fire did not extinguish in March, collected its treasures, women and east" ("History • Xiang Yu Benji"), and then established himself as the "Western Chu Overlord", taking Liang, Chujiu Commandery (occupying parts of present-day Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, and Henan), and the capital Pengcheng (present-day Xuzhou, Jiangsu).
Battle of Pengcheng: Liu Bang went out of the Three Qins to Luoyang, and on the pretext that Xiang Yu killed the Yi Emperor Chu Huai, he passed on the princes and vowed to fight Xiang Yu with the princes to avenge the Yi Emperor. Zhao, Wei, Han, Henan, Changshan, and other princes who were dissatisfied with Xiang Yu responded one after another, and for a while gathered 560,000 troops to attack Western Chu in three ways. The northern road Cao Shan, Zhou Bo, Fan Xiao, Dou Bao, and Zhao Jun went out of the dynasty through Dingtao and Huling, and entered Xiao County and Pengcheng; the southern road Wang Ling, Xue Ou, and Wang sucked out Wancheng through Ye County and Yangxia to Pengcheng; the middle route liu Bang personally led Xiahou Bao, Lu Xie, Jin She, Sima Xin, Dong Feng, Sima Yin the King of Yin, Zhang Er the King of Changshan, Wang Shenyang of Henan, Han Wangxin, and Wei Wangbao out of Luoyang through Yongqiu and Suiyang to Pengcheng.
At this time, Xiang Yu led the main force of the Chu army to teach the first State of Qi, which had jumped out to rebel, but had not yet achieved a complete victory, and the interior of Western Chu was empty, and the general Long He and other troops could not resist the combined forces of the princes, and they were gradually defeated and retreated. In April, the combined forces of the princes invaded Pengcheng, Xiang Yu lost the rear and fell into a two-front battle, in order to stabilize the situation, the main force will be left to continue to attack Qi, and he will lead 30,000 horsemen to rush south, the Chu army did not attack on the east and north sides of Pengcheng, which was heavily defended, but went around Xiao County, west of Pengcheng, and raided Liu Bang's rear flank. In the southeast of Xiao County, there was a coalition army of princes, Xiang Yu army arrived in Xiao County overnight, and launched a big battle with the combined forces of the princes, until noon the coalition army collapsed, scrambling to enter Pengcheng, the Chu army pursued and killed, so that the coalition forces trampled on each other, the city gate could not be closed, Liu Bang had to abandon the city and flee, the Chu army killed more than 100,000 allied troops under Pengcheng City. The Chu army continued to pursue the fleeing coalition troops, straight to the edge of Suishui to the east of Lingbi, and the coalition troops fled into Suishui, drowning countless people, and Suishui was cut off. Liu Bang only led more than 10 cavalry to break through.
Battle of Pengcheng
Many people say that it is unwise for Xiang Yu to engage in a sub-feudal system after pacifying the world, but they do not know that there is a deep-seated reason for this, that is, Xiang Yu represents the spirit of nobility, he will not swallow all the fruits of victory alone, he wants the co-rule of all nobles, rather than Liu Bang's set of feudal and autocratic small family of the common people's thinking. At this moment, it also represents the heyday of aristocratic culture.
4) The demise of the family
In 202 BC, Liu Bang launched a general attack on Xiang Yu. Xiang Yu was defeated and besieged by Liu Bang's army.
The first is the embattled song: "Under the wall of the Xiang King's army, the soldiers are few and exhausted, and the Number of Han troops and princes is heavy." Hearing that the Han army was full of songs on all sides, Xiang Wang Nai was shocked: "Han has already obtained Chuhu? It is he Chu people also! ’”。
Then there was the overlord Bieji: "King Xiang rises at night and drinks in the tent." There are beautiful people named Yu, often lucky to follow; horses are famous, often riding. Therefore, King Xiang nai sang a song of sorrow and generosity, and said to himself: "Pull up the mountain and be angry in the world, and the time will not die." If you don't die, you can't help it, and if you don't die, you can't help it!' Song number, beauty and harmony. King Xiang wept for several lines, crying left and right, and could not look up. ”
The third was Xiang Yu's breakthrough: "So King Xiang was on horseback, and more than 800 of his brave men rode from the south, and they rode out of the south at night and galloped away." Ping Ming, the Han army is Juezhi, ordering the horse general to chase him with five thousand horses..."
Finally, Wujiang killed himself: "Then King Xiang wanted to cross the Wujiang River in the east." Wujiang Pavilion was waiting in a long boat, saying that Xiang Wang said: "Although Jiangdong is small, the place is thousands of miles, and there are hundreds of thousands of people. May the king hurry. Now there are ships in the only country, and the Han army has arrived, and there is no way to cross. King Xiang smiled and said, "Heaven is dead to me, what am I going to do!" And since eight thousand of jiangdong's sons and daughters have crossed the river to the west, and now none of them are still there, and the father and brother of Jiangdong have mercy on me and the king and me, how can I see it? If he does not speak, he is not ashamed of his heart?' ...... He died by himself. ”
The Siege of Xiaxia
Since then, the Xiang family has perished. In fact, we look at the fate of the Xiang family as "brilliant, declining, reviving, brilliant again, and dying", which is actually the demise history of the Chinese nobility. And Xiang Yu, as the last noble representative, even if his ability is strong, he cannot stop the wheel of history. Xiang Yu lost to the laws of history, not to the leper emperor Liu Bang. No wonder he could only shout helplessly in the siege of Xiaxia: I am killed on this day, and it is not a crime of war.
"Still thinking about Xiang Yu, refusing to cross Jiangdong", how many literati and inkers have never been stingy about Xiang Yu, because they miss not only the Western Chu Overlord, but also the aristocratic spirit of that era!