Short version of Liu Bang's evaluation:
"Historical Records Suoyin" written by Sima Zhen of the Tang Dynasty summarizes his life as:
"The Emperor Gaozu started from the beginning, starting from his disciples" . The name is Pei Gong. The Xiang family was ordered to abandon the treaty.
The king of Bashu was really angry. The Three Qin Dynasties moved to the north, and the five soldiers came to the east.
The palace was built in Xianyang. He spread his power all over the world and returned the song to the great wind."
Ruan Ji from the Jin Dynasty objected to Liu Bang: "There are no heroes at that time, so Zhuzi became famous!"
After Liu Bang's death, all the officials said: "The Emperor Gaozu set things right in order to bring order to the troubled times. He was the Taizu of the Han Dynasty and had the highest merit." Promote benefits and eliminate harm, and continue the work of the Five Emperors and Three Emperors to govern China. There are hundreds of millions of people in China, and the country is thousands of miles away. ”
Sima Qian commented on Liu Bang: “Therefore, he is a great man in the world. This is the so-called great sage. Who can be the emperor after receiving this order?
Long version:
Sima Qian recorded: "The great ancestor was a man... benevolent and loving. "[6] This kind of benevolence and love for others can be seen everywhere in historical materials: it was first reflected in the imprisonment on the way to Xianyang for the government. Then it was shown in the initial reluctance to accept the post of Pei Ling. Liu Ji said: " The world is in turmoil, the princes have risen together, and the generals who have been appointed now are not good, and everything is in ruins. If I don't dare to love myself, I'm afraid I won't be able to fulfill my father's, brother's and children's needs. For this important matter, I would like to make more recommendations. "[7] Note that Liu Bang's Ci is the leader, which is different from Cao Shen and Xiao He's Ci. The most typical one is to enter the pass to destroy Qin, and make a three-part agreement with the Qin people to remove all Qin laws and not be rewarded by the Qin people; and in the seventh year of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang attacked Han Wangxin and returned to Xianyang. "Seeing that the palace palace was very strong, he was angry and said Xiao He said: The Xiongxiong in the world have been fighting hard for several years, and the success or failure is unknown. How can the palace be over-controlled? [8] Finally, after the twelfth year of his stay in the Han Dynasty, his father stayed to drink. Liu Bang said: "We have many people, and my father and brother cannot give me anything." "[9] He does not want to disturb the elders in his hometown too much, showing his deep sympathy for the people in his hometown. All of this is not a show, but comes from sincerity.
Speaking of Liu Bang's benevolence. My dear, it may be necessary to make a comparison with people's evaluation of Xiang Yu at that time. Xiao He said: "Wang Su is arrogant and rude, and now he is like calling a child's ear. "[10] Han Xin said: "When King Xiang saw people, he was respectful and kind, but his words were vomiting, and when people were sick, he cried and shared food and drink. When it comes to making people meritorious and be ennobled, the seal will be cheated and I can't bear to grant it. This is the so-called benevolence of women. "[11] Chen Ping said: "King Xiang is a man of respect and love, and most of the scholars who are honest and courteous will return to him. As for the meritorious service and the title of nobility, it is important, and the scholars do not attach it to it. Today, the king is slow and disrespectful, and no one with integrity will come. However, if the king can spare people and grant them titles, most of the scholars who are stubborn, greedy for profit and shameless will return to the Han Dynasty. Sincerely remove the two shortcomings and attack the two strong points, and the world will be under your command, then it will be settled. However, the king willfully insults others and cannot win honest people. "[12] Li Shiqi said: The king of Han "collected the troops of the world and established the princes behind him. When you surrender to the city, you will serve the generals, and when you get bribes, you will divide the soldiers. You will share the benefits with the world, and all the heroes and talents will be happy to use them. ... King Xiang has the reputation of double the promise, and it is the fault of killing the Righteous Emperor. No one's merits will be remembered, no one's sins will be forgotten. If you win without being rewarded, if you conquer a city without being granted a title, no one except Xiang will be able to use it. It is engraved for others, but cannot be taught. If you attack a city, you will get bribes, but if you accumulate it, you will not be rewarded. The wise and talented people in the world complain about them but do not use them. Therefore, all the people in the world belong to the King of Han, and they can sit down and make decisions. [13] Gao Qi and Wang Ling said: "Your Majesty is arrogant and insulting, but Xiang Yu is kind and loving." However, your majesty sent people to attack the city and seize the territory, and those who surrendered were given it, which would benefit the whole world. "[14] The above remarks are actually about the way to treat others, rather than love for others. Even so, we can still see the essential difference between Liu and Xiang. Liu benefits the world, while Xiang benefits only one person.
These three are all outstanding people, and I can use them. This is why I conquer the world. Xiang Yu had a fan that increased and could not be used. This is why I captured him. "[18] Because Liu Bang commented like this, future generations often think that Liu Bang gets too much credit from others. Therefore, this issue needs to be discussed. Although the contributions of the above three people are not small, they were all achieved under Liu Bang's leadership. For example, in his early years, Zhang Liang received the help of Xiang Liang and led more than a thousand soldiers to conquer Han. Every city he captured was immediately taken away by the Qin army. Of course, Zhang Liang definitely had his strengths. History records that Liu Bang used him. It is also certain that there will be some bad ideas that were not adopted by Liu Bang and were omitted from the historical records. Liu Bang was not good at what Xiao He did. It should be said that Liu Bang's evaluation of Xiao He was fair. Yes, but Sima Qian commented on Xiao He and said: "Why was Xiao Xiangguo a swordsman and pen official in the Qin Dynasty? When the Han Dynasty prospered, at the end of the sun and the moon, how could we keep the key? Because of the illness of the people, the Qin Dynasty followed the current and changed it. "[19] This shows that Xiao He's achievements were achieved with Liu Bang's trust. Han Xin originally came to join the King of Han alone. Although his military exploits were great, he did not fight Xiang Yu head-on alone. Is his combat ability definitely higher than Liu Bang's? , and higher than Xiang Yu, we cannot simply draw a conclusion, but Liu Bang is not famous for his combat, and history has underestimated his ability. In fact, his ability was very strong. It could not be pacified without Liu Bang's personal action. During the war against Qin, Han Xin had not yet joined Liu Bang's camp, but Liu Bang could still win consecutive victories against Qin. Zhang Liang said that using troops was a gift from heaven, which shows that Liu Bang's military ability is quite high. Because Liu Bang did not care about his own achievements, he praised the three heroes completely out of his heart, and it was also consistent with everyone's evaluation of him: "He can spare others and give him lordships" and "He can make people attack cities and seize territory, so he can give them to those who surrender, and share them with the world." "With the same benefit" and "Subject to the city, you will be able to retain the generals, and if you get bribes, you will be divided among the soldiers, which is consistent with the same benefits as the world."
Evaluation of Liu Bang
Since Sima Qian Later, Liu Bang, the founder of the Han Dynasty, was not highly regarded for his personality. Even when Liu Bang's achievements were highly praised, they only said that he saved the people from fire and water, but did not criticize Liu Bang's entire character. It may have started when Ruan Ji ascended the Guangwu battlefield and lamented that "there are no heroes in the world who made Zhuzi famous" [1]. After "Houhei Xue" became popular, the word Liu Bang has become synonymous with bad character, and it has not changed yet. These views that deny Liu Bang's character also come from "Historical Records" and should be said to be at least partially true. However, this situation is contradictory, because great achievements come from low character, which is not only unreasonable, but also factually unreasonable. It is extremely unlikely that if Liu Bang's achievements are great, his character must also be great. Sima Qian calls him a great sage. "Historical Records" "No false beauty, no hidden evil", [2] is basically the conclusion drawn from Sima Qian's description of Liu Bang, that is, Sima Qian's praise of Liu Bang is based on facts; no hidden evil. , even though Sima Qian admired Liu Bang's achievements, he did not avoid and conceal his shortcomings. As a result, later generations often ignored Sima Qian's true beauty, and paid special attention to his unconcealed evil. In fact, for a ruler like Liu Bang who established the first stable dynasty in Chinese history, it is difficult to simply evaluate his personal qualities as good or bad. We should look at the mainstream, that is, the overall situation. Performance. Sima Qian's conclusion is based on the product of the mainstream. When we evaluate Liu Bang's character today, we should also evaluate it from a historical perspective, that is, from the perspective of Sima Qian, in order to draw a true conclusion about his character.
1. Basis of Sima Qian’s evaluation
What is Sima Qian’s point of view? It is what he said in "The Book of Praise to the Great Ancestor": "Xia Zhizhi is loyal to the government, and the villain is loyal to the emperor." Wild, so the Yin people inherited it and respected it. Respect me as a villain, so the people of Zhou Dynasty inherited it with literature. My writing is a villain, so nothing can save me more than loyalty. If the path of the three kings is cyclical, it will end and begin again. Between Zhou and Qin, it can be said that culture was in decline. If Qin's government does not change, wouldn't it be unfair to have anti-torture laws? Therefore, when the Han Dynasty prospered, it was easy to change, and it made people tireless and won the rule of heaven.
"This conclusion of Sima Qian seems to have too much fatalistic color, and it seems outdated today more than two thousand years later. There are many people who object to this or disapprove of it. But as a serious historian, Sima Qian The conclusions drawn through thousands of years of historical investigation will not lose their reasonable content because they are not in line with modern people's appetites or lack a sense of the times. In a sense, Sima Qian's profound understanding of the inherent laws of history , much wiser than most of us today. In Sima Qian's view, what Liu Bang did was "loyalty", as "Historical Records of Justice" said: "The Han people inherited the harsh laws of Qin and made three chapters. On the contrary, he will be loyal to the government, make the people tireless, and gain the rule of heaven. Therefore, Tai Shigong quoted the rites and praised this, saying that Gao Zu was able to change Qin Dynasty and make the people peaceful. "If you refer to the "Preface to the Moon Table between Qin and Chu", Sima Qian's meaning will become clearer. He said: "In the past, when Yu and Xia were prosperous, they had accumulated good deeds for decades. They had good moral ties with the people, took charge of administrative affairs, and studied To the heaven, and then to the throne. The kings of Tang and Wu, from Qi and Houji, practiced benevolence and righteousness for more than ten years. Unexpectedly, they met the eight hundred princes of Mengjin. They thought it was not possible, and then committed suicide. The Qin Dynasty started as Duke Xiang, and under the leadership of Wen, Miao, Xian and Xiao, it gradually encroached on the six kingdoms for more than a hundred years. It is difficult to unify Ruos if you use virtue as good as others and use such force. Since Qin has proclaimed itself emperor, it has been plagued by wars and revolutions, which has resulted in the creation of princes. Therefore, without a foot of land, the famous city was ruined, the heroes were destroyed, and the peace of the world was maintained. However, the rise of the king's traces began in Luxiang, and they joined forces to attack and conquer, and it has been recorded for three generations. The prohibition of rural Qin is suitable for the wise to drive away difficulties. Therefore, he is angry that he has become a hero in the world, and he has no land and no king. This is the so-called Great Sage. Isn't it heaven? Isn't it heaven? Who but the great sage can accept this order and become emperor? "It turns out that Liu Bang's achievement was to return to normal social life that had been turbulent for hundreds of years since the Zhou Dynasty moved eastward. Of course, such an achievement can only be described as a great sage.
In fact, Sima Qian's conclusion It was not his own, but based on the general summary of his predecessors. After Liu Bang's death, all the officials said: "The great ancestor set out to correct the chaos, reversed the righteousness, and stabilized the world, and became the emperor of the Han Dynasty. Ancestor has the highest merit. "[3] Most of the theory of bringing things right from chaos that we are familiar with today originated from Liu Bang. Why do we say this? Because Qin had the conditions to end the war and establish a dynasty, that is, it was Qin who should start over from Xia Since then, the cycle of the Three Kings has continued. As Jia Yi said when commenting on the death of Qin: "Now that the second generation of Qin has been established, everyone in the world will take the lead and watch its politics. When the husband is cold, he will benefit from brown, while when he is hungry, he will be able to eat chaff. The world is crying, and this is the capital of the new master. This is what makes it easy to work for the people. "[4] However, the foundation of Qin's founding was not generosity, but more untimely harshness and harshness, which made the Three Kings unsustainable. This historical situation of bringing order out of chaos was only possible through Liu Bang's success. So "Lu Sheng said : The emperor rose from power, suppressed the Qin Dynasty, punished the powerful Chu, brought benefit and eliminated harm to the world, inherited the legacy of the Five Emperors and Three Sovereigns, and ruled China. China has hundreds of millions of people and thousands of miles of land. It is the most prosperous place in the world. There are many people and cars, everything is prosperous, and the government is governed by one family. Since heaven and earth have been separated, there has never been anything. "[5] It can be seen that Sima Qian's evaluation of Liu Bang was based on his contribution to the people. It was based on the hundreds of years after the Zhou Dynasty moved eastward, wars continued in the world and the people were displaced. They finally achieved stability due to the rise of the Han Dynasty. So, did Liu Bang make this contribution intentionally or unintentionally? Judging from historical records, it should be intentional.
2. , A benevolent heart, with the heart of the people in the world
When talking about Liu Bang's success now, his three advantages are always mentioned: 1. Talented, resourceful, and far-sighted; 2. Ability to employ people, especially the ability to control people; 3. Flexible mind, extremely intelligent, and adaptability to a superb level; but there is no mention at all of Liu Bang's benevolent heart that is needed by the times. In fact, this is Liu Bang's greatest The advantage is the most handsome among its advantages, and the other advantages are just subordinate to it.