In chapter 38," Boating on West Lake with Beauty ", Long Jiuxiao had said,"
Fan Li was the only person in the history of China who had achieved great success in politics, business, and love.
It was tiring to be an official, tiring to count money, rich (actually, he was the richest in the world. He was afraid of being played Landlord, so he hid 90% of his wealth), and with a beauty in his arms, he was relaxed and happy. He was boating on Taihu Lake. The scene was too beautiful.
The world praises him: "Loyalty to the country, wisdom to protect themselves; Merchants become rich and famous in the world."
Whether it was politics, being an official, governing the country, farming, or doing business, Fan Li was successful in everything.
In chapter 39," Making Money and Being an Official Without Mistakes ", Long Jiuxiao had said,"
Being an official to the extreme, earning money to the extreme!
Therefore, Fan Li was the ancient man that Long Jiuxiao admired the most!
After talking about Fan Li, he had to mention Xi Shi. Xi Shi's story was full of twists and turns!
Long Jiuxiao researched and discussed from the aspects of Xi Shi's ending, Fan Li's wife was Huang, the honey trap was indeed a thing, and this Xi Shi was not that Xi Shi.
What was the ending of Xi Shi in history?
Speaking of the four beauties of ancient China, everyone knew: Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diao Chan, Yang Yuhuan; Most people remembered beautiful women more clearly. Isn't it?
The Four Great Beauties enjoyed the reputation of " the beauty of sinking fish and falling geese, the beauty of blocking the moon and shaming flowers ", and among them, the beauty of sinking fish and Xi Shi was the first.
Xi Shi was a peerless beauty. She was the daughter of a woodcutter surnamed Shi on Zhuluo Mountain in Yue Country. Because she lived in the West Village, she was called Xi Shi.
After the war between Wu and Yue ended and the smoke of gunpowder dissipated, what was the outcome of the beauty Xi Shi? This was what many people were most concerned about.
Look, they are all like this. When it comes to beauties, they are especially energetic! This was the virtue of a man. Sigh, the bad habits of a countryman!
There were all kinds of legends about Xi Shi's ending in the later generations. Long Jiuxiao could be summarized into the following six types:
1. Guilt and suicide
Because of the double contradiction, Xi Shi hanged herself! This was a plot that was played out in some storybooks and plays.
After Xi Shi helped the State of Yue to destroy the State of Wu. On the one hand, he felt gratified that he had completed the mission given to him by the State of Yue. On the other hand, he also felt guilty and felt sorry for the favored King of Wu.
Under the struggle of double contradictions, he was extremely entangled and could not free himself. In the end, he hanged himself in Guanwa Palace.
Didn't he have a poetry certificate?
Outside the palace, willows lean,
the willows cast their shadows on the sails, the moon and stars sparse.
White silk of ten feet accompanied the loss of jade,
From then on, the grass grew green.
Note: Legend has it that after Xi Shi arrived in the State of Wu, Fu Chai, the King of Wu, built a palace to house Xi Shi. Time had passed, the buildings were empty, and the stars and moon were dim. After Xi Shi hanged herself, the grass on her grave was lush.
Of course, smart readers could see that this poem was undoubtedly written by Long Jiuxiao himself!
2. Boating with Fan Li
Fan Li retreated quickly. Under the cover of the night, he quietly brought the leader of the four beauties, Xi Shi, to the Five Mile Lake, north of Lake Tai.
The scenery of Wuli Lake was beautiful, and the scenery was picturesque.
With beautiful mountains and rivers, and beautiful women accompanying him, he would be happy even if he lived in a straw hut. Therefore, he built a few straw huts by the lake and lived a life of incognito.
The happy ending between Fan Li and Xi Shi had convinced the people of the Celestial Empire who liked happy endings. They had been talking about it with relish, leaving endless aftertastes.
Long Jiuxiao had already mentioned it in chapter 38," Boating on West Lake with Beauty ".
Long Jiuxiao's saying was more popular. This was how most literary and dramatic works described it.
It was also recorded in the ancient books. In the Yue Jue Shu written by the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was recorded: "Xi Shi returned to Fan Li after the fall of Wu and left with the Five Lakes.”
After some research, Long Jiuxiao believed that this was mostly speculation. People always hoped that the ending of the story would be good, so there was a high possibility that this was a rumor.
There was a rumor in Jianghu that on the day the Wu Kingdom was destroyed, Fan Li immediately did two things: One was to persuade his close friend Wen Zhong, who had gone through thick and thin with him, to leave Gou Jian as soon as possible to avoid endless trouble in the future. The second thing was that they found the old lover Xi Shi in the depths of the flower shade under the Gusu Terrace. The two of them fled to Taihu Lake in a hurry and then disappeared in the vast expanse of smoke and waves on a small boat.
Su Dongpo once wrote,"The five lakes ask for the road, and the boat returns, still carrying the West."”The poet's beautiful imagination!
It was said that there were tombs of Fan Li and Xi Shi in Taoshan, Feicheng, Shandong.
3. Sinking into the Lake by Fan Li
After the fall of the Wu Kingdom, the King of Yue wanted to stay by his side because of Xi Shi's beauty. However, Fan Li and the others firmly opposed it. He wanted the King of Yue to learn a lesson from the fall of the King of Wu. For the sake of the development of the King of Yue, he could no longer be tempted by beauty.
He set up a plan and sent his men to use the car of the King of Yue to trick Xi Shi into going to Taihu Lake. Then he tricked her into boarding the boat and went to the center of the lake. He ruthlessly pushed Xi Shi off the boat and Xi Shi was drowned in Taihu Lake.
4. Sinking into the River by the Wu People
There was also a legend among the people that when Gusu City, the capital of Wu, was captured, the people of Wu were very angry and vented their anger on Xi Shi. They caught Xi Shi, wrapped her in layers of brocade, and sank her in the middle of the Yangtze River.
It was recorded in the Records of Dongpo's Foreign Matter: "There are mermaids in the Yangtze River, also known as Xishi fish (named after Xishi). Their colors change several times a day (will change color). Their meat is fine and delicious.），According to the clouds, Xi Shi was transformed after she sank into the river.”
In the Tang Dynasty, Luo Yin wrote a poem: "The rise and fall of a country comes at a certain time. Why should the people of Wu blame Xi Shi?" If Xi Shi were to overthrow the State of Wu, who would the State of Yue be?”
From this poem, it was described that Xi Shi was " said by the people of Wu who sank into the river ". There was some opinion and some approval.
Sinking into the River by Gou Jian
Gou Jian, the King of Yue, once said publicly,"Xi Shi was the chief contributor to the destruction of Wu.”
After the destruction of the State of Wu, Gou Jian believed that the destruction of the State of Wu was mainly due to Fu Chai indulging in the beauty of Xi Shi. Beauty brought disaster to the country. In order to prevent Xi Shi's beauty from harming the State of Yue, he repaid her kindness with ingratitude and allowed Xi Shi to sink into the river and die.
This statement was in line with Gou Jian's practice of turning his back on her and killing the donkey after it was done. It was similar to being " drowned in the lake by Fan Li " and " drowned in the river by the Wu people ". They both saw Xi Shi as a " femme fatale " and returned to the water.
From the way Gou Jian did things after he destroyed Wu, even Wen Zhong, a meritorious minister, was forced to commit suicide. One could imagine Xi Shi's fate. Therefore, Xi Shi's ending should be tragic. She would never live with Fan Li and live in seclusion in the mountains.
However, as a historian or history enthusiast, he must respect the objective facts of history. He could not follow the words of others, nor could he listen to hearsay. Of course, most historians believed that Xi Shi was sunk into the river by Gou Jian.
6. Being Said by Echigo Sunken River
Legend has it that after the State of Yue destroyed the State of Wu, Gou Jian prepared to take Xi Shi into his harem. The Empress of Yue was jealous and used the excuse that Xi Shi was a " daughter who would bring disaster to the country " as an excuse to wrap her in a cowhide bag and sink her to the bottom of the river.
This kind of saying was very much in line with the plot of the palace drama. It was in line with the psychology of the harem where beauty misled the country, the queen was jealous, and the plot was framed. It was considered more popular. This was what was written in the Records of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
The "River Sinking Theory" was the earliest recorded in the ancient books. It was less than a hundred years since the fall of the State of Wu (around 473 B.C.).
Mozi said in Mozi's pro-scholar chapter: "Bigan's death is also because he resisted. Meng Ben killed because he was brave. The sinking of Xi Shi (sinking into the river) is also beautiful (beautiful); Wu Qi's split (car split), this is the matter (great merit).”
It meant that these people were all " doing what they were good at "---because of their own strengths, they caused the same disaster.
Xi Shi was drowned in the river because of her beauty.
Mozi said very clearly: "The sinking of Xi Shi is beautiful", clearly pointing out that Xi Shi was drowned to death by the river.
Another ancient book,<< Wu Yue Chun Qiu >> also clearly recorded: "After the death of the King of Wu, Xi Shi floated in the river and died with the owl.”
Some people explained that the "Chiyi" here referred to Fan Li, based on the fact that Fan Li had once changed his name and married Qi as Chiyi Zipi.”(Records of the Historian).
Long Jiuxiao thought that the word " Chiyi " here was more reasonable to be interpreted as " cowhide ".
It meant that Xi Shi was wrapped in cowhide and "floated" on the river.
Fan Li later changed his name to Chiyizi Pi to commemorate his friend and rival Wu Zixu. When Wu Zixu was given a corpse by Fu Chai, it was also covered with Chiyi cowhide.
Sima Zhen's Index to Records of the Historian of the Tang Dynasty recorded: "The skin of the owl, Fan Li said. Probably because the king of Wu killed Wu Zixu and became a big fish, now Li thinks he has committed a crime, so he is called Li.”
From a historical point of view, it was more likely that Xi Shi had sunk to the bottom of the lake.
And Fan Li's wife was Madam Huang!
This was what the descendants of Fan Li said! It shouldn't be fake!
Fan Xiangke, the secretary-general of the World Fan Clan Fellowship Association, believed that Xi Shi did not go into seclusion with Fan Li, so she could not be Fan Li's wife.
The family tree left behind from the Southern Song Dynasty clearly stated that Fan Li's wife was surnamed Huang.
Let us follow the traces of history:
In 511 B.C., Fan Li invited Wen Zhong into Yue when he was 25 years old.
In 494 B.C., Gou Jian was defeated at Kuaiji Mountain and began to put Fan Li and Wen Zhong in important positions. Fan Li was 42 years old.
In 493 B.C., Gou Jian and Fan Li entered Wu as slaves. Fan Li was 43 years old.
In 490 B.C., Gou Jian and Fan Li left Wu and returned to Yue. Fan Li was 46 years old.
In 486 B.C., Gou Jian wanted to attack Wu, but Fan Li dissuaded him. Fan Li was only 50 years old.
In 473 B.C., at the end of the year, the State of Yue destroyed the State of Wu, and Fu Chai committed suicide. Fan Li was only 63 years old.
In 468 B.C., when the King of Yue achieved his hegemony, Fan Li resigned and went on a boat to the Five Lakes at the age of 68.
It was after 490 B.C. that Fan Li returned to the country and formulated the Nine Techniques of Prospering Yue and Destroying Wu.
One of the Nine Techniques was the "honey trap". Fan Li personally traveled through mountains and rivers and finally visited Xi Shi at the Silk Washing River on Zhuluo Mountain (In the past, beautiful women were called Xi Shi, just like now when they met women, they were called beautiful women).
This beautiful woman with both virtue and beauty was Xi Shi. Xi Shi sacrificed herself to the King of Wu with great righteousness. She worked together from inside and outside to revive Yue and destroy Wu, writing a legendary chapter in history.
When Fan Li first met Xi Shi, he was almost fifty years old.
At that time, Xi Shi was only sixteen or seventeen years old. It was just that the training had been three years, and the age difference between the two was too big.
When Fan Li retired, he was already 68 years old. At that time, the possibility of " old and young love " was not high. It was the imagination of the people who came after.
Let's not talk about what the two of them thought. The State of Yue had a rule that " brother-sister love " and " old and young love " were prohibited. Young men were not allowed to marry old women, and old men were also not allowed to marry young wives.
If a girl did not marry at the age of 17, and a man did not marry at the age of 20, their parents would be sentenced.
From this, one could analyze:
At that time, Fan Li and Xi Shi did not have much of a chance to be together. In addition, the age difference was too great.
At that time, Xi Shi was in her prime, while Fan Li was already in his forties or fifties. He was Xi Shi's uncle.
Of course, some people would say that age did not matter when it came to relationships. Rich imagination!
Even if the age gap was large, it was not a problem. However, under the circumstances at that time, the two actually did not have many opportunities to meet.
Fan Li's heart was filled with the country. It was a moment of life and death for the country. He was so busy that he had no time to talk about love.
Therefore, Fan Li and Xi Shi were only good sustenance in the martial world. It was just that later generations took pity on Xi Shi and drew a perfect full stop for her.
There was indeed a honey trap!
We found the records of the Wu-Yue War in the Records of the Yue Family:
"Gou Jian presents a beauty and a treasure to the King of Wu."
However, it was too simple, and Old Mister Si was concise and comprehensive. He had lightly brushed past this soul-stirring history, so the name and ending of the main character of the honey trap were unknown. This left endless controversy and suspicion for future generations.
This beauty is not that beauty
In the works of the various philosophers during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Xi Shi was mentioned.
An important work of the pre-Qin philosophers, Guan Zhong, recorded that Mao Qiang and Xi Shi were the beauties of the world.
Here, Xi Shi was just a name for a beauty. All the beauties in the world could call her Xi Shi. It was not said that she was a specific woman in the war between Wu and Yue. What was even more surprising was that the author of this book, Guan Zhong, was born in the early Spring and Autumn Period. He died in 645 B.C., more than 200 years before Gou Jian. In other words, Xi Shi had already existed more than 200 years before the Wu-Yue War. If this Xishi was really that Xishi, then Guan Zhong would be a super master of prediction.
Therefore, the Xi Shi mentioned by the Hundred Schools of Philosophy was just a legendary beauty, or a general term for beauty. It did not refer to a specific woman.
It was true that Gou Jian used a honey trap. It was not Xi Shi. Xi Shi was just a code name for a beauty, a symbol! There was no need to take it seriously!
After tracing the origins of Xi Shi's history, later generations discovered that there were two books that first linked Xi Shi to the Wu-Yue War. One was called Yue Jue Shu, and the other was called Wu-Yue Chun Qiu. Because they contained a large number of legends and gods, they had never been regarded as strict historical works.
The earliest mention of the specific Xi Shi we are talking about today was the Eastern Han Dynasty's "Wu Yue Chun Qiu" and "Yue Jue Shu", but these were two unofficial histories.
It was these two books that successively named the protagonist of Gou Jian's "honey trap" Xi Shi. It was worth mentioning that these two books were written during the Eastern Han Dynasty, which was more than 400 years after the end of the Spring and Autumn Period when Gou Jian lived.
400 years might not be a long time for a historical war, but for an ancient woman's name, it was so long that it was impossible to trace back.
The silk washing girl and the firewood girl are the same thing
In the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue, Wen Zhong, a senior official of the State of Yue, proposed a plan to defeat the State of Wu to Gou Jian, the King of Yue. There were a total of nine plans. The fourth plan was to " bewitch the King of Wu with beautiful women to confuse his mind and confuse his plans."
Gou Jian, the King of Yue, then "sent a physiognomist to the country. He got the daughters of Xi Shi and Zheng Dan, who sold firewood on the mountain of Ramie and Luoshan. They were decorated with Luo and taught to walk. They practiced in Tucheng and lived in the alleys of the capital. After three years of study, they were presented to the State of Wu."
That was to say, Gou Jian followed the Nine Techniques of Prospering Yue and Destroying Wu and searched for beautiful women everywhere. Finally, he found two firewood girls selling firewood on Zhuluo Mountain in Zhuji. One was called Xi Shi, and the other was called Zheng Dan.
However, some scholars refused and insisted that Xi Shi was not Firewood Girl, but a Silk Washing Girl. The term " daughter of a firewood seller " referred to her parents who sold firewood.
Isn't it very pretentious? Could it be that washing clothes was more expensive than selling firewood?
Thinking about it, it was ridiculous. Perhaps in the eyes of scholars, women washing gauze was more artistic, but selling firewood seemed a little vulgar. If the girl suddenly turned into Firewood Girl, she wouldn't be able to come up with a story about a sinking fish. She could only use Wang Zhaojun's " Wild Goose Falling ". This way, Wang Zhaojun had nothing to do. Hehe, so Xi Shi must wash clothes!
Therefore, Xi Shi had to go to the washroom. Haha. Actually, that was the case. No matter who it was, they had to go to the river to wash their clothes.
This was known as the " collective unconscious " behavior. Everyone consciously or unconsciously targeted the packaging and hype of Xi Shi.
Therefore, when the literati used Xi Shi, they did not forget to connect her with real people such as Gou Jian, King of Yue, Fu Chai, Minister Fan Li and Wen Zhong. The effect of such a combination of truth and falsehood was extremely good.
In summary, it could be inferred that:
During the Wu-Yue War 2000 years ago, when the King of Yue, Gou Jian, wanted to carry out his plan to restore his country and avenge his humiliation, he had indeed used a beauty trap. He carefully selected a few beautiful women from the State of Yue and offered them to Fu Chai, the King of Wu.
Among them, there might be a "Silk-washing Girl" who lived at the foot of Mount Zhuluo. She was the most famous. This person had once been favored by Fu Chai, the King of Wu, and had played a special role in the war.
The King of Yue, Gou Jian, had a very strong motive for offering a beauty to the King of Wu.
They used beautiful women to confuse the King of Wu, Fu Chai, and make him indulge in beauty. He ignored the government all day long, or blew pillow talk, bewitching the King of Wu until he was deserted and weakened his national strength.
He planted a spy beside the King of Wu and became the spy of the State of Yue. If there was a chance, he could work together from the inside and destroy the State of Wu in one fell swoop. In the end, he would complete the great cause of restoring the country.
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