Reread the Heroes of Chaos

Author: Zhao Aibing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Young cadres aspiring to be upright officials need friends who understand the political struggles in the underworld. When two armies face off, too much credit can be dangerous, and successors will shamelessly push their way forward. There is no fixed method for selecting people; it all depends on practicality. Those in debt may not repay it, and tolerance is a luxury. The murder case of the Minister of Justice's family, the prosecutor of Luo Qiang's charges. Sima Zhao's intentions were never meant to be discussed, and mistakes are often pushed onto the dead. Deng Ai had the upper hand over Jiang Wei, and Wei Yan was truly unjust. Those who stutter are often from poor families, and success inevitably disrupts balance. Different positions come with different levels of temptation, and extraordinary blessings are often more frightening than extraordinary disasters. Rulers without diplomas love to talk about diplomas, and those who think they are smart are easily fooled.
What kind of text is Rereading Heroes in Turbulent Times? It's a question many friends have asked me. Called a novel, it has too much culture; called a review, it has too much narration; called history, it has too much speculation and mockery. Perhaps because when I first wrote it, it was on an internet BBS, back then it was called Talking About Three Kingdoms Characters, with no rules dictating the genre, I naturally wrote about historical figures as I saw them.
There are characters, and there are lives, and there are different processes of personal growth and personality formation. Cao Cao has Cao Cao's life path, Liu Bei has Liu Bei's life path. Whether they are heroes or villains, they are first and foremost human, with human joys and sorrows, and their own processes of personality formation. Looking at historical figures from a "human" perspective often leads to new discoveries. Many decisions of political figures are not made for politics but for personal psychology. However, these psychological motivations, in political activities, may lead to certain political outcomes, which are not necessarily political laws, nor necessarily the original intentions of the protagonists.
When it comes to becoming emperors, Cao Cao was more qualified than Cao Pi, and Sima Zhao was more qualified than Sima Yan. Both had far greater prestige and control over various political forces than their sons who sought the throne. What ultimately influenced their decisions was largely their own psychological barriers.
Characters cannot be separated from their historical environment. The Three Kingdoms was a time of chaos, where the old social order was broken and a new one was being formed. In this era of fewer constraints, people's personalities were more likely to be expressed, which is why there is the saying, "Chaos breeds heroes." Writing about historical figures is inseparable from history.
Rereading Heroes in Turbulent Times is based on official historical records and uses them as a basis to reasonably deduce major historical events like the Battle of Guandu and the Battle of Red Cliffs, arriving at some conclusions different from current consensus. For example, after winning the Battle of Guandu, the retreated to lure Yuan Shao into the pre-set battlefield; Yuan Shao once sent a detachment to raid the rear of the, and so on.
Interpreting historical figures also cannot be separated from reality. On one hand, using the experiences of historical figures to interpret modern life, comparing history with the present, allows us to learn from the past and understand the present. On the other hand, interpreting historical figures with a modern perspective can lead to new discoveries.
No matter who interprets history, they cannot be separated from their own time, the thoughts and psychology of their era. Even pure historical records cannot be just a pile of materials; there must be selection and emphasis, inevitably incorporating the author's subjective factors, constrained by the author's insights. Therefore, when writing these texts, I did not deliberately hide my opinions but wrote them almost openly. Some of them differ from popular views. What I write is merely my perspective on historical figures—，.