Boiling Wine to Discuss Heroes - A Meditative Record of China's Four Great Beauties: A Meditative Record of China's Four Great Beauties

Author: Huang Guicheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: Another excellent work interpreting historical figures. Since ancient times, China has had the saying "beautiful women bring disaster," as if the decline of a nation was caused by women. Looking back at history, the downfall of many dynasties was indeed closely related to women, leading people to blame "beautiful women." In reality, during the feudal era, women were merely playthings of the emperors. The decline of a dynasty was mostly the result of the ruler's faults, and the responsibility should not be placed on them. From this perspective, the author uses the Four Great Beauties of Ancient China as a starting point to analyze the successes and failures of past dynasties, freely commenting on the rise and fall of various eras. This is yet another masterpiece in interpreting historical figures. The author delves into the beauty and ugliness, virtue and vice, righteousness and profit, morality and talent, nobility and baseness, loyalty and treachery, gentlemen and petty men, wisdom and foolishness, success and failure, governance and scholarship, and more, all with spontaneous insights and unrestrained freedom. In the author's portrayal, each historical figure comes to life, and every story is vivid and easy to understand, promoting traditional Chinese virtues while condemning historical evils and revealing profound philosophical truths. History is the activity of people, and the thoughts and achievements of the ancients have created the past, leaving behind an inexhaustible spiritual resource for today. Their words and actions can enlighten our wisdom, warn our behavior, and provide lessons in how to conduct ourselves. This book focuses on characters, either uncovering their hidden value, summarizing the key points of their successes and failures, extending their lessons to political events, or sharing the author's unique insights. Patience is the key to success. Goujian's ability to restore his kingdom and become one of the Five Hegemons of Spring and Autumn had two important factors: being able to endure hardship and bend; the second was being ruthless and decisive. These are also essential qualities for anyone who achieves great things. First, from the perspective of "bending," it means being able to endure suppression, or in other words, "being able to endure." For example, Song Jiang's famous anti-poem inscribed at Xunyang Tower: "Conceal your claws and teeth and endure." One of the Eight Great prose masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, Su Shi, in his renowned political essay "On the Argument of the Retainer," said: "The great heroes of ancient times must possess extraordinary integrity and the ability to endure what ordinary people cannot. If a commoner is humiliated, he draws his sword and fights, showing himself to be brave. But the truly brave are those who remain calm when faced with sudden danger and do not get angry when unjustly treated. They possess great strength and have lofty aspirations." He used the examples of Liu Bang and Xiang Yu to illustrate the importance of "enduring" and "not enduring": "The reason why the Emperor Gaozu succeeded while Xiang Yu failed lay solely in whether they could endure or not." He also used the story of "Picking Up Shoes at the Bridge" to explain Zhang Liang, the Retainer's "ability to endure." When Zhang Liang passed by a bridge in Xiping, an old man sat there and deliberately dropped his shoes into the water. He saw Zhang Liang coming and deliberately dropped his shoes into the water, saying, "Boy, pick up my shoes for me." Zhang Liang was shocked by this absurd act and rude demand. He wanted to beat him but, seeing his age, restrained his anger and went down to pick up the shoes. The old man then said, "Put them on for me." Despite his anger, Zhang Liang, thinking he had already picked up the shoes, put them on for the old man. The old man laughed and left, but after walking dozens of steps, he turned back and said to Zhang Liang, "You are teachable!" He then told him to come to the bridge at dawn five days later. When Zhang Liang came as promised five days later, the old man was already sitting on the bridge and said, "Why are you late? Come again at dawn five days from now!" Five days later, Zhang Liang went at the crow of the dawn, but the old man was still sitting on the bridge and said, "Come again at dawn five days from now." After another five days, Zhang Liang went at midnight, and the old man finally came after waiting for a while. After testing Zhang Liang multiple times, the old man believed he was "capable of enduring" and could be molded, so he handed him the "Tao of the Grand Tutor" and said, "Once you study this, you will become a teacher to the king. In ten years, you will rise. In thirteen years, you will see me at the Yellow Stone Hill under the Guancheng River. The yellow stone there is me." Zhang Liang studied it carefully, grasping its profound essence, and eventually helped Liu Bang achieve supremacy. Can Zhang Liang's "Picking Up Shoes at the Bridge" be considered an example of "enduring"? Yes, it can. But that's nothing. Another outstanding military genius under Liu Bang, Han Xin, was even more "capable of enduring." The "Records of the Grand Historian" in the "Biography of the Huaiyin Marquis" states: "A young man from Huaiyin's butchery mocked Han Xin, saying, 'Although you are grown, you love carrying swords, but you are inwardly timid.' On the day of the public humiliation, he said, 'If you can die, stab me; if you can't, crawl under my thighs.'" Han Xin looked at him, bent down, and crawled under his thighs. The entire crowd laughed at Han Xin, thinking him a coward." Faced with the provocation of the Huaiyin youth and the ridicule of the crowd, to avoid trouble, "endure for a moment to avoid disaster," after much thought, Han Xin eventually crawled under the man's pants. Can Han Xin's "Humiliation Under the Thighs" be considered an example of "enduring"? Yes, indeed, it is a model of enduring.