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Chapter 268 The Life of the Confucian Sage

The selected soldiers were exempted from corvée service and given land and houses. These warriors were not deprived of their privileges even when they were old, but it was difficult to find people who fully met the requirements later.

Although the emergence of Wei Wuzu greatly enhanced the military strength of Wei, it also led to a heavy financial burden on the country. After Wei Wenhou, as the national strength of Wei declined, Wei Wuzu gradually declined and eventually withdrew from the stage of history.

No. 1: Qin State Warriors

Qin's elite soldiers were the product of Shang Yang's reforms. They were selected from the best and well-trained, so they were called elite soldiers. Shang Yang's reforms rewarded farming and warfare, and granted titles and land according to military merit, which greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of the common people.

Qin was located in the western part of the country, and its people were tough and willing to fight to the death. After the reform, Qin soldiers were "brave in public battles but timid in private fights", becoming fast-moving war machines.

The Qin army was therefore called the "Tiger and Wolf Division". According to Xunzi: On Soldiers, "The soldiers of Wei could not match the elite soldiers of Qin." The elite soldiers of Qin became the most elite troops during the Warring States Period due to their strong combat effectiveness and strict training.

[Read all about the life of the famous Qi general Kuang Zhang in one go - historical trivia about the Warring States Period]

He was Tian Ji, a famous general in the Warring States Period who was even more legendary than Bai Qi, and was the object of the Qin State's submission.

He caused the Chu State to decline from prosperity, destroyed the Yan State in just 30 days, and led the coalition forces of five countries to break through the Qin State's Hangu Pass, becoming the only general to break into the Qin State's Hangu Pass during the Warring States Period. In this video, let's talk about this underestimated Qi State general Tian Ji.

Tian Ji, also known as "Zhang Zi" or "Kuang Zhang", was a famous general of Qi during the Warring States Period and a close friend of Mencius. He served under King Wei of Qi, King Xuan of Qi, and King Min of Qi, and was one of the founders of Qi's hegemony.

Tian Ji had four brilliant military achievements in his life: defeating the Qin State after Shang Yang's reform twice, defeating the Chu State at its peak, and conquering the capital of the Yan State in 30 days. Almost all of the battles he fought throughout his life were important battles that changed the situation of the Warring States Period.

Although Tian Ji is not well-known, he was a talented general who was underestimated during the Warring States Period. Unfortunately, Sima Qian did not write a biography about him, so there are not many historical materials about him. But even so, it cannot cover up his brilliance.

First stop: Battle of Shangqiu, Qin surrendered

In 324 BC, King Huiwen of Qin appointed Zhang Yi as the prime minister of Qin. Zhang Yi proposed the "Heng Lian" strategy, trying to unite Han and Wei to attack Qi. After Shang Yang's reform, Qin defeated Wei successively, trying to further expand its power and go east through Hangu Pass to compete with the great powers in the Central Plains. Therefore, the Battle of Shangqiu broke out between Qi and Qin.

In 323 BC, Qi defeated the invasion of Qin in Shangqiu. This battle was the first direct confrontation between Qin and Qi after Shang Yang's reform. The "Strategies of the Warring States" records that Qin used Han and Wei as a pretext to attack Qi.

King Wei of Qi sent Tian Ji to lead his army to fight. The Qin army crossed Han and Wei and entered Shangqiu on the border of Qi and Song, where they met the main force of the Qi army led by Tian Ji, and the two sides set up camp facing each other.

Because the Qin army was alone and deep in the territory, and was worried about being attacked from the rear by Han and Wei, it was just bluffing and did not dare to attack easily.

Tian Ji took full advantage of the Qin army's contradictory psychology of "wanting to advance but not being able to, wanting to retreat but not being able to", and sent messengers to contact the Qin army several times before the battle. He took the opportunity to change the flags of some Qi troops, blending into the Qin army, waiting to cooperate with the main force of the Qi army to launch an attack.

However, the spies sent by King Wei of Qi to the front did not understand Tian Ji's intentions and secretly reported to King Wei of Qi that "Tian Ji might rebel." In history, it is not uncommon for the king and his ministers to fail in their mission due to their breach of trust.

But King Wei of Qi was a wise ruler, and he always trusted Tian Ji. Despite repeated intelligence from the front, King Wei of Qi did not waver. Soon, Tian Ji's tactics were a great success.

The Qi soldiers who had infiltrated the Qin army and Tian Ji's large army attacked from both inside and outside, and the Qin army collapsed at the first blow. After hearing the news of the disastrous defeat, King Huiwen of Qin quickly sent Chen Zhen as an envoy to the State of Qi as a minister of the Western Frontier to apologize to King Wei of Qi and submit to him.

Tian Ji's victory had a butterfly effect, breaking the "horizontal alliance" strategy planned by Zhang Yi. Wei State turned to the coalition camp and drove Zhang Yi away, which made Gongsun Yan regain his favor in Wei State and eventually led to the first coalition of the five countries.

Second stop: The war against Yan, destroying Yan in 30 days

According to the "Historical Records: The Family of Duke Zhao of Yan", in 314 BC, King Kuai of Yan abdicated the throne to Prime Minister Zizhi, which triggered civil unrest in Yan. Taking advantage of the civil unrest in Yan, Qi sent Tian Ji to lead an army to intervene.

Tian Ji conquered the capital of Yan in just 30 days and chopped Zizhi into meat sauce. Qi completely occupied Yan, which was the first time in Yan's history that a country was destroyed.

Zhao wanted to annex Zhongshan and did not want Yan to perish, so King Wuling of Zhao supported King Zhao of Yan to restore the country. However, Yan suffered a heavy blow, lost a large area of ​​territory, and its gold and silver treasures were looted by Qi.

It was not until the reign of King Zhao of Yan that Yan recovered. This was also the reason why Yan later joined forces with the five countries to attack Qi.

The third stop: The Battle of Chuisha, the decline of the Chu State

According to the "Historical Records: The Family of Chu", in 301 BC, Tian Ji, the general of Wei, Gongsun Xi, and the general of Han, Bao Yuan, led the coalition forces of the three kingdoms to attack the Kingdom of Chu. King Huai of Chu ordered Tang Mei to lead his army to meet the enemy, and the two sides fought across the water at Chuisha for more than six months.

Tian Ji repeatedly refused King Xuan of Qi's urging for battle, because he knew that the places where the Chu army was defending tightly were exactly where the river was shallow.

Finally, Tian Ji learned from Qiao Fu that the Chu army was well defended and the river was shallow, so he gathered his elite troops to attack and defeated the Chu army in one fell swoop.

In this battle, the Chu general Tang Mei was killed and more than 2 Chu soldiers were killed. The coalition forces of the three countries took advantage of the victory to invade the heartland of Chu. Chu had to cede land and sue for peace, giving Wan and Huaiyang to Han and Wei, and sending the crown prince Heng to Qi as a hostage, forcing the coalition forces to withdraw.

After Tang Mei's death, his general Zhuang Qiao led his army in rebellion, which triggered a popular uprising. The rebels captured the capital of Chu, Ying, and divided the territory ruled by Chu into several parts. As a result, Chu went from prosperity to decline and never recovered.

The fourth stop: The Battle of Hangu Pass, King Zhaoxiang of Qin ceded land in exchange for peace

In 298 BC, after returning to Qi, Mengchang Jun Tian Wen initiated a joint attack on Qin by Qi, Wei and Han. Tian Ji led the coalition forces and, after three years, they finally attacked Qin's Hangu Pass and stationed a large army to block it.

Later, Zhao and Song also joined the coalition. In 296 BC, Hangu Pass was breached, and King Zhaoxiang of Qin hurriedly ceded land to seek peace.

Qi listened to Qin's words of peace and gave up a good opportunity to destroy Qin. It also lost a great opportunity to destroy Qin, and there was no chance to destroy Qin again.

This joint attack on Qin led by Tian Ji was also the only one in the five joint attacks on Qin during the Warring States Period that broke through Hangu Pass.

Hangu Pass of Qin State was once an ancient battlefield with neighing horses. It was so solid that one man could block the passage of ten thousand men. Its geographical environment was extremely complex and its terrain structure was extremely dangerous.

In the “On the Overthrow of Qin” it is written: “At that time, the six states often attacked Qin with ten times the land and a million people.

The Qin people opened the pass to delay the enemy, and the armies of the nine countries hesitated and did not dare to advance. "The "pass" here refers to Hangu Pass. The Qin State blocked the attack of a million coalition forces through Hangu Pass, which shows its great strategic significance.

Throughout the Warring States Period, Hangu Pass was almost impossible to break through, which became an important factor in the stable development and rise of Qin. However, Tian Ji was the only general who broke through Hangu Pass of Qin during the Warring States Period.

Throughout the history of the Warring States Period, Tian Ji defeated the Qin army twice after Shang Yang's reforms, forcing King Huiwen of Qin to surrender and King Zhaoxiang of Qin to cede land. Although his deeds are rarely recorded in history books, they changed the direction of the situation in the Warring States Period. It is a pity that Tian Ji was so talented but remained unknown.

[Understand the Confucian saint in one breath, Zengzi's historical knowledge of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period]

He was a Confucian disciple who was famous for his filial piety but was criticized by Confucius as "foolish filial piety". His thoughts had a far-reaching influence, and he was also the creator of the political theory of "governing the country with filial piety". In this video, let's talk about Zengzi, the Confucian character.

Zengzi, whose given name was Shen and courtesy name was Ziyu, was honored as the "Ancestor Saint" by later generations. Among Confucius' disciples, Zengzi was the best at preaching. Zisi was Zengzi's student, and Mencius was Zisi's disciple.

Therefore, Zengzi's status among Confucius' disciples was not high at first, but he inherited Confucius's tradition and initiated the Si Meng School. With the rise of Mencius' status in later generations, Zengzi's status also rose step by step.

Zengzi's filial piety thought based on filial piety is not only the theoretical basis for "governing the country with filial piety" in later dynasties, but also has a profound impact on the ethical values ​​of the Chinese people in later generations.

China is a country that values ​​filial piety. The ancient maxim "Zeng Guang Xian Wen" once said: "Sheep kneel down to thank their mothers for feeding them, and crows repay their parents by feeding them." Even animals know filial piety, let alone humans? However, things are often afraid of going too far.

The filial piety advocated by Zengzi played a positive role in shaping traditional Chinese virtues, but in the end it could not escape the fate of being bound. After the Song and Ming dynasties, there was even a view that "if the father's teachings are not followed by the son, the son must die."

There are many similar "perverted" views, and many people think that these views all come from Confucius, but this is not the case.

Filial piety was formally proposed as an ethical concept in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and filial piety became a systematic theory thanks to Zengzi, who can be said to be the master of Confucian filial piety theory.

As a classic of Confucianism on filial piety, the comprehensiveness and strong political color of the "Book of Filial Piety" marks the peak of Confucian filial piety theory. Confucius once criticized Zengzi: "People can be unfilial, but they can't be foolishly filial." The reason is that Zengzi's filial piety theory is too extreme.

Zengzi's "Book of Filial Piety" was the first to link filial piety with loyalty to the emperor in Chinese ethical thought. It believed that loyalty was an extension and expansion of filial piety, and it absolutized, mystified, and politicized the social role of filial piety, which became the theoretical basis for "governing the world with filial piety."

Zengzi believed that loyalty to the emperor could be an integral part of the family ethical concept of "filial piety".

In "The Great Dai Liji·Zengzi's Great Filial Piety", he said: "If you are disloyal when serving your monarch, you are not filial; if you are disrespectful when serving as an official, you are not filial." This shows that loyalty to the monarch becomes a part of filial piety, and disloyalty to the monarch is unfilial.

This means that in Zengzi's theory, loyalty has been included in the category of filial piety, and the object of filial piety has changed from children's filial piety to their parents to the loyalty of people in society to the monarch.

The Han Dynasty ruled the country with filial piety. According to the principle of "seeking loyal ministers must be from the door of filial sons", local counties were required to recommend filial sons to the court. However, this practice was gradually distorted, forming a bad custom of "foolish filial piety" and "fake filial piety", and went to extremes.

The manifestations are, first, deceiving the world and stealing fame, and second, shocking the world. The "Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars" that we are familiar with are precisely the product of this extreme.

But it is worth pointing out that the "Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars" did not appear until the Yuan Dynasty, which was a major turning point in Chinese history. The so-called "human-suppressing" rituals, such as foot binding, were popular in the Yuan Dynasty. Judging from the content of the "Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars", they do not conform to the original concept of traditional filial piety, especially the stories such as "burying the child to serve the mother", which are even more inhumane.

It emphasizes ignorant, even slavish obedience and loyalty to parents, which is exactly what the rulers need. Therefore, it can be said that the "Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars" do not represent the true spirit of filial piety, but a distortion.

Traditional filial piety needs to be promoted, especially in the aging 21st century. However, the spirit conveyed by the "Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars" is not true filial piety and is not worth learning. "Shuowen Jiezi" says: "Filial piety means being good to one's parents."

The Erya Shixun explains it as follows: "To be kind to one's parents is filial piety, and to be kind to one's elder brothers is brotherly love." The "filial piety" mentioned here actually means respect for elders, which needs to be discussed separately. Filial piety means supporting one's parents, caring for the elderly, and ensuring the material life of one's parents.

But material satisfaction is far from enough. We also need to "respect our parents", care for them on a spiritual level, and eliminate the loneliness in the lives of the elderly. This is what we should do.

However, one thing needs to be made clear: filial respect is not the same as obedience. Confucius said that we should be filial, but we don't have to be obedient. We should be obedient when we should be obedient, and we should not be obedient when we shouldn't be obedient.

Filial piety must avoid foolish filial piety, such as believing in the concept that "there are no parents who are not wrong" and serving parents absolutely regardless of right or wrong. This is foolish filial piety.

For example, "Guo Ju burying his son" and "cutting bones to cure parents" and other barbaric and cruel "perverted filial piety" were promoted by the rulers and were generally regarded as so-called virtues, which created a mentality of mutual comparison in society. This is the dregs of feudal filial piety.

The tragedy of blindly following filial piety is like Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi in "The Peacock Flies Southeast". We do not approve of blindly pursuing traditional ethics and restricting one's own freedom and happiness, nor do we approve of extreme hedonism, taking parents' comfort for granted and becoming indifferent.

True filial piety is an equal relationship: "father is kind and son is filial", that is, parents should be kind and children should be filial, which is the responsibility of both parties. If your parents ignore your original intention and force you to give up your life's happiness, such parents no longer have the right to be respected by you.

But if a person is born as a human but does not know how to be filial and respectful to his parents and relatives, then he is no different from an animal.

In today's world where material wealth is abundant but the concept of family affection is fading, news about "not supporting parents" is common. Zengzi practiced filial piety throughout his life, and the essence of his filial piety is also worth learning.