Pattern and tolerance (I)

        Fate is often complicated and unpredictable. Because of a single event, several people who have little or nothing to do with each other often meet and collide with each other. In such a collision, we can just see a person's character, pattern and instrument.

There are many aspects of real characters in history. Unlike movies or novels, which simplify characters' personalities, good people are as good as they can be, bad people are as bad as they can be! Even though Zhu Xi, a great thinker in the Southern Song Dynasty, was first-class in both knowledge and morality, he was once accused of persecuting innocent prostitutes by Tang Zhongyou, an opponent of the school's Controversy (Note 1); it's hard to judge Zhu Xi, who is murderous, and Zhu Fuzi, who is a scholar of elegant theory in Ehu temple and Lu Xiangshan from the same height. People are just so complicated. There is no absolute good or absolute evil!

In the second year of the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Li Ling surrendered to the Huns, which resulted in the collision and sparks among three people who had not met before. They were Li Ling, Sima Qian and Su Wu.

What happened was like this: Emperor Wu sent Li Guangli, the elder brother of his beloved concubine (Mrs. Li), the general of the second division, to attack the Xiongnu, and Li Ling, the grandson of Li Guang, to escort the baggage with Li Guangli. Li Ling led five thousand soldiers out of Juyan, went deep into Junji mountain alone, and met with the main Huns. He killed more than ten thousand Huns with five thousand soldiers. In eight days and nights of bloody battle, he could not get the support of the main forces, so he ran out of ammunition and food, and was captured and surrendered.

The news of Li Ling's defeat and surrender was sent back to Chang'an. Emperor Wu, who had hoped that he would die in the war, was very angry. In the court meeting, he asked the officials to discuss how to deal with Li Ling's family members. A few days ago, he praised Li Ling's brave civil and military officials. He immediately looked at his words, saw the wind and turned the rudder, and began to accuse and even exaggerate his crimes. The emperor ordered Sima Qian to defend Li Ling on his own merits. As a result, he offended Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and was severely punished by corruption.

Sima Qian was originally sentenced to death. In the Han Dynasty, there were two alternatives to death penalty: one was to take 500000 yuan for atonement, the other was to be punished by corruption (that is, palace punishment). Sima Qian's officials are clean and honest, of course, they can't afford so much money to atone for their sins; but if they choose to commit corruption, they will not only cruelly destroy their bodies, but also greatly insult their personalities (they become eunuchs who are not eunuchs)! The grieving Sima Qian even wanted to commit suicide for a time, but he thought that if he died like this, Sima Tan, his father, and his two generations' wish to "compile a complete history book to Zhou Yijiang" would be put into practice. It was inevitable for him to die, but the meaning of "death is more important than Mount Tai, or less important than Hongmao" is totally different (Note 2). He felt that if he was to "subdue the Dharma" like a cow without a hair, he would have no value at all. He also thought of the humiliation suffered by Confucius, Qu Yuan, Zuo Qiuming and Sun Bin, as well as their subsequent achievements. Sima Qian resolutely chose to commit corruption.

In the face of cruel punishment, Sima Qian suffered to the extreme, but the belief he kept in his heart was that he must live and complete the historical records! Eight years later (Zheng He's two years later), records of history was completed. Sima Qian was hailed as the greatest historian in China. The forms of table, book, discipline, family and biography adopted in records of history have also been used by historians of later generations in China. Sima Qian is immortal. We have seen Sima Qian's pattern and skill in upholding justice and insistence for Li Ling and in tolerating humiliation in order to accomplish a greater mission. (to be continued)

* Note 1: when Zhu Xi was an envoy of Changping in eastern Zhejiang Province, he was opposed to Zhu Xi's Neo Confucianism by Yongkang School of Tang Zhongyou, so Zhu Xi impeached Tang Zhongyou for six times, the third and fourth of which dealt with the crime of Tang Zhongyou and Yan Rui's weathering, and ordered Huang Yan to arrest Yan Rui, detain him in Taizhou and Shaoxing, flog him, force him to confess, and almost kill him. However, Yan Rui would rather die than follow, and said: "as a cheap prostitute, even if the marriage with the eunuch is abusive, the family will not die; but whether it is true or not, how can we slander the scholar officials, even if we die, we can not slander them. Later, the matter became a big issue, and the court and the field discussed it, which shocked song Xiaozong. Xiaozong thought that it was "scholars fighting for leisure", so he transferred Zhu Xi to Yuelin and sent Yan Rui to prison.

* Note 2: this passage is recorded in the historical records - Preface of Taishigong. The allusion that "death is more important than Mount Tai, but less important than Hongmao" came out from then on.