How did Yu Ji die?

In 202 BC, a battle that will go down in history was fought. Xiang Yu was besieged in Gaixia and besieged on all sides. He was defeated by Liu Bang and Han Xin and committed suicide to Wujiang. This war not only displayed high military art, but also had a significant impact on subsequent history, and this war is known as the Gaixia Battle.

After the war, Han Kao Zu Liu Bang officially unified the world, opened the prelude to the four hundred years of Han Dynasty, but also let a beautiful love story handed down to the present.

After Xiang Yu died, where did his beloved woman Yu Ji go? For thousands of years, it seems that Yu Ji committed suicide. Zhang Kejiu, a poet in the Yuan Dynasty, wrote the first line of his poem Selling Peanuts and Remembering the Past:

"Cut the throat of the Wujiang River, the war burned Chibi Mountain."

However, through the continuous progress of scholars, they found that there may be other versions of "Farewell My Concubine", which had touched countless people, and Yu Ji's death may not have been committed suicide. Many scholars expressed that it was hard to accept the revelation of another historical truth.

1, the battle of Gaixia, Wujiang suicide

Before the battle of Gaixia, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang agreed to divide the world by the gulf and occupy the east and the west.

When Xiang Yu led his army to withdraw from Chu, the marquis Zhang Liang and the Marquis Chen Ping proposed to Liu Bang to tear up the agreement, taking advantage of the weakness of the Chu army, to win them in one stroke, and to establish the general trend of the world.

According to the Records of the Grand Historian · Xiang Yu, Chen and Zhang believed that "Han had the majority of the world, and all the vassals were attached to it. The Chu soldiers have eaten up, and the sky will be destroyed ", so "it is better to take it because of its opportunity". Liu Bang, Emperor Gaoxu of Han, also adopted this suggestion and besieged Xiang Yu in Gaixia in three ways.

In the face of the Han army surrounded by layers, the originally tired Chu army although the force is not able to catch, but still able to respond, but in this case, the Han army used a mace.

They sang the folk songs of Chu in the middle of the night, evoking the feeling of homesickness of the Chu army, out for many years, most of these good men miss their hometown, when the familiar local sound came, the Chu soldiers are shedding tears, the army heart.

Then the Han army marched on a large scale, and the Chu army threw away its helmet and armour. Finally Xiang Yu, who fled to Wujiang with his defeated soldiers, felt that he could not face Jiangdong in the future, so he committed suicide in Wujiang River, leaving a sad and beautiful love story.

2, Farewell my Concubine, explore the source

Yu Ji was the beauty of Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu. There are few records about her in the history books, and her real name is impossible to find. In the Records of the Grand Historian · Xiang Yu, a sentence of "a beauty with a Yu" was recorded. According to legend, the overlord Xiang Yu committed suicide along the Wujiang River, which became a love story passed down through the ages.

Later generations continue to embellish and modify this story, but what is the truth of Xiang Yu Yu's shared life and death in history? What is the final outcome of Yu Ji?

From the Han Dynasty to this day, it is even believed that Yu Ji committed suicide on the Wujiang River when Xiang Yu committed suicide. It was a dark and dark night. Xiang Wang wept for a few lines, left and right, Mo can look up.

Xiang Yu, before his death, wrote the song "Gaixia Song" to express his frustration. At the same time, "beauty and harmony", the beauty here, refers to Yu Ji. That is to say, when Xiang Yu was singing the song, Yu Ji was also singing it. Lu Jia, a writer in the Western Han Dynasty, in his book The Spring and Autumn Period of the Chu Han Dynasty, simply wrote out the content that Yu Ji was singing at that time, namely:

"The Han soldiers have already invaded the land, and the Chu songs are everywhere. When your Majesty's spirit is exhausted, my cheap concubine will not survive."

But Yu Ji's poem, which is clearly a mature rhyming five-character poem, doesn't seem to match Gaixia Ge at all. Moreover, there were no such poems in the late Qin Dynasty, so it is believed that they were added by later generations. When Sima Qian wrote Records of the Grand Historian, he showed great respect for Xiang Yu. Xiang Yu was not an emperor. He wrote Xiang Yu in the "Ji", which belongs to the emperor, rather than the "family" or "biography", which shows his attitude towards Xiang Yu: although regretting, but still full of affirmation. Since Sima Qian wrote about Yu Ji, he only mentioned "beauty and her". If Yu Ji really committed suicide, Sima Qian would definitely write down Yu Ji's whereabouts.

In the general view, when besieged Gaixia, besieged on all sides, the once all-powerful overlord Xiang Yu can not help but also have a bit of hero short of breath, the end of the woe.

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It was a dark and dark night. Xiang Wang wept for a few lines, left and right. He could not look up." In this sentence, the beauty of "the beauty and the beauty" naturally refers to Yu Ji.

When Xiang Yu sang Gaixia Ge, Yu Ji joined forces with him. The song Yu Ji joined forces with was the famous Gaixia Ge. Its content was: "The Han soldiers had already invaded the land, and Chu was singing everywhere; When your Majesty's spirit is exhausted, my cheap concubine will not survive."

The problem is that He Gaixia Ge is a very mature five-character poem with a very different style from Gaixia Ge. From the point of view of poetic style, the two have nothing to do with each other.

Some people think that the song is not made by Yu Ji, but polished by later generations, so what is the matter of this poem?

He Gaixia Ge did not appear in great works of historians such as Records of the Grand Historian, Book of the Han Dynasty, and Guide and Guide Guide. It first appeared in the Justice of the Grand Historian written by Zhang Shoujie in the Tang Dynasty, and was quoted from Lu Jia's Spring and Autumn Annals of Chu and Han in the early Han Dynasty.

However, Sima Qian also used the contents of Chu Han Spring and Autumn Annals when he wrote the Records of the Grand Historian. If there is such a description, why did he not cite it in his Records of the Grand Historian? When Xiang Yu committed suicide across the Wujiang River, Yu Ji was not at his side, then where did Yu Ji go?

3, subversion view, Yu Ji is not suicide

Sima Guang, a great historian in the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote history very carefully. In his book Zhi Zhi Tongjian, he did not mention Yu Ji at all. That is to say, Sima Guang did not find the ending related to Yu Ji when he wrote history. It can be seen that historians of later generations do not agree with the verse "Your Majesty's spirit is exhausted, and my concubine is no longer able to survive". They do not believe that this poem was done by Yu Ji. It is mostly invented by later generations for the aesthetic ending of Chinese style. It is just that Chinese literati have always been immersed in the "beautiful and happy" finale, which is why this result is reported.

Similarly, if Yu Ji did not follow Xiang Yu to commit suicide, she would have ended up in two ways: first, she would escape (which was very unlikely); second, she would be captured by the Han army. Then, no matter Liu Bang occupied her or she was captured by the Han army generals, the outcome would not be satisfactory. Therefore, since Xiang Yu had committed suicide, Yu Ji also committed suicide with him, which was easier to be accepted by all.

In addition to these two outcomes, there is a cruel but logical outcome. The Taiping World Chronicle compiled in the Song Dynasty is not a historical book, but a geographical record, which only extensively quotes historical books and tablet inscriptions of various dynasties. Volume 128 of this book records the relevant situation of Yuji Tomb, and records the following passage:

Yuji mound in the county southeast sixty miles, six zhangs high. Xiang Yu was defeated and Yu Ji was buried here.

If we follow this line of thinking, Xiang Yu refused to cross the river east when he was defeated and planned to kill himself. But Xiang Yu was afraid that Yu Ji would be humiliated after his death, so he killed her and buried her in this place. If the record is true, it would overturn people's view of Xiang Yu and Yu Ji, the "Farewell concubine" for more than 2,000 years. In this regard, some scholars made it clear: the truth is difficult to accept. Or the ending of Yu Ji suicide is more "satisfactory".

This undoubtedly overturns people's views on Farewell My Concubine's love story for more than two thousand years. The book is not a historical book, but a wide range of historical books, inscriptions and other materials, the authenticity of which remains to be verified.

In addition, it is mentioned that the tomb of Yu Ji is located in Haozhou, that is, Dingyuan County of Chuzhou City, Anhui Province, in the Kuodi Records compiled by Li Tai, King of Wei in the Tang Dynasty, and the Seven Unique Tombs of Yu Ji in Haozhou written by Su Shi.

It is not difficult to find from the geographical location that the tomb of Yu Ji is still some distance away from Gaixia. If the tomb of Yu Ji is real, it also proves that Yu Ji did not die when she was in Gaixia. She broke through the siege together with Xiang Yu and died from some reasons.

In fact, history is so complicated and confusing. No matter what the truth is, it still cannot change the fact that Yu Ji died with Xiang Wang.

The story of Farewell my Concubine brings us more of a shock. A weak woman is willing to die together with her beloved. Her shocking courage and determination deduce the greatness of life with her own actions, and prove the integrity of "a scholar dies for the one who knows himself".

But I do not know Xiang Yu in listening to the embattled, holding the body of the beauty of the moment, have ever regretted not in Hanguu Pass, in the Hongmen banquet did not listen to the words of Fan Zeng, did not send troops to Hanzhong as soon as possible, occupy the land of Longxing.

This is the beauty of history. We can see the big picture and taste life from the perspective of historians. No matter whether we can accept the truth of Farewell my concubine or not, it cannot change the fact that Yu Ji went with Xiang Yu.