There is a beauty named Yu, who is often honored to ride from; a steed named Zhui, who is often ridden. The king of Xiang was so sad and generous that he wrote a poem for himself, saying: "The power of the mountain is strong, the time is unfavorable, and the piebald does not pass away. What can be done about the piebald, what can be done about Yu, Yu, Yu, and what can be done about it!" He sang several songs, and the beauty and the song. The king of Xiang wept several times, and all the people around him sobbed, and they could not look up.
"There is a beauty named Yu", but did not call it by the name of "Yu Ji", which has been passed down in later generations; it was not until the Tang book "Bracket Zhi" that the name of "Yu Ji" appeared. Of course, "Ji" is just a pronoun, not Yu Ji's real name. Yuji its people have surnames and no name, the name has long been indecipherable in the black hole of the historical rupture, the Five Dynasties period of the word name is simply to "Yu Beauty" call.
Ban Gu in the "Han Shu - Sima Qian biography" said: "Sima Qian according to the" Zuo Shi "," the State Language ", pick" Shiben "," the Warring States Strategy ", the Chu Han Spring and Autumn Annals ", and its aftermath, the end of the day in the Han." Among them, "Chu Han Spring and Autumn Annals" is a book written by Lu Jia at the beginning of Han Dynasty, which was lost in the Southern Song Dynasty. Undoubtedly, Sima Qian wrote "The Records of the Grand Historian" with reference to the "Spring and Autumn Annals of Chu and Han": "Sima Qian wrote "The Records of the Grand Historian" according to the "Spring and Autumn Annals of Chu and Han", and therefore, his words are especially detailed in the matter of the Qin and the Han." (Wang Liqi)
But the song of "Beauty and the" recorded in "Spring and Autumn of Chu and Han" was not recorded in the "Records of the Grand Historian" by Sima Qian, who was detail-oriented and curious. Tang Zhang Shoujie "Historical Records Justice" from the "Chu Han Spring and Autumn Annals" quoted recorded this song:
Song said: Han soldiers have been conquering the land, the four sides of the Chu song; the king's intention to the end of gas, the lowly concubine how to chat about life.
Some people have long suspected that this song is a later forgery, on the grounds that the Qin and Han dynasties did not have such a mature pentameter poem. However, Mrs. Qi's dirge recorded in the Book of Han - Biography of the Relatives is already a fairly mature pentameter poem: "The son is a king, the mother is a captive, and she spends her days pounding the thin curtains, often in company with the dead! When we are three thousand miles away from each other, who is going to tell the lady?" The Qin folk ballad recorded in Li Daoyuan's "Shui Jing Zhu - River Water" was also a mature poem in five lines: "Be careful not to lift up a boy when he is born, and feed a girl when she is born. I don't see the corpses strutting each other under the Great Wall." Therefore, the song recorded in the Spring and Autumn Annals of Chu and Han is not a forgery and should not be a problem.
The Spring and Autumn Annals of the Chu and Han Dynasties and the Records of the Grand Historian Xiang Yu (项羽本纪), are the earliest records of the story of Farewell to My Concubine. The two books did not involve the end of Yu Ji. To the degree of common sense, Yu Ji is unlikely to survive, otherwise there will be no folk oral tradition of Yu Ji cut her own throat, it will not be until the Tang Dynasty fashion "Xiang Yu Beauty Grave" of the location of the prestige bearings. Gaixia battle, four Chu song sound, drinking sword Chu tent can only be the only end of Yu Ji.
The general said that: "Farewell my concubine" story, reflecting the Yu Ji and Xiang Yu touching love; Chu Ba Wang heroes at the end of the road, Yu Ji cut her own throat martyrdom. This sad moment, has been fixed in the Chinese literature between the lines, fixed in the Chinese opera stage, become the most classic Chinese classical love, the most stirring brilliant legend.
Tracing the roots of historical events and uncovering the truth can only rely on the reading of the original text. Playing carefully with Yu Ji's harmony song, I found in it a doubtful point of this love story.
"The Han soldiers have already stolen the land, and the Chu song is sung in all directions." The first two lines are objective documentary facts. The first two lines are an objective chronicle, and at the same time a layout of the situation in which Yu Ji is about to express her feelings. Yu Ji's judgment of the situation and Xiang Yu's doubt is the same - Xiang Wang was alarmed and said: "Han have got Chu? Why are there so many Chu people!"
"The king's will is over, so why should my concubine live?" However, it is unbelievable that Yu Ji's judgment of the situation actually led directly to the denial of Xiang Yu's state of mind until his future fate! Your spirit to continue fighting has come to an end, and I am not willing to live. On what basis did Yu Ji judge that "Your Majesty's spirit is over"? Just because Xiang Yu heard the song of Chu and "got up at night and drank in his tent"? If this is an inciting speech to motivate Xiang Yu to fight on with his own unwillingness to live, then the reaction of Xiang Yu and his generals should not be "sobbing a few lines" and "weeping on the left and right", but should be furious and determined to fight to the death. Here we can see the inciting power and contagiousness of the words, Yu Ji's well-designed "Han soldiers have already stolen the land, the four sides of the Chu song sound" the wonderful effect of this scenario - it really let Xiang Yu and the generals lost the courage to fight!
Yu Ji's attitude is very strange. As Xiang Yu's favorite woman, she should have stood up to him and inspired him when he was at the end of his rope but not yet completely defeated, instead of echoing Xiang Yu's excuse that "the times are not good" and tempting him to bow down in front of the bad situation. After all, Xiang Yu is only in his 30s. She knows that Xiang Yu has fought many battles in his life, and has also had the classic battle example of "leading troops across the river, sinking boats, breaking kettles and cauldrons, burning huts, and holding food for three days to show that the soldiers will die, and none of them will return to their hearts", thus defeating the Qin army and bringing the dead back to life, and also the classic battle example of killing more than 100,000 Han soldiers with 30,000 people, and forcing Liu Bang to escape with dozens of riders; however, at this time, Yu Ji not only did not use her own words to inspire Xiang Yu, but also used the same excuse of "time is not favorable" to tempt Xiang Yu to bow down in front of the bad situation. At this time, Yu Ji did not encourage Xiang Yu with the similar situation in the past, but on the contrary, she lamented that "Your Majesty's spirit is over"! At this moment, Xiang Yu still has more than 800 riders by his side, all of them are good soldiers, all of them can fight against one another, even if they can't beat Liu Bang, at least they can protect Xiang Yu to retreat in one piece, and try to rise again in the east. The development of events also verified this point. Xiang Yu broke through the siege and reached the Wujiang River, so Xiang Yu wanted to cross the Wujiang River to the east. The pavilion chief of Wujiang River, who was waiting for his boat, said to Xiang Yu: "Although Jiangdong is small, it is a thousand miles away, with hundreds of thousands of people, which is enough for the king. I hope the king will hurry to cross the river. Now only the minister has a boat, the Han army to, there is no way to cross."
It can be seen that Xiang Yu did not have the opportunity to cross the river, but Xiang Yu stubbornly believe that "the death of the sky," and do not want to cross the river, "is to cut his own throat and die". Why didn't Yu Ji wait for all the chances to be exhausted, and then martyr herself when there was no way to survive, and sentenced Xiang Yu to death in such a hurry?
Yu Ji's song, which has been praised as "the crystallization of chaste love" and the earliest five-character poem in China (Wang Yinglin's "The Chronicle of a Difficult School" in the Southern Song Dynasty), just exudes an air of suspicion. I even suspect that she was a beautiful spy sent by Liu Bang to Xiang Yu, following the example of Xi Shi. With Liu Bang's intellect and style of behavior, Xiang Yu's "woman's heart" and headstrong character that does not listen to advice, this is entirely possible. But the history is indecipherable, not only Liu Bang, Xiang Yu, Yu Ji's place of origin can not be found between the slightest trace, even Yu Ji's earliest follow Xiang Yu's time is also unavailable.