A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 413: Compiling history, the bottom line of historians
In addition to the several crimes of Emperor Xin recorded in the Zhou Dynasty's "Oath of Shepherd", there were many other crimes of Emperor Xin recorded in the history books of other vassal states during the Zhou Dynasty.

By the time Da Qian unified the world, Di Xin's charges had increased from the original six to 27. Whether any of them were true or false, the Wang family had more say. After all, it was the Wang family that now controlled the world.

Of course, Wang Jing did not force the historian to write according to his wishes, but asked people to debate and discuss it with the court historian and the bachelors and doctors in the minister's academy.

Among them, the first thing to be discussed is the authenticity of the "wine pond meat forest".

A scholar of the Wang family immediately refuted this article: "The wine pond and the meat forest are purely fictitious. It is not recorded in the Zhou people's "Oath of Shepherding", and future generations will slander it!"

"This statement is inappropriate. It is recorded in the history books of the Huai princes. It cannot be denied like this!" Fu Yue said immediately.

"Do you know how many days meat can be stored? How many days can wine be stored?" The Wang family member sneered.

When Fu Yue heard this, cold sweat broke out on his head immediately.

Before he could speak, Mrs. Wang continued: "Everyone sitting here must be from a well-off family, and they must have eaten meat. I don't need to tell you how many days the meat can be stored. One day is enough for everyone. Go rancid.”

"The Wine Pond and the Meat Forest tell of Di Xin playing in it. It must be summer. After all, who would play without clothes in the winter?" Everyone around them nodded.

"How can we make a meat forest if it stinks and rots in just one day?"

"As for the wine pool, how many days can the wine be stored after it is opened? What's more, there are many impurities in the wine today. Can the wine in the Yin and Shang Dynasty be better than now?"

"What if you pour these wines full of impurities into the pool, play in them, and drink them? Haha, do you think those wines are drinkable?"

"Hahaha, how could a king be so noble as to eat carrion and drink sour wine?"

"What a lie!"

Everyone then debated the remaining charges, and soon discovered that most of the so-called crimes were completely far-fetched.

Even the various crimes listed in "The Pastoral Oath" do not have sufficient reasons.

It said that Emperor Xin was not the eldest son, but the eldest son Qi, who was not the right one.It's funny to say this. Even Bangzhou promoted the accession of the legitimate son to the throne.

It is true that Wei Ziqi is the eldest son, but he is not the legitimate son. His mother has a low status, how can she be the king of Shang?
The latter sacrifice to heaven is dishonest, listening to the woman's words, not using clan brothers, using slaves, etc. Just listen to this.

Was Emperor Zhou sincere in offering sacrifices to heaven?Not to mention the emperor of Zhou, among the princes of Zhou Dynasty, some of them were sincere in offering sacrifices to heaven.

If the sacrifice to heaven was sincere, the Emperor of Zhou would not be treated as nothing. After all, according to Bang Zhou, the Emperor of Zhou was the son of God. How those princes treated the Emperor of Zhou was clearly recorded in the history books of the Huai Kingdom.

As for those who say they will not use clan members but slaves.This is even more of a joke. At the beginning, all the countries in the Zhou Dynasty employed people in different ways.

Shun Fa was raised among the farmers, Fu Shuo was raised among the planks, Jiao Ge was raised among the fish and salt, Guan Yiwu was raised among the scholars, and Baili Xi was raised among the city officials.

Many of them are slaves, and now Daqian employs people. Can you tell where you are from?If you look at their background, half of the people in this academy are not qualified to sit here.

The debate left everyone speechless.Wang Jinggao sat in the first place, and the three ministers and ministers around him had no objections.

In the end, the records of Emperor Xin of the Yin and Shang Dynasties were all based on the records in the history books of the Huai Kingdom.At the same time, 'Zhou' was also abolished and changed to Emperor Xin.

It also summarizes the reasons why Emperor Xin finally lost his country. Generally speaking, he agrees with Zijue's conclusion that Emperor Xin lost his country and the Yin and Shang Dynasties were destroyed, which was a strategic failure.

In order to stabilize the throne, Emperor Xin did not appoint his brothers to be in power and promoted slaves to officials, which shook the status of the nobles and caused dissatisfaction among the nobles. Because the great witch was in charge of the sacrificial power and had a dispute with Emperor Xin for power, he reduced the number of sacrifices and made the great witch dissatisfied with it.

At the same time, because of the large-scale construction projects, continuous wars, and enjoyment, the slaves were miserable and the treasury was empty.Therefore, when the Zhou Dynasty attacked, the Yin and Shang armies were outside, so they could only rely on the soldiers of the nobles and use slaves as soldiers.As a result, the nobles were already dissatisfied with him and turned against him in the face of battle. Emperor Xin was defeated.

Wang Jing asked people to write down the reasons for Emperor Xin's failure in the history books, and then ordered people to write down the various other refuted charges, and write down today's debate word for word, to show fairness and let everyone know the truth. It will be up to future generations to distinguish between right and wrong.

Many Legalists were opposed to Wang Jing's request. After all, Legalists emphasized evidence and acted in accordance with the law to convict. Confucians and Taoists agreed.

In the end, even though many Legalists disagreed, Wang Jing still asked Taishi to record these carefully.

"None of us know what the original history was like. History books are about truth, so record the real situation instead of writing based on personal preferences!"

"In those days, Cui Zhu killed his king and Zhao Dun killed his king. Taishi was not afraid of power and recorded them. He did not change them because of his own preferences or the power of the king. The same is true today."

"Today's history book is not based on the taboo of the venerable, nor is it based on Spring and Autumn style of writing. It is based on seeking truth from facts!"

Wang Jing has very high requirements for historians. Fairness and impartiality may seem simple, but it is extremely difficult to achieve them.

There shouldn’t be too many examples of this in the history books in real history.Just like "Historical Records", which is known as "the historian's swan song and the rhymeless lisao", are his records really fair?
Not necessarily, the most obvious ones are Li Guang, Huo Qubing and Wei Qing.

How much contribution did Li Guang have in history?And how much contribution did Wei Qing and Huo Qubing have?Li Guang was never granted a title of marquis from beginning to end. Did Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty not grant him a title?It was simply because Li Guang was not qualified to be a marquis.

He led the troops to win few battles, suffered several defeats, was in vain, lost his way, etc., and had very few military achievements. Where was Wei Qing and Huo Qubing?He sealed the wolf in Xu, defeated the Xiongnu several times, and captured the Chanyu to present the emperor's palace, which completely reversed the relationship between Han and Huns.

As a result, in his historical records, Li Guang was biographed alone, while Wei Qing and Huo Qubing were biographed together with his lieutenants.

The biography of Li Guang does not describe his military exploits in detail. Instead, it writes about the power of Yanmen, Li Guang shooting tigers, etc. It is not clear how fair he was.

He specially wrote an article "Historical Records: Biography of Ren Xing" in the Historical Records, and wrote Wei Qing and Huo Qubing in it, "Since then, there are only a few families who favored their favorite ministers and their relatives."Wei Qing and Huo Qubing were also fortunate to have foreign relatives, but they were able to make their own progress with their own talents. '

What does that mean?It's very simple. It means that these two people were honored and favored because of their status as relatives. They really turned a blind eye to the achievements of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing.

In addition to these, there are many praises for Xiang Yu in the historical records, and he even wrote "The Chronicles of Xiang Yu". You must know that he himself said that the Chronicles are only for emperors. Is Xiang Yu an emperor?
His book highly praises Xiang Yu, and at the same time belittles Liu Bang, the founder of the Han Dynasty. If Liu Bang is really like the scoundrel in his book, then the founding civil and military officials of the Han Dynasty will be sincerely convinced by Liu Bang and assist him in achieving the hegemony of the Han Dynasty. ?
You must know that Liu Bang was beaten by Xiang Yu several times and his entire army was annihilated and fled in embarrassment. If he was really such a gangster, the civil and military officials who founded the Han Dynasty would have gone to Xiang Yu long ago.

Looking at the records of Liu Bang in historical records, people think that Liu Bang was nothing more than this, and even have the illusion that I can have sex with me. But if you really believe it, you are really a fool.

In addition to historical records, the "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" in real history can be said to have done the same thing. By the way, Ouyang Xiu of the Northern Song Dynasty also arbitrarily deleted historical books based on his own likes and dislikes when compiling history books.

As a result, the authenticity of the history books compiled by the Song Dynasty was seriously doubted.

When Wang Jing wanted to compile a history book, he naturally wanted to record what happened in history truly, rather than arbitrarily deleting it based on the historian's personal likes and dislikes, let alone his own imagination.

If this kind of history book was produced, Wang Jing felt that it would be better not to compile it.

Historians can have their own likes and dislikes. Even if you hate this person, you still need to record their true history. You can make a final evaluation of it, but you are not allowed to modify it according to your own preferences.

This is respect for history.

Wang Jing's requirement for history books is that even if they are not written, there should not be a lie in the history books. It must be true and fair.

As for the personal likes and dislikes of historians, they can only be personal likes and dislikes, their own evaluation of these historical figures and not others.

Compiling history is not about making up random things, and history cannot be nonsense.

(End of this chapter)