It is a series of works that I have been writing on the Internet since the summer of 1999.At that time, I was a graduate student at Zhejiang University, and various things were complicated, so writing was often interrupted. By the time the fourth part was completed, it was already the season of spring and flowers blooming in 2001.From then to now, it has been five full years.Looking back at the beginning, I often lay tirelessly in front of the computer and typed on the keyboard until late at night. I didn't feel a trace of satisfied sleep until I finished a chapter and posted it on the Internet.I don't know whether to say that I am old now, or that I was too crazy at that time, and I couldn't believe my dedication and persistence back then.

The reason for writing this book is that when I read "Book of Jin", I read the deeds of many heroes. In addition to the unavoidable admiration and yearning, I also felt a little emotional, so I began to post on the forum. The coherent and chapter-by-chapter essays are originally intended to comment on these historical events and characters-careful readers may notice that there are relatively many passages discussed in the first part of the book.However, as I write, I gradually understand this period of history in depth, and feel that it has a very unique position in Chinese history, but such an important era that connects the past and the future, few people know about it.There are many reasons for this situation. For example, traditional historians are limited by the orthodox concept of the Han nationality, and cannot treat and study the history of the Wuhu objectively, completely and fairly. Many people think that it is a history of suffering and shame for the Han people, and deliberately avoid and distort it.In recent years, although there have been more and more scholars studying various specialized histories of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and there have been countless research works, most of the historical readings for ordinary readers still discuss topics such as the Han, Tang, Ming and Qing dynasties. This cannot but be said to be a pity .On the contrary, on the emerging medium of the Internet, more and more people are paying attention to this often-missed history, and more and more related works that have been well received have appeared, which has played a miraculous effect on popularizing historical knowledge.Introducing and commenting on history from the perspective of an ordinary history reader rather than a historical researcher is probably a new way of managing history in this era.Originally, history should not just be a difficult tool for literati to read through copybooks, but should also be a popular topic of conversation for ordinary people after dinner.The way I choose to talk about issues through historical facts is that this form is more meaningful than those boring, superficial or even boring empty talks (or quarrels).

Dividing the whole book into four parts is what I have roughly conceived shortly after I started writing. When it comes to actual implementation, the emphasis and even the writing style of each part will be more or less different: writing the first part At that time, my focus was still on some specific historical events, focusing on the performance of the various ethnic minorities headed by the Huns during the great turmoil; while in the second part, I focused on a person I felt very deeply about. On the family who is also very interested and admired, I wrote the history of the Murong family with half of the page (the other half is the history of the death of Zhao Xing); one of my favorite monarchs is Fu Jian, and I wrote about him in the third part, treating him as Heroes (of course, many people don’t think so) to write, but the more I write, the more I feel that it will soon become a dynastic history; in the fourth part, many of my views have changed, although I really want to write the family history and unification of the Tuoba family The history of the process in the north, but what is finally shown is the rise and fall of various ethnic groups in the great era.From a vertical point of view, the first part is about the post-Zhao era, or the Shi Le era; the second part is about the Murong era, or the rise of the Xianbei people; the third part is about the era of Fu Jian alone ( Wang Meng can be regarded as an important supporting role), or the pre-Qin era; the fourth part is the out-and-out era of heroes.The full title of the book is "Across the Sixteen Kingdoms, Talking about Heroes by Cooking Wine", and its original intention is to discuss the so-called heroes (at least from my point of view, but I'm afraid I can't cover everything), so apart from the above main In addition to the characters, each part has some space to describe other heroes, such as Liu Yuan, Li Xiong, Chen Yuanda, Zhang Bin, Liu Kun, Zu Ti in the first part, and Shi Hu (although he is a tyrant) in the second part. ), Zhang Chonghua, Huan Wen, Yao Xiang, Murongchui, Fu Rong in the third part, Fu Deng, Yao Chang, Murongchui, Yao Xing, Juqu Mengxun, He Lianbo, Cui Hao, Liu in the fourth part Yu (for this character, the space I can give him is quite limited, and I would like to focus on him in the sequel of this book—a book about the Southern and Northern Dynasties).There are many heroes because history has given them many opportunities and the stage is huge. Their different performances just illustrate the richness and variety of the era of great division.

Regarding the history of the era of ethnic disputes, as mentioned earlier, many people in China often have narrow and prejudiced views, which is understandable.The Chinese nation has continued to this day and has accumulated too many heavy historical burdens. How can it be so easy to relax.However, I think of a sentence that a Canadian friend of mine once said to me. He said: "A country (he meant Canada) is like a huge stage. Every nation and everyone has enough Freedom to do what they want, to show what belongs to them." I leave this sentence for the reader to think about. I almost gave up when I was writing the third part of this book. When I finished writing it, I was in a bad mood. Du Fu said that "articles hate fate", which is indeed true.What I need to thank during this period is the few more casual books I have read - Mr. Li Dongfang's "Detailed History Series".At the beginning of his book "A Detailed Description of the Three Kingdoms", Mr. Li has a wonderful opening speech:

"When Westerners talk about Western history, they often talk about the decline of a certain nation and the rise of another nation, or the collapse of a certain culture and the birth of another culture. The difference between Arnold Toynbee and his predecessors is that It is to use the word 'society' instead of 'nation' or 'culture', and add a point: after a society collapses, its constituent elements may be partially preserved by the next society. Toynbee likes to say, 'Chinese society ' had collapsed at the time of the entry of Buddhism, and since then there is no longer a Chinese society, but only a 'Far Eastern society'.

... "In essence, Chinese history is different from Western history. Our Zhou Dynasty was very splendid, but it was not Greece, which was short-lived; our Han Dynasty was very majestic, not Rome, which declined and could not be revived. We Chinese have the characteristics of Westerners. The resilience that we do not have, despite the rise and fall of our dynasties and the ups and downs of our country, our nation has been standing in East Asia since the time of Egypt and Babylon, has never died, and continues to develop. "Luo Guanzhong, the author of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or Mao Zonggang, who revised it, said an irrefutable statement: 'Talking about the general trend of the world, the long-term unity must be divided, and the long-term division must be united.' Westerners cannot say such words. It is impossible for them to have such optimistic confidence in the future of their country."

Concealed in contemplation, thinking about it carefully, it really is so.Whenever Westerners talk about the change of dynasties and the rise and fall of countries in their history, almost all of them are related to tragedies. The tragedies of the nation, the tragedies of the individual family, and the tragedies of individual families all stem from "chaos".But in China, there are indeed historical tragedies like this, and most of them are romantic historical novels like this, which repeatedly interpret the principle of "reincarnation is caused by the rise and fall". But they can all "make a joke".So reading Chinese history is a "wonderful" thing, especially the history of troubled times.

The greatest joy of reading history is that it evokes people's thinking and makes people have an eager desire to find out whether it is about the past or the future.This kind of desire is human nature, and it bursts out because of this "external stimulus".History is originally a thing of the past, but it is closely connected with reality, allowing readers to breathe and share fate with the predecessors, and then generate inner resonance. Life can have such a wonderful experience, what difficulties can not be overcome? The series was originally posted on two forums of Zhejiang University: Piaomiao Shuiyunjian and Xiaoshuting, and has been serialized for nearly two years.Later, I was fortunate enough to be loved by some netizens, and it was reposted on many other online forums. I also left a copy of the original manuscript on my personal homepage.This time, Chongqing Publishing House found me very sincerely and hoped to publish the whole book, which moved me very much.It took me nearly two months to make a lot of revisions on the basis of the original manuscript, adding tens of thousands of words, and attaching the emperor's era table, chronology, and character index table at the end of the text, so that readers can refer to relevant information , hoping to be helpful to readers.

As for myself, I have no other expectations.I am content to write a little, even if there is only one reader.