Chapter 10 wedge

The wheel of history is irreversible, and the torrent of the times is irresistible.The general pattern of an era is destined to change the lives of many people. In the south of the Yangtze River, which was rich in humanities in the late Ming Dynasty, there were the Yushan Poetry School headed by Qian Qianyi, the Yunjian School headed by Chen Zilong, and the Loudong School headed by Wu Weiye, which made the Wuzhong area a clear, vast and famous. Far-reaching poetics center. However, from the late Ming Dynasty to the middle Qing Dynasty, the historical changes were extremely complicated.Not only the turmoil of dynastic change, but also fierce ethnic conflicts, and at the same time, conflicts between feudal orthodox culture and heresy.These contradictions are intertwined with each other, making the literati and bureaucrats face difficult life dilemmas and difficult choices.When history is at a major turning point, when social unrest and national crisis are serious, the performance of various characters often appears to be very different, and it is difficult to accurately fit into a certain pattern.At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the survivors tried to recover, and those who sacrificed their lives for the country looked at each other one after another; there were also many scholar-bureaucrats who regarded themselves as survivors of the Ming Dynasty, and wrote books and gave lectures;

Historical figures are extremely complex.Even if it is the same character, it often presents staged characteristics, with different performances before and after.Loyalty and defiance, grandeur and triviality, resoluteness and cowardice and hypocrisy, honesty and cunning, these multiple qualities are often manifested in the same person, which shows that complex historical figures are difficult to see through at a glance. Take the first article "Jiangzuo Three Great Masters" in this edition as an example. Qian Qianyi, Gong Dingzi and Wu Weiye were all famous poets in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Everyone".

When the fall of Beijing in 1644 and the fall of Nanjing in 1645 came one after another, the three Jiangzuo masters were also faced with the choice of where to go, and without exception they had to accept severe political and moral tests. And these three people all surrendered to the Qing Dynasty after the death of the Ming Dynasty. Gong Dingzi also surrendered to Li Zicheng in the Jiashen Incident in 1644, all of which were tainted by reputation. Although these three people did not really do anything for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, unlike Wu Sangui and Hong Chengchou who used the blood of the Han people to flatter the Manchu Qing Lord, Qian Qianyi and Wu Weiye in particular were almost officials of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Afterwards, he resigned quickly, but the performances of the three were very different—Qian Qianyi secretly turned against the Qing Dynasty and restored the Ming Dynasty, and lost his family and property for this; "Style" and "Yuanyuanqu" and other poems, and he called himself "the most miserable person in the world".

These three people's different attitudes towards world affairs are also reflected in their interactions with their lovers Liu Rushi, Gu Mei, and Bian Yujing.