In China, during the thousands of years of unification, division, chaos, and prosperity, and in the dynasties that have been pursuing great unification, the peasant war has indeed become the root cause of the demise of many dynasties, and it is also an indispensable topic for historians. .Under the influence of ideology, since the 1950s, various peasant uprisings have been dubbed "justice", "noble", "resisting oppression", "a pusher of history" and other commendatory terms. The leaders of the uprising were portrayed as the incarnation of "Gao Quan" with perfect wisdom and good morality. In this way, it seems that these historical violent events and movements that caused countless people's unnatural deaths in the last years of the dynasty, their bloody process has become a glorious one. A grand drama mingled with pathos.The truth of history is often confused by superficial imagination and political "correctness", and sometimes even makes many of us feel simple and mechanical, almost unimaginable.

Is that true?In fact, as long as we are willing to work hard and study carefully the vast number of official history books and anecdotes, we will definitely find that the theory of success and failure is not entirely groundless.Wan Zhang asked Mencius, "Yao shared the world with Shun, how can there be others?" Mencius replied decisively, "No, the Son of Heaven cannot give the world to others." Wan Zhang asked again, "So Shun has the world, who will give it to him?" Mencius replied again: "Heaven and it!" This sky is public opinion, "Heaven doesn't say anything, it just shows it with deeds and things."Therefore, the ups and downs of one dynasty and the ups and downs of two dynasties, although it is said that God's will will take it away, are actually the support of the people's hearts. "Those who drove the people away for Tang and Wu, Jie and Zhou also", the chaos of the last dynasties in the past dynasties often had its objective historical background. It is beyond doubt that the starting point is often simple.However, a simple starting point does not mean a perfect and noble result. In the chaotic situation, there is often a single husband and hero who rises up because of his advantages and then dominates the world with his own likes and dislikes.No matter how high the temple is or where the rivers and lakes are far away, those who harm the world and the common people are thieves for the people.It is reasonable for many politically short-sighted green forest heroes to fail.

However, thousands of years have passed, during which the vicissitudes of life and the vicissitudes of white clouds and dogs are countless.Today, when society is transforming into materialism, many amazing and even amazing legendary figures and their deeds in the peasant wars of various dynasties are either deliberately forgotten selectively or submerged in the great historical events of the dynasties. In the shadows, or disappearing in the cumbersome narratives of the chaotic era, or distorted by the absurd romance legends of TV production craftsmen, or because of the ups and downs of these dynastic gravediggers and the combination of non-dynastic ups and downs was ignored.

The history in Mr. Xu Xu's pen is heavy, which is very refreshing in the current atmosphere of "historical jokes", "historical cartoon dramas" and "historical model dramas" with big braids in the Qing Dynasty.The freshness of his eloquence, the earnestness of his ridicule, and his incisive analysis, the past events come rushing to our faces, suddenly making us realize that the history of the "Tian Dynasty" is so long and glorious, but also so short-lived ;Then heroes come forth in large numbers, and yet such a group of villains wreak havoc; so splendid a civilization, yet so cruel and unspeakable.

Fortunately, it is definitely not a special collection of textual research that shows off the rigid knowledge of books, and it is not a "historical account" that simply translates ancient Chinese into vernacular.Xu Xu, the "hermit" in the metropolis of the southern country, with his outstanding literary thinking, writes in places where others can't compare, and from a unique angle that ordinary people often overlook, he conducts an interesting and literary analysis of the "dynasty gravediggers". Observation, so as to decompose the heavy proposition "History of Peasant Wars" into vivid, individual, and charming real specimens of the times, and show those indomitable, domineering, and flesh-and-blood characters in the past years from the perspective of human nature. The real life of the uprising heroes and the dark, turbulent and extremely brilliant era they live in, depicts the tragic truth behind their short-lived success and glory, and deconstructs the long history of the Ganges River Rush across the ages. , Cats, Three Dogs and Four are wonderful, allowing us to see all kinds of breathtaking life scenes in the drama of historical accident.

Xu Xu uses the "montage" of literary writing to show the most important chapters in the junction of Chinese history one by one in front of readers, which is heroic and touching.What is particularly gratifying is that his historical writing is free from the "unconstrained" fantasies of novelists, the pretentious economic and political "analysis" of half-baked historical researchers, and the half-cold and sentimental "petty bourgeoisie" in the current culture. context.It is precisely because Xu Xu is not a "professional" writer that we can see from his book a serious historical writer's new and profound interpretation of the historical macro scene.In addition, his relish in the interesting details of history and his refreshing writing focus can be described as unique and unconstrained, highlighting the heaviness in the gorgeousness, making people laugh in the seriousness, even the seemingly inadvertent gags on historical figures, It also allows us to deeply appreciate the ubiquitous "black humor" in historical dramas.

Due to Xu Xu's flowing writing and jumping thinking, we feel that every story is like a feast with many flavors and endless aftertaste.Therefore, in the soul-stirring reading, those historical figures who had gone with the wind gradually stood up vividly from the dusty yellow and crisp ancient books, their voices and smiles, their bitterness, joy and sorrow, their uncarved Dramatic life, in the joy of our easy reading, in our heartfelt laughter, in our tears and blurred eyes, constantly makes us feel sad.Looking up and thinking about it, the lingering sound is endless. The historical fragments and characters captured in this book are all important roles at the junction of dynasties that we are somewhat familiar with but feel very strange after careful deduction.They were prominent at the time, dazzling people's eyes at the peak of their lives, but once their bizarre deaths began, they were gradually forgotten and ignored by people, and gradually retreated into the time tunnel of history.Reviving them is Xu Xu's forte and intention.

Xu Xu is not a lazy history writer. It takes incomparable patience and fearless courage to study so many major events in the joint kingdom of dynasties—because, if one wants to really ponder the causes and consequences of each peasant war under specific conditions, one must thoroughly understand each and every one of them. The entire history of a dynasty.Therefore, it is indeed a very thankless task to comb through historical records and discard the rubbish and keep the essence.If the choice is not appropriate, the author and readers will fall into the quagmire of thick historical deposits together, and may also be obscured by folk artists and drama romances, and finally fall into the stereotype of "literary fabrication", or fall into endless chatter dry narrative.However, Xu Xu's ability to grasp the unique perspective of history is beyond ordinary people. His pen is like a sharp scalpel, which can cut into the joints of the huge historical body with ease.

My acquaintance with Xu Xu was due to online friendship. In 2004, when I used the ID of "King Helianbobo" on Tianya.com's "Cooking on the History of Wine" forum, I was just a novice writing history writing for the first time. At that time, Xu Xu was using the ID of "Jiangshangwei" on Tianya.com. as a moderator.He encouraged me many times and suggested revisions to my articles, which led to the publication of one after another of my historical works in the future.The kindness of the spring is rewarded with a drop of water.Now, Xu Xu asked me to write the preface, which really made me feel anxious and ashamed.Who is Mei Yi, who dares to make a preface for Xu Sheng!

It is better to forget each other in the rivers and lakes than to be in love with each other.Xu Xu and I are in the material city of Shenzhen, but we have never met each other.However, it is enough to have a common interest in history, a common belief in revitalizing the national spirit, and a perfect friendship between gentlemen and gentlemen. It is for sequence. King Helianbo (Mei Yi) December 2006