Why did Liu Bowen resign? Why go to Zhu Yuanzhang who has no strength?

There is a popular saying in China that "the world is divided into three parts, and Liu Bowen is unified". In the eyes of ordinary people, Liu Bowen is not only an honest official, but also an ingenious and ingenious "immortal". The real Liu Bowen in history was a famous strategist, politician, writer and thinker in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. He was the founding father of the Ming Dynasty. He offered eighteen strategies for Zhu Yuanzhang to help him lay a solid national foundation and retire to the countryside after becoming famous. Legend has it that after Liu Bowen left Korea, he practiced in Laoshan and eventually became an immortal.

When I was a teenager, I never forgot Liu Bowen's real name, Liu Ji, and Bo Wen was his word. Yuan Wuzong was born in Qingtian, Zhejiang for four years (13 1 1). Liu Ji's family background actually has some background. His ancestors were rich (now Pei County and Feng County in Jiangsu Province) and later moved to Yan (now Shaanxi Province). After the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, Liu Ji's seventh ancestor was the Duke and King of Rong Guo in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, and later "crossed south" to the south of the Yangtze River. Since then, the Liu family has been living in Zhejiang.

Liu Ji's father, Liu, is honest and talented. When he was a child, he saved the lives of many villagers with his grandfather Liu Hao. It turns out that after the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty, the qingtian county Rebels were besieged by the Yuan Army one after another. In order to exterminate weeds, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty sent Gou Tieer, the deputy envoy of eastern Zhejiang, to qingtian county to investigate the situation of anti-Yuan rebels. A traitor provided clues to help Goutier build a blacklist and prepare to report it to the court for suppression. This news made Liu Bowen's great-grandfather Liu Hao know. When Goutier passed Wuyang Village, he laid down a sumptuous banquet as a local squire, leaving Goutier and his party to rest at home. Liu Hao got Gou Tieer drunk, stole the black list and burned it, and then set fire to his ancestral home himself. They pretended to be flustered and rescued Gou Tieer from the fire.

Gou Tieer knew that drinking was a mistake, but fortunately, he survived and was grateful to the Liu family. Qingtian county people admire Liu's righteous act of sacrificing property and wisdom to save his compatriots, and Liu's local reputation is also relatively high. Liu later became a famous Confucian scholar at that time and engaged in education. He gave birth to Liu Ji in his forties, so he regarded him as the apple of his eye and paid special attention to his son's education.

When he was young, Liu Ji showed extraordinary reading talent. He is not only clever, but also studious, and is called "child prodigy" by the villagers. It is said that Liu Ji, a teenager, not only read fast books, but also has the ability to remember everything. In the first year of Taiding (1324), 14-year-old Liu Ji entered the county (that is, the official school) to study. At that time, Professor Wang's Spring and Autumn Annals was an obscure, concise and profound Confucian classic. Beginners are generally difficult to understand, but they just read the book and don't understand its meaning. Liu Ji can not only meditate twice, but also express his views according to the literal meaning. Teacher Wang was surprised to see this place, thinking that he had read it before, so he tried several other paragraphs, and Liu Ji answered the questions like a duck to water. The teacher admired him very much and secretly praised him as "a genius, and he must not be an ordinary person in the future!" "Liu Ji didn't spend much time learning a classic of Spring and Autumn Annals.

The book "Dynasty Dragged by Interest Groups" wrote: Once, Liu Ji wandered into a bookstore and was attracted by a Chinese literature, so he stood down to read it. When the shopkeeper saw that he was fascinated, he came up to strike up a conversation. In his speech, he felt that the young scholar had extraordinary speech ability and planned to give him this book. Liu Ji said with a smile: "I don't hide it from the store. I only read it for a long time, and this book has already been put into my stomach. " He recited it fluently. The shopkeeper was frightened and thought he had met Zhuge Liang who was reincarnated.

Taiding four years (1327), Liu Ji was seventeen years old. He left the official school and studied Neo-Confucianism under Zheng Fuchu, a famous scholar in Chuzhou, and received Confucian classics education. Liu Ji reads widely, and all schools of thought contend, especially astronomy, geography, art of war and mathematics. He has a special hobby, devoted to research and thinking, and is very proficient. In an interview, Zheng Fuchu praised Liu Ji's father and said: "Your ancestors accumulated profound virtues and sheltered future generations; This child is so excellent that he will shine at your door in the future. "

The wind of discontent, dismissed from office four times, according to the Ming history? According to Liu Jichuan, in the fourth year of Yuan Dynasty (1333), 23-year-old Liu Ji went to Yuandu (now Beijing) to take the exam, and was awarded the post of Cheng of Gao 'an County. He is an honest official and deeply loved by the people. Later, the minister of the province called him up and became an official in the province. Soon, Liu Ji resigned and left. Zheng Zheng nine years (1349), was promoted to deputy director of Confucianism in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Because of his dereliction of duty in advising and supervising the suggestion, he was banned by the Taiwan Province authorities and retired after handing in his resignation twice.

Later, the peasant uprising led by Fang Guozhen rose at sea, and the government could not subdue him, so the province appointed Liu Ji as the Marshal's Office. Liu Ji suggested building walls such as Qingyuan to stop robbers, and the momentum of Fang Guozhen was stopped. When Tieli Timur, the left prime minister, surrendered, Liu Ji suggested that Fang brothers were the first to rebel, and it was not enough to punish the later people. Fang Guozhen was very scared, so he sent someone to bribe Liu Ji. Liu Ji refuses to accept it. Fang Guozhen then sent people from the sea to the capital to bribe the authorities in the imperial court. The court then issued a letter to appease Guo Zhen and granted him an official position, but accused Liu Ji of autocracy.

It is said that during Liu Ji's initial career of less than 20 years, he resigned four times, which is by no means because Liu Ji did something wrong, but precisely because he was too upright. In the words of Ming Dynasty, he lost his job because he "betrayed the enemy, refused to avoid the strong and rebelled against the imperial power". When he was a county magistrate, he offended the local squire in order to fight for the interests of the people, refused to give in to the evil forces and resigned. When the deputy director of Confucianism in Jiangsu and Zhejiang promoted him, he was forced to resign again because of his dereliction of duty in reporting and supervising the imperial history. So is the suppression of the Fang Guozhen uprising. He didn't take bribes, but at that time, officialdom was regarded as different. Finally, I was framed by a villain, squeezed out by others, and did something thankless. Liu Ji can only retire. As the saying goes, heroes are born in troubled times, and the fatuous officialdom at the end of Yuan Dynasty is not suitable for ambitious Liu Ji. Honesty, integrity and frankness can only make him hit a wall everywhere. If there were no chaos at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, I'm afraid he could only be a scholar who lived on officialdom and failed to achieve great success.

He retired and returned to this field, but instead of being depressed, he devoted himself to writing books. His most famous book, The Fisherman, was written during that period.

Of course, gold is always shining. Twenty years later (1360), Liu Bowen, who had been at home for two years, was finally dug up by Zhu Yuanzhang from the countryside.

In the book Dynasty Dragged by Interest Groups, it is mentioned that Zhu Yuanzhang invited Liu Bowen to come out of the mountain. Zhu Yuanzhang knew that Liu Bowen was recommended by another scholar, Zhu Sheng. Zhu Sheng was also a retired official in the Yuan Dynasty, and he was a fellow villager with Zhu Yuanzhang. After he was invited out of the mountain, he recommended "Four Masters of Jinhua" to Zhu Yuanzhang. These four people are Liu Bowen, Song Lian, Zhang Yi and Ye Chen. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was already a very powerful peasant uprising army at the end of Yuan Dynasty. Most of the people who rebelled with him were friends from Huaixi's hometown, such as Xu Da and Muying. They are all brave people, but they are not good at judging the situation. Zhu Yuanzhang was bent on recruiting a few wise men to seek great things. After listening to Zhu Sheng's words, he appointed someone to invite "Four Masters of Jinhua" to come to Ning. For the arrival of four people, Zhu Yuanzhang gave enough courtesy. In addition to the group reception and banquet, he also talked with these four people respectively. Liu Bowen took the opportunity to face Zhu Yuanzhang's "Eighteen Strategies of Current Affairs". Many historians believe that the addition of the "Four Masters of Jinhua" was one of the key factors for Zhu Yuanzhang to annihilate the heroes and finally win the world. In fact, Liu Bowen is the only one of the four who really matters.

When Liu Bowen defected to Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't even say that he was a prince, but a military commander under Han Liner. Han Liner proclaimed himself, and Zhu Yuanzhang also expressed his support. On the first day of New Year's Day, a North Korean throne was established in China's military account. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered all generals to pay homage to the throne, but Liu Bowen ignored it. When someone asked him why he was so arrogant, he said proudly, "What is this (referring to Han Liner) shepherd's ear?" The news reached Zhu Yuanzhang's ears, and he took Liu Bowen to ask why. Liu Bowen told Zhu Yuanzhang directly: "You are the only thrill to replace the Yuan Dynasty. Why should you serve others?"

At that time, there were several kings in the world, besides Han Liner, there were also Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng and Fang Guozhen. Zhu Yuanzhang has been king for a long time, but he has never been confident. There are two things that make him most uncertain: one is whether there is a "dragon elephant" in his hit, and the other is the best time to be king. After several long talks, Zhu Yuanzhang knew that Liu Bowen was an expert in astronomy and geography. Beggar Zhu Yuanzhang believed in divination and fortune telling, and Liu Bowen's surrender was regarded as "Oracle" by Zhu Yuanzhang. At this point, it can be safely said that Liu Bowen contributed to Zhu Yuanzhang's dream of being an emperor.

With the help of counselor Liu Bowen, Zhu Yuanzhang started his own business. In a few years, he defeated the peasant rebels one by one, and proclaimed himself emperor in Yingtianfu in 1368, and established the Daming Kingdom.

That is, Zhu Yuanzhang, after he ascended the throne, began to change his mind. Instead of calling the warriors and counselors around him brothers when he was fighting the world, he began to eliminate all the people around him who could threaten his power. The emperor's habitual thinking of "if he is not my race, his heart will be different" is vividly reflected in Zhu Yuanzhang, but his original attitude towards Liu Bowen's "I can judge and use" has also changed. Zhu Yuanzhang no longer regarded Liu Bowen's words as "Oracle", and even began to have some rebellions. Sometimes when discussing political views, Liu Bowen wanted to help Zhu Yuanzhang speak, but he was often refuted by Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang asked how to govern the world? Liu Bowen said: "It is forgiveness." Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Your generalization is too empty. Do you think forgiveness is useful if you don't do something specific? " Although Liu Bowen at this time has been named an imperial envoy and an imperial adviser, it is not easy to accompany the suspicious Zhu Yuanzhang every day.

Li Shanchang, the prime minister at that time, monopolized power, which made Zhu Yuanzhang very unhappy. Because Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen had been at odds, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to borrow Liu Bowen's hand to solve this big worry. Liu Bowen know, let him come out to pick up Li Shanchang, both use and test his loyalty. Once he agreed, it might alleviate Zhu Yuanzhang's suspicion. However, Li Shanchang's today is probably its own tomorrow. As soon as this case is opened, the founding heroes around Zhu Yuanzhang will feel insecure. Liu Bowen would never do such a thing. Because of this, it was not long before Liu Bowen resigned.

Where did Liu Bowen go after leaving the temple? It is said that he lives in seclusion in his hometown of qingtian county, keeping a low profile and even unwilling to see the county magistrate; There is also a saying that he came to Laoshan, where he practiced immortality.