Sky Curtain: The Overlord Charges into Battle, Shocking Emperors of All Dynasties

Seeing these lines of text flash by, each line a heart-wrenching word,

Why would a scholar from the Ming Dynasty voluntarily surrender to the Manchu Qing Dynasty?

Even judging from the words in the celestial canopy, is it really possible that Fan Zhongyan, a descendant of the Manchus, contributed to the Manchus' entry into the Central Plains and eventual conquest of the country?

Wen Su. What a fine Wen Su!

The first character in the word "文" (wen) is almost essential for a civil official: 经天纬地曰文 (jingtian wei di yue wen), 博闻多见 (bo wen duo jian), 勤学好问 (qin xue hao wen).

The key is the character "肃".

He was upright and strict, conducted himself with integrity, and managed his family with strict discipline and discipline.

In what way does he deserve it?

From the perspective of the Manchu Qing dynasty, he was indeed upright and strict. However, the problem is that he was a Han Chinese, and a scholar who had enjoyed tax exemptions and many other privileges.

How can such a treacherous and ungrateful person be worthy of the surname Fan? How dare he even use the surname Fan?

During the Zhenguan period,

"Is this the civil service group mentioned on the celestial screen?"

Li Shimin was so angry he laughed; he had never seen anything like this before.

Previously, I had only encountered powerful local clans in northern China during the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties period who were forced to serve under minority regimes in order to protect their families.

The main reason was that there was no longer a Han Chinese regime in the north at that time.

However, Fan Wencheng was a figure who lived during the Ming Dynasty.

Furthermore, their strength at the time surpassed that of the Later Jin, yet Fan Wencheng still voluntarily surrendered.

It's like all of Confucius's books have been wasted.

If Confucius and his ancestor Fan Zhongyan saw this, wouldn't they be furious?

Confucius believed that Li Shimin was absolutely right.

He now utterly bewildered how his books, in later generations, have become the object of study for these scholars who read them, learned from his thoughts and words, and prided themselves on their literary integrity.

How come there's not even a single bone?

He clearly never said anything like that.

If any of Confucius's three thousand disciples took the knowledge they learned from him and turned to join the northern Di people, or even helped the Di people to attack and destroy their own motherland, what would happen?

Even if such people have great achievements or great talents,

Confucius might have to lead his other disciples in a purge of traitors from his school.

If Fan Wencheng was highly respected in the Qing Dynasty, much like he was during the Mongol and Yuan Dynasties, he was given preferential treatment in terms of status, core power, and the respect due to a talented person.

[That could be described as voluntarily surrendering to a wise ruler, which provides a way to whitewash one's actions.]

The key issue is that the Manchu ruling class treated the Han Chinese people as less than human beings, subjecting them to all sorts of humiliation.

The most famous example is Prince Yu, Dodo, forcibly taking Fan Wencheng's wife; he even stormed into the mansion and forcibly took her.

As the first Han Chinese official to be appointed during the founding of the Qing Dynasty, Fan Wencheng had his wife forcibly taken away. He didn't dare to utter a sound. The verdict after the report was that he was fined one thousand taels of silver and stripped of fifteen Niru (military units) from Dodo.

How can this be interpreted as the Manchus respecting Han officials, or Fan Wencheng encountering a wise ruler?

Some people nowadays say that Fan Wencheng did not receive preferential treatment from the Ming Dynasty, and that tax exemption and exemption from corvée labor were not considered preferential treatment? He simply failed the imperial examinations, which is why he was treated the same way.

Of course, if you insist that Fan Wencheng was enduring humiliation and emulating King Goujian of Yue, that's not entirely unacceptable. Let Fan Wencheng taste Huang Taiji's excrement first.

"puff!!!"

Previously, Fan Zhongyan only felt a surge of anger in his chest, a deep sense of frustration, until he saw his sons and grandsons having their wives snatched away, yet he showed no reaction.

Anger surged within him, and the pent-up frustration, mixed with his own blood, erupted forth, leaving the hall dotted with specks of blood.

"Quickly, summon the imperial physician!!"

Zhao Zhen looked anxious and immediately ordered the imperial physician to be summoned, fearing that something might have happened to Fan Zhongyan.

Ministers who were on good terms with Fan Zhongyan quickly surrounded him to check on his condition.

It's no wonder Fan Zhongyan reacted so strongly; there had been similar precedents in the Song Dynasty.

Zhang Yuan, who defected to the Western Xia, is a perfect example. The Battle of Haoshuichuan made the Song court officials see just how capable this unruly, rough-looking man, who had been dismissed by them many times, really was.

The Song Dynasty emperors and ministers, however, attributed Zhang Yuan's defection to the flawed palace examination system, neglecting their own shortcomings.

For example, Zhang Yuan might just not be very good-looking, and his border policies might be a bit radical.

Even when Zhang Yuan himself volunteered to go to the border and recommended himself to Fan Zhongyan and Han Qi, he was ignored. After returning home, he was even whipped and humiliated by the county magistrate.

Given this situation, Zhang Yuan's rebellion can even be considered understandable.

But Fan Wencheng was different. He didn't have the same status and treatment as Zhang Yuan and Zhongxing Shuo, and the Ming government didn't treat him harshly either.

In the eyes of the brilliant ministers of the Song Dynasty, what was it if you couldn't pass the imperial examination?

Fan Zhongyan was unlucky. He was brilliant his whole life, and later generations recognized that, but then he had such a descendant.

Many people are relieved, thinking that they are lucky they are not famous, so even if their descendants do something similar, they shouldn't be blamed.

When Liu Che and other emperors of the Han Dynasty saw Fan Wencheng, they were reminded of Zhongxing Shuo, who had caused great trouble for the Han Dynasty in the early years.

After surrendering to the Xiongnu, Zhongxing Shuo harbored resentment towards the Han Dynasty and repeatedly incited the Xiongnu to raid southwards, all for the sake of revenge.

The word used earlier on the sky was very apt for describing this kind of traitor.

He's a traitor!

Especially since Fan Wencheng's ancestors were renowned ministers like Fan Zhongyan, he wasn't afraid that his ancestors would faint from anger if they saw this.

However, Liu Che admired Fan Wencheng somewhat, for he had truly inherited the teachings of King Goujian of Yue.

You're really good at enduring things!

In the first year of Chongzhen's reign,

Sun Zhixie was somewhat disappointed. Fan Wencheng was already well-known, and he was neither a high-ranking official nor a literary giant like Qian Qianyi, so he couldn't gain any political capital from him.

Sun Zhixie didn't care who surrendered or not; he only cared about whether he could gain political capital from this, advance his official career, and shed the label of "eunuch faction."

He even considered whether he should place his bet beforehand, given that the celestial projections indicated the Qing Dynasty would eventually conquer the country.

Let's go all in!

[Fan Zhongyan's biggest stain on his life was that he didn't die without an heir, and instead had this kind of child.]

Follow-up comment: Fan Wencheng never actually worked for the Qing Dynasty; he was just an official in the Qing Dynasty at the beginning.

Follow-up comment: Did you receive the benefits?

Follow-up comment: Enjoying the treatment of the Ming Dynasty, they ended up doing the work for the Qing Dynasty.

[The fine of one thousand taels of silver for Dodo is a minor matter; the main problem is that the fifteen Niru have really drained his coffers, and Dodo only has about thirty in total.]

Follow-up comment: It feels like this was a setup, specifically designed for Dodo.

Follow-up comment: This is definitely a setup.

Follow-up comment: The First Honey Trap in the Qing Dynasty

Without Fan Wencheng, the Qing Dynasty might not have been able to conquer the country.

Follow-up comment: It's all Fan Zhongyan's fault. If he hadn't changed his surname to Zhu, there wouldn't be a Fan Wencheng. He might have been Zhu Wencheng. Just based on that surname, he would definitely have been hacked to death by those wild boars.

Follow-up comment: You can blame Fan Zhongyan for this? Why don't you say it's all because Fan Zhongyan was alive?

[It's alright, Fan Wencheng. At least you're not in the "Biographies of Traitors," so you can still have some merit. There's someone even more unscrupulous and irredeemable than you in the later part of the story.]

Follow-up comment: Sun Zhixie!!

Follow-up comment: It was he who suggested in his memorial that the hair-shaving edict be implemented nationwide.

Follow-up comment: In an attempt to curry favor with the Qing court, he was the first to shave his head and wear Manchu clothing. As a result, neither Manchu nor Han officials recognized him, so he submitted a petition to shave his head and change his clothing.

!!!

So it was this damned, hellish, deserving-a-thousand-cut-to-be-the-bone bastard who suggested it!!!