sbdcsierra Chapter 374: Handsome Men Also Have Troubles
Chapter 374: Handsome Men Also Have Troubles
[Thousands of people empty the streets just to see him. The most handsome man in ancient times was stared to death by his fans. Historical trivia and historical figures]
He is so handsome that he is the first man in history to be killed by his own handsomeness. His beauty makes his male and female colleagues and uncles pair him up with him. When he was 5 years old, he was asked to hug by beautiful women when he went out. In addition to his good looks, he is also a master of debate, and he can make his opponents admire him with just a few words.
He is Wei Jie, one of the four most handsome men in ancient times. There were many people who died strangely in ancient times, some died from drinking too much, some died from drowning in the toilet, and some died from being too excited, but Wei Jie was the first one to die because he was too handsome. This unprecedented and unparalleled event has an idiom "Wei Jie was killed by looking at him".
Wei Jie was born in the 7th year of Taikang (286 AD) during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Jin Dynasty, into the Dongwei family, which had been a prominent family in the north since the Han Dynasty.
His grandfather Wei Guan was a senior official in the founding of the Western Jin Dynasty, and he was a politician as well as a calligrapher. His Zhangcao style of calligraphy was known as "one platform and two wonders" together with Suo Jing. His father Wei Heng inherited the family tradition and was famous for his calligraphy theory and history of four styles of calligraphy. Wei Xuan, Wei Ting and others all became famous for adopting his theories.
However, his distinguished family background did not bring him a stable starting point in life. In the first year of the Yuankang period (291), Wei Guan was involved in the power struggle between Empress Jia and Yang Jun. Except for Wei Jie and his elder brother Wei Wei, who escaped from the city early, all the rest of his family were killed. When this tragic incident happened, Wei Jie was only 5 years old.
The sudden collapse of his family cast an indelible shadow on his life and shaped his sensitive and suspicious character. Perhaps this precocity and early maturity is the result of the family tragedy.
Wei Jie was handsome and elegant in his childhood, but whenever others mentioned his grandfather, he would cover his face and sigh. This precocity and early maturity may be the result of family tragedy. Wei Jie showed extraordinary talent and appearance in his youth. According to Shishuo Xinyu, he had a good reputation since he was a child. When he drove in Luoyang, passers-by all sighed "Whose jade is this?", which means that he was like a beautiful jade.
Although he was known as the "Beauty of the Century", and this beauty that transcended gender became an important label of his identity, he did not stop at the praise brought by his appearance.
He studied the "Book of Changes" and "Laozi" in depth since he was young and was able to understand profound principles. His attainments in elegant conversation even made the famous scholar Le Guang sigh, "If you think so deeply, can you get it back?" This unique temperament that combines beauty and wisdom made him quickly stand out among the celebrities in Luoyang.
It is worth noting that the admiration for appearance during the Wei and Jin dynasties was not simply aesthetic, but rather considered appearance to be a reflection of one’s inner temperament. Wei Jie’s “ice-clear and jade-smooth” was not only a compliment to her demeanor, but also an implicit recognition of her personality.
It is worth mentioning that Wei Jie’s uncle Wang Cheng was also a handsome man at that time, but when he stood next to Wei Jie, he was instantly outshined.
But in the absurd era of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, wars broke out everywhere, everyone was worried about their livelihood, and didn't know whether they could live to see the next day, so the social atmosphere gradually became indulgent.
Not only women like handsome men, but men also like handsome men. The trend of homosexuality at that time spread from the court nobles to the common people, so Wei Jie had many male fans at that time, including his uncle Wang Cheng.
According to historical records, when they traveled together, they were like bright pearls shining brightly. When these two stood together, each was more handsome than the other. One cannot help but sigh at the openness of the ancients.
As an adult, Wei Jie faced life choices, which became the key to understanding his life trajectory. According to the clan system, he could have entered society with the help of his family, but after experiencing great changes in his family, Wei Jie always maintained an alienated attitude towards politics.
In the first year of the Yongkang period, the imperial court recruited him to be the Taifu Xige Jijiu, and later he was appointed the Prince's Groom. These high-ranking official positions were the foundation for the sons of the gentry, but Wei Jie declined on the grounds that he was weak and sickly.
This tendency stems from the awareness of political risks - his brother Wei Wei was killed by Chengdu King Sima Ying during the Rebellion of the Eight Kings - and also reflects the value shift of the famous scholars of the Wei and Jin Dynasties to "go beyond the teachings of the sages and follow nature."
When the powerful official Wang Yan described Wei Jie as a "beautiful lady in the imperial court", Wei Jie had quietly turned from a traditional official career to a study of metaphysics. This choice foreshadowed that he would take a completely different life path from his ancestors.
The Yongjia Rebellion completely changed the fate of Wei Jie. As the Xiongnu leader Liu Yuan rose up and Luoyang fell, the nobles of the Central Plains moved south. In the fourth year of the Yongjia Rebellion, Wei Jie and his mother moved their family to Jiangxia, and then moved to Yuzhang (now Nanchang) via Wuhan.
This migration process is not only a transformation of geographical space, but also a migration of cultural fields. After crossing the Yangtze River to the south, Wei Jie wrote "Dream of the Butterfly", using the story of Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly to explore the relationship between existence and cognition. This may be a metaphor for the confusion and philosophical thinking of the exiled gentry about their identity.
In terms of marriage and family, Wei Jie's experience is also intriguing.
He married the daughter of Le Guang and the daughter of Shan Tao successively. These two marriages have the typical characteristics of marriage between the gentry. Le Guang was a leader of the Pure Talk, and Shan Tao was a descendant of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. The marriages consolidated the position of the Wei family in the circle of celebrities, but the marriage between Wei Jie and the daughter of Le Guang was more of a product of the concept of family status.
It is worth noting that his offspring died young, and his bloodline was cut off. This outcome echoed the fate of his family during the Yongjia Rebellion, suggesting the inherent fragility of the Wei and Jin aristocratic system.
When Wei Jie went to Nanjing at the age of 27, he was already very famous. When the locals heard that he was coming, they all ran out to see him. As a result, they surrounded Wei Jie in three layers, like a wall, impenetrable.
Wei Jie was already in poor health, and after a long journey, he was now faced with an extremely noisy scene, and his body soon couldn't stand it. After settling down, he fell seriously ill and died soon after.
[An ancient example of immortal love, if it is as bright as the moon, I will not hesitate to go through the ice and snow for you. Historical trivia and historical figures]
He is a classic example of "marriage first, love later" in history, a famous face control, and a famous "pure love warrior" in the Three Kingdoms period. Before marriage, he was unrestrained and declared that he would not consider talent or morals when marrying a wife, as long as she was beautiful.
But after marriage, he turned into a man who doted on his wife. In the feudal era when men had many wives and concubines, he only had one wife in his life. After his wife passed away, he died of depression. It was really "deep love but short life". He was Xun Can, the son of Xun Yu, a famous strategist of Cao Wei, and he could be called "the first person in history to be slapped in the face".
How unfaithful he was before marriage, how devoted he was after marriage. In order to cure his wife's illness, he took off all his clothes in the middle of winter and lay naked on the snow, just to reduce his wife's fever. In Wang Wei's "Yizhou Song", there is "as bright as the moon, not refusing ice and snow to cool down the heat", but unfortunately his wife left him in the end. History is not an idol drama, but the love between Xun Can and Cao is more touching than an idol drama.
Xun Can's contribution, a famous mystic in the Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period, was born in 209 AD. He was born into a prominent family, and his father Xun Yu was a core counselor under Cao Cao, known as "the talent of the king's assistant".
Xun Yu played an important role in Cao Cao's unification of the north, but was forced to commit suicide because he opposed Cao Cao's title of duke. Xun Can grew up in a contradictory environment: on the one hand, his family enjoyed a very high political status; on the other hand, it was overshadowed by his father's tragedy. Against this background, Xun Can was extremely intelligent since childhood, read widely, and had a special liking for the teachings of Laozi and Zhuangzi.
Unlike his father Xun Yu, who inherited the title and served as the Imperial Court Minister, Xun Can stayed away from power struggles and chose to be active in the cultural field as a scholar of elegant conversation. This life orientation laid the groundwork for his marriage choice.
During the Taihe period, Xun Can made a shocking marriage decision. At that time, marriages among the gentry were mostly based on family background. As a descendant of a top family, Xun Can would usually marry into a large family such as the Chen family or the Sima family. However, he publicly declared that "a beautiful woman should be given priority if her talent and virtue are not enough", and resolutely married the daughter of General Cao Hong, who was extremely beautiful but came from a humble family.
Such remarks and actions may seem heretical, but in fact they are a rebellion against the norms of ethics. However, after marriage, Xun Can showed a deep affectionate side that was completely different from his public image. Although he was known for his lust, he actually established a spiritual connection with his wife that went beyond carnal desires. After marriage, the two lived a loving life together, watching flowers, listening to the wind, and appreciating the snow together. Xun Can was immersed in Cao's gentleness and never left her side, which was completely different from his romantic appearance before marriage.
Moreover, in that era when people had three wives and four concubines, Xun Can did not even take a concubine. He only wanted to spend his life with his beloved wife and grow old together. But the turn of fate was more sudden than a rainstorm.
After a few years of loving each other, Cao fell seriously ill and had a high fever every day. Cao lay in bed, and Xun Can felt pain in his heart. In order to make his beloved wife feel better, he took off all his clothes and lay on the snow in the middle of winter, freezing himself to death. Then he went back to the house and hugged his beloved wife to cool her down.
"A New Account of Tales of the World: Confusion and Drowning" records: "Xun Fengqian and his wife were very devoted. In winter, when his wife was suffering from a fever, Xun Fengqian went out to the courtyard, cooled himself down, and used his body to warm her." This detail of "using his body to warm her" overturned the traditional way of getting along between scholar-officials and their spouses, and presented an equal love that came from the heart.
In an era of frequent epidemics and extremely high mortality, such close contact meant great health risks, and Xun Can's action was actually a pledge of his life. It is worth noting that there are no similar records of other celebrities in the literature of the same period, and this kind of emotional expression is unique in the aristocratic society of the Three Kingdoms.
However, it seems that God cannot tolerate true love. Although Xun Can tried his best to cure his wife's illness, he was ultimately powerless. Cao's illness became more and more serious day by day, and one day, Cao finally couldn't hold on.
When she was dying, she gave Xun Can her belt, which was embroidered with broken branches, and advised him to let go of her and find someone else. After that, she passed away. The allusions of "dividing incense and selling shoes" and "breaking belt" come from here. After Cao died of illness, Xun Can's heart also died.
After losing his wife, Xun Can fell into deep grief. "Xun Can's Biography" records that he "did not cry but was deeply saddened." This restrained and deep grief was very different from the formulaic crying required by traditional funerals. His good friend Fu Gu could not bear to see him lose all hope, so she advised him: "The lady's beauty is the most important thing. You just liked her beauty at the beginning. Why are you so sad? Why don't you find someone prettier? Why do you care so much?"
But Xun Can angrily said after hearing this: "It is hard to find a beautiful woman again! There are many people in the world, but there is only one wife." This sentence reveals the essence of his view of love: what he pursues is not just beauty, but a unique life experience that cannot be reproduced. He regards his wife as a unique individual who is irreplaceable.
Xun Can's life quickly faded after his wife's death. According to Shishuo Xinyu, he died shortly after his wife's death at the age of 29. Combining the background of the times and relevant records, we can judge that Xun Can was probably overwhelmed by grief and suffered a physical and mental breakdown.
Before his death, he reflected deeply on life: "God gave birth to me and resurrected me. This is destiny and cannot be achieved by human power." He regarded death as a way to reunite with his beloved wife. This transcendent view of death is different from the Confucian idea of destiny and the Taoist concept of health preservation. Instead, it carries the characteristics of personalized religious emotion.
Xun Can's friends felt deeply sorry for his passing, believing that his talent could have made greater contributions to the development of metaphysics. However, for Xun Can, perhaps a world without Cao was no longer worth lingering on. If they could not grow old together in this life, then being together in death was also a kind of perfection.