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[Understand the life and history of the Four Great Talents of Jiangnan in one breath]

People laugh at me for being too crazy, I laugh at others for not seeing through me. The story of "Flirting Scholar" made the Four Talented Scholars of Jiangnan well-known. So were there really the Four Talented Scholars of Jiangnan in history? Did they help Tang Bohu to marry Qiuxiang? In this video, let's get to know the Four Talented Scholars of Jiangnan.

Definition of the Four Talents of Jiangnan The historical prototypes of the Four Talents of Jiangnan are four famous talents who lived in Wuzhong area in the middle of Ming Dynasty, collectively known as the Four Talents of Wuzhong. They are Tang Yin, Zhu Yunming, Wen Zhengming and Xu Zhenqing.

Tang Yin, also known by his courtesy name Bo Hu and Zi Wei, and also by his pseudonyms Liu Ru Ju Shi and Tao Hua An Zhu, was born in 1470. Tang Yin's father was a businessman who ran a tavern and his family was fairly well-off.

Tang Yin was very smart since childhood, and he had a high talent in poetry, prose and painting. He was a well-known child prodigy. When he grew up, Tang Yin had countless books at home. At the age of 16, he was admitted to Suzhou Prefecture School with excellent grades.

He married the daughter of Xu Tingrui, a famous scholar in Jiangnan, and became good friends with Zhu Yunming and Wen Zhengming, famous scholars in Wuzhong. He studied painting under the famous artist Shen Zhou, and was very successful and had a bright future. The literati at that time were proud to be friends with Tang Bohu and to get his authentic works.

However, the good times did not last long. When Tang Bohu was 25 years old, his parents and wife passed away one after another. Tang Bohu was suddenly hit by this blow and was heartbroken. He drank every day to drown his sorrows. He no longer had the vigor of the past.

It was probably during this period that Tang Bohu met Xu Zhenqing, and the four great talents of Jiangnan became close friends. Zhu Zhishan couldn't bear to see Tang Bohu so depressed, so he encouraged him to take the imperial examination.

So Tang Bohu stayed indoors and studied hard. In 1498, Tang Bohu won the provincial examination in Yingtian Prefecture, and officials and celebrities from Jiangnan congratulated him.

After returning to the court, Liang Chu, the chief examiner of the provincial examination, gave Tang Bohu's test paper to his colleague Cheng Minzheng for evaluation. Unexpectedly, this action indirectly ruined Tang Bohu's second half of his life.

Cheng Min was the chief examiner of the imperial examination the following year. Seeing that Tang Bohu was so talented, he thought that he would have a bright future, so he tried to win over Tang Bohu in advance.

Unexpectedly, in the following year's imperial examination, someone reported that Cheng Minzheng had leaked the test questions to Tang Bohu. This caused a great uproar in the city, and Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty ordered the withdrawal of the examination. Tang Bohu was also arrested and thrown into prison. In the end, the results were not found out, Cheng Minzheng was ordered to retire, Tang Bohu's results were invalidated, and he was deprived of the qualification to participate in the imperial examination for life.

Tang Bohu's future was ruined, and he spent his days drinking and having sex, and selling calligraphy and paintings for a living, hoping to spend the rest of his life like this. Ning Wang Zhu Quan heard of Tang Bohu's name and invited him to his mansion with a large sum of money.

Tang Bohu thought his life had taken a turn for the better, but it turned out to be a huge trap. Ning Wang Zhu Quan was plotting evil and secretly planning a rebellion. Tang Bohu was afraid that he would be implicated, so he pretended to be crazy to deceive Ning Wang and escape from danger.

After all this, Tang Bohu completely gave up the idea of ​​becoming an official, lived in Taohuawu, practiced in seclusion, and lived on the help of his friends. In 1523, Tang Bohu died of illness at the age of 54.

The second one is Zhu Yunming, whose courtesy name is Xizhe and pseudonym is Zhishan. Because he had an extra finger on his right hand, he also called himself Zhizhisheng. He was born in 1460 AD and is the oldest of the Four Talents of Wuzhong.

Compared with Tang Bohu, Zhu Yunming's background can be considered prominent. His grandfather Zhu Hao was the right councilor of Shanxi Provincial Administration, and Zhu Yunming's maternal grandfather Xu Youzhen was a hero in the coup d'état of Emperor Yingzong of Ming Dynasty and participated in the death of Yu Qian.

However, when Zhu Yunming was born, Xu Youzhen had already passed away. Compared with Tang Bohu's romantic and talented appearance, Zhu Yunming had a strange appearance and self-deprecating ugliness.

In addition to poetry and prose, Zhu Yunming had great attainments in calligraphy, especially cursive script, which led the literary world of the Ming Dynasty. He was later called the number one cursive calligrapher in the Ming Dynasty.

Although Zhu Yunming was as famous as Tang Bohu, he did not have the talent for examinations like his friend Tang Bohu. Zhu Yunming passed the examination for a scholar at the age of 19, and took the provincial examination five times before passing the provincial examination. He also failed the imperial examination seven times, and finally became an official as a county magistrate.

Due to his diligence, integrity and outstanding achievements, in 1522, the 62-year-old Zhu Yunming was promoted to the position of Tongpan of Yingtian Prefecture. After serving as Tongpan for nearly a year, Zhu Yunming asked to retire and return home.

After hearing about Tang Bohu's death, Zhu Yunming was very sad and wrote an epitaph for his friend. In 1527, Zhu Yunming died at the age of 68.

The third is Wen Zhengming, whose courtesy name was Zhengming, later changed to Zhengzhong, and whose pseudonym was Tingyun and Hengshan Jushi. He was known as Wen Hengshan and was born in 1470 AD.

When Wen Zhengming was a child, he could not speak. Many people thought he was an idiot, but Wen Zhengming's father Wen Lin believed that his son was just a late bloomer. It was not until Wen Zhengming was 11 years old that he learned to speak, learn poetry, calligraphy and painting, and began to show his talent.

When he grew up, Wen Zhengming worked as a court attendant while learning calligraphy and painting. Together with his friends Zhu Zhishan and Tang Bohu, he promoted ancient Chinese literature. He studied under the famous artist Shen Zhou and had a very high level of attainment in painting. Together with Tang Bohu, Shen Zhou and Qiu Ying, he was known as the "Four Masters of the Ming Dynasty".

Wen Zhengming was upright by nature and did not like women. Once, Tang Bohu asked him to sing a song to toast him. This frightened Wen Zhiming so much that he jumped off the boat and fled. Wen Zhengming took the provincial examination nine times in his life, but failed the imperial examination.

Finally, in 1523, he was recommended by Li Chongsi to serve as an official in the imperial court. Soon after being recruited by the Hanlin Academy, Wen Zhengming also applied for retirement and returned home, but his application was never approved. Zhang Cong and Yang Yiqing, two cabinet ministers, wanted to win over Wen Zhengming.

Wen Zhengming was unwilling to curry favor with the rich and powerful, and was ostracized by the two. In 1526, Wen Zhengming retired and returned to his hometown. From then on, he devoted himself to calligraphy and painting, and ignored worldly affairs. In 1559, Wen Zhengming died at the age of .

The fourth is Xu Zhenqing, the youngest of the Four Talents of Wuzhong. He was born in 4 AD, 1479 years younger than Tang Bohu and Wen Zhengming, and 9 years younger than Zhu Zhishan.

Compared with the other three, Xu Zhenqing is not as famous in later generations, but Xu Zhengqing's position in the literary world of the Ming Dynasty is very important, and he is known as the poet crown of Wuzhong.

Xu Zhenqing, the former wife of Li Mengyang and other famous writers, was also a master of the Ming Dynasty literary world. He failed many times and passed the imperial examination at the age of 3, but failed to enter the Hanlin Academy because of impersonation.

Six years later, Xu Zhenqing died of illness in the capital at the age of 6. He was the first of the Four Talents of Wuzhong to die.

——"They are all talented but they can't rely on it. What does this mean?"

——"Their paintings are worth more money now."

——"All talented people have had rough lives. It's such a pity for Tang Bohu."

[What happened at the end of the Shang Dynasty? Historical knowledge of the Shang Dynasty]

Why did a dynasty that lasted for 554 years and was invincible in the surrounding areas perish in an instant? Was King Zhou to blame for the demise of the Shang Dynasty or were there early signs? Did King Zhou destroy the Shang Dynasty by strength or by luck?

How did the Shang Dynasty, the second largest dynasty in Chinese history, end? Did King Zhou really flirt with Nuwa, angering the gods, and leading to the fall of the country, as described in The Investiture of the Gods? Today, let's take a look at the end of the Shang Dynasty.

In fact, around 1600 BC, the Xia Dynasty gradually declined due to the misdeeds of its last king, Jie of Xia. As a control group of the Xia Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty began to rise and prospered. Finally, after the Xia Dynasty declared bankruptcy, the Shang Dynasty embarked on the road to listing.

The Shang Dynasty experienced several capable rulers, such as Shang Tang, Pan Geng, and Wu Ding, and the country was strong. However, after Wu Ding, the ratio of wise rulers to tyrants in the Shang Dynasty fell to the bottom, and most of the subsequent rulers were just rulers who maintained the status quo, and the Shang Dynasty began to gradually decline.

It would be fine if they were just kings who maintained the status quo, but the key is that these monarchs have maxed out their war skills, and each one loves war more than the other.

At the beginning of the reign of Zu Geng, the 26th king of the Shang Dynasty, a short-sighted Fang State ran into him. This Fang State was Gui Fang. During the reign of Wu Ding, the Shang King, he sent troops to severely injure Gui Fang. However, this Fang State only remembered to eat and not to fight. After a period of depression, it turned its spearhead against the Shang Dynasty again after recovering.

Zu Geng decided to attack heavily and teach Gui Fang a lesson. He ordered the Shang army to temporarily avoid the enemy's attack, and then waited for an opportunity to strike, and finally dealt a heavy blow to Gui Fang.

Unfortunately, if you don't cut the grass at the root, it will grow again in the spring breeze. After Zu Geng died, Shang Kangzu succeeded to the throne, and the Guifang made a comeback.

Although the war between Shang and Guifang ended with the victory of the Shang Dynasty, Guifang was possessed by a cockroach and could not be killed no matter what. Moreover, the repeated tug-of-war caused the Shang Dynasty to lose another wave of blood.

In addition to the Shanyu warriors, Shang Kangzu also made a fatal mistake - he had no choice but to gamble. Since the Shang Dynasty had no anti-addiction system, Shang Kangzu became more and more addicted to gambling, which led to the rapid expansion of witchcraft and gradually endangered the imperial power.

After Emperor Kangzu of Shang died, his son Zujia succeeded him. With his father as a negative example, Zujia's good impression of witchcraft had long been gone, and he grew up to be a typical atheist.

It is said that Zujia once made a puppet and named it God of Heaven. He played gambling games with God of Heaven every day, and once he won, he would insult God of Heaven repeatedly.

In addition, he invented a game called Shooting the Sky, which involved shooting arrows at bags filled with blood. In the eyes of wizards, Zujia's behavior was completely disrespectful to the gods, and the plot in the later "Investiture of the Gods" in which King Zhou of Shang disrespected the gods and flirted with Nuwa was probably evolved from Zujia's insult to the gods. Poor King Zhou was just taking the blame for his ancestors.

The story of the hostility between the Shang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty began with Wen Ding, the son of Shang Wu Yi. Wen Ding once gave his own territory, Yindu, to the king of Zhou, Ji Li, and then killed him, thus forming a feud between the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

By the time King Zhou's father, Emperor Yi, came to power, the Shang Dynasty had already declined. However, the Yi people in the Jianghuai region became stronger and challenged the Shang Dynasty. Although the Shang Dynasty won this time, the dynasty's national strength was also greatly damaged.

Then the second king, King Zhou, ascended the throne. King Zhou was intelligent enough to reject advice, and his fighting ability was off the charts. Not only could he fight wild beasts with his bare hands, he could also hold on to a collapsed pillar and prop up a beam on his own.

However, for his uncle Bigan, King Zhou was probably the worst emperor he had ever led. On the one hand, King Zhou was determined to become the richest man in the Shang Dynasty. Not only did he impose heavy taxes, he also collected precious horses and wild animals for his own entertainment.

On the other hand, King Zhou was a typical moonlighter, building terraces, creating wine pools and meat forests, and spending money as much as he could. After conquering the Yousu tribe and getting Su Daji, King Zhou was charged with an additional crime of being obsessed with women.

Under King Zhou's misdeeds, the Shang Dynasty was on the verge of collapse.

In response, King Zhou decided to blow the horn of reform. According to the history of the Shang Dynasty, he first reformed the sacrificial customs and stopped excessive sacrifices to gods, thereby weakening the power of the nobles in charge of sacrifices.

This may have gradually evolved into King Zhou's disrespect for the gods. In addition, King Zhou also promoted a group of officials who were not from aristocratic families, such as Fei Lian, Fei Zhong, and Zuo Qiang.

However, although these officials followed King Zhou's orders, they were all political novices. Their lack of political experience and the disloyalty of the aristocratic families contributed to the demise of the Shang Dynasty.

In terms of military, King Zhou inherited his father's warmongering and launched a large-scale expedition against the Dongyi. In the end, the Dongyi were conquered, but this also gave the Zhou Dynasty an opportunity to take advantage.

In fact, long before he set out on the expedition against the Dongyi, King Zhou of Shang had been on guard against the Zhou. He used the same tricks his grandfather had used again, but this time the excuse King Zhou used was not to promote Ji Chang, but to conduct military exercises.

As expected, Ji Chang, who received the exercise notice, quickly ran to the territory of the Shang Dynasty and was subsequently captured by King Zhou of Shang and imprisoned in Youli. However, King Zhou eventually failed to resist the temptation of the ransom and released Ji Chang, the hostage, back to the Zhou Kingdom after receiving money and beautiful women.

His letting the tiger go back to the mountains gave the Zhou Kingdom an opportunity to resist. Under Ji Chang's preparations, the Zhou Kingdom attracted princes from all sides to come to the court, and the Fang Kingdom Guifang, which had not been eliminated by several generations of Shang kings, also became an ally of the Zhou Kingdom.

However, the long-suffering King Wen of Zhou died on the day of his crusade against the Shang Dynasty before he could personally take revenge. The baton of the crusade against King Zhou was passed to his son, King Wu of Zhou.

Seeing that the Shang Dynasty was getting weaker and weaker, the king's uncle Bigan could only try his best to persuade King Zhou. Unexpectedly, his persuasion not only failed to make King Zhou change his ways, but instead led to his own death by being disemboweled.

After Bigan died, King Zhou of Shang was still addicted to pleasure. He went to war against the Dongyi, and for this purpose he sent out the most elite main force of the Shang Dynasty. If he didn't take action now, when would he?

King Wu of Zhou acted decisively and sent troops to attack King Zhou. In 1046 BC, the Battle of Muye was about to break out. Upon hearing that King Zhou was leading his troops to attack, King Zhou of Shang and King Qi tried to stop the counterattack, but since the main force was away, he had no choice but to let the slaves and captives rush into the battlefield.

However, how could they be a match for the Zhou army? As expected, the 70-strong Shang army was defeated by the 4.5-strong Zhou army. King Zhou of Shang also burned himself to death after the defeat, and the Shang Dynasty completely withdrew from the stage of history.

——"To put it bluntly, King Zhou wanted to carry out drastic reforms, which infringed on the interests of the old nobles, and then everyone rebelled, and Ji Chang and his group succeeded."

——"Whether the wine, meat, pool and forest is also to be verified, there is no basis for this."

——"It's hard to say, but there is really no direct evidence."

——"The licentious and immoral King Zhou had only a few sons, but the wise King Zhou had more than a hundred children. It's outrageous to imagine."

——"Most of the events of the Shang Dynasty were recorded in later history books, and many of them are inaccurate. Just take a look at them."