The above statement is mainly based on the records of Historical Records of Zhao and Yuan Zaju's Orphan of Zhao. Of course, there are also some historical books that give different views on this matter, that is, the theory of Zhao's civil strife recorded in Zuo Zhuan (not here, you can see Zuo Zhuan if you are interested). As a result, today's history lovers and curiosity hunters associate countless scenes according to these different records, making this eternal mystery more magical.
But when we open the browser and look up the information, few people can really combine the background at that time and outline a strange case in the big historical background.
For thousands of years, influenced by Yuan Zaju and China people's thought of advocating loyalty and denouncing traitors, people have focused too much attention on three little people, Gong Sun, and finally described such a strange case as a story in which a traitor harmed Zhong Liang and a righteous man helped Zhong Liang to repay his filial piety, vividly reappearing Confucian thought of loyalty, righteousness and filial piety.
Although many history lovers are trying to find the truth now, most of them just focus on the Zhao family, which seems too narrow.
So, how should we interpret this history (according to history for the time being)?
As we have explained, Zhao's orphan occurred in the period of Duke Jing of Jin. But in order to find out the truth, let's look at the Jin Wengong era and see what kind of family the Zhao family was.
Zhao's fame stems from Zhao's failure. He was a wise minister under Jin Wengong and Zhong Er, who had been in exile with Zhong Er for decades. After Jin Wengong succeeded to the throne, he helped Jin Wengong defeat Chu and seized the hegemony of the Central Plains. After Jin Wengong's death, he helped Duke Xiang of Jin defeat the State of Qin. It can be said that the Zhao family contributed a lot to the rise of the State of Jin.
However, things changed quickly. Due to the early death of Duke Xiang of Jin and the appearance of a young new monarch, Duke Ling of Jin, there was a power vacuum in Jin Dynasty. In order to compete for the ruling power, the Zhao family headed by Zhao Dun, the son of Zhao, and the Hu family headed by Hu Sheji, the son of Hu Yan, launched a fierce struggle. Finally, the fox family failed, Hu Xuegu went into exile, and Zhao Dun gained the virtually supreme sovereignty of the State of Jin.
But everyone knows that the young Duke Ling of Jin is not a docile boy. On the contrary, he is cruel and despicable. He didn't want Zhao Dun to be in charge of the state of Jin, so he sent an assassin to assassinate Zhao Dun. But the assassin told Zhao Dun the news. In order to avoid disaster, he took people out of the city overnight, but just out of the suburbs, his younger brother Zhao was stabbed to death, so he established a new monarch, Jin Chenggong, and continued to govern in the State of Jin.
After his death, his son Zhao Shuo continued to be in charge of state affairs. At this time, Jin Chenggong also died, and his son Jin ascended the throne.
At that time, great changes have taken place in society. With the development of social productive forces, the private land owned by Dr. Qing has greatly increased, even exceeding the public land owned by the vassal government. In addition, through the war of hegemony, the Qing dynasty's official class continued to expand its fiefs by virtue of its military achievements, forming the so-called "country within a country." There is a famous saying in later Confucianism, "There is no way in the world, and rites and music are conquered by princes." Let's look at the vassal States at this time. Except for a few vassal States such as Chu, almost all of them have the situation that "rites and music were conquered by doctors", which is particularly serious in the State of Jin.
Zhao's family is the strongest family in Jin, and Zhao's father and son control the state affairs of Jin, almost putting the monarch in the air. Although Zhao Dun has made great contributions to governing the country and protecting the people, his nature is like the scorching sun, which makes the monarch of the State of Jin and other nobles of the State of Jin always like thorns on their backs. Most of Zhao's people rely on their strength. In particular, they are not only arrogant, but also condescending to kill the monarch (no matter what they do, killing the monarch is a big sin). In addition, at that time, under the leadership of Chu Zhuangwang, the State of Chu defeated the State of Jin and took away the hegemony that originally belonged to the State of Jin, which further aroused the dissatisfaction of the Jin army with Zhao.
In order to seize real power and attack the growing power of Qing Dynasty, Duke Jing of Jin took advantage of Zhao Shuo's low expectations and other Qing nobles' dissatisfaction with Zhao's authoritarian power to cultivate his cronies. Subsequently, under the planning of Duke Jing of Jin, he led the army to launch the disaster in the Summer Palace and wiped out the Zhao family, thus creating the story of Zhao's orphan. However, Duke Jing of Jin and Gong Sun did not expect that Zhao Shuo's son survived with the help of Zhao's retainer and Gong Sun, which became a powerful guarantee for QingDafu's forces to make a comeback in the future.
For the decline of the Zhao family, the psychology of other QingDafu families is very contradictory. They are not satisfied with the Zhao family's monopoly on state affairs, nor with the power of Duke Jing of Jin to attack Doctor Qing at will. For their own power, the great doctors represented by Han Jue took advantage of King Jing's serious illness to tell the truth about the orphan of Zhao, demanding that King Jing restore the title of Zhao and rehabilitate the Zhao family. At this time, in the face of the growing QingDafu family, the old and sick Duke Jing of Jin was unable to struggle any longer, so he had to betray Tu'an Gu and restore the Wu Zhaoguo.
However, due to the weakening of the Zhao family, there was a temporary situation of checks and balances between the Qingdafu families, so that after Duke Jing of Jin, Duke Li of Jin and Duke Mourn of Jin were basically in power. However, after the death of Duke Mourn of Jin, due to the complete decline of public office, Zhao and other six ministers took control of the state affairs of Jin. Later, after several rounds of war, only three families, namely Han, Zhao and Wei, were left, but none of them could annex any one, so Sanjin appeared. At this point, we can imagine that if there were no orphan case of Zhao, the Zhao family might annex the State of Jin alone, just like the Tian family of Qi. In this case, I'm afraid Zhao will eventually unify the world (of course, Zhao and the Won family are actually a family).
In this way, we can understand what kind of background the Zhao orphan case happened and to what extent it affected the historical process of our country. This is not a historic case.
Of course, we can also draw the conclusion that the mastermind behind the orphan case of Zhao is by no means Tu'an Gu, but Duke Jing of Jin, and Tu'an Gu is just a dog or a sword. This big case is not the story of a traitor and a loyal minister, but similar to the plan of Confucius to surrender the three capitals in later generations and the imperial edict of Emperor Han Xian. It is a counterattack by the monarch against the powerful ministers, and a struggle between the princes' houses and the forces of Qing Dafu under the background of "ritual and music conquering self-healing".