Category: Culture/Art
Analysis:
Mencius once said: "You can't be licentious with wealth, you can't move with poverty, and you can't bend with force. This is called a true man. "Su Wu is such a person.
Su Wu
Su Wu (140 BC - 60 BC) was born in Du Ling (southwest of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province), and was the prefect of the county. The son of Su Jian. In his early years, he took his father Yin as a minister and moved to Zhongshangjian. In the first year of Tianhan (100 BC), he became the general of Zhonglang. At that time, the relationship between the Han Dynasty in the Central Plains and the Xiongnu, the minority regime in the northwest, was good and bad. In 100 BC, the new Chanyu of the Xiongnu regime came to the throne. In order to show friendship, the emperor of the Han Dynasty sent Su Wu to lead more than a hundred people and brought a lot of property as an envoy to the Xiongnu. Unexpectedly, the envoy mission was completed in Su Wu and he was ready to return to his country. When the country was in power, civil strife broke out among the upper echelons of the Xiongnu. Su Wu and his party were implicated, detained, and asked to betray the Han Dynasty and surrender to the Chanyu.
Initially, the Chanyu sent people to lobby Su Wu and promised him a generous salary. Feng Lu and the high-ranking officials, Su Wu sternly refused. Seeing that the persuasion was useless, the Xiongnu decided to resort to cruelty. It was a severe winter, and it was snowing heavily. Shan Yu ordered people to lock Su Wu in a large open-air cellar and cut off food. He drank water, hoping that this would change Su Wu's belief. As time passed, Su Wu was tortured in the cellar. When he was thirsty, he ate a handful of snow, and when he was hungry, he chewed the sheepskin jacket he was wearing. God, Shan Yu saw that Su Wu, who was on the verge of death, still showed no sign of surrender, so he had to release Su Wu.
Chan Yu knew that there was no hope of persuading Su Wu to surrender, no matter soft or hard, but he respected him more and more. Due to Su Wu's integrity, he could not bear to kill Su Wu and did not want him to return to his country, so he decided to exile Su Wu to the Lake Baikal area of ??Siberia and let him herd sheep. Before leaving, Shanyu summoned Su Wu and said, "Since you will not surrender. , then I will let you herd the sheep. When the ram gives birth to a lamb, I will let you return to the Central Plains. ”
After being separated from his companions, Su Wu was exiled to the inaccessible shore of Lake Baikal. Here, it is impossible to escape based on personal ability alone. The only person who stayed with Su Wu was The envoy stick representing the Han Dynasty and a small flock of sheep. Su Wu used the envoy stick to herd sheep every day, hoping that one day he would be able to return to his country with it, day after day, year after year. The decorations on the stick have all fallen off, and Su Wu's hair and beard have turned white.
Su Wu has been herding sheep for more than nineteen years, and he was imprisoned under the original order. The Xiongnu Chanyu has passed away, and even in Su Wu's country, the old emperor also died, and the old emperor's son succeeded to the throne. At this time, the new Chanyu implemented the policy of reconciliation with the Han Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty emperor immediately sent envoys to take over. Su Wu took him back to his country.
Su Wu was warmly welcomed in the capital of the Han Dynasty. From the emperor to the common people, everyone paid tribute to this hero with national integrity. More than two thousand years later, Su Wu was honored. The integrity has become an example of Chinese ethical personality and a national cultural and psychological element.