There were many outstanding scholars in the Western Han Dynasty, so who can be called the number one scholar in the Western Han Dynasty?
Of course, there is no first in literature and no second in martial arts. You cannot compete hard. If you have to choose who is the first, it will be difficult, after all, each has its own merits. Relatively speaking, the more famous ones are Sima Qian and Liu Xin .
I always think the name Liu Xin (xin) sounds very nice and gives people a delicate and warm feeling. This is the same as the name of his father Liu Xiang .
It can be seen that the names of ancient nobles are very cultural, such as Bao Xuan , Jia Yi , Li Ling, Liu Xin, etc. When you look at the name Liu Xin, you will know that it comes from a noble family. At least it is not an ordinary family. Ordinary people cannot recognize this word. People are called Tiezhu and Goudan.
Why are the names of ancient characters so nice? That is all born out of the nobles, and ordinary people will not be recorded in history.
We all know that Sima Qian’s work is "Records of the Grand Historian", so what works does Liu Xin have?
He has " Mountains and Seas Jing ". If you are interested, you can go and see who the author is.
It is certain that Liu Xin is not the original author, but he is the one who recorrects this book. "Shan Hai Jing" itself is a collection of works, and it is a summary of folk legends.
In Liu Xin's "Shangshan and Sea Classic Table", he believes that the compiler of "Shanhai Classic" was the first person to control water in ancient times. He also clearly pointed out who the author was the first person in ancient classics.
Sima Qian is a historian, a writer, and a top student in the liberal arts. Liu Xiang and his son are all-rounders in literature and science, including works of Confucianism, literature, and history, as well as contributions to astronomical and calendaring, and mathematics. The most important achievement of
is to re-study and organize the works of various schools of thought, proofread, edit and hide it in the country together with poetry, essays, mathematics, , square skills, etc. In a word, they compiled whatever National Library needed at that time. There are industry ancestors in every field, such as Lu Yu of the tea industry, Lu Ban of the construction industry, and Liu Xiang and his son are the founders of the field of library and intelligence, and have opened up catalog learning and collation.
It seems that we are unfamiliar with the name Liu Xiang.
In fact, Liu Xiang and his son have many works, and their pioneering academic achievements are also well-known in the industry, but their reputation is not as good as Sima Qian. One reason is that they are behind the scenes workers, and their work content is to be editors, catalogs, and scholastic mentors. The work targets are only for scholars and are not easy to be well-known to the public. Second, Sima Qian and his works were too dazzling in later generations, dimming the light of their father and son.
The Liu family and son are both equal in terms of talent and works, but their son Liu Xin is more famous because he bound two other people, one is the terminator of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang , and the other is the pioneer of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu .
Liu Xin and Wang Mang are young children, and they are both academic genius series. They played since childhood and grew up, and their fate naturally tied them together. The most coincidental thing about Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was that he renamed his name. Liu Xin changed his name once when he became an adult, and he was called Liu Xiu. Later generations over-interpreted it, thinking that Liu Xin predicted that Tianji was the secret, because the next emperor also happened to be called Liu Xiu.
As for why Liu Xin suddenly changed his name, the reason is very simple. Emperor Ai of Han is called Liu Xin . Liu Xin and Liu Xin are homophonic with Liu Xin, so they avoid suspicion, so they naturally need to change their name.
When Liu Xiang named his son, Emperor Ai of Han, Liu Xin, had not become the crown prince yet, so he did not violate the taboo. Emperor Cheng of Han Liu Ao has no qualified heir to the prince. Liu Xin is Liu Ao's nephew and an emergency substitute. However, the Western Han Dynasty also happened to be destroyed by Liu Ao and Liu Xin, and their lifespan was too short. Liu Ao was in his forties and Liu Xin was in his twenty years.
So how did Liu Xin appear on the stage of history?
Liu Xin's father Liu Xiang was still a relatively pure cultural worker. At that time, the country wanted to set up a library. So many books had been saved in all dynasties, including essence, dross, positive, and negative. It was impossible to just summarize them and collect them in the library. The emperor wanted to organize people to reorganize ancient books. This reorganization was a screening and elimination + modification model.
We all know that Hundred Schools of Thoughts . The so-called Hundred Schools of Thoughts corresponds to about a hundred countries. A country can only have one core value. The emperor put forward the core values of the dynasty. Liu Xiang and others had to find materials to support and solidify them, and also optimize historical documents. If they are suitable, they should be left behind. If they are inappropriate, they should either modify or delete them. Liu Xiang did this job all his life. " Warring States Policy " and "Biographies of Women" were written by him.
What about Liu Xin?
Basically, the son inherited his father's business and continued to do this job. What ordinary people are most familiar with is that he completed the "Shan Hai Jing" based on the materials compiled by his father. In fact, his achievements are getting bigger. Let's take a look:
Liu Xin invented the calculation equation of "Yuan Xing Super Chen" for the first time, accurately measuring the cycle of year old star super Chen to 84.71 years. He was the first person in history to propose a close to the correct feeding cycle, and wrote it into the advanced "Three General Calendar" at that time.
Liu Xin was the first person in the world to invent and determine pi . He was five hundred years earlier than Zu Chongzhi. He was the first to abandon the pi calculation method of "three diameters and one". His calculation method determined the pi value to 3.15471, which was called "Liu Xin's rate" by later generations.
Liu Xin and his father took on the proofreading of the Five Classics. After his father passed away, he independently undertakes this vast project, revising and compiling it into the first book classification directory in Chinese history " Qilue ". 13219 volumes of book recorded.
Liu Xin’s greatest contribution was the founding of the ancient classics school. The ancient classics school is compared with the modern classics school. After Qin Shihuang burned books and buried scholars, a large number of Confucian classics were lost. The ban on calligraphy was reopened in the Western Han Dynasty. Many old Confucian scholars wrote down the scriptures they had read based on their memories and taught their students in this way. These books were written in the words of the time, called the modern scriptures.
Liu Xin was in his teenage years old and was responsible for organizing the books in his house. He discovered a large number of classics from the pre-Qin period. These books were difficult to understand ancient writing, so they were called ancient classics. In his youth, Liu Xin dived into the research and sorting of ancient classics and founded the ancient classics school.
The ancient classics school has extraordinary significance for the cultural history of our country. Without it, our culture would be fragmented, and even the inheritance of classics is fallacy!
However, Liu Xin was able to enter the historical stage not because of this book, but because he and Wang Mang are old friends. The higher the status of Wang Mang, the higher the situation, he will also rise.
In fact, Liu Xin did not recognize Wang Mang's usurpation of power from the bottom of his heart. He thought it was okay to preside over the government, but you could not directly change the country of my Liu family.It's just because the raw rice has been cooked, and Wang Mang decided to use Liu Xin to serve as the national teacher. Both of them are keen on ancient Chinese classics. Liu Xin is responsible for theoretical research, and Wang Mang is responsible for practical work. He has carried out a reform through ancient times, which has been a short honeymoon period.
The good times did not last long. The talisman incident occurred, which implicated Liu Xin's two sons. Wang Mang did not show mercy, but executed the two. After that, Liu Xin was not valued. Liu Xin and others rebelled and wanted to pull Wang Mang down and restore the Han Dynasty. The rest of the rebels were directly killed and fed to the dog. Wang Mang felt that Liu Xin had been with him for the rest of his life. Forget it, let's hint, and Liu Xin committed suicide.
Nowadays, the field of Chinese studies is particularly highly praised by Liu Xiang and Liu Xin and his son.
Because they were milestone figures, their father and son were systematically adapted or annotated theoretical works before the Western Han Dynasty, rescued and achieved a large number of classic works, and created a classification and proofreading the errata. Today, many people study the classics of Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period , which are actually the annotated versions of their father and father.
Some people think that Liu Xin is the greatest scholar after Confucius.I think this question is a bit big, after all, they themselves have limitations of the times. But before the Western Han Dynasty, it would be no exaggeration to say that Liu Xin was the most comprehensive scholar. He is equivalent to combining Mo Yan + Yang Zhenning + Hua Luogeng + Qian Xuesen in one, and is a versatile talent.
In short, it’s a pity that Liu Xin died because he is indeed a talent.
What would I do if I were Liu Xin?
I will do my studies honestly, do my studies with peace of mind, produce more works, and be famous for a lifetime. Don’t get involved in any politics. You are not something you can play with, just a nerd. If Sima Qian had not been involved in the government and had not pleaded for others, he would not have been castrated.Of course, power is a bit similar to the ring in "The Lord of the Rings". When standing outside, everyone is wearing it one by one, and it’s really worn, and no one is not confused.
