Chinese culture is most praised by foreign friends and must include a "ritual". This "ritual" not only affects us, but also the entire East Asian cultural circle influenced by Chinese culture has been affected to a greater or lesser extent. The word "ritual" has many meanings. For many families, the most basic one is filial piety comes first .
Therefore, there will always be some records of filial sons and grandchildren in ancient times, from lying on the ice to ask for carps to playing with colorful flowers to entertain relatives... There are even some plots of foolish filial piety in these stories about filial piety. That is because for some people at the bottom, many of them have not read so many books and have no judgment ability. They can only do some inappropriate things based on their persistence in filial piety.
But it can also be seen from this how much we attach importance to filial piety. If the people are like this, what do the emperors do? Han Gaozu Liu Bang set a good example. Liu Bang, who was born in the marketplace and later became the emperor, although his previous behavior gave people a sense of cynicism, he also understood basic filial piety. Therefore, after becoming the emperor, Liu Bang felt very uncomfortable when he learned that his father actually wanted to salute him.
How can I save my father from saluting? Liu Bang came up with such a clever trick, which fulfilled the principle of filial piety and allowed later emperors to use it for thousands of years...
Liu Bang and Liu Taigong
Regarding the story of Liu Bang and his father, the people may know more about the later Chu-Han struggle for hegemony. Xiang Yu once captured Liu Bang's father and threatened him. If he did not admit defeat, Liu Bang's father would be thrown into the pot and cooked.
But at that time, Liu Bang looked like a little gangster, and said he would cook if he wanted to. He also reminded Xiang Yu that he and you were brothers in front of King Chu Huai. If cooked his own father, it would be equivalent to Xiang Yu cooking his own father. Finally, I didn’t forget to tell Xiang Yu that it doesn’t matter to me anyway, so remember to share a bowl with yourself after cooking.
This made Xiang Yu, who attached great importance to etiquette, justice and integrity, completely unable to listen. First of all, he didn't expect that someone could be so shameless. He didn't care that his own father was about to be killed, and he still wanted to share a bowl of soup. This was simply inhuman! Secondly, Liu Bang is shameless but Xiang Yu is shameless. After all, the calling of brothers actually happened. Liu Bang's words also touched Xiang Yu's pain point. Xiang Yu would not be able to do such an unkind and unjust thing.
So in the end Xiang Yu released Liu Taigong and reached peace talks with Liu Bang again.
Judging from this incident, Liu Bang indeed seemed very shameless. So when first heard that he would actually find a way to prevent Taigong Liu from kneeling to him for the so-called "filial piety", many people were a little incredible. But in fact, this is also a misunderstanding of Liu Bang. At that time, the struggle between Chu and Han for hegemony was a matter of life and death.
Becoming a king or losing a bandit is not just about success and failure. The leader of the losing party will not escape death no matter what they do. Moreover, many victorious parties will kill all the enemy leaders and their entire family in order to ensure the stability of their power. Liu Bang was not a gentleman. He was born in the business world and knew what crazy things people could do for profit. Therefore, regarding the issue of Taigong Liu, in his eyes, it was a knife to advance and a knife to retreat. So you might as well take the gamble yourself.
The relationship between Liu Bang and his father
So what is the true relationship between Liu Bang and Liu Taigong? In fact, when people's living standards are at the bottom, everyone's thinking logic is only survival. The higher spiritual pursuit of can only be discussed after a full meal.
So in the first half of their lives, the relationship between Liu Bang and Liu Taigong was just average. Liu Taigong was a farmer. His family situation was not very good, and he had to raise four boys and one girl. These pressures in life were enough to leave Liu Taigong no extra time to think about other things. Liu Bang was born in the middle, and he was easily ignored by his parents.
Liu Bang, who lacked family control, wandered around all day long, and was scolded by Taigong Liu for not doing farm work. However, Liu Bang didn't care and just went out to drink and play. Unexpectedly, he made many friends because of his cheerful personality, which laid the foundation for the future of the Han Dynasty. Because the people he knew were all the ministers who would build the foundation of the Han Dynasty in the future - Fan Kuai, Xiao He, Zhang Er, Xia Houying... But these would not be known until later. At that time, Taigong Liu only saw Liu Bang's lack of learning and skill. But he never thought that Liu Bang would go through more and more troubles, from the pavilion chief to Pei Gong , and then to the emperor of the Han Dynasty...
Liu Taigong was an honest farmer . He had not had time to clarify the specific situation, so he became one of the important people in the depths of the Chu-Han struggle for hegemony.
Liu Bang’s little trick
After Liu Bang became emperor, did the relationship between Liu Taigong and Liu Bang ease? In fact, not necessarily, it's just that the parents' love for their children and the children's desire to repay their parents are engraved in their bones. Liu Bang became the emperor, and he slowly picked up those etiquette, justice, integrity, and things that he didn't care much about before. When facing his father, he would also feel that some of his previous actions were a bit excessive, and he also wanted his parents to enjoy their old age in peace.
Therefore, after knowing that he had become the emperor, his father would give him a big gift when he saw him again, which made Liu Bang feel a little uncomfortable. Because according to traditional rules, should go to salute his parents every morning and evening. He didn't do enough in this regard, and now it's the other way around. No matter how you look at it, it shouldn't be done.
So he finally thought of a way, that is, canonizing Liu Taigong as the Supreme Emperor, so that his father would also be the emperor, and because of the relationship between father and son, the normal ethical relationship would be restored. I have to say that Liu Bang's idea was brilliant, and many subsequent emperors also followed this approach.
But looking at the history of five thousand years, Liu Taigong is still a special one, because many emperors have really served as emperors, even if the time is not long, only Liu Taigong has never done so, which also shows the importance Liu Bang attaches to filial piety.
Summary
The relationship between Liu Bang and his father may not be as bad as everyone thinks, nor may it be as good as some people yearn for. But these are not things that future generations can comment on arbitrarily. After all, Cang has enough talent to know etiquette, and the premise of all etiquette, justice and integrity can only be established when survival is worry-free. Nowadays, the country is peaceful and the people are safe, and we are very happy to see more and more people observing etiquette. We also hope that we can continue to retain this beauty and spread the broad culture of our etiquette country to more areas. The
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