During the Warring States Period, a strange man appeared. He called himself Guiguzi. This man was so talented that many scholars wanted to join him. We all know him as Zhang Yihtm. More than five hundred legendary figures, including l2, Su Qin, Pang Juan, Sun Bin, Bai Qi, Lu Buwei, all worshiped him as their teacher.
There are many historical records, some of which cannot be determined to be authentic, but Sun Bin and Pang Juan actually studied under Guiguzi. As we all know, since Sun Wu entered the stage of history, military strategists have also developed correspondingly and become the first choice guiding ideology of many ambitious kings.
As a descendant of Sun Wu, Sun Bin naturally did not insult his ancestors. His "Sun Bin's Art of War " and " Sun Tzu's Art of War " were both the most superb military strategic thoughts of that era. Unfortunately, the records of Sun Bin in history are not very rich. As a result, many people in later generations do not know much about Sun Bin, and some even say that he and Sun Wu are the same person.
It was not until 1972, that an ancient tomb was discovered in Yinqueshan, Linyi, Shandong Province, that Sun Bin's historical image gradually became clear.
Yinqueshan Ancient Tomb
In April 1972, archaeological experts discovered a Han tomb in Yinqueshan. The location of Yinqueshan is special, and in the words of the ancients, it has excellent feng shui. Therefore, there are a large number of ancient tombs in this area, even one of the largest ancient tombs in the country.
The ancient tombs in Yinqueshan are mainly tombs from the Western Han Dynasty. Large-scale tombs were built here as early as the Warring States Period and as late as the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. At that time, Yinqueshan was planning the construction of an office building for the regional health bureau. Unexpectedly, two Han tombs were discovered in succession during the construction process, and they were only half a meter apart.
In order to prevent damage caused during the construction process, the local government immediately launched rescue excavation work.
Due to its age and the work of the construction team above, there was a lot of water in the tombs. The more the archaeologists excavated, the more disheartened they became. These coffins were completely damaged by water, and the bones of the tomb owners were so mutilated that the gender could not be identified.
Most of the remaining funerary objects were in decay. It seemed that nothing was found during the rescue. But just when everyone was disheartened, archaeologists suddenly discovered a pile of bamboo fragments in the northeast corner of the tomb.
At this time, the archaeologists' hearts were in their throats. If there were words on it, they might be able to unlock the secret of this ancient tomb..
Carbon element has extremely strong chemical stability. The reason why the texts in ancient books have been circulated all the time is because of the carbon element in the ink. So when the archaeologists carefully wiped away the soil on the bamboo slices, everyone was shocked - it actually read " Qi Huangong asked Guanzi said" seven official script characters.
Experts who originally wanted to search for epitaphs were ecstatic. These words proved that these bamboo slips were ancient books and their meaning was more valuable than an epitaph. After being sorted by relevant experts, the contents of the stuck and damaged bamboo slips were gradually restored.
Among them, there are not only the earliest and most complete ancient calendar "Calendar of the First Year of Emperor Yuanguang of Han Dynasty" discovered so far, but also "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, " Six Tao ", " Wei Liao Zi ", "Mozi", "Guan Zi", " Yanzi Spring and Autumn ", "Xiang Dog Jing", "Cao's Yin and Yang" and other ancient pre-Qin books.
What is most shocking is that five long-lost chapters of "Sun Tzu's Art of War" have been republished, and 16 chapters of "Sun Bin's Art of War" have been discovered.
Many people may not understand the significance of the simultaneous emergence of these two art of war. After the long history, many people confuse Sun Wu and Sun Bin. The publication of these two ancient books at the same time just confirms from the side that the two are not the same person.
and The Military Book has been circulated in ancient times, and many military strategists of later generations have also made comments. This progress has indeed promoted the advancement of China's military use in the cold weapon era, but it has indirectly offset its original written records. Therefore, after was compiled and extended by later generations, many stories were deleted from the book, and most of them were focused on practicality.
The two military books discovered this time are the earliest models so far, and they have a certain degree of "authenticity". Sun Wu and Sun Bin are more than two hundred years apart. They are obviously not the same person, but both are indeed outstanding military strategists. Through the analysis of the content, Sun Bin's deeds have also become clear.
Fellows fighting against each other
According to historical records about Sun Bin, apart from briefly telling the origin of his name and some standard battles, most of them spared the ink as much as gold. As a result, to this day, we don’t know Sun Bin’s real name.
When talking about the origin of Sun Bin’s name, we have to mention one person, his fellow disciple Pang Juan.
Pang Juan came down the mountain earlier than Sun Bin. At that time, the Wei Kingdom army was recruiting talents, so he went to join the Wei Kingdom.
After the development of the Wei State during the Wu Qi era, Pang Juan dreamed of becoming the second Wu Qi, so as soon as he took office, he helped King Hui of Wei formulate a plan to weaken Zhao. With the strategic policy of uniting and three Jin , and then destroying Qin and conquering the world, when Han and Zhao wanted to unite Qin and carve up Wei, Pang Juan took the lead and led his army to Zhao's capital.
Seeing the Qin army approaching, King Hui of Wei transferred Pang Juan to the front line of Qin and Wei. Pang Juan was like a god descending from the earth, and all his extraordinary troops came out. The Qin army was unable to parry. Not only that, Pang Juan even marched straight in, forcing the Qin army to move the capital to avoid the edge of Pang Juan's army.
After finishing the Qin State, Pang Juan turned around and dealt a cruel blow to the Zhao State, causing the Zhao State's land to be encroached on by the Wei State, and finally withdrew from the struggle for hegemony in the Central Plains. The unwilling Zhao State united the Qin State and Qi State . Unexpectedly, the three kingdoms joined forces and were dealt with by Pang Juan, and forced the three kingdoms to sign a contract with the Wei State.
Wei State defeated Han, Zhao, Qin, and Qi at the same time with its own strength. For a time, Pang Juan was unparalleled and became a general who was talked about by all countries.
It was during this period that Sun Bin came down from the mountain after completing his studies. Pang Juan, who had been concentrating on competing in the Central Plains, suddenly broke into a cold sweat. No matter how he gave advice, he was very concerned about Sun Bin's movements.
I believe many people know about the grudges between the two brothers. Pang Juan was jealous of Sun Bin's talent. When he could not bring Sun Bin under his command, he became murderous. In many film and television works, after Sun Bin was framed by Pang Juan, he pretended to be crazy all day long. He even made Pang Juan and others relax their vigilance against him by eating animal feces.
How cruelly did Pang Juan treat Sun Bin? He believed that Sun Bin had obtained the true biography of his teacher Gui Guzi, and he wanted Sun Bin to surrender to him, and the two of them conquered the world together.
There is another theory that the king of Wei saw that Pang Juan was so talented and wanted to take Sun Bin into his pocket, so he sent Pang Juan to recruit him. Out of jealousy, Pang Juan not only did not recruit, Instead, he falsely accused Sun Bin and even used "bin punishment" on him, that is, Sun Bin's patella was dug out, causing Sun Bin to be unable to stand for the rest of his life.
So later generations gradually forgot Sun Bin's real name, and just called him Sun Bin through this incident. In short, we cannot speculate whether Guiguzi passed on all his military insights to Sun Bin, but judging from Pang Juan's jealous temperament, Sun Bin was indeed superior.
Turning danger into safety
All the princes in the world are worried that the Wei Congress will not endanger their own territory. They are also deeply aware of the terror of Guiguzi's disciples. So when they heard that Sun Bin had come down from the mountain, many countries wanted to take Sun Bin under their command. In fact, they wanted to use Sun Bin to check and balance Pang Juan and prevent the Wei family from becoming dominant.
It is a pity that Sun Bin was loyal and honest at that time. He thought that his senior brother Pang Juan would provide him with convenience, so he willingly joined his fellow sect. Who knew that Pang Juan would treat him like this? In order to survive, Sun Bin, who was despairing, had to pretend to be crazy and act stupid, hoping that one day he could escape Wei's surveillance.
It happened that one day, the envoy of the State of Qi was on a mission to Daliang, the capital of the State of Wei. Sun Bin found an opportunity to have contact with the envoy. The envoy of the State of Qi was impressed by Sun Bin's talent and took the risk to take him away from Daliang. Since then, Sun Bin finally escaped from the tiger's mouth.
At this time, the Qi State was also uneasy internally. The Qi State's Prime Minister Zou Ji and Tian Ji were very difficult to deal with, and it was Tian Ji who Sun Bin took refuge in. The familiar "Tian Ji Horse Racing" also came from this time, which is also Sun Bin's masterpiece.
In short, after the state of Qi had Sun Bin, it always wanted to compete head-on with the state of Wei. Finally one day, the state of Wei once again sent troops to the state of Zhao, and the state of Zhao asked Qi for help. This burden fell on Sun Bin's shoulders. Then, one of the "three great conspiracy in the world", besieging Wei and rescuing Zhao, appeared.
Originally Pang Juan was able to successfully destroy the State of Zhao, but Sun Bin found another way to besiege the capital of Wei State, Daliang, which made King Wei Hui impatient to recall Pang Juan to King Qin. Friends with certain military knowledge know that in those days, if you wanted to besiege the city, no matter how skilled a person was in martial arts, it was impossible to break through.
Obviously, Sun Bin's intention was not to capture the beam, otherwise he would not have let go of the informant. As Pang Juan, a fellow disciple, naturally saw Sun Bin's strategy. "Besieging Wei" was not Sun Bin's original intention, his original intention was to "rescue Zhao".
But what can Pang Juan do? Everything he got was given by Wei. Even if he bet that Sun Bin would not dare to break the beam, what would the world think? Even if he captured Zhao and then turned back to drive back Sun Bin, what would the Wei army and nobles think? Over and over again, there is only one result, that is, to give up the country of Zhao and go back to King Qin.
The so-called "conspiracy" means telling you clearly what I am going to do, but there is no way you will not fall into the trap. Pang Juan had no choice but to lead his Qingqi to rush to Daliang first, and the rest of the troops followed him. However, he did not expect that Sun Bin not only surrounded Daliang, but also divided his troops to ambush him on his way there.
Pang Juan was caught off guard and was captured alive by the Qi army. Fortunately, Sun Bin still remembered his friendship and did not kill Pang Juan. When Wei and Zhao reached a reconciliation, he sent Pang Juan back to Wei.
After this incident, Pang Juan regretted not killing Sun Bin more and more, and at the same time, Sun Bin's name gradually became louder.
Pang Juan was not grateful for Sun Bin's magnanimity. Instead, he looked for opportunities to avoid the shame of being captured. However, the territories of Han, Zhao, and Wei were intertwined. Only by completely annihilating the other two countries could Wei's great cause truly begin.
Therefore, in 341 BC, Pang Juan began to march into Korea .
South Korea, like Zhao, saw the army approaching the border and immediately asked Qi for help. Seeing that Pang Juan was still uneasy, Qi once again asked Sun Bin to accompany the army. This move of the Qi army once again disrupted the Wei army's deployment, making Pang Juan, who had a chance to win, angry and turned to march towards Qi.
Sun Bin knew Pang Juan's character well, so he pretended to be defeated and withdrew his troops. While withdrawing, he reduced the cooking pits for marching and cooking. Pang Juan's troops won repeated battles in Korea. It was a time when morale was high. Not only Pang Juan, many generals had a desire for revenge , so the Wei army frantically pursued the Qi army.
Seeing that the number of Zaokeng of the Qi army was getting smaller and smaller, which showed that the number of the Qi army was getting smaller and smaller, Pang Juan felt that the Qi army must be afraid of the vigor of the Wei army, which caused many soldiers to become deserters.
Pang Juan was very excited and believed that the Qi army was in chaos, so he led a small force of light cavalry to pursue him all night. When Pang Juan led his army to chase for three days but saw no reaction from the Qi army, he began to panic.
Pang Juan had gone too far, not to mention being out of touch with the main force. If an enemy army cut off his retreat, he would not be able to escape even with his wings. Sure enough, after Pang Juan arrived at Maling, he vaguely saw a few words carved on a big tree. He took a closer look with a torch and saw that it read: "Pang Juan died under this tree"!
In an instant, the Qi army rushed over the mountains and plains, their arrows covering the sky and the sun. Finally, Pang Juan paid the price for what he had done. In the Battle of Maling, Pang Juan drew his sword and killed himself, dying.
After the death of a poor generation of heroes, Qi soldiers scrambled to snatch their bodies. Pang Juan's head was cut off and brought back to Qi. His body was carried back to Wei by the Wei army who arrived later. King Wei Hui buried him with lavish ceremony.
This battle made Sun Bin famous in all countries, and all countries were worried about whether Sun Bin would attack cities and plunder territories like Pang Juan and assist Qi to dominate the world. Unfortunately, Sun Bin had no ambitions and worked as an official in the Qi court for a period of time.
After the war, Qi State did not embark on the road to struggle for hegemony due to internal reasons. Instead, Zou Ji and Tian Ji fought fiercely, and finally ended in Tian Ji's defeat. In order to save his life, Tian Ji had to take his whole family and fled to Chu State . As an aide, Sun Bin also had to follow Tian Ji on the road to escape.
During this process, Sun Bin organized his views and experiences on the use of troops and wrote "Sun Bin's Art of War". This art of war is called "China's Four Great Military Books" and has influenced countless military strategists in later generations.
As for why Sun Bin has been silent in the long river of history, let's think that he was on the wrong team, which caused him to be displaced later and no longer had the opportunity to use his troops to guide the country. Therefore, there are very few records of him in later generations, which becomes a pity.
