During the Western Han Dynasty, was Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun true love or a love scam? what do you think?

The legend of "Phoenix Seeking Phoenix" is a famous song in the Han Dynasty, which tells the love story of Sima Xiangru, a gifted scholar in the Western Han Dynasty, and Zhuo Wenjun, a rich daughter.

According to folklore, one day Sima Xiangru visited Zhuo Wenjun's house, and when everyone was in high spirits, he played a song "Phoenix Begging for Phoenix", which captured Zhuo Wenjun's heart. After the banquet, in the evening, Zhuo Wenjun took advantage of the night to find Sima Xiangru, and they eloped.

Zhuo Wenjun gave up her status as a rich girl for Sima Xiangru and was willing to live a poor life. This courage to dare to love and hate was rare in ancient times, so Zhuo Wenjun became a model for ancient women to pursue freedom of marriage.

Because their love story is legendary, and because Sima Xiangru is from Chengdu, Chengdu people regard Sima Xiangru as? Lover? The story of their elopement has been circulating for more than two thousand years.

Stills of Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun

In fact, in the official history, the love legend between Zhuo Wenjun and Sima Xiangru is not as beautiful as that circulated among the people. It can be said that official records and legends are worlds apart. Lover? Sima Xiangru is just a hypocrite who steals money and his wife.

Sima Xiangru, formerly known as Sima Changqing, conspired to play the double reed and win her heart. Because he admired Lin Xiangru, a famous figure, he changed his name to Sima Xiangru during the Warring States Period. In his early years, his family was relatively rich, and he donated money to become the squire of Emperor Han Jing. Later, Liu Wu of Liang took a group of people to Beijing to appear before Han Jing. Sima Xiangru had a very speculative talk with this group of scribes, so he quit his job and followed Liang Wang.

After Liang Wang's death, Sima Xiangru returned to his hometown of Chengdu. By this time, his family was too poor to eat. Desperate, Sima Xiangru and (now Qionglai) county magistrate Wang Ji staged a double play of cheating money and stealing his wife.

Magistrate Wang first arranged Sima Xiangru in a hotel in Lin Qiong, where he enjoyed a good meal every day. Magistrate Wang visited Sima Xiangru in the hotel every day, but Sima Xiangru avoided it. The more he disappears, the more respectful the magistrate Wang is.

This is very unreasonable. People worship you like a bodhisattva, but you avoid it. This incident became an explosive news in Qionglai, which attracted the attention of Zhuo Wangsun, the richest man in the country, and ordinary businessmen also paid close attention to government officials.

Sima Xiangru Steels

Zhuo Wangsun felt that the county magistrate was acting abnormally and didn't know who was staying in the hotel. He put on such a big shelf. After consulting with his colleague Cheng Zheng, Zhuo Wangsun set a date to invite everyone to drink, and took the opportunity to see who was the distinguished guest of the magistrate. All the guests arrived on the day of the banquet. Only Sima Xiangru refused to come, and the magistrate Wang didn't invite him. Later, Zhuo Wangsun personally went to Sima Xiangru and reluctantly agreed to go to dinner.

When Sima Xiangru arrived at Zhuo Wangsun's house, all the guests were stunned. He is so handsome and very elegant. After the banquet, the magistrate Wang handed Sima Xiangru a piano, and Sima Xiangru took the piano and played a song, which instantly captured the heart of Zhuo Wenjun, the daughter of Zhuo Wangsun.

Dare to love and hate, a rich girl eloped with someone else. Zhuo Wenjun is good-looking, congenial and good at playing the piano. She/kloc-got married at the age of 0/6. After her husband died a few years later, she returned to family life. Before Sima Xiangru visited Zhuo Wenjun's house, she was famous for writing Zi Xufu, and she was a great genius at that time. In addition, after Sima Xiangru came to Qionglai, he dressed himself beautifully and stayed in a senior hotel arranged by the county magistrate Wang, which made everyone mistakenly think.

While Sima Xiangru was playing the piano, Zhuo Wenjun peeked at the legendary Prince Charming through the crack of the door and fell in love at once. She doesn't even think she is good enough for Sima Xiangru.

On the evening of the banquet, Sima Xiangru paid off Zhuo Wenjun's maid and made love to Zhuo Wenjun. Excited, Zhuo Wenjun eloped with Sima Xiangru overnight and came to Chengdu, Sima Xiangru's hometown.

Zhuo Wenjun stills

Zhuo Wangsun was very angry when he knew that his daughter had done so. In a rage, he cut off his daughter's board and gave her no money to spend.

When Zhuo Wenjun came to Sima Xiangru, he found nothing but four walls, which instantly exposed Sima Xiangru's true identity. It turned out that all this was just a scam. As the saying goes, a woman in love has zero IQ, and Zhuo Wenjun didn't leave Sima Xiangru, so she chose to forgive. In order to make a living, she pawned her fur coat and asked Sima Xiangru to change wine.

When they can't make ends meet, Sima Xiangru is ashamed that he can't afford a wife. He would rather starve than borrow money from his father-in-law.

Zhuo Wenjun couldn't stand it, so she suggested that she might as well go back to Qionglai to borrow money from her brothers, which is better than starving here.

Sima Xiangru was very happy after hearing this, and actively cooperated with Zhuo Wenjun to come to Qionglai. Later, they opened a hotel in Qionglai, where Zhuo Wenjun sold wine at the counter and Sima Xiangru put on servants' clothes to do menial work. This incident instantly became an explosive news in Qionglai.

Zhuo Wangsun felt ashamed that his daughter and son-in-law bought wine at home, so he gave her daughter and son-in-law one million yuan, and one hundred domestic slaves told them not to make a fool of themselves in Qionglai. Sima Xiangru took the money and took Zhuo Wenjun back to Chengdu to live.

Stills of Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun

Separated by two places, Zhuo Wenjun, a gifted scholar, lives a high-class life with his father's millions of dollars, but Zhuo Wenjun is faced with another thorny problem.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty came across Sima Xiangru's Zi Xu Fu and was amazed at it. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered Sima Xiangru to be summoned. Zhuo Wenjun knew that the long-distance relationship between husband and wife was the killer of marriage stability, but instead of preventing her husband from going to Beijing, she chose to support her husband's great ambition.

After Sima Xiangru entered Beijing, he was appreciated by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and appointed him as a Langguan. Lang Guan in Han Dynasty was an alternate official, and he could only become a full member if he passed the examination. The apprentice was not paid, and the court only ate and drank Lazar, so Sima Xiangru didn't pay attention to his official position. He often takes three sick days off to go fishing and two sick days off to dry the net.

Of course, Sima Xiangru doesn't struggle, mainly because he has a rich wife who is not short of money.

Because Sima Xiangru didn't pay attention to official positions, he won himself a good reputation for not wanting to be famous. All this was caused by Zhuo Wenjun, but later Sima Xiangru failed to live up to Zhuo Wenjun's infatuation and moved on.

Zhuo Wenjun stills

According to Xijing Miscellanies, Sima Xiangru wanted to marry a concubine. When Zhuo Wenjun knew about it, he wrote a five-character poem "Ballad of the White Head" for her husband.

Miscellanies of Xijing is a note novel with low credibility. It is impossible for such a mature five-character poem to appear in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty. According to legend, Zhuo Wenjun also wrote a beautiful digital poetry for Sima Xiangru. In fact, digital poetry was not written by Zhuo Wenjun. This style is similar to Yuanqu. Digital poetry writes a sad poem, asking men to feel sorry for themselves. Unlike Zhuo Wenjun's integrity, it looks like a woman bound by feudalism in later generations.

Zhuo Wenjun is the kind of person who will give up on you until you change your mind. She is very selective, supporting her husband's career but not concubinage.

Sima Xiangru's concubinage recorded in Miscellanies of Xijing is quite credible. At first, their feelings were mixed with material things, and Sima Xiangru probably felt the same way. Zhuo Wenjun resolutely opposed her husband's concubinage, so Sima Xiangru had to abandon the new and welcome the old.

Stealing money and wife is criticized by later generations. Sima Xiangru's behavior of stealing money and his wife has attracted criticism from many later scholars. The first person who criticized Sima Xiangru was Yang Xiong, who was also from Chengdu. He is also one of the four masters of Han Fu. He lived in the Western Han Dynasty like Sima Xiangru, and Yang Xiong was an admirer of Sima Xiangru. He admires Sima Xiangru's talent very much. He imitated Sima Xiangru's Ci-Fu as an example.

Yang Xiong criticized Sima Xiangru for stealing money in his work "Laughing". Yang Xiong lives in Sima Xiangru recently, and Sima Xiangru is his idol. Criticism of idols is enough to show the seriousness of Sima Xiangru's stealing money.

Sima Xiangru Steels

Sima Qian is also an admirer of Sima Xiangru. He didn't want to ruin the image of his idol. He expressed Sima Xiangru's stealing money in a very subtle way. Yan Zhitui, a famous writer in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, said that Sima Xiangru had no integrity in stealing money. Su Shi, a famous writer in Song Dynasty, accused Sima Xiangru of stealing his wife.

It can be seen that Sima Xiangru regards stealing his wife as a means to rob money, and the love story that has been passed down through the ages is just a scam in the end.