At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Guo Ze put some photos of the archaeological site on the screen for the students to watch.

"What surprised us is that, as the founder of a huge empire, Wei Taizu's mausoleum was not as grand and huge as we imagined. According to some ancient regulations, the construction of the mausoleum was probably started when the emperor ascended the throne. It was repaired until the death of the emperor.

Wei Taizu Guo Peng became emperor at the age of 37 and died at the age of 70. During the 33 years, there is no record in the history books that the imperial mausoleum stopped repairing, but the scale of the imperial mausoleum in Langjuxu Mountain can be completed in at most five or six years according to the productivity of that era. , which is puzzling. "

Guo Ze showed a plane anatomy of the Mausoleum of Emperor Taizu of Wei.

The map shows that the scale of the imperial mausoleum is not large, at least compared to Qin Shihuang, who was also the first emperor of the millennium, the area of ​​this imperial mausoleum seems a bit unworthy of the emperor's identity.

"In addition, the number of burial objects such as gold and jade utensils unearthed in the imperial tombs is also very small compared to other imperial tombs, which is more challenging to our consistent understanding of this emperor. ."

Guo Ze switched to a slide, which was a table, which listed the comparison of the number of gold and jade burial objects excavated from the tomb of the Emperor Wei in Langju Xushan and the tomb of the emperor.

This comparison shows that the imperial mausoleum of Wei Taizu is even a little shabby.

"But although there are few gold and jade artifacts, there are many other things, such as this one, which is the latest discovery."

Guo Ze switched a slide, and the content of the new slide immediately made the students exclaim.

"This is the map engraved on the wall of tomb No. [-] that we excavated. We can see that this is a full map of the territory of Wei State. The map completely draws the territory of Wei State. , Every county, every prefecture, and even rivers, mountains and rivers are marked.

When I saw this map, many seniors were stunned and speechless. To be honest, I was also surprised. In the past, we only learned about the territory of the Wei Empire from historical books and made inferences, but we are absolutely Unexpectedly, the wall of the tomb was actually engraved with the whole map of the territory of Wei State.

From this picture, we can see that the Wei Kingdom of that year was a huge empire, with its territory extending to Central Asia in the west, Dongji Island in the east, Langjuxu Mountain in the north, and Rinan County in the south. Compared with the Eastern Han Dynasty In its heyday, the country's land area doubled. "

Guo Ze then compared the territory of the heyday of the Eastern Han Dynasty with this map.

In this comparison, the difference is quite obvious.

"After Wei Taizu Guo Peng ascended the throne, it was not until the fourth year of Yande that the whole country was largely unified, but he did not stop and doubled the territory of the empire in the remaining ten years. This is the most favorable and direct evidence. It is completely consistent with the historical records.

In the past, there were always people who questioned the uncertainty of historical records, believing that under the conditions at the time, it was impossible for Wei Taizu to expand the empire's territory to such a degree within ten years.

Although cultural relics unearthed in various places in recent years have shown the effective management of those lands by the Wei Empire, but this complete map of the empire, which was completed in the 20th year of Wei Taizong Xingyuan at the latest, will become the most favorable evidence, directly proving the authenticity of historical records sex.

In the 21 years since Wei Taizong Guo Jin proclaimed himself emperor, a total of four wars were launched, and none of them was aimed at expanding the territory. The direct territory of the entire Wei Empire was almost fixed in the time of Wei Taizu. This is confirmed. "

Guo Ze said with a smile: "This is a huge victory for our archaeologists and historical researchers!"

The students applauded and cheered a little.

Then Guo Ze restrained his smile and put on a very serious expression.

"Actually, the biggest gain of our excavation this time is not this map, but this."

Guo Ze changed the slide again, this time, the picture showed a dark box.

"This is a lacquer box that has been carefully embalmed and sealed. It is placed in the No. [-] tomb next to the main tomb of the imperial mausoleum. There are many things in other tombs, but this tomb has only this box inside. , which fully shows the completely different status of this box.

At the time, we were all guessing what was in the box. After a series of studies, we carefully opened the box. We thought that the box might be a long-lost treasure, but it was not the case. "

Guo Ze shifted his attention, changed the slides, and showed the students all the contents in the box.

Looking at the content on that slide, he couldn't help but feel some nostalgic emotions.

However, he quickly rectified his emotions and said: "This box is not gold and silver jewelry, nor is it seals and jade seals that symbolize imperial power, but three books."

"Three books?"

The students were amazed, looking at the photos on the slides, amazed.

That's really three books.

The three are almost brand-new wire-bound books, with the three big characters [Gewu Xue] written on the cover.

Guo Ze turned his attention to all the students.

"We all know that after Wei Taizu Guo Peng became emperor, he devoted himself to reforming the way of selecting talents, and finally successfully reformed the imperial examination system created by Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty into the imperial examination system. Under the imperial examination system, people began to rely on examinations and scores to select the best for admission. as an official.

This method of selecting talents has proved to be far more fair than the census system, breaking the traditional concept of selecting talents based on their background and family status since the Han Dynasty.

And this has always been the focus of research in the historical circle. People think that Wei Taizu was born in a gentry, was an upper-class social class at that time, and was a vested interest under the inspection system, but he finally abandoned the inspection system.

He established the imperial examination system that was not in line with the interests of the ruling class at that time, which made the gentry who occupied a monopoly on the cultural level very dissatisfied, and finally caused a serious political crisis in the seventh year of Yande. The contradiction between the emperor and the gentry could not be reconciled. eventually erupted.

There are still many details we don't know about these issues. For the time being, let's just talk about the reform of the way of selecting talents by Wei Taizu after the establishment of the imperial examination system. importance.

This point was really advanced at the time, and even had pioneering significance. Under the suppression of Confucian ingenious thinking and Taoist thinking, Wei Taizu resisted the pressure and introduced these contents into the scope of the imperial examination. , it can even be said that this is a cultural and ideological revolution. "

Guo Ze paused, then changed another slide, this time showing a photo of the first edition of Wei Guo's textbook on physical sciences.

"The most representative thing in this imperial examination revolution should be the fact that in the third year of Wei Taizong Xingyuan, Wei Guo Taixue opened the subject of Gewuxue. 15 years ago, Wei was the first minister of the cabinet and the Minister of Finance. Charm's tomb was discovered.

The biggest gain at that time was the discovery of the first edition of the textbook on physical sciences in the third year of Xingyuan in his tomb. That book was also well sealed, very complete, and filled in the incompleteness of historical records.

Before that, we could only know part of the content of this earliest physiognomy textbook from some literati's notes, but not the whole picture. What kind of inspiration.

At that time, many seniors in the archaeological field were deeply shocked. They felt that the ancients more than 500 years ago had such an understanding of natural science. It is no wonder that Wei's science and technology developed so rapidly. "

Having said that, Guo Ze took a deep breath.

"But this discovery made us even more shocked, because there are quite a few differences between the textbooks on physical science in the tomb of Emperor Taizu of Wei and the textbook on physical science in Wang Can's tomb."

The students below began to get restless.

Guo Ze didn't whet their appetite, and changed the slides directly.

"The physics textbook we found in the imperial mausoleum has content that is not found in the physics textbook in Wang Can's tomb, such as this part."

A portion of the motion of the celestial bodies is impressively displayed on the slide.

For example, there is no spirit in the sky, the appearance of the sun, moon, and stars is the principle of nature. The alternation of the sun and the moon is the reason for the movement of the stars. The ground under your feet is not a round place, but a sphere. It's because of some kind of attraction.

This part is a full twelve pages. Although the content is relatively shallow and not discussed in depth, it is still shocking enough.

"This part of the content is the latest and most important discovery of this excavation, and it will be made public in the near future. Although these discoveries will not rewrite the historical process, they are of great significance to our study of that period of history. ."

Guo Ze propped his hands on the podium, and said: "Based on time, this version of Gewuxue textbook should have appeared 20 years before Xingyuan, and the earliest version of Gewuxue textbook in history appeared in Xingyuan three years ago.

The book of geophysics unearthed in Wang Can's tomb has confirmed that the historical records are correct, so why are there textbooks of geophysics with different contents in the tomb of Emperor Taizu of Wei Taizu?It was even placed in a separate tomb to show attention.

In all the historical records of the Wei Kingdom, whether it is official history, unofficial history, or the essays of later generations, there is not a single record that describes the content of this version of Gewu, and the official appearance of this part of the content is in the Wei Empire. The Tang Empire period, more than [-] years after its fall. "

Guo Ze looked around at the shocked students: "Students, at that time, 800 years, 800 years have passed since Wei Taizu passed away!"

While the students were shocked, you looked at me, I looked at you, and they were all amazed and incredible at this subversive discovery.

"Relevant theories that appeared in the Tang Empire 800 years later were discovered in the tomb of Wei Taizu 800 years ago. What does this mean?"

Guo Ze took a deep breath: "We were very shocked. After that, we checked the book and the box to check the age of its birth, and finally determined that it was indeed an early item of the Wei Empire, not a forgery by later generations.

Excluding all unreasonable and impossible factors, the only answer is ready to come out. This version of Gewu Xue is inseparably related to Wei Taizu himself. As for why it was not passed down, it was taken by Wei Taizu and buried with him. Nobody knows. "

After Guo Ze finished speaking, the whole class was silent, and every student felt as if they had touched some extremely sensitive mysterious event.

Even Lu Xiaobu, who was still worried that he was going to be suspended, was deeply immersed in this atmosphere, unable to extricate himself.

A student raised his hand and Guo Ze nodded.

"Zheng Wei, what do you want to say?"

"Teacher, what do you think about this matter?"

Guo Ze pursed his lips and said with a smile: "What do you think? Tell me, this is destined to be an unsolved problem, you can play freely."

"I……"

Zheng Wei lowered his head and thought for a while, then said, "Could this be the idea proposed by a certain sage at that time, but Wei Taizu felt that the emergence of this theory would endanger his rule. The emperor is the Son of Heaven, if the heaven is inactive , the emperor's rule is in danger.

Therefore, he banned this theory, and his method was followed by all the emperors of the future generations, suppressing the development of ideas, so that the ideological rule of the Wei Empire has always been very strict, and there have been frequent ideological problems in the Wei State Arithmetic Hall and Gewu Hall. Criminals are questioned. "

Guo Ze smiled.

"Then why did he put these three books in his mausoleum, so close to each other, and open a separate tomb to place them, as if he had a lot of affection for it?"

Zheng Wei thought about it carefully, and felt that this seemed a bit contradictory and it was difficult to answer.

Then another student stood up.

"Teacher, I don't think Wei Taizu is the kind of person who can suppress the development of ideas. Historical records show that Wei Taizong set up the Math Hall and the Gewu Hall at the suggestion of Wei Taizu, and the imperial examination was also created by Wei Taizu.

Not only was the examination of Confucian classics decided by Wei Taizu, but even the earliest gunpowder weapons were made by Wei Taizu. Would such a person with pioneering and enterprising spirit do something like suppressing the development of ideas? "

Zheng Wei stood up again and pushed his black-rimmed glasses.

"I don't think the two are contradictory. Everything Wei Taizu did was to sweep away the troubled times and build an empire, establish his own status, and abolish the inspection examination and establish the imperial examination. According to recent research, it was Wei Taizu who wanted to attack the gentry and consolidate the imperial examination. decisions made by the emperor.

He did not innovate for the sake of innovation, but in order to maintain his power and status, and the continuation of the Guo Dynasty, he made such innovations. Under such a premise, he may agree with the development of ideas and technology, but once the ideas With the development of technology threatening his rule, will he still do it? "

The students thought it was reasonable, and a lot of them nodded.

Guo Peng also kept smiling.

So Zheng Wei gained confidence, and went on to say: "If Wei Taizu really wanted to promote the development of science and technology and thought, in the feudal era, it would be equivalent to rebelling against himself and killing himself. If he really did this, He is no longer a feudal emperor, and he will not build a 400-year empire.

It should be said that within the framework of being conducive to governance, Emperor Wei is happy to see the development of science and technology and ideas, but once this development threatens the rule of imperial power and endangers the foundation of imperial power, Emperor Wei will not be soft-hearted, Wei Dezong Jiading Six years of banning Gewutang, that's how it should be. "

The students listened and nodded in agreement.

In the sixth year of Wei Dezong's Jiading reign, Guo Qian, the sixth emperor of Wei State, ordered the banning of Gewutang.

Yue Song, the then head of Gewutang, a famous ancient mathematician and astronomer, was imprisoned and sentenced to death. More than a dozen scholars of Gewutang were implicated and imprisoned. More than 50 scholars and officials were implicated before and after.

Since Wei Dezong ordered the burning of all relevant documents after that, no one was allowed to discuss it.

Until 20 years ago, the tomb of Zhu Wen, a famous scholar of Yue Song's time, was accidentally excavated, and relevant documents were unearthed in his tomb, which vaguely recorded this incident.

But what exactly caused Wei Dezong to kill Gewutang, no one knows.

Wei Guogewutang has never recovered.

Although after Wei Dezong's death, his son Wei Xingzong reopened the Gewutang, but since then the Gewutang has lost the spirit of [exhausting the truth of the world].

After this incident was disclosed, combined with some historical materials at that time, scholars who studied the history of Wei State boldly believed that this incident could become a landmark event for the Wei Empire to turn from prosperity to decline.

Zheng Wei thinks so, of course, there is no problem.

The emperor, after all, pays attention to his own ruling power and status.

But the student who was refuted by Zheng Wei was not convinced and stood up and asked, "Then why did Wei Taizu put these three books so close to him and keep them so well?"

Zheng Wei thought about it.

"The truth is not afraid of questioning, the truth is the truth, no matter how twisted and changed, it is also the truth, Wei Taizu is a great man, maybe he himself thinks this statement is correct, but as the emperor, he can't tolerate this kind of thinking.

It can't be tolerated. Of course, the best way is to ban this kind of thinking, but he feels that it is right. Banning this kind of speech makes him feel a little guilty, so he takes the remaining traces with him and bury them in the mausoleum. , just kidding yourself.

According to historical records, Wei Taizu has a violent temper and likes to reprimand and attack courtiers. During his 13 years in power, he launched no less than five political storms and punished more than [-] officials. Many officials were scared to resign directly in order to save their lives. Wei Taizu had no choice but to introduce low-level officials. Enter the court.

For such an authoritarian and powerful emperor, it is too easy for him to do something that future generations will not know about. Although I do not believe in some unofficial records of Wei Taizu's bloodthirsty and cruelty, I do not believe that either. He is an enlightened monarch. "

Don't say it, this statement really makes sense. The students thought about it and felt that what Zheng Wei said was decent.

The student who was refuted stood up again.

"You are a typical speculative! Unofficial history is just a family's opinion, which is not enough to be believed. Push forward 30 years. At that time, the mainstream views in the domestic historical circles were not friendly to Wei Taizu, because there were too many such literati notes. unofficial history.

Why did Taizu Wei eat two pearls and one piece of jade in the morning? Pearls are still understandable. Today, people also use pearl powder as a health product. People will not die, so eat jade?Can jade be digested?If you really eat like this, you will die from constipation in a short time. Can Wei Taizu live to be 70 years old?

This is obviously fake, but many people believe it. Some people say that Wei Taizu had [-] wives. He was married to a daughter. So much so that there were no young women in Luoyang at that time.

It is also said that Wei Taizu's favorite dish is fried centipedes, and he especially likes to eat raw newborn mice. He has to eat 24 kinds of animals and 84 dishes for each meal. throw away.

Not to mention 30 years ago, there are still people who believe in this kind of statement, and there are still people who are not tired of claiming that Wei Taizu is the first tyrant in history and the most enjoyable emperor. I feel sick when I hear this kind of statement. Isn’t what you are saying now lie? "

In the face of doubts, Zheng Wei is not angry.

"He was a feudal emperor after all, and he built a feudal empire, didn't he?"

The student's expression froze, and he didn't know what to say.

Guo Ze on the podium clapped his hands in time.

"Okay, this is the end of the discussion, what is the truth of this matter, I feel that we may never know, because of the lack of conclusive evidence, everything is just our guess, whether it is forbidden or guilty, in fact, for the current For us and Wei Taizu at that time, it may not make much sense.

Wei Taizu was undoubtedly a feudal emperor. Everything he did was in line with the level of social development at that time. Of course, according to the archaeological results of more than 30 years, it is not wrong to say that he was a seriously misunderstood emperor. Not to mention other things, just one imperial examination system is enough for future generations to use today.

Before him, the census system blocked the way for the people at the bottom to rise. The people were illiterate and could only be confused, becoming a production tool like a cow and a horse. It was Wei Taizu who changed this situation. He used the means of literacy and the establishment of schools to let the bottom People have a way to read and write.

This was almost unimaginable at the time, but he did it, and opened up a way for ordinary people to become officials, to stand in front of the emperor and discuss state affairs with the emperor. The students can sit here and listen to my lectures. way? "

Guo Ze said this, and the students naturally agreed that there is nothing to say, it is a fact.

Today's history buffs tend to have polarized evaluations of Wei Taizu Guo Peng.

People who like him list his achievements and call him the greatest emperor in ancient China.

Those who hated him cited numerous cases of his political purges and murders, believing that he was brutally murdered and a complete tyrant.