Throwing himself into the fire
"Historical Records of the Yin Dynasty": "On Jiazi day, Zhou was defeated. Zhou left, entered Lutai, put on his precious jade clothes, and died in the fire."
Legend has it that King Zhou of Shang, the last king of the Yin and Shang dynasties, was a cowardly king who was extravagant, lustful, cruel and immoral. "Xibo" (chief of the western princes) Ji Chang, later King Wen of Zhou, was imprisoned because he opposed King Zhou, and he tried many ways to get out of prison. At that time, the capital of Zhou was in Qishan (now Qishan County, Shaanxi Province). After King Wen of Zhou returned to Qishan, he was determined to overthrow the rule of the Shang Dynasty. He first hired the military strategist Jiang Shang (also known as Jiang Taigong) as his military adviser, actively trained troops to prepare for war, and annexed several neighboring small states, gradually becoming more powerful. Then, he moved the capital east to Fengyi (near today's Hu County, Shaanxi Province) in preparation for marching eastward. However, King Wen of Zhou passed away not long after the capital was moved.
Ji Fa, the son of King Wen of Zhou, succeeded to the throne and became King Wu of Zhou. Jiang Taigong continued to serve as military advisor. King Wu's half-brother Ji Dan (ie Duke of Zhou) and half-brother Ji Shi (ie Duke of Zhao) were King Wu's two right-hand assistants. At the same time, King Wu also received the support of several other princes. Therefore, King Wu officially announced that he would send troops to defeat Zhou. The army crossed the Yellow River at Mengjin (a Yellow River crossing south of today's Meng County, Henan Province) and advanced to the northeast, approaching Chaoge of the Shang Dynasty (now northeast of Qi County, Henan Province). Because King Zhou of Shang had lost all the hearts of the people, and most of the troops were unwilling to die for him, so some fled, some surrendered, and some rebelled, Chaoge was quickly conquered. King Zhou committed suicide, and the Shang Dynasty was destroyed. In the next eight hundred years, the world became the Zhou Dynasty, known as the Zhou Dynasty.
When King Wu of Zhou conquered Chaoge, King Wu had no idea how to deal with the powerful ministers, nobles, officials and soldiers left over from the Shang Dynasty, and whether the situation could be stabilized, so he was a little worried. For this reason, he discussed with Jiang Taigong and others. There is such a text record in "Shuoyuan·Guifa" compiled by Liu Xiang of the Han Dynasty:
"King Wu conquered Yin, summoned the Taigong and asked: 'What will the general do to his soldiers?' The Taigong said to He said: 'I heard that those who love others will also love the crows on the house; those who hate others will hate the others. How can the enemy be defeated? '"
The general idea is: Zhou King Wu defeated the Yin Shang Dynasty, summoned Jiang Taigong, and asked: "How should we treat their people?" Taigong replied: "I heard that if you love that person, you will also love the crows on his house; if you hate that person, you will also love the crows on his house. He even took away his servants and family members, and killed all the hostile elements, leaving no one behind. What do you think?"
The so-called "Yuxu" in the original text refers to the lowest-ranking person. Officials, stewards of slave owners and nobles, etc. (Yu, the meaning of the last class; Xu; subordinate official.)
There is also a similar record in the "Shang Shu Da Zhuan·Zhan Zhan" compiled by Fu Sheng of the Han Dynasty:
"Zhou After his death, King Wu was panic-stricken as if the world was uncertain. He summoned Taigong and asked him, "What can I do if I enter Yin?" Taigong said, "I have heard that if you love others, you will have the crows on your house; if you don't love others, you will have nothing to do with them."
This record is similar to the content contained in "Shuoyuan". However, the word "Yu Xu" is written as "Xu Yu", and the two have different meanings. "Xu Yu" no longer belongs to the rank of Xu Shi, but a slave or prisoner other than subordinate officials who is lower than "Yu Xu". For example, Jizi, the "grand master" during the reign of King Zhou of Shang Dynasty, was dissatisfied with King Zhou and was imprisoned. He pretended to be crazy and was willing to be a slave, so "Zhuangzi" called him "Xu Yu".
In addition, "Han Shi Wai Zhuan" and "Six Tao Yi Wen" also have records about the above-mentioned conversation between King Wu of Zhou and Jiang Taigong, and the content is basically the same. Because of this legend, the idiom "Love the house and the bird" came into being.
A superstitious custom has been circulating in our country since ancient times. It is believed that the crow is an "unlucky bird". If it falls on the house of a house, that house will suffer misfortune. In the "Xiaoya" section of "The Book of Songs", one of my country's oldest poetry collections, there is a poem titled "The First Moon" that says, "Watching the clouds and falling in love, whose house is it?" It can be seen that many ancient people hated crows, but few people loved them. The so-called "love the house and the crows" means: because you love that person, even the crows on his house do not think it is ominous and do not feel annoying anymore. This idiom has always been used as a metaphor for love. Because you love someone deeply, you also love his relatives, friends and other people or other things, which is called "love the house and the crow", or this kind of love is called "the love of the crow".
In the poem "A Gift to Li Sizhang of Shehong" (Shehong, a place name, in today's Sichuan; Li Sizhang is Li Mingfu) of the Tang Dynasty, the first two sentences are: "There are crows on my father-in-law's house. People are as good as birds.” There is a poem in "Lianxi Poetry" written by Zhou Dunyi from the Song Dynasty: "Angrily moves crabs in the water, love reaches crows on the house." There is also an allusion to the idiom "Love the house and the crow" in the poem "Jian Li Boyi" written by Chen Shidao of the Song Dynasty, "When the time is clear, you can see the birds in front of my door, and when you are good, you can see the crows in your house."