Wu Sangui is one of the few influential figures in the history of Yunnan. There are countless historians writing about his life story, whether it is true or not. Today, Wu Sangui talked about it in the streets of Yunnan, and collected anecdotes circulated among the people. They are organized as follows for the convenience of readers.
Biography of the Yunnanese: Wu Sangui had enlarged earlobes, a straight bridge of his nose, a swollen upper lip, sparse beard on his upper lip, long eyebrows and small eyes. When he looked far away or looked around, he looked as majestic as a god. . Wu Sangui wakes up every day when the cock crows and falls asleep in the middle of the night, but he is full of energy and vitality, with no trace of tiredness on his face. There is a scar on the bridge of his nose, lower on the left and higher on the right, with a slight black line, which cannot be seen without looking closely. Wu Sangui has a habit of touching his nose with his hands when he is in a bad mood. When talking about important matters with him, he must express his opinions and do not change the topic in the middle. If you don't know what he means, just keep silent and pretend. Cough, the sound comes from the nostrils to remind you. No matter who has a skill, Wu Sangui is willing to take him in. Wu Sangui treats the people around him as kindly as he treats his family. If you have questions, ask him for advice and he will explain it to you over and over again until you figure it out.
Wu Sangui was open-minded and magnanimous. He did not care about new grudges or old grudges, and he attached great importance to friendship. When he was prosperous, everyone who had contact with him was willing to join him. Wu Sangui was a general under Mao Wenlong when he was young. After he was surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he cut off all contact with Mao's descendants. There was a general named Li under his command, who relied on his power to rob Mao's old house. Mao had an old servant who used to tease Wu Sangui. Now that Mao was facing such difficulties, he had to volunteer to go to Yunnan to ask Wu Sangui for help. Wu Sangui said nothing. Said that he directly ordered Li Shuai to return Mao's house and ordered him to pay a certain amount of money as an apology. When the old servant was leaving, Wu Sangui also gave him 50,000 gold to help him go; Fu Zonglong was also Wu Sangui's old commander. He gave Fu Zonglong's son Fu Ruliang As brothers, the vassal palace was heavily guarded, but Fu Ruliang could come in and out at any time, and the guards did not dare to question him; Zeng Yinglin, a native of Ningyuan, Yongzhou, Hunan, was kind to Wu Sangui, and his son Zeng Chuancan came to Yunnan to play. When he returned, Wu Sangui gave him fourteen Ten thousand gold. It can be seen from this that Wu Sangui is a person who values ??love and justice.
An official named Feng Su, in order to prove his allegiance to Wu Sangui, signed a deed of betrayal to Wu Sangui. The certificate read: "Feng Su, the prefect of Chuxiong Prefecture, was originally from Ninghai County, Zhejiang Province, and now has the same mother. A certain family was sold to the vassal of King Pingxi and received a reward of 27,000 taels of silver on that day. "The witness who sold her body was Hu Guozhu, the general manager of the vassal prince's palace. At that time, anyone who was willing to sell himself to Wu Sangui turned to Wu Sangui's son-in-law Hu Guozhu. People in Yunnan often say that there are three good things in Yunnan: Wu Sangui likes to be a master, scholar-bureaucrats like to be slaves, and Hu Guozhu likes to be a teacher.
Under his influence, most of Wu Sangui's soldiers strived for fame and fortune at any cost. A soldier came to see a rich man he had just met and lied that he had been an orphan since he was a child and was still young and ignorant. He wanted to worship the rich man as his father and let him teach him how to behave. The rich man also wanted to follow Wu Sangui's example in recruiting adopted sons and recruiting talents, so he readily agreed. So he chose a good day to celebrate the birth of his son. At first, the soldier was well-informed and respectful, and the rich man was very satisfied, as if he was his biological father and could support him financially at any time. Not long after, the soldier came with his wife. A few days later, the soldier came with a bunch of bad friends and went to his door. The rich man gradually found it difficult to pay the expenses, so he drove them away. He would lose face, so he would not chase them away. Let's go, I really can't afford to support them, and in the end I can only bleed a lot, give them a sum of money, and beg them to leave. At that time, the wealthy people in central Yunnan were keen to adopt godson sons, but in the end, the mute people ate Coptis chinensis and could not tell the story of their sufferings. Even the well-off families of ethnic minorities living in the mountains suffered losses and were deceived.
Jian Ertai, also known as Wen Ding, was a scholar from Kunming. After Zhang Xianzhong of the Great Western Army occupied Kunming, he was castrated by Sun Kewang. After Sun Kewang was defeated and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, Jian Ertai became a monk at Anning Huqiu Temple. Later, Jian Ertai was hired by Wu Sangui to work in the internal affairs of the feudal prince's palace. Jian Ertai was knowledgeable and humorous. When Wu Sangui got angry, as long as he said a few witty words, Wu's anger would disappear.
After Wu Sangui's rebellion was put down, General Zhao Liangdong brought him into the palace and said that this was Wu Sangui's chief steward. After interrogation, Jian Ertai gave a clear account of the property that the Qing soldiers had plundered from the feudal prince's palace. No one dared to do so. hide.
There was a businessman in Jiangsu named Wang Si who relied on his relationship with Wu Sangui to do a lot of illegal things in Guizhou. Gan Wenkun, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, was responsible for hearing Wang Si's case and asked him to return the houses, beauties, treasures, etc. he had robbed, and then deport him. Although Wu Sangui was the king of one party, he was helpless.
Zhao Tingbiao of Yanfa Road in Yunnan liked to write poems. When the West Temple in the south of the city was completed, Wu Sangui held a banquet for guests and honored the leading figures in Yunnan. Wu Sangui asked Zhao Tingbiao to compose a King Kong poem on the spot, and Zhao casually said: "King Kong is originally a ball of mud, and it can bully others with its teeth and claws. You said you are a good man, how dare you take a bath with me?" Wu Sangui laughed loudly after hearing this, Pretending to be nonchalant, he actually knew in his heart that Zhao Tingbiao's poem was a metaphor for himself. There was a scholar who volunteered to contribute a poem, which included the line "When the Chu State was exhausted, it begged the Qin Dynasty to serve, and when the Han Dynasty died, it was granted the title of the Han Dynasty." Wu Sangui was very satisfied with what he heard and ordered to reward him heavily. Wu Sangui composed the poem "White Peony", and Zhu Guozhi, the governor of Yunnan, harmonized the previous poem. Zhu Guozhi forced Li Xingyuan, the inspector-general, to also harmonize with the previous poem. Li Xingyuan could not refuse, so he reluctantly said: "If a prince cannot write, he is no different from a king. To me, If you can't use force, you are no different than a public servant." After hearing this, Zhu Guozhi blushed and retreated.
There are three treasures in the palace of Wu Sangui Fan: one is tiger skin, the other is marble, and the third is gem top. The white texture and black pattern of the tiger skin were obtained in Ningyuan County, Yongzhou, Hunan. It is the tiger skin known as the mythical beast "Zou Yu"; the marble screen has two sides, one side is six feet high, and the landscape, wood and stone are natural, in the style of the Yuan Dynasty painters. One side is slightly smaller. There is an eagle on the top of the mountain, and there is a tiger at the bottom of the mountain by the water. The tiger looks at the eagle, and the eagle looks at the tiger. It is full of energy. Wu Sangui has an official hat with a big ruby ??on it, about an inch wide and about an inch and a half long. , placed in the sun, the light shines within a few feet, like a blazing flame.
Wu Sangui's son Wu Yingxiong was held hostage in Beijing by the Qing royal family. Every time he returned to Yunnan from Beijing to visit his father, Wu Sangui had to go out of the city to greet him. Wu Yingxiong was born to Wu Sangui’s first wife, Zhang. Zhang was from Guandong. She was diligent and frugal in her life, and kept her promises. She often sighed: “When I first got married, my mother was reluctant to buy me a red dress. How can I live a better life today?” Isn't this kind of life a destiny?" Wu Sangui respected her very much, and was also very henpecked. He had the same sympathy as Cui Zhiying, the governor of Yunnan who worked together at the time. The two often choked up and lost their voices when talking about family affairs in the palace. Relatively tearful.
Wu Sangui had a concubine named Bamen Guanyin, who was a singing girl from the family of the late Nanchang master Li Zongrui. Li Zongrui was notorious in Nanchang for his voluptuous manner and his favorite Eight-faced Guanyin. After the Eight-faced Avalokitesvara returned to Wu Sangui, she was equally matched with Chen Yuanyuan. He regarded her as his second treasure, cherishing the fragrance and cherishing the jade, and favoring the delicate willows and flowers. There was also a concubine named Four-faced Guanyin, who was not as favored as Eight-faced Guanyin. However, people who had seen Four-faced Guanyin with their own eyes at that time said that Four-faced Guanyin was as beautiful as a flower and would captivate the country. The Four-sided Guanyin was also Li Zongrui's singing girl. Empress Li gave her to her colleague Gao An, who in turn presented her to Wu Sangui. In the 20th year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1681), Chen Yuanyuan was dead when the Qing army put down Wu Sangui's rebellion. The eight-faced Guanyin belonged to Suiyuan general Cai Yurong, while the four-sided Guanyin was occupied by Mu Zhan, the general who conquered the south.
As for Chen Yuanyuan’s death, Yunnan locals said that Chen Yuanyuan was smarter and knew that Wu Sangui’s rebellion would fail, so he had already made preparations to prevent himself from being kidnapped again. She arranged for people to build more than ten nunneries inside and outside Kunming, including Jinlian Nunnery, Miaofa Nunnery, Baiyi Nunnery, Ziyi Nunnery, etc. that remain today. After the nunneries were built, a number of women who looked similar to themselves were selected from everywhere to serve as the host of each nunnery. After Wu Sangui stopped doting on her, Chen Yuanyuan left the feudal prince's palace and hid in various nunneries. She lived here today and there tomorrow. As time went by, no one knew where she lived. Among the many nuns who looked like Chen Yuanyuan, no one could tell her apart. Which one is the real Chen Yuanyuan?
Ni had been working in Yunnan for several months, but he was acclimated and wanted to return to his hometown of Langdai. Wu Sangui gave him five thousand gold and arranged for someone to escort him back to his hometown.
When Wu Sangui was in Yunnan, most officials of all sizes in central Yunnan received gifts from him. Yunnan Governor Yuan Maogong wanted to resign and go home to attend the funeral because of his father's death. When Wu Sangui came to say goodbye, he gave him 50,000 gold, which Yuan Maogong happily accepted. When the governor Li Tianluo was ill, Wu Sangui came to visit him and said to him: "Mr. Li is poor and should not be tired of eating and drinking." From then on, whenever he visited Li Tianluo, Wu Sangui would bring his own food to prevent Li from spending money. In the ninth year of Kangxi's reign, Li Tianluo retired and returned to his hometown. Wu Sangui gave him 30,000 gold. Li did not give it to him, and Wu Sangui did not force it. It was not until he arrived at Zhenyuan, Guizhou that the guards left the 30,000 gold on the ship and then rode away with whips.
Zhu Guozhi first served as governor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and was famous for his greed and brutal persecution of people. After he was demoted to Yunnan and served as governor, he did not change his old habits and arbitrarily eroded or consumed public and private property. Both the army and the people had great opinions on him. Wu Sangui had tactfully persuaded Zhu Guozhi about his greedy behavior, but Zhu Guozhi still went his own way. Wu Sangui despised him very much and had to kill him when the incident broke out.
Pingxi Mansion is large in scale, with numerous houses, thousands of households, and lush forests, making it suitable for the residence of a feudal king. Wu Sangui built pavilions and pavilions in the green lake next to the mansion, named it near Hua Pu, and built a park in the western suburbs, named Anfu Garden. There are thousands of flowers and plants in the garden, and a goddess flower is planted inside, which looks like a hibiscus. The flower color can change into seven colors, white at Zi and Chou, green at Yin and Mao, white at Chen and Si, red at Noon and Wei, white at Shen and You, and purple at Xu and Hai. After the flowers bloom for more than ten days, they begin to wither. Wu Sangui regarded it as the treasure of the garden. There is a building in Anfu Garden called Wanjuan Building, which contains a number of ancient and modern classics. Wu Sangui ordered the opening of the building to recruit literati to edit the books and let them praise his great achievements. Then, he built a statue of himself in Baoguo Temple. It is located under the statue of Budai monk on the left side of the main hall. He has a pine-colored turban on his head and a green brocade robe. His right hand is on his knee and he holds a book in his left hand. From the left, he looks like a beautiful Guan Gong holding a candle. The look of "Spring and Autumn". At that time, Lu Shangqi from Hubei came to Kunming as an official as a Jinshi. Lu Shangqi was famous for his poetry writing. Wu Sangui asked him to write an inscription for his statue. Lu Shangqi wrote a special book about Wu's achievements. Wu Sangui was very satisfied with it. In return, he specially Give him your singing skills.
When Wu Sangui went to Yunnan to become the vassal king, he passed by Lu Liang and stopped by Puji Temple to visit. There is a red camellia plant in front of the main hall of Puji Temple. Different from other varieties, it is the pearl red color of camellia. Wu Sangui was very surprised and thought it was a special flower species. After the Anfu Garden was built, people were ordered to dig it out and transplant it in the garden. Due to the change of environment, the tree did not bloom for three years. Wu Sangui thought that the flower was deliberately neglecting him, so he demoted it back to Luliang Puji Temple. The tree was moved repeatedly and it was difficult to survive. It died within a year. The local people said that the flower died of anger because Wu Sangui was demoted.
Wu Sangui had a younger brother named Wu Yaoheng, who had an extraordinary appearance, tall figure and handsome appearance. He uses a super strong bow to shoot arrows with perfect accuracy; he is physically strong and good at running, and can catch up with fast horses; he is smart and can recite while listening and has a photographic memory. Wu Sangui favored and valued him very much, and often said to people: "This younger brother will become the pride of the Wu family." Later, he died of illness, and Wu Sangui was so angry that he couldn't eat for several days.
Wang Gongliang once helped people sell vegetables in Liaodong to earn a living. At first, he served as a squad leader under Wu Sangui. After Wu Sangui surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he was awarded the title of General Renwei by the Qing government. Later, he led troops with Liu Kunshan and Liu Quan. Wang Gongliang often sighed: "I know that I will die sooner or later, just because the people I meet are too kind to me, and I can't betray them in terms of loyalty and righteousness." After the Qing troops entered Yunnan, Wang Gongliang climbed up a building and burned himself to death. .
When Wu Sangui was building the Yuhuang Pavilion outside the southern city, he dug out more than 500,000 yuan of gold buried underground. They also excavated the ruined Laojun Palace, rebuilt the sacred throne, and dug out more than one million taels of gold. There are also a lot of cellar gold worth less than 100,000 taels found underground or in wooden products.
When the Qing Dynasty entered Guan and Dingding in the Central Plains, Wu Sangui had the highest merit. When talking about the three feudal lords, Wu Sangui is the strongest and leads the most troops. When Wu Sangui conquered Yunnan, he led 53 subordinates and 12,000 green flag soldiers, plus tens of thousands of military family members.
After Wu Sangui surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, it was decided that five Ding would be assigned to one Jia, and two hundred Jia would be assigned to one assistant collar, for a total of fifty assistant collars, which would be under the jurisdiction of the left and right capitals. Set up four towns to support the suppression of front, rear, left and right, divided into ten battalions, each battalion has 1,200 soldiers, with Wu Yingqi, Wu Guogui, Xia Guoxiang, Hu Guozhu and others as commanders, with Ma Bao, Wang Pingfan, Wang Xu and others as commanders. soldiers. Wu Sangui led troops to suppress peasant uprisings in various places, pacified Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Yunnan successively, captured Emperor Yongli of the Southern Ming Dynasty from Burma, and suppressed the An clan, the chieftain of Shuixi in Guizhou. Therefore, most of the elite soldiers and generals from all over the world gathered under him. When Wu Sangui first attacked Yunnan and Guizhou, the Qing court gave him great power. The governor and governor of Yunnan and Guizhou were all under his control. In terms of the use of troops, the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of War are not allowed to interfere. In terms of financial resources, the Ministry of Household Affairs is not allowed to inspect or delay. The officials appointed by Wu Sangui are called Xixuan, and the officials of Xixuan are spread throughout Yunnan Province. In the sixth year of Kangxi's reign, Wu Sangui resigned from the position of general manager because of eye disease. The Qing court removed him from power on his own initiative. At this time, Wu Sangui had been promoted to prince, and his son Wu Yingxiong had become a subordinate.
Wu Sangui had been in power in Yunnan for more than ten years. He trained his troops and horses every day, and his troops were strong. He placed his cronies everywhere in various traffic arteries and land and water ports. Most of the admirals and commander-in-chief of the provinces were his confidants. His sons were attached to the palace, and Wu Sangui could spy on all the big and small matters in the court.
In March of the twelfth year of Kangxi, Shang Kexi wanted to return to his hometown in Liaodong to take care of his old age, and asked that his son Shang Zhixin be allowed to guard Guangdong. The Ministry of War discussed and proposed to revoke the title of feudal lord. After Geng Jingzhong and Wu Sangui heard about it, they felt uneasy. In July of that year, Wu Sangui also went to Shu to apply for the withdrawal of his military power, in order to test the court's true intentions towards him. Emperor Kangxi convened a group of ministers in the court to discuss. Mi Sihan, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Mingzhu, Minister of the Ministry of War, and Moro, Minister of the Ministry of Punishments, urged to reduce the vassal status. Emperor Kangxi followed the opinions of the ministers and agreed to Wu Sangui's request and decided to arrange Wu Sangui to stay outside Shanhaiguan. Wu Sangui originally hoped that Emperor Kangxi would keep him in Yunnan and gain the same honor as the family of King Muying of Guizhou Ning in the Ming Dynasty who had stayed in Yunnan for generations. However, Wu Sangui was so surprised by the order that he secretly summoned his subordinates and plotted to raise troops to rebel against the court. Therefore, mail exchanges between the outside world and Central Yunnan were prohibited, and people were only allowed in but not out. It was not until the minister Zhe Keken and the bachelor Fu Dali came to Yunnan to deliver the imperial edict in person that Wu Sangui had to pretend to obey the order, privately delaying his trip to the customs and urgently planning to raise troops to rebel. Wu Sangui believed that at that time, there was no general in the DPRK. One who can compare with oneself.
At the end of November of the twelfth year of Kangxi, Wu Sangui rose up in rebellion, killed the governor Zhu Guozhi, arrested all officials below the rank of inspector who did not agree with the uprising, and issued a proclamation to various places, claiming that "all the people in the world are recruiting." "Ask the Generalissimo", the second year is regarded as the first year of "Zhou". People in Yunnan were ordered to change their clothes and hats, grow their hair long, and hold up white flags. During the swearing-in meeting, Wu Sangui stated to his subordinates the evidence of the Manchu Qing government's betrayal of trust and its use of force to invade the territory of the Central Plains. As he spoke, he was extremely sad and broke down in tears. Afterwards, he mounted a horse and galloped around the military academy grounds three times and waved his sword three times. At this time, Wu Sangui was already sixty-two years old.
Wu Sangui rebelled, and Guizhou Governor Cao Shenji, Admiral Li Benshen, and Yunnan Admiral Zhang Guozhu all responded in unison. Gan Wenkun, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, heard about Wu Sangui's mutiny in Guiyang and wanted to use troops to resist. However, the generals below the admiral refused to obey his orders and led their troops to Zhenyuan. Anyone who opposed Wu Sangui was arrested and executed. Dang Guyi, a doctor in the Ministry of War, and Samuha, a member of the Ministry of Household Affairs, were in Guizhou to deal with the matter of Wu Sangui's relocation outside the vassal customs. After hearing about the matter, he rushed to the capital to report on December 12. At this time, the memorial reported by Cai Yurong, Governor of Huguang, also arrived. The news reached Kyoto like a bolt from the blue, and the whole country was shocked. The scholar Suo'etu advocated the conviction of those who suggested the withdrawal of the vassal state. Emperor Kangxi did not agree, but only informed him to stop the delivery of the edicts to withdraw the vassalage in Fujian and Guangdong. Then he announced to China and foreign countries that Wu Sangui would be revoked from all his posts, and he would dispatch an army to Jingzhou, Hubei Province to resist Wu Sangui's attack.
When Wu Sangui raised his troops, he named his reign "Zhao Wu". An official named Xu Liangxu among his army staff wrote to Wu Sangui saying: "The word Zhao Wu is not enough. Zhao means the edge of the knife is close to the setting sun. "If you use force to stop fighting, you should change it." Wu Sangui read his letter and sighed and said, "You must obey fate."
Rumor has it that Wu Sangui’s real skeleton is actually buried outside Tongbi Pass.
The ancestral tomb of Wu Sangui is in Guandong. Some earth masters said that the feng shui of the Wu family cemetery is either rich or noble. However, it is a pity that Xuanwu Mountain has three broken parts. Strangely enough, from the Wu Sangui family down to his father, Wu Xiang, the commander-in-chief of Jinzhou in the Ming Dynasty, only Wu Sangui died of natural causes due to illness, and the others all died unexpectedly. The local master concluded that this was the reason why the Xuanwu section of the ancestral tomb was broken.
Note: Luo Yangru, named Jichun and courtesy name Zhaoxi, was born in Zhaoping, Guangxi, and was born in Fusheng in the former Qing Dynasty. His father, Luo Shifu, was promoted to the staff because he was related by marriage to Cen Yuying, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou. Therefore, he grew up in Kunming and traveled around as his father changed places, gaining extensive knowledge of Yunnan. This article refers to the translation and compilation of his "Anecdotes of Wu Sangui".