Mei Chen

Mei Chen

Meiyu (228-196 BC), a general of the Western Han Dynasty, was a native of Yuhan (now Meigang Township, Yugan County, Jiangxi Province), and a member of the Department of Wang wurui of Changsha. Another official of the Qing Dynasty, Mei min, served as governor of Fujian in 1700.

record

"The more the plum blossom is, the more the plum blossom is, the more precious it is to the king of Liang." (Guangdong new language by Qu Dajun of the Qing Dynasty) since ancient times, Yue people have loved plum blossoms and had an indissoluble bond with them. So, what is the relationship between Yue people and Mei? This is to start with Mei Zhen, the descendant of Gou Jian, the king of Yue.

According to the historical records of Goujian family, the king of Yue, in 355 BC, the king of Yue was defeated and killed. "The more he scattered, the princes fought for the throne, either as king or monarch, on the sea of the south of the Yangtze River." In 281 BC, the state of Yue finally perished. From then on, the descendants of the king of Yue retreated in the mountainous areas of Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, and separated from each other. In order to avoid the Chu people, a Yue people went to Gaoxiang, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. Their surname was Mei, and they became the ancestor of the Mei family. By the end of the Warring States period, one of these people formed Meishan man (Meishan man), who lived in the area of Anhui and Jiangxi in Qimen (now Qimen County, Huangshan City, Anhui Province) and guganyue. Later, Mei's father moved to an'le Township in Yugan (now Meigang Township in Yugan) and settled down. Mei was born in Meigang village in Meigang township.

brief introduction

Mei was born with a strong back, handsome and strong arm. When the Qin Dynasty unified the whole world, Mei Zhen led a group of people and followed the then king of Yue to Nanhai (today's Guangdong area) via Liling, Hunan Province, and lived in tailing (today's Meiling area of Nanxiong City). This group of people and horses was one of the earliest Yue people who entered Lingnan in history. How many people are there in Meiyu's group? According to the records and customs of Nanxiong Prefecture, Wei Qiwen, the leader of Shixing, said: "the history of Nanxiong Prefecture is very popular The king of Yue had a taste of being stationed in Taiwan, and six thousand gentlemen were registered in the imperial register. " Six thousand children. Tailing is now Dayu mountain, because Yuanwang mountain peak is as flat as stone platform, so it is called tailing. There is a river named Zhenshui at the foot of tailing mountain. It flows into Nanxiong of Guangdong Province in the south, then flows into Beijiang River through Shaoguan, flows into Guangzhou, and flows into the Pearl River, and flows straight to the sea. Because of this geographical situation, tailing became a military fortress. Mei Zhen inspected the terrain, and built a town on the water, "Fengwang Juzhi.". The local people call it "Meicheng".

At the end of the Qin Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and the people suffered a lot. The storm of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprising swept across the country. Mei Chen recruited people in the tailing area, expanded the ranks, and performed as soldiers. There was a local righteous man named Yu Sheng. The two brothers supported thousands of people and took the mountain as the king. They admired Mei's name and were willing to lead the people to their own homes. Mei Da Xi worshipped Yu Sheng's brother as his deputy and defended the two mountains of tailing. Later generations called these two mountains Dayu Ling (Yu Sheng's garrison) and Xiaoyu Ling (Yu Sheng's younger brother's garrison). The strong men in Lingnan area have joined Meizhen's subordinates one after another, and Meizhen's momentum is growing stronger and stronger. These Yue people, Mei Zhen, recuperated in tailing, worked hard to build up their own businesses, cultivated grain and trained troops, and became the leader. The Wu Yue culture and production technology brought by them played a positive role in the development of Lingnan.

With the development of anti Qin situation, Mei Zhen also raised the banner of betraying Qin. According to the records of Nanxiong Prefecture in Zhili during the reign of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty, "a hundred Yue rebelled against the Qin Dynasty and promoted xiongjie to be the leader. All the people were virtuous, so they were the leader." After Mei became the commander of Guangdong Province, he issued the order of conscription. Each family had one strong man, who served the people in peacetime and was organized into a group in wartime. "The officers and men were ordered to clean up the army.". Mei Zhen decided to lead his troops to Fanyi and go to his hometown Wu Rui. Before leaving, he left his brother Yusheng to garrison tailing. Wu Rui was overjoyed and went out of the city ten miles to meet him. He immediately appointed him as the Ministry and trained as a sergeant with yingbu. Mei Zhen urged Wu Rui to help the princes to attack Qin. Wu Rui then sent Mei Zhen to lead Baiyue soldiers to Nanyang to join Peigong Liu Bang. It is also recorded in the book of the former Han Dynasty - Biography of Jing Yan and Wu: "when Peigong attacked Nanyang, he met Rui '. And Xiang Wang Xiang Wang, to Rui rate Baiyue assist the princes from the entry, so Rui for Hengshan king, duying. His generals, Mei Xuan, had many achievements and were granted 100000 titles as marquis. " It can be seen from this that the team led by Mei Zhen played an important role in the battle against Qin Dynasty and was one of the main forces. Mei's contribution to the destruction of Qin Dynasty is indelible. At that time, there were many heroes in the world, and there were more than a hundred generals who broke the Qin Dynasty. After breaking the Qin Dynasty, they offered rewards for their merits. Except for the eighteen kings, Mei Xuan was the only one who was granted 100000 marquis by Xiang Yu. Of course, according to the records of the historian, at that time, "the Marquis was no more than ten thousand, and the minor was five or six hundred." in fact, "one hundred thousand Marquis" was just a short title.

Soon after the battle between the Chu and Han Dynasties, Mei Zhen followed Wu Rui to Liu Bang's side and was appointed as a general by Liu Bang. He led his troops to attack Wuguan (now Southeast of Danfeng County, Shaanxi Province). Mei Zhen took the lead and fought hard. The general of Wuguan thought he was not an opponent, so he abandoned the city overnight and fled. Later, Xiang Yu was defeated by Liu Bang. In 202 B.C., Liu Bang unified the world and granted Wu Rui the title of king of Changsha. The next year, Mei was granted the title of "Marquis of Taiwan" and "the cities south of Taiwan". The south of Tai is the south of Tai Ling (Dayu Ling). In fact, the south of tailing was occupied by Zhao Tuo, the king of Nanyue. Therefore, there is a poem written by Luo Yin in the Tang Dynasty: "one hundred thousand plum blossoms are empty, but one third of the grandsons are barren." Because there was no site, Mei Chen led the people to move westward to Meishan village in Yiyang County of Changsha County (now Banxi Meishan village, Taojiang County, Yiyang City, Hunan Province).

In the long journey of his life, everywhere he went, the local people admired him and remembered his name in the city and landscape, coexisting with him. The names of Meicheng (Meicheng), Meishan (Meiling), Meishui (Meigang, Meixi) and Meixiang (Meicun) are in Anhui, Jiangxi, Guangdong and Hunan. In 196 BC, Mei died. It is said that before his death, he left a will and must transport his body back to his hometown for burial. It took Meizhen's subordinates and their families several months to transport his coffin back to Meigang, Yugan county. In order to commemorate the hero of this generation, a temple named Yingtian temple was built in his cemetery. According to local rumors, Mei Ying's spirit is always divine. It is effective for the common people to get rid of disasters, pray for heirs, and worship, so the incense is constantly burning. Later, the descendants of Meifan lived in Hunan, Henan, Anhui, Jiangxi, Guangdong and other places.

More than 1300 years later, Yang Wanli, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, followed the trail of Mei fan leading 6000 children into Lingnan. Along the way, there were plum blossoms everywhere, leaving behind many verses: "when I travel in plum blossom, I return to liuyingsi." "It's a bad thing to spend a winter in vain. It's a plum blossom that never sang." "Sparse plum light shallow, make meaning for who Rong." When he arrived in Meizhou, he wrote five more plum blossom poems, one of which is "who planted ten li plum blossoms all the way". The Yue people's love for the plum blossom in their residence places their boundless reverence for Mei Feng, a pioneer in the development of Lingnan. In Qu Dajun's Guangdong new language of the Qing Dynasty, it is said that "Yue people are famous for their literary affairs since gaogushi, and famous for their military affairs since meixuan." Compared with Gao Gu, the Prime Minister of Chu Kingdom and the former Nanyue people, we can see the far-reaching influence of Mei Zhen.

Relevant information

Meiling was called "tailing" or "Dongqiao mountain" by indigenous people in ancient times. It is said that it was renamed Meiling because it was related to the famous general of the Western Han Dynasty.

At the end of the Warring States period, the seven countries vied for supremacy. If they won, they would expand their territory. If they lost, they would seek peace. The people who had lost their country had to be displaced and fled everywhere. Mei's ancestors were the people of Gou Jian, the king of Yue. After Yue was killed by Chu, the clansmen had to flee. They first moved to Jixi, Zhejiang Province. When living in Jixi, the descendants of Gou Jian changed their surname to Mei in memory of their hometown "Meili". After Mei was born, Jixi, Yuzhang and other areas were in the annexation war between Qin and Chu. The descendants of the Yue nationality, who were in a desperate situation, had to flee Jixi and enter Jiangxi, then go up the Ganjiang River and settle down in the tailing area at the border with South Vietnam.

At that time, the tailing area was high in mountains, dense in trees, and inaccessible to people. When the Vietnamese arrived at tailing, they were exhausted and frustrated. Do you want to move south, or do you want to live in tailing? It has become a vital topic for the Vietnamese people. The clan leaders called a meeting and thought that the living conditions of tailing were good, there were waterways in the north and south, and it was an ideal place to settle down. So he chose open land and settled down in tailing, the source of Zhangjiang and Zhenjiang. Mei Wei grew up rapidly as a tribal general. He led his people to "live by the king" here. On the one hand, he organized to open up wasteland and make use of the advanced home farming technology in the Central Plains to develop the rice economy; on the other hand, he carried out military training and set up checkpoints at the dangerous passes in the tailing mountains. He also visited various ethnic groups in South Vietnam to establish friendly relations with them. In addition, he actively contacted the nobles of Yue and exchanged information, so that tailing became an important stronghold of the southward migrating Yue people, and Meifen also became an important leader of the southward migrating Yue tribe.

After the first emperor of Qin unified China, he ordered his envoy Tu Sui to lead a half million troops to March south to "Baiyue" in five routes. According to the familiar geographical environment, all ethnic groups in Baiyue resisted tenaciously, so that the Qin army was beaten everywhere, regardless of the head and tail. The Qin envoy Tu Sui was killed in the counterattack of Baiyue people. Qin Shihuang also sent Ren Xiao and Zhao Tuo to lead 200000 troops to reinforce. Mei Wei led the Yue people to attack the Qin army with stones, rolling trees, traps and so on. But after all, tailing is weak, and the troops led by Wu Rui, the county magistrate of Poyang, the vanguard of the Qin army, are good at fighting in the jungle.

Wu Rui is a Yuhan man. He is familiar with the bravery and tenacity of Yue people. He has long heard of Mei Chen, the leader of Yue nationality. He admires Mei Chen's military ability and wants to take him under his command. So he sends someone to contact Mei Chen. After some discussion, Mei led the Yue army to Wu Rui, and then moved with Wu Rui to Yuhan, an important military town. plum blossom

Chinese PinYin : Mei Juan