Wang Kuang

Wang Kuang

Wang Kuang (year of birth and death unknown), the word Gongjie, was a local warlord in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Yanzhou Taishan county (located in the northeast of Tai'an City, Shandong Province, China) people. Official to Hanoi prefect. At first, he served as the commander-in-chief of general He Jin's army. After he Jin died, he was worshipped as the prefect of Hanoi Prefecture. When Dong Zhuo was in power, he joined forces with the local heroes to attack Dong Zhuo at the same time. Finally, because of the joint attack of his brother-in-law Hu Mu Ban's relatives and Cao Cao, he died. In the historical records of the Three Kingdoms and the history of the later Han Dynasty, there are related stories; however, like other heroes, they do not have biographies.

Life figures

How to advance

Wang Kuang in his youth had a good friendship with Cai Yong, a famous scholar of the Qing Dynasty. He is not stingy of property and is keen to give a lot of money to others. He is famous for his deeds. During the period of Zhongping, Wang Kuang was appointed by general He Jin and served as the general's mansion. At that time, he Jin intended to kill the eunuch. After forcing his sister, Empress Dowager he, to support him, he recruited many heroes to join him in 189 to prepare for the destruction of the eunuch. Therefore, in order to carry out his orders, Wang Kuang, who belongs to He Jin's subordinates, returned to his hometown Taishan County of Yanzhou for conscription. He successfully recruited 500 strong archers and transported them to Luoyang, the capital in the west, for use in the event. However, on August 5th (September 22nd) of the same year, many eunuchs, led by Zhang rang, killed he Jin first, which made the whole plan come to nothing. When Wang Kuang learned the news, he deliberately avoided his hometown. Soon, Yuan Shao joined hands with others to attack the eunuchs again, which made Wang Kuang decide to join hands with Yuan Shao and others. Finally, the troops led by Yuan Shao and Wang Kuang entered Chengming hall and successfully eliminated the two eunuchs, including Zhongchang Shi Gaowang and other eunuchs. After the coup, Wang Kuang returned to his hometown to observe current affairs. Soon after, he was recruited by the imperial court and became the prefect of Hanoi Prefecture.

Fight for Dong

In the first month of the first year of Chuping (190), because of Dong Zhuo's dictatorship and control of Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty, Wang Kuang, who was then the prefect of Hanoi, and other local heroes (mostly in Guandong area) fought against Dong Zhuo. Wang Kuang and Yuan Shao stationed troops in Hanoi County, and then the heroes formed an alliance with each other and jointly elected Yuan Shao as the leader of the alliance. Later, Wang Kuang sent troops led by Han Hao to garrison in Mengjin (35 Li southwest of Mengxian County in Henan Province, belonging to Heyang County of Hanoi county), and sent "Taishan soldiers" to garrison in heyangjin. However, due to Dong Zhuo's bluff, Wang kuangjun mistakenly believed that the enemy would cross the river from Pingyin County, which is now the east of Mengjin County in Henan Province and belongs to Sili Henan Yin. Dong Zhuo was able to use elite troops to cross the river through xiaopingjin to attack the rear, and finally Wang kuangjun was almost completely destroyed. When Wang Kuang learned that his army had been completely destroyed, he returned to his hometown to recruit troops. Before long, he won thousands of strong and brave soldiers. Wang Kuang turned to discuss the treaty with Zhang Miao. during the campaign against Dong Zhuo, in order to stabilize the base of Hanoi County, Wang Kuang sent several scholars to the county to secretly observe the behavior of the officials and the people. As long as anyone is found guilty, they will be arrested and put into prison, and they will be tortured. These suspects must give money or materials before they can be convicted, or they will be executed together with their clans. Wang Kuang wanted to use this method to enhance his personal dignity. In the process of implementation, Wang Kuang learned from a scholar's report that Changlin's uncle beat his guests. Feeling unhappy, he decided to send someone to detain him. Afterwards, Wang Kuang received a letter written by Hu Mubiao. Only in the letter did I know that such a strategy has made people constantly criticize. Finally, he forgave Chang Lin's uncle and exonerated him.

Died in defeat

In the same year, Dong Zhuo sent dahonglu Hanrong, zhijinwu Hu Mu class, Wuxun, Yueqi Xiaowei wanggui and other important officials of the imperial court to Hanoi county to lobby Yuan Shao. However, Yuan Shao did not accept their lobbying, so he sent Wang Kuang to take them into prison and prepare for execution in front of the army. Among the escorted officials, Hu Mu ban was Wang Kuang's brother-in-law, so he sent a letter to Wang Kuang in prison, criticized Wang Kuang in the letter, and asked Wang Kuang to take care of his two sons after his death. After reading Hu Mu's letter, Wang Kuang picked up Hu Mu's two sons and began to cry. After that, Hu Mu ban, Wu Xun, Wang GUI and others were beheaded at the same time. Although Wang Kuang was ordered to act, but still let Hu Mu class relatives feel dissatisfied, so he found Cao Cao to reach an agreement of cooperation, and finally Wang Kuang died because of their attack. However, the details are still unknown.

Historical evaluation

"Heroes" said: "light money and easy to give, in order to be chivalrous." most of the comments on Wang Kuang were made by contemporary people, but the negative ones were more than the positive ones. Wang can, a litterateur at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, praised Kuang as a chivalrous man who was not stingy of money and willing to give alms. In addition, in the popular romance of the Three Kingdoms written by Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, he was affirmed to be a vassal who "supported justice and spared money and spent money like soil". As for the negative evaluation, many of them appeared during the period of the crusade against Dong Zhuo. For example, by interrogating the local officials and people in Hanoi County, Hu Mu Biao raised her prestige and obtained resources to send letters criticizing him for putting pressure on the officials and people. In addition, when Hu Mu ban was put into prison by him, he was dissatisfied with Kuang's behavior of escorting him to prison by sending Kuang a letter. However, Kuang is still in charge of the future care of his children. In addition, Cai Yong, who had a good relationship with Wang Kuang in the past, wrote an article to Dong Zhuo, saying that Wang Kuang, who was defeated by Zhuo, was a "traitor".

Family members

According to the existing literature, Wang Kuang has a younger sister who married Hu Mu ban, who was born in the same place. In addition, although Hu Mu Biao came from the same county as Kuang, there is no evidence that Hu Mu Biao is a relative of Hu Mu ban and Wang Kuang.

Influence of later generations

He decapitated his brother-in-law Hu Mu ban and died, which affected that Wang Kuang had to take care of Hu Mu Ban's two sons. In addition, it also affected his survival. Fang Shiming put forward a view in his essay on personages of the three kingdoms that Cao Cao decided to eliminate the local power of Yanzhou in order to master Yanzhou, while Wang Kuang was a thorn in his eye. Then, the hatred of Ban's relatives for Wang Kuang, as a temporary alliance with them, promoted Cao Cao to have an opportunity to attack Wang Kuang and his forces; previously, Zhang Miao, who was allied with Wang Kuang, was also weakened as a result of this. In addition, not long after Wang Kuang's "Taishan soldiers" were defeated by Dong Zhuo's army, Cai Yong wrote an article congratulating Dong Zhuo on the outcome of the battle.

Literary image

In the popular romance of the Three Kingdoms published in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Kuang was first mentioned in the ninth chapter of Volume I, Cao Cao's attack on Dong Zhuo. Until it was also included in the tenth chapter of Volume I, hulaoguan's three battles with Lu Bu, there was no subsequent chapter. Later, in Mao Zonggang's revised version, Wang Kuangwei appeared only in the fifth chapter of "issuing the imperial edict to all the towns in response to Cao Gong's three Ying battle against Lu Bu". However, in Zhao Congzhi's revised version of the whole book, Wang Kuang appeared for the first time in the fourth chapter of Shichang Shishi Jisha Hejin, until the seventh chapter of burning Jinque Dong Zhuo, announcing his death. There are some differences in content among the three versions mentioned above, but Kuang's introduction is almost the same. After Cao Cao issued an imperial edict to all the leaders, he became Kuang of Hanoi Prefecture. He joined forces with Yuan Shao and others, and became the fifth Town army. Then, he reminded the public that if he wanted to punish Dong in the name of righteousness, he must recommend an alliance leader who can give orders. Then, all agreed to recommend him as the alliance leader. However, Jiajing did not have Wang Kuang's proposal. In the aspect of setting Shao as the nominator of the alliance leader, the Mao version was written by Cao Cao, but the Zhao version was changed to Zang Hong. Then, in the description of Wang Kuang's battle with Dong Zhuojun, both Jiajing version and Mao version were set to fight Lu Bu at hulaoguan, but Zhao version was set to fight Niu Fu and Zhang Ji in heyangjin instead. At the end of the struggle with Dong Zhuo's army, both Jiajing edition and Mao edition said that because of the defeat of Fang Yue in Lu Bu's hands, he and his army fled everywhere. Later, with the help of Qiaomao and Yuan Yi, Kuang was freed from Lu Bu's pursuit. In the Zhao version, after Dong Zhuo's surprise attack, Kuang fell into panic and wanted to solve the enemy's siege. But in the end, Wang Kuang and Fang Yue were killed by Zhang Ji. After a while, Wang Kuang's remnant army returned to the barracks and reported the news of Wang Kuang's defeat to Shao. So Shao ordered Zhang Yang, the new governor of Hanoi County, to be the leader of Wang Kuang's disabled army. However, the difference between the Zhao version and the other two versions adds to Kuang's work under general He Jin. In order to carry out the plan of killing the eunuch, Jin sent Kuang, who was then the governor of the government, and Bao Xin, the commander of the riding capital, back home to recruit troops. In addition to the romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wang Kuang is also mentioned in the romance of the later Han Dynasty by Cai Dongfan and the rise and fall of the past dynasties by LV Fu. In the romance of the later Han Dynasty, Kuang made his debut in the 65th chapter of Uncle yuan's summoning troops to vent his plot of being murdered, the right eunuch to commit a crime and offer to return by driving, until the 67th chapter of discussing moving the capital to dongzhuoying and meeting the powerful enemy Cao Cao with an arrow. At the beginning, he accepted the order of He Jin as a general and went back to his hometown to recruit soldiers with his captains Bao Xin. Then, at the same time, he joined forces with Shao and others to discuss Dong, and accepted Yuan Shao, who led the army to report to Hanoi County, to reach an alliance. Finally, Kuang and his army were defeated by Dong Zhuo's rear attack in heyangjin, and returned to Hanoi County, then reported to Shao. As for the romance of the rise and fall of the past dynasties, it is only mentioned in the 18th chapter "three parts of Cao Cao's Han Dynasty in two hundred years" that when he started to fight for Dong, he was stationed with the leader of the alliance

Chinese PinYin : Wang Kuang