日期: 2021-11-29
Another Chinese old saying is the old saying of Guan Bao Friendship. In
Chinese, it is “管鮑之交” – and it is used to praise long term
friendship between two lifetime friends. Guan was Guanzhong, a famous politician in
the Chinese history to have accomplished all kinds of praiseworthy political deeds for
the Chi State with its origin that we have talked about in our 4th episode of the 50
Chinese old sayings.
Guanzhong was a kind of Bismarck type politician. Just as what Bismarck had done
for Germany in his efforts to unify Germany in the 18 th century Europe, Guanzhong
had made the Chi State the first great power during the East Chow Dynasty around
650 BC. While Bao was Bao Shoe Ya. Although not considered as famous and capable
as Guanzhong, Bao Shoe Ya was another key political figure in the Chi State.
Guanzhong was number one, while Bao Shoe Ya was number two, and they had
been colleagues and friends all their lives since they were youngsters.
As a close friend to Guanzhong, Bao Shoe Ya always understood and said nice things
about him. When they were out on a business venture together to have made a
profit, Guanzhong always got the bigger share while Bao Shoe Ya, the smaller. But
Bao Shoe Ya said it was only because Guangzhong had a bigger family too feed. On
their military missions, Guanzhong was found to have stayed behind all the time like
a coward. But Bao Shoe Ya said it was because Guangzhong needed to stay alive to
look after his old mother. Further, Bao Shoe Ya had for a few times introduced
Guanzhong to work on government jobs on which Guanzhong failed over and over
again, leading to his terminations for at least three times. Yet Bao Shoe Ya only said
that Guanzhong was still needed time to prove himself. So that Guanzhong later was
heard to have sighed and said: “Although I was born to my parents, Bao Shoe Ya is
the only person that knows me well.”
In 685 BC, Chi Shang Duke was assassinated by his cousin after 14 years as the Chi
State’s ruler while his successor, the assassin, also got murdered within one year,
leaving only two legitimate heirs to compete for the throne - the Prince Jon Joe and
Prince Jon Hsiaobai. Guangzhong was Jon Joe’s top advisor and school master, while
Bao Shoe Ya was Jon Hsiaobai’s. But during the time when a decision about who
should be the rightful heir must be made, they were both out of the country, the
Prince Jon Joe was in the Loo State, while Jon Hsiaobei was in another even smaller
state, the Jhu State. At this moment, the time is of the essence, and the name of the
game was who could return to Chi State’s the capital city, Linchi, faster than the
other one, and the first to have arrived would win the game.
Guangzhong, as Jon Joe’s top advisor, wanted to make sure that Jon Joe reached
Linchi first, and his plan was to outflank Jon Hsiaobai and to assassinate him by
surprise, so that he took a short cut to catch up with Jon Hsiaobai from behind and
took his arrow shot the moment he saw him, who was smart enough to play dead by
landing his back on the inside of his carriage when seeing the arrow landing on his
belt buckle. In the meantime, he even bit himself on the tongue and spit out the
blood to make his fake death look more real to Guangzhong who, seeing this,
thought he had got the job done and then returned to Jon Joe, taking his time to join
Jon Joe to resume their journey back to Linchi thinking they had got everything
under control.
Jon Hsiaobai, on the other hand, had picked up his speed and run like hell to reach
Linchi first unscathed and became the new ruler after getting enough supports from
people back home. Hearing this latest development in Linchi, Guangzhong and Jon
Joe decided to turn around back to the Loo State for the moment, knowing that
there was no point continuing their journey to Linch anymore. The Loo Chaung Duke
was upset at this thinking that Jon Joe should have been the one. Loo Chuang Duke
was the son of Wen Chang and Loo Huan Duke who got murdered by the Prince
Pensan after his learning of what had gone between his wife and his bother-in-law,
the story we already talked about in the 4th episode.
Believing that Jon Joe still had a chance, the Loo Chaung Duke took him under his
wing by requesting, perhaps in the form of an ultimatum, that Jon Hsiaobai
immediately abdicate, which of course was ignored, and for which the Loo State
immediately launched its invasion into the Chi State, which was vehemently resisted
and eventually repelled. As a result, the Loo State was not only required to turn a
few towns of its own over to the Chi State as compensation, but also to surrender
Guangzhong alive, and reason given by the Chi State was that Jon Hsiaobai had hated
him so much that he wanted to return the favor personally. As for Jon Joe, his head
brought back to the Chi State in a wooden box would have sufficed. The Loo Chaung
Duke did both things to oblige after his shameful defeat, although one advisor
suggested having Guangzhong killed in the Loo State if they could not keep him
there, knowing that he was so capable to have lots of potentials that could pose a
threat to the Loo State in the future, which turned out to be exactly what had
actually happened.
After his return, Guangzhong had been hired as the Chi State’s prime minister for
over 40 years while Bao Shoe Ya was his deputy ever since. Jon Hsiaobei at first had
second thoughts about having Guangzhong as his prime minster saying that he
rather had Bao do the job. But Bao then explained to Jon Hsiaobei saying that: “You
can have me do the job if you only want to enjoy peace and quiet and minding your
own business for the rest of your life. But if you want to do more by making the Chi
State a great power among all other vassal states, Guangzong is the only one that
can do the job for you.” Jon Hsiaobei had agreed to be obliged.
貼文者：Mariia