"Su Chu" is finally finished.

I started writing on November 16, 2018, and ended on June 20, 2021, which took two and a half years.

This book is Lao Zhou's second novel, and like "Mountain Valley", it is also about obsession.

Therefore, I was not looking forward to the results, and I was mentally prepared before starting the book so that I would not be disappointed.

Lao Zhou has two sons. Regardless of "Mountain Valley" or "Su Chu", he actually wants to leave some spiritual "savings" to them.

Of course, "Su Chu" wants to talk about many more things than "Mountain Valley", and its structure is also grander.

However, Lao Zhou himself could not have imagined that the length of the book would expand from the original planned three million words to four million and eighty million words, far exceeding his plan, almost from one book to two.

In Lao Zhou's original outline, at the end of the story, Su You allowed Zhao Xu to die, and then helped Zhao Ji come to power. He and Cai Jing took turns governing, completely controlling the court, and from then on completely controlling the direction of history.

But after writing it, Lao Zhou couldn't write like this, because Lao Zhou found that Su You's character would never be as ruthless as in the outline, and he would let Zhao Xu die at a young age.

The protagonist of this book spans a long time, so in the process of writing, I bid farewell to many respectable and beloved characters whose fate can be changed with a flick of the pen.

But Lao Zhou couldn't change it, because the historical subject matter was far more difficult than Lao Zhou imagined. For example, if Mrs. Cheng's fate was changed, then Er Su's career trajectory would also change. The experiences and works of the two characters, and those of Da Su

Beautiful poetry would be impossible to exist.

Many other characters also have similar problems. The story of "Shizhongshan" in the book changed from Su Shi's work to Su Xun's work, which is an example.

There are many similar regrets, and Lao Zhou cannot bear it, but because of his lack of ability, Lao Zhou cannot change their fate, otherwise it will destroy the setting and structure of the whole book.

Before starting the book, Lao Zhou originally thought that with his own experience and many years of thinking, he should be able to support this theme.

However, it turns out that Lao Zhou was overconfident. As he wrote, he became more and more guilty and felt that he had insufficient reserves. Many books needed to be read again.

As mentioned in the book, the Song Dynasty was a dynasty that was deeply misunderstood by many people, mainly because of its military weakness, which attracted too much contempt.

The Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, and Ming Dynasty received much better treatment. The big reason was actually the bonus for winning foreign wars.

Two very simple examples can illustrate ordinary people's prejudice against this dynasty.

One is the fallacy that many people think is the truth. During the Song Dynasty, there were more than 300 years and more than 400 uprisings.

Lao Zhou has explained the ins and outs of this misunderstanding in detail in his book.

Another time when I was chatting with the author of the History Channel, the author thought that the emperors of the Song Dynasty were not kind and took a series of screenshots for me. The content was that during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, many local tributes were exempted, how many lychees were there, and how many cakes of tea were there.

.

That number seems to be quite a lot, like more than 10,000 lychees.

The author's implication was that the monarchs of the Song Dynasty were a decadent ruling class, their so-called "benevolence" was false, and the burden they imposed on the people for their enjoyment was heavy.

Their decision to exempt these local tributes is clear evidence of their previous oppression and exploitation of the people.

So Lao Zhou asked him, what about other dynasties?

For example, you admire the Ming Dynasty. In the article you read, have you done any horizontal comparison?

Lao Zhou asked him to check and see how much tribute the various places had paid to the central government in the past dynasties, and then make a horizontal list. After that, everyone would discuss this issue.

By the way, I also gave him a figure. In the early Ming Dynasty, the amount of local tribute was as high as more than two million catties. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it once increased to nearly three million catties.

Of course, things got better after that, because the rulers found it troublesome and directly changed the payment method. Even so, the tribute tea from various places in the Qing Dynasty was still measured in ten thousand catties.

Although they still love to drink milk.

Lao Zhou admitted that all monarchs of feudal dynasties were indeed representatives of the ruling class, and the burden they imposed on the common people was indeed heavy. There was no problem with this at all.

But sins can range from minor to serious. At least the ruling class of the Northern Song Dynasty committed far less sinful crimes in some respects than other monarchs in other dynasties.

For example, the biggest crime of the feudal dynasty was internal officials. Song Shenzong personally decided that the upper limit should be one hundred.

Therefore, it is impossible to use that data to prove all the evils of the Northern Song Dynasty. You have to find another one.

Of course, this cannot be said to mean that the emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty were very self-conscious. Many times, it was related to national strength.

In short, do not look at any historical issue in a simplistic way.

There is a worrying phenomenon now, that is, when people look at history, what they see is not history, but a lot of prejudices and a lot of things that others want you to see.

It is precisely because of such worries, mainly because he is afraid that his children will become the kind of people who rely on short videos to increase their knowledge, that Lao Zhou decided to write such a book to convey a message.

History is actually a science, and it is actually the easiest science to discover the truth.

One good thing about history is that the original materials are all there, and as long as you are willing to look for them, you can always find them.

Of course, you must first have a skeptical attitude before you can have doubts, and then you can verify it, and you will not indiscriminately accept reprints on the Internet before reprinting them.

Of course, remember to check everything thoroughly.

Another big issue is historical perspective.

Failure to maintain a calm, impartial, and bystander attitude is a failure to read history well.

The process of human history is the process of human creation of civilizational achievements. In this process, it has experienced countless destructions and reconstructions, and the ones responsible for destruction and reconstruction are often the same group. These must be viewed dialectically.

In addition to the normal three views, there is another thing that is easily overlooked, which is that when reading history, one should have "human nature" in mind.

Don't just look at the great achievements of the emperors, generals and ministers on the surface, but also pay more attention to the people at that time and see the "sacrifice" they paid for those great achievements.

There is no need to worship them. If we use scientific research as a metaphor for reading history, those historical figures should actually be the subjects of scientific research.

Will scientists worship the guinea pig? At most, it should only be limited to the extent of "liking".

Chinese history, because of the fucked-up tradition of "Three Taboos", has covered up too many truths and created too many "perfect people". You must be especially careful when reading.

A person who has been denied for thousands of years suddenly becomes a person who is greatly praised; or a person who has been praised for thousands of years suddenly becomes a person who is completely denied. Is this change in historical trends real? , whether it is reasonable or not should be carefully judged.

You can choose to go with the flow, because you have to protect yourself and you have to do this, and that's no problem.

But when you go with the flow, you need to have a clear mind, a standard of measurement, and a bottom line in your heart.

Talking back to this book, Lao Zhou can only say that the speeches, behaviors, interactions, and personalities of the historical figures in it are basically based on historical records and have been processed, but he tries to restore them as truly as possible.

Basically, it all has its source, it’s not just random fabrication.

For example, Su You's imperial examination was the original title of that year; for example, Lu Gong's motto and his inkstone; for example, Huang Tingjian's fossil paperweight, all have records and even physical objects.

Some bizarre comments on the Internet, such as why Fan Zhongyan wrote "Yueyang Tower" to defend the so-called "corrupt officials"? For example, should Jiang Zhiqi, who impeached Ouyang Xiu, be defined as "treacherous officials"? When writing about them in the book, they also A more detailed interpretation is provided to allow everyone to see the complexity of the events and characters at that time.

Regarding two important figures, Sima Guang and Wang Anshi, when many people began to suspect that Lao Zhou had created inconsistent images of them, Lao Zhou knew the horror of prejudice.

The reason is that in everyone's minds, these two characters have already been preset, and the presets are very simple.

For example, Sima Guang gave up four villages to Xixia and gained a reputation as a traitor on the Internet. Song Shenzong and Wang Anshi gave up hundreds of miles of land to the Liao Kingdom, but still had a high image. The reason was that the preset threshold in everyone's mind was too high. , too stubborn and too difficult to break.

Buddhism has a term that specifically explains this phenomenon: "obstacle in knowledge and vision."

In the first chapter, Lao Zhou wrote that above Kuizhou and after Yuzhou, the Yangtze River entered the Minjiang River section. One of Lao Zhou's classmates from the Water Conservancy Bureau came to remind Lao Zhou that a mistake had been made here.

Because the Minjiang River only joins the Yangtze River in Yibin, this is a common sense mistake that should not be made.

Lao Zhou sent her a map, the Song Dynasty section of Tan Qixiang's "Historical Atlas of China", which was very clearly marked.

The ancients believed that the area above the Xiajiang River was the Minjiang River. In other words, in their hearts, from Chongqing to Chengdu, they were all the Minjiang River.

If the old Zhou Dynasty wrote that it passed through Yibin County before entering the Minjiang River, in the Song Dynasty, it was wrong.

In the minds of the ancients, the Minjiang River is the source of the Yangtze River. The upper reaches of the Yangtze River are called the Minjiang River and the Xiajiang River respectively.

Therefore, Chengdu is the first city where the Yangtze River originates, and Jiankang is the last city where the Yangtze River reaches the sea. This is why Du Shaoling's quatrain "The window contains the snow of Qianqiu in the Xiling Mountains, and the door is docked with ships thousands of miles east of Wu".

It is not just a simple confrontation, nor is it just a description of two unrelated things that are seen randomly, but using the Yangtze River as a hidden link, two things at the head of the river and the end of the river are carefully selected.

This is the most direct example of cognitive impairment, and it is also the reason why Lao Zhou felt more guilty the more he wrote this book.

Because Lao Zhou also had this kind of knowledge barrier, the information was completely verified without even saying it, and the thinking was complete without even saying it.

Obstacles in knowledge and vision are like an onion, if one layer is peeled off, there will still be another layer.

I really can’t say that everything in this book is correct. If you see fallacies, feel free to point them out. Lao Zhou will definitely accept the criticism and then go look up the information and discuss it together.

It’s time to talk about the next book. The next book has actually begun. It is a story about an ideal society that collapses and goes directly to the apocalypse. The protagonist survives in the apocalypse. Accept criticism from book friends and do more subtractions.

Tell stories honestly and no longer mix in all kinds of didactic and popular science "private goods".

In fact, what Lao Zhou wanted to express has been almost expressed in "Mountain Valley" and "Su Chu".

Finally, I am grateful to all my book friends for patiently reading this novel, which has more than half of the words planned, and for still not abandoning it.
Chapter completed!