Is there a story about Meng Jiangnu crying in the Great Wall?

Meng Jiangnv's crying over the Great Wall is one of the famous folklore in ancient China. It is said that there was a couple in Qin Shihuang's time, the man named Fan Xiliang and the woman named Meng Jiangnv. Only three days after marriage, Fan Xiliang was recruited to build the Great Wall, and soon died of hunger, cold and fatigue. Meng jiangnu has gone through a lot of hardships. Wan Li went to the Great Wall to find her husband, and when she learned that her husband was dead, she burst into tears and cried 800 miles down the Great Wall. Since then, Shanhaiguan has been designated as the place where "Meng Jiangnv cries at the Great Wall" and the "Meng Jiangnv Temple" was built there. This story has been circulated for more than two thousand years.

Some people think that the story of Meng Jiangnu crying in the Great Wall is pure fiction. Because the Great Wall of Shanhaiguan was built after the Qin Dynasty, and the Great Wall built by Qin Shihuang is hundreds of miles north of Shanhaiguan. There was a record of wailing wall in history, but the events in the story happened far before Qin unified the six countries, so it had nothing to do with Qin Shihuang.

According to the research of historical records, there is a story of "Crying for the City" in Zuo Zhuan: Qi Liang, a native of the State of Qi, was killed in the battle against Ju (now Juxian County, Shandong Province) in the early Spring and Autumn Period (794-78 1). Qi Liang has no son, and his wife is very helpless. She threw herself on Qi Liang and cried at the city gate for seven days and seven nights, and the city wall collapsed. This is probably the original data of "Meng Jiangnv cries the Great Wall". Later, Liu Xiang of the Western Han Dynasty added the details of Qi Liang's wife crying for more than ten days. Cui Bao, a native of A Jin, recorded it in the book Notes on Ancient and Modern Times, which is similar to Zuo Zhuan. However, the above books show that Qi Liang's surname is Fan, and the name ""has never appeared. It was not until Qu Zi's Ci in Tang Dynasty was discovered in Dunhuang Grottoes that the earliest record of Meng Jiangnu sending cold clothes to the Great Wall was seen, which added the plot of "sending cold clothes" to the story of "Meng Jiangnu crying at the Great Wall".

The poem "The Wife of Qi Liang" in the late Tang Dynasty said that the wife of Qi Liang was from A Qin and went to the Great Wall to mourn her husband. "City No.1 collapsed, and then Qi Liang's bones were unearthed." In the Song Dynasty, the widely circulated Qi Liang began to have a surname, but there were different opinions, such as Fan and Wan, Qi Lang and Liang. Zheng Qiao in the Southern Song Dynasty said: "The wife of Qi Liang, with what she has said, has dozens of words, but she has turned into a thousand words ..." It seems that Meng Jiangnv's Crying for the Great Wall evolved from Qi Liang's Crying for the Town God, and the last time of the story is roughly in the Northern Song Dynasty.

After the Song Dynasty, Meng Jiangnv's story was compiled into storytelling, which consisted of songs and miscellaneous bombs. At four o'clock, incense kept burning in the "Meng Jiangnv Temple". From the emperor to the official, Meng Jiangnv became the "goddess of chastity", was listed as the 21st filial piety among the "twenty-four filial piety", and was deified as the "descendant of the seven fairies". In the mid-Ming Dynasty, Meng Jiangnu's practice of building temples prevailed in various places.

The story of Meng Jiangnv has been circulated and evolved for more than two thousand years. The content of the story itself is different and there are different opinions. How to treat this story is more controversial.

Some people say that Meng Jiangnv's "Crying for the Great Wall" has changed with the constant changes of ages and customs. During the Warring States period, the cry tune prevailed in the capital of Qi, and the tragic material was that Qi Liang died in battle and his wife greeted him. The theory of "the connection between heaven and man" prevailed in the Western Han Dynasty, and Qi Liang's wife's crying about the city became the feeling that the city collapsed and the mountain was bad. During the Six Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, there was a song of sending clothes in Yuefu, so the content of sending cold clothes was added. It can be seen that his story conforms to the cultural evolution, changes with the times and local customs, and develops with people's feelings and imagination.

However, some people deny that Meng Jiangnv is the wife of Qi Liang in Zuo Zhuan. Some people think that in the feudal society of China, the people were in poverty because of the constant wars, and the theme of crying marriage was very common, which was also recorded in Zuo Zhuan, so the argument of crying marriage alone is unconvincing. Some people say that it is absurd for a woman to cry down the Great Wall. Besides, turning Jiang Meng of Qi into Meng Jiangnv of Qin, and turning the attack on Cheng Ju into the construction of the Great Wall, is to plant a plant on Qin Shihuang.

There has always been a debate about the significance and evaluation of Meng Jiangnv's Crying at the Great Wall. Some people think that as a folk story, Meng Jiangnv's crying on the Great Wall reflects the people's spirit of resisting heavy corvee and is the historical witness of Qin Shihuang's "political ruthlessness". Ironically, when the Gang of Four was rampant, Meng Jiangnv was also included in the "Great Criticism Column", saying that this story was to deceive and incite people to scold Qin Shihuang, and it was called "Meng Jiangnv Temple", which was actually a Confucian temple for evoking souls; Named after Meng Jiangnv's "chastity", it is actually an attack on Qin Shihuang's "tyranny and ruthlessness", implying the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is also said that the story of Meng Jiangnv crying on the Great Wall is entirely the need of Confucius and Mencius to respect Confucius and oppose the law. It's ridiculous to make up a story about replacing trees with flowers.

For more than two thousand years, the legend of Meng Jiangnv's crying on the Great Wall has been circulated in various forms, such as stories, ballads and operas, and has attracted the attention of foreign academic circles. The famous academic monograph A Study of Meng Jiangnv's Story published by Mr. Gu Jiegang in the 1920s is a book with mature viewpoints and complete system.