The first informer in the history of China should be the Chonghou tiger in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Chonghou tiger is the king of Chongguo (Huxian County, Shaanxi Province). Its name is tiger. It is said that it is very special. His face is like the bottom of a pot, his chin is like a tribe of powder Blusher beards, two yellow eyebrows, and a pair of toad eyes. His favorite thing is to get up every morning and yell at the blue sky.
From the few official historical records, Chonghou tiger should be a spy of King Zhou on the Loess Plateau in Shaanxi. His main task is to monitor other feudal states on the plateau. The Shang Dynasty implemented the enfeoffment system, which divided the country into several countries, each with a head. The leaders of the outer ring countries were called “Bo”, and the leaders of the central ring princes were called “Hou”. The outer ring road is far from the central area, so many “uncles” are not too honest. One “uncles” that Chonghou tiger paid close attention to in Shaanxi is zhoubohou (Ji) Chang, whose fief is in Qishan. This man was King Wen of Zhou, who was later passed down through the ages.
Zhou BoChang was a figure of the Shang Dynasty. He was appointed as the “San Gong” of the dynasty by King Zhou together with two princes, ghost and E. In the eyes of ordinary people, you can be satisfied if you can enjoy this kind of treatment. At least zhoubochang is very satisfied, but ghost Marquis doesn’t think so. He thinks that he is in the position of Sangong and should continue to climb up. As we all know, King Zhou loved beauty, so the ghost Marquis gave his beautiful daughter to King Zhou. King Zhou was certainly very happy, suggesting that the ghost Marquis would have great benefits in the future. Ghost marquis is not ready for good here. Bad luck is coming.
According to historical records, King Zhou was a lecherous man, and the daughter of the ghost Marquis did not like to spend all her time on men and women, especially King Zhou, who could not bear to see men and women as a career. King Zhou’s self-esteem was hit and he immediately killed the beauty. This was not enough. He found the ghost Marquis again, killed the ghost Marquis, and chopped him into meat sauce. The Duke of e came out to avenge the dead ghost Marquis and thought that King Zhou had gone too far. King Zhou killed him again and made his body into dried meat.
At that time, zhoubochang was also singing in the capital of the Shang Dynasty. After hearing this, he returned to his fief without saying a word for the two colleagues.
Chonghou tiger made a brilliant debut at this time. According to Sima Qian’s account, the relationship between Chonghou tiger and zhoubochang is good. First of all, everyone was an official in the same court, and the fief was close. They would often walk back and forth without anything. In one conversation, zhoubochang told the story of King Zhou’s killing the ghost and the two princes of Hubei. At last, he probably sighed a few times. Of course, Chong Hou Hu did not stop Zhou BoChang from sighing. It is likely that Zhou BoChang said a few words of dissatisfaction or even cursing while sighing.
After Chonghou tiger returned to his fief, he thought it over for a long time. We know that King Zhou did not encourage whistleblowing, so if Chonghou tiger wanted to hit the whistle blower, he must show conclusive evidence. If he simply told King Zhou that the old man zhoubochang was dissatisfied with your killing of the ghost Marquis and the e Marquis, King Zhou would probably find zhoubochang and ask him. Zhou BoChang looks dull, but he can definitely talk like a river on issues related to his own life. At that time, the Chonghou tiger will probably steal the chicken and not eat the rice.
He has to look into it. According to some intellectuals of later generations, zhoubochang was a man of benevolence and righteousness. In his fief, he opened sanze to the outside world, let people go in to hunt and cut trees, and exempted from all kinds of taxes. In the land of Qishan, the merchants made a lot of money, and so did the farmers. Zhou BoChang promulgated various legal provisions to safeguard the basic rights of some orphaned and widowed elderly people. If only this was done, Zhou BoChang could not be called the king of benevolence and righteousness. He was not only so kind to the living, but also to the dead. Even when digging a pit, he dug up the bones of the ownerless, and ordered officials to bury them with public funds. This is the “benevolence and withered bones” that later generations praise.
After a series of investigations, Chonghou tiger naturally became the first informer in Chinese history. According to historical records, his informer’s original words are: Xibo is benevolent and kind, and all the princes support him very much. It will be bad for you, your majesty! (Xibo accumulates good deeds and virtues, and all the princes follow him, which will be detrimental to the emperor.)
However, this whistleblowing version is likely to be fake. According to Zuo Zhuan, the government of Qishan fief once issued such a decree: search for fugitives and severely punish them after arrest. What does that mean? This shows that the people in zhoubochang territory were restless and ran away from Xanadu. Why did they run away? It is likely that Zhou BoChang had two ambitions. If he really had two ambitions, in that era, it could be realized only by benevolence and righteousness? Absolutely impossible.
Zhou BoChang will certainly amass wealth. Only when he has enough money can he recruit and buy horses and put his “ambition” into practice. Therefore, the original report of Chonghou tiger is likely to be that zhoubochang made life worse than death for the people in his own territory, and wantonly saved money and attempted to go astray.
As a matter of fact, the first snitching version cannot be believed by King Zhou. Chairman Mao once said that King Zhou was able to write and fight, that is to say, he was a very talented king. In his time, thousands of princes followed his instructions. With his wisdom, he could not fail to realize that he could really achieve a career by virtue of benevolence and righteousness. As we all know, if one wants to achieve great things, he must be tough enough. Those Confucian scholars believe that benevolence and righteousness can win the world, which is pure nonsense. The founders of any dynasty in history achieved their goals through violence.
Therefore, the report of Chonghou tiger was probably the second version. After hearing the secret, King Zhou immediately captured Zhou BoChang and threw him into the inner city. This may be the first national prison in Chinese history. In primitive society, if a person committed a crime, he would be tied up and thrown into a place full of thorns, or thrown into a prison like an animal. The location and shape were not fixed. King Zhou is the creator of prison.
According to ancient documents, Zhou BoChang was imprisoned in the city for seven years. In these seven years, Zhou BoChang, who was already very old, was not idle. Instead, he worked hard to study the eight trigrams of Fuxi in ancient times, and then developed the sixty-four trigrams and three hundred eighty-four trigrams, and compiled the book of changes. Therefore, Sima Qian said that “the king of literature arrested him to perform the book of changes”. From this point of view, prison seems to be the best place for reading and writing.
After reporting, Chonghou tiger did not get special care from King Zhou. He still returned to his fief to be his marquis. When zhoubochang practiced the book of changes in prison, Chonghou Hu was staring at the princes on the Shaanxi plateau. During that time, he must have told many people, but he didn’t even know that he had become the whistleblower in Chinese history since he believed in history.
However, although the courage of the first crab eater is commendable, the pioneers may not all end up well. Seven years after Chonghou tiger became the originator of whistleblowing, zhoubochang’s son came to Chaoge, hoping that King Zhou would release his father. King Zhou was certainly not so talkative. Someone told him that Zhou BoChang was good at predicting the future. In King Zhou’s eyes, such people are witches. But king Zhou did not believe it. In the history of the Shang Dynasty, King Zhou was very special. The reason why he got the evil name “Zhou” later was that he violated the tradition of the Shang Dynasty. The Shang Dynasty established a country with witchcraft. From the princes to the common people, they had to do divination before doing anything. If the result of divination was bad, they would not do it no matter how rich it was. But king Zhou did not. At that time, he thought it was superstition and not worth taking. Therefore, in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the living environment of the witches who had always been popular was not very good.
I don’t know if King Zhou likes pranks. He ordered Zhou BoChang’s son to be chopped into meat sauce, wrapped into buns and sent them to Zhou BoChang. According to his idea, you zhoubochang can predict. It depends on whether you can predict that the stuffing of the steamed stuffed bun is your son’s meat. If you really do not eat, then I believe you; If you eat, you are a liar.
As a result, zhoubochang cheered while eating his son’s meat. King Zhou laughed and let Zhou BoChang go. But before releasing zhoubochang, King Zhou played a prank again. He said to zhoubochang, “why should I imprison you? Because someone told you a secret. That boy is Chonghou Hu.”
No one knows why King Zhou did this. It is very likely that Wang, who is good at both writing and martial arts and has outstanding talent, does not like to make small reports, or that a person like zhoubochang who can’t even tell his son’s flesh is no big deal and tells him that he can’t do anything. However, according to historical records, Zhou BoChang figured out that the stuffing in the bun was his son’s meat, but he had to eat it. Only by eating his own son’s meat could he survive. Besides, he has so many sons that it’s nothing to eat one.
We are familiar with the later history. When zhoubochang returned to Qishan, he worked hard and recruited people. After hard preparation, he had the strength to confront the central government. After the announcement of the start of the army, the army first broke through the soldiers of gunrong, Mizu, Ruan and Gong, and then targeted the whistleblower ancestor Chonghou Hu.
Of course, Chonghou tiger is not a vegetarian. He has run Chongcheng for many years. The defense facilities of the city are huge and solid. However, the fierce attack of Zhou BoChang’s army could not be withstood. In addition, Zhou BoChang made several advanced siege equipment, such as ladder ladders, temporary vehicles and assault vehicles. As a result, Chongcheng was captured. Chonghou tiger asked Zhou BoChang to see if he could surrender. But zhoubochang resolutely refused. So we had to fight to death.
It is said that after killing Chonghou tiger, zhoubochang couldn’t sleep well every day. As soon as he closed his eyes, he saw the whistleblower standing in front of his bed, disheveled and looking at himself with a sneer.
This shows that although Chonghou Hu is a detestable informer, he is still meritorious to the country. In other words, in order to maintain the rule of the country, such whistleblowing should of course be encouraged. Therefore, Chonghou tiger felt that he had died unjustly. We can also see from Zhou BoChang’s “hitting a ghost” that it was not so just for Zhou BoChang to kill Chonghou tiger.
However, Chonghou tiger, the father of the whistleblower, died in the hands of the secret holder. It was as if he had laid such a tone that all the informers who followed would come to no good end.