According to historical records, Lao Tzu went to Hangu Pass in the west and was ordered to write books in Yin, leaving a 5,000-word masterpiece "Tao Te Ching" in the history of China thought. Then he rode on a big green cow and went west, but there was no news. This has aroused the interest of many archaeologists and historians, but so far no conclusive evidence has been drawn. Some people say that he went to India through quicksand, and I went to India to preach and taught a great disciple like Sakyamuni. Many people in the past dynasties thought that this statement was just made up by Taoism in order to raise itself and belittle other religions. Some people say that Lao Tzu settled in Lintao, Gansu Province in his later years, and taught retired elders to refine inner alchemy, maintain health and cultivate monasticism. After gaining the Tao, he "soared" on Lintao Transcendental Platform. Others guessed at random that the law and order was poor at that time, and someone might rob halfway and cause accidental death.

There is also a saying that Lao Tzu is not going west, but east. It is recorded in Zhuangzi Heaven that Lao Zi left Zhou Shi and "returned home" after leaving his post. Laozi's hometown is in today's Luyi County, Henan Province, not far from Qufu where Confucius is located. Confucius also visited the legendary "Confucius asked Li" Lao Zi. This incident is recorded in Zhuangzi, Everything goes wrong, Lv Chunqiu and The Book of Rites, and Ceng Zi asked, which shows that Lao Tzu's statement of retiring to the east is more reliable.

2. The mystery of life and death in history

Shi is the first of the four beauties in ancient China and the first female spy in China. As the protagonist of Yue, there are always different opinions about the ending of Wu's sinner stone. Some people say that Gou Jian sank into the river, and the article "Mozi Qin Shi" said: "The Shen of the stone ("Shen ",the ancient" Shen ") is also beautiful." Taiping Yu Lan quoted the records of the stone in Wu Yue Chun Qiu written by the Eastern Han Dynasty: "After Wu died, the more people died in Yue Shi." The word "floating" here also means "sinking". Clothing is a leather bag. In later poems, the drowning of stone was mentioned many times. Li Shangyin's poem Jingyang Well says: "The water outside the Wu Palace is broken, and the muddy mud is still buried with stones"; Pi Rixiu's poem "Looking Back at the Ancient Palace": "I don't know where the water burial is going, and Xiyue Bay wants to be effective." This shows that in the Tang Dynasty, people recognized the saying that the stone was submerged.

This is the same as the above record. Fan Li, a doctor from the state of Yue, secretly collected more folklore. However, Yuejueshu records: "After Wu's death, he returned to his teacher and swam around the five lakes with him." However, in the authoritative historical book Historical Records, although there are some detailed records, there are no words about history, and the mystery is regrettable. Some people say that he was killed by the hateful Wu people, and there is no unified conclusion in the history circle so far.

3. The mystery of Xu Fudong's crossing

After Qin Shihuang annexed the six countries and unified the whole country, he lived in a high position and hoped for a long life. Later, he heard that there are Penglai fairy birds in the East China Sea, where there are Ganoderma lucidum, which can live forever. He sent Xu Fu to lead 500 boys and girls and 3,000 craftsmen across the sea. Later, Qin Shihuang never expected to receive a letter from Xu Fu until his death. Where did Xu Fu go? Some people say that the navigation skills were poor at that time, and they were all wiped out in a big storm. Sima Qian first recorded the history of Xu Fu in Historical Records, but did not explain where Xu Fu drifted. Later generations thought it was Taiwan Province Province or Ryukyu, and some people said it was America, but most people thought it was Japanese. Xu Fudong's crossing to Japan was originally proposed by the late Zhou Dynasty and the early Shang Yi in the Five Dynasties. Said: "Japan, also known as Japan, is in the East China Sea. In the Qin Dynasty, Chui Fu stopped at the country with 500 men and 500 women, and today's figures are only Chang 'an. ..... There is also a mountain called Mount Fuji or Penglai in Ganying in the northeast ... Fulai Xu is called Penglai, and all descendants are called Qin. "

Yi Chu said that this statement comes from Japanese monk Hiroshi. Ouyang Xiu, a writer and historian in the Song Dynasty, also thought that Xu Fudong had spent the day in Japan. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, a Japanese monk went to Nanjing and presented Ming Taizu with a poem entitled "Xufu Temple in front of a wild bear". Li Shuchang and Huang Qixian, diplomatic envoys to Japan in the late Qing Dynasty, paid a visit to Xu Fu's tomb and wrote poems and inscriptions. Xu said in The Origin of the Japanese Nation that during the Warring States Period and the Pre-Qin Period, a large number of people immigrated to Japan along the southeast coast of China, and the boys and girls led by Xu Fu were one of them. "It must be true that Xu Fudong crossed the sea." Hong Kong Wei Ting wrote "Xu Fu's Entry into the Founding of Japan", arguing that Xu Fu was the founding emperor of Japan, Xuan Di Nakata, and the 29th grandson after Zhuan Xu. Taiwan Province scholar Peng's book Xu Fu is Emperor Jimmu further enriches Wei Tingsheng's viewpoint.

Up to now, there are many remains of Cui Fu activities in Japan, such as the tomb of Cui Fu and his emissaries in Wakayama Prefecture, Cui Fu Palace, the "Land Cui Fu" monument in Saga Prefecture of Jiuzhou Island, the Cui Fushi House, the Cui Fu Shrine, and the Gionee Shrine dedicated to Cui Fu. Some scholars believe that Xu Fudong's crossing the sea in Japan is only a legend, and there is no reliable historical document to prove it. Some people even think that the legend of Xu Fudong crossing the sea in Japan is the product of Japan around the 10 century, and it was not first put forward by China people. At that time, Xu Fu only went to the islands of Bohai Bay, and his deeds, relics and cemeteries in Japan all existed in name only. In addition, some scholars believe that it is a historical fact that Xu Fudong crossed the sea, but he did not go to Japan, but went to the United States. Xu Fudong's crossing time coincides with the rise of Mayan civilization in America, and Japan and Chinese mainland are very close, so they don't need to spend huge sums of money at all, and they can arrive in a few years. There is no convincing answer to where Xu Fudong went in the vast sea of people.

4. The mystery of Yang Guifei's life and death

Yang Guifei is a household name in China. Her legendary life inspired the talents of countless poets and writers, and she wrote poems for them. However, what is the fate of this beautiful woman? According to historical records, in June of the fifteenth year of Tianbao (AD 756), Luoyang fell, Tongguan fell, Xuanzong of the prosperous Tang Dynasty fled with other ministers, and his beloved concubine Yang Guifei died in Mayi. However, there is a difference of 108 thousand miles between the ode of the literati and the account of the historian, so there are still many questions about Yang Guifei's final destination.

One view is that Yang Yuhuan may have died in a Buddhist temple. The Biography of Yang Guifei in Old Tang Dynasty records that after the imperial generals Chen and others killed Yang's father and son, they strongly demanded to be executed on the grounds that "future troubles still exist". Tang Xuanzong had no choice but to bid farewell to the imperial concubine and ordered it. Yang Guifei hanged herself in the Buddhist temple.

Some people think that Yang Guifei may have died in the disorderly army, which can be seen from the descriptions in some Tang poems. Many poems, such as Du Mu's "Horse Roars Blood, Flying Feather Gun", "Blood Buries Concubine", and "Going Out of Mind, Burying Blood in the Air, Growing Grass Sorrow", all think that Yang Guifei was killed by the disorderly army in Magang, rather than being forced to hang herself to death. Some people say there are other possibilities for Yang Guifei's death. For example, some people say that she actually died of swallowing gold. This statement only appears in Liu Yuxi's poem Ma Wei Xing. There is also a saying that Yang Guifei did not die in Mayi, but was banished to Shu Ren and sent to the people. In On Poetry, Mr. Yu Pingbo made textual research on Bai Juyi's Song of Eternal Sorrow and Chen Hong's Biography of Song of Eternal Sorrow. He thinks that the original intention of Bai Juyi's Song of Eternal Sorrow and Chen Hong's Biography of Song of Eternal Sorrow contains another meaning.

There is also a saying that Yang Guifei finally fled to Japan. In the fifth issue of Cultural Translation Series published by 1984, Zhang Lian translated a story from China from Japan, saying that Ma was a maid when he was hanged. General Chen was attracted by the beauty of the imperial concubine and couldn't bear to kill her, so he conspired with Gao Lishi to replace her death with a maid. Under the escort of Chen's cronies, Yang Guifei fled to the south, set sail near Shanghai today, drifted at sea, went to Kuruyamachi, Japan for a long time, and finally spent her old age in Japan. However, what kind of life and death situation is still puzzling.

5. The mystery of Song Taizu's sudden death.

In 960, Zhao Kuangyin launched a mutiny in Chen Qiao. He became emperor in 17 and died in 976. There is no clear record of his cause of death in the official history. There are only two simple sentences in the history of the Song Dynasty: "The emperor collapsed in the Hall of Long Live and was fifty years old." "It was ordered by Du Taihou and passed to Taizong." So his death has always been a mystery, leaving another unsolved case in history. One view is that Song Taizong "killed his brother in order to seize this position". People who hold this view believe that Song Taizu died suddenly in the sound of a candle shadow axe, while Song Taizong stayed in the Forbidden City that night and acceded to the throne in front of the coffin the next day. It's really hard to get rid of his brother. Cai Dongfan's Popular Romance of the History of Song Dynasty and Li Yihao's Romance of the Eighteen Dynasties of Song Palace both inherited and rendered the above statement, adding many details of Song Taizong's "killing his father".

Another view is that Song Taizu's death has nothing to do with Song Taizong. Those who hold this view cite Sima Guang's Su Shui Ji to defend Song Taizong. According to "Shui Shui Ji", after Song Taizu's death, four drums were singing together. After the Song Dynasty, people were sent to the palace to call Zhao, the fourth son of Mao, but messengers were sent to Kaifeng. Zhao Guangyi was so frightened that he hesitated and dared not move forward. Urged by the messenger, he walked into the palace under the snow. Accordingly, when Emperor Taizong died, he was not in his bedroom, so it was impossible to "kill his brother". Bi Yuan's A Mirror of Sustainable Capital Management supports this statement. There is also a view that although Song Taizong is not sure that he is the murderer of his brother, he thinks he can't exonerate himself from taking the lead. In the process of Zhao Guangyi's accession to the throne, a series of abnormal phenomena did appear, that is, according to Su Shui Ji, Zhao Fangde, the king of Qin, was summoned after the Song Dynasty, but Zhao Guangyi entered the palace first, which caused a fait accompli. After the Song Dynasty, women saw that there was nothing they could do, so they had to call him "the housekeeper".

The history of Song Taizong has also raised a series of questions: after Emperor Taizong ascended the throne, why didn't he change the nine-year treasure with only two months left into the first year of Taiping and the first year of rejuvenating the country in a hurry according to the practice of changing the yuan in the following year? Why did Emperor Taizong persecute his younger brother Zhao Tingmei again and again, and let him die of depression, since Du Taihou had an edict that "the throne was passed on to his younger brother"? After Emperor Taizong ascended the throne, why did Zhao Dezhao, the second son of Emperor Taizong, commit suicide? Emperor Taizong once named Huang Sao as the "treasure queen" after the Song Dynasty, but after her death, why not treat her funeral according to the queen's etiquette?

All the above indications show that Song Taizong's accession to the throne is abnormal. How can future generations not doubt it? Modern academic circles have basically affirmed that Song Taizu was indeed a sudden death, but there are some new theories about the specific cause of death. First, from a medical point of view, it is believed that Taizu died of manic depression inherited from his family. On the one hand, it is acknowledged that there is a deep contradiction between Taizong and Taizong, but it is considered that the "candle axe sound" incident is only an accidental emergency. The reason is that Emperor Taizong molested his favorite concubine, Lady Shi Fei, while sleeping, and was discovered and angered by Emperor Taizong. Taizong knew that he could not get his brother's forgiveness, so he killed him. Throughout the ages, all theories seem to be well-founded and reasonable. However, there is still no conclusive information about the cause of Song Taizu's death.

6. The mystery of the life and death of the Ming Emperor Wen Jian.

After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, in the first year of Wen Jian (1399), Judy, the prince of Yan, rebelled against the imperial court in the name of "frontier evil". Judy was succeeded by the prince in the fourth year of Wen Jian, which lasted for four years. Just when Judy invaded Nanjing, the Nanjing Palace caught fire and his whereabouts were unknown. Since then, rumors about fleeing are endless, and Ming has always been uneasy about it, which has almost become a heart disease for him. For hundreds of years, the whereabouts of Emperor Wen Jian has been a historical unsolved case. To sum up, there are two main theories: "burning to death" and "fleeing".

One view is that Emperor Wen Jian died of self-immolation. According to the Records of Ming Taizu, during the Yongle period, Judy, the prince of Yan, launched the "Battle of Jingnan". After four years of fighting, the prince won a great victory. On June 1402, the prince led an army into Jinchuanmen, Nanjing. When the prince's army entered the palace, it was already a sea of fire, and Wen Jian was gone. At the same time, the precious seal used by Emperor Wen Jian also disappeared. According to official records, Emperor Wen Jian died in a palace fire. Volume 9 of Records of Emperor Taizong records: "When Judy in Ming Taizu saw the smoke rising in the palace, she rushed to the rescue. It was too late. Put his body in the fire, put it on the bed for nothing, and cry on the bed:' Sure enough, it is really stupid! I'm here to help Wings, not for good, but to stop not understanding here! "... Ren Shen, preparing to bury Wen Jun, sent officials to sacrifice, and returned for three days. "

Zhu Gaochi's tomb tablet in Renzong also said that after Wen Jian's death, Chengzu was buried with the emperor's etiquette. Cheng Zu later wrote to korean king: I didn't expect Emperor Wen Jian to commit suicide by arson under the threat of treacherous court officials. However, the eunuch searched many times in the embers after the fire and only found the body of Prince Zhu. It is impossible to know whether his life is life or death. In order to let the world know that Wen Jian set himself on fire, the Prince of Yan wrote a memorial, but no one knew where his grave was. At the end of Ming Dynasty, Emperor Chongzhen once said: I want to go to Wen Jian's tomb, but I don't know where it is. Another way of saying it is that when Nanjing was breached, Wen Jian tried to commit suicide, but under the persuasion of his cronies, he cut his hair and became a monk, escaped from the palace through the tunnel, remained anonymous and wandered the rivers and lakes. After the death of Ming Chengzu, he returned to Beijing and was buried in the Western Hills on the outskirts of Beijing.

After Judy ascended the throne, he felt that the uncertain Emperor Wen Jian had an invisible pressure on him, so he sent many confidant ministers to visit everywhere. During the Yongle period, Zheng He's entourage included many guards, who were obviously used to secretly visit Emperor Wen Jian. Ming Chengzu once distributed the Book of Monks and Taoists to monasteries all over the world, rearranged the list of all monks, and conducted a comprehensive survey of monks. Since the fifth year of Yongle (A.D. 1407), in the name of looking for the immortal Zhang Sloppy, people have been sent to search everywhere, covering all parts of the country for more than 20 years.

In folklore, there are traces and legends of Wen Jian in many places. Some people say that he first fled to Yunnan-Guizhou area and then moved to Nanyang area. Up to now, there are still people in Dali, Yunnan who take Hui Di as their ancestor. Some modern scholars believe that he once hid in Fusaiji, Mianshan, Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province, and then hid in Huangjia Temple on the dome mountain. He died here in the 21st year of Yongle (A.D. 1423) and was buried on the hillside behind the temple. As for the whereabouts of Emperor Wen Jian, neither of the above statements can give a satisfactory answer.

7. The mystery of Li Zicheng's life and death

Li Zicheng is from Mizhi, Shaanxi. He was born in poverty, but he was brave, resourceful and benevolent. He worked as a post and a border guard, and finally joined the peasant uprising army to fight against the Ming Dynasty, and it grew stronger and stronger. Hundreds of thousands of troops were invincible, and finally overthrew the Ming Dynasty, which was politically corrupt, economically collapsed and crumbling. However, because Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty guarding Shanhaiguan, lured the Qing army into Shanhaiguan, Li Zicheng led his troops out of Beijing and moved to Henan, Shaanxi, Hubei and other places, and finally disappeared. Some people say that Li Zicheng was killed in Jiugong Mountain. The conclusion of Ming History is that the self is dead and the corpse is indistinguishable.

It was based on a report made by Azig, a general of the Qing army who was pursuing Li Zicheng at that time, that Li Zicheng soldiers tried their best to escape into Jiugong Mountain with only 20 cronies, and were besieged by villagers, unable to escape, and hanged themselves. He sent an autopsy, but the body was decomposed and unrecognizable. Another basis is that He Tengjiao, the general of Nan Ming in Hunan and the minister of the Ministry of War, reported to the Tang King that his Ministry beheaded Li Zicheng at the foot of Jiugong Mountain, but he lost his head. However, this "death" theory is hard to believe. Because Li Zicheng is a very talented and courageous person, and has always been a sworn enemy of the imperial court.

There is no doubt that he was a catastrophe in the minds of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty or Nanming Dynasty, and his life and death was definitely a major event at that time. However, the statement that "a corpse can't be distinguished" in Azig's report is purely exaggerated and untrue. How can the Qing dynasty believe it? He Tengjiao's report is just a shot in the arm, and Nan Ming won't believe it. It is particularly worth mentioning that when Li Zicheng retreated to Huxiang, there were more than 400,000 military forces under his command, and at least tens of thousands of people were stationed in Jiugong Mountain. It is obviously inconsistent with the fact that he only brought 20 cronies. Besides, if Li Zicheng was really killed, how could his hundreds of thousands of troops stop there? Can Jiugong Mountain be calm?

However, in fact, Jiugong Mountain was very calm at that time, and so were the hundreds of thousands of troops. Then, why is there a saying of "being killed" and it is widely circulated among the people? Presumably, this is a smokescreen bomb put by Li Zicheng and his gang as a delaying tactic. On the one hand, the threat of Li Zicheng's death can dispel the hostility of the Nanming Dynasty to this army, and the next step may be to unite against the Qing Dynasty; On the other hand, it also made the Qing Dynasty think that once the time was right, Li Zicheng could make a comeback. It is also said that Li Zicheng lives in seclusion in Jiashan Temple. It is said that in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Qiongbo, the incoming Yunnan Tongzhi, visited Jiashan Temple in Shimen on the way to his post and talked with the abbot of the temple about the past and the present. He hit it off quite instantly, met each other after a brief encounter, and was regarded as a confidant. A few years later, he revisited Jiashan Temple and the abbot was dead.

During the mourning period, the abbot's apprentice told him that the abbot was the king of the world, Li Zicheng. In Jiugong Mountain, his subordinate Sun Mou replaced him. In the early years of Qianlong, He Mou, the magistrate of Lizhou, went to Jiashan Temple to investigate the whereabouts of Li Zicheng. In the temple, he saw the portrait of Li Zicheng with his own eyes, which is said to be called "Jade Monk". 198 1 year, the tomb of Fengtian Jade, a great monk, was discovered at Jiashan Temple in Shimen. According to the investigation, the remains in a porcelain altar are similar to those in Li Zicheng. The funerary objects in the tomb are the same as those in Mizhi County, Shaanxi Province, Li Zicheng's hometown. But there are still different views on this statement.

Some people say that the discovery of the tomb of the great monk Feng Tianyu can only show that there is a great monk Feng Tianyu in Jiashan Temple in Shimen, but it cannot prove that the great monk Feng Tianyu is Li Zicheng. Others said that Li Zicheng's left eye was blinded by an arrow wound before his death, but Li Zicheng's portrait was full of eyes, which proved that Feng Tianyu was not Li Zicheng. Therefore, Li Zicheng's seclusion in Jiashan Temple is inconclusive. The mystery of Li Zicheng's life and death is still a topic of endless discussion in historians.