Who can tell the story of Zhu Maichen?

According to legend, Zhu Maichen's family was poor in the early Han Dynasty, and his wife divorced him because she didn't want to suffer with him. Later, Zhu Maichen became a big official. One day, his ex-wife asked to restore the relationship between husband and wife. Zhu Maichen brought a basin of water, sprinkled it on the ground, and asked him to put it back in the basin.

Later, people used this idiom to mean that the relationship between husband and wife has been cut off and can no longer be reunited. It is also a metaphor that things are a foregone conclusion and cannot be redeemed.

But I read the original Hanshu, and I don't think his wife is wrong. The translation is like this:

Zhu Maichen's family was poor, and he only loved reading, and he was indifferent to industry. In the end, he ended up as a couple who made a living by firewood. His wife can share joys and sorrows. Zhu Maichen picked a load of firewood in front, and she carried some firewood in the back, which was not bitter.

The two divorced only because of a little quarrel. Zhu Maichen didn't forget to read when cutting firewood, and kept whining when carrying firewood. It is believed that when the ancients read poems, they should recite or sing them. This attitude of "going back without changing interest" made his wife feel embarrassed in public, so she advised the buyer not to sell books outside. If you want to go home and sing quietly, my wife has no objection.

But Zhu Maichen only cares about his own enjoyment, regardless of his wife's feelings, and sings when selling firewood. What he means is nothing more than venting his feelings of talent. Only in this way, there will be cracks between husband and wife, and the wife will be happy. Zhu Maichen sighed: "The fortune teller said that I would succeed at the age of 50, and now I am in my forties. Please wait for me for a few years and enjoy happiness together. " But this emotional rift can be made up by a few sweet words and vain wealth. My wife said a few angry words of "starving to death" and left.

However, there are still some feelings between husband and wife. Zhu Maichen firewood singing, taking pains, once chopping wood in the graveyard, met his ex-wife and husband who came to visit the grave. When his ex-wife saw Zhu Maichen's pity, she immediately called him to eat and drink. This is a special taste compared with Tang Wan's "Red Crispy Hands, Huangteng Wine" in Luyou Shenyuan in the Southern Song Dynasty. But at least there is love between two people.

Later, Zhu Maichen became an official, and the emperor asked him to put on his clothes and go back to his hometown, where he became a satrap. Along the way, the loess cushion road, clean water sprinkled on the street, how happy! His ex-wife and wife, as civilian workers at this time, were recruited to build roads for Master Zhu. When Zhu Maichen saw it, he neither laughed at the irony nor ignored it. But immediately called them to get on the bus, took them back to the official's son's house, lived in the backyard and ate a bowl of tea and rice. This shows that Zhu Maichen also has feelings for his ex-wife.

A month later, his ex-wife couldn't help hanging herself in shame. Zhu Maichen gave his "sympathetic brother" some money and buried his ex-wife. The story is over.

There is no trace of Hanshu in Dream of the Phoenix Crown, Crazy Dream and Sprinkling Water at once, which are often sung in the play. The ex-wife never expected the rockhopper, and the ex-husband never spilled sewage. It's just the unpredictable life of the rich and the poor and the emotional fluctuations of emotions, so that couples in trouble don't grow old together.

In fact, those operas were made up by poor men in later generations to warn poor wives. Jiang Ziya also has such a story in Romance of the Gods, and there are similar stories in Historical Records and Biography of Su Qin, but they are more dramatic. In addition to the wife who can't get off the plane, there is also an arrogant sister-in-law. Writers, in addition to negative lessons, have a lot of positive encouragement. Xue Pinggui and Wang Baochuan, Lv Mengzheng and Liu Cuiping (? ), and even Wang Chune, a "double official", stuck to it and shared weal and woe.