论湘军幕僚赵烈文日记的历史价值——以天京破城战和谶语为例

On the Historical Value of Zhao Liewen’s Diary——Take the Siege Battle of Tianjing and Prophecies as Example

赵烈文与曾国藩、曾国荃关系密切,得以了解湘军高层机密。赵烈文《能静居士日记》所记皆为本人亲历,不仅记事翔实,而且相对客观,因此其日记具有极高的史料价值和历史价值。研究者往往关注了赵烈文日记中的重要史实,而忽略了其中的若干细节。赵烈文日记中的若干细节以小见大,反映了许多重要历史问题。如太平军通过观察地面草色屡破曾国荃的地道;天京城大火十之七是清军所为,大火烧了八天八夜,天王府系萧孚泗焚烧;湘军入城后为搜刮钱财而导致两广太平军多半逃脱;曾国荃不同意"止杀",导致清军入城后滥杀无辜;挖掘洪秀全尸体是为了确认洪秀全死亡;李秀成免于凌迟处死并以棺木安葬,但奏折仍报"凌迟处死"等。《能静居士日记》以赵烈文谶语而闻名。《日记》记录了李秀成的一个谶语,但是赵烈文认为不过是李秀成的"鄙俚俗说而已"。这说明赵烈文关于清王朝不出五十年的谶语有一定的偶然性。

Having a close relationship with Tseng Kuofan and Tseng Kuoquan,Zhao Liewen got chances to know many Xiang Army’s high-level secrets.Nengjing Hermit’s Diary,which was all written by himself,recorded events fully,accurately and objectively.So his diary has a very high level of historical value.Researchers often focus only on the important historical events from the diary,while ignoring some of the details.Some details in the dairy seems trifle,but it tells big things,they can shed lights on lots of important historical events,such as: Taiping army destroyed Tseng Kuoquan’s underpass by observing the changing of grassland color many times;the Tianjing fire disaster,which lasted eight days,should be mostly due to Qing Army;the Tian Wang Palace was burn down by Xiao Fusi;Xiang Army’s plundered fortune in the city was the result of most of Guangdong and Guangxi Taiping soldiers’ escaping from Tianjing;Tseng Kuoquan’s disapproval of giving out the order of 'Stop Killing' led to the mass killing of innocents;the digging up of Hong Xiuquan’s corpse was only to make sure whether Hong was dead or not;Li Xiucheng was actually not dismembered to death,instead,he died a whole body and was buried in a coffin.Nengjing Hermit’s Diary was famous for Zhoa Lirwen’s prophecies.It also recorded a prophecy made by Li Xiucheng,but Zhoa Liewen thought it was no more than a vulgar one.This shows that,one of Zhao Liewen' s prophecies,in which he said that the Qing Dynasty would come to an end within the next fifty years,has certain contingency.