项羽不死于乌江考

Wu Jiang River was not the Spot of Xiang Yu’s Committing Suicide

千百年来人们都认为项羽自刎于乌江,笔者认为项羽不死于乌江,而是死于东城。本文从《史记》涉及项羽之死的所有叙述,以及项羽败退的路线来论证项羽是死于东城而不死于乌江。死于乌江这个误解是从《史记正义》开始的,但还只是说项羽败退到乌江,并没有说他自刎。到元代金仁杰把项羽之死戏剧化了,于是纔有了项羽乌江自刎之说,一直以讹传讹到现在。本文从调查入手,又分析了古籍的讹误,作出了新的结论。

The traditional opinion that the King,Xiang Yu committed suicide at the bank of Wu Jiang River,has been accepted for thousands of years in China.According to a new examination of Xiang's escape route after his defeat,described in Shi Ji,Xiang Yu did not die at Wu Jiang but in Dong Cheng.The mistake about the place where Xiang committed suicide was at first made by ShiJi ZhengYi.However,what Shi Ji recorded was that Xiang broke out of the siege and fled to the bank of Wu Jiang River,with no hint of his killing himself there.In the Yuan Dynasty,Jin Renjie dramatized the historical data into a story of Xiang's death at Wu Jiang,which remained firmly rooted until the present days.It is time to put forward a new interpretation about Xiang's death on the basis of new investigations.