Wu Zuo Yong Yi： All kinds of ＂conspiracy theories＂ about the change of Benneng Temple

The so-called change of Benneng Temple was that at the dawn of June 2nd, the tenth year of Tianzheng (1582), Akechi Mitsuhide, the etiquette of Oda Nobunobunaga, suddenly attacked Honnoji Temple, Kyoto, where the Lord stayed. Nobunaga was surrounded by only a few personal bodyguards, unable to defeat the wise army, and finally set fire to Honnoji Temple and committed suicide. There is a saying that "Nobunaga’s body was not found", so it is argued that Nobunaga survived, but it should be more correct to say that "Nobunaga can’t tell which one is among a large number of charred corpses". Oda Nobutada, Nobunaga’s office man, was also attacked by Akechi Mitsuhide’s troops, and finally committed suicide in Nijo Imperial House, so Oda’s headquarters was uprooted.

It was only a matter of time before Nobuyasu Oda established hegemony in Japan, but he and his successor Nobuyasu died together, and the history of Japan changed. If there is no change in the Boneng Temple, then we will not see Toyotomi Hideyoshi reunifying Japan, and the Edo shogunate will not appear. Therefore, it can be said that the change of Benneng Temple is one of the biggest conspiracies in Japanese history.

The question is why Akechi Mitsuhide did it. Soon after he worked for Nobuyasu Oda, he was deeply trusted, promoted rapidly, and finally became the name of a country with Danbo. With such a big favor, why did Akechi Mitsuhide turn the tables? This problem is exactly the "mystery of the change of Benneng Temple" that people are thinking about.

What makes this problem more difficult is that people have too few clues. As is known to all, eleven days after the change of Benneng Temple, Akechi Mitsuhide was defeated by Yuchai Hideyoshi (later Toyotomi Hideyoshi) in Hajime Yamazaki and died in flight. And almost all his ministers were killed. So no one can tell what is Akechi Mitsuhide’s motivation.

After Akechi Mitsuhide killed Nobunaga, he should have written to many people in order to win supporters, but none of them could be saved. After Akechi Mitsuhide’s failure, people who had relations with him and people who knew the truth were afraid of being liquidated, so they kept their mouths shut and systematically destroyed the evidence.

Less historical materials means more room for imagination. If you say something ugly, it is easy for "amateurs" to have a say. Therefore, about the change of Benneng Temple, not only experts in Japanese medieval history, but also amateur historical researchers, writers, writers and other "detectives" appeared frequently. There are really no other examples in Japanese history for such a controversial event (there are not so many stories about Ryoma Sakamoto’s assassination).

The change of benneng temple

First, the introduction of the theory of individual action

The theory of resentment that existed in edo period

First, let’s look at the traditional theory of resentment. Historical novels, plays, etc. often use this statement, and the theory of resentment is also mentioned in historical books such as "Continuing the History as a Mirror" written in the early Edo period. The general idea is that Nobunaga is too cruel, and Akechi Mitsuhide is angry and rebelled. Historians in the Taisho and Showa periods, such as Yicheng Tanaka of Imperial University of Tokyo (Tokyo University), also hold this view.

Specifically, Akechi Mitsuhide’s resentment has the following five points:

First, when attacking the Eight Uptown in Danbo, Akechi Mitsuhide took his mother as a hostage to persuade Hatano’s brother to open the city, but Oda Nobunobunaga killed his brother, so Akechi Mitsuhide’s mother was killed by the soldiers guarding the city.

Second, Nobunaga ordered Akechi Mitsuhide to receive Tokugawa Ieyasu. As a result, the fish on the table was broken, and Nobunaga fired Akechi Mitsuhide in a rage.

Thirdly, Saito Rizo left Inaba to follow Akechi Mitsuhide, and Nobuyasu Oda ordered Akechi Mitsuhide to let Saito Rizo go back to Inaba Yitie. Akechi Mitsuhide refused, so Nobuyasu Oda used violence against Akechi Mitsuhide.

Fourthly, after Takeda’s family was destroyed, Akechi Mitsuhide once said "it was not in vain" before visiting the battle line, and Nobunaga, who was dissatisfied with this, punished Akechi Mitsuhide.

Fifth, when Nobuyuki Oda ordered Akechi Mitsuhide to send troops to help Hideyoshi, he moved Akechi Mitsuhide territory from Danbo and near Shiga (Shiga) county to Izumo and Ishigaki. Izumo and Shijian are unconquered areas, and Akechi Mitsuhide must win them on its own, that is to say, Akechi Mitsuhide has actually been confiscated.

However, the current research believes that the above statement is probably fabricated in the Edo era. First of all, the incident of Hatano City mentioned in the first article comes from General Notes (also known as Weaving Tian Jun), which was written 100 years after the change of Benneng Temple, so the historical data value is not high. Nobunaga Koji records that Akechi Mitsuhide cut off the other party’s food and grass and subdued the duke Hatano Hideyoshi and others by strategy, but does not record that he gave his mother to the other party as a hostage. Nobunaga Gong Ji is a biography of Nobunaga written by Ota Niuichi who served Nobunaga. Although there is a part in the book that beautifies Nobu Oda, the author has heard his words and deeds, which is much more credible than the story of the military in the Edo era. So the first one should be the creation in the Edo era.

The second article is only found in unreliable historical materials such as Kawaguchi Taige Ji. Akechi Mitsuhide was dismissed from the reception position because Hideyoshi, who played against Maori, asked Oda Nobuyuki for help, so Oda Nobuyuki gave Akechi Mitsuhide a new task to support Hideyoshi. Tokugawa Ieyasu doesn’t have to be hosted by Akechi Mitsuhide, but Akechi Mitsuhide is the only military commander who can command the army near Kyoto. Nobutaka Oda will of course dismiss his reception post in this case. The third and fourth articles are only recorded in unreliable historical materials such as the Family Tree of Rice Leaves.

Finally, The Book of the Wise Army, which records Article 5, was also written one hundred years after the change of Benneng Temple, and it is of little historical value. Nonobunaga Oda does often take back the territory of the retainer and give it new territory, but it is only limited to the conquered land that has been completely pacified or the area that will be completely conquered. It is unrealistic to give the completely unconquered area to the retainer (to fight the enemy in a state of poverty without territory).

Many warriors of Danbo went to war with Akechi Mitsuhide. They were not the retainers of Akechi Mitsuhide, but only because Akechi Mitsuhide was Danbo’s name. Their relationship is like the general manager of Danbo Branch and his subordinates. As long as Akechi Mitsuhide is transferred from there, their relationship will be over. Therefore, the fact that Samurai Danbo belongs to the Akechi Mitsuhide Army is an excellent proof that he is still Danbo’s name. With regard to Article 5, Tokutomi Sohō had long thought that this was just a folk rumor in Taisho era and denied this statement.

Generally speaking, the evidence of resentment is all the re-creation of popular books in the Edo era, not historical facts. The reason why so many reasons for resentment were invented during this period shows that it is difficult for people in the Edo era to understand why Akechi Mitsuhide betrayed Nobunobu Oda, who had great kindness to him.

Ambition theory formally came into being after the war.

There was the theory of ambition in the Edo period, but the historical materials showing Akechi Mitsuhide’s ambition to win the world long ago were very scarce, so it was covered up by the theory of resentment supported by the aforementioned anecdotes. Before World War II, Tokutomi Sohō pointed out in "Modern Japanese National History" that Akechi Mitsuhide resented Nobunobu Oda’s strength, and at the same time thought that Akechi Mitsuhide had the ambition to seize the world, so he seized the golden opportunity to arise. It will not be until after World War II that the ambition theory is formally put on the table for discussion. Akechi Mitsuhide (1958), written by Gao Liuguang Shou, is a landmark work, and he elaborated on the theory of ambition in detail.

Gao Liuguang Shou pointed out that the so-called resentment theory is the creation of popular reading materials in the Edo era. If there is no special resentment, then the motive is only ambition, that is, Nobunaga, Akechi Mitsuhide and Yuchai Hideyoshi all have ambitions for the world.

However, this does not mean that Gao Liuguangshou discovered historical materials that can prove Akechi Mitsuhide’s ambition. He introduced an anecdote from The Old Man’s Miscellaneous Words, saying that Akechi Mitsuhide named his home city Zhoushan (meaning that Akechi Mitsuhide compared Nonobunaga to the tyrant Yin Zhou Wang and compared himself to Zhou Wuwang who crusaded against Zhou Wang), but he also pointed out that this anecdote was not a historical fact.

As a result, Gao Liuguangshou only cited "Love Down and Hundred Rhymes" as proof that Akechi Mitsuhide had the ambition to conquer the world. Many novels and plays have described this matter, but I’d like to give a brief account of what happened here. On May 27th, four days before the change of Benneng Temple, Akechi Mitsuhide only took his office man Akechi Mitsyoshi and a few followers to visit Mt. Atago in Kyoto. At that time, he was ordered by Nobunaga to send troops to help Hideyoshi, so it was natural to ask God to worship Buddha in advance. After staying in the temple for one night, on 28th, he held a chorus meeting with the chorus artist Li Cun Shao Ba and others, which is called "Love Down Hundred Rhymes".

At the chorus, Akechi Mitsuhide sang this poem:

The time is now. It’s going to rain. It should be May. (ときはが Today is May)

On the surface, this poem sings about the rain in May, but Akechi Mitsuhide’s military story "Remembering the Rebellion" (alias "Remembering the Rebellion"), which was written shortly after his death, wrote that "in retrospect, this is the harbinger of rebellion" and considered this poem as proof of Akechi Mitsuhide’s determination to rebel. Although the book doesn’t specify how to interpret this poem, the general explanation is as follows: "とき" is a pun, which means both "time" and "Tuqi" (Zhiming’s family comes from Tuqi), and "Tianxia" implies "the world" and "しき"

In Akechi Mitsuhide (1973), Tadashi Morita criticized Gao Liuguangshou’s theory of ambition: "This is a theory that fails to reflect reality and has preconceived ideas." Regarding the book "Retire from office" which emphasizes Akechi Mitsuhide’s ambition, Tadashi Morita points out that the author Omura is a close friend of Hideyoshi, and in order to praise Hideyoshi, he describes Akechi Mitsuhide as a villain. In addition, Mr. Morita speculated that Akechi Mitsuhide’s love rhyme was originally written as "Today, it’s May." In order to highlight Akechi Mitsuhide’s ambition, Omura changed it to "Today, it’s May."

Then, as for the resentment of Gao Liuguang Shou’s criticism, on the one hand, like Gao Liu, Tadashi Morita thinks that the stories of Hatano City in General Meeting and Tokugawa Ieyasu’s reception in Kawaguchi Taroko are fabricated by later generations. But on the other hand, he cited the incident of Nobu Oda kicking Akechi Mitsuhide in the Contemporary History of Japan by Flores, and thought that the relationship between them was really tense.

Even if Akechi Mitsuhide really resents Nobuyasu Oda, he can’t rebel immediately. Nobuyasu Oda is in power all over the world. It is too risky to directly take revenge against him. For Akechi Mitsuhide, it is a risky thing to rebel for a moment’s anger. Therefore, people will naturally think that Akechi Mitsuhide’s resistance should have other reasons that can bring greater benefits. Does that mean he wants to win the world? Tadashi Morita has a negative attitude towards this. Even heroes like Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu began to think about seizing the world after the death of Nobunobu Oda and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It is almost impossible for a military commander of this level like Akechi Mitsuhide to seize the world when Nobunobu Oda was still alive.

Akechi Mitsuhide is not a big shot who is interested in the world. In fact, this view has no basis at all, just the feeling of Sangtian’s loyalty. However, his opinion really points to the essence of the differences of various theories in the change of Benneng Temple. In recent years, a popular view is that Akechi Mitsuhide was instructed to assassinate Nobuyasuda, or that Akechi Mitsuhide had an accomplice, which is the so-called shady theory (detailed in the next section). The starting point of this shady theory coincides with the above-mentioned views of Morita Tadashi. That is to say, because it is determined that Akechi Mitsuhide, an "ordinary outstanding person", can’t assassinate Nobunobu Oda, a great genius, so he is definitely not acting alone, and there should still be people behind it. The shady theory was born under this kind of thinking.

I mentioned at the end of the last chapter that when people see a big event with great influence, they often subconsciously think that there is a big conspiracy that can match it. Regarding the September 11th terrorist attacks, there are also conspiracy theories that the United States is directing and acting. How can an al-Qaeda attack the United States? This kind of psychology is a hotbed of conspiracy theories.

The theory of Guangxiu Qinwang and the theory of Guangxiu Muchen, which are often seen in dramas.

Some people think that Akechi Mitsuhide and dispatch troops are not for their own selfish interests, but for the country. One of them is Guangxiu Qinwang. The focus of Qin Wang’s remarks lies in Akechi Mitsuhide’s good classical cultivation, good relationship with the government and monks, and his contribution to the court after the change of Benneng Temple.

Akechi Mitsuhide attaches great importance to traditional authority and respects the imperial court. As a powerful name, he fully supports Nobuyoda because of his ambition to respect the emperor, hoping to revitalize the imperial court. However, Nobunaga became increasingly arrogant (or revealed his true nature), deified himself, and once asked Emperor Masamachi to do good deeds. After Akechi Mitsuhide discovered that Nobunaga wanted to be above the emperor, he made a crusade against Nobunaga for the imperial court and the emperor dispatch troops. Qin Wang said that this is probably such an idea. Many novels and plays use this statement. In addition, the historical scholar Tetsuo Owada’s "theory of stopping Nobunobu Oda’s banditry" also contains the viewpoint of Qinwang.

If the diligent king is right, then we can think that the "personality conflict" between Akechi Mitsuhide, who pays attention to order and authority, and Nobunobu Oda, a reformer, leads to resentment in Akechi Mitsuhide, and Akechi Mitsuhide’s ambition is also very clear from the idea that he plans to be a general to guard the court after Akechi Mitsuhide’s crusade against Nobunobu Oda. This shows that Qin Wang’s theory does not necessarily negate the theory of resentment and ambition, but can coexist with it There are also a few novels and dramas that think that several motives coexist.

If Akechi Mitsuhide’s greatest motive is to protect the imperial court, it is only natural that he should communicate with the imperial court beforehand. According to this truth, the theory of Guangxiu Qinwang developed into the theory of shady court (see later).

The idea of Guangxiu Muchen is similar to this. As we all know, Akechi Mitsuhide first followed Ashikaga Yoshiaki. Ashikaga Yoshiaki won the support of Oda Nobunaga and returned to Kyoto to become a general. Akechi Mitsuhide served Ashikaga Yoshiaki and Oda Nobunaga at the same time. When Ashikaga Yoshiaki and Nobunaga started to oppose each other, Akechi Mitsuhide’s position became very embarrassing. He finally abandoned Yoshiaki and chose Nobunaga. At this time, Akechi Mitsuhide’s indecision often became the subject of novels and plays.

Since then, Akechi Mitsuhide has gained the trust of Nobuyasu Oda and has been promoted step by step, but this does not mean that he has completely given up his status as a curtain minister. In the paper "The Power Structure of Oda Regime" (1981), the third ghost Kiichiro pointed out that Akechi Mitsuhide was the leader of the old curtain minister in Kiji. When Nobuyasu Oda exiled Ashikaga Yoshiaki (which marked the demise of the Muromachi shogunate in fact), if Akechi Mitsuhide didn’t approve of this practice, it would be very possible for Akechi Mitsuhide to recruit old curtain ministers and dispatch troops to revive the shogunate when Nobuyasu Oda was careless.

In this case, if Akechi Mitsuhide had the political idea of welcoming General Ashikaga Yoshiaki back to Beijing and assisting the General in mastering real power, then it might have been having an affair with Ashikaga Yoshiaki beforehand. In this way, the theory of Guangxiu curtain minister developed into the theory of Yizhao shady.

Both Qin Wang’s theory and Mu Chen’s theory regard Nobuyuki Oda as a realist committed to reform, Akechi Mitsuhide as a conservative and educated person, and the change of Benneng Temple as a conservative action against reformists. Fujimoto is critical of this. He thinks there is no definite evidence that Akechi Mitsuhide is a conservative. Akechi Mitsuhide is really close to the public, but Nobunobu Oda often holds tea parties to socialize with the public. Akechi Mitsuhide was rewarded by Nobuyasu Oda for his active performance in burning Biwa Mountain. It was also his choice to leave Ashikaga Yoshiaki and surrender to Nobuyasu Oda. Therefore, it is better to say that Akechi Mitsuhide is a realist similar to Nobunobu Oda.

Akechi Mitsuhide

Second, the introduction of shady theory

The shady theory of the imperial court that appeared in the 1990s.

The last section introduced the so-called "acting alone", and this section will introduce the so-called "shady theory". Those who advocate shady theory think that there is a behind-the-scenes mastermind behind Akechi Mitsuhide’s rebellion, or an accomplice conspiring with Akechi Mitsuhide.

As mentioned above, the shady theory is based on such a psychology: "Can a person of Akechi Mitsuhide’s level crusade (or make up his mind to rebel) against such a big man as Nobunobunaga?" Without the assistance of people or groups with real power, Akechi Mitsuhide should not have made up his mind to be an enemy of Nobunobu Oda, and the attack could not have been so easy to succeed. Some people therefore doubt the theory of acting alone, which gave birth to the theory of shady. Besides, Nobunaga is strong and cold, and has made many enemies. It is easy to think of many people who want to kill him. As a result, all kinds of people were identified as "behind the scenes" and all kinds of shady stories appeared in front of people.

The first thing that appeared was the theory of court shady, which appeared in the 1990s. At that time, Imagumi, a famous researcher of medieval history, emphasized the antagonistic relationship between the imperial court and Nobunaga. Influenced by it, the imperial court’s shady theory surfaced. Jin Guming criticized the traditional view that the imperial court declined in the Warring States period, and thought that with the general’s authority weakening, the emperor’s authority was relatively enhanced, and Nobunaga also used the emperor’s authority to expand his strength. However, when Nobunaga dominated the country, a supreme emperor became an obstacle for Nobunaga to establish his absolute power. As a result, Nobuyasu Oda had a fierce confrontation with the then Emperor Akihito, and even forced the Emperor Akihito to give way to Prince Akihito.

Imagumi himself does not advocate that the imperial court has anything to do with the change of Beneng Temple, but his view that Nobunobu Oda’s greatest enemy is the Emperor of Kinmachi has great influence. Inspired by this, it has been constantly suggested that the change of Beneng Temple is the court’s counterattack against Nobunaga Oda’s offensive, which is the so-called "shady theory of the court".

Originally, if it was just a personal guess of an author, then the theory of shady court would not be a topic. The two people who attracted much attention to this theory were Tongye Zuoren and Lihua Kyoko. After carefully studying the first-hand historical materials, such as Seeing Qing Ji and Daily Diary, they put forward the theory of court shady. Especially Lihua Kyoko, she contributed to academic magazines, and her papers were published after being examined by experts. Folk researchers often put forward some jaw-dropping opinions. These people often think that "their own opinions are not accepted because university professors in academic circles discriminate against folk researchers". However, Toyo Toyo and Lihua Kyoko are also folk researchers, but their research results can be recognized by academic circles. Therefore, the theory of discrimination is just the delusion of murder of folk researchers.

Later, Toyo Zuoren turned to the theory of independent action, and Lihua Kyoko turned to the theory of Jesuit shady. At present, there is no major researcher to support the theory of imperial shady. It can be said that this is an abandoned theory. However, in order to understand the development of the research history in the future, I would like to briefly introduce the imperial shady theory here. The main points are as follows:

First, Nobuhiko Oda intends to force the emperor of Masamachi, who is hostile to him, to give way to the crown prince Akihito, and finally let his adopted son, the Fifth Palace, ascend to the throne and become the emperor’s father.

Second, Nobuhiko Oda deified himself in the last few years of his life, in order to make the Palace of Five Emperor and the office man Oda Nobutada General.

Third, in the imperial court, Prince Chengren, Guardian Jiujiu, Yoshida Kaneshiro, Kajuji Temple Qingfeng and others formed an anti-Nobunaga alliance, and wooed Akechi Mitsuhide, a loyal king, to plan to overthrow Nobunaga.

The shady theory of the imperial court lost its persuasiveness.

As I have said before, the premise of the imperial shady theory is the power struggle between the imperial court and the Wu family regime, which is the so-called "historical view of the opposition between the public and the Wu family." However, taking Jin Gu Ming’s works as an opportunity, the research on the relationship between the imperial court and the Wu family regime developed, and finally proved that the "historical view of the opposition between the public and the Wu family" was not established.

The current mainstream view is Hori’s new "theory of combining public power with military power", which emphasizes the interdependent relationship between Nobunaga and the imperial court. With the financial support of Nobunaga, the financial crisis of the imperial court was greatly improved. It is not so much that the imperial court is hostile to Nobunaga as that the imperial court tries its best to please Nobunaga. The proposal of the theory of kingship combining public and military forces makes the theory of imperial shady based on the historical view of opposition between public and military forces lose its persuasiveness.

First of all, regarding the first article, Nobuyasu Oda forced Emperor Masamachi to abdicate, the imperial court’s shady theory believed that the "Ma ‘an" (military parade) in February of the ninth year of Tenzin (1581) was one of the evidences of forced abdication. Imagumi sees this as a military action by Nobuyasu Oda threatening the Emperor Akimachi, who is unwilling to step down. Kanda Chihiro pointed out that Nobunaga had ordered the event to be lively and beautiful. In this way, it is not so much a military threat as a strong festive atmosphere. Emperor Masamachi also appreciated it very much, and even asked Nobunobu Oda to do it again, and it was held again in March. Horixin pointed out that the sudden death of Prince Chengren’s biological mother, Xindian Shi, the year before, and the court was in a gloomy mood, and the parade was really inspiring. Modern people are accustomed to the modern emperor system of life-long reign, and it is easy to misunderstand that the Middle Ages were the same. But in fact, it is very common for the Middle Emperor to give way before he gets old, and the Emperor Masamachi himself also wants to give way. It didn’t come true, just because there was not enough money to hold the ceremony (Nobunaga made many enemies and failed to devote himself to the revival of the court).

The second article, Nobuyasu Oda’s self-deification, is often regarded as evidence that he tries to put his authority above the emperor, and this article is also questioned. The statement that Nobuyuki Oda began to deify himself a few years before his death only appeared in the letters of Jesuit missionary Flores and his History of Japan, and there was no relevant record in Japanese records. In fact, Nobunaga has been protecting Ise Jingu Palace, Shimizu Hachiba Palace, Zenkokuji Temple and other big temple clubs, and there is no sign that he is deified. Both Flores’ letters and History of Japan were written after Nobuyoda’s death. He fabricated a story that Nobuyoda expanded to self-deification, angered the all-knowing and all-powerful God, and finally died a natural death.

Next, let’s take a look at the royal family and the public who are regarded as Akechi Mitsuhide’s accomplices listed in Article 3.

After the change of Benneng Temple, Prince Chengren ordered Akechi Mitsuhide to restore public order in Kyoto instead of the Emperor, so he was regarded as the behind-the-scenes person. However, Oda Nobunaga’s office man Oda Nobutada hid in the two imperial houses where Prince Chengren lived, and Prince Chengren himself was almost involved in the battle. Oda Nobutada originally lived in Miaojue Temple in the west of Erjiao Imperial Palace. If Prince Chengren is really an accomplice, then it should be predicted that Oda Nobutada, one of Akechi Mitsuhide’s goals, will escape into Erjiao Imperial Palace, which is more heavily guarded than Miaojue Temple. However, Prince Chengren didn’t find an excuse to hide in the emperor’s residence in advance, but stayed in two dangerous imperial houses, which means that Prince Chengren didn’t know that Akechi Mitsuhide was going to rebel. Besides, the two imperial houses were given to him by Nobuyasu Oda, and he should be grateful to Nobuyasu Oda.

The reason why the guards who took the Guan family were suspected to be related to the change of Benneng Temple for a long time was because the wise army who attacked Oda Nobutada shot at Erhao Imperial House from the guards’ former home. However, this should be regarded as force majeure. The guards have benefited a lot from Nobunaga for a long time, and there is no reason to participate in the conspiracy against Nobunaga.

Yoshida, a public official, negotiated with Akechi Mitsuhide as an envoy after the change of Benneng Temple. After Akechi Mitsuhide lost, he rewrote his diary and erased the record of negotiations with Akechi Mitsuhide, so he was suspected of participating in the conspiracy. However, the imperial court and government without military power can only obey the name of Kyoto. After the change of Benneng Temple, Prince Chengren ordered Akechi Mitsuhide to restore public order in Kyoto for the same reason. Nobunaga took control of Kyoto, and they became close to Nobunaga; Akechi Mitsuhide defeated Oda Nobunaga, and they tried to get on well with Akechi Mitsuhide. Hideyoshi drove Akechi Mitsuhide away, and they greeted Hideyoshi with a smile. This is what the public is like, and this cannot be evidence that Yoshida is involved in the conspiracy. Moreover, the diary originally described Akechi Mitsuhide’s actions as "rebellion", and was critical of Akechi Mitsuhide’s killing of Nobunaga, who had promoted him.

Kajuji Temple Qingfeng is a courtier of the late Wei Dynasty, and also a biography of the Wu family (the window for the imperial court to transmit messages to the Wu family). In his diary "Japanese Diary", he wrote that "(Akechi Mitsuhide’s old Saito Rizo) was one of the people who discussed overthrowing Nobuyasu". Lihua Kyoko noticed this and came to the conclusion that "this shows that there is indeed a plan to overthrow Nobunaga, and Qingfeng knows this plan although he did not attend". This explanation is far-fetched. The content before and after this article is: "At dawn, there was a man named Saito Kensuke (Saito Kuranosuke Liso), a wise man, a member of the Takeshi family, and one of the people who discussed overthrowing Nobunobu, and he was taken back to Kyoto alive." It can be seen that this is a record of Saito Rizo being tied to Kyoto after he lost in the Battle of Yamazaki. Judging from the writing, Kajuji Temple Qingfeng doesn’t know Saito Rizo very well. It can even be considered that this is the first time that he has heard the name of Saito Rizo. What’s more, we can’t find his motivation to participate in Akechi Mitsuhide. If Kajuji Temple Qingfeng did participate in Akechi Mitsuhide’s plan, he should not leave any evidence that he did "bad things".

Ruins of Honnoji Temple

Three-post promotion problem

Related to the shady theory of the imperial court is the promotion of three posts. The promotion of the three posts refers to the trend that Nobuhiko Oda may be appointed as Taizheng Minister, Guan Bai or General before the change of Beneng Temple is about to happen. In 1964, Iwasawa determined that the author of "Diary of the Day" was Kajuji Temple Qingfeng, and regarded it as an important historical material that recorded the political trend before and after the change of Beneng Temple, and this historical material also proved that Nobuhiko Oda might become a general of conquering foreign countries.

Specifically, on April 25th, the tenth year after Takeda’s death, Kajuji Temple Qingfeng visited Inoda Nobuka’s home minister village, Jing Zhensheng. In the dialogue, the two men mentioned that Nonobunaga Oda could be appointed as Taizheng Minister or Guan Bai or General ("An Tu, a woman’s house, a royal servant, a general, and a royal servant."

The question is who can appoint Nobuyuki Oda as Taizheng Minister or Guan Bai or General? Medieval diaries often omit the subject, and the above quotations are no exception, and there is no subject. The clue of analysis is the auxiliary verb "Bei" which shows respect. The use of "Bei" indicates that the speaker is a person who needs Kajuji Temple’s respect, that is, a person with a higher status than him. Iwasawa thought that this was the author of the diary, Kajuji Temple Qingfeng, relaying the meaning of the imperial court, which later became a conclusion. That is to say, although the promotion of the three posts was announced by Kajuji Temple Qingfeng, he was only the narrator, and the real decision was made by the Emperor or Prince Akihito. Therefore, in order to show respect for the Emperor and Prince, it is not surprising that the word "Bei" was used.

But in 1991, Lihua Kyoko published a new opinion. She counted and analyzed all the usages of "Bei" in the Daily Diary, and presumed that the above was the speech of Zhensheng Murai. As a powerful person, Kajuji Temple Qingfeng used honorific words when describing the behavior of Murai Zhensheng, whose status is lower than his. It seems unreasonable, but there are other examples of using honorific words to describe Murai Zhensheng’s behavior in the Daily Diary, so the usage here is no problem.

Lihua Kyoko went further, claiming that Nobuhiko Oda instructed Murai to win, forcing the court to appoint him as "Taizheng Minister or Guan Bai or General". Nobunaga’s strength aroused the resentment of the imperial court and eventually developed into the change of Benneng Temple. In this way, Lihua Kyoko regarded the promotion of three posts as the basis of the imperial court’s shady theory.

There are also people who object to Kyoko’s view that the speaker who has been promoted from three positions is regarded as Zhensheng Murai. However, in recent years, both Keguang Taniguchi and Jintuo support the view of Kyoko Lihua, and I also hold this view. But was Murai Zhensheng’s speech inspired by Nobunobu Oda? On May 4th, after the interview, Kajuji Temple Qingfeng, as an envoy, conveyed the intention of the imperial court to Oda Nobunaga: "Kanto pacified (crusaded against Takeda) and wanted to make you a general of conquering foreign countries." The record of Nobunaga’s reply in the Daily Diary is very vague, so there are two views: temporarily refusing to reply and refusing to become a general, but what is certain is that there is no such thing as "obeying orders". In any case, it makes no sense for Nobuyasu Oda to ask for "being a Taizheng minister or a Guan Bai or a general" and refuse it when the will comes down.

Horixin pointed out that if Nonobu Oda wants to make a claim through Sadako Murai, then he should have a clear goal of "I want to be a general", not any of the three officials. He believes that Nobunaga is not involved in this matter, and Murai Zhensheng is just stating his own ideas.

Nonobunaga Oda resigned as the right minister and the right guard general in the sixth year of Tianzheng, and did not hold an official position again. In the ninth year, Nobuyasu Oda rejected the imperial court’s proposal to be left minister. Nobunaga is quite loyal, and always feels that since he became a senior official, he will do his best for the court. On the other hand, at that time, he was caught between Scylla and Charybdis, and he could not concentrate on dealing with court affairs, so he could not be a minister.

Nobunaga’s attitude must have upset the imperial court. "It will be abandoned by Nobunaga, right?" This idea gradually rises. If Nobunaga can be brought to the imperial court to be an official, then a strong sense of responsibility will drive Nobunaga to continue to donate funds and help the imperial court. Therefore, the imperial court wanted to grant Oda Nobunaga an official position at the first opportunity.

In March of the tenth year, Takeda’s family perished. For the imperial court, this is a good opportunity to give Oda Nobuyuki an official position. The imperial court was thinking about what kind of official position to give Nobuyuki Oda, so it asked Zhensheng Murai "What position Nobuyuki Oda would accept". In this regard, Zhensheng Murai proposed that "Taizheng Minister or Guan Bai or General is not bad" and took these three official positions as backup. As a result, the imperial court chose the position of general conquering foreigners, which was most commensurate with the record of conquering Dongyi.

In a word, the imperial court hoped to have a good relationship with Nobunaga, who provided funds for itself. Thus, it is not true that the court is hostile to Nobunobu. The issue of the promotion of the three posts is not evidence of the shady theory of the imperial court, but can prove the good relationship between the two sides.

The impact of Yi Zhao’s shady theory

Tatsumi Fujita, a researcher in the heyday of weaving and a professor at Mie University, has different opinions. While he did not rule out that the imperial court (specifically, the guards were long ago) might have participated in the change of Benneng Temple, he advocated that Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the general who was sent to the Maori family, was the leader of the conspiracy. In 1996, he published a paper entitled "From Oda Regime to Toyotomi Regime: Historical Background of the Change of Benneng Temple". After that, whenever there was an opportunity, he constantly revised and strengthened his point of view. Fujita Tatsuma’s research on the change of Benneng Temple is a book Deciphering the Change of Benneng Temple (2003).

As mentioned above, there has always been a saying that Akechi Mitsuhide, a conservative, wanted to revive the Muromachi shogunate and dispatch troops. However, the Japanese university faculty in the Middle Ages bluntly said that "Ashikaga Yoshiaki ordered Akechi Mitsuhide to kill Nobuyasu Oda", which still brought a great impact. Tatsumoto Fujita is a professional scholar. He raised the shady theory of Yizhao to the academic level by exploring the new historical materials of the change of Beneng Temple. Therefore, it is only natural that everyone will pay attention to Fujita’s theory. His views can be summarized as follows:

First, General Ashikaga Yoshiaki was exiled from Kyoto by Nobuyuki Oda, and moved to a place called Yue in the reserve country, where he opened the so-called "Yue shogunate" and appointed Mōri Terumoto as the deputy general to fight Nobuyuki Oda.

Second, on June 12th after the change of Benneng Temple, Akechi Mitsuhide received a letter from Tuqiao Pingwei, who had mixed greetings from Ji Yi, and mentioned in his reply that he would try his best to make Ashikaga Yoshiaki return to Kyoto. Therefore, Ashikaga Yoshiaki was considered to have instigated Akechi Mitsuhide to subvert the Oda regime through a coup.

Third, before Akechi Mitsuhide launched a military coup, he had contacted Chousokabe Motochika, Honganji, Uesugi Kagekatsu, and wanted to rally anti-Nobunaga forces in the name of supporting Ashikaga Yoshiaki. Fourth, the imperial court wanted to make Nobuyuki Oda a a general (which meant dismissing Ashikaga Yoshiaki as a general), and Akechi Mitsuhide staged a coup to stop it.

Yi Zhao’s shady theory is more convincing than that of the imperial court. The imperial court was grateful to Nobunobu Oda for supporting his finances, but Ashikaga Yoshiaki was different. He resented Nobunobu Oda for letting him go, which was proved by historical data. Moreover, Ashikaga Yoshiaki also organized Nobunaga’s encirclement network. Therefore, it is not inconceivable that Akechi Mitsuhide was ordered by Ashikaga Yoshiaki to rally the forces against weaving fields. For Akechi Mitsuhide, standing with the imperial court can ensure the righteousness and birthright, but it does not help to strengthen his military strength, and winning the support of Ashikaga Yoshiaki means joining hands with the Maori and other forces. Fujita further explained: "From a military point of view, Akechi Mitsuhide’s military strength can only seize power by surprise attack on Nobunobu Oda, but it is not enough to maintain the subsequent regime. Therefore, if you want to launch a military coup, then he must ensure his unity with the famous warring States countries with strong military strength, such as Maori, Changzong and Shangshan. "

We can get a glimpse of the reasons for the birth of various shady theories from Fujita’s analysis. For later generations of us, Akechi Mitsuhide’s events were quite thoughtless. He may be able to overthrow Nobuyasu Oda, but how can he maintain the political power seized by the coup afterwards? In fact, Akechi Mitsuhide’s world lasted only ten days. There is a saying that Akechi Mitsuhide has mental problems, but judging from his thoughtful handling of Nobunobu Oda and Oda Nobutada, we should still think that he has normal judgment ability. In this way, we should think that Akechi Mitsuhide has also considered the strategy of overthrowing Nobunobu Oda. Since it is very difficult to fight against Oda’s counterattack alone, he should have established cooperative relations with other forces in advance.

And if he wants to find someone to cooperate, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the former monarch and general, is undoubtedly the most suitable candidate. Compared with many nonsense shady theories, Yi Zhao’s shady theory is reasonable.

The problem of Yi Zhao’s shady theory

Nevertheless, there are still many problems in Yi Zhao’s shady theory. First of all, it is doubtful whether Ashikaga Yoshiaki, which is ten years old, has the ability to rally the national anti-Nobunaga forces. Taniguchi Keguang pointed out that since the middle of the fifth year of Tianzheng, Ashikaga Yoshiaki no longer called on the national names to overthrow Nobunobu Oda, but relied more and more on Maori. However, Maori did not pursue Hideyoshi, who resolutely implemented China’s big turn-back. When Nobunobu Oda died violently and Ashikaga Yoshiaki was delighted to ask him to help him return to Kyoto, Maori also seemed very cold. It can be said that Ashikaga Yoshiaki’s influence as a general at that time was getting smaller and smaller, and the so-called "Yue shogunate" also existed in name only.

If Akechi Mitsuhide really cooperates with Ashikaga Yoshiaki in advance, then the biggest purpose of cooperation is to contact Maori through Ashikaga Yoshiaki and use Maori to contain Xiuji in China. On the other hand, if the Maori can’t help in Xiuji, it’s no good to cooperate with Ashikaga Yoshiaki specially.

However, Fujita also admitted that there was no evidence that Maori knew Akechi Mitsuhide’s rebel plan beforehand. The Maori have been negotiating with Hideyoshi, trying their best to avoid a decisive battle with Weaving Tian Jun. Assuming that Ashikaga Yoshiaki colluded with Akechi Mitsuhide, the Maori should have heard the news. Maori knows nothing, which means that Ashikaga Yoshiaki doesn’t know Akechi Mitsuhide’s plan either.

As mentioned earlier, regarding the appointment of Nobuyoda as a general in Article 4, Nobuyoda never said that he wanted to be a general. Although it can be explained as just putting on airs and not accepting immediately, Literally speaking, Nobuyasu Oda’s attitude towards this appointment is not positive. As Kanda has inferred, this is because Nobuyuki Oda is concerned about the current general Ashikaga Yoshiaki.

Nobunaga is always regarded as a destroyer of order, but in reality, he respects the emperor, generals, monasteries and so on. He also tried to reconcile with Ashikaga Yoshiaki after he was exiled. Nobunaga’s image as a thorough realist was created on the basis of a report written by Jesuit missionaries to the Jesuit headquarters in Japan. Missionaries did not report to their home country that their patron Nobunobu Oda still respected Japanese tradition, but greatly exaggerated Nobunobu Oda’s rationality and progress.

Regarding the second article, there is a passage in Akechi Mitsuhide’s letter to Tuqiao Pingwei on June 12th, the tenth year of Tianzheng, "It means to leave Shenし, pay け ら れ て, show し to ぃ, and wait for it quickly. However, it means to enter Luo. Tatsumoto Fujita translated this as: "I have been informed of the life of assisting Italy (Ashikaga Yoshiaki), and thank you for telling me. However, I (Akechi Mitsuhide) have received the request from Yi Zhao to return to Beijing before. " On this basis, Tatsumoto Fujita claimed that before the change of Beneng Temple, Ashikaga Yoshiaki had contact with Akechi Mitsuhide.

However, a closer look at the original text shows that no words with the meaning of "before" can be found. What’s more, since Akechi Mitsuhide has promised to help Ashikaga Yoshiaki return to Beijing, it seems strange that Tuqiao Pingwei asked Akechi Mitsuhide to "assist the general to return to Beijing". There are two possibilities to analyze the reasons: one is that Tuqiao Pingwei doesn’t know that Ashikaga Yoshiaki and Akechi Mitsuhide have cooperated; The other is that although Akechi Mitsuhide replied that he would help Yizhao "return to the capital", there has been no action, so Tuqiao sent a letter urging him. If it is the former, then Ashikaga Yoshiaki’s plan to return to Beijing is too hasty. If it is the latter, it shows that Akechi Mitsuhide did not take Ashikaga Yoshiaki seriously. No matter how you look at it, this passage can’t support Fujita’s statement.

The reason why Daisei Fujiwara translated the word "before" is to read "however" in the original text as "しかれども" and interpret it as a turning point. However, Mr. Toyo and Mr. Fujimoto think that it should be pronounced "しかして" as the meaning of "then", so that the sentence is more fluent. That is to say, Akechi Mitsuhide learned of Ashikaga Yoshiaki’s plan to return to Beijing for the first time after he got a letter from Tuqiao Pingwei, so he wrote back and said that he would help. This historical data proves that after the change of Benneng Temple, Akechi Mitsuhide was considering how to cooperate with Ashikaga Yoshiaki. At the same time, it also proves that the two did not cooperate before the incident. Even after the change of Benneng Temple, Akechi Mitsuhide did not actively contact Ashikaga Yoshiaki. On June 9th, Akechi Mitsuhide didn’t mention Ashikaga Yoshiaki in his letter to the old curtain minister Hosokawa Fujitaka. Akechi Mitsuhide had hoped that Hosokawa Fujitaka, who had a good relationship with him, could join his side, but Hosokawa Fujitaka shaved off his hair in memory of Nobunobu Oda and refused Akechi Mitsuhide’s persuasion. Akechi Mitsuhide hurriedly sent a personal letter, hoping to convince Hosokawa Fujitsu, and this letter also made no mention of Ashikaga Yoshiaki.

If Akechi Mitsuhide’s crusade against Nobunaga was ordered by Ashikaga Yoshiaki, it would be a very convincing reason for Hosokawa Fujitaka, an old curtain minister of Ashikaga Yoshiaki. On the other hand, the fact that Ashikaga Yoshiaki was not mentioned in the letter just shows that Akechi Mitsuhide was not ordered by Ashikaga Yoshiaki, and after the crusade against Nobunobu Oda, he did not have the idea of establishing Ashikaga Yoshiaki.

Akechi Mitsuhide wrote back to Tuqiao Pingwei on June 12th, the day before the battle of Yamazaki. At this time, his in-laws are also famous for their filial piety of Hosokawa Fujitsu and Shunqing Tansui, who didn’t support him as he expected, but Hideyoshi led an army as close as Kyoto. In such a desperate situation, Akechi Mitsuhide finally decided to welcome Ashikaga Yoshiaki back to Beijing. It’s like a drowning man grabbing a straw.

Contact before the plot is carried out is too dangerous.

Article 3 says that Akechi Mitsuhide has contacted Chousokabe Motochika, Honganji, Uesugi Kagekatsu. What is the truth? Taniguchi Keguang pointed out that the so-called cooperation with Chousokabe Motochika and Honganji is weak. For the cooperation with Uesugi Kagekatsu, Tatsuma Fujita took Kawabe Tadashi’s letter to Naoe Kanetsugu on June 3rd as evidence, and this article was included in the Collection of Imperial Letters of Sensei Shanggong (the original text was "Yesterday, those who had to be guarded by Sumitomo Tanaka called on officials to stop, and then they didn’t apply."

The Collection of Imperial Letters from the Duke of Jueshang is a chronicle compiled by Mizefan’s Shangshan family, which records what happened in Shangshan’s family when Uesugi Kagekatsu was the head of the family. It is written in the form of entries, and the source of the canon is indicated. The existing Collection of Imperial Books of Jueshang Gong was written by Fanyu Hirata in the late Edo period, and was originally compiled in the early Edo period. The letter of Tadashi Kawaguchi contained in this book is the first-hand historical data about the change of Benneng Temple.

Tatsumoto Fujita’s contribution lies in introducing this historical material to the world, but his interpretation of it is worthy of further consideration. According to the date of "June 3rd" and the sentence "Yesterday, Sumitomo Suda defended the party and called for an official to stop", he thought that on June 1st, Sumitomo Suda, the minister of Shangshan and commander of Vietnam and China, conveyed to Tadashi Kawasaki, the minister of Shangshan in the mountain city of Yueri, that "a wise envoy has arrived in Yuezhong Yujin City". If this explanation is correct, then the wise messenger has arrived in Yujin City by the end of May at the latest. As mentioned earlier, the change of Beneng Temple took place on June 2nd, so Tatsuma Fujita claimed that Akechi Mitsuhide sent messengers to convey the rebellion plan to Shangshan before deciding on the rebellion.

However, the Ancient Cases of Past Dynasties, which was also compiled by Misawa Fan in the early Edo period, also contains almost the same letters from Kawabe Tadashi, but there is no date and recipient. It is possible that the date and the recipient in the Collection of Imperial Letters of the Awakening Master were added by Fan Yu Hirata when copying. Therefore, the date of June 3 is not necessarily credible.

Yujin City was surrounded by Oda troops at the end of May (it fell on June 3rd), so it was not easy for Akechi Mitsuhide’s emissary to sneak into the city. In case of being caught by the soldiers of Oda, if word gets out, everything will be over. Is such a big risk worth taking?

Fujita Dasheng speculated that Yujincheng might open the gate during the peace talks between Ueda and Uesugi, so when the siege of Ueda was loose on May 27th and 28th (the war broke out again on 29th), Akechi Mitsuhide’s emissaries took the opportunity to blend into Yujincheng. However, how did Akechi Mitsuhide foresee that the siege of weaving fields would be temporarily relaxed? Even if the angel of Akechi Mitsuhide enters Yujin City, there is no guarantee that Uesugi Kagekatsu will support Akechi Mitsuhide. Is it necessary to do so at the risk of information leakage? It is reasonable to speculate that Akechi Mitsuhide’s envoy entered the city not at the end of May, but after Shibata Katsuie learned of the change of Benneng Temple and withdrew his troops on June 8.

Moreover, Tatsumoto Fujita’s explanation of the wise emissary’s statement that "there is no other way for the defending party to go ahead and apply for it" is also unreasonable. He translated it as "I hope the Shangshan family can do their best for us". Akechi Mitsuhide is just Nobunaga’s retainer. It is too arrogant to explain that he wants to go to Sugiyama’s house to "do his best" for him, so the object of his best efforts can’t be Akechi Mitsuhide. Therefore, Fujita believes that this place is not for Akechi Mitsuhide, but for General Ashikaga Yoshiaki. That is to say, under the instruction of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Akechi Mitsuhide asked Uesugi Kagekatsu to help Ashikaga Yoshiaki regain power.

However, if Akechi Mitsuhide is really assisting Ashikaga Yoshiaki, then he should use words such as "Shangyi" and "Gongyi" to express the meaning of Yizhao. Furthermore, assuming that this is really what Ashikaga Yoshiaki said, it is quite rude to just ask for help from Sugiyama, which is a bit lame as a language of persuasion. Suzuki Masaya and Fujimoto think that the meaning of this sentence is not "I hope to do my best for the Shangshan family", but "I (Akechi Mitsuhide) will do my best for the Shangshan family". Akechi Mitsuhide tried his best for Shang Shan’s family, so he also hoped that Shang Shan’s family would help him.

We don’t know exactly how Akechi Mitsuhide intends to "do his best". Probably, he will send reinforcements to Hokuriku soon, and before that, he hopes to stall Shibata Katsuie’s troops first.

In recent years, Kenji Ishizaki has put forward a new historical material, that is, a letter from Uesugi Kagekatsu to Youzu Temple (the diplomatic monk of Lu Mingshi in Austria) on June 9 (the tenth year of the reign of Heaven). Judging from the contents of the letter, Uesugi Kagekatsu did not grasp the real situation of the change of Benneng Temple. The content of the letter is probably that Hideyoshi was surrounded by Maori troops and Oda Nobuyuki sent troops to rescue him, but before the rescue, Hideyoshi died and Oda Nobuyuki had no choice but to withdraw. At this moment, Nobuzumi Tusda (Oda Nobuyuki’s nephew and Akechi Mitsuhide’s son-in-law) betrayed him, which led to Oda Nobuyuki’s suicide. If Uesugi Kagekatsu had known Akechi Mitsuhide’s rebellion in advance, he wouldn’t have believed such outrageous rumors.

The actual benefit of collusion is not great.

Akechi Mitsuhide didn’t contact Uesugi Kagekatsu before the coup, but after it, which once again reminded us of the importance of secrecy in the process of plotting.

Not only Mr Fujita, but also shady people emphasize that if Akechi Mitsuhide had not established a strong alliance in advance, he would not have been able to make up his mind to fight Nobuyasu Oda. However, it is not always beneficial to establish an alliance beforehand.

If the anti-Nobunaga forces unite as they did when Ashikaga Yoshiaki launched Nobunaga to encircle the net, their strength will surpass that of Oda Nobunaga. Takeda Shingen suddenly betrayed Nobunaga and began to lead the army westward. When he launched an offensive, Nobunaga faced the biggest crisis in his life.

However, at this time of ten years, even if the celebrities outside Oda clan unite, it is difficult to defeat Nobunobu Oda. Both Maori and Shangsugi are at a disadvantage in the battle with Oda clan. Even if Nobunobu Oda died, they could not organize a large-scale counterattack. They had no spare capacity then.

It makes sense to form an alliance in advance only when we coordinate operations. As long as all forces are not attacking the woven field territory together, there is no need to form a special alliance. The military alliance between Japan, Germany and Italy is regarded as Japan’s mistake, and the reason is that even though there is no plan for coordinated operations (such as Japan and Germany attacking the Soviet Union together), they have still concluded an alliance. Just for the simple reason that "the enemy of the enemy is a friend", it is meaningless to establish a nominal alliance, but in fact, if we fight separately.

Maybe some people will argue that if Nobuyasu Oda is going to die in advance, wouldn’t a large-scale counter-offensive be launched simultaneously when Nobuyasu Oda dies? However, in this way, it is necessary to tell the ministers everywhere that "Nobu Oda will die soon and be ready to counterattack", so it is unrealistic to publicize it so much. Furthermore, even if Akechi Mitsuhide informed Shangshan and Maori before the attack, what they could do beforehand was very limited.

The benefits of prior contact can at most prevent Shangshan and Maori from surrendering to Oda clan prematurely. However, even if there is no prior contact, if Nobuyasu Oda dies and Jiada Tian is in chaos, if they judge that this is an opportunity, they will launch a counterattack and attack Oda territory. On the other hand, even if they promise to help Akechi Mitsuhide in advance, such a promise is meaningless. Uesugi Kagekatsu and Mōri Terumoto didn’t know Akechi Mitsuhide, let alone trust. If they find it difficult to attack Oda, they can sit back and watch the fight between Oda and Akechi Mitsuhide, and then support the side that is beneficial to them.

The example of Guan Yuan’s joint war can illustrate this truth more clearly. Mōri Terumoto got in touch with Ishida Mitsunari through Ankokuji Ekei and attacked Tokugawa Ieyasu. But in this joint battle, the Maori army was actually a bystander. Although Mōri Terumoto and Ishida Mitsunari are old friends, Mōri Terumoto still failed to keep his promise. Thus, it is impossible for the sophisticated Akechi Mitsuhide to expect much from the unknown Shang Shan and Maori.

In a word, no matter whether they collude in advance or not, the actions that Shangshan and Maori can take will not change much. In this way, there is no need for Akechi Mitsuhide to collude with them in advance at the risk of being discovered. As long as the two families are still there, they can play a role in containing Hideyoshi and Shibata Katsuie, which is enough for Akechi Mitsuhide.

However, Mōri Terumoto reached a settlement with Hideyoshi, and did not pursue Hideyoshi who sent troops to Kyoto. Uesugi Kagekatsu also avoided the confrontation with the Northern Army of Shibata Katsuie and left Beixinnong. The development of the situation proves that Akechi Mitsuhide miscalculated. If Akechi Mitsuhide discussed with Ashikaga Yoshiaki and Uesugi Kagekatsu beforehand and got into such a situation, he can only say that he is beyond measure stupid. However, this should be impossible. Akechi Mitsuhide should have thought that even if they conspired beforehand, Shang Shan’s and Maori’s will finally take actions that are beneficial to them, and they should not be harsh on their judgment.

Too absurd and absurd Jesuit shady theory

Li Hua Kyoko, who put forward the theory of the imperial court’s shady, overthrew his own statement in Nobunobu Oda and the Cross (2004) and turned to the theory of the Jesuits’ shady, which is summarized as follows:

First, the Jesuits were the pioneers of southern European (Spain, Portugal) forces in conquering Asia.

Secondly, the Jesuits supported Nobuyasu Oda’s great cause of reunifying Japan militarily and economically, with the aim of making Nobuyasu Oda conquer China by force and turn it into a Christian country.

Thirdly, because Nobuyuki Oda deified himself and wanted to be independent from the Jesuits, Jesus would use Akechi Mitsuhide to overthrow Nobuyuki Oda, and then use Hideyoshi to overthrow Akechi Mitsuhide.

The theory of imperial shady put forward by Kyoko before Lihua once became a topic in academic circles, but this time the theory of Jesuit shady was too absurd, and no one regarded it as a serious theory. Like Rothschild’s shady theory of Meiji Restoration, this theory is a typical conspiracy theory, which holds that history develops completely according to the idea of someone or a group.

The biggest problem with the Jesuit shady theory is that there is no historical data to prove the Jesuit military and economic support for Nobunobu Oda. There is no relevant record in the historical materials of Japan, nor in the historical materials of Jesuits. Lihua Kyoko argued that it was too confidential to write. If we look at the problem in this way, any conclusion can be justified. To put it to the extreme, according to this thinking, there is no difference between the Jesuits’ shady theory and "the change of Benneng Temple is an alien conspiracy".

The study of Jesuits shows that the Japanese branch of Jesuits is in financial difficulties and has no spare capacity to support the great cause of unification of Oda Nobuyasu economically. Objectively speaking, it was not the Jesuits who supported Nobu Oda, but Nobu Oda who protected the Jesuits.

In addition, Organtino, an important figure in the Japanese branch of Jesuits, fled to an island in Lake Biwa for fear that the wise army would attack Antu after the change of Beneng Temple. He was attacked on the way, and was robbed of his property by lake thieves, and met many unfortunate things. If the Jesuits had participated in the change of the Benneng Temple, such a thing would not have happened.

Hideyoshi shady said it was Monday morning quarterback.

By the way, hideyoshi shady said. This view holds that Hideyoshi and Akechi Mitsuhide are accomplices, or Hideyoshi induced Akechi Mitsuhide. Many writers hold this view. Although Kenzaburo, a wise man, advocated Jia Kang’s shady theory, he also believed that Hideyoshi knew Akechi Mitsuhide’s rebellion plan. This can be regarded as a subspecies of Hideyoshi’s shady theory.

Why is Hideyoshi considered to be behind the scenes? Because he was the one who got the most benefit from the change of Benneng Temple. Here, we have seen the thinking that "whoever gets the greatest benefit is the mastermind". It is also regarded as one of the arguments that there can be no China Great Turn-back without prior preparation.

After the change of Benneng Temple, Hideyoshi and Maori quickly reached a settlement. The change of Benneng Temple was on June 2nd, and the reconciliation was on June 4th, which was really amazing. Supporters of Hideyoshi’s shady theory believe that because Hideyoshi knew in advance that Nobunobu Oda would be attacked, Hideyoshi had gained the understanding of Kobayakawa Takakage and Ankokuji Ekei, so the reconciliation was so rapid.

But in fact, due to the water attack of Xiuji, the Maori side has been unable to rescue Beizhong Gaosongcheng, and it is actually the Maori side that proposes reconciliation. After hearing the news that Nonobunaga Oda sent troops, Hideyoshi arrogantly proposed that the Maori should cede the five countries of Beizhong, Beihou, Meizuo, Bomao and Izumo, so the negotiations did not progress. However, Xiuji made concessions after learning about the change of Benneng Temple, and only asked for the cession of Beizhong, Meizuo and Bojiao, and asked the Lord of Beizhong Gaosong to treat the abdomen. At this time, Maori knew nothing about the change of Benneng Temple and readily agreed to the conditions.

Some people also questioned why He Xiuji got the news of the change of Benneng Temple so soon. It’s not hard to speculate, because Hideyoshi knows Nobunobu Oda is sending troops, and he needs to know Nobunobu Oda’s movements (when will he arrive). If Nobunaga’s troops arrive, the negotiation policy between Hideyoshi and Maori will also change. Hideyoshi has set up an intelligence network, so he got the news of Akechi Mitsuhide’s rebellion in time.

As mentioned above, some people think that the amazing speed of China’s great turn-back is the evidence that Hideyoshi knew the truth beforehand. In particular, it is 70 kilometers from Numa City (now Okayama City) to Hiji Road, and Hideyoshi’s troops only took one day to walk, which really makes people wonder what is hidden. However, as Taniguchi Keguang pointed out, the truth is that only the main retainers (warriors on horseback) arrived in Himeji in one day, while the infantry did not arrive so fast. In fact, there were quite a few people who missed the battle of Yamazaki.

After Akechi Mitsuhide crusaded against Nobunaga, he again crusaded against Akechi Mitsuhide, thus inheriting Nobunaga’s position. To regard this series of actions as Hideyoshi’s calculation can only be said to be Monday morning quarterback. Even if Hideyoshi did collude with Ankokuji Ekei and others in advance, there is no guarantee that the Maori will not tear up the peace talks and attack Hideyoshi after learning about the change of Benneng Temple.

In fact, that’s what Hōjō Ujimasa did. After learning that there was a change in Kyoto, he promised to help Ueno’s Yoshikawa, but after confirming the death of Nobunobu Oda, he turned to attack Ueno. After Hideyoshi concluded the peace treaty, he also observed the movement of the Maori army before he began to retreat. Hideyoshi was the most successful person in the Oda regime, and there was no reason to murder Nobuyasu Oda at the risk of being attacked by Maori and Akechi Mitsuhide. What’s more, a little careless, he will personally give the throne of the world to his opponent Akechi Mitsuhide. What good does such a conspiracy have for Hideyoshi?

(This article is taken from Wu Zuoyong’s book "Wars and Conspiracy in Ancient Japan: From the Hegemony of Yuanping to the Battle of Guanyuan", translated by Ji Xiaopeng, Houlang, Guangdong Tourism Publishing House, October 2020. The Paper was authorized to publish, and now the title is drawn up by the editor. )