What was China like before Xia Dynasty?

The historical period before the ancient summer in China. Chinese ape-man (early1700,000 years, late 400,000 years) only left the primitive Paleolithic culture underground, and the myths and legends at that time could not be handed down. reach

About six or seven thousand years ago, various places went to the prosperous period of matriarchal clan commune in different forms, leaving no Neolithic culture behind. At this time, all ethnic groups have their own totem worship and quite naive religions and myths, but they are often hazy.

A description made by recalling or combining with later religious thoughts. About five or six thousand years ago, various places entered the patriarchal society one after another, with rich myths and legends.

The earliest fairy tales and historical legends are always fairy tales of clans and tribes about the origin and ancestors of their own clans or tribes. Such myths and legends are recorded in historical documents, and gradually occur from simple to many.

Complexity, from lack of system to gradual system, from strong divinity to humanity, from pure myth to the evolution of historical stories. From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Warring States Period, it was the evolution and change period of ancient historical myths and legends in China. Han/Han/Chinese/human

This generation has turned it into history and stereotype.

The ancient historical myths and legends in the documents of the Western Zhou Dynasty are the earliest documents reflecting ancient national myths and legends, and are some chapters belonging to the Western Zhou Dynasty in poetry books (including the remains of Xia and Shang documents processed during the Western Zhou Dynasty). There are also hexagrams in the Book of Changes, which do not clearly reflect some ancient myths and legends of Shang and Zhou Dynasties with historical facts as the background.

The ancient myths and legends seen in these documents only say that both Shang and Zhou families were born of gods and lived in a land spread by gods. Before Shang Dynasty, there was Xia, and Xia, Shang and Zhou came down in one continuous line, and their activities were in "Yuji".

Domain, Xia and Zhou are descendants of Xitu, and Yin Shang is a tribe of the East. The poem "Daya" says that the marriage family of the Zhou Dynasty has been the Chiang family since its ancestors. According to Xing, there are both Miao families and Li families.

Tian Wen, an ancient historical myth and legend contained in Tian Wen, is a mythical epic until the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. Its historical scope is similar to Shi and Shu, but far less than Guoyu and Zuo Zhuan. According to Mr. Gu Jiegang's textual research, Tian Wen was not written by Qu Yuan, and it is roughly the same as Shangshu and Shijing.

The 369 sentences in Tian Wen put forward 178 questions, including the creation of heaven and earth, the legend of flood, the situation of the earth, the legend of Xia ancient history, the legend of Shang ancient history, the legend of Zhou ancient history, the anecdote of ancient history and historical events.

Legends and other eight aspects. In Jiuwen, Xia, Shang and Zhou are still considered as the historical system of ancient China. Before summer, there were stories about the opening of heaven and earth and the flood. The earliest gods after the creation of heaven and earth were Gun and Yu, and there were also mythical people such as Gong and Shun.

Things, there is a Yao's name. ② The history of the Shang Dynasty in Syria began with Shun, the ancestor of the Shang Dynasty. There are no ancient myths and legends in Tian Wen, such as Huang Di, Tai□, Shao□, Zhuan Xu, Levin,,, Jintian, Qin Zubo and Chu Zuzhu Rong. In Guoyu and Zuozhuan, we can see that Tian Wen was recorded long before these legends appeared.

Ancient Historical Legends in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Early Warring States Period The main documents from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Early Warring States Period are Guoyu and Zuo Zhuan. The names of ancient Syrian gods have increased, and ancient legends are numerous. The most important person began to say that Yu, Xia, Shang and Thursday are the same generation, and their

Ancestor gods are Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi and several ancestors that each generation must sacrifice. The ancestors of Qi, Chu and Qin also put forward; Abandon the names of ancient emperors such as Huangdi, * * Gong, Tai□ (Hao), Shao□ and Zhuan Xu.

Time, and some of their heritage sites; Sixteen descendants of Levin and Gao Xin were associated with Yao Shun, and four descendants of Di Hong, Shao Hao, Zhuan Xu and Jinyun struggled with Yao Shun. In ...

Gao Xin is the ancestor of Shang Tang clan, and Zhuan Xu is the ancestor of Shun and Chu. Yu's grades have also improved. In addition to paving the ground to cure floods, he also divided Kyushu and became a country god.

During this period, the system of ancestors and ancestors in ancient legends became more complicated. Ancestors of Shang, Zhou, Jiang, Yan, Mi and Miao. All come from the ancestral system of this family; The legendary Yu Dynasty, in addition to serving various gods in the East, also took the Yellow Emperor in the West as its ancestor and then incorporated it into its own ancestral system. Although the ancestor system of Xia Dynasty was Xizu, Zhuan Xu, the ancestor of Dongzu, was welcomed into his ancestor system as a descendant of the Yellow Emperor because he merged with the eastern tribes after establishing a dynasty in the East. In addition, the lineages of several prominent families have appeared in the East. At this time, Yao's position in the east has been improved. But it is still not prominent and has not yet become a god.

Shan Hai Jing is a complete collection of fairy tales in the Warring States Period, which collected all the ancient myths handed down at that time, and many genealogies of gods appeared in the second half of the book. The book is divided into mountain classics and sea classics. Mountain Classic should be written in the early Warring States period, and Sea Classic should be written in Qin or Qin and Han Dynasties. In the book, the lineages of mythical characters are described in the Sea Classic, while the Mountain Classic only mentions the names of some gods and their activities sporadically. It can be seen that the lineage of the gods was arranged in the Qin and Han Dynasties, but the content of the myth followed the ancient legends. In Shan Hai Jing, there are not only most ancient mythical figures in other ancient books, but also countless new gods. For example, there are gods guarding or living in various places and mountains, and the famous Queen Mother of the West is also seen for the first time in this book. However, Emperor Yao has not yet entered the lineage of the gods, and other grades are relatively low.

Ancient historical legends processed and arranged in the middle and late warring States period; In order to promote their own theories, the philosophers of the Warring States competed to tell ancient history. Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, France, soldiers, miscellaneous scholars, debaters and poets all talked about ancient historical figures to some extent. Except for ...

Taoism, legalism and military strategists all put forward new ancient emperors, and most other families make up their own stories based on the original legendary figures.

(1) Confucianism and Mohism highly admire Yao Shunyu's historical system of "two emperors and three kings", which is called Yao Shun. Confucianism says that Yao is as big as heaven, and Yao, Shun and Yu are the highest moral saints who learn from heaven. Mohism said that they were holy kings, and they were handed over by talents. Confucianism collected materials to compile Yao Dian and Hao Tao Mo, processed Yu Gong, shaped the great cause of Yao Shun and Yu, and compiled the historical system of "two emperors (Yao Shun) and three kings (Yu, Tang,)". Yao Dun, who was in a low position, became a holy king, and Tang was also respected. Therefore, the system of two emperors and three kings arranged by Confucianism for political purposes is different from that recorded in ancient history

(2) There are two theories of "Five Emperors". After the spread of the historical system of "two emperors and three kings", it became the historical system of "five emperors and three kings" at the end of the Warring States period. San huang was added before Yao Shun, and the first kind of "Five Emperors" was put forward.

The Five Emperors' Virtue selected Huangdi, Zhuan Xu, Di Ku and Yao Shun as the five emperors in the Imperial Department. The second theory of "Emperor" was put forward by Jackson Yee, Bao, Shennong, Huangdi and Yao Shun.

(3) Taoism, France, military strategists and so on put forward the names of many ancient emperors. Guanzi said that there was a "king of the 79th generation". "Feng Chan" said, "The ancients sealed 72 Zen ancestors of Mount Tai." Zhuangzi listed an ancient imperial system of twelve people: Rongcheng, Dating, Zhongxun, Kurita, Li Livestock, Xuanyuan, Hexu, Zunlu, Zhu Rong, Fuxi and Shennong. Fuxi and Shennong listed are far behind Xuanyuan and at the end of the ancient imperial system. Tamia Liu listed,, Leo Lee, * *, Gong, Zonglu, Zhu Rong, yongcheng, Chaos,, You Chao, Zhu Xiang,,,, * *. However, the book "Yizhoushu" is not accurate in time. It lists 26 families of ancient emperors, and the names are rare. It seems that it was added in the late Warring States period.

(4) The sage Lv Chunqiu called the three or five emperors, and the rest were ancient emperors. Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals is a collection of opinions, so the opinions of ancient emperors are different. Twelve Ji puts forward the third theory of five emperors, namely Tai Hao, Yan Di, Huangdi, Shao Hao and Zhuan Xu. The ranking of ancient emperors in ancient music is: Zhu, Ge, Tao, Huangdi, Zhuan Xu, Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, and He. The English Complete Book defines the ancient imperial circulation system put forward by Zou Yan, a Yin and Yang scholar at the end of the Warring States Period as: Huangdi (earth)-Xia (wood)-Shang (gold)-Zhou (fire)-(water). There was only one ancient emperor before Xia, Shang and Zhou, which is the same as the historical system in The Book of Songs, but takes danger as a different view.

⑤ Ancient emperors in Songs of the South. The ancestors of Chu people, such as Levin, Yao, Shun, Gun and Yu, as well as some historical and mythical figures in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, all came from the legends of the Central Plains. It can be seen that the degree of integration between the North and South nationalities at that time was proved to come from the same ancestor of China.

⑥ The proposal of "Youchao, Suiren, etc.". In the late Warring States period, philosophers suggested that the families of Youchao, Sui, Fuxi and Shennongtian were all in front of the Yellow Emperor. These four gods with symbolic names represent three stages of the development of early human civilization, namely, the ignorance and barbarism experienced by China's ancestors.

At the end of the Warring States period, as a reflection of the great national integration, the article "Royal Family" appeared, which historicized all the main mythological figures and ancient ancestors of all ethnic groups and arranged them into a unified ancient historical lineage by blood relationship. this

The first generation system reflected the objective need of unification at that time. This generation system was originally a reflection of "two emperors and three kings" of Confucianism and Mohism, that is, the ancient history theories of Tang, Yu, Xia, Shang and Wu. However, due to national integration, all ethnic groups in the Five Dynasties were classified as Zhuan Xu and Di Ku, which made them have the same blood relationship and became the direct descendants of the ancestors of the Yellow Emperor, so they became "five emperors and three kings", which reflected that the unified Chinese nation had been fully formed.

As for the in-laws Jiang surname of the Zhou family since the Western Zhou Dynasty, the important Dongditai, Shao and Xidiyan since the Spring and Autumn Period all withdrew from the historical stage at the end of the Warring States Period, thus disappearing from this lineage table. This is also the result of national integration.

The myths and legends of ancient history after the Han Dynasty continued to be fabricated in the Han Dynasty, which was no longer the historical content of the original legend period. For example, the story of Spring and Autumn Annals puts forward the three-body theory, saying that ancient emperors were replaced from generation to generation according to the three-body theory of black, white and red. This generation and the previous two generations were "three kings", with "five emperors" before them and "nine emperors" after them. In addition to the three-system cycle, it was accompanied by the four methods of "Xia, Shang, Quality and Wen", which completed a big cycle in the twelfth generation, surpassing Zou Yan's theory of the beginning of five virtues.

Increasing complexity is actually rootless.

The secretaries of Huai Nan Zi, Lun Heng, Shuo Wen and Custom Tong all have stories about the goddess mending the sky, transforming everything and creating human beings (the embryonic form of the story has been seen in Shan Hai Jing, and it was named Nu Wa in Han Dynasty); Created nuwa and.

Fuxi brothers and sisters gave birth to human beings for the couple. These stories often appear in stone carvings and silk paintings in the Han Dynasty.

There is a complete imperial system in the ancient history of China, which is arranged in the order of five virtues: Tai Hao Baoxi-* * * Gong-Yan Di Shennong-Huangdi Xuanyuan Huangdi-Shao Hao Jintian-Zhuan Xugao.

Yang's family-Di Ku's family-Emperor Zhi-Emperor's Tang family-Emperor Shun's You Yushi family-Apollo's Xia Houshi-Shang Tang-Zhou Wenwang, King Wu-Qin Bo-Emperor Gaozu. Since then, this system has come down in one continuous line with feudal emperors and has been observed from Wei and Jin Dynasties to Qing Dynasty. Among them, from Apollo to the above all belong to the legendary period. In the Han Dynasty, Shu Wei put forward many ancient myths according to the word "Huang San" at the end of Qin Dynasty (see Three Emperors and Five Emperors), such as three historical "Huang San" theories; There are ten periods of fabricated ancient history (from Jiutou to Shu Jie), each of which is more than 270,000 years old.

Each has a dozen or twenty surnames. Imitating the preface to the history of ancient literature, the Eastern Jin Dynasty designated the first three as "Huang San" and the last five as "Five Emperors", which not only put forward the fourth theory of "Five Emperors", but also

The theory of "Three Emperors and Five Emperors" became the earliest ancient history system in the legendary period of China. But in fact, this is a pseudo-history, not a primitive ancient legend.

At the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms, Xú Zhēng put forward Pangu Theory, which became the oldest human myth before all ancient legends. "Since Pangu opened the world, three emperors and five emperors have come to this day" has become the stereotype of China's ancient history. This theory may come from the myth of ethnic minorities, not from ancient times.

Understanding of Modern Legendary Period The opinions put forward by some scholars in the Tang and Song Dynasties had a far-reaching impact on modern scholars' exploration of ancient legendary period. For example, Liu Zhiji's Shi Tong in the Tang Dynasty questioned many ancient things, and Liu Shu in the Song Dynasty and Cui Shu in the Qing Dynasty clarified the views of Huang San, the Five Emperors and the Ten Dynasties. In modern times, he inherited the spirit of doubt and the knowledge of western historiography, and then put forward a new understanding of ancient historical legends. For example, when Kang Youwei inspected Confucius' system reform, the first one was "inspecting the absurdity of ancient times", and he believed that the philosophers of the Warring States made up ancient history through the ancient system. In the first chapter of Xia Cengyou's Ancient History of China, the Three Emperors and Five Emperors were called "the Age of Suspicion" composed of "ancient myths". Therefore, all the statements about Three Emperors, Five Emperors and Nine Emperors Pangu, Huang Sanhe and Shijie are not credible. Later, Tang Yu, the first volume of Miao's Outline of China's General History, was also marked as "the year of doubting the world", saying that "Huang San's theory is based on the concretization of Taoist ideal world." Meng, who discussed with Miao, thought that the Three Emperors and Five Emperors were gods rather than human beings, and said that they were born in the "Trinity". The Five Emperors said that they left the Warring States Qin Dynasty because of the "Five Movements".

Mr. Gu Jiegang put forward "the theory of ancient history" in "Discrimination of Ancient History". It is believed that "the longer the time, the longer the ancient history of the legend, and the bigger the central figure of the legend." It is known that in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the earliest god was Yu, followed by Yao, Shun, Huangdi, Shennong, Fuxi, Emperor, Huangdi and Qin Huang, and the earliest Pangu was formed in the Three Kingdoms. As for the lineage of ancient emperors compiled at the end of the Warring States Period, it is believed that Shang and Shang only regard this clan as gods, which has nothing to do with other clans, while Tai and Zhuan Xu are also ancestors of different nationalities. In the Warring States period, small countries were annexed and gradually unified. Some people began to change the "horizontal system" of the ancestral gods of various countries into "vertical system" and "drawing adult tables" and compiled the descendants of the Yellow Emperor, thus bringing together the ancestral gods of unrelated national legends into a unified ancient history system.

Then some people distinguish several major systems of ancient history and legend according to the different geographical distribution of ethnic groups. For example, Fu Sinian's Yi Xia Dong Xi Shuo is divided into Xixia, Dongyi and Nanmiao. Meng's Ancient History of Wei Zhen is divided into oceans.

Dai nationality, Heluo nationality and Jianghan nationality are represented by different legends of Zou Lu, Jin and Chu according to people's feelings, while Yang Kuan's Introduction to the Ancient History of China is divided into oriental nationality and western nationality, each of which produces myths and legends, and is called the God of America.

But God Xu, who vilified each other, divided the legendary era of China ancient history into Huaxia School, Dongyi School and Miao Man School, and their interaction constituted the progress of ancient history.

Others tried to compare archaeological cultural knowledge from the perspective of social development, so the debate about China's social history started between historical materialists and famous brand players in the 1930s. At this time, the following different theories appeared: Pangu and you.

Wo, Sui Man, Nu Wa, etc. It belongs to the Paleolithic Age and the Five Emperors belong to the Neolithic Age. Above Shennong is a primitive * * * production society, and Shennong to Tang Tao is a village * * * production society; The Five Emperors were the first feudal countries, and Tang and Yu were the second feudal countries. Photo courtesy of Huangdi

In Teng society, Tang and Yu were the era of primitive mode of production, and summer was the era of Asian mode of production; From the Tang Dynasty to the Xia Dynasty, the Neolithic Age advanced to the Bronze Age, and summer was the beginning of feudalism. The purpose of these statements is to try to

It demonstrates that China is not applicable to the history of social development, denies the existence of slavery in China, and thus distorts the social nature of China at that time.

1929, Guo Moruo wrote a book "Research on Ancient Society in China", which correctly demonstrated that ancient society in China could not be divorced from the general principles of social development, and there was indeed a slave society transformed from the primitive commune system, and thought that "Shang Dynasty and Shang Dynasty".

A generation ago, it was a primitive production society. " That is, "the legend of the birth of three generations of ancestors since the Yellow Emperor ... is an era of wild hybridization, ... preserving the shadow of some clan society". Oppose "taking ancient myths and legends as official history". 1930 wrote "problems" and thought that "Yu should be a fairy in the legend of Xia people". By 1952, he wrote "The Age of Slavery", arguing that "the mode of production of Xia, Yin and Zhou can only be slavery", and the primitive society before Xia was a legendary era.

Lv Zhenyu, on the other hand, directly challenged the fallacies of Trotskyism and New Life School in the social history debate in 1930s. 1933, he wrote "A Social Study of China's Early History", which clarified the * * * identity of the development law of human society and defined the Yao, Shun and Yu era as.

The development of matriarchal clan society in China was completed, and the enlightenment era was a period of great change in which paternal line replaced matriarchal line; Before entering the country, the geographical distribution and development process of the two tribal alliances in Xia and Shang dynasties were roughly the same as Yangshao culture and dragon.

The distribution areas and development clues of mountain cultural sites are basically similar.

1940 Zhou Gucheng wrote the Political History of China, expounding the general situation of ancient clans, and pointed out that "the legendary Huangdi, Yao, Shun, Yu, Shang Tang,, and so on can all be said to be the process of clan unification. ..... The Yellow Emperor ... United with tribal leaders to unite the tribe. ..... Secondly, it is said that Tang Yao and Wende joined the clan ".

Fan Wenlan wrote the Outline of General History of China in 194 1, holding that the legendary period began in the era of the Yellow Emperor. The Huangdi clan came from the west and joined forces with the Yan Qiang clan against the barbarians. Yao, Shun and Yu organized a tribal alliance with Huangdi as the main group and Qiang as the auxiliary group, which was the end of clan commune. The revised version of 1954 added information about Huangdi, Zhuan Xu and Emperor.

All races establish big tribes.

1943, Jian bozan wrote "China History Collection", and thought that the prehistoric culture in Gansu was Xia culture, which was divided into two parts. Eastern Xia had the remains before Yangshao period, and many clans in it were the Central Plains culture in the Neolithic Age after Yangshao.

Master, the late Neolithic Age was the Xia Jie Age. It is also said that Fuxi, Shennong and Yaoshun were the period of ignorance and the middle period of barbarism in the history of China, followed by Huangdi, Zhuan Xu, Zhizhi, Yu, Gao, Tao and Yi.

Paired and handed over to the double-headed military leader of matriarchal clan society.

China Historical Draft edited by Guo Moruo said: "Tang Yao, Yu Shun and Xia Yuquan are famous figures in the late patriarchal society in China ... they are close to the edge of civilization and class society. ..... clan

Instead of being elected by the people, there is a hereditary king, and thus a key figure in this regard. "

Different families have different understandings of the legendary period, which shows that it is still being explored. The study of the legendary period should be based on different legendary materials in different periods, distinguish its beginning and later generations, and distinguish its truth from falsehood.

Under the guidance of historical materialism, we can have a deeper understanding of the legendary period by correctly using the research results of ethnology and archaeology to investigate its evolution.