<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="1" > the first section of the Vang Vieng Xue's several problems to correct! </h1>
Through the combing of the previous article, we briefly reviewed the entire process of the Wanrong Xue family from its origin and development, rise and expansion, glory and prosperity to the point of being flat, and also roughly took stock of the outstanding figures that emerged in the history of this family. At the same time, in the process of research, the author also feels that some problems have not been fully clarified, and there is still a need for further correction; even some questions have not yet been completely answered today, and it is still necessary to continue to study and solve them. Therefore, the author hereby lists these doubtful, controversial issues that need to be further studied, and seeks to verify them with relevant experts.
First, Xue's identity problem is corrected
There are basically three different views on the origin of Wanrong Xueshi. One view inherits the claims of historians of past dynasties, placing the family under the lineage of the Yellow Emperor, believing that they are the descendants of Xue Guangde of the Western Han Dynasty, and are in the same line as the Xue clan of Yanzhou, Shandong. The second view is that the Vang Vieng Xue clan originated from ethnic minorities in the southwest region. This view began with Mr. Chen Yinke and Mr. Zhou Liangzhu, followed by some experts in the academic circles who studied Hedong Xueshi, such as Xu Rongsheng's "Hedong XueShi Research", Hou Jirun's "Hedong XueShi Research" and some of Ms. Liang Qing's achievements. The third view also believes that the Xue clan is descended from ethnic minorities, but they believe that the Xue clan should be after the Linggan clan of the Xianbei clan in the north. Therefore, the original identity of Wanrong Xueshi is worth exploring.
In my opinion, the third view is pure nonsense. The change of the Linggan clan to Xia and the change of surname to Xue was after Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei moved the capital to Luoyang. Long before that, it was already known as "Hedong Shu" and "Xue Shu"; by the time Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty changed the Hu surname to a Han surname in the twentieth year (496), the Fenyin Xue clan was already "Hedong Mao". In the same year, Emperor Xiaowen also presided over another task, that is, to include a number of Xianbei noble surnames and traditional Han surnames in the "county surname", and the Fenyin Xue clan had already been included in the Hedong county surname because of its high prestige and huge family influence. In fact, at that time, Emperor Xiaowen had reservations about Xue's inclusion of the county surname, but the main reason for his objection was that he believed that "Xue, Shu also", that is, Xue was "not Han and non-Yu" and could not be included in the county surname. Since xue is not a "yu surname", then it is simply untenable to think that they are descendants of the Ling gan clan. ①
So, did the Wanrong Xue clan really belong to the "Shu people" as Emperor Xiaowen said? This was actually a problem that had already been solved at the time. Through the efforts of Xue Cong and others, the view of Hedong Xue as a Han door valve has been recognized by the society at that time, otherwise, Xue would not have entered the Hedong County surname in a dignified manner. However, in recent times, a number of scholars have been suspicious of this one after another. In their treatises, Chen Yinke and Mr. Zhou Liang only determined that the original identity of the Wanrong Xue clan should belong to the Shu ethnic group, or a certain ethnic minority in Shudi, and the argument seems to be insufficient. The more complete exposition of the view that Xue Shi belongs to the identity of the Shu people should be Xu Rongsheng, Hou Jirun and other gentlemen. Their evidence focuses on the following areas.
First, from the perspective of organizational structure, the Xue clan at that time was called "tribe" and the leader was called "Zonghao", which should be a social unit of ethnic minorities, or even had the color of an army, which was inconsistent with the culture of the Central Plains; second, Xue Lan's descendants Xue Yong and Xue Qishi were completely absent from any record, even if there was no record in the "Biography of Ji Han Fuchen" attached to the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"; third, the Xue clan in Yanzhou was a family of poetry and etiquette, and there were many famous scholars in the past, such as Xue Guangde was a scholar of scriptures. His descendants Xue Han also had a certain position in the poetry circles of the Eastern Han Dynasty, while the Xue clan in Hedong until the early years of the Northern Wei Dynasty had very few academic and cultural figures, but many of them were brave and brave, and the family style before and after was like clouds and mud, which was very different from the traditional lineage.
However, in the author's opinion, the above views are debatable.
First, since the time of Wang Mang, due to social unrest, the "Dock Wall" of gathering people to defend themselves by risk has appeared in large numbers, and by the Eastern Han Dynasty, such powerful landlords with private arms still abounded. Although the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu once adopted measures such as "Du Tian" to restrain it, the actual effect was not optimistic, and in the farms of large landlords, there were still a large number of private soldiers known as "Buqu" who were strong landlords with private arms, or Qu Shuai, or soldier commanders, who undoubtedly had the color of a certain army. In the peasant revolt at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, those who called "long" and "handsome" were more than a hundred! As a powerful landlord of the Yanzhou Xue clan at that time, it was normal for them to have private soldiers. It should be natural and unsurprising that they transplanted the original organizational structure to the economically and culturally backward southwest region, and then followed the customs and established a paramilitary organization in the form of "tribes." Moreover, the Xue clan moved into Shu land and was appointed as the local governor of Ba, Shu and other places, and its strength could only be the local barbarian tribe, just as the "Yue Family Army" and "Qi Family Army" were not all children of the Yue and Qi clans, and the Xue family would not completely change its original "tribe" organizational form because its leader was xue.
Second, Xue's failure to be included in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms or even the Records of The Auxiliary Ministers of Ji Han does not seem to be a reason to deny that Xue shi had entered Shu. Later generations evaluated the book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and believed that one of the obvious flaws was that the information was not comprehensive enough. Because the era of Chen Shou's writings is close to the Three Kingdoms, there are many historical materials that have not yet been disclosed, and there are fewer results that can be used; at the same time, because the countries have been determined, the enmity between each other has not been eliminated, and it is difficult to praise and deprecate fairly, which also brings great difficulties to the selection of materials; in addition, he is a private author and does not have the conditions to obtain a large number of documents and archives, and the above reasons have caused defects in the content of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". In particular, the Shu Han Dynasty had neither historical officials nor ready-made historical books to learn from, and historical materials were particularly lacking, and the deeds of many important figures in the Book of Shu were very briefly recorded. Xue's failure to enter history should be said to have a cause to follow. When analyzing the reasons why Xue Shi was not recorded in the historical materials at that time, Mr. Mao Hanguang of Taiwan believed that it was because "(Shu Shu) rarely biographed local officials, and huayang Guozhi. The Sages and Female Chiefs praise the Later Sages and record that they also chose those who were virtuous and highly disciplined." I think this view is pertinent.
Third, from the perspective of the Mendi family style, Wanrong Xue Shi really gave people a feeling that was very different from their predecessors. The Wanrong Xue clan started with military merit and was known for its military strength, which seemed to be incompatible with the Yanzhou Xue clan, which was passed down by poetry. However, if we combine the background of the times at that time and the environment in which Xue Shi is located, it is reasonable. The 170 years of Xue's entry into Shu during the Jian'an period of the Eastern Han Dynasty (about 212) to the late Three Kingdoms move back to Hedong and then to the early years of the Northern Wei Dynasty were a rare period of great social upheaval and national integration in Chinese history. The special background of the times makes how many people throw their pens and write from Rong, in order to make meritorious contributions to the horse, the world is so big that it can no longer accommodate a stable book, and it is inevitable that a family will continue to continue its poetic style. On the other hand, the Xue clan left their hometown and migrated twice, during which the hardships and hardships they experienced were even more than those of ordinary families; in Shu, they were in the land of Ba and Shu, which had not yet been weathered, and when they entered Hedong, they were in a sinister environment surrounded by crowds of hu and despised by local scholars; it was not easy for the family business to be roughly determined, followed by the Rebellion of Yongjia, the swarms of heroes, and the chaotic and turbulent situation still made people feel unable to protect themselves, and it was inevitable that it was a luxury to bury their heads in the clouds of zizhi poetry. But even in this case, Xue's children still continued to improve themselves, and kept the family heirloom style in the survival of the family. Only three generations after Xue Lan, Xue Qiang of Xizu was "friendly with Comrade Wang Meng of Beihai" because of his "military and state planning", his son Xue Jian was "a gentleman", and his grandson Xue Jin was "highly learned and knowledgeable", especially Xue Jin vigorously promoted education in Hedong and became a "more prosperous" person of local Confucianism, and has basically completed the return of the family style. After this, wanrong Xueshi has a generation of heroes in academic culture, which is not ashamed compared with its predecessors, and will not be repeated here. It is worth noting that in the environment of frequent wars and chaos at that time, "Confucianism and Elegance", and the rejection and contempt of the local scholars to the Xue clan, if it was not passed down from family to family, where did the family style of Xue's poetry after the Northern Wei Dynasty come from? It can only be said that the theme of war and chaos has weakened the cultural gold content of the Xue family to the extreme, so that future generations can only see their achievements in martial arts.
There is also a few circumstantial evidence that Xue shi could not have derived from the surname of Yu or shu.
The first is the inheritance of the Xue clan in Yanzhou. As far as common sense is concerned, yanzhou xueshi, as a poet of the Han dynasty, if the posthumous worship is endless, the history books will not record the truth, especially the wei, Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties are very particular about the period when mendi were born. However, as of now, whether it is the main historical materials or other documents, there is no record of the Yanzhou Xue clan after the Han Dynasty. In particular, the more than 100 epitaphs and inscriptions about Xue's characters that I have seen, and there is not even a record of Xue's in Yanzhou, which is very strange. Then there will only be two possibilities, one is that this family is really extinct, and the descendants are lost. However, from the available information, Xue Lan should have died on the battlefield, rather than the entire family was slaughtered, so the possibility of overall demise is very small. Then, there is only one other possibility left, that is, the family is continued in another way, and the birth of the Wanrong Xue clan is the best annotation of this possibility.
Another circumstantial evidence is the names of Xue Hu and Xue Ang in the five rooms of Xizu. The brothers broke their beard and broke their beard, and if it were not for the consideration of defending the legitimacy of the nation, there would be no way to explain it. Mr. Hou Jirun believes that this is the name of the Xue clan for the purpose of opposing the hu and Hu forces in the surrounding areas, but also saying that the Xue clan has repeatedly joined forces with Lu Shuihu's forces to rebel against the rule of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which inevitably contradicts itself, nor does it explain Xue Qiang's tough attitude towards The Surrender of The Qiang.
The third circumstantial evidence is that the family figures of the Wanrong Xue clan in history showed a relatively mature civilized temperament as soon as they appeared on stage. If nothing else, the simplest example is that every character has a name and a word. Such as Xue Qiang, the word Weiming; Xue debate, the word Yunbai. On the other hand, the Xue clan figures from the Xianbei clan, the first generation of Ye Zi and the second generation of Huzi, revealed a rude atmosphere in their names. If the Wanrong Xue clan was born in the shu tribe that was not yet enlightened in the borderlands, this cultural maturity could not be explained in the first place.
The last point is the Consistent Pandering Attitude of the Fenyin Xue Clan to the Han ruling forces. It can be seen from the historical biography that as early as the Yongjia Rebellion, some figures of the Southern Ancestors, such as Xue Hongchang, moved to Jiangdong with their clans; when they reached the Huanwen Northern Expedition of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Xue Qiang and others took the initiative to attach themselves; and by the time of Liu Yu's Northern Expedition, Xue's Western Ancestors and Southern Ancestors had surrendered as a whole. If xue was from the surname of Yu or Shu, it seemed that he could completely go beyond the matter and not be so loyal to zhengshuo of the Han regime.
The great thinker wang fuzhi of the Qing Dynasty had this passage in his "Treatise on Reading History": "The Rebellion of Yongjia, the fall of the Central Plains. Liu Kun could not protect his life, and Zhang Jun could not be loyal to him. And the Fenyin Xue clan, the Ju clan blocked the river to protect themselves, and did not serve the Liu, Shi, and Qiang clans for decades. Yao Xing claimed the title of Emperor yu of Guanzhong, levied Xue Qiang, conferred the title of general, and then lowered xing and led him to take Pusaka. Woe to you! The zhishi martyred the Nine Tribes in the middle of the summer, operating under the blade, and the descendants of the yi were safe from the rock and the zeal of the crown, and the descendants fell. The soul of the vain name and small profit is not moved, and the grandfather, who was heroic and resolute in his ancestors, complained about the ghost, and the descendants may think that they are proud, like a husband? He also said, "Isn't it impossible for Sui To be prosperous and to regard his innocent descendants as the people of Yudian?" However, it was too late to wait. Lose your body, and the wind of the world will fall! From this point of view, first, Wang Fuzhi's praise for Xue's early years of maintaining its national independence and his regret and regret for later switching to the minority regime show that Wang Fuzhi and other generations agree with Xue's Han identity; second, at least in the Ming and Qing dynasties, people did not doubt Xue's Han identity. Therefore, the author believes that Wang Fuzhi's opinion should be taken as the right.
Second, Xue's "Three Ancestors" problem is corrected
Wanrong Xue has always had the saying of "three ancestors and five houses", and this view was first found in the New Book of Tang. Zai Xiang lineage three times", but from the Tang Dynasty epitaphs unearthed so far, similar references have appeared in many places (2), indicating that the "three ancestors and five rooms" theory is not false. In particular, the term "Three Ancestors" can already be seen from the history of various families in the Northern Dynasty period. For example, in the "Book of Wei" record of Xue Debate, it is said: "(Debate) Zu (Xue) Tao, together with Xue Zu, Xue Luo and other sub-divisions of the people, hence the world name 'Three Xue'. It can be seen that the division of the Wanrong Xue clan into the Northern Ancestor, the Southern Ancestor, and the Western Ancestor is historically traceable. But there are also a few issues worth exploring.
1. The problem of the separation and aggregation of the three ancestors. The "Wei Shu Xue Debate Biography" records: "Father Qiang, fu dynasty leading the tribe, while the ancestors and descendants are inferior, and qiang sui is the general regent of the three battalions." It seems that the "Three Ancestors" were once reunited, but the Book of Song in the same period. In the biography of Xue Andu, it is recorded: "(Andu) was a strong family, and there were three thousand families with the same surname. Father Guang, for Zonghao. However, it also showed that at least in Xue Guang's generation, Nanzu still held the control of a considerable number of tribes. If the author of the Book of Wei and the ancestor of the "Three Xues" lived in a relatively close era and remembered the lives of the unmistakable, then the only possible situation is that the three Xues have diverged again after the aggregation. Perhaps at that time, the leaders of the southern and northern ancestors were not able to control their subordinates, so Xue Qiang temporarily took the three battalions, and when the next generation of Xue Guang came, the descendants of the southern and northern ancestors once again gained the right to rule the clan. This, book of Wei. The Biography of Xue Defense also seems to be confirmed from the side: "(Xue) qiang pawn, (Xue) defense re-attack to unify his camp ... (Xue) was a little proud and quite unpopular..." It can be seen from this that due to Xue Zheng's subjective mistakes, it is very likely that the Xue clan will diverge again, and Xue Guang's "as Zonghao" should have occurred during this period.
Judging from the later development of the Xue family, at least two points are certain: First, the descendants of the "Three Ancestors" developed in parallel, at least the two branches of the Western Ancestor and the Southern Ancestor were clearly distinguished and did not mix with each other; second, with the large number of southward migrations of the Southern Ancestor branch, such as Xue Hongchang, who had served as the Assassin of Qin Prefecture and the Marquis of Anyi, avoided chaos in Xiangyang, xue Andu and others defected to the Southern Dynasty, and the northern ancestor branch disappeared, and the power of the Xue clan finally converged under the banner of the Western Ancestor, resulting in the dominance of the Xue Clan in the Hedong region. From the epitaphs of some of Xue's characters, we seem to be able to draw a third conclusion, that is, the relationship between Xizu and other branches, especially with the Nanzu lineage, is not harmonious. For example, there are two existing epitaphs of the descendants of the Xue clan in longmen, and xue Yue's epitaph is unknown about its ancestral heritage, and another "Epitaph of Xue Shi, the late wife of the Lingwang of Wen'an County, Yingzhou", is trying to clear the relationship with the Xue clan of Fenyin. From common sense, it is speculated that the Longmen Xue clan should be a descendant of the Southern Ancestors, and belong to the same lineage as Xue Rengui. Their avoidance can only show that they are not willing to get involved in the Fenyin Xue clan, which is dominated by Xizu, that is, there is some kind of entanglement in the relationship between the two branches. If we relate to the facts of history, this is also excusable. When Xue Andu and Xue Yongzong rebelled against Wei, after all, Xizu Yimai stood on its opposite side, and brothers of the same origin became opponents, and this kind of historical resentment was difficult to resolve. On the other hand, due to the cultural superiority of Xizu, they held the ultimate right to speak of this family, and although Nanzu was equally prominent in his deeds, he was at an absolute disadvantage in culture, and he could not afford to provoke and go around, and as a result, the above phenomenon appeared, and it also caused some difficulties for posterity to confirm the source of the Longmen Xue clan.
2. The question of the fate of the Northern Ancestral Lineage. The Northern Ancestors are the most rare in the history of Xue's development, except for the Northern Ancestor Ancestor Xue Hui, other character history books are completely lost. Some sources attribute Xue Xunyi and other unknown branches to Beizu, based on unknown (3). However, the discovery of the tombstones of Xue's figures in the Tang Dynasty brought the study of Xue's Northern Ancestors back into the realm of Liu Dark Flowers. The first is the tombstone of Xue Yi in the Tang Dynasty, which points out that xue's "three clans Shi Wei, cicada crown ascending to the dynasty", indicating that the Northern Ancestral Lineage is still relatively independent, and even in the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were figures who were officials; the second is the epitaph of Xue Wei at the end of the Tang Dynasty, which clearly admits that he belongs to more than twenty generations of descendants of Xue Kai (that is, Xue Hui), the northern ancestor of the Xue clan, and is a Fenyin person, who still lives in the Wanrong area. Since the descendants of Xue Beizu were still multiplying and developing until the late Tang Dynasty, why did they not see records in the history books for a long time? In the author's opinion, there are no more than two reasons, one is that the development of this branch is indeed lackluster and cannot be recorded; the second is that for some reason it cannot be recorded in history. If it is the latter, the only possibility is that they committed the crime of "great rebellion", which made the family feel humiliated and simply avoided it; it was not until the late Tang Dynasty, when the times passed, that their descendants stood up and recognized their ancestors. If this were the case, Xue Yongzong, the leader of the Northern Wei peasant rebel army, might have belonged to the Northern Ancestral Lineage. From the analysis of the situation in which Xue Yongzong rebelled against Fenqu (汾曲) (in the area of present-day Xindi, Shanxi), it is shown that he had a certain amount of personal resources here, and Fenqu happened to be just north of Fenyin; Xue Andu, another figure who coordinated his uprising, went south to Hongnong (present-day Lingbao, Henan), which also corresponded to the position of his southern ancestors; and Xue Hongzuo, the western ancestor who opposed their uprising, controlled the Hefen ferry and happened to be in the west, so the possibility of Xue Yongzong being the northern ancestor was very large. In the eyes of successive rulers, there was a fundamental difference between Xue Yongzong's rebellion and Xue Andu's rebellion, Xue An both returned to Northern Wei at the end of the Southern Dynasty, and it can still be said that the prodigal son turned back, lost his way, and surrendered to the land, bringing back a large area of territory that the Northern Wei rulers dreamed of; and Xue Yongzong was a rebel to the end, the uprising failed, and he decided to commit suicide, and this kind of self-denial against the rulers was of course a crime that could not be forgiven, and it was normal not to appear in the annals of history.
At the same time, according to the Book of Wei's account of Xue Fengxian's rebellion again at Zhengping (present-day Xindi, Shanxi) in the last years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the author further boldly speculates that after Xue Yongzong's death, the Northern Ancestral Subordinates who followed him probably did not completely perish, but still lived in their homeland after accepting the court's favor. In the last years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, as class contradictions and ethnic contradictions further intensified, this branch of the Xue clan once again rose up and launched an uprising. Otherwise, it is impossible to explain the reason why the two leaders surnamed Xue rebelled in the same area in the seventies and eighties. If this inference holds, then Xue Fengxian may be the head of another Northern Ancestor after Xue Yongzong. According to the Book of Northern Qi. Shortly after Xue Fengxian raised an army, he was forced by the situation to surrender to Northern Wei and was knighted. But what the final outcome is unknown. However, judging from the records that Xue Xunyi, who was in conflict with Xue Fengxian, was once detained in Jinyang by the Northern Wei chancellor Erzhu Rong, the situation after Xue Fengxian's surrender may not be optimistic.
Xue Yi's epitaph also says: "(Xue Shi) Three clans Shi Wei, one leaf away from Qin. (4) It can be seen that one of the "three ancestors" of the Xue clan left the original place of residence and chose to flee the other side. Because the two branches of The Southern Ancestor and the Western Ancestor were mainly active in the Fenyin area of Hedong until the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it was undoubtedly the Northern Ancestors who chose to leave. It is probably because the rulers of the time intensified the suppression of this capricious Xue clan force, which eventually led to their large-scale exodus. Combined with the historical migration of Xue Ju's father Xue Wang to Jincheng, Xue Shixiong's ancestors to Dunhuang, and Xue Mo's great-grandfather Xue Zhen to Liangzhou as a whole migrated to the northwest, we can roughly draw three conclusions, first, these departed Xue characters should all be the figures of the Wanrong Xue clan's northern ancestors, that is, the historically famous Xue Ju father and son, Xue Shixiong father and son are likely to be the descendants of Xue's northern ancestors; second, the direction of Xue's northern ancestors' migration is mainly the northwest region; third, The period of the Great Migration of Xue's Northern Ancestors was mainly concentrated in the nearly 100 years before the Sui Dynasty, and its upper limit coincided with the failure of Xue Xunyi and Xue Fengxian's anti-Wei uprising, which further confirmed the inference that Xue Fengxian belonged to the Northern Ancestors.
3. The issue of the residence of the "Three Patriarchs". Soon after the Wanrong Xue clan moved back to Hedong, it was divided into three branches: Northern Zu, Nanzu and Xizu, and the basis for division is now impossible to predict, but it is most likely to delimit the scope by the location of the prescription. Because Xue's return to the north led more than 5,000 households, which exceeded the number of households in many prefectures and counties at that time, it was impossible for them to live in a corner of Fenyin (5). In order to strengthen the management of the people, the Xue family took the three sons as the leader and limited to the geographical location, so as to correspond to the "three ancestors" theory. Judging from the fact that the original record of the Book of Wei only has the name of "Three Ancestors" and no "Three Ancestors", the author further believes that at the beginning of the separation of the Wanrong Xue clan, it would not clearly divide itself into southern ancestors, northern ancestors, and western ancestors, and the title of "three ancestors" should be a statement derived from the later generations for convenience and narrative and focusing on geographical orientation. The Book of Wei was written in Northern Qi, and the "Three Ancestors and Five Houses" first appeared in Tang Dynasty epitaphs, so the "Three Ancestors" theory only appeared in the Period from the Northern Zhou to the Sui Dynasty at the earliest. That is to say, the "Three Xues" are separated in the front, the "Three Ancestors" are named after, and the geographical orientation is the only basis for its naming.
So, how was the layout of these "three ancestors" at that time, the author does not dare to speculate, try to analyze.
Judging from the historical data at that time, most of the Shu people who moved back to Hedong were called "Hedong Shu", "Fenshu", "Daishu", and "Zhengping County Shu", which shows that the distribution of these Shu people was gradually unfolded with the Fenhe River as the axis, and the most densely populated were Dai County and Zhengping County. The Xue clan was the most powerful and influential among the Shu, and was called "Shu Xue". Since it was impossible for Fenyin to accommodate its forces, some of them were bound to be placed in other areas; and Fenyin was at the southernmost point of the Fenshui River Basin, so this part of the people should be distributed in places such as Dai County, Zhengping (present-day Yuncheng Jishan, Xindi) and other places north of Fenyin, and Fenyin poles may only be Xue's base camp or "headquarters". According to the Northern Wei "Records of Xue Fengzhi Statues" alone, from the Northern Wei To the beginning of the Sui Dynasty, there were more than 20 Xue clan people living in the area of Sanjiao Village in Jishan County, which strongly shows that not all of the Xue clan at that time lived in Wanrong County, but a considerable number of people lived in the area north of Wanrong County. In the Tang Dynasty, Xue Wei called himself Beizu and was also known as the Fenyin people, most likely they lived along the northern border of Wanrong County, thus subordinating themselves to Beizu in the branch.
Proceeding from the above analysis, the basic layout of the three forces of the Xue clan should be: the Xue clan scattered north of Fenyin, under the jurisdiction of Xue Hui, Xue Yongzong, Xue Fengxian, Xue Fenggui, and other previous leaders, called the "Northern Ancestor" Xue clan; the rest of the fenyin county, one of which lives in the junction of Hefen and fenyin county, is adjacent to the governance of Fenyin County, and at the western end of the fenyin county, called the "Xizu" Xue clan; the rest of the Xue clan, which is active in the eastern part of the "Xizu" Xue clan, but relative to the "Northern Ancestor", is also known as the "Nanzu" Xue clan. Specifically, the center of the Northern Zu Xue clan should be in present-day Xindi and Jishan, Shanxi; the center of the Western Zu Xue clan should be in the area of today's Ronghe Town in Wanrong County and Sunji Town in Linyi County; and the center of the Southern Zu Xue Clan should be in the area of present-day Wanrong Peizhuang Township.
The author's inference is based not only on the analysis of the historical data of the previous generation, but also on the fact that the family burial places of the Nanzu and Xizu lineages of the Xue family are not easier. The Northern Ancestors are not described in detail as mentioned above. Here we focus on the analysis of the Two Branches of the Southern And Western Ancestors.
Let's start with the Nanzu one.
We know that the ancients attached great importance to the choice of burial places and were also very cautious. One of the most important destinations for burial is the hometown or ancestral home, because this is in line with the traditional concept of leaf fall to the roots. As far as is known, the Xue family cemeteries distributed in and around Wanrong County are mostly from the southern ancestral family. It is located in Wanrong County, Xia County, Hejin City, Salt Lake District and other places in Yuncheng City, but one of the earliest tombs is the tomb of Xue Zhendu's wife Sun Shi in Dongsun Shi Village, Peizhuang Township, Wanrong County. According to his epitaph, Xue Zhendu should also be buried here. And we also know that when Xue Zhendu's father Xue Hongchang moved to the south, he followed Xue Andu to the Southern Dynasty for more than 20 years, and only returned to Northern Wei in 465 AD. After his return to the north, the area of activity was also limited to the Huanghuai and Jianghuai areas, and there was very little relationship with Wanrong's hometown, but after his death, he was buried in Wanrong Peizhuang Township, which can only mean that this is his ancestral hometown and should also be the central activity area of the Southern Ancestral Lineage. Because in ancient times, the burial system was very standardized, such as the Book of Rites. Under the Bow of Tan, it is said: "Buried in the north, the northern head, the three generations of the Da Li ye", that is to say: "After the death of a person, it should be buried in the north of the residence, and the head of the deceased is also facing the north, which is the common etiquette system of the Xia, Shang, and Three Dynasties." "If this burial system is combined, then the area where Nanzu is active should be not far from the cemetery of Xue Zhendu and his wife, no doubt in Peizhuang Township and its southern area of Wanrong County." According to relevant information, the cemetery of Xue Zhendu's wife is known locally as the "Xue Family Tomb", and there are still descendants of this mausoleum in Guanghua Township, Wanrong County, who are undoubtedly the authentic descendants of the Nanzu clan.
As mentioned above, the birthplace of the Southern Ancestor of the Xue clan in the Tang Dynasty was "Longmen of Daizhou", that is, today's Hejin City, and a large number of Xue figures also lived in Longmen, Hedong, in the Sui and Tang Dynasties and before them. From the geographical point of view, Wanrong County is the closest to Peizhuang Township, where Sun's cemetery is located, and Dongsun Shi Village is located on the banks of the Fenhe River, and it is very likely and extremely convenient for Xue Nanzu to move north from here to Longmen, so it is an indisputable fact that the area around Peizhuang Township in Wanrong County was the Southern Ancestor during the Northern Dynasty, and there is no doubt that the Hejin Xue clan, including Xue Rengui, is a descendant of the Fenyin Xue clan. However, judging from the distribution of the burial places of the Xue Rengui family in the Tang Dynasty, nanzu does not seem to have operated here as a family stronghold, such as Xue Chuyu was buried in Sanluli Village in The Salt Lake District, Xue Song was buried in Shuitou Town, Xia County, and Xue Ping was buried in Gaocun Township, Wanrong County, which is quite a distance away from Wanrong Peizhuang Township; according to relevant information, Xue Ping even built his family temple on Shuitou Town in Xia County, and the mystery of it still needs to be further examined.
Let's look at the Xizu one again.
The Xizu clan of the Xue clan was historically known as the "Great House of the Five Gates of Xue On the River", and the reason for the name can be considered from the word "瀵上". Since it is called "Seogami XueShi", the center of its activities should not be far from the Zangkui Spring. As can be seen from the foregoing, the water is on the fresh water, or on the "Zangkui Spring". According to the Chronicle of Ronghe County, "there is a worri kui spring in zhao village in present-day Ronghe Henan", and its original site is in the village of Nanzhao in the town of Sunji in present-day Linyi County. Nanzhao Village and its subordinate town of Sunji have historically been part of Wanrong County, only a few miles away from the former site of Fenyin County (now the south bank of the Fenhe River in the west of Ronghe Town, Wanrong County), and were only assigned to Linyi County in 1971. Nanzhao Village is close to fenyin county seat, but also located in the low depression along the Yellow River, the strong water pressure of the Yellow River here to form a "big as a wheel" spring, has become a prominent local geographical indication, Xue Xizu to name his family is a natural thing. At the same time, this area was also at the junction of the two major river systems of the Yellow River and the Fenhe River, and in the middle of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Xue Hongzuo, the long house of Xizu, "gathered the clans" here, cut off waterway traffic, and thwarted Xue Yongzong's attempt to unite with Gaiwu, which can also be said to have achieved the advantages of geographical advantages and people. It can also be used as evidence that this area still retains some footprints of the Xue family's activities in those years, such as a Yellow River beach not far south of Nanzhao Village, called Xue Gong Tan; a village southwest of Xue Gong Tan, also known as Xue Gong Village. It is worth mentioning that Sunji Town is also the hometown of Fu Zuoyi, a famous patriotic general in modern history, and his hometown Anchang Village is only 1 kilometer away from Nanzhao Village, where The KuiQuan is located.
The tombs of the characters of the Xizu lineage are mainly concentrated in three places: Hancheng in Shaanxi, One is Beixin Township in Linyi County, and the other is Huangfu Township in Wanrong County. As mentioned above, Hancheng is the traditional territory of Xue Honglong's Fangzhi of the Western Ancestor, and the epitaph of Xue Honglong's great-grandson Xue Duan was excavated here in 1990. The tomb owner of the Xue cemetery in Beixin Township, Linyi County, at least Xue Daoshi and Xue Baoji's grandchildren, Liu Yuxi's father-in-law Xue Jian "returned to bury his hometown Moth Meiyuan", I believe it is also in this area, from which it can be inferred that this is the family cemetery of Xizu Xue Angfang. The tomb owner of the Xue clan cemetery in Wanrong Huangfu Township is the Tang Dynasty horse Xue Fang, who belongs to Xue Hufang's descendants, and the epitaph records that he was "born in Meng and Zhongzhi", indicating that at least his eldest brother Xue Qi and second brother Xue Ji were buried here, and should also be a family cemetery. From this, we can infer that the historical traditional activity areas of the three forces of Xue Honglongfang, Xue Hufang and Xue Angfang of Xue Xizu should be concentrated in these three areas. The delimitation of this sphere of influence seems to be inconsistent with the title of Xizu, why is this so? The only possibility is that when the "Three Ancestors" were established, Xizu's sphere of influence was still around the area of Fenyin County (present-day Wanrong Ronghe Town), while when Xizu developed to the "Five Houses", his power continued to expand, gradually moving to Hancheng, Beixin, Huangfu and other places. From the geographical distribution of the above Xizu Zhufang cemeteries, a law of migration and expansion can also be found: that is, to cross west to Hancheng; when expanding eastward, it unfolds in a semi-circular shape along the southern foothills of the Lonely Mountain in Wanrong County. At present, Dongling Village in Huangfu Township, Wanrong County, is also home to a large number of descendants of the Xue clan, who claim to be descendants of Xizu, and also provide a commentary on the route of Xizu's migration to the east.
Of course, the above distribution of the "Three Ancestors" forces may only apply to the period from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, due to the long time span and the lack of information, the descendants of which branch of the Wanrong Xue clan are currently impossible to confirm. Even as early as the Ming Dynasty, the range limits of the distribution of the three ancestors of the Xue clan were already unclear. For example, Xue Xuan of the Ming Dynasty, the Annals of Xue Wenqing, said that he was "first from Xi Zhong, to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, such as Hedong Sanfeng is also", which seems to indicate that he is a descendant of The Western Ancestor; but it is also said that Xue Xuan "lived in the South Xueli of Hejin County", and Xue Xuan's hometown corresponded to the place where Nanzu moved, and also had the name of "Southern Xue", so Xue Xuan was the most likely to be a descendant of the Southern Ancestor, which contradicted itself.
At the same time, the above inference is only the author's personal opinion, and this view is not consistent with the views of some local researchers in Vang Vieng. For example, in Wanrong County, the township adjacent to peizhuang township to the south is Guanghua Township, which is known as Xue Ji Village, the hometown of Xue's "Three Phoenixes". In his book "Three Phoenixes in Hedong", the late Mr. Xue Guiming, former director of the Audit Bureau of Wanrong County and the forerunner of the study of the local Xue culture in Wanrong County, used a large amount of evidence to argue that the Xue clan in Xueji Village, Wanrong Guanghua Township today, should be the descendants of the "Three Phoenixes" of the Western Ancestors: the brick gate tower with the inscription "Three Phoenixes" inscribed on the inscription "Three Phoenixes" in Xueji Village; the second is that the words "Ancient Three Phoenixes" were carved on the old north gate of Xueji Village before 1958; and the local Xue family still preserves the cloth "Shen list" with the inscription "Three Phoenixes" to this day. The name of xueji village should be the tang dynasty Xue jizhiyin, the village is named after the ancestors; the fifth xueji village north of the old Xueshi stele pavilion, and so on.
Mr. Xue Rong, the son of Mr. Guiming and executive vice president of the Wanrong County Xue Clan Cultural Research Association, believes that the source or base camp of the Xue clan in Hedong is in Xue Ji Village. The following reasons were put forward: First, the three branches of the north, south, and west belonged to the three brothers, and the Xue clan was divided into three shortly after they had just arrived in Hedong (only one generation in the middle), so the place of residence and even the birthplace of the three brothers before the Xue clan was separated should be in one place, not in different places. Since Xue Ji Village is the hometown of Sanfeng, and the excavation of The epitaph of Lady Xue Zhendu confirms that the ancestral residence of the South Branch is also in the Xue Ji area, then in turn, the ancestors of the three branches of the Xue clan, namely the Northern Ancestor Xue Hui, the Southern Ancestor Xue Carving, and the Western Ancestor Xue Xing, should also live here. Second, the Xue characters in Xue Ji's village have the same surname and different ancestors, and those who now go to the Xue family tomb to sacrifice Xue Zhendu's tomb belong to a Xue family called "Four Households", who should be descendants of the Southern Branch; in addition, there are "Five Households" Xue Family and "Yu Family Household" Xue Family. The "Five Households" Xue clan seems to correspond to the "Five Houses of the Xue Family" of the Western Ancestors, and should be a descendant of the West Branch, and the "Yu Family" Xue Clan may be the descendants of the North Branch. Third, according to local legend, Xue Ji Village was formerly called Qianhu Town, later called Sanfeng Town, Xue Ji Town, and then Later Called Xue Ji Village. The title of Qianhu Town should be related to the fact that Xue Qi, the ancestor of the Wanrong Xue clan, lived or camped here as a thousand households (which should be the abbreviation of Qianhuhou).
In the author's opinion, the views put forward by Mr. Xue Guiming and Xue Rong are not unreasonable, but they seem to confuse the relationship between the western ancestral relocation and the "hometown of the three phoenixes". Xizu was first known as the "Shangxue Clan", so their earliest residence should be related to "Shishui", that is, they should live in the area of Nanzhao Village, Sunji Township, Linyi County, where The Wukui Spring is located, and not elsewhere. The existing evidence of Xue Ji Village as the "hometown of the three phoenixes" is basically a physical object that only appeared in later generations; even if it can be proved that this area is the area where Xizu, represented by Sanfeng, lived in during the Sui and Tang dynasties, it cannot be ruled out that Xizu only entered this place after the Southern Ancestor moved north to Longmen. Secondly, if it is confirmed that the "four households" Xue clan is a descendant of Nanzu, then it just shows that there is a relationship between this place and Nanzu. However, it may not be possible to prove the connection between the "five households" and "Yu family households" and the Western And Northern Ancestors. Another point is that from the middle of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the relationship between Xue's Western Ancestor and Southern Ancestor has been clearly distinguished, and it seems that Xue Zhendu should not choose his own cemetery within the common sphere of influence of Western Ancestor and Southern Ancestor.
Of course, the author's questioning is also a matter of opinion, and the real situation still needs more powerful evidence and more in-depth research.
III. The New Book of Tang corrects the problem of errors in Xue's account
In the eyes of many Xue family culture researchers and enthusiasts, the New Book of Tang is generally considered to be the best "textbook" for studying and studying Xue culture. This is not only because the New Book of Tang's Genealogy Table provides the clearest lineage of the Xue clan and the most detailed Xue characters, but also because Ouyang Xiu, the actual host of the New Book of Tang table and Zhi, also has a great relationship with the Xue clan of Hedong. As mentioned above, Ouyang Xiu's father-in-law Xue Kui was born in Zhengping, Daizhou, and was considered by Ouyang Xiu to be one of the inheritors of the Xue clan in Hedong. Based on this relationship, the Xue lineage table of the New Book of Tang (hereinafter referred to as the New Table) should be scientific, prudent, and should also have important data value. However, in actual research work, many experts have realized that the new table is actually unreliable, and there are still quite a few errors and omissions in it, which need to be carefully reviewed. These issues have been touched upon in the preceding biography, but they are briefly described here.
1. Bias in the handling of the contents of the lineages of the "Three Ancestors and Five Houses". The development of Wanrong Xue's "Three Ancestors and Five Houses" in history is uneven, especially the Northern Ancestral Lineage, which has actually been heard of in the Northern Dynasty, but the two lines of Southern Ancestor and Western Ancestor, from the Northern Wei Dynasty, have always shown a momentum of parallel and parallel development. In the account of these two branches, the new table shows a tendency to emphasize the western ancestors and the southern ancestors to a certain extent. Regardless of the information discovered in later generations, the figures of the Southern Ancestral Lineage only refer to the inheritance of the Xue Andu lineage. In fact, in the various historical biographies about the Northern Dynasty, there is also a lot of ink on Andu's cousin Xue Zhendu, and the inheritance of Xue Zhendu's descendants is also involved, but the new table does not see a single word, which cannot but be said to be a defect. Xue Zhendu himself can already be described as an extremely popular courtier, and 9 of his sons all live above Sanpin in official rank, and it is indeed inconceivable that such a brilliant family lineage has no traces of any clues.
This biased tendency is also reflected in the disposition of xizu's "five rooms" content. Xizu's "five rooms" in the new table actually have only four rooms, and Xue Hongzuo, who has contributed to the development of Xizu's lineage, has not appeared in the new table. Xue Hongzuo was the most prominent figure of the Western Ancestor Lineage during the Northern Dynasty, and as a northern Wei imperial horse, he not only greatly enhanced the social status of the Western Ancestral Lineage, but also laid the foundation for the development of The Western Ancestor's Xue Honglong House in the West River. Although this room was later extinct, some of the lineage of his lineage is also recorded in the history of the Northern Dynasty, but this is not sorted out in the new table. Among the remaining four rooms of Xizu, the new table is more detailed in the two rooms of Xue Hu and Xue Ang, and the records of Xue Honglong's room and Xue Qingfang are not exhaustive, and some of the contents are even obviously wrong, which is discussed below.
2. Errors and mistakes in the disposal of content. There are quite a few errors in the content of the new table, the most obvious of which also exists in the Nanzu lineage and the Xizu Xue Honglong lineage, which have been neglected by the author in terms of content. From the perspective of the southern ancestral lineage, from a common sense point of view, in the historical materials that record the inheritance of Xue's predecessors, the "Book of Song" and "Book of Wei" should be the closest to the era of the character's life, and the credibility is also the highest; and the "History of the North" and other materials may also be more comprehensive because of the overall situation. However, in the disposal of the lineage figures of the Southern Ancestor Xue Andu, the new table actually discarded the ready-made information and created another set of arguments. For example, in the previous histories, it is recorded that Xue An had 6 heirs, namely Daobiao, Daoyi, Daoji, Daozhi, Boling, and Huanlong, of which the later generations of Daobiao and Daozhi are also recorded. However, the new table uses Xue Anduzi as the true dragon and the Daolong, and the situation of these two is not recorded in the previous history books, and it is not known what the author relied on. The identity of the second generation has been questioned, and the authenticity of their inheritance has been greatly reduced. Although no scholar has yet doubted Xue Rengui's identity as a descendant of the Southern Ancestors, after all, the inheritance of his predecessors is no longer clear.
In the account of the lineage of Xizu Xue Honglongfang, the error of the new table is even more obvious. First, in the lineage of Xue Yuanju, it is recorded that Xue Xiaolian had six sons, and Xue Xiaolian's son was vacant, and the real situation was that Xiao Lian was the fourth son, and Xue Rong and Xue Gongtui were the sons of Xue Xiaoyou. Second, also in the Xue Yuanju lineage, Xue Duan's younger brother Hongmin was mistaken for Mi min, and Hongmin's sons Xue Shu and Sun Xue Wukuan were mistaken for the seventh and eighth grandsons. Third, among Xue Yuanhui's three sons, the names, tooth order, and appointments of Xue Bo and Xue Yuanhui were completely reversed, and Xue Yuanhui's appointment was not a Shi imitation order, but a "Shi Fang Order". In addition, there was also one more of Xue Zhao's cousins, and Xue Yansheng was not recorded in all histories. In addition, in other character lineages, there are also many errors, for example, in the histories, It is recorded that Xue Yuanchao and Xue Ji were uncles and nephews, but the new table records the relationship between ancestors and grandchildren, which is a generation behind. Another example is Xue Yuanchao's grandson Xue Rutong, the official residence LiQuan Cheng, the new table is recorded as Li Quan Ling; the eldest son of Ru Tong is Xue Shu, and the new table is recorded as the second son; Xue Shu's son Xue AnJun is recorded as Xue Andu, and so on. The errors in the names, characters, and official accounts of other figures are not pointed out here, but it can be seen from this that there are many errors in the new table.
3. Omissions in content. The new table omits quite a lot of Xue characters, some even pivotal figures, such as Xue Keqin's descendants Xue Jiong, Xue Yan, Xue Tai, Xue Jianxun, Xue Tan, etc., can be described as going in and out of the picture, and the merits are impressive, but the new table is not involved. There are also some characters who have missed important positions, such as Xue Guang of Nanzu and his son Xue Qia, and the new table only records their names, but do not see their appointments. Because the New Book of Tang is, after all, a history book written by later generations for its predecessors, due to the gap in time and the limitation of materials, it is inevitable that there will be omissions in the content. For example, some of the characters added in the previous article based on the epitaph data unearthed in recent years may be the information that the author did not have at that time. However, some omissions are due to problems in the author's selection of materials, such as Xue He's son Xue Yuanxin, which is recorded in the Book of Wei and the Book of Zhou but not recorded by the author, which can only be said that the author's negligence in the previous history books.
In summary, there are quite a few errors and omissions in the new table, and it is necessary to carefully examine it. Researchers and enthusiasts of the Xue family culture should have enough knowledge of this.
Fourth, the problem of the number of horses surnamed Xue is corrected
The horse lieutenant was originally the official who controlled the horse of the emperor's deputy carriage, but after the Wei and Jin dynasties, the emperor's son-in-law was usually required to add the title of the horse lieutenant, and in the future, the horse was used to call the emperor son-in-law. An important symbol of the honorable status of the Wanrong Xue clan in history is that the number of children surnamed Xue married royal princesses in and before the Tang Dynasty was relatively large, and the number of horses in the Li Tang royal family alone was as many as double digits, which was breathtaking. However, as far as the exact number of horses surnamed Xue is currently in hand, various sources are divergent and it is necessary to correct them.
Before the Tang Dynasty, xue surnamed Donkey Horse, the historical record is only one person, that is, Xue Hongzuo of the Xizu lineage of the Xue clan, princess Xihe Chang, daughter of Emperor Shangwencheng. However, judging from some epitaphs from the Northern Dynasty period, there was more than one Person surnamed Ma Dang of the Northern Wei Dynasty, as recorded in the "Epitaph of Lady Xue of Xiangcheng Junjun, Wife of The Assassin shi Kou of Shaozhou in the Zhou Dynasty", "The surname of Lady Xue, the people of Hedong ... Qin Yong's Assassin History and the Great-Grandson of Lieutenant Ni of the Horse Horse", according to the analysis of the famous philologist Mr. Zhao Wanli, the owner of the tomb should belong to the Western Ancestor of the Wanrong Xue clan; as recorded in the "Epitaph of Xue Baoxing" during the Sui Dynasty's Daye period, "The public Baoxing ... Hedong Puzhou people also. Zuandu... The father biao, in addition to the history of the six states of Huaibei, made the jiejie and the horse du wei", Xue Biao is recorded in various historical biographies as Xue Daobiao, that is, the son of Xue Andu, an important figure of Xue Nanzu. Extrapolating from the time, the above three people lived in the Northern Wei period, so the number of horses of the Wanrong Xue clan in the Northern Wei Dynasty should be 3 people.
After the Northern Wei Dynasty and until the end of the Sui Dynasty, there is no record of Xue Shi as a donkey. However, after the Tang Dynasty, the number of horses surnamed Xue increased unprecedentedly. According to the New Book of Tang. The Princesses of the Emperors are listed in the biography, including the following characters: Xue Wanche, who married Princess Danyang, daughter of Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan; Xue Xuan, Princess Chengyang, daughter of Emperor Shang taizong; Xue Shao, who married Princess Taiping, daughter of Emperor Gaozong; Xue Boyang, who married Princess Jingshan of Ruizong, and princess liangguo of Emperor Ruizong; Xue Zhao, princess of Emperor Shangruizong' daughter Princess Yanguo; Xue Rust, who married Princess Tangchang, daughter of Emperor Xuanzong; Xue Tan (Tan), who married Princess Changshan, daughter of Emperor Xuanzong; Xue Luqian, who married Princess Xiaoguo of Emperor Xuanzong; Xue Kangheng, Princess Xiaoguo of Shangsuzong; Xue Zhao, who married Princess Linzhen of Emperor Dezong; Xue Hong, Princess Zhenning of ShangxianZong. In addition, Dou Lujian, the nephew of the Xue family and the son of the lord of Wanquan County, married Princess Weiguo, a female princess of Xuanzong, and princess of Weiguo was also known as Princess Jianping.
The above 12 Xue surnames Tang Room Horse, except for Xue Kangheng, Xue Luqian, and Xue Yi, whose lineage is not checked, the remaining 9 are all children of the Wanrong Xue clan. Some sources confuse Xue Hong, a descendant of Xizu Xue Ang, with Xue Hong, the horse of Princess Zhenning of Emperor Xianzong, which is actually a big mistake. Xue Hong's origin is no longer detailed. However, Xue Hong, who lived under Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, had no reason to marry the daughter of Emperor Xianzong nearly a hundred years later.
Regarding the Xue surnamed donkey horse in the Tang Dynasty, two issues are mainly involved. One is that Xue Boyang married two princesses alone, which is obviously an obstacle to the traditional etiquette system, how should it be understood? Although Pei Xun of the Tang Dynasty also married Princess Yicheng, the daughter of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, and Princess Xueguo, daughter of Emperor Ruizong of Tang, in the author's opinion, the probability of two similar events occurring in almost the same period was too high. Therefore, this question may be due to the mistake of the author of the New Book of Tang, or the author has confused the relationship between the daughters of Tang Ruizong.
According to the New Book of Tang, there were two Jingshan princesses among the princesses of Tang Ruizong, one was Xue Boyang's wife, and the other was Xue Yan's wife, Princess Guoguo. Princess Gongguo was first enfeoffed with Jingshan, and when she was crowned, Emperor Ruizong was not yet called emperor, and was then called the lord of Jingshan County. In the order of the New Book of Tang, Xue Boyang's wife Princess Jingshan should also be the sister of Princess Jingguo, and the contradiction is entangled here, because from the perspective of the elder and the young, there is no reason to add the title that the sister discarded and does not use to the head of the sister; and the other sources outside the New Book of Tang all think that Xue Boyang married the Princess of Liangguo, and there is no record of marrying the Princess of Jingshan. Xue Boyang's father Xue Ji died of his sins, Boyang committed suicide, and Princess Liangguo remarried to Wen Yanbo's great-grandson Wen Xi. Therefore, the author's opinion is that there should be only one Princess Jingshan, that is, Princess Xue's wife, Princess Guoguo, who should be called the lord of Jingshan County to be precise; there is only one princess whom Xue Boyang married, that is, Princess Liangguo. Xue Boyang's marriage to two princesses alone is pure nonsense.
Another problem is that the New Book of Tang. There is a discrepancy between the account of Xue's horse in the Three Lineages of the Emperor and the Princess of the Emperors. First, there are two horses surnamed Xue who do not appear in the Biography of the Princesses of the Emperors, namely Xue Yuanchao's great-grandson Xue Kang and Xue Cang of the Western Ancestor Xue Angfang; second, there are Xue Zhaoqi among the Xue characters, but the official position is inconsistent with the Biography of the Princesses of the Emperors (6), and it is not indicated that he was a donkey horse. Xue Cangzhi should be convinced of being a donkey, as explained above. Xue Kang may also be Xue Kangheng's mistake, or one person and two people, or one word. Xue Zhao's official position is very close to that of the Princess of the Emperors, and it is not indicated that the horse may be due to the author's negligence. Mr. Hou Jirun also holds the same view in his article "Hedong Xue's Study: Focusing on the Hedong Xue's Lineage during the Southern and Northern Dynasties". Another problem caused by this is that the two princesses married by Xue Kang and Xue Zhao's father and son are grandparents from the perspective of generations, which in turn involves the issue of etiquette, which makes no sense from reason. Although in fact, this kind of marriage beyond the etiquette system was not uncommon in the Tang Dynasty, such as in the early Tang Dynasty, Yang Shidao and Yang Enjing's uncles and nephews married Li Yuan's two daughters, Princess Guiyang and Princess Anping, respectively; the two princesses of the Xue family, Xue Jin and Xue Yan's uncle and nephew, were also ancestral and grandson relations, but this was after all contrary to the ethical principles preached by the rulers. Therefore, the author may wish to make a bold assumption here, is it precisely because of the insurmountable issue of etiquette that the author of the New Book of Tang deliberately made a mistake to avoid the Li Tang royal family from falling into this pit of eternal doom? This possibility should be there, but it needs to be further studied.
In summary, the author believes that the tang Dynasty Wanrong Xue's disciples (including Dou Lujian) were awarded the post of Lieutenant of The Horse Capital, and there were 11 of them. In history, there have been 14 horses in the Wanrong Xue clan.
5. The relationship between the Wanrong Xue clan and the Hedong families is corrected
In the epitaph of a Tang Dynasty Xue figure, there is such a sentence: "Wading into the river and east, the song of hefen." The ground is out of good horses, and the mountains are beautiful. Indeed, at the time of the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the number of talents, the high quality and status, and the great social influence that emerged in the Hedong region at the junction of the Yellow River and the Fenhe River were very rare. Not only are there many talents in politics, military, science, literature, history, calligraphy and art, such as the carp that crossed the river, but also produced some famous masters and giants who were able to shock the time, and indeed can be called the abyss of the elite and the cradle of talents. As far as the family clans are concerned, among the 26 clan surnames listed in liu fang's "Theory of Clans" in the Tang Dynasty, the large clans in Hedong account for 3, close to 1/8; and the total number of states and counties in the Tang Dynasty is about 327, which cannot but be said to be a miracle in China's historical landscape. In fact, in addition to the three large families with national influence, Pei, Liu and Xue, Hedong also has some local families with considerable influence, which should not be ignored, such as the Wei family in Xia County and the Wang family in Wanrong (in the Tang Dynasty, it belonged to Longmen County, which is now Hejin City, which was assigned to Wanrong in 1971). The Wei family of Xia County is a family of door valves at the turn of Wei and Jin, and is culturally known for its calligraphy, with famous figures such as Wei Xuan, Wei Qi, Wei Heng, and Wang Xizhi's teacher, Lady Wei. Wei Wan (衛瓘) is a character who appears in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and was an important vassal under Sima Shi during the Wei and Jin dynasties. Lady Wei Shuo was a famous calligrapher and calligrapher of the Jin Dynasty, who not only had exquisite calligraphy, but also cultivated a generation of calligraphers, Wang Xizhi, who later married Ruyin Taishou Li Zhi, and her nephews in her later generations also worked on calligraphy, which can be said to have influenced three calligraphy families. The Wanrong Wang family should belong to the Taiyuan Wang clan in terms of origin, but since the Kaipai Hedong, its cultural influence has been no less than that of the previous generation. Wang Tong, a generation of grandmasters "Wen Zhongzi", Wang Ji, a famous poet at the turn of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and Wang Bo, the head of the four masters of the early Tang Dynasty, are all the leaders of this family, and among the brothers of Wang Bo's generation alone, there are 4 people who have obtained the title of Jinshi, which also shows the weight of this family.
Regarding the relationship between the Wanrong Xue clan and the above-mentioned clans, the current historical understanding is more consistent in the view that the Xue clan was scorned and even rejected by the local scholars at the beginning of its arrival in Hedong. However, with the passage of time and the growth of Xue's strength, the relationship between Xue and other families has also improved to a certain extent, and has become more and more harmonious.
Let's start with Pei. The Pei clan was the most powerful of the Hedong clans, and the time of communication with the Xue clan seemed to be the earliest. From the Northern Wei "Epitaph of Xue Hui", it can be seen that the wife of Xue Jin, the fourth generation of Xue Xizu's ancestors, is Wenxi Pei. Xue Duan of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties also married his wife Pei Shi. When Xue Yongzong rebelled against Wei, the most powerful local forces against this uprising were Pei Jun, the "divine colt" of the Pei clan in Hedong, and Xue Hongzuo of the Xue clan in Hedong, and the two families became comrades-in-arms in maintaining the local ruling order. By the time of the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Pei and Xue clans were not only very trustworthy and trying their best to win over the government, but also the two families also competed for marriage and established a very strong relationship with the binding of interests. As mentioned earlier, Pei Yan, the chancellor of the Gaozong Dynasty, was Xue Zhongzhang's uncle, xue Yong was the brother of Pei Yaoqing, the chancellor of the Xuanzong Dynasty, and his nephew Pei Shu was also the prime minister at the end of the Tang Dynasty, indicating that the beauty of the Pei clan and the Xue clan was quite close.
There is little information on the relationship between the Liu clan and the Xue clan in Hedong, but when Liu Shuang, an important figure of the Liu clan, was killed for opposing Wu Zetian, Pei Yan, who was then the prime minister, and his nephew Xue Zhongzhang were opposed; at the same time, because the Wu clan was after all a means of degrading the old clan in Guanzhong, another chancellor, Xue Yuanchao, was also clearly inclined to the Liu clan in terms of political orientation. In addition, some individual characters in the Liu clan and the Xue clan also maintained a close relationship, such as Liu Zongyuan's list of his deceased father's former friends in the "Records of the Former Friends of the Xianjun Shi Table Yin Xianyou", mentioning Xue Bogao and Xue Dan of the Xue clan, Liu Zongyuan's niece also married Xue Xun of the Xue clan; Xue Rengui's granddaughter married to the Central County Ling and the Hedong people Liu Xun. Colleagues, comrades, in-laws, and former friends should be able to summarize the general outline of the relationship between the Liu and Xue clans.
The relationship between the Wei clan and the Xue clan in Hedong is even less seen in historical records, and the only information known so far is that Wei Ping, a Wei figure during the time of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, had married his wife Xue Shi. Wei Relied on the "Cexian Liang Dengke", successively served as the secretary of the provincial school secretary Lang, the lieutenant of The County, the Zuo Wei Wei Recorder to join the army, and the official Final Ling County Order, Tianbao died in the twelfth year (753). His wife, "Hedong Xue Clan, Fending Ding Clan", is undoubtedly the Wanrong Xue Clan. After Wei Ping's death, his wife thought that the feng shui of Wei JiaZuying was not good, "so the moon and the trombone", Wei Shi had no choice but to find a new grave site and relocate the tomb of Wei Ping's parents. Judging from the evaluation of Wei Bing's epitaph writer, people did not feel excessive at that time, but thought that the two were deeply in love. This is probably related to the social concept at that time and the strong family backing behind Mrs. Xue.
However, according to the author's opinion, the most commendable relationship between the Xue family and the local families is the relationship between the Xue family and the Wang family. First of all, the Xue and Wang clans are very close to each other. It is generally believed that the residence of the Wang family was in the town of Tonghua in present-day Wanrong (Tonghua is named after the meaning of Wang Tongjiaohua), and the residence of the Xue family was only a few tens of miles away, which provided great convenience for the two families to establish a connection. Secondly, the outstanding figures of these two families supported each other politically and academically, leaving many historical stories, the most famous of which is the relationship between Wang Tong, a generation of great Confucians, and Xue Daoheng, a leader in the literary world. Wang Tong's birth year coincided almost the same as that of the Sui Dynasty, and he was the most outstanding thinker and educator at that time. In terms of his academic achievements, he was one of the first figures in Chinese history to propose the confluence of "Confucianism, Interpretation, and Taoism," and was an advocate of the ideas of "people can propagate the Tao" and "not to change the fate of the people under the heavens," and directly opened the source of people-oriented ideas such as Huang Zongxi; as far as his educational achievements are concerned, he lectured on Hefen, taught and preached, and created a class of prosperous talents who had both literature and martial arts at the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, and famous people included Xue Shuo, Yao Yi, Wen Yanbo, Du Yan, and a dozen others, and some sources say that even Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng, Li Jing, and so on were also." To the north is the way of the king". It is no exaggeration to say that Xue Daoheng and Wang Tong can be called the cultural giants of the Sui generation, and they are the most dazzling "Gemini constellations" in the cultural history of the Sui Dynasty. And these two outstanding figures, who appeared in Wanrong in a corner of Hedong at the same time, lived less than a hundred miles apart, what a rare gathering of storms and clouds, and what an honor to be created by heaven! Not only that, at the beginning of Wang Tong's career, he had been promoted by Xue Daoheng; Wang Tongshi was frustrated and returned to his hometown to set up an apprentice, and Xue Daoheng took his beloved son Xue to be trained by Wang Tong; moreover, Xue Daoheng's wife Wang Shi was also Wang Tong's aunt. When Mr. Wen Yiduo talked about the encounter between Li Bai and Du Fu in the Tianbao years of the Tang Dynasty, he once had a poetic grand statement: "We should send three drums, and then lift the pen to dip in gold ink, big books and special books." Because in our 4,000-year history, except for Confucius and Lao Tzu, there is no more significant, sacred, and memorable meeting between these two people. However, from the perspective of cultural exchange, isn't the relationship between Xue Daoheng and Wang Tong, this relationship between teachers and friends and relatives, also worth remembering? In the author's opinion, the relationship between the two of them is not only the glory of wanrong and one place, but also a cultural glory that transcends history and also transcends the region, and the communication between the two of them is no less than that of Confucius asking Laozi, Xin Zhiyi and Zhu Xi meeting at Goose Lake, Lin Zexu and Zuo Zongtang talking about The Xiangjiang River, "Life is enough to know oneself, and Si Shi should look at it with the same heart", is this kind of exchange and collision between giants and giants, and this kind of support between giants and giants, is not it worth our leisurely fascination? Moreover, their relationship has also left a very warm and beautiful feeling for the descendants of the Xue and Wang clans. Xue Shu fondly recalled his intimate feelings with Wang Tong in his article "Sui Dynasty Zhengjun Wen Zhongzi Jieming"; Wang Tong's grandson Wang Bo and Xue Daoheng's great-grandson Xue Yao also had a great friendship, and Wang Bo's article "Autumn Night in Mianzhou Group Officials XiBei Xue Shenghua (i.e., Xue Yao)" also praised the special relationship between Xue and Wang's two clans of "The distance of Ji Pan Yang and the spiritual liquid of Hefen". "Jipan Yang Yuanhao" indicates that the two families are in-laws; "Tongfenhe Spirit Liquid" also indicates the geographical interdependence of the two families. There is no doubt that the relationship between Wang and Xue is far greater than that between Xue and other families.
In summary, due to geographical relations, political interests, and the generational in-law relationship that developed later, the Hedong families can be regarded as a local interest group or a team force in a sense. If we analyze the contributions of Hedong figures to Chinese history, especially to the Jin, Wei, and Sui and Tang dynasties from this perspective, it will be a terrible thing. If There were no Pei Ning, Pei Du, Pei Yaoqing, Xue Shuo, and Xue Yuanchao in China's political history, if there were no Xue Andu, Xue Rengui, Xue Ne, and Pei Xingjian in China's military history, and if There were no Pei Xiu, Pei Songzhi, Pei Rouge, Pei Zhi, Wang Tong, Xue Jingshi, and Xue Xuan in China's cultural history, then the glory of Chinese history would be dimmed. Especially from the perspective of literature, other characters do not matter, as far as the master-level figures are concerned, if the Sui Dynasty did not have Xue Daoheng, who was talented and unique, Wang Bo, who lacked talent in the early Tang Dynasty, and Liu Zongyuan, who did not have a generation of giants in the Middle Tang Dynasty, the value of literature in the Sui and Tang Dynasties would be greatly reduced, and even some kind of rupture would occur. Therefore, the historical contributions of Hedong characters really need to be carefully sorted out and judged.
In fact, from the character strategy of the Xue family, we can see that the history of the development of the Xue family can actually connect the names of many historical giants, only in the Tang Dynasty, there are Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Han Yu, Yuan Shu, Cen Shan, Gao Shi, Yang Jiong, Zhang Shu, Bai Juyi, Liu Yuxi, Liu Changqing, Quan Deyu, Bai Minzhong... In the Song Dynasty, there were Ouyang Xiu, the son-in-law of the Xue clan in Hedong, Li Qingzhao, the granddaughter of the grandson of the outer xuan, and so on. Due to space limitations, it is impossible to elaborate on them all here, but we can conclude from this: the Xue family is not only a political or powerful family, but also a cultural giant.
Sixth, the spread of the Wanrong Xue surname and related problems are corrected
Since the late Three Kingdoms period, when the Xue clan moved from Shu to Wanrong, Wanrong County was not only the foundation of xue's development and reproduction, but also an important source of the xue clan's migration and spread. "Trees move to death, people move to live", from 264 AD to nearly 1800 years of long history, Wanrong Xue clan can never stick to one place, the regular flow of population migration should be a normal, a law of survival activities. In other words, the Xue clan people who still live in Vang Vieng are likely to belong to a minority in this large and leafy family, and most of the descendants of the Xue family live outside Vang Vieng County. Due to the long span of time, the re-migration, three migrations and even multiple migrations of the descendants of this family can no longer be verified. We can only focus on the following issues here, relying on limited materials.
1. The migration route of the Xue clan. The migration route of population is nothing more than two ways, one is an unusual leap to the destination, and the other is a gradual wave of development from the original place of origin. Although the history of the development of the Xue family has undergone many leaps and bounds, from the common sense of analysis, the gradual spread from the original place should be the main way for the Xue family to migrate outward.
Let's start with the leap forward migration route.
The first is to migrate south. Soon after the Xue clan settled in Vang Vieng, war sprung up, and some of the Xue clan people had no choice but to leave the newly created family business and flee to the southern region where the war had not yet spread. The participants in the migration were mainly figures of the Nanzu lineage, such as Xue Tui of the third nanzu, Xue Hongchang of the fourth generation, and Xue Yuan, who eventually died in the south with Xue Andu Nantou. The second is the migration to the northwest region. Wanrong County, where Xue lives, has a deep relationship with the northwest region since ancient times, and from Wanrong to the west across the Yellow River and across the Guanzhong Plain, you can reach Tianshui, Pingliang, Lanzhou and other places in the northwest. This was the main route of the Wanrong Xue clan moving west in that year, and it was also a main route for the merchants of southern Jin to operate and develop outward during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and at the beginning of the Jin, Wei, and Sui dynasties, a large number of Xue clan people chose this route and moved to the northwest, including xue ju, the king of western Qin, the ancestors of the famous northern dynasty general Xue Hui (Xue Shixiong's father), and the ancestors of the Tang dynasty general Xue Mo. The third is the migration to the northeast and other regions. For example, the Xue clan of Yi County, Liaoning, believed that they were the descendants of Xue Rengui in the Andong region during the Eastern Expedition of Xue Rengui in the early Tang Dynasty. The fourth is the migration to the central area of domination. During the Jin, Wei, Southern and Northern Dynasties until the Sui and Tang dynasties, Chang'an in the Guanzhong region and Luoyang in the Central Plains were often designated as capitals by the rulers, and with the deepening of the centralization of the members of the Xue family, a large number of people became officials in the center of the regime, and naturally migrated to Si, lived in Si, and even died and were buried in Si. For example, Xizu Xue Angfang BaoYin branch of Xue Suspect, the official final Henan Order. His descendants, such as Xue Cheng's brothers, were later buried in Yanshi, Henan, and used this place as "Zu Ying", and had consciously or unconsciously identified themselves as Henan people. At present, the largest concentration of the tombs of the Wanrong Xue clan is Luoyang in Henan, followed by Xi'an in Shaanxi, which fully indicates that these two ruling centers of the year were important destinations for the migration of the Xue family.
Regarding the gradual expansion and spread of the Xue clan, in the previous article, we have analyzed that after the Expansion of the Xizu of the Xue Clan into the "Five Houses", the migration direction chosen by the various tribes was mainly around Fenyin, such as Xue Honglong's descendants moving to Hancheng across the river; Xue Ang's descendants moved to the nearby Linyi. Nanzu also had this tendency, such as Xue Rengui was considered a "Longmen person"; Xue Chuyu was buried in the border area between Wanrong and the Salt Lake District; Xue Song was buried in Xia County near Wanrong, and Xue Ping also built a family temple in Xia County. A trend and characteristic of Xue's nearby migration is mainly manifested in the descent of the Emei Mountains and settling in a more favorable living environment. As mentioned above, the geographical shape of EmeiLing has played an indispensable and important role in the development and growth of Xue's, but the hilly environment of the Emei Ridge is not as conducive to production and life as the Pingchuan area of the river valley under the Ridge, and settling down under the Emei Ridge has naturally become a good choice for Xue's nearby migration. From the historical data, it can be seen that Longmen County north of the Fenhe River is one of the important footholds for the migration of the Nanzu tribe, and Xue Rengui lived here in his early years, farming and hunting in order to make a living. In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, Xue Jun, Xue Liangzuo, and others had settled in Wenxi County, east of the Emei Mountains. Daizhou in the Fenhe Valley and Puzhou in the deep-water basin were also the destinations of many Xue clan people, and Ouyang Xiu said in his epitaph for his father-in-law Xue Kui that "Xue wei dai clan" and even proposed the concept of "Xue Dai"; Dai Prefecture is probably also one of the earliest footholds of Xue Clan from Sichuan to Hedong. The further expansion of this wave migration may break through the Hedong region and reach other territories. For example, the Xue Shigan family had already moved to Linxu County in northern Henan in the pre-Tang Dynasty, and Xue Rengui's descendants had those who moved to Ruicheng and those who moved to Lüliang. As late as the Sui Dynasty, some members of the Xue family settled in Taiyuan and its surrounding areas. For example, the "Epitaph of Xue Zhen" in the early Tang Dynasty says that his family lineage was "because of the official Jinbu, Hui Wang Taiyuan", and already regarded himself as a Taiyuan person. Another example is the two Tang Zhi that now exist in Pingyao County's QingXuguan, namely the epitaphs of xue yi and Xue Li brothers, which also say: "The people of Longmen County, whose ancestors were also, after Xue Hou, were miao descendants of the Sizhou Assassins... Because of the official flow, he lived in this village. "Longmen County was originally located in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and its original site was in the area of Hejin City, the center of Wanrong Xue's Southern Ancestral Activities. It can be seen that this branch of the Xue clan is also the Wanrong Xue clan who moved to Pingyao because of the eunuchs. After the Tang Dynasty, the descendants of the Xue clan migrated more extensively, especially through the Hongdong Great Migration to the Jiluyu region, and the scope of activities was even more expanded.
2. The distribution of Xue's descendants. As an important member of the big family of the Chinese nation, the surname Xue is widely distributed throughout the country. Judging from the current situation, Su, Zhejiang, and Fujian in the south, and Jin, Shaanxi, And Yu in the north are areas where the population of xue surname is relatively concentrated, and there is no shortage of descendants of xue surnames abroad and overseas. In recent years, with the development of economy and society and the return of traditional culture, tracing back to the source and finding the roots of their own families has become the spiritual expectation of many people. Wanrong County has also become the "root ancestor" land widely recognized by the descendants of Xue surnames everywhere. From Liaoning in the east, Inner Mongolia in the north, Gansu in the west, Guangdong in the south, Sichuan-Yuyungui in the southwest, and Fujian in Zhejiang in the southeast, a large number of Xue descendants believe that they "originated from Hedong". Mr. Xue Zhenjiang's "Xue Family Chronicle" said that different versions of the Xue family tree records their family lineage throughout the country generally point to Xi Zhong and wanrong, and think that they are only one copy of the family tree of the Concubine, that is, meng Yujun, which is the Xue family of Shanzhong Village, Changtai County, Fujian Province, and its descendants are also distributed in Taiwan.
From this point of view, the distribution of wanrong Xue's descendants throughout the country is quite extensive. However, the identification of these Xue descendants mostly depends on the family tree, and the records of the family tree are often different from those recorded in the main history, which inevitably brings a lot of confusion to researchers. For example, regarding the later life of Xue Juzheng, the prime minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, the "History of Song" clearly records that due to his wife's "jealousy", Xue Juzheng's descendants were only the adopted son Xue Weiji. However, some genealogies of xue surnames in Jiangsu province record that they are descendants of other heirs of Xue Juzheng, which is very different from the history of Zheng. Another example is that the Xue clan of Jiangyin attributed his ancestors to the Middle Tang Dynasty figure Xue Ji, but there are no clues left in the history, especially whether the clues about Xue Ji's departure from the center of power to become an official and life at the local level are true and need to be further studied. Of course, there are also some genealogical materials that are credible according to the author, such as the relocation of Xue Tui's descendants to Jiangnan. Its credibility lies in the fact that, first, the southern ancestral figures moved south is historically proven; second, the Xue Tui lineage migrated to Wenzhou, Zhejiang and other places, and the "History of Song" also confirms that the Wenzhou Xue clan originated from Hedong; third, according to the local records of Wenzhou and other places, Xue Shuxiang and other Wenzhou scholars, who are considered to be descendants of Hedong, have shown the characteristics of the rise of the group in the Song Dynasty, indicating that this family has developed for a long time in Wenzhou, which is also more consistent with the migration of Xue Tui and his descendants in the south.
How do you view the situation where there is a big discrepancy between the family tree and the correct history? This is of course very much related to the interruption of traditional spectral culture. Before the Tang Dynasty, due to the particularity of the identity of the scholar clan, the pumu culture was once very popular. For large families such as the Fenyin Xue clan, which entered the county surname very early and have a wide influence in the country, their genealogical data should be more detailed and complete. Moreover, the genealogical materials of these clans are generally collected by the royal family for verification in marriage, conferring and other activities. However, after the Tang Dynasty, on the one hand, with social turmoil and successive disasters, most of these valuable genealogical materials were lost; on the other hand, the disintegration of the power of the scholar clan, the reconstruction of social order, and the fundamental changes in social conditions, the traditional pumu culture has been greatly weakened; what is particularly important is that after the Northern Song Dynasty, the northern region of China has long been occupied by nomadic peoples such as liao, jin, and Mongolian, which is self-evident in the destruction and destruction of the traditional civilization of the Central Plains. By the time of social stability, economic recovery, and revival of literary style in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, when they wanted to reconstruct the spectral culture, there was a fault line of nearly five hundred years in the middle. At present, the earliest starting time of genealogies throughout the country is also mostly the Ming Dynasty. This is also the reason why some Xue family trees are vague, contradictory and even unreliable. (7) In order to reflect the original appearance of family development, genealogists also need to do a lot of meticulous research.
3. About the use of Xue family information. At present, there are three parts of the historical materials related to the Xue family: one is the historical materials related to the Xue family; the second is the genealogical data of various places; and the third is the epitaph data of some Xue characters (including tombstones, tomb tables, character lines, etc.). On the whole, the main history data is of course the most authoritative because of the hands of professionals, but the main history is generally the history of the later generations for the previous generations, and there will be untruthful, unreliable and even tendentious problems in the use of the data, and the history of the past is the "history of the imperial family", and the account of a family figure can only be a scale and a half claw, like the "New Table" to completely express the lineage of a family, which can be described as a great achievement. Of course, genealogical information has its research value, but as mentioned earlier, the current family tree is thick and thin, and it still needs a lot of enrichment and examination work. Epitaphs preserve a large number of first-hand information, and have a documentary and supplementary role in the accounting of family lineage, member experience, marital status, social relations, etc., which is indispensable in historical research. However, the epitaph also has its flaws, one is that the descendants of the tomb owner often whitewash their ancestors too much, losing their objective fairness. Some of the epitaphs of some figures we see now also have the phenomenon of elevating the official positions of their ancestors, such as "Xue Xuan's Epitaph." Other epitaphs completely tamper with identities and are obviously fake. For example, the epitaph of the Northern Wei Dynasty has such a description: "Junzhen (薛) Guang, the character An Hao, Hedong (county) Hedong (county) people also." Since the wang official Qixia, Bing Dynasty Zhou. The Song dynasty was allied with Qi, and Teng Hou entered and grew together. Inheriting the family's fate, Rumo shunted. Plotting sons and grandchildren, Jue Zhang. "If we do not look at the following, and see that this person belongs to both the Xue clan and the Hedong people, and also has a certain relationship with the Xue clan in Shandong, we will inevitably identify him as the Fenyin Xue clan. But this person's identity is not exactly the Fenyin Xue clan, not even a Han, but after Xue Ye of the Xianbei Linggan clan. Therefore, no matter which kind of historical material, it needs to be objectively analyzed and studied in detail.
And it was Xue Guang's epitaph that brought a warning to Xue's research. We generally believe that most of the Xue surnames in Hedong should be the stream branch of the Wanrong Xue clan, but the appearance of Xue Guang's epitaph shows that in the Hedong region where the Xue clan of Fenyin is the mainstream, there is still a descendant of the Linggan tribe with a corresponding high degree of Sinicization from the Northern Wei Dynasty. It is precisely because of the diversity of Xue's sources that Xue's research shows more difficulties and appears less pure. Even if we take the three major families from Hedong as an example, the identities of the Pei and Liu clans are indeed much simpler. For example, the Pei clan also has branches, there are Western Pei, WashMa Pei, Nanlai Wu Pei, Zhongju Pei, East Pei and other rooms, but "there is no two Pei in the world", no matter where they live and what house they belong to, they can be attributed to the Wenxi Pei clan. This is basically the same situation with the Liu family. But the Xue clan cannot be so simple and uniform, we have to analyze its origin from the He clan, whether it is after Xi Zhong, or after the concubine surname; we have to analyze its ethnic identity, whether it is Han identity or other ethnic identity. Because the Xue characters studied in this topic are basically active before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, when determining the identity of a character, it is mainly based on its expression, such as the Fenyin Xue clan, which can generally be confirmed; if it is the Hedong Xue clan, it can basically be confirmed, because the Fenyin Xue clan is the surname of Hedong County, and the Hedong Xue clan is called the Fenyin Xue clan; but only the Hedong people who are called xue surnames need to be carefully examined, which is why the author did not include many "Hedong Xue" into the Wanrong Xue clan, but only called "suspected Wanrong Xue clan". At the same time, it is precisely because of the difficulty in judging the identity of Xue's characters that Xue's research has become an interesting work.
However, the appearance of Xue Guang's epitaph also shows that due to the huge influence of the Fenyin Xue clan at that time, so that xue surnames from other sources also moved their identities closer to the Fenyin Xue clan, and the time of the world changed, and perhaps some strict boundaries were finally blurred and disappeared. In this sense, the Wanrong Xue clan played the role of a surname melting pot, and eventually dominated the Xue surname figures of different origins and origins.
exegesis:
(1) See Zizhi Tongjian • The Third Year of The Jianwu of the Southern Dynasty Qi Ming Emperor.
(2) Scattered in the "Epitaph of Xue Yi", "Epitaph of Xue Xun", "Epitaph of Zheng Yici's Wife Xue" and "Stele of Xue Pingxian Temple".
(3) For example, Zhou Guoyi and Zhou Jin's "Chronicles of the Xue Family Figures" (Shanxi People's Publishing House) holds this view.
(4) "leaving Qin" here seems to be more appropriately understood as "leaving Jin". Because the ancient "Qin and Jin" were often used together, they may borrow from each other in special contexts; the epitaph is used as a script, in order to achieve harmony in sound and rhyme, "Qin" is used instead of "Jin".
(5) In the case of extremely low productivity in ancient times, the output of land was also quite low. So producing a person's rations can take several acres of land. For example, the Northern Wei Juntian system stipulates that Ding Nan alone should grant a total of 60 mu of Lutian and Mulberry Fields; women should grant up to 70 mu of Lutian and Matian, and the number of fields granted during the Northern Zhou Dynasty increased. The 5,000 households of the Xue family moved to Fenyin, that is, based on a family of three, each mouth granted 50 acres of land, the number of land needed is as much as 750,000 mu; and the current Wanrong whole territory (basically the same size as Fenyin County in that year) is only 1.5 million mu, except for the mountains and hills that are not suitable for cultivation, and the cultivatable land will not be more than 750,000 mu. If we combine it with the fact that the ancient land resources have not been fully exploited, and the land needs of the indigenous people who have long settled here, Fenyin alone cannot accommodate such a large population. The author thinks that they cannot all live in Fenyin, mainly based on this consideration.
(6) In the "Three Lineages of the Prime Minister in the New Book of Tang", Xue Zhao's official position is that of secretary supervisor; in the Biography of the Emperors and Princesses, Xue Zhao's official position is that of secretary and junior supervisor.
(7) Many scholars of previous generations have held this view, such as Mr. Cen Zhongmian said in the "Self-Introduction to the Records of the Four Schools of Yuan he and surname": "... The Six Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Xiangwei Mendi, and up to the Tang Dynasty, the scholars were all called Junwang, and Judah had to trace their respective lineages. Five seasons of chaos, genealogy lost. Above the imperial court, no more questions. Liao, Jin, Yuan, Manchu, The Lord of Huaxia, came from Liaoshuo, then evil races, Ming from Caolai, then disregarded the family's name, left the chaos, the clan was Yimeng, so Li Bi Longxi, Yan Zhang Bi Qinghe, Yan Liu Bi Pengcheng, Yan Zhou Bi Runan, and the county looked different from the loss, the family name of the study, its substitution is extreme..."
