Shenyang, Anyang, Luoyang, Nanyang, Xinyang, Xiangyang, Yueyang...
Is it a little bit that I don't know the word "yang"?
The word "yang" seems to be tightly tied to Chinese place names. If you count carefully, you will find that this is not a coincidence of "cases". According to records, there are about 120 place names with the word "Yang" at or above the county level in China.
Could it be that our ancients had some strange preferences for naming regions?
Yes and no.
01 Named after "Yang", why?
When the ancient Chinese chose the name of the region, they did like to use the word "yang". According to incomplete statistics, in Henan Province alone, there are 18 city names with the word "Yang".
If you have to ask the reason, you have to talk about the geographical environment. Come, look at a map and review the geography of high school.
Please ask, with the information given in the figure, how to judge which side is the yin slope and which side is the yang slope?
Yes, the key is to look at the snow line, the higher the snow line, the more abundant the sunshine. If you add the azimuth map in the upper left, you can also estimate that this area is located in the northern hemisphere. If the memory is very good, you may be able to vaguely recall the judgment rule that the geography teacher said when he knocked on the blackboard - "The south of the mountain and the north of the water are the sun." ”
This is the crux of the matter.
According to research, "yang" is closely related to the sun at the beginning of its birth. In the oracle bones, Yang writes "昜", which the scholar Ding Shan notes as "昜者, the clouds open and see the sun also." Under such logical deduction, the word "yang" naturally points to natural phenomena such as the sun, light, and sunrise. As for the connection between "Yang" and "Nan", it is closely related to China's geographical environment.
Since ancient times, China has been rich in natural resources, with many rivers and mountains, and the ancients especially liked to name places according to the environment in which they are located. "Mountains and rivers and north are yang", in fact, from the "Biography of Gu Liang" in the Western Han Dynasty, the text contains:
"The north of the water is yang, and the south of the mountain is yang."
China is located in the northern hemisphere, and the sun basically shines from the south, which determines that the southern foothills of the mountain have better sunshine effect and become a sunny slope. Not only does the northern foothills of the mountain have less sunshine than the southern slope, but they may also "face each other" with cold air in winter, so it is not surprising that it is called "yin" slope. Coupled with China's terrain in the west and high in the east, most of the rivers are in an east-west direction, flowing from west to east, subject to gravity, will produce a clockwise turn, the water flow washes the south bank, the south bank terrain is low and humid, and the light is less, so there is a saying that "the south of the water is yin".
Most of the areas named "Yang" derive their name from this. For example, the city of Luoyang, located in the northwest of Henan Province, according to the Huanyu Tongzhi, "lived in the north of Luoshui, so it was called Luoyang." That is to say, because it is located on the north bank of Luoshui, it is named "Luoyang". Luoyang is named after the water, and Yueyang City in Hunan Province is a typical example of the mountain. The "Interpretation of the Name of the Present County" reads: "There is Baqiu Mountain in the city, a Tianyue Mountain, and the Mufu Mountain is also called Tianyue Mountain, and the land is based on its yang, so it is called Yueyang." ”
▲Map of Ancient Luoyang
So why are there so many place names with "yang"?
This is related to people's production and settlement habits. The southern foothills of the mountains and the north shore of the water are often full of light, and the summer precipitation is more abundant, at the same time, because the impact of the water flow is smaller, the soil is more solid, these conditions are very suitable for farming, convenient for production, and naturally become the first choice for people to live.
In other words, the more you live, the more you name, the more place names you leave.
In addition to geographical factors, some researchers believe that the ancients were quite good at the word "yang" in the selection and use of place names, and there may be more complicated reasons behind this. At this time, it is necessary to mention a special place name - Heyang.
According to the study, Heyang refers to the area within present-day Henan Province, on the north bank of the Yellow River, and this name is now deprecated. The "Biography of Gu Liang" reads: "The Heavenly King guards In Heyang".
"Shou" here, representing the meaning of patrol hunting, refers to the inspection of superiors to subordinates. That is to say, Zhou Tianzi was in Heyang, inspecting the princes and accepting the hajj from the princes. However, scholars found that in the records of the Bamboo Book Chronicle, the facts underwent a great change, becoming "the prince of Zhou Xiang will be the prince of Heyang". The word "will" is worth looking for. "Will" means "meeting", in other words, originally it should be the superior inspecting the subordinate, Zhou Tianzi sat firmly in the court, and the princes came to see him, but it became Zhou Tianzi going to the Jin Kingdom and meeting the princes in the Jin Dynasty. According to the situation of the national strength of the countries at that time, scholars judged that the real situation should be the latter. So why did the "Biography of Gu Liang" make such a record? In addition, why do we have to emphasize "Heyang"?
According to scholars, this is to give Zhou Tianzi "honor". As a Confucian classic that promotes and obeys the Zhou rites, the Gu Liang Biography cannot directly admit that the high-ranking Zhou Tianzi was "called around" by the princes, at least literally maintaining the face of the Zhou Dynasty.
This is especially true of the emphasis on "Heyang". Mountains and rivers and north are yang, just like the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, where the law is, where the order is, and it must not be moved. This is also regarded as the "Spring and Autumn Brushwork" of Confucianism, and the Jin Dynasty cannot violate the laws of nature no matter how hard it is, just as it cannot violate the hierarchical order of the Son of Heaven as the honor and the princes as the second.
It is not difficult to explain why the "Yang" place names are mostly from the Central Plains of China, and the earliest "Anyang", which is named after Yang, is the birthplace of important Chinese civilization, which is just in line with the social pattern of China centered on the Central Plains and gradually spreading to the surrounding areas.
After the Qin unified China, this naming method gradually expanded from the Central Plains to the four directions, so now, in the vast territory of China, we see more and more place names with the word "Yang".
02 "Yin", abandoned?
Speaking of this, everyone may mutter in their hearts, "yang" has become the choice of everyone, but what about the word "yin"? It is undeniable that the word "yin" is used relatively little in place names in our country.
Yin, the ancient chinese word for "舎", means "the fog that is rotating and reuniting". The fate of the word "yin" and the place name also has to be traced back to the "Biography of Gu Liang". Duan Yu once cut a note in the Shuowen Jiezi: "The Tale of Gu Liang says that 'the north of the water is yang, and the south of the mountain is yang', and the cloud of Zhuyun 'the sun shines as the yang', but the south of the water and the north of the mountain are yin. ”
If geographical factors are taken into account, the environmental conditions of the "yin" land are relatively less suitable for production, and there are relatively few large settlements formed, and there are naturally not many place names preserved. But does not mean that the "Yin" word is directly abandoned, counting down, there are still place names with the word "Yin", such as Tangyin County in the north of Henan Province, which is located in the south of Tangshui, named "Tangyin"; Located in Huayin City, Shaanxi Province, it stands in the north of Huashan Mountain, so it is called "Huayin". Mengyin County, Linyi City, Shandong Province, is located in the north of Mengshan Mountain and gets its name.
Moreover, the relationship between "yin" and "yang" land and the quality of production conditions was affected by the low level of productivity in ancient times, especially mountains and rivers, which were important resources for military defense and transportation in ancient Chinese cities.
However, with the development of productive forces, people have been using "yin" and "yang" name names to reduce. Some scholars have drawn a map of the distribution of "yin" and "yang" place names, many of which have disappeared. Along with this, the gap between the two gradually narrows the location conditions, in other words, living in the yin or in the yang will give a region different development advantages.
For example, located in the shade of the Yangtze River, Jiangsu Province", "Jiangyin City", north pillow Yangtze River, located in the head of the river tail, has a unique port advantage, as early as the Tang Dynasty became an important port for foreign trade along the eastern coast of China, the Northern Song Dynasty became a regional commercial center, the Southern Song Dynasty became one of the 11 city shipping divisions (services), bustling back and forth, all into Wang Anshi's seven words -
Overseas pearl rhinoceros often enter the market, and human fish and crabs do not care about money.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the torrent of reform and opening up accompanied the feeding of the Yangtze River, which brought more development possibilities to Jiangyin, and also crowned it as "the first county in China's manufacturing industry" and "sixteen consecutive county economic and comprehensive development in the country".
▲Map of Jiangyin City
In fact, in addition to the distinct choice of "yin" and "yang", scholars have also found some other naming rules related to this. The familiar "Xuanwu Gate" and "Suzaku Street" are directly influenced by these laws.
In ancient China, the orientation of the ancient Chinese is to sit north and face south, and the front is south, which is called "yang"; the rear is north, which is "yin".
According to the study, the Five Elements of Yin and Yang theory established by the Zhou Yi stipulates that wood, fire, earth, gold, and water correspond to the colors of blue, red, yellow, white, and black, respectively, and correspond to the directions of east, south, middle, west, and north. Taking "south" as an example, the south belongs to "yang", representing red, and the suzaku is regarded as a red auspicious bird, so the southern gate of the ancient Chinese capital is called "Suzaku Gate", and "Xuanwu" as a black turtle is used in the names of the northern city gate and street.
▲Xi'an Suzaku Gate
In this way, the use of "yin" and "yang" has added a little cultural and historical origin under the influence of natural geographical factors.
03 The story that has to be told between "yin" and "yang"
In fact, the "yin" and "yang" in place names are just a microcosm of the two accompanying each other. The "entanglement" between "yin" and "yang" has long been integrated into the long river of China's five-thousand-year historical civilization, mixed with the ancients' philosophical reading of nature and life, and has become a distinct and unique footnote.
To trace back to "yin" and "yang", it is impossible to bypass "Zhou Yi". "Zhou Yi" believes that one yin and one yang are called the way. There is a cloud in the "Yi Zhi Ci": "Yi has Tai Chi, which is the birth of two instruments, the birth of two instruments of four elephants, and the four elephants of Bagua." "The "two instruments" are generally believed to be yin and yang.
Later, the concept of "yin and yang" was incorporated into the broader speculation of social phenomena. Fan Li once combined the concept of yin and yang with the art of war, calling the hidden retreat "yin" and revealing the attack as "yang". The Taoists represented by Lao Tzu elevated the concept of "yin and yang" to the philosophical category, elevated yin and yang from the simplest natural phenomena to the most basic opposites of things, and gradually formed a complete set of conceptual systems, covering the objective laws of nature, the changes and development of things, the laws of human cognition, and so on.
Imperceptibly, the concept of yin and yang is quietly integrated into the production and life of the Chinese ancestors, and penetrates into all aspects of society like a drizzle breeze.
The emergence, development and prosperity of Yin and Yang culture is rooted in the observation and thinking of the ancients on nature, and is related to the contemplation and questioning of the universal issue of "the unity of heaven and man" in Chinese culture. Mr. Qian Mu believes that the "unity of heaven and man" is the greatest contribution of Chinese culture to mankind. This is a simple and simple humanistic thought, but it is also a primitive philosophy of life, and it is also full of open-mindedness and compassion for the ancestors to nature, life and themselves.
The long Chinese thousand-year-old civilization, which has been living and reproducing to this day, is a simple map, a few special place names, under the slow tasting, it is also thick and deep.