In 776 BC, the first Olympic Games were held in ancient Greece. Five years later, in 771 BC, on the Chinese side, a man named King Zhou Youwang held a long-distance running race, and the signal to start running was to light a beacon. As a result, the game became bigger, leading to the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty and China entering the Spring and Autumn Period.
When it comes to Bao Ji, the story we are most familiar with is probably the "Princes of Zhou Youwang Beacon Drama", which is from Sima Qian's "History of Zhou Benji". King Zhou You, in order to smile, repeatedly lit a beacon used to warn foreign enemies, and the princes hurried to serve the king, and only after they arrived did they find that they had been deceived, and when they saw their gray faces, they finally smiled.
(Qing) Zhou Peichun painted praise
Later, Rong Di really came, and king You of Zhou raised a beacon, but the soldiers did not arrive, and king of Zhou You's soldiers were defeated and killed, and Western Zhou perished.
The concubine is not funny, and the king of the ghosts wants to laugh in every way, so he does not laugh. The King of You is a big drum, and if there is a KouZhi, he raises a fire. When the princes heard this, they laughed. The King of Shadows said, "Raise fire in numbers." After that, the unbelief, neither did the interests of the princes.
However, there is no evidence that the pre-Qin dynasty already had an alarm system called "Beacon Fire" (Qian Mu's Outline of National History), which probably appeared in the Western Han Dynasty to defend against the Xiongnu. In his book The Fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty: The Geographical and Political Crisis of early Chinese States, Li Feng pointed out that in the literature before Sima Qian, only the "Lü Shi Chunqiu" recorded the story of the Zhou Youwang's plays princes, and the "Lü Shi Chunqiu And Suspected" said:
Zhou Zhaofeng, Pickaxe, Anderson of Jinrong. Covenant with the princes: Pray for Gao Bao on the king's road, put the drum on it, and hear it from near and far; that is, Rong Kou to the king, preach the drum to tell each other, and the soldiers of the princes will come to save the Son of Heaven. Rong Kou arrived, the king of You beat the drum, the soldiers of the princes all arrived, and the praise was great, and the joy was great. The king of the shadows wanted to praise the laughter of the concubines, because the number of drums, the number of soldiers of the princes was counted to no cowards. As for Hou Rong Kou Zhenzhi, the Youwang beat the drum, and the princes did not arrive. The body of the ghost king died under the Lishan Mountain, laughing for the world. This husband is also a non-Kou distorted Ko. The sages have small evils that lead to great evils. The defeat of The King of You's good novels led to the destruction of the Great. Therefore, the skeletons were separated, the three dukes and nine secretaries fled, and the use of this concubine died, and the King of Ping migrated east, and Qin Xiang and Jin Wen gave the land to the king of Lao.
We see that in the "Lü's Spring and Autumn" is recorded as "the princes of the Zhou Youwang drumming and playing the opera", and in Sima Qian's pen, it is probably based on the beacon system that appeared in the Western Han Dynasty, and eventually it became the "Zhou Youwang Beacon Drama Princes". It is difficult to say whether this story in "Lü's Spring and Autumn" is true or not, after all, when "Lü's Spring and Autumn" was written, it had been more than five hundred years since the death of King You, just like we modern people recall a Ming Dynasty event.
The legend that King Zhou You destroyed the country for Bo Yu's smile is full of legends, and the origin of The King of Zhou You is full of mystery. It can be said that the formation of the legend is likely to be influenced by the early mysterious legends. Sima Qian's "Records of History" inherits a mysterious legend recorded in the "Chinese ZhengYu": in the eighth year of King You of Zhou, Shi Bo told Zheng Huangong such a mythical story, during the Xia Dynasty, two dragons suddenly appeared in the sky, and they hovered in the sky, leaving a puddle of water and flying away.
The shamans of the Xia Dynasty said that they would use a box to hold the water and seal it, warning that the box could not be opened. Otherwise there will be great calamity. This box passed from the Xia Dynasty to the Shang Dynasty, and then from the Shang Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty, and no one dared to open it. When it came to King Zhou Li, King Zhou Li was just embarrassed and had to open the box. As soon as he opened it, the water flowed to the ground, and then it turned into a big black turtle, and then the big turtle quickly ran toward the backyard, and people followed behind. There happened to be a little palace girl in the backyard, and the big turtle rushed to the little palace girl, and then disappeared all at once. A few years later, King Li of Zhou died, and his son King Xuan of Zhou took the throne. One day, the little palace girl suddenly found out that she was pregnant, and soon gave birth to a child. The palace maid was very frightened, so she secretly threw the child outside the palace. At that time, there was a nursery rhyme circulating in the capital of the country, saying that "the arc of the circle is clothed, and the Zhou Kingdom is really destroyed", selling mountain mulberry bows and wooden bags, and destroying the scourge of the Zhou Kingdom. This nursery rhyme prophesied that the person who sold the bow and arrow made of mulberry wood was the one who destroyed the Zhou Kingdom. These words reached the ears of King Xuan of Zhou, who was so angry that he ordered people selling mulberry bows to be arrested everywhere.
At this time, there were two old people who came to the capital to do business, and they were scared and ran. On the side of the road, I suddenly heard the cries of a child, and the old couple walked over to take a look and found that it was an abandoned baby, and this child was abandoned by the palace girl before. The old couple had a child and were very happy. The couple continued to flee, and fled to the country of Praise. Later, the Chu people offended the Zhou Dynasty, and by this time the monarch was already king of Zhou You, the son of King Xuan of Zhou. Fearing that they would be destroyed by the Zhou Dynasty, the People of Chu wanted to sacrifice the girl who had been thrown away by the little palace maid to King You of Zhou in order to atone for their sins. Because this girl was sacrificed by The Kingdom of Praise, and the Daughter was a descendant of Xia, and her surname was Xia, she was called a Lady of Praise.
When Shi Bo told this story, it was the eighth year of the Youwang, and at that time, he was favored, and there were still three years before the Death of the Youwang and the fall of the Western Zhou. Shi Bo wanted to use such a myth to illustrate that the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty was the "Mandate of Heaven".
In the poems of the early and middle Western Zhou Dynasty, there is also a connection between women and the "Mandate of Heaven". Legend has it that the female ancestor of the Zhou people accidentally stepped on a large footprint, and then became pregnant and gave birth to the male ancestor hou ji of the Zhou people.
"Poetry Daya Shengmin" said: "Chu Shengmin, Shi Wei Jiang Yan." How about the people? Kānākān, Ephesian is childless. Emperor Wu Minxin, YuSuke, and Zhen Zhen. Carrier-bearing, time-to-time rearing. ”
Also without a husband and a child, the female ancestor of the Zhou people, Jiang Yuan, was deified and stepped on the big footprints to give birth, which is the destiny of heaven, and women have become the realistic reflection of the mandate of heaven. The Western Zhou Dynasty's concubines were "demonized" and of unknown origin, and it was the Mandate of Heaven to break the Zhou Family Dynasty, and women became a reflection of the Zhou Family's loss of The Mandate of Heaven.
The Qing dynasty Jiao Bingzhen painted a painting praising Tai Ji, who was as benevolent as a qilin
When the Zhou family founded the country, there was also a woman with the surname Ofi, and the first chapter of the Daya Siqi said: "The emblem of the Great Concubine, then baisi male." "King Wen of Zhou's wife was Tai Ji, the mother of King Wu of Zhou. The poet praises Tai Ji because she gave birth to the great King Wu of Zhou. The poet praises the marriage relationship between the Zhou royal family and the Ji surname, because their combination brought the Zhou family the lord of the world to the Zhou family. In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the poet broke his mouth and scolded, "Hehe Zong Zhou, praise and extinguish it." Coincidentally, the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty was also related to a descendant of Xia, namely The Jurchens. In the poems of the early and middle Western Zhou Dynasties, the women who appear are often the symbols of an annunciation, and in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the reappearance of women in the psalms has become the "root cause" of the world's chaos in the eyes of the poet.
How did this praisegiver "provoke" chaos in the world? Originally, King You had already made Marquis Shen the queen, and Empress Shen's son Yi Usu the crown prince. However, later, after the Emperor of You's deposing, he gave birth to a bofu. Because King You's favor favored concubines, he wanted to depose the original crown prince Yi Usu, and Yi Usu went out of the State of Ben Shen to join his grandfather. During the reign of King Xuan of Zhou, the royal family married Shen Bo, at which time the Zhou royal family was already weakened, and wanted to use the political and military strength of the Shen state to supplement the Zhou royal family. After King You of Zhou deposed Shen, he forced the crown prince away, apparently forgetting the precarious situation of the Zhou royal family. At that time, shenguo was strong, and King Youwang of Zhou forced Yiusu away, which inevitably led to a break with Shenguo. The "Bamboo Book Chronicle" records that after Yi usu Ben Xi Shen's grandmother's family, he was embraced by Shen Hou, Xu Wengong and others as kings, "Ping Wang Ben Shen, Shen Hou, Lu Hou, Xu Wen Gong Ping Wang Yu Shen". King You of Zhou led troops to attack the State of Shen, and Shen Guo, together with the Rong people, defeated the King of Zhou You, and also killed Bofu, and Western Zhou perished.
People often blame the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty on the Praise, which may be related to the fact that the Western Zhou Dynasty disturbed the patriarchy and interfered in politics for a long time, but it also reflected the tradition of the Zhou family's "female sex disaster theory", which has influenced thousands of years in later generations and has become an important theoretical basis for the male society to denigrate and suppress women. For example, in the Tang Dynasty Yuan Shu's "Biography of Yingying", Zhang Sheng "always chaotically abandoned" Cui Yingying, he said that the reason why he abandoned Cui Yingying was that this woman was too good-looking, and he was afraid that he could not hold back, when the King of Shangyi favored Daji, and the King of Zhou You's favor believed in Himself, so he destroyed the country, and was still ridiculed by the people of the world, so he could not follow their old path, and could not delay his future because of a beautiful woman.
"Whatever is commanded by the great heavens, it will not demonize its body, but it will demonize man." Let the sons of the Cui clan meet the rich and the noble, ride on the pampering, not for the clouds, for the rain, then for the jiao, for the mite, I do not know what has changed. Xi Yin Zhixin, Zhou Zhiyou, according to the country of a million, its momentum is very thick. However, a woman was defeated. He slaughtered his people and slaughtered his body, which is still laughing for the world. The virtue of giving is not enough to overcome the evil, but to use forbearance."
Zhang Sheng first put forward the historical basis for the woman's disaster to the country, and then extended his own last resort and issued the "forbearance" theory. Instead of criticizing his petty sentiments, people praised him as a "good remedy", which shows that this idea had a broad mass base at that time. Tracing back to the roots, this kind of rotten conceptual tradition already existed in the pre-Qin period. In the feudal patriarchal society, women who lack the right to speak have no ability to defend themselves, and can only become the "back pot man" in men's mouths.
Are you surprised?
Many of the historical facts we know may be just illusions, but the truth is hidden in the vast river of history and forgotten.
In fact, there are many books that discuss historical truths, after all, doubting ancient times has become a trend since the May Fourth Movement.
But when you see some articles that claim to be "the truth", will you have a little doubt and vigilance?
How did these truths come about? Are they necessarily correct? Is there anything else possible? If this is the truth, then how did our misunderstanding arise?
"The Illusion of History" answers these questions.
It is based on the accumulated academic achievements in the field of literature and history, and provides a very reliable interpretation. This book will not enshrine a certain "truth", nor will it regard a "fallacy" as a cover, but use "illusion" as the starting point to humorously unfold the multiple possibilities of history.
How to make a big wave and remove the false and the true? Let's pick up the book "The Illusion of History" together. Following in the footsteps of the author, you may form your own understanding in the reading, and truly enter the room about history.