Culture evolves with the times in the process of inheritance. In the construction and development of Tengzhou's contemporary new culture, we must adhere to the correct direction of inheriting and carrying forward the ancient traditional culture; in order to adhere to the correct direction, we must understand the ancient mainstream culture of Tengzhou; of course, this kind of "understanding" and "persistence" is based on observing reality, and the evidence is the record of historical classics and the existence of archaeology.
The origin of ancient Tengzhou culture
The ancient mainstream culture of Tengzhou sprouted in the Beixin culture period 7,000 years ago, and it really originated and became a unique regional cultural form, when it was the pre-Qin period when Tengzhou formed a regional system three or four thousand years ago. According to historical documents such as zuo chuan, the main people occupying the ground in present-day Tengzhou at that time were Teng, Xue, and Qiu (including Xiao Yi later). The area north of the present Jiehe River and the eastern part of the border with Pingyi and the junction of Mushi and Yangzhuang were respectively owned by Yi and Xiaoyi, and their centers (capitals) were not in Tengzhou, and died before Teng and Xue. Teng, on the other hand, although it has jurisdiction over a corner to the west, built tengcheng in the current town of Jiangtun, in the center of Tengzhou; Xue Guo took the capital city around the huangdian gang in the current zhangwang town as the center, and had jurisdiction over the middle and lower reaches of the Xue River and the Yi River, spanning the southern, southeastern and southwestern Tengzhou half of the jiangshan, and once reached the north and northeast of Lincheng (now Xuecheng), reaching Weishan Lake, which was the largest country occupying the land of Tengzhou. From this point of view, from the long history of rule and the large area of jurisdiction, the greatest influence on Tengzhou is teng and Xue. The culture of these two countries is an important element that constitutes the ancient mainstream culture of Tengzhou.
Two elements of ancient Tengzhou culture
Confucian culture of Tengguo
Confucian culture originated in Lu and Zou. It should be made clear that the State of Teng was not incorporated into the State of Lu during the pre-Qin period. However, one is because Teng is a direct fief of the Western Zhou Dynasty that conforms to Confucian norms that Confucius respects, and the other is because Teng Guo takes Zou and Lu as neighbors, as a strong neighbor, the penetration and influence of Confucian culture in Zou and Lu are conceivable, and the geography and humanities are inseparable, so for thousands of years, Tengzhou is also proud of the reputation of "the hometown of Confucius and Mencius, the state of etiquette". The most direct infiltration and influence of Confucian culture on Tengguo culture was in the middle and late Warring States period, which occurred in the interaction between Mencius and Teng Wengong.
According to the first and second parts of the book "Teng Wen GongZhang Sentence" of Mencius, from 320 BC when Teng Wengong was the son of the world, until his death in 316 BC, Teng Guo repeatedly asked Mencius for government in the form of "going out and please come in". From "asking for funerals" to "serving the country", from the social division of labor to the way of government, from persuading the restoration of the Ida system to the implementation of benevolent government, from publicizing the personality of the "big husband" to criticizing the yang zhu and Mo Zhai doctrines... It covers almost the basic spirit of Mencius's doctrine and the basic ideas of Confucian advocacy. Its core is to take the theory of "sexual benevolence" as the starting point, to "be virtuous" and "to be courteous and courteous" and to treat one's subjects kindly; to put forward the way of "serving the country", that is, to promote the well field system, to observe its own system, to reduce the people's burdens, and to practice "benevolent government"; at the same time, to set up schools, with "ming people's morality", people "go in and out of friendship, watch over each other, and support each other, then the people are close", and establish a harmonious society in which "fathers and sons have relatives, kings and subjects have righteousness, husbands and wives are different, and friends have faith"; and encourage and assert: "In this day, the strong points complement each other's weaknesses." Fifty miles will be a good country. ”
This is exactly what happened. Teng Wengong accepted Mencius's suggestion, issued "kindness", "benevolent government", and was famous for a while, "people from afar heard about it", "willing to be subjected to a widow", attracting the people of Chu, Song and other neighboring countries to flock to the country, and even brought agricultural tools to Teng Guo to settle down. Teng Guo became a successful "model field" and highlight of Confucian culture in that period.
So far, the commonly used words and allusions that appear in the "Teng Wen Gongzhang Sentence" such as "saving the people from water and fire", "passing through the door three times without entering", "courtesy and courtesy", "choosing the chicken of the neighbor", "those who are good on the top, there must be something in the bottom", "filial piety when entering, and mourning when going out", especially the norms of personality cultivation such as "the rich and the noble cannot be obscene, the poor cannot be moved, the mighty cannot be bent, and this is called the big husband", and the criticism of the rich and unkind "there is fat meat, the stable has fat horses; the people are hungry, the wild is hungry, and this rate of beasts cannibalism" and so on As well as the distinction between "adults" and "villains", "virtuous kings" and "tyrants", "gentlemen" and "savages", modern people are not only familiar with them, but also imperceptibly incarnate people's concepts, especially the reputation of "good country", which has been used to today's Tengzhou and has become the birthplace of "good" culture (see the humble article "Good country's good and good culture"). All this shows that Confucian culture has a long history in Tengzhou and has become a major source of ancient culture in Tengzhou.
And another source that cannot be ignored is -
Qi cultural factors of Xue Guo
Xue Guo not only occupies the largest area in Tengzhou, but also has a superior geographical environment, which is the birthplace of "Beixin culture", and the earliest ancestors of Tengzhou appeared here. Its development has gone through three stages: clan society, Ren surname Xue, and Tian surname Xue. Different ideologies in different periods, rich historical accumulation, coupled with the infiltration and influence of the surrounding Song and Chu styles and Lu Wei customs, have formed the characteristics of multiculturalism. Among them, the most infiltrated and influential was the Qi culture brought by the Tian father and son, especially the Meng Yu Juntian Wen.
The State of Qi was a great power in the East and the mother country of Meng Tianjun. It is far away from Zhou Tianzi and less constrained. Qi Huan used the public administration of Zhongzhong as the chancellor, implemented reforms, and became the leader of the "Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons"; when King Wei was king, he also used Zou To avoid xiangguo, encouraged advice, and opened up the way of speech, forming a situation of "princes entering the court, and the door is like a city", becoming one of the "Seven Heroes of the Warring States". King Xuan of Qi further developed, set up an international academic institution called "Jixia Xuegong" in the capital Linzi, attracting and inviting experts and scholars from all over the world from confucianism, ink, law, Taoism, bing, zongheng, yin and yang and other schools to come to give lectures, discuss and debate, and for a time became the center of "a hundred schools of thought".
The Tian father and son, who grew up in this background and environment and successively entered the Xue government, especially Meng Yijun, will inevitably bring the fine traditions of Qi culture and form a reform, opening up, flexible and flexible governing concept in Xuedi. According to the Warring States Policy and the Chronicle of the Meng Dynasty, there are three most prominent aspects:
The first is to inherit the talent concept of the State of Qi, open the door of the country, and recruit talents. Meng Yijun opposed the Confucian concept of "wisdom and foolishness", breaking the boundaries between "adults" and "villains", "gentlemen" and "savages", regardless of their origin and status, even if they would "chickens and dogs thieves", meritocracy, "no nobles", and their treatment was "one and (Tian) Wen and so on". As a result, "the people who poured out the world, thousands of diners", Meng Yijun escaped from danger several times, and Xue Guo turned the crisis into safety, which was the strength of his "nourishing soldiers". Sima Qian quoted Yiren at the end of the "Biography of Meng Tianjun" as saying that "Meng Tianjun attracted the world's renxia traitors into Xuezhong", in fact, this is his Confucian orthodox vision to seek complete blame for these scholars, but it is just the opposite side to prove that Xue Di is a country of "eclectic and degrading talents".
The second is to inherit the unity of righteousness and interests of the State of Qi, pioneer the "state loan", and invigorate the finances. The country of Qi faces the sea and the river, and relies on the benefits of fishing and salt; Linzi merchants and merchants gather, currency circulation, developed lending, and active economic thought since ancient times. Inspired by him, Meng Yijun continued to issue "state loans" during his reign. Its motives, whether it is Meng Tianjun's claim that he is "not enough to feed his customers" and lend money to amass money; or his protégé Feng Chen's propaganda that "Meng Tianjun so lends money, for those who have nothing for the people to think that they are also in the industry", and providing the capital of "poverty alleviation" and "entrepreneurship", is a good measure to invigorate the economy and benefit the country and the people. Confucianism advocates "sacrificing profits for righteousness" and Mo Jia criticizes "seeking profit and forgetting righteousness", both of which oppose "profit" and "righteousness"; and from the stories of "burning coupons and city righteousness" and "Wei Zi borrowing sages" led by Meng Tianjun's "national loans", we can see that in the end, Meng Tianjun convincingly unified the understanding of "profit" and "righteousness" from the height of Governing the country in Anbang, which is also an important reason why Xue Guo once prospered during his reign, and posterity praised him for "raising soldiers and loving the people".
The third is to inherit the concept of openness and flexibility of the State of Qi, judge the hour and size up the situation, and flexible diplomacy. During the Warring States period, the weak preyed on the strong, and small countries were often the first to be ravaged and slaughtered. As the king of a small country in the cracks between big countries, Meng Tianjun is certainly not willing to sit still. In view of the situation at that time, he adopted a flexible diplomatic policy. On the one hand, he himself frequently traveled between countries, and at the same time opened the door of the country to encourage warriors like Mao Sui to stay in big countries and make meritorious achievements; at the same time, he attracted scholars like Feng Chen to Xue Guo to "participate in politics and discussion of politics." The most prominent is to take advantage of the contradictions between the great powers, or dependence, or alliance, or neutrality, or to lead the east through the west, so as to protect themselves. Of course, Meng Tianjun also suffered some minor remarks, but historians such as Mr. Liang Yusheng have long pointed out that it is an untrue word that slanders Meng Tianjun. In any case, a small fief that was originally a state of Qi was finally won as an independent country, and it died later than Teng, Yi, and Xiao Yi, which cannot but be attributed to Meng Tianjun's time-judgement and flexible diplomatic activities.
The fusion of the two cultures
Marx said that the thought of the ruler is the ruling ideology of the country; and the idea is the dominant core of culture. Teng Wengong and Meng Yijun, as the kings of Teng and Xue, practiced Confucian culture and inherited the culture of the State of Qi. This kind of practice and inheritance will inevitably form their own value orientation and social atmosphere in the two countries; and when history merges Teng and Xue into the main territory of Tengzhou, the Confucian culture and Qi culture they represent will become the mainstream culture of tengzhou in ancient times in convergence, fusion and complementarity. Just as the name of the "Good Country" originating from the Tengguo and other "Teng Wen Official Chapters" have been passed down to this day, the people who are related to Meng Yujun and the culture of the Xue Kingdom, such as "Corporal Lixian", "Burning Coupons city righteousness", "Long live the mountain", "Singing with bullets", "Standing out", "Three Caves of cunning rabbits", etc., have also become almost household allusions and legends for the tengzhou people. Even when More than four hundred years after The Fall of Teng Xue, Sima moved over to Teng Xue and still found that Xue Di was "customary... with Zou and Lu Shu", which shows the great influence of Xue Diqi culture. From today's Tengzhou people and the social atmosphere of Tengzhou, we can still vaguely find the complementarity and integration of Confucian culture and Qi culture: pay attention to respect and inferiority, and be righteous and hospitable; kind and courteous, and dare to break in; love the land, and be good at business... In terms of folk customs such as weddings, funerals, weddings, and festivals, you can see the shadow of Confucianism and charm anytime and anywhere.
Cherish the roots of Tengzhou culture
Obviously, from the beginning, change and formation of ancient Tengzhou culture, the three sites of Beixin Ruins, Xue Guo's Ancient City and Tengguo Ancient City are undoubtedly the roots of Tengzhou's history and culture. To examine history, one must have documentary records, and the other must have above-ground and underground cultural relics visible, at least one of the two. These three places are entities that can be touched, seen, and heard, and Teng Wengong, Meng Tianjun, and their subordinate Teng Xue Erguo not only have the ruins of the city on the ground, but also the rich cultural relics unearthed underground, and the most important thing is to consult ancient documents, influential historical celebrities about Tengzhou, only their deeds are recorded in the orthodox classics "Mencius", "Zuo Zhuan", "Warring States Policy", "Zizhi Tongjian" - especially Meng Yijun, who is the only ancient celebrity in Tengzhou to be selected for Sima Qian's "History". These two sites are listed by the State Council as a "national cultural relics protection unit", and the ruins of Xue Guo's ancient city in the Imperial Palace Gang are the only video projects in Tengzhou that were selected for the "Shanghai World Expo", which shows its high historical status, great historical value and far-reaching historical influence. Therefore, it is the mission and imperative of contemporary Tengzhou people to eliminate interference, increase investment, further protect, research and develop the three tengzhou cultural roots of Beixin, Tengguo Ancient City Ruins and Xue Guo Ancient City Ruins, and adhere to the correct direction of inheriting and carrying forward traditional culture.
December 30, 2013
Zhu Xulong, senior teacher of Tengzhou No. 2 Middle School, member of Shandong Writers Association, member of Shandong Dramatists Association, director of the editorial department of Composition Newspaper (High School Edition), member of Tengzhou Federation of Social Sciences, honorary president of Guxue Cultural Research Association, consultant of Shanguo Cultural Research Association. He is the author of "We Were Once Young", "Looking Back", "Dashing Skirt" and other anthologies of poetry, film and television, drama literature; in August 2020, he published literary criticism and essay selection "Meet Yilin". He has been awarded the honorary titles of "Excellent Choreographer" in Shandong Province and "Most Beautiful Township Sage", "Scholarly Family" and "Tengzhou Craftsman" in Tengzhou City.
This article was first published in Tengzhou Literature and reprinted to spread more tengzhou local culture.