The literature review in the exploration of Xia culture, under the premise of clarifying the chronology of historical materials, should include at least three levels of work content: (1) to examine the authenticity of the occurrence of related events; (2) to review the reliability of the Xia Benji; and (3) to examine the reliability of the chronological framework of pre-Qin history. If we compare historical research to a machine, the work content of the above three levels is as interrelated as the relationship between parts, components, and the whole, so in the actual study of Xia culture, we cannot limit ourselves to discussing the authenticity of individual specific historical events and ignore macroscopic observation.
Taking "Erlitou Xia Du" as an example, the reason why this view can gain a lot of support in today's academic circles is related to the traditional understanding of China's ancient history system in today's academic circles. For example, Zou Heng, a representative figure who holds the "Erlitou Xia Dudu", said:
According to the literature, the xia dynasty should be before the Shang dynasty; the area where the Xia people operated was mainly the Yellow River Valley. Therefore, it is necessary to determine that the Xia culture can only be found in the Pre-Shang and Neolithic cultures in the Yellow River Basin and its neighboring areas. [1]
Archaeologist Mr. Zou Heng
Then, Zou Heng divided the areas related to the distribution of Xia culture in ancient texts into four regions: western Henan, southwestern Jin and eastern Shaanxi, northern Henan and eastern Jin, eastern Henan and luxi, and the result was that the geographical outlook of the Xia people's activities was "the most concentrated in western Henan". It should be said that Zou Heng's understanding represents the general understanding of the spatial and temporal location of the Xia Dynasty at that time and even in the current academic circles. This recognition also determines that the Erlitou site is judged by many scholars to be inevitable for the Xia culture.
However, before Xia was in Shang, was there no doubt that the central area of Xia was in western Henan? In fact, this issue is not without room for discussion so far judging from the literature review done. For example, is the chronology of the three generations of history really reliable? So far, we have not seen scholars discuss it. At that time, the "ancient history discernment" party put forward many specific questions about the record of "Xia" throughout the legend of the Five Emperors and even a large number of pre-Qin documents, and even touched on the question of the "one-dimensional characteristics" presented by this ancient history system, but they did not put forward what the more reliable ancient history system was. Zhang Guangzhi proposed to use the "Three Kingdoms" model to look at the "Three Dynasties"[2], in fact, he only believed that the traditional ancient history system record perspective was biased, and did not think that the entire ancient history system had major flaws. Now, let's bring that up and try to do some discussion.
In 2010, the first volume of "Bamboo Jane of the Tibetan Warring States of Tsinghua University" was published. The "Chu Ju" included in the book uses Ji Lian as a figure in the Pan Geng and Wuding periods, which is far from the traditional three-generation concept in the academic circles. Therefore, as soon as "Chu Ju" was released, it attracted strong attention from the academic community. In order to facilitate the following discussion, the author first copied the beginning of the brief text as follows (broad interpretation):
Qinghua Jian "Chu Ju" (partial, source: Sohu)
Ji Lianchu descended on Mount Qiao, arrived at the cave poor, and before coming out of Qiao Mountain, the house was in Yabo. Reverse shunshui, see the son of Pan Geng, in Fang Shan, female Concubine Falcon, Bingzi rate phase, and the four sides. Ji Lian heard that he had hired, from, and the disk, and the disc, and the master of the sword, the uncle, the far middle. Wander around, first in Jingzong. The cave bear migrated to Jingzong, and the concubine column, the countercurrent carrying the water, the nie ear, the wife, the birth of uncle, Li Ji (i.e. Xiong Li). Li did not follow the line, collapsed from the coercion, Yu Rebin yu tian, Wu and Zhao Qi threatened Chu, arrived at the present Chu people. [3]
The jianwen roughly means that Ji Lian married Pan Geng's daughter (or granddaughter) Yu Yu (妣隹) and gave birth to Yu Bo and Yuan Zhong. Subsequently, the cave bear married concubine and gave birth to Uncle Li and Xiong Li. When Xiong Li was born, Yu Lie suffered a difficult birth and was threatened by caesarean section, and unfortunately died. The shaman wrapped his flank with thorns, which is the origin of the name "Chu people".
The chu ju's record of the lineage of the Chu people is in obvious conflict with the "History of the Chu Shijia", but it is more consistent with the historical source material "Imperial Lineage" on which Sima Qian wrote the "Chu Shijia". The Imperial Lineage is now collected in the Book of the Great Dai Li, which is recorded as follows:
He married to the Teng clan, the son of the Teng clan Ben, the daughter of the Lu clan, who gave birth to an old child. The old boy married the Zhishui clan, whose son was called the Gao Wei clan, and produced Chongli and Wu Hui. The Wu Hui clan gave birth to Lu Zhong, who married the Ghost Fang clan, and the sister of the Ghost Fang clan was called the daughter of the Kui clan, and gave birth to six sons. ...... Its sixth name is Ji Lian, which is the surname of Qi. Ji Lian produced the Shizu clan, the Shizu clan produced the burrow bear (the original "inner bear"), the ninth as far as the canal.
The Imperial Lineage does not record a detailed lineage from the cave bear to the bear canal, but according to the Chu Shijia, the ninth generation was pushed from the bear canal to be a bear. Therefore, Kong Guangsen's Supplement to the Book of Dai Li says:
The bear is the burrowing bear, the sound reading is different, and the history is mistaken. Cave Bear Zi Wen Wang, Flea Pawn, whose grandson took Xiong as his clan, was for Xiong Li, Li Xiong, Xiong Yi, Xiong Ai, Xiong Sheng, Xiong Yang, Fan Jiu ye. [4]
Supplement to Kong Guangsen's "The Book of the Great Dai Li"
Li Jiahao conducted a comprehensive study of Bao Shanjian, Wangshan Jian and Geling Jian and confirmed that the "bear bear" and the "cave bear" are indeed one person. [5] The appearance of "Chu Ju" undoubtedly proves this point again. The Chu Shijia's record of the early lineage of the Chu people follows the Imperial Lineage, but it is clearly different from the Imperial Lineage. The Chu Shijia records the following:
The ancestor of Chu was from Emperor Gaoyang. ...... Gao Yangsheng said that he was called sheng lao tong (the original text was "volume"), and the old boy was born heavy. ...... The Gonggong clan rebelled, and the emperor made Chongli curse him endlessly. Emperor Nai honored Li with Gengyin Ri and his brother Wu Hui as empress dowager. ...... Wu huisheng Lu finally, Lu shengsheng six people... Six Days Of Ji Lian, surnamed Qi, Chu Qihou also. ...... Ji Liansheng was attached to depression, attached to depression cave bear, followed by medium and micro, or in China, or in barbarians, Funeng Ji qi shi. At the time of King Wen of Zhou, The Miao descendants of Ji Lian were known as bears. King of the Bears, fleas. His son xiongli. [6]
Comparing the "Imperial Lineage" and "Chu Shijia", it can be seen that in addition to inserting a "title" between the "Imperial Family" and the old boy, the "History" also turns the "cave bear" and the "bear" into two people hundreds of years apart, and uses "either in China, or in the barbarians, The Fern Ji Qi" to connect these hundreds of years of time gaps. In this way, we cannot but wonder about the records of the Chronicle of History:
Comparison of the Chu lineage in the Imperial Lineage and the Records of History
First of all, Ji Lian, as the grandfather of the cave bear (i.e., the bear), was only two generations away from King Wen of Zhou, so on what basis did Sima Qian say that there was a "Frenji qi" between Ji Lian and the cave bear (鬻熊)? Secondly, Kun Wu, the head of Lu Zhong's sixth son, is called "Xia Bo" in the "Chinese Zheng Yu", how can this be explained? In 2013, Professor Xie Weiyang raised these questions in an article. [7] In the same year, Professor Li Shoukui's article in the Journal of Tsinghua University raised a similar question. He said:
Although Sima Qian mistakenly divided the names of the same person as "cave bear" and "bear" into two people, the era between Ji Lian and the bear is believed by most scholars. Only in this way can the lineage of chu ancestors from the distant Five Emperors period to the last year of the Shang Dynasty be connected. [8]
According to the Records of the Zhou Benji and the Chu Shijia, The Bear served as King Wen of Zhou. According to the Chu Ju, ji lian married the son of Pan Geng, and his grandson King Wen of Zhou was not unable to establish the matter of cave bear (鬻熊). In 2011, Professor Li Xueqin published an article in Chinese Historical Studies to discuss this issue. He said:
Speaking of cave bears and bears, the difficulty lies in the fact that according to the "Imperial Lineage" and so on, the era of Ji Lian is much earlier, not later than the time of Yu Xia. However, in "Chu Ju", the divine Ji Lian takes Yu Falcon as his wife, and Yu Falcon is the granddaughter of King Pan Geng of Shang, who is in the same life as Zu Geng and Zu Jia, and their sons Yu Bo and Yuan Zhong are in the same life as Yu Xin and Kang Ding, then the cave bear is the same generation as Wu Yi, and he can live to the time of Wen Ding and Emperor Yi, and he is the king of Zhou Wen, as the "ShiJia" quotes King Chu Wu as the master of King Wen, which is just right from the perspective of the times. [9]
In careful review of the questions raised by Scholars such as Professor Li Shoukui and Professor Xie Weiyang, the core of this is actually how to deal with the relationship between Ji Lian and the Yu Xia era. To solve this problem, in principle, we can think from two directions: First, re-examine the "Chu Ju" in order to conform to the traditional historical chronological framework. Second, reflect on the reliability of the traditional historical chronological framework. As far as the former is concerned, the work is relatively simple, but from the research practice of the past decade, the space for subversive interpretation of "Chu Ju" has basically existed. In the case of the latter, the research is extremely broad and therefore cannot be cautious. This point is also repeatedly mentioned in articles by scholars such as Xie Weiyang and Cai Jingquan[10].
As we know, the historical chronological framework recorded in the "Records of History" is mainly based on the "Imperial System" and the "Five Emperors". But in fact, although the Imperial Lineage and the Five Emperors incorporated The Tang, Yu, Xia, Shang, and Zhou into the Yellow Emperor genealogy, they did not provide a linear sequence of power transmission like that recorded in the Records of History. The Five Emperors and the Imperial Lineage have a strong unifying color, "probably works of the late Warring States period" [11], so it is not necessary to re-examine the chronological framework of ancient Chinese history formed by using them as a cornerstone.
Judging from the existing pre-Qin literature and excavated documents, the record of Chu Ju with Ji Lian as a figure in the Wuding period is not an isolated phenomenon. In October 1993, the Warring States Jane "Poor Da Yi Shi" excavated from the tomb of Guodian in Jingmen City, Hubei Province, said:
Shun cultivated in Lishan, Tao Yu in Hehu, and established himself as the Son of Heaven, yu Yaoye. Blame the tire cover, the hat is covered with a scarf, the release board is built and the son of the Son, meets Wu Ding also. [12]
Blamed, the collator is attached to the "卲繇", thinking that "what is recorded is what Fu said". Xu Zaiguo cites Li Jiahao's interpretation of Bao Shanjian and points out that the "卲繇" in the "Poor Da Yi Shi" is "叴繇", that is, the "Blame" of the "Departure from Sorrow" and the "Saying Of Literature and Yanbu" quoted in the Book of Yu, and the "Gao Tao" of the present "Book of Shang" and other documents. [13] See also GuodianJian's "The Way of Tang Yu", Jian Xi'an-XIII:
Blame The five punishments are used, the yi bingge, the sin jing □□□ use wei, and the xia uses ge, and the zheng is disobedient. Love and righteousness, Yu Xia's rule also. [14]
It can be seen from this that those who encounter Wu Ding in the "Poor Da Yi Shi" should indeed be read as "blame". However, due to his understanding of the traditional historical system, Xu Zaiguo also believes: "It is obviously wrong to say in the "Poor Da Yi Shi" that 'Blame Meets Wu Ding', because Wu Ding was a Shang king and lived around the middle of the Shang Dynasty. "Looking at Guo Dianjian and the various texts that have been handed down today, such as "Mozi" and "Han Shi Wai Biography" in isolation, it is indeed easy for us to make judgments like Mr. Xu's. Even if we look at the records of Ji Lian marrying Pan Geng's son in Qinghua Jian's "Chu Ju" in isolation, it is also easy to produce such a judgment. However, it should be noted that Qinghua Jian's "Chu Ju" and Guo Dianjian's "Poor Da Yi Shi" are warring states documents that have not been usurped by later generations, and "Chu Ju" is consistent with the records of the "Imperial Lineage" and the records of Bao Shan Jian and Wangshan Jian on the cave bear, so we have no solid reason to judge the uncultivated documents such as "Chu Ju" and "Poor Da Yi Shi" as wrong because of the records of the present generations of documents.
Based on the above excavations, scholars can have two options. First, for the time being, we will shelve the records of "Chu Ju" and "Poor Da Yi Shi" and continue to use the ancient history concepts entrusted to us by the "History" to sort out the literature and study the ancient history. Second, take the records of "Chu Ju" and "Poor Da YiShi" as a breakthrough to re-examine the chronological framework of ancient history. If it is to accept the first choice, the natural problem becomes simple. If we accept the second option, then, according to the records of the Imperial Lineage, Yao Dian and other documents with Dayu and Jilian and Gaotao as about the same period, we are bound to come to the conclusion that Dayu was roughly at the same time as Pan Geng and Wuding, or that "Xia" and "Shang" were two regimes that once existed side by side. From this point of view, the literature premise on which the popular "Erlitou Xia Dudu" is popular in today's academic circles does not exist without room for review.
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[1] Zou Heng: Collected Archaeological Papers of Xia Shang Zhou, Beijing: Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1980, p. 97.
[2] Li Yongdi, "On the Archaeology of Xia Culture with Mr. Zhang Guangzhi", originally published in Ancient and Modern On Balance, No. 6, edited by the Institute of History and Language of the Academia Sinica, Taiwan, 2001. Also included in Sanlian Bookstore, ed., "The Four Seas are Home: Remembering the Archaeologist Zhang Guangzhi", Beijing: Life, Reading, and Xinzhi Sanlian Bookstore, 2002, pp. 186-187.
[3] Li Xueqin, editor-in-chief: Bamboo Jane of the Tibetan Warring States of Tsinghua University, vol. 1, Shanghai: Chinese and Western Bookstore, 2010, p. 181.
[4] Kong Guangsen, "Supplement to the Book of Dai Li", "Continuation of the Siku Quanshu", vol. 107, Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1996, p. 568.
[5] Li Jiahao, "Chu Jian's Memories of the Ancestors of the Chu People, "Mane Bear" and "Cave Bear", Wenshi, No. 3, 2010.
[6] Records of History, vol. 40, Chu Shijia, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1959, pp. 1689-1891.
[7] Xie Weiyang, "A Small Discussion on the Chronology of The Middle Ji Lian in Chu Ju", Social Science, No. 4, 2013.
[8] Li Shoukui, "On the Legendary Characteristics of the Deeds of Ji Lian and the Bear in Chu Ju"," Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), No. 4, 2011.
[9] Li Xueqin, "On the Ancient History and Legend of Qinghua Jian 'Chu Ju'", Studies in Chinese History, No. 1, 2011.
[10] Cai Jingquan, "The Truth of the Deeds of Chu Xiangong Recorded in "Chu Ju"", Jianghan Forum, No. 8, 2019.
[11] Qiu Xigui, Ten Lectures on Ancient Chinese Excavated Documents, Shanghai: Fudan University Press, 2004, p. 26.
[12] Jingmen Museum, ed., Bamboo Jane of The Tomb of Guodian Chu, Beijing: Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1998, p. 145.
[13] Xu Zaiguo, "Interpreting the "Blame"", Journal of Ancient Book Collation and Research, No. 3, 1999.
[14] Jingmen Museum, ed., Bamboo Jane of The Chu Tomb of Guodian, Beijing: Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1998, p. 157.