Among the twenty-four histories of China, the first is the "History of History", which is also one of the oldest history books from this year, and of all the twenty-four histories, there is no historical document dedicated to the history before the Qin and Han Dynasties. The reason why such a problem occurs is inseparable from the original Qin Shi Huang's burning of books, and all the history books remain only the "Qin Ji".
But there is one history book that is an exception, which escaped the disaster of being erased by burying deep in the ground, and this history book is the Bamboo Book Chronicle. The Bamboo Book Chronicle is a funerary item for king Wei Xiang of Wei during the Warring States period after his death. During the Three Kingdoms period, due to years of war and chaos, the people's lives were poor and poor, and under the leadership of Warlord Cao Cao and other warlords to dig graves, the people also began to think of the surrounding mausoleums.
In the face of this situation, local governments have introduced policies to prohibit the people from excavating ancient tombs in their jurisdiction, and the ancient tombs in Ji County that were strictly prohibited from being excavated were the tombs of King Wei Xiang. However, later, everyone can guess that the tomb of King Xiang of Wei was still in distress around 280 AD.
The "Book of Jin and the Biography of Shu Shu" records: "In the early years, in the second year of Taikang, the people of Ji County were not allowed to steal the tomb of King Xiang of Wei, or the tomb of King Yan'an, and obtained dozens of bamboo books. Thirteen of his Chronicles. But what is more interesting is that in the "Jinshu Wudi Ji" and the "Jinshu Wei Heng Biography", although this matter is also recorded, the time of theft is inconsistent, one is the fifth year of Xianning (279 AD), and the other is the first year of Taikang (282 AD).
However, no matter what year it was, the date of excavation was near 280 AD, and the "Bamboo Book Chronicle" also attracted the attention of historians of the Jin Dynasty. The group of tomb robbers who originally dug up the tomb of King Xiang of Wei did not know the preciousness of the literature, so they took the "Bamboo Book Chronicle" as a burning stick: "The first-time tomb bearer burned the treasure, and the official harvested it, and the embers were cut off, and the text was mutilated and not interpreted again." ”
It was miserable enough that the orphan copies of the history books were taken as illuminated items, but when the Ki County Government recovered the stolen items, the documents were damaged again due to poor storage. Therefore, when the "Bamboo Book Chronicle" was sent to the court of the Jin Dynasty, only fragments remained, and the Zhongshu Supervisor Xun Xun and the Zhongshu Ling and the Consul Of the Zhongshu Ling arranged the fragments of the "Bamboo Book Chronicle" that were confiscated, and it was difficult to preserve some pre-Qin historical materials.
Contemporary scholars have called the Bamboo Chronicle "the earliest known chronological system." "In the pre-Qin history, the problem has a very high scientific value, and some of the "fierce materials" recorded in the "Bamboo Book Chronicle" can even break the existing historical cognition, for example, When Emperor Shun did not give the throne to Dayu, he was forced.
The Bamboo Book Chronicle records: "Xi Yao was imprisoned by Shun. Shun imprisoned Yao, and restored Sedanju so that he would not see his father either." This Danzhu was the son of Emperor Yao, and at first Emperor Yao wanted to pass the throne to his son Danzhu. However, as Emperor Yao grew older, his deterrent power in the tribe was greatly reduced.
Emperor Shun therefore imprisoned Emperor Yao, forced Emperor Yao to take the throne for himself, and exiled Danzhu to a distant place so that father and son could not see each other. And the "Bamboo Book Chronicle" also records that Dayu seized the position of chief, and the process was similar to That of Shun's seizure of the Yao throne. In fact, the literature that Yao Shunyu is not Zen Rang, but a record of armed rebellion is not a book of "Bamboo Book Chronicles", "Han Feizi" said: "Shun forced Yao, Yu forced Shun, Tang Fangjie, Wu Wang, these four kings, people and kings also kill their kings." ”
However, "Han Feizi" is only a collection of Han Fei's works after all, and it is still a little worse than the history books in terms of the status of evidence. But with this passage of Yao Shunyu's Zen position in the Bamboo Book Chronicle, historians can't help but think that perhaps this is the truth behind the Zen concession system.
References: Bamboo Book Chronicle, Book of Jin, Han Feizi