In 1976, in Shi'e Village, Gaojiabao Town, Shenmu County, Yulin County, Shaanxi Province, archaeologists discovered a large-scale stone ancient city, dating back more than 4,300 years. Since then, with the deepening of archaeological excavations, a prehistoric ancient city has slowly surfaced, and what is shocking is that the ancient city of Shi'a covers an area of about 4.25 million square meters, which is the largest city site seen in China's prehistoric period, and it is even larger than the ancient city of Liangzhu in Zhejiang Province at the same time; moreover, the use of stone to build an ancient city is extremely rare in Chinese prehistoric sites.
4300 years ago, the ability to build such a huge city must be "a large group in the north", or a regional central force, otherwise there is no way to gather a lot of manpower and material resources to build a city. So, who will be the owner of this ancient city? The crudest way to determine the owner of this ancient city is to determine the largest force in the prehistoric land. Some scholars have pointed out that this is the capital of the ancient mythological figure Huangdi, for three reasons!
First, the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum and the Ancient City of Shi'an
As the ancestor of the Chinese Wen, there are countless cultural relics about the Yellow Emperor in various places, such as the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum in Shaanxi, the Yellow Emperor's Tomb in Xingtai, Hebei, and the Yellow Emperor's Temple in Beijing, making it difficult to distinguish where the Yellow Emperor's hometown is. So, where exactly is the Yellow Emperor?
The "History of the Five Emperors" provides a key clue, with only six words, namely "Yellow Emperor Because of the Collapse, Burial Bridge Mountain". The Warring States Qin Linggong "made Wuyang Shangqi and dedicated himself to the Yellow Emperor", and the Yellow Emperor Mausoleum, which was sacrificed by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in 110 BC with an army of 180,000 people, was sacrificed to the Yellow Emperor at Qiaoshan Mountain. The Book of Han and Geography records that under Yangzhou County (present-day Zichang County, Yan'an, northern Shaanxi), there were "Qiaoshan in the south, with the Yellow Emperor's Tomb", and under Fushi County (now Yulin), there were "four Yellow Emperor Ancestral Halls".
The Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum and the ancient city of Shi'an are not far away, about 300 kilometers or so, and there are "four Yellow Emperor Ancestral Halls" under Yulin, which is even closer to the ancient city of Shi'a. Therefore, judging from these records, the Yellow Emperor and his tribes should have lived in the area of Yan'an and Yulin.
It is worth mentioning that Zhangjiakou, where the battle for deer in the "Chronicle of History" took place, is about 600 kilometers away from the ancient city of Shi'an, at least not too exaggerated. Some scholars speculate that the battle for deer may not be commanded by the Yellow Emperor, but may be a war in which a branch of the Yellow Emperor tribe migrated here and clashed with the local ancestors, and the tribe brought the legend of the Yellow Emperor to the Hebei area.
Second, the secret of the Yellow Emperor's surname
The Yellow Emperor's surname is Ji, but the historical Bai Di is also a Ji surname, and the Yellow Emperor is the same surname, what is the mystery here?
The Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Great Wilderness of the West records that "there was the kingdom of Northern Di, the grandson of the Yellow Emperor, Shi Jun, and the first born of Northern Di (including Bai Di and Chi Di)." In the Han Dynasty Wang Fu's "Qianfu On Zhi Surnames", it is recorded that "Kui's surname is ChiDi, and Ji (姬)'s surname is Baidi... Short (姬) is the Inuyasha clan, whose ancestors originated from the Yellow Emperor". In the end, Bai Di and Chi Di were both descendants of the Yellow Emperor, and one of the branches of Bai Di was called Inuyasha.
According to the Spring and Autumn "Zuo Biography", Bai Di was distributed in the northern part of Yongzhou (now northern Shaanxi), and in 550 BC, squeezed by the Qin state, he had no choice but to move east to the Shijiazhuang area of Hebei, after which he established the mighty Zhongshan State, known as the eighth hero of the Warring States.
The location of the BaiDi tribe, the descendant of the Yellow Emperor, further corroborated the Yellow Emperor's activities in northern Shaanxi.
Third, the relationship between the Zhou Dynasty and the Yellow Emperor
The Yellow Emperor's surname is Ji, and the Zhou Dynasty's clan is also surnamed Ji, what is the relationship between the two?
In fact, the Zhou people were also descendants of the Yellow Emperor, from BaiDi in northern Shaanxi. The famous pre-Qin historian Xu Zhongshu pointed out that the Zhou people came from Bai Di, until King Wen of Zhou's grandfather, Gu Gongqi's father, qianqi, began to step into civilized society, the so-called "degrading the customs of Rong Di, and yingcheng Guo palace room, and Yi Beiju". In history, the ancestors of the ancient gonggong father revealed a strong "Rong Di" style in their names, such as Gongfei Peifang, Gao Yuanhou Nong, Ya Yuan Yundu, Gong Group Cyan Zhu and so on. Today, many archaeological discoveries have also confirmed the fact that the roots of the Zhou people are on the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi.
However, the "History of the Five Emperors" records that the Yellow Emperor was the head of the Five Emperors, and the approximate scope of activity was from 2717 BC to 2599 BC, and he was the emperor of the ancient Chinese unified state, after which there were the deeds of Huan, Di, Yao, and Shun. Obviously, this cannot be connected with the emergence time of the ancient city of Shi'e, and the Yellow Emperor is more than 300 years earlier than the ancient city of Shi'a. But if you consider that the Zhou Dynasty is a descendant of the Yellow Emperor, everything will be revealed, and the Zhou people will naturally beautify the ancestors and elevate him to the status of "First King".
Today, archaeological findings show that the origin of ancient Chinese civilization is diverse, the Yellow Emperor was not the emperor who unified China, and in terms of the productivity of the time, the Yellow Emperor could not unify China, so the Yellow Emperor was only a tribal leader, or the leader of a tribal alliance.
It can be seen that in the more than 4300 years ago, the strongest force in northern Shaanxi was the Yellow Emperor tribe, doesn't it mean that the owner of the ancient city of Shi'an can only be the Yellow Emperor? The author believes that there is no 100% correct answer to who the owner of the ancient city of Shiya is, and the truth can only be speculated as much as possible through research. Even if we know the Yellow Emperor as we know it, it is now verified that the Yellow Emperor may not be a person, or even an individual, but a tribal name.
Reference: "The ancient city of Shi'an is the residence of the Yellow Emperor's tribe"