In recent years, with the popularity of Di Renjie's series of films and televisions, Detective Di Renjie is even more well-known to everyone, known to women and children, and has become a Chinese-style Sherlock Holmes. In real history, although Di Renjie did not solve the case as magical as in film and television, he also left a name in history, and he was an outstanding politician during the Wuzhou period of the Tang Dynasty. However, whether it is a novel or a real history of Di Renjie, it has left a mystery of his life.
In the Old Book of Tang and the New Book of Tang, there are many descriptions of Di Renjie, but there are few records of Di Renjie's family lineage, and they are not too detailed: Di Renjie, the character Huaiying, and a native of Taiyuan (present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi), was born in Taiyuan.
The New Book of Tang, volume 74, "The Genealogy Table of the Prime Minister" Di Shi Article: "The Di clan comes from the Ji surname. King Zhou Cheng's maternal brother Xiao Bo was enfeoffed in Dicheng because he thought it was a clan. Confucius's disciple Di Hei descended from Dr. Sun Han mountain and lived in Tianshui. "According to the historical records, the history of the Di clan has a long history, from the Ji surname, the ancient sage Di Yi, the disciple of Confucius Di Hei, the doctor Di Shan of the Han Wu Emperor, etc., are all ancestors of the Di clan. At a glance, Di Renjie has inherited from The Di Renjie, so Di Renjie is naturally a true descendant of Yan Huang.
But the problem is that since Di Shan, the History books of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms and the Two Jin Dynasties have not seen the Di celebrities, and it was not until the Sixteen Kingdoms period (304-439) that a person named Di Bozhi appeared, but Di Bozhi became famous because the New Book of Tang and the Genealogy Table of Zai Xiang respected him as Di Renjie's distant ancestor, so it was recorded.
In other words, the Di clan after Di Shan has a gap of more than 400 years in the history of the canon. During this period, was Di shi extinct, or did di shi just exist in obscurity? This period of history can no longer be verified, but there is an archaeological discovery about the mystery of Di Renjie's family lineage, which may help to unravel the mystery.
In 2000, in Wangjiafeng Village, Yingze District, Taiyuan City, just 3 kilometers away from the present-day Di Village, a brick factory excavated an ancient tomb during production, revealing three important pieces of information from the tomb owner's epitaph.
First, the owner of the tomb is called Di Zhan, although the epitaph does not record the names of his grandfather and father in detail, but through the name of Di Zhan and the epitaph, combined with the "New Book of Tang Dynasty And Zai Xiang Lineage Table" recorded that "Sun Gong, descendant of hou bo of Hou leping of Later Qin, lived in Taiyuan." Sheng Zhan, The Governor of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, Linyizi. Sun Xiaoxu "Can know that Di Zhan is Di Bozhi (?) –409), Di Xiaoxu's grandfather, Di Renjie's gaozu (fourth ancestor).
Second, judging from Di Zhan's place of origin, experience, and officialdom, Di Zhan should be a Qiang, not a Han Chinese. For example, "Gong Zhen Zhan, Zi Anzong, Feng Yi County Gaolu County (subordinate to Xi'an, Shaanxi, renamed Gaoling County during the Sui Dynasty) also", not from Taiyuan, or "Descendants of Di Shan, Living in Tianshui" in the "Yuan He Surname Compilation"; there is also the post of "Captain of the Eastern Qiang Dynasty" by the great-grandfather, which since the Wei and Jin dynasties have often been held by the chieftains of various tribes, Hao Qiang; Di Zhan, who served as the "deputy governor of the former qiu consuls", suspected of being transformed from the system of chieftains of the lords and ruling the local Hu people.
Third, according to the records in the epitaph, Di Renjie's ancestors had always held important positions during the Sixteen Kingdoms, the lowest being the lord of Qin Prefecture, the highest ranking extremely popular subject, and Di Zhan's official to the che riding general. In the history books, Di Renjie's grandfather Di Xiaoxu (di Bozhi's grandson's great-grandson), the official Zhi Shangshu Zuo Cheng, Di Renjie's father Di Zhixun, the official zhifu governor Shi. Therefore, the Di clan may have always been the Hao clan, so the imperial court reused them to comfort its own people, or did not dare to ignore this powerful force.
Therefore, Di Zhan should be the Qiang people of Feng Yi County (Feng Yi County, the Eastern Han Dynasty, the seat of government in Gaolu County), and the descendants of Di Bozhi moved to Taiyuan, Shanxi, gave birth to a son Di Zhan, and opened the Taiyuan Di clan. Di Ren was born in the Taiyuan Di clan, and his ancestors were naturally Feng Yiqiang people.
For this conclusion, the historical records also corroborate this.
Di Bozhi first appeared in the "Records of the Book of Jin and Yao Cang", and together with the Qiang hao clan of Xizhou, yao Cang was promoted as an ally and established the Later Qin state. In the Zizhi Tongjian, it is recorded that in the fifth year of Yixi, Yao Xing, the king of Later Qin, sent his brother Yao Chong (姚冲) of Pingbei (平北) and di Bozhi (狄伯支), the general of Zhengyu, to ride 40,000 horses to attack King Bobo of Xia. Yao rushed to Lingbei and plotted to attack Chang'an, but Di Bozhi did not stop, and was eventually killed by Yao Chong to kill Bozhi to extinguish his mouth.
Although the history books do not explicitly say that Di Bozhi was a Qiang, combined with Di Zhan's great-grandfather's position as "Captain of the Eastern Qiang Dynasty" and the historical background at that time, it can be basically judged that Di Bozhi was a Qiang.
Moreover, almost all of the Di clans recorded in the Book of Wei are Qiang people, such as "The Qiang chieftain Di Wenzi of Xingcheng led more than 3,000 families to be attached", "Qiang general Di Ziyu and other rebels" and so on.
It can be seen that Di Renjie's ancestors Di Bozhi and Di Zhan are more likely to be Qiang people than Han Chinese. Despite the lack of a complete chain of evidence, indications point to this conclusion.
In summary, the mystery of Di Renjie's family lineage can be basically restored: it has nothing to do with the Western Han Dishan, and it is more likely that the Northwest Di clan recorded in the Book of Han settled in Gaoling County, Xi'an after the Wuhu Chaohua, and Di Zhan's father moved to Taiyuan, Shanxi, and opened the Taiyuan Di clan.
There is also a question here, since the Taiyuan Di clan is not Han, why should they recognize Zu Dishan and others? The reason is very simple, from the Northern Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, the Hu people in the process of Huaxiaization, constantly transform their family lineage, that is, to find a shining old ancestor, and the Tang Dynasty royal family respected Lao Zi Li Er as the ancestor, respect Li Guang as the ancestor of the same reason. When the Tang Dynasty compiled the Book of Jin, it called Di Bozhi a Tianshui person (the history books record that "Dishan descendants, living in Tianshui"), in fact, they have accepted that Di Bozhi inherited from Dishan, is the authentic Yanhuang descendants, this is the fusion.