Wutai Mountain ice edge landform
Opinions on Yao's birthplace are still divided. It just shows the mystery of the ancient characters, and it fits a law - the history of human nations has moved from vague to clear, from myths and legends to written records. There are two of them: First, has Yao ever existed? Second, is Yao a person or a tribe, a tribal alliance? Opinions vary, and there is no consensus.
In the face of legends or histories thousands of years ago, with the limited ability of human beings to restore or explore today, no matter what kind of character you are, it is difficult to completely clarify. It can only be exploration and speculation. At the invitation of Mr. Jia Keqin, the author is not shallow, but also willing to explore the Yao culture.
Emperor Yao
Here, the author appears as the concept of "Yao culture", rather than just "Yao", to avoid the narrowness of research.
Wutai Mountain North Terrace
The dispute between the six provinces in Yao's hometown
There is little controversy in the academic circles about Yao Jiandu's establishment in Pingyang. The most controversial is the hometown of Emperor Yao, which has the claim that there are six provinces and many places. In addition to the most famous Shanxi Linfen Yaodu District and Anze, there are also Shanxi Changzhi Changzi County, Shandong Heze, Dingtao, Qufu, Hebei Shunping, Tang County, Zhejiang Lanxi, Hunan Taoyuan, Changde and other places, are all arguing about Emperor Yao's hometown. As early as the early 1990s, Hebei, Jiangsu, and Shandong spoke out through newspapers or seminars that Yao's hometown was in a certain place.
In fact, the author believes that the academic nature of this kind of debate is not strong, or even very unscientific, if there is no scientific verification method and process, such as the "dual evidence" method, just asking between legends and texts, are extremely irresponsible practices, do not have a scientific spirit, can only be a folk cultural game. And its ultimate purpose is not for the sake of scholarship itself, but for the sake of profit. For example, Liu Gaifang, a doctor at the School of Tourism of Shanxi University, said, "The dispute between celebrities' hometowns is essentially driven by interests
Resource economy game. For every time a celebrity's hometown is excavated, a tourist attraction can be developed. ”
Majestic too far
Going a step further, "the dispute between celebrities' hometowns is a competition for brands, and the local government hopes to market this city and this place through celebrities and culture." (See "The Birthplace, Ideological Connotation and Historical Influence of Yao Culture", Journal of Baoding University, January 2008, Vol. 21, No. 1) "Marketing City" is understandable, but if the specious academic culture is included, it is very unserious, insulting the dignity of scholarship, and corrupting the social atmosphere, suspected of "kidnapping culture", and not worth advocating.
Celebrities seeking verification should not become a "marketing model". Here, Wang Jizu, a scholar of Taiyuan history and culture, shares the same view as me, saying that from an academic point of view, it is understandable to discuss the hometowns and historical sites of celebrities, but if you stand in the perspective of local interests, it is to study and argue in order to label a certain place as a celebrity, which is undoubtedly to vulgarize scholarship and desecrate history.
In 2006, Shanxi Changzi County argued that "the hometown of The Yao King is in the eldest son", and I participated as a scholar and expressed my own views on the inevitable connection between the eldest son and the existence of Yao culture in Yaodu District. It was found that although there is no shortage of "cultural stages and economic singing", the theme of this argument is close to seriousness.
Yao's hometown of Likao and its migration routes
Among the various theories about the birthplace of Yao, each seems to have a reason, but the shunping theory in Hebei Province has some new ideas, and I will focus on it here. Please see its argument: Yao's earliest birthplace was Shunping, Wangdu and Tang Counties in the territory of today's Baoding City, and the three places formed a triangle on the map. This theory is represented by Wei Junru and Tang Qian, and the views are expressed in the paper "The Birthplace of Yao Culture, Ideological Connotation and Its Historical Influence". In line with this line of thought, the author discusses the following:
The information we know about "Yao" is: the surname Yiqi, the name Fangxun, because it was sealed in Tang, so the name "Tang Yao".
"Yao" is its nickname, that is, the meaning of "high", which is easy to understand. The word "Yiqi" is rich in information and belongs to two place names, Shanxi Linfen people think that "Yi" is in Yaodu District, Anze people think "Yi" is in Anze, Shanxi Qixian people think "Qi" is in Qi County, Wei Junru and Tang Qian believe that "Yiqi" is 10km west of Shunping County, Hebei Province, where there is a Yiqi Mountain, Yaoyin Mountain has the surname.
Judging from the above records of the geographical location of Wangdu County, yao was born
Mount Yiqi should be in shunping county north of Wangdu County. Yiqi Mountain is a branch of the taihang Mountains in the middle and eastern part of the mountain, the main peak is danling, and the Qi water originates from here.
There are also many theories about "Tang", such as the area around the southern wing city of Jinnan in Shanxi, Jinyang was once called the State of Tang, and Yiyang in Henan are all related to Tang. Wei Junru and Tang Qian believe that Tang refers to Gucheng in Tang County, Hebei. So far, there are a large number of ancient buildings, village names and legends related to Yao in Shunping, Wangdu and Tang Counties in Baoding City, which are evidenced by this.
Since Yao's mother migrated from Tao (present-day Dingtao, Shandong) to Wangdu, and Yao was enfeoffed in Tang (present-day Tang County), Yao was given the name Tao Tang.
Frost heave mounds
According to ancient history, Tang County was the first feudal state of Yao, and later moved to Jinyang, and then transferred to Pingyang to establish the capital.
Why did Yao have to go through hardships and migrate thousands of miles away in Pingyang?
It is related to the great flood in Hebei. From the geographical analysis, the geography of Hebei belongs to the Bohai-Zhongyuan Bay, with a low terrain, while its north and southwest are yanshan, Taihang mountain range and Shanxi plateau above 1000 altitude.
In the late Tang Dynasty, a large-scale flood occurred in Hebei, which is said to be caused by continuous torrential rains that caused the Yellow River to break through silt and then divert. Shunping, Wangdu and Tang Counties in Baoding City belong to the narrow sense of the ancient Jizhou domain, when the Yellow River flows into Jizhou, and its 9 tributaries of the juma River, Yishui, Tang River, and Shuishui river in its territory converge to form a flood and flood and then enter the sea in the east.
Yaodu Gucheng was built on the foot of the Tang River at the mouth of the mountain and flowed into the plain, and the nine rivers rushed, causing the lower reaches of the Yellow River to flood and flood the area east of the Taihang Mountains where the Tao Tang clan lived. Although the Yao tribe was controlled by water, but people could not win the sky, Yao was forced to lead the tribe to move west to the Shanxi Plateau.
The two provinces of Jinxi and Hebei are divided: the Great Wall Ridge
Investigating Yao's migration tracks, combined with ancient traffic geography, there are several possibilities:
One is to go northwest through Laiyuan, follow the Tang River Valley through the Taihang Mountains, enter the Lingqiu Inc. in Shanxi, and then go to the area of Dai County in Xinzhou, go south to Shanxi, pass through Xinkou, cross the Tiezhou Mountains into the Taiyuan Basin, and temporarily live in Jinyang;
One is to go west through the Fuping Longquanguan Gorge, enter the Wutai Mountain Stone Tsui, and then follow the southern foothills of The Wutai Mountain into the Xinding Basin, and then fold to the south, cross the Tiezhou Mountain into the Taiyuan Basin, and temporarily live in Jinyang;
Longquan Pass, Fuping, Hebei
One is through the Tuotuo River Gorge, crossing the Taihang Mountains into Lu County, and then going west along the Yangxing River Valley into the Taiyuan Basin...
Some people say that it is also possible to go south to choose to cross the Taihang Mountains and enter Shanxi, which may not be large, because Hebei has spread all over the country, and there is no way out of the south, it is best to cross the Taihang directly to the west and northwest. For the Yao tribe, its place of survival is in Shanxi, which is the shelter of the central plains humans.
So far, taiyuan has some remnants of Tang Yao, and it is recorded in the "Records of the Capital City" that there is a Tang City in the north of Jinyang City, which was built by Yao. There is a Yaocheng village in Qingxu, Taiyuan City, and the remaining Yao Temple belongs to the national treasure unit. I once went on a trip in the spring of 2016.
So, why did the Yao tribe leave Jinyang and go south to Pingyang?
Not cognitive. Probably pingyang in ancient times to survive more superior, when the ancestors of this tribe wandered through the Linghuo Gorge, looking at the scenery of the Binh Duong Basin, it seems to have found a paradise.
《Shanxi Code》
A must-read to learn about Shanxi and Northern China
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