The "Classic of Mountains and Seas" mentions a lot of stories about the ancient period, these stories seem to make people feel somewhat similar to myths, so they are full of doubts and interest in the ancient period, what the ancient period is like, it is difficult for us to know, and the existing written records are rarely mentioned, but often talk about the three emperors and five emperors.
So what characters are the Three Emperors and Five Emperors referring to? We all call ourselves descendants of Yan Huang, is there some relationship between this and the Three Emperors and Five Emperors? There are also many historical materials that will mention the Yellow Emperor, Emperor Huan, Emperor Zhao, Yao, Shun, Dayu and others, what kind of relationship between them?
The origin of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors and the descendants of Yan Huang
Regarding the records of the ancient period, in fact, in addition to the records similar to myths and legends in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", the rest of the more formal historical records are generally still relatively scarce, especially the records of the Three Emperors, which are even fewer, and even when the Western Han Historian Sima Qian compiled the "Records of History", he also thought that the story of the Three Emperors was too mythical, so it was not quoted and recorded.
It is precisely because the time is too long, and the historical materials are not sufficient, so for the understanding of the Three Emperors, we can say that there are very few in the future, and the only understanding of them is still derived from some folk stories or wild histories passed down by word of mouth, as to whether these records are correct, it remains to be slowly examined by future archaeology.
If we want to thoroughly and accurately explain the history of the ancient period, I think that no historian or scholar can guarantee that the history of the ancient period can only be explored and studied with the help of existing historical materials, including many of the things I mentioned in today's article, and it is also a summary of the historical records, and some of the more widely circulated statements have been adopted for analysis.
According to the more widely circulated sayings, the Three Emperors generally refer to the Fuxi clan, the Nüwa clan and the Shennong clan, and the story of the three people is too mythical, and we will not say more today, and continue to analyze what the Five Emperors refer to. The records of the Five Emperors are generally relatively unified, that is, they refer to the Yellow Emperor, Emperor Huan, Emperor Zhao, Yao, and Shun.
In addition to the Five Emperors, there are two characters related to the Five Emperors, people are also more familiar, one of them is the Yan Emperor, the other is Dayu, the Yan Emperor is generally juxtaposed with the Yellow Emperor, and Dayu is juxtaposed with Shun, so what is the relationship and story between the Yan Emperor and the Emperor, and what is the relationship and story between Dayu and Shun?
In fact, the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor were both brothers and enemies, their father was named Shaodian, the earliest Xiong Guojun, and later "Shaodian married the daughter of the Youyu clan, giving birth to the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan and the Yan Emperor", that is to say, the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor were indeed brothers.
Yandi is also known as the Shennong clan, that is, one of the three emperors, the tribe between the Yandi and the Yellow Emperor, often have contradictions, but when encountering the enemy Xuan You, the two are still closely united to defeat the enemy, and later the Yellow Emperor tribe and the Yandi tribe were unified, the Yellow Emperor became the co-lord of the world, so our descendants often call themselves "Yanhuang descendants", which is why.
After the Yellow Emperor became the co-lord of the world, he gave birth to 25 sons, who continued to multiply and form the rest of the surnames and tribes in the world, because the original surname of the Yellow Emperor was the surname of Ji, so the surname of Ji became the so-called "ancestor of all surnames" in later generations.
The relationship between Emperor Huan, Emperor Zhao and the Yellow Emperor
The Yellow Emperor's concubine was named Changzu, who gave birth to a son Changyi, who was crowned as a prince by the Yellow Emperor, changyi gave birth to a son Gao Yang, after the death of the Yellow Emperor, Gao Yang inherited the great cause, that is, what we call the Emperor Of The Yellow Emperor, from this point of view, in fact, the relationship between the Yellow Emperor and the Yellow Emperor is very clear, and the Emperor is actually the grandson of the Yellow Emperor.
During the reign of The Emperor, the ancient society initially formed a system with a civilization framework, which included agriculture, astronomy and etiquette, in agriculture, the emperor led people to learn to plant crops according to local conditions, which effectively helped people increase harvests, as well as livestock in captivity, which also led people to rise, with these new agriculture, completely bid farewell to the original tribal life dominated by hunting, and gradually moved toward civilization.
In terms of astronomy, the mole was more in accordance with the laws of nature to calculate the calendar, which was used by later generations; in terms of the ceremonial system, the mole formulated a certain etiquette to educate the people at that time, so that people gradually understood the etiquette and bid farewell to the original barbaric society.
Emperor Zhao and Emperor Zhao were not sons inheriting their father's business, Emperor Zhao was originally named Gao Xin, the son of Emperor Zhao, who was also the son of Xuan Hu, and Xuan Hu was the son of the Yellow Emperor, in other words, Emperor Zhao was actually the great-grandson of the Yellow Emperor, and also the nephew of Emperor Huan, which was the relationship between them.
Emperor Zhao was actually a particularly intelligent person, so he began to help his uncle Mo Mo achieve great things at a very young age, and He was very fond of Di Zhao, so when Di Zhao was 30 years old, he was able to take over the throne of Emperor Huan and smoothly become the heir of Emperor Zhao.
During his reign, Emperor Zhao knew how to make good use of people, and also divided the four seasons we are using now to promote the continued development of agriculture, during his reign, the society was rich, people lived and worked in peace and contentment, it can be said that Emperor Zhao created a peaceful and prosperous era in ancient times.
The relationship between Yao, Shun, Dayu and the Yellow Emperor
Two of Emperor Zhao's sons had served as emperors, one of whom was Zhi, and after Emperor Zhao's death, the first to inherit the throne was Zhi, when Emperor Zhao's other son, Fang Xun, was only 15 years old and was assigned to assist his brother Zhi in the Tang Kingdom.
Emperor Zhi did not achieve anything during his reign, and he felt that he was not suitable for the throne, so he finally let Fang Xun succeed him, and Fang Xun was also known as Yao, because his initial fief was in the Tang Kingdom, so later generations also called him Tang Yao.
During Yao's reign, there were many achievements, involving the development of politics, astronomical calendar, winemaking and other aspects. He created a strict political system to replace the previous form of tribal union, he began to appoint officials to divide the work; he perfected the astronomical calendar, formally defined the spring equinox, summer solstice, autumn equinox, winter solstice and other solar terms, designated the annual 366 days, only one day away from the current 365 days, and he also stipulated a leap month for three years, which can be described as remarkable results.
The wine we are obsessed with now actually began to appear in the Yao period, because he first invented the winemaking thing, and even in Go and some ancient entertainment projects, Yao also made achievements, it can be said that Yao was one of the most famous emperors in the ancient period.
Of course, in addition to these, Yao also had one of his greatest innovations, that is, he created the Zen system that was praised by later generations, which can be said to push morality and etiquette to a commanding height, which later generations have imitated but never surpassed.
When it comes to Yao's Zen system, of course, we have to mention Shun, as mentioned earlier, Emperor Zhao is the nephew of Emperor Zhao, so from Emperor Zhao onwards, Emperor Zhi and Yao are the descendants of Emperor Zhao's lineage, but after Yao, he passed the throne to another vein of the Yellow Emperor, and this vein also happens to be the lineage of Emperor Zhao.
This person was Shun, Shun was only considered by SiYue at that time, from the perspective of lineage, Shun belonged to the eighth grandson of the Yellow Emperor, his original name was Chonghua, his father was named Qiu Shu, The father of Qiu Shu was Qiao Niu, the father of Qiao Niu was Gu Wang, the father of Shu Wang was Jing Kang, Jing Kang's father was poor cicada, and the father of poor cicada was Zhen Huan.
After Shun, his status became lower and lower, and after Shun, he had already degenerated into an ordinary person, but because Shun was very filial in the local area, and was humble and had a high moral quality, he had a good reputation, and finally he was found and recommended to Yao by Siyue.
In order to investigate and cultivate Shun, Yao spent a total of 28 years on Shun, the first 20 years have been inspecting Shun, found that Shun was recognized by everyone in all aspects, and then gradually let Shun begin to handle national affairs instead of himself in the next eight years, and finally found that Shun was really good, and only then gave up the throne to Shun.
The story of Zen concession between Yao Shun has become a moral model for future generations, but unfortunately in the later feudal dynasty, the Zen system not only did not become a component of morality, but became a means used by others to seek power and usurp the throne.
During Shun's reign, he was humble and advised, and appointed sages, which once again promoted the development of the Chinese nation, and in his later years, he appointed Dayu Zhishui, and after the success of Dayu Zhishui, he also accepted Shun's Zen concessions and became the next emperor, according to historical records, Dayu was the grandson of the Yellow Emperor and also the grandson of Emperor Huan, but from the perspective of time span, this statement needs to be examined, but one thing is clear, that is, Dayu is also a descendant of the Yellow Emperor.
After Dayu succeeded to the throne, the name of the country was changed to Xia, which is what we later think of as the Xia Dynasty, Dayu was the founder of the Xia Dynasty, Dayu finally passed the throne to his son Qi, and he hid in the mountains, as to how old Dayu lived, it has become a mystery.
epilogue
The history of the ancient period is too long, many of us can not see the truth, but there are some things that can be clear, that is, the Yellow Emperor family has made great contributions to the development of our Chinese nation, whether it is The Yellow Emperor, the Emperor, or Yao, Shun and Dayu, they are all descendants of the Yellow Emperor, and at the same time they are the emperors who have passed on the throne, and in the ancient period, their influence cannot be ignored!
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