Dayu was the first monarch of the Xia Dynasty, what did Dayu look like? In the Wu Ancestral Hall in Jiaxiang County, Shandong Province, there is a famous portrait of Dayu, which is the earliest portrait of Dayu in mainland China so far. The portrait began in the Han Dynasty, and it depicts the image of Dayu for people. In this portrait, the most striking thing is a "sacred artifact" held in Dayu's hand.
As we all know, in order to show the extraordinary characters, the ancients often painted some specific artifacts when creating portraits of people, such as Lü Bu in the portrait of Lü Bu holding a Fang Tian painting halberd to show Lü Bu's heroism: Li Bai in Li Bai's portrait often carried a wine jar in his hand, showing that Li Bai liked to drink, in line with his "wine saint" temperament; most of Guan Yu's portraits were holding a green dragon crescent knife to show Guan Yu's bravery. So, in the portrait of Dayu in the Wu Ancestral Hall of Jiaxiang in Shandong, Dayu holds a "artifact" that looks like a fork in his hand, what is it?
Dayu
The first written dynasty in mainland history was the Xia Dynasty, and Dayu was the first monarch of the Xia Dynasty.
Speaking of Dayu, the first word that flashes in many people's minds is definitely "Dayu Zhishui". Yes, dayu became the first monarch of the Xia Dynasty because of his successful governance of the water problem.
When Emperor Shun was in charge of the Central Plains, Yu's father, Cang, migrated to the Central Plains with his family. Although the soil in the Central Plains is fertile, every spring, summer and autumn, floods will flood, flooding farmland and houses, making the Central Plains people miserable. When Emperor Shun heard that the carp could control water, he appointed the carp as a water control official to control the flood.
Yu's father, Cang, was a very conservative man, and he adopted the most commonly used water barrier method at that time to control floods. The so-called "water barrier method" is to build a high embankment on the bank of the river and use the embankment to block the river. Although the water barrier method can block ordinary small floods, it is powerless against large floods, and after the arrival of major floods, the embankments are washed away, and all water control projects have been abandoned. The carp has been curing water for nine years, but the results have been minimal, the flood has not been fundamentally treated, and the flood is still a "beast" that plagues the people.
As he grew older, he was physically and mentally exhausted by the failure to control the water, so Emperor Shun appointed Yu as "Sikong" to succeed his father in managing the flood. Yu learned the lesson of his father's failure to use the "water barrier method" to control the flood, he led the personnel to investigate, walked through the mountains and rivers of the motherland, and finally confirmed the use of the "dredging method" to control the flood. He led the migrant workers who controlled the water to open mountains and build embankments in the mountains, directing the water from the high places to the low places, and then collecting the water from the low places into the rivers, and then introducing the water of the rivers into the sea. During the treatment of the water, Yu and the migrant workers he led slept in the wind, and even if they passed the house three times, they did not bother to go home to take a look. After 13 years of governance, Yu completely eliminated the floods that threatened the Central Plains.
In the process of Yu's rule of water, Emperor Shun discovered that Yu was a man who was dedicated to justice and diligent and down-to-earth, and he was very appreciative of Yu's character and ability. So Emperor Shun ceded his chief's position to Yu, and Yu became the first king of the Xia Dynasty. Because of Yu's meritorious service in controlling water, people affectionately called Yu "Great Yu", which means: Great Yu.
Yikes
The portrait of Dayu in the Wu Ancestral Hall in Jiaxiang County, Shandong Province, is considered to be the earliest portrait of Dayu in the mainland, in this portrait we can see that Dayu is covered with a hat, wearing a hat, with his left hand extended forward, as if in command, holding a tool in his right hand, which is very similar to today's shovel, but there is a groove in the shovel. So, what exactly is this "artifact" of Dayu Na?
In fact, this "artifact" in Dayu's hand has a name, its name is called Qi, which is a kind of agricultural tool. The historical book "Zhou Yi ZhiXia" records: "Bao Yi clan is not, Shennong clan is done, chopping wood is 耜, kneading wood is 耒, and the benefit of qi is to teach the world and cover all the benefits." The meaning of this passage is: After Fuxi's death, the Shennong clan took charge of the world, he cut down wood to make a yarn, and then roasted the wood with fire to make it into a yarn, and then he promoted this agricultural tool to the peasants of the world. From the description of this text, it can be seen that the 耒耜 is a kind of agricultural tool invented by the Shennong clan, which is wooden and consists of two parts: "耒" and "耜".
It is a combination of tools, mainly used to dig and shovel soil, it is inserted into the ground by the front of the hammer, the yarn is the handle, and the operation of the hammer can achieve digging and shoveling.
Since the "artifact" in Dayu's hand is a silken, is it wooden or metallic?
Shennong's invention of the silk is certainly wooden, because in the age of Shennong's handicraft production level is still very underdeveloped, there is no metal, the use of wood to make the silk can be made of local materials, while the wooden silk is light in weight, the use of very labor-saving, this kind of wooden silk is very suitable for farming.
The workload of Dayu Zhishui is not comparable to farming, in the process of building water conservancy projects, it is not only necessary to dig up soil, but also to chisel stones to pry soil, and wooden slugs certainly cannot meet the construction requirements. So, what kind of material will dayu use be?
In the 1970s, more than 6,600 years ago brass pieces and copper pipes were excavated at the Jiangzhai site in Shaanxi Province, proving that brass had been smelted and cast before the Xia Dynasty. Could the rye in Dayu's hand be made of brass? Experts have found that the smelted brass at that time has more impurities, the performance is more brittle, and it is not suitable for making forced tools, and the brass used by Dayu is certainly not cast in brass.
The "Book of History and The Book of Feng Zen" has the following record: "The Yellow Emperor made Baoding Three, like the people of heaven and earth. Yu collects the gold of the Nine Mu and casts the Nine Dings. ”
From this text description, it can be seen that in the era of the Yellow Emperor, people had already mastered the production technology of bronze and cast Jiuding. The Yellow Emperor lived more than 1,000 years before Dayu, and the texture of bronze is hard, strongly mechanical and flexible, and tools made of bronze are not only sharp but also durable. From this point, it can be inferred that the "artifact" in Dayu's hand at that time was made of bronze.
If the whole of the silk is cast in bronze, then the silk will inevitably be very heavy, even if the ancients are amazingly powerful, it is not an easy task to work with this kind of bronze made of silk. As mentioned above, the 耒耜 is a combination of a rake and a lyrex, which is the part that is in direct contact with the earth and stone, and the 耜 is the handle. In the 1970s, two pieces of Shang Dynasty copper cymbals were unearthed in Gaocheng, Hebei Province, and Pinggu, Beijing, which were copper-headed wooden handles. It can be inferred from this that the qi in the qi is cast in bronze, the qi is wooden, and the qi held by Dayu is also a copper-headed wooden handle.
epilogue
It is a kind of agricultural tool invented by Shennong, and later this agricultural tool was used by Dayu to control water and became a "sacred artifact" for water control. The invention of the qianqi proves that the ancients on the mainland had superb wisdom in agriculture and attached great importance to agricultural production, which is an epoch-making agricultural tool.
Dayu is the ancestor of the Chinese nation, after 13 years of arduous struggle, he finally subdued the flood, in the process of Da Yu's water control, he showed the spirit of hard struggle, public and selflessness flowing in the blood of the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, which plays a major role in the history of the development of our Chinese civilization. Our generation must bear in mind this spirit, give play to this spirit, and strive for the rise of the Chinese nation.