Chinese civilization has a long history, and various myths, legends and heroic stories have brought rich spiritual enjoyment to the sons and daughters of China.
However, in ancient Chinese culture, there is also a slight regret: we lack an epic masterpiece, replaced by a serious and detailed written history.
Our neighbor, India, is the opposite: they lack a clear written history, but they have two world-class epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, and it is the Mahabharata that we are going to talk about today.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >01 Indian version of "Fengshen"</h1>
Since it is a world-class epic, what does the Mahabharata say? Simply put, this is a book about the "world" war caused by the struggle for the throne between the two branches of the Borodean people, the Kulu and the Pandu.
It is not too much to say that it is a "world" war, which involves the three realms of heaven, earth and man, and according to ancient India, it is the gods, asuras and people who are involved in the melee. The hundred princes of the Julu clan, led by the difficult enemy, all died, and the Bandu clan, who won a tragic victory, was also secretly attacked by the survivors of the Julu clan on the night of the celebration after the great war, and the heavenly god Black Sky (the incarnation of the main god Vishnu) who sheltered the Pandao clan was also killed.
Does this pattern of fighting for justice before death and sealing god into heaven after death feel very familiar to everyone?
That's right, isn't this the Indian version of "The Evolution of the Gods"?
In fact, the time of the Great War of Kulu recorded in the Mahabharata may be around 1000 BC, slightly later than the Yin Shang period in China, which is roughly equivalent to the time of the Wu King's cutting.
Of course, the reason why we mention "Wu Wang Fa Yi" instead of "Fengshen Yanyi" is because the story of Wu Wang's Falun gong is scattered in pre-Qin classics, such as the "Yi zhou shu", etc., and the "Fengshen Yanyi" was written in the late Ming Dynasty, and many of the plots in it have been adapted by later generations, basically out of the ancient category, leaving only a few shadows.
According to modern research, its writing date is about the fourth century BC and the fourth century AD, although it spans up to 800 years, but the storyline and institutional design are undoubtedly closer to the actual situation in ancient India.
The accuracy of ancient India as a country without history and only myths is debatable, but we cannot deny that the Mahabharata is indeed an important source for peeking into ancient India, and reading these epics can give a general understanding of Indian thought and traditions.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >02 The "world" war triggered by inheritance</h1>
Mahabharata means "great Brahma", that is, the epic is written in praise of the victors, so it is also known on many occasions as the Song of Victory.
Why sing the praises of the Borodhas? The reason is that the great war described in the epic, the two sides of the war, the Julu and Bandu tribes, are actually one family, and there are no relatives like Wufu, and the reason why they are hostile is entirely because of a bloody case caused by the inheritance rights.
The patriarch of Julu Baizi held the country, blind but able to give birth, and when he was young, he failed to inherit the throne, but he had a hundred sons to support him.
The patriarch of the Bandu clan, Bandu, was originally a younger brother, and according to the system, he should not inherit the throne, but he was blind in holding the country, and naturally became the king from the healthy Pandao, and married the foreign princesses Gonti and Madeli.
However, after marriage, Gonti discovers that her husband Bandu was cursed by the immortals and could not have children (and died suddenly in the same room), so that Bandu faced a crisis of no future, and the right to inherit the throne was once again challenged.
With The permission of Pandu, Gunti summoned the Dharma god Yama, the wind god, and indra, the Heavenly Emperor Indra, to give birth to the three sons of Jianzhan, Qijun, and Ajana, respectively; he also summoned the medicine god Shuangma Tong for Madeli to give birth to the second son of The Seedless and Kaitian.
After Bandu's death, Madele was martyred, and Gundy raised his five sons.
Before the prince grew up, he became the acting king and took charge of government affairs.
At this point, the cause of the great war gradually surfaced: who will inherit the throne?
The five sons of Bandu were the successors of the previous king, but they were not biological, but were born of the seeds borrowed by Queen Gunti, and there was a natural disadvantage in the bloodline.
Julu Baizi is the successor of the current king to hold the country, but the holder is not a legitimate king, but a helpless choice after the death of Bandu, who is physically disabled and easily deceived.
After The eldest son of Bandu grew up, he made a request for the throne to the state of Holding, and the state of Holding agreed on the surface, but secretly it was difficult to design with the eldest son, assassinating and excluding the fifth son of Bandu, and the fifth son fled with his mother Gonti.
From this plot around the inheritance rights, we can conclude that ancient India is similar to ancient China, and the inheritance methods of brothers and brothers, fathers and sons have appeared one after another, which is the norm that people can accept.
Moreover, the succession of fathers and sons gradually replaced the inheritance rights between brothers, especially the inheritance of the eldest son.
The tough battles and difficult enemies in the story are the eldest sons of Bandu and Zhiguo, respectively, and also represent their respective brothers, who play a leading role in this great war.
In ancient China in a similar era, the Yin Shang time is also the era of brothers and brothers, fathers and sons succeeding in parallel, in the middle of the Shang Dynasty, brothers and brothers and the main, such as after the death of Cheng Tang, the prince Taiding did not stand and died, so Taiding's brother Wai Bing succeeded to the throne; Wai Bing only served for three years and then collapsed, followed by Wai C's brother Zhongren; four years later, Zhongnong collapsed again, and the successor was replaced by Tai Ding's son Tai Jia.
According to statistics, there were 31 kings in the Shang Dynasty, of which 14 were brothers and brothers, and the brother inheritance rate was as high as 45.16%, which was much higher than any other known dynasty, so the outbreak of internal enemies was also very frequent, and any prince had the right to launch a throne challenge, with serious internal friction.
Therefore, by the late Shang Dynasty, the succession of concubines began to become the mainstream, and the King of Sui still had brothers Wei Zi Qi and Zhongyan, but he was able to inherit the throne himself, because he was a concubine.
The "History of Yin Benji" records: "Emperor Yi's eldest son, Wei Zi Qi, Qi Mother, was unworthy, and was not allowed to be heirs. The youngest son, Xin, was the heir of Xin Muzheng, and Xin was the heir. Emperor Yibang, Zi Xin Li, is for Di Xin, the world is called the Silk. ”
Obviously, the inheritance system of concubines in the Shang Dynasty was not the same as that of the eldest son of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the reason may be related to the fact that the boundaries between wives and concubines in the Shang Dynasty were not clear, and the system of monogamy was not implemented, but the system of polygamy.
Under this marriage system, there may be many concubines, and they belong to different camps, and there are still many contradictions and disputes that may arise.
In addition, although ancient India did not have the concept of concubine inheritance, it had a caste system, strict hierarchy, and even affected children.
As we mentioned earlier, Zhiguo and Bandu are brothers and have the right to inherit the throne, but in fact, they have a third brother Viduro, after zhiguo is blind and Bandu dies, why not let Viduro become king?
In ancient China, this demand was absolutely reasonable and legitimate, but in ancient India, it became impossible, because the mothers of the kingdom and the lord were foreign princesses, so they were of noble birth and were naturally saddy, while Viduro's mother was a Shudra maid, who belonged to the lowest of the four castes and naturally could not touch the throne.
However, Viduro has always served as a royal adviser, assisting the king, and is also highly respected by his nephews.
Judging from the situation that Viduro cannot inherit the throne, ancient India also pays attention to the status of the birth mother, and the son is precious to the mother, which is somewhat close to the ancient Chinese, but there is still room for promotion in the ancient Chinese status class, but ancient India basically blocked this space, and the implementation of the caste system has an increasingly strict trend.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >03 Borrowing is also legal and illegal, and cannot be generalized</h1>
As we mentioned earlier, The General degree has no fertility, but it needs heirs.
How to solve this problem? Don't worry, the wise people of India came up with a brilliant idea: borrow seeds!
With The permission of Bandu, his wife Gunti summoned the gods (perhaps tenjin, perhaps strong men from other tribes) to give birth to five children (Gunti gave birth to 3 and the other wife Madelee 2), thus continuing the "bloodline" of the Bando tribe.
Doesn't it still feel familiar?
This kind of operation, in the ancient myths of our country, is simply everywhere, but it is relatively secretive, and posterity has covered it with a fig leaf.
Yin Shang's ancestor Qi, whose mother Jian Di was the second concubine of Emperor Zhao, during a wild celestial bath, saw the bird fall into an egg, and swallowed it, resulting in pregnancy and birth.
Zhou's ancestor abandoned, and his mother Jiang Yuan was also an imperial concubine, but also a yuan concubine, that is, the so-called original matching room (there is doubt about whether there is a yuan concubine in ancient times, as recorded in the "Records of History"). On an outing, Jiang Yuan saw the giant footprints, felt very funny, moved and moved, so he went to step on the footprints, and as a result, she became pregnant.
Also inexplicably pregnant, the two women are also the wives of Emperor Zhao (it is not excluded that Emperor Zhao refers to the tribe, and may also refer to the same person), Jian Di chose to leave the child, but Jiang Yuan cruelly discarded the child in the alley, so this thrown Zhou always got a very symbolic name: abandoned!
From this point of view, during the imperial period, although there were still remnants of the group marriage system in ancient China, the fixed marriage system has gradually taken shape, and gradually developed into a dual marriage (that is, monogamy), at least, for children, they can know their mothers and fathers.
For children whose fathers are unknown, based on their motherhood status, they can still be treated kindly by the tribe, raised to adulthood, and hold important positions, but it is impossible to inherit the throne.
According to the Records of the Emperors, Emperor Zhao had four concubines, Yuan Concubine Jiang Yuan, Sheng Ren, Second Concubine Jian Di, Sheng Qi, Second Concubine Qingdu, Sheng Fangxun (尧); Second Concubine Chang Yi, Sheng Emperor Zhi.
That is to say, the sons born to the other two concubines of Emperor Zhao became kings (emperors), while the sons born to concubines Jiang Yuan and second concubine Jian Di, although still recorded in the name of Emperor Zhao, failed to inherit the throne.
In this way, ancient China paid more attention to the natural bloodline than the "legal bloodline" based on the inheritance of motherhood, in short, the children born by the wife through the consent of the husband still did not have the natural right of inheritance.
The situation in the Mahabharata is not the same as in our country, the five sons of Pandao have no natural blood relationship with Panda, but they are the wife of Bandu, Queen Gonti, who gave birth with the consent of Bandu, has the legal bloodline, and is the son of the legal Bandu, so this reserve of the right to inherit the throne is in line with the Dhamma, and even supported by the gods, competing with the hundred sons of the kingdom for royal power.
So, what if Gundy borrowed seeds to have children without her husband's consent? For example, just like Jian Di and Jiang Yuan, they got pregnant when they went to the wild, so what to do? Can a child born in this way inherit the throne?
In ancient China, it had been proven that it was impossible, and even children were almost discarded.
What about in ancient India?
The answer is still no.
The Mahabharata also records another son of Gonti, Garner, the son of the heroic sun god in the epic.
Garna was born before the marriage of Gunti, probably after similar to the myth of our country, Gonti met the sun god, felt pregnant, gave birth to this child destined for the great war, but at that time Gundy was still unmarried, with a small oil bottle how to get married?
Gonti then abandoned the child into the river, and since he was the Son of God, he certainly could not die, and the little baby Garner was adopted by a coachman, and his status was no longer that of a noble prince, but of the son of a coachman, the third rank of the caste system, which was only slightly better than a slave.
This directly affected Garner's life, because of the problem of birth, he was looked down upon by the five sons of Bandu, even if he was outstanding in battle and was crowned king, he was still an outlier among the nobles and could not look up.
This kind of borrowing system is not only prevalent in ancient times, but even today it is a hundred-footed worm, dead but not stiff, on the telephone pole, in the dark corner, not often posted with "a thousand gold for children" small advertisements? Harassing phone calls are endless.
Even nobel laureate Mo Yan's masterpiece "Fat Buttocks" also portrays a mother who borrows seeds to give birth to a child, Shangguan Lushi.
It seems that this tradition, which dates back thousands of years, is still unleashing its influence.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >04 Group marriage system in which mothers know mothers and fathers</h1>
We often ridicule the backwardness of India today, for example, in India there are still widespread cases of several brothers marrying a wife, which is contrary to human morality and inconceivable to Chinese.
However, pushing forward thousands of years, this group marriage system is also staged in China.
In the "Spring and Autumn of the Lü Dynasty", it is recorded: "In the past, taigu tasted no king, and his people married and lived in groups, knew their mothers and did not know their fathers, there was no difference between relatives and brothers, husbands and wives, and there was no way to grow up and down." ”
It is precisely because under this system of group marriage, it is often the sisters of one tribe who marry the brothers of another tribe and are each other's spouses.
In this state of marriage, the direct manifestation is that the mother is pregnant, working hard to raise the child, the child is the most clear is the mother, as for who is the father? I don't know, anyway, the people in that tribe, it is enough to have the blood of that tribe.
The group marriage system existed in ancient China for a long time, but after entering the Neolithic Age, it gradually transitioned to the dual marriage system, that is, the prototype of the monogamous system, and many excavated cultural relics reflect this small family structure.
However, group marriages in ancient India apparently lasted longer, and the Mahabharata era was still the time when this marriage custom was in vogue.
In the epic, the five sons of The Commonality, namely Jianzhan, Qijun, Azhouna, Wushao, and Kaitian, during their exile, jointly married the Black Princess, the daughter of the King of Muzhu, and the Black Princess also bore a son for each of the five of them, becoming a very important fighting force of the Pandao clan in the great war.
Since it is a group marriage, can the black princess really tell which son corresponds to which father? I am afraid that the greater possibility is that the five sons will be divided equally among the five brothers.
This kind of brotherly marriage to a wife still exists in India today, and it has also existed in some remote mountainous areas of our country, but this is absolutely not in line with our marriage law, and can only be respected as a custom of individual ethnic minorities.
What is more wonderful is that although the five sons of Bandu married the Black Princess, the Black Princess was not their only wife, for example, Azhouna had two other wives, one was Princess Myohyun, the sister of the Black Sky, and the other sons also had their own wives, and the families of the wives eventually became the friendly allies of the Bando clan and contributed in the Great War.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > summary:</h1>
Judging from the ancient Indian marriage inheritance system described in the Mahabharata, there are similarities with many systems in the ancient period of China, especially in the Yin Shang period, such as the transition from brother inheritance to the inheritance of the eldest son of the concubine (noble), such as "knowing the mother does not know the father", determining the child's bloodline from the mother's identity, such as group marriage between two tribes, brotherly marriage, etc.
However, in the details, China and India have different treatment of the corresponding problems, ancient China pays more attention to the purity of the patrilineal bloodline, while ancient India emphasizes the legitimacy of the identity of both parents, and the natural bloodline can give way to the legal bloodline.
Understanding the similarities and differences between this thinking and customs can understand why many of the cultures of ancient India, such as Buddhist culture, were rooted in China and have been continuously integrated over the course of more than a thousand years of development to become part of Chinese civilization.
Our civilizations have different origins, but in the thousands of years of coexistence, there are always some things that cannot distinguish between each other and become the source of new civilizations.
It's better to know a little more about your neighbor than to be estranged and hostile because you don't understand.