Qilu Evening News Qilu One Point reporter Zhang Xiangyang
Recently, after five years of archaeological excavations, the archaeological project of "Looking for Jixia Xuegong" has made a major breakthrough, and the building base site group located outside the west gate of qigucheng Xiaocheng in Linzi District, Zibo City, has been basically identified as the ruins of Jixia Xuegong and has become the focus of public attention. What is the significance of the discovery of minoru Gakugu? What important position does it have in the history of Chinese civilization and even in the history of world civilization? Professor Wang Zhimin, a well-known expert in qi culture, explained them to us one by one.
Archaeological excavations have solved a big mystery
"According to the results of archaeological excavations and the comparison of historical documents, the base site group of buildings outside the west gate of the small city of Qi (also known as the Imperial City) has been basically identified as the ruins of the Jixia Xuegong. The significance of this archaeological discovery in the history of Chinese culture and civilization is undoubtedly of great significance, and even in the study of the history of world civilization, it is also a major event. Professor Wang Zhimin said.
According to reports, "Jixia" first appeared in Sima Qian's "Records of History", Sima Qian had seen the remnants of the Jixia Xuegong in Linzi; Liu Xiang also specifically mentioned in his writings that the Jixia Xuegong was at the west gate of the city; the relevant records of the "Notes on the Water Classics" are also in line with the age of the sites excavated this time, and the environment and location of the building base group are basically in line with the tradition of Chinese architecture. Wang Zhimin believes that in 221 BC, when qin destroyed Qi, the Jixia Xuegong was destroyed, Sima Qian lived in an age that was only a hundred years away from the destruction of the Jixia Xuegong, and the later Liu Xiang (77 BC - 6 BC) was only about 200 years away, so their accounts should be well-founded, and the records left behind are clear.
Wang Zhimin has been committed to the academic research of Qi Culture and Jixia Xuegong, and in 2019, the scientific research team with him as the chief expert was approved by the Ministry of Education's major project "Research and Literature Collation and Database Construction of the Jixia School", and the project research is currently underway. As early as the 1980s, he wrote a survey article on the location of the Minoru Gakugu, when it was inferred from historical documents that the Minoru Gakugu palace should be in the southwest corner of the big city and the small town (where the big city and small town were superimposed). Wang Zhimin believes that the Jixia Xuegong must be under the Jimen Gate, which gate is it? He believes that it is the south gate on the west side of the ancient city, which is facing the Jishan Mountain in the south, and it should be the Ji Gate. However, due to the lack of archaeological evidence at that time, it was impossible to determine the exact location.
Professor Wang Zhimin, a well-known expert in Qi culture research
According to the literature, chun Yu, a famous politician and thinker of the Minoru Academy, introduced sages to the King of Qi seven times in one day, and traveled to and from the palace seven times a day, which also shows that the distance between the Minoru Palace and the palace is very close. Archaeological excavations have shown that it is just outside the West Gate next to the small town, which coincides with the records of the Warring States Policy.
In the literature, the "high gate house" of the Minoru Gakuen Palace is magnificent in scale. "I originally thought that all scholars should live in the Minoru Gakuen Palace, and this complex should be very large, but if it is thousands of people, how can it live?" Through excavations, it can be seen that the Minoru Gakuen Palace is more like a large school or university hall. There is a place like a large auditorium, a place for teaching and discussion. It is likely that Mr. Minoru and his apprentices lived in other parts of Linzi City, not all of them living in the Xuegong. It can be said that this archaeological achievement is not only in line with historical records, but also in line with the reality of archaeological excavation, and has solved a big mystery in the history of ideas and academic history. It has played a great role in promoting the study of the Minoru Gakuen Palace and the Hundred Schools of Thought. Wang Zhimin thinks.
The university of later generations is also the earliest think tank in China
"We can look at Minoru Gakugu from the perspective of educational history." According to Wang Zhimin, the Minoru Gakuen Palace was the center of a hundred schools, and at its peak of prosperity, it once reached thousands of people. There are both scholars and students. A scholar, he often brings a lot of disciples, like Confucius founded a private school in the late Spring and Autumn Period, there are 3,000 disciples. This kind of private learning had actually developed into a school by the Warring States period, and the Minoru Gakumiya was inclusive, organizing the main forces of each school. If Confucius teaches one person and teaches the doctrine of one person, then the Jixia Xuegong is to teach many masters and pass on the learning of hundreds of schools.
It is understood that during the prosperous period, the Jixia Xuegong accommodated almost all the schools of Confucianism, Mo, Dao (Huanglao), Fa, Ming, Yin and Yang, Zongheng, and Nong, and the main representative figures of each school came here to lobby and travel, including many famous scholars, such as Mencius, Chun Yuji, Zou Yan, Lu Zhonglian, Xunzi, and so on.
Wang Zhimin said that the Minoru Academy itself is an institution for academic discussion and controversy. At the same time, it is also a high-end university hall taught by academic masters. It is the first institution of higher education in the history of Chinese culture, why do you say so? First of all, he said that he had masters, and attached great importance to talents, the qi xuanwang period was the most prosperous period of the Jixia Xuegong, and the qi xuanwang once named 76 academic masters of various schools under the jixia as shangdafu. In today's words, shang daifu is equivalent to the status of the main minister. "If you think about it, 76 shangda doctors were sealed at one time, which shows that the masters gathered here are indeed the first university in the history of Chinese culture that is very brilliant and splendid." He said. Not only that, the Minoru Gakuen Palace provided conditions for teachers and students of various schools to learn, debate, and communicate with each other, breaking the inhibition of closed teaching of private schools of various schools and emancipating their minds, which was the norm for future universities.
The Jixia Xuegong was founded in the Tian Wu period of The King of Qi Huan, who flourished during the reign of King Xuan of Qi, and the middle decline of King Min in the later period, and was even interrupted for a time due to the Yan Guole Yi Qi. After Tian Dan used the Fire Bull Array to defeat the Yan army to restore the country, king Xiang resumed the Xuegong again, and after the Qin Dynasty was destroyed, the Jixia Xuegong disappeared, which lasted about one hundred and fifty years. Wang Zhimin pointed out that during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, social turmoil and frequent wars were still frequent, and no country like the State of Qi set up universities to recruit and cultivate talents. The opening of the Jixia Xuegong by the Qi State University is indeed an unprecedented initiative.
Wang Zhimin and other experts inspected the site of the Jixia Xuegong
He believes that the Minoru Gakuen Palace was not only the largest government-run university at that time, but also the earliest think tank, or political think tank, for the rulers of the State of Qi at that time, and even the rulers of various countries to govern the country. The Minoru Gakuen Not only cultivates talents, conducts academic research and controversy, but also has the function of political consultation, and is the earliest think tank in China.
Wang Zhimin pointed out: "After more than five hundred years of splitting the Spring and Autumn Warring States, the Chinese nation was able to move towards great unification in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and it should be said that the Jixia Xuegong made great contributions. Why? It is that the scholars of the various schools of the Minoru Gakuen Palace have proceeded from their own theories and applied what they have learned, and here they are exploring how to realize the plan of great national unification. ”
It is a place where a hundred schools of thought contend, and it is also a place where academic ideas are integrated
What contribution and status does the Minoru Gakuen Have in the "Hundred Schools of Thought"? Wang Zhimin believes that the spring and autumn warring states of the hundred sons of the hundred families of the controversy can be said to be the most brilliant era of the pre-Qin. In the history of the development of Chinese civilization, the peak of the development of ancient ideology and culture is the controversy of a hundred schools of thought. It is precisely because there are hundreds of schools of thought that confucianism has emerged. Confucianism and other sons and hundreds of schools of thought contend, exchanged, and integrated with each other have been greatly enriched and developed, so Confucianism has become the backbone of Chinese civilization's ideology and culture. "If there had been no era of a hundred schools of thought and culture, which was very rich, developed, and prosperous, and shined, there would have been no long-standing, brilliant and splendid cultural inheritance of the later Chinese civilization."
Wang Zhimin said that according to records, Mencius first came to the Jixia Xuegong during the reign of King Qi Wei, and later came here twice during the reign of King Xuan of Qi, the most prosperous of the Jixia Xuegong, and Mencius stayed in the Jixia Xuegong for nearly 20 years. In fact, Mencius was the leader of the most prosperous period of the Minoru Gakuen Palace, and in today's parlance, he was an academic leader of the Gakugun.
Through a historical detail, you can glimpse the fierce academic controversy in the Minoru Gakuen Palace at that time. For example, Mencius's disciples once commented that he was "well-argued", and Mencius said, "Is it good to argue?" As a last resort! "It's not that I'm good at debating, it's that I have to debate. Why not? Wang Zhimin believes that all schools of thought are propagating their own ideas and arguing, and in order to propagate Confucianism and carry forward the ideas of Confucius, it is necessary to debate. It can be seen from this that there are fierce polemics and controversies among the various schools here. How did these schools of thought fight under the conditions at that time? There must always be a place where these scholars can be brought together so that they can discuss and argue with each other.
The Minoru Gakuen Palace is not only a place of academic controversy, but also a place where the academic ideas of various schools influence and converge. Like Mencius's "nourishing qi" saying, "I am good at raising my Haoran qi" was absorbed from the "jingqi" theory of the Jixia Xuegong Daoists. Wang Zhimin said: "Without the Jixia Xuegong providing an academic place for the Hundred Families of The Sons, and without Mencius's absorption of the ideas of various schools, it would have been inconceivable that his thoughts would have developed to such a high level as later." ”
Schematic map of the location of Minoru Gakugu Shrine.
Whether from the perspective of the history of the development of Confucianism, or the history of the development of Taoism, Zonghengjia, and various schools in China, the contribution of the Jixia Xuegong is undoubtedly enormous, if it were not for the fact that the State of Qi had such a cultural center where the Hundred Schools of Thought contended, the face of history might have been a different scene.
"After more than a hundred years of research since the twentieth century, it can be confirmed that this Jixia Xuegong in Linzi, the ancient capital of the State of Qi, was the only academic center for the sons and families of the Warring States period. In other words, the Minoru Gakuen Palace provided the best and most concentrated place for the hundred schools of thought at that time. Wang Zhimin believes that it can be said that without the Jixia Xuegong, there would be no prosperous cultural situation such as the controversy of the sons and hundreds of families in the Warring States period. Therefore, the Minoru Gakuen Palace is indeed an academic institution of great significance in the history of Chinese culture.
Standing side by side with plato's Academy twin peaks is a miracle in the history of world civilization
"If we look at the Minoru Gakuen Palace at the level of the history of world civilization, it is of even greater significance." Wang Zhimin said that in the history of world civilization, or the study of the history of world education, some Western scholars have always proposed that the Plato Academy in Greece is the earliest university in the history of the world, and they believe that Greek civilization is highly developed, so plato Academy, also known as Akademi Academy, is naturally the earliest in the world. For a long time, Western scholars have dominated the discourse power, that is, the European Center of World Civilization, which believes that European civilization has influenced the entire world. Minoru Gakugu's archaeological project made a major breakthrough, breaking this Eurocentric view.
Wang Zhimin revealed that in recent years, he has been conducting cultural comparative research on the Minoru Gakuen and Plato Gakuen. Although the two places are far apart, it is certain that the Minoru Gakuen and plato Gakuen appeared almost simultaneously in the East and West of the world, and they were only a dozen years apart. The world's earliest universities, not only in Greece in the West, but also in the East, the Jixia Xuegong in Linzi, the ancient capital of the Chinese state of Qi, have radiated dazzling brilliance in the history of world civilization.
The site of the archaeological excavations at Minoru Gakugu
Archaeological excavations at the Minoru Gakuen Palace have proved that Eastern China is also the center of world civilization, and it is more importantly the center, and the ancient ideology and culture have been passed down to this day. Therefore, we must strengthen cultural self-confidence, Chinese civilization also has a very important prominent position in the history of world civilization, has made great contributions, and the Minoru Gakuen Palace is a very prominent symbol.
In October 2017, Wang Zhimin made a special trip to the Greek Plato Academy for an inspection, where he saw architectural ruins under the square and a statue of Plato erected next to it. Compared to the ruins of the Minoru Gakuen, plato's academy is much smaller. Now archaeology has discovered the ruins of minoru Gakugu, which is larger and more magnificent, which confirms the existence of these two universities and academic and cultural centers in the history of world civilization. Subsequently, Wang Zhimin also visited the centuries-old Athens University and reached an agreement with Professor Helen, dean of the School of Philosophy of the University of Athens.
Finally, in September 2018, 15 scholars from the University of Athens and six Greek universities, as well as more than 20 Chinese scholars who studied the Palace of Minoru and Greek culture, were invited to Linzi, where the Minoru Academy was located, and the "Summit Forum of the Palace of Minoru and plato Academy" was held, and Wang Zhimin and Professor Helen co-chaired the forum, and scholars from the two countries compared the similarities, the same status and contributions of the Palace of Minoru and plato Academy in the history of world civilization, and published the "Comparative Research Collection of the Palace of Minoru and Plato Academy" by Sanlian Bookstore. A book. Scholars from both countries feel that this is indeed a miracle in the history of world civilization, a miracle in China and a miracle in Greece.