□ Xu Guangchun
The formation and development of the Chinese nation, especially the formation and development of the Chinese national community, occupies a special and important position in the history of China's civilization for more than 5,000 years. Without the formation and development of the Chinese nation and the formation and development of the Chinese national community, China's civilization could not have had such a powerful endogenous driving force and could not have such beautiful development results. So, as China's founding hero and the ancestor of Chinese humanities, what role did the Yellow Emperor play in the formation and development of the Chinese nation and in the formation and development of the Chinese national community? This article expands on three aspects.
General Secretary Xi Jinping's important exposition on the "Chinese national community"
The construction and development of the Chinese national community has a bearing on the future and destiny of the country and the rejuvenation and development of the nation. Therefore, General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the construction and development of the Chinese national community.
After the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, in order to further promote the construction and development of the Chinese national community, he first put forward the important proposition of "firmly establishing the consciousness of the Chinese national community" at the Second Xinjiang Work Forum held by the Central Committee in May 2014. Then, at the Central Ethnic Work Conference held in August 2014, it was clearly proposed to "cast a solid sense of the Chinese national community". Then, at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, he further emphasized the need to "forge a solid sense of the Chinese national community." In this way, "forging a solid sense of the Chinese national community" has become the main theme, main theme, and main line of the party's ethnic work.
At the 2021 Central National Unity Commendation Conference, General Secretary Xi Jinping issued a series of extremely important opinions on the construction and development of the Chinese national community, creatively and systematically demonstrating General Secretary Xi Jinping's new position, new realm, new thinking, new strategy and new concept on building and developing the Nationality Work in the New Era, so that the Party's ethnic work in the new era has a new theory, a new strategy and a new follow.com. He stressed that to do a good job in the party's ethnic work in the new era, "we must take the casting of a solid sense of the Chinese national community as the main line." He pointed out: "A history of China is a history of the fusion and convergence of various nationalities into a pluralistic and integrated Chinese nation, and a history of the great motherland in which all nationalities jointly created, developed, and consolidated reunification. The "pluralistic and integrated Chinese nation" mentioned by General Secretary Xi Jinping here is the "Chinese national community", the "big family of the Chinese nation", and the national community of destiny of "you have me, I have you". The reason why the Chinese national community can be formed, developed and consolidated, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "stems from the cultural eclecticism of all ethnic groups, economic interdependence, emotional closeness, and from the endogenous driving force of the Chinese nation to pursue unity and unity." It is precisely because of this that Chinese civilization has unparalleled inclusiveness and absorption power, and can be long-lasting and deep-rooted." General Secretary Xi Jinping also stressed at the meeting: "As early as the pre-Qin period, the mainland gradually formed a pattern of integration with Yanhuang Huaxia as the core of cohesion and 'the people of the five parties' sharing the world. "The status and role of Yanhuang Huaxia in the formation and development of the Chinese nation and the formation and development of the Chinese national community have been fully emphasized and highly evaluated.
The formation and development of the Chinese nation
The formation and development of the Chinese nation has gone through a long historical period, and the title of "Chinese nation" began to appear in the works of some scholars at the end of the Qing Dynasty. In fact, as a national entity, it already existed in the land of China thousands of years ago, and it was gradually developed and formed by dispersion to gathering, from division to integration, from small to large, from weak to strong. Since ancient times, the ancestors of the Chinese nation have worked, lived and multiplied in the ancient land of China. At the beginning, most people lived in the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin, which are the two most suitable places for human survival. Therefore, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River are called "mother rivers" by the Chinese nation. Especially in the Yellow River Basin, due to its special geographical location, unique history and culture, special natural environment and special value role in China, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphatically pointed out: "The Yellow River culture is an important part of Chinese civilization and the root and soul of the Chinese nation. "This root and soul mainly refers to the Central Plains culture and the Yellow Emperor formed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.
More than 5,000 years ago, countless large and small peoples and tribes of different forms in the late stage of primitive society continued to survive, die, develop, evolve, differentiate and integrate in the long-term exchanges and conflicts. Among them, several large tribal groups have the strongest power, such as the Yandi Group and the Yellow Emperor Group in the Central Plains, the Dongyi Group between the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Nanman Group in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. According to the "Chronicle of History", in the Battle of Hanquan between the Yellow Emperor Group and the YanDi Group, the Yellow Emperor defeated the Yan Emperor and formed the Huangyan Alliance to form a more powerful Huangyan Group. After the Battle of Zhuolu, the Yellow Emperor captured and killed Xuan You, so the Huangyan Group merged with the remnants of the Dongyi Group, making the Huangyan Group further grow. Then the Huangyan Group went south and then merged with the Nanman Group. On this basis, the Yellow Emperor "conformed to Busan" and formed a broad tribal alliance with the largest and small tribes in the most prosperous and economically active areas of the ancient Chinese, unifying the Central Plains and the surrounding areas. Subsequently, the Yellow Emperor and his successors took economic, political, cultural, military and other measures to promote the transition and evolution of tribal alliances to the form of the state, so that this huge tribal alliance initially showed the rudiments of a pluralistic and integrated national structure. In this way, after nearly a thousand years of annexation, integration, development and development of the Yellow Emperor and the successors of the Yellow Emperor's family, Emperor Yao, Yu Shun, and Dayu, by the establishment of the Summer Dynasty in 2070 BC, the original tribal alliance, that is, the alliance of states, ended, and the pluralistic and integrated dynastic state was officially born on the land of China. At this time, the Huaxia ethnic group with a common language, culture and customs began to form in the Central Plains, and at the same time as the Huaxia ethnic group, there were also "Four Yi" ethnic groups such as Dongyi, Xirong, Nanman, and Beidi. Among them, due to the relatively early and rapid development of the Chinese civilization, the large scale and wide influence of the ethnic groups, and the frequent economic, political and cultural exchanges and integration with the surrounding ethnic groups, it has played a leading role in the history of the development of the Chinese nation. In this way, the social form of the Chinese nation's pluralistic and integrated national structure began to become clear. In the warring states of commerce, zhou and spring and autumn, exchanges and integration between various ethnic groups in China have been continuously promoted, creating a new situation.
In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang unified China and implemented the "same track of the car"; unified the national weights and measures; "books and texts" to unify the original writings of the nations; "abolish feudalism, establish counties and counties", abolish the original division of land and feudalism, and establish a political system of the central group. In this way, the social form of China's pluralistic and integrated ethnic structure with the Chinese ethnic group as the main body has developed steadily, and a key step has been taken.
In 206 BC, Liu Bang declared himself emperor to establish the Han Dynasty. The Han inherited the Qin system and further consolidated the centralized political system, and in the course of more than 400 years, the economy, politics and culture of the Han Dynasty with the Huaxia ethnic group as the main body developed and progressed more than that of the Qin Dynasty. The exchanges and blends between the Huaxia and other ethnic groups in the same political system are very close, and even outside the political system, the exchanges and exchanges between the Huaxia and other ethnic groups are uninterrupted. In this process of acquaintance, communication, and integration, the influence of the Han people with the Huaxia ethnic group as the main body has been expanding. The image of the Han people in the minds of the people of other ethnic groups began to be concretized, so the ancestors of the Central Plains with the Huaxia ethnic group as the main body were called Han and Han by the surrounding ethnic groups, and the ancestors of the Central Plains with the Huaxia ethnic group as the main body also called themselves Han and Han. In this way, the title of the Han nationality as a national entity slowly formed after the Han Dynasty. As a result, the Chinese nation developed into the Han nationality, so that the basic form of the Chinese nation's social system of pluralistic and integrated ethnic structure with the Han nationality as the main body began to be established, and the Chinese nation as a multi-ethnic group has basically taken shape. In the development and changes of Chinese society in the past two thousand years, whether it is war or peace, whether it is good times or bad times, the social form of the Chinese nation's pluralistic and integrated national structure has always remained unchanged, and the physical existence of the Chinese nation as China's various ethnic groups has always remained unchanged. After more than 5,000 years of development, change and progress in Chinese society, the Chinese nation as a community of common destiny has gradually formed and continued to grow and develop.
The Yellow Emperor played a great role in the formation and development of the Chinese national community
The Yellow Emperor was born in the era of "Three Emperors and Five Emperors" more than 5,000 years ago. This era is an era of China's transformation from a barbaric society to a civilized society, an era of rapid social changes and development, and an era of heroes. Historians have called this era the "dawn of civilization" and the "era of heroic creation." The Yellow Emperor is the creator and leader of this era, respected by the Chinese nation for generations as the "hero of creation" and the "ancestor of humanities", and has played a series of great roles that no one can replace in the process of the formation, development and growth of the Chinese national community. He inherited the achievements of the civilization of his predecessors, and vigorously promoted the creation of new civilization achievements, the dawn of Chinese civilization concentrated on his body and appeared in the east of the earth, and the baby of the Chinese nation screamed in his arms. His great role is mainly reflected in:
The first is the pioneering role. The starting point of Chinese civilization was more than 5,000 years ago. As the main ruler of the land of China more than 5,000 years ago and the main leader of the masses of all ethnic groups in China, the Yellow Emperor carried out a series of pioneering work in the economic, political, cultural, military, people's livelihood and other aspects. All these pioneering works were started from scratch, all painted on a blank piece of paper, and more systematically, comprehensively, and effectively promoted the development and progress of ancient China, formed a brilliant dawn of Chinese civilization, and created a new era in which the development of Chinese social civilization began to take off and the Chinese nation began to gather and integrate.
The second is the basic role. The Yellow Emperor led the masses of all ethnic groups to actively promote economic and social development and progress, and strived to gather and integrate the masses of all ethnic groups, which should be said to be both groundbreaking and basic. As the old saying goes, "The foundation is not solid, and the ground is shaking." "The pioneering things done by the yellow emperor and his people have done a lot of basic work for the continuous development and progress of Chinese civilization and the formation and development of the Chinese national community, and have played an important basic role, and the facts have proved that these basic work is solid, solid, and eternal. For example, a series of methods for developing production, a series of measures for establishing a political system, a series of creations for developing culture, and a series of actions to strengthen national unity have all laid a good foundation for the development and progress of Chinese civilization and the unity, integration, development, and growth of the Chinese nation.
The third is the leading role. With the emergence of the dawn of Chinese civilization, the Chinese nation began to integrate and experienced a long historical period. This historical period lasts for about a thousand years. This nearly thousand-year history is mainly the "Five Emperors Era" headed by the Yellow Emperor. The "Five Emperors Era" is the general term for the history of the reign of the Yellow Emperor, Emperor Huan, Emperor Yao, and Yu Shun. Through the efforts of generations of descendants of the Yellow Emperor, economic development, social progress, political civilization, cultural enrichment, and improvement of people's livelihood have been continuously promoted, and the exchanges, exchanges and blending of various ethnic groups have been continuously strengthened. In this historical process, the Yellow Emperor, as the head of the Five Emperors, played a correct and powerful leading role. He came up with ideas, thoughts, established rules and regulations, put forward requirements, sought strategies, grasped implementation, issued orders, personally carried out his work, and led the descendants of the Yellow Emperor and the broad masses of the people of the past generations to march toward the development of civilization and the unity and progress of national unity from the ideological and practical point of view, and achieved brilliant achievements in the annals of history.
The fourth is the incentive effect. In the great practice of forming the dawn of civilization and realizing national integration more than 5,000 years ago, the Yellow Emperor not only had a series of important ideas and remarks, but also personally did it himself, in the words of the "Historical Record", the Yellow Emperor "worked hard to see and see" for this, and he paid a lot of painstaking efforts, wisdom and strength for the emergence of the dawn of Chinese civilization and the unity and integration of the Chinese nation. Later generations distilled and summarized this thought and practice of the Yellow Emperor as the "Yellow Emperor culture", which covered the ideological, political, military, cultural, moral, rule of law, belief, religion, science and technology, education and other spiritual content and practical achievements of the Yellow Emperor period, and was the sum of spiritual and practical wealth. "Yellow Emperor Culture" not only effectively inspires the enterprising spirit of people in ancient times, but also encourages contemporary Chinese people to constantly open up new and better futures.
Fifth, the role of promotion. During the reign of the Yellow Emperor, he had a distinct governing concept and a clear purpose of governance, which was concentrated in the thinking and practice of the Yellow Emperor to develop production, improve people's livelihood, strengthen the country and enrich the people, and integrate the nationalities. To this end, he "sowed hundreds of grains, tamed birds and beasts", invented new agricultural tools, and developed agricultural production; he "conformed to Busan" and "placed the left and right prisons and supervisions in all countries." He "practiced the use of gan ge to enlist in order not to enjoy it"; "cultivated virtue and revitalized the army", and worked hard to build an army and strengthen the army; he "feared the heavens and loved the people"; "benefited the world, cultivated morality together, and only benevolence was the line"; he created writing, drawing, setting the rhythm of music, making musical instruments, and creating Chinese culture; he established the state, built cities, served as officials, and founded a political system. These thoughts and actions of the Yellow Emperor effectively promoted the social progress and national unity of the people at that time.
Sixth, cohesion. The reason why the progress of civilization and the integration of nationalities more than 5,000 years ago can shine so dazzlingly in the history of China's civilization and national development is that the Yellow Emperor has played a role in uniting people's hearts. General Secretary Xi Jinping said: As early as the pre-Qin period, the mainland gradually formed a pattern of integration with Yanhuang Huaxia as the core of cohesion and the "people of the five parties" sharing the world. This sentence fully and clearly affirms the cohesive role of Yanhuang in the integration and development of the Chinese nation. Judging from historical data and folklore, this cohesive effect is mainly reflected in the Yellow Emperor, whose role is much greater than that of the Yan Emperor. The Yandi and the Yellow Emperor were contemporaries, each ruling the Yandi Tribal Group and the Yellow Emperor Tribal Group, which were the two most powerful tribal groups at that time. According to the "Chronicle of History", when the Yellow Emperor's tribal group slowly became stronger, the originally powerful Yandi tribal group began to decline, and the princes invaded each other and abused the people, and the Yandi emperor was powerless to go out to quell it. Therefore, the Yellow Emperor trained soldiers and horses, went out to quell the chaos, punished the evil princes, and the princes everywhere obeyed the Yellow Emperor and obeyed his leadership and command. Among those evil princes, the most brutal was Xuan You, but Xuan You and the Xuan You tribal group were strong and brave, and they could not punish him for a while. Under such circumstances, the Yellow Emperor cultivated the army of virtue and courage and made great efforts to cultivate an army of virtue and courage; the Yellow Emperor ruled the five qi and the five kinds of arts, developed production, and enhanced the economic foundation; the Yellow Emperor also cared for all the people, lived in all directions, gave preferential treatment to the people of all ethnic groups, and stabilized the people's hearts and minds of the four parties. After doing these things that are conducive to uniting people's hearts and minds, for the sake of future development and the stability of the overall situation, the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor carried out the "Great Battle of Hanquan", and after three wars, the Yan Emperor was defeated, and formed the Yanhuang Alliance with the Yellow Emperor, and the Yellow Emperor took charge of the alliance. In response to Xuan You's rebellion, without the emperor's order, the Yellow Emperor led the Yanhuang Alliance and united with the princes of various places to capture and kill Xuan You in the field battle of Zhuolu. In this way, the princes everywhere honored Xuanyuan as the Son of Heaven and replaced Emperor Yan. Then the Yellow Emperor joined forces with Busan, the large and small tribes allied, and the Yellow Emperor became the leader of the tribal grand alliance and unified the world. It is precisely the great cohesion, appeal and influence of the Yellow Emperor among all nationalities, tribal princes and people that have made the great cause of the development of Chinese civilization and the unity and cohesion of the Chinese nation stand in the annals of history. In this process, Emperor Yan played a role, but as a defeated person, he was not the leader of that period of history, and his status and role should be under the Yellow Emperor.
Seventh, the core role. The founding of Chinese civilization and the integration of the Chinese nation involved all kinds of large and small tribes, all kinds of princes and princes of all walks of life at that time, and had a bearing on the work and interests of all aspects in various fields such as economy, politics, culture, military, science and technology, education, and people's livelihood. Under such circumstances, no strong core cannot be done, and the Yellow Emperor is this core. After the Battle of Hanquan and the Battle of Zhuolu, the Yellow Emperor defeated Emperor Yan successively, captured Xuan You, and joined Forceson, and was promoted to be the ally of the tribal grand alliance. At this time, the territory owned by the Yellow Emperor had been greatly expanded, from the sea in the east, to Gansu in the west, to Inner Mongolia in the north, and to the Yangtze River in the south, which was the territory of China at that time. Therefore, at this time, the Yellow Emperor was objectively already in the core position of China and the Chinese nation. Coupled with the strong cohesion, extensive influence and far-reaching appeal of the Yellow Emperor's thought and practice in the vast regions of China and the people of all ethnic groups, the core position and core role of the Yellow Emperor have become more prominent. In the "Condensation Core of Yanhuang Huaxia", the real and actual condensation core is the Yellow Emperor. After the defeat of the YanDi, he submitted to the Yellow Emperor and became an important member of the Yellow Emperor Tribal Alliance, and the Yandi Tribe also joined the Yellow Emperor Tribal Alliance. In this way, the Hua of the original tribe of the Yellow Emperor and the original Xia of the Yandi tribe united to become the Huaxia ethnic group, which is the prototype of the integration of the Chinese nation, and the Yanhuang Huaxia has become the core of the cohesion of all ethnic groups. Why is it said that the real and practical core in this condensed core is the Yellow Emperor? Because after the union with Busan, all large and small tribes formed an alliance, including the Yandi tribe, and the Yellow Emperor was the leader of this alliance, directly dominating the establishment, development and progress of the alliance, and dominating the unity and integration of all large and small ethnic groups everywhere. As an influential tribal leader at that time, Yandi also made important contributions in the establishment of alliances and ethnic integration, especially in the Huaxia tribe, which was an important part of its Xia ethnic group, so the formation of the Huaxia tribe was indispensable. "Yanhuang Huaxia" is a political organization and the title of a national group, and in this political organization and this ethnic group, it is the Yellow Emperor who is in the core position and plays a central role, not the Yan Emperor, which is also the main manifestation and important symbol of the Yellow Emperor's pioneering position and great role in the formation and development of the Chinese nation, especially in the formation and development of the Chinese national community.
(The author is the director of the Central Marxist Theory Research and Construction Project Advisory Committee, and the former secretary of the Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China)