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Caption: The Yellow Emperor's ascension
Text | Yang Jintao
It has been less than a hundred years since the Chinese became the "descendants of the dragon".
Imperial power and dragons
In early Chinese texts, dragons were often used as a means of transportation for gods and emperors.
As Han Feizi said, "The dragon is an insect, and it can be disturbed and ridden." In the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", there are descriptions such as "Zhurong in the south, the body of the beast and the human face, and the two dragons", and "in the west of the quicksand, there are two green snakes, two dragons, and the name is opened after the summer". Confucius told his disciples that the Yellow Emperor "rode the dragon to the clouds", Zhuan Xuan "rode the dragon to the four seas", and the emperor "rode the dragon in spring and summer, and rode a horse in autumn and winter". At this time, the status of the dragon is not much different from that of the horse, only one is in the sky and the other is underground. (1) In the legend, dragons can be raised, the so-called "ancient beast dragons, so the state has a dragon clan, there is a dragon clan", dragons can even be eaten. ②
During the Qin and Han dynasties, the status of the dragon was elevated, and it was linked to the life of the emperor.
Qin Shi Huang is known as the "ancestral dragon". The birth of Emperor Liu Bang of the Han Dynasty is rendered as "his ancestor Liu Yuan...... (been) on top of the dragon, already pregnant, and gave birth to a high ancestor".
But this connection between the dragon and the imperial power is not stable. For a long time, dragons were not the object of official sacrifices, but only used as some kind of tool. For example, in the "Ritual of the Suburbs" formulated by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the dragon is the role of the charioteer and the guard. Until the Song Dynasty, Song Taizong ordered "sacrifice to the Nine Dragons", and Song Zhenzong ordered "all repairs the river to sacrifice, increase the dragon god and the tail house...... Those who wait for the stars to be in the heavenly river, where there are fifty", the dragon will become an ordinary official sacrificer.
Let's take the dragon robe as an example. Before the Yuan Dynasty, dragon robes were not worn only by emperors. According to the etiquette, the 12 kinds of ornaments such as the sun, moon, stars, mountains, dragons, Chinese insects, Zongyi, and algae used by emperors, nobles, and high-ranking officials on their clothes are called "twelve chapter patterns". Among them, the sun, moon, and stars have the highest status, which is exclusive to the emperor, and as for mountains, dragons, etc., princes and ministers can also use them. Emperor Wu of Liang suggested that the prince should use a phoenix instead of a dragon, and when Emperor Gaozong of Tang suggested that a unicorn be used instead of a dragon, they all failed due to excessive resistance. The Northern Song Dynasty was forced to adopt a compromise method, allowing officials from the first rank to use dragons, but only to "descend the dragon" and leave the "ascending dragon" to the emperor. ③
The dragon became the exclusive domain of the royal family from Yuan Shizu, who ordered the people to ban the sale of dragon-tattooed fabrics. Yuan Renzong also ordered that no dragons should be decorated in official clothing. However, the Yuan Dynasty stipulated that the dragon was "a person with five claws and two horns", and both the people and ministers took the opportunity to take advantage of the loopholes to make or wear dragon pattern clothing with only four claws. As late as the Ming and Qing dynasties, the dragon pattern was widely used by the emperor in clothing and palace decoration. A statistic shows that only in the Taihe Hall in the Forbidden City, there are 13,844 dragons in various dragon patterns and dragon carvings. Even the spittoons and candlesticks in the Forbidden City are painted with dragon patterns. ④
Although the dragon is more connected with the imperial power, the sacrifice of the common people to the dragon in the imperial era did not mean that it was a "common ancestor". In folklore, dragons often represent a kind of god with specific duties, and even appear in the image of an "evil god" who stirs up trouble, and is killed by legendary "heroes".
Caption: The dragon carving in the Summer Palace
Wen Yiduo invented the "dragon totem"
After being strengthened by the emperors of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the dragon became the symbol of the royal family. In the late Qing Dynasty, the Yellow Dragon Banner was designed for diplomatic purposes, and the dragon further became the symbol of the Qing Dynasty.
As for the dragon becoming the totem of all Chinese, the Chinese became the "descendants of the dragon", which was an "invention" after the Republic of China.
In 1903, Yan Fu introduced the concept of "totem" to China for the first time. In short, "a large group of people think that they are related to each other, but this kinship is not born of blood, but is recognized within a special mark, and this sign is the totem." ”⑤
Before and after the Anti-Japanese War, the totem doctrine flourished. For the purpose of salvation, intellectuals were eager to popularize and demonstrate the concept of the Chinese nation so that the people could unite under the banner of national independence. ⑥
At first, in the eyes of most scholars, the dragon was just one of many totems of Chinese prehistory. As Lu Zhenyu believes, "horses, cows, sheep, pigs...... Forests, rivers, mountains...... Dragon, Feng, Snake, Wind ...... Li Boxuan, who has put a lot of effort into the totem issue, attaches the most importance to the phoenix totem and the bird totem, and the dragon totem is only occasionally mentioned. Jiang Liangfu was earlier committed to arguing that the dragon is a Chinese totem, and the reason is that the original meaning of the word "Xia" is "must be a reptilian thing", and Xia's Zongshen Yu is also a dragon and snake. But this view is neither convincing nor influential.
Wen Yiduo is the most important inventor of the concept of "dragon totem".
In "Fu Xi Kao", Wen Yiduo said that the dragon "is a totem, and it is a virtual creature that only exists in the totem and does not exist in the biological world, because it is a synthesis of many different totems." Specifically, "The so-called dragon is just a kind of big snake. The name of this snake is 'Dragon'. Later, a group of Klan (clans) with this great snake as a totem was annexed, and absorbed many other totemic tribes of all kinds, and the great snake accepted the four legs of beasts, the head of horses, the tail of hyenas, the horns of deer, the claws of dogs, and the scales and whiskers of fish...... And so it became the dragon we now know."
Wen Yiduo's definition of dragon, although it has become common sense, does not stand up to scrutiny. As the scholar Shi Aidong pointed out, first of all, the dragon pattern in history was constantly changing, and the image of the dragon described by Wen Yiduo only appeared in the Song Dynasty. Secondly, in order to prove his point of view, Wen Yiduo spliced and cut historical materials at will. Third, due to the lack of materials, Wen Yiduo often even takes assumptions as premises, so that the "Fu Xi Kao" is full of "if", "hypothetical", "maybe" and "afraid" ....... (7) More importantly, the invention of the so-called "chemical totem" is not supported by anthropological theory. ⑧
Wen Yiduo may not be aware of these theoretical loopholes, but he pays more attention to the practical efficacy. As he put it, he hoped to "let the people know that they have a common origin by interpreting ancient myths, so as to stimulate their national consciousness" in order to save the world. As for whether this "historical knowledge" is reliable, it is secondary.
So, all you need is this conclusion:
"The Zhuxia culture of the dragon clan is our true culture...... The emperors of all dynasties said that it was the incarnation of the dragon, and the dragon was its symbol, and their flags, palaces, public clothes, and utensils were all depicted with dragon scripts. In short, the dragon is a symbol of our nation. ”
However, even the inventor of the "Dragon Totem" smells a lot, but he lacks confidence in whether the actual effect of his invention is necessarily good. Therefore, he wrote very entangledly: "dragon and phoenix" in the imperial era, has become the symbol of "emperor" and "heavenly power", "the honor of a surname, will naturally determine the suffering of the people", "dragon and phoenix" can not help but make people "shocked", so, "otherwise, if you have to choose a symbolic creature for this nation, then it is still a lion, I say it is still the lion who can roar, if he is no longer too sleepy." ”
The inventor of the "dragon totem" is still uncertain whether to be a "descendant of the dragon" or a "descendant of the lion".
Caption: The dragon pattern of the Shang Dynasty
A song became popular
When Wen Yiduo was wandering between the lion and the dragon, the American helped push him from behind.
Published in 1942, the same year that Pearl Sai's novel Dragon Seed was published in the United States, describing the unyielding survival of ordinary Chinese people in the aftermath of the Japanese Massacre in Nanjing. MGM bought the rights to adapt the novel at a high price, and spent a huge amount of money to create scenes, costumes, props, and formed a star lineup led by Katharine Hepburn to shoot the movie "Dragon Seed" of the same name. The tone of the film, controlled by the Wartime Information Office, the most important official propaganda agency of the U.S. government at the time, was designed to highlight China's resistance to Japanese aggression and disseminate China's efforts to the world. The term "Dragon Seed" helped to take shape the theory of "descendants of the dragon" in Chinese intellectual circles.
The appearance of the film "Dragon Seed" is actually a kind of reversal of the scandalization of "Chinese dragons" in the Western world since the late Qing Dynasty (for example, after the Boxer Rebellion, New York's "World" magazine published a cartoon with a dragon with teeth and claws, suggesting that China is a threat to the world).
However, this kind of "setting things right" did not last long. With the upheaval of the heavens and the advent of the Cold War in 49 years, "dragon" has once again become synonymous with China in the Western world with an unfriendly image (for example, on September 13, 1963, Time magazine in the United States featured a dilapidated dragon boat full of Chinese people and leaders as the cover). It's just that this kind of image, during the Cold War, can no longer be fed back to China like "Dragon Seed" during the Anti-Japanese War.
In 1978, Hou Dejian composed the song "Descendants of the Dragon", and the "Dragon Totem" was finally accepted by all Chinese like the water that broke the embankment.
The song was included in various songbooks. For example, in 1981, China Radio and Television compiled "Selected Taiwan Songs - Campus Songs and Taiwan Folk Songs", in 1982 Sichuan Radio Station compiled "Radio Song Collection", in 1982 Hebei Provincial Mass Art Museum compiled "Pastoral New Songs" and so on. In 1988, Hou Dejian was invited to sing "Descendants of the Dragon" at the Spring Festival Gala, which was even more popular all over the country. Some scholars believe that this song caters to the mood of Chinese people in the early days of reform and opening up, "hoping for the prosperity and strength of the country and the rejuvenation of the nation", and "naturally aroused strong resonance among people." ⑨
Since Hou Dejian's identity is a Taiwanese singer who left the mainland, the term "descendants of the dragon" originally had a certain united front meaning, and was often used to refer to Chinese on both sides of the strait, or overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese. For example, in the 1985 book "Looking Inside and Outside the Great Wall - Essays on Patriotism", it was said that Huang Zhicheng and Li Dawei, who flew back to the mainland from Taiwan, were "descendants of the dragon who have returned to the hometown of the dragon one after another." Later, the word became synonymous with Chinese on various occasions.
Caption: Hou Dejian was received on his return to the mainland
In short, the dragon was originally a dragon with an ornament of imperial power (pulling a cart), and later evolved into a symbol of imperial power (dragon robe), and then was reinvented by Wen Yiduo, and gradually became a national totem.
Notes (1) (3) Shi Aidong, "The Politics of Dragons: From Tongtian Mounts to Royal Servitude", National Art, No. 2, 2011. Most of the special materials and opinions in this issue come from Mr. Shi Aidong's research results, and I would like to thank you;(2) Yuan Dirui, "The Question of the "Descendants of the Dragon", Social Science Review, No. 2, 1995; (4) Liu Zhixiong and Yang Jingrong, "Dragon and Chinese Culture", People's Publishing House, 1992, p. 290; (5) (7) (8) Shi Aidong, "The Coupling of Dragon and Totem: Knowledge Production of Academic Salvation", National Art, No. 4, 2011. In Western totem theory, the totem must be something that actually exists, and the dragon is clearly not. Most of the characteristics of totemic society do not apply to the so-called Chinese nation, especially exogamy, where intermarriage is not allowed between tribes of the same totem. In ancient China, where the population was large, it was obviously impossible to implement exogamy. (6) Zhong Lin, "The Invention of Totem: From the Perspective of Nationalism", <伏羲考>Folklore Research, No. 4, 2006; (9) Zhang Lingli and Ji Chengming, "The Origin of the Saying "The Descendants of the Dragon", Journal of Literature and History, No. 4, 2011.
In fact, the term "Chinese nation" is only a hundred years old
Pei Ziyu, Beijing News Book Review Weekly
The melody of "the Chinese nation has reached the most dangerous time" is often sounded, and "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" is also the strong voice of the times, but when we talk about the "Chinese nation," what are we talking about? What is the Chinese nation?
Huang Xingtao's Reshaping China: A Study of the Concept of the "Chinese Nation" in Modern China can be described as a masterpiece on the study of the history of the concept of the Chinese nation, and the author has made an overall historical investigation of the concept of the "Chinese nation" in modern China, clearly revealing the whole process of the conception of the "Chinese nation", germination, formation, strengthening, deepening and popularization, and systematically presenting the history of the evolution and mutation of the connotation of the Chinese nation.
Reshaping China: A Study on the Concept of the "Chinese Nation" in Modern China
Author: Huang Xingtao Edition: Beijing Normal University Press, October 2017
1. The History and Levels of the Concept of Nationality Where does a history of the concept of the Chinese nation begin? The concept of nationality, which is full of controversy, is different from ancient to modern, and from China to the West. Correspondingly, the study of national identity or nationalism has spent a lot of ink on the interpretation of the word "nation". The author does not simply apply the existing theory of "nation" to arbitrarily reject the relevant understanding of the Chinese people in modern Chinese history, but emphasizes that the concept of nationality can only be defined by the actual history in which it is used. The author looks at the history of the use of the modern Chinese national concept in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, and finds that it is a Chinese product under the comprehensive influence of national ideology and political reality in the dual sense of Western anthropology and political science, and it is also a political and cultural phenomenon that has emerged and formed in the unique national pattern and historical situation, and is the crystallization of the complex interaction between China and the West, history and reality, anthropology and political science.
A scene of the Sino-Japanese War.
The connotation of the "Chinese nation" is rich and complex: "a 'Chinese nation' identity that transcends the boundaries between political identity and traditional ethnic identity, that is, an overall identity of a large ethnic community including all ethnic minorities, and a modern era as a collective of equal citizens, with the community title 'China' or 'Zhonghua' that has been continuous for thousands of years as a symbol, is established in the modern era as a collection of equal citizens." Chinese political and cultural identity based on 'identity, with the expectation of further integration, a ...... of identity that is both completed and unfinished" is intertwined with reality and ideals" is called the "modern Chinese national concept" to distinguish it from the non-dominant concept that regards the Han as the "Chinese nation."
Such a dominant concept of the Chinese nation encompasses three different levels of the concept of "nation", one is the state nation of the large ethnic community, the other is the nation in the sense of ethnic minorities, Han nationality or ethnic integration, and the other is the ethnic group in the sense of ethnic identity. The author is not unaware of the differences between these levels, but pays more attention to the history of the use of the concept. It is necessary to respect the history of the use of the concept, but as a realistic concept that still has vitality, can the "Chinese nation" used today refer specifically to the "Chinese nation", so as to fix its core connotation as a nation from the ambiguous and polysemous concept of nation?
2. People of insight shape the Chinese nation together
In the process of exploring the concept of the "Chinese nation" and self-awareness, the author has made full use of the method of combining the history of thought with the history of new culture, paying attention to the thinking of elite figures and expressing certain neglected aspects of historical figures or familiar historical figures that were unknown and unknown in the past. It is first and foremost the ideological figures who shape the Chinese nation. There are not only famous Liang Qichao, Yang Du, Li Dazhao, Zhang Junmai, Gu Jiegang, Fei Xiaotong, Wu Wenzao, but also less well-known Xiyi, Wu Guanyin, Shen Yuelu, Zhang Qiyun, Rui Yifu. Then there are political figures, especially political leaders. For example, Yuan Shikai renamed the south gate of the former imperial city of Beijing (called it "Daming Gate" in the Ming Dynasty and "Daqing Gate" in the Qing Dynasty) as "Zhonghua Gate" and named the main gate of the Presidential Palace as "Xinhua Gate", which is of great significance to the Chinese nation's consciousness. For example, Sun Yat-sen's nationalism, Chiang Kai-shek's concept of the unity of the Chinese nation based on the theory of clans, and Mao Zedong's authoritative narrative that the Chinese nation is a large national community as a whole have had a profound impact on the concept of the Chinese nation.
Various political factions, such as the Juvenile China Society, the Nationalist Party, the Youth Party, and the National Socialist Party, also participated in the debate and creation of the concept of the Chinese nation. In addition, what should not be ignored is the contribution of people of insight from various ethnic minorities, such as the Manchu officials who advocated the "great harmony of the five ethnic groups" in the late Qing Dynasty and the bannermen Hengjun, Wu Zesheng and Mu Duli, Xi Ling'a, Wang Kuan, and Salen of the "Five Ethnic Nationalities National Advancement Association" in the early years of the Republic of China, Ba Wenjun, Gongjue Zhongni, Lobsang Gyaltsen, Dr. Yao Le, and Meswude, who strongly identified with the Chinese nation, and Shakdurzab, who resolutely moved west to the tomb of Genghis Khan. The "self-consciousness" of the Chinese nation can be described as the result of the combined efforts of various histories, to borrow the words of Chang Naiyan, whom the author greatly admires, "As for today, people are consciously a member of the Chinese nation, and they are consciously the descendants of the Yellow Emperor. Although this statement is somewhat true, it is more of an exaggeration and good intentions of the historian. The author must also have a kinship, praising Chang Naiyan for "recognizing the modern Chinese national concept of the integration of all ethnic groups in China, and the historian's consciousness and sense of responsibility in disseminating this concept and verifying it with historical facts." This is not the author's master's own way. 3 Chinese National Identity: Unfinished Work There is a basic assumption worth exploring in this work, that is, the Chinese nation has a process from freedom to self-consciousness, and correspondingly, the Chinese national identity has a history from the idea of a few elites to a wide acceptance by society. The author accepted Mr. Fei Xiaotong's classic exposition of the Chinese nation from freedom to consciousness, and regarded the Chinese nation as the product of the interaction between the continuation and evolution of history and the construction of subjective initiative, so the book was named "Reshaping China". Unless the existence of a certain Chinese nation (that is, the so-called freedom) has been assumed in advance, how can it be reshaped? The author has a different attitude towards subjective constructivism such as "imaginary community" and advocates a compromise between evolutionary theory and constructivism, but can the premise of such a compromise -- the existence of a free Chinese nation -- be established? As Mr. Xu Jilin pointed out in "The Family and the Country", the Chinese nation, as a national imagination, is just a "movie backwards" In ancient China, although there were physical ethnic groups such as the Han and other ethnic groups, the various ethnic groups were not integrated into a national nation in even a free sense. In fact, the so-called self-meaning nation itself is a kind of contradictory discourse, as Liang Qichao said, "The only element for the establishment of a nation is the discovery and establishment of 'national consciousness'." What is national consciousness? It means to be self-conscious for others...... Anyone who encounters another ethnic group and immediately has the concept of "Chinese" floating in his mind, this person is also a member of the Chinese nation. ”
Family, Country, World: Individual, Nation, and World Identity in Modern China
Author: Xu Jilin Edition: Century Wenjing/Shanghai People's Publishing House, February 2017
Starting from the impact of modernity on the traditional concept of "Tianxia", this paper explores the impact and transformation of China's modern national identity in the history of thought.
Without such a conscious consciousness, the nation itself cannot be established. As Greenfield pointed out, identity is cognition, and the essential characteristic of any identity is that it must be the perception of the relevant actor about himself, so identity either exists or does not, and cannot be first latent and then awakened, as some diseases do. Therefore, the so-called reshaping of the Chinese nation may only be a new reconstruction of the Chinese nation, rather than the freedom and consciousness of the Chinese nation. In the author's view, the identity of the Chinese nation is both realistic and ideal, complete and unfinished, political and cultural, national and national identity. The Chinese nation is so "...... ......", although comprehensive and dialectical, is ultimately inherently tense and contradictory, and blurs the boundaries between what should be and what is, between belief and fact.
Personally, among the different levels of national, ethnic and ethnic identity, the identity of the Chinese nation may be the highest level of identity, but the higher the level, the more justification is needed for identity. As far as groups are concerned, the more disadvantaged or marginalized a minority or minority group is within a country, the more important it is to identify with the national justification. The French thinker Ernest Renant once said that the nation is a soul, a spiritual principle, and the elements of race, language, interests, religion, geography, and military needs are not enough to create such a spiritual principle, and the most important thing is that there is a common glory in the past, a common will in the present, and the existence of a nation is a referendum day after day.
So, what kind of soul and what kind of principles does the Chinese nation have? What are the reasons for its recognition as individuals and minority groups? There is no ready-made answer to these difficult problems that the Chinese nation's identity needs to face and build consensus, and they are still the unfinished work of the Chinese nation's belief. A desirable belief is not a fact, but a belief can undoubtedly be transformed into a fact, and the key to this may also be the desire of today's philosophers.
Summary: The dragon was first just an ornament of imperial power (pulling a cart), and later evolved into a symbol of imperial power (dragon robe), and then reinterpreted by Wen Yiduo and gradually became a national totem. In 1978, Hou Dejian composed the song "Descendants of the Dragon", so that the "dragon totem" was accepted by Chinese on both sides of the strait. The four great inventions and the four ancient kingdoms were also produced in the late Qing Dynasty in order to boost national self-esteem. The history is not long, don't think they are 5,000 years old.