After entering the 21st century, Qin Shi Huang's evaluation gradually increased. When it comes to him, the first thing that comes to people's minds is the "Emperor of the Ages", the founder of the great unification of China. Even in the eyes of many people, he is enough to compete with Tang Taizong.
However, a few decades forward, the evaluation of Qin Shi Huang by the historiography is mixed.
Although he has the credit of unifying the world, the name of the tyrant is also deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. "Burning books and pit Confucianism" and "abusing people's power" are all criticisms of Yingzheng by historians.
The reversal of Qin Shi Huang's reputation stems from a major archaeological discovery in the 70s, when a number of strange books were found in a Qin Dynasty tomb, the contents of which subverted many theories in the field of historiography.
After carefully studying these strange books, Yingzheng's reputation began to improve, and many historians "overturned" the case, and even the legend of Chang'e running to the moon has changed.
The discovery of Qin Jian in the Sleeping Tiger Land
On the large-scale cultural and museum exploration program "National Treasure" produced by CCTV, there is a national treasure that won the love of countless audiences on the day of the program's broadcast, and the historical stories adapted based on it brought countless people to tears.
This "blockbuster" national treasure is the treasure of the town hall collected in the Hubei Provincial Museum - the bamboo slips of the Qin tomb of Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger.
Before the show aired, ordinary people were not familiar with it, but in the two fields of history and law, this national treasure is definitely a famous existence.
One day in December 1975, a group of villagers in Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, were digging a canal for the village to use.
In the process, a young man suddenly dug up some purple and blue soil, and immediately someone who knew the goods suggested that it was probably the material used in ancient tombs.
Subsequently, the villagers reported the discovery to the local cultural relics department, and the Yunmeng county government attached great importance to it and sent a large number of experts to investigate.
After dozens of days of archaeological excavations, experts found 16 tombs of the Qin Dynasty in this area.
Most excitingly, one of the tombs unearthed a large number of bamboo slips engraved with characters, which is definitely an amazing archaeological find.
And these bamboo slips are now the famous Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Land Qin Janes, which contain a total of 1,155 bamboo slips and record more than 40,000 words.
After in-depth research, experts found that the owner of this tomb was named Xi, who was an ordinary grassroots official in the Qin Dynasty.
The bamboo slips in his tomb are all his "work notes", half of which describe the provisions of the Qin Dynasty law, and the other half are his daily work.
Historians have found that the Sleeping Tiger Land Qin Slips contain political, legal, economic, cultural, medical and other aspects.
It can be said that the discovery of Qin Jian in Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Land has played a great role in promoting the study of ancient history.
Before its discovery, historians' knowledge of the Qin dynasty relied mainly on Sima Qian's Records of the Historians, lacking other detailed materials.
Although the Sleeping Tiger Land Qin Jianzhong only records the laws of the Qin State and the daily work of Xi, it shows the real grassroots life of the Qin Dynasty in all aspects from the perspective of the little person "Xi", which is of great value for the study of the system and social development at that time.
Moreover, the changes in laws and policies recorded in the Sleeping Tiger Land Qin Jian can give historians a deeper understanding of Yingzheng and further improve his image.
It can be said that the Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Land Qin Jian fills part of the gap in historians' research on the history of the Qin Dynasty, and also subverts the inherent cognition of Qin Shi Huang and some myths and legends in the past.
The misunderstood Chang'e ran to the moon
It is reported that when they first obtained the Qin Jian of the Sleeping Tiger Land, the experts were bent on discovering some detailed records about the laws and political ecology of the Qin Dynasty.
Unexpectedly, a scholar just took a look and found a record of Chang'e in ancient mythology, which mentioned such a sentence: "Gui Mei said: The former stole my mother and died..."
Seeing this, many people must be curious, what does this sentence have to do with Chang'e? If you want to understand this matter, you must first understand some knowledge about the evolution of ancient writing.
It is reported that in the pre-Qin period, when the word "I" was used, its meaning was completely different from today's, and its meaning at that time was actually closer to today's "E".
Therefore, the "姮I" mentioned in the bamboo slips is actually "姮娥", and the so-called "姮娥" is the ancient name of "Chang'e".
Chang'e to the moon
The reason why this name evolved into the later "Chang'e" is because after the accession of Emperor Liu Heng of the Han Dynasty, in order to avoid secrecy, the imperial court adjusted many words with the pronunciation of "heng", and "Chang'e" became "Chang'e".
At that time, there was a word on the bamboo slip that could no longer be read clearly, and after combining the context, experts believed that this missing word should be "medicine".
Therefore, this description in Qin Jian of Sleeping Tiger Land translates to that Chang'e finally lost her life because she stole the elixir given by the queen mother in the past.
Looking at it this way, the story of Chang'e recorded in the bamboo slips is obviously extremely inconsistent with today's folklore, and it can even be said that the gap is a little too big.
But soon it was mentioned that the story of Chang'e running to the moon was also mentioned in the masterpiece "Huainanzi" written by Liu An of the Western Han Dynasty, which is also a big gap from the version that everyone is familiar with today.
It is clearly mentioned in this book: "Yi invited the medicine of immortality to the Queen Mother of the West, and Yi's wife and wife stole it to the moon and escaped from the moon, which is for the toad and the moon spirit." ”
Chang'e and Houyi
The story of Chang'e running to the moon told in "Huainanzi", the first half is the same as the folklore, Chang'e threw the immortal medicine given to her descendants by the Queen Mother of the West, and then flew to the moon.
But the second half is very different, "Huainanzi" clearly says that after Chang'e arrived on the moon, she became a toad and became a spirit in the moon.
This story is very close to the description in Qin Jian, the sleeping tiger, after all, Chang'e has become a toad, and it is no different from losing her life.
It can be seen from here that in the process of evolution of the legend of Chang'e running to the moon, the first half has basically not changed, and the main thing that has changed is the content of the second half, and the closer to the modern Chang'e to the moon, the better the ending.
It can be seen that the attitude of the ancient literati towards Chang'e, the goddess of the moon, has undergone a great change, from the initial denigration to the later affirmation.
Chang'e in Journey to the West
Ying Zheng is not brutal and unkind
Of course, the account of Chang'e running to the moon is only a short paragraph in the Qin Jian of the Sleeping Tiger Land, which can be regarded as a supplement to folk mythology.
Its real value is that it adds a wealth of information about the law, politics and society of the Qin Dynasty, so that later generations can have a deeper understanding of this short-lived dynasty.
After a careful analysis of the laws of the Qin Dynasty and the policies formulated by Qin Shi Huang, historians have a more comprehensive understanding of Yingzheng than before.
They found that this "Emperor of the Ages" was not as brutal and unkind as the ancients criticized, and he was still quite humane.
Ancient historians, including Sima Qian, first thought of Qin Shi Huang when he mentioned his harshness and cruelty, and his evaluation of Qin Law basically revolved around "severe punishment and strict law".
However, after reading the relevant content recorded in the Qin Slips of the Sleeping Tiger Land, historians found that the Qin laws were not as cruel and harsh as later generations criticized, and there were many very humane provisions in them, and even many of them are still applicable today.
When the ancients mentioned the Qin State, the first thing that came to mind was that all the people were soldiers, regardless of the old and the young.
However, this is not the case with the real Qin Dynasty described in the Sleeping Tiger Land Qin Jian, for example, the Qin Law clearly stipulates that if a family has only one son, then the latter is not required to serve in the military.
In addition, there are many laws in the Qin law that shine with the brilliance of human nature. For example, the "Yunmeng Qin Jian: Legal Q&A" details various laws and regulations on the "protection of minors", and also makes clear provisions on the standards for minors.
This point is extremely rare in ancient laws, and being able to put forward content related to this is enough to see the "warmth" of Qin law.
Qin Law
It can be seen from this that Qin Shi Huang, who created and promoted the world, obviously could not be just a simple tyrant image.
Secondly, in order to demonstrate benevolence, ancient emperors would reduce the taxes and forced labor of local residents after a disaster occurred in a certain place.
According to the records of Qin Jian, Qin Shi Huang did a very good job in this regard, and he also wrote all the provisions on disaster relief and tax reduction and exemption into the Qin law, so that the officials could have a law to follow.
In the end, Qin Jian of the Sleeping Tiger Land also debunked a far-reaching rumor. The reason why later historians feel that Qin Shi Huang is tyrannical when they mention it has a lot to do with the record of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's uprising in the "Historical Records".
When recording this history, Ma Qian of Taishi Company mentioned that Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's troops delayed the assembly time due to heavy rain, and Qin Law stipulated that all those who missed the time limit would be beheaded.
Daze Township Uprising
Considering that both horizontal and vertical were dead, this team raised the banner of righteousness in Daze Township.
When future generations see this paragraph, they will feel that Chen Sheng and Wu Guang are very wronged, and they are deeply impressed by Qin Lu's brutality.
However, according to the content of the Qin Jian of the Sleeping Tiger Land, although the punishment for "missing the deadline" is very strict, it also takes into account the changes in the weather, which specifically mentions that the punishment can be mitigated or avoided because of the heavy rain delay.
It can be seen that Sima Qian's description in the Records of the Historian may indeed have some errors and omissions, which misled many people and deepened their impression of the brutality of Qin Law and Qin Shi Huang, which may not be the case in real history.
However, it should be noted that Qin Law is not perfect, for example, it is extremely strict in the arrangement of "march dates", and it is easy to "miss the date".
Historians believe that the reason for this deficiency is that when the Qin law was formulated, it was based on the experience of the previous decades of the Qin state.
However, after Qin Shi Huang unified the world, his territory expanded a lot, and the past experience was obviously no longer suitable for the current situation. In this way, even a wise emperor will inevitably fall into the trap of "empiricism".
Map of the territory of the Qin Dynasty
epilogue
In general, the excavation of Qin Jian in Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Land has largely filled in the lack of historical materials of the Qin Dynasty, and has provided historians with a more detailed basis for studying the laws, policies, and social systems of this period.
Many of the contents of the bamboo slips have also had a strong impact on the historiography, greatly changing people's inherent cognition of Qin Shi Huang and the legend of Chang'e running to the moon, which is one of the charms of history.
Reference:
"What did the "work notes" look like more than 2,000 years ago?
-- CCTV News
Discussion on Flexible Regulations under the "Heavy Punishment Doctrine" of Qin Law
- Wu Fuzhu