#以书之名#
Merchants were known for their belief in ghosts and gods, which is reflected in many aspects, especially in the oracle bone inscriptions and bronzes that represent Shang culture.
The first is Oracle. So far, more than 150,000 oracle bones have been unearthed, and most of the words engraved on them are divination. Merchants invoke on ghosts and gods in everything from daily life to national events, such as going out, giving birth, dreaming, sickness, harvest, hunting, sacrifices, weather, and conquests.
The merchant revered the "emperor" the most, believing that there were many gods in the natural world, and people had to sacrifice to ghosts and gods and obey the will of the gods. Confucius said in the Book of Rites and Tables: "Yin people respect gods, lead the people to serve gods, first ghosts and then rituals." "The king had to deal with divination in state affairs, and the imperial court set up special agencies and diviners for this purpose. Sima Qian said that since his ancestors had been in the summer, the Xia merchants were all diviners who were responsible for asking the gods of heaven and earth. The content of the divination questions and their fulfillment were engraved on the oracle bones and preserved, thus accumulating a wealth of written records and becoming the most important first-hand materials for studying the social history of the Shang Dynasty.
Carved words, unearthed in the south of Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan
This is followed by bronze. The casting technology of bronze ware to the Shang Dynasty has been quite developed, and the artistic imagination of the Shang Dynasty people is very rich, exaggerated and detached, and it is not as realistic as the agricultural civilization of the Zhou Dynasty.
The important bronze ware is the sacrificial ritual vessel, which was used by the nobles of the Shang Dynasty to worship the gods. Here is a representative bronze statue - the Nuhao Owl Zun, a pair unearthed from the tomb of the Nuhao in 1976, is the earliest bird-shaped wine statue found so far, one is now in the collection of the National Museum, the other in the collection of the Henan Museum. Zun is a large sake container. Owl, commonly known as "owl", in Shang culture, the owl is full of mystery, is the object of worship, so there are many owl image artifacts in the Shang Dynasty bronzes, such as owl fang, owl fangyi, owl pattern, owl pattern and so on. The tomb of the Yinxu King also unearthed owl-shaped jade tools. The owl-shaped utensils were unearthed from the tombs of high-ranking nobles in the Shang Dynasty and attracted much attention.
Henan Museum collection of the good woman owl, 46 centimeters high, weighing 16.7 kilograms, vertical ears and round eyes, high crown and wide beak, quite exaggerated. The head is slightly raised, the wings are straight, the feet are thick, and the broad tail forms three support points, so that the Zun stands calmly. At the front of the lid stands a small owl, followed by a small dragon. There is also a curved owl on the neck of the owl, which cleverly forms the handle, making the whole object a perfect combination of art and practicality. The gimmick and chest of the owl are decorated with cicada patterns, the two sides of the neck are decorated with dragon patterns, the wings on both sides are symmetrically decorated with coiled snake patterns, and there is an owl pattern on the tail that is about to fly. On the top of the owl with a height of only 46 centimeters, it is covered with eight patterns such as gluttonous pattern, cloud and thunder pattern, snake pattern, feather pattern, cicada pattern, and dragon pattern, each of which can be expressed independently, but also can be linked and intertwined with each other, dressing the messenger of this mysterious night solemnly and solemnly, and also revealing a bit of childishness. After the Shang Dynasty, the shape of the owl was very rare, and it undoubtedly belonged to the representative works of the Shang Dynasty bronzes.
The bronze owl of the good woman, the period of the Shang King Wuding, was unearthed in 1976 in the tomb of the good woman in Yinxu in Anyang, Henan
Merchants love owl objects, when related to the ancestors of the Shang Dynasty, the so-called "Heavenly Destiny Xuanbird, descended and born Shang". This legend gave the merchant a special affinity for the birds, and he created various images to channel the spirits.
The culture of the Shang Dynasty revealed the atmosphere of ghost worship everywhere. The less able people are to deal with the natural world, the more they fear and worship supernatural forces. The same is true in the case of social organization, where the lower the control, the less convincing it becomes, and it is natural to bring out gods and ghosts to strengthen cohesion with unquestionable authority. Shang Tang used "God" to call on his subordinates to overthrow Xia, and in the process, a new culture of ghost worship was established. Confucius once compared the differences between Xia and Shang civilizations: "Xia Dao respects life, and ghosts respect God and stay away...... Yin people respect God.
The establishment of a new dynasty, to be stable and durable, must be accompanied by the creation of a new culture. Therefore, the change of dynasty is also the process of replacing the old culture with the new culture. The Xia people were far from ghosts and gods, while the merchants worshipped the gods and gods, which was a big cultural shift. It has been repeatedly pointed out earlier that the ancestors of China were born by people, not created by gods, which is the fundamental difference between Chinese and Western cultures. In a secular society and an era of low productivity, it is not easy to establish a stable and subservient rule by manpower alone. The Shang Dynasty was able to replace the Xia Dynasty, in addition to surpassing the Xia Dynasty in terms of city building, bronze casting, and business enrichment, it also tried to establish a new culture of reverence for the gods of the Heavenly Emperor to strengthen the power of cohesion and deterrence. At this point, Shang realized the weakness of the lack of gods and tried to make up for it in the worldly gods. Asking the gods for divination seems to have become mysterious, but it showed great power, leaving behind highly artistic bronze treasures and a large number of oracle bone inscriptions, making Shang the first dynasty in Chinese history to have a simultaneous writing lineage.
"Yu Yu Shangjia" engraved Bu Jia, Shang King Wuding period, the engraved content involves the sacrifice of Shang Xiangong Shangjia (micro).
In the 20th century, there were many major breakthroughs in the study of Chinese history, one of which was the study of the history of the Yin Shang dynasty.
China is one of the origins of the world's ancient civilizations, and it will inevitably attract the attention of the world. Almost all the accounts left behind about the ancient Chinese civilization are legends in the literature, and there is a lack of evidence of historical relics. Ancient Chinese documents are relatively abundant, resulting in ancient scholars relying too much on hand-me-down documents and not paying attention to the discovery of physical evidence for a long time. Even in terms of literature, they despise first-hand materials and bury their heads in the writings of historians such as official histories. This is a big gap with modern history. Modern historiography emphasizes first-hand evidence or materials, and from this standpoint, foreign historians and domestic scholars such as Hu Shi, Gu Jiegang, and Qian Xuan doubt the authenticity of ancient history and legends, and the Shang Dynasty is also among them.
Regardless of the views of the skeptical school, their skeptical spirit is the true meaning of modern scholarship and promotes the vigorous development of academic research. The search for historical evidence has promoted the establishment of modern archaeology. The Swedish archaeologist and geologist Andersen discovered the "Peking Man" and excavated the "Yangshao Cultural Site", which caused a major change in ancient history from legends to historical facts. Since 1928, Mr. Li Ji has presided over the excavation of Yinxu in Anyang, and corroborated each other with the "oracle bone science" discovered and created by Wang Yirong, Liu E, Luo Zhenyu and others, so that the history of Yin Shang has undergone a qualitative change, from a legend to a history of faith, no longer relying solely on hand-me-down documents, but on the basis of oracle bone inscriptions and archaeological excavations, removing the false and preserving the true.
Mr. Wang Guowei was the first to discover the Shang lineage bones that recorded the names of the ancestors of the Shang Dynasty in the unearthed oracle bones, and accordingly proposed the "double evidence method" to corroborate each other with archaeological excavations and handed down documents, and made a breakthrough. The Records of the Historian of Yin Benji lists a total of 31 kings in the 17th century. Wang Guowei's "New Evidence of Ancient History", "Examination of the First Princes and First Kings as Seen in Yin Bu Ci", "Continued Examination of the First Princes and First Kings as Seen in Yin Bu Ci" and Luo Zhenyu's "Examination and Interpretation of Yin Ruin Book Deed" published in 1915, verified the temple numbers of 18 Shang ancestors. Since then, in the process of sorting out tens of thousands of oracle bones, Mr. Dong Zuobin has made a more rigorous research on the lineage of the Shang kings, demonstrated the theory of oracle bone dating, determined the ten dating standards of the oracle bone inscriptions, and divided the oracle bone inscriptions unearthed in Yinxu into five periods, the history of the Shang Dynasty has become more and more clear and reliable, and the narrative of the history of the Shang Dynasty today is completely based on the academic contributions of their and later scholars, and has been accepted by the international academic community.
The most important progressive historical revolution in the 20th century in historiography allowed historical narratives to be based on physical evidence and first-hand materials, and the discovery and use of Dunhuang documents and Qin and Han slips belong to this category. In the 21st century, science has developed rapidly and entered the field of social and humanities, and the combination of genetic biology and materials science with history and archaeology will promote a new round of breakthroughs in academic research.
Distribution map of Anyang Yinxu ruins
According to Sima Qian's account, the Shang Dynasty existed from about 1600 BC to 1046 BC, and lasted for more than 500 years with 17 generations and 31 kings, representing the mainstream Central Plains civilization of this era. Of course, there were also developed non-Central Plains civilizations in parallel during this period, such as the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Sanxingdui and other cultural sites.
After the Shang Tang Revolution, he once wanted to change the shrine god of the Xia Dynasty, but this shrine god was the son of the ancient Gonggong clan, Julong, who could level the water and soil, and no one could reach it, so it could not be replaced and was still retained. 1 This matter is very important, reflecting the attitude of Shang towards Xia culture, from the initial intention to completely change to choose the good and follow it, and be inclusive. Because of this, the deed won the obedience of the princes and was able to ascend to the throne. Judging from the archaeological excavations, the palace of the Xia Erlitou site was still used in the Shang Dynasty, which is consistent with the description of the "Historical Records of Yin Benji".
Three generations after Tang to the Taizong Dynasty, the actual power was in the hands of the minister Yi Yin, who continued to implement Tang's established policy of diligent administration and peace of mind to govern the country. During the Taizong era, the virtuous minister Yi Yin died. After another four generations, the Shang Dynasty declined, and the princes did not come. The next generation of Zhongzong cultivated virtue and made the Shang Dynasty reinvigorated. However, the good times did not last long, and the next four generations repeatedly moved the capital, and the internal political situation of the Shang Dynasty was unstable. The known reason is that the succession system has not been established, and it is often the case that the elder brother dies and the younger brother is confused, resulting in a fierce struggle for the throne within the royal family, and the decline of the country.
It was not until Pangeng ascended the throne that the capital was moved from Xian (near Qufu, Shandong) back to the Tang hometown Bo (now Xiaotun Village, Shangqiu, Henan), united the nobles and old ministers, rectified politics, developed the economy, and the political situation stabilized, and the Shang Dynasty was prosperous, and since then it has gone through 8 generations and 12 kings, and the capital has been set here for 273 years.
After Pan Geng, a new strong leader Wu Ding appeared every two generations, and after he ascended the throne, he planned to revive the Shang Dynasty. He knows very well that the way of politics is not annoying, and he must be assisted by sages, so he did not express his political opinions for three years, let Tsukasa decide the national politics, carefully observe the national atmosphere, and secretly look for talents. Three years later, when the throne of Wuding was secured and the time was ripe, he said in the court that he dreamed at night, and a saint came to assist. According to his description of the appearance of the saint, he compared the ministers one by one, but they did not match, so he searched for them all over the country, and finally found this man among the people, named Fu Shuo, who was mixed with the prisoners to build roads. Wu Ding personally talked to him and found that the two men had completely identical views on governing the country. Wu Ding was overjoyed, appointed Fu Shuo as the prime minister, and entrusted him with national affairs, and the result was great governance in the world. This is a classic case of selecting and appointing talents through the ages, which shows that talents often come from the bottom, and only by going deep into the society can we understand the voice of the people and govern the country well. Rulers should be good at discovering talents, and not be bound by social status, age and qualifications.
Whether the country can be governed well or not depends on whether the leaders care about the people and serve the public wholeheartedly. Once, when Wu Ding sacrificed to the king of soup, pheasants flew and neighed, which was quite ominous. Wu Ding was frightened, and the minister Zuji comforted: "Don't worry, don't worry, first fix political affairs." Why don't you be afraid? My ancestors enlightened and said: Heaven supervises the people with an eye on their morality, and you concentrate on civil affairs, follow etiquette and compliance, and nothing can harm you. Wu Ding listened to the advice, cultivated politics and virtue, and eventually became a generation of Ming monarchs.
The tomb of the woman found in the Yin Ruins of Anyang also provides the deeds of Wu Ding that are not recorded in the historical books. The queen of Wu Ding is a good woman. At that time, there was a war in the north, and the woman volunteered to lead the troops to the battle. Wu Ding hesitated, and only agreed after asking the gods for divination. The woman lived up to her expectations and returned victorious. Since then, the woman has frequently gone out to defeat more than 20 Fang countries, and when fighting against the Qiang side, she once commanded an army of 130,000, which is the largest record of the Shang Dynasty's use of troops.
During the period of Wuding, the king of Shang, the content involves the war between Shang and earthwork, which is an important reference for the study of Shang Dynasty geography, Fang State and military
Wu Ding was the king of the heyday of the Shang Dynasty, and the temple name was Gaozong. After his death, the Shang dynasty went into decline. The last king, young and intelligent, with extraordinary strength, was able to fight fierce beasts with his bare hands, just like an ancient warrior. The "Records of the Historians" devotes a great deal of space to indicting him of evil, mainly the following crimes:
Smart and eloquent, pretending to be non-refusal, and stubborn for his own use. likes to brag and boast about himself, thinking that no one in the world can compare with himself. He hated ministers who spoke the truth and dared to advise. The loyal minister Bigan admonished him, and he actually cut Bigan out his heart. The upright either feign madness or flee. No one in the court dared to admonish, the way of speech was closed, the wise people stayed away, the treacherous villains filled the court, and the ministers like Fei Zhong who exploited the people, and the fortunate people who slandered and slandered such evil, were reused, and the country was decaying day by day in misdeeds and daring arrogance.
greedy for wine and lust, and prostitute day and night. The king pampered Daji, was extremely extravagant for her, and was obedient to her. He used wine as a pool and hanging meat as a forest, indulging in sensuality, making men and women naked, chasing and playing in between. Jiuhou's beautiful daughter was included in the harem, and because she didn't like lewdness, she was killed by the king of Xu, and he also chopped Jiuhou into meat sauce. The Hou couldn't stand it, tried his best to persuade him, and he was also killed and made into jerky.
Expropriation is tyrannical and taxation is heavy. The Lutai treasury and the Juqiao granary were full of money and grain, but the common people were poorly clothed. He built a large number of buildings, expanded the garden towers of the sand dunes, and collected dogs, horses, birds, and rare treasures from all directions to fill the palace.
The people of the country complained about the immorality of the king, so he enacted harsh punishment laws, one of which was outrageous the "method of cannon branding" - people crawled on a copper pillar covered with oil, and a charcoal fire was lit underneath, and if they could not climb, they would fall into the charcoal fire and be burned to death. He and Daji drank and watched, and the various screams of the prisoners caused them to laugh heartily.
Sima Qian's exposure of the first debaucherous tyrant in Chinese history was intended to serve as a warning to future generations, and to form a sharp contrast with the political ethics and principles established by Yao Shunyu, and to reveal the positive and negative reasons for the rise and fall of the state from the level of leaders. In the following chapters, Sima Qian will also profoundly tell the lessons of the state and society from all levels. As for whether the king is so unbearable, modern scholars have studied it from various angles. He did not care about the people's livelihood, extravagant construction, reckless military force, exhausted national strength, and finally showed defeat and was overthrown by the Zhou people who concentrated on development.
Houmu Wu bronze Fang Ding, Shang King Wuding period, unearthed in 1939 in Anyang Wuguan Village, Henan Province, weighing 832.84 kilograms, is known to be the heaviest bronze in ancient China