Emperor And She
Text/Tian Qili
On the eve of New Year's Day in 2021, I once again went to Shangqiu City surname culture research base - Suiyang District Gaoxin Town Emperor's Mausoleum to investigate.
It was the middle of winter, the weather was cold and windy, the grass was dead and the leaves were falling, the trees were withering, and only the wheat fields in the wilderness showed a square green color, coating the frozen earth with a layer of life. However, in the Scenic Area of the Dijie Tomb in the north of Gaoxin Town, the pines and cypresses are lush, the grass is green and red, the pilgrims are endless, the cigarettes are smoked, and the voices are boiling.
The Tomb of Emperor Zhao is majestic and tall, the cemetery is more than 200 meters long, the tomb is 16 meters high, covers an area of 2826 square meters, and the ring tomb has a 1.5 meters wide stone passage. In front of the mausoleum, there is a stone stele with a height of 5 meters and a width of 1.2 meters, the stele is a two-dragon play bead, the stele is a gantu, and there are facilities such as offerings and incense burners in front of the stele. There is a hexagonal dragon pillar stone pavilion on each side of the altar.
In the East Stone Pavilion, there is a monument to the Ming Jiajing Rebuilt Emperor's Ancestral Hall in 41 years, and the West Stone Pavilion erected the 2001 Emperor's Tomb Monument, and the vast cemetery bluestone slab Yongdao, lined with dense greenery on both sides, the huge mausoleum is covered with grass barley, some have dried up, and some are still glowing blue under the dry grass, giving people a solemn sense of historical vicissitudes, and people can't help but feel admiration in their hearts.
Who is the emperor? There are still tall mausoleums that remain today, revered by thousands of people? According to historical records: Emperor Zhao (帝喾), surnamed Ji (姬), courtesy name 夋, great-grandson of the Yellow Emperor, was the third emperor in the "Five Emperors" of the ancient Period of China, born in Gaoxin, was named Marquis of Xin at the age of 15, and was enthroned by Zen at the age of 30, known as Emperor Gaoxin. Sima Qian recorded in the "History of the Five Emperors Benji": "Emperor Zhao, Gao Xin, the great-grandson of the Yellow Emperor. "The emperor collapsed, and Gao Xinli, the grandson of Xuan Huan." "Gao Xin was born a god and called himself by his name." "Gao Xin's father, The Pole of the Tortoise, and the Pole of The Dragon, are not allowed to reign, and Gao Xin is the throne." "Gao Xin and Zhen Yu are clan sons". Emperor Fu of the Jin Dynasty's "Century of Emperors" says: "Emperor Gaoxin, Ji Yiye."
His mother saw his strangeness and called himself a stranger. The Gong Gong has holy virtue, fifteen years old and Zo Mo, thirty ascended the throne, all in Yu Bo. "In fact, Di Zhao was not originally called Gao Xinshi. It is rumored that Emperor Zhao was clever and wise from an early age, and he was very methodical in dealing with things. During his reign, nine countries came together to compete for the land of the Central Plains, and at first, he only knew how to fight hard and could not defeat the invaders. When he heard that Ji Ji was talented and resourceful, he asked Ji Ji to help him come up with ideas.
Ji Wei said: "Nine countries have come together to attack us, and if we fight hard with them, we will inevitably lose sight of one or the other, and it will be difficult to win." He said, "In your opinion?" Ji Wei said, "The enemies of the Nine Kingdoms all want to swallow up our territory alone, and they will certainly not give in to each other." If we can get them to fight with each other, won't it be better to put an end to it? He thought: Yes! Ji Ji thought that this method was good. So they sent people to the enemies of the Nine Kingdoms to stir up their relations, and soon they launched a war.
Later, without much effort, he put down the Rebellion of the Nine Kingdoms. Seeing that Ji Ji was capable, he sealed him to the place of "Xin" to take charge of everything. At that time, the place of "Xin" was often flooded, and the people moved back and forth frequently, and they could not live and work in peace and contentment. Ji Ji thought of a way: to lead everyone to raise the terrain of the "Xin" place to the surface of the water. In the future, the people here will no longer migrate and wander around because of the flood. Since then, "Xin" has been called "Gao Xin" and Ji Wei has been called "Gao Xin".
Seeing that Gao Xin was indeed highly intelligent and able to do good things for the common people, he ceded his throne to him. From then on, Gao Xinshi replaced Emperor Huan as the Son of Heaven and was given the title of Emperor Zhao Wang. Du yu (亳邑, in modern Shangqiu, Henan), reigned for seventy years and died at the age of 105. After his death, he was buried in his hometown of Gaoxin (高辛镇, Suiyang District, Shangqiu City, Henan Province), so there is still an emperor's mausoleum in Gaoxin.
Emperor Zhao Enwei and Shi, benevolent and righteous rule of the country, created a generation of prosperous times, became a generation of Ming emperors and holy kings, became one of the "three emperors and five emperors", and was a model for the kings of all generations. He laid the foundation of Chinese civilization and Chinese culture, and is the common humanistic ancestor of the Chinese nation and respected by future generations.
Emperor Zhao was born in Shangqiu, built the capital in Shangqiu, and was buried in Shangqiu after his death. Shangqiu is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, how can it be related to an ethnic minority in the south, the Shes? This has to start with historical origins.
According to legend, Emperor Zhao had five concubines, the renunciation (i.e., Hou Ji) born of Jiang Yan was the ancestor of the Zhou Dynasty; the Qi (i.e., Bo Bo) born of Jian Di was the ancestor of the Shang; the Yao born of Qingdu was the prince of a famous sage in history; Chang Yi was born to inherit his throne after Emperor Zhao's death, but within a few years, he ceded the throne to Yao; and the fifth concubine, Liu Niangniang, who was transformed by the worm in her ear, was the ancestor of the She.
Legend has it that there were three inches of worms in the ears of Liu Niangniang, and one day there was a sudden itch in the ear, and she hurriedly pulled it out, and the worm was pulled out and fell to the ground and became a dragon dog, with a length of one foot, five colored stripes, and the emperor saw the great joy of seeing it, so he gave the name Long Qi (that is, pan qi). In the sixtieth year of Emperor Gaoxin (帝喾) (about 2637 BC), the alliance of Yan tribes and Inu rong tribes in the north invaded the territory of Gaoxin, directly threatening to endanger the imperial capital, and the form was very severe.
The emperor marched out of the list, "Whoever can win the battle will marry the third princess (Liu Niangniang's stepdaughter) to him." Long Qi took over the list and rushed to the front line to fight. In the second year, Long Qi took advantage of the drunkenness of the Yan King, bit the Yan King, and ran back to the base camp with the head of the Yan King. The Yan tribe had no leader and retreated without a fight, and Long Qiping made a great contribution. Emperor Gaoxin was very happy to see long qiping success and victory, that is, he named Long qi the "king of loyalty and courage", and set a date to complete the marriage with the three princesses.
When the third princess saw that she was a dog, she was displeased and did not want to marry her. At this time, Long Qi said, "Put me into the Golden Bell, and after seven days I will change into human form." On the sixth day, the third princess was afraid that she would starve to death, and when she unveiled the bell, she saw that she had become an adult, but her head and face had not yet completely changed, and in desperation, she married her and entered the cave room. Long Qi liked to hunt and did not want to be an official, so Emperor Gaoxin gave the Chaozhou area of Guangdong as his territory, and built a shrine to Phoenix Mountain, giving the four surnames of Pan, Lan, Lei, and Zhong as a family.
Subsequently, Long Qi and the princess moved to the deep mountains, giving birth to three men and one daughter, the eldest son surnamed Pan, the second son surnamed Lan, the third son surnamed Lei, and the fourth daughter surnamed Zhong, and the descendants gradually multiplied into the She. Since then, the Shes have had their own surnames and regions, as well as their own languages and customs. At the same time, from primitive society, the legend of totem worship - dragon qi (pan 瓠) was left behind.
The She, a member of the big family of 56 ethnic groups in China, is an ancient ethnic group like other ethnic groups, belonging to the nomadic farming people in southern China. With the change of history, the Shes gradually dispersed from the original place of residence in Guangdong to Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Anhui, Guizhou, Sichuan and other places, more than 90% lived in the vast mountainous areas of Fujian and Zhejiang, and the rest scattered in Jiangxi, Guangdong, Anhui, Sichuan, Guizhou and other provinces.
Jingning She's Autonomous County is the only she-autonomous county in China and the only ethnic minority autonomous county in Zhejiang Province. The legend of Long Qi (Pan Yong) as the ancestor is not only a household name, but also recorded in the family tree, painted into a series of portraits, called "zu tu", hung out during the New Year's Festival, held a solemn ancestor worship ceremony, and worshipped very religiously.
This is a figurative expression of the primitive totem worship concept of the She. Regarding the legend of Long Qi (Pan Ou), the written materials within the clan are the "Edict Book" at the head of the genealogy of the Ben shes, or the "Iron Book of Rebuilding the Pan Yao Ancestral Hall", "Guangdong PanHuang Mingzhi", "Tianshan Gongzhi", "Fuyao Coupon" and so on. There is also the She's epic "Song of the High Emperor" that has also been recited from generation to generation.
The legend of Longqi and ancestor worship form the most primitive, basic and core national religion of the She. Each family has an ancestral staff, the ancestral staff is also known as the "dragon head staff", "magic staff", the ancestral staff is carved with a dragon head, which is the symbol of the She's display of distant ancestors, which is also the main symbol of the She's totem. The legend of Longqi has been passed down from generation to generation in the Shejia family and has been widely circulated.
The history of the Shes is an integral part of the ancient Chinese history of Yin Shang, and its culture is inextricably linked to the Yin Shang culture. In the course of thousands of years of change, the Shes have left a beautiful chapter in the history of Chinese culture, and the traces of the splendid culture of the Shes can still be seen in many modern historical books, architecture, literature and art, humanistic customs, science, etc. Such as costumes, She's costumes are China's intangible cultural heritage.
Its traditional costumes are colorful and colorful, and its main features are reflected in women's clothing. Women's clothing runs through the whole in the form of a phoenix, so it is called "phoenix clothing". The "phoenix suit" is composed of clothing and headdresses, and the traditional headdress becomes the "phoenix crown", which is composed of silver inlays, head faces, guozheng, qixi cards, silver chains, etc.
For another example, in terms of language and culture, more than 99% of the Shes speak a language close to the Chinese Hakka dialect. Some people have compared the cultural heritage of the Gaoxin and She, such as knotted buns, mongolian green scarves, red head ropes, silver ornaments for flower arrangements and birds, wearing phoenix-like crowns, "bronze mirrors" for dressing, "manes" for cooking rice, "pickaxes" for production, and "crossbows" for hunting.
There is also the love of dogs, and there are still stories of "one dog and nine lives" (meaning that killing a dog will compensate for nine lives). In praise of the "phoenix bird", when getting married, the horizontal link with the words "Phoenix to here" is pasted on the front door horizontal eyebrow, and the phoenix is regarded as an auspicious bird. This is intrinsically closely related to the "phoenix" as a totem of the Yindi Merchant tribes living in Yindi. This fully shows that the Gaoxin Emperor and the Shes have an extremely close relationship.
For thousands of years, the dragon and phoenix have been regarded as great symbols by the Chinese nation, and the broad masses of the people have also regarded the dragon and phoenix as mascots, and there have been idioms describing auspiciousness and majesty such as "dragon flying phoenix dance", "dragon and phoenix chengxiang", "two dragon play pearls", "Danfeng chaoyang", "tiger standing on the dragon disk", "phoenix play peony" and so on. In the idiom dictionary, it is not difficult to find idioms paired with dragons and phoenixes, such as: "Long Xing Feng Ju", "Dragon Yue Feng Ming", "Dragon Foal Phoenix Chick", "Phoenix Marrow Dragon Liver", "Dragon Chapter Feng Zi" and so on.
Because of the nobility and authority of the dragon and phoenix, the imperial couples have been compared to the dragon and phoenix as a symbol of the supreme ruler. For 5,000 years, the myth of the dragon and the phoenix has become the pride and pride of the Chinese nation, and has become the spiritual pillar of every Chinese. Therefore, there have also been places named after dragons and phoenixes, such as Longquan, Longjing, Phoenix City, Phoenix Mountain, etc. The Phoenix Mountain, the ancestral shrine of the She, is also like this.
In front of the Emperor's Mausoleum, Mr. Wu Xinhua, deputy secretary general of the Shangqiu City Surname Culture Research Association and director of the Gaoxin Town Cultural Station in Suiyang District, told me that the Gaoxin Emperor and the Shes have a historical relationship. The legend of the "Dragon Qi" has been around for a long time. Some people say it is called "Long Qi", some people call it "Pan Qi", in fact, it is a person, the small name (milk name) is called Long Qi, and the big name is Pan Qi. This legend has a deep relationship with The Emperor, and the name of the Dragon Qi is given by the Emperor.
In recent years, the She people from Fujian, Zhejiang and other places have traveled thousands of miles to visit the Gaoxin Emperor's Tomb in Gaoxin Town and conduct cultural exchanges. Leaders and scholars from Suiyang District and Gaoxin Town have also visited Fujian and Zhejiang to investigate the Culture of the Shes in order to promote exchanges and integration with the Culture of the Central Plains. Because of the "bridge" and cultural matchmaking by the emperor, friendly exchanges between the two places have been established.