Mr. Liu Yuqing: Breakthrough in literary and historical research and the discovery of the great cycle of history

Source: Treatise on Governance, The Commercial Press, 2017, pp. 26-40. The original article was originally published in jinyang academic journal (No. 1, 2013).

What is studied here is a question that I have been thinking about for nearly three decades, and it is driven by the emergence of academic confusion. My teacher, Mr. Yao Dianzhong, was a closed disciple of Mr. Zhang Taiyan. Because he inherited Mr. Taiyan's tradition of governance and had the academic concept of "taking erudition as knowledge and using the world as the home", when guiding me to study and research, he repeatedly emphasized the meaning of "Broadcom" and opposed being confined to any corner of literature, history and philosophy. However, the current division of disciplines and the attribution of teachers have made each of us engaged in university teaching work have to stick to one subject. At the defense of my master's thesis, I was criticized because the object of my research was the Book of Poetry, which was now circled by scholars in the scope of literature, and my major was ancient literature, while my study of the Book of Poetry was biased towards history. Fortunately, my paper has 170,000 words, and there are tens of thousands of words about literature, so I escaped the "disaster". Since graduating from graduate school and teaching, I have been assigned to the "Ancient Literature Research Team". My research can only be accepted in this field, and if I get involved in other disciplines, I will mostly be indifferent. What is even more embarrassing is that some scholars in other disciplines only cite your point of view without mentioning your name, and sometimes only mention the name of the article. But the ideas and methods of learning that I received from my husband made it impossible for me to adhere to the "discipline of literature", and I involuntarily became involved in other fields, using multidisciplinary and cross-era knowledge at a macro level to observe specific problems. This raises doubts about the many "established answers" in the history of Chinese literature.

For example, with regard to mythology, general literary history textbooks teach the knowledge that primitive society, because of its very low level of productivity, in the face of the elusive and controlled nature, people cannot help but have a mysterious and awe-inspiring feeling, so they attribute the dynamics of various changes in nature to God's will and power. They believe that these unpredictable phenomena are directed and controlled by a god. Thus in their minds, all the forces of nature were visualized and personified by their imaginations, and this gave rise to myths. That is to say, myths are the product of primitive human consciousness, and it is naturally impossible to arise after the high degree of consciousness of human consciousness. Here, however, a conundrum is encountered: it is recognized that the Spring and Autumn Warring States were an era of high rationality and self-consciousness, in which many myths were deconstructed. Like Guan Jie's explanation of the "Heavy Li Jedi Heavenly Pass", Confucius's explanation of the "Four Faces of the Yellow Emperor" and "One Foot" are well-known typical examples. Qu Yuan raised more than 170 questions in one go in "Heavenly Questions", a considerable number of which are questions of myths, which also reflects the fact that myths are deconstructed. It is said that in the Han Dynasty after the Warring States, people's rational consciousness has developed for hundreds or even hundreds of years compared with the era in which Confucius and Qu Yuan lived, and they should adopt a more rational attitude towards mythology, but why is a large number of myths called "ancient myths" by literary historians, such as the famous "Nuwa Patching Heaven", "Nuwa Created Man", "Houyi Shooting Sun", "Co-foreman Can't Touch Zhou Mountain", "Giant Spirit Kaishan", "Pangu Open Heaven and Earth", etc., but it is not found in pre-Qin literature (at least there is no clear record in pre-Qin literature), Instead, it was recorded in batches in the works of the Han Dynasty? And is it still written down so seriously? Because the Han Dynasty greatly exceeded the number of myths recorded in the pre-Qin literature, Mr. Huang Zhenyun wrote "History of Han Dynasty Mythology", and Mr. Li Li wrote "Cultural Transmutation and The Evolution of Natural Myths in the Han Dynasty". In particular, a large number of Weishu produced by the Han Dynasty are called "mythological series" by scholars, and Mr. Leng Dexi also wrote a doctoral dissertation entitled "Weishu Political Mythology" specifically for this purpose. The Chinese Mythological Society once organized a symposium on the Chinese creation myth, at which experts said with great regret that the creation myth in the Han literature only appeared in the Han Dynasty, which was too late. Mr. Leng Dexi also said in the book "Beyond the Myth": There is no systematic (mature) creation myth in the pre-Qin literature, and the real creation myth was produced in the Weishu of the Han Dynasty. The question is why did the "creation myth" arise in the Han Dynasty? How can this phenomenon be explained by the established theories of our literary history?

Regarding Han Le Fu, it is recorded that it has the same source and nature as the Book of Poetry. Mr. Liu Dajie once said: "Broadly speaking, the ancient "Book of Poetry" is also a Lefu poem. "They are all sung by hele and are collected from all over the world by special officials. The "Kong Congzi Patrol Hunting" says: "The ancient Tianzi Destiny History collects poems and ballads to observe the folk customs. The Book of Han and the Chronicle of Food and Goods also says: "In the month of MengChun, the group of people will disperse, and the pedestrians Zhenmu Duo will wander on the road to collect poems, and offer them to the Taishi, than their rhythm, so as to smell the Son of Heaven." The Yiwen Zhi also said: "The ancients had officials who collected poetry, so the kings looked at customs, knew the gains and losses, and examined themselves." "This is all about the collection of the Book of Verses. Regarding han le fu, the Hanshu Yiwen zhi also clearly said: "Since filial piety and martial arts have collected songs and ballads, so there are Zhao and DaiZhi, Qin and Chu Zhifeng, all of whom feel mournful and happy, and when things happen, they can also observe customs and know thin clouds." "Since the nature and source are similar, why is the "Book of Poetry" mostly lyrical short songs, but Han Le Fu has a very obvious narrative tendency? Some scholars explained: Because of the complexity of social life in the Han Dynasty, the prosperity of the city, the rise of the citizen class, and the rise of the civic culture consumption, the music house that sang stories was raised. But we have to ask, the urban prosperity and the spiritual needs of the citizens in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty were even worse than those of the Han Dynasty, so why did the Lefu of the Southern Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty (except for those who deliberately did it by the literati such as Bai Juyi of the Xinlefu Movement) instead changed back to being lyrical? Some scholars have said that the narrative nature of Han le Fu song and poetry is related to its performance form. But why did this form of storytelling only work in the Han Dynasty and not in the Six Dynasties? Some scholars have also said that the narrative tendency of Han Le Fu mainly comes from the political mission it undertakes, because the ruler wants to "observe customs and know the thin and thick" through it, which requires it to have objectivity and narrative. However, the "Book of Poetry" also has the task of "observing customs, knowing gains and losses, and self-examination", why is it mainly lyrical? More importantly, the Han Chinese writings and portrait stone carvings, which are very different from the form, content and political orientation of Han Le Fu, have distinct narrative characteristics. For example, the two great works of "History" and "Book of Han" are exemplary works of historical narrative in the history of Chinese culture. Miscellaneous histories such as "Dongguan HanJi", "Han Ji", "Yue Jie Shu", "Wu Yue Chunqiu", "Biography of Lienu", "Biography of Filial Piety", etc., as well as sub-books and exegetical works such as "Saying Garden", "New Preface", "Han Poetry Wai Biography", "Ram Biography", "Gu Liang Biography", etc., also have distinct narrative colors. The contents of the paintings of bricks, stone carvings, and paintings are filled with historical stories and myths and legends such as Zhou Gongfuzheng, Great-Mother Touzhu, Zhao Orphans, Jing Ke Thorn Qin, Houyi Shooting Day, and Queen Mother Qingshou. Emperor Yangyang's Han Dafu often assumes characters and fictionalizes stories, so that scholars have the sigh of "Hanfu is like a novel". How to understand the narrative tendencies and objective expressions that appeared simultaneously in the various styles and portrait art of the entire Han Dynasty?

The established answer to works of literary history about the near-body poetry (Gelug poem) is that the near-body poetry originated in the Southern Dynasty. Because the near-body poem is characterized by the emphasis on the law of flatness, its production is directly related to the invention of the four sounds of chinese characters ping, up, going, and entering. For example, the "History of Chinese Literature" edited by five gentlemen, including You Guoen, who was still popular in the 1960s until the 1980s, clearly said: "Since the Wei and Jin dynasties, Chinese phonology has made new developments due to the influence of Indian Sanskrit phonology. In the next year of Qi Yong, Zhou Yong discovered the four tones of Chinese characters of flat, up, go, and into, and began to write "Four Voices Cut Rhyme" (present-day Yun), and at the same time, the famous poet Shen Yue (441-513) and others studied the coordination of sounds, rhymes, and tones in the verses according to the four voices and double voices, and pointed out that eight kinds of vocal diseases such as flat head and tail, bee waist, crane knee, big rhyme, small rhyme, side button, and zheng nu must be avoided... The poetic rhythm discovered by Shen Yue and others combined with the dual forms of poetry since the Jin and Song dynasties has formed a new body of poetry of 'Yongming Style'. This new style of poetry began with the emergence of chinese grammatical poetry. "But we found that at the same time that poetry changed from ancient to near, Chinese calligraphy and painting art also began to change from ancient to near, and even had to take a step ahead." Although chung, the master calligrapher of the Three Kingdoms period, was famous for a while, "but his body is ancient and not modern." In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, "Wang Shu, Wang Qia, Yi Shao, Zi Jing, dissected the pre-ancients, all-encompassing work... To make this body is the purpose of the poor. The "History of Chinese Calligraphy" written by Sanada Danma of Japan also said of Wei Jin: "Since the Han Dynasty, the seals and the new fonts such as cursive, xingshu, and calligraphy that have been decoupled from them have been used at the same time, and the general custom is that ordinary documents or letters use this new font, and in formal solemn occasions, the ancient seals are still used... However, the new fonts of this era have not yet fully formed into completely independent fonts, and they are also immature in art. Its real completion was not really completed until about a century later, that is, from the early Eastern Jin Dynasty. He also said: "Wei and the Western Jin Dynasty were the era of the old and new fonts in parallel, and in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the grass line was gradually completed and became an independent font, and the calligraphy took its first step, and it was popularized among the nobles as a comparison (elephant) for appreciation." "In terms of painting, the Six Dynasties also began to change dramatically. For example, Chen ShiZengyun: "Paintings before the Six Dynasties are mostly subsidies for human morality, the convenience of politics and religion, or the decoration of architecture, and art has not yet been freed from bondage." In the Six Dynasties, the art had an independent spirit, and the aesthetic fashion rose up, gradually seeing the bud of free art, and its skills suddenly improved. The paintings such as Buddhist Tao, figures, cattle and horses, landscapes, flowers and birds, fish and dragons, carriages and horses, buildings, etc., the scope of which is very expanded. Huang Xinya's "Art History of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of The Wei and Jin Dynasties of China" also said: "Wei and Jin paintings have a prominent position in the history of Chinese painting with a refreshing posture. "Han Dynasty paintings are full of Chu style, and almost every painting has the content of heaven, earth, and earth. Free imagination is far better than real life, and various mythological figures occupy the position that natural people should have. It was only in the Wei and Jin dynasties that human ethics and personal ideal pursuits were expressed through painting, and the twenty-first chapter of the "World Speaking New Language and Qiaoyi" said: "Gu Changkang (that is, Gu Kaizhi) paints people, or does not have the finishing touch for several years. When asked why, Gu Yue: There is nothing to do with the magic. The portrayal of God is in the midst of a blockade. Gu Kaizhi's pursuit of 'conveying god' is precisely to explore the ideas of the object of creation, such a clear artistic judgment, it can be said that there is no ancient person, and the word 'transmission of god' has become an unshakable tradition of Chinese painting. Such a leap in understanding is the basic reason why Wei and Jin paintings have attracted attention. Here wei and Jin are confused, but in fact, the "leap" began in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The Gu Kaizhi mentioned in Huang Wen is a great painter of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and his position in the history of painting is similar to that of Wang Xizhi in the history of calligraphy. It was he who transformed the character painting from using stories to express meaning to "conveying god in form". Pan Tianzhi's "History of Chinese Painting" also talks about the fact that landscape painting arose in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Obviously, the calligraphy and painting of the Six Dynasties have nothing to do with the so-called Four Voices and Eight Diseases, but why did they also shift from antiquity to proximity in the same era?

Regarding the poetic retro of the seven sons before and after the Ming Dynasty, the established answer to literary history works is that the retro is caused by the "Taige body" represented by Sanyang. "Tai Ge Style" was founded in the hands of the Pavilion Wenchen, the pursuit is "grace and elegance", the content is mostly relatively poor, mostly for the system, gifts, rewards, the theme is often "praise the holy virtue, song Taiping", no innovation, lack of vitality. At that time, the examination system also stipulated that eight strands of writing were written. In order to break through the rule of the Eight Strands of Literature and the Taige Style, the "Seven Sons" retro movement with retro as the innovation appeared. However, when we face the cultural trend of the Ming Dynasty, we find that the retro of the middle of the Ming Dynasty is all-round. As early as the time of Chenghua, there was a scene of "specializing in ancient texts, books must be sealed, and the domain of the two Han Dynasties". Official names and place names are also mostly from ancient names. With the rise of sinology, arts and crafts are "still primitive and not yet carved, that is, things have carvings, and they are also Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han styles". In the field of painting, Mr. Liu Lili called it "the heyday of the Ancient School". In the "History of Ming", you can also see a large number of celebrities with the name or name of "Haogu", such as Peng Haogu, Zhang Haogu, Bai Haogu, Sun Haogu, Zeng Haogu, as well as Luo Xuegu, Wang Chonggu, Peng Zungu, Wang Gushi and so on. What is the relationship between this trend of retro thought that has swept up for a while and the "Tai Ge Style" and the "Eight Strands of Literature"?

Jumping out of the circle of literary history and looking at the "established answers" in other fields is also full of questions! as:

The Qing Dynasty was a peak period of academic research in China, but in the past three hundred years, not a single great thinker has emerged. People often blame this on the "literal prison" of the Qing Dynasty. It is believed that the cultural repressive policy of the Qing Dynasty restricted people's freedom of thought, causing a large number of scholars to drill into the pile of old paper to make references. Therefore, there was an anemia in the ideological circles, and "in the past three hundred years, there have been almost only scribes and no thinkers" (Hu Shi's "Purpose of the Quarterly Journal of Traditional Chinese Studies"). You can still see this discussion on the Internet: "The Manchu Qing Dynasty had no ideas, but suppressed the Han People." For nearly three hundred years, China has been in a blank space in its thinking. However, the Tang Dynasty was a very open era, and the political strength, cultural prosperity, and freedom of thought of its era were all proud of the Chinese people, so why didn't a decent thinker appear? How can this be explained?

From the perspective of cultural and ideological history, to understand the reasons for the rise of the ancient Literature Movement in the Tang Dynasty, researchers believe that it is directly related to the Anshi Rebellion. Mr. Chen Yinke, in "On Han Yu", said: "The matter of the ancient Literature Movement of the Tang Dynasty, was actually caused by the 'Anshi Rebellion' and the division of the feudal towns. An Shi was a Mixture of Western Hu, and Fanzhen was a Hu or HuHua Han, so the scribes who were distinguished at that time were conscious or unconscious, and their consciousness all had the impression of the four Yi invasions of the distant Zhou (three generations of Zhou), the impression of the five Hu chaohua of the Jin Dynasty, and the idea that the King of Zun yi was the center of the ancient Wen movement. What Mr. Chen calls "Zun Wang Zhiyi" is actually what the theorists call "Taoist" thinking. The question is: Why did this ideological movement not rise to the powerful stimulus of the Wuhu Chaohua and the southward flight after the collapse of the Han regime in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but did not take place until the Middle Tang Dynasty four or five hundred years later? Moreover, the Middle Tang Dynasty only sounded and died, and it would take another two hundred years for the theoretical climax to emerge with the mission of inheriting the Chinese Taoist unity?

About the rise of the wei and jin people at the end of the Han Dynasty (such as Zhao Zhongren's naked sun to catch lice, he did not shy away from the general's wife. You Heng drumming Cao Naked, Liu Ling in the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest drinking naked, etc.), the basic consensus among scholars is that this is related to the rise of metaphysics at that time. Metaphysics originates from lao and zhuang, takes "nothing" as the basis, advocates nature, emphasizes the spirit of freedom, and is not tired of things. At that time, the cruelty and mutual inclination within the ruling clique made the scholars and masters see the hypocrisy of the etiquette advocated by Confucianism, so they advocated "teaching beyond the name and letting nature go", transforming Lao Zhuang's quietness and leisure into a broad and indulgent birth, so that life could return to nature. But why were the late Ming scholars, who were in a completely different historical era, not subjected to metaphysics, but more influenced by Wang Yangming's thought, which emphasized inner cultivation, adhered to the discipline and etiquette, and advocated the "unity of knowledge and action", but showed the same indulgence as the Wei and Jin scholars at the end of the Han Dynasty? As recorded in the "History of Ming": Li Mengyang "slackened negative qi", Fengfang "sexual madness", Kang Hai "self-comparison haiyou", Wang Weizhen "made wine curse", Wang Geng "Ben fanatic", Lu Wei "so that wine cursed seats", Li Panlong "people in the common eyes as crazy life" and so on. The Siku Pavilion ministers also commented on the atmosphere of the late Ming Dynasty with the words of "ordinary life with the conceit of the Jin people", "learning the birth of the Jin people", or "their words are born", "their words are born", "their words are born", "the wind of the birth", etc. Qing Confucianism also blamed this trend of the late Ming Dynasty on Wang Yangming's teachings. But on two completely different ideological backgrounds, how can it be possible to produce a similar style of morale?

In economic history, the Song Dynasty was the second peak period of commercial economic development. During this period, new types of money with different names such as "Jiaozi", "Guanzi", "Huizi", "Chuanyin", "Huaijiao", and "Huhui" were produced, which were recognized by the economic community as the earliest paper money in the history of the world. However, this new form of money was abolished in the Ming Dynasty. It was explained that paper money was a credit currency, and that its value was not guaranteed, so it depreciated sharply in inflation, lost credibility and was abandoned. However, the gold currency that appeared in the Warring States, the first peak period of China's commercial economic development, was a weighing currency completely different from paper money, and there was no problem of depreciation. Why did it have the same fate as paper money, and after the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, it declined and withdrew from circulation for eight hundred years?

In the history of religion, on the question of Buddhism taking root in China after the Eastern Han Dynasty, researchers believe that it is because Buddhism is attached to Taoism, so that Chinese scholars regard it as a family with Huang Lao, so they accept it. "How can the gods of foreign nations be believed in by the Chinese people, and attach equal importance to them as the inherent Taoist techniques?" Then I suspect that this is explained by the theory of Hua Hu (庆按: referring to the legend of "Lao Tzu entering Yidi as a floating tu"), thinking that Chinese and foreign academic origins come from the same source, and there is no fundamental difference between the same destination, but can be worshipped and worshipped. But Christianity, which was far from the concept of Chinese, was introduced to China in the late Ming Dynasty, that is, there was no attachment to Chinese religions such as Taoism, nor did it supplement legends such as Hu Zhi, so why was it accepted by Chinese?

In academic history, most researchers believe that the rise of the "skeptical ancient trend" in the early 20th century is directly related to the May Fourth thought and cultural movement. Guo Zhanbo clearly pointed out in "The History of Chinese Thought in the Past Fifty Years" that the May Fourth Revolution made "Confucius's ideological theory fundamentally shaken; the idols of thought have been destroyed, and the temples of thought have collapsed; the dignity of the scriptures and the prestige of ancient history have all been stripped of false masks and lost their inherent majesty; this is the reason for the emergence of doubtful ancient thought." He also cited the second reason, which was the influence of the Imabari family. In particular, Kang Youwei's "Examination of the New Study of The Apocryphal Scriptures" and "Confucius's Reform of the Examination" have exposed the truth of the ancient scriptures, swept away the prestige of the scriptures, and sowed the seeds of suspicious ancient thought. This analysis does make sense, but when we look back at history, we find that a thousand years ago, there was a "trend of skeptical thinking" in the Song Dynasty. A large number of ancient books, such as "Lianshan", "Guizang", and "Zhou Yi" of the "Ten Wings", "Guan Lang Yi Biography", and "Zhou Yi Qianchidu" of the "Yi" category; "Three Tombs", "Ancient Wen Shangshu" and "Shangshu Kong's Biography", "Book Preface" of the "Book" category; "Mao Shi Order" of the "Poetry" category; "Ritual Rites", "Zhou Li", "Da Dai Li" and so on; "Spring and Autumn" of the "Spring and Autumn" category, "Spring and Autumn", "Spring and Autumn ZuoShi Biography", "Spring and Autumn Prosperity", etc.; he such as "Ancient Wen Xiaojing", Wang Tong's "Yuanjing", Ge Hong's "Xijing Miscellaneous Records", and so on , all of them are in doubt. Mr. Zhu Zhenyu put forward the theory of "Skeptical Antiquity and Literary Criticism of the Song Dynasty" published in the 05th issue of Literary Review in 1992; Mr. Yang Shiwen of Sichuan University also won the funding of the State Social Science Foundation and wrote a monograph with the title of "Research on Doubtful Ancient Thought in the Song Dynasty". It shows that the Song Dynasty had a suspicious ancient trend of thought, which has attracted the attention of the academic community. Going back two thousand years, there have also been suspicious ancient thoughts in the Warring States. For example, Zigong doubted that "it is better to be bad than to be even worse"; Mencius doubted the saying in the Book of Zhou that "blood drifts and drifts pestle", and put forward the famous thesis that "it is better to believe in books than to have no books". "Zhuangzi Thief" doubts Yao Shun's sage, and "Kizuka Trivia" even suspects that Yao was expelled from Binh Duong by Shun. Historical accounts such as Yu Chuan's location in Qi, Yi Yin Fu Taijia, Cheng Tang Fa Jie, etc., were subversively doubted in the Warring States. The most typical is Qu Yuan's "Heavenly Questions", which raises more than 170 questions in one go. At that time, the grandeur of the ancient wind was evident. Whether it is the suspicious ancient ideological trend of the Warring States or the suspicious ancient ideological trend of the Song Dynasty, it has nothing to do with the "May Fourth" ideological revolution, nor has anything to do with the modern Wen family. And it seems to be a cyclical appearance?

Zhao Yi's "Twenty-Two Records of History" has a cloud that "Ming Zu acted more like Han Gao":

Ming Zu started an incident with a cloth, the same as Han Gao, so the corporal of the curtain mostly said that Han Gao was in front of him, and Ming Zu also had a Han Gao in his chest and acted like much. When he first started his army, he asked Li Shanchang about his strategy for leveling the world, and Shan Chang said: "Han Gao is clothed, open-minded and generous, knows people and is good at duty, and in five years he has become an emperor, and gonghao production is not far from Pei, and what Fa Han Gao has done, the world is not fixed enough." ("Biography of Li Shanchang") Kong Keren's biography is also said: The emperor tasted Han Gao's self-period, saying that Ke Ren said: "The Qin government is tyrannical, Han Gao is lenient and dominates the crowd, so there is the world, and now the group of males is rising, and they do not know how to cultivate the Fa, so there is no success." "It is the emperor who is doing things together, that is, taking Han Gao as the law." Looking at its initial capital Jinling, Fang Si went out on a expedition, and had already built a capital city, and the palace was extremely magnificent, that is, Xiao He built the Weiyang Palace. (He Zhi's palace is extremely magnificent, the emperor is angry, thinking that the world is newly determined, why should I work hard for my people?) He Yue: "The world is undecided, so it can be used as a palace room." "Emperor Yue, it is a migration." The 140,000 rich households in the south of the Jiangsu River were in Zhongdu, namely the Early Han Dynasty Migration Qi, the Chu Clan Zhao, the Qu Clan, the Jing Clan, the Huai Clan, and the Tian Clan, in the case of ShiGuanzhong. (Lou asked the Qi and Chu clans to migrate to more than 100,000 households in Shiguanzhong, Han Gao from them.) Divided the sons and daughters in the provinces, with the Jianping Domain, that is, the early Han Dynasty divided the sons of the king, and the younger brothers were handed over to Wang Chu, from the brothers to the king Jing of Jia, from the zibi wang Wu, from the zifei wang qi, the ruyi king Zhao, and the wen emperors. The rich people of the world, who are more than eighty years old, are given knighthoods, and more than ninety years are given knighthoods, that is, in the early Han Dynasty, the people were given more than seven doctors. Even the prison of Hu and Lan, the martyrs, also imitate the examples of Han and Peng, and this is too much to learn!

Zhao Yi's theory cannot be said to be unreasonable, and as a personal act, it can be completely imitated. But if we compare the two historical fragments of the Han and Ming dynasties that have been separated by thousands of years, we will find their clonal similarities:

The Han Dynasty produced a large number of myths that were called primitive products by later generations, as mentioned earlier. The Ming Dynasty also produced unprecedented long mythological novels such as "Journey to the West", "Fengshen Yanyi", "Three Treasure Eunuchs in the West", "The Biography of the Five ManifestIng Officials Emperor Huaguang Tianwang" ("Journey to the South"), "The Origin of the Northern True Martial Ancestor Xuantian God" ("Journey to the North"), "The Journey to the East by the Eight Immortals", "The Journey to the East", "The Tale of the Cultivation of guanyin bodhisattvas in the South China Sea", "Flying Sword", "The Book of the Cursed Dates", "The Tale of the Iron Tree", "The Biography of the Twenty-Four Arhats", "The Biography of the Weaver Girl of Niulang", and so on, as well as a large number of Shinto dramas.

The Han Dynasty had Zhang Qian through the Western Regions, as far as the Iranian Plateau, India, Afghanistan and other places, establishing contact with the Thirty-Six Kingdoms in the Western Regions; the Ming Dynasty had Zheng He go to the Western Ocean, as far as east Africa, the Red Sea, so that "those who were ordered by the Dynasty to pay tribute to the Thirty Kingdoms" (Ming Shi Chengzu Benji).

The Han Dynasty people regarded Confucius as a saint, and everything was based on the right and wrong of the Five Classics deleted by Confucius, and "those who are not in the six arts of Confucius's art are absolutely the way" ("Book of Han, Dong Zhongshu Biography")," and the Ming Dynasty people took Zhu Xi as an idol, and there was a situation of "this is also a description of Zhu, and the other is also a description of Zhu" (Huang Zongxi in the Case of Ming Confucianism, Yao JiangXue Case).

The Han Dynasty produced Dong Zhongshu, the greatest representative figure of Confucianism after the pre-Qin Dynasty, who started from the original starting point of Confucianism (1) and put forward the theory of "heaven and man induction"; the Ming Dynasty produced Wang Yangming, the largest representative figure of the theoreticians after the Song Dynasty, who took the theory of zhu Xi in his later years as a foothold (Yang Ming has "Zhu Zi's Later Conclusions") and put forward the theory of "the unity of knowledge and action".

The Later Han Dynasty introduced Buddhism, the first foreign religion in Chinese history, and translated Buddhist scriptures and built Buddhist temples in Middle-earth. From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Western Jin Dynasty, there are also six or seven hundred translated Buddhist texts. In the late Ming Dynasty, the second largest foreign religion, Christianity, was introduced, which also built churches and translated Christian doctrine and Western scientific works. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, there were more than 300 kinds of Western translations.

There are two eunuchs in China who have made great contributions to human history, one is Cai Lun, who invented papermaking technology in the Han Dynasty, and the other is Zheng He, a navigator of the Ming Dynasty.

Of the twenty-five emperors of the Han Dynasty, sixteen emperors were less than twenty years old when they ascended the throne, most were eighteen years old, and less than half were one year old, more than half; among the seventeen emperors of the Ming Dynasty, seven emperors were under the age of eighteen, less than half of whom ascended the throne.

In the Han Dynasty, the art of house was prevalent, and in the Ming Dynasty, aphrodisiacs, obscene instruments, and spring paintings were rampant.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, there was the Tai Student Movement, and in the late Ming Dynasty, there was the Donglin Party Movement.

We do not rule out that there are also accidental factors, but such a large-scale historical recurrence, all explained by "chance", is obviously difficult to convince the public. Although for each specific historical phenomenon, scholars have a relatively reasonable explanation under the framework of "specific analysis of specific problems". But when looking at it from a macroscopic perspective, you will find the flaws of the "established answers." Just like standing on the earth and looking at the sun, it is believed that the sun revolves around the earth; when standing in the cosmic space, it is found that the earth revolves around the sun. We seem to have broken through one difficulty after another in the study of literature and history, but before we have time to feel the joy of breaking through the blockade line in front of us, we find ourselves wrapped in a larger encirclement. How can you stand out? This becomes the first question before us.

All kinds of confusion force us to break the academic pattern of "demarcation of the land as a boundary" in modern disciplines, abandon the mode of thinking of "specific analysis of specific problems", stand on the commanding heights beyond the boundaries of disciplines, and use the strategic thinking of "overall analysis of specific problems" to plan a breakthrough plan in the macroscopic grasp of history!

In the macroscopic grasp of history, we find that there are two problems that deserve special attention: the first is the problem of the same appearance in multiple fields in the same historical period, such as the simultaneous transformation of Southern Dynasty poetry, books, and paintings from the ancient to the near body, and the simultaneous appearance of retro Ming Dynasty poetry, crafts, paintings, and classics, and so on. The second is the problem of large-scale recurrence of historical periodicity, such as the multiple "reproductions" of the Ming Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, and the similar suspicious ancient trends that appeared in the Warring States, Song Dynasty, and modern periods, and so on. This reminds us of the various theories of historical circulation in ancient and modern China and abroad. During the Warring States period, Mencius put forward the cycle theory of "five hundred years must have the king's prosperity" according to the rise and fall of historical dynasties, Zou Yan put forward the cycle theory of "five virtues and the end", and Dong Zhongshu put forward the cycle theory of "three unifications". In the West, people like Spengler, Toynbee, Pareto, etc., and in Japan, people like Murayama, Takashi Asai, and Sakuro Kishine have also raised the question of the cycle of historical cycles. Whether or not these theories of circulation are rigorous in their concrete arguments and how mysterious their descriptions are, they illustrate at least one problem, and they all feel the existence of cyclical phenomena in historical movements. Although they have different perspectives, different understandings, and different theoretical starting points, their concerns are almost entirely on the rise and fall cycle of a regime, a civilization or culture, and the cyclical replacement of civilizations or cultural centers. What I am concerned about is the cycle of Chinese national thinking, the cyclical changes in the historical movement of the same culture and civilization on the same spatial stage. Here, the rise and fall of regimes, cultures, or civilizations have been downplayed, and what emerges is the cyclical cycle of national psychological states and behavioral manifestations.

This is one of the discoveries that excites me.

Individual life is divided into three periods from naivety to maturity, namely childhood, youth and prime age. Corresponding to these three different age groups, its thinking is expressed in three different ways, expressed in the concept of literature, that is, mythology, poetry, and prose. Childhood thinking is mythological thinking, narrative, descriptive, historical, so it can also be called "historical thinking" or "divine thinking"; youth thinking is poetic thinking, is emotional, lyrical, artistic, so it can also be called "artistic thinking" or "poetic thinking"; adult thinking is prose thinking, logical, rational, philosophical, so it can also be called "philosophical thinking" or "rational thinking". Some scholars have used the three concepts of history, poetry, and thought to express three different kinds of thinking, which is also in line with what the author has discussed.

We found that a people also has childhood, youth and prime age, and its behavior and thinking tendencies show characteristics corresponding to their age. As far as Chinese history is concerned, the Five Emperors of the Ancient Xia Shang, that is, the childhood of the Chinese nation, created the most wonderful fairy tale-like mythological stories; two weeks is equivalent to the era of youth, resulting in a collection of poetry like a natural sound - the Book of Poetry. The late Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period corresponded to the prime-age era, resulting in a hundred schools of contention and the prose of the sons.

What is surprising is that when the Chinese nation completes the life mileage from childhood to adulthood, it is not the decline and collapse of civilization as the Japanese Murayama Festival said, but the return and circulation of thinking characteristics and behavioral performance. The return of mythological thinking in the Qin, Han, Wei, and Jin dynasties, and the development of narrative literature, have brought narrative color to the Han Lefu; the Five Dynasties (Eastern Jin Dynasty, Song, Qi, Liang Chen) and Sui and Tang Dynasties, poetry thinking has returned, and poetry has flourished; the two Song Dynasties have returned to prose thinking, the rise of science, and the trend of prose culture in poetry. After the completion of the second cycle, followed by the third cycle, the return of yuanming mythological thinking, the emergence of Shinto dramas such as "Journey to the West" and "Fengshen Yanyi" in religious mythological stories, and narrative literature such as drama novels flourished. Qing dynasty poetry flourished again. In the 20th century, essays and essays flourished, and thinkers and thinkers appeared in batches. When we broaden our horizons and grasp the macroscopic picture of history, we find that this cyclical cycle is all-encompassing and not limited to literature.

We can reveal, in tabular form, the cyclical cycle of changes in China's national thinking as follows:

Now let's look at the historical era that is in the same social age. The Five Emperors Xia Shang, the Qin, Han, Wei, jin, and Yuan and Ming dynasties, these three periods belong to childhood, which is the era of divine thinking. Its common manifestations are: First, there is a great interest in exploring the external world, and there is a strong sense of spatial expansion and the spirit of exotic exploration, such as the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", Zhang Qiantong's Western Regions, Zheng He's Voyage to the West, and so on. Second, full of enthusiasm for technological invention, there is a strong spirit of practice, such as the myth of tool invention in the ancient period, the yellow and white art and alchemy of the Qin, Han, Wei, and Jin fangs, the clairvoyance in the mythological novels of the Yuanming Dynasty, the scientific and technological fantasies such as the shunfeng ear, and so on. Third, the worship of idols has a strong sense of retro, such as the historical sequence of the ancient saint king idols, the worship of Confucius idols in the Han Dynasty and the retro of classic culture, the worship of Zhuzi of the Yuan and Ming dynasties and the cultural retro movement, and so on. Fourth, the secularization tendency of culture, the expansion of material desires, and the general decline of cultural spirit, such as the secularity of the life of the holy king in ancient legends and the frequent occurrence of peach-colored events, the cultural return of the Han and Jin dynasties and the rise of commoner consciousness, the development of Yuanming folk culture and the prosperity of pornography, and so on.

The Two Weeks, the Jin and Tang Dynasties, and the Qing Dynasty belong to the youth period and are the era of poetic thinking. Its common manifestations are: First, abandoning customs and following elegance, and constructing personality paradigms, such as the personality of the gentleman of the two weeks, the personality of the Sui and Tang dynasties, the personality of the Hongru of the Qing Dynasty, and so on. Second, he was full of ambition, full of desire for merit and ideal pursuit, such as the desire for virtue of the gentlemen of the Zhou Dynasty, the desire for the merits of the Sui and Tang dynasties, the desire for Qing Confucianism, and so on. Third, full of passion and the pursuit of artistic life, such as the grandeur of the two weeks of liturgical music, the grandeur of poetry and calligraphy in the Jin and Tang Dynasties, the grandeur of calligraphy and painting of the literati in the Qing Dynasty, and so on. Fourth, the atmosphere is magnificent and has a strong outward influence, such as the establishment of the concept of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the establishment of the new world order in the Tang Dynasty, the radiation of Chinese culture in the Qing Dynasty to the East and the West, and the emergence of the boom in the sinification of the East and the West.

The Warring States, the Two Song Dynasties, and modern times belong to the prime of life, which is the era of rational thinking. Its common manifestations are: First, the social system and structure have undergone tremendous changes, such as the social transformation of the Warring States from feudal to county systems, the transformation of the Song Dynasty from aristocratic politics to a monarchical dictatorship, and the modern transformation from monarchical dictatorship to democracy. Second, new types of knowledge groups emerged and set off a wave of ideological revolution, such as the rise of the Warring States scholar class and the Zhuzi Movement, the emergence of Neo-Confucianism and the RationalIsm Movement in the Song Dynasty, the new type of knowledge groups and new cultural movements since may fourth in modern times, and so on. Third, the commercial economy underwent revolutionary changes, such as the first commercial revolution and the emergence of gold money in the Warring States, the climax of the second commercial revolution and the emergence of paper money in the Song Dynasty, the climax of the third modern commercial revolution and the emergence of electronic cards, and so on. Fourth, the peak state of scientific development has emerged, such as the promotion of Chinese history by the agricultural technology revolution in the pre-Qin Dynasty, the promotion of world history by the scientific and technological revolution of the Song Dynasty, and the high-tech revolution in which modern and the world develop simultaneously.

If you use three curves to represent the historical changes in the three kinds of thinking, you will see that the three kinds of thinking move interactively in time series. At the peak of poetic thinking, there is already a latent trend of the return of rational thinking; and poetic thinking will only be completely exhausted after the return of divine thinking. When one kind of thinking is in the ascendant and the other is inexhaustible, due to the combined effect of the two kinds of thinking, unexpected miracles often occur. For example, there are two autobiographical lyrical poems in Chinese history, one is "Leaving the Sorrow" and the other is "Concubine Thin Life Sigh". These two poems are more than 2,400 words. The former is the complaint of a hero, and the latter is the lament of a woman with a thin life. Neither of these works was produced in the era of poetic thinking, but appeared in the Warring States and Song Dynasties, where rational thinking returned ("Concubine Thin Life Sigh" was composed by a woman surnamed King Yi of Song. The poem has not yet been discovered by literary historians. What a pity! ), the reason for this is the synergy of the effect. They carry the emotions of poetic thinking with the momentum of prose, so they can become long. This is also the reason why Sima Qian can integrate philosophy into history, and the reason why "Dream of the Red Chamber" can inject the poet's feelings into the novel. Although everyone has different talents, they will show different achievements in the same era. But the general trend is dominated by the thinking of the times. Individual talents can only make brilliant achievements if they resonate with the movement of the thinking of the times. That is to say, first-rate thinkers and philosophers, such as Confucius, Lao Tzu, Zhu Xi, etc., can never appear in the era of poetic thinking, which is why the Qing Dynasty and tang dynasty could not produce first-rate thinkers; first-rate poets, such as Li Bai and Du Fu, would not have produced at the peak of divine thinking, which is why the Han Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty did not produce great poets. Also in the golden age of rational thought, the first-rate novelist could not be deduced, and even if he did, half of his soul should belong to thinkers and philosophers. Changes in the way of thinking must lead to changes in artistic expression. For example, with regard to the transformation of poetry from the ancient body to the near body, the discovery of the four voices and eight diseases can only determine the form of the change of poetry, but cannot determine the inevitable change of poetry. That is to say, in this era, whether or not four voices and eight diseases are found, poetry must move from the ancient body to the near body, but it is possible to change into other forms. When thinking about the problems raised earlier in such a big vision, everything can be solved!

In the rise and fall of the three kinds of thinking, the divine, the poetic, and the rational, the absolute time between them is not the same length. It is also the "era of poetic thinking", the elderly can reach four or five hundred years or even longer, and the short ones are only three hundred years or even shorter, and there are many factors that determine the changes in their historical space, the most important of which is the impact of social and political changes. The frequent political changes in the society of the Six Dynasties led to the long-term stagnation of the era of poetic thinking in the historical space, and the impact from the West at the end of the Qing Dynasty led to the early emergence of thinkers, and also led to the early end of the era of poetic thinking that lacked passion due to evidence. At the same time, when two different kinds of thinking meet, there is often a situation that can be left or right, such as Wei Jin, such as the late Ming, such as after the Middle and Tang Dynasties, such as the Southern Song Dynasty and the Jin Yuan. Wei Jin and late Ming can also be said to be the era of poetic thinking, because Cao Zhi, Ruan Zhi, Lu Ji and the Public Security Faction all appeared in this period; after the Middle and Tang Dynasties, it can also be said that it was the era of rational thinking, due to the emergence of the "Eight Masters of Prose" and the trend of skeptical thought. But after all, this division cannot see the state at the end of the old era, as if it were a dragonfly with a broken tail, which ends as soon as the peak appears, which is not in line with the law of things. If we take the distance from the peak period as the boundary, that is, which kind of peak of thinking is closer to this rendezvous period, we belong to that era. That seems to make sense. But in any case, the alternating trajectory of these three different eras is still very clear.

Three great cycles are like the life mileage of each of the three generations. The first generation moved from childhood and youth to maturity in their prime. The second and third generations played the song of life in the same process. Just as everyone adheres to the traditions of their parents and grandparents and has individual characteristics, the three cycles of national thinking are only the repetition of "life miles", not the repetition of cultural ideas or events, so in the mileage cycle of life, it is still full of new vitality and personality.

The changes in ideological trends and historical trends under the domination of national thinking are the most difficult problems to be discovered, but as an unshakable force and an irresistible law of movement, it determines the historical appearance of all aspects of a nation. Only by understanding and grasping history at this level, jumping out of the limitations of the traditional research method of "specific analysis of specific problems", and grasping the deep causes of the connection and change between things from the perspective of "overall analysis of specific problems", can we highlight the siege of the current research pattern and make a thorough understanding of the problem.

Our purpose is not only to reveal the history of the three cycles of thinking and to explain the past historical phenomena, but more importantly, on the basis of understanding history, to determine the historical position of our times, to make analysis and judgment on the future historical trend of the nation, and to better plan the future for the nation and mankind. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to make an in-depth and meticulous discussion of this historical cycle phenomenon, so the following research has been made.

(1) "Confucianism" is the "need" of the milk character, in the oracle bone like a person dancing in the rain, in the golden text is from the rain from the sky. This is a synagram, when associated with ancient rain prayers, and is a sign of dancing to pray for rain. According to Zhang Taiyan's "Original Confucianism", the original profession of a Confucian was related to praying for rain. The so-called Confucian "Shun Yin and Yang" in the Hanshu Yiwen Zhi is to reconcile yin and yang, and the wind and rain are timely. Dong Zhongshu is good at talking about yin and yang, and most of the speakers think that he has mixed things into the yin and yang family in his thinking, but he does not know that talking about yin and yang is the original practice of primitive Confucians.