Who was the first to open up the "Silk Road"?
This article is written by Ni Fangliu
"The Belt and Road Initiative, high spirits are on the way", I have a question after embarking on the Silk Road: Who first came out of the Silk Road? Zhang Qian? After checking the historical data, it was found that there were others.
After all, the "Three Emperors and Five Emperors" are the ancestors of Chinese humanities, and the historical sites of The Migration of Emperor Huan and Dayu to the Western Regions need to be further examined. Moreover, there was no concept of "China" at that time, and these stories were more found in the history books of the Qin and Han Dynasties, which should be an imagination of the three emperors and five emperors of the times.
So, who are the first people to go to the Western Regions with reliable records? In other words, who was the first person to open up the ancient Silk Road? Judging from the ancient book of Mu Tianzi in the pre-Qin dynasty, it should be Ji Man, the king of Zhou Mu.
(Journey of King Mu of Zhou to the West)
King Mu of Zhou was the longest-reigning monarch of Western Zhou and one of the most important monarchs in early China. During the reign of King Mu of Zhou, he had established a code of law, conquered foreign yi, and expanded the territory, and the earliest legal code in China, "Lü Punishment", was promulgated by King Mu of Zhou. The Western Expedition to the West was a great achievement during the reign of King Mu of Zhou.
The deeds of King Mu of Zhou's western tour are found in the Biography of Mu Tianzi. The book was discovered in the second year of Taikang in the Western Jin Dynasty (281 AD), when a tomb robber named Zhuan zhuan of King Xiang of Wei in present-day Ji County, Henan Province, accidentally unearthed a large number of pre-Qin Wei state bamboo janes, and the Biography of Mu Tianzi is one of them.
(Engraving of "The Biography of Mu Tianzi")
The "Biography of Mu Tianzi" is considered to be an ancient mythological novel, the first five volumes record the deeds of King Mu of Zhou's southern conquest of the Northern War, and then King Mu of Zhou, guided by Bai Yao, went to the Western Regions to meet the Queen Mother of the West. Why did King Mu of Zhou tour the west? In addition to "seeing the Queen Mother of the West", the Guangda royal family and the stabilization of the western frontier in order to maintain and consolidate the image of the Zhou Dynasty were its important motives. To this end, in addition to one journey to the west, King Mu of Zhou also made two western expeditions.
When King Mu of Zhou toured the west, he "ordered to ride the Eight Horses", driven by the famous driver Zuo Father (the ancestor of Qin Shi Huang) and his descendants, and led the people of the Six Divisions to the west to hunt. When I arrived at Kunlun Mountain, I also climbed the mountain and saw the Yellow Emperor's "Xiadu" palace here. With gifts such as Bai Gui, Hei Bi, and Jin Shuai, he met the Queen Mother of the West who lived in the mountains.
(King Mu of Zhou meets the Queen Mother of the West)
The next day, King Mu of Zhou was still above the Yaochi and feasted on the Queen Mother of the West. At the banquet, the Queen Mother of the West sang a song for King Mu of Zhou: "The white clouds are in the sky, and the hills come out of themselves." The road is long, the mountains and rivers are between them, the son is not dead, and he can still come back..." King Mu of Zhou also sang and sang impromptuly.
King Zhou Mu felt too good, "Swim to see the Queen Mother of the West, happy and forget to return." The Queen Mother of the West was once a mythical figure mentioned in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and the Journey to the West is called "The Queen Mother Niangniang". The Queen Mother of the West seen by King Mu of Zhou should be the female tribal leader of the Western Regions who is still in a matriarchal society, not the mythical Queen Mother Niangniang. Before King Mu of Zhou left, he also specially inscribed "The Mountain of the West Queen Mother" on mount Yi (崦嵫山), where the Queen Mother of the West lived, and planted a "memorial tree" locust tree.
(King Mu of Zhou and queen mother of the West)
According to the "Biography of Mu Tianzi", some modern scholars have speculated about the general route of King Mu of Zhou's western tour: crossing the Yellow River in the north, turning over the Taihang Mountains, crossing the Tuotuo River, exiting the Yanmen, and arriving in Baotou; then crossing the Helan Mountains, passing through the Qilian Mountains and the North Tianshan Road to Urumqi (the state of the Western Queen Mother); and then traveling north to the territory of present-day Kazakhstan, taking the Tianshan South Road when returning.
These routes taken by King Mu of Zhou were part of the north-south routes of the ancient Silk Road. Some people therefore believe that King Mu of Zhou was the first person to open up the ancient Silk Road, not Zhang Qian of the later Western Han Dynasty, who only reopened and restored the connection between the Central Plains and the Western Regions.
(Zhang Qian chiseled the western region)
The incident of King Mu of Zhou's western tour has always been regarded as a mythological novel in the past, but in fact, it should be a deified or novelized historical fact. The Spring and Autumn Zuo Zhuan Zhaogong Twelve Years mentions this matter, but believes that the Western Tour of King Zhou Mu was motivated by personal motives: "King Xi Mu wants to want to wantonly want to go through the world. As a result, the tourism community believes that King Mu of Zhou is the earliest recorded tourist in China.
It should be pointed out that academics have different views on where the "Kunlun Mountain" and "Yaochi" visited by King Mu of Zhou are, some think that it is qilian mountain, some think that it is the Nanshan in the territory of present-day Jiuquan City, and some think that it is the Three Dangers Mountain near Dunhuang; while some of the Yaochi say that it is the Tianchi in Xinjiang, and some think that it is the crescent spring under the Three Dangers Mountain.
In the territory of Jingchuan County in Pingliang City in the east of present-day Gansu, there is a mountain named "Huishan", which is said to be named because king Mu of Zhou frequently looked back after saying goodbye to the Western Queen Mother: there was the "Queen Mother Palace" on the mountain, and there was the "Queen Mother Palace Grotto" excavated in the Northern Wei Dynasty at the bottom of the mountain.
(Mural of the Queen Mother of the West)