The ancient city of Chengtoushan in Lixian County, Hunan
Study of the Ancient History of Zhenzhitang: Emperor Yan, one of the Three Emperors, the king before the Five Emperors of the Ancient Era of China. The "Chronicle of History" records that the Yellow Emperor seized the dominant position through war from the Yandi Shennong clan. At present, there are three Yandi tombs in China, which are in Changsha, Hunan, Baoji, Shaanxi and Gaoping, Shanxi. So, where is Emperor Yan? Clarifying this issue plays a crucial role in uncovering the secrets of China's ancient history. In 1996, the discovery of the 6,000-year-old ancient city site in Lixian County, Hunan Province, may have solved the problem that has plagued Chinese for thousands of years.
<h1>The Yandi Shennong clan recorded in ancient books</h1>
Who is Emperor Yan? It is estimated that many people only know that they are descendants of Yanhuang. The question of where The Yan Emperor came from was taken as a myth and not taken seriously.
In recent years, in the international discussion on the origin of modern man, the "out of Africa theory" has occupied the mainstream position. According to the popular molecular anthropology today, the vast majority of Chinese ancestors came from three peasants in ancient times!
Who are these three farmers? The Yandi Shennong clan and the Yellow Emperor are certainly two or one of them (according to the Yanhuang homology). Today we will first talk about the Yandi.
Molecular anthropology Paleoanthropteran transmission map
In China's first history of letters, the Chronicle of History, Sima Qian mentions Emperor Yan:
"At the time of Xuanyuan, the Shennong clan declined... Emperor Yan wanted to invade the princes, and the princes returned to Xuanyuan... To fight against the Yan Emperor in the wilderness of Hanquan. "History of the Five Emperors
Xuanyuan is the Yellow Emperor we are familiar with.
According to Sima Qian, the Yellow Emperor was the son of Shaodian. But who is Shaodian? He didn't mention it.
What we can see from the Chronicle of History is:
When the Yellow Emperor rose, the Shennong clan had ruled the world for many years, so there was a saying that "the Shennong clan declined". Moreover, the Shennong clan was undoubtedly the Yan Emperor.
So, which ancient book does the statement that "Emperor Yan and the Yellow Emperor were brothers" come from? The answer is Chinese:
"Shaodian married a daughter of the Toadhi clan, and gave birth to the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor. The Yellow Emperor was made of Ji Shui, and the Yan Emperor was made of Jiang Shui. So the Yellow Emperor is Ji and the Yan Emperor is Jiang. "Chinese Jin Language"
Spring and Autumn Lu State Historian Zuo Qiuming
We know that the author of "Chinese" is Zuo Qiuming in the Spring and Autumn Period. He was a native of the Lu dynasty with Confucius, and wrote the Zuo Zhuan, which explains the Spring and Autumn Period, and the national history book Chinese, which records the history of the Eight Kingdoms from the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period.
"Zuo Qiu is blind and has Chinese." "Book of Baoren An" (Sima Qian)
The year of Zuo Qiuming's death is unknown, but Confucius was born in 551 BC and died in 479 BC. It is said that Zuo Qiuming was slightly older than him, and should also be a person at this time.
That is to say, around 500 BC, China already had the saying that the Second Emperor of Yanhuang was a brother.
Regarding the Yandi Shennong clan, we generally only use the records before the Qin Dynasty. So, in addition to the Chinese, did the Zhou Dynasty have any records about the YanDi of the Shennong clan? There are:
"The Yandi clan is known for its fire age, so it is a fire master." "The Left Handbook. The Seventeenth Year of the Emperor Zhao gong
"Bao's clan is not, Shennong's clan is doing." The wood is the tree, the kneading wood is the yarn, and the benefit of the wood is handed over to the world. "Zhou Yi. Resignation
"God's farming, the trees and grains and the sun of the QiShan Mountains, the people of Kyushu know the grain food, and the world is transformed into it." The Pipe. Light and Heavy E》
Yanhuang Second Emperor
The author of the "Zuo Zhuan" is also Zuo Qiuming, and the "Zhou Yi Zhi Ci" is said to have been written by Confucius, and some people believe that it was composed by Confucius in the early Warring States period when confucius summed up Confucius's remarks. The author of "Guan Zi" is Guan Zhong, who was born in 723 BC and died in 645 BC, he was more than 170 years older than Confucius, and some people say that "Guan Zi" was written in the Warring States period, and the main remarks came from Guan Zhong.
In any case, there is no doubt that the Yandi Shennong clan, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, was already well known to the ideological circles. The Warring States Period Chu Zhujian (Shangbo Chujian), which has been unearthed in recent years and is now in the Shanghai Museum, proves this:
"The Zunlu clan, the Huxu clan, the Qiao Jie clan, the Cangjie clan, the Xuanyuan clan, the Shennong clan, the Zhu Rong clan, and the Lang Yun clan have the whole world, and they are not given to their sons but to be virtuous." "Shangbo Chujian. Yung Cheng's》
Shangbo collection of Warring States Chu Jian
Well, after figuring out the matter that "the Yandi Shennong clan is not a fiction in later generations, but has been well known to the ideological circles as early as the Zhou Dynasty", the next thing is the issue that we are most concerned about:
Where is Emperor Yan? Are there any archaeological sites of ancient cultures that can correspond to it? Let's look down.
<h1>Three Yandi tombs, where is the Yandi? </h1>
Because of the importance of Yandi to Chinese civilization, the psychology of the people of the whole country wanting to pull Yandi to their hometown can be understood. The Mausoleum of the Yan Emperor is the mausoleum of the Yan Emperor. The location of the Yandi Mausoleum is of course the best evidence for the certification of where the Yandi is.
So, how many Yandi tombs are there in China? Check the information on the Internet, there are at least three Yandi Tombs, namely:
Yandi Mausoleum in Yanling County, Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province, Yandi Mausoleum in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, and Yandi Mausoleum in Gaoping City, Shanxi Province.
Scenery of the Gaopingyan Emperor Mausoleum
So, which Yandi Mausoleum is the orthodox Yandi Mausoleum? Let's examine them one by one.
The first one, Yandi Mausoleum, Yanling County, Hunan.
The Yandi Mausoleum in Hunan is located in Luyuanpi, 17 kilometers west of the county seat of Yanling County. The earliest record of Emperor Yan's burial here comes from the "Century of Emperors" written by Emperor Fumian of the Jin Dynasty, who "collapsed after reigning for one hundred and twenty years and was buried in Changsha." "
The Song Dynasty Luo Bi's "History of the Road" is more specific: Emperor Yan "buried the tail of Changsha Tea Township, which is known as the Tea Tomb." "
Chaling is a county under the jurisdiction of Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province. It borders Yanling County.
Zhuzhou, bordering Changsha, is a new city pulled by train, and its land originally belonged to the ancient Changsha State. Therefore, the literature says that "Emperor Yan buried Changsha, Emperor Yan buried tea tomb" is today's Zhuzhou YanLing.
According to the local history "Records of Sui County", there were already mausoleums in this area during the Western Han Dynasty, and at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the green forest and the Red Brow Army were revived, and the mausoleums were razed to the ground. There is a Buddhist temple built in front of the Tang Dynasty mausoleum, called "Tangxing Temple". Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin Qiande built a temple in front of the mausoleum in five years, and the Song Dynasty sacrificed Emperor Yan here. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the emperor sacrificed to Emperor Yan and has also been here.
It can be seen that since the Western Han Dynasty, the Mausoleum of the Yan Emperor in Changsha has been recognized by the imperial court as the burial place of the Yan Emperor. The Western Jin Dynasty Emperor Fu Mi's statement that "The Yan Emperor buried Changsha" is likely to be because there have been Yan Emperor's mausoleums in Changsha since the Western Han Dynasty.
The Mausoleum of the Yan Emperor of Changsha has been established for more than 2,000 years since its establishment in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty. It is indeed very early, but is it the earliest Yandi Mausoleum? We'll have to look at what those two have to say.
Yandi Mausoleum, Yanling County, Hunan
The second, the Mausoleum of the Baojiyan Emperor in Shaanxi.
Baoji YanDi Mausoleum is located on Changyang Mountain, No. 80 Qingjiang Road, Weibin District, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province. Regarding the Baoji Yan Emperor's mausoleum, it mainly comes from the saying that "The Yan Emperor is made of Jiang Shuicheng". Some people say that the "Book of History and Sealing Zen" records that "the Qin people sacrificed the Second Emperor of Yanhuang in the Baoji area", so the Mausoleum of the Yan Emperor of Baoji should begin in Qin. Is this statement correct?
"For more than a hundred years, Qin Linggong made Wuyang Shangpi and sacrificed the Yellow Emperor; The Book of Zen
Let's take a look at who Qin Linggong is.
Duke Ling of Qin was the father of Duke Xian of Qin and died in 415 BC. At this time, the State of Qin was in a corner of peace, but it was only a weak state in the early Warring States period, and the capital of the state, Yongcheng, was in the south of Fengxiang County, Baoji City.
From this point of view, it was extremely normal for the Duke of Qin to sacrifice the Second Emperor of Yanhuang in the capital of the country. This incident cannot be used as evidence that the Yan Emperor's mausoleum should be in Baoji. It can only be explained that the Qin people considered the Second Emperor of Yanhuang to be their ancestors.
Shaanxi Baojiyan Emperor Mausoleum
The reason why Yandi is considered to be the evidence of the Baoji people comes from Jiang Shui.
Jiang Shui is the Jiang Shui mentioned in the "Chinese", that is, the river where Emperor Yan started. It is said to be the Qingjiang River (formerly known as Qingjian Shui) south of Weishui in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province. The qingjiang river is the theory of jiang shui, which originally came from the "Ming Dynasty Unification Chronicle" written by Li Xian and others in the fifth year of Tianshun (1461) of the Ming Dynasty.
"Jiang's City, in the south of Baoji County, there is jiang shui in the south of the city." "The Chronicle of the Unification of the Ming Dynasty, Volume 34 - Fengxiang Mansion and Monuments"
Later, ming dynasty literature mostly used this saying, and this place became the hometown of Emperor Yan.
"[Jiang Shicheng] Former Yan Emperor and Zhou Jiang were born here" Baoji County Chronicle (Ming Wanli 36th Edition)
Earlier records of ginger water are gone.
Yangshao culture Tao Yingzun
"Imperial Century" Yun: "Shennong, Jiang surname also... The human bull head is longer than ginger water. There is a holy virtue, the king of fire virtue, so the name of the Yan Emperor. ”
Emperor Yan is surnamed Jiang, and there should be no big problem in growing up to Jiang Shui, but whether this ginger water is the Qingjiang River of Baoji is not easy to say. After all, it wasn't until the Ming Dynasty that someone wrote that Jiang Shui was in Baoji County. Moreover, at that time, it had been explained that the birth of Emperor Yan here was a legend, and there was no actual evidence.
The third, the tomb of the Gaopingyan Emperor in Shanxi.
The Tomb of the Gaopingyan Emperor is located in Zhuangli Village, 17 kilometers northeast of Gaoping City, Jincheng, Shanxi, commonly known as the "Imperial Tomb". There is a temple behind the mausoleum, called the Temple of Five Grains.
Gaopingyan Emperor Mausoleum
The Yandi Palace here has an inscription of the eleventh year of Ming Chenghua, called "Rebuilding the Yandi Palace Stele". The stele records: "Shennongyan Emperor's Palace, Panji in front of the old Guanli Village, Zhaoji Taigu, no test, the ancestral hall in the southeast of Changma Village, see the tomb, wooden fence around the protection... "
The inscription of the "Continuation of the Statue of Empress Yan's Concubines in the Year of Emperor Yan" records that "the Mausoleum Temple of the Yan Emperor Shennong Clan has been passed down through the generations and is contained in the ceremony, and its situation is saga, the forest is deeply obstructed for a long time, and the victory within the Wuyi Seal is complete." "
Zhu Zaiyu of the Ming Dynasty wrote in the article "New Record of Sheep's Head Mountain": "The southeast of the mountain is known as the old Guancun... There are ancient tombs, the site of the wall is sixty steps wide from east to west, one hundred steps from north to south, the pines and cypresses are dense, and it is said that it is the tomb of the Yan Emperor, and there are stone columns and pillars stored, and the Gaijin Yuanwu is also there. "
Zhu Zaiyu was the son of King Zheng of the Ming Dynasty, and in the nineteenth year of the Wanli Calendar (1591 AD), he resigned the title of King Zheng and wrote in seclusion. According to him, the tomb of Emperor Gaopingyan existed as early as the Jin Yuan period.
It's a very strange thing.
The founding emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty identified the Changsha Tea Tomb as the Yan Emperor Mausoleum. After Jin Yuan occupied North China, he designated Gaoping in Shanxi as the Tomb of the Yan Emperor, perhaps with the intention of competing with Huaxia for orthodoxy. But the tomb of the Gaopingyan Emperor in Shanxi does have evidence in history!
In the second year of Tang Tianzhi (691), the Liulong Stele "Monument to Qinghua Temple on Yangtou Mountain in Gaoping County, Zezhou" records: "The residence of the Yan Emperor of this mountain is also ... So I created the Silk Tree, and started to grow the harvest... People qin shengde, called Shennong. Sowing kagu, the pillar out of the mountain. ”
Tang Liulong Monument "Monument of Qinghua Temple, Yangtou Mountain, Gaoping County, Zezhou"
The Dunhuang manuscript "Imperial Chronicle since the Opening of Heaven and Earth" of the Tang Dynasty also records: "Shennong's surname is Jiang, and he is a member of the Shangdang... Shennong traveled through seventy-two mountains, tasted the grass of the people, and looked at the luscious ones, and ate them with the people. Or the value of poisonous weeds is dead, the lips are destroyed, in one day, a hundred deaths and a hundred lives, and then the shangdang Niutou Mountain God Shiyu side, so that Jiahe, a plant of nine spikes, taste very beautiful, teach people to breed... ”
From this point of view, the current hottest Baoji YanDi hometown may be the most nonsensical. On the contrary, Changsha and Gaoping, one as early as the Western Han Dynasty, song, Ming, and Qing dynasties were identified by the imperial court as the Yandi Mausoleum; one was identified as the hometown of the YanDi emperor as early as the Tang Dynasty, and there are Tang stele and Ming stele as evidence! One of these two is where the real Yan Emperor's tomb is located.
<h1>The discovery of the site of Chengtou Mountain, the first Yan Emperor or a Hunan native</h1>
To tell the truth, a few months ago, the author was still convinced that the Yan Emperor should be the Baoji people of Shaanxi. The reasons are:
Shaanxi Baoji is one of the important birthplaces of Yangshao culture, and Yangshao culture is the originator of Longshan culture. The Longshan culture gave birth to Yao Shunyu and the Xia Dynasty.
Tomb of Emperor Gaopingyan, Shanxi
However, with the in-depth study of ancient history, the author found many doubts:
First, the inflammation of the Yan Emperor is the meaning of fiery heat. Moreover, Emperor Yan lived in the south.
"Imperial Century" is written very clearly: "Shennong, Jiang surname also ... The human bull head, longer than ginger water, has holy virtue. With fire to bear the wood, located in the south, the main summer, so it is called the Yan Emperor. Du Yu Chen, as the five-stringed violin, Fan VIII, Di Cheng, Di Lin, Di Ming, Di Zhi, Di Lai, Di Lai, Di Lai, Di Wei Net. ”
I don't know where Jiang Shui is, but Emperor Yan lives in the south and writes very clearly. Baoji is definitely not the south, and Hunan Changsha is undoubtedly the south! The capital of the Yan Emperor is Chen. Chen didn't know where he was, but Emperor Yan had eight emperors, and there was no doubt that there was not only one Emperor Yan.
Yandi Shennong clan
Second, Emperor Yan invented the primitive agriculture.
At present, the earliest archaeological discoveries come from the Hemudu culture in Zhejiang, dating back about 7,000 years. The "JiaGu" of the Gaoping Tang Monument in Shanxi May say millet or rice, but the "Jiahe, a plant of nine ears" written by Tang Ben Dunhuang in the "Imperial Chronicle Since the Opening of Heaven and Earth" should be rice.
At present, the earliest artificial cultivation of rice comes from the Pengtou Mountain ruins in Hunan 9,000 years ago, and the earliest rice field sites come from the ancient city of Chengtoushan in Lixian County, Hunan, which is about 6,500 years ago. The earliest planted millet came from the ruins of Wu'an Magnetic Mountain in Hebei Province 7300 years ago!
The millet found at the Site of Banpo in Xi'an dates back about 6,000 years. Therefore, in any case, based on the evidence that has been found so far, it is unlikely that the Shennong clan first planted millet or rice originated in Shaanxi.
Bone skeletons unearthed from Hemudu
Third, emperor Yan was called emperor by later generations, and he should have already entered the threshold of civilization.
As one of the four standards of internationally recognized civilization symbols "city, altar, writing, bronze", it is direct evidence of the existence of The Yan Emperor! Before the discovery of the ancient city of Chengtoushan, the ancient city of Xishan in Zhengzhou, Henan (5300 years ago) was considered to be the earliest city, and it belonged to the site of Yangshao Cultural City. The ancient city of Chengtoushan in Lixian County, Hunan, excavated in 1996, belongs to the Daxi culture, which is more than 6,000 years old. The ancient cities in Shaanxi appeared very late, basically in the Longshan era. The emergence of qi and agriculture was very early, so it was impossible for Emperor Yan to be late to the Longshan era.
Chengtou Mountain Ancient City Wall
Where did The Yan Emperor begin? Archaeological excavation evidence points to Chengtou Mountain in Lixian, Hunan. Let's take a look at the details of the Chengtou Mountain ruins:
Chengtou Mountain Ruins, located in Nanyue Village, Chexi Township, Lixian County, Hunan Province, about 200 kilometers away from Changsha in a straight line, covering an area of 18.7 hectares (280.5 acres), is the site of the prehistoric Daxi culture to the Shijiahe culture period in southern China.
Model of the construction of the city in The head mountain of Lixian County, Hunan
About 6500 years ago, people began to dig trenches in Chengtou Mountain. About 6,000 years ago, in the early days of the Daxi culture, the construction of walls began here.
The ancient city of Chengtou Mountain is slightly circular, the outer circle of the city wall is 340 meters in diameter, the inner circle is 325 meters in diameter, and there are trenches outside the city, and the trenches are more than 1,000 meters long, 10 meters wide and 3-4 meters deep. The famous Xi'an Banpo site dating back to 6800-6300 is only 50,000 square meters, and the trench is 6-8 meters wide, which is much smaller than Chengtou Mountain and has no city wall.
Chengtou Mountain Ruins
The ancient city of Chengtoushan also found rice fields from 6,500 years ago and altars with an area of 250 square meters. As the four symbols of civilization, Chengtou Mountain has two! No altars or sacrificial pits have been found at the Banpo site in Xi'an. The ruins of the old guantai earlier have fewer walls and altars. In contrast, the ancient city of Chengtoushan in Lixian County, Hunan Province, 6,000 years ago, whether it is chronological or archaeological evidence, is more consistent with the Yandi Shennong clan mentioned in ancient books.
Ruins of Banpo in Xi'an, Shaanxi
<h1>epilogue</h1>
The Neolithic culture of Pengtou Mountain in Lixian County, Hunan, 9000-7600 years ago (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), is the earliest Neolithic cultural site found in China. Artificially cultivated rice has been found here for more than 8,000 years.
"The most distinctive artifact of the Pengtoushan culture has influenced most of China, and the artifact can be traced north to Shandong, east to Zhejiang, west to Yunnan, south to Liangguang, and exists in different spaces and time periods, and the earliest can be traced back to the Pengtoushan culture." "Southern Barbarian Harmony or Yixia Harmony: Archaeology Unlocks the Chinese Code of Ancient Hunan" (LECTURE 6 of 2017 lecture of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Pengtoushan culture is the predecessor of Daxi culture (6500-5300 years ago), And the ancient city of Lixian County to toushan is an ancient city from the Daxi culture to the Shijiahe culture (4600-4000 years ago), and the city wall was built in the first phase of the Daxi culture 6000 years ago. Three rice paddies have been found here, dating back 6,500 years.
The Pengtou Mountain Ruins are only 2 kilometers away from the Daxi Cultural City Head Mountain Ruins. This point is explained:
This place was once a large settlement in the ancient times for more than 4,000 years, and it was the largest ancient capital of southern China in the ancient times! Yandi Shennong clan invented the Qi, planting rice, the ancient city of Chengtoushan has both the earliest rice fields, and the earliest city wall symbolizing royal power and the altar symbolizing divine power, this city should be the capital of the Yandi Shennong clan!
Distribution map of prehistoric sites of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
The hemudu culture's cuneiforms are made of bone, 7,000 years ago, while the Shennong invented the cuneiforms are made of wood and cannot be preserved in the soil. Chengtou Mountain did not find it extremely normal. Considering the inheritance of rice cultivation technology, it is possible that the earliest origin of the rice cultivation is hunan.
According to historical records, the Shennong clan invented the Qian, asked the people to plant Jiahe, and was honored by later generations as the Yan Emperor. After the death of Emperor Yan, he was buried in the Tea Tomb in Changsha, Hunan, which has existed since the Western Han Dynasty.
Combining archaeological excavation evidence and historical documents, as well as the location of the Yandi Mausoleum, we can roughly draw a conclusion:
The Yandi Shennong clan, most likely, is indeed the originator of the Chinese nation, coming from the earliest Neolithic culture discovered by archaeology - Pengtou Mountain in Lixian County, Hunan (9000-7600 years ago).
Rice paddies and altars in the ancient city of ChengtouShan
He invented the rice tree and was the first to grow rice. After more than 2,000 years of development, about 6,000 years of Daxi culture phase I, the Shennong clan built China's earliest city in Chengtou Mountain, Li county, Hunan, and the yandi ancient kingdom was born!
Since then, Shennong's city-building technology has gradually spread northward, successively to Hubei, Anhui, Henan, Zhejiang, and about 4300 years ago to Shanxi and Shaanxi (the famous Shanxi Linfen Tao Temple Ancient City and Shaanxi Shenmu Shimao Ancient City, built 4300 years ago).
In the 21st century BC, the Xia Dynasty was established, and China entered the imperial era from the three emperors and five emperors period (the ancient kingdom era). A new chapter in history has begun.
References: "Southern Barbarian Harmony or Yixia Harmony - Archaeology Unlocks the Chinese Code of Ancient Hunan", the sixth lecture of the "2017 Archaeological Research Series Academic Lectures" sponsored by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences