Jiang Ziya, the founding father of the Zhou Dynasty, was the first monarch of the State of Qi, a large country in Shandong. This person became a late bloomer, and only came out of Xiqi when he was nearly ancient. Jiang Ziya was resourceful, used soldiers like gods, was extremely strategic, and was considered to be the ancestor of the Hundred Sons of the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period. Therefore, Jiang Ziya also has the title of "Ancestor of a Hundred Families".
In terms of military science, Jiang Ziya had pioneering contributions, so he was regarded as a "martial god" by successive imperial courts and posthumously honored as the King of Wucheng (in the novel, Huang Feihu became the King of Wucheng). According to legend, Jiang Ziya personally wrote a book of soldiers for "Liutao". "Liutao" is divided into six volumes, namely Wentao, Wutao, Longtao, Hutao, Leopard Tao, and Inutao, divided into 60 chapters. This book is a compulsory textbook for generations of soldiers, and it is of great significance.
Before the Song Dynasty, the identity of the author of "Liutao" was unquestionable, that is, Jiang Taigong. However, in the Song Dynasty, the wind of doubting the ancients flourished, and "Liutao" began to become the focus of scholars' doubts.
First of all, the Song Dynasty scholar Luo Bi believes that the book "Liutao" was first included in the "Sui Shu Yiwen Zhi", but it is not recorded in the "Han Shu Yi Wen Zhi". Therefore, Luo Shi believes that the "Liutao" is a good thing in the Chu and Han Dynasties, collecting the spring and autumn Warring States warriors and collecting the sayings of the warriors, which is actually a forgery book written by Jiang Taigong.
Luo Bi's views really stirred up thousands of waves, and scholars put forward their own views one after another, attacking the "Six Tao" in groups. The Song dynasty Dai Kun believed that King Wen of Zhou, King Wu of Zhou, and King Jiang Ziya were all famous sages and courtiers in history. In "Liutao", it is all shady conspiracies and tricks. Jiang Ziya is a true talent for governing the country, and he will certainly not use these poisonous schemes. And with the wisdom of King Wen of Zhou and King Wen of Zhou, he would never adopt this kind of ghost plot of "overthrowing the people's country".
Some people also believe that the system mentioned in the "Liutao" is inconsistent with the Warring States era, so it was forged by people after the Warring States. Why? Take cavalry, for example. As a new type of army, cavalry only arose when it reached the Warring States, and the Liutao said that cavalry warfare was the most detailed, which was not in line with the social reality of fighting with vehicles and infantry in the Yin Zhou Period. There are also words such as "avoiding the main hall" and "separating duties", which are things after the Warring States, and the word "general" first appeared in the "Left Biography", and there was no such name at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty. And these have all appeared in "Liutao", which is obviously not credible.
In the Qing Dynasty, scholars such as Ji Xiaolan began to question the authenticity of the Liutao from the perspective of the article itself. Ji Xiaolan believes that the "Liutao" "its words are contemptuous" and "the technique is shallow and ugly", which is not in line with the quaint and concise style of the early Western Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, Ji Xiaolan and others believe that the "Six Tao" should have been forged by the good deeds of the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui Dynasty.
In this way, under the layers of scholars of the past generations, "Liutao" became a real forgery book, and almost no one believed that this book was written by Jiang Taigong. The writing time of "Liutao" was also advanced from the Yin Shang period to the Sui Dynasty.
Recently, however, with the unearthing of a large number of documents, we were pleasantly surprised to find that Liutao may not be a forgery book. In 1972, a part of the "Liutao" bamboo jane was excavated from the early Han Dynasty tomb of Yinque, Linyi, Shandong, and its remnants coincided with the chapters of "Wentao", "Wutao" and "Longtao" in the present book.
Scholars have deduced that the time of this tomb should be in the fifth year of the Han Dynasty, that is, 118 BC, and the writing date of the bamboo jane should be earlier than the burial time, and this batch of bamboo janes is not strict, sometimes it seems to avoid the word "bang", and sometimes it is not shy. At the same time, judging from the font, it should have been copied from the period from Wen and Jing to the beginning of Emperor Wu. therefrom. Scholars have concluded that this book was widely circulated before the Western Han Dynasty, and that it must have been written in the pre-Qin and Warring States periods. This discovery powerfully refutes the claim that the Liutao began in the Chen and Sui periods.
In 1973, the Tomb of No. 40 Octagonal Corridor in Dingxian County (now Dingzhou City), Hebei Province, that is, the tomb of Liu Xiu, the King of Zhongshan in the Western Han Dynasty, excavated a batch of bamboo Jane. And this batch of bamboo janes also includes "Liutao". This Han tomb was buried around 55 BC, which provides new evidence for the circulation of the Liutao before the Han Dynasty.
From this, scholars deduce that the pseudo-book written for the Liutao for the post-Han Dynasty entrusted to the name Taigong was overthrown, and there is no doubt that it is a military book work of the pre-Qin period.
In the author's opinion, if there is no conclusive evidence that "Liutao" was not written by Jiang Ziya, the author of this book should be attributed to Jiang Ziya. According to the opinion of the doubters, the Western Homeric Epic can also be reduced to a forgery book, after all, there is no evidence that the book was written by the blind poet Homer.
According to the general practice, ancient books generally have a process of "growth" in circulation. That is to say, when ancient books are copied, there are often additions and deletions. As the late Qing Dynasty scholar Tan Xian said, "Teaching by soldiers may be profitable or profitable." Therefore, the content of cavalry that did not exist in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties appeared in the "Six Tao".
In addition, in ancient times, military books were often taught in secret and not publicly, and their authenticity was easily doubted, for example, Sun Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period and Sun Zhen in the Warring States Period were often regarded as the same person. However, also in Linyi Yinque Mountain, Shandong, the lost 2000 "Sun Bing's Art of War" reappeared, proving that Sun Bing and Sun Wu were completely two people.
As the founding master of military science and one of the founders of the Zhou Dynasty, Jiang Ziya's ideas have no reason not to be preserved. And if the book "Liutao" did not contain Taigong's rich and majestic philosophical ideas, it would not have been preserved at all. As a writing instrument, Jian Mu is very expensive, so many literati will use the means of recitation to write the book silently. Therefore, each of the classics of the pre-Qin Dynasty has undergone countless carvings and cultivations, and it is impossible to say who completely created them. For example, Confucius's Analects were compiled by his disciples, not written by Confucius himself. If the Liutao is taken as the standard, is the Analects also a forgery?
Therefore, doubting the ancients cannot be doubted casually, otherwise it will be an insult to the ancestors. Therefore, please stop slandering Jiang Ziya.