The Shang Dynasty experienced the prosperity of Wuding, and the martial arts of Wenzhi reached their peak. But after all, man is only a living body, and as the years pass, life will eventually end, and Wu Ding, the great Shang king, will eventually lie on the ground. After Wu Ding, his two two-character zu geng and zu jia succeeded to the throne one after another, continuing the prosperity of the Shang Dynasty; but some of Zu Jia's policies laid the foundation for the later demise of the Shang Dynasty.
Since there are few political events in the oracle bones that record the inheritance of the kings of the Shang Dynasty, our experience of Zu Geng's succession to the throne can only be restored through the history books of future generations.
King Wuding of the Shang Dynasty had three concubines as alternate heirs, namely Zu Ji, Zu Geng, and Zu Jia.
As the eldest son, Zu Ji had always had the name of filial piety and virtuous son, and dared to advise Wu Ding, had a relatively high political attainment, and was favored by many subjects, so he should be the best candidate for the Shang King. However, due to the early death of Zu Ji's mother, the reigning Shang queen began to use means to slander Wu Ding in order to make her son Zu Geng inherit the throne of Shang, and eventually Wu Ding was exiled to the people and died in the countryside. Zu Ji should have died in the middle of Wuding.
Emperor Gaozong of Yin
"Taiping Imperial Records": Emperor Gaozong yin had a virtuous son filial piety, his mother died early, And Emperor Gaozong confused his wife's words, let him die, and the world mourned. "History of Yin Benji": Emperor Wuding sacrifice into soup, tomorrow, there are flying pheasants climbing the ear and sipping, Wuding is afraid. Zu Ji said, "Don't worry, don't worry, first repair the government." Zu Ji nai trained the king: "Only the heavens are imprisoned under the canon, and there is eternal and not eternal in the descending year, and the people who are not born in heaven are desperate." The people are not virtuous, they do not listen to sin, and the heavens are entrusted with righteousness and virtue, but they know what they are doing. Whew! The king respected the people, and was not a heavenly successor, and often did not give up the tao. "Wu Ding cultivates political virtue, the world is salty and happy, and Yin Dao is revived."
Some people also believe that Wu Ding exiled Zu Ji in order to keep him away from the battle for the Shang King, which was a kind of protection in disguise; at the same time, he imitated himself at that time, and experienced in the folk, increased his insight, and exercised his ability.
Zu Geng was the second son of Wu Ding, the son born to the queen who killed Zu Ji. With the help of his mother's intrigue and trickery, Zu Geng eventually succeeded to the throne of Shang.
Zu Geng
Zu Jia was the younger son of Wu Ding and was more favored. In his later years, Wu Ding wanted to pass it on to Zu Jia, but Zu Jia was well aware of the dangers. So he said that he was the youngest, and if he fought for it was unjust, the throne should be passed to his brother Zu Geng, and then Zu Jia fled to the folk for refuge. It was not until Zu Geng's death 7 years later that Zu Jia returned to the central government to become the new Shang king.
Most of the above records come from the Taiping Imperial Records, and this book is an official history book of the Northern Song Dynasty, which obviously has the embellishment of Confucian political ideals and moral concepts, and is a tool for the Song Dynasty and Confucianism to promote rule. For example, Wu Ding and the queen can be unkind to Zu Ji, but Zu Ji must be filial piety; Zu Geng, as an elder brother, can not be "friend" to his younger brother Zu Jia, but the younger brother Zu Jia must be "respectful" to his brother Zu Geng, which has obvious Confucian moral overtones. Therefore, the book's account of this matter is not entirely credible.
Taiping Imperial Records
I think the following may be closer to the truth: in the middle and late years of Wu Dingzhong, his three sons broke out into a bloody struggle for the throne of Shang.
This speculation is based on two points: First, the struggle for the highest power in world history and Chinese history is often accompanied by conspiracy and bloodshed, which is the commonality of history and the commonality of the human heart. Second, the Shang Dynasty never explicitly established a succession system for the throne similar to the "primogeniture inheritance system" of the Zhou Dynasty, which was also the root of the throne dispute. The succession to the throne of the Shang Dynasty was mostly brothers and brothers, and even the "Ninth Dynasty Rebellion" of the struggle for the throne broke out.
Since Emperor Wuding had reigned for 59 years before his death, by the time Zu Geng succeeded to the throne, he should have been fifty years old or higher. At that time, when the average age was only 35 years old, Zu Geng was already an old man. Zu Geng died after only eleven years as King of Shang, after which his younger brother Zu Jia succeeded to the throne.
During Zu Geng's reign, he could be regarded as the Prince of Shoucheng and the Prince of Taiping. After he succeeded to the throne, he ordered people to write the "Teachings of Emperor Gaozong", that is, to record the admonitions, words of discipline, and lessons learned during the reign of his father Wu Ding, so as to serve as guidance and reference for governance.
With the prosperous era created by his father, Zu Geng only abided by the law, adhered to his father's political instructions, and did not act arbitrarily, continuing the strong and prosperous situation of the Shang Dynasty.
Historical Records:
"Bamboo Book Chronicle": Zu Geng, MingYao. In the first year of the first year, the king took the throne, Ju Yin, and composed the "Teachings of Emperor Gaozong". Eleven years, Shih.
In the article "History of Yin Benji", Sima Qian recorded that Zu Ji was still alive after Zu Geng ascended the throne, and expressed the virtues of Wu Ding, and set up a temple for Wu Ding to establish a temple for Shang Gaozong, and wrote two articles of "Gaozong's Day" and "Gaozong's Training" to Kuang Zheng Zu Geng. Moreover, the commentary on the "Records of History" only believes that Zu Ji was the name of the sage at that time.
Zu Ji was the son of Wu Ding and was also made crown prince, which can be found in the oracle bones. In the genealogy of sacrifices at the time of Wuding and later in the Shang Dynasty, Zu Ji was among the sacrifices: in the Bu Ci of the Wu Ding Era, he was called "Xiao Wang"; his brother Zu Geng and Zu Jia called him "Brother Himself" in bu ci; his nephew Kang Ding called him "Xiao Wang's father" in bu ci during his reign; and in the last two Shang kings, Emperor Yi and Di Xin (Shang Shu Wang), he was called "He himself".
It can be seen from this that Zu Ji was indeed a prince at the time of Wuding, and had a high political status. It can be seen from this that the record of Zu Himself in the Records of History is wrong.
"History of Yin Benji": Emperor Wu Ding Beng, ZiDi Zu Gengli. Zu Ji Jia Wu Ding Zhi took the auspicious pheasant as his virtue, set up his temple as Gaozong, and then made Gaozong's day and training.
Historically, Zu Jia's career as a Shang King should be divided into two parts, and the first half and second half of his Shang King's career were very different. In the first half, efforts were made to govern, conquest of Xi Rong, rewriting the "Tang Punishment", and cherishing the people's strength, which maintained the prosperity of the Shang Dynasty; in the second half, the Zhou sacrifice system was established, and the Country was faint and chaotic, and the Shang Dynasty was chaotic since then, and the history books said that "the emperor was in chaos, and the seventh generation fell."
Zu Jia made the first half of the Shang King
After Zu Geng's death, Zu Jia returned to the capital city of Yin to inherit the throne of Shang. In the first half of Zu Jia's reign as king of Shang, he followed the political strategy of his father and brother, forged ahead in a pioneering spirit, cherished the people's livelihood, and maintained the prosperity of the Shang Dynasty.
I. Conquest of Xi Rong:
At the time of Zu Jia, some tribes of the nomadic Xirong people living in the northwest repeatedly invaded the borders of the Shang Dynasty. In the twelfth year, Zu Jia personally led an army to conquer Xi rong and won a victory; the next year, the xi rong tribe sent envoys to pay tribute.
Zu Jia's personal conquest defeated the invasion of foreign enemies, and at the same time showed foreign enemies that the Shang Dynasty's military peaks were not weakened, deterring foreign enemies.
It is worth mentioning that shortly after the war, he was appointed Marquis of Ying because of his outstanding military achievements. He was the great-grandfather of King Wen of Zhou.
Statue of King Wen of Zhou
II. Rework of "Soup Punishment"
It is generally believed that "Tang Punishment" is a general term for the criminal law laws formulated after the establishment of the Shang Dynasty, and it is named after Shang Tang because it commemorates the great cause of the founding of the Shang Tang. It was a written code of slavery that began to take shape, focusing on punishment, and it was said that there were as many as 300 crimes; and his main target was not ordinary people and slaves, but against aristocratic slave owners and Shang Dynasty officials. Zu Jia revised the Tang Punishment in the twenty-fifth year, and the main effects of this incident were as follows:
SenseTime
1. To a certain extent, it restricted the oppression of the commoners by nobles and officials, and eased the contradiction between the slave-owning class and the commoner class.
2. It touched the interests of the slave-owning class and intensified the contradiction between the slave-owning class and the Shang king, which was also one of the reasons for the demise of the Shang Dynasty
3. The influence on future generations is far-reaching, and the legal scholars of the Warring States period were deeply influenced by it, and there is a saying that "the name of the criminal is from the business", but the "Tang Punishment" has long been scattered, and it is impossible for people today to view it.
Zu Jia did the second half of the Shang King
I. Establish a weekly ritual system:
As mentioned before, merchants re-worship, but the objects and order of sacrifices before Zujia were very chaotic, so the "Zhou Sacrifice" method was created in the Zujia period. The phenomenon of Zhou Sacrifice was first discovered by Mr. Dong Zuobin, a major oracle bone scholar, because the phenomenon of "Zhou Sacrifice" appeared only from the zujia period in the oracle bone buci.
What is the Weekly Festival like?
According to the lineage order of the Shang king and his queen, and in combination with the temple number (after the death of the Shang king and his queen, the Shang Dynasty will give the corresponding Temple number to the corresponding Tiangan), the five sacrifice ceremonies are used from Tong (彡), Yu (翌), Xie (劦), sacrifice, (in the oracle bone is a combination of upper and lower structures, from top to bottom: Cai Yan Bai Dagger) The five kinds of sacrifice ceremonies began from ShangjiaWei in the order of the first duke and the first king, and continued to the previous shang king. Taking the Zujia era as an example, from the first decade of each year, corresponding to the ten heavenly stems, in the order of the Shang King and the King's Descendants, starting from the Tong Sacrifice Ceremony, the First Day begins to sacrifice the Upper Jia Wei, and the B Day Sacrifice Reward B... The first sacrifice of the day ends with the first decade; and so on, until the sacrifice reaches Zu Geng, the first kind of sacrifice is completed, and then the sacrifice is carried out in the second kind of sacrifice according to the above method, until the fifth kind of sacrifice is completed. Some scholars have studied that it takes about a year to sacrifice a circle according to the above process, and then continue to cycle and cycle again and again in the next year.
Second, the influence of the Zhou sacrifice system on the Shang Dynasty
1. The Zhou sacrifice system epitomizes the ancestor worship of the Shang Dynasty, making the sacrifice system of the Shang Dynasty more rigorous and standardized, making the sacrifice activities of the Shang Dynasty reach its peak, and also making the impact of sacrifice on national events even greater.
2, the Weekly Sacrifice System is almost year-round, day-to-day sacrifice, is bound to consume a lot of money, livestock, grain, etc., in the Shang Dynasty, the productive forces are not developed, the Zhou sacrifice system to a certain extent gradually eroded the economic basis of the Shang Dynasty's rule.
3. In order to continue to sacrifice, the rulers of the Shang Dynasty would turn the demand for resources to the commoner class and continue to use troops to obtain prisoners of war, so that all the pressure was turned to the civilian class and the slave class, resulting in the complete intensification of social contradictions, and the Shang Dynasty gradually lost the class basis of rule.
4. The prosperity of the Zhou sacrifice system also led to the prosperity of the Shang local clan and the Fangguo sacrifice, which caused the sacrifice power to gradually detach from the royal power, and the sacrifice right was controlled by the local slave owners, and the Shang king gradually lost his theocratic rule; and in the late Shang Dynasty, the Shang king in order to compete for the divine power, was bound to go against the local slave class, the contradictions within the Shang Dynasty ruling class could not be reconciled, and the small slave owners finally turned against each other and threw themselves into the Battle of Zhou Wu in the Battle of Muye to fight the Shang Dynasty together, which directly led to the demise of the Shang Dynasty.
It is worth saying that the "History" calls Zu Jia fornication, which is only isolated evidence, and there is no similar statement in other history books.
"Bamboo Book Chronicle": Zu Jia, famous. In the first year of Ding Wei, the king took the throne, Ju Yin. Twelve years, conquest of Xi Rong. In winter, the king returned from Xijong. Thirteen years, Sai Rong guests. Order the Hou of The Order. Twenty-four years, re-sentenced to soup. Twenty-seven years later, he ordered Prince Huan and Prince Liang. Thirty-three years, Shih. The old king is in the opposition, and he is on the throne, and he knows the dependence of the villain, and can protect the people and not repent of widowhood. At the end of the day, the punishment was too great to carry away, and the Yin Dao was restored. "Chinese": Xuan Wang Qinshang, ten have four, emperor Jia chaos, seven generations and fall. "History of Yin Benji": Emperor Zu Gengbeng, brother Zu Jia Li, is for Emperor Jia. Emperor Jia was promiscuous and yin was in decline.
The treasure of the town hall now in the National Museum of China, which can be called the queen mother of the heavy weapon of the country, was cast in the zu geng or zu jia period, in order to sacrifice wuding's first queen concubine, after her death, the temple number was E, so it was also called yu peng. She was also the only of the three queens of the Shang Dynasty Wuding to be buried in the tomb of the Shang Dynasty.
The Hindmu penta inscription and the Hindema Pentagram
Houmu Pengding is thick and elegant in shape and beautiful in ornamentation, which is the largest Bronze Ceremonial Vessel of the Shang Dynasty found so far, and also reflects the superb bronze manufacturing process of the Shang Dynasty, which is a representative work of the bronze culture of the Shang Dynasty.
Houmu Pengding was named after the three characters "Houmu Peng" above the abdominal wall of Ding, and was originally recognized by Guo Moruo as "Simu Peng". But there is a strange phenomenon, Simu Pengding has made "Si" should be "Hou", but Xiangmu Xinding, Simu Xin Copper Four-legged, Simu Deco Copper Fangzun and other utensils are still named after the word "Si", why does the same word on the inscription have two different interpretations?
Simu Xinding
Simu Xin copper four-legged gown
SiMu Deca Copper FangZun