Emperor Shun toured the south
Among the three emperors and five emperors in ancient times, the one with the most stories recorded in the classics is Emperor Shun. Emperor Shun's name was Chonghua (重華), the character Dujun (都君), and his courtesy name Shun (舜), because he came from the Yu tribe, he was called Yu Shun (虞舜).
Although Shun was the eighth grandson of the Yellow Emperor and the sixth grandson of Huan Huan, at that time, the position of the head of the tribal alliance was implemented under the Zen system, and there was no hereditary inheritance (of course, there were also sages who did not avoid relatives), so from the time when Shun's fifth ancestor was poor, the family had become a commoner. Born into a commoner family, Shun's father, Shu Shu, was a psychopathic blind man, and his mother died very early. People say that a child without a mother is like a grass, and When Shun was a child, he was a weed, helpless and trampled on. After the father remarried, the stepmother gave birth to a younger brother named Elephant. Shun became a superfluous person in this family and was repeatedly rejected. In the end, the ill-intentioned father, the two-faced and three-bladed stepmother, and the unruly brother colluded to kill Shun. Fortunately, Shun had the blessing of Heaven, and his fate should not be extinguished, and he could skillfully avoid it every time. Despite his persecution, Shun always obeyed his parents and treated his brother well. It seems that saints are born, and ordinary people have the temperament of Shun.
The harsher the family environment, the more it can reflect Shun's nobility. Therefore, when Shun was twenty years old, he was known for his filial piety. When Shun was thirty years old, Yao, the leader of the Huaxia Tribal Alliance, asked for a successor and son-in-law from all over the world, and the leaders of the four tribes unanimously recommended Shun. So Yao began his investigation of Shun.
Statue of Emperor Shun
Yao married his two daughters, Emperor E and Lady Ying, to Shun in order to observe his character. Nine more men were sent to Shun as retinues to observe his abilities. Shun not only made the second daughter live in harmony with the whole family, but also showed outstanding talent in many aspects. He went to Alexandria to cultivate the land, and the local farmers raised a good atmosphere of mutual humility to the field. He went to Reiser to fish, and the local fishermen formed a good habit of pushing each other to give up their homes. He made pottery on the riverside, and the local pottery industry changed the phenomenon of shoddy manufacturing in the past, and the appearance was completely new. Wherever he went, he was very appealing, and people were willing to follow, so "one year and the residence became a gathering, two years became Anyi, and three years chengdu" was held.
Yao felt that Shun's young man was doing well, so he rewarded him with a dress, a five-stringed violin, cattle and sheep, and built a barn for him. After Shun received these rewards, he aroused the jealousy of his perverted father, Xuan Shuo. He wanted to kill Shun and take possession of the possessions. He asks Shun to repair the roof of the barn, but he sets fire to the barn below. In a hurry, Shun used two buckets as wings and jumped from the room, surviving. If one counts, another is applied. He asked Shun to dig the well in an attempt to bury him alive at the bottom of the well. However, Shun had been alert in advance and dug an escape passage under the well in advance. When the perverted father and his half-brother filled the well together, Shun, who was at the bottom of the well, ran away from the escape passage.
Empress Dowager, Lady Ying
Believing that Shun was dead, he began to divide the spoils. Xiang said that the idea of murdering Shun was his idea, and that it was up to him to divide the matter. He took Yao's two daughters and the five-stringed violin for himself, and gave the cattle and sheep and the barn to his parents. Xiang lived in Shun's house and triumphantly played Shun's five-stringed piano. At this time, Shun suddenly returned home. The elephant was stunned for a moment, then said falsely, "I am seeing things and thinking about people." Shun did not care about their faults, as always, to moralize people. Therefore, when Ma Qian of the Taishi Company wrote Shun's story, he couldn't help but wave his pen and praise: "The mingde under the heavens all started with Emperor Yu Shun."
When Shun was fifty years old, Yao's period of investigation of him ended and he began to enter a probationary period to act as an agent for government affairs. Yao asked Shun to promote moral teachings and use the "Five Classics" to guide people's behavior, and people were willing to accept his teachings. Yao also asked Shun to handle government affairs, everything was in order, and all the officials obeyed Shun's command. Yao also asked Shun to receive the tribal leaders who came to see him from all over the world, and Shun treated people with the principle of harmonious coexistence, which was respected by the tribal leaders.
Mawangdui unearthed map of the Shundi Mausoleum Temple part
When Shun was fifty-eight years old, Yao died. Yao is the leader of a tribal alliance with great achievements in Wenzhi martial arts. Yao and Shun were combined into one word, which later became synonymous with the wise monarch. Many people today still like to compare the leaders they worship to Yao Shun. After Yao's death, the people mourned, like the loss of their parents. For three years, the Quartet tribe stopped all entertainment as a token of mourning.
Three years later, Shun officially ascended the throne and became the leader of the Huaxia Tribal Alliance. During Shun's reign, a group of outstanding talents were selected to govern the civil service, and for the first time, an official position was established, and the duties of officials were divided. It is also stipulated that a performance appraisal shall be carried out every three years, and the promotion or dismissal shall be decided according to the results of the appraisal. Yu, the official responsible for controlling water and soil, stood out through the performance appraisal. In order to control the flood, Yu passed through the door three times without entering, which played a very good exemplary role and was passed down as a thousand years of beautiful talk. Under his leadership, the people chiseled mountains and rivers, and finally subdued the flood and enabled the people of the world to live and work in peace and contentment. Yu was therefore chosen by Shun as his successor.
Statue of Emperor Shun
In the thirty-ninth year of Shun's reign, the Southern Sanmiao tribe was in turmoil. Shun personally marched south and died in the "Wild of Cangwu". Cangwu is now Jiuling Mountain, located 30 kilometers south of Ningyuan County, Yongzhou City, Hunan Province. After His death, Shun was buried in the Nine Ridges Mountain, so the local area was called Lingling. Lingling is another name for Yongzhou.
Sanmiao is a tribe formed by the fusion of the Dongyi Jiuli tribe and the indigenous people of the south. The Jiuli tribe originally lived in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, but was defeated by the Yellow Emperor tribe, the leader Xuan You was killed, and the remnants fled south to the Yangtze River Valley, merging with the indigenous people in the south to form the Sanmiao tribe. At that time, the Sanmiao tribe was mainly distributed between Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, that is, most of the three provinces of Present-day Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi. During Yao's reign, the Chinese tribal confederation in the Central Plains conquered the Sanmiao tribe in the south. The two sides fought at "Danshui Zhipu", which is in the northwestern part of present-day Hubei Province. After the defeat of the Sanmiao tribe, it once submitted to the Central Plains. After Shun ascended the throne, he still adopted a policy of appeasement for Sanmiao. However, in his later years, the Sanmiao tribe became strong again and formed a confrontation with the Central Plains.
Tomb of the Second Concubine of Junshan
Shun's southern expedition actually crossed the Yangtze River and reached Cangwu in southern Hunan. This shows that the progress is so smooth that it runs through the entire territory of the Sanmiao tribe. But at the same time, it also shows that Shun is alone and deep. Analyzing the cause of Shun's death from this perspective, it is very likely that he died in battle. However, the more popular theory is that Shun died of illness. It is said that when Shunnan marched, it was in the middle of summer. Due to the very hot weather, Emperor E and Lady Ying, who were responsible for taking care of their lives with Shun Nanzheng, stayed on Junshan Island in Dongting Lake. Shun, in pursuit of Sanmiao, who fled south, ran a long distance and was too tired, coupled with the miasma in the land of Sanmiao, Shun suddenly fell seriously ill and died. The news of Shun's death reached Junshan in Dongting Lake, and Emperor E and Lady Ying were devastated and wept bitterly. Tears stain the green bamboo, leaving purple-brown spots, and become the bamboo. In the end, the second daughter died of tears and turned into the goddess of Xiangshui. There are still attractions such as the Tomb of the Second Concubine and the Xiangfei Ancestral Hall on the island of Present-day Junshan.
In the historical records, it is said that Emperor Shun was buried in the Nine Ridges Mountain after his death, but the specific location can no longer be studied. However, the Shun Temple dedicated to Emperor Shun on Mount Nine Doubts appeared as early as the Xia Dynasty, located in Dayangxi. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the Shun Temple was moved to YuzhenYan, two kilometers away from the tomb of emperor Shun. In 2004, archaeologists excavated the ruins of the Shun Temple on Jiuling Mountain, that is, the Yuzhenyan Shun Temple. In addition, the Map of the Western Han Dynasty Silk Cloth excavated from the Mawangdui No. 3 Han Tomb in Changsha in 1973 also marked the Shun Temple of Jiuling Mountain, but the location marked is quite different from the ruins of the YuzhenYan Shun Temple. Today's Jiuling Mountain Shundi Temple, located in the northern foothills of Shunyuan Peak of Jiuling Mountain, was built in the fourth year of Hongwu (1371) of the Ming Dynasty, and was rebuilt in the 1990s, and has now become a holy place for tourists at home and abroad to worship their ancestors. (Text/Xie Zhidong)
Tomb of Emperor Shun of Jiuling Mountain