There was once a well-known scholar who said these two sentences. In the first sentence, because of the ancient doubt movement, China's five-thousand-year history and culture was suddenly shortened by half, "creating a gap in ancient history and culture." In the second sentence, the formation of Chinese civilization is marked by the era of the Yellow Emperor recorded in the "History of the Five Emperors". [1] These two sentences have some market in the field of ancient history research in China, but in fact, these two sentences have distinct "originalist" characteristics and there is a misinterpretation of the concept of "history". Now, let's talk about the concept of "history.".
"Ancient History Discernment" book shadow
In terms of conceptual connotation, history has two different definitions: one refers to the objective process of human social development. In this respect, history is objective, and its existence is not subject to the will of man. For example, as far as Liangzhu culture is concerned, we cannot say that it can only be called "civilization" three thousand years ago, and it cannot be called "civilization" when it is placed five thousand years ago; nor can it be said that it can be called "civilization" in the Yellow River Basin, and it cannot be called "civilization" when it is placed in the Yangtze River Basin; it cannot be called "civilization" if it is recorded in literature, and it cannot be called "civilization" without being documented. This is because Liangzhu culture is an objectively existing history. Whether it should be defined as a civilization is only related to the basic facts presented by archaeological excavations, and has nothing to do with its era, its location, or whether it is documented.
The whole view of Liangzhu Ancient City (Source: Beijing Daily)
Dating from 3300 BC to 2300 BC, the Liangzhu site has a huge city area of 3 million square meters, which is impossible without a complex social management system. In this regard, the existence of liangzhu ancient city undoubtedly proves the existence of liangzhu royal power. Liangzhu, on the other hand, discovered a jade vessel containing an image of a delicate insignia, which scholars generally believe is a sign that Liangzhu has a complex system of religious beliefs. In the early days of civilization, the emergence of religious beliefs was of progressive significance for the establishment of an ethical order in society. East Asia has a unique ancestor worship, and whether its cultural origins can be traced back to this is undoubtedly worth further study.
Mr. Colin Renfuru, a world-famous archaeologist, believes that Liangzhu is the earliest ancient country in East Asia to enter the civilized society, which can be compared with the ancient Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations, which is undoubtedly well-founded. [2] Therefore, as far as archaeological materials are concerned, with the Liangzhu culture entering the era of civilization as a sign, China's 5,000-year history of civilization is already an objective fact that does not need to be documented to prove that it already exists.
Liangzhu Museum (Source: pconline)
Another definition of history refers to the researcher's record of the process of human social development. Since such records are not immune to the subjective factors of researchers, the identification of heirloom documents is the first task that historical researchers need to complete before combining archaeological materials with documentary records.
The overall understanding that the author has obtained in the process of ancient history research is that most of the records of Chinese pre-Qin literature have strong credibility, while the problems caused by the systematic collation, interpretation, and annotation that appear in the pre-Qin literature are quite many, including the "History". Therefore, the author's opinion is that in the study of China's pre-Qin history, in principle, we should focus on the pre-Qin era documents and excavated materials before the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty had carried out large-scale collation of ancient documents, and the emergence of engraving and printing in the Song Dynasty further redesigned many ancient characters and common characters of the Tang Dynasty. Most of the texts of the so-called ancient books that we can read now were fixed during the Tang and Song dynasties. From this point of view, it is more important to study ancient history and to be as familiar and master the excavated documents as much as possible.
"History" Tang Dynasty codex and Song Dynasty engravings
Although scholars of the Ancient History School headed by Gu Jiegang have made fierce criticisms of various problems in the literature handed down from generation to generation, since some scholars put forward the slogan of "getting out of the era of doubtful antiquity" in the 1990s[3], the trend of "xingu" has made a great comeback in the field of ancient Chinese historiography. It is embodied in the fact that individual researchers, in the absence of reflection on the pre-Qin historical system recorded in the literature, boldly associated some archaeological cultures dating back 4000 to 5,000 years old with the emperors of ancient legends such as the Yellow Emperor and Yao.
Studying the formation of Chinese civilization, reconstructing the ancient Chinese history system, and ensuring the reliability of materials are the lifeline of research. Guo Moruo once said: "Insufficient materials are of course a big problem, and if the authenticity or epochality of materials is not clearly defined, it is even more dangerous than the lack of materials." Because of the lack of materials, at most there is no conclusion, and incorrect materials will lead to wrong conclusions. [4] This statement is deafening. For example, documents such as the Imperial Century and the History of the Road are extremely risky if they are used as historical sources without strict falsification.
At present, the ancient historical chronology on which Chinese historians study pre-Qin history is mainly based is from the "Records of History". This chronological framework can be summarized as the first five emperors and the last three generations, which are inherited before and after and develop linearly. Professor Su Bingqi once vividly called this chronological framework "string sugar gourd". [6] In 1923, Gu Jiegang pointed out that in order to establish a history of faith, it is necessary to break the concept of national unity and regional unity. [7] Archaeological excavations have shown that before China entered the Bronze Age, although there was close exchanges between various regions, there was no unified culture. Based on this, Professor Su Bingqi put forward the viewpoint of "full of stars" and "pluralistic integration" in archaeology, which is undoubtedly in line with historical reality. Based on this, we can assert that either the era of the Yellow Emperor recorded in the "Shiji" is later than the era of the origin of Chinese civilization, or the historical chronology recorded in the "Shiji" is wrong. Either of these two situations is true, which means that we need to re-examine the system of ancient Chinese history provided by Sima Qian.
Su Bingqi and Mr. Zhang Guangzhi (Source: Sohu)
In fact, the large number of archaeological materials unearthed over the years does indicate that there are a lot of problems with the records of the Chronicle of History. For example, the appearance of the Mawangdui Warring States Zhonghengjia Shu proves that the shiji's record of Su Qin is almost similar to that of the novelist; [8] the appearance of qin jian in sleeping tigers proves that there are serious chronological errors in the record of baiqi in the "Shiji"; [9] the appearance of Liye Qinjian and Yuelu Qinjian proves that there are many places where the description of the Qin Dynasty and Qin Shi Huang in the "Shiji" is inaccurate; [10] the appearance of Qinghua Jian's "Lineage Year", together with the "Bamboo Book Chronicle" excavated in the Western Jin Dynasty, proves that the "Shiji" is jointly proof of the "Shiji" There are major flaws in the account of the Rebellion of the Youwang in the Western Zhou Dynasty. On the one hand, Sima Qian recorded the illusory "princes of beacon drama" in a vivid way, but on the other hand, he did not mention anything about the major historical events of "the two kings standing side by side". [11]
Mawangdui Warring States Zongheng Family Book
The problems mentioned above are only local. The appearance of Qinghua Jian's "Chu Ju", Shangbo Jian's "Zi Lamb", and Guo Dianjian's "Poor Da Shi" further shows that the entire ancient historical structure of the first five emperors and the next three generations of the "History" is actually very questionable. For example, Shangbojian's "Zi Lamb" records that Xia Yu, Shang Qi, and Zhou Ren all have their own independent legends of heavenly descent, proving that the concept of the Imperial Lineage and the Records of History attributing the ancestors of the three dynasties of Xia and Shang to the lineage of the Yellow Emperor still did not appear in the middle of the Warring States period. [12] For another example, Ji Lian in Qinghua Jian's Chu Ju lived in the Shang Dynasty,[13] and Guo Dianjian's Gao Tao in Poor Da Yi Shi lived during the Wuding period,[14] and according to the historical system of the Shi Ji, Ji Lian and Gao Tao originally corresponded to the age of Dayu's life.
Qinghua Jian "Chu Ju" part (Source: Sohu)
According to the records of the "Zuo Chuan" in the year of mourning, Shao Kang, who completed the "Zhongxing of the Xia Dynasty" after the Later Yi Dynasty, served as the Muzheng of the Youshang clan. Unexpectedly, a bronze piece containing the inscription "Muzheng" was unearthed on the bamboo tile street next to the Sanxingdui site. [15] What is even more astonishing is the dating of the ChuJu, Poor Da Yi Shi, and the Zhuwa Street "Muzheng" bronze scroll, and it can be found that this timeline is consistent with the pre-Qin literature's account of the history of the Xia Dynasty. In view of this, the author put forward the view of "Xia Shang Parallel" and completed the article "An Important Hypothesis: On 22 Evidences of Guanghan Sanxingdui and Chengdu Jinsha for Xia Culture".
Mu Zheng's father's own bronze 觯 (Sichuan Museum collection)
Whether the author's point of view is correct or not, of course, can continue to be discussed. But one thing I believe is certain, that is, when studying the history of the pre-Qin Dynasty, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive review of all kinds of documents first. Ban Gu called the "History of History" a history of faith. In the past, in the absence of new materials, we could adopt Ban Gu's statement without questioning the reliability of the ancient Chinese history system in the Shiji. Now, a large number of archaeological materials have been placed in front of us, naturally we should have a realistic attitude.
We all know that the Chinese academic community has conducted a lot of research on the ancient history system based on the "Historical Record" in recent years, such as the "Xia Shang Anniversary Table" formulated by the Xia-Shang-Zhou Dynasty Project carried out at the end of the last century, the "Erlitou Xia Dudu" and "Tao Si Yao Du" supported by a large number of scholars in recent years, and even the recent theory that the site of the Shuanghuashu tree in Henan is the ancient state of the Yellow Emperor era proposed by some scholars, all of which are put forward under the condition that the ancient historical chronology framework of the "Historical Record" is reliable. In this regard, in order to make the study of Ancient Chinese History stand on a more reliable basis, it is urgent to review the ancient history system of the "Historical Records".
Erlitou Site Museum (Source: Phoenix Network)
Compared with other ancient civilizations in the world, having a large number of historical documents is undoubtedly a feature of Chinese civilization. However, we must also see that the antiquity of Chinese civilization is by no means supported by documentary records, but by solid archaeological sites. There is a strange phenomenon in the field of Chinese paleography, that is, once an important archaeological culture comes out, even if the age of this archaeological culture is one or two thousand years before the emergence of documentary records, there will be some scholars trying to find a basis from the old paper pile, as if only archaeological culture has been recorded by literature can prove the greatness of Chinese civilization. This kind of behavior is actually the "originalism" in historical research, and has nothing to do with the promotion of China's historical and cultural traditions.
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[1] Li Xueqin, "Ancient History, Archaeology and the Second Emperor of Yanhuang", Out of the Doubtful Ancient Era, Liaoning University Press, 1994.
[2] "Cambridge Archaeology Professor Lun Furu: From Ancient Greek Sculpture and Liangzhu Yuqun to Prehistoric Society", China Archaeological Network, December 22, 2017; Colin Lunfuru, Liu Bin, "The Emergence of China's Complex Society: Taking Liangzhu as an Example", Southern Cultural Relics, No. 1, 2018.
[3] Li Xueqin, "Out of the Ancient Age of Doubt", Chinese Culture, No. 2, 1992.
[4] Edited by the Editorial and Publication Committee of Guo Moruo's Works: The Complete Works of Guo Moruo, History, vol. 2, p. 3.
[5] Yu Fangping, "Re-evaluation of Emperor Fumian's "Imperial Century": Taking the Assumption of Several Important Geographical Expectations in the "Imperial Century" as an Example", Journal of Henan Normal University, No. 4, 2006.
[6] Su Bingqi, A New Exploration into the Origin of Chinese Civilization, Sanlian Bookstore, 1999, p. 4.
[7] Gu Jiegang: "Reply to The Book of Mr. Liu Huliang", Ancient History Discernment, vol. 1, pp. 99-102.
[8] Mawangdui Han Tomb Book Collation Group, ed., Warring States Zhonghengjia Book, Beijing: Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1976.
[9] Xu Shiquan, "According to Qin Jian's Chronicles, on the Problem of Chronological Errors in the Chronicle of Bai Qilie", Paleography Studies, 2018.
[10] Cao Luning, "Interpretation of the History of qin shi huang's southern expedition as seen by Yuelu Qin Jian", Qin and Han Studies, 2018.
[11] Chao Fulin, "Tsinghua Jian [Department Year] and the Reconstruction of Historical Events in the Two Weeks", Historical Research, No. 6, 2013.
[12] Qiu Xigui, Ten Lectures on Ancient Chinese Literature, Shanghai: Fudan University Press, 2004, p. 30.
[13] Li Xueqin, "On the Legends of Ancient History in Qinghua Jian 'Chu Ju'", Studies in Chinese History, No. 1, 2011, pp. 53-58.
[14] Xu Zaiguo, "Interpreting the "Blame"", Journal of Ancient Book Collation and Research, No. 3, 1999.
[15] Wang Jiayou, "Remembering the Bronze Artifacts Unearthed in Zhuwa Street, PengXian County, Sichuan", Cultural Relics, No. 11, 1961.