In the long river of China's history, the word "Yi" is as important as the word "Hua", many activities of the ancient Chinese nation are closely related to "Yi", as long as it involves the historical records of foreign military and diplomacy, almost all the characters of "Yi" will appear, and even the "distinction between Huayi" has always become the mainstream thinking of ancient times, which has a far-reaching impact on the formation and development of Chinese civilization.
Since yizi is so important, it is necessary to trace the original meaning of Yizi. More importantly, art comes from life, and the initial glyphs of each Chinese character represent the general consensus of the society at that time, so interpreting the original meaning of Yizi is also helpful to uncover the truth of ancient history one after another, which is of great benefit to the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties project.
After the excavation of the Yin Ruins oracle bones, scholars found that the ancients misinterpreted it, and the glyph of the Shang Dynasty Yi character was not "big bow for Yi" at all, and naturally its original interpretation was also in the opposite direction.
According to the literature, xu shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty "Commentaries on the Interpretation of Texts": "Yi, from the great from the bow, the people of the East also." Zhu Junsheng of the Qing Dynasty", "Speaking of Texts and Characters": "The Eastern Yi people are warlike and hunter-hunting, so the characters are from the big bow, and they will understand." Big, people too. That is to say, the original meaning of yizi is a person who holds a bow.
However, archaeologists have found that the earliest Chinese bows and arrows can be traced back to 28,000 years ago, and the use of bows and arrows is extremely wide at 5,000 years ago. In 1963, the site of Zhiyu, Shanxi, found 28,000-year-old Paleolithic flint head, made of very thin elongated stone pieces, sharp and straight, already in the form of a head. In 1962, when the Nanjing Museum conducted an archaeological survey at the junction of Sulu and Sulu, it found the ruins of the Big Dunzi that dated more than 5,000 years ago, and there was a broken bone embedded in the left femur of the owner of Tomb No. 316, which was 27 mm deep, which showed that the bow and arrow at that time was strong enough to penetrate the muscle and shoot into the human bone.
Therefore, there is a contradiction here: there are many people who hold bows and are warlike and hunter-hunting, and Dongyi should be only one of them, so why can the Dongyi people call it "big bow for Yi"? According to the glyph of "great bow for yi", many ethnic groups can be called "yi", even including Yin Shang. Therefore, the "great bow for the sake of destruction" in ancient texts is debatable.
After the excavation of the Yin Ruins Oracle, it provided first-hand information for the study of early writings, which is of immeasurable value. In particular, the appearance of many words made people shine brightly, and immediately overturned the documentary records, and Yizi was one of them.
The word "Yi" in the oracle bone (see figure below) is composed of a bow and a arrow, or a combination of bow and arrow, that is, "bow and arrow for Yi". Wang Xiantang's "Examination of the Culture of the Yanhuang Clan" believes: "Yiren is good at governing the bow and arrow spear, or using skills to take righteousness as a brother for Yi." ”
Because Ya is somewhat similar to people, it gradually evolved after the Zhou Dynasty, and finally "Ya" became "Big", so it became "Big Bow for Yi". Therefore, the modern scholar Chen Mengjia pointed out that "the great ya's blackmail is also changed", the "Explanation of The Interpretation of The Text" "from the great bow" should be changed to "from the arrow from the bow", and the bow arrow in the oracle bone is the original meaning.
That is to say, the original meaning of Yi should be good at making bows and arrows, or eastern tribes that use bows and arrows as weapons. Compared with the unclear reference to "the great bow for the yi", the "bow for the yi" is more specific and more in line with the logic of the word.
In addition, perhaps because "the bow and arrow are destroyed", it represents a strong fighting force, so yi also leads to the meaning of crusade and peace. In the "Explanation of Words and Characters", it is also said: "Yi, Pingye." The Yi zhou shu Ming Tang records: "It is the Zhou Gong Xiang Wu Wang who cut down the silk and determined the world." Therefore, Zhou Gongdan assisted King Wu of Zhou in his crusade against the King of Shang and pacified the world.
Scholars have found that the word "Yi" in the oracle bone is often written as "person", but it should be "Yifang" but written as "renfang". In the article "ShiRen Corpse Ren [Corpse II] Yi", Yu Shengwu believes that "the word "Ren Yi, the original person is Yi, Yi is the person", and the "Ren Fang" in the Bu Ci is "corpse fang" and "Yi Fang", and the words Yi, Ren, Ren and corpse are the same. Among them, whether there is "benevolence" in the oracle bone, scholars have different opinions.
The word "human" in the oracle bone is a common name for human sacrifice, the status is not high, most of them belong to civilians and slaves, belong to the bottom of society, and are very different from today's people. Simply put, the aristocratic rulers of the Shang Dynasty were not "people", and the objects of rule were "people".
Regarding the relationship between "man" and "Yi", there is a statement in the Spring and Autumn Period: Man is Yi, all are ancient unworthy names, with the development of the times, in the Spring and Autumn Period, the conquered Yi was called "man" after serving and assimilating, and the unconquered foreign tribes were Yi.
The word "corpse" in the oracle bone is shaped like a human form with bent legs, which Rong Geng's "Jin Wen Compilation" explains: "Like the shape of a bent knee, it means that the person in the East is like this, and the meaning of the corpse is obscure after the false yi is a corpse, and the corpse of the sacrifice is similar to the corpse, so it is also named after the corpse." ”
The problem is that Yi, people, and corpses are universal, indicating that the "Yi" in the eyes of the rulers of the Shang Dynasty belongs to the bottom of society, and the Yi character is a derogatory word, but through the early glyphs of yi, it should not be a derogatory word, because the words "ghost" and "ugly" in the oracle bone have indecent actions, and "bow and arrow for Yi" is only an objective description. There is no pejorative glyph, but there is a derogatory meaning, how to see it is a bit twisted, why is this so?
The author believes that this point just shows that the "Yi" character may not have been created by the Shang Dynasty: First, or the Dongyi people themselves, and now in Shandong archaeology has found earlier than the oracle bone inscription, indicating that Shandong should have had a brilliant ancient kingdom, with its own good bow and arrow characteristics to create the name of the tribe, containing the meaning of showing off, the merchants called this kingdom; second, or the Xia people made, the Shang Dynasty will inherit it, the merchants made the enemy tribe of the "Qiang" character, at first there are more ropes and other things on the font type, The representative belonged to the Qiang prisoners of war, and later removed the rope and regarded the Qiang people as a country or opponent, so if the merchants created dongyi zhiyi, they should also make some special articles on the yi character.
Finally, it can be seen from the Yi character that behind every Chinese character, there is a heavy history, and behind every stroke, there are some unique social features, so when we interpret the origin and meaning of each Chinese character, we will have a new understanding of the history of the Chinese nation's civilization.
References: "Jia Wen Edition", etc