It is difficult to start a business, but it is easy to lose. Xia Hou's family was buried in Xia Wei alone.
How did the Xia Dynasty fall?Answer: Shang extinguishes Xia. Shang was a vassal state of the Xia Dynasty, a country of Yirenfang.
The merchants, originally a tribe with a long history, lived in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. The name of the ancestor of Shang is said to have been born by Jian Di swallowing the eggs of the birds. From the deed to the soup, it has been passed on to the fourteenth generation, and the soup has completed the cause of destroying the summer.
King Xuan is diligent in business, and he has prospered for four out of ten. Chinese Zhou Yuxia".
This fourteenth is appropriate for the Xia Dynasty, about.
Four or five hundred years of history. The Shang Dynasty ruled longer than the Xia Dynasty, with a total of 17 dynasties, 31 kings, and about 600 years.
"Three Character Classic": "Xia Chuanzi, the family is the world." Four hundred years, the summer society. Tang Vaxia, a national name merchant. 600 years, until death. ”
The Xia and Shang dynasties combined, with a history of thousands of years of written records.
How did Shang destroy Xia?The animal husbandry of the Shang tribe was relatively developed, so there were eight migrations from Qi to Tang, and the activity area of grazing livestock was constantly changed. When he arrived in Tang, the capital was built in Bo, now Mengcheng, Anhui. At first, his fiefdom was small, no more than seventy li, but he worked hard to expand his fiefdom. I heard that there was a sage named Yi Yin, who had noble aspirations. Tang specially hired him as an auxiliary minister, and consulted him on everything. Yi Yin is Geng Jie, according to Mencius, "not its righteousness, not its way, one is not with others, one is not to take from everyone." Yi Yin is also very confident: "The people born of heaven are to make the prophet aware and then know, and make the first aware and then conscious." I am confident that I am a prophet. If I don't wake up society, who will?When he first saw the soup, Yi Yin used cooking seasoning as a metaphor and told a great truth. It means that when a person is in power, it is like a cook seasoning. Seasoning must know sour, sweet, bitter and spicy, and understand the taste of others, so as to know oneself and the other and satisfy people's preferences. To be the Son of Heaven, we must also understand the sour, sweet, bitter and spicy of the people, and understand the psychological state of the people, so as to know ourselves and the other and meet the needs of the people.
The Son of Heaven must not be forced, but must know first. The Taoist stops at himself, he becomes the son of heaven and the son of heaven becomes the taste. Therefore, the trial is close so it is far away, and it is also the best way to become oneself. The way of the saints is to be carried out, and the more karma there is!See "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period, Filial Piety, and True Flavor".
Yi Yin is said to be a dowry slave of the Xin clan. Tang intermarried with Youxin's family, and promoted Yiyin as the prime minister. There is Xin and Xia have the same surname, and they were won over by Tang.
Shang Tang did what Yi Yin said, and the country was thriving. So, Tang actively prepared for the summer extinction. Tang's first strategy was to remove the Xia Dynasty's wings one by one, gradually weaken the Xia Dynasty's rule, and finally replace them.
Ge, near the Shang capital, was a subject state of Xia. Tang first sent livestock to Ge Bo in the name of helping the sacrifice, and then sent people to plough the fields for Ge Bo. Ge Bo killed the man who was delivering food to the cultivators, and Tang used this as an excuse to send troops to destroy Ge Guo.
Then, Shang Tang successively attacked and destroyed Wei, Gu, Kunwu and other countries, "eleven expeditions and invincible in the world". Wei, Gu, and Kunwu were all important pillars of the Xia Dynasty in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, especially the demise of Kunwu, which made Xia Wei lose its closest strength and eastern barrier, and the Xia Dynasty was in a situation of being frontally attacked by the enemy.
After Shang achieved a series of victories, Tang stopped paying tribute to the Xia Dynasty in accordance with Yi Yin's plan to observe Xia Ji's reaction. As expected, Xia Wei ordered the "Jiuyi Division" to attack Shangtang. Tang saw that Jiuyi was still obedient to Xia Wei's dispatch, and he was in danger of being attacked on his back, so he resumed his tribute to the Xia Dynasty. At the same time, intensify preparations to gather strength.
The following year, Tang stopped paying tribute to Xia Nagong again, angering Xia Ji again. He convened the princes to form an alliance, and the Yi clan took the lead in rebelling against Xia. "The division of Jiuyi can't afford it", exposing Xia Ji's weakness, so that Tang and Yi Yin saw that Ji had fallen into an isolated and helpless situation, and the Xia Dynasty's rule was about to collapse, so they ordered Ji to be killed.
The Xia and Shang armies fought in the field of Narujo, and they were defeated and fled south, dying in Nanchao. Tang commanded the Shang army to take advantage of the victory to pursue and destroy a subject state of the Xia Dynasty, and then led his troops to the west to capture the hinterland of the Xia Dynasty. As a result, the Xia Dynasty fell and was replaced by the Shang Dynasty established by Tang.
In the process of overthrowing the Xia Dynasty, Tang conquered in all directions, greatly expanding the Shang Dynasty's ruling area and influencing the upper reaches of the Yellow River. "The Book of Poetry, Shang Song, Yin Wu" posthumously said: "In the past, there was a soup, since the other side of the Qiang, don't dare not come to enjoy, don't come to the king, said that business is constant." In the eyes of the descendants of the merchants, the Shang dynasty not only controlled the vast areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, but even the Qiang tribes in the far west also submitted to the Shang dynasty.
The Shang Dynasty was divided into two periods for 600 years, with Pangeng moving to Yin as the boundary: nine generations and nineteen kings in the early stage;In the later period, there were eight generations and twelve kings, a total of 273 years, generally known as the Yin Dynasty.
According to Guo Moruo's research: "In the past, it was said that after Pangeng moved to Yin, Shang was also called Yin." However, there is no word 'Yin' in the oracle bones, and the merchants always call themselves Shang, not Yin. At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, the bronze ware was called Shang Yin, and at first it was used "clothes", and then it was changed to Yin. The Zhou people called Shang Yin, probably out of hostility. See Ten Criticisms
In the early history of the Shang Dynasty, it experienced a cycle of five prosperity and five declines: Tang was prosperous, and Taijia was declining;Taijia restored the country to the second prosperity, and Yongji two declined;Taiwu Zhongxing Sansheng, Zhongding Sanxing;The four prosperity of the outer ren, the four decay of the river;The ancestors are five prosperous, and the yang armor is five decaying.
At the same time, the Shang Dynasty experienced six more capital moves: Tang moved to Bo for one;Zhongding moved to Aoshan, Xingyang, Henan Province for the second move;The migration of the river and the migration of the river and the inner yellow of Henan are the three migrations;Zu Yi moved to Xing, Henan Wuzhi for the four moves;Zu Yi relocated Shandong Yutai for the five moves;Nangeng moved to Qufu, Shandong Province for six moves.
In 1384 B.C., Pangeng moved its capital from Yin to Anyang, Henan, and the Shang Dynasty no longer moved its capital until it perished.
The five ups and downs of the Shang Dynasty originated from the system of succession to the throne. According to the system of "brother to brother and brother to brother", Tang reigned for a long time, and his eldest son Taiding died before he could succeed to the throne, so after Tang's death, Taiding's younger brothers Wai Bing and Zhong Ren succeeded to the throne. The reigns of Wai Bing and Zhong Ren were very short, and the supreme power of the Shang Dynasty actually fell into the hands of Yi Yin. After Zhongren's death, Taiding's son Taijia should inherit the throne, but Yiyin found an excuse to banish him to a foreign land, imprisoned him, and established himself as king.
Yi Yin occupied the throne for seven years, but never won the support of the Shang Dynasty nobles, Taijia took the opportunity to flee back to the royal capital, killed Yi Yin, and restored the throne. Taijia inherited Cheng Tang's career and further consolidated the ruling order of the Shang Dynasty. From Taijia to Taiwu, the Shang Dynasty's rule was in a relatively stable state.
After Zhongding, the Shang Dynasty declined again. There were successive disputes over the throne within the royal family, and the system of "brother to brother" was destroyed. After the death of the younger brother who succeeded to the throne, the sons of the younger brothers were unwilling to return the throne to the sons of the younger brothers, thus creating a situation of "abolishing the heirs and changing the thrones, or competing to stand on their behalf".
The royal strife weakened the rule of the Shang Dynasty, and some Fang tribes who had previously submitted to the Shang took the opportunity to break free from control and attack the Shang Dynasty. It was only by the time of Zu Yi that the Shang Dynasty put down their rebellion and relieved the threat of the Yi people in the southeast. However, the disputes within the Shang Dynasty over the succession to the throne did not end, and lasted from Zhongding to before Pangeng moved to Yin.
Pan Geng is the ninth grandson of Tang, and his stepbrother Yang Jia ascended the throne. The Shang Dynasty had many civil strife and the state declined. After Pan Geng ascended the throne, in order to control the situation and get rid of the predicament, he decided to "shake the people" from the dying capital to Yin. Before and after the relocation, Pan Geng made three speeches.
Shangshu Pangeng is his speech, which is divided into three parts: upper, middle, and lower. The objects of the three articles are different, they are the people, the people, and the relatives. The identities of the three types of people are also different. The people are the "cattle people", also known as the "people";The people are the hundred officials, that is, "the people of the Hundred Deacons of the Commander of the Bang Bo";Relatives are "marriage friends", i.e., nobles with the same or different surnames. See Guo Moruo's Ten Criticisms
The first part is what he said to his relatives after deciding to move to Yin. Pan Geng first warned them to abide by the old system, face up to the law, and not rely on the admonition of the small people to oppose the relocation of the capital.
Then, Pan Geng said, I want to tell you my true words. You are the old people who were in charge of politics with me. Your ancestors have made meritorious deeds, and when the Shang king sacrificed to his ancestors, your ancestors also deserved to be the king. You are of one mind with the king of Shang, and the people must obey;If you are separated from the king of Shang, the people will be in turmoil.
In the end, Pan Geng tried his best to enlighten the relatives and said: "Each of you is in charge of your own fiefdom, and you must try to use your strength and obey what I do alone. We punish the bad with punishment and commend the good with reward. There is no distinction between near and far. The good governance of the country is the credit of all of you;The country is not well governed, and I am guilty of it. ”
Consider all of you what I admonish. From now on, every man must fulfill his duties and put himself right. Keep ye mouth shut, and do not talk nonsense. Otherwise, punishment will come upon you, and it will be too late to regret it!This is how Pan Geng ended his speech.
The middle part is addressed to those who oppose the relocation of the capital. Pan Geng threatened: "You must listen to me clearly and do not ignore my words!".”
Then, Pan Geng explained that the relocation of the capital was to inherit the will of the previous king to save his subjects and stabilize the country. In the savior tone, he threatened: "Now I command you to be of one heart and one mind, and not to spread rumors to ruin yourselves!"lest someone will make you wrong in body and wrong in heart. I'm going to persuade Heaven to continue your life, I'm a** abusing you!I'm here to help you and nurture you!”
Finally, Pan Geng sternly pointed out: "If you are not of the same mind and mind as me, the first king will condemn you and ask, 'Why don't you get close and friendly with my young grandson?'Therefore, if you make a mistake, Heaven will punish you!'You will not be at peace for long!”
The next part is what Pan Geng said to "the people of the 100 deacons of the Bang Bo Division" after the relocation of Yin. Bomber, refers to the princes. Division Commander: Officers. The hundred deacons refer to the people who carry out the affairs of government.
He first admonished the people: "I tell you what is in my heart with all my heart. I will not punish you, and neither will you unite in your anger and slander me alone. ”
He then said that he would do his best to examine their "remembrance of our people." Pan Geng finally said: "I will not appoint people who are greedy for money, but only people who manage people's livelihood." I will honor those who raise and seek a safe place for their people, in order. Now I've told you what I'm thinking!Don't be disrespectful!Don't amass treasures, but manage the people's livelihood and make meritorious deeds!Give grace to the people and be with me forever!”
Why did Pangeng move its capital to Yin?There have always been different opinions, and there is no consensus.
One said that it was to correct the extravagant atmosphere, the other was to avoid river troubles, and the other was to chase water and grass and make a living from no......madism
In Fu Zhufu's view, none of the above arguments are plausible and cannot be established. To this end, he proposes a hypothesis, the main points of which are as follows:
1 Judging from Pan Geng's three speeches, it is clear that the merchants moved the capital for economic reasons, and entirely for the sake of the people's livelihood. The reason why the original gathering place can no longer be inhabited is that it is no longer able to sustain life well. If you are nostalgic for your former home and survive in peace, you will incur disastrous consequences.
2 Why is it difficult to sustain the original economic life if one place continues to live for a long time?This is because the productivity of Shidi will decline over time, resulting in a gradual decline in harvest yields, making it increasingly difficult to sustain the original economic life.
3 During the Shang Dynasty during the reign of Pan Geng, agriculture had become the main sector of production. In other words, the means of subsistence that people rely on are mainly agriculture, not animal husbandry, fishing and hunting. There are many words in the divination for the sake of agriculture, and there are also many words related to agriculture, which fully reflects the importance of agriculture in economic life.
4 Although agriculture in the Shang Dynasty had become the main sector of production, it was still stagnant in its infancy, and it was still an extremely extensive primitive agriculture. This is mainly due to the clumsiness of the tools of production and the primitiveness of the farming methods, which hinder the further development of the productive forces.
5 Burning was a common farming method used by merchants at the time. Due to the extremely rudimentary production tools, the ability to open up the wilderness and eradicate the forest is insufficient, and in the deep forests and lush grasses of the wilderness, wild animals are often infested. In this case, the seeds can only be sown by burning the thorny forest with fire, driving away the wild beasts, and bulldozing the land. Under the conditions at that time, there was no more effective way to turn the wasteland into arable land than to burn it with fire. This method was still used in the south of the Yangtze River in Chu and Han dynasties until the Qin and Han dynasties. This farming method has been used in almost every other country in Africa.
6 From the above methods of farming, it can be inferred that the merchant carried out the following procedures for farming: first, the choice of the place of cultivation, which was naturally an uncultivated wasteland. The second is to choose a day to ask the good luck of burning the field. The third is arson, after the jungle grass is burned, the land is raked with agricultural tools, and then the seeds are sown on top of the ash. Because they do not know how to irrigate or fertilize, and completely use the natural power of the land to engage in planting activities, a piece of land cannot be cultivated every year, and farmers must change locations frequently, and cannot be fixed on a piece of land. There is a lot of text in the prophecy about changing the place of farming.
Fu Zhufu came to a conclusion from this: "If the above argument is good, then the historical secret of the Yin people's 'infrequent tranquility' and 'infrequent convulsion' can be revealed." In fact, this problem is not difficult to explain, because the phenomenon of frequent migration in order to change farmland was a common phenomenon in early agricultural societies, and all the development of agriculture to the stage of 'nomadic farming' or 'nomadic farming' was so uncertain. More than 3,000 years ago, it was impossible for the Yin people to understand the gradual decline in land harvesting because the fertility of the land had certain limits. It is only from long-term experience that they have realized that after living in a place for a certain number of years, the phenomenon of diminishing harvest will occur, and they think that this is a disaster from heaven - 'Yin descends on the great abuse', and people are not allowed to live in one place permanently, so they must migrate, and after approaching a new place, they will get a good harvest, so Pan Geng said: ' He said, "Therefore, it is for the benefit of all of you to move to Xinyi, and this interest was unanimously demanded by everyone, and this interest is everyone's vital economic interest." ”
For the above conclusions, please refer to the Essays on Chinese Economic History
He also said: "In short, we know that the agricultural department of the Yin Dynasty was in the stage of 'nomadic farming' or 'nomadic farming', and we can figure out the reasons why the Yin people were 'not often in the city' and 'not always peaceful'. The sixteen great migrations before and after them were not for political reasons, nor for the sake of river troubles, but for economic reasons, that is, to change farmland for the needs of agricultural production. ”
For the above conclusions, please refer to the Essays on Chinese Economic History
Zhang Guangzhi tried to reveal the reason for Pangeng's relocation from an archaeological perspective. He pointed out that "the capitals of the Xia and Shang dynasties have moved frequently, which is a definitive conclusion in ancient history. This regularity is: "The three generations of country names are all based on place names." Although the three generations have repeatedly moved their capitals before and after the founding of the country, its earliest capital has always maintained a high status in the rituals. If the earliest capital is compared to the star sun, then the capital that migrated to and from later orbited the stars as if it were planets or moons. To put it another way, "each of the three generations has an eternal 'holy capital', and each has a number of migratory and walking 'secular capitals'." The holy capital is the eternal base of the ancestral temple, and although the secular capital is also the place where daily rituals are held, it is mainly the leadership center of the king's politics, economy, and military. The holy capital remains unchanged, and the reason is easy to deduce, while the common capital is constantly changing, and the main factor is to trace the source of bronze ore. ”
For the above content, please refer to "Six Lectures on Archaeology".
The explanation of this view should start with the capital system of the Shang Dynasty. Because the sacred and secular capitals are divided into capitals, and the secular capitals revolve around the holy capital, this kind of capital system was first proposed in the study of oracle bone inscriptions.
In the Shang Dynasty, there was a saying that "the first eight and the last five" were said in ancient times, but where these thirteen capitals were located, scholars did not agree on their opinions. According to the research of scholars of the past dynasties, the geographical views of these capitals are all on the Huanghuai Plain and its margins, from the western part of Shandong to the southern part of Hebei and the northern, central and eastern parts of Henan. Id
Dong Zuobin judged according to the relevant divination in the oracle bone inscription: "Today's Shangqiu is the ancient capital of the Yin people, and the temple of the first king is in Yan."
The capital system of the Shang Dynasty was characterized by the holy capital as the core and the secular capital as the satellite operating around the core, which continued the Yin Shang generation and remained unchanged.
After the Shang Dynasty moved to Yin from Pangeng, it "did not move to the capital" and "practiced the politics of Tang", strengthened the rule of the royal family, and laid the foundation for the development of the later Shang Dynasty.
After Wu Ding succeeded to the throne, the Quartet used troops to further expand the ruling area and influence of the Shang Dynasty. Wu Ding reigned for 59 years and was posthumously enshrined as "Gojong". Legend has it that he lived in the common people when he was young and understood the "difficulty of harvesting". After ascending the throne, he made great efforts to govern the country and appointed Gan Pan and Fu Shuo. The latter is said to have been born as a slave, and Wu Ding was promoted to the prime minister.
The focus of Wu Ding's troops was on the Qiongfang, Tufang, and Onifang in the northwest. Qiongfang and Tufang were nomadic tribes living in present-day Shanxi, northern Shaanxi and north of the Inner Mongolia Hetao, who had jointly invaded the Shang Dynasty's vassal states. Wu Ding conquered earthworks, and each time he levied three to five thousand people. After several battles, Kyrgyzstan and Turkatsu were wiped out or driven away.
The Ghost Fang was a powerful nomadic tribe that lived in the northwestern part of present-day Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and the vast area north of it. Wu Ding mobilized the forces of his subjects and spent three years of hard work, and finally won the victory.
The Shang Dynasty had no rivals in the south. Wu Ding once marched south, "fighting against Jingchu", and expanded the power of the Shang Dynasty to the south of the Yangtze River.
There are many Fang countries and tribes that Wu Ding has conquered. In short, Wu Ding conquered a vast area from the northwest to the south by force, reaching the height of the Shang dynasty's rule.
With the deployment of Wu Ding's troops, the state apparatus of the Shang Dynasty reached an unprecedented level of strength. The state form in the late Shang Dynasty was an aristocratic government headed by the Shang kings. Since the nobles of the Shang Dynasty were also the patriarchs of the major families, the state organization of the Shang Dynasty was a ruling network composed of the royal family as the main body and many aristocratic families of many collateral and branches. The Shang king was not only the patriarch of the largest aristocratic family, the "royal family", but also the patriarch of the aristocratic families with the same surname. The Shang king held the supreme power of the country, and all the nobles, whether they had the same surname or different surnames, were subordinate to the Shang king.
In the later part of the Shang Dynasty, with the intensification of class contradictions and the frequent conquest of tribes from various countries, the slave state was continuously strengthened, and the power of the Shang kings and nobles also increased, thus gradually giving birth to the patriarchal system in the ruling network of the slave families. This system was born out of the blood ties of the clans, and is now used by the nobility to maintain their ruling privileges.
The primogeniture system is at the heart of the patriarchal system. The succession system of "brother to brother" was gradually abolished in the late Shang Dynasty. Wu Ding has set up a "prince". After Di Xin and Kang Ding succeeded to the throne successively, the four generations of Shang kings of Wu Yi, Wen Ding, Di Yi and Xuan were all succeeded by their fathers and sons. Wei Ziqi is the eldest son of Emperor Yi, but because of his mother's humble status, he cannot succeed to the throne. He was a young son, but because his biological mother was the wife of Emperor Yi, he inherited his father's throne. It can be seen that the patriarchal system with the distinction of the descendants as the core had been formed by the end of the Shang Dynasty.
After Wu Ding's death, Zu Geng and Zu Jia succeeded to the throne successively. During Zujia's reign of 33 years, social contradictions began to intensify. The following generations of Shang kings, "only the obedience of pleasure", stepped up the search and enslavement. The Fangguo tribes in the western part of the Shang Dynasty could not bear it and rebelled en masse. The Shang Dynasty waged a long campaign against these states, but was never able to completely suppress their rebellion.
The succession system of "brother to brother" was gradually destroyed in the late Shang Dynasty. When the younger brother who succeeded to the throne died, the younger brother's son was unwilling to return the throne to the younger brother's son, "abolishing the heir and changing the **, or competing to stand on his behalf", resulting in the so-called "Ninth Rebellion" situation. The strife of the royal family weakened the rule of the Shang dynasty. Some of the Fang tribes that had previously submitted to the Shang took the opportunity to break free from control and attack the Shang Dynasty.
In the last years of the Shang Dynasty, many Fang tribes in the west and southwest, led by the Zhou people, united and overthrew the rule of the Shang Dynasty.
The six-hundred-year rule of the Shang Dynasty was overthrown, and the last Shang king was directly responsible. The social contradictions of the Shang Dynasty developed to the extreme during the reign of King Xu. The king of Shang "paid taxes thickly, with the money of Lutai, and the corn of Yingju Bridge";"The south is far from Chaoge, and the north is according to Handan and the sand dunes, all of which are separate palaces", wantonly expanding the scope of the royal capital;The king of Shang drank and had fun with the nobles all day long, and consumed a lot of manpower and material resources in the many years of war against Dongyi, which greatly increased the burden on the peopleOn the one hand, the Shang king strengthened the exploitation and suppressed the people's resistance with heavy punishments.
The perverse behavior of the Shang kings caused the contradictions between slaves, commoners and slave owners and nobles, as well as between the enslaved Fang tribes and the Shang Dynasty, to an unprecedented degree of acuteness. Even Wei Ziqi, the elder brother of the Shang Dynasty, felt that the situation faced by the Shang Dynasty was very bad, and lamented that "today Yin is falling, if it wades into a big water, it has no end", and the Shang Dynasty, which was founded for 600 years, has come to the end of history.
King Wu of Zhou chose this opportunity to lead the tribes of the Western States to launch a large-scale attack on the Shang Dynasty. Slaves and commoners rebelled on the battlefield, and together with the armed forces led by King Wu of Zhou, they overthrew the reign of King Shang in one fell swoop. The Shang Dynasty, like the Xia Dynasty six hundred years earlier, was completely buried.
The Shang Dynasty lasted 600 years from the founding of the country to the fall of the country. Although there were ups and downs, there were also many sages and virtuous ministers, and the foundation of the country was quite strong, and it was difficult to overturn it at one time. Therefore, Shang lost power and still maintained his power for more than 60 years. "Mencius: Gongsun Chou" said: "From Tang to Wuding, the king of sages is six or seven, and the world has returned to Yin for a long time, and it is difficult to change for a long time." The princes of the Wuding Dynasty have the world, and the palm of luck is also. It has not been long since he went to Wuding, and his old family has been left behind, and there are still survivors of good governanceThere are also microns, micro zhong, prince bigan, kezi, and glue mustaches—all sages—complement each other, so they are lost after a long time. ”
Although the political resources of the business sector are abundant, they cannot withstand repeated perverse actions. After several tosses, the regime finally could not hold on, and it collapsed.
The Zhou people are an ancient tribe. This tribe was originally located on the Loess Plateau, operating in the Shaan-Gansu area and had ties with the Xia Dynasty. Gu Gong's father led his clan to move to Zhou Yuan, south of Qishan, and began to call himself Zhou. Before Gu Gong's father, Zhou Tongshang had been in contact. Gu Gong's father began to submit to Shang. Shang King Wending once named Ji Li as a "priest", that is, the ** of animal husbandry, and Zhou became a powerful state in the west of the Shang Dynasty. In order to curb the power of the Zhou people, Wen Ding killed Ji Li. His son Chang succeeded to the throne, which was later King Wen of Zhou. For the fifty years of King Wen's reign, Zhou remained nominally a vassal state of Shang. Under the cover of this name, Zhou inherited and expanded his sphere of influence.
In the later years of King Wen, Zhou's ruling area expanded even more, and he already had great strength. On the contrary, the Shang Dynasty became more and more corrupt, and the class contradictions and the contradictions between the surrounding countries and tribes were unprecedentedly intensified. King Wen believed that the conditions were ripe for the destruction of the Shang Dynasty, and on his deathbed he instructed King Wu to prepare to overthrow the Shang Dynasty. In the second year of King Wu's succession, King Wen's dying will was fulfilled. In 1048 BC, King Wu led his army to occupy the Shang Dynasty, announcing the fall of the Shang Dynasty and the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty.
The small slave owner Zhou Ren, who had only 3,000 slaves, ended up defeating the Yin Ren, a big slave owner with hundreds of millions of slaves. The reason why the Yin people were defeated was mainly because they shed too much blood in the conquest of Emperor Yi and Emperor Xin through the southeast of Yi;Secondly, it is about Yin people to be good at wine, and the corruption of life is also an important reason. Guo Moruo, Self-Criticism of Ancient Studies
Yin people always call themselves "Shang", not "Yin". Judging from the divination, "Shang" is the name of the country, and "Yin" is the name of the king's capital. Calling Shang Yin seems to be due to the Zhou people's hostility towards merchants.
The word "Yin Jian" was first seen in "The Book of Songs, Daya, Dang": "Yin Jian is not far away, in the world after Xia." This means that the descendants of the Yin people should take the death of Xia as a warning.
Yin Shang died in Shang, and Xia Dynasty died in Xia. Shang and Xia Wei are typical figures of the fallen kings in Chinese history. There are many similarities between the fall of the Xia and Shang dynasties. The reason for the loss of the country is the loss of government, and the reason for the loss of government is the loss of the people.
The so-called "Yin Jian" means that future generations will take this deceased monarch as a warning. Later generations of Confucianism used it as an argument to reveal the root cause of political success or failure.
The author of this poem pretended to be King Wen of Zhou to reprimand Xia Wei and Shang Xuan in order to warn King Li of Zhou at that time.
These two verses are found in the last chapter of the poem. "The last chapter delves into the chaos, sighs that it is about to die, and wants it to end with a lesson. The two sentences of 'Yin Jian' are particularly wonderful, if there is no such sentence, there is no meaning of the poet's words. Uncle Zhang said
King Li of Zhou is the king of the Western Zhou Dynasty, surnamed Ji and named Hu. During his reign, he appointed Rong Yi Gong to govern, implemented a "patent", and ordered Wei Wu to spy on the people of the country and kill those who talked about the king, causing a revolt. In 841 B.C., the people of the country were in trouble, and Ji Hu fled to Yi, where he died.
King Li's unreasonableness and chaos is a sad history of the Zhou people. In order to learn from history and reverse the fortunes of the country, the poet pretended to be King Wen of Zhou, condemned the bad behavior of King Shang and warned the king to wake up. The first seven chapters use King Wen to rebuke Shang to rebuke the King of Time, and the eighth and last chapter summarizes the lessons of history to spur future rulers.
From this point of view, the Yin Jian of the Zhou people should be called "Zhou Jian".
These two lines of poetry were later simplified into an idiom: "Yin Jian is not far away", which generally refers to the past events that can be used as a warning, and then evolved into the fine tradition of the Chinese nation: taking history as a mirror.