Before reading this article, I sincerely invite you to click "Follow", which is not only convenient for you to discuss and share, but also allows you to continue to read related articles next time, bringing a different sense of participation, thank you for your support.
Author: Chasing History and Exploring the Present.There are many myths and stories in our country that have been passed down to this day.Editor: Tracing the Past and Exploring the Present.
For example, Nuwa mends the sky, Jingwei reclaims the sea, Yugong moves mountains, etc., although many of them are fictional by the ancients.
However, it also reflects the ancient people's belief in the power of man to conquer heaven in the face of disasters.
However, some mythological stories are based on real events.
The representative of this is the "Dayu water control", which almost every Chinese believes is real, and most historians are convinced of it.
However, Western historians have questioned the authenticity of Dayu's water control, because Dayu has such a big project to control the water, but there are few ruins.
So are they right to be skeptical?
The story of Dayu's control of the water was first recorded in "Mencius", according to the record that during the reign of Emperor Yao, floods were frequent, and many people were forced to be displaced.
In order to protect the people from floods, Yao appointed Yu's father, Kun, to be in charge of the flood control work throughout the world.
When controlling the water, Kun only uses the method of raising the levee to block the flood.
But the result was very disappointing, and after 9 years of busy work, the flood could not be eliminated, so Yao put Kun to death for his ineffective water control.
After Shun ascended the throne, he handed over the responsibility of controlling the water to Dayu, who inherited his father's business, hoping that he could eliminate the flood and save the people of Limin.
Dayu fully summed up his father's experience in water control, and believed that the flood could not be solved by blockage, and the solution was to dredge the river and introduce the flood into the sea.
After determining the water control plan, he led the people to dig the mountain and the river
During this period, he passed by the door three times and did not enter, and even heard his son's cry, he just bowed deeply to the house and left.
It took him thirteen years to dredge all the rivers in the country, and since then the flood has been flowing down the river into the sea, and can no longer harm the people.
With the great contribution of water control, Dayu has been respected and loved by the people, and Emperor Shun also made him a leader through Zen.
Dayu thus established the Xia Dynasty, and according to his own field experience in water control, the country was divided into Kyushu, so a synonym of our country is Kyushu.
This historical story has been recorded in many historical books in our country, especially the record of the Xia Dynasty in the "Historical Records" is only about 4,000 words in total, of which more than 3,000 words are written in Dayu's water control.
In addition, according to the investigation of historians, it was found between 2500 BC and 2000 BC.
In East Asia, including mainland China, there have been two very obvious abrupt changes in cold and dry climates, and extreme conditions such as droughts and floods have occurred frequently.
The team of geologist Wu Qinglong found evidence of the dammed lake induced by the big ** around 1920 BC in the Jishi Gorge at the junction of Gansu and Qingdao.
This also proves that there were indeed large-scale floods around 2000 B.C.
But what makes people feel strange is that although the evidence of the flood was found, it is mentioned in the ancient books that the places left by Dayu were not formed by man.
For example, the pillars of the Yellow River were completely formed naturally after investigation.
So why is Dayu such a big project to control the water, but there is no archaeological trace can be found?
Russian scholar Olga Gorodetskaya (Chinese name Guo Jingyun) is obsessed with ancient Chinese civilization.
And she has conducted many years of detailed research on Dayu's water control, and put forward a new idea about Dayu's water control.
She believes that the place where Dayu controls the water is not in the Yellow River Basin, but in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.
She also gave her own explanation, most of the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River are mountain rivers, so the flooding is not serious.
Although there were serious floods in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, the water control capacity and experience at that time were not directly proportional to the scale of the floods.
In contrast, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, which is also seriously flooded, seems to be more in line with the location of Dayu's water control, after all, there are the earliest urban ruins and water conservancy projects in China.
Professor Guo's views are based on rigorous science.
First of all, the earliest large-scale water conservancy system found in China is in the ancient city of Liangzhu, Zhejiang Province 5,300 years ago, and the earliest ancient city found in China is in the Chengtou Mountain site in Hunan.
In addition, the era in which Dayu lived belonged to the Longshan cultural period, at this time the northern region was still in the era of tribal conquest, and the number of each tribe was only a few thousand to 10,000 people, and it was difficult to organize such a huge project as water control.
In contrast, the southern part of the country already presents a high concentration of Shijiahe culture [1].
There was no military confrontation between the different city-states, but more like a large community.
Compared with the chaos in the north, the social form of the Yangtze River region clearly has the prerequisites for large-scale water control projects, and this statement has also been recognized by many people.
But her statement has also been questioned by many people, after some scholars' research, Shijiahe culture belongs to the Sanmiao ethnic group, and this is contrary to the historical record of "Yu cut three Miao", so it also does not make sense.
After Professor Guo's idea was questioned, many different statements emerged.
Some people even proposed that Dayu governed the Nile, because according to the degree of flood turbidity recorded in ancient books, the Nile River is more in line with the requirements.
At the same time, some people have also proposed that Dayu's water control is likely not to be a big river like the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, but some small rivers.
The reason why I say this is because the manpower and material resources at that time were very scarce, although Dayu spent a full 13 years, but basically could not complete the governance of these rivers.
Some people even suggested that Dayu is likely to govern the Gongshui River in Hui County, Henan, which is the turning point of the Yellow River, and it is also a plain area, which is prone to flooding.
In addition, many historical books put forward that the flood is called "the common water for the trouble", so it is likely that Dayu is governing the common water river.
The above statements are all speculations of some experts and scholars, and no substantial evidence has been found.
But in recent years, another argument has been recognized by more and more experts.
When discussing the issue of Dayu's water control, one issue that should not be ignored isThe location where Dayu's water control occurs must be a densely populated areaTherefore, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River are more in line with the requirements.
Coupled with the evidence of historical books such as "Yu felling three seedlings", the possibility of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River is obviously greater.
Huainanzi. Qi Folk Training" said, "When Yu, the world rained heavily, Yu ordered the people to gather soil and accumulate wages, and choose hills to deal with it." ”
It can be seen that the flood in the Yu period was caused by the flood disaster caused by the continuous heavy rain, and the people had to hide in the high ground to escape, and then return to the flat land after the flood ended. And these highlands are also known as "mounds" or "ruins".
This means that although there are no large mountains to block floods, the low-lying land is fertile, which is in line with the survival choices of the ancestors, and they are willing to stay even if they are often flooded.
The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River that meet these conditions are today's eastern Henan and southwestern Shandong, that is, Yanzhou in Kyushu, where Dayu divided the world into nine states.
What's more, many places in eastern Henan and southwestern Shandong are named after mounds, such as "Shangqiu" and "Taoqiu".
In addition, places such as eastern Henan, western Luxi and western Anhui will also call these highlands solitary piles, and the number of solitary piles in Heze and other places in Shandong is as high as 156. [2]
In this way, the truth of Dayu's water control is basically clear, and the governance is the dammed lake left on the flat land after the flood, and he led the people to drain the stagnant water by digging ditches.
This amount of work is also more in line with the production tools and material resources at that time, after all, there are only bone, stone and a few bronze tools, and it is not easy to dig some large drainage channels in the plain area.
The excavated ditches are easily changed by geological activities, which is why people rarely find the ruins left by Dayu's water control.
As for why people now think that he governs the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and other major rivers, this is also inseparable from the continuous canonization and elevation of Dayu by later generations.
After all, the people of the country have the Xi of blindly exalting those who worship, and through the oral tradition of future generations, Dayu's achievements have also changed from digging ditches to governing the great rivers, and he has personally been named a god.
References: 1] Which dynasty is Xia - the cultural attributes and hometown of the historical hero Dayu, Guo Jingyun and Guo Lixin. Journal of Guangxi University for Nationalities 2021,43(03);
2] Archaeological discoveries and the truth of Dayu's water control;Hou Yangjun. Journal of Ancient Books Collation and Research. Issue 2, March 2008.