The order of succession of the Shang dynasty is strange.
In the era of the Shang tribe, from the deed to the Shang Tang, the order of succession of fifteen generations is basically the succession of the father and the son, and there is only one time in the middle, when Wang Hai went to the next tribe to engage in **, he died unnaturally, and then his younger brother ascended the throne.
But it quickly returned to normal.
However, after Shang Tang, the succession sequence of the throne continued for hundreds of years, and then gradually resumed the succession of father to son, not only that, but in the Western Zhou Dynasty, as a descendant of the Shang Dynasty, the Song State also had several succession methods of brother and brother, which is certainly not a coincidence.
Whether it is the death of the father and the succession of the son, or the death of the brother and the brother, at least it is a system of laws that can be followed, which shows that this system is approved by the members of the royal family, not on a whim.
Hello everyone, I'm Xiao Zhang, today we will combine historical documents to ** the order of succession to the throne of the Shang Dynasty, and see what can be found in it?
According to the record of "Historical Records of Yin Benji": During the reign of Shang Tang, Taiding was appointed as the crown prince, but Taiding was clearly determined and walked in front of Shang Tang, so after Shang Tang's death, the second son Wai C ascended the throne, and after Wai C, Zhong Ren ascended the throne, and after Zhong Ren, the throne returned to the eldest son Taiding's son - Taijia.
Taijia is the one who was exiled to the Copper Palace by Yi Yin.
Most of the hereditary order of Shang kings recorded in the Yin Benji is basically the same as that recorded in the oracle bone inscriptions from the early days, but there are slight differences.
For example, according to the order of Zhou sacrifices in the oracle bone inscriptions, Taijia is ranked after Taiding and before his uncle Wai Bing, and the Zhou sacrifice is actually carried out in accordance with the order of succession of the Shang Dynasty, so in fact, Taijia ascended the throne before Wai Bing, and then after being exiled by Yi Yin, the throne was given to his uncle Wai Bing, and then Zhong Ren, the two were generally short-lived, reigning for a total of six years, and then returned to Taijia.
Since Shang Tang has set up Tai Ding as the crown prince, since Tai Ding died early, Shang Tang should have set up a new crown prince, and the most likely candidate for this prince is the second son Wai C.
This may also explain one of the reasons why Yi Yin exiled Taijia: "tyrannical, disobedient to the Tang Law, and disorderly morality", the so-called non-compliance with the Tang Law refers to Taijia's seizure of his uncle's throne.
Let's continue to look at the order of the records of the "Historical Records of Yin Benji":
Taijia collapsed, and Ziwo Ding Li. Woding collapsed, and the younger brother was too Gengli. Tai Geng collapsed, and Zi Xiaojia Li. Xiao Jia collapsed, and his younger brother Yong stood up. Yongji collapsed, and his younger brother was too strong. It is too Wu to collapse, and the son is in Dingli.
It's more intuitive with a single graph:
There is a slight discrepancy between this and the oracle bone inscription, and the oracle bone inscription records the order of the weekly sacrifices, which has two main characteristics:
First, the Zhou sacrifice was to worship the kings in the order of succession to the throne, so the one who came first in the order of sacrifice was the one who ascended the throne first.
Second, the Zhou Sacrifice only sacrifices to the spouses of one's direct ancestors. In other words, for example, the 10th Shang king Zhongding in the picture above would have sacrificed to the previous Shang kings and the spouses of his direct ancestors Taiwu, Taigeng, and Taijia, rather than the spouses of his two uncles.
In other words, whoever has a consort who is sacrificed is the direct ancestor of the descendant Shang king. That is, the Shang kings behind him are all his descendants.
In fact, the Zhou sacrifice system of the Shang Dynasty began with Zujia in the later period, and Nazhong Ding is just an example here.
So the problem arises, the oracle bone inscription records that the consort of Zhong Ding was sacrificed in the Zhou sacrifice, not the consort of the river Jia. Not only that, in the order of the Zhou sacrifice, Taiwu is ranked before Yongji, so we have sorted out the actual order of succession:
With this order of succession, the question arises:
Tai Geng was not the eldest son, but he passed on to his son Xiao Jia, and Yongji did not pass on to his own son, nor did he pass on the throne to the son of his eldest brother Xiao Jia, but passed on to his brother Taiwu's son - Zhong Ding.
This is the first abnormal inheritance relationship, neither the father dies and the son succeeds, nor does the brother end up with the brother.
In the first year of Zhong Ding's reign, he moved the capital.
Yin Benji": Emperor Zhong Ding moved to Xi.
Not only that, but the Shang dynasty at this time seems to have encountered a provocation from the princes:
Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Volume 85, Dongyi Lie Biography Seventy-Five: As for Zhong Ding, Lan Yi is the Kou.
Bamboo Book Chronicle: Six years, expedition to Lanyi.
Zhong Ding died in the tenth (or fiveth) reign of the younger brother Wairen ascended the throne, and then the princes rebelled again:
This Bamboo Book Chronicle Yin Ji": Pi people, Yu people rebel.
There is no record in the literature of the Wairen's crusade against the princes, and after the Wairen, Lao Sanhe Jiajia ascended the throne and then did two things:
Move the capital and put down the rebellion.
Bamboo Book Chronicle": In the first year of Gengshen, the king ascended the throne and moved to the prime minister. Three years, Pemberk Pi. Four years, expedition to Lanyi.
In the Yin Benji, Sima Qian made a summary of this history:
Since Zhongding, the abolition of the appropriate and more set up the **, or compete to stand on behalf of the people, than the ninth chaos, so the princes of the Mo Dynasty.
That is to say, Taishi Gong believes: Since Zhongding, after the ninth generation, it was all abnormal ascending to the throne, the younger brother and son seized power from each other, and the princes came to the dynasty, so it is called the rebellion of the ninth generation.
For example, the picture below: After He Jia, the eldest brother Zhongding's son Zu Yi ascended the throne, After Zu Yi, his son Zu Xin ascended the throne, After Zu Xin, his younger brother Wo Jia ascended the throne, after Wo Jia, the eldest brother's son Zu Ding ascended the throne, after Zu Ding, the throne actually passed to his cousin Nan Geng, and Nan Geng then passed the throne to his cousin's son Yang Jia.
This statement was inherited by the historical books of later dynasties and became the mainstream theory in the field of later historiography, that is, the disorder of the succession order of the Shang Dynasty led to the decline of the dynasty and entered the chaotic era.
This is not necessarily the case.
Sima Qian was in the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, and in his "Xia Benji", he basically reflected the succession order of the Xia Dynasty's father and son, but in the subsequent Shang Dynasty, the succession order of the Shang Dynasty was so different from the previous Xia Dynasty, isn't it against tradition?
Coupled with the concomitant relocation of the capital and the conquest of the princes at this time, Sima Qian concluded that it must have been because of the confusion in the order of succession that caused the princes not to come to the court, and then there was a rebellion.
What he overlooked was that the Shang tribe was not a Xia tribe, and the Xia dynasty's enthronement tradition was not necessarily the Shang dynasty's tradition.
What's more, in the order of succession sorted out by Sima Qian, Taiwu did not pass the throne to the son of the eldest brother, but passed the throne to his son Zhong Ding, and then Zhong Ding passed on the throne to the two younger brothers, this order is exactly the same as the previous generation of Xiao Jia inherited the position of Tai Geng, and then passed on the throne to the two younger brothers.
Why did the Rebellion of the Ninth Dynasty only start with Zhong Ding, and not with Xiao Jia of the previous generation?
What's more, after Yangjia, the last Shang king of the Ninth Rebellion, three younger brothers suddenly appeared to inherit his throne, why are these three not within the scope of the Ninth Rebellion?
What's even more unbelievable is that if the brother dies and because of the seizure of power, then the fifteenth generation of Shang King Wojia is passed on to his nephew Zu Ding, and Zu Ding is passed on to Nan Geng, the son of Wo Jia, and Nan Geng actually passed on the throne again to Yang Jia, the son of Zu Ding. According to the generation, Yang Jia is already Nan Geng's cousin.
Is this a coincidence?
Two generations in a row pass each other to each other's sons, is this a chaotic or orderly agreement?
As for the Shang king's forced relocation of the capital due to external troubles, let's first look at the order of moving the capital in the literature:
1.Tang Ju Xi'an (Henan Yanshi**;One said Zhengzhou**).
2.Zhongding Qianxi (Zhengzhou, Henan**;
3.Hejia Juxiang (Henan Neihuang);
4.Zu Yi moved to Xing (Xingtai, Hebei);
5.Nangeng Qianxiang (Qufu, Shandong;One said that the southeast of Anyang, Henan);
6.Pangeng Qianyin (Yinxu, Anyang, Henan).
Before the relocation of the capital, the entire direction of moving the capital was roughly from west to east, and the general location of Lanyi and Banfang, where the rebellion occurred, was in the area of today's Shandong.
If the capital was moved to avoid the rebellious princes, why did they move in the direction of the rebellious princes?
There is only one possibility, the relocation of the capital of Zhongding and Ha Jiajia is actually to better fight the rebel Fang State and control the new conquered area.
The fact that He Jiajia was able to mobilize the princes Peng Bo, Wei Bo Ke Pi, and the demoted party shows that the Shang king is still in the leading position on the issue of the rebellion of the princes.
Moreover, the Shang Dynasty's relocation of the capital was actually a routine operation, and "Xijing Fu" contained: "Yin people have moved repeatedly, the first eight and the last five." ”
The first eight" is the "eight migrations from the deed to Chengtang" before the founding of the Shang Dynasty, and the "last five" is the five migrations from the founding of Chengtang to Pangeng and Yin. There are several theories about the reason for moving the capital, such as "nomadic theory", "flood theory", and "class struggle theory", but regardless of the real reason, it is unlikely that it was because of the threat of the princes.
Without further ado, let's go back to the order of succession.
To sum up, although the staggered succession system of brother to brother and father to son seems to be somewhat chaotic, it was also an orderly inheritance system at the time compared to the primogeniture system of later generations. In the era of the "Rebellion of the Ninth World", the Shang kings were inherited from generation to generation in an orderly manner.
Later generations labeled this as unruly as violating the "primogeniture system", but ignored the inheritance tradition of father-to-son succession and brother-to-brother succession.
After Pangeng moved the capital, the order of the Shang Dynasty gradually stabilized, and the capital was not moved for more than 250 years.
After his younger brother Xiaoyi, he was located in Wuding, The national strength of the Shang Dynasty reached its peak during the Wuding period, and was called the Emperor Wuding by netizens.
After Wu Ding, his two sons, Zu Geng and Zu Jia, ascended the throne successively.
Zu Jia is the Shang king who pioneered the Zhou sacrifice system, and all the characteristics of the Zhou sacrifice we quoted earlier were established by him.
For example, the current Shang king only sacrifices to the previous kings and the spouses of their direct ancestors, so we only need to find any complete order of sacrifice from the oracle bone inscription to sort out the succession order of the Shang dynasty.
And the wonderful thing is that the order of sacrifice to the ancestors of the two generations of Shang kings can also confirm each other, thus proving its authenticity.
Perhaps it was Zujia that established some arrangements for the succession system after this institutional innovation, so starting from his son Kangding, the succession order of the Shang Dynasty entered an era of a single son-in-law succession system. After Emperor Xin, the Western Zhou Dynasty took its place, and on this basis, it was perfected and developed, and finally established the primogeniture inheritance system. The King of Shang