If a person can teach a liar, then he has only been trained to be a better liar.
If a group of people do this, it must have created a strange atmosphere - lying is a matter of course!
The materials left behind by history often need to be carefully verified and carefully distinguished, otherwise they will accidentally become a member of the false rumors.
However, there are some historical laws that will never be obscured, for example, there must be a record of great rule after several major chaos in Chinese history, which fully shows that there are certain laws to follow in the change of the times.
In the more than 4,000 years since the Xia Dynasty, the land of China has experienced several great upheavals
It lasted about 550 years during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, about 2700 years ago, manifested in political division, princes fighting.
It lasted about 370 years during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern DynastiesAbout 1800 years ago. From the Yellow Turban Rebellion (184 AD) at the end of the Han Dynasty to the establishment of the Sui Dynasty by Yang Jian, there were Dong Zhuo's Rebellion, the Three Kingdoms, Sima Yan's establishment of the Western Jin Dynasty, which only survived for 51 years, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty established by Sima Rui later. The Western Jin Dynasty was still unified, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty was separated from the Wuhu and Sixteen Kingdoms.
It lasted for about 50 years, and the period of five dynasties and ten kingdoms, about 1100 years ago, the theme is political turmoil, the city head changes the banner of the king, in just a few decades, it has experienced five generations and ten countries.
The last big chaos is the ** period that we are familiar withIt lasted for more than 100 years, experienced revolutions, dynastic changes, civil wars, drove out Western invaders, and finally established New China.
Throughout every period from prosperity to decline, there will always be some common phenomena in society.
Historically, societies have often had the following common characteristics from prosperity to decline to chaos:
Politics is becoming increasingly corrupt, corruption is rife, power and money transactions are rampant, and the rule of law is chaotic and social justice is lost.
The economy is deformed, wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small number of people, the distribution is extremely uneven, the gap between the rich and the poor is beyond imagination, the people live in hardship, and they are extremely disappointed with the rulers.
Naturally, there was social unrest: law and order deteriorated, officials forced the people to rebel, and rebellions and uprisings were frequent.
Troubled times are easy to create ** moral degradation, uncertainty about the future, people will choose to pursue pleasure, and the social atmosphere will be corrupt and degenerate.
Of course, sometimes *** or external threats are also important factors.
The vicious circle formed by the interaction of these factors is a terrible force that will eventually lead to the complete collapse of the social order.
The specific circumstances of the great turmoil may be different in different historical periods, but these common characteristics reflect to a certain extent the general law of social change from prosperity to decline and then to great chaos in history.
It is not difficult to find that history always follows the law of turning from prosperity to decline, then from decline to chaos, and then from chaos to great governance.
Sima Qian chose to speak with facts, and he gave a detailed account of the historical events that took place from ancient times to his time.
At the age of 20, Sima Qian began to travel around the country, inspecting customs and collecting historical legends. This wandering had an important impact on his thinking and vision, and also accumulated rich material for him to write the "Historical Records" in the future.
In his life, he went through the three dynasties of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, and also encountered great setbacks in his life. The "Records of the Historians", written while in prison, has become an immortal classic that has survived to this day.
In the Records of the Historians, Sima Qian recorded the rise and fall of many dynasties, and although he did not directly mention the cyclical nature of the rise and fall, he also hinted at the trend of historical development.
Sima Qian described the process of establishing the Han Dynasty by Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, and mentioned: "The husband raised the cloth clothes, carried the three-foot sword, and finally unified the world, which was not something that could be done by man, but by heaven." ”
Here, "this is not something that can be done by man, but by heaven" is Sima Qian's sigh about the rise and fall of history.
Since, history presents a law, someone will study it! No, in the Song Dynasty, Shao Yong, an easy-to-learn master, showed his unique view of history!
On the basis of historical data, Shao Yong used his own theory of ease of learning and expounded his philosophical propositions through the analysis of historical laws.
Shao Yong's theory is roughly based on Confucianism, but it also integrates Taoism, Yinyangism and other ideas to form its own unique system.
Shao Yong was a follower of Confucianism when he was young, and by chance, he was inherited by Chen Jun, the founder of Taoism.
Shao Yong, who was proficient in easy learning, admired the Confucian concepts of benevolence and etiquette, and believed that the ideal state of politics was "the inner saint and the outer king".
At the same time, Shao Yong believes that the development and change of all things in the universe follow the laws of nature, that is, the "way of heaven". Therefore, it emphasizes the harmony and unity between man and nature, and advocates understanding the laws of the universe by observing the phenomena of nature.
Therefore, Shao Yong attaches more importance to the application of easy learning in practical life, ensuring that the national fortune is prepared for a rainy day, and daily divination is used to avoid evil (Shao Yong's poetry collection handed down, there are many verses about Zhou Yi), it is said that the unique divination method of plum blossom easy counting is left by Shao Yong.
In order to expound his philosophical ideas, he immersed himself in decades of hard work and wrote a masterpiece "The Book of the Emperor's Classics".
Because it is so obscure and profound, no one in the world can grasp its essence, so this book has become a wonder book to this day!
This book is divided into two parts: "The Emperor's Classics" and "The Inside and Outside of Things".
In this part of "The Emperor's Classics", Shao Yong uses his theoretical system to deduce the evolution of society and the change of dynasties.
He divided the history of China into 12 periods, each with different characteristics. In Shao Yong's eyes, the rise and fall of historical dynasties are regular. But how this law is deduced is an unsolved mystery.
In the book, he used a unique set of deduction methods, based on the yin and yang, eight trigrams, and sixty-four hexagrams of the Book of Changes, combined with astronomy, calendar, mathematics and other knowledge, to deduce the law of historical development.
The way to cut in is to "yuan, hui, yun, shi" as the chronological unit (1 yuan 12 hui, 1 hui 30 yun, 1 yun 12 generations, 1 world 30 years, so 1 yuan = 129600 years, 1 will 10800 years; 1 Yun 360 years; 1st century 30 years), the sixty-four hexagrams are assigned to the time units corresponding to yuan, hui, yun, shi, ten, year, and month according to a certain algorithm, so as to deduce the rise and fall of the dynasties and dynasties under the time unit according to the hexagram, of course, this model is for the Central Plains.
Shao Yong chose the period of nearly 3,000 years from the beginning of the Xia Dynasty in 2077 BC to the five dynasties in 907 AD to record the major events that occurred during the rise and fall of the dynasty, and these unusual things can be analyzed from the corresponding hexagrams.
The implication is that what will happen to the future dynasty can also be deduced.
For example, the first ten years of the Xia Dynasty (Qian), Hui Ji, Yun Qian, Shi Shoes, is between 2077 BC and 2068 BC ten years, the world hexagram is the performance, there is the meaning of king; The Yun Hexagram and the Ten Year Diagram are the beginning of the 64 hexagrams, so the Xia Dynasty was the first dynasty in China.
Another example is the decade from 1607 to 1698 (Ding), Huiji, Yundu, and World Travel, which was the time when the Xia Dynasty died and the Shang Dynasty was established. The Hexagram Volcano Brigade has the meaning of the spread of mountain fires, corresponding to the chaos in the last years of the Xia Dynasty; Ten years of hexagrams, corresponding to the Shangtang Revolution.
Shao Yong's ** system and principles are too profound for ordinary people, and they seem to imply deep principles, and it is difficult to get a glimpse of the truth, so later generations classify it as metaphysics.
According to this calculation, the ten years from 2014 to 2023 are Gu hexagrams, and the ten years from 2024 to 2033 are concubine hexagrams.
As a master of philosophy, the addition of these contents to his works is only to serve the philosophical views expounded in the later "Observation of Things", so the specific analysis method is unknown.
This is a different way of dealing with the laws of history in history, but if you look at the information, you will find some interesting phenomena.
China's territory is expanding and its population is growing. (All are the data at the time of the strongest).
Xia Dynasty: The land area is about 2.1 million square kilometers, and the population is unknown.
Shang Dynasty: The land area is about 3.2 million square kilometers, and the population is unknown.
Western Zhou: The land area is about 2.1 million square kilometers, and the population is unknown.
Eastern Zhou (Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period):
The country covers an area of about 2 million square kilometers.
During the Spring and Autumn period, the population was about 30 million.
About 40 million during the Warring States period.
Qin Dynasty: The land area is about 4 million square kilometers.
It has a population of about 20 million.
Western Han Dynasty: At its peak, the land area was about 6 million square kilometers.
Population: approx. 60 million (at its peak).
Eastern Han Dynasty: The land area is about 5 million square kilometers.
Population: about 50 million.
Tang Dynasty: At its peak, it was about 12 million square kilometers.
Population: about 80 million.
Northern Song Dynasty: The land area is about 2.8 million square kilometers.
Population: about 1200 million.
Southern Song Dynasty: Land area: about 2 million square kilometers.
Population: about 80 million (some say about 1300 million).
Yuan Dynasty: The largest land area is about 13.72 million square kilometers.
It has a population of about 90 million (at its peak).
Ming Dynasty: At its peak, the land area was about 9 million square kilometers.
Population: about 200 million.
Qing Dynasty: At its peak, the land area was about 13.16 million square kilometers.
The population is about 4300 million).
It can be found that the land area is a bit special in the Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, and the overall trend is that after each major chaos, it is a general trend of growth.
And the Northern Song Dynasty 2.8 million square meters of land 1200 million people, 2 million square meters of land in the Southern Song DynastyWith a population of 300 million, the population density is the largest.
But from the perspective of cultural prosperity, the life happiness index of the people in the Northern Song Dynasty is not low, or there will not be so many cultural boutiques!
It can also be seen from the changes of dynasties that each time it was regarded as a foreign race entering the Central Plains and settling in the Central Plains, and finally fully integrated into the Chinese cultural tradition.
It can be seen that there is no ethnic distinction in the concept of China, as long as you recognize and accept the Chinese tradition, then you are Chinese.
Of course. You can also find many interesting phenomena, such as every time there is a great chaos, there must be a great rule, the troubled times produce heroes, and there are always capable people who can govern the world at the right time.
No wonder Liang Qichao said, "Historians, the stage of heroes, there is almost no history without heroes." ”
Historical data may be discrepant, but compared to other sources, historical trajectories are the least lying.
In the process of constantly understanding history, we should look for the enlightenment of reality, instead of hollowing out our minds to make up some illusory so-called historical stories.
Marx said: "History always repeats itself, the first time it is a tragedy, the second time it is a comedy." ”
The reason why comedy comes after tragedy is because some of the lessons are painful and people can't repeat them!