Historical blanksyears, what happened?
China, as one of the four ancient civilizations, is the only country with a 5,000-year-old civilization that has never had a major historical rupture. Tracing the memory of 5,000 years of Chinese civilization can be traced back to ancient times, such as the myths and legends of Pangu opening the world and Nuwa creating man.
However, this period of mystery, which lasted for 1,500 years, became part of Chinese history due to the lack of any historical records"Uncharted Territory"。
So, what exactly happened in this history?
The glory of the ancient mythological era began with the Fuxi clan and ended in the late Shang Dynasty. During this magical period, human beings prospered with the gods, and also laid a solid foundation for Chinese civilization.
During this period, many cultures such as Pangu opened the world, Nuwa created people to make up for the sky, the Three Emperors taught fire, textile, farming, medicine and other technologies, the battle between the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou Zhuolu, Houyi shot the sun, Kuafu chased the sun, and Dayu ruled the water.
Dayu's biography is located in Qi, opened"Home to the world"This history will always be remembered.
Although we are familiar with these myths and legends, their important role in the development of human civilization and culture from scratch is often overlooked. We tend to dismiss these stories as the imaginary products of the ancients, and ignore that the emergence of writing was relatively late compared to the development of human civilization, so the early historical records were mostly passed down by word of mouth rather than written documents.
These myths and legends are actually valuable records of early human history, which are worthy of our in-depth excavation and understanding.
Before the Shang Dynasty, no written cultural relics or documents have been found in China (there are Shang Dynasty oracle bone inscriptions and Zhou Dynasty documents). According to the definition of the "Outline of the History of the Chinese", only if there are cultural relics or written records that can truly reflect the social conditions of the time, this era can be called the era of letter history.
Therefore, until the era of China's true letter history arrives, we can only rely on myths and legends to fill this historical gap.
Therefore, myths and legends cannot be relied upon solely to prove historical facts, nor can they be used as a substitute for historical facts. There is a period of 1,500 years in the history of our country, and there is a lack of historical records available for reference, which is called the "historical blank period".
This blank period mainly covers the Three Emperors and Five Emperors and the Xia, Shang and Zhou eras.
Although the seeds of civilization in this period have long since broken through the ground and bloomed into brilliant flowers, they have never been officially recognized in written records, resulting in the lack of due recognition in the international community.
Still, we are more concerned with this mysterious history, which is full of myths, where real years and dreams are intertwined, and there may be some untold stories hidden in between.
By studying the materials of scholars at home and abroad, we try to unravel the mystery of this history full of suspicion from the subtle clues.
In the records and research of ancient books, the Three Emperors and the Five Emperors are considered to be the era of the flood and famine in the Chinese mythological era. Among them, Fuxi is regarded as a representative of fishing and hunting civilization. He used his wisdom to create divination gossip according to the changes of all things in heaven and earth, solved the problem of "knotted rope memorization" for human beings, and created the history of written records.
In addition, he pioneered the use of rope to weave nets for bird hunting and used to teach fishing and hunting skills to people.
The Suiren clan got its name from drilling wood to make fire and striking flint to make fire. His invention changed the history of human hair and blood drinking, and ushered in a new era of steamed and cooked food. This change in lifestyle has played an immeasurable role in the healthy development and reproduction of human beings, and has had a profound impact on the production and life of future generations.
Similarly, Shennong's is also the source of the agricultural culture of our Chinese nation. He was the first tribe to shift from fishing and hunting culture to farming, and his creations had a profound impact on China's agricultural culture.
After the Three Emperors, history entered the period of the Five Emperors. According to the "Historical Records", the five emperors were the Yellow Emperor, Zhuan Xu, Emperor Yu, Yao, and Shun, and their deeds were recorded in the "Five Emperors Benji".
Among them, in the process of expanding the territory, the Yellow Emperor had a fierce battle with the Yan Emperor in the Banquan area. After three fierce battles, the Yellow Emperor finally succeeded in seizing the symbol of the Yandi tribe.
After the Battle of Hanquan, Emperor Yan surrendered to the Yellow Emperor with pleasure and sincerity, promising not to compete with him again. The Yellow Emperor, the Yan Emperor and some of their respective tribes formed an alliance, and a new type of alliance that surpassed the form of a family tribal alliance began to take shape.
Thus, the leadership of the Yellow Emperor was established, and the prelude to the heroic era was also opened. This battle had a profound impact on the history of Chinese civilization, promoted the process of national unification, and triggered epoch-making changes in China's political system.
Then, there was a mysterious battle that led to a major change, and that was the battle for the deer. The original intention of this war was to fight for the Central Plains, which was suitable for farming.
At first, Chiyou marched west and defeated Emperor Yan, who appealed to the Yellow Emperor for help, and eventually the two sides joined forces to defeat Chiyou in the Battle of Zhulu. This war had a profound impact on the transformation of the ancient Chinese people from a primitive society to a civilized society.
In the Great War, many legends were born, such as the Yellow Emperor with the help of a guide car and Ying Long, and Chiyou showed his magical powers. However, due to the lack of written records, these stories inevitably mixed a large number of fairy and demon elements in people's transmission, resulting in some exaggerations and myths.
In any case, the wars of the Five Emperors continued to push the progress of civilization. However, a sudden flood from the sky temporarily stopped the spread and development of civilization in the land of the Five Emperors.
Yu Zhishui built a great cause, after 9 years of success. During the reign of Emperor Yao, natural disasters were frequent, and floods were particularly severe. In order to solve this problem, Emperor Yao sent Kun to deal with the problem, but the "blocking method" adopted by Kun did not achieve the desired effect, but instead aggravated the flood disaster.
However, Kun's son, Yu, took over the task of controlling the floods, and after years of hard work, he finally succeeded in quelling the floods and establishing a solid state.
During the Five Emperors, when the tribal leaders grew old, they would cede the throne to those who had talents in the tribe. For example, after Yao's reign ended, he ceded the throne to Shun because Shun was a ruler with means and decisiveness.
However, when Kun was unable to solve the flood problem for 9 years, Shun lost patience with him and sentenced him to death.
In the process of dealing with the floods, Yu learned a lesson from his father Kun, and changed his way of governing, he changed the past"Blocked"way, changed to"Sparse"In a way that makes the river management in an orderly manner, it is also cast"Kyushu Ding"Come and guard the waters.
This achievement of water control made Yu gain prestige among the tribe. As Shun grew old, he gave up the position of leader to Yu. The alternation of the three tribal leaders of Yao, Shun and Yu gradually established the prototype of the dynasty.
Under Yu's leadership, the ethnic group grew stronger, and with the increase of productivity, the slave society had begun to take shape. When Yu died of old age, he put his carefully cultivated Qi on the throne, thus opening the Xia Dynasty era of "family world".
After the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, myths and legends seemed to disappear without a trace, and the historical facts of the entire era of the Xia Dynasty almost fell into a complete blank state.
In order to prove the authenticity of the Xia Dynasty and prevent the thousands of years of Chinese history from becoming "water without a source and a tree without roots", Chinese historians have worked tirelessly to find the "Xia Ruins".
In April 1959, Xu Xusheng, a historian who had devoted his life to the study of ancient history, set out from Beijing and went to Henan, Shanxi and other places to find "summer ruins". However, he was 71 years old at the time.
Xu Xusheng's team encountered severe traffic conditions during the expedition, and needed to change to a bumpy carriage or ride a small donkey to hurry. Their diet is also extremely simple, mainly based on noodles made from ground sweet potatoes into powder.
After a month of intensive investigation, they discovered more than 20 ruins in western Henan, the most important of which was the site located in Yanshi Erlitou Village. Despite the difficult journey, these efforts have made important contributions to archaeology.
More than 100 cultural sites have been discovered, of which more than a dozen have been officially excavated. With the continuous deepening of archaeology, the ruins of this capital city that has been dormant for more than 3,000 years continue to bring surprises and become the key to unlocking the ancient civilization.
The ruins of Yanshi Erlitou in Henan have finally unveiled the mystery of the ancient summer capital.
Although no oracle bone inscriptions related to the Xia Dynasty have been unearthed at the Erlitou site, it has been confirmed that it is the capital site of the middle and late Xia Dynasty, which has been widely recognized by the academic community. At the same time, in the Zhongqiao site in the south of Shayang County, Hubei Province, a layer of ancient flood layer of considerable thickness was found, and after carbon 14 determination, it was found that its age coincided with the period of Dayu's flood control.
In the late Neolithic period in the Jianghan Plain and its surrounding areas, ancient flood layers have also been found in the cultural accumulation layers of the Xiedundun site in Macheng and the Liulinxi site in Zigui.
Tianmen Sanfangwan ruins, Shashi Lijiatai ruins, Songzi osmanthus tree ruins, Jiangling Taihu Port ruins and Yichang Zhongbao Island ruins, etc., have found traces of floods, these residual signs, further confirmed the historical credibility of Dayu's water control.
At the same time, the existence of "Xia Ruins" also proves from the side that the Xia Dynasty was established after Dayu ruled the water. From the Xia Dynasty to the Shang and Zhou dynasties, this historical gap was as long as 1,500 years.
Welcome the Shang and Zhou era, and soon enter the ** era of messengers. The Shang Dynasty, which originated from the Shang tribe in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, was founded from about 1600 BC to about 1046 BC.
Due to Xia Wei's brutal rule, Tang succeeded in taking Xia Wei's place in the name of justice and established the Shang Dynasty. The territory of the Shang Dynasty expanded compared to that of the Xia Dynasty, and its territory stretched from Liaoning in the north, Hubei in the south, Shaanxi in the west, and the Bohai Sea in the east.
Although the historical records of the Shang Dynasty are not as rich as those of the Xia Dynasty, China's archaeology has made a major breakthrough after the discovery of the oracle bone inscription in 1899 and the scientific excavation of Yin Ruins in 1928.
To date, we have excavated about 100,000 oracle bones containing about 4,500 different scripts. These batches of unearthed oracle bone inscriptions have been confirmed to be the script used in the Shang Dynasty.
Thus, the fact that the Shang Dynasty became the first dynasty in China to have a written record gives us a deeper understanding of the history of the Shang Dynasty.
Although the words condensed by the wisdom of the ancients are still shrouded in a veil of mystery, because hundreds of thousands of words can only reveal the specific meaning of a few thousand words, and this meaning has formed a mature system after years of baptism, and it is still difficult for scholars to thoroughly understand it.
The history of the Shang Dynasty remained obscure, until an incident occurred during the Zhou Dynasty in 841 BC that filled the gaps in history with formal documentary evidence and announced the beginning of an accurate chronology in China.
The third slave state in Chinese history after the Shang Dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty ruled for a total of 790 years through 32 generations of 37 monarchs. The hard work of the two generations of monarchs, King Wen and King Wu, supplemented by the victory in the Battle of Makino, finally enabled the Zhou Dynasty to establish a solid world.
This regime lasted for eight hundred years, and they adopted"Ida system"to strengthen the rule, with"Split envelope system"to expand the territory of the Shang Dynasty, thus maintaining the status of the Zhou royal family.
After that, it passed again"The rule of Chengkang", which has stabilized the prosperous situation for more than 40 years.
In the later years of King Mu of Zhou, the monarch relied on his military might and began to wage war abroad, while at home he used excessive force to suppress those who did not obey them. They are too greedy and are not content to take advantage of the advantages accumulated by previous generations.
Eventually, the Western Zhou Dynasty ushered in a turning point at the end of the reign of King Mu of Zhou. In 841 AD, King Li of Zhou, the tenth monarch of the Western Zhou Dynasty, was expelled for his tyranny and injustice.
In order to maintain the stability of the dynasty, the Zhou royal family entered the period of "republican administration", which also became the beginning of a definite chronology of Chinese history. The twists and turns of 841 B.C. are the detailed records in the unearthed cultural relics "Bamboo Book Chronicle", and since then, there has never been a fault in China's chronicles, and since then it has entered a new era of semi-messengers.
In 841 B.C., the pages of history drew a strong dividing line on this page, providing strong evidence for the world to question China's long history, and at the same time providing a reference for China's precise positioning of the historical period before the Zhou Dynasty.
In May 1996, China launched the "Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasty Project". Through the study of historical documents, the excavation of cultural sites, the identification of oracle bone inscriptions and other ancient characters, the "Xia Shang Anniversary Table" was officially published on November 9, 2000, which filled the gap in the ancient Chinese chronology and made the history clearer and more complete.
Conclusion: In the 5,000-year long history of China, although there are some vague historical blank periods, China has never forgotten them through the connection between the cause and the effect and the previous dynasties and future generations.
Regardless of the specific form, these blank histories will not affect China's status as a historical power, nor will they affect the inheritance and development of Chinese civilization. Perhaps, it is the absence of these 1,500 years that fills us with endless imagination of the age of myths and legends.
With the unremitting exploration and research of historians, it is believed that in the future, the "blank period" in history will be presented to the world in a more complete and rich form.
1. "Unveiling the Mystery of Ancient History: The Interpretation of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors and the Authenticity of the Xia Dynasty's Existence" 2. "Exploring the Origins of Chinese Civilization: The Existence of the Xia Dynasty from a Mythological Perspective" 3. "The truth about Dayu's water control: an in-depth study" 4. "Exploring the Truth of History: Was the Xia Dynasty Real? "