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After King Wu destroyed the Shang, he summoned Gong Zheng (shì) to Northern Yan and established the "Yan Kingdom" here. Qin Shi Huang destroyed the Yan State when he unified the Six Kingdoms, so the Yan State was the last country surnamed Ji to perish, and it lasted longer than the Zhou Dynasty.
For thousands of years, people have been convinced of this period of history, but after the rise of the modern skepticism, the history of the Yan Kingdom has been questioned, and even believes that there was no Yan State at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, and the Yan Kingdom during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was actually built by Di Rong, in order to integrate into the Chinese lineage, so he found Zhao Gongxao as his ancestor.
Needless to say, this is an over-suspicion of antiquity, and modern archaeology has confirmed that the Yan Kingdom was in the Beijing area, so the credibility of Chinese historical books has once again been confirmed, such as "Western Zhou Kexuan (héIt is confirmed that King Wu divided Zhao Gong, and Zhao Gong sent his eldest son "Ke" to Yan to establish the country, and Yan was called "Kuang State" at that time.
The problem is: although it is not advisable to doubt the ancients, the history of the Yan Kingdom is indeed strange, because it has been interrupted for more than 200 years, and the historical records say that "since the call of the prince has been the ninth to the Huihou." Yan Huihou was the king of Zhou Li and the time of the republic", that is, the history of the Ninth Dynasty was interrupted, what is the reason for this? Modern archaeology not only confirms another history, but also explains the reason for the interruption of the history of Yan Kingdom IX.
Since the twenties of the last century, bronze straight-edged short swords of the Zhou Dynasty have been unearthed in North China, and their owners were judged to have come from western Liaoning or grassland.
Around the 90s of the last century, more than 600 tombs were found at the Jundu Mountain site in Yanqing County, Beijing, and nearly 70,000 pieces of cultural relics were unearthed, and about 1 bronze was discovered70,000 pieces, at least 2,500 years ago. Among them, in addition to the burial customs that are very different from the surrounding areas, a large number of straight-edged dagger-type bronze short swords unearthed at the site are also very different from the curved-edged bronze swords in western Liaoning and grassland, proving that it is a completely different culture.
More importantly, the bronze sword unearthed from the Jundu Mountain site was found to have a tin content only slightly lower and less sharpness than that of the Central Plains, and the overall content was slightly worse than that of the Central Plains, but far better than that of other nomads. In other words, the forces behind the Jundu Mountain site are very powerful.
The question is, is there any record of the forces represented by the Jundu Mountain site in the history books?
Historical records record that "above Tang Yu, there are Rong, Qiang, and meat porridge, and the giant hand totem of the mountain Rong is in the Northern Barbarian", so there was a Shanrong clan in northern China during the Yaoshun period, which was characterized by "shooting birds and beasts for a living" and "moving with animal husbandry".
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the historical records recorded that Shanjung was very powerful and invaded the princes many times, including the Jin State and the Zheng State, especially the Yan State was attacked by the Shanjung many times, and even moved the capital and asked for help from the Duke of Qi Huan.
Therefore, scholars believe that the Jundu Mountain site represents the Shanrong forces. The "Excavation Chronicle of the Zhoushanrong Tribal Cemetery in Shandong Province, Yanqing Military Capital, Beijing" of the Shanrong Cultural Archaeology Team of the Beijing Institute of Cultural Relics concludes that the archaeology of Jundu Mountain and other areas "has confirmed for the first time that the mountainous area in the north of Beijing was indeed one of the areas where a minority tribe in the north carried out Shanjung activities." "More importantly, the strength of Shanjung reflected by archaeology just confirms the historical records.
Zhao Gongzheng was an important hero at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, so he was divided into Northern Yan, in order to pass through the northeast direction, which belonged to an important feudal country in the frontier. But the history of the Yan Kingdom is miserable, the historical records slightly remember the Zhao Gong, and then it is "from the Zhao Gong to the ninth to the Hui Hou", and then the life of the monarchs of the past dynasties is only "a certain pawn, a certain stand", until the time of the Yan Zhao King did not become detailed. Among the great vassal states of the Zhou Dynasty, there is no other.
Regarding the strangeness of the history of the Yan Kingdom, the traditional view is that Qin Shi Huang burned the history books of the countries, and especially hated the Yan Kingdom, which led to the miserable historical records of the Yan Kingdom.
However, judging from the archaeology of Jundu Mountain, the interruption of the ninth period of the historical record of the Yan Kingdom should be related to the frequent invasion of Shanrong.
In the 70s of the last century, in Dongjialin, Liulihe, Fangshan District, Beijing, archaeological discovery of "Liulihe Ruins", through its first soil "Western Zhou Kexuan", "Violet" and other inscriptions, as well as the scale of the site, etc., can confirm that the Liulihe Ruins is the early capital of the Yan Kingdom, and the area where the Jundu Mountain Ruins are located is not far away.
During the Marquis of Yanhuan, because of the invasion of Shanrong, he was forced to move the capital to Linyi (now belonging to Xiong'an New Area, Hebei); When the Duke of Yanzhuang, the large-scale invasion of Shanrong, the Yan State was in danger and asked for help from the Duke of Qi Huan, and later the Duke of Qi Huan rescued Yan, and also destroyed the lonely bamboo and Lingzhi, thus preserving the Yan Kingdom. It can be seen that the Jundu Mountain site should indeed be the Shanrong force in the history books.
Therefore, the interruption of the history of the Yan Kingdom is very likely that the Yan State was embarrassed by the repeated invasions of Shanjung, and there was no time to record the deeds of the ancestors, or the relevant historical materials were lost, and the connection with the Zhou royal family was lost, and the ninth monarch was not recorded by the historians of the Zhou Dynasty. Due to the long-term invasion of Shanjung, the Yan State has been weak for a long time, so the "Warring States Policy" will say that "Yan is a weak country, and it is not enough to be afraid".
Regarding Shanjung, it is also related to a military revolution in ancient China, which led to the beginning of China's predominance of infantry.
Shanjung is mainly infantry and is mobile and flexible; The princes of the Central Plains were mainly chariot soldiers, and the plains may be able to compete, but they cannot be used in the mountains. Therefore, this caused a situation in which the princes of the Central Plains were passively beaten, and the Yan State was threatened by Shanjung for a long time.
During the reign of Zheng Zhuang Gong, he adopted the method of luring the enemy deep and ambushing and raiding to defeat the mountain army once, but the disadvantage of the chariot to the mountain infantry was obvious, so Zheng Zhuang Gong improved the arrangement of the chariot and the supporting infantry, and created the "Yuli Array".
During the Spring and Autumn Period, Shanrong invaded the Jin Kingdom many times, Wei Shu was ordered to attack Shanjung, and finally because of the rugged mountainous terrain, it was completely conducive to Shanjung and not conducive to the chariot soldiers, so he had to temporarily reform and turn all the chariots into infantry, that is, "destroy the chariots to do it, and the five times are three troops", and then achieved a big victory. Later, the hoplite "Wei Wushu" appeared in the Wei state, which was obviously related to the Wei Shu reform.
After many attacks by Zheng State, Qi State, Jin State, etc., especially after Wei Shu mainly used infantry, Shanrong did not appear in the history books in the late Spring and Autumn Period. Therefore, Shanjung is indeed a powerful force, whether it is the strength of Yan or the military system of Yan, it is difficult to resist Shanjung.
References: Where to find "Historical Records" and "Shanjung"? etc.