cracked Houyi's password for shooting the sun: Why did Houyi shoot the sun? Has been misunderstood for thousands of years! Today I will try to talk about this historical issue.
seems to be reiterated: the Chinese mythology is underdeveloped, and has been tampered with by Confucianism. The necessary mythological researches seem poor because of helplessness, at least at a discount. Understanding mythology from the perspective of cultural subconsciousness is more real. The judge understands that this article is going to be a big talk again.
There are three ways of saying who Yi is. The first Yi of
, some people call Qian Yi, lived in the period of Zhuanxu ~ Emperor Yu, about 4600 years ago.
Data 1: "Wu Yue Chunqiu": "After the Yellow Emperor, Chu Youhufu... used the bow and arrow, and shot it without getting off; it spreads to Yi, and Yi teaches Fengmeng."
Data 2: "Mencius": "Every Mengxue shot Yu Yi...so he killed Yi".
Data 3: The "Complete Works of Lu Xun" explained "Yi" and said: "According to ancient books, there was Yi in the emperor's court." ("Ancient Book" is "History of Justice").
We believe that these data are questionable, at least not as reliable as Shan Hai Jing.
The second Yi, lived in the Yao and Shun era.
Data 1: The first volume of the Song Dynasty category book "Splendid Valley of Flowers" quotes "Shan Hai Jing", saying: "Yao Shi co-existed on the tenth, Yao made Yi shoot ten days, and fell to Wo Jiao." Later generations believe that the ancient "Shan Hai Jing" There is a story of Da Yi shooting the sun, but he was lost later.
Data 2: "Shan Hai Jing. Hai Nei Jing" records: "Emperor Jun bestows Yi Tong Gong Su Zhu to support the country, and Yi is the first to overcome the difficulties of the land." Emperor Jun, also known as "Emperor Shun"
. Data 3: "Huainanzi · Ben Jingxun": "When you catch to Yao, you will come out on the same tenth day, and you will burn crops and kill vegetation, but the people will have nothing to eat. 猰貐, Chiseling teeth, Jiuying, gale, sealing the worms, and repairing snakes are all harms to the people. Yao made Yi to chisel the teeth in the field of Chouhua, kill the nine babies on the fierce water, pay the gale to Qingqiuzhize, and shoot up. On the tenth day, I will kill Xiqi, break and repair the snake in Dongting, capture and seal the mulberry in the mulberry forest." The third Yi of
, Hou Yi, is the leader of a small country in the early Xia Dynasty—a poor country. This Houyi has nothing to do with shooting the sun, and certainly not Chang'e's husband. Later generations mixed up the Yi in front with him and said that "Hou Yi shoots the sun", which is wrong, it should be called "Da Yi shoots the sun". Since "Hou Yi" is a purely historical figure, I won't repeat it here.
was the first Qianyi who was good at archery and taught an apprentice named Feng Meng, who was later killed by Feng Meng. Such legends are regarded as myths and lose the dignity of myths. But this statement has at least one use. There was a god (man?) called Da Yi more than four thousand years ago.
This article believes in the "Shan Hai Jing". Here is a translation of the "Shan Hai Jing" section:
Dijun (Emperor of Heaven) rewarded Da Yi with a red bow and a white short arrow in order to help the world. Da Yi began to sympathize with the people and remove all kinds of hardships in the world. .
There is no record of Da Yi shooting the sun in the ancient "Shan Hai Jing", but the first volume of the Song Dynasty genre "Splendid Valley of Flowers" quoted in the "Shan Hai Jing" saying: "Yao Shi went out together on the tenth, Yao made Yi shoot ten days and fell Jiao.” Later generations believed that there was a story of Da Yi shooting the sun in the ancient "Shan Hai Jing," but it was later scattered. Then translate the original text of the Song people quoted the ancient "Shan Hai Jing":
There were ten suns shining on the earth at the same time in the Yao era. Yao sent Yi to shoot ten suns, and nine of them fell on Wojiao (the ancient book records as the East China Sea Dashishan).
The first Yi and the second Yi can be collectively called one: Da Yi.
Houyi shoots the sun should be called: Dayi shoots the sun.
What is the true meaning of Da Yi shooting the sun?
First look at the section of "Shan Hai Jing. Hai Nei Jing". Emperor Jun (Tiandi) rewarded Da Yi with a red bow and white short arrows to help the world. So Da Yi began to sympathize with the people and remove all kinds of hardships in the world.
Does helping "Bangguo" eliminate "difficulties" necessarily means eliminating drought?
Look again at the ancient version of "Shan Hai Jing": In the Yao era, there were ten suns shining on the earth at the same time, Yao sent Yi to shoot ten suns, and nine fell on Wojiao. The
section does not indicate that the shooting day is because of drought!
So who thinks that Da Yi shoots the sun because of drought?
is "Huainanzi"!
translate the paragraph in "Huainanzi":
when Yao ruled, ten suns came out together. The scorching sun scorched the crops, dried up flowers and trees, and the people didn't even have anything to eat. Jiao, Chisel Teeth, Jiuying, Dafeng, FengxunAll snake repairs come to harm the people. (So) Yao sent Hou Yi to fight for the people, went to the wilderness in the south to slay the chisel teeth, killed Jiuying in the fierce waters of the north, and shot arrows tied with silk ropes in Daze and Qingqiu in the east. Dafeng shot off nine suns, then killed the scorpionfish, cut the snake repairing in Dongting Lake, and captured Fengxian in the mulberry forest of the Central Plains.
Hou Yi eliminated those disasters one by one. The people were very happy and recommended Yao as emperor.
So why did the author of "Huainanzi" imagine Da Yi shooting the sun as a monster, especially a drought?
That is because: First, the author of "Huainanzi" took the ten suns for granted as drought and troubles caused by many monsters.
Two, why do you take it for granted so rashly? That is because the national cultural connotation and psychology have undergone tremendous changes! In other words, the people of the Han Dynasty can no longer understand the spiritual connotation of the people in the tribal alliance era.
Han has solved the problem of great unification. Compared with the era of tribal alliance, there are fewer wars, which can be called the era of peace. The first issue in the peaceful age is food and clothing.
revisited the people of the Han dynasty, and forgot, or misunderstood the biggest "hardship" of people in the tribal alliance era-tribal wars. A full man knows that a hungry man is hungry.
Even if the Yellow Emperor unified the world, local wars between tribes occurred from time to time. The problem facing Yi is the war among the eastern tribes.
War is just the surface. Behind the war is belief, which is totem worship. In the era of the tribal alliance, people have multiple views to worship, which is difficult for future generations to understand.
Rus Grand Duke Vladimir, after unifying the tribes, the first thing he did was to gather the gods of the tribes together, thinking that this would solve the problem of unity of hearts. However, the people who entered the temple still worshiped their own gods, and the alliance faced another division. Freund immediately sent a messenger to Eastern Rome and introduced Christianity as the Orthodox Church. The Russian nation was condensed.
The Romans captured a place, and the first to looted was the local idol. In the end, more than 30,000 statues were gathered in Rome. Catch the queen bee without worrying about the bees not coming.
Huangdi left after unifying the world. In order to solve the problem of unification of human heart, Emperor Zhuanxu gave the order of "Jedi Tiantong" twice to rigidly solve the problem of totem worship. "Jedi Tiantong" means: to prevent the people and tribes from communicating with God privately, that is the government's business.
In the Han Dynasty, the emperor had occupied the right of belief for a long time. Sacrificing to the sky has long been the patent of the emperor. How can the Han people understand how deadly the totem worship in the tribal alliance era is. Especially since the Western Zhou Dynasty, the beliefs of Chinese people declined rapidly, putting the issue of belief behind their heads, while the big man only knew how to use Confucianism to unify the people. Surrounded by human thoughts, how to understand the importance of divine faith. Therefore, it is natural to understand the shooting of Da Yi as a natural disaster. And because of the popularity of witchcraft in the Han Dynasty, it is normal to imagine Da Yi shooting the sun as shooting monsters.
So, what does Da Yi mean by shooting the sun?
Legend has it that after Chi You was killed, the tribes of the East were trapped in a long civil war, and the people did not live. Da Yi was ordered to take on the historical mission of unifying the tribes of the East.
So far, can we deduce like this: "Ten Days" refers to ten tribes; Da Yi shoots the sun, which means shooting down the totems of ten tribes, that is, shooting out the tribes that believe in different totems.
Da Yi shoots the sun, originally a partial version of the unified world.
There is no two days in the sky, no two masters in the country.
Da Yi shoots the sun, and there are also various folk versions. No matter which version, it is the same as "Huainanzi": the heart of the future will save the belly of the ancestors, and it will not hurt to stand and talk.
(Text/War Research Institute·Baozi)
Reference materials: "Huainanzi" etc.
