Among the ancient ethnic groups in Chinese history, Qiang is a very special ethnic group, with the same origin and ancestor as Han , and appeared very early in Chinese literature.
The mainstream view of modern archaeology and linguistic research, 6,000 years ago, the modern ethnic groups who spoke Chinese, Tibetan and Burmese languages were likely to have common ancestors. At 5,900 years ago, the Han and Tibetan language family differentiated. At that time, the ancient Han and Tibetan people living in the Yellow River basin migrated eastward to become the later Han people , and the other migrated westward to become the Qiang people , Tibetan people , Burmese , Burmese , etc. Therefore, the Han and Qiang people share the same origin and ancestor.
In the literature, the Qiang people appeared very early, which can be traced back to the era of the Five Emperors. " Mountains and Seas Jing " records that " Boyi's father ( Zhuanxu master) was born in the Western Mountains, and the Western Mountains gave birth to the first dragon. The first dragon was born in the first dragon. Di Qiang . Di Qiang, begging for the surname." "Records of the Grand Historian" records that "Yu Xing in the Western Mountains and Qiang ". From , the Shang Dynasty has been recorded in historical materials, and the Qiang people are now one of the ethnic minorities in China.
However, what is little known is that as early as the Shang Dynasty period, the Qiang people, who share the same origin and ancestor with the Han people, had an extremely bloody past in the Shang Dynasty. The two regimes of Shang and Qiang have been incompatible for a long time. Oracle bone inscriptions revealed a cruel scene, which may be one of the reasons why Jiang Ziya defected to the Zhou people.
The biggest enemy in the middle of the Shang Dynasty - Qiang people
In the late Shang Dynasty, there were two biggest enemies, one was the Dongyi in the east, and the other was the Zhou people in the west. Dongyi was the first to rebel. Because it was approaching the core of the Shang tribe's rule, it was stuck on the route of raw materials such as salt, sea shells, bronze, etc., which led to the rise of the Zhou people. However, as early as the middle of the Shang Dynasty, the Qiang people were the biggest enemy of the Shang Dynasty.
Wuding is a talented and strategic emperor. He commanded the Shang Dynasty's army to fight south and north: he went south and went deep into the land of Jingchu many times, defeated Shuofang, Tufang, Guifang, jianfang, qiongfang, yifang, Bafang and other forces to the north and west, greatly expanding the territory and sphere of influence of the Shang Dynasty, making the Shang Dynasty a great country that started from Gansu in the west, ended in the east, ended in the north and desert in the south, and exceeded in the Jianghan river basin, including many tribes. It is known in history as " Wuding Zhongxing ".
According to oracle bone script records, the Qiang people in the Wuding era lived in the western part of the Shang Dynasty, and their main activities were in the western part of Shaanxi and Gansu today. The land was wide and the people were very strong. In the war against the Qiang side, Wuding mobilized 13,000 people at one time, achieved a major victory, and captured a large number of Qiang people, but only a few of them became producers. Others, from Fang Bo to ordinary Qiang people, acted as "human animals" dedicated to the gods in the frequent sacrifices of Shang Wang .
The Qiang character in oracle bone inscriptions - reflecting the changes in the relationship between Shang and Qiang
What was the attitude of the Shang Dynasty towards the Qiang people? Through the oracle bone inscriptions, we can also see a very cruel scene at that time. There are four ways to write the word Qiang in the oracle bone inscription (see the picture below). The fourth type is the pictographic image of a person wearing a sheep horn headdress, and the original meaning is "the sheep shepherd".
However, the characters Qiang (1-3) in the early oracle bone inscriptions also added some ropes or torture instruments to the shape of the characters. Behind it is that during the Shang and Qiang War, a large number of Qiang people became prisoners of the Shang Dynasty, so the characters Qiang appeared. Based on the relevant content of oracle , the Qiang people who added ropes or torture instruments were the worst period of Shang and Qiang relations, and their fate was conceivable tragic.
Perhaps, the protracted confrontation and war were unbearable for Shang and Qiang, and Shang and Qiang achieved reconciliation to a certain extent. Therefore, the oracle bone inscription Qiang (picture below, the fourth type) in the late Shang Dynasty had no ropes or torture instruments.
The huge Qiang tribe - the Ji surname Jiang surname may all be Qiang people
The Qiang tribe is very large, with many internal tribes and no unified regime has been formed. Rongdi, Xianling, Shaodang, Beishang, Beihe, Wuhe, Wu, Ganlang, Zhong, etc., they can all be called Qiang people. However, what is little known is that the Ji surname Jiang surname may all be from Qiang.
The same tribe as "Qiang" is "Jiang" (see picture A above in oracle bone inscriptions). A pair of sheep horns on the top and a woman in the bottom has been recognized as the character "Jing". Regarding this word, it is generally believed that the original meaning of Qiang and Jiang are both Qiang people, but they are just different in genders. "Qiang" is a male Qiang person, and "Jiang" is a female Qiang person. Later, as a nation, it is called "Qiang" and as a surname, it is called "Jiang". Therefore, Jiang Ziya is an absolute Qiang person.
The famous modern historian Tong Shuye believes that: "The 'Jiang' is 'Qian', the 'Ji' is 'Di', and the 'Ji Jiang' is 'Di'." The so-called "Di Qiang" is a branch of the Qiang people. After the Han and Jin Dynasties, the Di Qiang gradually diverted and became another ethnic group between the Han and Qiang people. According to various information, it is not appropriate to say that the Zhou people originated from "Huaxia", or the Zhou people originated from "Rong Di", both of which are not appropriate. To be more precise, the Zhou people were tribes from the west, and were closer to the Qiang people in the Shang Dynasty and the Rong Di in the Zhou Dynasty in the Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, Ji Zhou may have been the "Di Qiang", not the relatively pure Qiang people at that time.
Shang and Zhou wars - the continuation of Shang and Qiang wars?
In the middle and late Shang Dynasty, there was a serious division within the Qiang people, and some began to farm and some continued to grazle. Therefore, the Qiang people who farmed gradually merged with China and were accepted by the Shang Dynasty, and eventually became part of China.
For example, , located in western Shanxi, , the homeland of Jiang Ziya, settled and farming, which was an important barrier to the western part of the Shang Dynasty. In the oracle bone inscriptions, the Shang king was concerned about whether the Lu Kingdom "accepted the year" (whether the harvest was good or not); but some Qiang people continued to grazle. Gu Gong, Tanfu moved to Qi because of the invasion of Di Rong, which can be regarded as a dispute within the Qiang people to some extent.
After Gu Gong moved to Qi, he quickly married the Qiang people. His wife was called " Taijiang ", and thus he gained a firm foothold from a fugitive tribe in Qishan . Because the Shang Dynasty needed the Zhou people to resist Di Rong in the north, they supported the Zhou people. The wife of the third son of Gu Gong, " Tairen ", was the descendant of Wu Ding's eldest son, Zuji . In the end, the Zhou people integrated the Qiang people's forces and, with the support of the Shang Dynasty, grew into the western hegemony in just a few decades.
Therefore, Jiang Ziya and Lu Guo later defected to the Zhou people, both obeying the general trend and closely related to their identity as Qiang people. After all, the Qiang people had a bloody past with the Shang Dynasty before.
can be seen. In a sense, the Shang and Zhou wars are actually the continuation of the Shang and Qiang wars.
Finally, as for the reasons for the serious confrontation between Shang and Qiang, the author believes that it is related to the production methods of both sides. The Qiang people are nomadic economy and are naturally aggressive, while the Shang Dynasty is an agricultural economy. Therefore, it is probably because the Qiang people continue to invade and rob, which arouses the anger and counterattack of the Shang Dynasty . When some Qiang people began to settle down and farm, the Shang Dynasty was able to reconcile with them and even accept them as vassal states. This scene is like the fateful war between the nomadic peoples in the north and the Central Plains dynasty in later generations. Therefore, the war between the Central Plains farming dynasty and the northern nomadic forces had already begun as early as the Shang Dynasty.
