I found that this is a common phenomenon across regions and cross-cultural areas. Not only in China, but also in mythological stories including Japan, Middle East and other places have similar plots. Even ethnic groups such as Xiongnu and Xianbei that have entered tribal civilization will leave similar records in their own historical materials.
The only ones who live long in history books are Yao and Shun, and the five emperors all have a lifespan of 100 years. Huangdi "reigned for a hundred years and died at the age of 110", Zhuanxu "reigned for seventy years and died at the age of 98", Emperor Ku "reigned for seventy years and died at the age of 15", and with Yao and Shun, everyone lived to the age of 100. If you continue to chase the Three Emperors upwards, your lifespan will be longer.
In the Bible, from Adam to Noah, the average life span of the generations from Adam to Noah, and the life span of the generations afterwards continued to decline. By Moses and Joshua , it was the level of the Five Emperors. The first eight kings of Sumer reigned for more than 10,000 years, and then they were in power for hundreds to a thousand years. After , Gilgamesh reigned for 126 years, the numbers basically returned to normal.
But whether it is Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors or Jerusalem and Sumer, the time is too long and difficult to be verified. However, here can find several cases where clues can be found from other civilizations.
According to the ancient times and the Emperor's genealogy in Shuji, we can calculate it forward to conclude that the first emperor of Japan, , the Emperor of Kamiya, , was located in 660 BC, which was the era when Duke Huan of Qi was reigned. However, the credibility of this time is extremely low. On the one hand, archaeological research does not support the conclusion that the regime appeared in the Japanese archipelago in that era. On the other hand, a familiar scene also appeared in the Emperor genealogy, that is, various long-lived leaders, such as Emperor Shenwu, who was in power for 76 years, lived to be 126 years old. After Shenwu, there was no corresponding life story in eight consecutive generations of emperors, which was very similar to the fact that later generations added themselves to increase the years.
In fact, some people in Japan have long raised doubts. The first exchanges between the Japanese archipelago and the Central Plains dynasty were in . During the Han Dynasty, the Queen Himeji also offered sacrifices, and . The Five Japanese Kings who offered sacrifices during the Southern Dynasties can basically be confirmed as characters in the Emperor's genealogy. Some Japanese scholars believe that the deeds of Himemihu are very similar to those of the mythical master Amaterasu. According to Emperor Shenwu, who was descended from Amaterasu and launched an Eastern Expedition, he should be a tribe that crossed the sea from the Korean Peninsula during the Western Jin Dynasty. Some people also used Himemihu to correspond to the divine master in the Emperor's genealogy, and believed that Emperor Shenwu should be a person from the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Archaeological research has proved that the Japanese archipelago during the Han and Jin Dynasties ushered in two technological progress (i.e. the Yayoi era and the Kotom era), and genetic research has also confirmed that the main ethnic group of Japan came from the Korean Peninsula, so the "Shenwu Eastern Expedition" is indeed true. But no matter which statement, it is six hundred to nine hundred years later than 660 BC in Japanese mythology, so the elderly emperors in Ancient Times and Japanese Shukiji are "fake at a glance".
Wei Shu records that the ancestor of Xianbei Tuoba Liwei reigned for fifty-eight years and lived to be one hundred and four years old. Therefore, Tuoba Liwei is called the first longest-lived person of the Three Kingdoms by many people. But Tuoba Liwei's life span is full of doubts. For example, in Wei's book, it said that Tuoba Liwei's father-in-law Dou Bin died and his two sons supported Tuoba Liwei as the leader. The problem is that according to the record, Tuoba Liwei was 75 years old at that time. Could it be that Dou Bin could not even find a successor of a suitable age? Moreover, in Wei's book, Tuoba Liwei's father passed away, that is, the year when Tuoba Liwei took over was exactly the year when Cao Wei was established. Some scholars have long pointed out that this coincidence was intentional by the people who wrote historical books, highlighting the Tuoba's family's destiny to inherit the destiny of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, Tuoba Liwei's age was artificially improved.
If the Xianbei tribe is far away from the Central Plains and the doubts about it are still at the theoretical level, then the Xiongnu Han Zhao regime can be said to have been able to restore the process of its genealogy and age fraud.Historical records show that the founder of the Han Zhao regime, Liu Yuan, was the grandson of Yu Fuluo, the Southern Xiongnu Khan, but Liu Yuan's father, Liu Bao, and Yu Fuluo's death time were more than 80 years apart. Liu Bao began to serve as the Zuoxianwang after Fuluo, and at least he was already an adult. Historical records Cai Wenji was abducted by the Huns on the year of Fuluo's death, and then gave birth to two children to King Zuo Xian. If this record is true, then Liu Bao is Cai Wenji's husband, and his eldest son was born before Cai Wenji's return to the Han Dynasty. However, Liu Bao's eldest son Liu Yannian also recorded the fact that he was appointed as the Shangshu after Emperor Min of Jin ascended the throne. At this time, 106 years had passed since Cai Wenji's return to the Han Dynasty. Liu Yannian was really "Yannian".
Similar to this, the Secretary of Wei records that the Right King of the Southern Xiongnu Qubei was the grandfather of Liu Hu, the leader of the Tiefu tribe, and Qubei was Yu Fulu's uncle. He once assisted Fulu's younger brother Huchuquan. Therefore, Liu Hu belonged to Yu Fulu's nephew, but Liu Hu died a full 146 years later than Fulu. It is difficult to establish the relationship between him and his grandparents.
Historical records show that Liu Yuan's enemies often call him a slaughter of everyone, which shows that those who know the roots know that Liu Yuan was not from the Southern Xiongnu, so the group of relatives he recognized were basically fake. In fact, it can be seen from the name alone that Liu Yuan, Liu Hu, Liu Bao, Liu Yannian and others use the Han surname, which is not like the same person as the one who came from the Tuoshi family.
scholars also put forward corresponding conjectures, that is, the two tribes of Tuge and the Southern Xiongnu merged, and the leaders of Tuge who gained power were included in the genealogy of the Southern Xiongnu. Therefore, Liu Bao obtained the identity of Yu Fuluo's son and took over the Southern Xiongnu tribe.
In fact, the "one generation" of the Japanese royal family has been questioned. Many hidden messages of dynasty replacement are conveyed in many places in Japanese mythology. The actual operation is like the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and even the Han Dynasty The monarchs of the Huns all took the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors as their common ancestors.
Recognizing ancestors in order to declare orthodox status is not unfamiliar with us. For example, of the Sui Dynasty Yang Jian recognized the famous Eastern Han Dynasty Hongnong Yang family as ancestors, Chen Baxian recognized another famous Eastern Han Dynasty Yingchuan Chen family as ancestors. The problem is that Yang Jian's origin has been verified to be a soldier from the border of Northern Wei . The family tree of Chen Baxian has compiled twelve generations in just over two hundred years, which is too obvious.
When the cosmic general Hou Jing was elected as emperor, he wanted to establish the Seven Temples of the Emperor. His confidant Wang Wei asked him what his ancestors were named, whether Hou Jing was from a garrison or a member of the Jie tribe, and he didn't know who his ancestors were. He said that he only knew that his father was named Hou Biao and his grandfather was named. Finally, he found out from a subordinate that his grandfather was named Hou Zhou. No one knew what he had before. As a result, Wang Wei created a family tree for Hou Jing on the spot, recognizing Hou Ba, Situ of the Eastern Han Dynasty as his ancestor, and the famous scholar , Hou Jin, , in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, as his seventh generation. Every generation did everything he did was to have a nose and eyes.
If people like Yang Jian, Hou Jing, Chen Baxian who proclaimed emperors in the Han area had a large number of ready-made families to rely on based on the history of the Han people, then Liu Yuan, Tuoba, and even the ancient Han people and the Japanese did not have these materials, then they could only make up myths, add fuel to the stories of their ancestors, and create a bunch of gods.
A very interesting and worth thinking about case is that Fujian Lin family genealogy said that he had an ancestor who was Lin Lu, an Eastern Jin . This person was a descendant of Bigan . His family was originally in Jinan, and later moved south to Jiangdong. He assisted the Jin Dynasty with Wang Dao to fight against rebellion and became a veteran of the five dynasties. He was named a prince of a different surname by the Sima family, and even the specific birth and death year can be given. Although Lin Lu's related relics can be found in Fujian, such a powerful figure has no relevant records in any documentary and historical materials, so Lin Lu's story has also been judged as a "fake at a glance" series.
However, modern gene detection technology found that the Lin family in Fujian did have a common ancestor during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the time and the legendary Lin Lu were also matched. Therefore, although Lin Lu's story is exaggerated to a considerable extent, it does have its prototype.Genetic testing also found that the so-called Lin Lu family came from the north could not stand scrutiny, and the Lin family has lived in Fujian since the Han Dynasty. Based on these evidences, the Lin family in Fujian is actually a Fujian native family. After they became popular and developed, they integrated their family history into the history of the Central Plains, and at the same time made up the legend of Lin Lu. The case of
is quite typical. It can be restored together with the above cases to how people from later generations wrote prehistoric legends. Almost all of them are infinitely exaggerated based on the prototype, and then combined with the basic consensus in the culture they are in, and a prehistoric myth was born.
As for the age of prehistoric characters who live too long, there are many sources. On the one hand, it is to achieve the deification effect and give them legendary color. On the other hand, different prototypes are merged in later legends. For example, the three emperors are called XX clan. The stories of their possible leaders of several generations of tribes are concentrated on one person. Another situation is that the Tuoba family and Liu Yuan and his son created bugs in the process of deifying family stories and making up family genealogies, which made the lifespan of ancestors extremely long. However, those who randomly recognize ancestors like Yang Jian, Chen Baxian and even Hou Jing, as well as those who have compiled their ancestors in Fujian, have not been long and have a large number of documents at that time, so they cannot be imaginative and have relatively realistic age.
Finally, let’s talk about the case of the ancient longevity. Historical records show that Jiang Taigong came out of the mountain at the age of 80, assisting Wang Wen and his son Wu overthrew the Shang Dynasty. He was later granted the title of Qi State , working hard to govern, and assisting Gong Zhou and quelling the rebellion. He lived to be more than 100 years old before he died. In fact, some people have long questioned that Jiang Taigong was not that old when he came out of the mountain, because the records of his charge did not seem to be something that an old man could do, and the subsequent governance of Qi and suppression of rebellion might have been done by his son or even grandson.
Therefore, the eighty-year-old Jiang Taigong was created by later generations to deify Jiang Taigong. Later, the first monarch of Qi State merged the deeds of more than one generation, and finally created the well-known Jiang Taigong, who lived 139 years old.
