China has a very long history. Five thousand years have passed by, and many dynasties have risen and fallen. With the rise and fall of dynasties, place names in various places will also change greatly. Many prosperous ancient cities in history have been forever buried by the sand of time.
During the Shang and Zhou periods, there were two prosperous cities, one was the capital of the Shang king Chaoge , and the other was Xiqi, the capital of the Zhou king. Where are these two cities in China now? What kind of rise and fall have the dynasties behind them experienced?
Destiny Black Bird Descended and Born into Shang
During the reign of Emperor Yu, a small tribe gathered in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Their leader was named Emperor Ku. One day, the emperor's second concubine Jian Di was taking a bath in the lake. Suddenly a swallow flew above Jian Di's head and laid an egg.
The bird's egg fell just in front of Jian Di. Jian Di swallowed it directly after picking up the egg, and then she became pregnant and gave birth to Qi. When grew up, Qi was given a feudal land and a merchant town because of his meritorious service in helping Yu control floods. Qi became the ancestor of the Shang tribe later.
At the end of the Xia Dynasty , the monarch Jie was dissolute and cruel. He oppressed the surrounding small tribes including the Shang tribe at will, which caused complaints from the surrounding tribes.
At this time, the leader of the Shang tribe was Sun Chengtang, the 14th generation of Qi. He was very dissatisfied with Jie's behavior and wanted to fight against Jie, but his power was still very weak compared with Jie. So Chengtang sent the country's prime minister Yi Yin to Xia with a large number of gifts to paralyze Jie, while secretly cannibalizing other tribes to expand their power.
Chengtang's actions attracted Jie's attention, and he sent someone to take Chengtang back to the capital of Xia King and imprisoned him. After Yi Yin and Zhong Hui found out, they sent Jie a large number of beauties and treasures in exchange for Cheng Tang.
After returning to China, Cheng Tang no longer held back. He united with surrounding tribes and began to fight against the unscrupulous Jie. Chengtang's resistance set an example for many small tribes, so more tribes chose to join Chengtang and resist Jie together. After years of fighting, Chengtang finally defeated Jie's army in Mingtiao, west of today's Xixia County, and established a new dynasty.
Chengtang learned the lesson of Jie's defeat. He implemented loose and benevolent policies on his subjects. The Shang Dynasty gradually prospered under the leadership of Chengtang, and slavery and the private economy were further strengthened.
Pan Geng moved to Yin Prosperous Chaoge
The Shang Dynasty experienced a total of 31 generations of monarchs. Due to natural disasters or internal conflicts within the dynasty, the Shang Dynasty moved the capital many times. Among them, the most historically significant move of the capital was undoubtedly Pan Geng's move to Yin.
PangengMore than a hundred years before Pan Geng came to the throne, the Ninth Generation Rebellion occurred within the Shang Dynasty. The royal families of the Shang Dynasty competed for the throne of the king, and the princes and subordinates from all over the world no longer paid homage to the Shang Dynasty. By the Pan Geng period, the Shang Dynasty's national power was no longer what it used to be.
In order to break the dilemma, Pan Geng chose to move the capital to Yin. Yin is located to the south of the Yellow River. The land is fertile and there is no need to worry about floods. Moreover, after moving the capital, it can better suppress the nobles in the court.
Pan Geng's relocation of the capital ushered in a rejuvenating lord Wu Ding for the Shang Dynasty. During Wu Ding's reign, he made great efforts to develop the economy, conquered many surrounding barbarian tribes, and the Shang Dynasty once again prospered.
Unfortunately, since the death of Wu Ding, the national power of the Shang Dynasty has gone downhill again. After Wu Ding, the social conflicts in the Shang Dynasty became more and more acute, and the level of the monarchs also deteriorated from generation to generation. The monarchs after Wu Ding were all drunkards who were born in deep palaces, grew up with women's hands, and did not understand the hardships of entrepreneurship and hard work. This situation was most serious in the period of King Zhou Emperor Xin.
King Zhou, like Jie in those days, was addicted to wine and debauchery. In order to enjoy his expansion of the capital, he renovated Yiyi in southern Yin and renamed it Chaoge. There is a poem that goes: "The song of the day is played at night for fifty miles, and the eight hundred princes are heading towards Lingshan." The sound of singing and dancing in Chao Ge can still be heard fifty miles away. Eight hundred princes came to worship at Chao Ge. Such a prosperous scene is still spectacular even today.
King Zhou's unethical behavior gave the Zhou tribe an opportunity to grow. In the end, the Zhou Dynasty army invaded Chaoge. King Zhou burned himself to death in Lutai , and the Shang Dynasty, which lasted for more than 500 years, was destroyed.
For a long time, people believed that the location of Chaoge was in Qixian County, Henan Province. However, the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasty Project in recent years has overturned this speculation. Scholars have inferred that the former Chaoge City was actually located near the Lutai ruins, probably in the south of today's Hebi City.
Huanghuang Great Zhou Posted in Qixia
The dynasties in ancient times changed in different generations. It was not a simple group of people overthrowing another group of people to establish a new dynasty, but a group of lowly tribes united to overthrow the dominant tribe. This was the case for the Shang Dynasty Xia, and the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang Dynasty.
Zhou and Shang are two different tribes. There are also fantasy legends about the origin of the Zhou tribe. The Zhou tribe originated from a tribe in the middle reaches of the Weishui River, and their ancestor was named Qi. Qi's father is the same as Qi's, both are Emperor Ku, but Qi's mother is different from Qi's. Qi's mother's name is Jiang Yuan .
Legend has it that Jiang Yuan went out one day and found a huge footprint in the wild. Jiang Yuan was delighted and stepped on the footprints. Jiang Yuan, who stepped on the footprints, seemed to feel some mysterious power and became pregnant inexplicably. She gave birth to Qi after ten months of pregnancy.
Qi was very good at planting when he grew up. The fruits, millet, beans and other crops he planted grew extremely luxuriantly, saving many people from hunger. When Emperor Shun found out about Qi's achievements, he specially granted him the fiefdom of "Houji". The Zhou tribe originally lived in Hedi, and later experienced two migrations.
The first migration was in the late Xia Dynasty. The leader Gong Liu could not bear the harassment of Rong and Di, so he moved with his tribe to Bin. Here, Gong Liu led the tribesmen to develop agriculture and establish city-states, laying the foundation for the future rise of the Zhou tribe.
After living in Bin for three hundred years, the Zhou tribe was harassed by Rong Di again, and the leader Gong Danfu had to move his clan again. This time they moved to Zhouyuan at the foot of Qishan Mountain. Therefore, the place was far away from the Eastern Central Plains, so it was named Xiqi.
After the death of Gong Danfu, the tribe leaders Ji Li and Ji Chang Ji Fa were hardworking for three generations, and finally destroyed the Shang Dynasty and established the Zhou Dynasty in Xiqi. Xiqi, which was the place where Longxing was established in the Zhou Dynasty, can still find its exact location today. It is in Qishan County, Shaanxi today.
Conclusion
The years have long gone, but history has never left. The weather-beaten ruins still stand between heaven and earth, silently telling the passing people of the past.
Chaoge and Xiqi, which were once prosperous, are now only ruins. Today, we can only imagine their former prosperity and glory from a few words in historical materials.
pictures come from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact us to delete it!
