The Battle of Zhuolu, this is a famous historical legend that Chinese people know. About five thousand years ago, during the patrilineal clan society of China, the power of the Chiyou and Jiuli tribe of the Dongyi tribe, which rose in the border area of Hebei, Shandong and Henan, continued to develop from east to west, north to the Central Plains, and joined with the tribe headed by the Yellow Emperor (Huaxia Group) There was a conflict. First, Emperor Yan fought with Chi You, but Emperor Yan was defeated. After that, Emperor Huangdi asked for help. So Yanhuang and Chiyou, the two big forces, started a long-term battle in the field of Zhuolu (now Zhuolu County, Hebei Province) for the land suitable for hunting and shallow ploughing. Huangdi first annexed Yandi's tribe (in other words, the Yandi tribe fled to the south), and then captured Chiyou. Because of the victory of the Yellow Emperor,
stood firm in the Central Plains and later became the co-owner of the Central Plains tribe. Its tribe was the Huaxia tribe, which gradually evolved into the predecessor of the Han nationality.
This is a classic statement about the origin of the Han nation. This statement is somewhat special: it has a mythological element, but it is not entirely a myth; it has a historical element, but it should not be a complete history. This should be a story that was gradually formed by word of mouth from Chinese ancestors in ancient times. The story should initially reflect a certain period of history, but after a long period of time, it became distorted and formed the current version. So, can we use these stories to speculate on the original state of history? How did the Han nation come into being?
First talk about the Yellow Emperor. The Yellow Emperor is a character between mythology and history. The earliest clear written record of the Yellow Emperor appeared in the Warring States Period. The earliest source is from the "Zigong·Shenming" in the middle of the Warring States period: "Zigong" I asked Confucius: "The ancient Yellow Emperor is all around, believe me?" Confucius said: "The Yellow Emperor takes four people who are in harmony with himself, and governs the Quartet. '" It is believed that the Yellow Emperor was recorded in the "Shan Hai Jing", "Zuo Zhuan" and "Guo Yu" that were written during the Warring States Period. After the Han Dynasty, the number of handed down documents increased, and the records of the Yellow Emperor also increased.
The system of worship of the Yellow Emperor was actually created by the Zhou Dynasty. According to legend, after the Yellow Emperor became the Central Plains Communist, 14 of his 25 sons were given surnames. These fourteen people received a total of twelve surnames: Ji, You, Qi, Ji, Teng, Bing, Ren, Xun, Xi, Xi, Yan, Yi. These enfeoffed sons later formed different tribes, and Shaohao, Zhuan Xu, Di Ku, Tang Yao, Yu Shun, and the monarchs of Xia, Shang, and Zhou were all descendants of the Yellow Emperor. The legend of
is indeed quite large: China is so vast, how could it be possible that the leaders of so many tribes came from one family? According to speculation, this statement should be compiled by the Zhou people. The Zhou Dynasty implemented a mature system of enfeoffment. In an effort to build the values of the tribes, the "Yellow Emperor" was constructed before the legendary leader advocated by the tribes. Such a role, as a common identity.
In this system, Chinese civilization was created by the "Yellow Emperor" from the Warring States Period to the Qin and Han Dynasties. The Greater China region gradually formed a whole, and this "Yellow Emperor lineage" was inherited. Even when Sima Qian wrote "Records of the History", after systematic compilation, a historical system with the Yellow Emperor as the head of the five emperors was established, making the Yellow Emperor the common ancestor of all kings and vassals, and a historical figure respected by the Chinese nation. In fact, "Yellow Emperor" belongs to a cultural symbol, and its prototype may be a combination of multiple tribal chiefs in ancient times. The same goes for "Emperor Yan" and "Chi You".
Of course, this phenomenon is not uncommon. It is impossible for any nation to have a clear record of its ancient memories. After all, there was no written word at that time. But these origin legends are not fabricated out of thin air, because these legends have evolved based on the history passed down by word of mouth. Combining modern scientific analysis of these historical materials, we can infer a general idea.
So based on scientific analysis, where did the Han nationality originate?
Han nationality
Han nationality is the main body of the Chinese nation and the largest nationality in the world. Its widespread distribution is rare in the world. But what is surprising is that through modern biological analysis, although there are certain differences in the genetic level of Han nationality in different regions, the differences are not large. Generally speaking, the Han nationality is relatively unified at the genetic level.
What is the situation? Is it true that the Han nationality really developed from the same tribe? In that case, the leader of this tribe should be the legendary "Yellow Emperor". According to speculation, the most likely reason is this: because some tribes occupy the wealthyIn the plains of China, relying on advanced agriculture, the population has increased rapidly. Therefore, despite the continuous conflict and integration with surrounding ethnic groups in the future, the absolute advantage of the population is maintained, so that the foreign gene flow cannot fundamentally change the inheritance of the entire Han. The structure is the same even after migrating to the south (the southern Han nationality and the northern Han nationality are relatively the same in paternal genes, but slightly different in maternal genes).
There is a saying that the Yandi is the Shennong clan. This may reflect that the Yanhuang tribe has developed agriculture, which forms a power advantage
. Then the problem arises. Legend has it that the Yanhuang tribe defeated Chiyou before occupying the Central Plains. The civilization formed in the Central Plains is the main body of Chinese civilization, but what about before? Where did the Yanhuang tribe originally come from? And where did the Chi You tribe go? The most likely answer for
is: from the Yellow River Basin in Qinghai, Gansu.
According to linguistic research, Chinese, Tibetan and Burmese belong to the same language family, namely the Sino-Tibetan language family. This in fact shows that these ethnic groups belonged to the same origin in ancient times, and the modern Han and Tibetans are indeed similar in most genes. The Sino-Tibetan language family has been confirmed in recent years to originate from the Yellow River Basin in northern China.
The primitive Xiqiang and the primitive Dongyi are both descendants of these Han and Tibetans
So when did these northwest tribes come to the Central Plains? This should be 5000-8000 years ago, after experiencing drastic population expansion, the primitive Han-Tibetans (Ancient Qiang) began to divide. One group entered the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and merged with the Tibetan natives to form the Tibetans; another group went south to Burma to form the Burmese; and There is also a loess plateau that moves eastward to the middle reaches of the Yellow River, and some continue to move eastward. The former is the Yanhuang (Xiqiang) tribe in the legend of the Han people, and the latter is probably the Dongyi (ie Chiyou) tribe. After
, the Xiqiang tribe on the Loess Plateau experienced internal integration, which is reflected in the Han people’s creation legend, that is, the Battle of Banquan between Yandi and Huangdi. In the end, the Huangdi triumphed. Later, they clashed with Chiyou. This may be The archetype of the legendary Yellow Emperor fighting Chi You; and the defeated Chi You tribes, some of them merged into the Chinese tribes, and some of them went south to merge with the indigenous peoples of the South, forming some ethnic minorities. The fusion of Huaxia and Dongyi in the Central Plains is the predecessor of Chinese civilization. For example, the worship of jade and dragon is the inheritance of Dongyi culture.
The "Huaxia" here is actually "primitive Xiqiang". Today's Huaxia civilization actually belongs to the "West Qiang-Eastern Yimeng League"
. But is Chi You (or the primitive Dongyi tribe) really a villain? In other words, is Yanhuang the absolute winner?
The fusion of the original Yanhuang (West Qiang) and the original Dongyi formed the original Huaxia. Today we are used to calling ourselves "the descendants of Yan and Huang", but we regard Chi You as a negative person. But in fact, many traditional cultures of the Chinese people, typical of which are the dragon culture, jade culture and the worship of Mount Tai, are actually the remnants of the Dongyi people. Dijun, Taiyi, Xihe and other mythological systems are also derived from Dongyi Jiuli.
A part of the Han ethnic group is still after the Chi You tribe, so even if the image of Chi You tends to be negative later, there is still a tradition of worshipping Chi You in some parts of the north. The Southern Dynasties Ren Fang's "Su Yi Zhi" records that Jizhou (now Hebei) has the musical name "Chi You Opera", and the people wear ox horns to meet each other; in the villages of Taiyuan, people worship the god Chi You. Qin Shihuang personally worshipped Chi You, one of the eight gods, and later emperors and generals often worshiped Chi You for blessing before setting off. This may reflect the surviving memories of some Dongyi elements of the Han nationality.
According to research, the surnames such as Zou, Li, Chi and Tu may be related to the Chiyou tribe.
Han Dynasty brick paintings The Yellow Emperor fights Chiyou
In other words, perhaps the Yanhuang tribe is not an absolute victory. In fact, like the Yandi tribe, a considerable part of the Chi You tribe is integrated into the Huangdi tribe. Chi You is also one of the ancestors of the Chinese nation. According to legend, the Yanhuang tribe (Xiqiang) and Chiyou tribe (Dongyi) actually had a considerable "primitive democracy" stage in the later period, that is, the leaders of the tribal alliance were elected by everyone, and they all had each other (the Five Emperors era). The "Xia Dynasty" was established until Jiatianxia. The Xia tribe belonged to the Central Plains tribe of the Xiqiang family, but the successor Shang tribe came from the Dongyi system.
However, it was the Zhou Dynasty that inherited the Shang Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty originally came from the west and was unprecedentedly powerful. It established a patriarchal system. When compiling the history, the Zhou Dynasty positioned its ancestors (the "Yanhuang" in the west). For comprehensiveThe victor of, and positioned Dongyi Chiyou as a negative figure, and built a whole set of Yanhuang system. Thus, history has become what we see today.
Author: Yun-Fan
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