Farewell to the Siyi era

 

Farewell to the Siyi era

 

The wise man Agudengba's biggest hobby is learning knowledge. He wants to understand the world and society through learning, and truly understand the meaning of his coming to this world. He successively traveled from the Western Regions to India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar, as well as Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Tibet in China. After traveling alone for a period of time, he met Luo Wen, a knowledgeable retired teacher, and the two got to know each other. , the conversation was very pleasant. They talked about the history of the four barbarians under Sino-centrism, and talked about the Xirong, Nanman, Beidi and Dongyi.

Agudengba finally said goodbye to his old teacher Luo Wen. He originally planned to go to Qinghai and Xinjiang, but finally decided to go to the east, which was once Dongyi, and he started a new solo journey.

In the Sinocentric view of the world, the Han people in the Central Plains call themselves "China", but they disdainfully refer to the surrounding tribes or countries as the "Four Barbarians". The "Four Barbarians" are Dongyi, Beidi, Xirong, and Nanman. Dongyi was originally the name given to the eastern tribes during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.

In fact, the Dongyi tribes and the Huaxia tribes in ancient times coexisted, and they were both important components of the Han nationality in later generations.

Dongyi, also known as Yi or Yi people, refers to the people who lived in the Yangtze-Huaihe River Basin and the lower reaches of the Yellow River Basin in the pre-Qin Dynasty. During the Zhou Dynasty, it was called "Dongyi" and there were vassal states such as Xu State, Lai State, and Tan State. They are one of the ancestral sources of today's Han people.

However, in different periods, Dongyi refers to different connotations. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, foreigners or ethnic minorities living in the Korean Peninsula, Japanese Islands, Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan and Jilin Province in eastern China, such as Japan, Goguryeo, Fuyu, Korea (Sanhan), Haoqi, etc. are all included in Dongyi.

The Dongyi people have lived on the southeast coast since ancient times, which is today's Jiangsu, Shandong and other areas. Legend has it that Chi You was the leader of the Dongyi tribal alliance. During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, after many years of operations by Qi, Lu and other countries in Shandong, the Yi and Xia tribes gradually merged. "Yi" during the Xia and Shang Dynasties did not have a national concept, but was just a collective name for tribal alliances.

The wise man Agudengba led his donkey and walked alone on the mountain road again, but the figure of Chi You kept appearing in his mind. Chi You was the leader of an important tribe in the Dongyi tribe. As one of the ancestors of Dongyi, Chi You was regarded as the "Master of War" among the "Eight Gods of Qi".

The Chiyou tribe once marched westward along the Yellow River and had fierce conflicts with the Yanhuang tribes in the Central Plains. Although they gained power for a time, they were finally defeated. Legend has it that during the Battle of Zhuolu between the Yanhuang tribe and the Dongyi tribe, the Yellow Emperor captured and killed Chi You. According to Sima Qian's "Historical Records·Volume 1·Benji of the Five Emperors No.1", in the last years of the Shennong clan, the world was in chaos, with various tribes conquering each other, and the Shennong clan was unable to control it. Three forces gradually expanded, namely Huangdi, Yandi and Chiyou. The first conflict was between Huangdi and Yandi. The two sides fought three times at Banquan. Huangdi won and annexed Yandi's territory. Afterwards, Huang Di fought a decisive battle with Chi You in the wilderness of Zhuolu. On the battlefield, Huangdi sent Yinglong to attack, and Yinglong attacked the water. Chi You invited Feng Boyu Master to create strong wind and rain to destroy Yinglong's water storage plan. So, Huangdi invited the female slave to stop the storm. In the end, Huang Di captured and killed Chi You, unified the Central Plains, and replaced Shennong as the new leader.

However, "Yi Zhou Shu·Volume 6·Changmai Jie 56", which was written earlier than "Historical Records", records that initially there were two major tribal groups in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and their leaders were Chidi (Yandi) and Chi You. , among them Chi You was the leader of the Dongyi Shaohao clan. Chiyou launched an attack on Chidi, and the two tribes fought a decisive battle at the Zhuolu River. The Red Emperor was defeated and had no choice but to ask for troops from the Yellow Emperor. Huang Di and Yan Di joined forces, defeated Chi You, captured Chi You alive and killed him in the wilderness of Zhongji. Huangdi handed over Chiyou's tribe to Shaohao and established the bird totem worship of Dongyi tribe. The Yellow Emperor's power also entered the Central Plains.

Chi You was regarded as the "God of War" after his death because of his bravery and good fighting skills. Legend has it that Chi You was once sealed in Qufu.

Agudengba was walking alone on the mountain road and kept thinking:

Chi You and Yan and Huang were contemporary tribal leaders. Why do later generations only say that they are descendants of Yan and Huang, but do not recognize Chi You as their ancestor?

It is said that after the Five Emperors, the Yanhuang tribe in the Central Plains entered the era of Tang Yao and Yu Shun. The Dongyi tribe and the Yanhuang tribe coexisted peacefully, and their leaders took turns serving as leaders of the tribal alliance at that time.

By the time of Xia Yu, Yu was the leader of Yan and Huang. He initially appointed Gao Tao as his successor, but Gao Tao unfortunately died young, so he appointed Boyi as his successor. Boyi came from the Xuanniiao clan of the Shaohao clan. He was the leader of Dongyi and a descendant of Yanhuang. Because of his contribution to assisting Yu in controlling floods, he was given the surname Ying by Shun, and he was the ancestor of the Ying surname. At the same time, Yu appointed his son as a minister to cultivate his power.

When Yu died after ten years on the throne, according to custom, power should be transferred to Boyi, the leader of the Dongyi tribe. But at this time, Yu's son Qi was already full-fledged, and most of the princes attached themselves to him instead of Boyi. So Qi seized power and set a precedent for the hereditary system. Qi Huan established the Xia Dynasty after killing Boyi. The alliance between the Dongyi tribe and the Yanhuang tribe broke down, and a new round of dispute between Yi and Xia began.

After Qi's death, his son Taikang succeeded to the throne. Houyi, the most powerful of the Dongyi tribes, took advantage of the internal disputes among the Xia tribe to overthrow Taikang. After Hou Yi seized power, he appointed Han Zhuo as prime minister. In the end, Han Yun launched a coup and killed Hou Yi. Han Yun occupied Hou Yi's harem and continued to exterminate the remaining forces of the Xia tribe.

Hanzhuo sent his son to kill the exiled Xia Houxiang. Xia Houxiang's wife defected to her natal tribe, the Youyun clan, and gave birth to a posthumous son, Shaokang. After Shaokang grew up, he gradually collected the remnants of the Luoxia tribe, and finally destroyed Hanzhuo, basically restoring the power of the Xia tribe, which was known as the "Shaokang Zhongxing" in history. After that, Xia finally destroyed the Youqiong clan. After five generations of monarchs, Xia Fang defeated Dongyi and was able to regain its kingdom.

The specific relationship between the Shang Dynasty and Dongyi is still controversial. Generally speaking, a tribe named Qingqiu among the Dongyi people merged with the Yi people of the Shandong Peninsula. The relationship between the Shang tribe and the Dongyi tribe is still very harmonious, and the two tribes live side by side in Qixian County, East Henan. After that, the Shang tribe, which originated from Shaohao's Xuanniiao clan, rose up and eventually overthrew the Xia Dynasty and occupied the Central Plains.

When Agudengba was walking alone, he recalled what his old teacher Luo Wen said to him:

In the history of the Dongyi tribe, the most famous tribal leaders include Taihao Fuxi, Chiyou, Shaohao, Dashun, etc. The Dongyi people were originally only distributed in the mountainous and hilly areas of central and southern Shandong and the hilly areas of the eastern peninsula. Around the late Neolithic Age, the Dongyi people, under the leadership of Chi You, arrived in the northwest plain of Shandong and began to contact the Yanhuang tribes moving eastward. After the "Battle of Zhuolu" between Yixia and Xia, the Dongyi Group was forced back to its original position by the Yanhuang Group. Then the "Battle of Banquan" started between Yan and Huang. As a result, the Yan Emperor tribe was forced to move eastward and lived in the wrong place with the Dongyi people. Afterwards, the Huangdi tribe advanced eastward to the plains of eastern Henan and northwest Shandong, and established a powerful tribal alliance with the Dongyi people, and jointly created the initial Chinese civilization.

Taihao, also known as Fuxi, is the legendary leader of the oldest tribal group among the Eastern Yi tribes. His greatest contribution was to draw eight trigrams and create book contracts, which ended the ancient people's inability to distinguish between east, west, north, south, and spring and summer. The history of autumn and winter. ​​

Shaohao is the leader of both the Yanhuang tribe and the Dongyi tribe, and is the son of the Yellow Emperor. The Shaohao tribe is regarded as another branch of the Dongyi tribe that emerged after the Taihao tribe. It uses birds as its totem and is probably related to Taihao in terms of clan origin. The Xuannio clan developed into a powerful Shang clan that unified the Central Plains and a Qin clan that unified China. The Xuanniiao clan is the most prominent clan among the Shaohao tribe.

In the Shang Dynasty, the Qin tribe, which also came from the Xuannio clan, was appointed to govern all parties. The relationship with Renfang and other Dongyi Fang countries is also more harmonious than Xia. In the later period, the Shang Dynasty continued to fight against Dongyi, which consumed a lot of national power. In the end, the Zhou people took advantage of the situation and captured the Central Plains.

After King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang Dynasty, he divided the feudal lords into feudal states, including the Yi Kingdom. At that time, there were many Fang states on the Shandong Peninsula, but only a small number were recognized in the great enfeoffment of the early Zhou Dynasty.

The old teacher Luo Wen also said to Agudengba:

With the fusion of Dongyi and Yanhuang in the Zhou Dynasty to form Huaxia, after the Qin Dynasty, especially after the formation of the Han ethnic group, "Dongyi" was changed to a general term for foreign ethnic groups other than the Han ethnic group, such as the Korean, He, Fuyu and other ethnic groups. The scope of its recognition has also changed accordingly.

From Shandong, eastern Henan, northern Anhui and northern Jiangsu during the Huangdi period, it became the Northeastern region, the Korean Peninsula, and the Japanese archipelago during the Qin and Han dynasties.

In "Three Kingdoms·Weishu", Fuyu, Goguryeo, Woju, Dongyi, Sanhan and Yilou were included in "Biographies of Dongyi". Tang Duyou's "Tongdian" classified Korea, Silla, Japanese, Goguryeo, Liuqiu, etc. as Dongyi. In the Ming Dynasty, Yan Congjian classified Japan, Korea, and Ryukyu as Dongyi.

After King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang Dynasty, the remnants of the Shang Dynasty united with the Dongyi tribe and cooperated with the three governors to rebel against the Zhou Dynasty. Disintegrated by Duke Zhou. The Zhou Dynasty took the opportunity to develop its power to the Dongyi area, destroyed the Dongyi kingdoms Yan and Pugu, and established the two kingdoms of Lu and Qi to control the east. At this time, Dongyi still had great powers such as Ju, Lai, and Xu among Huaiyi. The survivors of the Shang Dynasty had the Song State; the survivors of the Yu Dynasty had the Chen State. During the reign of King Mu of Zhou, King Xu Yan was powerful in the east and his power was unprecedentedly powerful, but he was defeated by King Mu of Zhou. The Qin clan that had taken refuge with Emperor Zhou had also been divided into the Qin clan and the Zhao clan. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, they were never able to completely subdue the Eastern Yi. In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, they became even more passive. Yu Ding during the reign of King Li of Zhou Dynasty records that the imperial family of the Marquis of E suddenly rebelled and led the Southern Huai Yi and the Eastern Yi to rebel against the Zhou Dynasty. They finally won the battle.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Dongyi and Huaxia merged rapidly. After integrating most of Shandong's resources and population, Qi Huangong became the first of the five hegemons in the Spring and Autumn Period. While Qin dominated Yongzhou, Zhao also rose rapidly after the split of Jin, and the nobles of Chen also replaced the king of Qi. Among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period, three royal families were descendants of Dongyi, which shows that Dongyi and Yanhuang had basically merged at that time.

Now that Siyi has disappeared, we say goodbye to Dongyi and put an end to China-centered theory.

Agudenba sang a song "I Walk Alone" while walking:

 

I walked alone all the way,

Across thousands of mountains and rivers,

Traveling to countries in South Asia,

Explore human civilization,

Learn about world cultures.

 

I was thinking alone all the way,

Beginning to learn about religious beliefs,

From myths and legends,

Human nature is unpredictable, good and evil.

Destiny is all destiny.

 

I chanted alone all the way,

Hold high the national flag,

When will the war end?

Contempt the alien existence,

There is no peace in the world.

 

I sing alone all the way,

Money rules everything,

Power is supreme,

Natural and man-made disasters continue,

Who can save the world and benefit the people?