Chapter 1059 The Seventh Thought of Shanhaijing: Gun and Yu’s Flood Control, Which Cannot Be Covered by Dust

Dayu, surnamed Si, is said to be a descendant of Zhuanxu and the son of Gun.

The Records of the Grand Historian says that Gun is the son of Zhuanxu and that Gun gave birth to Yu.

But we take the Classic of Mountains and Seas as the standard, which says: "Huangdi gave birth to Luo Ming, Luo Ming gave birth to Bai Ma, and Bai Ma is Gun."

If you take this "birth" as giving birth to a child, then Gun is a generation older than Zhuanxu, which is obviously outrageous.

I said that birth does not necessarily mean a child, it may also refer to the derived tribe, and this sentence itself also expresses this meaning.

A branch of Huangdi's descendants gave birth to the Luo Ming tribe, and Luo Ming gave birth to the Bai Ma tribe. The Bai Ma may be the totem of that tribe.

I don't know what it looks like, but it is called Bai Ma. I guess...it may be the dragon totem. In ancient times, the white horse was the incarnation of the dragon. The eight-foot-tall white horse was considered to be a dragon.

In short, Gun was the leader of the Bai Ma tribe.

Translated from the perspective of the recorder, it means "the Baima clan is the current Gun clan".

I am based on the Classic of Mountains and Seas, so Gun is not Zhuanxu's son.

However, the Records of the Grand Historian may not be groundless. There is a saying that one of Zhuanxu's sons is Gun Zeng, who gave birth to Gun Zu, Gun Zu gave birth to Gun Fu, Gun Fu gave birth to Gun, and Gun gave birth to Yu.

In this way, Zhuanxu is Yu's sixth-generation ancestor.

Gun may be a posthumous title or honorific title. The leader of the Baima clan has been called "Gun" for generations.

Since they have been called Gun for generations, how to distinguish these generations of Gun? So the last generation is called Gun, the previous generation is called Gun Fu, the previous generation is called Gun Zu (grandfather), and the previous generation is called Gun Zeng (great-grandfather).

The son of Zhuanxu is Gun Zeng. Sima Qian may not have sorted it out clearly and directly recorded it as Gun, so he thought that Yu was the grandson of Zhuanxu.

No matter which statement is true, whether Gun and Yu are descendants of Huangdi or descendants of Zhuanxu.

They are all the bloodline of Huangdi.

Then the problem comes, their surname is not Ji, but Si.

Not surnamed Ji, obviously his ancestors were not legitimate sons, and were given titles outside.

You should understand after reading my previous extra.

Huangdi gave fourteen sons titles, twelve of which have the surnames: Ji, You, Qi, Ji, Teng, Su, Ren, Xun, Xi, Ji, Xuan, Yi.

Ji is undoubtedly the legitimate lineage, fourteen sons, twelve surnames, and what about the other two? The other two also have the surname Ji. Zhuanxu and Emperor Ku inherited them respectively.

So the Luo Ming clan in "Huangdi gave birth to Luo Ming" should be one of the other surnames among these twelve surnames, such as Ji (my guess).

Later, the Luo Ming clan divided a lineage of a concubine's son, and split off another Baima clan. There must be another surname to split off, so the surname is Si.

After that, the clan was passed down from one line to another, the tribe declined, and there was no more land to be divided, so the Baima clan never split off from other clans.

That's why Huangdi gave birth to Luo Ming, Luo Ming gave birth to Bai Ma, and Bai Ma was directly Gun.

If it refers to an individual, then this generation is ridiculously short.

So this must be a tribal division, and a new surname must be given for the division. Gun and Yu had the surname Si, but Si was not one of the twelve surnames given by Huangdi, so there must have been a division in the middle.

That time, Luo Ming gave birth to Bai Ma. So it just matches.

There was only this one division, so the distance from Huangdi to Gun is so "short".

It can be seen from the genealogy.

The Ji family was extremely powerful, and it branched out crazily from generation to generation, while the Baima clan, Gun's line, was always trapped in a corner. There was no great figure who could stand out in the past generations, so that for many consecutive generations, there was no expansion of branches, and the family was always a single surname.

Starting from the first generation of Gun, the surname has always been Si, and it has always been Gun this and Gun that, until Yu appeared and became an emperor, and was given the beautiful posthumous title of "Dayu".

Dayu is not a name.

His surname is Si, and his name is Si Wenming. There is no other way to say it, he has been called Si Wenming since he was a child.

In our opinion, this name can be said to be very well chosen. Wenming, what a beautiful name.

But this actually expresses Dayu's status as a child... a two-character name, which is a lowly name.

Since ancient times, single characters are respected and double characters are lowly.

This situation was a tradition until the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Five Barbarians Invasion of China. The more ancient it is, the more so.

For example, Emperor Ku was called ‘Kun’, Xia Qi was called ‘Qi’, Dayi was called ‘Yi’, Hou Ji, the ancestor of the Zhou people, was called ‘Ji’, and Cheng Tang, the first king of the Shang Dynasty, was called ‘Tang’.

The great ancestor Wang Hai, who was worshipped in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, was not called Wang Hai, but ‘Zhen’.

The Duke of Zhou was named ‘Dan’, Confucius was named ‘Qiu’, Qin Shihuang was named ‘Zheng’, Emperor Gaozu of Han was named ‘Ji’, Emperor Wen of Han was named ‘Heng’, and Emperor Wu of Han was named ‘Che’.

You may ask, wasn’t Emperor Xuan of Han called Liu Bingyi?

Yes, his original name was Liu Bingyi. When he was still in swaddling clothes and had no name, he was implicated in the witchcraft disaster and was imprisoned by Emperor Wu of Han. When he was four years old, he was pardoned and sent to his grandmother Shi’s family for upbringing.

Liu Bingyi lived a street life in the streets of Chang’an since he was a child. The throne had nothing to do with him, and he got a cheap name.

Who knew that the destiny was in his hands? After Emperor Zhao died, Huo Guang supported Liu He to ascend the throne, but he turned out to be a tyrant. He did 1,127 bad things in his 27 days on the throne...

The ministers couldn't stand it anymore, so Huo Guang decisively deposed the emperor, making him the Marquis of Haihun.

After searching for a long time, they finally brought Liu Bingyi, who grew up on the streets, back to the palace and supported him as the emperor.

The first thing Liu Bingyi did after ascending the throne...was to change his name to Liu Xun...

You may say, isn't Zhuanxu just two characters?

Zhuanxu is not the name of the Black Emperor, I have said this before, and the same is true for Yao and Shun, which are not names either.

Shun is a posthumous title, Yao is a posthumous title, and Dayu is also a posthumous title.

Note that ‘Dayu’ is a posthumous title, and Yu is just an abbreviation. He was the first person to use two characters to express a posthumous title. The more characters a posthumous title has, the better. In the pre-Qin period, posthumous titles were basically one character, and after the Han Dynasty, there were occasionally two-character posthumous titles. The Tang and Song dynasties began to be shameless, with posthumous titles of seven, eight, or more than ten characters. The Qing Dynasty was the most shameless, with posthumous titles of more than twenty characters...

But for names, before the Jin Dynasty, one character was precious.

I don’t know what Zhuanxu was called. Those who have read my previous interpretation should remember that I refuted the claim that Zhuanxu was called Qianhuang. I would like to add here that I did not mention the cheapness of having two names at the time. In fact, this is also one of the reasons. It is outrageous that Zhuanxu was called Qianhuang.

Similarly, Shun’s name is not recorded.

Considering Shun's humble status when he was a child, I guess it was a particularly cheap name, such as Yao Er Gouzi, which is probably the meaning, so it didn't spread.

As for Yao... According to the Book of History, Yao's name was 'Fangxun'.

'Fangxun' may be equivalent to modern names like 'Daqiang' and 'Tiegen'.

It's just that we modern people don't get the ancient point. If we have to say that there is any meaning, we can only understand it literally. The ancient meaning of 'Fang' is to exile and drive away, and the ancient meaning of 'Xun' is: to be able to accomplish the king's merits.

Put together as a name, it means 'expel merits'.

A typical cheap name, in fact, Yao's childhood was not good.

According to the Records of the Grand Historian, the eldest son Di Zhi succeeded Emperor Ku. Yao was just a youngest son. His elder brother became the emperor and directly granted his younger brother to Taodi. After a few years of development, he was transferred to Tangdi... So Yao was later Taotang.

Who knew that Tang Yao still developed, he had high charisma and ability, and his tribe was well managed.

Yao relied on his own reputation and other means, and his brother Di Zhi was too incompetent in ruling, so the princes of all parties abolished Di Zhi and took Yao back to inherit the throne.

His love of reputation may be related to his childhood when he was not valued by his father and brothers. (For details about reputation, please see the free extra chapter at the end of the first volume)

Back to the topic, before the Wei and Jin Dynasties, single names were used as much as possible.

Because the infant mortality rate was high in ancient times, children were basically born without names. Only when they lived a few years old would they be given a nickname, which was just used to call him. He just needed to know that he was called and could respond.

Fangxun, Bingyi, and Aman were all such nicknames.

If his father died before he had a real name, or his father did not value him and was too lazy to give him a real name, it would be a bit miserable...

Based on Shun's living environment since childhood and the degree to which his parents disliked him, I suspect Shun's real name was particularly weird...but we just don't know it.

In short, from the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties to the Qin and Han Dynasties, and even the early Jin Dynasty, single names were valued.

Only some people in the Yellow Turban Army had double names. The only noble born in the Three Kingdoms who was given a double name was Sun Shangxiang... and she was not actually recorded in the official history, and the earliest one came from Yuan Zaju.

In summary, Dayu's name was Si Wenming, which sounds very domineering, but it was actually a cheap name at the time.

The ancient meaning of "wen" is pattern or tattoo, and "ming" means order, but it is more emphasized than order. Later, it was extended to Tianming (the order of heaven). People live to execute Tianming, and when people die, they are dead (God no longer gives you orders, you don't have to exist). Then it was derived to mean life span and life, and it originally meant order.

So Wenming seems to mean that he has a tattoo on his body (I guess), or it may mean that the mission is engraved on his body.

His father died when he was very young, and it is estimated that the elders of the clan gave him this name. To put it more romantically, it means that the mission of revitalizing the family is engraved on him.

Why the elders did not give him a single name is related to the humble status of his entire family when he was a child.

According to the Zhou Dynasty, Gonggong, Sanmiao, Gun and Huandou were the four sinners.

That is, the four sinners in ancient times. To put it bluntly, the exiled people, the whole tribe was labeled as sinners and excluded from the edge of the entire Yanhuang cultural circle.

The "Zuo Zhuan" of the Spring and Autumn Period: "Exiled Gonggong to Youzhou, exiled Guandou to Chongshan, moved Sanmiao to Sanwei, and killed Gun at Yushan. '

Gonggong was guilty. He once competed with Zhuanxu for the throne and often broke the dike to release floods.

The Guandou clan was also guilty. It is said that they were the Danzhu clan. After being driven off the throne by the people, he and his clansmen probably did not obey Shun.

But there is no direct evidence to prove that Guandou is Danzhu. This is enough, I will not discuss it.

You all know Sanmiao, the descendants of Jiuli, have always been a sinner. The emperors of all dynasties have been integrating them. There was a major breakthrough in Shun's period, and Sanmiao was pacified. In Yu's period, Sanmiao was completely integrated into the Yanhuang system.

The last one is the Gun clan. The crime was: they stole the emperor's Xiran with their clan members, and filled the flood without waiting for the emperor's order. As a result, they were beheaded and the whole clan was exiled.

The four crimes and four evil deeds are too long to be discussed in the Shanhaijing. I will talk about them later.

In short, the Gun clan was passed down from generation to generation, and the last generation of King Gun was Yu's father.

His failure to control the flood directly led to Yu being an exile with a low social status since childhood. At a young age, Yu carried the fate of the Baima clan.

Of course, he was much better than the real pariahs of that era. He had an aristocratic surname given by his ancestors: Si.

There was also a name given by a very cultured clan elder: Wenming.

At least in our opinion, it sounds very nice and cultural. So Yu belongs to a family of downtrodden nobles, not a real pariah, but has a family background.

So what is Yu's achievement in ascending the throne? I think no one knows: Dayu's flood control.

Before talking about Dayu's flood control in Shanhaijing, as usual, we will go back in time.

This time, we will go back more, because in modern times, Yu and the Xia Dynasty have been controversial.

Although the general public recognizes the existence of the Xia Dynasty, the skeptics do not think so, and international scholars do not recognize it.

In modern times, Gu Jiegang of the Republic of China believed that Dayu was a worm, a cultural symbol on the tripod during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and that this person did not actually exist.

He believed that Dayu's flood control was a myth, a god compiled by the Zhou people, not a person, and the prototype was the worm-shaped pattern on the tripod of the Shang Dynasty.

If Dayu did not exist, then the Xia Dynasty did not exist.

His argument mainly revolves around "Shuowen": Yu is a worm.

Later, the skeptics even added an extra word and said that Yu was a worm.

I'm convinced. The pictograph of the word "Yu" is indeed a worm. I also mentioned this in the plot of "Non-Human" where the Amon civilization influenced the Egyptian civilization, when I described the ancient Egyptian totem as Yinglong, which assisted the Yellow Emperor in defeating Chiyou.

In addition, there are indeed many worm-shaped patterns on the tripods of the Shang Dynasty.

However, the worm-shaped patterns of the Shang and Zhou dynasties all have legs! And the more legs, the more noble they are.

After all, it is very abstract, and it can be said that it is a worm or a dragon.

"Shuowen" only explains the word, not the person "Dayu". Yu's posthumous title is Dayu, and the word "Da" is very important. The ancients liked to abbreviate it, which really saved trouble.

The big insect is not an insect. The leader of the scaled insect is the dragon.

This is a posthumous title, not Yu's name. Using this to deny the existence of Yu and saying that it was the Zhou people's conjecture and deification of the Shang tripod pattern is completely nonsense.

This is like... using Kangxi's posthumous title "Emperor Tianhongyun Wenwu Ruizhe Gongjian Kuanyu Xiaojing Chengxin Zhonghe Gongde Dachengren" to deny Kangxi's existence, believing that this emperor was an extension and deification of some virtues in the Qing Dynasty edicts by the people of the Republic of China, and that there was actually no such emperor... Then the Qing Dynasty was also a non-existent dynasty, and scholars of the Republic of China compiled a feudal dynasty.

I have seen and heard more than once that some people use the statements of international academic circles and foreign scholars to deny the Xia Dynasty.

I think most people have heard that "In fact, my country has only a history of 3,000 years, and there is no archaeological evidence of the Xia Dynasty."

I have heard this so many times.

It's 2020, and no one still believes this, right?

First, there is indeed no archaeological evidence of the country "Xia".

But it is wrong to have only 3,000 years of civilization history. There is no cultural relic to prove the Xia Dynasty, but there are already countless cultural relics to prove the "Xia Dynasty".

That is, there was civilization in that era, and both the Erlitou and Liangzhu sites have been successfully applied for World Heritage status. The period when Erlitou existed covered the period of the Xia Dynasty in the literature. Liangzhu existed longer than the Xia Dynasty.

There is no stone hammer because there is no written carrier preserved.

Oracle bone script is a very mature script with more than 5,000 characters. Did it suddenly appear? There must be another pictographic script before it.

Some people say, why is there no mention of the Xia Dynasty among so many oracle bones in Yinxu?

It is very simple. First of all, at the beginning, even the word "Xia" was not found, so some people said how could there be no word Xia in the oracle bone script? So there was no Xia Dynasty.

Later, the word "Xia" was found, and the pictographic image was a scorching sun hanging high, and a person kneeling in the sun.

It can be seen that the doubters of the ancients are also being slapped in the face...

But to be honest, because the oracle bone script only wrote "Shi Xia", it is indeed not possible to say that Xia is a country.

However, only 30% of the oracle bone script has been deciphered... There are still a large number of oracle bones that have not been sorted and deciphered. I think it is normal that 30% does not mention "Xia".

Secondly, Yinxu was the capital of the middle and late Shang Dynasty, and the seat of Wu Ding and the subsequent Shang kings. At that time, it was a long time away from the Xia Dynasty.

In addition, all oracle bone inscriptions were written by merchants before they did something, to ask the gods for divination, or to tell their ancestors after they finished something.

People worship their ancestors, mainly to the kings of the Shang Dynasty, so why mention the Xia Dynasty?

Erlitou is a site of the Xia Dynasty, but no characters have been found. It is a pity. In fact, the word "wen" was found on bronze ware. But there are no more characters.

On the contrary, the Liangzhu site with a history of 7,000 years has more characters, 11 characters. They are also engraved on oracle bones, but the international community does not recognize that they are characters and calls them "oracle bone inscriptions".

In fact, the so-called inscriptions are completely consistent with the structure and evolution of pictographic characters.

At least those who study ancient texts can recognize what the characters are at a glance and decipher the eleven "inscriptions" in seconds. Because our characters have been passed down from generation to generation without interruption.

In fact, during the Republic of China period, due to the decline of national power, many people proposed that Chinese characters were dregs, too difficult, and not conducive to promotion, and denounced them as tools to fool the people and restrict mass education. They demanded the complete abolition of Chinese characters and the use of alphabetic characters.

Qian Xuantong: "If China is to survive and the Chinese nation is to become a civilized nation in the 20th century, the fundamental solution must be to abolish Confucianism and Taoism. Abolishing the Chinese characters that record the teachings of Confucius and the evil words of Taoism is the fundamental solution to the fundamental solution."

***: "Chinese characters are difficult to record new things and new principles, and are the nest of corrupt and poisonous thoughts. It is not a pity to abolish them."

Lu Xun: "If Chinese characters are not destroyed, China will perish! Chinese characters will eventually be abolished. If people survive, literature will be abolished. If literature survives, people will perish. In this era, there is no way to be lucky."

Qu Qiubai: “Chinese characters are truly the most filthy, bad, and bastard medieval cesspool in the world!”

Some people are saying that they are only abolishing traditional Chinese characters. Sorry, that is not the case. They are completely abolishing them and only using letters. There are magazines and newspapers from 1918 and Lu Xun’s later writings as evidence.

What was done was done, and there is nothing to say. At that time, everyone with ambitions was looking for a way for the country. They were pioneers and were allowed to make mistakes. It is normal for certain propositions to be too radical in our opinion. (Foreshadowing, the same goes for Gun...)

Of course, how can Chinese characters be abolished? South Korea has abolished Chinese characters, and even ancient books are incomprehensible.

In short, there were a large number of people who opposed the abolition of Chinese characters. Finally, they compromised and developed Pinyin in order to popularize it. The pinyin of Chinese characters was promoted in parallel, which is what it is today.

From the perspective of historical materialism, their historical role is positive and ultimately promotes social progress...

That's too far.

Regarding the characters of the Xia Dynasty, I suspect that the writing carriers of the Xia Dynasty are very difficult to preserve... The oracle bone inscriptions can be preserved thanks to the superstition of the Yin and Shang Dynasties, which used tortoise shells and ox bones as carriers for divination, and incidentally wrote Braille.

Xia Chao didn't have this habit. If it were made of cloth...sheepskin...it would be really cold. Not to mention that the Yin and Shang dynasties destroyed the Xia capital (a large number of massacred corpses were found in Erlitou, and I guess they even burned the city).

Second, why should foreign scholars make a conclusion?

If we say that the Xia Dynasty is fictitious without written evidence, then under the same standards, Alexander the Great is fictitious, and 80% of the history of ancient Greece is fictitious.

The basis for Alexander's existence is based on documentary records hundreds or even thousands of years later, and they are in the form of legends, similar to King Arthur.

The biggest and biggest piece of evidence for him is that there is a city in Egypt called "Alexandria" named after him.

However, Dayu also had the Mausoleum of Yu, and the Yellow Emperor also had the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor. This cannot be counted as evidence.

As for ancient Greece, more than 50% of the documents came from the Renaissance...

There is no cultural relic stone hammer in the classics of various ancient Greek scholars such as Aristotle and Plato. The Renaissance is a revival of some sort.

Among the top ten most beautiful physics experiments, one is the story of the ancient Greek scholar Eratosthenes, who used a very simple method to measure the circumference of the earth in 240 BC.

It used mathematical methods to accurately measure the circumference of the earth, and the final calculation results had very small errors compared with modern measurements.

But that method, I’m afraid everyone who studies mathematics knows, it’s ridiculous.

But it looks like that. This is a wonderful story, you can check it out if you are interested.

However, the outline and some details of the so-called ancient Greek records of measuring the earth's circumference are very similar to the article in the "Old Book of Tang Dynasty" recording Zhang Sui's measurement of the earth's meridian.

It seems that I also made some mistakes that were most likely caused by not understanding the translation when translating classical Chinese. Do you think Chinese people don’t like to read [Twenty-Four Histories]?

Someone has demonstrated it specifically. I won’t say much more here. If you are interested, we can talk about it later.

Also, the so-called tomb of Aristotle is empty, without a word, and there is a small stone chamber of 1.7x1.3 meters at the bottom. The evidence that this is Aristotle's tomb is a clue provided by an 11th-century manuscript in the library that Aristotle's tomb is in that area. This manuscript is 1,400 years from Aristotle's time... Why hasn't it been dug out earlier?

Forget it, forget it, let’s get down to business.

On the basis of the existence of Dayu, go back.

It is said that Dayu traveled all over the world to control floods, and his skin became tanned and his hands were covered with calluses.

Sima Qian commented: "Yu Qin was wet in the ditch, and his hands and feet were callous. He spoke for four years, and moved for four seasons. He married a wife for a while, and it was not private to cross the house. The nine soils are reasonable, Xuan Gui Xizi"

It is said that Dayu himself dredged ditches, his hands and feet were covered with calluses, and taught people to travel on water and in boats, on land and in carts, on mud and on sleds, and on mountains and in chariots, and he traveled around the world all year round. He left his wife as soon as he got married. He passed by the house without even looking back. This was done until the floods in Kyushu were resolved, and Shun rewarded him heavily with the black jade gui.

What does Black Jade Gui mean? Gui with different names is the basis for giving different powers. For example, in the event of a natural disaster, the token held by the minister sent by the emperor to comfort the people is called Zhen Gui. The holder who performs the function of reconciliation or marriage is called Gugui. The holder who performs the function of rewarding is called Wan Gui, and the holder who performs the function of punishing is called Yan Gui.

As for extraordinarily great achievements, they were given to Xuan Gui.

Sima Qian was from the Western Han Dynasty, so even earlier.

"Shangshu": "Yu Ping's water and soil is the master of mountains and rivers..."

Earlier, from the Book of Songs in the Spring and Autumn Period: "The flood was vast, and Yu laid down the earth."

The Book of Songs is a very, very, very important historical material. When studying pre-Qin history, it is more credible than historical records.

The Book of Songs contains hymns about ancestors' entrepreneurship, music for worshiping gods and ghosts, banquets and interactions between nobles, resentments about uneven work and rest, and touching chapters reflecting labor, hunting, and a large number of love affairs, marriages, and social customs. .

Let's put it this way, the Book of Songs was to the Zhou Dynasty what the words written on the oracle bones for divination meant to the Yin and Shang Dynasties.

However, these are documents after all, not cultural relics.

So are there any written cultural relics recording Dayu's control of floods?

First, there is the Shuyi Bell from the Spring and Autumn Period. There is an inscription on the bell. Because it was dug out by people in the Song Dynasty and was not well preserved, it can only be vaguely identified: Cutting down the Xia sacrifice... Xian has nine states, and is in Yu's block...

So are there any cultural relics unearthed in modern times?

In 2002, the Sui Gong Hu, a Western Zhou bronze ware, was bought from abroad. The inscription reads: Heaven ordered Yu to spread the earth, follow the mountains and dredge the rivers, and then set up taxes on the land, and sent people to supervise virtue. Then he made himself a partner with the villagers and became a parent. Born my king as a minister, his eyes are only virtuous, the people like to be virtuous, and few... look at the world. Use his goodness, increase his virtue, and Kang will not be prosperous. Filial piety and friendship, Ming Jing Qi, good sacrifices are abandoned. The heart is good at virtue, and marriage is also harmonious. Heaven uses the test, and the gods use the purification, and forever reign in peace. Sui Gong said: The people can only use this virtue, and there is no teaching.

There is nothing to translate. Many words are unrecognizable. I posted a lot less words, so you can just have fun.

In short, its history is 2,900 years ago.

But unfortunately, it is still a thousand years away from Yu.

It is worth mentioning that Sui State is an ancient country. Sui Gong of all generations claimed that they were descendants of Yu Shun, and they worshipped Shun as their ancestor.

The Xia Dynasty granted the descendants of Yu Shun the title of Duke of Sui, and they lived through the Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou dynasties. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Duke Huan of Qi united the princes for the first time and asked everyone to come to the alliance. Duke Sui at that time did not go, so Duke Huan of Qi destroyed Sui State. After that, the people of Sui wanted to restore the monarchy, pretending to reward the Qi army, got the soldiers drunk with wine, and then took the opportunity to kill all the Qi army.

When Duke Huan of Qi learned about it, he was furious and ordered a massacre of the city, and all the royal families of Sui State died.

As descendants of Shun, they highly praised Dayu's achievements, which shows that Yu did not force Shun, let alone exile Shun's son.

So far, there is no more evidence.

The last one is Shan Hai Jing.

Shan Hai Jing was originally a set of pictures with text on them, so I said that the Xia Dynasty people used text carriers that were not conducive to preservation. Pictures, as a carrier, disappeared after a few hundred years.

In short, according to all the rumors about Shan Hai Jing later, Shan Hai Jing was said to be the "Book of Yu".

Indeed, Dayu must be one of the authors of Shan Hai Jing, and Yu contributed most of the content.

The version seen by the people of the Jin Dynasty was different from ours.

The people of Jin mentioned a passage of text that is not in the Shan Hai Jing we read.

[Yu said: The famous mountains in the world are 5,370 mountains and 64,560 miles long, which are the places where people live. Speaking of the five Zang, there are too many small mountains to record. The east and west of the world are 28,000 miles, and the north and south are 26,000 miles. The mountains that produce water are 8,000 miles long, and the mountains that receive water are 8,000 miles long. There are 467 mountains that produce copper and 3,690 mountains that produce iron. This is where the heaven and earth divide the soil and plant the grain, where the spears and swords are launched, and where the swords and swords are raised. The capable have more than enough, and the clumsy have less than enough. The seventy-two families were enfeoffed in Mount Tai and abdicated in Liangfu. The gains and losses are all included in this, which is called national use. 】

This passage is said to be at the end of the Jin Dynasty version of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas·Wu Zang Shan Jing".

Judging from the tone, this is obviously written by someone after Yu died. But as for how long Yu died, I don't know.

This is also the reason why I rarely interpret the content of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas". Because the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" was written by people in the Xia Dynasty.

The content of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" was summarized by Dayu and Boyi.

And what I interpret with you is actually mostly the content of the "Classic of Seas and Seas" and the "Classic of Great Wilderness".

As for the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", I rarely mention it because it is too rigorous, so rigorous that it is just a data report, and there is nothing to interpret at all.

The "Classic of Mountains and Seas" is divided into the "Classic of Five Zang Shan Jing", "Classic of Seas and Seas", "Classic of Seas and Seas", and "Classic of Great Wilderness".

Wuzang Shan Jing records every mountain one after another, how many miles apart they are, what products they produce, what animals they have, how the animals taste, where the water comes from, where it flows to... all in detail.

And at the end of each mountain range, the corresponding mountain god and the method of sacrifice will be written down, what tributes should be given, and what specifications should be used for sacrifices, all of which are recorded in detail.

People always say that Shanhai Jing is a geographical atlas, but in fact, they are saying that Shanhai Jing Wuzang Shan Jing is a geographical atlas.

Shan Jing is very detailed and rigorous, and it is a complete record of geographical data and an encyclopedia of animals. Hai Jing contains many historical events, states at home and abroad, and strange people and things.

Shanhai Jing is the combination of Shan Jing and Hai Jing, which means: the classics of mountain delicacies and sea flavors.

No, it is Shan Bao Hai Hui Jing, which means it is all-encompassing.

The records in Shan Jing are so many mountains connected to each other, I suspect it is the legendary Lian Shan Jing of the Xia Dynasty.

Do you remember what I said about the three major Yi Jings?

The Xia Dynasty had the "Lianshan Yi", the Shang Dynasty had the "Gui Zang Yi", and the Zhou Dynasty had the "Zhou Yi".

Zhou Yi was well preserved by Confucianists and has been passed down. Gui Zang was lost but was excavated by modern archaeology.

Only the "Lianshan" has never been found. Perhaps it has not been lost. The "Shan Jing" in the "Shan Hai Jing" is the Lianshan Jing.

Of course, there is no evidence, just listen for fun.

Having said so much, combined with some of the characters interpreted by [The Routine of Ancient Emperors] and [The Light of Wisdom Shining on a Hundred Miles], we can now look at the Shan Hai Jing.

"Shan Hai Jing": "The river water flows out of the northeast corner, flows north, enters the Bohai Sea in the southwest, and then flows out of the sea, that is, west and north, and enters the Jishishan Mountain led by Yu."

This is a section of the Hai Nei Xi Jing describing Kunlun Xu, introducing that the "river water" originates from Kunlun Xu and Gangzhiyan in the northeast.

Before and after this section, the Chishui, Heishui, Ruoshui, Yangshui and other water systems are also introduced.

So what kind of water is the "river water"? I think everyone who knows history knows that in the pre-Qin period, there was only one water system in my country worthy of being called a "River", and that was the Yellow River.

That’s right, ‘He’ is not what we mean now. In ancient times, it was a specific noun, a unique name for the Yellow River.

I mentioned this before when I interpreted Kuafu. When I translated ‘He, Wei’ as insufficient, I meant that the Yellow River and Wei River were not enough to drink.

Similarly, ‘Jiang’ does not refer to anything else, but specifically refers to the ‘Yangtze River’.

He Bo is not the water Bo of other places, but the water Bo of the Yellow River.

Whatever river we write in our current culture, we wrote whatever water in ancient times. The Yellow River is called He Shui, and the Yangtze River is called Jiang Shui.

The Shanhaijing here is very strange. It says that the Yellow River originates in the northeast of Kunlun, flows northward, then flows southwest into the Bohai Sea, then goes out of the sea, goes west and north, and passes through the Jishishan Mountain dredged by Dayu.

Where is Jishishan Mountain?

The original text of Shanhaijing reads: "Xuanyuan Hill... Three hundred miles west is Jishi Mountain, under which there is a stone gate, and the river water flows westward. This mountain is home to all things."

The specific research requires a lot of deductions. I guess you are not interested in geography. Anyway, if you add up the distances mentioned in Xishan Jing, you will find that this mountain is not far from Kunlun, and it is only 1,900 miles including the detour.

I will tell you the answer directly, because Jishi Mountain has not been renamed and is still called Jishi Mountain.

In Gansu Province, there is a mountain extending from the Qilian Mountains today. There are indeed piles of stones everywhere, with large pieces of boulders piled up on the ground. There is a canyon with obvious traces of excavation and water erosion. It may be one of the old courses of the Yellow River. Foreign scholars have also verified that Jishi Mountain has experienced a major flood.

The Yellow River has changed its course many times, and there are 26 records alone.

So we can no longer verify how the Yellow River went in ancient times.

This passage may seem strange to you. How can the Yellow River flow west or north?

In fact, it is OK to flow north. The upper reaches of the Yellow River flow north. It is also OK to flow west. The Yellow River flows east as a whole, but some sections flow west.

The Yellow River's nine bends mean that it does not flow east in a straight line. If you enlarge and subdivide its sections, you will find that it twists and turns, up and down, left and right, and finally flows into the sea.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas wrote here that it finally flows into Jishishan, which was led by Yu.

Jishishan is in the Qilian Mountains, which means that this passage only describes a short section of the Yellow River from its origin to the upper reaches of the Qilian Mountains.

For such a short section, it is normal for the Yellow River to flow west or north.

In fact, the current Yellow River is also like this. It flows out of the Bayankala Mountains, flows northeast for a distance, suddenly turns northwest, and flows to the southern part of the Qilian Mountains before continuing to flow east.

In addition, the Bohai Sea in the Classic of Mountains and Seas is not the Bohai Sea we know. In my opinion, it is Qinghai Lake.

Because Qinghai Lake is in the southern section of the Qilian Mountains, south of Jishishan.

In ancient times, in the era of Yu, in order to control floods, Jishishan was dug to divert the Yellow River and release floodwaters.

This section of Shanhaijing records the river course at that time.

There are high mountains in all directions of Kunlunxu. I will not introduce them in detail. I will talk about them later when I talk about Kunlun.

So the meaning of this section of Jishishan is: [The Yellow River flows out from the mountain in the northeast of Kunlun, rushes north for a while, and flows to the Qilian Mountains where it is blocked, and then turns back to the southwest. When it turns back, it flows into Qinghai Lake. Then the water level of Qinghai Lake rises, impacting a river, that is, the Yellow River flows into Qinghai Lake and then flows in, continuing to flow west and north until Jishishan, which was dug by Dayu in the Qilian Mountains. 】

After passing Jishishan, I don’t know where it flows. It is not written here, and it is actually not important.

In short, this section introduces a small section of the upper reaches of the Yellow River, and also introduces Dayu digging mountain roads, dredging waterways, and tampering with the Yellow River.

The above is a partial record of Dayu’s flood control in Shanhaijing.

Another passage in the Classic of Mountains and Seas also proves this point: "In the wilderness, there is a mountain called Xiankan Dafeng Mountain, where the Yellow River and Ji River flow into the sea. To the west is a mountain called Yu Suo Jishi."

This passage says that there is a Xiankan Dafeng Mountain to the east of Jishi Mountain. The Yellow River and Ji River flow through it, and Haibei soaks it. This indirectly proves that the "sea" there is Qingdao Lake.

Is there any more about Dayu's flood control in the Classic of Mountains and Seas? Yes.

"Classic of Mountains and Seas": "In the wilderness, there is a mountain called Xiu Tu Mountain, where the green water ends. There is Yunyu Mountain, and there is a tree called Luan. Yu attacked Yunyu."

The meaning is very simple. There is a Xiu Tu Mountain, where the green water flows to and disappears. There is also Yunyu Mountain, on which there is a Luan tree. Dayu attacked Yunyu Mountain.

This attack is very interesting.

There are similar records.

"Classic of Mountains and Seas": "Beyond the northwest sea, in the corner of the wilderness, there is a mountain that is not connected, named Buzhou Fuzi, guarded by two yellow beasts. There is a water called Hanshu Water. To the west of the water is Shishan, and to the east of the water is Mushan. There was Yu attacking the mountains of Gonggong."

This paragraph involves many things, including Buzhou Mountain and Gonggong. I will write a separate chapter to explain it later. Here I will just translate it directly.

The meaning is also very simple: Northwest overseas, in the wilderness, there is a broken mountain called Buzhou Fuzi. There are two yellow beasts guarding it. There is also a river called Hanshu Water. To the west of this river is Shishan, and to the east is Mushan. Dayu attacked these mountains of Gonggong.

This reveals two pieces of information. One is that the Buzhou Mountain area belongs to Gonggong. The other is that Dayu attacked the mountains here.

Whether it is 'Yu attacked Yunyu Mountain' or 'Yu attacked Gonggong Mountain', it actually means the same as the previous 'Yu guided Jishi Mountain'.

It is to describe Dayu opening mountains and digging roads to dredge the Yellow River.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas describes how Gun stole the emperor's Xirang to dam the flood.

But the description of Yu is that he "attacked" mountains one after another.

That is to say: "Gun had no water and strictly blocked it. He wanted to stop the flood, but how could manpower resist nature? It failed in the end. However, Dayu knew well that blocking was better than dredging, so he used the method of opening mountains to divert the Yellow River. , flood control was successful.”

The above is the familiar story of Dayu's flood control.

But is it really that simple? There are more details in Shan Hai Jing.

It's not that Gun didn't know that blocking is worse than sparing. "The Classic of Mountains and Seas: Great Wilderness Northern Classic" says: "There is Yushan. There is Gun who attacks the mountains of Chengzhou."

It is clearly written here that Gun also 'conquered' some mountains.

Gun also knew how to dig roads through mountains and dredge floods. So why did he fail? But Yu succeeded?

Let me tell you three reasons.

First, lack of experience and limited ability.

Although Gun also carved mountains and roads, he was a pioneer. Perhaps no one had done this before him. The most difficult thing was the first person.

Just like the abolition of Chinese characters, those who advocate it are all pioneers of new culture. In order to find a way out for the country, they opened up a way out of the situation amid confusion, chaos and external impact.

It is very normal to make many mistakes and mistakes.

There are so many mountain ranges and river systems recorded in the Shan Jing. Were they all compiled by Yu? Not necessarily, but rather the experience accumulated by his family over the generations.

Qin Shihuang unified the six kingdoms and was also a survivor of the sixth generation. After six successive generations of wise kings, Ying Zheng finally received the great credit. But 80% of this credit must be counted starting from Qin Xiaogong and added up from generation to generation.

Every generation has its contribution to water control, and Yu was just the last person to complete the puzzle.

This is also the reason why Shun trusted Yu and left water control to his family. Their family has been doing water control for generations and is a well-known family in water control.

Even though Gun was a big failure, Shun probably knew that Gun's death was a bit unfair.

Gun's flood control failed to control the Yellow River due to various reasons. Gun himself knew it, and he knew it well, so he 'stealed the emperor to restore the soil and annihilate the flood'.

The essence of this word "stealing" is that it was premeditated. If the flood had already arrived, he would not have time to steal.

In other words, after Gun Yitong's operation, he could see that the Yellow River was about to break its banks due to heavy rains during the flood season. Of course, it's not too early, about one to half a day ahead of schedule.

He knew that his operation of digging mountains and roads to release floods would fail. He knew that a big flood was coming soon. He had no choice but to steal soil and block it in a last-ditch effort. It was too late.

"The Classic of Mountains and Seas": "The floods were overwhelming, and Gun stole the emperor's land and mowed down the floods without waiting for the emperor's orders. The emperor ordered Zhu Rong to kill Gun in the suburbs of Yu. Gun resurrected Yu, and the emperor ordered Yu to spread the soil to conquer Jiuzhou."

So what exactly is Xi soil?

Legend has it that resting soil is soil that will grow on its own. Gao Yu's commentary of the Eastern Han Dynasty said: "The resting soil is not consumed or reduced, but the more it is dug, the more it will be filled, so it is used to fill up floods."

This annotation has misled people for nearly two thousand years and directly added a mythical color to Gun and Yu's flood control. It also adds a great innate spiritual treasure to the modern prehistoric novels.

I don’t know if you still remember this person, this Gao Yu, who also annotated ‘Chang’e, Yi’s wife’ and issued marriage certificates to two ancient figures.

In other words, of his two annotations, one sets up the mythical object such as Xirang, and the other opens up the love story of Chang'e and Houyi.

Awesome!

So, in the Jin Dynasty, Guo Pu's annotation went on to write: "Those who rest on the soil say that the soil will grow and breathe indefinitely, so it can stop floods."

Do they really not know what Xiliang is? Maybe they were just trying to uncanny the ancient figures.

"Shuowen": soil, soft soil.

"Lunheng · Su Xing": Plow deeply and hoe carefully, and add dung soil thickly.

"Shi Ming Shi Di" written by Liu Xi of the Eastern Han Dynasty said: Soil means soil, fat and moist.

In the Southern Liang Dynasty, King Gu Ye's "Yupian" said: The slow fertilization of the earth is called soil.

In other words, fertile and gentle land is called ‘soil’.

You should have heard of Zheng Xuan during the Three Kingdoms period. He was a great scholar of Confucian classics. He annotated Zhou Li and wrote: "Soil is also soil, and it changes to the ear. When all things grow by themselves, it is soil. Earth is just like spit. The crops and trees cultivated by people are used. Yan means soil. Soil has a gentle appearance."

I won’t translate it and tell you directly that soil is the name of a specific kind of soil.

The land where grass and flowers grow in the wild is called soil. The soil that can be used to cultivate crops is called soil.

It just means cultivable land. Crops grow on the soil, and the areas divided into pieces are called fields.

So what is interest?

There’s not much to say about this. Breathing is the breathing in and out.

Therefore, the meaning of "xi soil" in Gun and Yu's control of water has been extended to the soil that can breathe. It is alive and can grow. It is the so-called "soil grows and breathes infinitely".

So, what does Xirang mean?

"Huainanzi Terrain Training" of the Western Han Dynasty records: "Each land is born according to its kind... Light soil is more beneficial, heavy soil is more late... Therefore, people with strong soil are strong, and weak soil is weak. People with rough soil are big, and people with sandy soil are thin." The natives are beautiful, the natives are ugly.”

To put it superficially, it means that the soil and water support the people. People on light soil are agile, people on heavy soil are slow, people on solid soil are strong, people on weak soil are weak, people on rough soil are tall, people on sandy soil are short, people on resting soil are beautiful, and they consume soil. The people on there are ugly.

I won’t translate them all for you, because comparing them two by two, they are actually the difference between hardness and softness, and strength.

Heavy soil, hard soil, loin soil, and waste soil respectively refer to heavy, hard, black, and cracked soil.

Light soil, weak soil, sandy soil, and resting soil refer to light, loose, gravelly, and fertile soil respectively.

Xishu soil is excellent soil.

"Nine Chapters of Arithmetic" in the early Eastern Han Dynasty wrote a question: "Today there is a ground with an area of ​​10,000 feet. What is the geometry of the solid soil?"

A very simple application question, "Answer: Seven thousand five hundred feet for solidity, twelve thousand five hundred feet for soil."

why? "The technique says: penetrate the ground four times, make five soils, make three solid parts, and make four ruins."

Because the volume of ordinary land is four, then the volume of soil is five, the volume of compacted soil is three, and the volume of soil in Qiuxi is also four.

The piercing ground is an ordinary ground, and any piece of land in the wild is basically a piercing ground. As the name suggests, Xutu is the soil of Qiuxi. In fact, it is ordinary soil because it has not been plowed and irrigated.

"Nine Chapters on Arithmetic Notes" states, "Soil refers to resting soil, and solid refers to building soil."

Construction soil is rammed earth, used to build embankments and the like.

This is to introduce a ratio. With the same mass, the volume of rammed soil is three-fifths of soil. The volume of ordinary soil and ruins soil is four-fifths of soil.

The soil is very soft soil with very low density, which is cultivated and irrigated by humans.

In other words, the soil is the softest, most fertile and sweet land.

"Soil is called Xi soil." Xi soil is already soft, fertile, and honeyed soil that seems to be able to breathe. The ancients praised that people who live in Xi soil will be very beautiful.

So how fertile is the combination of the two words "interest" and "soil"?

The three major levels of soil, resting soil, and resting soil are actually inferior soil, superior soil, and super experimental field soil.

It can be imagined that it has been specially irrigated and fertilized, plowed repeatedly, filled with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and is full of golden garbage. It is probably the soil of the emperor's garden, the soil of the emperor's village. Therefore, it is called the Emperor's Breathing Land.

After reading so much, you can directly think that the soil was the most precious, fertile and top-grade soil at that time.

The ancients have always known what fertile soil is. It is just the soil of the Emperor's Garden, the most fertile soil in the world.

The father of our hybrid rice, Professor Yuan, uses ‘breeding soil’ in his experimental fields.

However, the name Xi soil has no longer been used since ancient times, and gradually changed to refer specifically to the soil that Gun stole. Later people only regarded Xi soil as the highest level, and there was no grade classification of Xi soil.

That's why we can give people like Gao You the space to perform and deify Xi soil.

To sum up, look at the "Book of Mountains and Seas" again: "The floods were raging, and Gun stole the emperor's soil and mounded the floods without waiting for the emperor's orders. The emperor ordered Zhu Rong to kill Gun in the suburbs of Yu. Gun revived Yu, and the emperor ordered Yu to lay down the soil to settle it. Kyushu.”

We then knew that Gun had stolen the soil from the Emperor's Garden and used it to stop the flood...

This is equivalent to when there was a flood in my house in 1993, I stole the soil from Professor Yuan's experimental field, packed it in sacks, and threw it into the flood.

The soil must be at a high place, somewhere where floods cannot reach it. Otherwise, in that era, it would have been washed away long ago. Even if the flood came, it would not be considered a crime.

Putting aside right and wrong, the act of digging soil to fill floods must have been a death-defying act in ancient times.

This was indeed the case. Gun was detained on the outskirts of Yushan and then executed by Zhu Rongming Zhengdian, who was sent by the emperor.

So who is this emperor? Why did Gun seek death and go to fill up the flood with soil? Don't you know you will die if you do this? Why not wait for the emperor's order?

In addition to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the earliest record of Gun was the Shangshu of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, compiled by Confucius.

It takes up too many words and is very obscure, so I won’t post the original text. This content is also recorded in "Historical Records", which is a complete inheritance of Yao Canon and some additions. The organizer is Sima Qian.

I will integrate Shangshu and Shiji and directly translate the Confucian saying.

The general idea is: The flood is raging, and the people are calling for a solution. Emperor Yao asks everyone who should be sent to control the flood and serve as an "engineer".

The craftsman is the leader of all craftsmen. You can understand it as the highest officer of the craftsmen. Flood control must be the task of craftsmen, so the engineer was appointed as the governor of flood control.

The Hudou clan recommended the Gonggong clan for the job. At this time, the Hudou clan was not yet a member of the Four Sins. But I'm not sure whether they are from the lineage of Yao's son Danzhu, so let's just regard them as Yao's confidants.

Regarding the recommendation of Gonggong, Yao directly said no.

Emperor Yao commented on Gonggong's rhetoric, which seemed to be respectful, but in fact he was disrespectful to God. Original text (Quiet words are mediocre, Xiang Gong is overwhelming).

But Hui Dou said to give it a try, there was no other choice.

So Emperor Yao asked Gonggong to try it, but the result was that "it failed to work, so the people were inconvenienced."

Then Emperor Yao asked the four mountains again. The four mountains are the military and political ministers of the four regions of southeast, northwest and northwest. Let's consider them as the four governors. Emperor Yao himself directly governed the central part, which is the "China" region.

All the four mountains recommended Gun to control the floods, but Emperor Yao said no. The reason was that Gun was a member of the Fang Minggu tribe.

Fang Ming means disobeying orders. The meaning of "宮 tribe" is to harm the tribesmen.

Siyue also asked him to give it a try, and Emperor Yao agreed.

The result of the nine-year test is that "the results of nine years are of no use", and nine years of hard work are in vain.

Later, Sanmiao happened to be rebelling, so Liu Gonggong went to Youling to subvert Beidi. Let Huan travel to Chongshan to transform the southern barbarians. Move Sanmiao to Sanwei to transform Xirong. Kill Gun in Yushan to convert Dongyi. ’

According to Confucianism, the four sins are thus formed. Note that this is the reason for the four sins in historical records, not reality.

I wonder, isn't this just passing the buck? Gonggong was convicted of four crimes because he failed to control the flood? Huandou was convicted of four crimes because he recommended and guaranteed Gonggong, and was guilty of the same crime? Sanmiao, needless to say, the descendants of Chiyou have never been fully integrated and often make trouble. Gun was convicted of four crimes, but in the Records of the Grand Historian, it was only because he failed to do anything for nine years.

Sima Qian is a high-level black, isn't this incompetent and furious...

There are many, many classical Chinese texts above, which I didn't post, from the Book of Documents and the Records of the Grand Historian.

My evaluation of this is... undoubtedly, it's made up.

The conversations of ancient people, what do later people know!

But we can reverse the reason. Sima Qian basically copied the Book of Documents, but in the Book of Documents compiled by Confucius, there is no specific reason for the exile of the four crimes, only recommendation, try, futile and so on.

Among them, the evaluation of Emperor Yao on Gun is the earliest evaluation of Gun as a person.

"Fang Ming ruined the tribe", this evaluation is very interesting, disobeying orders and endangering the tribe.

This just confirms the "not waiting for the emperor's order" in Shan Hai Jing.

So any other dialogues are just for fun, for reference only. But we can recognize the evaluation of "Fang Ming" because it is also written in Shan Hai Jing.

In other words, in the eyes of people in the Spring and Autumn Period, Emperor Yao did not like Gun very much, thinking that Gun liked not to listen to his orders.

If he did not listen to the leader's orders, how could the leader entrust him with important tasks? So Emperor Yao did not want Gun to control the flood.

But the four Yues all recommended Gun and asked him to try, so Emperor Yao reluctantly let Gun control the flood, after all, the flood was overwhelming.

We can imagine that how could Emperor Yao fully support the candidate he did not want?

Regarding how Gun died, Qu Yuan mentioned in "Li Sao": "Gun was stubborn and lost his body, and finally died young in the wild of Yu."

Stubborn, stubborn, and disobedient.

Straight, this doesn't need to be translated, right? It means unbending, and is extended to upright.

It means being straightforward, I do what I think. I don't want you to think, I want what I think.

To be straight means to be stubborn and rebellious, not smooth, fierce and straightforward, and not bendable.

Qu Yuan's meaning is very clear: Gun died because of his "straightness", and his body was finally exposed in the wilderness of Yushan.

This is exactly in line with the "Classic of Mountains and Seas": "Without waiting for the emperor's order. The emperor ordered Zhurong to kill Gun in Yujiao."

Again, we take the Classic of Mountains and Seas as the standard. Although the "Book of History" and "Li Sao" are documents from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, since there is no difference in this evaluation with the Classic of Mountains and Seas, it shows that everyone knew what kind of person Gun was in the pre-Qin period.

Confucius had political purposes, so he wrote that Gun "did not obey orders", and not only that, he added "harming the clan" at the end. Later, the whole clan was exiled, which shows that Emperor Yao was wise in judging people. Confucius wanted to set off Emperor Yao.

Qu Yuan did not have this position. He was the one who wrote "Heavenly Questions". He had many confusions and even doubts about some mysterious and suspicious ancient times.

Qu Yuan did not question Gun's personality directly, and directly commented that he died because of his uprightness and unwillingness to change.

We can think that this is highly credible, especially in correspondence with the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

So, seeing this, I think you have sorted out the original appearance of history.

Combining all the clues I interpreted above, I have understood how Gun died.

He was upright and stubborn. Emperor Yao disliked him because Gun was always stubborn and did not listen to his orders.

The world belonged to Emperor Yao. He opened up the way for everyone to make recommendations and suggestions, but the person who finally gave the order must be Emperor Yao.

And what about Gun? He didn't have a brain. As long as his suggestions were not accepted by Emperor Yao, Gun would do it directly without waiting for Emperor Yao's order.

It would be strange if Emperor Yao was willing to let such a person lead all the workers. His emotional intelligence is too low and his political awareness is zero.

It is conceivable that Gun's flood control was full of difficulties, and Emperor Yao could not fully support him.

Without the support of his superiors, without the green light from all sides, there might even be obstructions.

What achievements could Gun make just by doing it like an orphan?

After nine years, Gun had a set of theories of blocking and combing, but the degree of completion was too low.

The Yellow River still flooded, and the Yellow River always flooded. Gun had already anticipated that the flood was coming, and the embankment could not hold up for long. Small bursts would soon become countless large torrents, and the people downstream would be caught in the raging flood.

In this regard, he could only keep reinforcing the embankment and filling the water with soil. He was already crazy, so crazy that he didn't care about the soil, the soil of the emperor's garden, and the royal manor? They were all dug up and filled the Yellow River!

In the face of floods, all assets are unimportant, but human life is as important as heaven.

Finally, I don't know whether he stopped the flood or not.

Maybe he just delayed for a moment to buy time for everyone to evacuate. So that everyone could escape to high places, mountains and hills, to avoid the flood.

"Huainanzi": "The Yangtze and Huai rivers flowed everywhere, and the four seas were dark. People all went to the hills and trees."

For this, Gun was burdened with a huge crime. This crime was not that he failed to control the flood and "the work was not completed."

But "Gun stole the emperor's Xirang to fill the flood without waiting for the emperor's order. The emperor ordered Zhurong to kill Gun in Yujiao. '

Not only did he fail, but he was guilty. He took the emperor's Xirang to fill the flood! Death penalty!

Killed and exiled the whole clan!

Would Gun not know what crime it was to dig Xirang?

If the flood only flooded houses and fields, Emperor Yao would not starve. Many people might die, but it was a natural disaster after all. However, the Xirang Manor on the high ground for flood control was also destroyed. So many people survived, and everyone would starve! This is a man-made disaster.

Under natural disasters, if the flood control failed, nine years of ineffectiveness would result in exile at most. If a man-made disaster occurred, it would be stealing the emperor's Xirang without waiting for the emperor's order, and the death penalty would be imposed.

Gun chose the death penalty and chose to save as many people as possible. Maybe he didn't save too many people, maybe he really saved many people.

Xirang can be recreated if it is gone, but people will not be resurrected after death.

There is hope when people are alive. Gun can die, but he left hope behind.

He was just a pioneer. He explored ways to subdue the Yellow River. He knew how to use both blocking and dredging. Although he was not supported by Emperor Yao and faced many difficulties, he had tried his best to do it.

Maybe he made many mistakes in flood control, and even because of his stubbornness and stubbornness, he failed for nine years.

But the pioneers worked hard and cut through thorns and brambles to find a way out of the wilderness. The most difficult thing is the first person.

All his mistakes have another name, called experience.

Gun may have expected that he would fail, so he just wanted to save more people in the end. Living is hope, and this hope will eventually bear fruit and wait for the person who really conquered the Yellow River.

He may not have thought that the person was his son.

All the failures of the pioneers were just to put together the puzzle given to him by the times, so failure is the mother of success. The latecomers are better than the predecessors, just because they stand on the shoulders of the predecessors, and the times are moving forward.

The wheel of history rolls forward, and the so-called son of destiny is nothing more than the bloody condensation of the sacrifices of countless ancestors. It is just the puzzle of the times, and finally the last piece has arrived.

This is the case with Qin Shihuang and Dayu.

The important task of flood control finally fell on Si Wenming.

Just like his name, Wenming.

This name was a cheap name at that time, but in our opinion, it is really wonderful.

It may be that Emperor Yao tattooed the young successor Dayu in the form of a command tattoo because Gun disobeyed the emperor's order, to warn Gun's descendants to obey the emperor's order!

Because of this tattoo on his body, Dayu is called "Wenming".

Or, this is the elders of Gun's clan who personally carved it on Dayu's body to let him remember: the responsibility of revitalizing the family is on his shoulders. So he named him "Wenming".

Even more, Dayu's real name is not this. Maybe it's just that later generations made up that Dayu was a person branded by heaven, and that's "Wenming".

In any case, different people have different opinions.

"... Gun gave birth to Yu again, and the emperor ordered Yu to spread the soil to settle the nine states."

"Sheng" means derivation. Huangdi gave birth to Luo Ming, Luo Ming gave birth to Bai Ma, Bai Ma was Gun, Gun gave birth to Yu.

Bai Ma, a criminal tribe, was driven to the edge of the Yanhuang civilization circle and became a barbarian.

But Yu did not forget the will of his fathers, nor did he slack off.

Failure is the mother of success. He worked hard to study the information left by his ancestors and perfected the theory of water control by blocking and dredging.

And finally, he waited for Shun, who could see through people's hearts, was very good at judging people, and was good at using people, so that later generations suspected that he was a time traveler. (See the routine of the ancient emperors in the previous extra chapter for details)

In the Shanhaijing, although the emperor who killed Gun and the emperor who used Yu only wrote the word "Emperor", it did not specify who it was.

But I think that if it was Yao who killed Gun, then it must not be Yao who reused Yu.

Exiled the whole tribe and then slapped himself in the face? Even so, it was Yao who entrusted the matter of water control to Shun.

Shun had a very high emotional intelligence, so he promoted Yu in the name of the emperor.

I think that it was Shun who used the grown-up Yu after he succeeded to the throne, saw through Yu's talent and character, promoted him as an exception, and entrusted him with important tasks.

Shun was such a wise man who could see through people's hearts. He trusted people when he used them, and didn't use people he doubted.

He fully understood Yu, and like Gun, he was an extremely pragmatic person.

Yu encountered countless difficulties in flood control for decades.

And these decades were all during Shun's term of office. Without Shun's full support, it would have been impossible to succeed. So the person who used Yu must be Shun, who also had the wisdom to recognize people and use people.

Gun's failure and Yu's success were not only due to the difference in experience, but also, in my opinion, whether the emperor fully supported and trusted him.

"Yu led the Jishi Mountain", "Yu attacked Yunyu Mountain", "Yu attacked Gonggongguo Mountain".

The difference between leading and attacking is one word, and perhaps it is a completely different process.

Jishi Mountain is also located in a remote area, and no one has lived there for a long time, so it is just "leading".

Yunyu Mountain and Gonggongguo Mountain are obviously under the actual control of the major clans and have people living there.

Does the attack here really mean no war?

Is there no conflict when digging someone else's mountain on someone else's base?

If flood discharge and diversion will flood the settlement, then they have to migrate.

I'm afraid it's not that simple to dig someone else's mountain and migrate someone else's people. With modern organization, it's very difficult. In that era, great conflicts and social contradictions will inevitably break out.

It's normal to fight.

But obviously, Shun supported Yu very much. With this person with high emotional intelligence, who rose from obscurity to become an emperor, endorsing Yu and acting as Yu's solid backing, Yu could succeed.

Gun attacked Yushan and Chengzhou Mountain, but failed in the end.

Then what was the result of Yu's attack on Yunyu Mountain and various mountains of Gonggong State?

Classic of Mountains and Seas: "Gonggong's minister was named Xiangyao, with a nine-headed snake body that looped around itself, and ate from the nine lands. Wherever he swallowed or ate, it became a source of marshes, which were not bitter but bitter, and no beasts could live there. Yu blocked the flood and killed Xiangyao, whose blood was smelly and could not grow crops. The land was full of water and could not be lived in. Yu blocked it, and made a pond by digging it three ren and three dams, and the emperors built a platform there. It is located in the north of Kunlun."

Xiangyao was a vassal of Gonggong, and his totem was a nine-headed snake body that looped around itself. Wow, this totem is super shocking, much cooler than the Marvel Hydra icon. Is Xiangyao an ancient Hydra organization?

Just kidding, anyway, this Xiangyao clan is very powerful, and will devour a lot of land. Its vomit will turn the earth into streams and swamps, and the water on it is bitter, probably sewage, and animals cannot survive.

Yu blocked the flood and killed Xiangyao, whose blood was smelly and polluted the land, and plants could not grow.

That area was a swamp, with a lot of water, and it was uninhabitable. Yu filled it with soil and dug away the rotten and polluted soil, but it was still a swamp, and the good soil filled in was also polluted.

Finally, Yu piled up the silt he dug out to form a platform, which was the Qundi Platform, located in the north of Kunlun.

This platform is probably the "Emperor Ku Platform, Emperor Yao Platform, Emperor Danzhu Platform, Emperor Shun Platform" written in the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

In fact, Yu still has emotional intelligence... Although he is as pragmatic as his father, he is not stupid, and he has a good relationship with Shun. Later, he established a purely hereditary dynasty, which also demonstrated his political wisdom.

In short, this passage records the troubles that Yu encountered during the period of flood control and dredging mountains and rivers.

Attacking the mountain of Gonggong State was not smooth. Gonggong was unwilling to migrate again, and did not want the mountain to be dug up, so he directly met Yu in battle.

In this regard, "Huainanzi" also has similar records.

"During the time of Shun, Gonggong stirred up a flood that destroyed the empty mulberry trees. The Dragon Gate had not yet been opened, the Lüliang River had not yet been opened, the Yangtze and Huai Rivers flowed everywhere, and the four seas were dark. The people all went up to the hills and rushed to the trees."

Well, according to this meaning, the flood was Gonggong's fault?

In fact, it is obvious that Gonggong should have just had a conflict with Yu and was unwilling to cooperate, so he had a wave of confrontation with Yu.

Here I will briefly explain Gonggong. The word "gong" in oracle bone script is written as "two hands carrying a square object", which means cooperation with both hands. The word "gong" in oracle bone script is written as "gong" on top and "kou" on the bottom. The shape of "gong" is a wood-cutting tool such as a jin axe, so the word "gong" in oracle bone script means a craftsman who uses a tool such as a jin axe to repair things, or performs such activities. It can be seen that the meaning of the word "Gonggong" is to cooperate to complete a complex task.

This thing is to build water conservancy projects. Some people have verified that Gonggong was a tribe that was good at organizing manpower to control water. They flattened the highlands and filled up the lowlands. They built embankments in the upstream waters.

In fact, it is a reservoir.

However, their engineering capabilities were obviously limited, and the reservoir could not hold water forever, so there had to be drainage measures.

Don't doubt the wisdom of the ancients. In the ruins of the Liangzhu ancient city 7,000 years ago, we have already discovered a primitive reservoir that can store flood water and prevent water. It is the earliest water conservancy project in the world and has been applied for as a world cultural heritage.

Gonggong was good at this. Because he always released flood water or caused the reservoir to burst due to mistakes, Gonggong was later passed down as a water god, and it was said that he had a fierce temperament and often used floods to harm people. This is the reason.

Gonggong himself must have had a pot for this, and it is very likely that he deliberately used people's fear of floods to threaten the surrounding tribes.

Shanhaijing: "There is a mountain called Xikun, and there is Gonggong's terrace. Archers dare not shoot north, fearing Gonggong's terrace. The terrace is to the east. There is a snake in the corner of the terrace, with the color of a tiger, and its head is facing south."

Translated, it means that there is a Gonggong terrace, and others dare not shoot arrows to the north because they are afraid of Gonggong's terrace. The platform is located to the east of Mount Xikun, and is square. There is a snake with tiger-colored stripes on the south side (drawing).

I think that the tiger-colored snake may be a dragon relief gate of a reservoir, probably a decoration on the flood discharge outlet.

The flood discharge gate is called Longmen.

As a vassal of Gonggong, Xiangyao obviously also had a similar reservoir, which was located at a high place. As long as the gate was opened, it would "vomit" sewage, so the good land would turn into a swamp, and it was still fishy. However, his totem, or the decoration of the gate, was a self-circling nine-headed snake.

Because Yu wanted to open the mountain and migrate them, Xiangyao was very dissatisfied. Gonggong also wanted to weigh Shun's ability to see if he was worthy of being an emperor. If Shun was like Yao and did not support flood control, then Yu would not be able to open their mountain!

So the two sides clashed, and even a war broke out.

During the war, Xiang Yao directly attacked with water and opened the reservoir to release sewage. The sewage was probably long-term domestic sewage and was rich in minerals. It directly flooded the land in the war zone into saline-alkali land, and it was also a severely disaster-stricken area, so grains could not grow.

Friends who have experienced floods know that floods are very dirty, because they will stir up all kinds of dirt from the ground, as well as all kinds of filthy silt.

If the reservoir is already very dirty, has been stagnant for a long time, and has all kinds of domestic garbage, then it is completely possible for the flooded land to turn directly into a smelly swamp after the flood is released.

However, although Gonggong can play with water, Yu's family background is also extraordinary. Gun and even Gun's ancestors have also passed down a method of water control. And it is an advanced technology that uses both blocking and dredging, which is more powerful than the old-time technology of Gonggong.

In addition, Shun's strong support, which restrained Gonggong, served as a solid backing for Dayu.

So Yu won this battle. Not only that, Shun also successfully pacified Gonggong and solved this long-standing big problem.

According to the Shangshu, Shun's achievement was to pacify the four crimes. Gonggong is one of the four sins.

Shun defeated Gonggong, and as for the Gun clan, one of the four sinners, he used gentle means to subdue them. After the surrender, he reused Yu from the Gun clan and recruited him for his own use.

Therefore, the Zhou Dynasty documents said that Shun pacified the four sinners, which was probably true. At least the Shanhaijing recorded clues that two of the sins were pacified.

In summary, after biting off the tough Gonggong clan, Yu and Shun were a good match for each other, and the entire flood control plan of Kyushu was more smoothly implemented, and there would probably be no major obstacles in the future.

After stumbling, Yu and Shun, two very capable people, finally completed this great cause and subdued the Yellow River.

During this period, Yu traveled around the countries, traveled through mountains and rivers, and wrote Lianshan Jing, which is the "Shan Jing" in Shanhaijing.

Shanjing is rigorous, while Haijing is obviously scattered. It is a collection of statements from various places. It may be a combination of a few ancient written records guarded by various tribes.

Later, Yu's important minister Bo Yi followed behind and added Yu's own deeds into the book, with pictures and texts, and compiled it into the Shanhaijing map as a classic of the Xia Dynasty.

This is the first time that Shanhaijing was written.

This is also the reason why the order of Shanjing and Haijing is very different.

Shanjing was written by Yu, while Haijing was compiled by collecting classics from various countries and tribes.

Therefore, the format of Shanjing is unified, one mountain after another, rigorous and meticulous. Haijing is more scattered, and the timeline is also very jumpy. Sometimes it is the Yellow Emperor era, sometimes the Black Emperor era, and sometimes it is Shaohao's side.

The execution ability is also much worse. Yu had to control the flood and was busy everywhere. It was impossible for him to go overseas. The overseas part was recorded and circulated by people before Zhuanxu opened the world.

As for how far overseas is, what the technical level of the ancient Yellow Emperor was, and whether there was a big setback after opening the world, I can only talk about it later.

I have barely finished talking about Yu in 18,000 words.

Let me summarize.

The myth of Dayu's flood control is too biased. Everyone only praises the successful ones, but forgets the pioneers who failed.

Before the pre-Qin period, it was called Gun and Yu's flood control. After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it became Dayu's flood control, and it was completely deified. Because Gun finally died in "stealing the emperor's Xiran to dam the flood", the content of the legend became that Gun only knew how to block, but not comb. Dayu knew how to dredge the river and dredge the flow, so he successfully controlled the flood.

So the original Gun and Yu's flood control became Dayu's flood control.

Gun, who died with a crime and infamy, became a background board, and set off his descendants.

But after reading Shanhaijing, we know that the truth is that Yu stood on the shoulders of his fathers. Gun already had the theory of blocking and dredging, but the resistance was too great and he failed in the end.

He is a loser and a pioneer. Under the materialist view of history, Gun completed his mission of the times, and Yu also completed his mission of the times, that's all.

The ancestors overcame all difficulties and obstacles just for the future generations to reproduce and thrive. The essence of the future generations being better than the predecessors is the sacrifice and foundation laid by the predecessors.

Without the reforms of Shang Yang, the Qin Xiaogong, the Qin Huiwenwang, the Qin Wuwang, the Qin Wuwang, the Qin Wuwang, and the Qin Zhaoxiangwang, the battle of Changping, which destroyed the national destiny of Zhao, how could Qin Shihuang unify the world.

The Han Wudi attacked the Xiongnu in the north, and the merits belonged to Wenjing. The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty started with the rule of the Sui Dynasty. The peace of the Zhao Song Dynasty was due to Guo Chai.

The Black Emperor ended the shelter era, which was the sacrifice of the presidents of all generations, the mission of the shelter organizations of all generations, the rebellion of the ancestors of all generations, and the continuation of the people who went against the will of heaven.

Dayu conquered the Yellow River, and inherited from Gun. The land of the nine states was distributed, and the power was relied on by Shun.

Shun started from a humble beginning, and the greatest grace was bestowed by Yao. Yao received the throne from his brother, and the mandate of heaven was changed from Zhuanxu. Zhuanxu cut off the earth and the sky, and abandoned Qin Nairu and Shaohao. Shaohao's virtue benefited the barbarians and the Chinese, and his glory was inherited by Yanhuang.

One of the Five Emperors should be Dayu. Whether the world can recognize their existence or not, the dust cannot cover up the legend of Gun and Yu's flood control.

This article has no novel ideas, only the weight of history.

There are too many words, I hope someone can read it in full.

…

P.S: Sorry, everyone knows that Dayu's achievements covered the nine states, but from ancient times to now, no one has praised Gun. I am a weirdo. This chapter is mixed with a lot of personal opinions, so that due to the limited length, many details are not explained clearly with quotations, but I think you don't like to read those obscure ancient documents. What should I talk about in the next chapter? Yan and Huang are too long, and I feel that 20,000 words are not enough. The same is true for Di Jun, so let's put it aside for now. This chapter is a bit too hardcore. I will write something light in the next chapter. What to write depends on your comments. It is not limited to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, but also history, humanities and mythology. Anything is fine.