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The ways of living in this world do not differ greatly between people of old and people of today. Whether in an age of peace or an age of chaos.
Now is an age of chaos. People in chaotic times are far more combative, passionate, and active than those in peaceful times. Perhaps that is why the saying arose that the times make the person.
The story that will unfold from here is not a tale of justice and morality. Nor is it a method of survival for enduring the fierce struggle of the law of the jungle. It is merely a trace of the lives of people who had to cross the river called an age of chaos, set against the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, the most turbulent and bewildering era in all human history. And it is also the story of the lives of us who live today.
Now, from here on, let us board a time machine and set off on a journey into the past.
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Once upon a time, on the largest continent of Earth, there lived a dragon. The dragon’s name was China.
The first ruler of China, who broke through the dark sky and scattered beautiful light upon the earth, was a king called Huangdi. It was in the basin of the Yellow River in what is now northern China. Of course, even before him, there had been rulers who governed that region—the so-called Central Plain.
Whether it was fifty thousand years ago or a hundred thousand years ago, no one knows. Countless clans and tribes lived scattered throughout the Yellow River basin. At some point, one clan appeared and ruled over the others. That was the Tianhuang clan. The Tianhuang clan founded a country and set the year at twelve months. The Tianhuang clan continued for twelve generations.
After the Tianhuang clan, a clan chief called Dihuang appeared and ruled the Central Plain. The Dihuang clan lasted for eleven generations. After the Dihuang clan, Renhuang appeared and ruled for nine generations. After the Renhuang clan, it is said that the Youchao clan inherited the country and ruled it. Until that time, people wove trees together to make houses and lived on raw food, gathering wild fruits from trees.
After that, Suiren appeared and became king. In the time of Suiren, people came to know how to create fire by rubbing wood together. From then on, they began to cook food over fire before eating it.
After Suiren, Fuxi ruled the country. Fuxi created the Eight Trigrams and made people understand numbers, and he established the institution of men and women marrying. He also wove nets and taught the people how to hunt and fish. He discovered how to domesticate livestock as well. For that reason, he is also called Paoxi.
After Fuxi, Shennong ruled the Central Plain. Shennong’s surname was Jiang. Since Jiang is connected to Qiang, it seems likely that he was of the Qiang people. Shennong carved wood to make plows and bent wood to make spades. He was the first to teach the people, who until then had not known how to farm, how to plow fields. Because of this, all under heaven honored him by calling him “Shennong.” Shennong also overlaid the Eight Trigrams to create the sixty-four hexagrams.
At first, Shennong established his capital at a place called Chen, and later moved it to Qufu. Chen is a place name near what is now Henan Province, and Qufu is a place name in Shandong Province. He ruled for eight generations.
The seven clans mentioned so far were the kings who ruled the Central Plain before Huangdi. However, they were not countries in the modern sense. They were, quite literally, nothing more than clan societies.
Among them, the three kings whose achievements were immense and whose names were renowned even in later generations were selected and called the “Three Sovereigns.” The Three Sovereigns differ depending on the text. Some books call Tianhuang, Dihuang, and Renhuang the Three Sovereigns, while others name Fuxi, Nüwa, and Shennong. There is also a theory that includes Suiren instead of Nüwa.
Since all of this belongs to the age before writing, it would be more correct to call it myth rather than history.
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The king who appeared after Shennong was none other than Huangdi. The period that followed is called the “age of the Five Emperors.” Until then, titles such as Tianhuang and Fuxi, though called kings, were not the names of individuals but clan names. But from the age of the Five Emperors after Huangdi, they refer to individuals. Huangdi can be called a king who stood at the turning point in the transition from clan society to tribal society.
The Chinese people do not hesitate to name “Huangdi” as their progenitor. Just as we name Dangun as our progenitor. They boldly excluded the kings of the earlier age of the Three Sovereigns. There must have been a reason.
If one speculates as to why they excluded the kings of the Three Sovereigns from their own progenitors, it seems likely that the clans who ruled the Yellow River basin until then were all foreign peoples. The basis for this is that the myths related to them are very similar in content to the transmitted myths handed down among foreign peoples on the frontiers.
Sima Qian, called the father of Chinese history, also begins the opening of his monumental work with the “Basic Annals of the Five Emperors.” Of course, this may be because the contents of the age of the Three Sovereigns were so absurd that they could not be called history, but from the perspective that “history is the record of the victors,” the Han Chinese, who became the victors in later generations, could not have made foreign peoples their own progenitors.
As befits the progenitor of the Chinese people, Huangdi has both a surname and a given name. His surname was Gongsun, and his name was Xuanyuan.
Around the time Huangdi was born, Yandi, the final king of the Shennong clan, was ruling the Central Plain. It was a time when his strength had weakened and signs of collapse were appearing. The clans of each region invaded one another to seize power, and there was not a day when fighting ceased.
At this time, the person who appeared like a comet was none other than Gongsun Xuanyuan. Xuanyuan learned the handling of weapons and conquered every clan that refused to submit to Yandi. And in the same momentum, he fought a decisive, all-or-nothing battle with Yandi, the Son of Heaven, on the plains of Banquan and emerged victorious.
A tribal chief named Chiyou raised the banner of rebellion against Xuanyuan and started an uprising. Xuanyuan again fought Chiyou on the plains of Zhuolu and won. At this time, it is said that Chiyou set the fields ablaze and used smoke as a smokescreen tactic, but Xuanyuan made a south-pointing chariot, accurately determined the direction, and gained victory. A south-pointing chariot refers to a cart fitted with a figure that always points south.
With this, all the tribes honored Xuanyuan as their new ruler in place of Yandi of the Shennong clan. He was Huangdi.
Huangdi established his capital on the plain below Mount Zhuolu, and made boats and carts to make transportation convenient. He also surveyed and organized the lands in all directions, and thereby all under heaven became peaceful.
The one who ascended as Son of Heaven after Huangdi was Zhuanxu. Zhuanxu was Huangdi’s grandson. It is unusual that the succession skipped the son and passed to the grandson. Zhuanxu seems to have been quite intelligent. He increased grain production and expanded the territory as well, extending his influence as far as Jiaozhi below the Yangtze River.
After Zhuanxu, Diku ascended the imperial throne. Diku was Huangdi’s great-grandson and also the grandson of Xuanxiao, Huangdi’s eldest son. Diku created the calendar system.
Diku had two sons. The eldest son was Zhi, and the second son was called Fangxun. When Diku passed away, the eldest son, Zhi, first inherited the throne. However, Zhi failed to govern the country properly. Thus his younger brother Fangxun inherited his elder brother’s position. This king was none other than Yao.
King Yao was wise and benevolent. He determined the seasonal divisions and had farming carried out at the proper times.
After King Yao, King Shun ruled the earth. Shun was a Dongyi man. He had been a subject of King Yao. Because he was of lofty virtue and benevolent, Yao passed the position of Son of Heaven to Shun, who was not his kin.
Thus Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Diku, Yao, and Shun are referred to as the “Five Emperors.” Perhaps because it was still a tribal society in which the concept of a state had not yet been established, even by this time the names of dynasties had not come into being.
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Among the Five Emperors, Yao and Shun are very familiar to us. This is because whenever a reign of peace and prosperity is discussed, Yao and Shun are brought up. One might call it the utopia of the East.
It is said that Yao first ascended the throne in 2357 BC. That was about 4,350 years ago from now. Since that is what has been handed down, no one knows how accurate it is. It was probably a date fabricated by people of later generations. In any case, this year is also one that can be compared with our own country. Since Dangun Wanggeom, the progenitor of our country, founded Gojoseon in 2333 BC, Yao became king twenty-five years before Dangun. From the perspective of social history, it corresponds to a Neolithic agrarian society.
Those familiar with Eastern culture have an image of Yao as a sage king. Praise for Yao is tremendous.
Even taking embellishment into account, one can guess that he was an exceedingly outstanding king.
There is a very amusing anecdote emphasizing that King Yao’s era was a reign of peace and prosperity. It is the so-called “Song of Beating the Clods.”
One day, King Yao disguised himself in plain clothes and went out incognito to observe the lives of the people. When he went to a certain alley, children were singing the following song.
That we live in peace
Is all thanks to the virtue of the king.
Let us all follow King Yao.
It was a song that he naturally ought to have been pleased by, but for some reason, King Yao returned to the palace with a gloomy expression. Then, for more than ten years, he lived in a thatched house just like the common people; if there were people starving, he starved too; if there were people shivering in the cold, he shivered with them; and if there were people being punished for crimes, he suffered as though he himself were a criminal.
King Yao once again went out to inspect the lives of the people. When he arrived at a certain street, an old man was sitting comfortably on the ground, patting his bulging belly as he sang.
When the sun rises in the east, I go out to work,
And when the sun sets in the west, I return and sleep.
I dig a well and drink water,
I plow the field and eat my rice,
So what use is the power of the king to me?
It was a song whose lyrics, depending on how one heard them, could be considered extremely insolent, saying that the king was unnecessary. Yet King Yao’s reaction was completely unexpected. Far from becoming angry, he smiled faintly and returned to the palace in satisfaction.
Indeed, it was worthy of a sage king who had achieved a reign of peace and prosperity, and worthy of such a people. It is said that the game of go also came into being at this time.
Among King Yao’s achievements, the most remarkable was that he calculated the laws governing the movements of the sun, moon, and stars, so that farming could be done at the proper times. He set one year at 366 days, and once every three years used an intercalary month to correct the discrepancy between the four seasons. It was also at this time that the ranks of the feudal lords were divided into five grades—gong, hou, bo, zi, and nan.
King Yao accomplished many things during his reign, but his greatest achievement may perhaps have been that he did not designate his own son as his successor.
King Yao reigned for seventy years. In his later years, he often summoned his subjects and discussed the matter of his successor with them.
“Who will carry on my will and govern the country?”
His subjects answered with one voice.
“If it is someone to succeed you, is not your eldest son, Prince Danzhu, present?”
But King Yao shook his head.
“Danzhu lacks virtue and enjoys fighting, so he is not fit to be an emperor. Recommend another worthy man.”
Afterward, the subjects recommended several people of outstanding talent, but each time King Yao shook his head.
Then King Yao heard a rumor that a man named Xu You was exceedingly virtuous and outstanding, and he personally went to seek him out, intending to hand over the throne to him.
“If ten suns were to rise and shine, and yet one did not extinguish a candle, would it not be because one was that diligent? If you, sir, become Son of Heaven and govern the country, all under heaven will surely be at peace. I ask you, sir, please take charge of all under heaven and govern it.”
Xu You waved both hands and declined.
“Is Your Majesty trying to entrust all under heaven to me because all under heaven is not being governed, or is it for my sake? If it is for the sake of all under heaven, then all under heaven is already being well governed. And if it is for my sake, please do not worry at all. A wren builds its nest in the forest, yet one branch is enough; a mole drinks from the river, yet it drinks only enough to fill its own belly. Your Majesty, please return.”
After saying this, he went to the banks of the Ying River at Mount Ji, washed his ears, and lived in hiding.
Having failed to persuade Xu You, King Yao continued to search for sages and finally found a man named Shun. Shun was neither a relative of Yao nor a high-ranking official. He was a commoner. His father was known as an ignorant man who knew nothing of morality or propriety. Nevertheless, the fact that Shun’s name had reached the ears of the king—was that not proof that his benevolence and ability were that outstanding?
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Shun was a man of Ji Province: the region around Shanxi Province and northern Henan Province.
Shun had once farmed at Lishan (Mount Li, southeast of Yongji County in Shanxi Province), where the locals yielded to one another over the boundaries of their fields; he had once fished at Leize, where the fishermen yielded their spots to one another. Thus, the place where Shun lived became a village after one year, a town after two years, and a city after three years. Records state that his virtue and ability were so outstanding.
Shun's family history is quite like a folktale. His original name was Chonghua. It is said he was given this name because he had double pupils. His father's name was Gusou. He was not only blind and unable to see, but also ill-tempered. Because his birth mother died early, Shun grew up under his stepmother. But this stepmother was also exceedingly wicked. Her son, his half-brother Xiang, was also arrogant and dissolute. They all were frantic with frustration at being unable to kill Shun. It is just like seeing our country's folktale "Kongjwi and Patjwi."
One day, when Shun climbed onto a granary to repair the roof, his father and stepmother conspired together and set a fire beneath it. On the verge of being burned to death, Shun used two bamboo hats like a parachute to jump down from the roof and escape death.
There was another incident like this. Following his father Gusou's orders, Shun went down to dig a well. Just in case, while digging the well he also dug a secret hole through which he could escape outside. And surely enough, his father and half-brother Xiang suddenly dumped in earth and filled the well. However, Shun escaped outside through the secret hole he had dug in advance.
Shun grew up in such an environment. Yet he was a filial son who never uttered a single complaint. He was always respectful, and he cherished his younger brother dearly.
Shun's filial piety and excellent conduct passed through the mouths of ministers and finally reached the ears of Emperor Yao.
"They say this man named Shun is wise, upright, and diligent. I shall test him once."
Emperor Yao married his two daughters, Ehuang and Nüying, to Shun to observe his virtue and conduct. It was, so to speak, a test of character. Indeed, Shun was just as the rumors said. Ehuang and Nüying reported to Emperor Yao on Shun's character and actions, and they were exceptionally proper and dignified.
Therefore, this time he appointed Shun to government office to test his political and administrative abilities. Shun also received high marks in that test.
Before long, Emperor Yao entrusted him with regency, and finally designated him as his successor to ascend the throne of the Son of Heaven.
Though it is mythology, this transfer of power by Emperor Yao is truly moving. Sima Qian wrote of this matter as follows:
Emperor Yao passed away, and Shun ascended the throne. Now it became the world of Shun.
Shun is also an emperor who represents an era of great peace alongside Yao. Accordingly, he accumulated many achievements. First, he precisely calculated the error-ridden calendar of the time to correct the number of days in a month and properly set the hours of the day. He unified musical pitch, weights and measures, and established the Five Rites. The Five Rites refer to jili (sacrifices), xiongli (funerals), binli (diplomatic ceremonies), junli (military rites), and jiali (capping and wedding ceremonies).
Shun conducted inspection tours of the entire nation once every five years, and during the intervening four years he had the various feudal lords come to offer court ceremonies. He also divided the nation into twelve provinces and implemented a new system of governance whereby political achievements were managed and supervised by region.
The twelve provinces are Jizhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Jingzhou, Yangzhou, Yuzhou, Liangzhou, Yongzhou, Bingzhou, Youzhou, and Yingzhou.
If the era of Emperor Yao was one that could not break free from the concept of a tribal society, then the era of Emperor Shun must be regarded as the early period of a tribal state that began to take on the form of a nation.
Along with the "Jirang Ge" from the time of Emperor Yao, a song called the "Ode to the South Wind" has been passed down from the time of Emperor Shun.
O fragrant South Wind!
The hearts of the people grow soft.
The wind that blows in season nurtures the myriad things,
So the livelihoods of the people are all abundant.
Emperor Shun had eight outstanding ministers. They were Yu, who was in charge of flood control; Houji, who oversaw agriculture; Xie, who was responsible for morals and ethics; Gao Yao, who was in charge of penal law; Chui, who managed pottery, lumber, and stoneworking; Yu, who was responsible for forest policy; Boyi, who directed sacrifices; Kui, who oversaw music; and Long, who was in charge of communications. They were precisely these men.
Among them, Yu, who was in charge of flood control, achieved the greatest merit. At that time, the Yellow River would flood every summer, causing great harm to the people. Thereupon, Yu undertook large-scale flood control works, connecting the nine great lakes throughout the nation and straightening the courses of the nine rivers to achieve astonishing results. It would be no exaggeration to say that the reason Chinese civilization could arise and continue to the present day was thanks to this flood control project. Had it not been so, the continent of China might have become a "cursed land" abandoned by humanity.
Emperor Shun highly evaluated Yu's achievements in the successful flood control project. And he recognized Yu's ability.
Emperor Shun had a son named Shangjun. Naturally, he should have passed the throne to him, but Shun, just like Emperor Yao, judged that he could not become the timber for a Son of Heaven, and designated Yu, his most capable minister, as his successor.
Afterward, Emperor Shun was conducting an inspection tour of the regions south of the Yangtze River when he fell ill in the fields of Cangwu (southern Hunan Province today, the area covering northeastern Guangxi Province and northwestern Guangdong Province) and passed away. It was in the thirty-ninth year after he had ascended the throne of the Son of Heaven. His ministers gathered and conducted burial rites at Jiuyi Mountain (south of Yongyuan County in Hunan Province); this place is precisely Lingling.
At that time, the two queens Ehuang and Nüying, who had followed Emperor Shun as far as the vicinity of the Xiang River, were distraught at his sudden death and shed tears; those tears fell on the bamboo beside them, leaving stained speckles. It is said that afterward, speckled bamboo grew in the vicinity of the Xiang River. There is a heart-wrenching tale that has been passed down of the two queens, unable to overcome their sorrow for a time and shedding tears, being unable to endure their longing for their husband and throwing themselves into the river to end their own lives.
Later, the Tang dynasty poet Li Bai once composed a poem based on this anecdote.
Gazing west from Dongting, the Chu River divides;
Where waters end in the southern sky, no clouds appear.
The dusk of Changsha, the autumn hues are deep—
I know not where to pray for the peace of the Xiangjun (Ehuang and Nüying).
Yu succeeded Shun and ascended the throne of the Son of Heaven.
But Yu was a man with a strong political bent. He did not ascend the throne meekly like Emperor Shun. He cast a kind of gamble.
"I do not have the qualifications to rule the world. It is right that Prince Shangjun, the son of Emperor Shun, should ascend the throne."
He declined the position of the Son of Heaven.
Records of Yu's conduct at this time relate as follows:
Yangcheng is in the vicinity of the southeast of Dengfeng County in present-day Henan Province.
Why did Yu decline the throne and flee to Yangcheng? Perhaps Shangjun had his eyes on the position of Son of Heaven. Yu sensed this. It was a period of transition from a communal property system to a private property system—an age when property could be monopolized through power. Naturally, one could not help but be ambitious for power. Had Yu ascended as the Son of Heaven according to Shun's will, a great conflict might have broken out.
"—I need to take the measure of the various feudal lords' hearts!"
Did Yu not think thus?
This act of Yu's, accompanied by a political gamble, achieved tremendous success. All the feudal lords of the world abandoned Shangjun and came to seek Yu.
"Please rule the world."
They earnestly requested it. Now Yu had secured the qualifications to ascend the throne not by the testament of Emperor Shun, but by the request of the multitude of feudal lords. He ascended as the Son of Heaven as if reluctantly, and received the audience of the feudal lords.
Yu's political acumen was displayed even more after he ascended the throne. He determined the name of the nation.
—Xia.
Before that, there had been no state name. There had been names, but they were merely the names of the lands where clans or tribes lived, serving as the name of the state.
But the times were changing. The situation demanded the emergence of a state. Only then could rule be exercised with ease. Emperor Yu was a man who knew this.
Thus, the first official dynasty was born in China. It is called the Xia Dynasty. It was around 2050 BC.