Monster Tracking (6): Feng Xi (continued)

As mentioned earlier, the relationship between the image of the pig and the constellations is not fixed, but has changed between different constellations.

Kuisu, the first of the Western Qisu (Kui is called Fengzhu in "Historical Records") and the last two rooms and Bisu of the northern Qisu (the camp room is called Zouwei in "Guangya") are both After being given the image of a pig, the last one left was the indoor fire pig.

Secondly, it is speculated that Kuisu’s pig (Fengshu) was formed before Murojuku’s pig (豕伟), and Murojuku was originally the same as Kuisu, and later they differentiated and inherited the image of the pig. .

So, if we want to trace the origin of the so-called monster Fengxi in "Huainanzi", it naturally has a close relationship with pigs and pigweeds.

The stars and gods in the sky are actually reflections of the human world. For example, this Zowei is not only another name for Murojuku, but there was also a country with the same name in history.

When Taikang was in power in the Xia Dynasty, Hou Yi from a poor country usurped the throne through a coup. It was known in history that Taikang lost his country. Eight years later, he returned to Zhongkang. After that, Hou Yi was exterminated by his younger brother Hanzhuo. Hanzhuo continued to hunt down Zhongkang's son Xiang on behalf of the Xia Hou, and "destroyed the Xia Hou Xiang". Shaokang, the posthumous son of the prime minister, narrowly escaped death and made a comeback after a period of exile. He finally destroyed Hanzhuo and successfully restored the country, which was known as the Shaokang Zhongxing in history.

Taikang, Zhongkang, Shaokang, these names are strange, right? It might be helpful to find a reference.

According to folklore, it was Du Kang who invented wine. The god of wine, Du Kang, has also become synonymous with wine. For example, Cao Cao once said, "Only Du Kang can relieve worries." This Du Kang refers to fine wine.

Who is Du Kang? Of course, it is just a legend after all. There are many versions of this, and one of them says that Shaokang, the king of ZTE in the Xia Dynasty, was the Du Kang who invented wine. Shaokang, surnamed Si, also known as Du Kang, was the son of Prime Minister Si and the sixth generation monarch of the Xia Dynasty.

There is no fire without fire. The reason why there is such a legend is because Shaokang’s experience does provide the background needed for the character of Dionysus-in the process of escaping and returning to the country, he successively did many things. There were Muzheng of the still family and Baozheng of the Yu family. The so-called Baozheng was the head of the imperial dining room.

After Taikang lost the country, it passed through three generations of Zhongkang, Xianghe and Shaokang, which lasted for nearly a hundred years. It was not until Shaokang was revived that the Xia Dynasty returned to Zhengshuo.

Just after Shao returned to the country, the name Weiwei appeared.

Restoring the country is never easy. Gusu Murong also dreamed of restoring the country, but it was just a fantasy of the moon in the mirror. The big swallow could not go back, but it was all in vain. The infatuation of the fairy sister was wasted.

Compared with Murong Fu’s tragedy, Shaokang’s great luck can be said to have continued to be profitable. Of course, the success of the restoration of the country must depend on the response and help of various vassal states. Among them is the King of Peng Guoqin meritorious service.

So after ascending to the throne, Shaokang reciprocated the favor and granted Peng Bo's younger brother Yuanzhe to the country of Shewei. Peng Bo and Yuan Zhe are both grandsons of Da Peng, and Da Peng is the legendary Peng ancestor who lived for 800 years. For example, "Liezi Li Ming" contains: "Peng Zu's wisdom is not superior to that of Yao and Shun, and his life span is eight hundred, and Yan Yuan's talent is not inferior to others, but his life span is forty eight."

So, Yuan Zhe's The State of Wei Wei and the State of Peng Bo became the two major princes of the Xia Dynasty. The descendants of Yuanzhe took Guo as their surname. This is the origin of the surname Wei.

Where is Yuan Zhe’s feudal state Wei Wei? It is now located in Huaxian County, Henan Province. For example, "New Book of Tang·Genesis of Prime Ministers IV" contains:

Huazhou is Huaxian, and the place where Yuanzhe was granted the title of Shewei is in Huaxian, Henan. There are many records about this in the past dynasties, such as:< /p>

Dongjun Baima was a division established during the Qin and Han Dynasties. The old city of Baima County is ten kilometers east of today’s Hua County.

In the Xia Dynasty, Shaokang granted Yuanzhe the title of the State of Shewei, and his descendants took the country as their surname and developed into the Wei clan. However, the name of Shewei was not Shaokang’s invention, let alone Yuanzhe’s lineage. Exclusive.

For example, during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, the country of Shiwei changed its owners several times, but Shiwei was always still Shiwei.

Starting from Shaokang, Shewei was first a feudal state of Yuanzhe and Wei. By the time of Kong Jia, the 14th generation (or 16th generation) of the Xia Dynasty, there was Liu Lei, who was highly appreciated by the emperor. , so the old Liu family took their place and became the masters of the Wei Kingdom. For example, "Zuo Zhuan·The 29th Year of Zhaogong" records:

The word "nuisance" means "tame". As for what kind of animal the dragon here is, there is a lot of ambiguity, so this article will not go into details.

Liu Lei got the title of Yulong clan, but unfortunately the good times did not last long, and he accidentally raised Kong Jia's precious dragon to death. It is estimated that Liu Lei was not very good at learning to disturb dragons from the Chuanlong clan, so he thought that accompanying the king is like accompanying a tiger. This is not a long-term solution, so he might as well run away.

Liu Lei ran away, but Kong Jia did not pursue the matter further. He just withdrew the title of Yulong clan and still handed over the country of Shewei to Yuanzhe's descendants.

After you finish singing, I will appear on the stage. After that, there were several ups and downs. One moment, Liu Lei’s descendants took over the country of Bowei, and another moment, Yuan Zhe’s descendants restored the country. For example, Du Yu’s "Spring and Autumn Period" of the Western Jin Dynasty "Collected Commentary on Zuo's Classics":

This means that Yuanzhe and his family raised dragons during the Kongjia period of the Xia Dynasty. Liu Lei returned to the country after he ran away, but when Shang Tang attacked Xia Jie, because the Liu family helped Shang Tang was responsible for destroying Xia, so in the early Yin and Shang Dynasties, the country of Shewei was again occupied by Liu Lei's descendants.

Another example is the Southern Song Dynasty's Pei Piao's "Historical Records Annotation" quoting Cao Wei Jia Kui:

This means that in the early Shang Dynasty, the Liu family was granted a title to the State of Shewei due to military exploits, but soon after He was abandoned by the Shang Dynasty again, probably to show his new vigor, and found Yuan Zhe's descendants, so Yuan Zhe later returned to the country again.

Unfortunately, during the period of Wu Ding, the twenty-third generation king of Shang, the Wei Kingdom of the Yuanzhe clan and the Dapeng Kingdom of the Yuanzhe clan misjudged the situation, held a referendum and declared independence, instead of surrendering. If he did not pay tribute, he would be beaten up by Wu Ding. When the king's army arrived, it was wiped out, so Liu Lei, an old acquaintance of the Wei Kingdom, replaced him again (in the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasty Project, Wu Ding was located in 1250 BC - BC 1192).

The same story continues to play out. Shang destroyed Xia, and the Liu family succeeded in taking sides; Zhou destroyed Shang, and Wei chose the right direction of history. So, King Wu of Zhou divided the world, and the Wei family returned to their ancestral homeland. Wei Guo.

In short, the capital changed into the King's Banner, and the Yuanzhe and Liu Lei families came and went like this for hundreds of years, but no matter who the owner was, the name of Siwei did not change until the period of King Nan of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. This was already in the Warring States Period, when the State of Shewei was annexed by the State of Lu and ceased to exist (the State of Shewei in the Zhou Dynasty had moved to Shandong).

It can be seen that the name of the country "Zhiwei" is not exclusive to Webster, nor is it an invention of Shaokang in the Xia Dynasty. It is very likely that "Ziwei" existed before Shaokang.

Yes, this is not speculation, there are clues in the pre-Qin classics.

We know that 豕 and 豨 both refer to pigs. Feng Xi and Feng 豱 are the same thing. Similarly, the so-called 豕伟 and 豨伟 are also the same thing.

Weiwei has a far longer history than Weiwei.

There is a sermon in "Zhuangzi: The Great Master":

In Zhuangzi's writings, he listed many saints who have achieved enlightenment in ancient times. The first one is Qia Qia. It was the unknown Wei Weishi, and famous figures such as Fuxi, Huangdi, Zhuanxu, and Queen Mother of the West were all ranked behind him.

It can be seen that the origin of Weiwei, who is related to pigs, is even older than the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors in later generations.

Is this the ancients making up stories? After all, no one has been able to tell clearly whether Fuxi, Huangdi and others are humans or gods for thousands of years, let alone Xi Wei.

However, fortunately, pigs are not imaginary animals. Real dragons are nowhere to be found, but pigs in reality, like humans, will definitely leave traces. Therefore, archaeological discoveries can provide We provide clues and answers.

As we said before, the image of the pig was originally assigned to the Big Dipper and the North Celestial Pole, and we know that this starry sky is the center around which the stars in the sky rotate, and it has an unusual significance. In the human corresponding system, this area corresponds to the emperor and the imperial palace.

Obviously, pigs once had an extraordinary status.

In fact, the simplest and most intuitive example is the Chinese characters that are still in use today. For example, home, 宀+豕, means there is a pig under the house. When people are alive, pigs are their home. When people die, they are also related to pigs. For example, the burial tomb is also called a tomb, 冖+豖, 豖 means more pigs, isn’t it still a pig, but with the pig’s feet Tied up.

Yes, that is indeed the case.

During the Han Dynasty, especially the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was a common burial custom for the deceased to hold a pig in his hand, that is, to hold a jade pig or a stone pig in his hand as a burial companion.

If we go back further, during the Yin and Shang Dynasties, real pigs were even used as burial companions, and piglets were generally used. The reason for using piglets must be that there were no growth hormones and fattening drugs at that time. It would take at least a year to raise a pig. It was really uneconomical to spend so much effort only to bury it in the end.

The tradition of using live pigs for burial has a long history. It has been found in many sites as early as the Neolithic Age. There are pigs buried as sacrifices and can often be seen on various utensils and ritual vessels. images, such as the jade pig dragon from the Hongshan Culture (4000 BC - 3000 BC), the double pig-headed jade eagle from the Lingjiatan site in Anhui (3600 BC - 3300 BC), the super large dragon from the Liangzhu Culture The stone pig (3300 BC-2000 BC), etc.

Compared with the piglet burials in the Shang Dynasty, ancient times may have been more generous, such as the Xinglongwa site in eastern Inner Mongolia, which dates from 6200 BC to 5400 BC. In a tomb here There are rich funerary objects such as jade, stone, pottery, bone, and clam ware, as well as pigs, and they are two large pigs, one female and one male. The following is quoted from the "1992 Excavation Briefing of the Xinglongwa Settlement Site in Aohan Banner, Inner Mongolia":

Judging from the length of the pig bones, these are not two piglets, and they occupy a considerable amount of space in the tomb, which can be regarded as similar to People are equally divided. If the roles were reversed, from the pig's point of view, it's really hard to say who died and who was buried.

The difference in status between pigs is generally obvious.

Pigs include wild boars and domestic pigs. Wild boars have a history of tens of millions of years. In the era when humans relied on hunting and gathering as their main source of livelihood, they must have dealt with wild boars. As for those who lived with humans thousands of years ago, The pigs that sleep underground should be considered domestic pigs. Even if it is not certain whether they have been domesticated, they are at least wild boars that have been raised in captivity.

So, when were pigs domesticated and introduced into human life?

In Europe, the domestication of pigs was first seen in eastern Turkey around 7000 BC.

The domestication of pigs in East Asia happened almost at the same time.

For example, pig bone remains unearthed from the Jiahu site in Wuyang, Henan have been confirmed by some studies to be domestic pigs, with an upper limit of age of 7000 BC (Luo Yunbing, "Pig Domestication, Breeding and Ritual Use in Ancient China" 》).

Another example is the Zengpiyan site in Guilin, Guangxi. A large number of pig fossils were unearthed from the first phase of cultural relics. The identification found that these pigs had been domesticated for a long time and could be confirmed as domestic pigs. . Carbon 14 dating was performed on the skeletal specimens, which was dated to 7100 BC (250 BC, Qi Zhaojin's "Stone Age Cave Sites and Periodization in the Lijiang River Basin in Northeast Guangxi").

Domestic pigs appeared in China around 7000 BC, and then gradually spread to various regions. In Neolithic sites such as Banpo in Xi'an, Peiligang in Xinzheng in Henan, and Hemudu in Yuyao in Zhejiang, traces of pigs have been excavated. Domestic pig bones from six or seven thousand years ago.

The earliest domestication of wild animals by humans should be dogs, which were derived from wolves, about a thousand years earlier than the domestication of pigs (around 8000 BC).

As for sheep, the earliest domesticated sheep and goats in the world were in Iran 10,000 years ago, which is about the same time as dogs were domesticated, but the sheep in China were much later. Much more. Judging from current discoveries, sheep appeared more than 3,000 years later than pigs.

According to archaeological discoveries of sheep in China, the earliest known domestic sheep appeared in Gansu and Qinghai, ranging from 3600 BC to 3000 BC; the earliest goats were even later, unearthed in The Erlitou site in Yanshi, Henan, dates back to around 1700 BC.

Judging from the text, Xi is a pig, and Xi is related to sheep. So, going back to Zhuangzi’s ranking of the saints who achieved Taoism in ancient times, Xi Wei ranked in front of Fu Xi. Indeed, This is consistent with the order in which the domestication of pigs and sheep appeared in China.

Can you say this is just a coincidence? I'm afraid not.

This just shows that the characters in ancient mythology, such as Wei Wei and Fu Xi, may not really be a specific person, but the background of the times they reflect is real, and the existence of each corresponding ethnic group is by no means imaginary.

This is the meaning of the so-called historical stories in myths. If mythology is entirely attributed to literary creation and imagination, it will inevitably lead to a simplistic thinking and crude attitude. Moreover, even literature has a foundation derived from life.

For example, Wei Wei must be related to the domestication of pigs, reflecting the historical process of ancient ancestors gradually domesticating wild boars into domestic pigs. The concept of Wei Wei can only deeply involve people in pigs. It was possible to be born after the life of the tribe, and it probably pointed to a tribe that was the first to raise pigs or was very good at raising pigs.

In the same way, the so-called Fuxi, the word "xi" is related to sheep (the upper part is sheep, the lower part is "G"), which can reflect the historical stage when the ancients killed sheep for sacrifice, so the concept of Fuxi naturally comes from the word "sheep". After appearing.

Interestingly, the earliest sheep in China have been found in the Qinghai area of ??Gansu Province 5,000 years ago, and the most popular place for the legendary hometown of Fuxi happens to be in the Tianshui area of ??Gansu Province.

The domestication of pigs in China began 9,000 years ago. According to the currently known archaeological evidence, one is located in Wuyang, Henan (Jiahu Site), and the other is in Guilin, Guangxi (Zhenpiyan Site). ), the dating results of the two are similar, but the two places are more than a thousand kilometers apart. So, did the domestication of pigs start at the same time, or did it spread from one place to the other? If it's the latter, which one of these two places comes first and who comes last?

As mentioned above, the state of Shewei, which existed since the Xia Dynasty, was located in Huaxian, Henan. It was not far from the Jiahu site where one of the earliest pig bones was unearthed, only about 300 kilometers away.

The pigs at the Jiahu site and the existence of the Swine Wei State can be corroborated by two aspects. This is another interesting coincidence.

However, can it be said that the pig at the Jiahu site is slightly earlier than the one at Zengpiyan in Guilin, Guangxi?

Of course not, because Zhuangzi is talking about Weishi, and the monster mentioned in "Huainanzi" is also called Fengxi. Although from the text, it is obvious that "豨" is derived from the word "豱", but we still It should be noted that Xi is originally the name for pigs in southern areas such as Chu State, so it is very reasonable that its sound comes first and then its word.

In other words, the word "豨" must have appeared after the word "豱" came into being, but the way of calling pigs "豨" undoubtedly preceded the writing.

As Yang Xiong of the Western Han Dynasty said in "Dialect":

The name for pigs is 豨 in Southern Chu, and 豱 in the Guandong and Guanxi regions.

Where is the key? The pass here refers to Hangu Pass. The pass through Guandong was Shanhaiguan, but that was already in the Ming Dynasty.

There have been two Hangu Passes in history. The earliest one was in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It was in the east of Qin State and was called Qinguan Pass. It is located in Wangduo Village, 15 kilometers north of Lingbao City, Henan Province. , about 75 kilometers away from Sanmenxia City. It is said that this is where Laozi left Hangu Pass in the west. During the Western Han Dynasty, a city pass was built in Xin'an County, Luoyang, also called Hangu Pass. This is Han Pass, 150 kilometers east of Qin Pass. Hanguan Pass has long been abandoned, and the Hangu Pass now refers to Qin Pass.

Yang Xiong was from the Western Han Dynasty, so whether the pass he was talking about was Qin Pass or Han Pass, the east and west sides of this pass were undoubtedly within the borders of today's Shaanxi and Henan provinces.

Look at the geographical locations of Hanguguan, Jiahu ruins (pork bones unearthed 9,000 years ago) and Huaxian (Shewei State). As can be seen in the picture, Shewei State is to the north, and Jiahu State is far north. The lake ruins are to the south. The area where the Jiahu site is located may have been more influenced by Chu in the south and call pigs pigs, while in the Shewei State in Huaxian County, it is more likely that pigs are called pigs due to the influence of the Guanxi region.

However, after all, these places are not far from each other, so it is actually difficult to tell whether the pig is called a pig or a pig.

Since Weishi is an older concept than Fuxi, there is another Fengxi in the monster legend, and it is clear that Xi is a pig, then, can we figure out where Fengxi’s name comes from? Coming?

Yes, the ancient and strange name Feng Xi may be able to give us a more reliable answer.

In 1972, two maps from the early Western Han Dynasty were unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha. They were a topographic map and a garrison map of the Changsha Kingdom and its southern region. They were dated to 168 BC.

On the topographic map, there are detailed standards for the eight counties and seventy li in the Changsha Kingdom, but strangely, the vast Lingnan-at that time, Zhao Tuo took advantage of the chaos at the end of the Qin Dynasty to stand on his own The name of the Nanyue Kingdom as the king was empty, only the word "Fengzhong" was marked, and even Panyu, the capital of the South Vietnam Kingdom, was not marked on it.

This map gives a very important reminder that the Lingnan area where Guangdong and Guangxi are located was once called Fengzhong.

Just like Hanzhong, Han is the Han River, and Hanzhong refers to the area of ??the Han River basin. The so-called Fengzhong is naturally named after Fengshui.

Fengshui is Hejiang, also known as Fengxi. It originates from Fuchuan, Guangxi, flows through Hezhou, Guangxi, and then flows southward, flowing into the Xijiang River from Fengkai County, Guangdong. The total length is only 352 kilometers.

Fengkai is just an ordinary county now, but this place in history was once a prosperous place.

After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty pacified the Nanyue Kingdom, he divided the Lingnan area into nine counties (Nanhai, Cangwu, Yulin, Hepu, Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen, Rinan, Daner, and Zhuya). Guangxin County is located in this place, which is the capital of the nine counties in Lingnan and the seat of the government office of Jiaozhi Department.

Going north along the He River from Guangxin County, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty densely set up six counties on the limited land in the Fengshui Basin, while the entire Nanhai County only had six counties. The area is five times that of the six counties in the Fengshui Basin (Chen Nailiang, "Fengzhong and its Important Position in the Western Han Dynasty"), which shows that the Western Han Dynasty attached great importance to this area.

The reason why it attaches so much importance is naturally due to its geographical location. Going north along the Hejiang River, this is the main transportation thoroughfare connecting Lingnan and Lingbei; going south along the Fengshui River, after it merges into the Xijiang River, you can directly reach the southern outlet; in the east-west direction, Fengkai is also the gateway between Guangdong and Guangxi. In fact, Guangdong and Guangxi are named after Guangxin County, which was established here by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Guangdong is to the east of Guangxin, and Guangxi is to the west of Guangxin.

It can be seen that the Fengshui Basin was once the center of the Lingnan region, and the Zhenpi Rock in Guilin, Guangxi, where 9,000-year-old pig bones were discovered, is on the edge of this area, from Guilin to Fengkai is only about 300 kilometers away from the Jiahu ruins from the state of Jiwei.

So, could it be that the seal of Feng Xi comes from the seal of Feng Shui?

If this is the case, then the pigs at the Jiahu site in Wuyang, Henan are likely to be the result of the northward migration and spread of ancestors from the Fengshui Basin.

In the process of going north, not only did they bring the technology of domesticating pigs, but also out of the memory and nostalgia for their homeland, people passed down the story by word of mouth, and this is how the story of Feng Xi was born. .

However, questions remain. The seal of Fengxi may come from the seal of Fengshui, so why did Fengshui take its name from Feng?

According to the explanation of "Kangxi Dictionary", "Feng" means "big". Therefore, the so-called seal is also a big pig.

However, the examples given in the "Kangxi Dictionary" do not seem appropriate.

For example, he quoted from "The Book of Songs·Shang Song·Yin Wu":

The general idea of ??these lines is: King Shang governs the four directions according to the destiny, and the people of the world are respectful and dignified. Governance has its own rewards and punishments, and we are never lazy in serving the people diligently. The king's orders were issued to the princes, and the kingdoms in all directions enjoyed a happy life.

The "feudal" term "feudal" is interpreted as "big" in "The Biography of Mao", but the "feudal" here is obviously not as smooth as the interpretation of "feudal states, feudal states, vassal city-states".

For another example, take "Shang Shu Shun Dian" as an example:

The seal here is too big, but it is actually inappropriate.

The reason is very simple. There are two mountains in Fengshi, two states in Zhaoshi in front, and Junchuan in the back. Zhao means the beginning; drun means dredging. It also means dividing the world into twelve states and dredging the rivers.

Obviously, zhao and jun are both verbs, so there is no reason to interpret the "feng" in the middle as "big". Feng Shi has two mountains, which should be the Feng Zen that emperors of all ages were keen on, which is also a kind of sacrifice.

Since Feng Shi is not accurate, then Feng Xi should not mean Big Pig.

What is the original intention of sealing?

According to the explanation in Xu Shen's "Shuowen" of the Western Han Dynasty, a fief refers to the fiefdom and country of the princes, and the area of ??the fiefdom has different regulations according to the fifth-class title of the Duke Bozinan.

For example, Yuanzhe was granted the title of king by Shaokang to the state of Shewei, and the state of Shewei was Yuanzhe's state.

Let’s look at the way seal is written. In oracle bone inscriptions, its glyph resembles a tree.

Yes, the original meaning of sealing is to plant trees on the border, that is, to plant trees to seal the border as a boundary. For example, "Zhou Li·Di Guan" contains:

From "Zhou Li" 》It can be seen that trees must be planted around the emperor's royal territory, the feudal states of the princes, and the city.

It can be seen that the original meaning of enfeoffment is actually to plant trees around as a boundary, and it is logical to extend the meanings of enfeoffment, encirclement, and closure.

In other words, the core connotation of the concept of sealing is boundary. Secondly, sealing is related to royal power.

So, what is the boundary of sealing water?

What a coincidence, the place where Fengshui (Hejiang River) flows into the Xijiang River in Fengkai County is at 23.436° north latitude.

North latitude 23.436°, exactly 23°26' north latitude, does it look familiar?

Yes, this is the Tropic of Cancer.

Isn’t the Tropic of Cancer the boundary of the sun’s annual motion in the northern hemisphere?

At the summer solstice every year, the sun will move to the Tropic of Cancer and shine directly here at noon. After that, it will gradually return to the south until it reaches the Tropic of Capricorn at the winter solstice and then turn back to the north.

On the other hand, the formation of ancient kingship is closely related to the astronomical calendar (please refer to the previous article "Sui Zhu Ru Yi: Where does the king come from"). The sun is the most important observation object in the creation of the calendar, and its annual It is obviously very reasonable to name the northern boundary of the round trip with the word Fengshui, and this location happens to be the end point of an important river where ancient people lived, so the name Fengshui came into being.

The name Fengshui actually comes from the observation of the sun. It's a bit unexpected but it makes sense, I'm afraid it's true.

Of course, I also admit that this is just a personal speculation.

If this is the case, then the seal of water was named by the generation of ancestors who domesticated domestic pigs in Zengpiyan, Guilin, Guangxi in 7000 BC, or was it gradually matured by astronomical observations in later generations? What happened later?

Judging from the legend about the "Book of Changes", the Bagua was created by Fuxi, and the Bagua came from the calendar practice of the ancients. The astronomical observations that created the calendar originally pointed to the sun.

As mentioned above, the character Xi is related to sheep. The earliest sheep in China can be traced back to 3600 BC. In other words, if the ancestors in 7000 BC had discovered the Tropic of Cancer, then , it has been more than 3,000 years since Fuxi's possible era. On the other hand, it was observed that there are 366 days in a year, and it was not completed until the time of Yao ("Shang Shu Yao Dian"), which was already more than 2000 BC.

If the ancestors who raised pigs in 7000 BC had already recognized the Tropic of Cancer, then the time it took to observe the length of a year would have been too long.

Therefore, a more reasonable possibility is that Fengshui was named after the discovery of the Tropic of Cancer in continuous astronomical observations, and the story of the beginning of pig farming in Fengshui Basin moved northward to the Central Plains. It is still passed down from generation to generation and has not been forgotten. Therefore, with the birth of the name Fengshui, the story of Fengxi is about to come out.

For example, "There is no scene (shadow) in the sun" in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", that is, there is no shadow under the sun at noon on the summer solstice. This is the iconic phenomenon of the Tropic of Cancer. As for who discovered this The specific time is difficult to estimate.

It is necessary to note that the earliest domestic pigs appeared 9,000 years ago, and agriculture in China, such as rice cultivation, has a history of more than 10,000 years, even earlier than the appearance of domestic pigs.

Rice remains have been found in sites such as Yuchanyan in Hunan Dao County, Wannian Xianren Cave in Jiangxi, and Shangshan in Zhejiang. The ancient cultivated rice unearthed in Yuchanyan is about 18,000-14,000 years old. In Xianren Cave, wild rice phytoliths dating back 12,000 years ago and cultivated rice phytoliths dating back 10,000 years ago were discovered. Rice husk remains were found in pottery bodies at the Shangshan site, which was determined to belong to the category of cultivated rice. 11,000-9,000 years.

Because agricultural production is naturally closely related to the seasons, even now, it is impossible to put all agricultural production in greenhouses. Under the sky, planting in spring and harvesting in autumn must be in season. If you miss the planting time, you will probably lose your harvest.

Therefore, the development of agricultural production will inevitably create an urgent need to understand and master the weather. This demand will inevitably give rise to the creation of calendars. In other words, it is likely that the ancestors of East Asia began to create calendars 10,000 years ago. Observations of celestial bodies such as the sun and moon have already begun.

This also corroborates what Zhuangzi said about Wei Wei being earlier than Fuxi. It can also be inferred that although there are legends about Fuxi drawing hexagrams, the invention of the hexagrams should have occurred before Fuxi's time. It took quite a long time of preparation and accumulation.

As for the ancestors who raised pigs in Zengpiyan, Guilin, Guangxi in 7000 BC, they were not alone. It is no accident that Fengshui Basin became synonymous with Lingnan (Fengzhong) during the Western Han Dynasty, because The earliest known ancient humans in the Lingnan region live in the Fengshui Basin.

In Huangyan Cave, about 30 kilometers away from the end of the water seal, two human skull fossils were discovered, which were dated to 11,930 years ago (±200 years).

The Dongzhongyan Man next to Huangyan Cave directly broke the record of ancient humans in Lingnan. Three human tooth fossils were discovered here, which were dated to 148,000 years (±13,000 years). They are 10,000 to 20,000 years older than the Maba people in Shaoguan, Guangdong, 300 kilometers away.

If just three teeth are not enough to prove that the 148,000-year-old Dongzhongyan Man in the Fengshui Basin has an inherited relationship with modern humans, then what is certain is that along the Fengshui River northward through In the Nanling Mountains, the 47 ancient human tooth fossils discovered in Fuyan Cave in Daoxian County, Hunan Province already have complete morphological characteristics of modern humans. They are dated to 120,000 to 80,000 years ago. This is currently known worldwide. The earliest humans with fully modern forms were at least 35,000 to 75,000 years older than Europe and West Asia (Liu Wu and Wu Xiujie of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences published in Science, 2015).

Looking at the map, we can see that the straight-line distance from the end of Fengshui to Fuyan Cave in Daoxian County, Hunan is only 250 kilometers.

From Fengshui Dongzhong Rock 148,000 years ago to Fuyan Cave 120,000 to 80,000 years ago in Daoxian County, from Fengshui Huangyan Cave 12,000 years ago to Guilin Zengpi Cave 9,000 years ago, These ancient human relics happen to be distributed in and around the Fengshui Basin. It is not difficult to imagine that people in the Western Han Dynasty named the Lingnan area Fengzhong, which has a long history with the history of ancestors living in the Fengshui Basin for thousands of years.

Therefore, there should be reason to believe that in addition to Guilin Zengpi Rock, pig bone fossils from 9,000 years ago or even earlier may be found in the Fengshui Basin; if you are lucky, maybe there are also The ruins of an observatory for observing the sun were discovered in the area - of course, this really depends on luck. After all, only a stick is enough to measure the shadow immediately, and there may not be any traces left behind.