Hubei and South Korea are thousands of miles apart. Why are the place names and rivers in the two places so similar?

Chinese traditional culture has a long history. As a central power in history, Chinese traditional culture has extremely strong assimilation and inclusiveness. To this day, it has a profound influence in neighboring countries in East Asia.

The historical origins of China and South Korea

Speaking of the historical origins of China and South Korea, according to the Chinese history books "Book of the Later Han? Biography of Dongyi" and "Records of the Three Kingdoms? Book of Wei" Records: Chen Han and Bian Han were both Qin people who fled to North Korea to avoid hard labor. The name of Korea comes from the three Han tribes such as Chenhan, Mahan, and Bianhan.

Many people who know Korean culture know that South Korea is a country that attaches great importance to sacrifice. We can see the existence of this sacrifice custom in the Korean dramas we often see. The most important thing in Korean festivals is sacrifice. It can be said that every household has the custom of worship. Through sacrifice rituals, they recall their ancestors and pass on etiquette.

Some people who have traveled to South Korea will find that there are still many ancestral temple ruins dedicated to Chi You preserved in South Korea. You must know that "Chi You, the Lord of War" was a figure in Chinese myths and legends in ancient times. His mount, the Iron-eating Beast, is still regarded as a national treasure in Sichuan Province and is loved and visited by people all over the world. How could this character be worshiped by Koreans?

This is all because in Korean historical records, there are documentary records that Chen Han is a descendant of the Miao people. The Miao people have regarded Chi You as their ancestor since the Republic of China. With such deep historical roots, as a neighbor separated by a strip of water, Korean worshipers are deeply influenced by Chinese Chu culture and retain ancient Chu customs.

This starts with our traditional festival, the Dragon Boat Festival. For us ordinary people, the most profound experience of Chu culture may be the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year.

When dragon boats compete to cross the Han River and the fragrance of rice dumpling leaves steams on the steamer, it always reminds people of the "Li Sao" in Chu Ci and the Chu who threw himself into the river more than 2,000 years ago. Qu Yuan, the patriotic poet.

Now we see that after the Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional Chinese festival, was introduced to South Korea, it has evolved into the current Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival due to the influence of regional customs. Although the expressive connotation of the festival has undergone many changes, the epitome of traditional Chinese culture can still be found in this festival.

I wonder if anyone has noticed that the Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival includes sacrifices, performances and other activities, among which the sacrifice activities are the core part of the overall activity, and the sacrifices start with "Jinjingjiu". Many domestic experts and scholars who have participated in the Jiangling Dragon Boat Festival found that their wine-making ceremony is almost a replica of the ancient Chu people's important sacrificial ceremony "Baomao Jiujiu".

In ancient times, the Chu people believed that wine in the world was dirty, so they needed to use thatch to filter the wine slurry, which was used to offer sacrifices to their ancestors and gods, praying for their blessings and driving away disasters. This "wine reduction method" used by the Chu people to filter wine through Mao was unexpectedly still preserved after thousands of years, and is still used by modern people in a foreign country. It is really touching.

The bear totem culture of the Korean nation

Totem is a kind of belief and worship of the ancestors of primitive tribes, and the Han people have the belief and worship of bear totem. Some people may ask, what does this have to do with Chu culture?

According to historical records, the Chu State is a descendant of the Yellow Emperor's tribe. According to folklore research, tribes centered on the Huangdi tribe have dual worship of bear and tiger totems. The kings of Chu State will all bear the surname Xiong, and the bear is the totem of the Chu nation. Therefore, for the Korean people who are deeply influenced by Chu culture, it is not difficult to understand that the bear is a totem.

The assimilation and historical status of Chinese civilization in East Asia

China is called Xia because of its great etiquette; it is called Hua because of the beauty of its uniforms. Over its long history, Chinese civilization has already proven its influence and historical status in neighboring countries. In the five thousand years of history, Chinese civilization has supported the backbone of the Chinese people and has been passed down from generation to generation. It is a treasure in the history of world civilization.

As for the countries in East Asia, the people of the country must be right: "In the whole world, is it the land of the king, and on the shore of the land, is it the ministers of the king." ?This sentence will not be unfamiliar. This kind of world democratic ideology is deeply engraved in the bones of the kings of the Central Plains Dynasty of China.

According to historical data, the Central Plains dynasty had already begun to establish a feudal system and a state system as early as the Shang, Zhou and Warring States periods. It was not until the Qin Dynasty that the tribute system centered on the Central Plains dynasty was established.

Under such a tribute system, the vassal states paid tribute to the Central Plains dynasty. In addition to gaining huge economic benefits through trade, they also learned advanced Central Plains culture through this exchange method and transferred the Central Plains culture to China's advanced production technology, literature, art, religion and other dazzling civilization crystallizations were passed back to their own country.

Everyone should still remember the popular Korean TV series "Dae Jang Geum" which was released in China in 2003. There is a plot about the envoys of the Ming Dynasty on their mission. Although most of today's TV series are fictional, in ancient times , this kind of mutual exchanges is not uncommon.

Historically, Zhang Qian of the Han Dynasty went to the Western Regions as an envoy, established the Western Regions Protectorate, and opened up the Silk Road. During the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He also made seven voyages to the West to conduct economic and cultural exchanges with neighboring countries. These many famous diplomatic exchanges in history also brought Chinese culture to the world. It has also exerted a huge influence on neighboring countries in East Asia.

In the two historical documents "Chaotian Lu" and "Yan Xing Lu", there are actual records of what the Korean tributary envoys saw and heard in the Central Plains. From these histories, we can see that China Cultural exchanges between South Korea and South Korea under the tribute system. Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Vietnam are all the biggest influences on Chinese civilization. For example, the tea ceremony, sumo wrestling and other cultures admired in modern Japan all inherit the genes of Chinese civilization.

Looking at place names from movies

I don’t know how many people remember that in 2006, a Korean science fiction movie became popular in China for a while, that is the famous Korean science fiction movie "The Han River Monster". I guess the people of Hubei must be deeply impressed by this movie title, because it describes a geographical term that they are very familiar with? Hanjiang.

There is such a long-standing Han River in Hubei Province. The annual Dragon Boat Race on the Han River is a must-see event for Hubei people during the Dragon Boat Festival. If this is just a coincidence, does the name of the Korean movie "Seoul Heist" look familiar? So what does Seoul have to do with South Korea?

In fact, Seoul is the former name of Seoul, the capital of South Korea. It has been transliterated as Seoul in the past. It was not until 2005 that it was officially translated into Seoul.

The same place name is the Gangneung City mentioned in the "Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival" held in South Korea. We will never forget the poem "Early Departure from Baidi City" written by the poet Li Bai. The emperor's colorful clouds return thousands of miles of rivers and mountains in one day. The apes on both sides of the bank can't stop crying, and the boat has passed the Ten Thousand Mountains. ?'s poem, the Jiangling in it does not refer to Jiangling City in South Korea, but Jiangling County in Jingzhou, Hubei Province.

In fact, when we look at the map, it is not difficult to see that there are indeed many place names in South Korea that are the same as those in Hubei Province, China. For example, Xiangyang City, a historical city in Hubei Province, and Xiangyang County, an area with the same name in South Korea. What is even more coincidental is that their geographical distribution is also very coincidental. There is a large mountain named "Taebai Mountain" in Hubei Province and the upper reaches of the Han River in South Korea.

In addition to these similarities in place names, many people must be familiar with the Tai Chi pattern on the Korean flag. When talking about Tai Chi, we have to talk about a Taoist legend? Zhang Sanfeng. When the TV series "Eternal Heaven and Sword of the Dragon" was released, I don't know how many people wanted to go to Wudang Mountain in Hubei to see this Taoist holy land.

All kinds of coincidences in place names cannot avoid the big city of Hubei Province in China. In fact, this has a lot to do with the Chu State. According to historical and geographical research, the geographical location of Chu State at that time was roughly present-day Hubei, Hunan and other places, and the capital of Chu State was in today's Jingzhou.

Due to the long history, we cannot confirm whether this phenomenon was caused by the ancestors who left the Qin State to avoid hard labor and missed their hometown. However, it cannot be denied that the Chu culture was really important to Korea in history. It has a very far-reaching impact.