What is the mystery of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors?

People often say that "Pangu created the world, three emperors and five emperors have come to this day". But who are the three emperors and five emperors? Huang San's generic term was first seen in Lv Chunqiu. Huang San's nickname was first found in Biography of Historical Records and Lisi. Li Si said: "There were emperors in ancient times, and Huangdi, Tai Huang and Tai Huang were the most expensive." However, Preface to the Spring and Autumn Annals and Shouli holds that Huang San is the emperor, the Yellow Emperor and Ren Huang, and Tai Huang was replaced by the emperor. In Song Dynasty, Luo Ping pointed out that it was in Lv Shi, which was attributed to Kong Yan after the Spring and Autumn Period. Scholars in the Han Dynasty have four different views on Huang San: the first view is that Huang San is Fuxi, Nuwa and Shennong; The second view is that Fuxi, Shennong, and Suiren; The third view is that Fuxi, Shennong and Zhu Rong; The fourth argument is Fuxi, Shennong and * * * workers. It seems acceptable to list Fuxi and Shennong as * * *, and it is also reasonable to list Nuwa, Sui Ren, Zhu Rong and Huang San as * * *. Visible, Huang San indefinite said, since ancient times.

In China ancient books, Fuxi, Nuwa and Shennong were called "Huang San", while Taiyi, Yan Di, Huangdi, Shaoti and Zhuan Xu were called "Five Emperors". In fact, the "Three Emperors and Five Emperors" are all symbolic figures, and they are the leaders of clan tribes or tribal alliances in imagination. Although the records of "Three Emperors and Five Emperors" are some beautiful and moving myths, they can reflect the history of clans and tribes in primitive society.

It is said that Fuxi, Nu Wa and Shennong were all great saints in ancient times, and each had some great achievements.

Fuxi, also known as Eastern Xia. It is said that he is a great inventor, "starting with eight letters" and "netting". These are two great inventions. Of course, the emergence of this new thing in society is the result of people's collective labor, not the gift of a "saint". But this legend tells us that Fuxi clan began to use notation and learned how to weave nets and fish.

Nu Wa's main achievement is "refining five-color stones to make up the sky". It is said that before this, the sky would fall and disasters would continue. After her old man's work, everything was ready, and she became the legendary god of arranging heaven and earth. This story reflects the hard struggle between ancient humans and nature.

Shennong is the legendary land god in charge of crops. Probably refers to the clan name of the primitive society where agriculture began to develop. According to records, people used to eat raw meat, drink animal blood and wear animal skins. Shennong believes that it is difficult for people to live like this. So he "tasted the essence of a hundred herbs, observed their sufferings, and taught the people to eat grains." In fact, agricultural production knowledge is the accumulation of ancient human practical experience. Shennong does not exist. Later, it was speculated that Shennong's deeds roughly reflected the social situation during the prosperous period of matriarchal clan system.

The legendary records of the ancient five emperors are very inconsistent. The era of their activities may have entered the end of patriarchal clan system or primitive society.

Taiyi, also known as Tai Hao, is named Feng. According to legend, his head is snake-shaped, or dragon-shaped. He may be a clan leader who takes snakes or dragons as totems and lives in Chen Di (now Huaiyang County, Henan Province). He should be the imaginary ancestor of clan tribes in Huaihe River Basin.

Yan Di, surnamed Jiang. Legend has it that it is a bull's head and may be a clan leader who aims at cattle. This clan was active in the Weihe River basin at first, and then entered the middle reaches of the Yellow River, which had a long-term conflict with the Jiuli nationality. The leader of the Li nationality is Chiyou, a beast with a human voice. It has a bronze head, an iron neck and horns on its head. The hair on its ears is as hard as a halberd, and it can eat sand and stones. Maybe it's a clan with some kind of beast as its face. He has eighty-one brothers, that is, eighty-one clans, and he is a powerful clan tribe that is brave and good at fighting. Chiyou expelled Emperor Yan to Zhuolu (now the Sanggan River basin in northwest Hebei). Emperor Yan asked the Yellow Emperor for help, and the two sides fought fiercely in Zhuolu. Chiyou invited the Rain God from Fengbo to make trouble, which created a fog and made the soldiers of the Yellow Emperor lose their way. The Yellow Emperor invited Nu Wa, the god of drought, to clear up and built a "south guide car" to tell the direction. The result of this fierce battle was that Chiyou failed and was killed. The Yellow Emperor won the victory and was elected as the "son of heaven".

Huangdi's surname is Ji, Xuanyuan and Xiong. Legend has it that Huangdi originally lived in the northwest and lived a nomadic life without a settlement. After defeating Chiyou, he fought three wars with Yan Di in Hanquan. The Yellow Emperor commanded the clans with bears, dragons, raccoons, tigers and other beasts as totems to participate in the war, defeated the Yan Di tribe and entered the Yellow River valley. Since then, the Huangdi tribe has settled in the Central Plains and developed rapidly. According to the historical records, "Twenty-five descendants of the Yellow Emperor, 14 of them have surnames, which are twelve surnames", indicating that these tribes have formed a huge tribal alliance. The descendants of the Yellow Emperor merged with other tribes to form the Chinese nation, and Xuanyuan of the Yellow Emperor was regarded as the ancestor of the Chinese nation. Later, China people claimed to be "descendants of the Yellow Emperor".

It is for this reason that many inventions are attributed to the Yellow Emperor by later generations, saying that he used jade as a weapon, built boats and bows, and dyed colorful clothes. He asked his wife Leizu to teach people to raise silkworms. He ordered Cang Xie, the minister, to make great efforts to make words, and ordered Ling Lun to make musical instruments. These legends are unreliable and can only be understood as great progress in the production tools of the Yellow Emperor era.

Shao Lian, also known as Ji, Ming Zhi, and a poor third brother, is said to be a descendant of the Yellow Emperor and lives in Qufu, Shandong. This tribe takes birds as totems, and there are 24 species: Wind Birds, Xuanwu and Kate. This may be a big tribe composed of twenty-four clans. Shaoluo nationality is a branch of Huangdi nationality developing eastward.

Zhuan Xu, a Levin, lives in Puyang County, Henan Province. According to legend, he is a descendant of Changyi, the son of the Yellow Emperor. According to ancient records, "Levin's family has eight gifted scholars". Maybe this is eight big families. Zhuan Xu manages the fashion that Jiuli people believe in witchcraft and worship ghosts and gods, forcing them to obey the education of Huangdi people. Later, the leader of a tribe, Gong, was very dissatisfied with Zhuan Xu and knocked down the mountain with his head. Suddenly, the pillar supporting the sky tilted and the rope tied to the ground broke. So the sky tilted to the northwest, and the sun, the moon and the stars moved; The land is in the southeast depression, and the river flows eastward. This means that * * * workers transform nature and become victorious heroes.

These ancient myths and legends vividly reflect the glorious tradition of diligence, courage and wisdom of our Chinese nation, and profoundly show that the initial civilization of human society was created through hard struggle.

On the hilly northern Shaanxi Plateau, there is a huangling county, and there is a mountain called Qiao Shan 0.5 kilometers north of its county seat. The mountains are densely covered with cypresses and lush. There is a tall mausoleum on the top of the bridge. This is the tomb of Huangdi, the legendary ancestor of the Chinese nation. People call it "Huangdi Mausoleum". In the history of China, there are many records about the Yellow Emperor in both historical books and myths and legends. Among the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, he has the loudest reputation and numerous achievements, and is regarded as a symbol of the Chinese nation. However, why do you call him "Yellow Emperor"? Is the Yellow Emperor a man or a god? These are still a mystery.

At first glance, you will be surprised. Our argument about Xuanyuan Huangdi has always been confined to whether he is a man or a god. When did we extend the question to whether he is a man or a woman? Of course, it is meaningful to openly raise such an amazing topic. Some scholars have crossed out the sentence "Emperor, later also" from Zuo Zhuan, which means "Emperor, later" in translation. We know that the word "Hou" itself is related to fertility, and even the name "Hou Di" was a very common thing in ancient times. There is a sentence in the Book of Rites, which is translated into vernacular Chinese as follows: "Because he contributed to fertility, he was called the emperor." It is obvious that "emperor" means fertility here, so "emperor" means woman. Let's continue to look at the meaning of the word "Yellow Emperor". "Historical Records" also has relevant records, saying that the Yellow Emperor is the master of fertility and has a heroine. In Huai Nan Zi, there are "Yellow Emperor gives birth to Yin and Yang" and "Xuanyuan is the home of emperor and princess". It seems that even the title of Xuanyuan of the Yellow Emperor refers to women's residence. We have to admit that these textual researches are very reasonable. Opponents believe that it is unreliable to draw a conclusion only by a few words of some ancient historical materials, which may be due to misunderstanding of the materials. They even found reasons for their opposition from anthropology and ethnology, because there has never been a matriarchal clan leader in history. It seems that the question of whether the Yellow Emperor is a man or a woman will continue to be debated for a long time.

"Shiben Zuopian" said: "Chiyou is five soldiers: Ge, spear, halberd, Emirates spear and Yi spear." According to Guan Shu pian, Chiyou made swords, armor, spears and halberds from metal water flowing from mountains, and made halberds and daggers from metal water flowing from mountains. However, it is puzzling that modern archaeologists can't find sufficient evidence in materials and objects. According to textual research, among many ancient cultural sites, only two are related to copper smelting. The first is the Longshan cultural site in Shandong, which is roughly the same age as Chiyou. Some copper smelting materials, such as copper smelting slag and malachite, have been unearthed from Longshan cultural site, but there are no copper weapons. Second, bronze weapons were found in Erlitou cultural site in Henan Province, but according to carbon 14, these weapons should belong to Xia Dynasty, that is, after Chiyou 1000. And Chiyou not only has a lot of weapons, but also can carry out actual combat on a large scale, which was possessed by people on earth at that time? It is said that after Chiyou's death, the abandoned fetters and handcuffs grew into maple trees. In fact, the Miao people sacrificed their ancestors, such as Touyou, You Gonggong and Shen Feng, to commemorate Chiyou. How to prove these assumptions and conjectures? We can only expect the progress of science and technology. When people really understand their ancestors, they will also really understand themselves.

Nu Wa is one of the "three lucky stars" in ancient legends of China. However, there are still many unsolved mysteries about Nu Wa. The first is the mystery of gender. From ancient times to the present, it is generally believed that Nu Wa is a woman. In ancient books, there are also many records about Nu Wa being a woman, describing her as the snake-faced queen. From ancient times to the present, the images of Nu Wa in related books are also painted with women. However, some scholars in Qing Dynasty believed that Nu Wa was originally a male, but later generations misrepresented it as a female. Nu Wa, Ben Feng, is a sacrifice, named Shi, and she is a saint among the ancient emperors. Because there were no words at that time, they could only be called by sound, and later generations became called by sound. Writing Nuwa does not mean that its gender is female. The ancients called Fuxi, Nuwa and Shennong Huang San, and also regarded Nuwa as human beings. Whether Nu Wa is a man or a woman is still inconclusive.

There are five theories about this problem. One is fenglingdu, Yongji County; The second is Tongguan County, Shaanxi Province; The third is Ganxiang, Henan, which is now Lingbao County; The fourth is Zhaocheng County, Shanxi Province, which is now southwest of Zhaocheng Town, Hongtong County, Shanxi Province; The fifth is Jining, Shandong. These five statements have their own basis, but the evidence is insufficient, so they are inconsistent. These questions make the character Nu Wa have a very mysterious color. Because the era of Nuwa is too far away, it is not easy to solve these mysteries.

According to ancient books, Yao is the fourth of the three emperors and five emperors. His surname is Qi Yi, Fang Xun and Tao Tang, and Tang Yao for short. Shun's surname is Yao and his first name is Zhong Hua. According to historical records, Yao automatically ceded power to Shun, known as a "sage" and a model of power transfer, that is, "Yao Shun abdicated". In fact, this is an ancient legend and there is no written record. Later, it was not until the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period that characters were formed. Whether it is true or not has always been doubted. Some people think that this legend is fictional, not "abdicating" at all, but "usurping the throne", and it is justified. According to Records of the Historian, after Shun took power, in order to consolidate his rule, he immediately fostered his cronies and rejected dissidents, which was called "citing sixteen phases" and "eliminating four evils" in history. The so-called "Sixteen Phases" means that Shun simultaneously activated the "Eight Openings" and "Eight Yuan" that Yao had long excluded from the power center. The so-called "four evils" are to get rid of turbidity, ambiguity and gluttony, which is also Yao's favorite. In this way, Yao was overhead. Then, Shun put Yao under house arrest, forbade him to meet his son, relatives and friends, forced him to give way, and finally exiled Yao's son to Danshui.