Chapter 4 third chapter

This new god and hero is none other than King Wen of Zhou. Times created King Wen of Zhou, and King Wen of Zhou was chosen by history, and King Wen of Zhou also "fulfilled his mission" and completed the invention and creation of the third period of man-made witchcraft. King Wen of Zhou, surnamed Ji and named Chang, also known as Xibohou, was the leader of the Zhou clan.Zhou, originally an ancient state, was said to be a descendant of Emperor Ku, who belonged to the family with the surname Ji.Since the beginning of Xia, Zhou has been an important country in the western part of the Xia Dynasty.Shang destroyed Xia, and Zhou came under the control of Shang.Afterwards, after more than a dozen generations of hard work, the Zhou people moved to Qishan Zhiyang, which is called "Zhouyuan" by later generations, when the Taiwang Gugong gave his father a gift. They built cities, cultivated land, vigorously developed agriculture, and strengthened their military strength. Conquering the Xirong tribe, surrendering to the neighboring small state... soon developed from a small state to a powerful Fangbo state.In this regard, "The Book of Songs Lu Song" wrote: "The grandson of Houji, Shiwei Taiwang, who lived in the sun of Qi, Shishi began to build Shang." That is, in the hands of Taiwang, the "Jian Shang" of the Zhou people was born. great cause.Naturally, the Shang Dynasty would not turn a blind eye to the rapid development and prosperity of the Zhou people, and would inevitably carry out strong containment.According to "Historical Records Yin Benji", Wu Yi, king of Shang, once "hunted between the river and the Wei" and died of a thunderstorm.Between the river and the Wei, that is, the place where the Zhou people lived in Guanzhong.Tangtang, the son of heaven, was struck by lightning and died while hunting in his own country. There is too much room for imagination left to future generations.Wu Yi died, and his son Wen Ding succeeded to the throne. Later, he found an opportunity to kill Ji Li, the king of Zhou at that time.Judging from this fact, it is very likely that the conflict between Shang and Zhou was intensified, and Wu Yi led his army to the west, and unfortunately died in battle.In order to retaliate, the new king Wending did not hesitate to use force, and finally killed Ji Li, and continued to control the Western Zhou Dynasty under the rule of the Shang Dynasty.It can be seen that although the Zhou people were more prosperous than in the past, their power was far less powerful than that of the Shang Dynasty.Ji Li died, and his son Ji Chang succeeded him as King Wen of Zhou.

Ji Chang ascended to the throne in the background of bloody wind and humiliation, when he walked step by step to the empty and dazzling place left by his father in the midst of devout sacrifices and prayers. When he took the throne, the only thought in his mind must have been to swear to avenge his father, and set the ambition of destroying Shang as the basic national policy of Zhou State. However, the Zhou people were still weaker than the Shang Dynasty, so Ji Chang had to hide his ambitions and compromise.On the one hand, he superficially surrendered to the Shang Dynasty, pretended to be sincere and fearful, and paid tribute to the Shang capital Chaoge from time to time with jewelry and specialties from Zhoudi to win the favor of the Shang king; Under the guise, continue to advance along the policy strategy of the father, and still use the main force to launch an attack on the various departments in the northwest.He expelled from the north and the barbarians from the west, wiped out small and weak countries such as Mi, Ruan, and Gong in the upper reaches of the Jingshui River, expanded the western territory, and established a stable and prosperous "base camp" for anti-business and business destruction.

At this time, in the Shang Dynasty, the throne experienced two transfers.When Wen Ding died, he was passed on to Emperor Yi; when Emperor Yi died, he was passed on to Zhou Xin.As the king of subjugation, King Zhou of Shang has never had a good reputation in historical records and folklore, and has always been widely circulated as a cruel, vicious, and tyrant.If we brush off the thick "paints and colors" that have been smeared on him for thousands of years, and restore his true colors, we will find that he can also be regarded as a talent.King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty was handsome, strong-backed, proficient in martial arts, and had a good strategy for governing the country. However, he was violent, obsessed with listening and believing, and closed his eyes and ears. He met Zhou Wenwang, Zhou Wuwang, Jiang Ziya and other heroes who were more talented than him. The end of the country's death is the ridicule of the world.The Chinese nation has had the traditional habit of "the winner is the hero and the loser is the bandit" since ancient times, and because the earlier tyrant Xia Jie was more than 600 years away from him, there are even fewer historical materials recorded. The world's first foolish, cruel, vicious, useless, stupid and tyrant.

King Wen of Zhou "enjoyed the country for fifty years", and he had always pursued the policy of reverence and respect for King Shang on the surface.Although King Zhou of Shang was bewildered by King Wen of Zhou's keeping a low profile, he didn't take it lightly. It's just that the Dongyi Rebellion has always involved and tied his hands and feet.When the situation in Dongyi eased, he turned his attention to the west.At this time, King Wen of Zhou had completely consolidated the rear, and began to free up his hands and feet to travel eastward from Qizhou, and established Biyi between Jingwei and Weiwei as an outpost for expanding eastward.King Zhou did not forget some grievances and grievances between Shang and Zhou in the past history. He faintly felt the threat from the west and other powerful Fang countries.Therefore, he used a little strategy to summon the powerful Xibohou, Jiuhou, and Ehou to Chaoge, the Shang capital, in the name of tribute and rewards, and prepared to punish them one by one.

Since Ji Chang succeeded to the throne, he has always adopted a low-browed and submissive strategy towards the Shang Dynasty; while in Fangguo, he has strictly implemented the policy of enriching the country and strengthening the army, and anti-business at the opportunity; deep down, he has always He regards the Shang Dynasty as a sworn enemy, and has no illusions about the King of Shang at all.Therefore, before leaving the Western Zhou Dynasty, he made two preparations. Once Chaoge died, his eldest son Bo Yikao would inherit the throne, complete the unfinished business of his father, and made orderly arrangements for the funeral.

Sangong left Fangguo and arrived at Chaoge, it was tantamount to turning into lambs who had no power to resist and could only be slaughtered by the King of Shang.King Zhou stared at him covetously, and finally found an excuse to show his ferocious face and raised the butcher knife. Regarding this historical fact, "Historical Records Yin Benji" records: King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty used the promiscuity of Jiuhou's daughter as an excuse, and first took Jiuhou's knife; , filled with an uncontrollable anger, but his hidden strategy saved his life, and he just sighed in private.After Chonghouhu's informant, King Zhou of Shang got a handle on punishing Jichang. "Sighing" was not enough to be a capital crime, so he was imprisoned in Jiangli (now Tangyin County, Henan Province) and locked up. Restrict his personal freedom and obliterate his will, so that Zhou people will always submit to the Shang Dynasty.

More than two thousand years later, Xu Zhonglin in the Ming Dynasty perfunctorily wrote a novel about 700,000 words based on myths, legends, anecdotes, official histories, and unofficial histories about the conflict between Shang and Zhou Dynasties.The novel is written with gods and ghosts, heaven and earth, and absurdity, but it also has a certain reference value, which can let us understand the clear clues and important historical facts of the Shang and Zhou disputes at that time. King Zhou of Shang took Xibo Hou Jichang as a hostage and imprisoned him in Jiangli for eight years.Eight years, long or short, depends on how you get to know it and get through it.

King Wen of Zhou was imprisoned, and the result seemed to be much better than he expected. Therefore, not only did he not mourn, but he was also grateful for his "slipping through the net".Of course, imprisoned in a square inch of land, every move is under the surveillance of merchants, not even the slightest freedom to eat, drink, and scatter, let alone when and whether they will return to the Western Zhou Dynasty alive. For Xibo Hou Jichang, compared with the days when he gave orders in the Western Zhou Dynasty, everyone respected him, and pampered him, it was tantamount to falling from a beautiful heaven to a miserable hell.

However, if he wants to live, he has to live well.The ambitions of revenge, business suppression, meritorious service, and career that he set in his early years are his belief and support for tenacious living.It doesn't matter whether it is rough food, tattered clothes or quilts, as long as it can survive and not starve to death or freeze to death.Although he is imprisoned in business and land, his heart is still hovering over his homeland.The ruling throne of the Western Zhou Dynasty is still waiting; the priests and prayers of the Western Zhou Dynasty still enshrine him as a spiritual idol;It seems that he doesn't need to worry about it too much, so what should he do in a small room?

King Wen of Zhou felt restless, empty and bored.He can't stay in prison like this, he has to adjust his mentality well.In the tribes at that time, politics and religion were combined into one. They were both leaders and wizards. They generally held two positions, and King Wen of Zhou was no exception.He is in a small room. Although he has lost his identity as a political leader, he can continue to play the role of a great witch.So, after a short period of doing nothing and being at a loss, he quickly forced himself into a state of peace, ease and relaxation.He kept things simple, and found or asked the jailer for a few bamboo sticks or branches as divination tools. Starting from himself, he predicted everything in the world one by one: When will I be released from prison?Does King Zhou continue to blame me?Can I escape the catastrophe of fate?Is it possible for me to return to the Western Zhou Dynasty alive?What will you do when you go back?How will Zhou Guo's future develop and end?What is the value and significance of human life?What is the origin of the world made of?What is there in the boundless universe? ... While divination, he wrote and drew pictures, and carved some unique and profound insights sporadically on the ground, wall or bed where he slept.

In this way, the boring days when it is difficult for individuals to be alone can be easily passed.Before you know it, the day turns into night in a flash, and the day passes in the blink of an eye. Gradually, he became dissatisfied with the Fuxi gossip he used in the past, and felt that they could hardly achieve the purpose of divination of the universe.So I thought, Fuxi combined yin, yao, and yang in threes and threes to form gossip, so why can't I combine Fuxi's gossip with threes and threes to make it two and two again?This thought that flashed like lightning was quickly grasped by him tightly, and he immediately drew Yin and Yang lines on the ground one after another.The three or three phases of Yin Yao and Yang Yao become eight trigrams, and the two phases of eight trigrams form sixty-four hexagrams.Ji Chang used this method to divination a few hexagrams, and felt that his field of vision was much wider than in the past, and the content of divination was more about the heavens and the earth, and everything in the universe, almost all-encompassing. He is ecstatic for his own creation and invention, he forgets the world around him, forgets that he is in a small room, forgets to eat and sleep, and only feels that his body is connected with the world, his heart is connected with all things and spirits, and he has entered the life cycle. In the best "qigong field", he is in a trance, forgetting both things and me, he is a person, a part of all things, and an omniscient and omniscient god!He travels to the eight poles as he pleases and freely, he goes to heaven, he enters the earth, he is ambitious, he wants to exhaust all the mysteries of human beings, the world, and the universe, and include them in the limited and infinite eight, eight, sixty-four hexagrams .So, he kept divination all day and night, feeling unprecedented enrichment, getting indescribable enlightenment, and gaining rare wisdom and strength.As the days went by, many rules to follow were summed up.Gradually, the prison has been painted in such a mess by him that there is no space left.At this moment, Zhou Guo sent envoys to visit the prison with gold, silver and jewels. He didn't need anything and wanted nothing, but ordered the envoys as a king, asking them to find a way to get some sheepskin and charcoal to send to the prison. come. In a few days, sheets of high-quality sheepskins and charcoal sticks of different sizes were placed in the small room.He kneaded charcoal sticks, and wrote the eighty-eight-sixty-four hexagrams in order on the sheepskin one by one, and gave each hexagram a name. , Ratio and other texts are marked one by one.Then, based on his own analysis, summary and generalization of many things in life and society, he wrote them under the corresponding hexagrams and lines respectively. Although the framework is built, its crudeness and inadequacy are obvious.He was neither satisfied nor rested, and he continued to divination every day, and then filled his thoughts, thoughts, feelings, and realizations into lines one by one under each hexagram. In order to prevent loss and King Zhou, Ji Chang wrote them in duplicate, that is to say, the same content was written on two sheepskins.One was kept in the prison for his own research and exploration, and the other was bribed by the jailer to take him to a safer place to hide, and handed over to the envoy to take it back to the Western Zhou Dynasty as a reminder of Zhou people's politics, life, military affairs, economy, etc. It is a kind of guidance in all aspects, and it is also a political manifesto determined to overthrow the rule of Shang Zhou.He wants the people of Zhou to know that although he has left Zhou, he is still their political and spiritual leader. They should continue to forge ahead and never give up until they reach their goals! Time flies so fast, and in the blink of an eye, King Wen of Zhou has been in prison for nearly eight years.At this time, the envoy of Zhou came to tell him that the people of Zhou had presented the beauties of the Xin family, Li Rong's horses, Youxiong Jiusi and other rare and exotic objects to King Zhou.In fact, King Wen of Zhou had already obtained his own good luck with the hexagrams and lines of the gods he created.King Zhou planned to release him from prison, and the presentation of rare and exotic objects was only one of the factors. What's more, the war that had already subsided was rekindled due to the Dongyi rebellion. He didn't want to continue to imprison Xibo and let the Zhou people find an excuse to provoke a war.Besides, he imprisoned Xibohou for eight years, and the Western Zhou Dynasty did not act rashly at all, and Ji Chang had no grievances in prison, but just wrote and drew like a madman all day long, and sent out a series of inexplicable words. So mumbling.That's right, eight years can completely drive a normal person crazy.In order to win over the Western Zhou Dynasty, stabilize the rear, and deal with Dongyi with all his strength, the cunning King Zhou of Shang rolled his eyes and prepared to "grace" him back. Ji Chang knew that he would return to the country soon, so before he was released from prison, he summarized, summarized and sorted out the hexagrams and lines deduced over the years.Facing the white and white sheepskins neatly transcribed with black charcoal strips, Xibohou suddenly thought of the issue of naming, yes, he had to give his brainchild over the years a proper name. yes.So, what should it be called?He thought hard, and suddenly a big word popped up in his mind - "Yi"! What is "easy"? "Yi" has many meanings, the main ones are: 1. "Yi is a character, from the sun to the moon, and yin and yang." Well, the Western Zhou Dynasty should have the intersection of yin and yang, and the combination of hardness and softness; 2. "Yi, the image of a bird." Yes, the Western Zhou Dynasty Now it is a flying bird soaring in the blue sky; 3. "Yi is a lizard. A lizard changes its color due to the environment. It is called Yi and takes the meaning of change." Oh, the Western Zhou Dynasty will soon replace the Shang Zhou Dynasty ... From this point of view, it is better to be named after "Yi".It is the "Yi" of our Zhou people, so it should be called "Zhou Yi".Of course, in addition to the meaning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the word "Zhou" also means "Yidao Zhoupu is omnipotent". Thus, a relatively complete "Book of Changes" was born. From the scattered tortoise bone divination of the Shang Dynasty to the abstraction, orderliness and summary of "Book of Changes", it is a rational rise with a substantial breakthrough, and it has a universal significance beyond specific objects.Cassirer wrote in his book "On Man": "Symbolic thinking and symbolic behavior are the most representative features in human life." The appearance of "Book of Changes" symbolized the official birth of the third period of man-made witchcraft.According to this, some people also refer to Fuxi's gossip as Tianqi gossip and Xiantian gossip, and Wenwang's gossip as artificial gossip and Houtian gossip. Without eight years of captivity, King Wen of Zhou would never have deduced a well-regulated and complete "Book of Changes".Culture is an inexplicable and elusive product of human beings. If it were not for King Wen of Zhou, Fuxi’s gossip would definitely continue to develop, and witchcraft would also be established in the artificial form of the third period, but the time would be greatly delayed, and It is very likely to be another model that we can hardly imagine, and the cultural stereotypes of the Chinese nation and its influence on future generations must be another context and trajectory. It was suffering that created King Wen of Zhou and gave birth to the "Book of Changes".In this regard, Shi Maqian wrote: "Gai Xibo arrested and performed the "Book of Changes"... probably the sages were angry. This person is full of depression and can't understand the way, so he tells the past and thinks about the future. Mencius also wrote: "Heaven will send a great mission to the people of Sri Lanka, and they must first suffer from their minds and wills, toil their muscles and bones, starve their bodies and skins, empty their bodies, and do things in disorder. Therefore, the heart and patience, once (Gain) what it cannot." After King Wen of Zhou returned to the Western Zhou Dynasty, the first thing he did was to cross the Weishui River and destroy Chongguo, a pro-business neighbor who had informed him.Then, he moved the capital from Qizhou to the west bank of Fengshui, and took all the Guanzhong Plain as his own.As for the Shang Dynasty, King Wen of Zhou still maintained the respectful and respectful attitude towards it in the past. King Wen of Zhou "enjoyed the country for fifty years", and never made a formal anti-business move in his life.He is a very wise man, he knows that the power of the Zhou people can not catch up with the Shang Dynasty, and the lesson of his father's blood is too profound for him, he can't act rashly, he has to trade temporary obedience in exchange for development time and expansion space.Therefore, he continued to conquer the surrounding weak and small countries and put them under his own rule.When King Wen died, the state of Zhou had expanded its territory and sphere of influence to include the Jianghuai in the east, Jianghan in the south, and Bashu in the southwest. , military and cultural foundations. King Wen of Zhou died, and his son Ji Fa succeeded him as King Wu of Zhou.After several years of full preparation, the Zhou people became more and more feathered, and they were strong enough to compete with the Shang Dynasty. In the ninth year of King Wu, eight hundred princes gathered in Mengjin, and only then did they formally raise the banner of rebelling against the Shang Dynasty. Less than two years after the "Oath of Mengjin", that is, about 1057 BC, King Wu of Zhou personally led a large army to attack Shang, and invaded Chaoge, the capital of Shang, forcing King Zhou of Shang to burn himself to death. The area of ​​the Shang Dynasty.This year, the Zhou Dynasty was formally established in the new capital of Haojing.