Chapter 19 Chapter 4 Yan Emperor's Eastern Expedition

Maybe, maybe not.Some say at the same time, some say successively.Even Sima Qian couldn't figure out these old sesame seeds and rotten millet. His method was to add a touch to "The Chronicle of the Five Emperors", regarding Shennong as a past era, and saying that Emperor Yan was at the same time as Huangdi, but he did not establish a biography.In fact, this problem was ignored, but the Yellow Emperor was solidly counted as the first of the five emperors. This is certainly rigorous, but it doesn't solve the problem.Emperor Yan may not be the Five Emperors or Shennong, but he must be something.Such an important ancestor, how can there be no explanation?

If it is not the "Five Emperors", it can only be the "Three Emperors". In the Spring and Autumn Period, there were only "Five Hegemons", but Mencius proposed the "Three Kings" (Xia Yu, Shang Tang, and Zhou Wen) tit for tat. Xunzi came up with the "Five Emperors", and Lu Buwei came up with the "Three Kings".The Three Sovereigns, Five Sovereigns, Three Kings, and Five Overlords are so "grouped in threes and fives" that they are uniform and uniform, which is suspicious in itself.There were three kings first, and then there were five emperors; there were five emperors first, and then there were three emperors.The more ancient the characters, the later they appeared, which is suspicious.

What's more, "Xunzi" has only empty five emperors, and "Lu Lan" has only empty three emperors.The "Three Emperors and Five Emperors" are not only empty, but even the chapters that mention this crop are written by no one.Whether it is the Three Emperors or the Five Emperors, no one really knows who they are.What Xunzi and the others left behind was a fill-in-the-blank question. The result of making it up, yes.Among them, the most reliable ones are Fuxi, Nuwa, and Shennong.But it is impossible for Nuwa to be after Fuxi, and Shennong might as well agree with Emperor Yan.If it is admitted that Emperor Yan "ruled the world with the virtue of fire instead of Fuxi", then after Fuxi and before Huangdi, it should be Emperor Yan.

In fact, as long as you don't admit to death, the problem will be solved easily.For example, Nuwa, Fuxi, Yandi or Shennong are regarded as the "three representatives" before the Five Emperors, and it doesn't matter whether they are called "Three Emperors".In this way, the history before Zexia can be expressed in this way: Nuwa represents the matrilineal clan, Fuxi represents the patrilineal clan, Yandi represents the early tribes, Huangdi represents the late tribes, and Yao and Shun represent the tribal alliances. That's clear.Even the terms Tianhuang, Dihuang, and Renhuang can be reinterpreted: Nuwa Tianhuang, Fuxi Dihuang, Yandi Renhuang;Of course, as characters in myths and legends, they are also half-human and half-animal, for example, Nuwa is a frog and Fuxi is a snake.

So what is Yandi? . Emperor Yan is an ox, and Fuxi is a snake. This is really "an ox ghost and a snake spirit". It's fine if they are really "ox ghosts and snake gods", but the trouble is that Emperor Yan is a cow and a sheep, because.Of course, the surname Jiang is not necessarily a sheep. "Mandarin · Jinyu" said that this is because Emperor Yan lived in Jiangshui.Just as the Yellow Emperor's surname is Ji, it is because he lives in Jishui.Jishui is now Qishui River in Wugong County, Shaanxi Province; Jiangshui is now Qingjiang River in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province.In this way, Yandi and Huangdi are both from Shaanxi, so they may really be brothers.

It's a pity that such a conclusive conclusion is suspicious.What's more, ⑨ can only be listened to as a storytelling.A solid statement, yes. , of course the Sheepman. The Qiang people are sheep people, and Fuxi is also a sheep people.It is reliable for the sheepman to pick up the sheepman. However, if Emperor Yan was a sheep man, how could he have a human body with a bull head?Moreover, Fuxi is both a sheep and a snake, so why is the cow taking over?What's more, Emperor Yan is from the Western Rong tribe.Emperor Yan accepted Fuxi's stick, isn't it "chattering all over the place" or "tune from the south to the north"?

This is another muddled account. Fortunately, someone is willing to testify in court and explain all this. He is Dionysus, the ancient Greek god of wine.

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Notes: , see Gu Jiegang's Lecture Notes on the Study of Ancient Chinese History. .