Chapter 41 Section 3 The long-term dispersion of historical smog

The smog of splitting historical consciousness finally diffused uncontrollably. The unified Qin Empire died within 15 years, and there are no historical relics or original historical materials.Xiang Yu's massacre, looting and burning turned Great Xianyang into ruins, and the incomparably rich imperial archives, which collected all the classics, laws and civilization documents of the Warring States Period, were all burned with evil flames.Since then, this great empire has lost most of the documentary evidence, material evidence, and personal evidence to defend itself, and has fallen into a situation where it cannot be clarified in the face of various verbal criticisms.In fact, there are generally only four kinds of relatively direct textual materials for later generations to judge the Qin Empire: one is the pre-Qin classics and works of philosophers that were rescued and reproduced later; the other is some Le stone inscriptions and The remaining physical evidence; the third is the historical facts recorded in Sima Qian's "Historical Records" that have been "screened" by the author; the fourth is some personal experience and speech records of the imperial survivors in the early Western Han Dynasty.Of course, if God's will finally restores the collection of the underground palace of the First Emperor's Mausoleum to the world, our direct evidence for defending this great empire may completely change fundamentally.Before that, our clarification is still extremely difficult.

However, our efforts cannot be stopped. History is exactly like this step by step. The so-called historical consciousness of the country and the nation is roughly divided into four levels: one is the actual inheritance principle of the original civilization of the regimes of the past dynasties; and the historical theory of the school; the fourth is the general cognition seen in literature, art and folklore.And what we call the smog of the split of historical consciousness, of course, also refers to the various deformations embodied in these four aspects at the same time. From the four perspectives, since the Western Han Dynasty, the Qin Empire and its original civilization era have been greatly distorted and deformed in terms of ideas, and it is manifested as an intensified historical process.That is to say, for more than two thousand years, our overall judgment on our original civilization has always been in an unbelievable state of fragmentation: on the one hand, in terms of the principle of political establishment, we have inherited the civilization framework that unified the Qin Empire intact, and On the other hand, in terms of concept identification, it vigorously denied and criticized the civilizational achievements of the Qin Empire and the Spring and Autumn and Warring States.This is a strange and huge contradiction.In the entire history of human civilization, there is no precedent for a nation that created an independent civilization to belittle its original civilization in its later development, let alone the absurd precedent of actual inheritance and negation of ideas.Only we, who have inherited the rich heritage of our ancestors, still scold our ancestors for being useless.Isn't it inconceivable that such a strange thing happened to our ancient nation who thinks it has a deep tradition of gratitude!

A broad and vast fertile soil of civilization is presented, and the corpses of the cultivators lie in the field.The latecomers declared the right to inherit the fertile land without hesitation, but they were confused by the fact that a group of people, including themselves, had killed the cultivators and could not explain it.So, while carefully examining this fertile land, he carefully inquired what other people said about the death of the farmer.Finally, people plowed one after another, began to explore, gradually argued, and gradually quarreled, and finally connected the death of the cultivator with the reclaimed fertile soil, and quarreled endlessly.Some people said that the land was evil, which caused the sudden death of the farmer, which had nothing to do with the gang fights.Some people say that farmers die suddenly because they are stupid and don't know how to rest.It is said that the farmers did not plow the fields in the wrong way, and they brought disaster to the land.Some say the farmer shouldn't be working the land at all.Some people say that farmers who use too much force deserve to die.The quarrels continued from generation to generation, and people finally agreed: this is a bad farmer, and he deserves to die, so there is no need to argue.A child who didn't know anything about it suddenly asked: "If the farmer is bad, is the land he cultivated also bad?" The people were shocked for a long time, and then they replied in unison: "The land is ours, so it is not bad!" He didn't bother to mention this dead bad farmer, so he simply spit and cursed at the dead farmer's corpse.Occasionally, a sympathizer sighed at the farmer's corpse from a distance, and immediately attracted everyone's attention...

An ancient fable, a historical picture. Great falsehoods deceive history, what is the civilization like? At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the theory of "tyranny of the Qin Dynasty" finally became the official position. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, based on the widespread accusations against the Qin government, a trend of longing for the "royal system" civilization of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties was born for a while.In the pervasiveness of this ideological trend, a social force that believes in the values ​​of Confucian civilization has risen.While chasing the posthumous posthumous title of Confucius as "Praise Cheng Xuanni Gong", this force tried to restore the Zhou system and reproduce the ancient pastoral era of "constitution of civil and military affairs, rule of law and kingship".This is the absurd period when the Wang Mang Group, known as "Xinshi", fully restored the weekly system in the past twenty years.The evolution of history is cruel: the Wang Mang Group tried its best to reform the ancient system, but instead of making the world more prosperous, it caused a great famine, chaos, and turmoil. The great social regression of the Western Han Dynasty, and the achievements of civilization accumulated in the Western Han Dynasty for more than two hundred years, have all been in vain!The great hunger and massacres encountered by the Green Forest and Red Eyebrow Peasant Army were far more severe than the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang Peasant Groups who raised incidents due to unbearable corvee.

The lessons of history are cold.Afterwards, the Eastern Han regime, which had established its foundation, no longer dreamed of returning to the past, and realistically returned to the road of faithfully following the Western Han Dynasty and adhering to the Qin system.During the two hundred years from the end of the Qin Dynasty to the end of the Western Han Dynasty, there were two major restorations by Xiang Yu and Wang Mang, which not only brought devastating disasters, but also had a huge shock to the historical consciousness of the whole society.Since then, in the history of China, there have been no political madmen who tried to restore the "three-generation monarchy" again. Even those who occasionally have political illusions can only mutter a few words to themselves.This basic fact is enough to show that the historical consciousness of the Huaxia ethnic group has actually recognized the true value of Qin civilization, and in practice it will always be followed.

The absurdity of history is also being finalized in this period. While the Eastern Han Dynasty actually pursued the Qin civilization, the official consciousness accused Qin civilization more clearly and praised the three-generation monarchy in a more high-profile way, which permeated a strong overtone: the three-generation monarchy itself is still worthy of admiration, but Wang Mang’s Restoration is not enough.Re-establishing the absurd separation between the actual principles of political construction and ideological value principles is the basis for the "tyrannical Qin" theory to permeate the historical smoke.

"Hanshu Shihuozhi" and "Hanshu Criminal Law Zhi" are the official views of the Eastern Han Dynasty on the framework (system) of civilization in the past dynasties.In these two documents that summarize and evaluate the systems of the past dynasties, we can fully see the new face of the theory of "tyranny of the Qin Dynasty".The overall judgment of the progress of Chinese civilization in these two documents is: the "royal system" civilization of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties with the well field system as the axis is the highest ideal social state; from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Qin Empire, it is the most unbearable era of decline; The Western Han Dynasty began to enter the prosperity of Taiping.Based on these value standards, the formula of these two documents is as follows: at the beginning, they all describe the idyllic pictures of the "royal system" of the three generations in a large section, and then, after a change of tone, they begin to severely accuse the unbearable and tyrannical conditions of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States and Qin. Then describe the Taiping national policy of the Western Han Dynasty.

Only because it is representative, I will quote its accusations against the Spring and Autumn and Warring States and Qin as follows: "Hanshu Shihuo Zhi" says: "Han Shu·Criminal Law Records" says: In addition to the official recognition of the "Baoqin Theory" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the personal judgments of scholars and officials also appeared based on this benchmark.However, the vision of civilization history in this era has been greatly weakened, and officials and scholars, even if they partially affirm Qin Zheng's theories, are still sporadic.For example, Huan Tan and Wang Chong of the Eastern Han Dynasty all partially affirmed Qin Zheng's articles, but they have become extremely weak voices.

After the Eastern Han Dynasty, Huaxia once again fell into a state of division and separatism.The fierce competition in the Three Kingdoms era is quite like a small Warring States period.Based on the needs of competition itself, this era has new possibilities for re-cognition of history.Since "Three Kingdoms" was written by Chen Shou, a Jin native, and there is no special category of "Zhi" that summarizes the historical evolution of a certain field, it is impossible to judge the official historical consciousness of the Three Kingdoms and the Western Jin Dynasty.However, from the policies and systems actually pursued by various parties during this period, as well as the historical judgments of famous monarchs and politicians, we can still see their overall judgments on Qin civilization.This kind of judgment is much looser than that of the Eastern Han Dynasty.Cao Cao was commented by "Three Kingdoms": "Taizu planned and planned, whipped Yu Nei, and the spells of Shen and Shang, the ingenious strategies of Han and Bai... are outstanding in the world!" And Cao Cao's affirmation of Qin Huang Han Wu is also clear , its "Zhi Tun Tian Ling" said: "The art of the husband to establish the country is to strengthen the army and have enough food. The Qin people are eager to farm and take care of the world, and Xiaowu uses the land to control the Western Regions. This is a good way of the previous generation!" Among the great statesmen of the Three Kingdoms, Only Zhuge Liang showed the absurd division of the Qin government that inherited the Eastern Han Dynasty: the practice was pursued while the idea was denied.Zhuge Liang's "Answer to Fa Zhengshu" says: "...Qin believed that there was no way, the government was harsh and the people complained, and the people shouted, and the world collapsed." It shows that he faithfully inherited the tradition of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Entering the period of Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were frequent disputes in the land of Huaxia, and when the northern ethnic groups successively occupied Northern China, regimes continued to change and mutual attacks continued.At this time, China's discussion on the evolution of civilization history has almost become silent, and mysterious talks are pervasive for a while.Whether it is the actions of the government or the private learning of the government, the overall discussion and theoretical summary of historical civilization have almost disappeared.This is a special era of sinking. The Han Dynasty focused on the historical perspective of civilization evolution. At this time, it has changed into a speculative "metaphysics" that focuses on personal experience.While metaphysics is pervasive, occasionally sparks of exploration into the history of civilization burst out.Ge Hong’s "Baopuzi Outer Chapters Using Punishments" discussed the reasons for Qin’s death, and determined that Qin’s death was not caused by severe punishment. It’s a mistake!” Others, such as Liu Song, who was a court officer, and Zhang Fei, who was an official who interpreted laws and regulations, also affirmed Qin Zheng in the sense of discussing the evolution of laws and regulations.Of course, these voices are far from mainstream and have little real impact.

Entering the Sui Dynasty, the discussion on the history of civilization evolution changed again. Although the Sui Dynasty was short, it was an important period for the reunification of China after three hundred years of division, and it was the fifth unification of the Huaxia ethnic group.From the perspective of the actual institutional framework, there is no doubt that the Sui inherited the Qin system.However, since the Qin Empire was thousands of years away at this time, and three hundred years of wars and divisions after the Western Jin Dynasty had passed, the Sui’s examination of the evolution of civilization began to focus on the historical evolution after the Western Jin Dynasty, and the historical evolution before the Han Dynasty. It is rarely involved, and even less is the exploration of the gains and losses of the Qin government.Even so, we can still see the Sui Dynasty's vague affirmation of Qin civilization from the fundamentals.Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, paid attention to practical affairs, and the beginning of his dying edict was: "Wow! Since the relocation of the Jin Dynasty, the world has been in chaos, and the four seas are not the same, and even Zhou Qi, the war is looking for each other, and the year will be three hundred." The end of the edict says : "Since ancient times, philosopher kings have practiced according to human beings. Emperors before and after have changed at any time. If there is any inconvenience in the format of laws and regulations, it should be revised according to the previous edict and become a political leader." Obviously, the reform spirit embodied by the Sui Dynasty on Qin civilization Still for sure. The situation in the Tang Dynasty changed again.The point of the Tang change is to get rid of the unclear and solid historical judgment of the Sui Dynasty, and start to summarize the history of civilization evolution on a large scale again.In the end, Tang returned to the Eastern Han Dynasty again.The "Sui Shu" majored by Wei Zheng, a Tang native, is actually the historical vision of the Tang regime, not the historical vision of the Sui regime. Comprehensive chapters such as "Shihuo Zhi", "Criminal Law Zhi" and "Baiguan Zhi" in "Sui Shu" all made a judgment on the return of Qin civilization to the tradition of the Eastern Han Dynasty in the general description of specific fields. "Sui Shu Shihuo Zhi" says: The Qin family started from Xirong, and made great efforts to rectify the world, driving them away with punishment, and abandoning them with benevolence; with half of the harvest, the Great Wall will be cut off from the ground; with the head meeting, the garrison will be poor outside the ridge. "Sui Shu·Criminal Law Records" states: The Qin family was secluded from Xirong, and in the summer of Chuping District, at that time, he threw himself away and abandoned his armor, praying for grace, but it was a severe frost on politics and religion, and a current of electricity in the state; , born sorrow and resentment in the front, the poisonous net condenses the branch, and harms the skin in the back; the Xuanzang is scattered in the court market, and the ocher clothes are floating in the roads; "Sui Shu Baiguan Zhi" says: Qin Shihuang abolished the codes of the previous kings, burned the words of hundreds of families, and established court rituals; The prime minister was always in charge, and he also set the doctor of the royal family as second to the prime minister.Since I have many positions, each has its own department.Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty eliminated violence and peaceful chaos, lightened punishments and agreed laws, and the system of official positions was due to the Ying family. If it is said that the general narration of various annals in the "Sui Shu" represents the official judgment of the Tang regime, then Tang Taizong's philosophy in the middle is a more direct attitude towards governance. "Zhenguan Political Leaders · Monarchs and Ministers' Warning" says: "I heard that the Zhou Dynasty and the Qin Dynasty won the world at the beginning, and the things were the same. However, the Zhou Dynasty only did good deeds and accumulated merits, so it was able to protect the foundation of 800. Qin is indulged in extravagance and prostitution, good deeds Punishment will only be destroyed in the second generation." His "Working Farming" article says: "In the past, Emperor Qin and Han Wu were extremely poor and warlike outside, while inside they worshiped extravagant palaces. Once manpower was exhausted, misfortunes flourished. Doesn't he want to put people at ease? Lost the way to calm people!" Of course, the Tang Dynasty also had specific affirmations of the Qin regime and Qin law based on real politics, but it was far from the mainstream.The same Wei Zheng, when answering Tang Taizong's criticism of Shang Yang's rule of law, said relatively affirmatively: "Shang Yang, Han Fei, Shen Buhai, etc., were in the Warring States period, spies intertwined, disasters and chaos were easy to occur, deceptions were difficult to prevent, and affairs Deep law and harsh punishments are used to curb their troubles. Therefore, power was saved at the time, and it was not the way to achieve transformation.” (Volume 3 of "Wei Zhenggong's Remonstrance Records") In the historical consciousness of the entire Tang Dynasty, only Liu Zongyuan made a distinction between "government" and "system" for Qin civilization, pointing out that Qin's "failure lies in politics, not in system." His "On Feudalism" says: "Qin has The world... for a few years, the world has been ruined, and there is a reason for it! Serve thousands of people urgently, violently behave, and use up disasters and bribes; ;Sometimes, there are traitors but not officials. People resent the subordinates, but the officials are afraid of the superiors. The world is united, and the order of killing and robbing rises together. And tens of thousands of people are staring at each other. The failure lies in the politics, not in the system. It’s a matter of Qin!" It is the most insightful concept in the history of civilization evolution since the Han Dynasty to distinguish the institutional framework of civilization from the specific governance.This concept, in a sense, rationally explains the huge separation between the actual inheritance and ideological negation of Qin civilization—the actual inheritance is for the “Qin system” and the ideological negation is for the “Qin government.”Although Liu Zongyuan's judgment is still far from the mainstream historical consciousness; although Liu Zongyuan's "Qin system" almost simply refers to the system of prefectures and counties, and does not contain all the basic aspects of Qin civilization, but in terms of the newness of his historical consciousness , still cannot be ignored. After the Tang Dynasty, China fell into nearly a hundred years of separatism.The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period was a period in which historical consciousness was severely atrophied. The civilizational vision and national enterprising spirit of Daqiju began to seriously decline from this period.Coup d'états staggered frequently, regimes changed repeatedly, and there were many states and countries, each seeking its own security.In this era, except for many Buddhist events and flashing poetry phenomena, there are almost no major events in the sense of civilization history, and it is naturally difficult to find traces of the history of Chinese civilization. After the Song Dynasty unified China, it almost immediately fell into a series of foreign troubles and many internal worries, and the examination of the past history has been greatly weakened. "History of the Song Dynasty" was majored in the Yuan Dynasty, and its general overview of various "Zhi" did not mention Qin civilization at all.Of course, we cannot regard the comprehensive narrative of "Song History" as the official historical consciousness of the Song Dynasty.We can only find the historical consciousness of the Song Dynasty in its schools of thought and the speeches of major figures.The rise of Confucianism in the Song Dynasty gave birth to a new wave of Confucianism called "Confucianism".The historical consciousness of Neo-Confucianism is naturally based on the historical values ​​of Confucianism. Beginning in the Song Dynasty, a historical phenomenon began to emerge: when looking at history, Confucius and Mencius must be cited as authoritative.A large number of pre-Qin classics were neglected as a whole during this period.As a result, even masters like Mozi's works have been annihilated and hard to see, and they have been reduced to invisibility in Taoist classics.It was not until modern times that Mozi was discovered by Liang Qichao and regained attention.Wang Anshi, the most practical reformer, even quoted Confucius and Mencius as his evidence, but most of his theories on system evolution were based on the rise and fall of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.The discussion of the rest of the characters is even more conceivable.Sima Guang, who is famous for his cultivation, clearly denounced Qin Wenming for his historical consciousness.All the "Chen Guangyue" that has been seen rarely make serious overall judgments on the Qin government and the Qin system, while accusations of specific "crimes" against the Qin government and the Qin system are not uncommon.Zhu Xi, Er Cheng and other Confucian masters accused Qin Wenming is even more common.As academics, they are very serious about exploring Qin politics.For example, Zhu Xi made a new interpretation of the "abolishing the well fields and opening up the rice fields" in Shang Yang's reform: "opening" is not the opening of reclamation, but the opening of prohibition; "People get to buy and sell" land.However, this specific knowledge effort does not mean the deepening and broadening of civilization and history consciousness.On the whole, the Song Dynasty’s judgment on Qin civilization and its parent era was one of forgetfulness and indifference—it was rarely mentioned, and it was all derogatory. In the three dynasties of Yuan, Ming and Qing, the judgment of Qin civilization by historical consciousness has been hardened into a cold hard body. The Yuan people compiled the "History of the Song Dynasty", the people of the Ming Dynasty compiled the "History of the Yuan Dynasty", and the people of the Qing Dynasty compiled the "History of the Ming Dynasty".These three histories, including the judgment of the Qin Empire and the pre-Qin era, all present a fixed formula: first briefly describe the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties in a very general way, and then immediately discuss the rise and fall of the previous dynasty closest to you, and basically omit the Spring and Autumn Warring States and Qin era do not mention.This phenomenon, we can call it "forgetting stereotype".However, forgetting does not mean affirmation, but it is precisely the sign that prejudice has hardened into a deep fallacy.In the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, not only did the official historical consciousness categorically use "tyranny of the Qin Dynasty" as a comprehensive evaluation, even the students who were regarded as progressive thinkers by later generations were also categorically "non-Qin".That is to say, during the thousand years since the Song Dynasty, the judgment of Qin civilization has accumulated into a truth-like conclusion that does not need to be explored.Yelu Chucai has a poem on Qin: "...burning books dislikes Confucius and Mencius, and uses Gauss in the harsh law. When the government is out of mind, the country will follow after death. Afang repairs the image of Wei, and Xu Fu looks for ganoderma. Idioms are true and false, and the Great Wall is forbidden. Believe in it. I only know that Qin lost the deer, but I don’t realize that Chu is dying. The agreement is three chapters, and the grace is four hundred..." Hai Ruiyun: "If you want the world to be safe, you must go to the mine field...the legacy of the ancients can still be preserved." Qiu Junyun : "The tragedy of the Qin Dynasty." Huang Zongxiyun: "Qin became feudal and became prefectures and counties, and the prefectures and counties are private to me!" Woohoo! Qin puts aside the marquis and puts him on guard because of the selfishness of the world, and the sky pretends to be selfish in order to act as a great prince. There are no surprises in the gods. It is like a husband!... The reason why Qin has been guilty of all generations is only selfishness. !" Gu Yanwu said: "The death of Qin is not the death of feudalism, but also the death of feudalism... The loss of feudalism, its specialization is at the bottom; !" All these and so on, even if some outstanding people make partial affirmation of Qin Wenming, it is only a shining light.Coupled with the exaggeration of folk art forms such as story books and dramas, the theory of "tyrannical Qin" was widely spread.After the millennium, although it cannot be said that everyone believes in it, it is generally said that most of the Qin critics dismiss it as "violent". Since then, Chinese people's historical consciousness and civilization vision have fallen into the most simplistic frozen situation. Since 1840, China has encountered a huge historical impact at the entrance of human high-end civilization. This shock lasted more than a hundred years.After several catastrophes of national subjugation and genocide, the historical consciousness of the Chinese nation finally began to awaken with difficulty.Consciously or unconsciously, the Huaxia ethnic group began a continuous reflection on civilization and history.Why is the nation weak?Why is the country poor?Why can't we go the old way again?Where does the new road lead?All these thoughts related to the rise and fall of the nation are vigorously burning under the harsh background of "saving the nation and preserving its existence".Thus, there was the "Reform of 1898" attempt at a realistic way out for China, the "1911 Revolution" designed China's realistic destiny, the "May 4th Movement" reflected on traditional Chinese civilization, and there was the development of Marxism after it was introduced into China. The civilizational reflection of the "New Culture Movement".When our nation finally stood on its own among the nations of the world, we began a large-scale ideological reconstruction and a historical process of re-examining the history of our nation's civilization with the help of the scientific way of thinking in the era of high-end civilization.In the sense that a nation pioneers the history of civilization, the great wisdom of our nation has not been suffocated by the smoke and dust of history.The footsteps of our perseverance and hard work reflect the great wish of our nation's regeneration and rejuvenation, and also reflect the fruitful achievements of our nation's awareness of civilization and history. However, we have gone through too many detours.The Reform Movement of 1898 attempted to reform in a superficial form and lead China into the era of high-end civilization.We failed!The Revolution of 1911 attempted to lead China into an era of high-end civilization by imitating the political reform methods of Western civilization.We also failed!The May 4th Movement and the New Culture Movement attempted to sort out and summarize the history of our civilization in a relatively simple way of "overthrowing".We didn't have the success we expected.The great social changes brought about by the introduction of Marxism to China made our nation stand up.At a historical juncture when our survival has become the most pressing issue, our nation, with the greatest wisdom, stopped endless debates, got rid of the turmoil, and devoted ourselves wholeheartedly to national prosperity.History has proved that our great wisdom has saved the nation, saved the country, and opened up the hope of real revival for our nation at the most difficult historical moment. However, the problems we put aside will not disappear just because they are put on hold. The history of civilization development of a nation has an inevitable logic: in order to maintain a long vitality and a full state of life in the development, it must have a solid civilization foundation; the solidity of this civilization foundation depends on the richness of the national civilization. , but also depends on the inheritance principle established by an era based on historical consciousness.We can temporarily suspend large-scale civilized and cultural debates because of the social spiritual concentration necessary for the most urgent issues. As Lu Zhonglian, a famous scholar in the Warring States Period, said: "A white blade adds a chest, and no arrows are counted." However, we must not forget that after obtaining After the necessary social conditions are met, the serious exploration of the history of civilization is still a necessary historical link for the regeneration of civilization for a nation.What we need to avoid is simply not to repeat the simplification that the scrutiny of civilization must be equal to a certain practical goal.In other words, at any time, a nation's examination of its own civilization history should not be a means to any practical goal.This exploration and examination itself has its own great goal: to clean up our historical traditions, seek our spiritual foundation, establish our national spirit, and make these fundamentals gain general social cognition, so as to enable the revival and development of our nation. , has a long and clear firm belief. This is the basis for us to examine the original Chinese civilization.