Huayang or Changyang?
We often refer to ourselves as the "Children of Yan Huang", where Yan refers to Yandi. Yandi was the son of Shaodian, who also had a brother, the Yellow Emperor. It is said that they had the same father and different mothers, Yan Di's mother was Ren Si, and Huang Di's mother was called Sui Bao. Shaodian was the leader of the Shaodian Kingdom in the area of present-day Henan Province, and both of Shaodian's sons went on to become prominent figures in history.
Yan Di's mother, Ren Si, was Shaodian's consort. Once when she went out to play, she saw a dragon flying through the sky and felt a sense of sensation in her body, and when she returned she gave birth to Yan Di. This legend, most likely, was made up by later generations. Chinese emperors, since the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, traditionally like to "Son of Heaven", "Dragon Son" self-proclaimed, in order to show that their identity is unique, the descendants will follow the gourd to say that Emperor Yan Di is "Dragon Son", see the dragon The first thing I want to do is to make sure that you have a good understanding of what you are doing and how you are doing it.
Ren Si in the end where to see the dragon, historians have been arguing, and inconclusive. It was only during the Han Dynasty that Sima Qian picked some of these claims and recorded them in his "Records of the Five Emperors" (史记-五帝本纪). Sima Qian said that when Ren Si was traveling in Huayang, she saw a dragon shining brightly and rising up in the air, and immediately came back and gave birth to Yan Di. The Huayang that Sima Qian said was not the current Shuangliu Huayang. Huayang in ancient times, is a very big concept, roughly refers to today's Huashan south of Sichuan and some areas of Yunnan, Guizhou, roughly the scope of the ancient Shu, than today's Sichuan Province, the jurisdiction of the larger. The Shu Zhi, written by Chang Qu in the two Jin dynasties, was called "Huayang Guo Zhi".
Some other historical records, such as the Song Dynasty History and Guoyu, say that the birthplace of Emperor Yandi is Changyang Mountain, southwest of Baoji, which belongs to the Tiantai Mountain lineage, and there is still a mausoleum in honor of Emperor Yandi. Although Hua Yang and Chang Yang are written differently, they are pronounced similarly, and the ancient people said that things were mostly passed down orally. Perhaps, Huayang and Chang Yang was a place, in the folklore only blackmailed into two places.
When Emperor Yandi was about to be born, a lot of strange things were said to have happened. The nine wells near his house automatically circulated with each other, and when water was drawn from one well, the water in the other eight would fluctuate with it; nine dragons appeared in the sky and kept hovering over the roof of his house without leaving. All these implied that Yan Di would become a great man in the future.
Yandi was born with a bull's head and body, and this account is certainly not enough. During the time of the Yandi Emperor, there was no writing in China, and the ancients might have used some special ways to keep track of things, such as tying knots in ropes and hanging a plaque, and so on. At that time, the historians may have agreed to use a cow to represent Yandi, so when they recorded the deeds of Yandi, they tied a cow's head on the knotted rope or tied a piece of wood with a painted cow's head on it to represent Yandi. At that time, the people were clear, but the descendants may not understand, so the more the record the more mysterious, said Yandi is "bull-headed man". His brother, the Yellow Emperor, is said to have a "human face and snake body", probably for the same reason.
On the third day of his life, Emperor Yan Di could speak; on the fifth day, he could walk on the ground. His mother, Ren Si, followed suit. Some say he saw Ren Si bathing for Emperor Yan Di in Jiulongquan (near present-day Baoji), and then riding away on a green dragon after the bath. When he was three years old, Yan Di did something that made the people of his country wonder. When he saw that there were floods in some parts of the country and droughts in others, he jumped down to the sea to see the dragon kings and lectured the dragon kings of various places, meaning, "You should average the rainfall in all parts of the country, not more here and less there, how can the people live? It is said that the dragon kings listened to him.
When the two emperors reached adulthood, Shaodian asked them to lead a group of clansmen to create new settlements. The Yandi's branch, later lived near the Jiangshui (i.e., the Qingjiang River, east of Qishan, Shaanxi, a tributary of the Wei River); the Huangdi's branch, near the Jishui (present-day Qishui, Shaanxi). Over time, the Yandi tribe simply changed its name to Jiang, while the famous scholar Xu Zhongshu believes that Jiang is Qiang, and Yandi was a Qiang, while the Huangdi tribe changed its name to Ji. Day long years away, Yan, Huang two customs and habits of the differences between the growing into two tribes, only vaguely remember each other and kinship.
Planting grains for the world first
Yan Di and Huang Di tribes, the earliest both rely on nomadic livelihood. They lived with wild animals, wore animal skins and ate raw meat. Later, as the tribes grew in number, the number of wild beasts in the forest dwindled, and often people did not have enough to eat. Sometimes, in order to a beast, not only between the two tribes to fight, is within the tribe, people also swarmed up to fight, completely ignoring the etiquette, affection.
The problem is getting more and more serious with the lack of food and warmth, and the conflict between the tribes. At this crisis point, there was a heavy rain in the sky, and all that fell was rice corn. The other tribes didn't know what it was and didn't dare to eat it. Yan Di, however, was overjoyed and ordered the people to bury them in the soil and water them regularly, just waiting for a good harvest. How did Yandi know this? He was born with it. It is said that he "knew harvest at the age of three". When he was three years old, he was so knowledgeable about farming and harvesting that adults could not talk to him. In the fall, the rice and corn that he planted produced abundant fruits.
In fact, the sky naturally can't rain down rice and corn, according to the research of later generations, the five grains are some plants developed, at that time, the number of wild beasts is scarce, the Yandi tribe naturally want to find some plants to fill up their hunger, they may have discovered the grains, and improved them into the five grains. It is said that there were five main types of cereals grown at that time: rice, millet, jasmine, wheat and beans (that is, soybeans).
With the five grains, there was a natural need to plow the land. In the past, people used stone tools to cultivate the land, which was inefficient and hard work. Yandi tribe to open up the mountains, most of the use of fire, set fire to the mountains, burn a flat land, ash is natural fertilizer. Set fire to the mountains put more, so the people of the time also called Yandi Lie Shan Shi. The earliest fire, is said to be the first Yandi first use (a said flint first drill wood for fire). Lightning struck a tree branch and easily started a blazing fire, which was the earliest human fire.
Yandi's discovery was a history-changing event: with fire, people did not munch on animal flesh, which was healthy and tasty; there is a theory that stoves also appeared at this time. Fire is still probably a very important weapon, burning mountains to make fields, expel wild animals, all use. Because of teaching the people to use fire, Shennong's was later honored as the fire master, fire god, and even the sun god, his empire is also related to the fire, Yan, is the two burning flames. Therefore, later generations said that the Yandi tribe "plowed with slashes and planted with fire". At that time, Henan, Shaanxi, many swampy hills, not suitable for farming, the Yandi tribe gradually moved along the mountains of western Henan to the south of Shanxi, this area is higher, easy to cultivate, they probably settled down for a long time.
Yandi's inventions
The land at this time is said to have been so hard that crops were planted on it and withered in a few days. People dug with their hands and shoveled with stones, but to no avail. But when Yandi went out once, he saw a crab dancing with its big pincers, and in a short time, it made a hole in the soil. Inspired, Yandi first barbecue wood in the fire, so that it is bent, known as Lei (lei); and cut the wood into the bottom of the narrow and wide, crab pincer shape of the ???ê (si). Thus, the later said that he "kneaded wood for Lei", "chopped wood for ?ê". The earliest pottery, it is said, also appeared at this time, smelting pottery is the same time with agriculture, plowing out of the soil is the best raw material for pottery, which is "plowed into pottery".
At this time, people were still often sick. They began to eat the leaves of plants, and when they were sick, it was easy for them to think that eating a few plants might cure them. However, people still do not quite recognize the plants in the wild, and when they got sick, they grabbed a handful of them and ate them, and they were accidentally poisoned. Emperor Yan Di was so anxious that he decided to taste the plants himself, so that he could tell which ones were medicinal and which ones were poisonous. It is said that he was born a "crystal belly", all organs are visible, eat in what also see clearly. Yandi carry two bags, tasted the flowers and plants can be eaten, are placed inside. He was wandering around all day, encountered the flowers and plants have not seen, picked off a taste, so often poisoned, up to 70 times a day in the poison. It is said that later the left side of the bag contained flowers and plants roots and leaves of 47,000 kinds, and the right side has 398,000 kinds.
Archaeology says that the ancient people of the Neolithic period, not only will pick herbs to cure the disease, but also already know the decoction to drink. The Yandi tribe at that time, inspired by Yandi, gradually realized this. People got sick, often seek medical treatment, no longer indiscriminate medication, and then gradually formed a habit, it is said that this is roughly the embryonic form of medicine.
There was another big event during the Yan Di era. It is said that every day at noon, the other tribes came to Yandi, exchange their own needs of goods, bartering, mutual benefit. At that time, grains were still very rare, other tribes have not eaten, Yandi will use it to exchange war horses, weapons, animal skins and so on. War horses and weapons can defend the country, animal skin is used to wear. Yandi's tribe already had abundant food reserves, and it is said that he often told his people, "There are stone cities seven or eight feet high, moats a hundred paces wide, and millions of soldiers in armor, but without food, that can't be defended." Commodities were developed on the basis of surplus labor products, and all of this, shows that the Yandi tribe was already strong.
"Warehouse endowed with real understanding of etiquette," the meal is full, the Yandi tribe also thought of spiritual entertainment. It is said that Yandi "on the view of the law in the sky, under the law in the ground", cut the tung for the piano, the practice of silk for the string, made a five-stringed zither, also known as the Shennong zither. The qin has five tones: Gong, Shang, Horn, Zheng and Yu. Later, King Wen of Zhou added two more strings on top of the five tones, namely, Shao Gong and Shao Shang. On the day the five-stringed zither was built, Yan Di was so happy that he said to his people, "Use the zither to play and sing about the joys of farming, and to celebrate the good years" (Shiji - The Chronicles of the Five Emperors). From then on, the Yandi tribe labored while listening to the qin, and primitive music was born.
The Yandi tribe planted grains, lived a sedentary life, improved agricultural tools, cured diseases, created rituals and music, and slowly became strong. At the same time, his brother, the Yellow Emperor, continued to migrate all year round, wandering and living a nomadic life. Nearby tribes came to live with Yandi's tribe to learn farming techniques. Gradually, Yandi's prestige became higher and higher, and he was honored as the **** Lord by the people of the world, and those who didn't submit, but they were too weak to be defeated. Yandi's capital city, which kept changing as the tribe moved eastward, was first in Chen, today's Huaiyang, Henan Province; it was later moved to Lu (i.e., Qufu, Shandong Province).
Yandi's Death and Shennong's Weakness
After being honored as the Lord of **** by the people of the world, Yandi still drifted around, trying to taste all kinds of herbs. This was an extremely dangerous thing to do. In ancient times, there were many different kinds of plants, and naturally there were quite a few that were highly poisonous. In today's Changsha (a said in Baoji), Yan Di saw the broken intestines grass (scientific name "hook kiss"), eaten, suddenly heart and lungs want to crack, liver and intestines, died. Yandi was dedicated to the people and did not care about his own life and death, and there are not many monarchs like him in history.
After his death, Yandi was buried in Yanling (one said in Baoji, another said in Zhuzhou, Hunan). After his death, the people missed him day and night, and the dragon kings of various places scrambled to bury his remains in the places under their jurisdiction; they fought for half a day, and finally, it is said that the dragon king of Hunan finally got what he wanted.
Soon, the emperor took over the mantle of Yan Di and became the second **** Lord. Yandi also had a daughter, called Nuwa, who tragically drowned while swimming in the sea, and later turned into a Jingwei bird, determined to reclaim the sea. It is said that Shennong's **** was passed down for eight generations (one says seventy), and the last **** Lord was called Yuhui. During his reign, the power of the Yandi tribe gradually weakened, and the title of *** Lord existed in name only. The tribes at that time, gradually forgetting all the benefits of Yan Di's reign, began to be unstable. The most violent tribes were the Kuafu tribe and the Jiu Li tribe. Quafu tribe is a tribe that likes to sunbathe, the clan grows taller than the average person, two ears hanging yellow snakes, and grasping two in his hand; Jiu Li tribe is very swarthy, their leader, called Chi You, they and the Yan Emperor tribes intermingled, so some people also say they are also the descendants of the Yan Emperor. Elm Reckless sent troops to conquer them, but was defeated. After winning the battle, the Quafu and Jiu Li tribes became more and more proud of themselves, and conquered everywhere, and the lords of the world dared to be angry and dared not speak out.
At this time, however, the Huangdi tribe, which had learned farming techniques from the Yan Di, gradually became powerful. In the deer, Hankuan two places, defeated Chi You and Kwa Fu, gained the right to rule. Some people say it was the Yellow Emperor who defeated Shennong's clan in "the wild of Hanspring", and only then gained the position of the **** master. In any case, the Shennong clan gradually weakened, and the Huangdi tribe gradually emerged. Yandi and Huangdi tribes later fused into a tribe, their descendants, called "Yan Huang Zi Zi Sun".