Any culture is inseparable from its carrier, and it is preserved, continued and disseminated through the carrier. The most important carrier, of course, is the person, the person who created or mastered this culture. Especially under the condition that writing and written records are quite difficult, the role of man as a cultural carrier is irreplaceable, even unique.
The carrier of secular culture is a group, and unless it encounters exceptionally large natural and man-made disasters, it generally does not become extinct. The carriers of Ya culture are often a few people, or even only a few people, and if these people lose or are deprived of the ability to spread, this culture may break or even die out. But as long as people are alive, even if only a few people survive, this culture is likely to continue. In Chinese history, many Ya cultures have become the most famous in Guangling because of the loss of their inheritors, but other ya cultures have also occurred frequently.
For example, after Qin Shi Huang burned books and pit Confucianism, it was stipulated that officials should be used as teachers and the people were forbidden to collect books. Scholars fled to the mountains, and some Confucian classics could not be preserved, and could only be transmitted orally. During the reign of Emperor Hui of Han, the edict prohibiting the collection of books by the people was abolished, and Confucian scholars began to spread doctrine among the people, but because the original book was not completely preserved, it could only rely on oral circulation for a long time. Fusheng, a native of Jinan, was originally a doctor of the Qin Dynasty, and when Qin Shi Huang banned books, he hid the Book of Shang between the walls, and when he returned home after the war, he found that dozens of articles were missing, and only twenty-nine were left. Fortunately, Fu sheng can also memorize memories and pass them on to students. At the time of Emperor Wen of Han, Fusheng was over ninety years old and had limited mobility, so the imperial court could only send Chao To Fusheng's family to learn inheritance. Fusheng spoke a qi dialect, and his speech was not clear, so he could only let his daughter convey it, but Chao mistakenly said that he was speaking in the Yingchuan dialect, and there were 20% or 30% of the meaning that he did not understand, and could only record according to his own understanding. If there is no Fusheng, or if there is no chaotic record and dissemination, the inheritance of the Book of Shang will be broken.
In ancient China, another important cultural carrier was documentation, mainly books. If the only document or book is lost and destroyed, and there is no one like Fusheng as a carrier, the culture it records will also be broken and even extinct. And such things have not been repeated in the past two thousand years.
After Qin Shi Huang's book burning and banning books, and experiencing the great chaos of the Qin and Han dynasties, most of the classics formed by the pre-Qin dynasty were destroyed, and after repeated collection and recompilation in the Western Han Dynasty, it was not until the last year that the "Seven Sketches" compiled by Liu Xiang and Liu Xin's father and son were formed, with a total of seven categories and 33,090 volumes. When Wang Mang fell, the books in the palace were burned. Emperor Guangwu, Emperor Ming, and Emperor Zhang of the Eastern Han Dynasty attached great importance to academic culture, fortunately, there were many collections in the folk, and after many collections, the collection of books in the stone room and Lantai in the imperial palace was quite sufficient. Therefore, the new books were concentrated in Dongguan and Renshou Pavilion, classified and sorted, and the catalog was compiled into the "Book of Han · Yiwen Zhi". However, when Dong Zhuo forced Emperor Xian of Han to move west to Chang'an, the soldiers plundered the palace, using long scrolls written in silk as accounts and baggage, and there were more than seventy carts of books transported to Chang'an. Later, Chang'an was also reduced to war, and these books were swept away.
After Cao Wei collected books scattered among the people, and a batch of ancient books excavated in the ancient tombs of Ji County (present-day Weihui City, Henan Province) in the early Western Jin Dynasty, the palace books were restored to 29,945 volumes. However, soon after the Rebellion of the Eight Kings and the Rebellion of Yongjia broke out, the capital Luoyang was devastated by war and became a ruin, and the royal books were gone.
At the beginning of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, only 3,014 volumes remained, after which the northern suicide note gradually flowed to Jiangnan, and by the eighth year of Song Yuanjia (431), 64,582 volumes had been recorded. In the last year of the Qi Dynasty, the war spread to the secret cabinet of the book collection, and the books suffered great losses. Liang Chu sorted out the books, not counting the Buddhist scriptures, which had a total of 23,106 volumes. Due to Emperor Wu of Liang's emphasis on culture, and the stability maintained by Jiangnan for more than forty years, the folk collection of books increased significantly. After Hou Jing's rebellion was quelled, Xiao Xuan,the King of Xiangdong (later Emperor Yuan of Liang) ordered that more than 70,000 volumes of wendedian's collection and public and private collections collected in the capital Jiankang (present-day Nanjing) be transported back to Jiangling. Together with his old collection, it reached an unprecedented 140,000 volumes. However, in the third year of Chengsheng (554), when Jiangling City was surrounded by Western Wei troops, he ordered that the collection of books be burned to the ground. This loss is immeasurable, because it was not until the Tang Dynasty that the Book of Sui was revised. At the time of the Book of Scriptures, only 89,666 volumes of books were recorded.
After the Tang Dynasty, although due to the gradual popularization of printing, most books had replicas, and folk collections increased, surviving natural and man-made disasters, there were still a large number of orphan secret books that were lost or deliberately destroyed, and the culture carried by them was also annihilated.
In this long process, the material for recording the text has undergone fundamental changes, from oracle bones, metals, stones, bamboo janes, wooden janes, and silk veils to paper-based. The script itself has also undergone great changes, from oracle bone, golden script, seal script, and lishu to mainly in italics, supplemented by calligraphy and cursive writing, and constantly producing some simplified "vulgar characters" and "vulgar styles". But as long as records are kept, the culture will not break. Even the oracle bones that reappeared in the sky more than three thousand years later have been mostly interpreted after the research of experts, so that future generations can obtain a lot of information about the Shang Dynasty.
As for some cultures that have been eliminated by history, naturally there will be no one to pass them on. But as long as the relevant records are still there, future generations can still understand. For example, the phenomenon of Han women's foot binding has disappeared, but through the records of the so-called "Golden Lotus Culture" for five generations, we can understand its condition and influence. Another example is that after the abolition of the imperial examination system, fewer and fewer people can write eight strands of text, and now there are probably no masters. However, due to the rich historical materials and the eight strands of the imperial examination, it is not difficult to study the imperial examination and understand the eight strands of the text.
This article is excerpted from
Selected Essays of Ge Jianxiong, a well-known historical geographer,
Walking between theory and reality, it shows the thoughts of a generation of scholars
"Slow Thoughts"
By Ge Jianxiong
Xinmin Said, Guangxi Normal University Press
This book contains articles written by Ge Jianxiong in recent years, covering a wide range of topics.
The book is divided into four chapters. In the two chapters of "Discussion on the Past and on the Present" and "History and Geography", the author analyzes the origins and relationships between Chinese geography, history, culture, and characters and modern China in a simple and concise manner, and also has rational thinking about social hotspots. In the chapter "Scholars and Books", the author looks back on the past, expresses his respect and gratitude for his mentors and friends, and shares what he saw and heard during his tenure as librarian. In the chapter "Book Preface • Memories", the author selects some of the articles that embody new ideas in the old works, and traces the memories of the old times, talks about the experiences in daily life, and tells the taste of life with a relaxed and witty brushstroke.