Xin Deyong
On the morning of September 18, Xin Deyong, professor of the Department of History of Peking University, was invited to give a speech at the Institute of New Epigraphy in Qufu City, Shandong Province, and The Paper was authorized to publish the speech.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
Hello everyone. It is a great pleasure to come to the hometown of Confucius, to meet with you here, and to exchange experiences in reading the Golden Stone Literature. Purely in terms of ancient Chinese inscriptions, the homeland of Qilu is even more the birthplace. Qin Shi Huang's eastward stone carvings were mainly concentrated in this area; by the time of the full rise of stone carving culture in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was the most prosperous inscription center in the country.
However, I am ashamed that I have no systematic understanding of various stone carvings, let alone a deep understanding, and today, I can only ask you for advice and communicate with you on a very specific issue.
This issue is also related to our Shandong; more clearly, it is related to the Han Dynasty inscriptions and ancient history in the Heze region of southwest Lu.
Sima Qian systematically recorded the history of the past and the present during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, starting from the so-called Five Emperors period, and one of the emperors was called "Yao". What kind of person this "Yao" is, or even whether he is a person or not, at least until now, no one can say clearly.
For example, according to the Records of the Five Emperors, "Yao Li was seventy years old and twenty years old, so that Shun regent the government of the Son of Heaven, recommended it to heaven, and Yao punked the throne for twenty-eight years and collapsed", that is, Yao found Shun after seventy years of the throne; after another twenty years, Let Shun dai regent himself and leave after twenty-eight years. The sum of these three years adds up to the age of one hundred and eighteen (if one or two of the two periods of convergence is in that year, it may also be one hundred and seventeen or one hundred and sixteen years old), plus yao is already sixteen years old when he ascends the throne (Tang Kong Yingda et al. Shang Shu Zhengyi, vol. 1), so that he should be about one hundred and thirty-four years old. Do you believe this is a human being? I don't believe it anyway. At such an old age, he was either a god or a ghost, and he wouldn't be a living person anyway.
So, what's going on here? This is the legendary era of ancient history. Since there was no documentary record at the time, relying only on oral legends, its historical narrative had many nonsense. That is, as far as the Yellow Emperor and The Yan Emperor, who are with Yao in the "History of the Five Emperors", the signs of their descent from the gods to the human world are very obvious. Emperor Yao's people and his deeds were also impossible to declare.
Sima Qian himself said: "The Book of Shang alone contains Yao, and the Yellow Emperor of the Hundred Houses of Speech, his writing is not elegant, and it is difficult to say that Mr. Gentleman recommends it. Confucius's "Zaiyu Qing Wu Di De" and "Imperial Family Name" were transmitted by Confucians or not. Yu tasted the west to The Void Tong, the north through Zhuolu, the east gradually over the sea, the south floating river Huaiyi, to the elders are often called the Yellow Emperor, Yao, Shun, the wind religion is particularly special, in short, not close to the ancient literati. Regarding the sentence "In short, it is not close to the ancient writers", sima Zhen's "History Of Suoyin" of the Tang Dynasty explains: "The ancient texts are the two books of "Dide" and "Imperial Lineage". Near is the saying of the saints. ”
What does this passage tell us? It tells us: First, in Sima Qian's view, the historical events recorded in the Book of Shang are relatively reliable, while other documents are not entirely credible, and the historical events recorded in the Book of Shang begin with Yao; second, although there are legends of Yao and the Yellow Emperor and Shun in all parts of the world, the customs and indoctrination of these places are not the same thing at all, which means that their blood and cultural relations with Emperor Yao are different, and the emperors they tell are also different, at least not the same.
When sima Qian talked about his purpose in writing the book "Shi Ji", he summarized that one of its main goals was to "pass on the Six Classics of the Jie Xie and tidy up a hundred miscellaneous words" (Shi Ji Tai Shi Gong Self-Introduction)). In connection with this situation, we can see even more that Sima Qian, after some careful consideration and careful judgment, mainly focused on the "Book of Shang" and Confucius's "Zaiyu Asking the Five Emperors" and "Imperial Family Names", and "chose his words to be elegant" and wrote this "Five Emperors Benji", which also includes the account of Yao's life and deeds.
Although Sima Qian tried his best to achieve the rigor that a professional historian should have, this was actually just a helpless approach, that is, the history of the so-called legendary era could only be like this. No one can say it clearly, as long as the scholars of later generations do not treat this historical account in the same way as the history of faith in later generations, there is no problem. The history of any region can only be written in this way at its inception, which is not recorded in writing.
However, it is very puzzling that archaeologists who always emphasize that the value of archaeological discoveries to the study of historical events is much higher than that recorded in the literature, and somehow always like to associate archaeological cultures equivalent to the legendary era, especially settlement sites, with old historical legends. Shen Yao Shengyu was the Ancient Emperor they liked to implicate.
In this regard, a popular claim in the archaeological community for several years is to refer to the ruins of the Tao Temple in Xiangfen, Shanxi, as the capital of Yao, that is, the so-called Yao capital. The reason why people understand this is that there are records that the Yao capital Pingyang, and the ancient Pingyang is in the area of today's Xiangfen Tao Temple. Such an understanding can be called "Shanxi Pingyang Yaodu".
What the speaker says is convincing, and the hearer believes it. But is this understanding really so reasonable and credible?
As mentioned above, the most tangible and original records of this Emperor Yao in the documents handed down to the generations are either the Book of Shang, or the Zaiyu Qing Five Emperors and the Imperial Family Name, and Sima Qian's account of Yao in the "History of the Five Emperors" is derived from these documents, and this is also the most comprehensive, systematic, and authoritative record of Emperor Yao's life and deeds that later generations of historians can know.
The real Emperor Yao in history, or the prototype of this emperor, cannot know what is going on after all. All we can try to clarify today is his basic situation in ancient history and legend. Whether it is The Emperor Yao or the so-called Yao are real things that have really existed in history, ancient and modern scholars should take the above content as the basic basis when discussing the problem of Yao's area of activity and Yaodu, and modern archaeologists are no exception. Otherwise, there is no way to say this—that is, if the commentator does not take him outside of this, on what basis can you easily exclude the relevant records of the Book of Shang and even the Records of History? At least when I discuss the Yaodu problem here, there is no reason why I can abandon the records of the Book of Shang and even the Records of History and take a different path.
Under such a premise, examining the inscriptions related to Yaodu in the Han tablets may enrich our understanding of this issue to a large extent.
When it comes to the use of ancient stone inscriptions to govern history, including all the friends here, many people will suddenly think of newly discovered and newly excavated stele or epitaphs. Because for a long time, the academic circle has been highly dependent on new materials, competing for new materials, even non-"new" unwritten, no "new" no matter what (really can't find new materials, you have to touch a set of "new methods" from the other side of the Pacific). If there is no new material, you will write and discuss, and people will not bother to look at it. But in my opinion, normal historical research should never be like this, nor should it be the case in the form of rational use of stone inscriptions.
With the rise and development of epigraphy research after the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, Han inscriptions have long become an important part of the documents passed down from generation to generation. However, in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, Ouyang Xiu's "Collection of Ancient Records" and zhao Mingcheng's "Golden Stone Record" written by Zhao Mingcheng at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, because the study of inscriptions has not yet started for a long time, the bibliographies of both books are not comprehensive, and the depth of research is quite limited. It was not until the Southern Song Dynasty scholar Hong Shi wrote the "Li Shi" and "Li Continuation" that he began to systematically and standardize the recording of inscriptions, and also pushed the study of inscriptions into depth (in fact, this change was synchronized with the change in the historical research atmosphere between the two Song Dynasties, that is, after entering the Southern Song Dynasty, historical research paid special attention to the pursuit of the authenticity and accuracy of specific historical events). These two books of Hong Shi have also become high-level representative works in the stone carving documents passed down from generation to generation. Although there have been many discoveries, bibliographies, and studies of Han tablets since then, for me, to this day, Hong Shi's two works are still the first choice for using Han tablets to govern history.
Friends who are a little familiar with the historical research of the two Han Dynasties should be able to know that compared with the Western Han Dynasty, the research status of the Eastern Han Dynasty has always been relatively quiet and lagging behind a lot. One of the important manifestations is that the use of Han tablets is greatly insufficient, and in terms of material sources, even the inscriptions recorded in the "LiShi" and "Li Continuation" are rarely recognized and used. This is very unreasonable, and it is also very incredible.
In the following, I will mainly use several Han tablets in the "Li Shi" to talk about my understanding of the Yaodu problem.
The first stone stele shown at the beginning of the "Li Shi" is entitled "Jiyin Taishou Meng Yu XiuYao Temple Stele". This inscription was earlier recorded in Ouyang Xiu's "Collection of Ancient Records", but the title is "Monument to praying for rain at the Later Han Yao Ancestral Hall" (Ouyang Xiu's "Collection of Ancient Records", vol. 2). The difference between these two forms of bibliography is that one is called "Yao Temple" and the other is "Yao Temple". However, those who are a little familiar with Han stele are not difficult to see that these two kinds of inscriptions, no matter which one, will not be inherent in the stele. According to the inscription, this stele is in Chengyang County, Jiyin County, Eastern Han Dynasty. The second stone stele in the Lishi (Li Shi) is the Second Stone Stele, which is also in Chengyang and should be erected in the same place as the previous stele, and the inscription contains the words "Build a Spirit Temple" and "That is, the Yaoling Temple", because it is known that the second stele should be erected in the Yao Temple instead of the Yao Ancestral Hall. Although the word "ancestral hall" also has the meaning of "temple", and there is also a saying of "great ancestral hall" in this inscription, here, considering the identity of Emperor Yao, it should still be "temple" as the positive, and the inscription of "Yao Ancestral Hall" in Ouyang Xiu's "Collection of Ancient Records" is not accurate enough.
Qing Tongzhi Ten Years Hong's Obscure Wood Zhai Carved Edition "Li Shi"
Is the main thrust of the inscription's narrative, that is, the intention of erecting this square stone stele, an account of the construction of the Yao Temple, or an effect of praying for rain at the Yao Temple? In my opinion, it should be the former, that is, the title of the article proposed by Ouyang Xiu's "Collection of Ancient Records" is also inappropriate, or the title of the "Li Shi" is more accurate.
The stone on this stele was completed when the Temple of The Han Huan Emperor Yongkang was completed in the first year, and its specific month and day have long been lost. However, Emperor Huan granted amnesty to the world in June of the tenth year of Yanxi and changed the name to Yongkang (Later Han Shu Huan Emperor Chronicle), so the tenth year of Yanxi and the first year of Yongkang were actually the same year (that is, the first half of the year was the tenth year of Yanxi, and the second half of the year was more Yongkang's first year), and its inscription was erected, since June of this year, gengshen.
According to the inscription, first of all, The Taishou Mengyu of Jiyin County came to the Yao Temple of Chengyang County in the mid-spring of the tenth year of Yanxi to pray for rain, "Before the ceremony was done, then the scenery was gathered in four sets, the wind and rain were anointed, the real-time great fall, the Jiashu Youchen, and the Limao all things." Yin and Yang harmony, the people Lai Fu", Meng Yu "knows the spirit of Shengyao and the gods of heaven", so he led Chengyang to order Zuo Xinggong to repair the Yao Temple, and was strongly sponsored by the local Zhong family. Until the end of the achievement, in September, three consecutive edicts were received, all related to the ancestral emperor Yao. After praying for rain in February and undergoing another nine months of construction, the time should have reached November of that year. Therefore, the "Jiyin Taishou Meng Yu Xiuyao Temple Stele" was erected between November and February of the first year of Yongkang, and the Meng Taishou praying for rain contained in the inscription is only the reason for the repair of the Yao Temple.
Well, to find out what the name of this stone stele should be, I want to explain to you that the imperial court during the Han Huan Emperor had a Yao Temple in Chengyang County, Jiyin County. The Eastern Han Dynasty court set up the Yao Temple here because people thought that the so-called Yao Ling was here, and the ministers of the DPRK and the Central China especially regarded this matter as such, otherwise they would never have done so. This "Jiyin Taishou Mengyu Xiuyao Temple Stele" is said to be Jiyin Taishou Mengyu "WenDi Yao Mausoleum in Chengyang", so there will be worship of the temple to pray for rain. The Book of Continued Han and the Chronicle of the Counties of the County, in The Chronicle of the Kingdom of The Chronicle of the Counties, Jiyin County, records the clouds: "There are Yaozuka and Lingtai. This "Yao Tomb" is, of course, the so-called Yao Tomb.
The so-called Yao Tomb is of course the place where Di Yao was buried after his death, and Di Yao was not only buried in Si, but also died in Si, but also born in Si. The "Lingtai" recorded in the Book of Continued Han and the Chronicle of the County is the mausoleum and ancestral temple of Yao Mu, and the Notes on the Water Classic and the Urzi River call the Chengyang Yao Tomb "there is a Yao Mu Qingdu Mausoleum in the south of the mausoleum". The Chengyang Lingtai Stele, recorded in volume 1 of the Lishi, was engraved in May of the fifth year of the Ling Emperor Jianning after the above-mentioned two stele, the Jiyin Taishou Mengyu Xiuyao Temple Stele and the Di Yao Stele. This inscription recounts the situation of Ting Wei Zhongding, after playing the imperial court, led the Jiyin Commandery Taishou Zhen huang and Chengyang Lingguan Zun to repair the tomb of Yao's mother Qingdu, which is called "Qingdu Gong, buried in Yuzi." Desire people do not know, the name is called the spirit platform. Shangli Yellow House, Yao's shrine".
The mother who gave birth to Yao was buried here, and Yao himself died here, so where did Emperor Yao live when he was alive? The Book of Continued Han and the Chronicle of the Kingdom of Counties contains the words "Ben Cao Guo, Ancient Tao" in Dingtao County, Jiyin County. Yao's residence". Coincidentally, Xu Shen, a native of the Eastern Han Dynasty, explained the semantics of the word "Tao" in the Shuowen, also known as "Tao in Jiyin." ...... There is Yao City, where Yao tastes the residence, so Yao is called Tao Tang Clan". The Bamboo Book of the Tibetan Warring States of Tsinghua University, "Chu Ju", shows us that the use of the word "ju" to indicate the place where the king resided was the common usage at that time, and this kind of king's residence, either as a capital city or as a xingdu, was related to the nature of the capital city in the ancient period (don't detail the humble draft "Chu Ju and Chu Du", included in our collection "Old History and Geography"). The "Shiben" also specifically lists the "Ju Chapter", which is also the capital of the king.
The two counties of Dingtao and Chengyang under Jiyin County are adjacent to the north and south, so the Yaoling, Yaomiao and YaomuQingduling Lingtai in Chengyang County are like the same place as this Yaocheng. The combination of the two and the mutual reference are enough to confirm that the Yao City where Emperor Yao resides in the two books of the Book of Continuing Han and the Book of Counties and the Book of Commentaries on the Interpretation of Characters should be the so-called Yao Capital. Compared with the above-mentioned "Shanxi Pingyang Yaodudu", such an understanding can be called "Shandong Dingtao Yaodu".
Today I am here to talk to you about the relationship between the Han Stele and the Yao Capital, and to explain the inscriptions of the stone steles "Jiyin Taishou Mengyu Xiuyao Temple Stele", "Di Yao Stele" and "Chengyang Lingtai Stele", the core purpose is not to tell the story of Yaocheng, Yao Ling, Yao Temple, and Yao Mu Qingdu in The Dingtao of Jiyin County and the Chengyang area during the Eastern Han Dynasty, but to use the inscriptions of these stone tablets to illustrate the following two contents.
First, using these inscriptions as clues, we trace the historical origins of Yaocheng, Yaoling, Yaomiao, and Yaomuqingduling Temple.
Among the above-mentioned stone steles, the earliest is the "Jiyin Taishou Mengyu Xiuyao Temple Stele" engraved at the end of the first year by the Han Huan Emperor Yongkang. As mentioned earlier, the inscription mentions that Meng Yu, the Taishou of Jiyin County, went to the Chengyang Yao Temple in February of the tenth year of Yanxi to pray for rain, and said that because of the blessing of the god Emperor Yao, the heavens fell to anoint the rain, and Meng Yu built the Yao Temple. According to the inscription, it is known that at that time, there were auxiliary facilities such as the main hall, the temple wall and the front steps of the temple, and the amount of work was obviously not very small, indicating that its damage before this renovation should have been relatively serious.
The former eighty-two years of Emperor Zhang Yuan and the second year of February Yi Ugly, "Emperor Cultivated in Dingtao." ...... Make the messenger Tang Yao at the Chengyang Lingtai" (Later Han Shu Zhang Di Ji). The "Tang Yao" mentioned here is Emperor Yao, and Emperor Zhang of Han sent emissaries to Chengyang Lingtai to worship Emperor Yao when he was personally cultivating DingTao, because as mentioned earlier, Ding Tao was where the "Yao City" of Yao Du was located, and it was naturally a reasonable thing to sacrifice Yao because of the proximity to Yao Du. However, Emperor Zhang's emissaries "Ancestral Tang Yao yu Chengyang Lingtai" did not go to the Yao Temple, indicating that the Yao Temple was either dilapidated at that time or even unable to worship, so he would go to the YaoMu Temple Lingtai to worship Yao; at least at that time, the situation of the Yaomu Temple of The Lingtai would be much better than that of the Yao Temple.
However, by the time Jiyin Taishou MengYu went to Chengyang to pray for rain more than eighty years later, the situation of the Lingtai Yaomu Temple was no better than that of the Yao Temple, and its decadence should have been very serious. Therefore, in the five years after Meng Yu repaired the Yao Temple, the Ling Emperor Jianning five years later, Jiyin County Shou Zhen Huang and Chengyang County Ling Guan Zun Nai Xing Gong repaired the temple of Yao Mother. The "Chengyang Lingtai Stele" contains the matter of rebuilding the Lingtai Yaomu Temple.
The "Chengyang Lingtai Stele" tells the changing experience of this Lingtai Yaomu Temple: "Three generations have changed, abandoned and not repaired; the five lucks are returned, and the Han is immersed in the period." Rise and fall, as Yao did. ...... As a result, the shrine was destroyed. "No one can tell the so-called three generations, so they just listen to him." The rest of the content, to the effect that the Western Han Dynasty began here to worship Yao Mu Qingdu, and then interrupted at the time of Wang Mang. Since he had already worshipped Yao's mother, he naturally would not abandon Emperor Yao, so he must have built a temple and set up a shrine in YaoLing at that time. The "Emperor Yao Monument" has an inscription saying that Emperor Yao "accomplished his achievements and gave way, so he Zen Shun Huang (Emperor)." Saint Han Longxing, Miao Yao ZhiXu, ancestral temple above. The cause of the Han Dynasty" should refer to the same experience that Yao Miao encountered. The "Book of Han and Geographical Records" in Chengyang County, Jiyin County, has a generally consistent content with the aforementioned "Book of Continuation of the Han Dynasty and The Chronicle of the County", which is said to be the local "Yaozuka and Lingtai", which reflects this situation. On the other hand, the ancestral shrine of the Yao Temple will also be the same as the YaoMu Temple, which will be suspended during the Wang Mang period, and the temple will also be decayed and destroyed, and this should be the embarrassing situation that Zhang Diyuan and the second year faced when they worshiped Emperor Yao at the Lingtai Ancestral Hall. It was only compared with the Yao Temple, the condition of the Lingtai Yao Mother Temple at that time was slightly better. This situation did not change until the tenth year of Yanxi, when The Taishou Meng Yu of Jiyin County came to Chengyang to pray for rain. This is what we have seen above from Han tablets such as the Jiyin Taishou Mengyu Xiuyao Temple Stele.
Further tracing the cause of the Western Han Dynasty building a temple here to worship Yao, this should be directly related to Liu Bang's ascension to the throne as the Son of Heaven.
In the three inscriptions of the Jiyin Taishou Mengyu Xiuyao Temple, the Diyao Stele and the Chengyang Lingtai Stele, this situation after Liu Shi was the Emperor Yao was mentioned. The so-called "Holy Han Longxing, Miao Yao Zhixu" in the "Di Yao Stele" embodies this point more clearly.
The so-called "Liu Weiyao Hou" is a major and complex issue in the study of ancient Chinese history. It is first mentioned in the Zuo Zhuan. In the Zuo Zhuan, there are three related chronicles, which are found in the thirteenth year of The Duke of Wen, the twenty-fourth year of the Duke of Xiang, and the twenty-ninth year of the Duke of Zhao.
Due to the relatively late publication of the Zuo Zhuan, many scholars have thought that these contents are false and should have been deliberately added by Wang Mang in order to seize the throne of the Han family in the form of "Zen Concession". This was because since Liu Shi was a Yao Empress, Wang Mang, who regarded himself as a descendant of Emperor Shun, could accept the Zen throne of Emperor Han according to heaven's fortunes.
However, this claim is only a groundless speculation and does not actually hold true. Let us look at the place where Liu Bang ascended the throne as emperor, and we can easily understand the authenticity of "Empress Liu Weiyao".
Liu Bang ascended to the position of The Son of Heaven as a commoner, which can be said to be a historical event that has never been seen before. Therefore, where to hold the enthronement ceremony is by no means a casual matter, not everywhere. What is surprising is that Liu Bang actually held this ceremony on the way back to Luoyang from southeast to northwest after the "Decisive Battle of Chen Xia" (that is, the "Battle of Xiaxia" in the historical records), and held this ceremony on the roadside "Sun of Flood water". At first glance, it looks like being anxious by water and fire, and casually went to the toilet on the side of the road.
So, where is this "flooded sun"? - It's near Dingtao! This is easy to understand.
Obviously, Liu Bang deliberately chose to become emperor here because Dingtao was once the location of Yaodu. Liu Bang wanted to use this to show the genes in the bloodline of his ascension to the throne, that is to say, this was a matter of destiny, and the red genes in the red blood were destined to be the son of heaven when he was born. Ban Gu's old father, Ban Biao, wrote a "Treatise on the Fate of the King" on the occasion of the two Han Dynasties, discussing the historical inevitability of Liu's possession of the Han family's world, saying that "gai in Gaozu, qixing also has five: one is the Miao descent of Emperor Yao, the second is that his physique is strange, the third is that the divine martial arts have a sign, the fourth is lenient and benevolent, and the fifth is that he knows that people are good and good ambassadors" ("Book of Han Shu Biography"), and these five words of "Miao descendants of Emperor Yao" put Liu Bang's sacred bloodline in the first place.
After Gai Liu was a queen of Yao, he was promoted to the throne in Emperor Yao's former residence, but it was only to restore the old inheritance of his ancestors. In this way, it is easier for the people of the world to accept him, a commoner emperor who seems to be the same as everyone else on the surface. The Western Han Dynasty court built yao temples, yao tombs and other buildings in the area of Dingtao and Chengyang in Jiyin County, of course, in order to show that it was the destiny of heaven for his Liu family to become emperors: if the Zhao family became emperors, it was his turn to be the Liu family. Isn't that what the two sentences in the "Di Yao Stele" "Saint Han Longxing, Miao Yao Zhixu" say this?
Seeing that Liu Bang was able to think and do so, we should understand that Emperor Yao's capital was in Dingtao, which should have been widely popular in the Qin Dynasty, otherwise he would have no reason to do so; if we push forward further, due to the social conditions at that time, the general popularity of such a concept would take a long time, and Qin Zuo was short, and such a concept in people's minds should be traced back to the Warring States era.
From this point of view, the above-mentioned "Jiyin Taishou Mengyu Xiuyao Temple Stele" and other Chengyang Three Steles and the documents recorded that Emperor Yao was buried in Taoyi, as well as the Chengyang LiMiao Temple Shrine near it since the Western Han Dynasty, these things also have their origins, must come from a very early ancient history system.
In addition, it is also incidentally mentioned here that the "Notes on the Water Classic, The Urn River" records: "More than fifty steps east of Yaoling and west of the city, the ancestral hall of Lady Zhongshan, (ancestral) Yaofei also." ...... According to Guo Yuansheng's "Narrative Record", from the Han Dynasty to the Jin Dynasty, two thousand stones and lieutenants have published many stone narratives. Yao ascended the throne to Yongjia for three years, 2,720 years, and was recorded in the Yao Concubine Ancestral Hall. This tells us that until the Yongjia period of the Western Jin Dynasty, the official government's sacrifice to the Chengyang YaoLing Yao Temple continued uninterrupted. Please note that these many "two thousand stones and lieutenants" "from the Han To the Jin" represent the official understanding and position.
The second and more important point is the issue of official awareness and position just mentioned.
As mentioned above, the record of Di Yao left for us by Sima Qian is based on the Confucian classics such as the Book of Shang and the Confucian classics such as "Zaiyu Qing Wu Di De" and "Imperial Family Name" transmitted by Confucius, which is the mainstream tradition of Confucianism and the most authoritative record of Di Yao's life and deeds that later generations of scholars can know.
When opening our eyes, facing up to this obvious fact, and following the context that this Confucian tradition has revealed to us, when discussing the so-called capital of Di Yao, we should pay special attention to the attitude of Confucian scholars in the Eastern Han Dynasty and see how they interpret the records of documents such as the Book of Shang and the Records of History.
From the previous analysis, we can see that the earliest official who restored the Yao Temple in Chengyang during the Eastern Han Dynasty was the Jiyin County Taishou Mengyu Xiuyao Temple Stele described in the Jiyin Taishou Mengyu Temple Stele. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, as Confucian thought was infiltrated into all levels of society, officials at all levels were mainly selected from Confucianism, and the same should be true of these officials who repaired the Yao Temple and the Yao Mu Qingdu Tomb Temple.
However, due to the differences in the scriptures they received, these Confucians also had their own specialization directions. It is really no coincidence that the "Jiyin Taishou Meng Yu Xiuyao Temple Stele" clearly states that this Meng Taishou is specialized in "ruling the Book of Shang" and "reading all the texts", and can "glimpse the essence of the Extreme Path and the origin of the Six Arts". The so-called "origin of the six arts", I understand, that is, the reasoning and origin of the six Confucian classics of "poetry", "book", "ritual", "music", "Yi", and "Spring and Autumn", the place where Emperor Yao's birth and death lived and was buried naturally also included. Seeing the scriptural background of Jiyin Taishou Mengyu, we have more reason to believe that The capital of Emperor Yao was in Jiyin Dingtao, which should be the mainstream understanding of Confucianism in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
As mentioned earlier, Jiyin Taishou MengYu Xiuzhi Yao Temple was originally carried out according to the edict, and the tomb of The Emperor Zhongding and other Xiuzhi Yao Mother Qingdu was also implemented after Ting wei Zhongding asked the imperial court. These circumstances more clearly show the Eastern Han Court's cognition of Yaodu, Yaoling and Yaomiao, and this attitude of the imperial court can better reflect the mainstream concepts of Confucianism and society at that time, which regarded the area around Dingtao and Chengyang as the core areas of Emperor Yao's activities, so Yaodu, Yaoling and Yaomiao would be set up here. If we reconnect with the situation mentioned above about Emperor Zhang of the Yuan and the second year who personally cultivated Dingtao and sent emissaries "Ancestral Tang Yao at Chengyang Lingtai", this can be more clearly determined. Because the emperor was the supreme ruler of the country, his personal efforts naturally highlighted the concept of subjectivity in the society at that time.
The above two points are the new understandingS I have interpreted from the "Jiyin Taishou Mengyu Xiuyao Temple Stele" and other three-way Chengyang Han stele. This understanding has undoubtedly greatly enhanced the legitimacy, authority and credibility of "Shandong Dingtao Yaodu", and has also greatly highlighted the long-standing origin of Yaodu Dingtao. Of course, I also know that it is difficult for archaeologists and historians who believe in "Shanxi Pingyang Yaodu" to accept this view.
In this regard, I need to emphasize once again that if we deviate from the system of the Book of Shang and even the Records of History and the interpretation of it by Han Confucianism, the archaeological sites excavated in other areas, no matter how spectacular, have nothing to do with Di Yao's capital. In other words, if there is no sufficient reason to exclude the above important basis of "Shandong Dingtao Yaodu", the so-called "Yaodu" in other regions is difficult to establish.
As for the accounts in the documents that support "Shanxi Pingyang Yaodu", I will have a suitable opportunity to explain it in the future. To put it simply, I think that these contents should be from the historical writings of the State of Wei, or that these contents are from the construction of the historians of the State of Wei, which is another system of ancient history and legends that is completely different from the accounts of the Book of Shang and even the Records of History.
Okay, I'll stop here today. Thank you.
Diary of August 7, 2021
Amended on August 19, 2021
Editor-in-Charge: Zang Jixian
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang