How did China come into being?

First, behind the abdication system: Dongyi and Yanhuang tribes compete for the position of leader.

About 5000 years ago, the Yellow Emperor rose and conquered Yan Di and Chiyou. The Yellow Emperor is a nomadic people, who first learned to smelt and cast bronze weapons, so he has strong fighting capacity. Yan Di and Chiyou are farming peoples in the upper and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Yan Di belongs to Guqiang Group and Chiyou belongs to Dongyi Group. However, due to the small population of Huangdi tribe, its tribe quickly assimilated into a farming tribe after the conquest. Therefore, after the Yellow Emperor unified the Central Plains, the Longshan culture created by Dongyi quickly spread in the Yellow River Basin. This is precisely because the backward nationalities conquered the advanced nationalities, and the backward nationalities were assimilated by the culture of the advanced nationalities.

After the reunification of the Central Plains, the Yanhuang-Dongyi military tribal alliance began to form. In this military alliance, powerful tribes will become leaders. At first, Huangdi tribe was the leader, such as Huangdi and Zhuan Xu among the Five Emperors. Since then, the Dongyi tribe has gradually become stronger, and the Huangdi tribe and Dongyi tribe have taken turns to dominate. For example, from Dongyi, Yao from Huangdi and Shun from Dongyi.

Later Confucianism called this power transfer "abdication system" and beautified it as "Datong society". In fact, this power transfer was full of bloody struggles. Let's look at the situation in which the Khitan, Jurchen and Mongolians compete for the leader of the tribal alliance, and we can basically understand the sinister situation. Before Yao, there was a war between Xingtian and Huangdi, and a war between Zhuan Xu and workers.

Dayu

Yu's tribe has rich experience in water control and won the support of most tribes, so he established his own ally position in Yangcheng. "On Mencius and Zhang Wan" contains "Avoiding Shun Zi in Yangcheng", and "Examples of World Books" contains "Yu Xia avoiding business in Yangcheng". Finally, Yu became the leader of the tribal alliance, so he fenced Yao's son in Tang (Shaanxi area) and Shun's son in Yu (Shangqiu, Henan). From the geographical location of the enfeoffment, we can also see the approximate location of Yao and Shun.

After his death, this battle for leadership continued. At that time, Yu's son Qi wanted to continue to be the leader of the tribal alliance, and the benefits of Dongyi tribe seemed to be more prestigious, so many tribes supported Yi, including the Hu family. Subsequently, Qixia tribe in Kailai defeated Yi, fought against the opposing tribes, and finally became the leader of the tribe. We generally believe that Qi's succession to the throne opened the hereditary system and marked the end of the abdication system.

Xia dynasty core area

However, the course of history is not so simple. According to historical records, the Huangdi tribe once served as a leader for 300 years, and each tribe later served as a leader for almost 100 years. It can be seen that before the strength changes, the tribe can serve as the leader for a long time, and the leader will naturally continue to be the son of the tribal leader, only nominally approved by the tribal alliance meeting. This time, Qi defeated the Yi and Youhu families, which saved the position of Xia tribe leader, and the hereditary system has not really been established.

Second, the Dongyi tribe "replaced Xia Zheng because of Xia Min"

Qi won by force, but the Dongyi tribe broke away from Xia's rule, and the Yanhuang-Dongyi military alliance group began to split. After Tai Kang, the son of Qi, succeeded to the throne, Dongyi finally began to fight back.

Dongyi is an ancient tribe. They live from the North China Plain to the Shandong Peninsula. Taking birds as totems, it once created brilliant Dawenkou culture and Longshan culture. The legendary ancestors were Tai Hao, Shao Hao, Dijun and Chiyou. Dongyi is called "Yi" because they are good at archery. "Shuo Wen Jie Zi" says: "From the big bow, people come from the east".

Dongyi people live in the east of the mainland, where the sun rises, so they are regarded as the land of sunshine valley, leaving many legends. "Shan Hai Jing Huang Da East longitude" says: "There are trees on the Tang Valley, and they are all in Wu every day." They think that there are ten suns in the world, only one at a time, and there are golden birds to control them. These suns perch on hibiscus trees. Legend has it that at the time of Yao, "ten days came out side by side, and Yao ordered him to shoot for ten days."

Yi should be the head of a poor family of a tribe who is good at archery in Dongyi. "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" records: "It is difficult for the emperor to give a bow to help the country."

The so-called legend of shooting at the sun is a religious ceremony of the tribe. During 1978, the tomb of Zeng Houyi was discovered in Suizhou, Hubei Province, and a painted suitcase was found in the tomb. There is a picture of "Houyi shooting the sun" on it. There are two trees in the picture. Among them, the tallest tree has eleven branches. One day, there are two blackberries on each branch. A dwarf tree sticks out nine branches, and each branch will have a day. There are two wild animals in the tree, one is a human face. Combined with the description in Shan Hai Jing, this tree should be a hibiscus tree. There is a valley between the two trees, which may be the legendary "Gan Yuan" and "Tanggu". A man was standing in the valley, shooting birds with a bow and arrow.

Many people think that China's word "flower" comes from flowers, but I think this "flower" is actually this kind of hibiscus tree and Ruomu, which is the totem symbol of Dongyi nationality. Xia is synonymous with the Yanhuang tribe headed by Xia, so Huaxia is the collective name of Yanhuang-Dongyi tribal alliance.

At the time of Taikang, a poor tribe of Dongyi tribe became strong again, and its leader Hou Yi shot Taikang and captured the leader of the tribal alliance again. Hou Yi "replaced Xia politics because of Xia people", but he did not do government affairs himself and did not get the support of various tribes. Later, Hou Yi's subordinate Han Zhuo killed him. In order to prevent Xia Houshi from making a comeback, Han Jue exterminated the descendants of Taikang.

Thirdly, the relationship between Xia Dynasty and Dongyi changed.

Han Zhuo's pursuit of Taikang's descendants failed in the end, and Shao Kang, Taikang's grandson, grew up under the protection of other governors in Xia Houshi. Later, Shao Kang defeated Han Zhuo and restored Xia's rule. In this way, the hereditary system of Xia Dynasty was really established, which was called "Shao Kang Zhongxing" in history. In order to consolidate the rule of Xia Houshi, Shao Kang carried out another wave of enfeoffment, including illegitimate children. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the state of Yue in the south of the Yangtze River claimed to have nothing, which should be an act of attachment. Kuaiji Mountain in Xia Dynasty is not the current Kuaiji Mountain.

Since then, Xia Dynasty has been at war with Dongyi tribe. During the reign of Yi, Xia Dynasty won a great victory in the war with Dongyi. According to the chronicles of bamboo slips, "Bai Yi's son collected the East China Sea and Wang Shou, and got a fox Kyubi no Youko", which shows that Xia Dynasty's sphere of influence has been pushed to the sea. When Huai was in power, the Dongyi tribe basically surrendered to the Xia Dynasty, so "Nine Yi came to the DPRK".

The sphere of influence of Xia dynasty

This was the third stage of the Xia Dynasty and the Dongyi War. At this stage, the Xia Dynasty won the final victory, and the Dongyi tribe became a part of the Xia Dynasty. After a long war, the status of Dongyi has also undergone tremendous changes. Before the establishment of Xia Dynasty, Dongyi and Yanhuang tribes belonged to the relationship of tribal alliance. After a long war, this relationship was transformed into submission. Of course, the establishment of the Xia Dynasty inevitably required the submission of other tribes, which is the basic feature of a country.

However, the demise of the Xia Dynasty was also related to the Dongyi tribe. Due to the long-term development of the Xia Dynasty to Dongyi, Dongyi tribes were dissatisfied, so the ministries of Dongyi secretly accumulated their strength and prepared for revenge.

In the late Xia dynasty, the Dongyi tribe and the Shang tribe from the northeast joined forces and began to launch a counterattack against the Xia dynasty. "Chronicle of Bamboo Slips" records: "Yin Jia ascended the throne, lived in Xihe River, had a demon, and got up at ten o'clock." It can be seen that the Dongyi tribe at that time began to be strong again. In the end, Xia Dynasty was destroyed by Shang Dynasty and ruled for 47 1 year.

Later, the Shang Dynasty was basically located in the core area of Dongyi. Backed by Dongyi, Shang Dynasty launched retaliatory attacks on Xiqiang tribe. At that time, the Zhou people of the Xiqiang family (the tribe of the Yellow Emperor and the marriage) gave up their original residence and wandered westward between Rongdi to avoid the edge of the Shang Dynasty. Among the prisoners of Shang dynasty, Qiang people were the most, and Qiang almost became synonymous with slaves. Because the last king of Xia Dynasty, Jie, fled to the old nest in the south, Shang Dynasty later launched a large-scale war against various ministries in the south, pushing its sphere of influence into the Jianghuai area.

The Evolution of Qiang Characters to Ginger

Later, the rise of the Zhou people once again led the descendants of the Yellow Emperor to return to the Central Plains, defeated the Shang Dynasty, and finally ruled the Central Plains, which was another comeback of the Xia people. Therefore, when Zhou Wuwang returned to Luoyang, he remembered that the Xia Dynasty built its capital here, so he also wanted to build a capital here, "Zhaizi China", and finally achieved this goal during the reign of Duke Zhou. The vassal States that were enfeoffed in the Western Zhou Dynasty all called themselves "Xia" and collectively called "". Under the rule of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the integration of Dongyi and Yanhuang accelerated, and finally the Chinese nation was formed. There are many Dongyi tribes in Shandong Peninsula, and they didn't integrate into China until the end of the Spring and Autumn Period.