Like flying like Han, like Jiang like Han——The History of Western Zhou Dynasty’s Management of the Southern Kingdom Revealed by Bronze Inscriptions
[Written Talk on Ancient Characters and the Inheritance and Development of Chinese Civilization]
editor's note
Bronze inscriptions, also known as bronze inscriptions, refer to characters cast or engraved on bronze ware.
The bronze inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou dynasties are rich in content, reflecting the political, economic, military, cultural, social life and other scenes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. They are indispensable materials for the study of ancient Chinese characters, pre-Qin language, and historical culture.
In recent years, with the in-depth development of Shang and Zhou archaeological excavations, many important bronze inscriptions have been unearthed, which has greatly promoted the study of ancient Chinese civilization.
This issue of "Language and Character" combines bronze inscriptions with handed down documents and archaeological materials to explore the mysteries of state governance and culture in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and also to illustrate the precious academic value of bronze inscriptions.
In "Poetry Daya Chang Wu", "like flying like a Han, like a river like a Han" is used to describe the bravery of the Western Zhou Dynasty's army in conquering the southern kingdom.
The "Southern Kingdom" mentioned by the Zhou people in the Western Zhou Dynasty was located in the south of the "South Land" of the dynasty's territory, roughly including the Huaihe River Basin in present-day Jiangsu and Anhui, the area south of the Huai River in present-day Henan, the south of Nanyang Basin and the Han Dynasty in the north of present-day Hubei. Huai Plain.
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the management of the "Southern Kingdom" region has always been the most important political, military, and economic activities of the Western Zhou Dynasty, but relevant records are extremely scarce in the handed down classics.
Only by relying on bronze inscriptions and combining archaeological data can we have a more in-depth understanding of this period of history.
Zhou people began to manage the Jianghan River Basin long before they conquered merchants.
The preface of "Mao Shi·Zhaonan·Gantang" mentioned the deeds of Zhaogong's education in the southern country.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty and most of the area north of the Huai River were gradually controlled as "Southern Land", and "Marquis" were set up on the border.
"Hou" is a military official of the Western Zhou Dynasty, who has the function of defending the territory and expanding the territory.
The inscription of Dabao Yuge records that the king ordered Dabao (that is, Zhaogong) to visit the southern country.
Zhao Gong traveled eastward along the Han River to express condolences to the southern lords and princes on behalf of the king, and declared the dynasty's right to rule the "Southern Land".
The inscription on the early Bo [Figure 1] tripod in the early Western Zhou Dynasty said: "Weigong province is in the south of the country, as far as the Han, and it is as far as 㝬." The "㝬" here refers to Hu, which is near the Huai River in Luohe, Henan, and the dynasty has a 㝬hou here .
It can be seen from the location of the Southern Land Marquis that the border area of the "Southern Earth" of the Western Zhou Dynasty was located at that time. From southwest to northeast, the more important ones were Lihou (Lishan, Suizhou, Hubei) and Zenghou (in the area of Yejiashan, Suizhou). .
The southern soil frontier line connected from the positions of the above-mentioned Marquis countries basically did not extend southward by a large margin until the late Western Zhou Dynasty. The main reason is that the rise of Huaiyi restrained the Zhou people from going south.
In 2018, the inscription on Zeng Gong [Figure 2], which was early in the middle of the Spring and Autumn period, was unearthed in Tomb No. 190 of Zaosinlin, Suizhou. , the quality should be the Beijing society, screened in the east of the Han Dynasty, [the south] has no borders, involved in the conquest of Huaiyi, as for Fantang." The emperor is the ancestor of Zeng Gong, the son of Nangong Shi who assisted King Wen and King Wu in the early Western Zhou Dynasty to complete the great cause of conquering business. Grandchildren, "I" generally refers to the Gong family in the inscription.
From this article, we can see that King Zhao once ordered the Nangong family to establish a state in the south. The position must be able to protect the Cai and Ying countries, become a barrier to defend the east of Han, and open the passage to the vast southern territory. It must be able to wade eastward. (Ru Shui) went to conquer Huaiyi and arrived at Fantang (now Linquan, Anhui).
The geographical location to meet the above conditions can only be north of the upper reaches of the Huai River and east of the northern end of the Tongbai Mountains.
From this time on, the Western Zhou Dynasty should have regarded the southern Huaiyi as the focus.
And control the prosperous sun as a strategic goal of conquering Huaiyi.
Handed down from generation to generation, Zeng Bo [Picture 3] is a national weapon of Zeng in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the inscription of Zeng Bo, he praised his martial arts, saying that he could drive out Huaiyi and bring peace and prosperity to Yang, thus occupying the "golden road and tin line" of the transportation of copper and tin.
According to the inscription of Zeng Gong [Figure 2], King Zhao ordered Nangong to "conquer Huaiyi" in order to control the prosperity of the sun and open up the channel for the dynasty to obtain copper and tin.
However, if you continue to read the inscription of Zeng Gongbo above, you can see that shortly after King Zhao ordered Nangong to carry out the mission of defending and conquering Huaiyi, he gave Nangong a new task.
Ping Mingji said: "King Zhao went south, Yu (predicted) ordered Yu Zeng, salty to my business, there are weeks around. Give him a battleaxe, and use it to conquer the south." "Yu Zeng" means "to Zeng", "King Zhao went south "It means that King Zhao wants to attack Jingchu in the south.
King Zhao conquered Chu twice, the first time in the sixteenth year of King Zhao.
Therefore, before the Southern Expedition, King Zhao changed his previous plan of ordering Nangong to station in the north of the upper reaches of the Huai River to fight against Huaiyi, and ordered him to go to Zengdi in Suizhou, Hubei, and make him a Marquis. related to the plan.
However, this change in strategy is probably due to the fact that the rise of Huaiyi blocked the "golden road and tin line" connected by prosperous Yang. King Zhao hoped to go south through the Suizao Corridor and open up another road leading to the mineral resources in the Yangtze River Basin.
Archaeological surveys and excavations in recent years have confirmed that in the central part of the Yangtze River Basin to the east and southeast of present-day Wuhan, there are densely distributed mining and smelting sites related to bronze smelting.
King Zhao wanted to attack Chu in order to achieve this goal. It should be that the Chu people had threatened the Zhou people to go south at this time.
The inscription on Jingzi Ding unearthed from the Yejiashan Cemetery in Suizhou records that Jingzi, as a member of "Duobangbo", was rewarded twice by the king when he held a grand ceremony.
Jingzi may be Xiong Yi, who served King Cheng and King Kang successively. He lived in Jingshan and called himself "Jingzi".
The inscription on the Shengshi Gui unearthed in Fufeng, Shaanxi Province in 1980 reads: "Zhaobo ordered Shengshi to be sent to Chu, and Bo gave guests."
It can be seen from these inscriptions that Chu people and Zhou people lived in harmony during Chengkang.
But at the time of King Zhao, he actually wanted to conquer the Chu people in the south. This was obviously because the power of Chu restrained the Zhou people from going south.
The inscription on Jingfang Ding records that King Zhao ordered Jing to say in Cheng Zhou: "You are in Zeng and Og's division." This is the dynasty army that King Zhao arranged for the dynasty officials to manage and station in Zeng and Og in Suizhou before his personal conquest in the 16th year.
However, during the second Southern Expedition in the 19th year of King Zhao, an accident occurred while crossing the Han River. "Historical Records Zhou Benji" wrote: "King Zhao never returned from hunting in the south, and died on the river." The Western Zhou Dynasty opened up the Suizao Corridor and directly seized the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The strategic assumption of resources was also abandoned due to the failure of the Southern Expedition to Jingchu.
Not only that, at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, there were changes in the closure of the country and the deployment of military garrison areas in the area of today's Eastern Han Dynasty.
The underground limit of Zeng Guo's tomb located in Yejiashan, Suizhou only reached the time of King Zhao, and the trace of Zeng Guo with the Ji surname in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty has yet to be found.
Bronze inscriptions prove that Huaiyi, who had followed the Huai River to the west since the time of King Zhao, blocking the "golden road and tin travel", even directly threatened Chengzhou during the time of King Mu.
The inscriptions of Lu You and Lu Zun in the early days of King Mu stated: "Wang Ling said: Huai Yi dared to attack the inner country, and you will be guarded in ancient times as the master of Cheng Zhou [Figure 4]", which is now in the Izumiya Museum of Kyoto, Japan [Figure 5] The inscription on Yi said: "Master Yong's father was stationed in ancient times [Fig. 4], [Fig. 5] followed, and Shi Yong's father [Fig. 6] made [Fig. 5] envoy to 㝬hou." Shi Yong's father sent [Fig. 5] to the present The purpose of sending envoys to the Luohe area was obviously to jointly defend against the Huaiyi. It can also be seen from this that the Huaiyi did indeed follow the Huai River upstream and approach Chengzhou.
In 1975, unearthed in Zhuangbai, Fufeng, Shaanxi [Fig. 7] Fang Ding inscription records Wang Ling [Fig. 7] "Leading the Tigers to Yu Huai Rong".
"Huai Rong" means Huai Yi.
The same [Fig. 7] Gui inscription record [Fig. 7] led Yousi and Shi's "Bo Rong 㝬", that is, fighting Huai Yi until the above mentioned 㝬 in Luohe.
Judging from the bronze inscriptions, the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Huaiyi have been in a state of game since the middle to late Western Zhou Dynasty.
Huaiyi is a large ethnic group including several ethnic groups (ethnic states). At the same time, there are ethnic groups that obey the rule of the dynasty, and there are also ethnic groups that are in a state of war with the dynasty.
During the period of King Li in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the conflict between the Western Zhou Dynasty and Huaiyi further broke out.
The 㝬zhong inscription made by King Li of Zhou said: "The Southern Kingdom Fuzi dares to trap our land." "Fuzi" is a contemptuous term for Huaiyi. The most powerful conquest, there are quite a few inscriptions in the late Western Zhou Dynasty that recorded this battle.
The important result of this battle was to invade the central activity area of Huaiyi, that is, the Hongze Lake area where the Huai River and Surabaya River meet in Jiangsu today.
In the above quotation, Zhou Liwang 㝬钟 also recorded: "Wang Dun attacked him, attacked Juedu, Fuzi sent Jian to rebel against the king, and Nanyi and Dongyi both saw twenty and six states." "Send Jian" means Sending a middleman to make peace shows that although Huaiyi suffered heavy losses, it was not defeated.
The inscription on the cauldron of Oghou Yufang recorded that King Li passed through Pidi (now north of Suining, Jiangsu Province) on his way back from the attack on Huaiyi. Oghou Yufang visited the king here, and held shooting ceremony and banquet with him.
In the early Western Zhou Dynasty, Og was in Suizhou. Now that Oghou was able to meet the king in Pidi, which is now northern Jiangsu, he must have moved eastward under the background of King Zhao's defeat in the Southern Expedition and the change in the political structure of Eastern Han.
But the time when Oghou Yufang respectfully obeyed the Western Zhou Dynasty was not long.
The inscription of Yu Ding records that Oghou Yufang "led the southern Huaiyi and Dongyi to attack the southern and eastern kingdoms, and as far as the inside of the city", the tripod inscription exclaimed: "Alas! A great funeral will be sent to the lower kingdom with the sky." Yu Ze Under the order of Duke Wu, Duke Wu's army chariot and Tuyu once again cooperated with the Sixth Division of the Dynasty West and the Eighth Division of Yin to attack Yufang, and personally captured Hou Yufang.
Although this campaign was successful, the military strength of the Western Zhou Dynasty was severely depleted after many years of confrontation with Huaiyi, especially during the large-scale use of troops by King Li against Huaiyi, which accelerated the Western Zhou Dynasty's path towards the end of the world.
Yu Ding remembers that King Li ordered Yu to conquer Og and Hou Yufang to "don't forget to live young", but in 2012, a cemetery of the Og State in the early Spring and Autumn Period was discovered in Xiaxiaopu in the northeast of Nanyang, Henan, which was also unknown before.
The inscription on the pot unearthed from Tomb No. 19 says "Og Hou made Meng Ji's concubine pot", which is a bronze vessel that Og Hou used as a dowry for a woman surnamed Ji.
Naturally, there are two possibilities. One is that the Oghou family with the surname is extinct. At this time, the Oghou has the surname Ji and still follows the title of "Oghou", which belongs to the redesignation; the second is that the Oghou family with the surname is still there. It was just moved to Nanyang, this is to make a device for a girl surnamed Ji who married her own daughter.
Relatively speaking, the former is more likely, of course, which one is true remains to be discovered.
"Poetry · Daya · Song Gao" chanted Zhou Xuan Wang granted Shen Bo Yu Xie (now southeast of Nanyang, Henan), "the king ordered Shen Bo, the style is Nanbang", "to approach the king uncle, the southern land is Bao", that is, Shen Bo Shi Its law governs the southern states, and hopes that Shen Guo can become a screen fan to defend the southern land.
This State of Shen was also called "Nan Shen" in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and many "Nan Shen" bronze wares have been unearthed in recent years.
In 1974, the inscription of Ju Fu was unearthed in Shaanxi Wugong, remembering that Ju Fu condolences to the "Southern princes" and expropriated their "clothes" (cloth, silk, or human power) from the South Huaiyi. It can be seen that during the Western Zhou Dynasty, military conquest and forced Gunna is still the dynasty's national policy towards Huaiyi.
But in the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the dynasty also failed to establish a governing place in the Huaiyi area.
The inscription of Zeng Bo [Fig. 3] quoted above still states that he once defeated Huaiyi and controlled Fanyang, so as to open up the "golden way and tin line".
It can be seen that until the Spring and Autumn Period, Huaiyi still competed with the Zhou Dynasty for control of Jin Dao Xi Xing and prosperity.
From the inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty, archaeological discoveries, and classics, it can be seen that the Western Zhou Dynasty's management of the Southern Kingdom has always been closely related to the acquisition of various resources, and it has been in a state of confrontation with the Southern Kingdom for a long time. factor.
Only by studying the bronze inscriptions and archaeological materials can the historical truth of this important Western Zhou Dynasty gradually emerge.
(Author: Zhu Fenghan, Professor of the Research Center of Chinese Ancient History, Peking University)
Guangming Daily