(East-West Question) Xu Wei: How did the temples of the emperors of the past dynasties reflect the "continuous line of Chinese lines"?
China News Agency, Beijing, May 18th, Question: How did the temples of the emperors of the past dynasties reflect the "continuous line of Chinese lines"?
——Interview with Xu Wei, former vice president of the Chinese Cultural Relics Society and president of the Beijing Imperial Temple Protection and Utilization Promotion Association
China News Agency reporter Li Hanxue
The Temple of the Emperors of the past dynasties, located on the inner street of Fuchengmen in Beijing, was the royal temple of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
There are more than 460 emperors in Chinese history, including the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors in ancient times, the kings of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, and the emperors from the Qin, Han and Ming and Qing dynasties. There are 188 emperors selected for worship in the temple, including the emperors of the Huaxia and Han nationalities, as well as the northern nationalities. and emperors of different ethnic origins.
Qianlong also put forward the assertion that "the Chinese lineage is inexhaustible like a thread" on this emperor's genealogy.
Why are emperors from different ethnic groups who have governed different regions of China all regarded as "Chinese emperors" and enshrined in the same temple?
How to understand the "Chinese system"?
China News Agency's "East and West Questions" recently exclusively interviewed Xu Wei, a librarian of the Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Culture and History, who was the former vice president of the Chinese Cultural Relics Society and the president of the Beijing Imperial Temple Protection and Utilization Promotion Association, to discuss the above topics.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Service reporter: The temples of the emperors of the past dynasties have been built from the beginning of the Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang to the inheritance and development of the Qing Dynasty. During the period, the emperors have also undergone some adjustments and changes. Please briefly introduce several major adjustments.
Jingde Chong Temple, the temple of the emperors of the past dynasties.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee issued by China News Agency
Xu Wei:
The emperors enshrined in the temples of the emperors of the past dynasties were mainly the emperors of the Chinese and Han nationalities, and there were also emperors of different ethnic origins such as the emperors of the northern nationalities.
The Ming Dynasty was the Han emperor, and the Qing Dynasty was the Manchu emperor. Can they equally worship emperors of different ethnic origins?
The answer is yes.
Although there was a bias in the middle, it was completely corrected by Kangxi in the end, which made the unified multi-ethnic emperor sacrificial system tend to be perfect, and the emperor temples of all dynasties deserved their name.
After Zhu Yuanzhang became the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he deeply felt that it was not easy for the emperors of all dynasties to start a business, so he built a temple for the emperors in the capital (now Nanjing) to worship the three emperors and five emperors and the founding emperors who unified the world. A total of 16 emperors.
It is commendable that among the founding emperors, Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, was enshrined.
Zhu Yuanzhang once used the wartime slogan "Expel the Hu prisoners and restore China", and after overthrowing the Yuan Dynasty and establishing the Ming Dynasty, he rationally returned to the history and reality of the "Hu-Han family" and "Hua-Yi Wujian", affirming the Yuan Shizu " He was included in the orthodox imperial family of China, and he was worshipped together with the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors and the emperors of the Huaxia-Han nationality.
However, they did not enshrine Qin Shihuang, Jin Wudi and Sui Wendi. The reason was: "Qin, Jin and Sui, depending on their merits and virtues, can't be ashamed, so they denounced and refused to pay." Since then, they have been absent and absent.
After Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty moved his capital to Beijing, the sacrifices to the emperors of the past dynasties were only attached to the sacrifices to the Temple of Heaven and Earth in the southern suburbs.
Jiajing standardized the etiquette, and the temple of the emperors in Beijing came into being.
At the beginning of the temple, the enshrined emperor was the same as that of the old Nanjing temple, except that there were only tablets and no statues.
Jiajing also personally bowed.
Later, due to the disturbance to the north of the Mongolian Tartars, the courtiers strongly demanded that Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, be stopped.
Jiajing's contribution to the construction of a new temple in Beijing is very great, but it is a rash act to stop worshipping the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan.
Shunzhi was the first Manchu emperor after the Qing army entered the customs. He succeeded the throne at the age of six and was regented by his uncle Dorgon.
In order to use the imperial temple of the Ming Dynasty to enshrine the ancestors of the Qing Dynasty, Dorgon put the tablet of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, into the temples of the emperors of the past dynasties to enshrine it.
In addition, the sacrifices to Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, were restored, and Genghis Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, Yelu Abaoji, the ancestor of the Liao Dynasty, Wanyan Aguda, the ancestor of the Jin Dynasty, and Wanyanyong, the emperor of the Jin Dynasty, were added.
After Shunzhi came into power, he read history books diligently, worshipped Zhu Yuanzhang, and came to worship in person, "to express his admiration for Qian Hui's sincerity."
He attached importance to the law of the Han emperors in the Central Plains to govern the country and secure the country, and added seven "Shoucheng Xianjun" from the Shang, Zhou, Han, Song and Ming Dynasties to the shrine, and at the same time withdrew the newly added Liao, Jin and Yuan emperors from Dorgon.
After Shunzhi's death, Kangxi succeeded to the throne at the age of eight, and four Manchu officials assisted the government, denying Emperor Shunzhi's claim, and returning to the Dorgon period when he was enshrined as an emperor.
However, Kangxi later reformed the temple rituals of the emperors of the past dynasties with his extraordinary emperor experience and historical knowledge.
In the summer of the 60th year of Emperor Kangxi, an edict was issued, first explaining why the emperors of all dynasties should be sacrificed: "The emperors of the previous generation had no descendants, and the emperors of the next generation should follow their lineage and worship the sacrificial ceremonies." The family disputes between emperors and the drawbacks of only worshipping the founding emperors and not enshrining the emperors to rule the country and keep the business, use the method of exclusion to delineate the bottom line of enshrinement, proposing that "everyone who has been in power, except for the ungodly, murdered, and subjugated lords, You should do your best to worship in the temple", which is both generous and tolerant without losing the standard.
Kangxi also pointed out that the fall of the Ming Dynasty was not the fault of Chongzhen.
In the summer of the 61st year of Emperor Kangxi, the Ministry of Rites submitted a proposal to enshrine 164 emperors, mainly the founders of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, Xia, Shang and Zhou, the Han, Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties and the founders of the unified dynasties.
During the Qianlong period, it was believed that in the list of sacrifices reported by the Ministry of Rites at that time, only the emperors of Liao and Jin were included in the list of sacrifices outside the Central Dynasty, and there were obvious deficiencies.
Qianlong especially proposed that the emperor of the Xianbei ethnic group in the Northern Wei Dynasty ended the war and occupied the north of the Yellow River.
As a result, more emperors such as the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Song Qichen of the Southern Dynasty, the Northern Wei Dynasty of the Northern Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty after the Five Dynasties were added to the shrine.
There are 7 bays and 188 memorial tablets in Jingdechong Shrine, the temple of the emperors of the past dynasties.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee issued by China News Agency
So far, the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties have jointly built a system of sacrifices to unify the multi-ethnic emperors.
In the Jingde Chongsheng Hall of the Emperor Temple, the three emperors and five emperors, the emperors of the Huaxia-Han nationality, the Xianbei nationality of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Khitan nationality of the Liao Kingdom, the Jurchen nationality of the Jin Dynasty, the Mongolian nationality of the Yuan Dynasty and other major northern national emperors, gathered together to share worship and solemnity solemn.
China News Agency reporter: You once wrote that the temple of the emperors of the past dynasties eventually became the symbol and symbol of "the continuous flow of Chinese history". How to understand?
Xu Wei:
When the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties chose to enshrine the emperors, only the Qianlong emperor clearly put forward his own view of the lineage at a higher level, that is, "the lineage of China is endless", this sentence Qianlong forty-nine years " Order the courtiers to discuss the imperial temple sacrificial codes of successive dynasties" is a different expression of the Chinese rule (the imperial lineage) handed down from generation to generation.
Qianlong used the brush in his heart and carefully used his words. The characters of Xu and the line were symmetrical, which means that the Chinese rule (the imperial line) started from the end of Xu, like a complete line that never stopped.
This line is jointly formed by the emperors of the Huaxia-Han ethnic group, the emperors of the northern ethnic groups and the emperors of other ethnic origins, and neither is indispensable.
With this vision, Qianlong was keenly aware of the lack of enshrined emperors, and increased the enshrinement of the Xianbei emperors of the Northern Wei Dynasty and other British masters, which maximized the inheritance of the Chinese imperial lineage.
Emperor Qianlong's royal pen "China's lines are endless like lines".
Excerpted from the decree of ordering courtiers to discuss temple sacrificial codes of successive emperors in the forty-ninth year of Qianlong.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee issued by China News Agency
Emperor Qianlong's view of the continuum was also manifested in other aspects.
In the twenty-ninth year of Qianlong, Qianlong wrote poems and erected monuments for the temples of the emperors of all dynasties. The first sentence "Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors Dao Gonggong, and all the kings of all dynasties Mao Jianzhong" praised the thoughts and merits of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. It is said that the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors have a positive energy role in the inheritance of the Chinese lineage.
Qianlong praised Zhu Yuanzhang's entry to the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, "there is still a prince of the emperor's line", and accused Jiajing of abandoning the worship of the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, which is "putting the emperor's line without asking."
Qianlong's "one-line system of emperors" refers to the integrity of the lineage of Chinese lineages, emphasizing "the lineage of emperors since ancient times" and "non-north-south, Chinese-foreign gains".
As the finishing touch, the concept of "Chinese continuum is like a thread" has left a precious legacy for the temples of the emperors of the past dynasties.
China News Service reporter: What do you think is the ideological heritage worth experiencing carefully when you visit the Temple of Emperors of the Past Dynasties today?
Xu Wei:
Chinese civilization has an uninterrupted history of more than 5,000 years. One of the lines of Chinese rule represented by the emperors of all dynasties has been passed down from generation to generation, that is, an important witness.
Emperor Qianlong described it as "the Chinese thread is endless", which is very precise.
Chinese civilization has a long history.
Although the dynasties have changed many times, the sovereignty and governance, symbolized by the emperors of the past dynasties, have always continued.
Chinese civilization advocates merit and virtue.
The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors are respected as the head of the rule of Enze China, and the emperors of all dynasties worship those who have merits and virtues to the people, and take "the law and precepts are both qualified, and the ancients can be used as a reference" as the essence of sacrifice.
The plaques and couplets in the interior of Jingdechong Temple, the temple of the emperors of the past dynasties.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee issued by China News Agency
The temples of the emperors of the past dynasties have very Chinese characteristics, Chinese style and Chinese style, which are unique among the ancient civilizations in the world and are unparalleled in the world.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Xu Wei, born in 1949, graduated from the Archaeology Department of the History Department of Jilin University in 1976. He used to be an associate professor and deputy director of the Archaeology Department of Jilin University.
In 1992, he returned to Beijing in accordance with the educated youth policy, and served as deputy director of the Beijing Xicheng District Cultural Heritage Bureau, director of the Cultural Committee, deputy head of the Xicheng District government, and vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Evacuation, protection and research of cultural relics protection units.
Former vice president of the Chinese Cultural Relics Society, currently a librarian of the Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Culture and History.