(East-West Question) Zhang Maoze: How do you explain the Chinese culture of seeking roots to the world when offering sacrifices to the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor?
China News Agency, Xi'an, June 22nd: How to explain the Chinese culture of seeking roots to the world for sacrifices at the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor?
——Interview with Zhang Maoze, a professor at the Institute of Chinese Ideology and Culture at Northwestern University
China News Agency reporter Alina
"Historical Records" contains: "The Yellow Emperor collapsed and was buried in Bridge Mountain".
Located on the top of Qiaoshan Mountain in Huangling County, Shaanxi Province, the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor has a long history and profound heritage. It was the first batch of key cultural relics protection units announced by the State Council in 1961. .
The Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list, and Huangling County was named as the "Hometown of Chinese Yellow Emperor Sacrificial Culture".
How did the Yellow Emperor culture come into being?
What is the significance of root-seeking culture to the development of the Chinese nation?
Why explain the Chinese culture of seeking roots to the world?
Recently, Zhang Maoze, a professor at the Institute of Chinese Ideology and Culture at Northwestern University, accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "East and West Questions" to interpret this.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Agency reporter: Why is the Chinese nation called the descendants of Yan and Huang? What impact did the Yellow Emperor culture have on the development of the Chinese nation?
Zhang Maoze: The
Yellow Emperor Culture mainly refers to the traditional Chinese culture with the Yellow Emperor and his descendants as the core and the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor as the carrier.
The main contents include that the Yellow Emperor is the first ancestor of the Chinese nation, the first human ancestor of Chinese civilization, and the banner of the sons and daughters of China.
Sima Qian wrote "The Chronicle of the Five Emperors: The Chronicle of the Yellow Emperor" in the form of official history, describing the Yellow Emperor as the ancestors of the four emperors Zhuanxu, Diku, Yao, and Shun, as well as the ancestors of most people in the Xia, Shang, Zhou, and Qin and Han dynasties, thus establishing the Yellow Emperor as the ancestor of the Chinese nation. , the status of the first ancestor of Chinese civilization, and the root and mainstream status of the Yellow Emperor culture.
According to Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, Emperor Yan and Emperor Huang were born in the same clan.
The vast majority of people in the Chinese nation are considered to be descendants of Emperor Yan and Emperor Huang.
During the First Qingming Festival (2014), more than 10,000 descendants of Yan and Huang from home and abroad gathered in Qiaoshan to worship Xuanyuan Huangdi, the "first ancestor of humanities".
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Yuan
After the birth of the Yellow Emperor culture, it developed further and became the psychological symbol of the Chinese nation's community, which is the concentrated expression of the Chinese nation's community consciousness in ancient times.
In the new era, the Yellow Emperor culture has become a powerful spiritual force for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and a spiritual bond for the unity and struggle of the Chinese nation.
China News Service reporter: Why did the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor become the spiritual symbol of Chinese civilization?
Zhang Maoze:
The Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor has become the spiritual symbol of Chinese civilization, which can be understood from three aspects:
First, the Yellow Emperor is the ancestor of the Chinese nation, and the blood and genes of the Yellow Emperor are flowing in the bodies of Chinese sons and daughters.
Therefore, the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor is the place where Chinese sons and daughters at home and abroad seek their roots and trace their origins, and it is the ancestral mausoleum that the descendants of Yan and Huang at home and abroad worship together.
Second, the Yellow Emperor is the first human ancestor of Chinese civilization. He invented agriculture, wells, pottery, bows and arrows, ritual music, medicine, music, etc., and led the Chinese people out of barbarism and into the era of civilization; led the Yan, Huang, and Chiyou tribes to unify the world, The ruler and the people of the founding country, the princes at that time respected him as the Son of Heaven, and the Yellow Emperor was also revered by later generations.
Third, with the sacrificial offering of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum as the main line, which has been inherited and developed for thousands of years, the Yellow Emperor has become a glorious banner for the unity and struggle of the sons and daughters of China.
For example, the Anshi Rebellion broke out in the Tang Dynasty, and the country faced the danger of splitting.
Tang Dynasty Zong Li Yu appointed Guo Ziyi and other generals to quell the rebellion and maintain the unity of the Tang Dynasty.
In the fifth year of the Dali calendar (770 years), Zang Xi, the governor of Kunfang, made a statement: "There is Xuanyuan Huangdi's mausoleum in Fangzhou, please build a temple, enjoy sacrifices at four seasons, and list them in the sacrificial ceremony", which was approved by Daizong, so there was the Huangdi Mausoleum , temples, and official sacrifices.
In the year of Guisi (2013), the Qingming Gong sacrifice ceremony for Xuanyuan Huangdi was grandly held in Shaanxi Huangdi Mausoleum.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Yuan
China News Agency reporter: Why do you say that the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor is a spiritual bond that unites the descendants of the Yellow Emperor at home and abroad?
Zhang Maoze:
The Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor is a landmark of Chinese culture. The Yellow Emperor culture contained in it is an important link for the unity and struggle of the descendants of the Yellow Emperor and the Yellow Emperor. It is a blood link, and it is also a cultural and political link.
Gengzi (2020) Tomb-Sweeping Day Video Public Sacrifice Ceremony for Emperor Xuanyuan Huangdi was held in Huangling, Shaanxi Province, and the participants bowed to the statue of Huangdi Xuanyuan.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Yuan
In terms of ethnicity, Chinese people all over the world are of the same language and of the same species, with black hair, dark eyes, and yellow skin. This is a common blood bond provided by common biological genes.
Culturally, the Yellow Emperor culture is the representative of the advanced culture in history.
In the distinction between the Chinese and the barbarians, the Yellow Emperor culture is the representative of the Chinese culture, and has always driven the common progress of other national cultures.
Its unique advantage is that it advocates that the culture is "harmonious but different" and develops together.
This has become the spiritual force for the continuous development and growth of Chinese culture for more than 5,000 years.
Politically, the Yellow Emperor culture is the concentrated expression of the community consciousness of the ancient Chinese nation, and it is an important resource for safeguarding the unity of the country in the Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties and even modern times.
The Yellow Emperor culture is a powerful force for maintaining the unity of the nation-state.
China News Agency reporter: What is the historical evolution of worshiping the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, and what is the significance of worshiping the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor?
Zhang Maoze:
The worship of the Yellow Emperor was born about 5,000 years ago. His minister Zuo Che "cut the wood to be the image of the Yellow Emperor, and the handsome princes honored it" ("Bamboo Book Chronicle").
The worship of the Yellow Emperor in today's Huangdi Mausoleum area began in the Western Han Dynasty.
"Records of the Grand Historian: The Chronicles of Five Emperors" records that "the Yellow Emperor collapsed and was buried in Bridge Mountain".
In 110 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty led an army of more than 100,000 people to visit Shuofang in the north. On the way back, he "sacrificed the Yellow Emperor's Tomb Bridge Mountain" ("Historical Records: Xiaowu Benji").
The Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor is located in the North Bridge Mountain of Huangling County, Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Yuan
Today, offering sacrifices to the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor has at least two meanings of expressing gratitude and spreading benevolence.
The Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor is a sacred place for the Chinese nation and is related to the spiritual home of the Chinese nation.
Ancient China was based on agriculture, patriarchal blood ties accounted for a large proportion of social relations, and the concept of legal rights for private property ownership was not obvious.
Chinese people attach great importance to filial piety, and filial piety is the foundation of benevolence, and sacrificing to the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor is a concentrated expression of the Chinese nation's filial piety and benevolence.
Because filial piety and respect for the elderly are the natural kinship of family blood, with a little training and guidance, it can become a benevolent kinship between the family, the country, the people and the people.
On a personal level, filial piety is the foundation of benevolence.
To be an adult, one needs to be humane and civilized, and it is inseparable from the civilized training of filial piety and respect for ancestors.
Filial piety and respect for ancestors is an important platform for people to germinate, maintain and sublimate love.
In ancient times, the family and state were integrated, and the rulers of the state had to carry out the cultivation of "monarch" in order to become a qualified ruler.
Kings often carry out the training of filial piety and respect for the elderly when they are young, and they are required to agree with the principle of the body, family, and country as provided by the "University". Faithfulness can be socially friendly, and the Salesian at home can easily love the people and the people, that is, "the old and the old and the old, the young and the young, and the young."
The key to governing the country and governing the world is to have a benevolent heart, which is cultivated and practiced by the family, and then promoted and expanded.
China News Agency reporter: Why do you want to explain the Chinese culture of seeking roots to the world?
Zhang Maoze:
Chinese people around the world "returning to the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum" on a large scale began in the 1990s to find their roots and worship their ancestors. More than one million people from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas Chinese have come to worship the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum.
The root-seeking culture is not only the original culture, but also the historical and cultural awareness.
From the perspective of the history of Chinese civilization, the Chinese civilization represented by the Yellow Emperor culture provides a unique model that is different from European and American civilizations.
Its main features are as follows:
First, the unity of man and nature, and the importance of people.
We do not respect heaven and degrade people, respect gods and believe in religion, and worship money through materialization. We will not be anthropocentric and greedy for the merits of God. Instead, we will organically integrate nature and society, and take the people as the center for survival and development.
Second, the Middle Way thinking is implemented as historical consciousness.
Take the truth as the standard to speak and act, stick to dual uses, and stop at the right amount. We oppose one-sided, static, isolated analysis of problems, no bottom line and no rules, and extremist ideas and terrorism.
Third, humanistic rational beliefs.
Firmly believe in classical principles, and at the same time, based on rational knowledge and practical basis, understand its specific sentences, have sincere and firm beliefs, peaceful and rational beliefs, and do not tend to be assertive or monopolistic.
With the essence of Chinese civilization, Chinese civilization can provide rich historical inspiration and powerful practical assistance to the peaceful development of mankind.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Zhang Maoze is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Chinese Ideology and Culture at Northwestern University.
He is a consultant expert of the Central Propaganda Department, the Central Political and Legal Committee, and the Ministry of Education, and an expert of the National Textbook Committee.
Mainly engaged in the history of Chinese Confucianism, the history of Chinese religious thought, and the history of Chinese modern academic thought.