Zhang Maoze: Why is the ancestor worship of the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum a spiritual bond connected by blood and blood of compatriots on both sides of the strait?

Editor's note:

Qingming is coming, worship the ancestors and sweep the tomb, cautiously pursue the long term. Since March 3, the "East-West Question" of China News Service has launched a special plan of "Cross-Strait Sacrifice", through the cultural inheritance of compatriots on both sides of the strait to worship Fuxi, Huangdi, Yandi, Confucius, Qu Yuan, Mazu and Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, and gain insight into the same bloodline, the same root, the same language, the same species, and the same sacrifice on both sides of the strait. Please pay attention.

Xi'an, 3 Mar (ZXS) -- Why is the ancestor worship at the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum a spiritual bond linked by blood and blood between compatriots on both sides of the strait?

——Interview with Zhang Maoze, professor of the Institute of Chinese Thought and Culture, Northwest University

China News Agency reporter Alarina

Located in Huangling County, Shaanxi Province, the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum is the mausoleum of the first ancestor of the Chinese nation, Xuanyuan Huangdi, known as the "First Mausoleum of China", and is the spiritual symbol of Chinese civilization. The worship of the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum has become a spiritual bond that unites the sons and daughters of China at home and abroad. In 1946, well-known people from all walks of life in Taiwan formed the "Taiwan Guangfu Tribute Group" to visit the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum on the mainland, and "unfortunately because of the rain, the distance was 60 miles, and they did not move forward", so they made a remote sacrifice in Yao County. <> years later, the descendants of the tribute group once again organized a group to pay homage to the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum, and the stone inscription of Wenle, the tomb of the Yellow Emperor of that year, was erected on the side of the tomb of the Yellow Emperor in Xuanyuan, that is, the "Taiwan Guangfu Tribute Group Sacrifice to the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum Stele".

On September 2006, 9, the descendants of the former Taiwan Guangfu Tribute Group visited the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, held a grand and solemn worship ceremony in front of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, and erected a stone monument to the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum of the Taiwan Guangfu Tribute Group 12 years ago. Photo by Xi Wei

In 1987, Taiwan opened its people to visit relatives on the mainland. In January 1988, the first Taiwan group composed of Taiwan veterans to visit relatives first came to the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum to worship their ancestors. Since then, more and more Taiwan compatriots have gone to the mainland to visit relatives and ancestors, and jointly paid homage to the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan, which has become a vivid embodiment of the blood ties of compatriots on both sides of the strait.

Why did the Yellow Emperor become a symbol of Chinese culture? Why has the ancestor worship of Huangling become an important spiritual bond that strengthens the blood ties of compatriots on both sides of the strait? Recently, Zhang Maoze, a professor at the Institute of Chinese Thought and Culture of Northwest University, was interviewed exclusively by the China News Agency's "East-West Question" to interpret this.

The following is a summary of the interview:

China News Agency: Why is the Yellow Emperor revered as the ancestor of the Chinese nation and the first humanistic ancestor of the Chinese nation?

Zhang Maoze: The Yellow Emperor was originally a tribal leader, and after the Battle of Hanquan and the Battle of Zhuolu, he was revered as the co-lord of the world. The Yellow Emperor, Yan Emperor and Chi You tribes integrated with each other to form the foundation of the Chinese nation, and the Yellow Emperor culture also developed into an important part of Chinese culture.

The grand ceremony of worshipping ancestors in the hometown of the Yellow Emperor in the year of Xin was held in the hometown of the new Zheng Huangdi in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. Photo by Kan Li

During the era of the Yellow Emperor, Chinese civilization made foundational achievements. In terms of material civilization, cattle and horses were domesticated and used, cars and boats were invented, wells were drilled, silkworms were raised, and copper weapons were used in war. In terms of institutional civilization, crowns and clothes were made, and in politics, officials were set up to govern the people, and left and right supervisors were set up to "supervise all nations"; "Chinese Lu Yushang" said that "the Yellow Emperor can achieve a hundred things and share wealth with the Ming people", that is, naming things and social classes, so that the people can share property separately. In terms of spiritual civilization, the invention of writing, the formulation of calendars and jiazi, painting, music, dance and other arts have developed.

From the perspective of archaeological excavations, a large number of sites of the middle Yangshao culture (6500 BC-4000 BC) have been excavated in present-day Shaanxi, Gansu, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Anhui and other places. At that time, production methods such as farming, pottery, textiles, and copper metallurgy appeared, cultural forms such as writing, calendar, music, dance, and religion were born, social organizations developed from clans, tribes, and tribes to tribal alliances, and central settlements - early cities appeared. For example, the site of Banpo in Xi'an was between 7000,6000 and 6000,5500 years ago, and the cultural site of Yangguanzhai Village in Gaoling in Xi'an was between <>,<> and <>,<> years ago. It can be seen that the period of the Yellow Emperor was a period of great creation and development of Chinese civilization, and the prototype of the country began to exist.

Painted pottery exhibited in the Yangshao Cultural Museum of Miaodigou in Sanmenxia City, Henan. Photo by Liu Peng

China News Agency: Why has the Yellow Emperor become an important spiritual bond that unites and unites the Chinese nation?

Zhang Maoze: The culture of the Yellow Emperor has continued to develop, gradually evolving into a symbol of Chinese culture and the Chinese nation, and an important spiritual bond that unites and unites the Chinese nation. This is mainly manifested in the historical records of the culture of the Yellow Emperor and the sacrifices of the Yellow Emperor.

The Yellow Emperor was recognized as the first ancestor of China and went through a historical process, first oral legends, then ancient historical descriptions. This process is based on the exchanges, exchanges and blending of various ethnic groups, from primitive society to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and has taken thousands of years to complete. His representative works include "Shiji", "Book of Jin", "Northern History", "Book of Wei", etc., and Sima Qian and other historians all agree that the Yellow Emperor is the ancestor of the Chinese nation and an expression of national identity.

On April 2019, 4, the Qingming Gong Festival Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor Ceremony was held in Huangling, Shaanxi. Photo by Zhang Yuan

The Han Dynasty was an important stage in the formation and development of the Chinese national community, in which the Chinese nation blended with many other ethnic groups, and ancestor worship activities developed accordingly. From the Han family and one surname to worship the ancestors, to all ethnic groups to worship the Yellow Emperor, in response to the social structure of the Han Dynasty and the national policy of "ruling the world with filial piety". In the Han Dynasty, the morality of loyalty and filial piety was extracted from the ritual of ancestor worship, condensed into the belief in loyalty and filial piety, and then developed scriptural thinking and built the system of three principles and five constants, in which the Yellow Emperor sacrifice played a role.

With the closer and deeper exchanges and exchanges between the Chinese nation and other ethnic groups, this ancestral identity has developed, and the Chinese national identity has been strengthened day by day.

On April 2020, 4, the Qingming Gong Festival Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor Ceremony was held in Huangling, Shaanxi. Photo by Zhang Yuan

China News Agency: Why has the Yellow Emperor sacrifice continued from ancient times to the present?

Zhang Maoze: The Yellow Emperor has a long history of sacrifice. As early as about 5000,4000 years ago, the Yellow Emperor died, and his minister Zuo Che "cut the wood into the statue of the Yellow Emperor, and the marshal princes worshipped it". About 422,110 years ago, Shun and Yu both sacrificed to the Yellow Emperor. In the early Warring States period, the Yellow Emperor resumed worship in the third year of the Duke of Qin Ling (770 BC). In the first year of Yuan Feng (<> BC), Emperor Wudi of Han led an army of <>,<> to tour the north of Shuofang, and also sacrificed the Yellow Emperor's tomb at Qiaoshan. The Yellow Emperor sacrifice became a national ceremonial event. In the fifth year of the Tang Dynasty Dynasty (<>), Zang Xi made Zang Xi let him play: "Fangzhou has the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor of Xuanyuan, please set up a temple, enjoy the sacrifice at four o'clock, and list it in the ceremony", which was approved by Emperor Daizong, and since then the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum sacrifice has become an official festival.

Aerial photograph of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum in Qiaoshan Mountain, Huangling County, Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province. Photo by Zhang Yuan

In modern times, China was invaded by Western powers, and the consciousness of the Yellow Emperor became a powerful spiritual force that united the sons and daughters of China to revitalize China. The Xinhai Revolution held high the banner of the Yellow Emperor, and the first issue of the newspaper "Minbao", an organ of the League Association, published four pictures, the first of which was the portrait of the Yellow Emperor. Sun Yat-sen became the provisional president of the Republic of China on January 1912, 1, and in March sent a delegation to the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum to pay homage to the ancestors, and personally wrote the inscription "Five thousand years after the founding of China, Shenzhou Xuanyuan from ancient times". On April 1, 3, Qingming Day, the two parties of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party paid homage to their ancestors, and Mao Zedong personally drafted the "Mausoleum to the Yellow Emperor", affirming that "the ancestor of Hehe, the creation of Wuhua". Since then, a new era of joint resistance against Japan and unanimity between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party has opened up.

With the founding of New China, the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor was protected by the state as a historical and cultural site. In 1961, the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum became one of the first key cultural relics protection units in China, numbered "Ancient Tomb No. 20". Since the 90s of the <>th century, the maintenance of the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum, the sacrifice of the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum, and the study of the Yellow Emperor's culture have all developed unprecedentedly. Every year, Qingming and Chongyang hold public and folk festivals here, and Chinese sons and daughters on both sides of the Taiwan Strait actively participate in remembering the kindness of the ancestors and sharing the friendship of compatriots. The Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor has become an important platform for strengthening cross-strait economic and cultural exchanges.

On April 2019, 4, the ceremony of paying homage to the Yellow Emperor of Xuanyuan in Taiwan was held in Zhongshan Hall Square in Taipei City. Photo by Lu Mei

As a sacred place of the Chinese nation, the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum is admired and grateful. People worship their ancestors, pay homage to their filial piety, feel the kindness of their ancestors, enjoy the affection of their ancestral hometown, and inspire the deep feelings of blood ties and brotherhood of Chinese sons and daughters.

China News Agency: Why has the ancestor worship of the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum become an important spiritual link to strengthen blood ties between compatriots on both sides of the strait?

Zhang Maoze: Lian Zhan, Wu Boxiong, Song Chuyu, Jiang Xiaoyan, Yu Muming, Hong Xiuzhu and other well-known Taiwan figures have led delegations to the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum to worship ancestors and participate in the Qingming Gong Sacrifice Yellow Emperor Ceremony. In Taiwan, the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum has been held on the day before the Qingming Festival since 1998. On April 2009, 4, Ma Ying-jeou presided over the ceremony of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum in Taipei, becoming the first Taiwan leader to preside over the ceremony of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum. Wang Yuqi, who was the spokesman of Ma Yingjeou's office at the time, said on the same day that the Yellow Emperor is the common ancestor of the Chinese nation, and it is of great significance to the Chinese nation to pursue the long term. After that, Ma Yingjeou presided over the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum many times.

On April 2013, 4, Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou paid homage to the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum in Taipei. The picture shows Ma Ying-jeou waving to the crowd as he drives away. Photo by Dong Huifeng

In 2013, in the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, Yu Muming planted "Lian Genbai" and named the forest site of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum "Siyuan Forest", taking the meaning of "drinking water and Siyuan", which means that Taiwan and the mainland have the same ancestor and the same root. He gave a poem: "The sons and daughters of the two sides of the strait are born from the same root, and the public sacrifice is Xuanyuan Yan and Huang Sun." Qingming thinks about the source and planting forest trees, cautiously pursuing the Chinese soul. "For many years, after the Qingming Public Sacrifice Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor ceremony, many Taiwan compatriots would plant trees in the "Siyuan Forest".

On April 2013, 4, Yu Muming, Chairman of the Taiwan New Party, led the "Taiwan Youth Qingming Huangling Root-seeking Ancestor Worship Group" to participate in the Qingming Gong Festival Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor Ceremony, and held the "Siyuan Forest" planting activity in Qiaoshan. Photo by Alina

The Yellow Emperor sacrifice has a long history and profound connotations. Today, we pay homage to our ancestors in the mausoleum, which is a tribute by the sons and daughters of China to the ancestors of the Chinese nation and the memory of the first ancestors of Chinese civilization. We worship the Yellow Emperor, thank and remember the outstanding ancestors who laid the foundation of the Chinese nation and Chinese civilization, and let countless descendants of China run through the bloodline of more than 5000,<> years, like brothers and sisters, sharing honor and disgrace. The descendants of China took the cultural genes of the Yellow Emperor as the source and bond, gathered consensus, reached tacit understanding, and forged an unbreakable and indestructible Chinese national community. Therefore, we should safeguard and promote the consolidation and development of a unified multi-ethnic country, so that the sons and daughters of China will be like one family, work hard with one heart and one mind, promote the sustained prosperity of Chinese civilization, and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

In July 2014, 7 overseas Chinese teenagers from Denmark, Spain, Belgium, the United States, Canada and other countries paid homage to Xuanyuan Huangdi, the first ancestor of the Chinese nation, in Huangling, Shaanxi Province. Photo by Zhang Yuan

The excellent traditional Chinese culture attaches great importance to worshipping ancestors and respecting the heavens, loving the world, the old and the old, the young and the young, and has the broad feeling of "compatriots of the people, things and people". Influenced by this culture, in the family ancestral hall, brothers can put aside contradictions and live in harmony. In front of the ancestral mausoleum of China, the sons and daughters of China at home and abroad can also join hands and work with one heart and one mind to build the motherland and revitalize China. (End)

Respondent Profile:

Zhang Maoze, professor at the Institute of Chinese Thought and Culture, Northwest University

Zhang Maoze is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Chinese Thought and Culture, Northwest University. He is an expert consulted by the Central Propaganda Department, the Central Political and Legal Commission, and the Ministry of Education, an expert of the National Textbook Committee, and concurrently serves as the vice president of the Shaanxi Philosophical Society and the director of the Chinese Society of Religion. Mainly engaged in the history of Chinese Confucianism, the history of Chinese religious thought, and the history of modern Chinese academic thought.