China News Service, Xi'an, April 3: Question: What significance does the sacrifice of the Yellow Emperor have to the construction of the modern civilization of the Chinese nation?
——Exclusive interview with Li Youguang, professor at the Institute of Chinese Thought and Culture at Northwest University
China News Service reporter Alina
Building the modern civilization of the Chinese nation is inseparable from the inheritance, innovation and development of the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation. The five thousand years of Chinese civilization have lasted endlessly, which reflects the common maintenance of the consciousness of national community by the Chinese people, which is inseparable from the high recognition of the Yellow Emperor, the ancestor of humanities, and the culture he created. Yellow Emperor culture has irreplaceable cultural significance and historical value for the creative development of Chinese civilization for more than five thousand years, and Yellow Emperor sacrifice has contributed to the formation and accumulation of Chinese national and cultural identity.
What significance does the sacrifice of the Yellow Emperor have to national unity and cultural identity? What enlightenment does Yellow Emperor culture have on the construction of modern civilization of the Chinese nation? Recently, Li Youguang, a professor at the Institute of Chinese Thought and Culture at Northwest University, accepted an exclusive interview with China News Service's "East-West Question" and gave his answer.
The interview transcript is summarized as follows:
Reporter from China News Service: Why is the Yellow Emperor revered as the ancestor of Chinese humanities?
Li Youguang:
As the leader of the ancient Chinese ethnic and tribal alliance, the Yellow Emperor made the greatest contribution to the formation and development of the Chinese nation. "Historical Records: The Chronicles of the Five Emperors" begins with this: "The Yellow Emperor was the son of Shaodian, his surname was Gongsun, and his name was Xuanyuan. He was born as a god, weak but able to speak, young and loyal, long and agile, and mature and smart." The lines of this paragraph are full of Sima Qian's admiration for the Yellow Emperor. This is of course inseparable from Huangdi's outstanding contributions. During his reign, many inventions and creations emerged that benefited later generations, including production technology, material life and spiritual culture.
Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor Statue. Photo by Zhang Yuan
There was no mature writing in the prehistoric civilization period, so the many deeds and contributions of the Yellow Emperor were mainly preserved through oral transmission. It is said that during the Yellow Emperor's time, cattle and horses were domesticated and used, carts and boats were invented, wells were dug, and copper weapons were used in wars. Cangjie, the historian of the Yellow Emperor, invented the Chinese character, Hu Cao invented the clothes, and the Yellow Emperor himself invented the crown. Not only that, the Yellow Emperor also established the "Seven Assistants", "Six Prime Ministers", "Three Officials", "Four Officials" and "Hundred Officials", etc., which became the beginning of China's administrative system.
These pioneering actions of his laid the material and educational foundation for the pluralistic unity of the Chinese nation. In view of the Yellow Emperor's multifaceted contributions to Chinese civilization during the initial historical stage of the formation of the Chinese nation, he is revered by later generations as the first ancestor of Chinese humanities.
Hall of the First Ancestor of Humanity. Photo by Zhang Yuan
Reporter from China News Service: What significance does the sacrifice of the Yellow Emperor have to the cultural identity of the Chinese nation?
Li Youguang:
Worshiping the Yellow Emperor is very meaningful both in history and today. The emergence and development of the Yellow Emperor's belief in history are also closely related to the historical trend of national unification in the middle and late Warring States Period.
"Historical Records: The Chronicles of the Five Emperors" says: "The Yellow Emperor died and was buried on Qiaoshan Mountain." "Historical Records: The Chronicles of Xiaowu" also says: "I patrolled Shuofang in the north, reined in more than 100,000 troops, and also offered sacrifices to the Yellow Emperor's tomb on Qiaoshan Mountain." "Hanshu· There are similar records in "Jiao Si Zhi". Qiaoshan, present-day Huangling County, Shaanxi Province. "Huang Lan", "Geographical Chronicles" and "Kuo Geographical Chronicles" all record that the tomb of the Yellow Emperor is located in Qiaoshan, Shangjun.
The tomb of the Yellow Emperor. Photo by Zhang Yuan
From a historical perspective, Huangdi not only has private name significance, but also common name significance and cultural significance. The worship and belief in the Yellow Emperor is a long historical process, especially the activities of worshiping the Yellow Emperor in Qiaoshan. "Guoyu·Luyu" records that the Yu family and the Xiahou family both offered sacrifices to the Yellow Emperor. "Historical Records: Book of Fengchan" records that in the third year of Qin Linggong (422 BC), a special sacrificial place - the Huangdi Temple - was built in Wuyang. "Historical Records: The Benji of Xiaowu" records that in the first year of Yuanfeng (110 BC), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty personally led an army of more than 100,000 to conquer Shuofang, and on the way back, he offered sacrifices to the Yellow Emperor at Qiaoshan.
2023 public memorial ceremony. Photo by Zhang Yuan
"Cefu Yuangui" records that in the fifth year of Dali of Emperor Daizong of the Tang Dynasty (AD 770), Zang Xirang, the envoy of Yifang Jiedu, said that there was Xuanyuan Huangdi Mausoleum in Fangzhou. Please build a temple, enjoy sacrifices at all times, and list it in the sacrificial ceremony. , was approved. During the Northern Song Dynasty, Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty issued an edict to install five households to guard the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, ordering "the Spring and Autumn Temple to be built in Tailao every year" and "those who were destroyed to repair it". In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang wrote the "Decision" of the Ministry of Rites in the fourth year of Hongwu (1371 AD), which determined the place of sacrifice for the Yellow Emperor in the central county (today's Huangling County) at that time, and stipulated a fixed number of places for sending envoys to offer sacrifices every year. Later, many emperors of the Ming Dynasty sent envoys to pay tribute. In the Qing Dynasty, according to statistics, in more than 260 years, the Qing court sent envoys to worship the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum 26 times. On the Qingming Festival in 1937, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party worshiped their ancestors together in Qiaoshan. Since 1980, the Yellow Emperor sacrifice system has gradually formed the system of public sacrifices during the Qingming Festival and civilian sacrifices during the Double Ninth Festival.
2023 public memorial ceremony. Photo by Zhang Yuan
It can be said that with the development of history, the Yellow Emperor's sacrifice has become a significant historical and cultural phenomenon, rather than just the presentation of sacrificial rituals, and has gradually become an important part of China's excellent traditional culture. From this point of view, the Yellow Emperor's sacrifice has already transcended the specific historical category and has quite a cultural symbolic function and cultural symbolic significance.
In the process of the formation and development of the pluralistic unity of the Chinese nation, Chinese culture, based on the Yellow Emperor culture and inclusive of the cultures of all ethnic groups, is the source of the cohesion of the Chinese nation. Therefore, today's research on Huangdi culture should focus particularly on its value judgment rather than factual judgment. The sacrifice to the Yellow Emperor should pay more attention to its social function and cultural value rather than its economic utility. This is of profound practical significance for safeguarding national unity, social stability and national unity in the new era.
2023 public memorial ceremony. Photo by Zhang Yuan
Reporter from China News Service: What enlightenment does Yellow Emperor culture and Yellow Emperor sacrifices have on building modern civilization of the Chinese nation?
Li Youguang:
Although Yellow Emperor sacrifices are an important part of Yellow Emperor culture, they are not all of them. From a conceptual point of view, the extension of Huangdi culture is very broad, including politics, economy, military, culture and art, customs and national consciousness. As an important part of Chinese civilization, Yellow Emperor culture is an important content that we need to vigorously explore and promote in the new era. It has a unique role in enhancing national cohesion and national identity, and promoting the reunification of the motherland.
Aerial photography of Xuanyuan Temple. Photo by Zhang Yuan
As an important figure in prehistoric civilization, the Yellow Emperor was an outstanding representative of the ancestors in the founding period of Chinese civilization, laying the foundation for the formation of the pluralistic unity of the Chinese nation. He is not only respected as the co-lord by all tribes in China, but also made creative contributions in material civilization, institutional civilization and spiritual civilization. Therefore, it has always been remembered, appreciated, worshiped and promoted by future generations.
According to legend, the Yellow Emperor planted cypress trees with his own hands. Zhang Yuan
Today, in the new era of actively building the modern civilization of the Chinese nation, we should pay more attention to the sacrifice of the Yellow Emperor and the Yellow Emperor culture, and fully explore the organic connection between the Yellow Emperor culture and the formation of the characteristics of Chinese civilization. Today, with the exchanges and mutual learning between Eastern and Western civilizations, we should pay more attention to consolidating the subjectivity of the modern civilization of the Chinese nation. On the basis of adhering to the foundation and characteristics of China's excellent traditional culture, we should actively communicate and learn from other civilizations in the world, and effectively promote the construction of a destiny for mankind. community. (over)
Interviewee profile:
Li Youguang, PhD in philosophy from Renmin University of China, postdoctoral fellow in history (history of Chinese thought) at Northwest University, professor at the Institute of Chinese Thought and Culture at Northwest University, doctoral supervisor, concurrently director of the Confucius Society of China, secretary-general of the Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor Research Association of Shaanxi Province, research direction: Pre-Qin Confucian political philosophy, comparison of the relationship between Confucianism, Taoism and law, and basic issues in the history of Confucian thought, etc. He has published more than 50 papers in academic journals such as "History of Chinese Philosophy", "Philosophical Trends", "Literature, History and Philosophy", "Dongyue Forum", and "Social Sciences". Currently, he has published three academic monographs: "The Evolution of Pre-Qin Confucian Theory of Humanity - Focusing on Guodian Confucian Slips", "Preaching and Being an Official: Pre-Qin Confucianism from the Perspective of Community Theory" and "The Perspectives of the Scholars and Pre-Qin Confucian Political Philosophy". Hosted and completed many National Social Science Fund projects, Shaanxi Provincial Social Science Fund projects, etc.