"Twenty-nine Years of Zuo Gong" offers five sacrifices to serve the country: "The five sacrifices are about the origin of these five elements of officials. Shao Yan's fourth uncle is heavy, and this, Xiu, and Xi can really make golden wood and water ",so it is very important to talk about Mang, that is, Ru Shou, and Xiu and Xi are declared, that is, the names of Muzheng, Zheng Jin and Shuizheng.
The four gods in Shan Hai Jing are Ju Mang in the east, Zhu Rong in the south, Ru Shou in the west and Yujiang in the north.
It can be seen that these official names and gods were originally real people, and they were sacrificed by later generations because of their meritorious deeds, taking their titles as official names. He is his wife, and he is divided into four parts, which is the official name of Xia Dynasty. The same is true of Houtu, which was called Yandi long before the Yellow Emperor and later became the official name. The origin has been forgotten, only called "Tianguan", which is not comprehensive. What is the post of Houtu? It must be investigated from historical records. "Twenty-nine Years of Zuo Zhuan Zhao Guang" said, "The soil is like the back soil." The latter soil is both cloud "soil" and positive and cloud "soil", which shows that it has a lot to do with land.
What is "soil amendment"? Let's take a look at what the word "correction" means. The right man is opposite to evil. As a full-time worker. There is a saying in Zuo Zhuan Liu Zanggong that Du Yu, an annotator in the Western Jin Dynasty, noted that "the five senses are the length of the five senses", which shows that the upright man is indeed the chief executive in official position, that is, the highest among the chief executives.
What the Chief Executive does is naturally a matter of leadership and management. Therefore, the so-called "Zheng Tu" is the highest official in charge of land management. As mentioned earlier, since Zheng Tu and Houtu are equal, Houtu is the highest official in land management.
Why the Chief Executive was crowned with the word "Hou" also has its meaning. "Shangshu Dayu Mo" once said: "After the difficulties, no matter how difficult it is, it will not pass." He who overcomes difficulties is to overcome difficulties and accomplish tasks. Translated, after the task is completed, I finished my task. The ministers here are obviously relative. According to Guo Moruo's textual research on Oracle Bone Inscriptions, they are "the same things with the people" and "slaves in ancient times" in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, that is, the working people.
Since it is relative to the masses, it is of course the master of the masses. In the same text of Shangshu, there is also a saying that "post-non-public", which just illustrates this point. In short, the queen means the monarch, and there is no right or wrong. Houtu is the monarch who manages the land. According to Yang Zhao's Rebuilding Taining Hall in Song Dynasty, Houdi is the most revered land god. debate
It is worth studying whether the most revered god in this land is a woman or a man. "Zuo Zhao Zhuan Gong Jiu Nian" said: "* * * The Gong family has a dragon as a peerless place"; "The Book of Rites Sacrifice Law" says: "* * * The public dominates Kyushu, and its son Hou Tu can level Kyushu." Both books refer to Houdi as the son of a worker. Many people think that "Zi" represents a man, but judging from some ancient books, this statement is untenable.
What does "Zi" mean? "Historical Records" said: "Confucius, Zi Ye, Confucius, all things nourish." Shuowen said: "In November, everything is full of vitality, and people (by mistake, according to the paragraph) think it is said." The son is breeding and having a baby. And this stranger may not be interpreted as a man. At the same time, Shan Hai Jing Hai Nei Jing clearly records: "The wife of Yan Di, the son of Chishui, was born in an angry family", and Shuowen says: "The son of a son is a grandson", and the son can be a woman, and the son of a son can also be a woman's daughter. Therefore, the word "descendants" can refer to the male line in the patriarchal society or the female line in the matriarchal society.
Historical Records of Qin Benji records: "Before Qin Dynasty, Sun Yue, a descendant of Emperor Zhuan Xu, was taught by his daughter. Women weave, birds lay eggs, women swallow and have children. " This book "Miao-born Sun Yue's Female Xiu" proves that "Sun" can be a female, a "descendant" in ancient legends and a female lineage. And this lineage from Zhuan Xu to the girls' school is the female lineage. Textual Research on Historical Records says: "A female student, the daughter of Zhuan Xu origin, was born after swallowing an ostrich. In the absence of his father, Qin and Zhao are the ancestors of Zhuan Xu. " And Zu Zhuan Xu and the mother family ",this is not to say that there can also be female lineages.
At this point, Hou Di should be a man or a woman has become a problem. In order to understand it, we must trace the origin and original meaning of the word "Houtu".
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Characters are the product of the development of human society to a certain degree of civilization. It not only records the civilization process of human society, but also promotes the perfection and development of the writing system. This process is also a process of human understanding and development. Almost every Chinese character developed from ancient hieroglyphics has a wonderful story, and the word "Houtu" is no exception. Since the ancient ancestors invented hieroglyphics inspired by the impressions of animals, they gradually replaced the "knot notes". For example, in Dawenkou culture more than 5,000 years ago, there were square characters, some of which were neatly planned and drawn and distributed thousands of miles away, indicating that they were popular characters in a certain range as symbols to convey social information or religious thoughts. These words are engraved on sacrificial vessels, indicating that these words are related to priests. In fact, priests engage in religious activities to record history and genealogy. They are not only good at carving and painting, but also invented their own characters.
Wen Tao, similar to Oracle Bone Inscriptions, appeared in the Longshan culture period, which is not far from the legendary characters invented by Cang Xie.
Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which can be seen more than 3,000 years ago, has experienced thousands of years of development. As a fairly mature writing system, Oracle Bone Inscriptions still retains the characteristics of ancient hieroglyphics, thus retaining more information about the survival and reproduction of ancient humans. How important and valuable this information is to modern people.
The original hieroglyph of the word "Hou" is the shape of a woman's half-squatting child. Shuowen said: "Like people, enter from the mouth." Wang Guowei also pointed out when reading Oracle Bone Inscriptions. This pictographic character vividly expresses the main feature of the latter word, that is, the mother who gave birth to the child. This kind of delivery form is not like the supine or semi-lying delivery of modern women, but semi-squatting, which further illustrates the traces of some wild animals preserved in ancient times. It also tells people today that the pictographs of later characters are ancient and primitive.
The word "earth" is the same. The hieroglyphics of the earth symbolize women's breasts and milk with several points. As you can imagine, the original meaning of local characters is to feed babies and provide food.
Starting from such a simple understanding, when people see edible plant stems and leaves or fruits growing on the earth, the land seems to have the function of a mother's breast, and naturally they will think of replacing it with the same hieroglyphics, thus producing a synonym for the word "mother". It can be seen that the word "earth" is as primitive and ancient as the word "Hou".
of course
From the hieroglyphics of "after" when a woman gives birth to a child to the hieroglyphics of "earth" when a woman suckles a baby and plants plants on the ground for people to collect and eat, this is the process from birth to growth, which is related to the reproduction and growth of a person and the survival and development of ethnic groups. This process is completed by a woman's genitals and given by her mother. Primitive people can't explain this phenomenon and process scientifically, and naturally they worship genitals, reproduction and the source of life, that is, the worship of "mother ancestors".
This process has gone through a long time in the history of human growth and evolution. Many paleoanthropologists admit that there have been important stages of genital worship, reproductive worship and maternal ancestor worship in human history. Reproductive worship is one of the important manifestations of the initial similarity of world cultures. Reproductive organs have two magical functions: first, they can produce fresh life and reproduce human beings; Second, it can bring ecstasy to individual life and make men and women mysteriously combine together. Therefore, it became the most intimate and realistic object of worship in the early days of mankind. In the world's oldest art, ancient customs and religious culture, almost all traces of genital worship can be found.
Ancient ancestors created two hieroglyphs, Hou and Tu, out of worship for genitalia, reproduction and maternal ancestors. These two words seem to have nothing to do in form, but they are closely related in meaning, because both refer to female reproductive organs, which are indispensable organs for human reproduction and growth, and directly constitute the essence of maternal ancestor worship. Connect these two words together to form a word, expressing a related but not exactly the same specific meaning, an extremely important title. This title is related to an important era in the history of ancient human development, that is, the Houtu era.
Houtu appellation refers to the highest "great-grandmother" who gave birth to the whole family in matriarchal society, or the highest and most authoritative patriarch in this tribe or tribal alliance, that is, the highest female king in matriarchal society. This should be the real meaning of the original, original title. As Mr. Guo Moruo pointed out in Shi Zucong, the first volume of Oracle Bone Inscriptions Studies: "Later, it was the title of matriarchal woman kui. In the matriarchal era, the highest master was the mother, and the highest virtue of the mother's family was Yu (Hou), so Yu (Hou) was called the queen mother. "