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in the history of China, there is a special phenomenon, that is, rumors. It's like a ghost, and it goes hand in hand with the history of China, silently, without knowing where it came from or where it is going. It just haunts the court, the court and the people, ranging from the rise and fall of dynasties to the ups and downs of personal joys and sorrows.
for more than two thousand years, from the oldest "clothes with a bow and a white dustpan" to the designation of a contemporary security force, the ballad has been talked about by everyone. How did the rumor appear and develop? What are the famous rumors circulating in history? This article will give you a brief introduction on this issue.
1. What is a ballad prophecy
The word "ballad prophecy" is widely found in all kinds of ancient books. The title of "ballad prophecy" was once set up in the Qing Dynasty's Collection of Ancient and Modern Books, so what exactly is a ballad prophecy?
a ballad is a ballad. The Book of Songs? Wei Feng's "I sing ballads" and Mao Zhuan's notes: "Quhe Yue Ge, while the disciples sing ballads", "Zuo Zhuan? Five years of Xi Gong, justice leads to Er Ya? Interpretation of Music notes: "A song is a rumor, but a song is empty without music, and its sound is carefree." In short, a ballad is an easy-to-understand folk ballad, which is sung by ordinary people as they like, and generally has not been processed by literati. It is similar to the jingle of "a first-class man has a home outside his home" in today's society. Because of its easy-to-understand nature, it can be widely circulated in society.
prophecy, which is the basic meaning of prophecy, is also an effective prophecy or omen. This is extended to the book of prophecy, that is, the so-called "divination" and "divination" are also.
therefore, in a narrow sense, "ballad prophecy" can be understood as a kind of prophecy spread among the people in the form of ballads. However, in a broad sense, ballads are not just in the form of folk songs. On the contrary, it has a variety of faces, including songs, poems, inscriptions on stones and other forms.
second, the history of ballads
1. The origin of ballads
During the period of ignorance, human beings were eager to make predictions about the future, so the time when ballads came into being should be very early. For example, a large number of oracles in Oracle Bone Inscriptions can be regarded as a kind of prophecy. However, the combination of prophecy and folk songs appeared only after the development of ancient society reached a considerable stage. At present, the earliest ballad that we can see is said to have been circulated in Zhou Xuanwang's period. This sentence first appeared in Guoyu. If it really came from Zhou Xuanwang's era, the history of ballad can be pushed back to the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, even if it was forged by later generations, according to the time when Guoyu was written. —— In a word: rumors originated in the pre-Qin era.
what does it mean to "wear a white coat, but the state of Zhou is really dead"? The so-called "cave" and "dustpan" are the names of trees, and the arc is the bow; Clothing, that is, the quiver, and "clothing with a bow and a basket" means "the bow made by Sang Mu and the quiver made by a basket of wood".
according to mandarin? Zheng Yu's narrative, when Zhou Xuanwang, there was this nursery rhyme circulating in the capital, just at this moment, there were two couples selling arc and white clothes, so they arrested them and scolded them. At this time, there was a maid-in-waiting in the palace who gave birth to a daughter without a husband, and abandoned the young girl on the side of the road. They found it and took it to the country of praise. Later, Bao Jun was detained by the Emperor of Heaven because of his sin, so he offered this woman as a gift, and was favored by you Wang.-This woman is the famous praise in history, the one who played the war, and finally died because of her.
as for the origin of compliments. According to "Mandarin", in the Xia Dynasty, two dragons once appeared in the palace, claiming to be the two ancestors of the praise people. Xia Wang's divination, whether it was to kill it, keep it or send it away, was unlucky. Finally, he left Erlong's saliva (Long Cheng), which was hidden in a box and remained unopened for nearly a thousand years in Shang and Zhou Dynasties. It was not until the last years of Zhou Liwang that King Li made an observation. As a result, the dragon flowed on the ground, turned into a mysterious scorpion, and a girl saw it. After that, she became pregnant. Only when King Xuan gave birth to a daughter, she was pregnant because she had no husband, so she was afraid and abandoned it, and was adopted by the arc-worshippers, and eventually perished in the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Zuo Zhuan also recorded some prophecies, such as Nuo Gong's five years: "In the morning of the third day, the dragon's tail glowed, and all of them took the flag of Guo. The quail is full of enthusiasm, and it is stewed by heaven, and it becomes an army in the fire. " This ballad prophesied the famous war of cutting Guo by false means. At that time, the Jin army surrounded the Guo capital. Jin Xiangong asked Bu Yan if he could win, and Bu Yan quoted this nursery rhyme to answer. This nursery rhyme contains a lot of astronomical knowledge. "Dragon's tail", "quail", "Tiance" and "fire" are all the names of the stars, which is quite troublesome to explain. According to Shen Yucheng's Zuo Zhuan's translation, it is "In the early morning of Bingzi Day, the dragon's tail star is illuminated by the sun. The military uniform was magnificent and won the banner of the Guo army. Quail Mars is like a big bird, but Tiance Star is not shining. Under the quail Mars, people shout for joy, and Guo Gong will run away. " From nursery rhymes, the end of the defeat of Guo and even the time of national subjugation have been predicted.
However, this story is flawed. First of all, the ballads contain a lot of astronomical knowledge. In the Spring and Autumn Period when astronomical knowledge was monopolized by special classes, children could actually sing such nursery rhymes. Is it true that the nine-year compulsory education in Jin State was implemented so well? Secondly, since there are rumors ahead, why didn't Guo Gong make preparations? You should know that Jin and Guo are only one or two hundred miles apart, which is really not far.
In addition, there are other ballads and prophecies recorded in Zuo Zhuan, but generally speaking, the ballads and prophecies in the pre-Qin era are not only few in number, but also difficult to understand, which does not rule out the possibility of the author's own creation. Zuo Zhuan is good at predicting, so it is not impossible for the author to add a few prophetic nursery rhymes to it.
2. The prevalence of ballads and auguries
The prevalence of ballads and auguries began in the Han Dynasty, or, strictly speaking, in the late period of Emperor Wu. In the Four Dynasties of Wenjing in Gaohui, it was not popular. However, with the popularity of Dong Zhongshu's thought of the connection between heaven and man and the demonstration of Emperor Wudi's good way of seeking immortality, it became popular in the late Western Han Dynasty.
another important reason for the popularity of ballads in Han dynasty is the popularity of divination. The so-called "weft" is the weft book. Confucianism in the Han Dynasty believed that since there were "Confucian classics", there should be "Weft Books". Cihai explained: "Weft" is a variety of works compiled by Confucian scholars with alchemy, which originated from the myths and legends of ancient Hutuluo books. " In a word, Wei Shu is the result of mystification, religionization and theology of Confucianism in Han Dynasty, and it is combined with prophetic divination, thus becoming "divination", in which Confucian classics and righteousness are attached to the good and bad fortune of personnel, and it is mostly grotesque and nonsense to predict chaos and prosperity. By the time of Sui Dynasty, Yang-ti was forbidden to destroy it, and his learning began to be slight, and all his books were basically lost.
It is precisely because of the prevalence of divination in Han Dynasty that ballad divination reached the peak of historical development and greatly influenced the political trend. As we know, the reason why Wang Mang succeeded in usurping the throne was based on rumors. It is said that someone dug a well and got a stone with lettering on it, saying, "Tell Anhan Gongmang to be the emperor", and Wang Mang took it as a basis and took it brazenly. Later, there was an artificial bronze chest, which contained two inscriptions, one saying, "Heaven Emperor's trip to seal the golden chest", and the other saying, "Chi Di's trip to seal a letter to the Yellow Emperor Jin Ce", which stated that Wang Mang should be the son of heaven, so he ascended the throne accordingly.
Since then, Wang Mang has lost his political power, and many heroes have risen together, and he also used rumors to prove his legitimacy. For example, Gongsun Shu said that "Emperor Chang was abolished, and Gong Sun was established", also known as "Emperor Xuanyuan was ordered, and Gong Sun was in charge". Later, Liu Xiu's accession to the throne was still based on rumors. This is the famous "Red Fu Fu Fu": "Liu Xiu sent his troops to catch the road, and the four barbarians gathered in the wild, and the fire was the main thing at the time of April and July", in Liu Xiu's "Ascending to the Astronomy" This is one of the most famous ballads in history, and we will talk about it in detail later.
Although Liu Xiu claimed to be emperor to a greater extent by his own force, he was more superstitious about rumors and prophecies than Wang Mang, who only used them.-We know that many of Wang Mang's so-called fates were forged by himself. -and Liu Xiu for rumors, almost sincerely believe. In the first year of Jianwu, at the beginning of Liu Xiu's accession to the throne, liang wang, a little-known figure, was regarded as a great general and general of Pingdi, Sun Zang, because there was a saying in "Red Fu Fu Fu Fu" that "Wang Liang was the chief defender of Xuanwu", and Sun Zang's name was also found in a rumor, saying "Sun Xian Zheng Di". As a result, many people were unhappy, and Xian said, "Haing Han and Jing Dan should be fu." Liu Xiu had to take haing s ngor as fu and Jing Dan as a general in title of generals in ancient times.
When there is popularity, there will be opposition. Just as the rumor goes up in the clouds, some people of insight have begun to criticize it. Huan Tan, for example, once wrote a letter to Liu Xiu, objecting to a rumor, saying, "Today, people who are clever and talented are only a few ci-writers, so as to gain books, so as to deceive greed and evil, and mislead others, so how can they not be far away?" ..... Although things sometimes coincide, it is like counting only occasionally, pointing to Liu Xiu's "I want to listen to the prophecy, what's wrong", and then discussing with Guangwu, the emperor said, "I want to judge it by prophecy, what?" Huan Tan was silent for a long time and said, "I don't know how to predict." Almost beheaded by the furious Liu Xiu.
There is another person named Yin Min, who is a wonderful person. Liu Xiu sent him to collate the pictures and prophecies, and he tried his best to tell Guangwu that "the prophecies were written by sages, but many of them were similar to vulgar words, so it was difficult to know the truth and the truth, and he was afraid of making mistakes". When Liu Xiu refused to accept them, he prophesied. "You have no mouth", Yin Ye, that is to say, his surname Yin is destined to be a big official in the Han Dynasty. Liu Xiu found this sentence and asked him to ask. He replied: "I saw that the predecessors increased or lost more books because of their own reasons." -I think that's how the previous rumors came out, so I also got one for myself. -quite a legacy of Dong Fangshuo. Liu Xiu didn't blame at that time, but he never rose to the rank of Lao Yin.
Of course, Wang Chong's Lun Heng is the most systematic objection to rumors, but this topic is too big to talk about for the time being.
by the end of the eastern Han dynasty, ballads were still popular. When Emperor Ling ascended the throne, there was a prophecy of "white car He Yanyan, harmony between rivers". The chaos of ten regular attendants has the prophecy of "Hou Feihou, the king of Fei Wang, rode thousands of horses to the north mountain", the prophecy of Dong Zhuo's death, the prophecy of "A thousand-mile grass, He Qingqing, ten-day divination, no birth", and the prophecy of Liu Biao's death, "It began to decline in 1989, and it was not left in the thirteenth year". I believe that people who have read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms will be familiar with these rumors.
After the Han Dynasty, Cao Wei began to restrict the study of divination, but throughout the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, ballads and prophecies continued to be popular. Wang Zhuo ping Wu, there are "A Tong Fu A Tong, swimming across the river with a knife. Not afraid of beasts on the shore, but afraid of dragons in the water ",-Wang Zhuo nicknamed A Tong is also. Si Marui, the Emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, proclaimed himself emperor, with the prophecy that "five horses float across the river and one horse turns into a dragon", which is also a very famous rumor in history. Ran Min killed Hu. It is said that many years ago, Buddha Tucheng also made a prophecy that "the temple is almost the temple, and the thorns become the forest, and the bad guys will be clothed". Ran Min's nickname is Spine Slave.
in a word, the Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were the climax of the spread of rumors. During this period, from the emperor down, rumors were spread between the monarch and the minister. As the saying goes, it was good in the upper level, but bad in the lower level, so rumors rose and became popular in the society.
3. Decline of rumors
With the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, the era of rumors flying and people's panic finally ended. In order to calm people's hearts, the Sui Dynasty took powerful measures to ban the study of divination, and Emperor Yangdi even sent messengers to search for books related to divination and burned them. So far, the study of divination, which was popular since the Western Han Dynasty, has finally vanished and completely died. Correspondingly, rumors are also banned.
Zhao Yi once said, "It's easy to come to the world in ancient times, and there is no one like Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty, who ascended the throne with his wife's relatives." I'm afraid Emperor Wen of Sui felt a little embarrassed to take the world away from his grandson so easily. In order to stop the long mouth of everyone, he had to find some destiny to defend himself, so he made a rumor to appear in BLACKPINK again.
However, the prophecies of Emperor Wendi of the Sui Dynasty are very distinctive, almost all of which are inscribed in stone inscriptions. First, several stones were found with words on them. One of them has the word "Jian" on it and the word "Eight Directions Tianxin" on it. There is also a stubborn stone on the surface, but when it is cut open, there are patterns inside, which is a poplar with yellow roots and purple leaves. Second, a big stone turtle was found, with the words "Tianzi delays for a thousand years, good luck" on it, and a live turtle with the words "Tianbu Yangxing" on its belly. Third, a large iron plate was found, which read, "The emperor began to live in the next year, and Yang Tiequan, Wang Xing". It's just that such a fig leaf, after all, can't block the eyes of the people all over the world. He took the world from his grandson's hand and then killed all his family, but it didn't become noble because of a few nonsense words on the tortoise's stomach. However, there is another rumor circulating among the people, which more reflects the real thoughts of the people: "Poplar crows, only my uncle has no nephew", what a good "only my uncle has no nephew". Laugh ~ ~
Emperor Wendi of the Sui Dynasty can make use of rumors to whitewash his usurpation, but he will never allow the same thing to be put on others. It is estimated that this is the reason why rumors were forbidden in the Sui Dynasty. -From this, we can also know that Emperor Wendi of Sui was well aware of the truth and essence of rumors.
In addition, several rebellions in the Sui Dynasty were all related to rumors. In Hanwang, Yang Liang rebelled, and there was a rumor that "a piece of paper, two pieces of paper, a guest should be the son of heaven" —— Yang Liang's nickname is A guest, and the quantity is the same as forgiveness. Yang Xuangan rebelled, and there was a rumor that "Taibai entered the southern bucket, and the son of heaven went down to the temple".-When Yang Xuangan rebelled, Taibai entered the southern bucket. These two major rebellions were all related to rumors and prophecies, which is probably one of the reasons why Emperor Yangdi cracked down on prophecies.
Of course, the most famous ballad in the Sui Dynasty is "Peach and Plum", which is also one of the most famous ballads in the history of China, and we will talk about it in detail later.
After the rectification of the Sui Dynasty, the influence of rumors was greatly weakened in the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. At this time, many emperors clearly did not believe in rumors. For example, in Tang Jingzong, Li Fengji was at odds with Pei Du, so they spread rumors that "children who were not clothed were exposed to their bellies, and people who were not clothed were expelled from heaven". Those who reveal their bellies say that Pei Du has exposed the conspiracy in their bellies. As for "the mouth in the sky was expelled", it means that Wu Yuanji was rehabilitated. And Jingzong "although he is a teenager, he is deeply aware of his slander, and his intention to reward him is enduring, and there is nothing he can do about evil." When Song Taizu saw TuiBei, he didn't think it was a great book. Instead, he thought it was a disaster for the people, so he ordered the disorder of its order and mixed its contents to eliminate its influence. Ming Taizu didn't believe it either. According to Shen Defu's Supplement to Wild Harvest, in the fifth year of Hongwu, someone sang a song in Jianchang, saying, "The dragon and the tiger are dying, and Chi Di rejuvenating the Six Dynasties. At the end of 8, Wang Qi recovered, and Zhong Hua followed Tang Yao from then on, and the minister played it, "On the matter, it involved a demon jump, and it was not a letter."
Since the emperor's attitude towards rumors is so, others' reverence for rumors is naturally not so strong. During this period, rumors were mostly used by some people, or used to attack political enemies, or simply as a call to revolt. The former goes into the aforementioned "children who are not clothed are frank with their stomachs", while the latter, like the "Mo Daoshi man with one eye, stirs up" during the Red Scarf Army uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.