We all say that the "Five Clan of the Ancients" and the "Three Emperors and Five Emperors" are the ancestors of China, so who are they? What is the relationship between them?
There are different opinions in different versions in different historical periods. The "five clan of ancient times" are generally considered to be the Chao clan, Suiren clan, Fuxi clan, Nuwa clan, and Shennong clan. However, there are many sayings about "Three Emperors and Five Emperors". Regarding the versions of "Three Emperors", there are different records in historical materials such as "Shangshu Dazhuan", "Spring and Autumn Movement Doushu", "Sanzi Jing", etc. since the Han Dynasty and later, but all of them are There are "Fuxi clan" and "Shennong clan", while others, some say "Youchao clan", some say "Suiren clan", and some say "Nuwa clan", and the "Historical Records" directly refers to "the emperor, the emperor of the earth". , Thai emperor (human emperor)".
The main reason for the continuous controversy over the "Three Emperors" is that the literature on the specific characters of the Three Emperors is relatively late, and there is no record of the Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods when sacrifices and Zhou rituals were more stringent and popular. Only after Han Dynasty. The official establishment of the Three Emperors was in the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty was the first time in history that the Three Emperors were included in the scope of sacrifice. The three emperors were designated as "Fuxi, Shennong, and Yellow Emperor" in the ceremonies, and Fuxi was regarded as the "head of the Three Emperors". The rituals only began in the middle of the Tang Dynasty.
Although there are many versions, the "three emperors" basically belong to the "ancient five clan", among which the five clan is headed by the Youchao clan. The Youchao clan goes back to the Liangzhu culture period of prehistoric civilization. Its ancestors were from the Chaohu Lake Basin and their capital was once set in the "Liangzhu Ancient City". Youchao pioneered the nesting civilization. The tree was the nest and the leaves were the clothing. From the cave dwelling to the nesting, humans began to dress, which distinguished the human from the beasts. The Youchao was also known as the "No. The ancestor of humanities". The ancient city of Houliangzhu was submerged, and the Chao family moved the capital. So far the Liangzhu culture ended and the Yangshao culture period began.
Suiren is the son of Yuchao. He drilled wood to make fire and taught people to cook, ending the history of ancient humans who used to drink blood. The Suihuang Tomb where he was buried in Shangqiu, Henan is also the oldest emperor's tomb in Chinese history.
Fuxi was the son of Suiren. He married his sister Nuwa, taught people to catch birds, fish and hunt, and invented gossip. He also formulated the system of human marriage and surnames, created the Totem Dragon, and the descendants of the dragon came from this. Marked the beginning of Chinese civilization.
Shennong was the grandson of Fuxi and Nuwa. He invented farming techniques, taught people how to raise crops, make pottery, weaving, and use fire. He was honored as the god of agriculture by later generations. He also tasted herbs, invented medical techniques, and formulated calendars. He defeated Zhu Xiang and ruled China for the first time, and made great contributions to the Chinese civilization. In the later period, Chi You of the Jiuli tribe rebelled and the world was in chaos. So far, the Yangshao culture ended and entered the Longshan culture period.
The Five Clan and the Three Emperors have made many contributions to the development of mankind, enabling mankind to survive and multiply, and promote the progress of civilization and the development of culture. They are the ancestors of humanities in China. After the "Five Clan" and the "Three Emperors", they entered the "Five Emperors" period. And what we now think of as the Five Emperors are Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Dixu, Yao, and Shun.
Huangdi, surnamed Ji, has the Xiong family, and the name is Xuanyuan, and is the brother of Yandi Shennong. We are called the descendants of Yanhuang and Huangdi. Needless to say, the Yellow Emperor's merits are to rule China and conquer Dongyi and Jiuli. Huangdi was born with four concubines and had 25 sons. Among them, the eldest son Shaohao and the second son Changyi were born to the ancestor of Yuan concubine Leizu. After the death of Huangdi, he passed the position of tribal leader to his eldest son, Shaohao of Qingyang clan.
Zhuan Xu was the son of Huangdi's second son, Changyi, and the grandson of Huangdi's grandson, assisting Shaohao to manage the tribe. Because he assisted Shaohao with merits, he was sealed in Gaoyang, so he was also called the Gaoyang clan. Zhuanxu's battle with Gonggong was one of the reasons why he was ranked as the "Three Emperors and Five Emperors." Gonggong used water attacks to seize the position of the leader, causing flooding and popular grievances. Zhuanxu prevailed and became the new tribal leader. If the Yellow Emperor is used as the ancestor to calculate, it is the third generation to continue to Zhuan Xu.
Emperor Yu is Shaohao's direct-grandson, who is also Huangdi's relative-great-grandson, and is the fourth generation. In other words, Emperor Yu is Zhuan Xu's cousin. Emperor Yu was also a very powerful auxiliary minister beside Zhuan Xu, and Zhuan Xu was transferred to Emperor Yu after his death. Since Emperor Ku was born in Gaoxin, he is also called Gaoxin's.
Next is Emperor Yao, he is the son of Emperor Ku, who is also the fifth generation of Emperor Huang. Di Ku has four sons. When Yao was 20 years old, he replaced his brother Di Zhi as the new leader of the alliance. Because his capital city was Tao Tang, he was also called Tao Tang.
Yao is the fifth generation from the Yellow Emperor, and Yao to Shun is not passed down by father and son or uncle and nephew. Historical data only records that Yu Shun is the fifth grandson of Zhuan Xu, that is, the eighth grandson of Huangdi, while Yao is the fifth grandson of Huangdi. They are separated by three generations, but this is also possible, even in modern times. In a village, a middle-aged person called a child grandfather. Shun is famous for his filial piety, and the head of the twenty-four filial piety, "filial piety touches the sky", is what he said.
In the end, it was Dayu from the Xiahou clan. He was the sixth grandson of Zhuan Xu, the ninth grandson of Huangdi, and he was related to Shun as an uncle and nephew. His father Gun was killed for failing to control the water, Yu took over his water control work and succeeded in the end. Regarding the various achievements of Dayu, I must not say more. After Yu's death, his son Qi succeeded to the throne, and the tribal system of "Gongtianxia" ended and entered the slavery society of "jiatianxia".
However, there is a phenomenon that must be said here, that is, although we often say that after the biography of Dayu was in Qi, the renunciation system of Gongtianxia became the hereditary system of Jiatianxia, we have to sort out the "five clan of ancient times" mentioned earlier As well as the inheritance relationship between the "Three Emperors" and the "Five Emperors", we can find that the inheritance model of Jia Tian Xia actually existed as early as the ancient tribe period before the formation of the country. The hereditary systems of the later classics, such as "inheritance", "brothers and brothers", and "uncle and nephew inheritance" have all appeared.
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