Battle of Zhuolu

With the help of Xuan Nv for nine days, the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou launched a great war in the land of Zhuolu. The Yellow Emperor defeated Chiyou according to the secret skill spread in Xuan Nv for nine days. Chiyou was defeated, and used witchcraft to set off a fog all over the sky on the battlefield, so that the soldiers of the Yellow Emperor could not tell the direction, running here and there, and the battle was in chaos. At this time, Hou Feng made a compass car with a fairy carved on it according to the esoteric knowledge handed down from the gobbledygook. No matter how the car turns, the fairy's hand always points south. Guided by the compass, the army walked out of the fog.

Seeing that the Yellow Emperor's army broke through the fog, Chiyou continued to make trouble with black magic. The Yellow Emperor also used the technique of serving ghosts and gods, and told Ying Long to kill Chiyou. According to Shan Hai Jing, the Yellow Emperor told Ying Long to kill Chiyou in the wild of Jizhou, and Ying Long stored water to flood Chiyou's army, but Chiyou called Fengbo and Rain Master to take the opportunity to reduce violence. The Yellow Emperor's army was dispersed by the storm and the crisis reappeared. At this time, the Yellow Emperor called the goddess "Yan" to calm the storm. Li is a drought god. No matter where she appears, it will be dry without rain, so she is also called "Hiderigami".

Stone carvings of the Yellow Emperor in Liangci Temple in Hanwu. (public domain)

After the storm subsided, the Yellow Emperor redeployed, broke the real bull drum, and shocked the daylights out of Chiyou, so Ying Long captured Chiyou alive. The Yellow Emperor put a cangue on Chiyou, told him to kill him in Li's fierce place, and divided his body into several pieces and buried it in four different places to prevent him from being resurrected by witchcraft. According to Shan Hai Jing, after Chiyou died, his cangue was abandoned in the barren hills and turned into a red maple forest.

After the Battle of Zhuolu, the Yellow Emperor unified all the tribes in China, which opened the curtain of 5,000 years of Chinese civilization. After the Yellow Emperor killed Chiyou, it was recorded in the Book of Notes that the good and filial people of Jiuli tribe were moved to Zoutu, and the vicious and violent people were moved to the cold places in the north. This is the ancestor of Zou, Tu, Guo and Li in the Han nationality today.

The remnants of Chiyou were scattered all over the place and evolved into the later three seedlings. Yao, the three temples moved westward to Sanwei Mountain. Later, it became an insurrection and was destroyed by Dayu, and the remaining forces became the later Qiang people. The other part has been moving southward in history, becoming the ancestors of Miao Yao and other ethnic groups in southern China today, so today's Miao people have always worshipped Chiyou as their ancestors. "Lvshilue" records that Chiyou is surnamed Jiang and was originally a descendant of Yandi Shennong. All dynasties in the history of China, including all dynasties or countries established by ethnic minorities known as barbarians who entered the Central Plains, are actually descendants or branches of the Chinese people in China, and even earlier ancestors are all authentic "Chinese descendants".

Stone inscription Chiyou in Han Dynasty. (public domain)

Shan Hai Jing also records that Ying Long helped the Yellow Emperor kill Chiyou, and then killed General Chiyou Kuafu. He lived in the south for a long time after the war, so it was rainy in the south. However, after the goddess of heaven helped the Yellow Emperor to calm down the storm, she could never return to the sky. She lived on earth for a long time, and there would be a drought where she lived. The Yellow Emperor placed her in the north of Chishui. However, Yan often fled from her place of residence, and wherever she went, there was a great drought. If she wants to drive away, she should be told to go north.

Unified China

"Emperor Century" records that after the Yellow Emperor destroyed Chiyou, he conquered the governors who refused to obey the emperor's orders. Fifty years after World War II, the fame of the Yellow Emperor shocked the whole world. According to Records of the Historian, the Yellow Emperor expelled the rebellious barbarian gruel to the northernmost part, joined the army in Busan, and held a banquet to celebrate the victory. This was a great unification of the world. Zhou, who was exiled to the north, developed into the future Xiongnu tribe. Since then, the world has been stable, and the Huaxia nationality has an unprecedented territory, and the people at that time all surrendered. After Emperor Yan, the Yellow Emperor became the master of the world. He built a capital near Zhuolu and ruled the world.

Yan Di's five elements belong to fire. The five elements were born of fire, and the Yellow Emperor succeeded to Yan Di, so the five elements belonged to the earth. It is yellow, so it is called the Yellow Emperor. According to Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals, when the Yellow Emperor ascended the throne, huge earthworms and crickets appeared, which was a sign of strong rural flavor, indicating that the Yellow Emperor had a sense of good fortune.

The Palace Museum in Beijing has collected "Asking Heaven Cave", which depicts the Yellow Emperor asking Guangchengzi on Kongtong Mountain. (public domain)

The Yellow Emperor was restless all his life, often living without a fixed place and traveling all over the world. He has been to the sea in the east, climbed Maruyama Mountain and Mount Tai, and closed himself to meditation on Mount Tai, becoming the first emperor to close himself to meditation on Mount Tai in 5,000 years. Go west to Kongtong Mountain; Crossing the Yangtze River in the south, he boarded Woong San and Xiangshan (Junshan), and once expelled porridge to the northernmost part of the country.

Establish an official position

Huangdi set up official positions, appointed talents and helped manage the country. After the Yellow Emperor ascended the throne, there were auspicious signs in the clouds, and Jingxing appeared in the sky. () Therefore, the Yellow Emperor took clouds as official names: the army called Yunsi, the spring official called Qingyun, the summer official called Jinyun, the Qiu Guan official called Baiyun, the winter official called Dark Cloud, and the middle official called Huang Yun. The Yellow Emperor also set up six ministers, including Hou Feng, Taichang, Heilong, Zhu Rong, Dafeng and Houtu, who were responsible for the affairs of heaven, earth, east, south, west and north respectively, which made heaven and earth orderly and immortals often came to earth.

Huangdi paid attention to governing the country by virtue, set up officials with nine virtues, and educated the people with nine lines, namely, filial piety, kindness, writing, faith, speech, loyalty, courtesy, courage and righteousness. Put forward "six prohibitions" for officials at all levels, that is, "no sound, no color, no clothes, no fragrance, no taste and no room", and ask officials to be honest and frugal.

The Yellow Emperor also established a historian, taking Cang Xie as the left history and reciting as the right history. In ancient times, the responsibility of historians was very important. The left history mainly records the king's speech and life, while the right history mainly records the king's behavior and events, each of which has its own division of labor and confirms each other, ensuring the objectivity and authenticity of the historical records. Historians will always quote everything they say and do to the king, and record it strictly and truthfully, with few omissions.

In addition, ancient historians also bear the great responsibility of observing astronomical phenomena, predicting world changes, assisting kings in divination and asking for heaven, praying for God's revelation and making records. Therefore, the records of ancient historians are not only the behavior of emperors and even their daily lives, but also the related records of communication between emperors and heaven, as well as related astronomical phenomena and visions of heaven and earth. For example, the revelation of Heaven Emperor recorded in Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Shang Dynasty, and the historical event recorded in Guoyu that the father of Taishiboyang of Western Zhou Dynasty accurately predicted the date of the demise of Western Zhou Dynasty according to the change of astronomical phenomena at that time and finally realized it. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" also records that the Taishi predicted the death of the Xia Dynasty and the prosperity of the Shang Dynasty, so he brought the catalogue and code of the Xia Dynasty to the Shang Dynasty; The Taishi of Shang and Zhou Dynasty predicted the demise of Shang Dynasty and the prosperity of Zhou Dynasty, so he brought the catalogue and code of Shang Dynasty to Zhou. In ancient times, historians were responsible for observing the changes of astronomical phenomena, recording history, and integrating the development of history with the changes of astronomical phenomena, which seemed to show that history was arranged a long time ago and was only staged step by step according to the changes of astronomical phenomena.

Since the Yellow Emperor established the official historian, China has followed the official historian system in all previous dynasties. This is the reason why my history of China can be preserved so completely that there are almost no faults.

Changji's creation

Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor ordered Cangjie to create characters. Cang Xie used his two pairs of eyes to observe the images of everything in the world and the traces of birds and animals, and created unique pictographic characters, phonetic characters and comprehension characters. Huainanzi records that Cangjie created characters, millet fell from the sky, and ghosts cried at night. In this regard, Zhang Yanyuan in the Tang Dynasty explained in Notes on Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties that the creation of characters made it impossible for nature to hide its secrets, so it rained heavily, making it impossible for goblins to hide their shapes, so ghosts cried at night.

Portrait of Cang Xie is from Portrait of a Great Scholar, drawn in the 8th century/kloc, and kept in the French National Library. (public domain)

In addition, it is also recorded in ancient books, and there were words before the Yellow Emperor. The figures created in the period of the Yellow Emperor are just one of many figures created in the history of China. It is also recorded in ancient books that Cang Xie was an ancient emperor long before the Yellow Emperor. His name is Jie and his surname is Hou Gang. He is called the First Qin Emperor of Cang Di. He was born in Zen Buddhism and was in office for * * * 1 10 years. It is said that life has four eyes and can see through the changes of everything in the world. After he got the book Hutuluo, he created words. Later, in the period of the Yellow Emperor, the historian of the Yellow Emperor was also called Cang Xie, who had the same name as Cang Di, so he was mixed up as one person.

Whether it is written by Cang, or written by two sages in different periods in the long history, their connotations are the same: Chinese characters originated from the legend of God, which is a gift from God to the Chinese nation and contains the mystery of the God of heaven and earth. It is vast and mysterious, leaving a legend for human beings to inherit God, and finally having the opportunity to return to God's important tool, which makes the God of heaven and earth envious.

The Book of Mohism records that the dragon book was created by Fuxi, Sui Shu was sealed by Shennong, the couple book was created by Shao Hao, and Zhong Dingwen was created by Dayu ... Now there are many ancient carved "heavenly books" in China, which do not belong to any kind of writing in the world. So far, no one can recognize them, such as the famous books of Cang Xie, Xia Yu and Hongyan. Therefore, in the long history of China, in the cycle of civilization, many kinds of characters have been created, but pictographic characters, phonetic characters and knowing characters have the widest connotations, can communicate with the gods of heaven and earth, and can perfectly carry the profound and profound myth and culture of China, so they have been chosen to be handed down, and others have been slowly lost in the historical development.