Gao Pangshi laughed when he heard this, and said half-jokingly: "Does this shatter your view of history? I haven't even mentioned the source of China's powerful assimilation ability."
Liu Xin frowned and said: "I always thought it came from Qin Shihuang, and thought that he implanted the 'Great Unification' deeply into the bone marrow of the Chinese people... What do you mean now, do you mean that this source will continue to be pushed forward? "
"Yes, we need to keep pushing forward. You think that Qin Shihuang's ability to unify requires an ideological foundation, right? You can't ask Qin Shihuang to have an idea of 'unification' appear in his mind out of thin air, because since you When we say 'unification', it means that there is already such an overall framework, but this framework is relatively scattered and has not been truly assembled, so it is called 'unification' when this big platter is completely assembled, right?"
"Oh...this seems to make sense. Just like drawing a map of China, I must first draw the whole country's framework, and then draw the individual provinces."
"Very good, you agree with this basic concept, and it will be easy to explain later." Gao pragmatically said seriously: "About the word 'Huaxia' - I mean both, it first appeared in "Shangshu". Huaxia What does it mean? Some people in later generations explained: "China has great etiquette, so it is called Xia; it has the beauty of wearing clothes, so it is called Hua."
But in fact, "Huaxia" was not so high-end and classy at first. It actually refers to the Zhou Dynasty and the Zhou regime. In other words, the countries in the core region of East Asia at that time regarded Zhou as a spiritual symbol and used the big net of "China" to draw each other into it.
After the net is completed, the groups caught in the net are all 'my tribe' and 'Chinese'. The groups outside the network are naturally "non-my people", and the "my people" in the network also give them many unpleasant names, such as Man, Yi, Rong, Di, Hu, etc. Eastern countries not only strengthened their relations with each other through the concept of "Huaxia", but also implemented "China within, barbarians outside" into actions - for example, emphasizing respect for the Emperor of Zhou.
If you recall, when we look at the history of the Spring and Autumn Period, do the princes from all walks of life go to war under the banner of the Emperor of Zhou, and after the war, they hope to gain the recognition and praise of the Emperor of Zhou? This is the so-called 'respecting the king and rejecting the barbarians'.
In addition, Eastern countries also built the Great Wall to create a clearly visible edge of China in the north, thereby better protecting the resources in the south. And looking at the "barbarians" who were excluded from "China", what's the difference between them?
In fact, there is not much difference between the original "Huaxia" and the "Barbarian Rongdi". After all, even the Zhou royal family rose up in a realm mixed with the Xirong. However, the vassal states in the east began to repeatedly emphasize that "those who are not of my race must have different hearts" and built the Great Wall to isolate the surrounding tribes geographically.
This not only clarified the boundaries of China, but also gave the nomadic tribes in the north and west a strong sense of self. They realized that the ethnic groups on the other side of the Great Wall were different from themselves and that they were excluded by them. As a result, the overall nomadicization of the people north of the Great Wall was accelerated.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, both conceptual and geographical boundaries emerged between 'Chinese' and 'non-Chinese'. Since the 'edge' has appeared, the 'circle' of China has also appeared.
However, China during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods was nothing more than the Central Plains, which is today a circle centered on Henan. How does the circle of China continue to expand? In fact, there have been two major adjustments to China's edge.
The first time was during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and its representative adjustments were the addition of Wu, Yue, Chu, and Qin; the second time was during the Han Dynasty, when the edges of China were expanded to the limits of ancient China.
Let me first talk about the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the first major adjustment on the edge of China. Wu and Yue are located in the southeast of the Central Plains, Chu is in the south, and Qin is in the west. These areas did not originally belong to the earliest "China". How and why did they join China? This brings us to an important method, which is to shape 'historical memory'. Specifically, we are looking for a 'Chinese ancestor legend'.
For example, the Kingdom of Wu made up the legend of "Taibo fled to Wu" in order to join the Chinese family. The general content of this story is that the ancestor of the Zhou people, King Zhou Taibo, had three sons, the eldest son Taibo, the second son Zhongyong, and the youngest son Ji Li. King Tai of Zhou discovered that Ji Chang, the son of Ji Li, his youngest son, was smart and precocious. King Tai liked him very much and wanted to pass the throne to Ji Chang. But according to tradition, the eldest son Taibo should succeed to the throne.
After Tai Bo learned of this, he and his second brother Zhong Yong took the opportunity to collect medicine for their father and fled to the desolate Jiangnan area. The Taibo cut off his hair and got a tattoo to show his separation from China. After that, he started his own business and established the Kingdom of Wu. You see, as soon as this legend came out, "I, the Kingdom of Wu" became the "Chinese ethnic group" with roots in Hongmiaozheng. , this method is to shape historical memory.
The reason why Wu wants to join the Chinese family so much is because it faces a real threat, which is the Chu State that borders its own land. In the eyes of the vassal states in the Central Plains, Chu State has always been the "Land of the Southern Barbarians", so Wu State felt that if it could join China, it would have a helper.
In the Wu-Chu War, the state of Wu defeated the state of Chu and went north to form an alliance with the king of Jin, the eldest brother of the princes in the Central Plains. This was the highlight moment of the Wu State, and it was also the trigger for the country's collapse - the Yue State took advantage of King Wu's husband to go north, quickly surrounded the capital of the Wu State, and destroyed the Wu State. But what is very interesting is that soon after, King Fu Chai of Yue also went north to join the alliance.
What is the significance of the alliance? Do Wu and Yue really think that they are so powerful that they can dominate the princes and become the 'eldest son' of China? Obviously not, they just hope that the "Chinese Alliance" in the north will recognize them as new members. Since then, Wu Yue has officially joined the Chinese family.
Like the Wu Kingdom, the Yue Kingdom claimed to be descendants of Prince Shaokang of Xia. The royal families of the Qin Kingdom in the northwest and the Chu Kingdom in the south claimed to be descendants of Zhuan Xu, one of the Five Emperors. The reason for shaping these histories is not that they are too busy to eat, but basically to join the Chinese family - after all, no one wants to be called a barbarian land, right?
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Qin State, which only raised horses for the Zhou royal family, eventually unified the six kingdoms, and the Chinese civilization formed a unified political entity for the first time. But it is a pity that the Qin Dynasty died too quickly and was unable to continue to expand its territory for China. And this important historical task was handed over to the Han Dynasty, which succeeded the Qin Dynasty.
The Han Dynasty was the second major adjustment on the edge of ancient China. Until the Song Dynasty, and even during our dynasty (Gao Pragmatic refers to the dynasty here), the ancient Chinese people's imagination of China was still the version created in the Han Dynasty - at most 2.0 or 3.0, which was a little upgraded or strengthened, but generally Not much has changed.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, when people imagined China, they would use the term "Barbarian Rong Di" to draw a boundary for China. How did the people of the Han Dynasty imagine China? In the concept of the Han Dynasty people, they were also surrounded by foreign races from all directions. Therefore, the Han Empire adopted different measures to deal with different marginalized groups.
Let me talk about the Northern Xinjiang region first. This is the place where the edge of China first appeared, and it is also the area where the separation between China and foreign races is clearest. Due to climate reasons, the north of the Great Wall is a nomadic economy, and the south of the Great Wall is an agricultural economy. The nomadic people cannot support themselves through their own development, so it is inevitable to go south to rob. This is the irreconcilable contradiction between the nomadic and agricultural peoples.
In the early days of the Han Empire, the national power was still relatively weak, and peace could only be bought with money. After the Han Empire became stronger, it began to take the initiative. Not only did it repel the Xiongnu, but it also occupied parts of the area north of the Great Wall and used these areas as military buffer zones. It not only stationed its own troops, but also asked the surrendered Hu people to help guard the border.
But no matter what, the northern border of the Han Empire never broke through the basic control scope of the Great Wall. China's expansion in the north had come to an end. The Qiang people lived on the western edge of the Han Empire. The river valleys where the Qiang people lived could be used for agricultural production, so the Han Empire took the initiative to invade and occupy the Qiang people's land.
Of course, the Qiang people were no match for the increasingly powerful Han Empire, so they thought: Since they can't defeat them, let's blend in. Therefore, the upper class of the Qiang people also used the tool of "historical memory" to connect their own people with the ancient ancestors of China. The Han Empire also recognized their "historical memory" in order to ensure the legitimacy and stability of its rule. In this way, the Han Empire expanded the western edge of China.
Compared with the north, China's border expansion in the south was relatively smooth. The expansion in the south, specifically the Yue, Dian, Yelang, and southern mountainous tribes. Yue is roughly equivalent to today's Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi. At that time, they were collectively called Baiyue. Dian and Yelang are in the Guizhou area of Yunnan. The southern mountain tribes are those tribes distributed in the continuous mountains.
The south is different from the north. The farmland environment in the south is generally very good. The Han Empire itself was a farming empire, and the Confucian ideas were promoted very smoothly. Of course, in this process of military expansion and cultural promotion, the shaping of "historical memory" as an heirloom is naturally indispensable.
In Kuaiji County of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which is today's Zhejiang and Fujian areas, people strengthened the saying that "Shun was a native of Dongyi". Local people believe that Shun, the ancient wise king of China, is actually related by blood to the people of Kuaiji, so the people of Kuaiji County also belong to the Chinese system.
There is also Shu County in the southwest, which is today's Chengdu, Sichuan. There is a local saying that "Yu flourished in Xiqiang", which also used this to get rid of the status of the fringe of China and successfully join the Chinese family.
However, in some southern and southwestern mountainous areas where it was difficult to quickly promote agricultural production, the Han Empire had to spend more effort. These places practiced a mixed economy of agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, and hunting. Farmers from the Han Empire penetrated into these areas and occupied river valleys and lowlands as much as possible. Merchants purchased local products in these places and hired local laborers, while local officials from the Han Empire The chiefs of each tribe came to collect local taxes.
All in all, in the process of continuous expansion to the west and south, the Han Empire, as the "Chinese orthodoxy", expanded the boundaries of ancient China to the extreme at that time, and finally formed the Chinese consensus today (still in the Ming Dynasty), which was later the Tatar The "Eighteen Han Provinces" considered by the Qing Dynasty. "
Liu Xin did not interrupt the whole process this time, and listened carefully to Gao Jingshi's explanation of the entire process of the formation of "China" in his eyes. Although Gao Jingshi did not directly explain the source of the "assimilation power" of the Han people, it was obvious that she already understood.
So she tried to summarize it herself, thought for a while, and said: "You mean, China's 'civilization disguised as a country' relies on emphasizing its own strength and nobility, thereby making some surrounding forces feel inferior, so she Are you rushing to 'shape history' for yourself, strive to join this 'Chinese' alliance, and finally become a part of China?"
Gao Pragmatic stretched out his thumb and praised: "The two elements you summarized are very critical, namely 'power and nobility'. Powerful means that the power is invincible; nobility means that it is sacred and inviolable.
The former makes it difficult for people who are regarded as barbarians to resist and use violent means to break the pride of the "Chinese Alliance" and prove that they are no worse than "Chinese"; while the latter creates an identity difference based on the former, making it difficult for "barbarians" to 'Having an identity crisis, they are eager to improve and enhance their status - obviously, getting themselves into the Chinese system is definitely the simplest and most effective way. "
"Hiss..." Liu Xin suddenly made a "sudden thought" inhaling motion, opened her eyes wide and said: "The 'shaping history' you mentioned suddenly reminded me of a country."
Gao Pragmatic understood it all at once, and said with a laugh: "You mean South Korea at that time? Oh, they have a huge demand in this area, otherwise what would you ask them to do? They are a separatist regime, and they have Unlike Japan, which has had a glorious history, it doesn't mind admitting that it is influenced by Chinese civilization, and even proudly says that it is a 'Little China'.
South Korea, or North Korea in a broad sense, has historically been a vassal state of China. It has finally managed to achieve nominal independence. Of course, it needs to find some confidence. But this cultural confidence is difficult to find. After all, China has been strong for thousands of years, only taking a nap for a hundred or two hundred years during the Qing Dynasty.
But we Koreans at that time did not have the prerequisites to shape history and join China in terms of the world structure. Of course, we had to shape history to emphasize ourselves. So, although their performance is hateful, in the final analysis, they are just pathetic people. "
"So you are now acquiescing to the Shimazu family claiming to be descendants of the Qin Dynasty. Are you also considering Japan's need to 'shape history and join China' in the future?"
"Otherwise? The three Shimadzu brothers... Oh, there are only two brothers left now. They are older than me. I can't accept them as adopted children, right? Besides, Japan has a high degree of Chineseization, and it has shaped history in Japan. 'It's relatively easy. Since they are so proactive, I naturally won't refuse.
I agree with the marriage proposal proposed by the Narita family, and have also taken this into consideration, that is, strengthening ties with some high-level people in Japan, fostering pro-China forces within the Japanese ruling class, and allowing them to start actively thinking about how to 'shape history and join China.' This is much easier than simply engaging in military conquest, and the effect is more powerful and long-lasting.
You can know this by referring to Wu, Yue and other countries in the Spring and Autumn Period. Who doesn't default to "Wu and Yue were originally Chinese" when reading history? And my vision for Japan in the future is the same. My purpose is to let future generations think of the word "Japan" and they will default to: Japan is an inseparable part of China! This is what the Art of War says: attack the city first, attack the heart first. "
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