It is said that when Su Shi was a bachelor of Hanlin in the Northern Song Dynasty, his curtain corporal once used the word "Liu Langzhong only married 187 girls, holding red teeth plates and singing the word" Yang Liuan Xiaofeng Canyue "; The bachelor's ci must be a Kansai man, a copper pipa and an iron rake, and sing' Gone forever' to summarize the different styles of Liu Yong's and Su Shi's ci. Then, can you name something that best represents the different styles of Qin culture, Chu culture and Han culture?
The connotation of the word "culture" is extremely rich, so its use must be very rigorous and cautious.
Speaking of "Qin culture", we must realize that its meaning is overlapping. It was originally a regional culture in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in the history of China, and its distribution hinterland and scope are roughly the Shaanxi-Gansu area in the northwest of China today. It is owned by Qin people (Qin family) and exists in the western vassal state of Qin. It has a long history of development. After centuries, it reached its peak in a very short historical period and became a national culture with political unity as the background. This is the culture of the Qin Dynasty.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the occupation scope of the State of Qin continued to expand (by the beginning of the 3rd century BC, it had taken over most of Sichuan and western Hubei). With Qin's military conquest, power expansion and personnel migration, the influence and coverage of Qin culture have been expanding. In such a long historical process, Qin culture also absorbed other cultures, and its content became richer and richer.
In the Qin Dynasty, the great unification was completed and the rule of China was realized. Then many measures were taken to consolidate and develop the great unification, including a series of policies to consciously unify ideology and culture, so that "cars are on the same track, books are on the same track, and lines are on the same track". The Book of Rites of Historical Records points out: "To the Qin Dynasty, there is a world, knowing the rituals of the six countries and adopting good ones. Although it is not holy, it respects the monarch and suppresses the minister, and the court gathers in ancient times. " This means that the Qin dynasty absorbed the cultures of the six countries and was inclusive. However, in terms of political culture, the principles formulated by the Qin Dynasty are not to learn and be ignorant, not to worship the classics, to govern the country according to law, and to take officials as teachers. The extreme of carrying out these policies is a barbaric measure of "burning books to bury Confucianism", which seriously destroys culture and severely attacks ideological and academic freedom. Therefore, for the traditional culture of the Central Plains, Qin culture is not mainly about "doing things according to the rules".
Due to the short period of Qin dynasty's rule, the policy aimed at unifying ideology and culture was not fully implemented and did not achieve the expected results. At the same time, under the new historical conditions of political unity, Qin culture failed to fully absorb and digest other cultures. Therefore, in the short period of Qin unification, Qin culture was not integrated with the cultures of the six eastern countries, and its dominant cultural position in China was not fully established. In the vast areas originally belonging to the six eastern countries, regional culture continues to show its own characteristics and vitality.
With the overthrow of the Qin regime, the political pillar on which Qin culture depended collapsed, and Qin culture changed from the subject of cultural integration to the object, and its short period as the ruling culture of China came to an end. However, in the Han Dynasty, the elements of Qin culture continued to exist and maintained a strong influence. "Since the Qin Dynasty, people in the ruling and opposition parties have been ruled by the Qin Dynasty." . Qin culture laid the foundation of national unified form and concept, that is, the foundation of centralized political system. Qin culture achieved the greatest success in the history of China, and had the most profound influence on the traditional culture of China, which was gradually developed in later generations. It should be said that it is its political culture and institutional culture.
During the Warring States and even the Qin and Han Dynasties, some characteristics of Qin culture were often noticed and described by people. For example, Wei Xin said: "Qin and Rong Zhai are the same customs, with the heart of a tiger and a wolf, greedy and insatiable, treacherous and ignorant of etiquette." In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Jia Yi lamented that "the customs of Qin were declining day by day" and pointed out that Qin had been "in parallel" since Shang Yang's political reform. Although it was "striving for strength", the social moral standard declined seriously, and Qin Shihuang also "abandoned Wang Zhidao first, burned hundreds of schools and tried foolish men", further pushing the Qin Dynasty to extinction. "A Brief Introduction to Huainanzi" said: "The customs of Qin people are greedy, ruthless and strong, ungrateful and beneficial." Sima Qian also said: "The customs of Qin today are violent first, then benevolent." The "vulgarity" here means "culture" in part. Although the above remarks contain hostility towards Qin State or Qin people, they reveal some basic characteristics of Qin culture. For example, influenced by their long-term living environment, Qin people tend to be aggressive and aggressive in character. In order to achieve their goals, they can make up their minds and do whatever it takes. Qin culture is pragmatic, utilitarian, simple and straightforward, not vain, pursuing big but many, constantly expanding and extremely active. In order to achieve a certain goal, we will go forward bravely and will not be stopped by any difficulties or forces. These characteristics of Qin culture seem to have been generally recognized by scholars today.
Han culture is the dominant culture in China, not Qin culture. It was first formed during the establishment of political rule in the Western Han Dynasty in China, and then developed further with the historical process of the Han Dynasty (206-220 BC).
Some contemporary scholars believe that China culture is Chu culture. This statement is a bit absolute. But it also puts forward the relationship between Han culture and Chu culture, which is a meaningful problem worth discussing.
Chu culture is also a regional culture with a long history in the pre-Qin period. The early period is also an ancient national culture (as is the early Qin culture). Chu culture, in terms of time, matured with the development of Chu, a southern vassal state. In space, it also spread to vast areas with the continuous expansion of Chu territory during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Like Qin culture, Chu culture has its own distinct characteristics. It has a strong romantic sentiment and mythical color, advocates freedom, is full of passion, is good at imagination, and is good at singing and dancing. However, they also believe in temples of ghosts and gods, attach importance to witches and gods, and have a strong flavor of primitive culture.
Chu culture was born and developed in Jianghan area, belonging to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Chu was once eager to move northward, but was strongly restrained by the northern powers Jin and Qi, and was regarded as barbarians. Therefore, Chu changed its strategic goal, pushed eastward and expanded southward. By the early Warring States period, the eastward expansion of Chu was very strong, basically occupying the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, with its northern boundary close to the Yellow River, and its hometown of wuyue, which belongs to Wuyue Cultural Zone in the east, was all owned by it. At the same time, its southern boundary also reached or crossed Nanling.
However, Chu was seriously threatened by Qin, a western power. In the later period (328-299 BC), the State of Chu lost its land in the northwest border in diplomatic fraud and military invasion of Qin. Later, the situation deteriorated, and Ying, the capital of Chu State (now Jingzhou City, Hubei Province) also fell. In the late Warring States period, the western boundary of Chu moved eastward again and again, and its political, economic and cultural center also moved to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. At the same time, the focus of Chu culture moved eastward. This change is easy to see from historical records. On the one hand, the capital of Chu moved from Ying to Chen (now Huaiyang, Henan Province), and then to Shouchun (now Shouxian, Anhui Province). The political center of Chu moved to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. At the same time, Chu destroyed Ju, Yue and Lu 306 and 256 years ago [44] 1 year ago, and its influence advanced to the eastern coastal areas. The manor of Huang Xie (Chun), a noble of Chu, is located in Jiangdong, near the sea, and the eastern boundary of Chu reaches the boundary between Xu Si and Zou Lu. The residents here have begun to call themselves Chu people. Later, in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang changed Han Xin, the king of Qi, to the king of Chu on the grounds that Han Xin, the king of Qi, learned the custom of Chu. Han Xin was a native of Huaiyin (now southwest of Qingjiang City, Jiangsu Province), and all the Chu States he sealed were in Xiapi (northwest of Suining, Jiangsu Province). It can be seen that as early as the late Warring States period, the so-called "Chu" regional concept was not concentrated in Jianghan area, but in Jianghuai, which is close to the sea.
Looking at the development of the world trend in the late Warring States period, what impressed people most was the two eastward advances of "martial arts" and "literature". The former is Qin Jun's fierce eastward military offensive, while the latter is the eastward spread of Chu culture, whose influence extends from the middle reaches of the Yangtze River to the eastern coastal areas. In just a few decades, the first line of Zou Lu and wuyue along the eastern coast has become the world of Chu culture. Since then, everything with the symbol of "Chu" seems to have not been seriously resented and strongly resisted by local residents.
Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, the most prominent figures in the Qin and Han Dynasties, both showed distinct Chu culture colors. For Xiang Yu, it has its own reasons. His grandfather, Xiang Yan, was a famous soldier in Chu State, so he never forgot his old country. The Xusi area where Liu Bang lived was far away from the center of Chu State in Jianghan Plain, but by the middle and late Warring States period, the influence of Chu State had reached the territory of Zou Lu, and this area was soon "Chu". Liu Bang loves Chu songs, dances and costumes, and his rambling words are also very authentic Chu songs, which can be called a fan of Chu culture. According to the report, "Pei people must say' qi' at the beginning of their speech. Qi' people, Chu Yan also, Gaozu began to ascend to the throne, and the fatwa said' Qi', which was taken for granted later. " It can be seen that Xu and Si are also influenced by Chu language. Liu Bang, who was not a "Chu man" in the first place, was very happy about this and highly praised it.
Between Chu and Han, folk music and Chu sound. In this regard, Lu Xun believes: "Gai Qin destroyed the six countries, and the four sides resented, and Chu was particularly angry. Although the three Qin families are bound to die, the sentimental people in the rivers and lakes attach importance to Chu Sheng. " The promotion of Chu culture has its reasons, but it must be noted that the long-term immersion of Chu culture in the eastern coastal areas has achieved remarkable results, which is the deeper reason for the emergence of "Chu Sheng". The anti-Qin struggle started in Chu State, and Chen Sheng took Chu State as its title and Zhang Chu as its platform. Qin Ershi also called Chen Sheng and others "Chu garrison soldiers". Xiang Yu calls himself "the overlord of western Chu", and the political banner is still "Chu". Liu Bang inherited the career initiated by Chen Sheng and others, and was once appointed by Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu. Although he later defeated Xiang Yu, he was not afraid of Chu.
The Western Han Dynasty was established in such a strong Chu culture atmosphere. The cultural characteristics of the early Han Dynasty are indeed the expression of the basic characteristics of Chu culture. The political guiding ideology in the early Han Dynasty was the skill of Huang Lao, and Huang relied on it. Laozi was originally from Chu.
However, although the Chu sound was high in the early Han Dynasty, the Han culture was not equal to Chu culture. Han culture is not a complete copy and simple model of any culture, but an innovation and creation after all-round absorption and sublation of culture, including the inheritance and transformation of Qin culture and Chu culture. When the Western Han Dynasty replaced the Qin Dynasty politically, it absorbed Chu culture, but it did not completely abandon Qin culture. It also inherited and reformed it. The author agrees with Mr. Yuan's point of view: "Qin culture spread to the whole country after the annexation of six Shandong countries and the establishment of a unified dynasty, which became the basis of the later brilliant Chinese culture." Although the Qin dynasty existed for a short time and its culture was only a flash in the pan, it was a long-term accumulation of energy and had amazing expansion and innovation in content, so it did not die because of its short existence. On the contrary, a considerable part of its content has been transferred to China culture, which has become an important part of China culture and a back door survival of a culture.
Han culture is not Qin culture, but it is not Chu culture. Chinese culture is a brand-new comprehensive new culture, which is not directly derived from a single culture, but inherited from many cultures. Compared with Qin culture and Chu culture, it is more open, more inclusive, richer in content and more grand.
The Han Dynasty, like the Qin Dynasty, was once a regime full of pioneering spirit and great verve. Compared with Qin culture, at least the following features have not fundamentally changed:
First, whether it is Qin culture or Han culture, its most basic feature is that they all have basically the same political culture and institutional culture, and for them, political culture overrides all other cultural elements and dominates everything.
These two cultures have basically the same political system and cultural system. For the first time in the history of China, the Qin Dynasty established a centralized and autocratic political rule, which reached the grassroots level of society and was strictly restricted to every family and everyone. This is what later generations often say "Qin system". The Han dynasty basically followed this whole system. The so-called "Han inherited Qin system" mainly refers to this kind of political inheritance.
"As for the high-impedance, the light is everywhere, and uncle gains and losses are quite a lot, mostly due to Qin. From the title of the son of heaven to the official name of Zuo Liao and the palace, there has been little change. " That is to say, the Western Han system has its own reasons for the Qin system, and the latter is the main reason. After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the supreme ruler was still called the emperor, the official system remained basically unchanged, the government operation mechanism was not much different, and the behavior of the emperor and officials was basically the same. Comparing the psychology and behavior of Emperor Liu Che and Qin Shihuang, we can clearly see the similarities and differences between Chinese culture and Qin culture.
Secondly, the simple and realistic style of Qin culture has been inherited by China culture to a great extent. Qin Dajian built palace gardens, which are basically the same in Chinese. Emperor gaozu just came to power and the situation has not stabilized. Liu Bang himself was still trying to pacify the Quartet, while Xiao He, the prime minister who stayed in Guanzhong, built the Li Hong Weiyang Palace in Chang 'an, which was too large for Liu Bang, the emperor.
However, Xiao He's explanation for this is: "The husband and son of heaven are suitable for living in the four seas and need not be magnificent." This cultural psychology expressed in this way is the potential expression of Qin culture. When Emperor Wudi ruled the palace garden, its scale was no less than that of Qin Shihuang. The mausoleum built by Liang Wudi for his favorite young general, Huo Qubing, is like Qilian Mountain. The stone carvings in front of the tomb are also huge and simple, which is basically consistent with the aesthetic pursuit of Qin people.
Third, pay attention to ghosts and gods and seek different effects (longevity, etc.). ), and with a strong superstitious color. Although there is no developed religion, there is religious fanaticism, similar to Qin culture and Han culture. The good spirit of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is like Chu people and Qin people. On the surface, they look like Chu people in many places, but as far as their big moves are concerned, they are closer to the actions of Qin people.
If we focus our observation of China's traditional culture on political culture, especially institutional culture, I think we should be convinced of such a basic conclusion: "The main body of China culture is Qin culture", "In this sense, Qin culture is indeed the cornerstone of China's culture for nearly two thousand years".
However, there are still great differences between Han culture and Qin culture. Quoting the above arguments does not mean that we must come to the conclusion that "Chinese culture is Qin culture". Han culture is neither Chu culture nor Qin culture.
Compared with Qin culture, China culture is more open, inclusive and compatible. For example, China culture has absorbed rich political and cultural nutrition from Qilu culture, and both political thoughts and courtship etiquette have absorbed more things from Qilu culture than Qin culture. Compared with Qin culture, Han culture strengthened the romantic temperament, and was obviously more influenced by Chu culture. While respecting the reality, China culture also added rationality, which was significantly improved compared with Qin culture in the level of rational speculation. This is a manifestation of culture advancing with the times, and this improved and progressive culture is more suitable for the needs of the times.
During the Western Han Dynasty, many people of insight repeatedly reflected on Qin politics, leaving many extremely valuable ideological materials, which is the famous "Crossing Qin". Guo Qin is a profound historical reflection and a creative exploration of politics on the basis of reflection. Crossing Qin is comprehensive, including repeated reflections on Qin culture. In the process of reflection, people realized some defects of Qin culture and discussed the measures to correct these defects.
In terms of political thought and system, Chinese culture shows stronger resilience and adaptability than Qin culture. Jia Yi has clearly realized that the loss of the Qin government lies in "benevolence and righteousness are not applied, and the offensive and defensive trends are different", that is to say, any ruling thought and policy must be practical and adapt to specific conditions, and it is impossible to go its own way or stick to it. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu put forward the requirement of "modernization", which can also be said to be a derivative of the thought of "crossing the Qin Dynasty". In his later years, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty finally realized the importance of "people-oriented". Successful rulers in the Han Dynasty paid attention to adjusting their policies frequently to conform to the trend. As far as ruling ideology is concerned, in the early Han Dynasty, a series of loose policies such as "ruling by doing nothing" and "sharing interests with the people" were implemented according to Huang Lao's thought, which changed into a "promising" rule with active experts and developed westernization in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and changed again in the period of Zhao and Xuan. Generally speaking, the rulers of the Han dynasty have far surpassed their predecessors in mastering the rhythm of relaxation, so that social contradictions will not be too intense. This is also one of the basic reasons why the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty can maintain a long period of rule and stable development.
The diversity of Chinese culture is much more obvious than that of Qin culture, and its advantages in this respect can also be fully demonstrated. This so-called "overbearing and miscellaneous" Han family system is to mix the political culture of different schools to govern the country and the world. This so-called "miscellaneous" is the ruling idea that widely absorbs different political and cultural colors, with different advantages and disadvantages and taking its essence.
As far as the political system is concerned, the most remarkable difference between the early Han Dynasty and Qin Dynasty is the parallel system of counties and countries. In the Qin Dynasty, the monarch and his subjects had a debate on whether the enfeoffment system was necessary. In fact, as far as the historical conditions at that time were concerned, both Chun, who advocated the enfeoffment system, and Lisi, who advocated the single county system, were one-sided. It is right and good that Qin Shihuang was led by Lisi, but the span from the division of six countries to the high degree of centralization of the world is too great. Such "progress" was unbearable in history at that time. Judging from the result of the demise of the Qin regime, the negative effect of adopting this system is undeniable.
This was not the case in the Han Dynasty. Counties and countries are in parallel, some areas are directly under the jurisdiction of the central government, and some areas are under the jurisdiction of the same-sex princes (at first, some princes with different surnames were the products of special historical conditions, and soon they were basically eliminated). Admittedly, there are many problems in this way, and it will become more and more serious in the future. However, the county and the country are parallel, and the two systems can complement each other. Generally speaking, there is a lot of room for detours. From a historical point of view, the parallel system of counties in the early Western Han Dynasty was appropriate, which had its historical reasons and could not be completely denied because of its subsequent disadvantages.
At all levels of culture, China culture is good at integration and storage, which is conducive to innovation and development. Taking literature as an example, the generative literature in Han Dynasty showed great vitality and creativity. Like Jia Yi, his political essays have the spirit of Qin culture, while his fu absorbed more nutrition from Chu culture. It is precisely because of multi-source absorption, active thinking and great inspiration that the prosperity of literature in Han Dynasty is incomparable to that in Qin Dynasty.
As far as political and social life is concerned, the Han Dynasty is far more open, active and full of vitality than the Qin Dynasty. The Han regime successfully communicated the links between the upper and lower classes of society, and the supreme ruler also had the opportunity to talk with the literati living in the lower classes of society, thus effectively absorbing the latter into the ruling group. From the social spirit of the Han dynasty, it is also more heroic and free and easy. Generally speaking, although the social life of the Han Dynasty was still restricted like that of the Qin Dynasty, it was more flexible and dynamic after all, instead of being too rigid like that of the Qin Dynasty.
However, compared with Qin culture, the mature China culture has some retrogression. For example, Dong Zhongshu's words that "making friends is not for one's own benefit, knowing one's way is not considered as one's merit" and the voices of Confucian scholars such as sages and writers expressed at the Salt and Iron Conference all reflect the conservative tendency of deviating from the utilitarianism of Qin culture. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were more "literary" and "moral" than "military" and "strength" in culture. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the development of the Han Dynasty has obviously weakened.
It is said that when Su Shi was a bachelor of Hanlin in the Northern Song Dynasty, his curtain corporal once used the word "Liu Langzhong only married 187 girls, holding red teeth plates and singing the word" Yang Liuan Xiaofeng Canyue "; The bachelor's ci must be a Kansai man, a copper pipa and an iron rake, and sing' Gone forever' to summarize the different styles of Liu Yong's and Su Shi's ci. Then, can you name something that best represents the different styles of Qin culture, Chu culture and Han culture? It's certainly not easy, but we might as well try. Perhaps, the most representative of the overall style of Qin culture is the legal and cultural system composed of Qin Law (lost, but reappeared in front of the world because of the excavation of Qin Bamboo Slips in the Sleepy Land of Hubei Province) and "taking officials as teachers". The stone carvings and their characters left by Qin Shihuang when he traveled around the world began with the Mausoleum of the Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors and Horses in its burial pits. Naturally, the bronzes and lacquerware that can best represent Chu culture are the philosophy of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi and Chu Ci, which are full of romantic songs and dances to worship Chu God. It is the momentum of "not flying for three years, fame is soaring" and the indomitable spirit of "although Chu has three households, Qin will die". Perhaps the most representative of the overall style of Han culture can be said to be: Han Fu, the system of selecting talents and appointing talents formed during the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, the politics under the cover of the theory of "the unity of heaven and man", the exploration spirit of "exploring heaven and man" embodied in historical records, the debate at the Salt and Iron Conference (mainly embodied in the book "On Salt and Iron"), and the Confucian moral education based on "filial piety". This example may make Fang's family laugh, but I beg your opinions on whether it is appropriate.