Xia Xiaozheng is a book, and it is also the earliest existing almanac dedicated to recording traditional farming. But we don't know who the author of this book is. We can only speculate that he or they lived in the Warring States period or the Han Dynasty. According to the contents of the book, many people speculate whether there is any connection between the book and the Xia Dynasty. Can Xia Xiaozheng be used as the historical evidence to prove the existence of the Xia Dynasty?
It is said that Xia Xiaozheng is a surviving astrology, phenology and farming almanac in the Xia Dynasty. As we all know, the classical Chinese in ancient China in Zhou Dynasty is very ancient and difficult to understand. A word or word may need to be interpreted in a whole paragraph or more of modern Chinese. Moreover, because the time is too long, the historical records are mixed. For Xia Xiaozheng, which has only 400 words The same is true of historical data.
Today, through archaeological excavation, the historical context of the three dynasties in ancient China - Xia, Shang, Zhou, Shang and Zhou, because of archaeological discoveries and written records, at least in the context of the Dynasty and other aspects of a more consistent consensus, but for the Xia Dynasty, even its existence must be questioned.
Therefore, Xia Xiaozheng has greater research value.
1、 A brief textual research on Xia Xiaozheng.
The text of Xia Xiaozheng, which is handed down today, was first found in the book of rites of Dadai written by Dade in the Han Dynasty. This is not to say that Xia Xiaozheng was first found in historical books in this period. In fact, Xia Xiaozheng is recorded in Shiji · Xia Benji: when Confucius was in Xia Dynasty, scholars mostly passed on Xia Xiaozheng.
In fact, Xia Xiaozheng was not named by this name at first. In many places in the book, he called himself Xiaozheng. For example, Hong didn't have to be Xiaozheng's deceased.
It can be seen that the name of Xia Xiaozheng is believed by later generations that the book should have been handed down from the Xia Dynasty, and most of its contents are related to the Xia Dynasty. Therefore, the word "Xia" was added before the title of the book to create Xia Xiaozheng.
According to the book of rites · Liyun, Confucius said, "I want to observe the way of Xia, so it's a sacrifice. If I don't have enough, I will have the time of Xia." When Zheng Xuan annotated this passage, he thought that what Confucius said "I have summer time" was Xiaozheng, that is, xiaxiaozheng.
It can be inferred that Xiaozheng existed at least in the spring and Autumn period. Then, how did the books of Zhou Dynasty recording the phenology and astrology of Xia Dynasty come down after five or six hundred years?
There is a saying in the book of history: only the ancestors of Yin had books.
In fact, the records left by the ancients in our country are quite accurate. According to the book of history, there were books in the Shang Dynasty. Before the oracle bone inscriptions were found, this matter was still in doubt. When a large number of oracle bone inscriptions were unearthed, people found that what the book of history said was true.
Therefore, we can infer that the Shang Dynasty inherited from the Xia dynasty may have collected or recorded the phenology and astrology of the Xia Dynasty, and even edited into a book.
Therefore, I think the completion date of Xia Xiaozheng can be extended to the Western Zhou Dynasty, even to the Shang Dynasty.
2、 Xia Xiaozheng and Xia Dynasty.
Although Xia Xiaozheng has only 400 words, its content is very rich, involving agriculture, astronomy, sacrifice, personnel and so on. We can also discuss whether these contents are really from the Xia Dynasty.
1. The calendar in Xia Xiaozheng.
Although Xia Xiaozheng is written in December, only the first month to October is recorded, and the remaining two months are vacant. At the same time, the records of the ten months are similar to the records of the whole year in later studies.
For example, "may" in Xia Xiaozheng records "keeping the sun at times", while "October" records "keeping the night at times". The so-called "keeping the day" or "keeping the night" should be summer solstice and winter solstice respectively according to the interpretation of later generations. There are only five months between "keeping the day (summer solstice)" and "keeping the night (winter solstice)". Therefore, it can be inferred that the calendar used in Xia Xiaozheng is ten Monthly calendar, that is to say, a year is counted as ten months.
Therefore, the two months recorded by the vacant astrology should be the result of the later generations' ignorance of the ancient October calendar and the addition of superfluous things. This is also a common problem in the spread of ancient books. It means that later generations tamper with ancient books because of clerical errors, misunderstanding or other reasons.
In fact, the October calendar is also recorded in other ancient books, such as "yizhoushu zhouyue": zhouzheng begins at the beginning of the year, counting from one to ten. The second is the first, the other is the second.
It is also recorded in the book Taiping Jing of the Han Dynasty that the end of the tenth number, therefore, the beginning of the tenth number is reversed in October.
This is a very old calendar, which uses a variety of stars as coordinates to observe and make calendars. Therefore, there will be more detailed records about stars in Xia Xiaozheng, because stars are the root of calendar making in Xia Dynasty.
According to the records in Xia Xiaozheng, the ancients called this kind of calendar "ancient summer calendar". This is different from the two seasons solar calendar used in Yin and Shang Dynasties and the familiar calendar used in Zhou Dynasty.
The new summer calendar used in the Zhou Dynasty also comes from the ancient summer calendar handed down from the Xia Dynasty. Some scholars infer that the Xia Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty may have the same origin. From this point, we can also confirm that this part of Xia Xiaozheng, that is, the astrology and calendar, is indeed recorded from the Xia Dynasty, or at least the Xia civilization circle.
2. From Xia Xiaozheng to July in the book of songs.
July in the book of songs is also a long poem that records many seasons and phenology. The biggest connection between this poem and Xia Xiaozheng is that it also uses the ancient summer calendar, that is, the October calendar. From "in February (spring), there is a cry of canggeng" to "in October, crickets come into my bed to get rice, rice and corn.".
Later scholars made a detailed comparison of the two historical materials, and believed that from the phenological records, it can be concluded that the two historical materials used the same calendar. Moreover, in terms of word similarity, phenology, time and season, solar term celebration, there is also a high degree of correlation.
Xia Xiaozheng: there is Ming canggeng in February. July: in the spring, there is Ming canggeng.
Xia Xiaozheng: Collection in February. July: spring is a long way to go.
Xia Xiaozheng: Mulberry shooting in March July: canyuetiaoshang.
……
Xia Xiaozheng: Wang Shiqiu in September. July: clothing in September.
This similarity at least represents the inheritance of a civilization. Obviously, there is a great correlation between the Zhou Dynasty and the Xia Dynasty. It is recorded in historical records that Hou Ji was the ancestor of Zhou Dynasty. According to the records of the historian, Zhou Benji: Emperor Yao heard about it and gave it up as a farmer's teacher. It is also said that the rise of Houji had its virtue in the Tang Dynasty and the Xia Dynasty.
According to historical records, the ancestor of Zhou Dynasty was the Minister of agriculture in Xia Dynasty, and the rise of Zhou Dynasty was just at this time. From this point of view, the Zhou Dynasty should be an important vassal state or Fang state in the Xia Dynasty. After the Xia Dynasty of the Shang Dynasty, this vassal state "ran between Rong and Di".
According to historical records, the process of Xia Dynasty in Shang Dynasty was not cruel. For most of the small vassals and Fangguo, Shang Dynasty did not raise troops to punish them. In this situation, the ancestors of Zhou Dynasty fled. This proves from the side that the relationship between Zhou Dynasty and Xia Dynasty was very deep, even the high-level of Xia Dynasty, so they chose to flee in the face of the attack of Shang Dynasty.
It seems that we can get such an interpretation, that is, the founder of the Zhou Dynasty was a branch of the Xia Dynasty, so the Zhou Dynasty followed the Xia Dynasty's calendar in the early period. On the other hand, it also proves the existence of Xia civilization to a certain extent.
3. Thoughts in Xia Xiaozheng.
In the book of rites, it is said that Confucius said: Xia Dao respects orders, he respects ghosts, he is far away from gods, and he is loyal to people close to him The people of Yin respected the gods and led the people to serve the gods. The ghosts were the first, and then the rites were the second. The punishments were the first, and then the rewards were the second. The people's poverty is not quiet, victory is shameless. The people of Zhou Dynasty respected courtesy, worshiped ghosts, worshiped gods, and were loyal to people close to them
From this passage, we can see the changes in the view of destiny in Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. In Xia Dynasty, people were closer to nature. Although they had a reverence for ghosts and gods, they respected the destiny and nature more. Since different Shang Dynasty had different painting styles, and Zhou Dynasty had a long relationship with Xia Dynasty, although they were also "far away from ghosts and gods", their spiritual core was different.
This is obvious in Xia Xiaozheng.
Xia Xiaozheng does not contain the Yin Yang and five elements and other similar theories in the Zhou Dynasty and later books. It is a more intuitive and simple view of heaven and earth. This idea is consistent with the Xia Dynasty in historical records.
To sum up, I think Xia Xiaozheng is an extremely rare and intuitive historical record of the Xia Dynasty, which is of great significance for the study of the Xia Dynasty. However, it is impossible to confirm the existence of the Xia Dynasty only by Xia Xiaozheng, a 400 word book.
On the other hand, the mutual evidence between Xia Xiaozheng and other historical materials can at least prove to a certain extent that there was a highly developed civilization before the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
As for whether this civilization is Xia civilization, and whether Xia civilization is a dynasty similar to Shang and Zhou dynasties, it is still doubtful.
