The latest version of Middle School History Textbook (Partial Edition) has now been released, and teaching material has improved in many places. For example, description of Xia dynasty is more appropriate, and mentions lack of archaeological evidence, nature of "national rebellions" and "republican government" is revised. Previously, "national revolts" were considered to be slave revolts, and "republican government" was a republican system. It is now believed that "Chinese riots" are nobles expelling king, and "republican administration" is regent of republic; content of beginnings of capitalism in Ming and Qing dynasties is crossed out, and it is noted that this is only opinion of some scholars. However, three conservative forces in history books still persist, influencing generations of people.

Theory of one, five social forms

The theory of "five social forms" means that human society must go through five stages: primitive society, slave society, feudal society, capitalist society and socialism. This view influenced vast majority of Chinese people and still exists today. Only students who had opportunity to enter history departments of universities are subjected to a more objective method of staging. The theory of five social forms was first proposed by Engels, he divided history of mankind into a primitive tribal society, an ancient slave society, a medieval serf society, a modern society of wage labor and a future communist society. Lenin in Russia turned medieval serf society into a feudal one. In 1938, the Soviet Union made The Theory of Five Social Forms an absolute historical theory.

After founding of New China, this theory was introduced into China and became absolute "truth". However, there is a big problem with this theory. First, this theory is only suitable for European history, not for China. For example, "feudalism" is a system of enfeoffment, which is a loose system of local government adopted at dawn of common countries. It was widely used in China during Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. In Middle Ages in Europe, in countries originally created by Germans, system of enfeoffment also became widespread. However, after this theory was introduced to China, era after Warring States period was mechanically called "feudal society". In fact, after Warring States period, China basically adopted a centralized system of power.

Western Zhou Enfeoffment

Secondly, slave system and feudal system are just a kind of system and cannot represent a society. For example, feudal system has existed since Xia Dynasty, while "San Francisco" has existed since before Qing Dynasty. In China, for example, slavery is just a social phenomenon. We often say that Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were a slave society. In fact, most prosperous era of slavery in China was Han Dynasty. After Southern and Northern Dynasties, slaves mostly became servants. And in USA there were black slaves until modern times. Is USA a "society of slaves"?

European feudalism

I still appreciate L. H. Morgan's method of dividing human society into three eras: era of savagery, era of barbarism, and era of civilization. Among them, era of savagery is Paleolithic era, and main production of man is gathering - fishing and hunting; era of barbarism is Neolithic era, people learned agriculture and animal husbandry, villages appeared; era of civilization is era of entering national arena, and "civilization" in English. The word is similar to Chinese "country", "city", "city-state" and so on. We can continue to divide era of civilization into era of traditional civilization (including agricultural civilization, maritime civilization and nomadic civilization) and era of industrial civilization (modern civilization). Modern people are in era of industrial civilization.

Second, Tan Qixiang's territory

The textbooks have always used Tang Qixiang as base map. As for Tan Qixiang's map, I have written many articles explaining it. The biggest problem with his maps is showdown, and there are a lot of biased places. The most problematic part of Tan Qixiang's map is territory of Qin Dynasty, territory of Tang Dynasty, territory of Yuan Dynasty, and territory of Ming Dynasty.

It is recorded in history that territory of Qin Dynasty stretched from Mount Yinshan in north, Xianghu (Rinan) in south, sea in east and Longxi in west. There are two problems with Tang version of territory of Qin dynasty. First, Yunnan-Guizhou area was included in territory. In fact, Yelan, Dian, and other "Southwestern Yi" countries existed at that time in Yunnan and Guizhou, and they did not have diplomatic relations with Central Plains until Han Dynasty and were included in territory. Among 48 counties of Qin Dynasty, none of them were located in Yunnan and Guizhou. Second, location of Xiangjun. According to Hanshu, Xiang County is located in northern and central part of Vietnam, and Han Dynasty was divided into three counties: Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen, and Rinan. Initially, this was not controversial, but after World War II, Vietnamese national sentiment was high, and many Vietnamese scholars considered Xiang County to be in Guangxi rather than Vietnam. To take care of feelings of his Vietnamese friends, Tan Qixiang painted Xiangjun in Guangxi.

From Han Dynasty to Southern and Northern Dynasties, territory of Central Plains Dynasty generally did not pose much of a problem. Only jurisdiction of "western regions of Changshifu" under Wei and Jin dynasties is open to debate. However, northern border of nomads is very problematic. Observing carefully, from Mongolian highlands to Heilongjiang, Tang engraved a rounded arc that has not changed for hundreds of years, which is actually impossible. In addition, nomads are by nature mobile, so a northern border is out of question.

600 years of permanent northern arc

There are two main problems with Tang version of Tang territory. One of them is that map of western regions of Tang Gaozong period was too far away, and it was all facing Persia. In 661, Arab Empire destroyed Persian Empire and Persian prince fled to Tokhara, sought help from Tang Dynasty, and was canonized as "Persian Governor's Mansion". Tang Bang painted a corner of Persia as part of Tang Dynasty. In fact, Prince of Persia was on run. In 664, Arabia occupied Tocharia, and Persian prince fled to Chang'an. At this time, Tang Dynasty and Arabia bordered Tsunling. In addition, in northwest of Western Regions, Tang dynasty reached its peak in 657 when Ashina Helu was destroyed, but Western Turks did not die. The Western Turkic Khanate occupied most of land in Central Asia and competed with Tang dynasty and Arabia, and only after collapse of civil strife in Turkestan in 758 did Western Turkic Khanate really perish. Thus, extent of western regions of Tang Dynasty is about same as that of the Han Dynasty.

Tang version of Tang Gaozong map

Secondly, maps of late Tang Dynasty were too outrageous. On Tan Qixiang's map, entire vast basin of Heilongjiang River was drawn on map. At end of Tang Dynasty of century, its forces had mostly withdrawn from Liaodong, not to mention distant Heilongjiang. During reign of Wu Zetian, after Yingzhou rebellion, Mohe tribe defeated army of Tang dynasty at Battle of Tianmenling, and then Khitans again blocked communication between Tang dynasty and Liaodong king. According to various historical events, Tang Dynasty's military power gradually withdrew from Liaodong region during this period. In 714, Anton's protectorate moved to Yingzhou (Chaoyang) and was completely abolished by Anshi rebellion. After that, Tang Dynasty only nominally awarded titles of Heishui Dudufu, Bohai Dudufu, Shiwei Dudufu, etc., but did not actually control it. The Bohai Sea also had many years of war with Tang Dynasty and occupied Liaodong.

Tang version of a map from late Tang Dynasty

The territory of Yuan Dynasty can be seen as a model for development of map. The Tan version of Lingbei Province of Yuan Dynasty faced coast of Arctic Ocean. At that time, Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated, and politics influenced Tan Qixiang's map. During Yuan Dynasty, Guo Shoujing established 27 observatories throughout country, northernmost of which was in Beihai. According to Astronomical Record of Yuan History, "Beihai, North Pole is 65 degrees above earth, and summer solstice sundial shadow is six feet seven inches and eight minutes long. , Eighty-two quarters of day and eighteen quarters of night", according to assumption, North Sea is located at about 63 degrees north latitude. In addition, someone suggested that Yuan Dynasty recorded that someone saw polar day phenomenon. The editor believes that what we see is not necessarily territory. When we see moon, it is impossible to say that moon belongs to us.

Ming Dynasty Territory, Historical Record "Jian Ming was entrusted with Lue, starting from North Korea in east, occupying Tufan in west, spanning Annan in south, and from Daqi in north." In early days, he had already moved to Hezhou (now Linxia), and Zhu Yuanzhang placed guards on Hezhou. Dhaka is also Gobi desert, which is junction of Monan and Mobei. This means that territory of early Ming Dynasty stretched from Gobi Desert in north, Annan in south, Linxia in west, and Yalu River in east. The territory of Ming Dynasty reached its peak during Yongle period. Tan Qixiang's peak map of Ming Dynasty is very interesting, he decided to draw it in 1433 because Gandusi Nuer were still living there in that year and Vietnam became independent (to take care of Vietnam's feelings). In addition, his Ming peak map included the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which is not objective.

Ming Dynasty Map 1433

3. Data from Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties

The textbook uses data from Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, saying that Western Zhou Dynasty was founded in 1046 BC, Shang Dynasty in 1600 BC, and Xia Dynasty in 2070 BC With regard to these three data, editor also wrote corresponding articles for refutation. The dating project did not use data of 471 Xia Dynasty, 496 Shang Dynasty, and 257 Western Zhou Dynasty, recorded in ancient book "Bamboo Book Chronicles", but an attempt was made to get time of important events. events from astronomical records. For example, in Guoyu it is written that "in past, King Wu conquered business, year was in quail fire, moon was in Tianxi, sun was in Simujing, chen was in pen, and star was in sky", so project calculated "the year in quail fire » 1046 BC

Wang Biao from Xia, Shang and Zhou Dating Project (1)

However, according to studies by relevant scientists, about 50% of astronomical phenomena recorded in ancient China are false. Since ancient Chinese believed that "heaven and man interact with each other", "this is what historian wants to do", so magical celestial phenomenon will be associated with a big event when it happens. Secondly, astronomical calculations will also contradict real records. For example, people calculate solar eclipse records in oracle bone inscriptions using astronomical calculations, but time is always wrong.

Royal table 2

The Dating Project set time when King Wu destroyed Shang in 1046 BC, so go on to determine founding of Shang Dynasty. However, there is no clear record in historical data about strange astronomical phenomenon of extermination of Xia by Shang Tang, which makes it difficult to carry out astronomical calculations. However, archaeologists calculated age of Zhengzhou Shangcheng from carbon 14 and determined that site was between 1600 B.C. and 1560 BC Of course, there are still internal stages, for example, Mr. Zou Heng said that earliest date for Shangcheng ruins could be 17th century BC. At that time, scholars said that Shang Dynasty existed for 576 years, 552 years, 526 years, etc., and these times plus 1046 years, it was about 1600 BC. Therefore, dating project invented a method for rounding integers and considered 1600 B.C. beginning of Shang Dynasty, which was very inaccurate.

Royal table 3

However, there is no astronomical phenomenon to speculate about founding of Xia Dynasty, and no ruins to verify it. Therefore, project directly used data of 471 years from ancient book "Bamboo Book Chronicles" and set 2070 BC as time of founding of Xia Dynasty. According to ancient book Bamboo Book Chronicles, Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties existed respectively in 471, 496 and 257, according to this calculation, Western Zhou dynasty was founded in 1027 BC, and Shang dynasty in 1027 1522 B.C. The Xia Dynasty was founded in 1992 B.C. The time of ancient "Bamboo Book Chronicles" is a system, if you want to believe in it, you must believe in all three, and if you do not believe, then you cannot believe in any of three. However, Project of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties did not do this, but simply chose one of them according to their needs and "made up numbers".

Reference reading

Was there a feudal society in ancient China? Internal contradiction in complete copying of Western points of view

Is famous project of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties bean curd project in history of Chinese culture?

The westernmost territory of Tang Dynasty reached Aral Sea and Persia? Tan Qixiang played card to limit

Did Qin dynasty really rule Yunnan and Guizhou? Tell about mistakes of Tan Qixiang in territory of Qin Dynasty

How big was territory of Yuan Dynasty? Look for truth in facts, don't trust the cards in textbooks