Jian Shang

An Apocalypse of Xia, Shang and Zhou

Preface by Xu Hong; unanimously recommended by Luo Xin + Xu Jilin + Liu Suli + Yang Bin

Xu Hong: "You can't put this book down after reading it. In the end, I will use the word 'shock' to describe my feeling and mood."

★Boundary Monument: Start the reading of Chinese history from this book!

This book has the nature of a boundary monument. The author has climbed to the top of this research field, and it will also be a work that cannot be bypassed by similar research and writing.

At the same time, it also sets up a starting point: any researcher or ordinary reader who is interested in classical Chinese thought, belief, ethics, customs, as well as politics and system can start your exploration from this book.

This work is also the crystallization of social peace and wealth accumulation in the past few decades, allowing us to get a glimpse of why our group is like this and why we are so far before entering the dark historical passage again. It will encourage us to know ourselves and face the future.

——Founder of Liu Suli Wansheng Book Garden

★Mathematician's logic, writer's imagination

A good historical work requires not only the logic of mathematicians, but also the imagination of writers. From this point of view, Li Shuo's "Jian Shang" is grand in its grandeur and upright in its subtleties: it details the appearance and disappearance of human sacrifices in the early Chinese civilization, and why "Wu Wang's Conquerment of Business" is not just an event. A simple regime change is a milestone revolution in the history of Chinese civilization.

Therefore, I would like to summarize Li Shuo's insights with the "Shang and Zhou changes": For Chinese civilization, this change has a deeper and farther significance than the Tang and Song changes two thousand years later!

——Yang Bin, professor of the History Department of the University of Macau, member of Xiling Yinshe, author of "Sea Shells and Shell Coins: A Little-Known Global History"

★Use archaeological achievements to understand mysterious documents and reconstruct the historical cognition of King Wu's defeat of Zhou

In the traditional narrative of ancient history, the face of the Shang, Zhou and Yi dynasties is vague. We know very little about the details behind it. What are the manifestations of King Zhou's "no way"? What was the aristocratic life of the Shang Dynasty royal family like? Who were the people of the Shang Dynasty? What is the secret between their daily life and sacrifice? This book uses a large number of modern archaeological excavation results, corresponds to oracle bone inscriptions and "Book of Changes" hexagrams, reinterprets incomprehensible words, and reveals an important page in ancient Chinese history for readers.

After Wang Guowei, the importance of the Shang and Zhou revolutions in Chinese history has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people; Li Shuo vividly portrayed this importance.

——Luo Xin, Professor of History Department of Peking University

★ Reproduce the great turning point of human sacrifice and early Chinese civilization from companionship to separation

The first dynasty, the Xia Dynasty (Erlitou), followed the custom of killing people and offering sacrifices since the Neolithic Age, and reached its peak in the Shang Dynasty. King Wen of Zhou was detained in Yindu as a human animal because he was suspected by King Zhou of Shang Dynasty, and his eldest son Bo Yikao was also sacrificed by King Zhou. Since then, King Wen developed the system of hexagrams and lines in the "Book of Changes", and recorded many events that King Wen of Zhou personally experienced and recognized, with the ultimate goal of calculating the strategy of "Jian Shang".

After King Wu destroyed the Shang Dynasty, he imitated the human sacrifice behavior of merchants; after the death of King Wu, he was assisted by the Duke of Zhou, who completely banned the religion of human sacrifice, destroyed the literature records about human sacrifice in the Shang Dynasty, and created a set of ideals without human sacrifice. The historical narrative, as well as the secular political and moral system based on "virtue".

The major events of the country lie in sacrifice and Rong. This book begins with human sacrifices, and tells why sacrifices and wars in the Shang Dynasty are so closely related, and how the changes in Yin and Zhou Dynasties occurred.

——Xu Jilin, Professor of History Department, East China Normal University

★Discover the humanistic spirit of ancient times, recall the enlightenment of Chinese civilization

Looking back to the origin, the Shang and Zhou Dynasties were the starting point of China's rebirth. This is not a simple change of dynasty. The ritual and music civilization initiated by the Zhou Dynasty replaced the ghost culture of the Shang Dynasty; the humanism of Zhou Gong and Confucius defeated the "religious mysticism" of Wu Ding and King Zhou, and laid the foundation stone for Chinese people's beliefs.

★The new work of Li Shuo, a young historian and author of "Three Hundred Years of the Civil War"

Li Shuo wrote influential historical works such as "Three Hundred Years of the Civil War" and "The Great History of Confucius". , war, military affairs and daily life, turning old paper piles and ruins into vivid plot stories, and using historical materials to give flesh and blood to mythical characters (Jiang Taigong, Zhou Wenwang, Shang Zhou...).

【brief introduction】

The opening book of "Li Shuo's History of China", start reading Chinese history from this book!

This book mainly talks about the emergence and transformation of Chinese civilization. From the emergence of the Xia Dynasty (Erlitou Culture) 4,000 years ago to the demise of the Shang Dynasty 3,000 years ago and the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the time span is more than 1,000 years.

Since the Neolithic Age, the primitive religion of killing people and offering sacrifices has been formed in North China. The first dynasty, the Xia Dynasty (Erlitou), also followed this culture of human sacrifice, and reached its peak in the subsequent Shang Dynasty. The Zhou people were located in the remote west, and there was no tradition of human sacrifices, but they once took refuge in the Shang Dynasty and hunted the Qiang people for sacrifices for the Shang Dynasty. King Wen of Zhou was detained in Yindu as a human animal because he was suspected by King Zhou of Shang Dynasty. Finally, King Wen's eldest son Bo Yikao was sacrificed by King Zhou. King Wen learned the fortune-telling techniques of merchants, and developed the system of hexagrams and lines in the "Book of Changes"-recording many events that King Wen of Zhou personally experienced and recognized, with the ultimate goal of calculating the strategy of "Jian Shang".

After King Wu destroyed the Shang Dynasty, he imitated the human sacrifice behavior of merchants; after the death of King Wu, he was assisted by the Duke of Zhou, who completely banned the religion of human sacrifice, destroyed the literature records about human sacrifice in the Shang Dynasty, and created a set of ideals without human sacrifice. The historical narrative, as well as the secular political and moral system based on "virtue".

These actions of Duke Zhou created a new Chinese civilization. Five hundred years later, Confucius edited the Confucian "Six Classics" and systematically sorted out the theoretical achievements of Duke Zhou. The Duke of Zhou and Confucius shaped the Confucian school, whose influence continues into modern times.

In a nutshell, with the help of archaeological materials and handed down documents, this book sorts out the whole process of the emergence, prosperity and extinction of the custom of human sacrifice in ancient times, as well as the great turning point of human sacrifice and early Chinese civilization from companionship to separation, and reproduces the ancient people (Zhou people). ) made great efforts to end the Shang Dynasty and the custom of human sacrifice, which gave us a new understanding of the origin of Chinese civilization.