Has China been up and down for five thousand years?

In the past century, whenever we mention our own history, we will say "five thousand years up and down" and "five thousand years of Chinese civilization". If you want to ask, how did the number of five thousand years come from? We can definitely answer: this is a traditional saying, which follows an old saying of Sima Qian in Historical Records, that is, the Yellow Emperor is the beginning of ancient history, and there is no other source. Because one hundred years ago, the archaeological work in China had not yet started, the method of dating antiquities with carbon fourteen had not yet been invented, and some statements made by western scholars about the ancient history of China had not yet been introduced to China.

The Yellow Emperor lived 5000 years ago. Did Sima Qian say this? No. Sima Qian did not list Huang San as the first in Historical Records, but listed the Yellow Emperor as the first in the Chronicle of the Five Emperors, and regarded the Yellow Emperor as our humanistic ancestor, which is very good. As for the specific time when the Yellow Emperor was alive, he did not say. He said in Historical Records: Three Generations of the World Table: "It has been years since the Yellow Emperor. However, he can't remember the year of Biography of Five Emperors. Probably, he thought those years were unreliable, so he didn't adopt them, which shows that he is rigorous in his studies and won't take unfounded historical materials lightly. In this case, where did the years of the Yellow Emperor era used by later generations come from?

At present, some historical reference books contain chronologies of major events at home and abroad, including the year when the Yellow Emperor was in power. According to the Comparison Table of Huangdi Times during the Revolution of 1911 attached to Cihai, the source of this fixed number of years is as follows:

"In every calendar year, the age used by People's Daily is accepted by most revolutionaries. After Wuchang Uprising, the statement of Hubei military government was based on this, and the statements of various provinces also adopted this statement. When Sun Yat-sen took office as interim president, he electrified the provinces, taking 4609 as the first year of the Republic of China. 」

But where did the age used in People's Daily come from? It was originally calculated according to the relevant figures in ancient books. The process of this calculation is:

First of all, according to Shao Yong's book "History of the Yellow River" in Song Dynasty, the first year of Yao was called Nian, which was later designated as 2357 BC by Lu. Shao Yong, that is, Shao Kangjie, is not a historian, but a philosopher who is proficient in "the study of numbers". The Jing Shi of Huang Ji is also a book of Shu Shu, and its credibility can be imagined. In addition, the so-called "test" lacks reliable data.

Secondly, it is known that the first year of Yao was 2357 BC, and then according to the Emperor's Century written by Huangfu Mi in the Jin Dynasty, it is considered that there are five emperors above Yao, with a total calendar of 34 1 year. Among them, Huangdi reigned in 100, Shao Hao Jintian reigned in 84 years, Zhuan Xu Levin reigned in 78 years, reigned in 70 years, and Emperor Zhi reigned in 9 years. According to this calculation, the first year of the Yellow Emperor should be 2698 BC. This Huangfu Mi is not a historian, but a doctor in Jin Dynasty, who is proficient in acupuncture. His The Emperor's Century is an amateur work. Whether it is credible depends on the year when the five emperors were in power, so it is not difficult for us to speculate. It is hard to believe that this is the life span of the Five Emperors. I want to ask: Could human life span reach 100 years more than 4,000 years ago?

The so-called "Yellow Emperor era" is just a bold guess, and there is no credible basis. From the era of the Yellow Emperor, that is, 2698 BC to this year (1999), it is 4697, less than 5000 years, close to 5000 years. This is the real source of the "five thousand years" theory. The People's Daily adopted the era of the Yellow Emperor at that time, but it was just "making the past serve the present", which was put forward by revolutionaries in the late Qing Dynasty out of the propaganda need of "expelling the Tatars and restoring China". This has not been carefully studied, so it is definitely not credible.

Besides the traditional old theory, what's new about the 5,000-year theory? Some people may think that the Hongshan Culture site in the northeast of China is only 5,000 years ago, and Su, a famous archaeologist in China, also said that it is an ancient country with a history of 5,000 years. However, these new theories only appeared in the 1980s and 1990s, and the theory of "Up and Down Five Thousand Years" began in the Revolution of 1911. Therefore, the traditional old theory is the only source of the 5,000-year theory.