Social sacrifice, or social sacrifice, is one of the most important primitive religious rituals inherited from the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.

Every time the emperor fulfilled his throne, divided the princes, went on triumphal expeditions, prayed for good luck and warded off disasters, the three dynasties of the dynasty had to hold social ceremonies, worship, pray and offer sacrifices to the gods of the land.

According to historical documents, social sacrifices as a ritual system began in the Xia Dynasty and were the externalization of Xia people’s religious beliefs.

According to a comprehensive analysis of documents from the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, the social sacrifices of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties mainly had the following characteristics.

The first is to seal the earth and build an altar to worship the social god (land god). For example, "Customs and Customs·Sacrifice Code" states: "The community is the owner of the land. The land is vast and cannot be worshiped everywhere. Therefore, the land is sealed as a community and worshiped as a reward for merit.

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"Xiao Jingwei" also said: "She is the god of the land. The land is so vast that it cannot be sacrificed, so the land is sealed as a society to repay the merits."

The social altar is generally square in shape and made of five-color soil.

"White Tiger Tongyi·Sheji": "The emperor has a big shrine, which is green in the east, red in the south, white in the west, black in the north, and has loess on top."

The scale of the social altar, according to ancient documents cited in "White Tiger Tongyi": "The emperor's social altar is five feet wide, and the princes are half as wide."

Secondly, the social altar is built in the open air. As the saying goes, "Without a house, the emperor's grand shrine must be exposed to frost, dew, wind and rain in order to reach the atmosphere of heaven and earth."

The location for building an altar is generally chosen to be at a high place surrounded by large bushes. "Mozi Ming Gui Xia" states: "In the past, Yu Xia and Shang were the holy kings of the Three Dynasties, who first established the state-run capital...

You must choose trees that are luxuriant and build them into a community."

"Warring States Policy·Qin Policy Three": "Yinghou said to King Zhao: Hengsi has gods and bushes?" Han Gao's note said: "The lushness of the trees is supported by the gods, so the ancient Sheji always relies on the trees."

"Baihu Tongyi·Sheji" explains the characteristics of the structure of the community altar and says: "What is the reason why there are trees in Sheji? Respect them and recognize them, so that the people will respect them when they see them."

Its purpose is to create an eerie, mysterious and majestic religious atmosphere, so that people will have a sense of respect and fear for the land god, thereby strengthening people's respect and worship for the social god.

To summarize, the three generations of "shes" created by the Xia Dynasty and inherited by the Yin and Zhou Dynasties to worship the earth gods must have at least the following characteristics.

The earth is sealed as a community, that is, the altar is built of earth.

Social altars are generally square in shape, reflecting the ancient concept of a round sky and a round earth.

The soil on which the altar is built is of many colors.

The social forum is open-air.

Social forums are usually built on high ground.

There are big trees around the club.

In the Liangzhu culture, many sacrificial relics from this period have been discovered since the 1980s, all of which are consistent with the concept of "social sacrifice".

From 1982 to 1984, archaeologists from the SH Municipal Cultural Relics Preservation Committee excavated a sacrificial relic with a square earthen platform in the middle of a large pit from the late Liangzhu Culture at the Fuquanshan site in Qingpu, Shanghai.

In the summer of 1987, archaeologists from the ZJ Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology discovered an altar relic from the Liangzhu Culture period and 12 Liangzhu Culture tombs in Yaoshan, Anxi, Yuhang, Zhejiang.

The discovery of the Yaoshan altar ruins is one of the major achievements of Liangzhu cultural field archeology in this century!

Three years later, archaeologists from ZJ Province unearthed a Liangzhu Cultural altar similar to the Yaoshan altar and four Liangzhu Cultural tombs that broke the altar at the Huiguanshan site in Pingyao Town, Yuhang County!

This shows that the "sacrifice" of the Liangzhu people is not only large-scale, but also institutionalized and professionalized, and the sacrificial rituals have become standardized and procedural.

Interestingly, the remains of the Xia Hou family's "social sacrifice" altar are nowhere to be found in the Yellow River Basin, which is traditionally considered the birthplace of Xia culture.

There is still nothing similar to the "altar ruins" found in the Yellow River Basin.

The altar remains of the Liangzhu Culture are quite similar in shape and cultural connotation to the "Xia She" recorded in the literature of the Three Dynasties.

The Liangzhu Culture altar is square in shape, which is not only consistent with the shape of social altars of the Three Dynasties, but also consistent with the traditional "local theory".

The Liangzhu Cultural Altar is carefully built with three colors of earth. The red earth platform, gray earth ditch and yellow brown earth platform form an organic whole platform inside and outside.

This is roughly the same as the literature records of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties that "sealed the soil into a society" and built social altars with red, cyan, black and yellow soil.

The Liangzhu Cultural Altar was built in the open air and is surrounded by lush green trees. You can imagine the towering trees in this area back then.

This is consistent with the scene in the literature that the "Xia She" has no houses, the community altar is in the open air, surrounded by trees, and the people look at it in awe.

The Yaoshan Altar is built on the top of a hill, with vast plain fields to the south, which was the land where the ancestors of the Liangzhu Culture grew rice and other crops.

Therefore, the altar is obviously related to the land worship that was popular among the ancestors, and it was a place for worshiping the land gods in the Xia Dynasty.

All these indicate that the close relationship between the Liangzhu Cultural Altar and the "social society" of the Three Dynasties is by no means an accidental coincidence.

This reliable archaeological evidence fully proves that the social sacrificial ceremony of "conferring the land as a community" in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties actually developed from the Liangzhu Cultural altar.

This is why, since the 1990s, a large number of scholars believe that the ancient Liangzhu Kingdom may be the legendary Xia Dynasty.

As for Dayu's flood control, it may be a misunderstanding after the legend spread. Dayu may not have controlled the Yellow River, but the Yangtze River.

After all, the word "Yellow River" was actually born not long ago. A thousand years ago, the Yellow River actually had no fixed name. It was just called a river, or a big river.

The name of the Yangtze River is even more backward. In fact, the Yangtze River has never had an overall name, but each section has different names in different provinces.

For example, the Jinsha River in the upper reaches, the Yangtze River in the lower reaches, as well as the Tongtian River, Minjiang River, Jingjiang River, and even the Huangpu River are all part of the Yangtze River.

Then, in the ancient times five thousand years ago, it was even more impossible for the Yangtze River to have an overall name.

Maybe people at that time didn't know it was a river, so they called it a river.

The ancient legend about Dayu's flood control only said that Dayu controlled the flood, without specifying which river it was.

It's just that the Yellow River has always been "unruly", and all dynasties have had to control the water. So later, legends were passed down, and it became Dayu who controlled the Yellow River.

Of course, this is only the opinion of some scholars. They believe that Liangzhu is Xia, and Dayu's flood control was actually the Yangtze River. Therefore, Xia Qi later established his country and ruled in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

And they also built a lot of water conservancy facilities, which is what "Dayu" was good at.

Many domestic scholars also disagree with this statement, and there are endless rebuttals.

The most recognized theory is that the Liangzhu civilization was earlier than the Xia Dynasty. It was after the demise of the Liangzhu civilization that the descendants of Liangzhu spread "social sacrifice" to the Central Plains.

Or the "Yan-Huang tribe" in the Central Plains region absorbed part of the culture of Liangzhu, including the community sacrifice culture, and derived it as the source of the word "Sheji".

Which statement is correct? There is currently a lack of critical and direct evidence to prove it.

However, Chen Han agrees more with the second statement.

Because according to the discovery of Yin Ruins, it is absolutely impossible to compare the time of Xia's existence with Liangzhu. When Liangzhu perished, Xia had not yet been born.

Moreover, the Xia recorded in history books has always been considered to be in the Central Plains region, and cannot be in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Moreover, Shang, who defeated Xia, was indeed in the Central Plains.

It can only be said that Xia may have inherited part of the culture of Liangzhu and extended it to the later Shang and Zhou Dynasties, but it cannot be said that Liangzhu is Xia!
Chapter completed!