Sheritual, or Shedai, is one of the most important primitive religious rituals inherited from the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.

All the Son of Heaven practiced the throne, divided the princes, went out to triumph, and prayed for the New Year's disaster, the three generations of dynasties had to hold social ceremonies, worship the land gods, and pray for sacrifices.

According to historical documents, the social sacrifice as a ritual system began in the Xia Dynasty and was the externalization of the Xia people's religious beliefs.

According to the comprehensive analysis of the pre-Qin and Han literatures, the social sacrifices of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties mainly have the following characteristics.

The first is to seal the soil and build an altar to worship the god of the shrine (the god of the land), such as the "Customs and Customs: Rituals": "The society, the lord of the land, the land is extensive, and it cannot be respected, so the soil is enshrined for the society and worships, and the merit is also repaid." ”

"Filial piety" also said: "The society is the god of the land." The land is not full of sacrifices, so the land is sealed as a society to repay the merits. ”

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

"White Tiger Tongyi Sheji": "The Son of Heaven has a large shrine, the east is blue, the south is red, the west is white, the north is black, and the loess is rising. ”

The scale of the altar, according to the "White Tiger Tongyi" quoted from ancient documents, said: "The altar of the Son of Heaven is five zhang wide, and half of the princes are half"

The second is that the community altar is built in the open air, and the so-called "society has no house,...... The Son of Heaven Shrine will be subject to frost and dew, wind and rain to reach the breath of heaven and earth. “

The place where the altar is built is generally chosen to be a place with large trees around it, "Mozi Ming Ghost": "The holy kings of the former Yu Xia, Shang, and the third generation, the founding of the state camp capital of the day,...... Those who must choose the cultivation of wood should be regarded as a cong society."

"Warring States Policy: Qin Ce III": "Ying Hou said that King Zhao said: Hengsi has a god and a god? Henkel lured the note and said: "The god of the tree is relied on, so the ancient society is always dependent on the tree." ”

"White Tiger Tongyi Sheji" explained the characteristics of the social altar system, saying: "Why does the society have trees? Respect and know it, so that the people can see it and respect it. ”

Its purpose is to create a gloomy, mysterious and majestic religious atmosphere, so that people have a kind of reverence and fear of the land god, so as to strengthen people's worship and worship of the shrine god.

To summarize the three generations of "shrines" created by the Xia Dynasty and inherited by the Yin Zhou Dynasty to worship the land gods, at least the following characteristics must be possessed.

The altar was made of clay walls.

The altar is generally square in shape, reflecting the concept of the ancients that the sky is round and the place is round.

The soil used to build the altar is of a variety of colors.

The shrine is open-air.

The altar is generally built on high ground.

There are large trees around the shrine.

In the Liangzhu culture, since the 80s, a number of sacrificial relics of this period have been discovered, all of which are consistent with the concept of "community sacrifice".

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

In the summer of 1987, archaeologists from the ZJ Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology discovered the remains of an altar and 12 Liangzhu cultural tombs in Anxiyao Mountain, Yuhang, Zhejiang.

The discovery of the Yaoshan altar site is one of the major achievements of the field archaeology of the Liangzhu culture since this century!

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

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

Interestingly, the remains of the altar of the Xia Hou clan have disappeared in the Yellow River Valley, which is traditionally considered to be the birthplace of Xia culture.

To this day, there is still not the slightest resemblance to the "remains of the altar", which has been found in the Yellow River Valley.

The remains of the altar of the Liangzhu culture are quite similar to the shape and cultural connotation of the "Xia Society" recorded in the documents of the three dynasties.

The Liangzhu cultural altar is square in shape, which is not only consistent with the shape of the altar of the three generations, but also consistent with the traditional "local theory".

The altar of Liangzhu culture is carefully built with three-color soil, and the red clay platform, the gray soil enclosure ditch and the yellow brown clay platform form an organic overall table top.

This is roughly the same as the "sealing soil for the society" in the third dynasty of the Xia and Shang dynasties in the literature, and the social altar made of red, cyan, black, and yellow soil was built.

The Liangzhu cultural altar is built in the open air, and the surrounding trees are still luxuriant, green and verdant, and the towering scenery of the trees in this area can be imagined.

This is consistent with the literature that the "Summer Society" has no house, the altar is open, the surrounding forests are overgrown, and the people are respectful.

The Yaoshan altar is built on the top of a small hill, and the south is a vast plain field, which is the land where the ancestors of the Liangzhu culture planted rice and other crops.

Therefore, the altar is clearly related to the land worship that prevailed among the ancestors, and was a place to worship the land god in the pre-Xia era.

All this shows that the close relationship between the Liangzhu cultural altar and the "society" of the three generations is by no means an accidental coincidence.

This reliable archaeological evidence fully proves that the social ritual of "sealing the soil for the society" in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties was actually developed from the altar of Liangzhu culture.

This is also why, since the nineties of the last century, a large number of scholars believe that the ancient kingdom of Liangzhu may be the legendary Xia Dynasty.

And Dayu to control the water, may be a misunderstanding after the legend is passed on, Dayu may not be the Yellow River, but the Yangtze River.

After all, the word "Yellow River" was born not long ago, and a thousand years ago, the Yellow River actually did not have a fixed name, it was called a river, or a big river.

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, and the Tongtian River, the Min River, the Jing River, and even the Huangpu River are all part of the Yangtze River.

Then, in the ancient period of 5,000 years ago, it was even more impossible for the Yangtze River to have a whole name.

Perhaps people at the time didn't know that it was a river, and they called it a river.

The ancient legend of Dayu's control of the water only says that Dayu cured the flood, and there is no specific saying which river.

It's just that the Yellow River has always been "unruly", and all dynasties and dynasties have to control the water, so later the legend was passed on, and it became Dayu to govern the Yellow River.

Of course, this is only the argument of some scholars, they think that Liangzhu is Xia, and Dayu is actually the Yangtze River, so later Xia Qi ruled the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

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

Many domestic scholars also disagree with this statement, and rebuttals emerge one after another.

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

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

Exactly which claim is true is still lacking in critical, direct evidence to prove it.

However, Chen Han agrees with the second statement.

Because according to the discovery of Yin Ruins, to extrapolate the time point of Xia's existence, it is absolutely incompatible with Liangzhu, and when Liangzhu perished, Xia Capital had not yet been born.

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

And the 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 continued to the later Shang and Zhou dynasties, but it must not be said that Liangzhu is Xia!

(End of chapter)