In ancient times, in ordinary people's minds, there were all kinds of magnificent and moving myths and legends, such as Pangu created the world, Nuwa skillfully mended the sky, Fuxi created the Eight Trigrams, Shen Nong tasted hundreds of herbs, Yao and Shun abdicated, Dayu controlled the floods, etc. For thousands of years, these legends have been regarded as trustworthy history and influenced generations of people. But, is that really the case?
There are also the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. Apart from Xia Qi seizing the throne, Shang Tang annihilating Jie, King Wen defeating Zhou, and the stories of Bigan gouging out his heart, Jiang Shang fishing, Zhou Gong spitting out food, etc., As well as the specious characterization of a "slave society", there seems to be no other deep imprint in the memory. However, is this period of history that lasted almost two thousand years really nothing more than that?
Qian Mu's Bole, the teacher of Tan Qixiang, Tong Shuye, Yang Xiangkui, Bai Shouyi and other historical masters, and the historian Gu Jiegang, who has long been the number one in the history of the Republic of China, started his lectures with sincerity and ease. It turns out that the true meaning of antiquity is not the legend of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, nor the stories of sages and saints by King Tang and Wen of Shang Dynasty, but the birth of "China" and "Country" that are connected by your and my blood...
Reader comments
This book gave me a new understanding of ancient history. I used to think that those myths and legends were history, but Mr. Gu Jiegang's explanation made me understand that they might just be an expression of culture. Just like I work hard to make money for my dreams, we need to look at the past with new eyes to better understand the present and the future. This book also made me realize that the way history is written and communicated has an important impact on our perception. It got me thinking about whether the historical knowledge we receive is actually reliable, which is really interesting!
This book gave me a new understanding of ancient history. I used to think that those myths and legends were history, but Mr. Gu Jiegang's explanation made me understand that they might just be an expression of culture. Just like I work hard to make money for my dreams, we need to look at the past with new eyes to better understand the present and the future. This book also made me realize that the way history is written and communicated has an important impact on our perception. It got me thinking about whether the historical knowledge we receive is actually reliable, which is really interesting!