Dinosaur War in the Bronze Age

Author: Xiao Shui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Nowadays, wealthy nations attack poor nations, but in ancient times, poor nations attacked wealthy ones. Throughout the brief history of human civilization, impoverished and destitute peoples have repeatedly launched attacks and rebellions against advanced civilizations. In the 12th century BC, northern barbarians invaded and shattered the brilliant Mycenaean civilization on the Greek peninsula by the Mediterranean Sea. Tombs were overturned, and treasures were looted. Excerpt: Attacks and rebellions against advanced civilizations Nowadays, wealthy nations attack poor nations, while in ancient times, poor nations attacked wealthy ones. Throughout the brief history of human civilization, impoverished and destitute peoples have repeatedly launched attacks and rebellions against advanced civilizations. In the 12th century BC, northern barbarians invaded and shattered the brilliant Mycenaean civilization on the Greek peninsula by the Mediterranean Sea. Tombs were overturned, and treasures were looted. On the fragments of the Mycenaean civilization, the Greeks gathered the remnants and later established over 200 city-state nations, such as Athens and Sparta. Perhaps unwilling to become the "sick man of the Mediterranean" again, these city-state dwellers actively exercised their bodies and prepared to fight against outsiders. Every four years, they held a "Hua Shan Debate," where many men ran naked from different city-states to gather, organizing the ancient Olympic Games to exchange exercise experiences. When the curtain fell on the second Olympic Games, the naked Greek men completed their 192.27-meter sprint (the only event at the time), washed off the sweat with olive oil, and in the east of Asia, another incident occurred where a poor nation attacked a wealthy one: the highly esteemed Zhou Dynasty was breached by the western Dong. The capital, Haojing in Shaanxi, was in ruins, and the director of the "Fenghuo Xie Zhou" cultural gala, King You of Zhou, lost his head. The year was 770 BC. The feudal lords who had been mocked by King You's beacon fires were not all indifferent to danger. Zheng Hanguang, a loyal and patriotic leader of the feudal state of Zheng, ran far to watch the spectacle and was struck by bricks, dying in Haojing with bloodied lips. His son, Zheng Wugong, with a grief-stricken face, vowed to avenge his father and fiercely fought against the Dong. After chasing the Dong away, Haojing was considered liberated, but it was already in ruins, with smoke rising from the battlefield. King You of Zhou's son, King Ping of Zhou, dared not stay in Haojing in Shaanxi, fearing another attack from the Dong. King Ping of Zhou abandoned Haojing in Shaanxi and moved eastward to the Central Plains, protected by the loyal feudal lords' army led by the "war hero" Zheng Wugong. On his way, Qin Xianggong caught up from behind with a smiling face. King Ping of Zhou waved his whip and pointed, saying, "The land along both banks of the Wei River (in Shaanxi), behind me, is yours to develop. I do not want it." Qin Xianggong smiled and agreed, gathered some recruits, and launched guerrilla warfare in Shaanxi, gradually seizing small patches of land from the Western Rong people, establishing a weak and shaky feudal state of Qin, which is not worth mentioning. King Ping of Zhou, with a grinning mouth, fled eastward over 400 kilometers like a homeless dog, arriving in Luoyang in Henan and ushering in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty of the Great Zhou Dynasty—while the "Western Zhou Dynasty" period (1046 BC—770 BC) previously mentioned in history had ended. From 770 BC to 473 BC, when Goujian defeated Wu, these three hundred years formed a complete historical period, named after the Spring and Autumn Annals that recorded it, which is our distant, beautiful, and irreplaceable Spring and Autumn Period. After the loyal feudal lord Zheng Wugong completed his eastward relocation, he died happily a few years later in Xinzheng, Henan. His son, however, was a powerful minister in the early Spring and Autumn Period, the renowned Zheng Zhuanggong, the protagonist of this book. Zheng Mama later gave birth to another child, who was well-proportioned, with red lips and white teeth, a handsome figure, and deeply favored by Zheng Mama, who wanted to make him the heir to the throne. However, Zheng Papa (Zheng Wugong) disagreed. Unwilling to (abandon the eldest for the younger), he followed the old custom and appointed "Wusheng" as the successor. After Wusheng took office, he became the leader of the feudal state of Zheng, with the capital in Xinzheng, Henan, close to King Ping of Zhou's Luoyang. On his mother's insistence, Zheng Zhuanggong sent his talented younger brother to the Xingyang area of Zheng to serve. Although still young and immature, the second brother regarded himself highly and, bored with idleness, harbored ambitions to seize his older brother's power. He began to expand the walls of Xingyang—during the Great Zhou Dynasty, there were unified restrictions on city wall sizes: ordinary cities could not exceed 700 meters in any side (about the size of a middle school, a earthen wall); feudal states could not exceed 1,000 meters in any side (the size of a regular university); and the capital of the Zhou was a prestigious university (like Tsinghua), with walls over 2,000 meters in any side. This was the custom since the Shang and Zhou dynasties, to prevent feudal lords from rebelling. The second brother ignored this rule, expanding his earthen walls, increasing his war chariot corps, and demanding that the western and northern suburbs obey his command and hand over resources and grain. "Bi" refers to the rural areas outside the city walls. To humble oneself, one might say "I am a rural person," like Zhou Zuoren, who often called himself "bi" in his writings, meaning "I am just an ordinary person" or "I am from the countryside." The second brother's disloyal actions spread to the capital of Zheng, where the minister Jizhu reminded Zheng Zhuanggong, "A country cannot have two suns. Your brother's motives are impure—he wants to seize power. You should call him in and criticize him before his rebellion fully develops." Zheng Zhuanggong dismissed it, pulling his gray beard and saying, "Don't worry. Wait until he commits serious crimes, then deal with him. Unjust people will deal with themselves. 'Vice will eventually lead to self-destruction.'" This proverb, "Vice will eventually lead to self-destruction," sounds righteous but is not entirely honorable. Zheng Zhuanggong had the intention of sowing discord: to eliminate his rival—his younger brother, he would first indulge and allow him to cause trouble, waiting until his crimes were severe before intervening to "save" him and justify his execution! This tactic of playing hard to get was imitated by later generations, such as Chiang Kai-shek, who forced his rivals to rebel and then suppressed and reorganized them. The second brother waited and saw that his older brother had no reaction, then fueled his ambitions, repaired his armor, mobilized soldiers, and actively prepared to rebel against his older brother, while secretly coordinating with his mother, saying that when the army arrived, Zheng Mama would open the gates and surrender, capturing his older brother while he slept. When the second brother fell completely into the depths of error and could no longer rise, Zheng Zhuanggong rose and listed his younger brother's crimes of rebellion, sending 200 chariots of righteous troops to attack him with drums beating. The foolish second brother fought back and was knocked unconscious—his older brother's iron sand palm was so powerful, it hurt so much! Turning to flee, his older brother chased him relentlessly. Seeing no escape, the second brother looked to the sky, crying and taking his own life. Seeing his younger brother smiling in death, Zheng Zhuanggong felt immense joy, as deep as the Pacific Ocean: "Who made you think you could impersonate me, Qiu Qianzhang, as Qiu Qianren? Didn't you know how powerful my iron sand palm is?" No one else threatened the throne anymore. Feeling pleased, Zheng Zhuanggong also exiled his mother to the palace of cold isolation, saying, "You wanted to help your younger brother kill me, so you will stay in the cold palace for life." Zheng Mama did not follow the example of a virtuous empress who took her own life after failing in a palace struggle. She believed that life was a miracle worth preserving and that it was better to live than to die. At this time, a young man named Ying Kaoshu appeared, coming to enlighten Zheng Zhuanggong. Ying Kaoshu held a mountain chicken he had caught and pretentiously presented it to Zheng Zhuanggong, saying, "This mountain chicken, when young, eats insects its mother catches, but when it grows up, it pecks its mother. It's not a good bird!" (This was probably a mountain magpie. "Mountain magpie, long tail, marries a wife and forgets its mother"—this is a saying from my hometown.) Zheng Zhuanggong felt a bit uncomfortable, feeling that he was ungrateful to his mother, like a mountain chicken, an animalistic creature, and was filled with shame. However, the oath "Until we meet in the underworld, we shall never meet again" had already been spoken, and ancient people took oaths very seriously—oaths were recorded by the Thunder God, and breaking them would invite thunder punishment. What to do? It had a bit of an karaoke flavor. In this way, the idiom "Rongrong Xie Xie" was born, which can be used in a sentence like: "The host and guest were harmonious and joyful, discussing friendly relations between the two countries." For this time, the commoner Ying Kaoshu finally made a name for himself and was appointed as a minister by Zheng Zhuanggong. (A "cloth-clad person" refers to undyed hemp clothing worn by commoners.) Ying Kaoshu, dressed in colorful clothes like a butterfly, set an ethical example for the Chinese people: even if elders were bad, children should still be filial. Two and a half thousand years later, in the "Great Qing Dynasty" that ruled with filial piety, children recited the Three-Character Classic and praised Ying Kaoshu: "Ying Kaoshu, the most filial." An ancient person who had turned to stone and whose grave was unknown was still being recited by generations of children with strange accents, which was also a great honor.