Excerpt from Little-known Things of Confucius: Was Confucius a spy in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty?

00 1 Looking for clues from Confucius' first trip abroad Confucius went to Luoyi for the first time. Luoyi, about today's Luoyang City, Henan Province. The political, economic and cultural center of the Zhou Dynasty. The royal city of Zhou Dynasty. Luoyi, the ancient city of China, was built in BC 1 1 century. When it appeared, the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins in East Asia were still in the primitive state, with few cities. Yu Xia lived in Yangcheng (now Dengfeng, Wang Chenggang City, Henan Province), sang in the capital of Shang Dynasty (now Qixian County, Henan Province, and the other was in tangyin county, Henan Province), and Haojing, the former capital of Zhou Dynasty (now the east bank of Feng Shui southwest of Xi, Shaanxi Province). The rest is not discussed .. Luoyi was founded in the Zhou Dynasty. Zhou Gongdan famously said to Zhou Chengwang at that time: "Governance should be centered on Kyushu, and all countries will like it, and the king will achieve something." . Therefore, Luoyi is called "the center of the world". Zhou Gongdan took the lead in surveying, mapping and divination in Luoyi, and then handed it over to another founding father, Zhao Gong, to implement the first phase of the construction of Luoyi City. First, the west coast of Jianshui will be built into a week, and then the east coast will be built into a king city, which is collectively called Luoyi. Since then, Luoyi has had a preliminary scale. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty owned the western capital and the eastern capital, with Haojing in the west and Luoyi in the east. Twelve kings were handed down in the Western Zhou Dynasty, namely, Wu, Cheng, Kang, Zhao, Mu, * *, Yi, Xiao, Yi, Li, * * and Xuan, You, and another one, * * and Ji, was finally "stubborn" (called "Dog Rong"), which was one in the north. The harassment of backward ethnic groups is so severe that Zhou people can't stay in the west. Zhou Youwang's son Zhou Pingwang led the royal family to move eastward to Luoyi, where the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was established. Luoyi has a large number of cultural treasures, simple files, the most complete and typical etiquette system, cultural classics of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, and a large number of "cultural people" at that time. It is said that Confucius had long thought of Luoyi, but his family was poor, cash-strapped and had no travel expenses. Later, with the support of Uncle Nangong and Lu, sons of his old boss, Confucius finally arrived in Luoyi. This is the first time for Confucius to go abroad in his life, and it is also the most important time for him to go abroad. Confucius was very excited. The tall gate of Luoyi City flashed over his head. Confucius looked east in a carriage and saw the red sun rising from Ran Ran on the horizon. Under the bright sky, the surrounding roads are straight and wide, extending into the distance. Far away, Confucius saw a familiar and unfamiliar city. Yes, he has heard many times that the vision of Luoyi is three or four times larger than that of the capital of Lu. Now what he sees is indeed like this-the palace area in the city has formed the inner city, and Confucius can see the strong and majestic wall of the tall inner city (the wall of the outer city has not been repaired at that time). The outer city of this city not only covers a wide area, it is built on a high platform with a stone foundation, and there are long and wide stone steps ... That place is really too strange and mysterious for Confucius, because he has never been in it, and he doesn't know what the smooth steps of the ancient white jade and the gorgeous patterns of carving dragons and cutting phoenixes depict. He only felt that every breath he took in the resplendent square was particularly refreshing and comfortable. Since then, all the scenes here have been deeply engraved in Confucius' lingering memory. Confucius' carriage is still running. Walking on the Royal Avenue. In the north of the city, there is a avenue called "Zhuyuan Road". On the south side of the road, there is a wide river with clear water and velvet grass. The water source comes from the canal in the surging river. There are three ancient white jade bridges on the river. The middle bridge is extremely luxurious, and its deck is much wider than the equally luxurious bridges on both sides (here, there are some imaginary elements). The northern ends of these three bridges are close to the southern end of Zhuyuan Road and connected with the main road. After crossing the ancient white jade bridge, an ancient white jade gate as tall as a memorial arch stands at the head of the North Bridge. There are two big characters engraved on the door. On the right is "Gao" and on the left is "Door" (it is said that this door has drops). Confucius has got off the carriage and hurried off the "high gate" After passing through the gate, there is a huge gate in front of you. It is also an open-air arched door. Through the door like China's watch, he seems to see the dream he once had on the high platform. He walked quickly to the inner door. As high as the highgate, but more gorgeous than the highgate. On the thick cylindrical porch, rare birds and animals such as black dragon, white tiger, suzaku and Xuanwu are carved. On the front of the square ancient gate beam, there are also two big characters engraved, the right is "Ying" and the left is "Door". This is the gate of the imperial city-the most famous gate in Kyushu, which was literally called "the first gate in the world" by people at that time (it is said that this gate is also the gate of dripping water). It has a long history of more than 600 years (counting from the establishment of Luoyi by Duke Zhou and Duke Zhao). Looking up, there are three buildings on both sides of the broad stone ladder standing in the center, which are the six temples of Zhao Mu in Zhou Dynasty. Far ahead, I can see an inclined stone ladder. At the top of the ladder, a long dome-shaped tall house stands solemnly. Its majestic and tall buildings, the highest status in the city, are the glory and pride of China for hundreds of years. This is the ancestral temple of the Zhou Dynasty (according to the temple system, there should be seven ancestral temples of the Zhou royal family). On the left side of the ancestral hall, there is a square hall full of Zhou dynasty heroism. Behind the left temple is a luxurious mansion, which is the central institution of the Zhou Dynasty. The two highest-ranking organs, the Qing Dynasty Historical Office and the Taishi Historical Office, are both located in the deepest part of the central organization (there are two offices at the weekend, but there is no drop at the beginning of the week). On the right side of the ancestral hall is the reception hall of foreign guests from the princes of the Zhou Dynasty-Tang Ming, which is an ancient palace imitating the era of the Yellow Emperor (guess). Confucius saw the portraits of ancient great men on the walls around the hall. Among them, what impressed him deeply was an ancient woodcarving, which was carved vividly. Woodcarving is an old man, wearing a yellow hat and black clothes, riding a white horse-drawn scarlet car with noble white clouds floating beside it. When Confucius saw the wall and the painting, he felt humble and admired. He knows the old man. He is the Great Sage King in ancient times.