The Hidden Cards of History:Lecture on Chinese History by Yi Zhongtian (Text Version - Part 1)

Professor Yi Zhongtian discussed in his lecture the evolution of historical education in China from the Opium War to modern times, and how traditional Chinese dreams are reflected through Romance of the Three Kingdoms. These traditional dreams include the Great Harmony Dream, the Well-Being Dream, and the Governing World Dream, reflecting the pursuit of an ideal society and its conflicts with reality.

Author: Yi Zhongtian

For ease of reading, the editors of this website have made appropriate modifications without deviating from the original meaning! Also, this article only represents the author’s views, and this website serves only to present it for readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of historical truths!

Since the Opium War in 1840, our predecessors have been pondering a question: why did our great China, a vast nation, fail to defeat a small island power—the British? The British were just living on an island, right? They were barbarian foreigners; how could we not defeat them? At this time, many people began to open their eyes to the world. The conclusion drawn was that our scientific and technological level was inferior. Of course, this perception changed after the First Sino-Japanese War. During the First Sino-Japanese War, our weapons were not inferior, but we still could not win; once again, it was a small island power—Japan. The defeat of the Qing Dynasty by Japan led to a group of people starting to think about institutional issues.

So, at least the first cannon shot of the Opium War and the second cannon shot of the First Sino-Japanese War woke up the Chinese people. After awakening, the Chinese intellectual community split into two groups. One group explored institutional issues, leading to the later Xinhai Revolution; the other group explored the foundation of science, leading to thoughts like scientific and industrial salvation. Therefore, in the early years of the Republic of China, the students with the best grades in various major universities, whether in liberal arts or sciences, were all students of science and engineering.

At that time, Zhonghe Xing University published a journal. There were no computers or mobile phones; it was a journal. The best journals were published by the engineering college, not the liberal arts college. Even those with good literary and artistic cultivation, and historical and philosophical training, were not liberal arts students but science and engineering students. This was a fact in the early years of the Republic of China. This fact was later written into the novel Fortress Besieged by Mr. Qian Zhongshu. Mr. Qian Zhongshu wrote: In the university, science students looked down on liberal arts students, among liberal arts students, foreign language majors looked down on Chinese language majors, Chinese language majors looked down on philosophy majors, philosophy majors looked down on sociology majors, sociology majors looked down on education majors, and education majors had no students to look down on, so they could only look down on their own teachers. This was the actual situation of Chinese universities during the era when Mr. Qian Zhongshu lived. The best students were science and engineering students.

So when I was in middle school, I still had this idea: a good student should study science and engineering. But now it’s different; the separation between the humanities and sciences has reached an unreasonable extent. The humanistic literacy of current science and engineering students, I can’t say how it is at your school, but I can tell a true story about another famous 211 and 985 engineering university.

Once, an official from the Ministry of Education visited the school and asked the student union president a question: “Do you know who burned the Apang Palace?” The student union president immediately replied, “It wasn’t me.” Then the deputy secretary of the university’s party committee immediately stood up and said, “Minister, I am willing to guarantee with party discipline that it was definitely not him.” Such a situation is worrisome because the separation between humanities and sciences should not reach this degree of opposition.

What is the purpose of education? The purpose of education is the all-around free development of individuals. Marx and Engels mentioned in The Communist Manifesto that a communist society is a community of free individuals, where the free development of each person is the premise of the free development of all. But our current education deprives the educated of various freedoms, and everyone is striving for grades and scores, sacrificing their youth and childhood. Is such education good?

So I am very pleased that today, many students from China’s best engineering universities are here to listen to a report from someone who once wanted to attend an engineering university but later turned to the humanities. Thank you all!

My usual practice for lectures is as follows: I will have a period of speech, followed by interaction. I do not wish to be informed of questions in advance, meaning I do not solicit questions beforehand or accept written questions on-site. Because accepting written questions creates a feeling of having planted questions, I do not want my event to have such planted questions. So, during the interaction later, our staff will come to pass the microphone, and everyone should raise their hands, and the staff will pass the microphone. I cannot see below because the lights are too bright.

However, this time, our team solicited some questions in advance. I will not answer these pre-solicited questions now, but I will answer them if they are raised later. I will not answer them now, but there is one question I want to address first. The first question I received was: “As I personally understand, the Three Kingdoms is not the most important or outstanding period in Chinese history. Why do Chinese people always talk about the Three Kingdoms when discussing history?”

I am willing to answer this question. My answer is: You need to understand which Three Kingdoms the Chinese people are concerned about. Is it the historical Three Kingdoms or the literary Three Kingdoms? Or rather, do most Chinese people know the Three Kingdoms through Chen Shou’s Records of the Three Kingdoms or Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms? The conclusion is, Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Most Chinese people know the Three Kingdoms through Romance of the Three Kingdoms. And I want to formally tell everyone that Romance of the Three Kingdoms is not history. Although literary historians say Romance of the Three Kingdoms is three parts fiction and seven parts fact, in fact, the most splendid part of Romance of the Three Kingdoms is seven parts fiction and three parts fact. But everyone likes it. Why? Why do people like reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms so much?

Chinese Dreams

I believe Romance of the Three Kingdoms represents the dreams of the Chinese people. I do not call it the Chinese Dream because the Chinese Dream is a contemporary concept. Now, what we all call the Chinese Dream is a contemporary concept, and its interpretation does not belong to me. I call it the Chinese Dream. In fact, the Chinese people have always had dreams. If we talk about the Chinese Dream, it is the Chinese Dream of traditional society; this explanation is also valid.

In traditional society, the Chinese people’s dreams had three aspects: the first is the Great Harmony Dream. What is Great Harmony? The way of the great Tao is universal, the world is for the public, meaning public ownership of the world. The so-called public ownership refers to the primitive clan society. Our ancestors believed that the characteristics of primitive clan society were collective ownership of property and power, known as the way of the great Tao, the world for the public. The leaders of clans and tribes were not hereditary but elected, known as the abdication system. This dream is called the Great Harmony Dream, where everyone is the same, everyone is equal, doors are left open at night, and the roads are not picked up, and the world is for the public. Everyone has food to eat, everyone has drinks, everyone has a place to live, no one has selfish thoughts, and no one engages in scheming—how wonderful! But this dream was shattered. Why was it shattered? Because it was not the best society.

Did the primitive clan society achieve doors left open at night and roads not picked up? It did. But you need to understand the reasons. The reason was poverty, there was nothing to steal. If you ate a meal and didn’t have another, you would eat up whatever food you could find. There was nothing to steal. At that time, was property collectively owned? It was only clan property, and there was private ownership between clans. Tribes also went to war to seize money, but there was no money to seize, sorry, to seize grain, livestock, and women. This led to wars. Society needed to progress, productivity needed to develop, and scientific and technological advancements needed to be made. This era passed, so this dream was shattered.

Then the second dream began, called the Well-Being Dream. The Well-Being Dream refers to the historical period from the Western Zhou to the Spring and Autumn Period, and from the Western Zhou to the Eastern Zhou, known as the Well-Being Society. The characteristic of the Well-Being Society is a family world. A family world means the world is for the family, with property and power belonging to the family, called the Well-Being Dream. This is the real feudal society; the strict feudal society ended here, and after the Spring and Autumn Period, it was no longer feudal society. Why was it only a feudal society at that time?

Let’s briefly discuss this society. The worldview of the Chinese people at that time was as follows: we are under the sky, and the ground is below us. The sky is round, and the earth is square, known as “round sky and square earth.” What does the concept of a round sky mean? It means the sky is a hemispherical shape. You are all students of a technological university, so this should be easy to understand. A hemisphere, it is a flat surface, a flat hemisphere, with a square base below it. This represents the worldview of the ancient Chinese, who believed the world was like this.

So, as students of our technology university, we can immediately imagine a diagram, right? A hemisphere capping a square base. What does the planar diagram look like? It is a circle with a square inside, right? And there are still four extra areas left, right? Everyone should have learned plane geometry well; there are four extra areas, right? The ancients said these were the four seas, one in each direction: east, west, south, and north, called the Four Seas. The square land within these seas is called the Four Seas Within, abbreviated as “Hai Nei” (海內). Since this place is covered by the hemisphere, it is called “Under the Whole Sky,” abbreviated as “Tian Xia” (天下).

Thus, at that time, “Tian Xia” referred to the entire world. So who owned the rights to this whole world? The heavens. The heavens were the rightful owner, so this place was called “Tian Xia.” However, the heavens could not manage the world directly; it needed to appoint a manager, known as the Son of Heaven. He is the son of the heavens, the direct eldest son of Heaven, called the “Yuan Zi” (元子) or “Pride of Heaven,” abbreviated as “Tian Zi” (天子).

So what kind of concept does this represent? It means that in the minds of ancient Chinese, the whole world was a company, a headquarters. The chairman of this headquarters was Heaven, who appointed a general manager to manage the world, known as the Son of Heaven. But you should know that during the Western Zhou period, science and technology were not advanced, and transportation was inconvenient. How could a Son of Heaven manage such a vast area? It was impossible, so what was to be done?

He divided this company into several subsidiaries, called states. Then he divided these subsidiaries; how was it done? By marking the territory: Qi State was assigned one area, Lu State another, Jin State another, and Song State another. After delineating the territory, borders were drawn. The specific method was to dig ditches along the borders, make the ditches very deep, pile the soil on both sides, and then plant trees on the mounds. This action is called “Feng” (封). The word “Feng” embodies this concept, called “Feng Bang” (封邦).

Once this was done, he sent someone to be the ruler of the state, the general manager, called “Jian,” with the full term being “Jian Guo” (建國), and these two actions combined are called “Feng Bang Jian Guo” (封邦建國), abbreviated as “Feudal” (封建). The term “Feudal” means this. That is to say, the chairman of the state subsidiary was the Son of Heaven, and the general manager was the feudal lords. When the feudal lords received their states, they further divided them into households. The method of dividing households was also to dig ditches along the borders and appoint someone as the head of the household, known as the “Da Fu” (大夫). The Son of Heaven, the ruler, and the head of the household, or the Son of Heaven, the feudal lords, and the heads of households, were all hereditary positions.

The Son of Heaven’s distribution of the feudal lords is called “Feng Bang Jian Guo,” and the feudal lords’ distribution of the heads of households is called “Feng Tu Li Jia,” both abbreviated as “Feudal” (封建). So at this time, who owned the world? Each household. This kind of society is called a “Xiao Kang” society, which is the second dream of the Chinese people, because this dream also shattered.

When did it shatter? It began to shatter during the Spring and Autumn period and was completely shattered during the Warring States period. After the Warring States period, a new national system was established, which I call the “Empire System.” The previous feudal system is called the “State System.” The transition from the Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period represents a shift from the state system to the empire system. This is why there was the Hundred Schools of Thought before Qin, because society was in great turmoil, and the question of where China was heading became a major issue, leading to the Hundred Schools of Thought.

This is called the “Xiao Kang Dream,” which also shattered. After entering the Qin and Han dynasties, it entered the era of empires. What are the characteristics of the empire system? One world, one country, one Son of Heaven, one ruler, that is the emperor. At this time, the Great Unity Dream was no longer feasible, and the Xiao Kang Dream was also unachievable. What dream began? The dream of good governance. Which governance? The governance with the three drops of water, that is, political governance. This is the period where our history alternates between great order and great disorder. The common people always hope for great order in the world, so all the people long for peace and prosperity. They do not want chaos, regime changes, or wars; this is good governance.

The dream of good governance continued from the Qin and Han dynasties through to the Ming and Qing dynasties. This dream persisted but remained just a dream. This dream contained three elements. The first is the “Saintly Ruler Dream.” What is the Saintly Ruler Dream? It is hoping for a good emperor, because now there is only one head of state, and the whole world belongs to the emperor. If the emperor is good, the world is peaceful, the true Son of Heaven, so he dreams of a saintly ruler. The saintly ruler has two aspects: benevolence and wisdom. The ruler should first be a benevolent ruler, kind and good to the people. Second, he should be a wise ruler, intelligent. The opposite of a benevolent ruler is a tyrant, and the opposite of a wise ruler is a foolish ruler. The people do not want foolish or tyrannical rulers; they want a saintly ruler. This is the first dream, called the Saintly Ruler Dream.

When this dream shattered, people began to dream of the second, the “Clean Official Dream.” The emperor is too far away, right? The sky is high and the emperor is far. What we care about is the seventh-rank official, the local official, and if this official is a clean one, life for the common people would be better. This second dream is the Clean Official Dream. If the Clean Official Dream is also unattainable, then people dream of the third, the “Hero Dream.” The emperor is muddled, and officials are greedy, but if a hero appears, who speaks out when injustice is seen and takes action when needed, it would be wonderful. For example, in the middle of the night, entering the county office to take the head of a corrupt official—how exhilarating! This is also good. If the Hero Dream also shatters, people read martial arts novels. Why are martial arts novels so popular in China? Because there are no dreams left; all dreams have shattered, so people read martial arts novels and watch “Romance of the Three Kingdoms.”

Is there a connection between “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” and these three dreams? Yes. Liu Bei represents the saintly ruler, a good emperor, benevolent, leading the people across the river when defeated by Cao Cao, and helping them escape. The saintly ruler, the good emperor, fulfills the first dream. The second, Zhuge Liang is the clean official, right? Just and compassionate, clean, setting an example, fulfilling the second dream. Who fulfills the third dream? Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are the heroes.

To fulfill these three dreams, “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” changes an important historical detail: it was not Zhang Fei who beat the supervisor but Liu Bei. If you read Chen Shou’s “Records of the Three Kingdoms: Biography of the First Lord,” it clearly records that Liu Bei beat the supervisor. But in “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” Liu Bei cannot hit people; Liu Bei cannot hit people; hitting people is not what a good emperor does. Zhang Fei must hit people; if he does not, he is not a hero. Therefore, “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” is a reflection of the three dreams of the traditional society of China, which is why it is so beloved. Moreover, to fulfill these three dreams, it had to establish an antagonist, called Cao Cao. Cao Cao must be depicted as extremely villainous. Cao Cao is first a bad emperor, secondly a bad official, and finally an unjust person. Hence, Luo Guanzhong attributed to Cao Cao the phrase, “Rather I betray the world, than let the world betray me.” Whether Cao Cao said this or not, Luo Guanzhong added it. Luo Guanzhong also had Zhuge Liang fight many battles, which he did not fight in his lifetime.

This is a dream, a dream of the traditional society of the Chinese people. So I hope everyone, from now on, stop dreaming this dream. Because by the end of the dream, you can only rely on reading “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” and martial arts novels, which is becoming increasingly hopeless. We cannot rely on this. This is the first question I want to answer today.

So now I want to ask, regarding this issue, does anyone have questions? Is anyone willing to interact on this topic?

“Hello, if it’s about what you mentioned from the beginning to the Three Kingdoms period, I have two questions. First, regarding the Three Kingdoms, let me ask the first question. I would like to ask, according to your definition of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, you define it as a bestseller from the Ming Dynasty, written to satisfy various dreams of Chinese people at that time. What role does Sun Quan play in this bestseller? Since it’s a contest between Liu Bei and Cao Cao, what is Sun Quan’s role? Thank you.”

Sun Quan is downplayed by Luo Guanzhong. Not only Sun Quan, but Luo Guanzhong also downplays Liu Bei to highlight Zhuge Liang, portraying Liu Bei as very incompetent, which is not the case in history. Sun Quan is also portrayed as very incompetent, and more importantly, Lu Su is portrayed as incompetent, while Zhou Yu is depicted as petty, which are not true. Zhou Yu was very magnanimous and had extraordinary tolerance. Lu Su proposed the idea of dividing the world into three parts long before Zhuge Liang’s Longzhong Plan. This is something you need to read Chen Shou’s “Records of the Three Kingdoms” to understand.

What I want to say is that any phenomenon has reasons behind it. In other words, why did a book called “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” appear? Why was this book so popular and loved by so many people? There are actually two reasons:

One is that it represents the three dreams of traditional Chinese society: the dream of a sage ruler, the dream of a virtuous official, and the dream of a chivalrous hero, fulfilling many people’s psychological needs. This psychology, to put it nicely, is called compensatory psychology, and to put it harshly, it’s just wishful thinking.

The second reason is that this novel is full of schemes and intrigues; it is a popular version of the “Blackhearted Study” (thick black theory). Many people read this book just to learn about schemes and intrigues. I can tell you a fact: before the Qing people entered Beijing, during the late Ming Dynasty, when the Manchurians were about to invade, they did not trust the Han people. However, one day a Manchu noble suddenly called a Han friend, who was very close to him, and said, “I think you Han people are not bad, quite understanding of us Manchus. Come, come, come to my study; I want to show you an internal document.” It turned out to be the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. They relied on it in warfare.

So I can also answer a question raised by your classmates. Why did the ancients say “young people should not read ‘Water Margin,’ old people should not read ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’”? Because “Water Margin” talks about chivalry and fighting for justice, intervening when seeing injustice. But children can’t tell when it’s the right time to act and when it’s not. As a result, children who read “Water Margin” would act regardless of the situation, which causes trouble. Hence, young people should not read “Water Margin,” and old people should not read “Romance of the Three Kingdoms.” That’s because “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” is full of schemes and intrigues, and an elderly person with rich social experience would find it to be deceitful and cunning. Therefore, I personally do not recommend reading “Romance of the Three Kingdoms.”

Is there any other discussion on the topic of the Chinese Dream? I can tell you that once the sage rulers, virtuous officials, and chivalrous heroes are gone, their state is also close to destruction. Basically, among the Three Kingdoms, the first to fall was Shu Han, which was already near extinction. But why did Luo Guanzhong still write about Jiang Wei? That’s something you need to ask him. Personally, I can only maliciously speculate, with my humble mind, that Luo Guanzhong did not want his three dreams to be extinguished. Unfortunately, history is ruthless; dreams are just dreams. There are two kinds of dreams: one is a dream state, and the other is a dream of aspiration. The dream state will eventually shatter, while the dream of aspiration can be achieved through our efforts.

Chinese Roots

Thank you. Now let’s continue. The next question is, why did Chinese people in traditional society have such a Chinese Dream? Or the Chinese Dream? We need to look at where our roots are. So the second topic is called Chinese Roots. To understand Chinese Roots, we need to compare the paths taken by various nations around the world. As you saw in the video, one of the tasks I need to complete in writing the 36-volume Chinese history is to clarify our fate and choices over the past 3,700 years.

Let me show you this character first. I hope the media and netizens present will use this character to describe 3,700 years from now on, using Chinese characters. Do not write it as 3700 years. What’s the difference? Let me write another line: since 1978. It is clear that “since 1978” refers to the time after the year 1978 AD. If you write 3700 years as 3700 years ago, it would mean the year 3700 AD. The year 3700 AD has not arrived yet. So do not use Arabic numerals. Three thousand seven hundred years is used because our civilization started 3,700 years ago.

Why do we say our civilization started 3,700 years ago? Because civilization is a historical concept. From the perspective of history, human history can be divided into two periods: prehistoric history and historical civilization. What marks the boundary between prehistoric history and historical civilization? The establishment of a state. What marks the establishment of a state? Cities. In other words, when a nation establishes a city, it signifies the establishment of a state and the beginning of civilization. This is a universally accepted standard in international historical studies.

So what is the earliest discovered civilization site of our nation? It is the Erlitou site in Yanshi, Henan Province. How many years ago is the Erlitou site? According to carbon-14 dating, the upper limit of the Erlitou site is no more than 1700 BC. 1700 BC plus 2000 years AD is 3700 years.

Now let’s look at these two periods of history: prehistoric history and historical civilization. In the prehistoric stage, the paths of all nations are the same. First is the transition from ape to human, marked by the production and use of tools. Once an animal learns to produce tools, it becomes human. Other animals can use tools; I believe there are biology experts here, right? If I’m wrong, please correct me. Some individual animals use tools but do not produce them. For example, a crow can use its beak to extract things from a tree hole, which is tool use, but it does not produce tools. The production of tools is the mark of the transition from ape to human, so the first cultural model of humanity is tools.

The second cultural model is shamanism. Shamanism is a spiritual tool. Once shamanism is present, it signifies a form of spiritual weapon or tool. Shamanism is related to you all. We are advanced in technology, but shamanism is pre-science. In other words, shamanism is science before science. Do not label shamanism as pseudoscience. Some people wrongly call shamanism pseudoscience; it is pre-science, science before science. Shamanism and science have many similarities. What are the common points between shamanism and science?

First, both believe that nature follows laws, which is a common point between shamanism and science.

Second, both believe that human beings can grasp the laws of nature.

Third, both believe that once humans grasp the laws of nature, they can control and transform nature. These are the three common points between shamanism and science. The difference is that the so-called laws found by shamanism are not actual laws, whereas the laws discovered by science are actual laws. For example, shamanism might believe that a person’s toothache is because a shaman recited a spell over the tooth that fell out during teething. They get the cause wrong.

However, we used to know, during childhood, that when a tooth falls out, it should be thrown on the roof, and if it’s a tooth from the upper jaw, it should be hidden under the bed to prevent it from being picked up by bad people. This is shamanistic thinking. Shamanism is a cultural embryo of science. Without the shamanistic phase, science would not have developed. Science is the offspring of shamanism. As a historian, I must say this objectively, without emotional bias. We should not disparage shamanism just because we dislike it. Of course, once science has developed, continuing to practice shamanism is wrong. We should believe in science, right?

So, shamanism. Among shamanistic practices, reproductive shamanism was the earliest and most important. Reproductive shamanism, also known as fertility worship, focused on women because humans are born from women. Therefore, the earliest fertility worship was directed towards women, female reproductive organs, and natural objects resembling female reproductive organs, such as fish and frogs.

Why worship fish? Because fish have many offspring, right? A fish’s belly is full of eggs, right? So the ancient Chinese used fish to symbolize the labia of the female genitalia. And why worship frogs? Because frogs also have many offspring. Frogs give birth to a lot of tadpoles at once, right? And the belly of a frog often swells up, much like a pregnant woman. Therefore, our ancestors used frogs to symbolize the uterus. You can find this in the books as well; I didn’t bring the PPT today, but the frog pattern unearthed in Jiang shows many dots on its belly, which represent offspring.

Therefore, we once imagined that our ancient grandmother was a large frog named the Female Frog. Some people say the frog character should be read as “蜗” (wō), so it’s called “女蜗” (Nǚwō), because it resembles a snail’s “蜗” (wō). But that’s not quite correct. When we look up ancient dictionaries, the pronunciation note for this character was written in “fanqie” (a phonetic notation system). The ancient pronunciation for the character “蛙” was “古华切” (gǔ huá qiē), where “古华” refers to the “古” (gǔ) and “华” (huá) characters. The phonetic combination “古华切” corresponds to the sound “呱” (guā). This character was pronounced as “呱” (guā) in ancient times, which is the sound of a frog croaking. Later, this sound evolved into “蛙” (wā).

Because our great mother was a frog, our so-called children are referred to as “娃娃” (wáwá), and thus it was imagined as the myth of mending the sky. In reality, the four legs supporting the firmament are either the frog legs cut off by the Female Frog or its own four frog legs, holding up the entire sky. The stars in the sky are the children in her belly. Therefore, this divine frog eventually went to the moon and became a toad. After the pronunciation of “蟾蜍” (chánchú) changed, it was called “嫦娥” (Cháng’é), which is a transformation of the sound of toad.

In Han dynasty stone carvings, the Female Frog holds up a moon with a frog inside it, called a toad. Correspondingly, Fuxi holds up a sun with a bird called Jinwu inside it. This is the code left by our ancient myths. Why did the ancients imagine that this divine frog went to the moon? Because the moon is closely related to women. Think about it, women have their monthly cycle, which is due to the moon.

It is said that foreign scientists are preparing to blow up the moon. After blowing it up, they say the seas will no longer rise and fall, there will be no more tides, and women will no longer have their monthly cycle, making life easier for everyone. Moreover, the moon waxes and wanes, so the ancients imagined that when the moon changes into a crescent shape, it means the child has been born, and then it starts to grow longer and becomes round when pregnant, and then it flattens again to give birth. What is the child born from the moon? The countless stars in the sky. This is our imagination, our mythical imagination. This is female genital worship, worship of fish, worship of frogs. The counterpart of frogs is the sun, which is represented by birds. What is bird worship? Male genital worship, right? This doesn’t need explanation.

Do we still call a man’s genitalia a bird? People in Chengdu call it “小鸡鸡” (xiǎo jījī), in Chongqing it’s “小丑醜” (xiǎo chǒuchǒu), and in English, it’s also called a rooster. Male genital worship is primarily represented by birds and also by snakes. Imagine it; I won’t explain further. Snake worship is the same worldwide, including Greece, India, and West Asia. So who tempted Eve in the Bible? It was a snake. The serpent that tempted Eve was definitely a snake; if a snake tempted Adam, it would be homosexuality.

Thus, ancient myths are embedded with cultural codes. In writing Chinese history, one of my goals is to decode these codes. Decoding these codes really requires logical thinking skills, and I’m very grateful to my middle school geometry teacher. Yes, you must reason; you must conduct reasoning. Male genital worship involves snakes and birds. And birds are worshiped because they lay many, many eggs. Right? And men’s genitalia are also called “eggs.”

Then, what about the cultural pattern of male genital worship? The totem worship. Again, the sequence is: first female genital worship, represented by Nüwa; then male genital worship, represented by Fuxi; and finally totem worship, represented by Yan and Huang. Why totem worship? Because with the development of social productivity, men’s status in social life gradually increased.