Cangjie Ancestral Hall located in Li Dafu Village, Min'an Street, Demonstration Zone, photo by Ma Xiaowei

Shangqiu has a long history and splendid culture, among which Cangjie culture and Yin Shang culture are like two dazzling stars, reflecting each other in the long years. In-depth exploration can find that the Cangjie culture of Shangqiu conclusively confirms the important historical assertion that "the source of Yin Shang is in Shangqiu" at many key levels.

1. The close connection between time and cultural inheritance

Archaeological discoveries have revealed a clear line of civilization origins. The Cangjie Tomb in Shangqiu (located in Li Dafu Village, Min'an Street, Demonstration Zone) has been confirmed by archaeology and is located on the Longshan cultural site more than 4000 years ago. As we all know, Yangshao culture has evolved into Longshan culture after development, and Longshan culture is an important foundation for the formation of Yin Shang culture. This complete chain of cultural inheritance clearly shows that the Cangjie culture is in the early stage from the chronological order, and it is like the seed of civilization, laying a solid foundation for the prosperity and development of the subsequent Yin Shang culture.

Cangjie lived during the period of the Yellow Emperor, when society was at a critical stage of transition from ignorance to civilization. With the increasing complexity of production and life, the need for information recording and dissemination has become more and more urgent, and Cangjie has created words in response to the call of the times. This great initiative opened a new era of Chinese civilization, allowing knowledge and experience to be passed on more accurately and effectively. It is on this basis that Yin Shang culture continues to grow and develop, and gradually forms a unique and brilliant cultural system. As an important carrier of Cangjie culture, Shangqiu has played a vital role in the process of inheriting this civilization, which strongly proves its important position as the source of Yin Shang culture.

2. Strong evidence from the perspective of the development of words

(1) The continuity of the word-making inheritance

Cangjie is revered as the ancestor of the Chinese nation, and the writing he created is the prototype of hieroglyphs. The oracle bone inscription of the Yin Shang period, as the earliest known mature writing system in China, has an obvious relationship with the writing of the Cangjie period in terms of character creation methods. The oracle bone inscription makes extensive use of pictographic, ideographic and other letter-making methods, which is in line with Cangjie's concept of creating characters by observing all things in nature and the footprints of birds and beasts.

For example, the word "day" in the oracle bone inscription is like a circle with a dot in the middle, vividly depicting the shape of the sun; The character "human" resembles a human figure standing on its side. The similarity of these glyphs fully shows that the Shang people inherited and developed the written civilization pioneered by the early Cangjie in the land of Shangqiu. In the course of long-term practice, they continued to enrich and improve the writing system according to actual needs, so that the oracle bone inscription could not only accurately record daily affairs, but also be used for important activities such as divination and sacrifice. As one of the core areas for the inheritance and development of writing, Shangqiu has witnessed the important historical process from the creation of Cangjie characters to the maturity of oracle bone inscriptions, which further confirms the close connection between the source of Yin Shang and Shangqiu.

(2) The intrinsic relationship between words

From the perspective of phonology and philology, the ancient sounds of "cang" and "shang" are similar, and they have the possibility of being common in the ancient phonological system. At the same time, the pronunciation of "Jie" and the ancient pronunciation of the ancestor of the Shang clan "Qi" is the same, and the rhyme parts can be converted to each other. This phonological connection is not accidental, and it suggests that there is a deep internal connection between the Cangjie culture and the Shang culture.

The ancestral deeds of the Shang people are closely related to the creation of words in legends. According to historical records, the deed "Zuo Yu has meritorious service in controlling the water, sealed in business, and given the surname". In the development of the Shang family, he may have played an important role in the organization and inheritance of writing. Some scholars boldly speculate that "Cangjie" may be a different expression of "business contract". If this view is true, it will further prove that the Cangjie culture of Shangqiu is highly integrated with the Shang culture, and provides a more direct and powerful philological evidence for "the origin of Yin Shang is in Shangqiu".

3. The inheritance relationship between characters and cultural traditions

As the historian of the Yellow Emperor, Cangjie shouldered important responsibilities such as recording history, inheriting culture, and supervising sacrifices. Sacrifice was an extremely solemn and sacred activity in ancient society, which was not only a reverence for gods and ancestors, but also an important way to maintain social order and inherit culture. The Shang people also regarded sacrifice as the top priority, and they attached great importance to sacrificial activities, forming a complete and cumbersome sacrificial ritual system.

This shared emphasis on sacrifice reflects the deep cultural tradition of the Shang people and the Cangjie period. There is a view that some sages of the Shang clan inherited the mantle of Cangjie characters, and also inherited the cultural traditions and spiritual connotations represented by Cangjie. It is this inheritance that enables the Shang people to have a high degree of civilization represented by writing in the process of development. With the help of words, they recorded in detail the process of sacrificial activities, the types of sacrifices, the objects of sacrifice and other information, so that the Yin Shang culture could be completely inherited. As one of the birthplaces of Cangjie culture, Shangqiu's unique cultural atmosphere and tradition provide fertile soil for the formation and development of Shang culture, which further illustrates the rationality of the source of Yin Shang in Shangqiu.

Fourth, the solid support of regional culture

Shangqiu is not only an important inheritance place of Cangjie culture, but also the Zhaoxing place of the Shang tribe, the birthplace of commerce and the capital of the Shang Dynasty. This unique regional feature makes Shangqiu a core area where various cultures converge and integrate.

In Shangqiu, there are relics such as the Cangjie Tomb Shrine that was built in the Han Dynasty, which carry the reverence of people for Cangjie and the inheritance of Cangjie culture for thousands of years. They are not only witnesses of history, but also symbols of culture. At the same time, Shangqiu, as the origin of the Shang people, has a wealth of historical relics and legends related to the Shang people. From the settlement of the Shang tribe in the early days to the capital of the Shang Dynasty later, Shangqiu witnessed the whole process of the Shang people from their rise, development to prosperity.

The specific region carries the Cangjie culture and the Yin Shang culture, two cultures with deep origins, which fully shows that in the land of Shangqiu, the culture has a strong continuity and inheritance. The two cultures influence and blend with each other, and together constitute the unique regional cultural style of Shangqiu. This close connection of regional culture provides the most intuitive and solid evidence for "the source of Yin Shang is in Shangqiu".

To sum up, the Cangjie culture of Shangqiu provides comprehensive and powerful evidence for "the source of Yin Shang in Shangqiu" from multiple perspectives such as time and cultural inheritance, writing development, characters and cultural traditions, and regional culture. In-depth study and excavation of the intrinsic connection between the Cangjie culture and the Yin Shang culture in Shangqiu will not only help us better understand the origin and development process of the Chinese civilization, but also enable us to cherish and inherit these two precious cultural heritages more. It is believed that in the future, with the continuous development and in-depth research of archaeology, history, cultural studies and other disciplines, the historical status of Shangqiu as the source of Yin Shang will be more fully confirmed and highlighted.