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The Title Screen of the Documentary <Heshang>

The Yellow River flows behind the letter 'Heshang', which means 'Hwangha died early'.

According to Chinese academia, YanDi began Chinese civilization, Huangdi was the beginning of the Chinese emperor, Yao formed the core of Chinese civilization, and Yu built Xi. Institute on European History at NAHF tracked down the mythical figures above. This is because the process of re-creating them as historical figures in combination with ancient ruins is very interesting. The results of this study will be serialized five times. This will help you see what the relationship between China's patriotism and making ancient history is.

Broadcasting of <Heshang> and the Tiananmen Square Incident

“Dragons! What the Yellow River could give us, it had already given to our ancestors. The sediments of old civilizations are piled up in the blood vessels of the people, like sand deposited in the Yellow River. The floods must wipe out the sediments of civilization. It’s time for the flood to come.”

China Central Television aired the documentary <Heshang> from June 11 to 18, 1988. <Heshang> was produced in 6 episodes, and the above is a narration in the first episode 'Dreaming'. The narration of <Heshang> raises questions with question marks, exclamation marks, and ellipsis; and ridicules China which is excited by superiority.

In <Heshang>, 'he' means 'the Yellow River' and 'shang' means 'die early', which means 'ghosts without masters who died in minors'. The documentary declared that "the Chinese civilization has already died." The subtitle of <Heshang> is 'the record of reflection on Chinese culture', and it criticized Chinese civilization such as Yellow River, Great Wall, and dragon. The Yellow River is an important means of raising Chinese civilization, the Jangseong is the greatest building created by the Chinese, and the dragon is a sacred animal that the Chinese consider to be their ancestor.

<Heshang> not only denied Chinese civilization, but also criticized the Chinese Communist Party. “China’s underdeveloped is due to the Communist Party’s bureaucracy and privileged ideas. These have led to corruption and have not been able to push for modernization. Mao’s unscientific policy of encouraging childbirth has led to poverty and poor human qualities.…… China has superstitions about abstract socialist models, and the idea that socialism is superior. We must modernize our country in a Western way, not hide the reality of the underdeveloped China.”

Patriotic Propaganda on the Roadside of Urumqi, Xinjiang Province

It says, "The child's heart is toward the party.“

Criticism of nihilism and the Appearance of Patriotism

<Heshang> denied the tradition of China and insisted that the Western science and technology, culture and political system should be learned. This was not revealed at the time, but it was heavy rain on the student movement that was driving hard underground. A year after the <Heshang> was aired, the Tiananmen Square Incident occurred.

The Chinese Communist Party has felt that the liberalization trend of proprietary classes that are prevalent in society is the cause of the Tiananmen Square Incident. Jiang Zemin criticized 'liberalization trend of proprietary classes' as National Nihilism and Historical Nihilism in his speech at 'Research Class of Party Building Theory' held in December 1989.

Nihilism is a translation of the German word 'Nihilismus', and Nietzsche defined it as a situation in which someone experiences loss of meaning or absolute meaninglessness. National Nihilism in China is “a nihilism expressed in national issues, denying the culture, tradition and historical heritage of the nation”. And Historical Nihilism refers to denying Chinese history, especially denying the history of the Chinese Communist Party. In the <Heshang>, denying the the core of Chinese traditional culture(the Yellow River, the Jangseong, and the dragon) corresponds to National Nihilism, and denying the Communist Party corresponds to Historical Nihilism. In the early days of the Tiananmen Square Incident, the term National Nihilism was mainly used. However, it is now being used incorporating the word Historical Nihilism.

The Chinese government found the cause of the widespread nihilism in the lack of ideological education. Deng Xiaoping said, "Our biggest mistake is education. There was a lack of education for young people and adolescents." Jiang also agreed with Deng's idea. So, China officially started patriotism education in 1994 when it announced 'Forced patriotism education(愛國主義實施綱要)'.

China's patriotism began to fill the ideological vacuum caused by the counterattack against the liberalization trend of proprietary classes and the decline of socialist theory. So China's patriotism is characteristic. They stress that “the Communist Party and the State and the Group are the same.” In other words, loving the country and loving the party are the same. Patriotism education is conducted through Guanshui fa(Irrigation method), a kind of brainwashing education, and starts from the time of kindergarten. Therefore, those who have been educated in patriotism act by infused patriotism. Recently, Chinese netizens attacked Korean entertainers such as BTS, and claimed that Korean culture such as kimchi and hanbok originated from China is the influence of patriotism education.

A Strange Patriot

In China, young people who are pathologically patriotic are called 'angered youths'. 

The painting depicts reason packing up and leaving as the patriotic swells into the head of 'angered youth'. 

(Source: The Chinese Daily, July 23, 2016)

Criticism of Historical Nihilism and Making Ancient History

The Chinese government conducted research and education on traditional culture, Chinese ancient history, history of the Chinese Communist Party, and the state of China's national politics to strengthen patriotism. The purpose of studying ancient history was to prove the greatness of Chinese civilization. In other words, the Chinese people created the most advanced culture in the world through great ancient history and made an excellent contribution to the development of human civilization. The government proved these facts so that it felt pride as a Chinese people.

In order to achieve this purpose, China conducted related projects. The Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project was conducted from 1996 to 2000. The purpose of this was to find the 'lost chronological table' and to establish the date in which the Xia-Shang-Zhou existed. From 2001 to 2015, the Chinese Civilization Exploration Process was conducted. The purpose of this process was to clarify that the Five Empires era before the Xia Dynasty was closely related to the origin and formation of the Chinese people.

The two projects above are different in the period of study. However, all of them have a common point that they tried to make historical figures by combining mythical figures with historical remains and to make the era of their lives.