There are many versions of the origin of the Three Miao Kingdoms, all of which are inseparable from the Xuanyu tribe: either he founded it alone, later joined other tribes, or he founded it with other tribes. The Three Miao Kingdom should be a tribal alliance with the rudiments of the state. For example, Mr. He Guangyue's History of the Origin of southern Man (p. 31) says: "Sanmiao refers to the three Branches of the Miao clan, that is, after the Yan Emperor of the Shennong clan, the Miao and Xuanyou surnamed Jiang ... Together, they formed the Sanmiao Tribal Alliance." In order to be consistent with the historical records, this article still refers to it as "Sanmiao Kingdom", and the "Sanmiao Tribal Alliance Settlement Center" is also called "Sanmiao Guodu".
In the Three Miao Kingdom, "Miao with the surname of Jiang" refers to the tribe of the tāo tiè clan, and the Shundian says: "Sanmiao, the name of the country, after the Jinyun clan, is a prince, and the number is gluttonous". Originally the son of the Jinyun clan, the Gluttony clan belonged to the Yandi tribe and later merged into the Yellow Emperor tribe. According to the Shiben Yun: "Jinyun clan, Jiang surname also, Yandi's Miao descendants, when the Yellow Emperor, in Jinyun's official". According to the "History of the Southern Barbarian Sources? The Origin of the Gluttonous Clan and the Use and Spread of Gluttonous Images" in the Introduction: During the Yao Shun period, there was a conflict in the Huaxia tribal alliance, and the Western Qiang Clan Yao Emperor ceded the position of leader of the tribal alliance to the Dongyi Clan Shun Emperor. The Gluttonous clan united with the Western Qiang tribes such as Danzhu, Gonggong, and Cang, and rebelled against it. After the defeat of the war, the "Four Tribes" were expelled from the Central Plains by Emperor Shun as the "Four Fierce Tribes", and a part of the Gluttonous Clan moved south to Hunan. "Emperor Shun drove the Gluttonous clan to the southwest and joined the tribal alliance of Sanmiao, and the tribal leader of Sanmiao, Xuan You, was also a member of the Jiang clan."
After the establishment of the Three Miao Kingdom, they made the Center of the Huangcai-Xuanyu Tribe as the capital of the country.
The history books record that the Three Miao Kingdom was founded in Changsha. "Nominal Examination" Yun: "The three Miao founded the country in Changsha, and the rule was Jiangnan Jingyang ye". The yellow material built near Changsha in the capital of the Three Miao Kingdom coincides with the history books - Ningxiang Yellow Material belongs to Changsha. According to the "Later Han Shu Xi Qiang Biography", "The Xi Qiang clan is originally from Sanmiao, and the jiang surname is also different." Its country is close to Nanyue. Ningxiang Huangcai is only more than 150 kilometers away from Nanyue. Moreover, no other ruins of the capital city of The Three Miao Kingdom have been found in Changsha and around Nanyue, and Tanheli is the only confirmed ancient Fangguo city site found in Hunan.
Now there is also an old saying in Ningxiang that "Huangcai Ginger is difficult to sigh", saying that there are many people with the surname of Huangcai Ginger. And the three tribal chiefs of the Three Miao Kingdoms are all surnamed "Jiang", so is it not a bold speculation from this: HuangCai is the place where the three tribal leaders work together, they all live here with their families, and later they left a large number of Jiang descendants in Huangcai?!
The Three Miao Kingdom is the ruling state of the "Jiang" surname, and the leaders of the three major tribes are all surnamed "Jiang", while the "Jiang surname: from the sheep, from the female". Therefore, they cast ceremonial instruments such as the four sheep square statues decorated with sheep and the human face pattern square ding decorated with women as the pictures (some experts believe), and worshiped the ancestors.
The choice of yellow wood for the three Miao countries may be based on the following reasons:
Among the three tribes of the Three Miao Kingdom, the Xuanyou Tribe is an indigenous people, and they have used the yellow wood as the tribal settlement center for hundreds of years, and the yellow wood should have a certain scale when the Three Miao Kingdom was established. At the same time, the History of the Southern Barbarian Sources says that Xuan You (tribal leader) is the leader of the Three Miao Kingdom (tribal alliance).
At that time, the Three Miao Kingdom and the Huaxia Group often broke out into wars, and they were generally on the defensive. And huangcai is a basin, surrounded by mountains on three sides, easy to defend and difficult to attack.
At that time, Huang Cai was located on the banks of the mighty Shuishui River, under the majestic Dashui Mountain, and could retreat or advance. Retreat: Back to the base camp of the Xuanyu tribe - the Zishui River Basin Xuefeng Mountain. Enter: Through the Shuishui River, soon enter the Xiangshui River and reach Dongting Lake, which is convenient for commanding the war with the Central Plains.
The Three Miao Kingdom was the only force group that could compete with the Huaxia Group during the Yao Shunyu period, and it had long been suppressed by the Huaxia Group, and its scope changed with the times.
During the Yao Shunyu period, the State of Sanmiao was roughly within a vast area between the Jianghan and Jianghuai river basins and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, as well as between Dongting Pengli, that is, the southern part of present-day Henan Province, the western part of Anhui Province, and the three provinces of Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangxi.
"Nominal Examination" Yun: "The three Miao founded the country in Changsha, and the rule was Jiangnan Jingyang ye".
"Han Feizi" Yun: "Those who disobey the three miao, Hengshan mountain is in the south, minjiang river is in the north, the wave of zuo dongting, there is the water of Peng Li." ”
The Huaxia Clique carried out a crusade against the Three Miao Kingdoms, especially the Yu Dynasty, causing its scope to gradually retreat southward and develop westward in the Xia Dynasty. By the Shang Dynasty, the forces of the Three Miao Kingdoms may have retreated to the Yangtze River with the Shang Dynasty.
The ruins of the Shang Dynasty Ancient City of Panlong City, about 5 kilometers north of Wuhan, are the military town of the Shang Dynasty in the south with a history of more than 3,500 years.
Wu Qiyun of the Warring States Strategy Wei Ce: "The residence of the three miaos in the past, the wave of the left Peng Li, and the water of the right dongting."
The vast majority of scholars believe that the Sanmiao Kingdom began to mysteriously disappear in the Shang Dynasty, because later people found many Shang Dynasty bronzes south of the Yangtze River, especially in tanheli in Ningxiang, Hunan, and around Wucheng in Qingjiang County, Jiangxi, believing that bronzes were cast by merchants, and that Shang forces should replace the Sanmiao kingdom.
Mr. Tan Qijun's "Historical Atlas of China" is marked with "Three Miao" in the "Full Map of the Xia Dynasty", but "Three Miao" is missing in the "Whole Map of the Shang Period", and "Ningxiang" and "Qingjiang" are marked on it.
Did the Three Miao Kingdoms not exist in the Shang Dynasty? exist! According to the Kangxi? The Chronicle of Ningxiang County records that Ningxiang belonged to the State of Sanmiao during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and the Zhou Li Zhifang Zhengnan said: "(Ningxiang) went to Hengshan For three hundred miles, and the old Zhi knew the kingdom of Three Miao.". Just think: if the Ningxiang Shangzhou bronzes were cast by the Sanmiao people, the Sanmiao Kingdom would certainly exist during the Shang zhou period! As for the ruins of Wucheng in Jiangxi, it can only prove that a splendid bronze civilization was also created there, but it does not prove that the Three Miao Kingdom does not exist. Many Shang Dynasty bronzes have also been found in The Guanghan Sanxingdui in Sichuan, but in fact they were cast by the ancient Shu State.
Through research, metallurgical historians believe that there were three major copper smelting centers in ancient China. The first is the Nakajō Mountain Copper Smelting Center in the north. The second is the Jingzhou copper smelting center in Hubei Daye, including Ruichang in Jiangxi, and the third is the Yangzhou copper smelting center centered on Nanling Dagong Mountain and Tongling's Phoenix Mountain. The main copper-producing area is still south of the Yangtze River, of which the Jingzhou Copper Smelting Center is within the scope of the Sanmiao Ancient Kingdom. Archaeological excavations have shown that the Jingzhou Copper Smelting Center began to mine from the Shang Dynasty, and the Yangzhou Copper Smelting Center did not min until the Western Zhou Dynasty. Historians delved into the jin inscriptions on some of the bronzes and found that the Shang and Zhou Dynasties frequently attacked the south. They speculate that the primary purpose of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties was probably to plunder copper from the south. If the Shang Dynasty forces crossed the Yangtze River in the Shang Dynasty, then there was no such thing as attacking the south. If the theory of attacking the south is established, then the target of the attack is only the Three Miao Kingdom, which was not yet born. Expert analysis: The Shang zhou dynasty plundered the copper of the Three Miao Kingdom through war, possibly by using large boats to sail through the Yangtze River, through the Cao River into Chao Lake, to Huaiyi District, and finally into the Central Plains.
At the end of the Shang Dynasty (c. late 11th century BC), "After Zhu Rong, the Miao-descendant Bear of Ji Lian was zhou, and Xi Bochang (King Wen of Zhou) was the same." Xiong Li was first sealed between the Ju Mountains" (Chu History) - The Chu State was born. As the State of Chu grew stronger, its sphere of influence expanded indefinitely, forcing some Of the Yangyue people living in the Yangshui River Basin and the Sanmiao people along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River to cross dongting Lake along the Xiang River to the vicinity of the Sanmiao state capital, Huangcai, causing the third major population migration in Hunan history - Yangyue people into Hunan. A large number of Yangyue people settled in Changsha near Huangcai, and since then, Changsha has become the "land of Yangyue".
The "History of the Chu Shijia" records: During the reign of King Yi of Zhou, the royal family declined, and the princes attacked each other, "Xiongqu was even more peaceful among the people of Jiang and Han, and Naixing soldiers cut down Yong and Yang Yue... All are in the land of Chu Barbarians on the river" The Yangtze River is the Yangtze River, that is, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The name "Yangyue" comes from Yangshui, which is in the middle of the Jianghan Plain, connecting the Yangtze River and the Han River. The Chu people called the Yue people who were the first to contact in the Yangshui River Basin the Yangyue people.
From about the end of the 10th century BC to the middle of the 9th century BC, the State of Chu controlled the lower reaches of the Han River and the coastal areas of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the scope of the Three Miao State was greatly reduced. However, excavations of the Shangzhou site in Gaosha Ridge in Wangcheng from 1996 to 1997 suggest that the lower reaches of the Xiang River (including Changsha, the "land of Yangyue") should still be under the rule of the country.
The Yangyue people entered Hunan and reached Huangcai, bringing new technologies with them. The results of archaeological excavations in Tanheli from 2001 to 2005 show that the Three Miao Kingdoms built a large number of civil engineering and construction in Tanheli in front of Zhaizi Mountain no later than the beginning of the Shang Wei Zhou (2970+ or -50 years) - this is the ruins of the ancient city of Western Zhou in Tanheli today, and although there is now "nothing on the ground", "the underground weather is numerous", which has left us with unlimited imagination at the same time, but also led to two suspicious cases.
1. Where are the early ruins of the capital city of the Three Miao Kingdoms?
First of all, the Tanheli ruins should exist earlier. According to comrades from the Ningxiang Cultural Relics Bureau, from 2001 to 2005, archaeological excavations in Tanheli showed that there were two cultural layers under the Western Zhou ruins in Tanheli that had not been excavated.
Secondly, the ruins of the early Sanmiao Ancient Kingdom Capital City may be difficult to find.
In the 1950s, the Huangwu Reservoir (i.e. Qingyang Lake) was built – to the left of the reservoir dam is the "Zhaizi Mountain". (Qing) Tao Ru Nai recorded in the "Records of You Shu Shan" that "dangerous peaks protrude from the side of the road. The previous generation of natives tried to build a wall on the top of the mountain and avoided the soldiers on it, because of the name of the village. The trail leads in. And the name of "Zhaizi Mountain" itself, etc., indicates that in the reservoir submerged area behind Zhaizi Mountain, there was a very important base at that time. This base is most likely the early "Three Miao Capital".
Of course, it is also possible that this site has not been found for the time being.
2. Where is the tomb of the Sanmiao Ancient Royal Family?
This is an unsolvable mystery that plagues the archaeological community. The archaeological site of tanheli ancient city is confirmed to be the site of an ancient capital city, and there should be ancient tombs corresponding to it around it, but so far only some tombs of middle and lower-level nobles have been found, and the tombs of high-ranking nobles, including royal families, have not been found. Earlier, I suspected that it was flooded by the Huangwu Reservoir (that is, Qingyang Lake), but I thought about it: the ancient kingdom of Sanmiao lasted at least 1400 years, and there were 3 kings in 100 years, and there were more than 40 kings, and the queens should be more, and their royal tombs should be very large if concentrated in the Huangwu Reservoir. The average water depth of The Huangwu Reservoir is not more than 19 meters; the deepest part is in the dam, the vertical elevation of the dam is only 48.5 meters, and the perennial storage water surface is 4.5 meters away from the top of the dam, which means that the reservoir submerges the surrounding mountains up to 44 meters high. The conclusion is that royal tombs, if they are around the reservoir, cannot be completely submerged. Moreover, the loess soil everywhere is good for burying people, and it is impossible for the princes and nobles to be buried all around the reservoir, so why has there been no trace?
The author hopes to one day witness the "master" of the ancient city of Tanheli, but this wish is not surprising with the author's discovery of "Miao people die many lines of burial, no coffin, nor tomb", I know that it is difficult to achieve - the "master" of the ancient city of Tanheli is the Sanmiao people, we found many exquisite bronzes in the soil on the mountains of the Xiangjiang River Valley, and it is not surprising that no tombs commensurate with the ancient country have been found around the Tanhe River - those places where bronzes have been unearthed may be the places where the ancient kings and nobles of Sanmiao are buried. Perhaps the famous Four Sheep Fang Zun and the large bronze cymbal weighing 443 kilograms at home and abroad accompanied one or more Sanmiao kings through the long three thousand years in huangwu yueshan.
This Miao funeral custom may have originated from the long-term suppression of the Chinese in the Central Plains in the Three Miao Kingdoms. Although he was a prince and nobleman, he carried precious bronze jade after his death, but the tomb was not sealed. Today, thousands of years later, because their corpses are not protected and truly return to nature, many bronze and jade objects are left behind to make people wonder. Even if a pile of white bones is left behind, such a simple tomb, who would have thought of how majestic the master was before he died?
With the introduction of new technologies by the Yangyue people, the productivity of the Sanmiao State increased, and the forces of some local princes continued to grow, and they gradually disobeyed the management of the (Central Committee of the Sanmiao State). Entering the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the Three Miao Kingdom was already a small country. According to archaeological excavations at the Tanheli site: in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the ancient king's palace was abandoned – the reason for this became a puzzling mystery. There are many historical materials about the ancient kingdom of China in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, whether the ancient kingdom of Sanmiao moved its capital on its own, or was captured and killed by the Chu state or other countries, it should be recorded, but it has not yet been found. The author speculates that the water destroys the royal palace and the possibility of the disintegration of the country is high.
"Shushan" is named because of the rainy monkeys: the Ancients of Sanmiao found that there were many monkeys on this mountain backed by yellow wood, and the monkeys recognized a female monkey as the king, so they called it "Weishan" ("Shuowen Jiezi" Note: "爲" - "Female monkey also.") It is a good claw for birds. Claw, female monkey elephant also..."), because the mountain often fell heavy rain (according to the hydrological department: here is the famous "Meicheng rainstorm center" in Changsha), so it was changed to "Weishan" as "Lushan", and later became a simplified character is "沩山", with which the river as the source goes directly to Xiangshui is also called "Shuishui River". "Shushan Mountain" and "Shuishui" are the exclusive use of this mountain and this water. There are many monkeys in the mountains, and this was still the case until the Tang Dynasty - the "Biyan Record" says: "The mountains are steep and uninhabited, and the Lingyou Zen master is in the company of apes."
Tanheli Ancient City is located under the Dahu Mountain, on the banks of the Shuishui River, once the flash flood breaks out, all the floods have to pass through the upper reaches of the Shuishui River and the Weixi River into the lower reaches of the Shuishui River, and the confluence of the two rivers is exactly in the Tanhe River. Mr. Xiang Taochu's "Discovery of Tanheli City Site and Re-study of Ningxiang Bronze Ware Group" believes that the use date of Tanheli City Site is the early and middle Western Zhou Dynasty. According to this speculation: in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, there was a flash flood that completely destroyed the Sanmiao King's Palace (the ancient city of Tanheli), and perhaps even the king was killed in the water. "The trees fell and scattered", and the Three Miao Kingdom naturally disintegrated. According to Mr. Xiang Taochu, there are four flood layers at the Tanheli site, indicating that it has undergone four major flood washes in history, and the last flood layer is particularly thick, nearly one meter, all gravel. It was not until the 1950s, when the government built the Huangwu Reservoir (Qingyang Lake), that the flooding of the Weijiang River was completely solved.
This may be the main reason why the Sanmiao Ancient Kingdom finally disappeared mysteriously. Although Chinese history entered the stage of written examination from the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, Chinese history books were only written from the Spring and Autumn Period, when the Sanmiao Kingdom had already disintegrated, and when the Ancient Sanmiao Kingdom disintegrated, the country was small and weak, and it was not attacked and died by other countries.
Although the Sanmiao Kingdom disintegrated, the Sanmiao people created a splendid bronze civilization and left a valuable cultural heritage for future generations.
The national treasure-level bronzes such as the Four Sheep Fangzun, the Human Face Pattern Fang Ding, the Tiger Cannibal, the Elephant Pattern Large Copper Cymbal, the Animal Face Pattern Ti Liang Jie, and the Beast Face Pattern Giant Copper Urn unearthed around the yellow material show that the bronzes cast by the Three Miao People are by no means inferior to those cast in the Central Plains. But it also leads to many mysteries: where were ningxiang bronzes cast? Where do raw materials, especially copper, come from? Where does technology come from? Where are the smelting sites? Ningxiang bronze ware has the elements of the Central Plains Shang culture and the reasons for the great regression of the bronze casting process in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty.
Where The Ningxiang bronzes were cast has always had two views.
Point 1: Tribute or brought in by foreign peoples
During the Yin Shang period, local kingdoms appeared in Ningxiang and often received "bronze" tributes from many small countries in the Yellow River Basin, which can also be proved from the fact that Ningxiang bronzes have a typical northern Shang Dynasty craftsmanship style.
After the Tanheli site was excavated, the archaeological community had a new view of "brought by foreign peoples". Archaeologists proposed to Mr. Taochu that the geographical location of the ancient Fangguocheng was remote and could not be the regional cultural center of the local indigenous peoples, and at the same time, no production workshops such as coal, production materials and copper kilns were found in the site, and high-level bronzes such as Siyang Fangzun could only be cast by entities that mastered cutting-edge technology and had considerable political and economic strength, so it was unlikely that "locally made" bronzes could be made. In addition, the bronzes unearthed here have typical northern craft characteristics, and the time of use and burial of these bronzes is the Western Zhou Period, which is illogical in time, the casting date of these bronzes should be in the Jianghan Plain area, before and after the western Zhou Dynasty, due to the oppression of the powerful Zhou Dynasty forces, the ancient Fang state in the Jianghan Plain area carried bronzes symbolizing state power and some of the remnants of the Shang Dynasty who fled south to the Xiangjiang River Valley.
Point 2: Ningxiang local casting
The idea that bronzes were introduced from the Central Plains to Ningxiang has been questioned by some archaeologists, who believe that the site of these cultural relics is remote, and under the transportation conditions of thousands of years ago, it is not easy to transport these hundreds of kilograms of bronze heavy objects from the Yellow River Valley thousands of miles away. Gao Zhixi, the former director of the Hunan Provincial Museum, believes that it may be that during the Shang Dynasty, the excellent casting craftsmen in the Central Plains were cast in Hunan.
In fact, the beautiful pattern on the Four Sheep FangZun shows the characteristics of the south; the four sides of the human face pattern Fangding are decorated with human faces, which have never been seen in the data of the golden face images of the Shang Zhou Dynasty, which can be confirmed: Ningxiang bronzes were cast by the ancient kingdom of Sanmiao. To say this, of course, the following questions must also be answered:
First, where do the raw materials for ningxiang bronze casting, especially copper, come from?
There are at least three copper mine sites now found within the sanmiao ancient country.
During the Shang Dynasty, the sanmiao kingdom stretched from Wuchang in the north to Poyang Lake in the east. Shangshu Geography Present Interpretation: "Sanmiao, present-day Huguang Wuchang, Yuezhou Erfu, Jiangxi Jiujiang Fuye." History of Justice, Wu Qiyun Sanmiao Kingdom Left Dongting and Right Peng Li. Present-day Jiangzhou, Ezhou, and Yuezhou also. "This shows that the existing Copper Mine Site of the Late Shang Dynasty in Huangshi Copper Green Mountain in Hubei And the Copper Ridge Copper Mine Site in Ruichang, Jiangxi Belong to the Ancient Kingdom of Sanmiao, which should have been discovered and mined by the Sanmiao people." These two copper mines are not far from the Yangtze River, and the Sanmiao people transported copper through the Yangtze River to Dongting Lake, and borrowed the Xiangjiang River to reach ningxiang huangcai - which was the source of copper in the Shang Dynasty of the Three Miao Kingdoms.
From about the end of the 10th century BC to the middle of the 9th century BC, the State of Chu controlled the coastal areas of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Sanmiao State gradually lost the Huangshi Copper Green Mountain Copper Mine and the Ruichang Copper Ridge Copper Mine, so they looked for copper everywhere, and finally found copper in Jiuqu Bay, Mayang, Huaihua, Hunan in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Mayang, which is still a Miao Township, is still a Miao Township, full name: "Mayang Miao Autonomous County", which may have originally belonged to the rule of the Three Miao State, or it may have been the Three Miao State that developed its sphere of influence to this area in order to find copper. The Jiuqu Bay bronze mine should also be discovered and mined by the Sanmiao people. Archaeological excavations have led to the excavation of the Jiuqu Bay bronze mine from the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the present. Mayang water transportation has been very convenient since ancient times. It can be imagined that the sanmiao people transported the copper from Jiuqu Bay to Dongting Lake through the Jinjiang River through the Yuanshui River, and borrowed the Xiangjiang River to reach the Ningxiang Huangcai - this is the source of copper in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty of the Sanmiao Kingdom.
Second, where does the Ningxiang bronze casting technology come from?
The three tribes of the Three Miao Kingdoms were all from the Central Plains, and later joined other tribes from the Central Plains, and they all mastered the technology of metal casting. Among them, the Xuanyou tribe was originally the Jiuli tribe, which is one of the earliest tribes in China to master metal casting technology.
In addition, merchants moved south to bring bronze casting technology. For example, the Ge people are a branch of the Shang aristocracy, and the Ge people have mastered the technology of casting copper as early as the Xia Dynasty. The migration of the Ge people to Jiangnan is one of the two main clans that have been recorded in the Shang Dynasty from the Central Plains to the south. In February 1970, a Bronze Ti liang of the Shang Dynasty was excavated from Wangjia Tomb Mountain, which was full of bird and animal patterns and had a "Ge" character cast in the bottom cover, which should have been cast by the Ge people.
In addition, historians believe that the cultural circle of the Shang Kingdom may be far beyond the scope of its political power, and there are mostly wars and trade between merchants and various countries--the Sanmiao people may have exchanged bronze casting technology while trading copper with Central Plains merchants.
3. Where is the Ningxiang bronze smelting site? Why did the casting technology of Ningxiang bronze ware in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty greatly regress?
If the Ningxiang bronze smelting site is in Ningxiang, it has not been found at present; it may also be difficult to find, because next to the Tanhe River, the Huangwu Reservoir (i.e. Qingyang Lake) was built in the 1950s, and it cannot be ruled out that the site was flooded.
So, must the exquisite bronzes unearthed around the Tanhe River be cast in Ningxiang? Not necessarily!
The author believes that at least part of the Ningxiang bronze is cast in other places, of which the Shang Dynasty to the early Western Zhou bronze in Hubei Huangshi Copper Green Mountain Copper Mine and Jiangxi Ruichang Tongling Shangzhou Copper Mine near the local possibility is large, with these two copper mines occupied by the Chu State, the late Western Zhou bronze is the use of Hunan Huaihua Mayang Jiuquwan copper mine local casting or Local casting in Ningxiang - this is also the reason why the Ningxiang bronze in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty is not as good as before. If all the bronzes unearthed in Ningxiang were cast in Hongo, how could the technology have regressed so much? After the bronze was cast locally in the copper mine, it was entirely possible to transport it to Ningxiang by water, because it was transported domestically.
15 kilometers west of Huangwu is Anhua County, which belonged to the Three Miao Kingdom in ancient times. There is a village of Xuanyou in Anhua Le'an Town, which is recognized as the "hometown of Xuanyou", and its village department is called "Dahetai". According to comrades from the Anhua County Cultural and Tourism Bureau, similar ancient bronze smelting sites were found here. In the bronzes excavated from the yellow material, the inner wall of the abdomen of the human face pattern Fang Ding cast the inscription "Dahe", is this like some commodities today to mark the place of origin? It would not be surprising if, one day, archaeologists did find kiln sites for bronze smelting in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties in "Dahetai" or elsewhere in Anhua – copper ore could reach Anhua via the Zishui River through Dongting Lake.
Therefore, the Ningxiang bronze was cast by the Ancient Kingdom of Sanmiao. Not only that, the Shang zhou bronzes in the Xiangjiang River Basin are also cast by the ancient kingdom of Sanmiao, and it is not surprising that the shape and ornamentation style of some bronzes are exactly the same as those of bronzes in the Central Plains.
Mr. Xiang Taochu, the person in charge of the archaeological project of the Tanheli site and an archaeologist, in the article "An Important Breakthrough in the Study of the Shangzhou Bronze Civilization in the Xiangjiang River Basin", roughly divided the Shangzhou bronzes in the Xiangjiang River Basin into five groups, the author only adjusted the order, the first four groups of experts must be cast in the south, it should be the Three Miao Kingdom casting, the fifth group of bronzes The shape and decoration style is completely the same as that of the Central Plains.
The first group: the archaeological community is basically sure that the bronze artifacts cast locally in the Xiangjiang River Basin. In addition to the large number of Yue-style Ding, bells, scrapers, axes, etc., there are also horses excavated from the Taojiang River, dragon ears unearthed from Xiangyin, silkworm patterns excavated from Hengshan Xialiu, snake-patterned belly halogens excavated from Yueyang, Xiangtan, Hengyang and other places, and four series of gui and tiger-striped cymbals collected by the Hunan Provincial Museum.
The second group: large copper cymbals. The archaeological community disputes its cultural attributes, but it is certain that it was cast in the south. When the author asked Mr. Xiang Taochu for advice in person, he clearly pointed out that it was most likely cast by the descendants of Sanmiao.
The third group: bronzes characterized by animal shapes (gluttonous patterns). Since so far there are fewer animal shapes in the bronzes unearthed in the Central Plains, and there are more such bronzes seen in the Xiangjiang River Basin and the variety of animals is complete, including elephants, tigers, cattle, sheep, pigs, etc., most scholars believe that they are produced in Hunan. The author believes that the gluttonous bronze ware embodies the unique culture of the Gluttonous tribe in the Sanmiao Kingdom, which should be cast in the Ancient Kingdom of Sanmiao.
The fourth group mainly includes large-mouth long-necked zun (such as Huarong Zun, Yueyang Feijiahe zun, etc.), truncated head zun (specimens have 2 pieces excavated from Yueyang Bream Mountain and Pingjiang Huankou Town) and Urn (specimens include xinshao Chen Jiafang urn and 2 pieces of extra-large urns found in the Huangwu River downstream of the Tanheli city site in 2001). This group of bronzes was basically excavated in the Shang Dynasty within the scope of the Sanmiao Ancient Kingdom, only a small amount spread to the nearby areas of the Sanmiao Ancient Kingdom, more and more domestic scholars believe that it is the product of the two lakes in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and Mr. Xiang Taochu believes that it may be cast in the Jianghan Plain, which is not inconsistent with the casting of the Sanmiao Kingdom.
The fifth group: the shape and ornamentation style are exactly the same as the bronze ware in the Central Plains (the types of utensils are Ding, Mane, Zun, Yao, Jue, Wan, Ti Liang, etc.), and bronzes with inscriptions should be included in this group. The archaeological community classifies it as a "medium prototype" bronze and considers it to be a product of the Central Plains.
The author believes that all the tribes of the Sanmiao Kingdom were originally from the Central Plains, and the merchants (such as the Ge people) who moved south may directly bring some bronzes from the Central Plains or bring technology to cast bronzes in Sanmiao, not to mention that from the Shang Dynasty onwards, the Sanmiao Kingdom may also have trade with the Merchants of the Central Plains? Therefore, it is not surprising that the shape and ornamentation style of some Shang Zhou bronzes excavated in the Xiangjiang River Basin are completely the same as those of bronzes in the Central Plains.
When the ancestors of the Central Plains created a splendid human civilization in the Yellow River Valley, several tribes from the Central Plains were forced to leave their hometowns, and they and their descendants went forward in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and established the ancient country of Sanmiao with the Huangcai Tanhe River as the center, creating an amazing bronze culture and igniting the fire of civilization in the Yangtze River Basin.