Welcome to pay attention to "Fangzhi Sichuan"!
Three star pile of trees
Li Huai
If "Jianmu", "Fuso", "Wakaki", "Sheshu" and "Sanzhu Tree" are all trees, then the name of the tree is not a bit strange. The Classic of Mountains and Seas records that there is an immortal tree on Kunlun Mountain, and if people eat it, they can live forever. Such a tree is reminiscent. Thinking back to that year, qin shi huang who unified China, how majestic and domineering hero, he always wanted to hold the world forever, drunk and beautiful, enjoying the happiness of the world for a long time, once sent boys and girls to Shandong Penglai Pavilion to find the art of immortality, if he knew that there was an immortal tree on the Kunlun Mountain, why bother to let Xu Fu cross the ocean to find it, only to end up with two personal wealth and no news.
More than 4800 years ago, in the Western Sichuan region of Deyang Guanghan, the sons and daughters of ancient Shu lived here. From the Sanxingdui site, we can see the highly developed bronze culture of the Shu Kingdom in that year, witnessing that it was the political, economic and cultural center of the early Shu Kingdom. Although the Sanxingdui site was discovered relatively late, the Yellow River Basin of the Yangtze River Basin, the ancient Southern Silk Road, and the origin of Chinese civilization intersected here and extended. The excavated artifacts can be regarded as important archaeological evidence for the polygenesis theory of Chinese civilization.
The Guanghan Sanxingdui Museum displays the relics of the Sanxingdui civilization unearthed in the past half century, and after New Year's Day in 2021, nearly 2,000 important cultural relics have been unearthed in 6 sacrificial pits in Guanghan. What I admire most is not those gold, copper, jade, stone, pottery, ivory; not the Da Li people, the big bird head, the longitudinal mask, the bronze beast statue, the gold mask, the tiger-shaped gold leaf ornaments, the Shang Dynasty pottery, the jade Jade Zhang... What is it? It is a tree of Sanxingdui.
One
The museum docent said that a total of eight bronze sacred trees have been excavated from Sanxingdui, and three are exhibited here. When I saw this 3.95-meter-high bronze sacred tree in the Sanxingdui Museum, I felt that whether it was ancient mythology or the name of the tree, it was not as shocking as my heart when I saw this tree, because it was the largest bronze sacrifice vessel found in the world so far, it uprooted to the sky, and it was the ladder to the heavens that the ancient Shu people fantasized about becoming immortals.
The bronze sacred tree in the Sanxingdui Museum has the meaning of "reaching the heavens and the earth"
The bronze god is erected on a mountain-shaped pedestal with three layers of trunk, each of which extends three branches in three directions. Some scholars say that it contains the meaning of the three layers and nine heavens. When the sacred tree was unearthed that year, people said that the tree was somewhat broken, and speculated that a bird was missing, and the reason for the lack was that there was a sunbird on duty in the sky every day, and there were exactly nine birds on the tree. Nine branches of the leaf are fat and leafy, and at the end of the fruit are nine round persimmon-like fruits, and on each fruit stands a dazzling bird, and the bird's eyes, beak, feathers, and toes are finely carved, as if blinking an eye, the wings flap, and it will fly in the air. On the vacant side, a dragon drags down the trunk, the square dragon head (like a horse's face) is down, the dragon's tail is on the top, the dragon's body is hung with teeth, and the dragon's claws are pressed on the tree in the shape of a human hand. The carving of the sacred tree is magnificent, symmetrical, simple lines, and exquisite small places, which not only have the heavy feeling of sculpture, but also the lightness and liveliness of the rhythm of life. The structure, shape, craftsmanship, and details of the Sacred Tree have reached the world-class level. Anyone who has seen the Sacred Tree will be amazed: Our ancestors, thousands of years ago, had such a clever casting technology, and had such elegant aesthetic attainments, which is really a great miracle!
The "Jianmu" in the Classic of Mountains and Seas has green leaves, purple stems, Xuanhua, huangshi, and nine branches, nine coils underneath, dragons and snakes on the trees, crowns and wisps, and the fruits are also round. The ninth volume of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, "Overseas East Classics", says that there is a Fuso tree growing in the Tang Valley north of the Black Tooth Kingdom, which is a tall tree, its lower half is cut off in the water, and the branches are protruding above the water, and there are ten sunbirds called "Jinwu" living on the Fuso tree, and nine suns live on the branches below, bathed in the water, and a sun hangs on the branches above, preparing to go out and illuminate the earth. If this sacred tree in Sanxingdui was unearthed by "Jianmu" or "Fusang", then the ancient myth has a realistic version.
The sacred tree has the history of the ancient Shu kingdom: dragons, fruits, branches, birds, conveying images of witchcraft, incantations, fire, divination and so on. Thousands of years ago, on the banks of the Duck River, the greenery was full of greenery, the flowers were fragrant, the rice was fat, the spirit birds flew, and the sacred tree stood upright here. The ancient Shu people once called this peach blossom-like place "the wilderness of Duguang", believing that it was in the middle of heaven and earth. The original civilization of our Sichuan Tianfu Country took root and blossomed in such a land.
There is a phenomenon of worship of "trees" all over the world. Ancient India had the "cosmic tree" and "sun tree"; ancient Egypt had the "heavenly tree", "divine tree" and "happiness tree"; nor northern Europe had the "Idlasiel" cosmic tree... In May 2017, I traveled to Egypt, in one of the most beautiful papyrus shops in Cairo, the tour guide enthusiastically recommended a "happy tree" painted with Egyptian national treasure papyrus, and the members of our group listened to the introduction and explanation of the tour guide, and became interested in the tree that highlighted the ancient civilization of Egypt, and immediately bought the Egyptian special papyrus painting "Happy Tree". This tree, standing on papyrus, is full of life and green branches, with five small birds standing on different branches, the picture is simple, and the lines are bright. After the group returned to China, I specially went to frame, took photos and sent them to us to appreciate, which was very proud. The Sanxingdui Museum mentions that the ancient Egyptian civilization had the same artifacts as the Sanxingdui civilization, but did not have the same trees. Sanxingdui's sacred tree is more beautiful and exquisite than the Egyptian "happy tree", therefore, the moon is not a foreign round, people have a happy tree, we Chinese nation has a sacred tree, we also have four more birds standing on the tree, details and shapes are more lifelike, lively and lovely.
Two
In the exhibition hall, there is a "cash cow" excavated in 1990, the tree is 1.96 meters high, divided into seven layers, the top of the tree is cast suzaku, the following is the Queen Mother of the West, the Feather Man Alchemist, and then the lower four layers have foliage ornaments, on which are cast copper coins, dragons, deer, immortals riding elephants and sacred beasts and other images. In the Sichuan region of the Han Dynasty, a burial vessel with a bronze tree was popular, which mostly expressed the myths and legends of the Queen Mother of Kunlun Mountain. Because its tree body is full of copper coins, it is commonly known as the "cash cow". This tree was the cash cow of the Queen Mother of the West, and it appeared in Guanghan, is there any specific significance?
A cash cow in the Sanxingdui Museum
I think that the "cash cow" should be born in a place like Guanghan.
People know that before the reform and opening up, the rural people's communes were organizations that integrated politics and society, with both the administrative command power of the grass-roots government and the jurisdictional right of production management and economic accounting. In real life, high planning targets, high grain expropriation, and blind command of production. Peng Dehuai once said in the Book of Ten Thousand Words: "Qingzhuang smelting iron, harvesting hetong and gugu, how to live in the coming year, I drumm and shout for the people." It is about the shortcomings and backwardness of the people's communes, which bring people difficulties to survival and lag behind China's economic development.
On the evening of June 18, 1980 (date from CCTV's 2021 "Road to Rejuvenation"), Zhong Taiyin, director of the management committee of Xiangyang People's Commune, stayed in the office and did not return home, the air around him was quiet, and it seemed that he could hear the sound of his nervous "poof, poof" heartbeat. He took out a wooden plaque from behind the door, and the black characters "Xiangyang Township People's Government of Guanghan County" were dazzling. This is his own "work": planing, sanding, ticking, painting, how many nights did it take? Holding this sign, which was soaked with painstaking efforts and expectations, he walked towards the gate of xiangyang township people's commune. From the photos left behind that year, we can see that Zhong Taiyin personally took off the "Guanghan County Xiangyang People's Commune Management Committee" sign, and someone held up the sign of "Guanghan County Xiangyang People's Government" to hand it to him and hang it. Behind them, there is Ye Wenzhi, the secretary of the commune's party committee. They were the first to abolish the people's communes in the whole country, took the lead in implementing the responsibility system for co-production contracting, and restored the township system and were praised as "the first township in China's rural reform."
In the winter of 1976, Mo Shifu, the leader of the second team of the fifth brigade of Guanghan Xigao Commune, convened a meeting between the team committee and the barn of the members, grabbed lots at the table, and divided the farmland, cattle and utensils into the operation group, contracted the production to the household, and worked in groups. In 1977, the ninth team of Liangshui Village of Guanghan Jinyan Commune quietly divided the "TianGeng" of the production team, and the members of the company had the right to operate the tiangeng, and the harvest belonged to themselves. These are all opportunities and opportunities for Xiangyang Commune to delist and list. The Guanghan writer Chen Liji wrote that Chang Guangnan, secretary of the Guanghan County CPC Committee, rode his bicycle to the countryside and saw that "the crops of Huangtianba in Xigao Commune made his eyes light up, and on the neat field mounds, two rows of soybeans had already formed, the fields were green and green, and the rice and corn were much more lush than those seen along the way." In 1981, the people's communes in Guanghan County successively took off the people's commune brand and established the township people's government. The "Flower of the Sun" bloomed from Sichuan to the north and south of the great river, inside and outside the Great Wall, the motherland, and in 1985, all the people's communes in the country were restructured. The National People's Congress amended the Constitution and formally ended the people's commune system throughout the country.
In 1979, xiangyang commune did not even have a decent cement road, the vast majority of people lived in grass huts, at that time, one-third of the commune's 63 production teams ate grain and relied on loans, and the problem of food and clothing could not be solved for many years. There is such a joke: "Xiangyang field does not rush (dare)" "There are women who do not marry Xiangyang Lang". The peasants of Xiangyang are descendants of the ancient Shu kingdom, and their desire for the "cash cow" is not a yearning for a day or two, and the poor are thinking of change and must change their ways. They took great risks and braved mountain pressure to make unprecedented moves. Liberating the productive forces, earning their own money and spending themselves, and using their own money, they became the first people in the country who dared to eat crabs. He took off the sign of the people's commune, contracted the land to the households, and became the owner of the land.
Today, I walked in Xiangyang Town and saw a new look in the streets and alleys. Hanzhou Electric Group in the endeavor forward, the production of products shipped to the Beijing subway, Olympic venues, Xichang Satellite Launch Center, as well as Intel, Alstom and other internationally renowned enterprises, it has developed from a small workshop into a well-known private enterprises, but also with foreign companies to marry, the development of export-oriented economy. Hungry, sit in the "Tiantian Red" hot pot restaurant, eat a plate of authentic "covered belly", the entrance is crispy, chewy, slagged, and it is addictive to eat.
The reform of Guanghan Xiangyang took the lead, achieved fruitful results, and brought people benefits and prosperity, is it not the code for getting rich brought about by the "cash cow"? Zhong Taiyin, Ye Wenzhi, Mo Shifu and others all have the genetic genes of the ancient ancestors who dared to forge ahead.
Three
The third sacred tree, compared to the previous two, seems to be nothing special. It was just that the tree was shorter, not as short as the largest Tree of the Gods, and after looking at it for a long time, it was thought to be about 1 meter 5. There are still birds and fruits on the trees, only four stories high. Unlike the two sacred trees in front of them, under the bronze sacred tree, there are three directions, and there is a person in each direction, who seems to be praying and seems to be kneeling.
Where humans grow, there are trees. In ancient times, leaves were used to cover the body, keep warm or beautiful; later, with branches and sticks to drive away wild beasts, the role of tree self-defense was obvious; then it was to build houses with trees to give human beings a home, step by step, trees trained people from climbing to standing; people drilled wood for fire, from eating raw food to cooked food, the evolution of human beings from apes to humans is closely related to trees.
In modern society, Shanshui Lintian Lake is a community of life, the lifeblood of people is in the field, the lifeblood of the field is in the water, the lifeblood of the water is in the mountain, and the lifeblood of the mountain is in the tree. Trees maintain water and soil, solidify the slopes, trees can hold the soil, can retain water, without trees, the water will dry, and even the majestic mountains will collapse. Where mudslides occur, trees grow poorly because there is no solidification of trees that cause soil erosion. Trees absorb carbon dioxide at night and exhale oxygen in the morning, which is an indispensable factor for human survival, and trees have created great blessings for human beings. Ten years of trees, a hundred years of talent, bless the ancestors of heaven and earth, and shelter the small people of the doudou. Flowers, birds, insects, fish, and all things in the world can rest and recuperate and multiply from generation to generation.
Trees are very important for the survival of human beings. The vast desert is boundless, and without the growth of trees, there is no trace of human activity. The green mountains and green water forest covered more than the Golden Mountains and Silver Mountains, and the ancient Shu people had a clear understanding of trees, and they knew the relationship between trees and human beings, so they cast the bronze sacred tree. Rather than worshipping the sacred tree and communicating with heaven and earth through the sacred tree, it is better to say that they deify and worship the tree because of its inseparable relationship with themselves.
People recognize the importance and sacredness of the tree. Therefore, the sacred tree is called the "instrument" of the materialized thing, and this "instrument" is on the earth, "imaged in the sky, formed on the earth", and attached to the "instrument", the sacred tree has a charm, a look, a divine aura... Everything we have conforms to God's creation and conforms to the hearts of the people of heaven and earth, and can benefit all generations.
On a day of great activity or sacrifice, whether it is a silkworm bush, or a cypress bush, or a fish, they bathe and change clothes, they gather on all sides, they look solemn, they gather in front of the sacred tree. There are three people on the sacred tree, who are the people in the sacrifice. In accordance with certain rules and rituals, they danced with their hands and feet, they knelt down to beg, or silently prayed sincerely, or chanted words, and were doing a ritual under the sacred tree, praying for rain and wind, praying for blessings and praises, and asking God to protect the country and the people. The sacred trees "slept for thousands of years, laughing and shocking the world", divination and blessings, and praying for the peaceful development of mankind.
In 2016, the "Sanxingdui Drama Season" met in the golden autumn and entered Deyang. On the shore of jinghu Lake, there is a one-act play "When Shakespeare Meets Sanxingdui". This is a self-written and self-directed play by the Guanghan people 'Zhiyu Reading Club'. Four hundred years ago, the Renaissance talents came to a dialogue with the queen of the Three Star Pile Fish Kingdom four thousand years ago. At the beginning of the play, the queen of the Fish Kingdom is performing a sacrifice, and they are praying for the enlightenment of the gods of heaven, because the waters of the Min River are rolling in, and the people of the Duck River are destroyed. "Survival or destruction" runs through the history of the development of the entire world civilization, and is a big problem in the Yujiao Kingdom, and it is also a big problem that has existed for thousands of years in mankind. Shakespeare and the Fish King in the virtual space conflict dialogue, found a common language, the Fish Family through the bronze sacred tree, through the priest, to guide the way to survival. "Destruction, survival, destruction, and survival" means the harmonious coexistence of heaven and earth and man, that is, the unity of man and nature.
The Bronze Sacred Tree, in the eyes of experts, has a variety of statements and explanations. There is a "Ten-Day Myth" that says that because the largest sacred tree has nine sunbirds on it, and one is on duty in the sky; there is a "heavenly ladder" that says that the children of ancient Shu borrowed the sacred tree as a heavenly ladder, and they could not solve the things that they could not solve, and went up to the heavenly court, so that the heavenly sages and immortals could listen to the voice of the netherworld, which was an auxiliary tool for the unity of heaven and earth; some said that it was used to measure the coordinates of the sun's shadow, and in ancient times there was no clock to calculate time, and it was also possible to use the sacred tree, the length of the shadow of the sun shining on the tree, to determine the time of day.
Four
The worship of "trees" is a common cultural phenomenon in countries around the world. As a cultural symbol, it mainly has two types: "cosmic tree" and "tree of life", like our "cash cow", which may only be felt precious by our country. The "cosmic tree" expresses the ancient people's understanding of the universe and the celestial phenomenon in the form of matter, and the "tree of life" reflects the auspicious concept of the ancients and promotes their sense of life, but the boundary between the two is not very obvious, and it is closely related in ancient Chinese myths and legends. Sanxingdui god tree with the god bird instead of Jin Wu, the cash tree with Suzaku metaphor of the sun god, its light symbolic significance is obvious, the cash tree cast "money", the texture of the money has more light, the initial meaning is to express the sun, the tree seat to "Kunlun", "Spirit Mountain" and "Jade Mountain" to symbolize the meaning of the gods of the mountain. The image composition of the sacred tree and the cash cow tree is combined in the sacred tree and the sacred mountain to achieve the will of the heavens and the earth and the commonality of man and god. The Sanxingdui Sacred Tree reflects the worship of the sun by the ancient Shu ancestors, is a symbol of the spirit and wisdom of the ancestors, and is also a unique sacred tree.
Sanxingdui Bronze Hall Head Hall
The Sacred Tree connects man and God and is man's "ladder" to God's world. In ancient times, people used many things and phenomena that could not be explained, using such totems as the sacred tree, letting people pass through the tree, going to heaven, asking the Creator for help, when it was the theme of the Sanxingdui Sacred Tree.
Conclusion: The Sanxingdui Bronze Sacred Tree has a mass and weight of five thousand years.
In my eyes, the bronze sacred tree, the tree that stands on top of the heavens, the tree full of spirituality, the tree that is approachable. That branch, that leaf, that fruit, that bird, that dragon, that person, through a thousand years, rooted in the soil, gave me boundless reverie, dreamy scenes, beautiful pictures, traces of history. I have a reverence for them, a kind of worship, just as close to them.
I love the tree of Sanxingdui, which brings me different feelings and understandings; I love the tree with green branches and leaves, because it is the foundation and foundation on which we human beings live.
About the Author
Li Huai, female, is a member of the Chinese Prose Literature Association, a member of the Sichuan Writers Association, and the vice president of the Deyang Prose Literature Association. His works have been scattered in "Essayist", "People's Daily Overseas Edition", "Sichuan Daily", "West China Metropolis Daily", "Sichuan Workers Daily", "Sichuan Qunwen", "Southwest Business Daily", "Chengdu Commercial Daily", "Sunset Newspaper", "Zhanjiang Daily", "Sunset Xia", "Sichuan Prose", "Hunan Prose", "Deyang Daily", "Dazhou Evening News" and other newspapers and periodicals, as well as online media such as "Learning to Strengthen the Country". He has published a collection of essays, "The Scenery Is Good Here Alone" and "The Reader". His work "Hibiscus Flower Drunken East Lake Mountain" won the 2016 Sichuan Prose Award. In January 2019, the reportage "A Plume of Smoke and Rain Ren Pingsheng" was selected for the book "Great Aihua Chapter" published by the Sichuan Provincial People's Publishing House.
Source: Sichuan Provincial Local History Work Office
Text/Photo: Li Huai (Member of China Prose Literature Association, Member of Sichuan Writers Association, Vice President of Deyang Prose Literature Association)
Contributed by: Party History Research Office of the CPC Deyang Municipal Committee (Deyang Municipal Local History Office)
Some of Fangzhi Sichuan's pictures, audio and video come from the Internet, only to disseminate more information. The copyright of the pictures, audio and video contained in the article belongs to the original author or media.