The phrase "sleep for thousands of years, wake up and shock the world" is the most suitable to describe Sanxingdui.
From the first unveiling of the mystery, to today's nearly a century. In the past hundred years, our understanding of Sanxingdui has been constantly refreshed, and every archaeological discovery has shocked us.
Because the Central Plains civilization we are familiar with is completely different, with the characteristics of extraterritorial civilization, so that there is such a sound as "Sanxingdui is a relic of aliens". Today, take you to read Sanxingdui in one breath.
History of Yuenan Greater China
01
The original "Cantonese Culture"
In 1936, Ge Weihan published the first archaeological excavation report of the ancient Shu cultural site of the Guanghan Dynasty in history in the sixth volume of the Proceedings of the West China Frontier Research Society, "The Initial Report of the Excavations in Hanzhou". The report compares the artifacts and ornaments excavated from the Moon Bay excavation with the artifacts excavated from Anyang Yin Ruins in Henan, Yangshao Village in Shichi, Henan, and Fengtian Shaguotun, boldly and scientifically puts forward the theory of "Guanghan culture", and concludes that the upper limit of this culture is the late Neolithic period, and the lower limit is the early Zhou Dynasty, that is, around 1100 BC. At the same time, it is pointed out with great foresight:
The current information can only stay in the temporary assumption stage,
To find more archaeological evidence in the future,
As well as extremely detailed first-hand materials from the Guanghan collection
After comparison with early collections in other parts of China,
Then change or determine the conclusion.
After the publication of Ge Weihan's report, it attracted widespread attention in Chinese and foreign academic circles, which was the first time in history that Guanghan Moon Bay was named and analyzed as an ancient cultural site, and the excavated artifacts were discussed in more detail about the cultural connection between the excavated artifacts and the site, revealing the intentions and secrets of the buriers, and opening up the corner of the ancient Shu civilization hidden in the depths of history.
Just when Ge Weihan and Lin Mingjun of West China University were holding their breath and preparing to go to Guanghan Moon Bay again to excavate and do further research, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which shocked the world, broke out in an all-round way. It was not until 1980 that the archaeological excavations at Sanxingdui were once again on the agenda.
From 1980 to 1986, Sanxingdui carried out many field archaeological excavations, each time achieving fruitful archaeological results. Archaeologists who presided over the excavation believe that the rich stratigraphic accumulation of the Sanxingdui site can establish a chronological system for the archaeological study of the 5,000-year civilization history from the late Neolithic period in Sichuan to the Three Dynasties of Xia, Shang, and Wednesday, and become a watershed and touchstone for the intergenerational staging of the ancient Shu culture.
In June 1986, the period for field archaeological excavations at the Moon Bay and Sanxingdui sites expired, and the excavation team announced the withdrawal from the site. No one thought that at this juncture, the great archaeological discovery that shocked the world broke out.
On July 26, after the rammed soil in the pit was roughly cleaned, a large bronze dragon and tiger statue, bronze plates, bronze lids and other bronze vessels with the style of the early Shang Dynasty were excavated one after another, which were covered with green embroidery.
We are most familiar with this bronze longitudinal human head
Bronze longitudinal human heads unearthed from Sanxingdui have just emerged
Only to see that this unearthed bronze human head is the same size as the head of a real person, the head is the shape of a mother-in-law mouth, a garlic nose, a high nose bridge, a gentle expression, kind and dignified, and a vigorous look in the eyes, with a strong realistic art style.
Unexpectedly, the head was like a sentry who came to report the news in the dark of night, indicating that a huge army was behind it. Based on this revelation, archaeologists focused on starting targeted excavations. The next bronze human head is like the mythical hero Haojie, with different postures and styles.
A bronze human face image excavated from the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit
In addition to the excavation of a large number of local bronzes, the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit also unearthed a large number of gold products from archaeological excavations, and at the same time, there was also the root excavated in the sacrifice pit, indicating the divine grant of kingship and the unique rare treasure - the golden staff.
A golden staff excavated from the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit representing the highest power
Because the gold skin has been flattened and deformed at the time of discovery, its length and width are similar to the belts of modern people, so archaeologists believe that they are the "golden belts" of the King of Shu. In fact, the artifact is a golden staff. Not only is it the largest and heaviest gold artifact of the Shang Dynasty found in China, but also a symbol of the supreme power of the ancient Shu state, and the excavation of this golden wand completely overturns the conclusion that "there can be no such artifact as a scepter in China or even in the Far East" with irrefutable facts!
According to the characteristics of the excavated relics, archaeologists initially concluded that this was a sacrifice pit left by the ancient Shu people for the worship of the gods, and in the excavation briefing written later, the pit was officially named the No. 1 sacrifice pit.
Just when the archaeologists escorted the cultural relics excavated from the No. 1 sacrifice pit back to Chengdu, they suddenly encountered the No. 2 pit. I saw the bronze human face that had been planed out, the eyes and nostrils were clearly visible, and the whole face seemed to be painted with color. Underneath the bronze human face, a large barrel-shaped bronze vessel also reveals the edges. Next to it, there are several other bronzes that are faintly recognizable-
Bronze masks excavated from Pit 2 of the Sanxingdui site
After the large mask was unearthed, it was followed by one stick after another until dozens of ivory sticks were introduced. Beneath the ivory layer, the pits of treasures are dazzling. Tall, exquisite bronze figures, bronze heads, different sizes of human faces, protruding "longitudinal" human faces, bronze standing figures with disconnected bodies, as well as glittering gold masks, gold-faced bronze heads and magical tung trees, etc., are astounding, as if falling into a dream. The gentle jade ring, jade bi, jade zhang, jade ge and other jade tools, one by one, the same, as if opening the door of the Shu national treasure house.
Excavation of no. 2 pit artifacts
02
Recognized "Ancient Shu Civilization"
During the Tang Dynasty's Kaiyuan Tianbao period, the poet Li Bai once issued such a sigh: "The difficulty of shu dao is difficult to go to qingtian." Silkworm bushes and fish skeletons, the founding of the country is at a loss. From this, we can see how confused these two ancient Shu founding princes named Silkworm Bush and Yu Wei were when they established the country.
According to the continuous examination of the clues left by the ancient Shu people by historians throughout the ages, the ancient Shu state was indiscriminately coveted by the Xia Shang and destroyed in the late Warring States period, which lasted for 1600 years. It has experienced several generations of dynasties such as silkworm bush, cypress irrigation, fish, Du Yu, and enlightened.
Both the Benji of the King of Shu and the Chronicle of the State of Huayang state refer to the founding leader of the Shu state as the Silkworm Congshi, but the specific age and region of the activities are not clearly recorded, and according to later literature, it is found that the main activities of the Silkworm Congshi are in the area of present-day Maowen. There are local legends of qianghabi residences, but also before the arrival of the Qiang people, the area was inhabited by residents known as "Goji". Allegedly, their physiological characteristics are "longitudinal" and "tailed".
According to the legendary poems, the Qiang people, who were nomadic people who originally grew up on the Qinghai Plateau, came to the Minjiang River Valley and were driven and stubbornly resisted by the Goji people who settled here first. In order to compete for this fertile territory and establish a foothold here for a long time, the Qiang and the Goki people launched a great battle. When the Qiang defeated the Goki, the leaders of the two sides made an alliance of blood, guaranteed non-aggression in the future, and jointly developed and utilized the Minshan River Valley. Since then, the two ethnic groups have continued to merge, gradually forming a huge Tribal Group of Shushan Clan in the future and the ancient Shu Kingdom that later dominated the side.
Since the history of ancient Shu already has a vague succession combination system, the next step is to see whether the cultural relics excavated from the two sacrificial pits at the Sanxingdui site match this history and this system. On May 26, 1987, through the joint efforts of Yang Xiaowu, a restoration expert at the Sichuan Institute of Archaeology, and others, the artifacts excavated from the No. 1 and No. 2 sacrifice pits of the Sanxingdui site were cleaned up and restored.
Restoration of excavated artifacts
A total of 54 bronze longitudinal figures and masks have been unearthed from the two sacrificial pits at the Sanxingdui site. These masks look strange and strange, the whole shape is like a human non-human, like a beast and not a beast, so the excavation host of the two pits "Er Chen" in the co-authored "Excavation Briefing", the earliest to call this batch of artifacts "bronze animal face", "longitudinal animal face", "bronze longitudinal animal face" and so on.
According to the so-called "Straight Eye Positive Ride" record of the so-called Heavenly God Candle Dragon in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, some scholars believe that this bronze longitudinal face is not the so-called ancient Shu ancestor - silkworm bush, but is likely to be the "Candle Dragon" recorded in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Great Wilderness of the North Classic". The Classic of Mountains and Seas says it is "straight-eyed and positive." The meaning of "positive multiplication" is vague and has always been quite divergent, but for "straight eye", most commentators agree with the Jin Dynasty scholar Guo Pu's statement, that is, the meaning of "eye longitudinal". From the eyes of the "Candle Dragon" associated with this extra-large bronze human face unearthed from the Sanxingdui No. 2 Pit, some scholars began to believe with confidence that this is the true portrayal of the "straight eye" of the Candle Dragon, and it is also the reason why the Sanxingdui site has many dragon images in the excavated artifacts.
Bronze longitudinal mask
In addition, a considerable number of scholars believe that the bronze bird head excavated from Sanxingdui No. 2 Pit is very close to the shape of the fish, which should be the symbol of the King of Shu, and also has the meaning of the family name and emblem of the Shu people. Combined with the fact that a huge number of fish-shaped spoon handles excavated from the site, that is, bird-headed spoon handles, and combined with various other factors to analyze, it is believed that the most prosperous era of the ancient Shu kingdom of Sanxingdui belonged to the Yu dynasty period.
03
Sanxingdui belongs to the same Chinese culture
Since the past and present lives of the ancient city of Sanxingdui already have a relatively clear clue, how did the ancient city of Sanxingdui, which was once brilliant in the history of ancient Shu mankind, embark on the road of destruction? Unfortunately, there is no click record in ancient documents, and experts and scholars can only explore and pursue according to the bits and pieces of information revealed by archaeological excavation data, in the hope of new discoveries and breakthroughs.
According to Chen Xiandan, the main excavator of the Sanxingdui site, the ancient city of Sanxingdui was destroyed by the ancient Shu people's participation in a military operation to destroy the Merchants in the Zhou Dynasty. However, Lin Xiang, a professor at Sichuan University, believes that the ancient city of Sanxingdui was neither destroyed by the war of Du Yu's attack, nor ended by the military incident of aiding Zhou Merchants, but was destroyed by a huge flood.
According to Lin Xiang's recollection, one day when archaeologists excavated at the site, several engineers from the Sichuan Water Conservancy Research Institute specially visited the construction site and inspected it for a long time in the face of the huge "key pillar" deliberately left for research purposes after excavation. On the profile of this "key column", it can be seen through the cultural accumulation of the whole of 16 layers, and the information revealed by the profile of this "key column" that the cultural accumulation has suddenly interrupted may be related to the irresistible flood. This coincides with the legend of the flood in the ancient Shu state recorded in the literature.
Whatever the reason for the demise of the ancient Shu, there is only one result: the ancient Shu civilization of the Bronze Age gradually merged into the Chinese civilization of the Iron Age. The old Ancient Shu Kingdom is dead, and a new era of great unification has arrived. This proves that the Chinese civilization is not the only one in the Central Plains, but there are star civilizations everywhere in the land of China.
The bronze longitudinal mask representing the ancient Shu culture shimmers with wisdom and proves with the most powerful eyes: five thousand years up and down, not nothing. Sanxingdui is not an alien civilization, but a typical representative of the pluralistic integration of Chinese civilization.