In the summer of 1953, the staff of the Yunnan Provincial Museum bought a batch of bronzes with strong ethnic minority style ornaments from an antique dealer, including bronzes such as short swords, spears, and axes. The staff immediately delivered these bronzes to the famous archaeologist and folklorist Li Jiarui.
Li Jiarui saw that the shape and pattern of this batch of bronzes are very special, which are obviously different from the bronzes from the Yellow River Basin in the north, and some bronzes are also engraved with the image of frogs, which are artifacts belonging to Yunnan at a glance. However, it is not easy to find the provenance of these strange bronzes.
Once, Li Jiarui told the experts present at the Yunnan Provincial Cultural Relics Preservation Committee. Fang Shumei, a well-known local philologist in Yunnan Province, who attended the meeting, immediately told Mr. Li Jiarui that during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, some bronzes had been found in his hometown of Jinning County, Yunnan Province, and these bronzes were found by the local people when they were digging mountains. In the countryside, farmers often planed out some bronzes from the ground, so it is not uncommon for people to see these things.
Fang Shumei's words aroused Li Jiarui's great interest, and he hurriedly asked where the bronzes had flowed. Fang Shumei went on to say that there is a saying in his hometown that what is planed out of the ground cannot be brought home, otherwise it will bring disaster to the family, so the villagers will pile all the bronzes they have planed out in the field, and when they have saved a certain amount, they will be sold as scrap iron, and he himself has never seen the actual goods.
A year later, Li Jiarui led the museum staff to Jinning County to conduct a survey. Unexpectedly, they actually had a magical discovery and found the bronze out of the land - Shizhai Mountain. At Shizhaishan, they collected many similar weapons and a finely polished stone pear from the local villagers, and also listened to the fact that the local people would also dig bronzes from the ground on a large scale.
After bringing back the clues, Li Jiarui immediately reported the situation to the Yunnan Provincial Department of Culture and put forward a request to organize an archaeological team to carry out excavations in Jinning County. After careful study, the Yunnan Provincial Department of Culture sent a capable archaeological team to Shizhai Mountain in Jinning County.
Arriving at the scene, the archaeological team immediately launched an excavation of Shizhai Mountain. Soon, the underground tombs were revealed one by one.
Due to its remote location, most of the ancient tombs under Shizhai Mountain are well preserved, and there is basically no trace of being invaded by tomb thieves, which also makes the entire archaeological team most pleased, and the most excavated cultural relics are bronze weapons, including swords, spears, axes, resident Beijing, hammers, etc. These weapons have strong local characteristics and are obviously different from the weapons of the Central Plains.
Among the many cultural relics, the most important one is the "Seal of the King of Dian".
It was getting late, the staff were getting ready to go back for dinner, and the staff who had completed the task of picking soil sat down at the roadbed to rest, while the archaeology team, Sun Taichu, was finishing the day. At this time, an extremely excited voice came from tomb No. 6- "Wang Yin! "All the people at the scene gathered at Tomb 6 after hearing this.
Sun Taichu carefully took out the wang seal from the ground. The royal seal was not contained in a box or a bag, but was placed naked in the tomb. The entire royal seal is made of pure gold and has survived more than 2,000 years, but it is still well preserved. The golden seal is cast in the shape of a snake, the snake's head is high and slightly biased towards the stone side, the eyes are round, the scales on the body are shining with golden light, and the four words of the seal book "The Seal of the King of Dian" are used in white. The whole gold seal weighs 90 grams, the edge of the print is 2.4 cm long, and the height is 2 cm.
As soon as Jin Yin took out the ground, the excavation site immediately boiled over. All those familiar with the history of ancient Dian know its great value.
According to historical records, the ancient Dian Kingdom was founded more than 300 years AGO, when the Central Plains were full of smoke. In order to counter the increasingly powerful State of Qin, the King of Chu Wei decided to send troops to conquer the land of Southwest Yi, thereby expanding the territory of the State of Chu. The general Zhuang Huan led an attack and pacified the Kunming tribes around the Erhai Sea in one fell swoop, and then brought thousands of miles of land in central Yunnan, western Yunnan, and northern Yunnan into his command.
After the mission to conquer the southwest was completed, Zhuang Ji prepared to return home. Who knows, at this time, the Qin army suddenly appeared, took away all the places such as Ba and Shu in Pingding, and cut off the back road of Zhuang's class to return home.
Zhuang Ji had no choice but to lead his army back to Central Yunnan, and in order to evade pursuit, he ordered the soldiers to take off their uniforms, "transform the army into the people", and integrate into the local people. Zhuang's army introduced the advanced farming technology of the Central Plains to that time, which greatly improved the local production level, and Zhuang Ji also became the king of the local tribe. Subsequently, Zhuang Jian united with other tribes in Dianchi to establish a state and ascended to the throne of the king. Zhuang established the State of Dian and was also the first unified kingdom in central Yunnan.
In 109 BC, in order to open up the passage from Sichuan to the western region, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty sent troops into Bashu to eliminate the two small states of Laoshen and Jingmo, and then forced the ancient Dian state. When the King of Dian, Qiang, submitted the country to the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of Han established Yizhou County in Didang and cast the seal of the King of Dian and gave it to Qiang. At this point, the State of Dian was incorporated into the territory of the Han Dynasty.
The excavation of the Seal of the King of Dian not only confirms the existence of this history, but also further deepens the understanding of the Dian civilization by future generations, and the value and significance are obviously extraordinary.