introduction
There is an allusion in China called "Shouguan Ru Sealing Mud", which comes from the "Later Han Shu Kui Huan Biography": "Yuan (Wang Yuan) Please take a pill of mud as the great king's eastern seal Hangu Guan, this ten thousand times also for a while." "It means to firmly hold on to Xiongguan and never lose anything." So, what is the "sealing mud" in this?
In Chinese history, many dynasties were founded in what is now Xi'an. In Xi'an, because of the construction to dig up ancient tombs or cultural relics, it is no longer a big news. Many large tombs and precious cultural relics have been discovered in this way. However, in 1995, some of the mud blocks excavated by farmers in Xiangjiaxiang Village, the northern suburbs of Xi'an, were also called world-class treasures after expert identification, which was extremely surprising.
▲Qin Han sealing mud photo
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Most of these mud blocks are round and numerous, and the villagers who found them at first did not care, but after discovering that the mud blocks were engraved with ancient scripts, they immediately contacted the relevant departments. After detailed research, archaeologists found that these "mud blocks" were sealed mud in the Qin and Han dynasties, and indeed rare cultural relics for the study of Qin and Han culture, and their value was immeasurable.
What is "sealing mud"? In ancient times, people used to tie the outside of the document with a rope, and then add a piece of glue to the knot, and the clay was stamped with a seal. Another method is to wrap the document in a sac and then cover the seal with the same clay and stamp it. After the clay dries and hardens, it can play a role in sealing the document. These mud blocks with official seals are called "sealing mud", and its main function is to prevent others from opening these documents privately, which is similar to the wax seal or fire paint seal of later generations. The use of mud sealing to protect documents was mainly prevalent in the Qin and Han dynasties.
▲Sealing mud protection documents
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Records of sealing mud first appear in the history books in the Book of Later Han and The Hundred Officials Chronicle: "The Lord's imperial pen and ink, and the Shang Shu cai used all things and sealed mud." "Archaeologists have excavated the area where the sealing mud was first discovered, and a total of more than 6,000 pieces of sealing mud have been excavated, and together with the sealing mud found elsewhere, a total of nearly 7,000 pieces of Qin Seal sealing mud have been excavated." These muds were mainly used during the Warring States period and after Qin Shi Huang unified China.
After Qin Shi Huang unified China, due to the destruction of a large number of written materials by the book burning pit, coupled with the serious destruction of various historical materials in the late Qin and pre-Qin and Qin dynasties, there are not many documents that have been circulated to the present. Discovered in 1975 in sleeping tiger land, Qin Jian has ecstaticed many archaeologists, which is an important material that can provide research on the laws of the Qin Dynasty. In recent years, with the continuous excavation of many cultural relics such as sealed mud and Jian Mu stamped with the Qin Seal, historians and archaeologists have more evidence and materials to study the history of the Qin Dynasty.
▲Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Tomb Bamboo Jane
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After the archaeologists identified and checked one by one, in the nearly 7,000 Qin seal seal muds found so far, most of the seals stamped on the seal mud are official seal characters, and these seals and official titles provide very valuable physical evidence for historians to further understand and study the Three Dukes and Nine Qing System and the County System of the Qin Dynasty.
After Qin Shi Huang unified China, he established a perfect official system and a local county management system. A strict organization and staffing were constructed, through which the centralization of power was strengthened, and these systems during the Qin Dynasty had a significant and far-reaching impact on the subsequent Han Dynasty and successive dynasties. In the county system of the Qin Dynasty, "county" was the most critical institution for managing local administration, whether it was the management of population household registration, requisition and conscription, grain storage, and even local armed management, all of which were stipulated in parallel with the county as a unit. Due to the lack of historical data, the current number of Qin Dynasty counties has not been confirmed, and a large number of Qin seal seal mud has been found, which can be compared with the history books.
▲Portrait of Qin Shi Huang
According to historians' statistics, there are more than 300 county-level place names that can be identified in the sealed mud and other materials found so far. When comparing the official seals on the seal with the historical records, some county names that were not recorded in the historical records were found, such as Bocheng, Nuben, Changwu, Xincheng Father, Luqiu, etc. Therefore, the excavation of a large number of sealed mud on the one hand reflects that the setting of officials at the central and local levels in the Qin Dynasty is basically in line with the documentary records that have been handed down to the present, and confirms the credibility of the historical records.
Historians and archaeologists, on the other hand, have a new understanding of the official system and county names of the Qin Dynasty. This discovery is of great significance for the study of the geography, political system and historical evolution of the Qin Dynasty.
▲Expert demonstration on the seal on the mud
epilogue
In fact, the significance of these mud seals does not stop there. In addition to its extremely high historical value, it also has artistic value. Sealing mud has the same importance as the seal itself, many seals have not been handed down to this day, and these seals are the direct evidence copied and verified by epigraphers, and now seal engravers often simulate sealing mud for creation. This is also the case after the sealing mud was found in large quantities.
Resources:
The Book of the Later Han Dynasty
"Ancient Chinese Sealing Mud"