At the beginning of 2022, let's answer a question, what is "promising"? Mr. Lu Xun's answer is, "Those who can do things can do things, and those who can make a sound." If there is a little heat, a little light, it makes the fireworks, and it can also emit a little light in the dark, without waiting for the torch."
On January 4th, the new youth cross-time Q&A short film "Youwei", produced by China Youth Daily and Youku, and jointly produced by the Propaganda Department of the Dongcheng District Committee of the Communist Party of China and our Space Innovation Practice Center, was officially released. In the film, There are 6 young people in different fields, including Cao Lei, who plays Lu Xun in "The Age of Awakening", Gao Jian, the general dispatcher of Shenzhou 12 launch beijing, and Xu Danyang, the main archeological force of Sanxingdui, to conduct a question and answer that spans a hundred years of time and space.
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Round face, wear glasses, smile to reveal a mouth of white teeth, familiar with various popular words, looking for a girlfriend Ideal type is Liu Yifei ... Xu Danyang after the 90s is not the same as the archaeologists who are "earthy and rustic" in our stereotype. But as the head of the excavation of sanxingdui No. 4 "sacrifice pit", the young man has been rooted in the "soil" since graduating from college, and the archaeological site is his sea of stars.
Xu Danyang at the Sanxingdui excavation site.
Archaeology is about taking apart one blind box after another
The object of Xu Danyang's "dialogue" has been waiting for him for 3,000 years in the dark underground. Sanxingdui in 3000 met young people after the 90s. Facing the camera, Xu Danyang held a small bamboo skewer that he had personally cut and shaved through countless cultural relics, and smiled warmer than the warm sun in winter. In the era of "can be done", Xu Danyang felt that he was very lucky.
Since October 2020, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology has carried out archaeological exploration and excavation in the area of Sanxingdui No. 1 pit and No. 2 pit excavated in 1986, and has successively discovered 6 new "sacrifice pits", continuously excavating important cultural relics, and has been jokingly called 6 "blind boxes" by netizens. Recently, the "blind box" of Pit 8 has been newly modeled, and a bronze dragon with a "tiger's head and tiger brain" has been unearthed, which seems to be welcoming the arrival of the Year of the Tiger.
Sanxingdui ruins are located in Sanxingdui Town, Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, the core area is Sanxingdui Ancient City, with an area of about 3.6 square kilometers, which is the largest and highest-grade central site found in the Xia Shang Period in the Sichuan Basin. The ruins of Sanxingdui are named after the "Hanzhou Chronicle" during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty - "Guanghan Famous District, Luocheng Old Soil... To its east is the Springs of Wanhu, and to the west is accompanied by the moon and three stars."
The Sanxingdui site, first discovered in the late 1920s, can be regarded as "turning out". In 1986, the No. 1 and No. 2 "Sacrifice Pits" were excavated in the sacrifice area of the site, and more than 1,000 precious cultural relics such as bronze gods, bronze figures, bronze sacred trees, gold masks, golden staffs, large jade zhangs, ivory were unearthed, most of which were never seen before, especially more than 80 bronze statues as unprecedented heavy objects. These "amazing discoveries" reveal a new look of bronze culture.
Although it was "born out of nowhere", as the capital of the ancient Shu state created by the ancestors of ancient Shu, Sanxingdui has never been without a story. Regarding the history of the ancient Shu kingdom, Li Bai has a recollection of "silkworm bushes and fish, and the founding of the country is dazed" in "Shu Dao Difficulty". In fact, long before the silkworm bush, the land of Bashu had already begun to open up, and the Western Han Yangxiong's "Benji of the King of Shu" said, "From enlightenment to silkworm bush, accumulating 34,000 years old."
Archaeological excavations have proved that Sanxingdui was built in xia, basically formed by the middle and late Shang Dynasty, and as an important part of Chinese civilization, it has developed to a considerable height at that time. Some of the new artifact shapes that appeared in this archaeological excavation —for example, the first excavation of the square zun, which was previously unearthed in circles, and the production technology of the zun was transmitted from the Central Plains to Sanxingdui — not only reflects its close connection with the Central Plains culture, but also reveals the innovation of the ancient Shu culture in the exchange of civilizations to absorb and integrate for its own use.
The bronze medals inlaid with turquoise, as well as jade objects such as Yuge and Yuzhang unearthed from Sanxingdui, were influenced by the Erlitou culture in the Central Plains; the excavated Qun was influenced by Qi Jiachun in the northwest and Liangzhu Chun in the southeast; the ramming technology of the city wall of the Sanxingdui culture, the origin of rice farming, and the early gray and white pottery tradition were also closely related to the Liangzhu culture...
Archaeology, uncovering the dusty history.
Bronze head-turned kneeling figures, bronze standing figures, and bronze small standing figures (from left to right) unearthed from Sanxingdui. Courtesy of respondents
Archaeology "breaks the circle", we come together to chase the "star"
From the spring of 2021, the archaeological excavation of the Sanxingdui site, which has occupied the headlines, has continued to this day, and the public has found for the first time that the original archaeology can also be "traced".
Xu Danyang said that in the past, the public did not understand archaeology, and sometimes there was a misunderstanding, "thinking that we would know where the tomb was when we took a compass, take a detector, know the specific burial location of cultural relics, and even think that we are digging treasures and robbing tombs; we also think that we are all dusty servants and old-fashioned"...
In recent years, as archaeology has entered the public eye, archaeologists are generally in the "ground" and sometimes appear in the "front of the stage". As Xu Danyang said, "In fact, we are still very lively, like other industries, there are experienced old experts, there are also very active and young people."
This journey of chasing the "star" is not only a matter for archaeologists to choose a thing for a lifetime, but also a matter for ordinary people from curiosity to understanding to attention. Xu Danyang laughed and said that since participating in the archaeological excavation of the Sanxingdui site, he has become a "celebrity" in the circle of friends, "There are some interviews or videos of me on the Internet, and friends send me messages saying 'see you again'." It feels like they're starting to know my job and the industry I'm in, and that's the most fulfilling thing I've ever done."
This journey of chasing the "star" is not only a matter of Chinese, but also invites friends from all over the world to play together. Since its opening in October 1997, Sanxingdui Museum has received more than 22 million Chinese and foreign tourists; Sanxingdui cultural relics have gone abroad many times and have been exhibited in more than 20 countries and regions.
From now on, 8 foreign young directors will use images to tell the story of Sanxingdui, the movie "Discover Sanxingdui (tentative name)" and the musical "Sanxingdui" are also arranged; the "Discover Sanxingdui" series of documentary programs will show the global audience the fun of exploration, adventure and entertainment in China; the Sanxingdui series of books will be distributed worldwide, of which the "International Andersen Award Winner Sanxingdui Creation Project" will give birth to a series of picture books; the "Digital Sanxingdui International Exhibition" will cooperate with world-renowned museums to hold a group exhibition...
Of course, we must understand that all creative techniques and means are in the service of content. Technological development and technological innovation can bring new ways of artistic expression and rendering, but the abundance of art always depends on life. The archaeological site of "earthy atmosphere" is becoming a big IP for Chinese culture to go out. The previous generation of archaeologists came from the era of shoveling and shoveling mud, and this generation of young people not only continued to inherit the tradition but also had the courage to innovate, making archaeology a cross-border blockbuster of "history + technology".
At the Sanxingdui site, the archaeological excavation site is covered by a large-span steel structure greenhouse, which contains several "archaeological excavation chambers" that can not only control temperature and humidity, but also reduce the material interference brought in by the staff from the outside. The archaeologists in front of them are more like working in the laboratory, wearing heavily armed white "protective clothing", lying on the "non-contact device", hanging above the sacrificial pit, taking pictures, cleaning... Quite a sense of science fiction movies.
Sanxingdui is "breaking the circle".
A gold mask unearthed from Sanxingdui Pit No. 3. Courtesy of respondents
Chinese civilization is diverse and integrated, with the power to travel through time and space
There's an old saying in archaeology that if an idea can be maintained for 10 years, it must be remarkable. "I myself have put forward some points, which were overturned shortly after they were put forward, and they were often 'punched in the face'." Xu Danyang said with a smile.
The long history of Haohao Tangtang flows to an endless time and space, and generations of archaeologists have walked together with the endless Chinese civilization. The excavation and research work of the Sanxingdui site is the exploration and practice of building archaeology with "Chinese characteristics, Chinese style and Chinese style".
Xu Danyang, who was born at the right time, was very happy and sober, "As a young person in the new era, we should still have a sense of distress, a critical spirit, and a spirit of hard struggle." Regarding dreams, he said: "Dreams cannot be eaten as food, but people do not live only to eat." Dreams still have to be had, and there must always be something to pursue. ”
Some scholars have compared the many cultural relics of the early Chinese civilization in the Yellow River, Yangtze River, Pearl River, Liao River Basin and other places to "full of stars"; the Central Plains culture centered on the Yellow River Basin, after the integration of other regional cultures and its own reorganization, has become the core area of Chinese civilization, which is the "arch moon of the stars".
Chinese civilization from "full of stars" to "stars arching the moon", the ancient Shu civilization is one of the most brilliant and dazzling stars in the era of "full of stars". About the end of the fourth phase of the Sanxingdui site (about 3100 years ago), the ancient city of Sanxingdui began to decline, and another archaeological cultural relic that is in line with its cultural outlook quietly arose and reached a fairly high level of civilization, which lasted until about 2700 years ago, that is, the Jinsha site.
The history of the ancient Shu Kingdom, with the Sanxingdui ruins as the core, proves the diversified and integrated historical pattern of Chinese civilization since ancient times. The Sanxingdui civilization and its "sequel" continue to develop brilliantly in the Chengdu Plain. Archaeologists have collected excavation information in all directions, because archaeological excavations are not just a matter of our generation, and enough information should be left to future generations to provide sufficient information for future excavation and conservation research.
The 3,000-year-old Sanxingdui, like generations of young people, is ultimately headed for the future.
China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Jiang Xiaobin Source: China Youth Daily
Source: China Youth Daily