A Ming Dynasty tangled bundle of hair with a golden crown unearthed from Mianning.
43 years ago, in Xiaotun Village, outside the north gate of Mianning County, a villager dug up an ancient tomb when he was building a house in a "soil barrier" (taking soil bricks), and a treasure was unearthed in the tomb. This treasure is a Ming Dynasty bundling gold crown, composed of a gold crown and a silver hairpin, rectangular, 3.4 cm high, 8 cm long, 3.8 cm wide, and 95 percent gold in color. The golden crown is first twisted into a rope with two strands of gold wire, and then woven into a curly grass pattern, which is welded with gold. The crown edge and crown head have a 1 mm wide band lace, the middle of the crown is tied from front to back by a 4 mm wide ribbon pattern, and there is a sunflower at each end of the hairpin hole, which is the flower heart. The silver hairpin is cone-shaped, 7.6 cm long, and has a square tip and a square end.
The treasure was named the golden crown of tangled hair and is now in the collection of the Liangshan Prefecture Museum.
"Tombstone of General Li Zhaoyong" epitaph cover. Photo by Chen Yungeng
Physical information on the gold and silver craftsmanship of the Ming Dynasty with a golden crown
This Ming Dynasty bundling golden crown is dazzling and dazzling, glowing with golden light, and the production process is extremely exquisite. But according to the staff of the Liangshan Prefecture Museum, in fact, when it was first collected, it had been pressed into a gold cake, and later after the restoration of experts, the prototype was presented. But how was it recruited? What kind of repair process has it gone through? These details are unknown.
According to historical records, the crown was originally a "tired hair" tool in the pre-Qin and Western Han Dynasties, it was a ceremonial, fixed hair cover on the bun, the shape was not large, the side was hollow, and the hat worn by later generations was different in size and function. The hair crown was created about five generations ago, it is also fixed to the bun hair cover, once known as the short crown or small crown. The Song Dynasty hair crown can be worn alone or in a scarf hat. In the Ming Dynasty, the status of the hair crown became very special. Ming Dynasty men hid their hair crowns under their hats, following the Style of the Song Dynasty in wearing crowns under the towels.
In the Ming Dynasty, according to the system, the officials who entered the stream wore liang crowns in court clothes, the official clothes wore the head of the horn, and often wore the black gauze hat; the scholars and shu people wore four square flat towels; and the farmers wore bucket hats and pu hats. Although there were many styles of turbans later, the hair crown was still out of the way. The Ming dynasty Liu Ruoyu said in the "History of the Ming Palace [Water Collection], Bundle of Hair Crowns": "Its system is like the one worn by the drama." It is also said that this crown is like a costume, and in any case it cannot be regarded as a compliment.
Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, the effect of wearing a hair crown is: half zhang and half hidden, as if it is hidden. It is a graceful or flowery piece in men's first dress, although it is not suitable for public disclosure, but it is not willing to fully cover up. Therefore, the number of hair crowns in the Ming Dynasty is not very large. There are a total of 17 pieces of gold box hair crowns, jade crowns, crystal crowns, agate crowns, ivory crowns, etc. counted in the "Tianshui Iceberg Record", while the total number of jade belts and various golden box belts reaches 326, which shows that the hair crown is not like the jade belt, which is a must-have in a set of grand official clothes. The crown of the golden hair boasts of wealth and wealth, and also shows that the identity of its owner is not ordinary.
The production process of the golden crown is exquisite and the pattern is exquisite, which also provides physical information for the study of the gold and silver products process of the Ming Dynasty.
According to records, with the maturity of the level of handicraft technology and technical conditions in all aspects, the gold and silver fine engineering production of the Ming Dynasty developed to a new stage. The manufacture of gold and silver jewelry in the Ming Dynasty first paid attention to style design, which was more novel than the previous generation and strengthened the auspicious pattern design. In the production process, the hollowing technique is often used, so that less materials show a larger volume, and the gold and silver ornaments after hollowing out are more delicate, eye-catching, and have a great decorative effect.
The bundling of hair and the golden crown is a large number of use of the production process of reeling and welding, which reflects the decorative theme, styling design and craftsmanship of gold and silver jewelry in the Ming Dynasty to a fairly perfect degree.
The descendants of "General Zhaoyong" Li Bin carefully read the inscriptions of the original epitaphs. Photo by Chen Yungeng
The most powerful figure of the Golden Crown Master Ning Fanwei
Such a beautiful bun of hair and a golden crown, who is the owner? In that year, in the Ming Dynasty brick chamber tomb in Xiaotun Village, north of Mianning County, there were also two inscriptions of land purchase vouchers unearthed at the same time. From the land purchase coupons, it can be seen that the owner of the tomb served as the commander of the Ningfan Wei Military and Civilian Command and Envoy Department before his death, and awarded the rank of General Zhaoyi. He died in the twelfth year of Chenghua (1476) at the age of eighty, and was born in the early Ming Dynasty in the twenty-ninth year of Hongwu (1396). However, because there is no epitaph in the tomb, the history of the deceased's place of origin is not clear. The story behind the owner of the Golden Crown has also become a mystery.
Fast forward to November 27, 2011. On that day, the construction site of the new rural area in Dayakou Village, Chengxiang Town, Mianning County, was a busy scene, and the on-site managers Lu Zonglun and Yang Xueyuan stood by the loader as usual to supervise the construction. Suddenly, the loader bucket that was transporting humus seemed to hit something hard and made a muffled "bang" sound. Yang Xueyuan and Lu Zonglun followed the prestige, and a neatly arranged row of bricks appeared under the bucket in an instant, and Lu Zonglun subconsciously said: "Stop, dig the ancient tomb!" ”
Lu Zonglun's judgment was not unreasonable. In fact, the 4,000㎡ new rural construction site in Dayakou Village was originally a Lijia cemetery with an area of about 10 acres. For this terrace shaped like a "golden basin fish farming", as well as the Li Family Cemetery located in it, Lu Zonglun, a villager in the first group of dayakou village, is very familiar with it.
"As soon as the loader bucket reached the bottom of the tomb, the pit was full of large green bricks scattered, I quickly jumped into the grave to see what was there, only to find two coffin plates that had not yet decayed, a layer of gray-black silt three or four centimeters thick." Lu Zonglun recalled the situation at that time. Later, the bucket of the loader that continued to work hit the hard object again, making a crisp sound. This time, Lu Zonglun and Yang Xueyuan found something unusual. It was two rectangular bluestone slabs that snapped together. Since the two slates have been pried loose by the loader bucket, they are easy to break open. The rough side of the slate is on the outside, and the smooth and written side is buckled together in opposite directions. After a while, the stone slab was crowded with people who came to see the strange, because the people of the ten miles and eight townships knew that as early as the 70s of the last century, the Li family cemetery had dug up the "golden hat flower". The "golden hat flower" in the villagers' mouth is the "protagonist" of this article - the golden crown of tangled branches and hair that is now treasured in the Liangshan Prefecture Museum.
So, what is the connection between the two pieces of bluestone unearthed this time and the golden crown of tangled branches and hair? What is the relationship between the owners of the two tombs? Is it possible to get some information about the owner of the Golden Crown from it?
The descendants of "General Zhaoyong" Li Bin identified the location of the excavation of the epitaph. Photo by Chen Yungeng
With the deepening of the research, archaeologists found that the two bluestone slabs were the epitaphs of General Zhaoyong. It is learned from the epitaph that the owner of the tomb was Li Bin, a general of Zhaoyong (Zhengsanpin Military Attaché) during the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, and Li Bin, the commander of the military and civilian command department of Ningfanwei (present-day Mianning County), whose ancestral home was Weiyang (present-day Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province). Li Bin was the son of the general Huaiyuan (from Sanpin Military Attaché) during the Reign of Ming Hongwu and the commander of Tongzhi Li Tong. Li Bin served as the general of Huaiyuan after Li Tongzhishi (an old official left his post) and served as an avant-garde in Jianchang. In the early years of Yongle, Li Bin participated in the battle to pacify the "Jiaodian (i.e., Annam, present-day Vietnam)", and "won the thieves and the head of the canal" in the decisive battle to destroy the main force of the Annam Lê clan (i.e., "Li Kou") in The Main Force of the Fulang River (present-day Honghe, Vietnam), and was promoted to the command of General Zhaoyong for his merits, and in the second year of Ming Xuande (1427), he was transferred to the command of the Military and Civilian Command Of Ninh Fan Wei.
Li Bin was born in the year of Ming Hongwu (i.e. the fifth year of Hongwu, 1372 AD) and died in the ugly year of Ming Shun Ding (i.e. the first year of Tianshun, 1457 AD), at the age of 85. Like the middle and lower-ranking officers of the Zhuwei in Jianchang (present-day Liangshan) at that time, the "Ningfanwei Commander" of the Li family was "hereditary", and according to ancient common practice, the "firstborn son inheritance system" was implemented, which was inherited by his eldest son Li Shan. That is to say, Li Shan, the owner of this tangled bundle of golden crowns, was the eldest son of Li Bin, the commander of the Ningfan Wei Military and Civilian Commanding Division.
The tomb of General Li Shan of Zhaoyi is about 7 meters in front of the tomb of General Li Bin of Zhaoyong, and the tombs of Li Bin and Li Shan's father and son are facing the "Noonday Direction of Zishan Mountain (sitting on the north facing the south)". It is no wonder that the father and son of the Li clan at that time were originally the most powerful figures in Ning Fanwei, so they were able to occupy the position of His Holiness who "faced south and back to north".
One of the two land coupon inscriptions unearthed along with the golden crown of the bun hair.
A large number of Inland Han Chinese immigrants from Tuntian moved into Liangshan
From Li Bin's epitaph, it can be seen that Li Bin and Li Shan's father and son were from Weiyang, why did they come to Liangshan for thousands of miles? This has to mention the fourth great migration in the history of Liangshan - the "Tuntian migration" of the Ming Dynasty.
In 1368, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang ended Mongol rule and proclaimed himself emperor at Yingtianfu in Nanjing, with the era name Hongwu. With his own fortitude and courage, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born a civilian, won the hearts of the people in the military and the people. He adopted the strategy of "building walls high, accumulating grain, and slowly becoming king" proposed by the strategist Zhu Sheng, and quickly and secretly expanded his strength. In a few years, Zhu Yuanzhang marched south to the north, raised millions of troops, and after completing the strategic deployment of "building a high wall," he began to implement the "extensive accumulation of grain."
Although tuntian's strategy has existed in ancient times, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang adhered to the idea of "educating the army with the people" and pushed the Tuntian movement to a new climax. In order to restore the economy as soon as possible and enable the people to live and work in peace and contentment, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted a series of measures to encourage the reclamation of land for farming. One of his Mongol officials, Liang Daixian Timur, suggested to Zhu Yuanzhang that after the war in the north, the population had plummeted, and many wastelands had not been cultivated, so it was advisable to gather the people and migrate from places with many people and few land to places with few people. Zhu Yuanzhang praised it one after another, and immediately arranged for manpower to organize the matter, and soon, the northeast, northwest, and southwest regions ushered in a large-scale migration.
Another pass to buy land
As early as the Qin and Han Dynasties, in order to solve military needs and save costs, the troops were stationed in tuntian and reclaimed the border. For more than 2,000 years, as a strategic place to attack Chengdu in the north and Control Yunnan in the south, Liangshan has never been forgotten by any dynasty. In order to open up the "Southwest Yi", Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up Mintun along the way from the Chengdu Plain through Liangshan to Yunnan; during the Xiantong period of Tang Yizong, in order to curb the development of Nanzhao, a large number of Tun soldiers were set up in Liangshan; after the territory of the Yuan Dynasty expanded south to Yunnan, juntun was also set up in Liangshan; in the Ming Dynasty, Liangshan was an excellent place to resettle immigrants and solve land and grain problems.
In the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu (1392), the Ming government sent a large army to attack Xifan, and the defense of the interior was relatively empty, and the former imperial widow Yuelu Timur took advantage of this opportunity to launch a rebellion in Jianchang (present-day Xichang). He successively united more than 10,000 tujuns in Dechang, Huichuan (present-day Huili), Miyi (present-day Miyi), Baixing (present-day Yanyuan), and Qiongbu (present-day northern Liangshan), killing officers and soldiers, plundering cattle, burning barracks, and robbing military food. For a time, the situation in Jianchang changed suddenly, Sichuan and Yunnan were shaken, and the Ming court urgently assigned the founding general Lan Yu to lead "15,000 soldiers from Jingwei and Shaanxi".
After a fierce battle, Yuelu Timur was defeated by Yanyuan and captured by the Blue Jade troops, and the Ming army successively killed the tuguans involved in the rebellion, and a turmoil finally subsided. Many of Lan Yu's troops were from Anhui, Gansu, Zhejiang and Shaanxi, and after they put down the rebellion, in order to maintain the stability of the situation in Jianchang, they stayed in the Xichang area and reclaimed the border of Tuntian.
In order to consolidate its rule over border defense, the Ming Dynasty imitated the military system of the Northern Wei, Sui and Tang Dynasties, and established a system of "soldiers feeding themselves". According to the system at that time, the Health And Institute was a two-level institution, with about 5600 people as one health center, 1120 people as thousand households, and 120 people as hundred households. The Weishou were set up in strategically important areas, which played a key role in the rule of the Ming Dynasty.
In the twenty-seventh year of Hongwu (1394), unwilling to let liangshan, which had just been pacified, be subject to any more variables, Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, set up five guards in Liangshan, namely the Jianchang Wei Military and Civilian Commanding Envoy Division (present-day Xichang Old City), the Ningfan Wei Military and Civilian Commanding Envoy Division (present-day Mianning Chengguan), the Yanjing Wei Military and Civilian Commanding Envoy Division (present-day Yanyuan Acropolis), the Yueyue Wei Military and Civilian Commanding Envoy Division (present-day Yuexi Chengguan), and the Huichuan Wei Military and Civilian Commanding Envoy Division (present-day Huili Chengguan), which were subordinate to the Sichuan Xingdu Commanding Envoy Division, known historically as the "Jiannan Five Guards". Today, the Ming and Qing ancient city walls and the Huili North City Gate in Xichang are the best witnesses of this history.
The five guards and the subordinate governors of the Thousand Households and Hundred Households were basically middle- and lower-ranking officers who had long followed Zhu Yuanzhang in the Southern Expedition to the North, and they were deeply trusted by the imperial court and were appointed to manage the health centers at all levels in the Jianchang area. These soldiers came to Liangshan with their wives and children and took root.
From the personal information of Li Bin and Li Shan, it can be inferred that their ancestors were immigrants from the Ming Dynasty and belonged to the descendants of Juntun, and from Li Bin's father Li Tong began to command Tongzhi in Mianning Ningfanwei, Ming Hongwu was named "General Huaiyuan", and after Zhishi Li Bin attacked the title of "General Huaiyuan" and served in Jianchangwei. Li Bin passed away, and his eldest son Li Shan served as the commander of the Ningfan Wei army and civilians, and was given the title of "General Zhaoyi".
Today's Ming and Qing ancient city walls in Xichang are the best testimony to the history of "Jiannan Wuwei". Photo by Zhong Yucheng
Li Shan bought land coupons to witness the social form of the times
Cultural relics can be said to be a witness of an era, and through cultural relics, we can see more of the social form of this era.
The two land purchase coupons excavated at the same time as the golden crown of the bundle of hair in the tomb of General Li Shan of Zhaoyi, the length of the coupon is 35 cm and the width is 30.5 cm. One of them is inscribed with the inscription "Lark elephant of the Houdi Pass" on the front side, and the other is engraved with bagua on all sides; the other is inscribed with bagua on the front side, "General Li Shangong of Zhaoyi in the Tomb", and also engraved with bagua on all sides. The contents of the gown are basically the same on the back. From the recorded deeds, it can be seen that the tomb owner Li Shan was born in the first year of the Ming Jianwen Emperor (1399), died in the twelfth year of Ming Chenghua (1476), and was buried two years later in the northern plains of Ningbo Wei.
The land purchase voucher not only provides a precise basis for the name, identity and specific age of the golden crown of the tomb owner, but also provides first-hand information for the geographical location of the Commander of the Ming Ning Fan Wei Commandery, which has certain historical value.
Judging from the data unearthed and discovered in Liangshan Prefecture over the years, land purchase vouchers were mainly found in the Ming Dynasty, which may be directly related to the large number of Han people who moved into the Ming Dynasty. The actual meaning of the burial voucher reflects people's private ownership of land. That is, having land to enjoy before death, and still requiring permanent possession of the tomb after death, without infringement. It illustrates the development of the feudal social economy of Liangshan during the Ming Dynasty. The shape of the early Ming Dynasty land coupons unearthed in Liangshan and the format of the coupon text are basically the same as those in the Central Plains, but in the late Ming Dynasty, there were many customs such as "village witch" language and carving seals, and even long-term mourning in the church, and the Kanyu Yin and Yang warlocks chose the location to bury, so the land coupons unearthed from Li Shan's tomb provided an important physical basis for future generations to study ancient social economy, folk religious beliefs, and funeral customs.