In ancient China, there were three important foreign trade routes, all three of which were called "Silk Roads": the Northwest Silk Road, the Southwest Silk Road, and the Maritime Silk Road. Two of the three Silk Roads are related to Kunming: one is the Southwest Silk Road, the Chinese section of this road is mainly in Yunnan, which must pass through Kunming; the other is the Maritime Silk Road, pioneered by Zheng He, a Kunming native.
As early as the 4th century BC or earlier, the people of all ethnic groups in the southwest carved out the "Shu body poison road", through the lofty mountains, communicating with India, Myanmar and Southeast Asia, and then reaching Central Asia, West Asia and the Middle East, which was later called the "Southwest Silk Road". Kunming is a must-pass place, a major transit point and a commodity distribution center for this ancient road.
Ancient Dian State Capital: Shu body poison road must pass through the key place
(Statue of King Zhuang of Dian)
The Shu body poison dao first appeared in the Western Han Dynasty's "History of Southwest Yilie", and was related to the famous Zhang Qian. Zhang Qian returned from his mission to Bactria (an ancient country around present-day Afghanistan) to report to Emperor Wu of Han, saying that he had seen "Shu cloth" and "Qiong bamboo sticks" in Bactria and that the Bactrians said they had bought them from the "Shu Jia people" of the poisoned (Indian) country thousands of miles southeast of them, the Shu merchants. Zhang Qian believed that the Great Xia Kingdom admired the Han Dynasty, and "the poisonous road of the Shu body was close" and "beneficial and harmless".
According to research, most of the merchants who did business through the Shu body poison road were merchants of the Chu state and the Shu state, and the commodities were mostly silk, and they went out through the southwest Yi, so it was called the Southwest Silk Road. The opening of the Shu body poison road was long before Zhang Qian passed through the Western Regions, and naturally it was earlier than the Western Silk Road that was opened after Zhang Qian's westward journey. As for the specific time of the development of the Shu body poison road, based on the date of the beginning of the Sino-Indian trade, modern scholars have different opinions, or say that it is the 4th century BC, or the 5th century BC, or the 6th century BC, or the 11th century BC. However, according to archaeological results, the Shu body poison road was opened before the 4th century BC. The opening of this Southwest Silk Road is five or six hundred years earlier than the Western Silk Road.
The Southwest Silk Road is about 3,000 kilometers long in China, with the Qin Dynasty Five Foot Road (also known as Tsing Yi Road) from present-day Chengdu to Dali via Yibin, Zhaotong, Kunming, and Chuxiong, the Lingguang Road from southern Sichuan to Qionglai, Xichang, Huili, dayao to Dali, and Yongchang Road from Dali to the west to Yongping, Baoshan, tengchong into Burma, and then out of Burma north into India, and from south Myanmar to the sea, to Rome and other places. In addition, there is the Mayuan Ancient Road, which runs from Kunming to Mengzi, Pingbian and Estuary to Hanoi in Vietnam, leading directly to the South China Sea.
At that time, the war between the Western Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu was in a state of stalemate, and after listening to Zhang Qian's report on the "Poisonous Road of Shu Body", Emperor Wudi of Han was determined to open up this road, encircle the back road of the Xiongnu, and defeat the Xiongnu. The first thing Emperor Wudi of Han had to deal with was the Southwest Yi, which occupied the eastern section of the "Shu Body Poison Road", and one of the keys was the Kingdom of Dian in the Dianchi area.
According to the Chronicle of the Southwest Yilie, during the Warring States period, the king of Chu wei sent the general Zhuang Wei up the Yangtze River to attack the lands of Ba, Shu, and Qian, that is, today's Chongqing, Sichuan, and Guizhou. Zhuang Ji fought all the way to Dianchi Lake, incorporating the fertile land of thousands of miles into the Chu State, and was waiting to return to China to report victory, but unexpectedly the Qin army invaded Ba and Qian, cutting off Zhuang Jiao's way back. Zhuang Ji had no choice but to occupy Dianchi Lake, change his obedience, and call himself the King of Dian, which was passed down from generation to generation. The ancient capital of the Dian Dynasty was built near Jincheng on the southeast bank of today's Dianchi Lake, and there were also castles on the north bank of dianchi Lake to control the "Shu Body Poison Road".
In the first year of the Western Han Dynasty's Yuan Hunt, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent four emissaries to explore the "Shu Body Poison Road", and all of them failed. One of the emissaries arrived at the Kingdom of Dian, where the King of Dian was Qiang qiang, with tens of thousands of men. He left the messenger behind and asked, "Who is greater than me?" Emperor Wu of Han allowed the King of Dian to enter the dynasty, but the King of Dian refused to obey his orders with the help of the small country with the same surname, Laozhuan and Jing mo.
In the second year of the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Tang Meng to widen the five-foot road to more than one zhang, approaching the Dianchi area, and then eliminated the small states of Laojiao and Jingmo, and sent troops to Dianchi. Only then did the King of Dian surrender, enter the court as a vassal, and save his life. The Western Han Dynasty established Yizhou Commandery in the land of the Dian Kingdom, made Qiang still the King of Dian, gave him a seal of the King of Dian, and still ruled his subjects, but the power of the King of Dian had greatly declined. Among the dozens of small southwest Yi states at that time, only Yelang and Dian were granted the royal seal by Emperor Wu of Han. Although the Kingdom of Yunnan was small, it was the most favored.
After that, the King of Dian helped the Han envoys to open the road to the west of Dianchi Lake, and tried more than 40 times in more than a year, all of which were blocked by the "Kunming" tribe in the Erhai region. Emperor Wu of Han could not swallow this breath, and chiseled the "Kunming Pond" in Xi'an, training the water army and preparing to conquer the Kunming tribe. This is a historical allusion in the Daguanlou Long Lian: "Han Xi Lou Ship." ”
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the leaders of the ancient countries in Southeast Asia sent envoys to the Chinese capital Luoyang many times, which became a precedent for friendly exchanges between Southeast Asia and China through the Southwest Silk Road. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the local governments of Nanzhao and Dali established political and commercial exchanges with many countries and regions in Southeast Asia and South Asia through the Southwest Silk Road. After the Yuan Dynasty and until the Ming and Qing dynasties, China had close relations with its neighboring Southeast Asian countries (present-day Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, etc.), and everything happened along the Southwest Silk Road. The political, economic and military significance of the Southwest Silk Road is becoming more and more important. To this day, kunming's external traffic trend still coincides with the direction of Wuzhi Road, Yongchang Road and Mayuan Ancient Road, which is amazing.
"Imported" sea shells from Kunming from the Shu body poison road
(Shell coins and shell vessels excavated from the tombs of the ancient Dian Dynasty)
Some scholars believe that the largest commodity on the Shushen Poison Road/Southwest Silk Road is the sea shell, and it is a special commodity that acts as a currency. Therefore, instead of calling this passage the "Silk Road", it is better to call it the "Bei coin road" (Lin Wenxun," "Is it the Silk Road, or the Bei Coin Road?). 》）。
The bronze culture of the ancient Dian Kingdom has obvious customs of "precious shell coins". There are many copper drum-shaped shellfish containers, more sea shells are stored, and the casting of "the great events of the country" is cast, and for the "heavy instrument of the country", the use of "heavy instruments of the country" to fill the sea shells can be known to be valuable and unusual (Li Kunsheng's "Examination of the Baiyue Culture Seen in Yunnan Archaeological Materials"). The sea shells unearthed from Shizhai Mountain in Jinning have yellow circles on their backs, which have been identified by the Department of Biology of Yunnan University as "ring-patterned cargo shells", native to the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and are imported from Southeast Asia and South Asia.
According to statistics, more than 149,000 sea shells have been excavated from Jinning ShizhaiShan alone, with a total weight of more than 400 kilograms. Jiangchuan Lijiashan has more than 112,000 pieces, with a total weight of more than 300 kilograms. The tomb of one of the female chiefs unearthed about 20,000 shell coins and was packed in a special bronze vessel.
According to the survey, the age of these ancient tombs is from the Spring and Autumn Warring States to the Western Han Dynasty. Therefore, the time for seashells to flow in must be at this time or before this. Since then, through the Han Dynasty, Jin Dynasty, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and early Qing Dynasties, Haibei has still flowed in large quantities. Until the Ming and Qing dynasties, Yunnan "abolished shell money", and haibei has been used as the main legal tender in Yunnan for more than 2,000 years (Lin Wenxun, "Is it the Silk Road, or the Road of Shell Coins?"). 》）。 If the amount, duration, and influence prevail, the Shu body poison dao can really be described as the "road of the shell coin".
"Dian goods" and "surplus" trade exported along the Shu body poison road
Shell coins are money after all, not commodities in the general sense. Some scholars believe that the foreign trade of the Yunnan Kingdom gradually became popular from the beginning and middle of the Western Han Dynasty, and the trade object was South Asian and Southeast Asian countries, and the currency was sea shells. Shell coins are actually the "foreign exchange" of the Dian kingdom, so they are stored in large quantities and dedicated to foreign trade (Zhang Zengqi's "Dian Culture").
Since it is "foreign exchange", there must be "export" goods. According to the records of the "Records of History" and the "Book of Han" and the excavation of cultural relics, the "export" commodities of the ancient Dian Kingdom through the Shu body poison road/Southwest Silk Road are mainly "terriers" of horses, cattle and slaves, as well as fur products, strange birds and beasts, gold and silver minerals.
In the bronze statues of the Dian Kingdom, there is indeed a market where slaves are tied up or sold with cattle and horses. The "imported" goods of the Yunnan Kingdom are mainly silk, copper mirrors, crossbows, iron swords and a large number of cosmetics, mostly from the mainland, but mostly Sichuan products. From Central and South Asia, colored glass beads, chalcedony beads, winged tiger silver belt hooks and gold ornaments were "imported" (Zhang Zengqi's "Dian Culture").
It seems that the "foreign trade" balance of the ancient Dian State is quite large, and there will be so many shell coins in the tomb. Behind these shell coins, there was mainly the trade in horses, cattle, and slaves. According to the naming principle of the "Silk Road" and the "Tea Horse Ancient Road", which are based on commodities rather than currency, the "Bei coin road" is also inappropriate, and it should be regarded as the "Horse Cow Road", "The Road of the Servants" or the "Silk Road".
However, judging from the records of the "Records of History" and the "Book of Han", the trade between the horses, cattle and the "servants" was mainly carried out between Dian and Shu, and the Dian people could not earn shell coins from them. The shell coins accumulated by the Dian people probably first used pod horses, cattle, and "servants" to exchange silk and other Shu products from Ba and Shu merchants, and then "re-exported" them to South Asia and Southeast Asia. Or the Bashu merchants sold silk and other commodities to foreign merchants in Yunnan, and then used the shell coins they obtained to buy horses, cattle, and "servants", and the shell coins flowed to the tombs of the Dian royal family.
Dongchuan white copper was transported to Central Asia through the Shu body poison road
(Shizhaishan type copper drum)
Some scholars believe that the naming of an ancient trade road should be examined not only from the "end" of the trade route, but also from the "other end" of the trade road.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, Zhang Qian discovered "Shu cloth" in Bactria on the other side of the Shu body poison road, and in the 19th century, archaeologists found white copper coins in the area of Afghanistan, the homeland of Bactria and present-day Central Asia. White copper coins from this copper-nickel alloy are found in many parts of Central Asia, and in large quantities.
Because the West, The Middle and Near East have neither the raw materials for minting white copper coins nor the tradition of minting white copper coins, where did the raw materials for the minting of central Asian white copper coins come from? Some foreign scholars have noticed that Persian calls white copper "Chinese stone", and this white copper is most likely from China. They compared and analyzed the white copper coins of the Great Xia Kingdom and the white copper produced in southwest China, and found that the alloy composition of the two was very similar. Nickel resources are mainly distributed in Southeast Asia and the Americas, while copper-nickel symbiotic mines are concentrated in southwest China and Canada. Archaeologists generally believe that the raw materials for minting white copper coins in the Bactrian Kingdom were imported from southwest China (Li Xiaocen,"Science and Civilization of the Bai People").
This copper-nickel symbiotic mine in southwest China, in the area of present-day northeastern Yunnan and southern Sichuan, is related to the present-day Dongchuan in Kunming, and is on the ancient Shu body poison road/southwest silk road. The minerals listed in the Book of later Han and the Biography of The Southwest Yilie also take "copper" as the first.
Central Asian countries cast money in white copper, used a lot of copper, and the scale of transportation is very large. At that time, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, with four emissaries and 100,000 elite soldiers, could not open up the Shu body poison road, and how so much white copper was transported to India and then to Central Asia through the Shu body poison road / Southwest Silk Road god unconsciously, it is a mystery.
The copper drum culture of Shizhai Mountain circulating along the Poisonous Road of Shu body
The Shizhaishan-shaped copper drum is a type of copper drum represented by the copper drum excavated from the Shizhaishan ancient tomb group on the southeast bank of Dianchi Lake, dating from the 4th century BC in the early Warring States period to the 1st century BC in the early Eastern Han Dynasty.
This kind of copper drum is the inheritance and development of the Chuxiong Wanjiaba type copper drum, the Wanjiaba copper drum is about 700 BC, its form is simple, the ornamentation is simple, but it laid the general pattern of the decorative pattern of the copper drum of the descendants (Wang Dao"Yunnan Copper Drum"). The Shizhai mountain-shaped copper drum drum surface is wider, the casting process is also more refined, and the ornamentation is diverse, which shows that the copper drum casting technology is becoming more and more perfect and has entered the development stage.
The Wanjiaba-type copper drum on the Shizhai mountain-shaped copper drum, which connects Chuxiong and Xiangyun, is popular in Kunming Jinning, Sichuan Huili, Guizhou Hezhang, Guangxi Yulin and other vast areas, and is also circulated in Southeast Asia in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries. These "copper drum lands" are distributed along the ancient Shu body poison road / Southwest Silk Road, and are related to the Mayuan Ancient Road.
Recommended reading in previous periods
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Author: Zhu Jingyu
Editor-in-charge: Liu Tingting
First Instance: Wu Jinsong
Final Judge: Peng Shiqi