In the Ancient Chinese Exhibition Hall of the National Museum of China, there is a gold seal, which is 1.8 cm high, 2.3 cm long at the sides and weighs 89.5 grams. Because the delicacy looks dazzling. The golden seal is intact on all four sides, and a golden snake is coiled on the back as a seal button. Because the seal book "Seal of the King of Dian" is engraved on the surface of the seal, it is called the Golden Seal of the King of Dian. The excavation of this golden seal proves that the ancient Dian kingdom recorded in Sima Qian's "History" really existed in history.
This ancient Dian kingdom is the prototype of the ancient Dian kingdom where the "Yunnan Worm Valley" is located in the fiery film and television work "Notes on tomb robbers", and the excavation of the golden seal of the King of Dian and a large number of strange bronzes in the Dian kingdom not only confirms the existence of the ancient Dian kingdom, but also shows the mystery and strangeness of this ancient country two thousand years ago.
So what kind of circumstances did this gold seal, the bronze of the ancient Dian kingdom and the relics of the ancient Dian kingdom be discovered?
Explore Jinning Shizhai Mountain
One day in the autumn of 1953, Sun Taichu, an expert at the Yunnan Provincial Museum in China, heard that farmers in Shizhaishan, Jinning, had dug up a lot of bronze weapons while digging a grave pit and sold them to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, and Sun Taichu vaguely felt that there might be a mysterious history behind these bronzes. He immediately reported to the Yunnan Provincial Museum and asked for permission to excavate Shizhai Mountain.
In March 1955, an archaeological team composed of cultural relics experts began the first clean-up excavation at ShizhaiShan. As expected, this excavation unearthed hundreds of bronzes, most of which were different from the bronze artifacts unearthed in the Central Plains.
In the face of these strangely shaped bronzes that have been handed down at any time, archaeologists have no clue. This coincided with a trip abroad by Guo Moruo, then president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Zheng Zhenduo, then director of the Bureau of Cultural Relics, who were passing through Kunming to visit the bronzes unearthed from Shizhai Mountain.
Guo Moruo carefully looked at the specially shaped and exquisitely made bronzes, and he saw that some of these bronzes were carved with cattle, some were carved with deer, and some were decorated with snakes. Guo Moruo was silent for half a day, and suddenly he seemed to think of something, and asked, "Are these things from the Ancient Dian Kingdom?" ”
Guo Moruo's question made the archaeologists present stand still for a moment, but when the reaction came, they were all excited by this bold question and conjecture. At that time, the excavation of Shizhaishan in Yunnan was still in the spontaneous excavation stage, and although everyone understood that the excavated bronzes were very important, no one had ever dared to associate them with the ancient Dian kingdom 2,000 years ago, and some people did not even know what the ancient Dian kingdom was.
Guo Moruo, who has a deep historical attainment and historical sensitivity, saw the bronzes excavated from Shizhai Mountain and immediately thought of the ancient Dian Kingdom recorded in Sima Qian's "History". So he raised the question of whether these bronzes belonged to the ancient Dian kingdom. It was Guo Moruo's doubts that gave Shizhaishan's originally aimless excavations a clear goal, that is, to find the ancient Dian kingdom.
Zheng Zhenduo, the director of the Cultural Relics Bureau at the time, was excited by Guo Moruo's bold conjecture, and he immediately made a special payment to the Yunnan Provincial Museum and equipped them with a theodolite, hoping to help them find the mysterious ancient Dian kingdom.
In this way, starting in 1956, the Yunnan Provincial Museum began a second larger archaeological excavation in Shizhaishan, Yunnan.
Discover the Golden Seal of the King of Dian
At two o'clock in the afternoon of December 28, 1956, inside a tomb marked Tomb No. 6 in Shizhaishan, the cleaning of cultural relics was nearing completion, and some people were preparing to leave. Archaeologist Sun Taichu was still cleaning up a pile of yellow powder under the coffin when his hand touched a square-shaped object. Curious, Sun Taichu picked it up from the middle of a pile of debris.
He held the small piece of dirt in one hand and gently brushed the surface of the small piece of soil with a soft brush in the other. Suddenly, a golden glow flashed in the corner of this small piece of dirt. According to the excitement in his heart, Sun Taichu continued to carefully brush away the remaining dirt on the object, and the four typical Chinese character seal books "Seal of the King of Dian" came into view unmistakably.
At this moment, the people who were carrying out archaeological excavations on Shizhai Mountain boiled over, and the ancient mysterious kingdom of the Dian Kingdom, which was unknown in the historical records, was shaken from the time of 2000 years, and its existence was confirmed by this golden seal.
Two years after the discovery of the Golden Seal, the National Museum of China, which was then the Museum of Chinese History, was completed. This seal of the King of Dian was transferred to Beijing as an extremely important cultural relic. Since then, this small gold seal has been able to become the treasure of the current National Museum of China and is permanently exhibited together with many national treasures.
The excavation of the Seal of the King of Dian proves that there was indeed a kingdom called Dian in history. And Sima Qian's "Records of History" also has sporadic records about the State of Dian, and the fact that the literature and excavated cultural relics are so rare confirms the fact that the ancient State of Dian really existed.
So what kind of country is this mysterious Dian country? Who founded it and what kind of history does it have?
Ancient Dian Kingdom
In 279 BC, in the late Warring States period of ancient China, the Chu general Zhuang Ji led an army up the Yangtze River. Attack the area around present-day Chongqing and Guizhou, and enter Yunnan by the way.
Unexpectedly, the place where his front foot was hit down, the back foot was occupied by the Qin army at that time. This was equivalent to cutting off the back road back to the Chu state from behind. Helplessly, Zhuang Ji led his men and horses to camp around the Dianchi Lake in present-day Yunnan and established the State of Dian. This history is known in Sima Qian's chronicle as "King Dian of Zhuang". Although the authenticity of the "Zhuang Shu Wang Dian" has yet to be examined, this is the first time that the Dian Kingdom has appeared in Chinese history books.
150 years after the "King dian of Zhuang", that is, one day in 122 BC, Zhang Qian, an envoy of the Han Dynasty who sent an envoy to Bactria, that is, in present-day Central Asia and Afghanistan, returned to the capital at that time, Chang'an. He reported an important discovery to Emperor Wu of Han, that is, he found Shu cloth from the Han Dynasty in the Bactrian region, and these Shu cloth were transported from yuan du, which is today's India.
Zhang Qian deduced from this that there was a passage to the poison in the southwest of China, which was the legendary "Shu Body Poison Road". At that time, the Han Dynasty's road to the western region through the Hexi Corridor was controlled by the Xiongnu, and the trade risk was extremely high. If there really was a trade route to the poison in the southwest, then the Han Dynasty's trade with the outside world would no longer be subject to the Xiongnu. So Emperor Wudi of Han sent emissaries to the southwest to explore the mysterious road.
The Kingdom of Dian appeared in the history books for the second time. According to the Chronicle of History. The envoys of the Han Dynasty were greeted by the King of Dian, Qiang. He also asked the famous question to the envoys of the Han Dynasty, "Han is greater than me?" The meaning of this sentence is which is the greater of the Han Dynasty or our Dian Kingdom?
When the King of Dian heard the envoys of the Han Dynasty say that the Kingdom of Dian was only one county in the Han Dynasty, he was in awe. He warmly entertained these Han Dynasty emissaries. The envoys of the Han Dynasty wandered in the Yunnan Kingdom for a long time but did not go through the "Shu Body Poison Road" that led to the poison of the body, and had no choice but to return to Chang'an to make their lives.
The han dynasty emissaries who returned to Chang'an detailed the initial situation to Emperor Wu of Han, and there is such a record in the "Records of History" that "the emissaries were also, because of their grand words about the great country of Yunnan, they were close to each other." The emissary told Emperor Wu of Han that the Kingdom of Dian was very large and that he could interact with them more.
Soon after, Emperor Wu of han sent an army to the southwest to conquer the southwest frontier by force. When the Han Dynasty army approached the city of Dian, Emperor Wu of Han remembered the words of the emissary "foot and matter", and did not continue to attack.
At that time, the King of Dian was even more powerful, so Emperor Wu of Han set up Yizhou County in the state of Dian at that time, and gave the seal of the King of Dian, so that he still ruled the State of Dian. It was only from then on that the ancient Dian kingdom became a vassal state of the Great Han. And this seal of the King of Dian has also been passed down from generation to generation by successive Kings of Dian. Eventually, along with a certain generation of Dian kings were buried in the ground.
From the "Zhuang Shu Wang Dian" to the seal given by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to the King of Dian, the record of the ancient Dian Kingdom in the history books came to an abrupt end. In the nearly two thousand years of history after the Han Dynasty, the ancient Dian Kingdom disappeared as if it had disappeared out of thin air and never appeared in any historical materials.
This has led many people to suspect that the records in the "Records of History" are just hearsay of Sima Qian, and perhaps the ancient Dian kingdom never existed. It was not until December 28, 1956, that the seal of the King of Dian unearthed in tomb No. 6 of Shizhaishan gave the final answer to all speculations and doubts about the existence of the ancient Dian Kingdom.
As for why the ancient Dian Kingdom disappeared out of thin air in historical records after the Han Dynasty, we still need to wait for new archaeological evidence.