Science Fiction Selection: History of the Mayan Conquest of Ma Boyong's Merchant Fleet Section IV: Tribes and City-States

The tribe is the initial stage of the development of the city-state, the city-state is the high-level expression of the tribe, and we must dialectically look at the relationship between the two, and the inferior dirty ghosts of the tribe who are steaming with stink say that we are engaged in discrimination, which is wrong.

—Speech of King Mlamra VI of the Khao Pan Dynasty at the Conference of the City-States Alliance of the Pan-Mayan Civilization Circle

In fact, the translations of the words "city-state" and "tribe" are not accurate; they are simply linguists who have chosen two words from modern vocabulary that are closest to the original Mayan meaning.

But these linguists make two mistakes: first, it is impossible to decipher the Mayan language, as if you could not guess the points of a randomly thrown dice; second, even if you are lucky enough to understand the Mayan, you will find that the language is chaotic and untranslatable. In logic, this is known as the Mayan paradox.

Because of this, the translation of the Mayan language is carried out in accordance with a principle called "take what you need": translators can translate the meaning of the Mayan literature according to their own needs—that is, what you need the Mayan to mean, what it means, no one can say that you are wrong, because no one knows what is right, and this principle is very popular in the Mayan research community. In 2795 AD, in 1953 AD, a Norwegian scholar attempted to publish a Pockmer-Mayan canonical dictionary, and he was subsequently burned to death at the entrance of the International Federation for Translation (FIT) headquarters in Montreal for "attempting to create uneasiness among the public."

The precise meaning of "city-state" in the Mayan is – in accordance with the principle of taking what one needs – a dream city where only highly qualified people are eligible to live. The word "tribe", on the other hand, is simply a form of negation that simply precedes, follows, or intersperses the word "city-state" with an incomparably firm tone.

"Tribes" and "city-states" are two common types of Mayan inhabited communities. The qualitative difference between these two groups is not as great as the gap between the two proper nouns, or to be more precise, whether in terms of the efficiency of municipal administration, the record of official integrity, or the degree of confusion in urban planning, there is no difference between tribes and city-states, they are all terrible. Freud once pointed out: "You have a hard time picking out one of the two lunatics who is more crazy." (When he said this, his index finger pointed at Jung, and three fingers pointed to himself.) ）

What really divided the Maya civilization into "tribes" and "city-states" was the pyramids.

The Mayan pyramids were different from their Egyptian cousins. The Egyptian pyramid is a smooth structure in the shape of a square cone, and its every line from the spire to the base of the tower is straight and integrated. The Mayan pyramid, on the other hand, is a four-square building with a four-sided base, divided into several layers, stacked from the bottom to the top and gradually shrunk, and finally forms a wide flat roof at the top. There are also stairs on all four sides that lead from the ground to the top of the tower.

The differences between the two pyramids can be easily distinguished from the differences in the way the Egyptians and maya worked.

Egyptian pharaohs lacked a sense of human rights, and they designed the building with only the overall beauty in mind, without the slightest concern about whether it would cause harm to the laborers. The shape of the Egyptian pyramids dictates that the more upward it is, the more difficult it is to build, because it is so smooth that it is difficult for workers to come back safely even if they climb to it. Especially when the spire is placed, the worker in charge of the installation will have no place to stand after completing the work, and the only thing he can do is to jump as far away as he can – this will not save his life, but at least it will not stain the pyramid.

The Maya is a different form. The Mayan kings also lacked a sense of human rights, but the Mayan workers were so afraid of death that they invented the world's first and most robust labor organization. ILO claims that it would be better to be killed than to do dangerous work, such as building a pyramid pyramid. They enumerate the dangers of several square-conical pyramids:

First of all, the square-conical pyramid requires a neat edge, which requires the processing of the stone, and the splashing stones are prone to casualties.

Secondly, the square-conical pyramid requires giant stone bricks, which are easy to cause casualties during transportation.

Again, the square-conical pyramid is too high, and it is easy to cause casualties when working at high altitudes.

……

Finally, the spire design of the square-conical pyramid is pure whimsical, which is too dangerous, how do we get down when the time comes?

The Mayan kings finally compromised with the labor organizations, and they modified the design: the designers changed the pyramidal integrated structure to a cascading, trapezoidal shape, so that the construction was safer to work; the construction materials were changed from huge monolithic stones to classical mixed concrete composed of mud, crushed pebbles, and foreign captives, ensuring that no one would be killed during transportation; and the spire was eventually changed to a flat-roofed type.

The laborers felt that this was not safe enough, so they secretly built four permanent stairs around the pyramid, from the base to the top platform of the tower, so that when climbing to the top of the construction, they could ensure that nothing would go wrong.

Some historians have speculated that the mayan pyramids were used to perform sacrificial rituals, but this is not the case. They are built for only one purpose, and that is to show off, which is useless.

Some mystics clinging to suspicious statistics will emphasize with an intoxicated voice: "The ratio of the bottom edge of the Mayan pyramid to the height of the tower is exactly the ratio of pi to radius; the height of the tower is one hundred and seventy-seven thousandths of the circumference of the earth, and one trillionth of the distance from the earth to the sun." What's even more wonderful is that the light of The Wolf Star passes through the airflow channel on the south wall and can directly hit the cabin at the top of the tower, while the light of the North Star can shine directly into the cabin under the tower through the airflow channel of the north wall. ”

For these people, well-meaning scientists would call on security guards to drive them away, while bad-eyed scientists would ask, after they reported a series of numbers, "Yes, and then?" What are they for? ”

The correct answer is: it doesn't make any sense at all.

The ratio of the bottom edge to the height of the tower does not lead to tax cuts; the height of the tower will only affect the project budget. As for Sirius and Polaris, their only use may be illumination, but clever kings will light torches and read books, while stupid kings don't read at all.

But the Maya did, after all, by their vanity. They naively like to listen to the praise of others, thinking that the ornate pyramids bring magnificent glory, the fundamental difference between civilization and uncivilized. Sometimes, the Mayan priests would honestly admit that this stuff wasn't useful, but then they would ask expectantly, "But it's big enough, isn't it?" ”

Because of the prevalence of this mentality, all Maya communities wanted their own community to have a pyramid to prove that they had advanced civilizations that had evolved into city-states. Conversely, if a community doesn't even have a pyramid, even if it has more avocados and more parrot feathers, it can only be reduced to an inferior tribe.

A Mayan from a tribe was discriminated against in the city-state, and everywhere he went, a local policeman would come up and sternly ask, "Is there a pyramid?" If the answer is no, then the person is thrown into the construction site to sift the sand, and then mixed with the sand into concrete to serve as the building material for the new pyramid." According to archaeological excavations, almost every pyramid contains the bones of many tribesmen, and the Maya of the city-state, leaning backed on these pyramids that bring infinite glory, continue to ask the tribal Maya in a contemptuous tone: "Are there pyramids?" ”

Thus one can see such a peculiar landscape that belongs to the category of urban planning, where every Mayan gathering place made every effort to build a pyramid, and some wealthy city-states even built an additional Mayan leap year altar to commemorate the leap year of the Mayan solar calendar.

So when Commander Youhouxi asked Fu Rong, "Tell me about your tribe," Fu Rong first corrected him and said that we are city-states.

According to Fu Rong, the reason why the Naheim tribe became a city-state was simple. They were chosen to serve as a logistics base for the Mayan United Marine Police, and in return the inland Mayan city-state would provide a pyramid to Naheim so that they could get rid of the stigmatizing status of the "tribe."

The only problem was that the only suitable locations in the territory of the Naheim tribe for the construction of pyramids were their settlements. After much deliberation, the elders of the Naheim tribe decided to move all the fallen men to a much smaller open area nearby, even though there was nothing but holes under the bushes and far from the nearest source of food.

"But we were willing. Starvation is very small, and the loss of life is very large! Fu Rong waved his arms passionately.

Commander Youhouxi nodded understandingly. Although he understood that "losing his body" meant "losing his identity as a city-state", he still couldn't help but think about which brave warrior would make Fu Rong lose his body.

He also understood why, when attacking the Naheim tribe, he would see a human settlement that was not even as good as the nest of the spider ape.

In addition, to the surprise of Commander Youhouxi, Fu Rong's oracle bone level had reached a very smooth level. You know, oracle bones, though much simpler than maya, are still very complex. If a foreigner wants to master it, it will take at least five months, and if the foreigner's teacher is of the opposite sex, the school hours will usually be extended by another two months.

Oracle is the official language of the Shang, so named after the tortoiseshell and animal bones as carriers. The earliest oracle bone was only a popular written script between wizards and aristocrats, often used for the secret transmission of love letters between noble maidens and their lovers, and was regarded as an elegant and exquisite language.

The famous reformer of the Shang Dynasty, Pan Geng the Great, was eager to improve the quality of the people as soon as possible, so he lifted the fence between the nobles and the commoners, and ordered all the people of the Shang Dynasty to learn the oracle bone, not only to write, but also to speak. The latter requirement was very difficult for everyone, because the style of Oracle was not the same as the spoken language of Yin Shang, and the result was often misunderstood.

One of the most serious misunderstandings occurred in 438 BC, when Emperor Pan Geng, after reviewing thirty bundles of bamboo documents, asked his deputy, "Is there any bamboo I need to sign?" The exemplary Pan Geng Emperor used colloquial oracle bones, and his deputy misheard it as "Is there anything that stops me from moving the capital?" The deputy was very surprised and quickly asked, "Where are you going to move?" ”

At this time, the second misunderstanding occurred, and Emperor Pan Geng thought that he was asking: "Where do you want to sign?" He replied impatiently, "Back." The deputy did not dare to ask more, And Emperor Pan Geng most hated that after the order was given, some people asked the east and the west, so he conveyed the order without any mistake.

By the time Pan Geng the Great discovered this misunderstanding, the capital of the Shang Dynasty had moved from Yan to Northern Mongolia. This was a tragedy, after which Pan Geng the Great canceled the order to promote the Oracle. But habits had been formed, and the Yin merchants, although they had returned to their normal spoken language, still referred to the language as Oracle. The real oracle bones were buried in the ground, and it wouldn't be thousands of years before anyone tried to decipher it—fortunately, the script didn't need to be "taken according to the law."

After listening to Fu Rong's account, Commander Yu Houxi felt very happy, because he finally began to communicate with the local natives; at the same time, he was also disappointed, because the Naheim tribe was very backward, they rarely interacted with the outside world, and Fu Rong had only been thirty kilometers away from the tribal settlement, but it was because he was lost.

Therefore, fu rong could not provide much help in understanding other Mayan city-states and tribes.

Commander Yuhouxi felt the need to take the initiative now, and he decided to attack a few more Mayan tribes or city-states, and to capture more Mayans to come back and put them in parrot training language camps. This can expand the influence of the Yin Shang Colonial Legion, and the second can develop a new group of translators - to tell the truth, Commander Youhou Xi really did not have any good feelings for Fu Rong's appearance, and he felt that such a translator would affect his emotions when negotiating, and he would also when he did not negotiate!

He asked Fu Rong, "You know that you are far away... belch...... Where is the nearest tribe or city-state of a city-state? ”

Fu Rong thought about it carefully and replied in a very standard oracle bone, "I don't know." ”

Thus, on September 10, 205 in the Republican calendar, on the Mayan Grammar Teacher's Day, the Merchant Colonial Legion, which had just won its initial victory, fell into trouble for the first time— there were too few enemies.