When you think of Chu culture, what do you think?
Some people will think of the traditional sacrificial culture of the mainland.
The ancient Chinese people believed in gods and maintained a reverence for ghosts and gods, especially the people in the land of Jingchu.
In Chu culture, there are many gods, such as the Eastern Emperor Taiyi, Xiang Jun, Lady Xiang, Dong Jun, and so on.
Some people will also think of the mainland Romantic poet Qu Yuan.
His work "Departure from sorrow" compares itself to "vanilla beauty", expressing the persistent pursuit of truth and the spirit of seeking up and down.
Of course, there are many legends about Chu land and Chu culture.
In 1978, the ancient tombs discovered by mainland archaeologists in Suizhou Drum Dun, Hubei Province, shocked the world and inspired everyone to explore the Jingchu culture.
First, the discovery of the ancient tomb group of drum mounds
In September 1977, on a hill called Dongtuanpo in the northwestern suburb of Suizhou City, Hubei Province, the former Wuhan Military Region's Air Force Logistics Radar Repair Center of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was expanding its barracks.
In the process of expanding the barracks, the construction team discovered a peculiar phenomenon.
On the red sandstone hill, a layer of brown mud appeared.
After finding brown dirt, the construction team found some gray-colored rubble.
Deputy Director Wang Jiagui felt that this matter was not quite right, so he reported to director Zheng Guoxian.
Zheng Guoxian is an amateur cultural relics enthusiast who conducts cultural relics research in his free time.
After learning of this incident, out of the sense of responsibility and mission of cultural relics protection, Director Zheng Guoxian and Deputy Director Wang Jiagui reported to the county cultural center and asked them to send someone to investigate the site.
However, this matter did not attract the attention of the prefectural cultural center at the beginning, and they did not send relevant personnel to the scene.
The construction team had no choice but to continue construction, and the brown mud on the hill was gradually blown up with the cooperation of the construction team.
However, after this brown soil layer was blown up, a man-laid stone slab more than 2 meters long and 1 meter wide appeared.
At this time, everyone realized that this matter is certainly not simple.
Therefore, the construction team once again reported to the Suixian Cultural Center.
The county cultural center realized the seriousness of the situation, so it sent Wang Shizhen, deputy director of the cultural center, to the scene to check.
After Wang Shizhen inspected it, he preliminarily concluded that it was an ancient tomb.
The discovery of the ancient tomb has attracted great attention from the county cultural center and the entire Hubei province.
In March 1978, Tan Weisi, the leader of the archaeological team of hubei provincial museum, led the survey team to the site to investigate.
In addition to the survey, each province has dispatched relevant cultural relics workers to form cultural relics cadres, and these cultural relics cadres have formed an archaeological excavation team for Tomb No. 1 in Suixian Dougudun.
Under the leadership of Captain Tan Weisi, in May 1978, tomb No. 1 of Drum Dun was officially excavated.
The discovery of the drum dun ancient tomb group shocked both at home and abroad.
With the excavation of the archaeological team, the mystery of the ancient tomb group of drum duns was gradually unveiled.
Second, the construction form of the ancient tomb group of drum piers
After more than two months of excavations by archaeologists, the lid of the tomb was finally revealed in front of the archaeologists.
But when the archaeologists opened the first cover of the burial chamber, they were shocked.
Unlike previous excavations of the burial chamber, the underside of this burial chamber was soaked in muddy water up to 3 meters high.
For further excavation, drainage work must be carried out first.
As the drainage work progressed, archaeologists were surprised to find a headless little yellow duck floating on the surface of the water.
Also known as the "Painted Mandarin Duck Box", this headless little yellow duck has a brown body and a yellow pattern on its abdomen, above which is a musician hitting a musical instrument.
The discovery of the "Painted Mandarin Duck Box" has further increased the confidence of archaeologists, who believe that there are more mysteries waiting for them to discover inside the tomb.
Finally, under the further excavation of archaeologists, the burial chamber constructed of this wooden rafter came into view.
The ancient tomb is huge, with a total area of 220 square meters, which is six times larger than the previously excavated Mawangdui No. 1 Tomb in Changsha.
Archaeologists were amazed to see the size of the tomb.
Subsequently, archaeologists surveyed and found that the pit was 21 meters long from east to west and 16.56 meters from north to south.
Unlike other burial chambers, this tomb is not very regular, the tomb is 13 meters deep and has an irregular polygonal shape.
The tomb went straight up and down, and there was no staircase to climb.
In the rafter room that leads directly to the tomb, the coffin of the owner of the tomb is stored here.
The main coffin is 3.2 meters long, 2.1 meters wide and 2.19 meters high.
The main coffin is divided into two layers, namely the inner coffin and the outer coffin.
There is a door opening under one side of the outer coffin, and the inner coffin is the inside of the outer coffin.
Compared with the outer coffin, the inner coffin is more exquisitely decorated.
The inner and outer walls of the coffin are painted with vermilion paint, and the outer walls are outlined with black, yellow and gold lacquer.
There are many styles of patterns, mainly dragon and phoenix, sacred beasts, pane patterns and other patterns.
These motifs are exquisitely crafted, representing the superb artistic level and extraordinary wisdom of the ancients, reflecting the ancients' good wishes to pray for shelter from the gods and hope that the souls of the dead can ascend to heaven.
Inside the coffin, the owner of the tomb lies peacefully here.
His head was facing south, and he was wrapped in many silk fabrics.
Although the body of the owner of the tomb has long been decayed after the previous year, through modern technical identification, we can still roughly infer the physical characteristics of the owner of the tomb.
The owner of the tomb is a male, aged between 42 and 46, and about 1.62 meters tall.
Third, the basic structure of the drum dun ancient tomb group
In addition to the two coffins inside and outside, it was also found that the burial chamber was divided into four rooms, namely the middle, north, west and east, and there were small holes under each chamber that ran through the other chambers.
The middle chamber mainly includes ceremonial instruments and musical instruments, which are large-scale and centered on the Nine Dings and Eight Gui.
These instruments reflect the ritual music system and culture of the Zhou Dynasty.
Among these instruments, the most representative one should be the Zeng Houyi chimes that shocked the world.
This set of chimes has a total of 65 sets, with a total weight of about 2567 kilograms, and the chimes are engraved with inscriptions, which represent the long musical culture of the Jingchu region of the mainland.
After the chimes were excavated, when archaeologists tried to gently tap the chimes, the chimes made a crisp sound.
Although it has gone through the vicissitudes of the previous year, this set of chimes is still like when it was cast, the sound is crisp and high, majestic and powerful.
Zeng Houyi chimes are second to none in the world from the perspective of manufacturing scale and process.
The most amazing thing is that each single bell of this set of chimes can produce two musical tones, and the two musical tones do not interfere with each other.
Professor E.C. McLen of New York University in the United States once made a high evaluation of the Zenghou Yi chimes, "The ZengHou Yi chimes are the eighth greatest wonder of the ancient world."
Former British Prime Minister Heath also praised Zeng Houyi chimes, "Your country had such a high level of music more than 2,000 years ago, which is unmatched by any country in the world."
The north chamber of the burial chamber is stocked with weapons, bamboo strips, etc.
The large number and variety of weapons in the tomb also prove from the side that the owner of the tomb is a leader and commander with military talent.
Immediately after, everyone set their eyes on the west and east chambers of the tomb.
Viewed from the west chamber, 13 bodies can be found.
Coming to the east room, everyone can also see that there are 8 wooden coffins in the east room, as well as the main coffin and a dog coffin.
The total number of corpses in the east and west chambers is added together, and it can be calculated that there are 23 corpses in total.
So, apart from the main coffin and the dog coffin, what happened to the corpses in the coffins of the 21 burials?
After an autopsy, the bodies were found to be female.
They are between the ages of 19 and 26 and are about 154-160 cm tall.
According to anatomy experts, these women were most likely the concubines of the tomb owner or the palace maids who served him.
After the death of the owner of the tomb, these women could not control their own fate, and they had to be buried with the owner of the tomb.
In this way, these women lost their lives in vain.
But why did the owner of the tomb choose 21 women to accompany him and end his life early?
The ancients of the mainland believed that 7 is a reincarnation, and if you achieve 3 reincarnations, you can become the lord of heaven, and these 21 coffins also reflect the inhumanity of the tomb owner.
This explains why the owner of the tomb chose these 21 young and beautiful women as burial objects.
I have to sigh that it is precisely because of this illusory number "21" that the lives of these 21 women were buried in vain.
4. The identity of the tomb owner of the drum dun ancient tomb group
Now that we have learned the basic structure of this tomb, I think everyone is very curious, who is the owner of this large-scale tomb?
According to the cultural relics excavated from the ancient tomb, experts found that many cultural relics were engraved with inscriptions with the words "Zeng Houyi".
For example, in this tomb, a short-handled copper goe attracted the attention of experts, who found that this short-handled copper goe was engraved with the inscription "Zeng Hou Yi Bedge" several words.
Experts speculate that this should be the weapon used by the tomb's owner, the Guards Samurai.
In addition, most of the bronze ceremonial vessels excavated from the tomb have inscriptions with the words "Zeng Houyi as the end of holding", of course, there are also a small number of bronzes engraved with the inscription of "Zeng Houyi as holding".
Similarly, there is an inscription under the chime, "Only the king of the fifty and six ancestors, returned from Xiyang, the king of Chu Xiong Zhang as the marquis of Yizong Yi, laid in Xiyang, and enjoyed it forever." ”
Xiong Zhang, the King of Chu Hui, records that during the reign of Xiong Zhang, the King of Chu Hui, during his reign, King Hui of Chu ordered a set of bells to be cast and given to Marquis Yi of Zeng for use in sacrifice.
Marquis Zeng possessed many weapons and accepted the bell given to him by the King of Chu, which also showed that this Marquis Zeng was by no means an ordinary person, and he must be a person of prominent status.
Based on this, we can infer that the owner of this tomb is Zeng Houyi.
What kind of person is Zeng Houyi?
According to historical texts and related documents, "Zeng" is a country, "Hou" is a title, and "B" is the name of the monarch.
Marquis Yi of Zeng lived roughly between the late Spring and Autumn period and the early years of the Warring States Period, when the princes were divided, the ceremonies collapsed, and the rule of the Zhou royal family was in jeopardy.
Zeng Guo was a small princely state at that time, and Zeng Houyi was the monarch of Zeng Guo at that time.
At that time, the princes were constantly strife and social turmoil, and the Chu state, as the great power among the seven heroes, had a very strong ambition to annex.
Zeng Houyi's father was a faint and incompetent monarch, and during the time of his father's reign, Zeng Guo was dependent on the Chu state.
Still
By the time Marquis Zeng yi ascended the throne, Zeng Guo's power was already very weak.
In the early days, Marquis Zeng Yi was a monarch who was angry and ambitious.
However, after several years of striving to be strong, Zeng Guo did not become as strong as the monarch Zeng Houyi imagined, and Zeng Houyi finally had to give up.
In 420 BC, Marquis Zeng declared himself a vassal to the State of Chu.
In the following ten years, Zeng Houyi became a slump and a fan of paper and gold.
He indulged in a life of luxury every day, robbing the women of the people, not distinguishing between loyalty and adultery, and listening to rumors.
Under his later leadership, Zeng Guo's national strength was weakening day by day.
In order to let Zeng Guo continue to survive, he sent someone to send a beautiful woman to the King of Chu every month, and also sent a heavy gift to the ministers around the King of Chu.
Under his actions, Zeng Guo's treasury became increasingly empty and its status gradually weakened.
Shortly after the death of Marquis Yi zeng, the state of Chu found an excuse to destroy the state of Zeng.
As a result, Zeng Guo turned to dust in the long river of history.
5. Inheritance and protection of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng
Spanning more than two thousand years of history, let us set our sights on today.
Since the excavation of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng in the Drum Dun Ancient Tomb Group in 1978, the Mainland Cultural Relics Bureau has attached great importance to it.
Over the past 40 years, the Mainland Cultural Relics Bureau has carried out several rounds of protection work for the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, including soaking in return water, draining and dehydration protection.
In view of the new problems such as cracking of the rafters and the continuous infiltration of water in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng in recent years, the local cultural relics bureau has continuously strengthened its attention, launched a new round of protection, and carried out further repair work.
On January 28, 2021, the launching ceremony of the protection and repair project of the tomb of Marquis Zeng of Dougudun was officially held in Suizhou City, Hubei Province, mainland China.
Duan Tianling, deputy director of hubei province, Wu Pihua, member of the standing committee of the Suizhou municipal party committee, and others attended the meeting.
Duan Tianling stressed that the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng is of great value and difficult to repair.
It is necessary to ensure safety and complete the protection and repair of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng with high quality.
At the same time, it is necessary to combine the protection and repair of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng with the development of tourism, carry forward and develop excellent traditional culture, and vigorously develop tourism.
Wu Pihua said that it is necessary to attach importance to the protection and repair of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, improve the protection and display level of Cultural Relics in Suizhou, build a famous cultural city, and strengthen the cultural popularity of Suizhou City and even the entire Hubei Province.
In addition to the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, the chimes of Marquis Yi of Zeng are also widely known as a major business card.
On December 14, 2018, Suizhou Daily published a news article "The series of commemorative activities for the 40th anniversary of the excavation of Zenghou Yi chimes has come to a wonderful end".
According to the news, in order to promote the chime culture, Suizhou City Museum has opened a one-month chime dance free activity for the public to enjoy.
During the event, the audience came to watch the chimes dancing, and the chimes attracted generations of people with their unique charm.
Chimes not only attract many domestic people, but also many foreign scholars come to admire and fall for the unique charm of chimes.
On September 17, Chu cultural experts from China, the United States, Japan, Germany, France and many other countries gathered in Suizhou to discuss stories related to chimes.
On October 19, the Chimes Seminar was held in Suizhou, Hubei Province.
During the meeting, many experts highly affirmed the chimes, praising it as one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.
In addition to being used as a memorial at major events, the chimes have also been reported by CCTV-related programs many times.
In the first season of "National Treasures" in 2017, Fang Qin, director of the Hubei Provincial Museum, introduced us to the treasure of the museum's town hall - Zeng Houyi chimes.
Director Fang Qin told us that the discovery of zenghou yi chimes can be described as a major discovery that shocked the world in the 20th century.
Immediately after that, Teacher Wang Gang, the guardian of the national treasure, went to the Hubei Provincial Museum and saw the original of Zeng Houyi's chimes.
In the video, Teacher Wang Gang was shocked to see the grand chimes.
He watched carefully, and in the process of watching, he also covered his nose with his hands, afraid that his exhaled breath would be exhaled on the chimes, which expressed Wang Gang's reverence for the national treasure.
At the same time, when seeing such a well-preserved and exquisitely made chime, Teacher Wang Gang was also deeply in awe of the spirit of ancient craftsmen.
In the eleventh episode of the first season of "Classic Arias" in 2018, Gong Linna and Lao Gong and his wife joined hands on the stage of CCTV.
At the scene of the program, they brought a replica of the Zenghou Yi chimes from Suizhou City, Hubei Province.
Gong Linna sang Qu Yuan's "Leaving the Troubles", and her husband Lao Gong was responsible for playing the chimes.
The song is breathtaking, heart-warming, and the applause on the scene is thunderous.
After the performance, they told everyone that their biggest wish was to bring the sound of the chimes to the stage so that everyone could feel the charm of the chimes up close.
In the same year, the second season of "If National Treasures Could Talk" was broadcast on CCTV Documentary Channel.
The video introduces us to the composition of the ZengHouyi chimes, and also plays the sounds emitted by each part of the chimes.
I have to sigh that the ancients of the mainland have mastered the rhythm of music as early as thousands of years ago and created such exquisite music.
The year the video was broadcast is also the 40th anniversary of the excavation of Zeng Houyi's chimes.
At the end of the video, take this 40th anniversary to pay tribute to all archaeologists.
6. Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng and Jingchu Culture
From the inscriptions on the cultural relics excavated from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, we can understand that after the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, Zeng Guo became a vassal of the Chu State.
In the process of development, on the one hand, the Chu state absorbs the advanced culture of neighboring countries, on the other hand, the chu culture is also influencing other countries with its strong influence.
The culture unearthed in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng has a very obvious brand of Chu culture, representing the style of Jingchu culture in ancient times.
Take the bronze antler crane, for example, which is cast in bronze.
Its main body is a standing flying crane, and at the bottom is a square base, above which are rolled antlers that curl inward.
Deer and cranes were considered to be an animal that represented longevity and auspiciousness in ancient times on the mainland.
The Zeng people combined the deer and the crane into one, expressing the good wishes of the ancient people of the mainland for longevity and auspiciousness.
The bronze antler crane was placed next to the tomb owner's coffin, expressing good wishes for the tomb owner.
This also shows that in the primitive society, under the influence of Chu culture, the Zeng people exerted their unique imagination to stitch together the mascots to convey the simple wishes of the primitive people.
Another example is the sixteen dragon and phoenix jade pendants excavated from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, which are divided into sixteen sections, which are connected by jade rings in the middle.
On the top of the jade pendant, there are dragons, phoenixes, and snakes, which are crystal clear and ingenious.
The image of the dragon is related to the primitive social totem worship, the primitive society is lowly productive, people pray for a supernatural power to overcome everything in the world, so the image of the "dragon" is imagined.
The image of the phoenix is inseparable from the culture of Chudi.
According to legend, Zhu Rong, the ancestor of the Chu people, was the embodiment of the sacred bird phoenix, so the Chu people regarded the phoenix as the original totem of their own nation.
The phoenix is crimson red, and the Chu people also advocate red.
The phoenix is of high character and has the meaning of a magnificent shore.
The burial items in the tombs of the Chu people mostly use the image of the phoenix, which also shows the arrogance of the Chu people.
Sixteen sections of dragon and phoenix jade pendants are placed on the head of the tomb owner, which has a psychic meaning.
The owner of the tomb hoped to use the power of the phoenix to fly up to the nine heavens and the soul would stay forever.
This also reflects the romantic color of pro-ghost and witchcraft in Chu culture.
There are also many burial items in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng that are related to Jingchu culture, and these burial items have a distinct color of Chudi, expressing the romantic feelings of Chu culture in which imagination is peculiar, advocating fire and phoenix, and pro-ghost and witch.