In October 1995, members of the Sino-Japanese Niya Site Academic Expedition team found a Hanjin armband woven with eight Han Li characters of "Five Stars Out of the East and Benefiting China" in Tomb No. 8 of the Nya Site in Minfeng County, Hotan District, Xinjiang. How archaeologists discovered this little Hanjin arm, what does it mean to "five stars out of the East to benefit China", we invited Professor Qi Dongfang of Peking University and asked him to take us back to Niya.
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Shocking findings
One cannot fail to believe in luck, nor can one believe in sincerity. Especially in the profession of archaeology, some people have worked hard all their lives and have never encountered valuable discoveries, while some people have encountered important ruins many times in their lives, and they are accidental discoveries. But there also seems to be inevitability in the contingency of archaeological discoveries. The preparatory surveys of the previous years of Nyaya archaeology were small, and the time to enter Nya was also very short, and there were no important discoveries. But the hard work in the early stages finally paid off when it entered its sixth year.
The excavation of Tomb No. 3, Buddhist temple and residential site is already an unexpected harvest of this excavation, which is enough to evaluate one of The "Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries" in China that year. But good luck doesn't stop there.
Wang Binghua went alone to the excavation site of the cemetery one afternoon. It was the only time I hadn't been together since I entered Nya. Unexpectedly, he came back and said to me very mysteriously that there will be important discoveries in Tomb 8 in the cemetery, and I thought that he was either too "greedy" or caught in the fire, because this excavation harvest was rich enough, what amazing news would there be? Seeing that I didn't believe it, he immediately became serious: "Tomb No. 8 has just opened today, I just took a look at it, and I found that there is a word 'king' on a clay pot inside. "The next day, Wang Binghua, me and Yang Jing rushed to the cemetery, and specially brought photographers Liu Yusheng and Yang Wen with the purpose of opening the coffin of Tomb No. 8.
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Proverbial coincidence
According to the archaeological work procedure, when cleaning up the relics, it should be photographed and drawn layer by layer. The top of Tomb No. 8 was scattered with wooden sticks and weeds, and after taking pictures to remove the weeds, we saw the felt blanket covered on the top of the coffin, the felt blanket was thick, and there were patterns on it, but it was bad and broken at a touch, but we still carefully cleaned the photograph. After processing the surface, everyone is ready to draw, photographic equipment, and the coffin is about to be opened. Desert archaeology is characterized by accurate eyes and fast movements, because the wind and sand may cover the cleared place at any time, and strong sunlight will also have a destructive effect on cultural relics. In addition, no matter how planned in advance, you can not make a full estimate of the various possibilities that archaeology may appear at any time, not to mention entering the Nya Desert, as light as possible, including drinking water, food and other things are brought in, there is no more archaeological equipment, temporary encounters can not buy anything, excavation work must be clean and tidy, grab time.
Tomb 8 opens the coffin
Tomb 8 cleaned
Everything was ready, and Yu Zhiyong, Lü Enguo, Li Jun, and Ruan Qiurong of the Xinjiang Archaeological Research Institute worked together to lift the coffin lid, and I could not help but be surprised, and sure enough, it was another major discovery.
This is a rectangular wooden coffin tomb, the tomb buried 2 people, female left male right, cover fabric. There are mirror bags on the left side of the women, and under the feet there are utensil seats, clay pots, wooden pots, wooden bowls, and wooden pots containing food that has long been dried. Men also have mounts, clay pots, wooden basins, and wooden bowls under their feet, but on the right side there are arrows, arrow barrels, bows, and bow sacs. It has never been disturbed, and it shows the scene of the burial in that year, which is roughly equivalent to the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty or the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
Another wooden fork has been found in the tomb, which is a fork formed by natural branches, which has been found in the ancient tomb of the Peacock River Basin in Xinjiang region dating back 2,000 years. In 1959, two wooden forks were also found in the tomb of Nya, placed on the bodies of men and women, and the wooden forks on the female corpses were wrapped in a light blue silk female coat. The hostess of Tomb No. 3 also has a wooden fork placed next to her, and a white silk cloak hangs obliquely. This kind of wooden fork selection and style are basically the same, and have a certain universality in the ancient tomb burial items in the Tarim Basin.
Wooden forks have been repeatedly found in ancient tombs in Xinjiang, causing people to speculate that the meaning of symbolizing religious rituals is related to witchcraft, called "wooden sacrifice vessels". Due to the use of red willow production, and further speculation related to the worship of superstitious red willow natural properties, the relationship with the owner of the tomb is extremely close, that is, the burial process of "wooden sacrifice vessels" must be accompanied by certain witchcraft activities. The shape of the tomb of Tomb No. 8, the content and placement of the burial items are basically the same as that of Tomb No. 3, and the various fabrics in the tomb are buried intermittently by the wind and sand blown in. Everyone carefully observed, recorded, intensely drew, took pictures, and everything had to end as soon as possible. There are two relics in this tomb that have attracted our special attention, one is a clay pot with an inscription similar to the word "Wang", which is the first time it has been found.
What made me most memorable was that at that time, we saw a little colorful brocade exposed in the fabric in the middle of the corpse in the tomb, which was particularly eye-catching in the sand cover, and it was Lu Enguo who opened this brocade little by little, and with the gentle movement of his hand, the brocade not only gradually revealed the bright blue, white, red, yellow, and green patterns, but also successively saw the Chinese words "guo", "oriental" and "five stars" woven in white on a blue background. The final complete text is: "Five stars out of the East to benefit China"! Everyone present was shocked.
After the intense work, everyone is still immersed in joy. Wang Guanhua showed a slight smile and asked me, "How?" Seemed to remember last night's conversation. I also felt very relaxed, and immediately recalled the flag that I had specially brought with me when I was in Hotan the day before entering Nya, and replied very proudly: It is the luck I brought. You see that there are words on the tapestry that read," "Five stars out of the East and China," which is obviously an auspicious saying, and the "Orient" is exactly my name, and it just so happens that I brought a "five-star" red flag when I entered the desert. As soon as we arrived at the camp, Liu Yusheng and I raised the flag. My name, my arrival, the flag I brought with me and the raising of the flag led to the discovery of the Chinese archaeological team's "five stars out of the East to benefit China", which is almost like a proverb. Perhaps this is my most proud archaeological experience.
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"Five stars out of the East to benefit China"
Of the tapestries that Nya found, probably the most interesting was this "five-star out of the East and China" brocade. The brocade area is not large, the edge is sewn with white fabric, and 3 long strips are sewn above and below, which is a complete and independent item, which was located at the waist of the corpse at the time of excavation. In addition to the text, on the blue background, a rich pattern is woven with bright white, red, yellow and green, including cloud patterns, tigers, evil spirits, big birds and red and white circles representing the sun and moon. "Five stars out of the East and China" appears in two rows, each row has a lot of words.
The brocade is not large, but the text is clear. Because of the blue and white, the text is more prominent, and the content of the text looks almost like a contemporary word, and now China, symbolized by the five-star red flag, is wonderfully in line with the words of the Han and Jin dynasties. Later, many people asked me the meaning of this sentence, and some people confused the content on the brocade with the modern literal meaning.
"China" is different from today's concept of China. Mr. Yu Shengwu, a famous paleographer, wrote an academic paper entitled "Interpreting China", which thoroughly studied the word "China" from the origin and evolution of ancient characters. According to Mr. Yu Shengwu, the "Book of Poetry and Minlao" "benefit this China, to sui sifang" is the earliest Chinese word in the literature, referring to the meaning of "Beijing division, city". The earliest word "China" in the actual archaeological finds appears in the inscription of the bronze "He Zun" excavated in Jia Village, Baoji County, Shaanxi Province, which reads: "Only the king first moved his residence in Chengzhou ... King Wu, who had conquered the Dayi merchants, then sued Yu Tianri, and Yu Qi's mansion was in the middle or (kingdom). "The meaning of the inscription is that King Cheng of Zhou moved to this place in Chengzhou, and then posthumously said that after King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang, he said at the time of the sacrifice at the imperial court, "I will live in China from now on." Therefore, the term "China" originated during the reign of King Wu of Zhou, who more explicitly referred to the Central Plains of the Yellow River Basin. Traditional Chinese culture regards the world as one, during the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, "Xia has all nations" that is, to recognize an uncertain center and form a loose alliance of "China", while Zhou Tianzi's "under the whole world, can not be the royal land", is the ideal of the world.
He Zun Collection of Baoji Bronze Ware Museum
He Zun insole inscription
The title "China" as a geographical location has continued for a long time, and the Eastern Han Dynasty Xu Shenzuo's "Commentaries on The Interpretation of Texts" has "Xia, the chinese people also." "The reason why the Xia Dynasty is regarded as a Chinese person is because at that time there were Di people in the north, barbarians in the south, Qiang in the west, Yi in the east, and China was in the middle of all ethnic groups. In the Warring States period, "China" referred to the central area of the country, when the Chu people in the Jianghan River Basin said, "I am a barbarian and do not talk to China", and they believed that they belonged outside the "Chinese" cultural circle. After the unification of the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Culture of the Central Plains spread widely, and the geographical and cultural concept of "China" expanded, and the Han and Jin Dynasties still referred to the area dominated by the Central Plains.
Then say the word "five stars". The Book of Han and Astronomical Records records: "Five stars are divided into heavens. Accumulated in the East, China's great profit. Accumulated in the West, Yidi uses soldiers to benefit. This seems to be the language of divination. Ancient "five stars" refers to the star, too white, ying, the year star and the town star, respectively in modern astronomy Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, the ancients found that their relative position in the solar system is unchanged, and use their hidden changes to account for the auspicious and bad luck of the world. "Five stars out of the East to benefit China", mainly expressing the han and Jin Dynasty astronomical astrology and begging for strong and auspicious ideology, this kind of blessing auspicious word, at that time more popular.
It is said that the conclusion of the tokyo observatory in Japan that it is a rare astronomical phenomenon to see five stars at the same time in a certain direction, and it will only occur once in decades and centuries, and the next time it will appear around March 21, 2022.
*This article is excerpted from "Into the Sea of Death" (Frontier Culture Exploration Series)
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Originally published in the Zhonghua Bookstore 1912 public account