The biggest surprise of the 2022 Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Tiger is that the "National Treasure" program has appeared on the stage of the scene. A sentence of "let the national treasure come alive" and a beautiful and romantic dance made the audience immersed in the scene and felt the charm of the ancient Shu culture together.
So what did the archaeologists dig up in Sanxingdui that year, and why did the archaeology that was being carried out at that time suddenly stop? Why is the story behind the "Sanxingdui" site so hot? Today we're going to talk about its story.
The discovery of Sanxingdui
Similar to the discovery of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, the discovery of Sanxingdui is also full of accidental colors. It was 1929, an old farmer in Guanhan County, Sichuan Province, hoeing the field by the river as usual, did not expect that this time a hoe went down, stirred up the dust of history, unlocked the secret that shocked the world - found more than 300 pieces of jade, in other words, the discovery of Sanxingdui can be described as "a national treasure excavated by a hoe".
However, in China at that time, wars were raging, the people were not happy, and then followed by the Japanese invasion, and the archaeological work could not be carried out. The secrets buried deep in the ground and immediately rediscovered were once again buried in darkness.
After the founding of New China, the archaeological work of Sanxingdui was put on the agenda, but the bronze artifacts represented by the Shang and Zhou Dynasties have not been found, and there has been no discovery of writing, excavation has been stagnant, and the mystery has not been solved, but in 1986, everything ushered in a turning point.
First of all, a golden staff was unearthed, with a total length of 1.42 meters and a diameter of 2.3 centimeters, because the wooden staff had been carbonized at the time of excavation, only gold skin remained, and then, the vicious-looking bronze man mask, the bronze rooster, the bronze sacred tree up to 4 meters high, the bronze Da Li man up to 2 meters 62 high, the golden mask, jade, ivory, and so on appeared in an endless stream, shocking the world.
However, after the excavation was hot in 1986, the excavation work came to an abrupt end, and although there was surveying for more than 30 years, it was not excavated.
It wasn't until 2020 that the excavations began again after the new equipment arrived. During the gap period of 30 years, why did the excavation work of Sanxingdui suddenly stop?
The reason for the stop digging
Sanxingdui was found very early and very early, the year of discovery in China's modern archaeology began in the first year of 1921, when it was not excavated, the main reason is that China at that time, it is impossible to support such a large-scale archaeological movement, and the environment is unstable, the equipment is not advanced, the security is not perfect, damage and theft emerge in an endless stream, out of the protection of cultural relics, so choose not to dig the Sanxingdui.
In 1986, the climax of excavation of Sanxingdui was set off, but it soon stopped, and it was stopped for 30 years, because after the excavation, it was natural to carry out repairs, storage and other later work.
Taking the bronze sacred tree as an example, it has been repaired for more than 10 years alone, and many of the damage caused by the lack of advanced equipment are irreversible, so the excavation of it has been suspended first.
Until 2020, after more advanced equipment is in place, the excavation work will be carried out again, which is the same reason as protecting the tomb of Qin Shi Huang without excavation.
The story behind Sanxingdui
As soon as the Sanxingdui site was excavated, it caused an uproar in the world. Among them, there are two voices, one is the Sanxingdui civilization is an alien civilization, and the other is a question about the origin of Chinese civilization, these two issues have aroused widespread concern and discussion as soon as they were released, and have become the focus of some keyboard hero rumors in the past two years.
But in line with the principle of scientific and cultural self-confidence, we should really understand what the Sanxingdui site really represents.
First, let's talk about our views on extraterrestrial civilizations. The main reason for the speculation about it is its stylistic characteristics: eagle hook nose, diamond-shaped eyes, which are not the same as the images we usually see, but more like a kind of celestial alien.
But we should know that most of the cultural relics unearthed at Sanxingdui are for sacrifice, and the ancient plastic arts are not all realistic, most of them have obvious mythological colors and religious attributes, so the form will be more or less exaggerated.
Not only in China, but also in the whole world, this cultural phenomenon is very common, such as the face of the gods, men, and beasts in the Liangzhu culture, the giant stone statue of Easter Island in the South Pacific, the ancient Egyptian sphinx, etc. Is this all alien appearance? Even if they are all aliens, how come there are so many aliens?
The so-called aliens are just imaginary changes in human features and bodies on the basis of the existing human appearance. Therefore, we cannot infer their race and origin from their appearance alone.
Regarding the doubts about the Chinese civilization caused by it, I would like to make it clear to you here. In March 2021, the sanxingdui new sacrifice pit carbon fourteen report came out, the sanxingdui site is 3200 to 3000 years old, which corresponds to the dynasty in the Central Plains is the late Shang, that is, when the king of Shang was attacked by the king of Zhou Wu "Ji Fa" in the Fengshen Yanyi.
What does this mean? It means that the "Houmu Pengding" is rusty, and the "Four Sheep Fangzun" has also been buried in the ground, and it has been 500 years since the Luoyang "Erlitou" bronze. So the bronze tree, the bronze mask, is not a prehistoric relic.
From some comparisons, it can also be known that the Dragon and Tiger Zun unearthed by Sanxingdui is compared with the Dragon and Tiger Zun of the Shang Dynasty unearthed in Funan, Anhui Province, and the Bronze Ware of the Shang Dynasty is obviously much more exquisite than that of Sanxingdui.
In addition, the Guanghan Sanxingdui Museum has issued several statements: the excavation of the Sanxingdui site has not found any writing so far. Drawing on the origin of world civilization, we know that the invention of writing is the driving force and decisive factor for the development and progress of human civilization.
Without words, how to communicate, how to record, how to pass on knowledge? The Central Plains civilization has found written elements as early as 6000 years ago in the Banpo site, and the oracle bone from 3500 years ago, the text has been very mature, about this, who will be the origin of whom is self-evident. Moreover, the most important thing is that the ancient Shu region is mentioned in the historical records.
"The Book of the King of Shu" and "Huayang Guozhi" clearly record the three ancestral tribes of the ancient Shu Kingdom, the "silkworm bushes" that are good at raising silkworm reeling silk "longitudinal eyes", perhaps the "cypress irrigation" related to tree collection and the "fish shrubs" related to fishing and water birds, among the bronze artifacts excavated from Sanxingdui, bronze masks, bronze trees, bronze roosters, etc. almost confirm the existence of these "ancestral gods". The reasonable explanation is that these bronzes are the ritual vessels of these ancestors after the ancient Shu Kingdom introduced bronze technology from the Central Plains.
Some of the cloud thunder patterns and animal face patterns on some bronzes reflect the typical Hubei Shijiahe culture and Zhejiang Liangzhu culture. "National Treasures" also said: According to archaeological research, the indexing technology and alloy ratio of the bronze mask belong to the same system as the Anyang Yin Ruins, reflecting the profound influence of the Central Plains culture on the Sanxingdui culture, and confirming the pluralistic integration and profundity of Chinese civilization.
Therefore, the influence of Sanxingdui civilization by West Asian civilization is a rumor, sanxingdui civilization or the source of Chinese civilization, and Chinese civilization is affected by Sanxingdui civilization.
Chinese civilization is pluralistic and integrated
"Silkworm bushes and fish, the founding of the country He Dazed, Erlai forty-eight thousand years old, do not communicate with Qin Sai", a poem by Li Bai's "Shu Dao Difficulty", the road exhausted the traffic blockage in the ancient Shu region, and it was difficult to get in and out.
The Sichuan Basin is surrounded by high barriers, which also determines that it must be relatively unique, and then shrouded in mystery.
However, the seemingly mysterious ancient Shu region has always maintained very close ties with the rest of China, and the Sichuan Basin was not incorporated into China after the destruction of the Qin King, but was part of the general cultural circle of the stars in the ancient World, which broadened our understanding of "China".
In the process of studying history, we should be more scientific and firm in cultural self-confidence; only in this way will we not lose our way in the vast sea of historical viewpoints, nor will we fall into the historical mistakes of being thick with the past and the present.
References: "Ancient Shu Civilization", "Sanxingdui", etc.
(Figure net, invasion and deletion)
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