"Tsubashi Tohoku Dooting West, here is a poetic mystery." Bai Juyi's description of the Big Dipper is dreamlike and intoxicating. The ancients also used love to use the Big Dipper seven stars to describe mysterious things. However, since archaeologists discovered the ruins of the ancient country of Heluo, they found a mysterious pattern of pottery pots - "Big Dipper Nine Stars". Why does the Big Dipper have nine stars? Why did the ancients place them in tombs? What does it mean? Do you know what's going on? Xiaobian this is to reveal the secret for you.
What is the "Ancient Kingdom of Heluo"? Heluo Ancient Kingdom is located in Heluo Town, Gongyi City, Henan Province, and once discovered, countless experts came to survey it. After the confirmation of experts such as Professor Li of Peking University and chief scientist of the Xia-Shang-Zhou Dynasty Project, the original site is the site of a late giant settlement in the Yangshao culture dating back about 5300 years, which is closely related to the legendary "Yellow Emperor Period", and experts suggest that it be named "Heluo Ancient Country".
Many precious cultural relics have been unearthed in the ancient country of Heluo. Among them, there is a national treasure-level cultural relic, the ivory carving silkworm, the earliest bone silkworm carving artwork in China. It is 6.4 cm long, less than 1 cm wide and 0.1 cm thick, carved from the fangs of a wild boar, and is the image of a silkworm spitting silk. With its chic shape, exquisite craftsmanship and smooth lines, it's hard to imagine that it was a craft from 5,300 years ago. It is precisely because of the appearance of the ivory carving silkworm that it is confirmed that around 5300, the ancestors in the middle reaches of the Yellow River had raised silkworm reeling. Its appearance shocked the archaeological community, because the original purpose of the excavation of the double locust tree site was to find the source of silk.
But the next excavation brought people a greater surprise - the astronomical relics of the Big Dipper nine stars simulated by nine clay pots. Why is there a Big Dipper in the tomb? With doubts, the archaeologists found a complete elk skeleton facing south nearby, which was located just at the upper end of the Big Dipper. In the minds of the ancients, the "male elk" has a very clear symbolic meaning - the emperor, and they also use the metaphor of "chasing deer in the Central Plains" to compete for the throne. According to the data, the "Big Dipper Nine Stars" and the "Elk", which symbolizes the status of the magnate, were used as sacrifices to lay the foundation, indicating that the double locust tree people already had the concept of the kingship of the Mandate of Heaven. This speculation is even more exciting, perhaps this place is the administrative center of the Yellow Emperor.
However, the Big Dipper has seven stars, why is it also called the Big Dipper? In fact, according to the observations of the ancients, there are two small stars near the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper, which add up to a total of nine stars. Since ancient times, the seven bright stars can be easily seen, and people have remembered the "seven stars".
In the pre-Qin dynasty texts, it was recorded: "The Big Dipper has nine stars, seven sees and two hidden." The Analects is a political chapter: "For the government to be virtuous, for example, the North Star dwells where it is and all the stars are together." "The North Star is the North Star. Confucius meant: "Govern the country with moral power, and you will be in your place like the North Star, and other stars will surround it." Confucius's words tell everyone very clearly: the "Imperial Star" characteristics of the North Star. All kinds of data prove that many years ago, people believed in the "Big Dipper".
Why can the Big Dipper nine stars be used as faith? What is it used for? In "The Beidou Belief in the Qin and Han Dynasties from Archaeological Data", Zhu Lei summarizes the use of the Nine Stars of the Big Dipper into three types. The first, the victory. In the ancient text, there is a meaning to suppress demons, and the ancients believed that the Big Dipper could defeat demons. The "Book of Han and the Biography of Wang Mang" has a record: "The southern suburbs of Mang's relatives are cast as a mighty struggle." The mighty fighter, with five stones of copper, if the Big Dipper, is two feet and five inches long, and wants to defeat the soldiers with disgust. Obviously, Wang Mang believed that Beidou had the magical ability to overcome the disaster.
The second use is celestial charting. Almost all of the excavated Han tomb roofs are painted with celestial maps. When archaeologists examine the celestial charts and try to find the figure of the Big Dipper, they are at a loss, because many celestial maps avoid the drawing of the Big Dipper. In the minds of the ancients, the Big Dipper is inseparable from the mysterious talent, why did it avoid it in the tomb painting? According to the "Spring and Autumn Sasuke Period", "The Heavenly Son's Dharma Fight, the Princes Should Stay." According to experts, during the Spring and Autumn Period, people used the "Big Dipper" to symbolize the princes of Tianzi, how dare others use the exclusive power of the king?
The third use is astrology and division. "Astrology" sounds unreliable, but in ancient times, when the level of technology was backward, it was the only celestial phenomenon that could be used for divination and prediction.
According to the "Jingzhou Zhan": "The first star of the Big Dipper is unknown, and the Imperial Master is not his person; the second star is unknown, and the Great Si Nong is also his person: the third star is unknown, shaofu is not his person; the fourth star is unknown, Guanglu is not his person also: the fifth star is unknown, and Hongxu is not his person;
The sixth star is unknown, and the court lieutenant is not his person: the seventh star is unknown, and the king is not his person. Obviously, the Big Dipper, the most explicit of the celestial signs, could not only help the ancients predict the weather, but also predict the fate of the country and the lifeblood of people. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang's death was predicted through celestial phenomena.
Not only that, the tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the main building direction is the layout of the Big Dipper and seven stars. There are also many imperial powers and riches, and the meaning of the Big Dipper is used in the tombs. Is the Big Dipper really so important? Until Feng Shi, the first person in Chinese astronomical archaeology, he published "Astronomical Research on Tomb No. 45 in Xishuipo, Puyang, Henan" in the 3rd issue of "Cultural Relics", which discussed the reasons for confirming the Big Dipper: the bucket (bucket handle) of the Big Dipper in nature refers to the dragon horn (that is, the horn) in the Seven Houses of the Canglong dragon in the Xianggong. The seven residences of the Eastern Palace are horns, kang, krypton, room, heart, tail, and ji), and after connecting the locations of these seven houses, it is the "dragon" character of oracle bone and jinwen, which is the reason why Chinese is the descendant of the dragon, and the original "dragon" word itself is a star map.
The meaning of the Big Dipper is really interesting. It is hoped that the ancient country of Heluo will continue to excavate and study to decipher more history and culture.