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A bronze sacred tree that rises to the heavens
Li Huai
It's a matter of imagination. If "Jianmu", "Fuso", "Wakaki", "Sheshu" and "Sanzhu Tree" are all trees, then the name of the tree is not a bit strange. The Classic of Mountains and Seas records that there is an immortal tree on Kunlun Mountain, and if people eat it, they can live forever. Thinking back to that year, qin shi huang who unified China, how majestic and domineering heroes, always wanted to hold the world forever, drunkenly lie on the waist of beautiful people, and enjoy the happiness of the world for a long time, he once sent virgin boys and girls to Penglai Pavilion in Shandong to find the art of immortality. If you know that there is an immortal tree on the Kunlun Mountain, why bother to let Xu Fu cross the ocean to look for it, only to end up with no personal wealth and no news.
More than 4800 years ago, Deyang Guanghan, Sichuan, the sons and daughters of ancient Shu lived here. From the ruins of Sanxingdui, you can see the highly developed bronze culture of the Shu Kingdom in that year, witnessing that it was the political, economic and cultural center of the early Shu Kingdom.
The Guanghan Sanxingdui Museum displays the relics of the Sanxingdui civilization unearthed in the past half century, and after New Year's Day in 2021, nearly 2,000 important cultural relics have been unearthed in six sacrifice pits in Guanghan. What I appreciate the most is not those gold, copper, jade, stone, pottery, ivory, not the Dali people, the big bird head, the longitudinal mask, the bronze beast statue, the gold mask, the tiger-shaped gold leaf ornaments, the Shang Dynasty pottery, the jade Jade Zhang... What is it? It is a tree of Sanxingdui.
The ancient Shu people fantasized about becoming the ladder to heaven of immortals
A total of 8 bronze sacred trees have been excavated from Sanxingdui, and 3 are exhibited in the Sanxingdui Museum. When I saw this 3.96-meter-high bronze sacred tree in the museum, I felt that whether it was ancient mythology or the name of the tree, it was not as shocking as the heart when I saw this tree; because it was the largest bronze sacrificial vessel found in the world so far, pulling up the earth and reaching the sky, it was the ladder to the heavens that the ancient Shu people fantasized about becoming immortals.
Bronze Sacred Tree No. 2 excavated from No. 2 Sacrifice Pit of Sanxingdui Site in 1986 (Source: Sanxingdui Museum official website)
The bronze god is erected on a mountain-shaped pedestal with 3 main layers of trunk, each layer extending 3 branches in three directions. Some scholars say that it contains the meaning of the three layers and nine heavens. When the sacred tree was unearthed that year, people said that the tree was somewhat broken, and speculated that it was missing 1 bird, and the reason for the lack was that there was 1 sunbird on duty in the sky every day, and there were exactly 9 birds on the tree. The 9 branches are fat and leafy, and at the end there are 9 round persimmon-like fruits; above each fruit stands a dazzling bird, the eyes, beak, feathers, and toes of the bird are finely carved, as if in the blink of an eye, the wings flap, it will fly in the air. On the vacant side, a dragon procrastinating down the trunk, the square dragon head (shaped like a horse's face) is down, the dragon's tail is on the top, the dragon's body is hung with teeth, and the dragon's claws are pressed on the tree in the shape of a human hand. The sacred tree is carved with a majestic atmosphere, symmetrical arrangement, simple lines, and exquisite small places, which not only has the heavy feeling of sculpture, but also has the lightness and liveliness of the rhythm of life. Anyone who has seen the Sacred Tree will be amazed: Our ancestors, thousands of years ago, had such a clever casting technology, and had such an elegant aesthetic attainment, which is a great miracle!
The "Jianmu" in the Classic of Mountains and Seas has green leaves, purple stems, Xuanhua, huangshi, and nine branches, nine coils underneath, dragons and snakes on the trees, crowns and wisps, and the fruits are also round. The ninth volume of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, "Overseas East Classics", says that there is a tall Fuso tree growing in the tang valley north of the Black Tooth Country, the lower half is cut off in the water, and the branches are protruding above the water, and there are 10 sunbirds called "Jinwu" living on the Fuso tree, 9 suns living on the branches below, bathed in the water, and 1 sun hanging on the upper branch, preparing to go out and illuminate the earth. If this sacred tree in Sanxingdui was unearthed by "Jianmu" or "Fuso", then the ancient myth has a realistic version.
The sacred tree has the history of the ancient Shu kingdom: dragons, fruits, branches, birds, conveying images such as witchcraft and incantations. Thousands of years ago, on the banks of the Duck River, the greenery was full of greenery, the flowers were fragrant, the rice was fat, the spirit birds flew, and the sacred tree stood upright. The ancient Shu people once called this peach blossom-like place "the wilderness of Duguang" and believed that it was in the middle of heaven and earth. The original civilization of the Kingdom of Heaven took root and blossomed in this land.
The worship of "trees" exists all over the world. Ancient India had the "cosmic tree" and "sun tree"; ancient Egypt had the "heavenly tree", "divine tree" and "happiness tree"; nor northern Europe had the "Idlasiel" cosmic tree... In May 2017, I was on a trip to Egypt, and at a beautiful papyrus shop in Cairo, the tour guide enthusiastically recommended a "happy tree" painted in papyrus, Egypt's national treasure. The group members listened to the introduction and explanation of the tour guide, and became interested in the happy tree that highlighted the ancient civilization of Egypt, and immediately bought it.
This tree, standing on papyrus, is full of life and green branches, with 5 small birds standing on different branches, the picture is simple and the lines are bright. After the group returned to China, I specially went to frame, took photos and sent them to us to appreciate, which was very proud. The Sanxingdui Museum mentions that the ancient Egyptian civilization had the same artifacts as the Sanxingdui civilization, but did not have the same trees. The sacred tree of Sanxingdui is prettier and more refined than the Egyptian "happy tree", so the moon is not a foreign circle. People have happy trees, we Chinese nation has sacred trees, and there are 4 more birds standing on the trees, and the details and shapes are more vivid, lively and cute.
The code of enrichment brought by the "cash cow"
In the exhibition hall, there is a "cash cow tree" excavated in 1990, with a height of 3.96 meters, divided into 7 layers, the top of the tree is cast with suzaku, the following is the Queen Mother of the West, the Feather Man Alchemist, and then the lower 4 layers have foliage ornaments, on which are cast copper coins, dragons, deer, immortals riding elephants and sacred beasts and other images. In the Sichuan region of the Han Dynasty of the mainland, a kind of burial vessel with a bronze tree was popular, which mostly expressed the myths and legends of the Queen Mother of Kunlun Mountain, because its tree body was full of copper coins, commonly known as "cash cow". This tree should be the cash cow of the Queen Mother of the West, and it appeared in Guanghan, is there any specific significance?
I think that the "cash cow" should be born in a place like Guanghan.
On the evening of June 18, 1980, Zhong Taiyin, director of the management committee (president of the commune) of Xiangyang People's Commune in Guanghan County, stayed in the office and did not return home, and the air around him was quiet, and it seemed that he could hear his heartbeat. He took out a wooden plaque from behind the door, and the black characters "Xiangyang Township People's Government of Guanghan County" were dazzling. This is the "work" he made by himself: planing, sanding, ticking, painting, how many nights did it take? Holding this sign full of painstaking efforts and expectations, he walked to the gate of Xiangyang People's Commune in Guanghan County.
From the photos left behind that year, it can be seen that Zhong Taiyin personally took off the "Guanghan County Xiangyang People's Commune Management Committee" sign, and another person held up the "Guanghan County Xiangyang Township People's Government" sign to him to hang up. Behind them, there was Ye Wenzhi, the party secretary of the commune. They were the first to abolish the people's communes in the whole country, took the lead in implementing the responsibility system for co-production contracting, and restored the township system, and were known as "the first township in China's rural reform."
In the winter of 1976, Mo Shifu, the leader of the second team of the fifth brigade of the Xigao Commune in Guanghan County, convened a meeting between the team committee and the barn of the members, grabbed casting lots at the table, and divided the farmland, cattle, and utensils into the operation group, contracted the production to the household, and operated in groups. In 1977, the ninth team of Liangshui Village of Guanghan County Goldfish Commune quietly divided the "TianGeng" of the production team, and the members of the company had the right to manage the field, and the harvest belonged to themselves. These are all opportunities and opportunities for Xiangyang Commune to delist and list. The Guanghan writer Chen Liji wrote that Chang Guangnan, secretary of the Guanghan County CPC Committee, rode his bicycle to the countryside, "the crops of Huangtianba in Xigao Commune made his eyes light up, and on the neat field mounds, two rows of soybeans had already formed, the fields were green and green, and the rice and corn were much more lush than those seen along the way."
In 1981, the people's communes in Guanghan County successively removed the people's commune brand and established the township people's government, and the "flower of the sun" bloomed from Sichuan to the north and south of the great river, inside and outside the Great Wall, and the motherland. In 1982, the National People's Congress amended the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, changing the political and social integration system of rural people's communes and establishing township government.
In 1979, Xiangyang Commune did not even have a decent cement road, the vast majority of people lived in grass huts, and one-third of the 63 production teams in the commune relied on grain resale, and borrowed money for money, and the problem of food and clothing could not be solved for many years. There is a joke that "Xiangyang field does not rush (dare)" and "there are women who do not marry Xiangyang Lang". The peasants in Xiangyang are descendants of the ancient Shu kingdom, and their yearning for the "cash cow" is not a day or two, and the poor think of change and must change their ways. They took huge risks, withstood the pressure of the mountains, made unprecedented moves, picked up the people's commune brand, contracted the land to households, liberated the productive forces, earned their own money, and used their own money, and they became the first people in the country who dared to eat crabs.
Today, the streets and alleys of Xiangyang Town have a new look. Guanghan Xiangyang reform took the lead, achieved fruitful results, and brought people benefits and prosperity, is it not the code for getting rich brought about by the "cash cow"? Zhong Taiyin, Ye Wenzhi, Mo Shifu and others all have the genetic genes of the ancient ancestors who dared to be the first in the world.
The harmonious coexistence of heaven and earth and man
The third sacred tree, compared to the first two, seems to be nothing special. It's just that the tree is shorter, not as big as the largest tree, about 1 meter high. There are also birds and fruits on the trees. Unlike the previous two sacred trees, the top of this sacred tree has 3 directions, and there are 1 person in each direction, who seem to be praying and as if they are kneeling.
Sanxingdui No. 1 Bronze Sacred Tree (Source: Sanxingdui Museum official website)
Where humans grow, there are trees. In ancient times, the body was covered with leaves to keep warm or beautiful; later, the use of branches and sticks to drive away wild beasts, the role of tree self-defense is obvious; then it is to build houses with trees to give human beings a home; people drill wood for fire, from eating raw food to eating cooked food, the evolution of human beings from apes to humans is closely related to trees.
In modern society, trees maintain water and soil, solidify hillsides, and trees can hold the soil and retain water; without trees, the water will dry up, and even the majestic mountains will collapse. Trees absorb carbon dioxide at night, exhale oxygen that is essential for human survival in the early morning, and trees create great blessings for human beings. Ten years of trees, a hundred years of talent, the ancestors of heaven and earth, the lower shelter of the small people; flowers, birds, insects and fish in the world, all things, can rest and recuperate, multiply from generation to generation.
Trees are very important for the survival of human beings. The vast desert is boundless, and without the growth of trees, there is no trace of human activity. The green mountains and green water forest covered more than the Golden Mountains and Silver Mountains, and the ancient Shu people had a clear understanding of trees, and they knew the relationship between trees and human beings, so they cast the bronze sacred tree. Rather than worshipping the sacred tree and communicating with heaven and earth through the sacred tree, it is better to say that they have a deeper understanding of the inseparable relationship between the tree and themselves and deify and worship the tree.
People recognize the importance and sacredness of the tree. The sacred tree is something that is materialized, called "instrument", this "instrument" is "imaged in the sky, formed on the earth", and attached to the "instrument", the sacred tree has a charm, a look, a divine aura...
On major events or festival days, whether it is silkworm bushes, cypress bushes, or fish, bathing and changing clothes, crowds gathering, they look solemn, gathered in front of the sacred tree. There are 3 people on the sacred tree, who are the people in the sacrifice. In accordance with certain rules and rituals, they danced with their hands and feet, knelt on their knees to beg, or prayed silently and sincerely, or chanted words, and were doing a ritual under the sacred tree, praying for rain and wind, praying for blessings and praises, and asking God to protect the country and the people. The sacred trees "slept for thousands of years, laughing and shocking the world", divination and blessings, and praying for the peaceful development of mankind.
In 2016, the "Sanxingdui Drama Season" met in the golden autumn and walked into Deyang.
On the shore of jinghu Lake, there is a one-act drama of "When Shakespeare Meets Sanxingdui". This is a self-written and self-directed play by the Guanghan people 'Zhiyu Reading Club'. The Renaissance talent of 400 years ago had a dialogue with the queen of the Samsung Pile Fish Kingdom 4,000 years ago. The scene at the beginning of the play is that the queen of the Fish Kingdom is making a sacrifice, and they are praying for the enlightenment of the gods of heaven, because the waters of the Min River are rolling in, and the people on the banks of the Duck River are destroyed.
"Survival or destruction" runs through the history of the development of the entire world civilization, which is a big problem in the Kingdom of Yukai, and it is also a big problem that has existed for thousands of years in mankind. Shakespeare and the Fish King find a common language in a conflicting dialogue in the virtual space; the Fish Family seeks a way to survive through the guidance of the bronze sacred tree and priests. "Destruction, survival, destruction, and survival" means the harmonious coexistence of heaven and earth and man, that is, the unity of man and nature.
Bronze sacred tree, there are many theories and explanations. There is a "Ten Days Myth" that says that because the largest sacred tree has 9 sunbirds on it, and 1 is on duty in the sky; there is a "heavenly ladder" that says that the children of ancient Shu borrowed the sacred tree as a ladder to make a heavenly ladder, and they went up to the heavenly court, so that the sages and immortals in the heavens listened to the voice of the netherworld, which is an auxiliary tool for the unity of heaven and earth; some say that it is used to measure the coordinates of the sun's shadow, and in ancient times there was no clock to calculate the time, and it is also possible to use the length of the shadow of the sun shining on the sacred tree to determine the time of day.
Reflects the worship of the sun by the ancient Shu ancestors
The worship of "trees" is a common cultural phenomenon in countries around the world. As cultural symbols, there are two main types: "cosmic tree" and "tree of life". The "cosmic tree" expresses the ancient people's understanding of the universe and the celestial phenomenon in the form of matter, and the "tree of life" reflects the auspicious concept of the ancients and promotes their sense of life, but the boundary between the two is not very obvious, and it is closely related in ancient Chinese myths and legends. The Sanxingdui Sacred Tree replaces the Golden Wu with a sacred bird, and the cash tree uses the Suzaku to symbolize the sun god, and the light symbolism is obvious. The cash cow casts "money", the texture of "money" has a lot of light, the initial meaning is to express the sun, and the tree seat is "Kunlun", "Spirit Mountain" and "Jade Mountain" as a metaphor for the meaning of the gods' mountains. The image composition of the sacred tree and the cash cow tree is combined in the sacred tree and the sacred mountain to achieve the will of the heavens and the earth and the commonality of man and god. The Sanxingdui Sacred Tree reflects the worship of the sun by the ancestors of the ancient Shu, is a symbol of spirit and wisdom, and is also a unique sacred tree.
Sanxingdui bronze god tree branches and buds and standing birds (Photo courtesy of Sanxingdui Museum)
The sacred tree connects man and God, and is man's "ladder" to God's world. In ancient times, people had many things and phenomena that could not be explained, and through totems such as the Sacred Tree, they sought help from the heavens and the Creator for advice, which was the theme of the Sanxingdui Sacred Tree.
Bronze sacred tree, a tree that stands on top of the heavens, a tree full of spirituality, a tree that is approachable. That branch, that leaf, that fruit, that bird, that dragon, that person, through a thousand years, rooted in the soil; that dreamy scene, the beautiful picture, the imprint of history, gave me boundless reverie. I have a reverence, a worship, and a closeness to them.
The Bronze Sacred Tree boasts 5,000 years of mass and weight.