Study on the azimuth structure of the image of the sacred tree of the Han Dynasty stone rafter tomb
Wang Qian
Abstract: Most of the Han Dynasty stone tombs in the four provinces of Sulu and Yuwan are depicted with abstract tree-shaped images in the shape of triangles, which are not a symbol with decorative meaning, but a symbolic cosmic tree. This sacred tree is the ladder to the heavens in mythology, and it is also the passageway for the undead to ascend to heaven. The sacred tree as a ladder was not unique to the Han Dynasty, it was common in myths and images around the world. What gave rise to this type of image is the dichotomical mythological orientation structure: the universe is made up of the celestial realm and the human world, and the two are communicated through the sacred tree at the center of the universe. For human beings, the dead can ascend through the ladder at the center of the universe and then gain eternal immortal life. This means that the temporal structure of the image of the sacred tree of the Han Dynasty stone tomb is expressed through the spatial structure, and the cosmic picture depicted in the image content is the mythological cosmology of time and space mixed, which is no different from the mythological cosmology expressed in the Han Dynasty mythological texts "Huainanzi" and "Shan Hai Jing".
About author:Qian Wang is a professor and director of the Research Center for Literary Anthropology at the College of Literature of Yangzhou University.
Fund Project: 2017 National Social Science Foundation major project "Multi-volume History of Chinese Religious Art" (project approval number: 17ZDA237) phased research results.
The 3rd issue of the journal "Multidimensional Research on the Relationship between Myth and Art" was published in the third issue of the journal "Ethnic Art Studies" on June 28, 2020
As far as the classification of archaeology is concerned, there are three types of stone tombs: one is a stone tomb, that is, a stone tomb made of stone barriers; the other is a tomb chamber built by imitating a "yellow intestine inscription" tomb; and the third is a sarcophagus tomb built of imitation wooden rafters, which is composed of a bottom, cover, side, and baffle, and has a built-in wooden coffin. [ Yan Shengdong and Liu Zhimin, "The Periodization of the Western Han Dynasty Stone Tomb and Its Portrait Stone in the Junction Area of Sulu and Yuwan", Central Plains Cultural Relics, No. 1, 1995, p. 79. The stone tombs discussed in this article are of the third category and do not include the first two types. According to the statistics of archaeologists, in recent years, nearly 200 stone tombs have been excavated in northern Jiangsu, Lunan, eastern Henan and northern Anhui, of which nearly 100 have been officially reported. [See Yan Shengdong and Liu Zhimin, "The Periodization of the Western Han Dynasty Stone Tomb and Its Portrait Stone in the Junction Area of Sulu and Yuwan", Central Plains Cultural Relics, No. 1, 1995, p. 79.] It is worth noting that about 30 of them have a large number of triangular tree-shaped patterns depicted in the stone tombs, the more typical of which are the Qishan Stone Tombs in Peixian County, Jiangsu Province, [Xuzhou Museum, Peixian Cultural Center: Briefing on the Cleaning of The Tombs of Qishan Portraits in Peixian County, Jiangsu Province", Edited by the Editorial Department of Archaeology: "Archaeological Collections" (2), Beijing: China Social Science Press, 1982 edition, pp. 106-112. Lianyungang Jinping Shanxi Han Stone Tomb [ Li Hongfu: "Lianyungang Jinping Mountain Han Portrait Stone Tomb", Archaeology, No. 10, 1983, pp. 894-896. ], Shandong Zaozhuang Xiaoshan Xihan Stone Tomb [ Zaozhuang City Cultural Relics Management Committee Office, Zaozhuang City Museum: Shandong Zaozhuang Xiaoshan Xi han Portrait Stone Tomb", Cultural Relics, 1997, No. 12, pp. 34-43. ], Shandong Zaozhuang Linshan Han Stone Tomb, [ Zaozhuang City Cultural Relics Management Committee, Zaozhuang City Museum: "Shandong Zaozhuang City Linshan Han Tomb Excavation Briefing", Archaeology, No. 11, 2003, pp. 49-59. Linyi Qingyun Mountain Stone Tomb, Shandong [ Linyi City Museum: "Western Han Urn Coffin, Brick Coffin, Sarcophagus Tomb in Linyi", Cultural Relics, No. 10, 1998, pp. 68-75. ], Weishan Island, Shandong Province, Western Han Dynasty Stone Tomb [ Weishan County Cultural Relics Administration: "Han Dynasty Tombs of Weishan Island, Weishan County, Shandong", Archaeology, No. 10, 2009, pp. 21-48. ], Han Shiyuan, Shantou Village, Tengzhou City, Shandong Province, [Yan Yanyan: "Han Dynasty Portrait Stone Tomb of Shantou Village, Tengzhou City, Shandong Province", Archaeology, No. 4, 2012, pp. 92-96. Henan Xiayi Wuzhuang Stone Tomb [ Shangqiu Regional Cultural Bureau: "Henan Xiayi Wuzhuang Stone Tomb", Central Plains Cultural Relics, No. 1, 1990, pp. 1-6. ], Chengou Stone Tomb in Xiaoxian County, Anhui Province [ Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Xiaoxian Museum of Anhui Province: Briefing on the Excavation of Chengou Tomb Group (Region) in Xiaoxian County, Anhui Province", Southeast Culture, No. 1, 2013, pp. 31-40. Zheng Tongxiu, "The Depiction of "Evergreen Trees" in Han Portraits and the Han Dynasty Social Sacrifice", Southeast Culture, No. 4, 1997, p. 62. Wang Xiaoyang, "Jujube Tree: A Prototype of the Image of a Tree in a Han Portrait Stone", Qilu Art Garden, No. 3, 2004, p. 26. ], and so on.
Because the trees depicted in these stone rafter tombs are almost triangular in shape, and their shape is somewhat similar to the appearance of evergreen trees such as cypress trees, most researchers refer to such trees as "evergreen trees". At present, most scholars still focus on the identification of tree species in stone tombs. For example, Mr. Zheng Tongxiu asserted, "Some of these so-called 'evergreen trees' depictions were originally imitations of Han Dynasty social trees, and the Han Dynasty shrines were the same as the previous generations, and there were also customs of planting trees and taking cypress trees as the community." [ Zheng Tongxiu, "The Depiction of "Evergreen Trees" in Han Portraits and the Han Dynasty Social Sacrifice", Southeast Culture, No. 4, 1997, p. 62.] Mr. Wang Xiaoyang pointed out that according to the content of the "Fat Zhi Monument" excavated from the tomb of Nancai Zhuang Han in Yanshi County, Henan Province, "one of the original forms of this type of tree is a jujube tree, which shows the content of cultivating into immortals." [ Wang Xiaoyang, "Jujube Tree: A Prototype of the Tree Image in the Stone of Han Portraits", Qilu Art Garden, No. 3, 2004, p. 26.] It is undeniable that the previous discussion of the tree-shaped pattern in the Han stone rafter has greatly enriched and expanded the scope of the interpretation of the Han portrait stone image, but most researchers regard this tree image as a depiction of trees in real life, without considering its symbolic meaning, and methodologically sever the relationship between the image and the image situation, resulting in the conclusion is not universal. Therefore, based on the contextual protocol of image interpretation, this paper places such tree-shaped images in the stone rafter structure, conducts an in-depth analysis of the symbolic meaning of the image structure, and explores the conceptual origin of its generation.
First, the image structure of the tree symbol
So far, archaeologists have published more than 30 stone tombs in the four provinces of Sulu, Yuwan and Anhui, with a total of more than 30 tree-shaped symbols, of which 37 are clearly marked with land names. Tree-shaped images mainly appear on the rear and left and right side bezels of the stone tomb, especially on the rear bezel, and some tree-shaped images appear on both the rear bezel and the side baffle. Among these images, the images that appear on the foot file are three combinations: tree, tree + bird, tree + bird + jade bi. Most of the combinations of trees and birds are the least likely, and the three symbols of tree + bird + jade bi appear at the same time. The symbol combinations that appear on the side stall are tree + jade bi + bird, tree + jade bi + house, tree + car horse, especially the tree + jade bi + bird image combination. It should be pointed out that no matter what kind of image combination, the tree symbol of the triangle is the center of the picture representation, occupying the center or prominent position of the image.
In the above image combination, the image combination on the back bezel of the stone tomb corresponds to the image on the front bezel, and the image depicted on the front shelf of the sarcophagus is invariably jade bi. This shows that the front baffle jade bi and the rear baffle tree symbol must correspond to each other, and the meaning of the two also echoes each other. The symbols associated with the tree symbol are jade bi, bird, house, car and horse, especially yu bi. The tree symbols depicted on both the rear and side bezels are triangular, which seems to have formed a fixed image pattern.
From the perspective of the region to which the image belongs, the tree-shaped image in the stone tomb only appears in northern Jiangsu, Lunan, eastern Henan, northern Anhui and other places, and similar tree-shaped symbols do not appear in the portrait stones of Shaanxi and Sichuan in the same period. These tree-shaped images appeared roughly from the early Western Han Dynasty to the early Eastern Han Dynasty, and after the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, such tree-shaped symbols disappeared and were replaced by mythical trees such as Fuso and Lianli Tree. It is worth mentioning that the portrait stones from the early Western Han Dynasty to the early Eastern Han Dynasty only painted tree-shaped images in the shape of triangles, and no other types of tree-shaped symbols appeared. After the early Eastern Han Dynasty, such abstract triangular images disappeared, and more sacred trees such as Ruomu, Fusang, and Lianli Trees expressed in mythological texts such as the Classic of Mountains and Seas and huainanzi appeared in the Han portrait stones. From this, we can conclude that the image of the triangular tree on the stone tombs of the four provinces of Sulu, Yuwan and Sulu from the early Western Han Dynasty to the early Eastern Han Dynasty must be abstract, and it is not an evergreen plant such as cypress trees. In other words, the tree-shaped symbol on the stone rafter tomb does not have a real meaning, but a symbolic symbol that points to a variety of tree types. So, what exactly do these tree symbols symbolize? What role does it play in stone tombs?
According to structuralist thought, the image is a system of symbols whose meaning is constructed from various symbols. In other words, a separate symbol and image is meaningless, and its meaning lies in its association with other symbols and images. Therefore, to interpret the meaning of a single symbol or image, it must be placed in the context of the image system and image generation. Under such a statute, if we want to explore the significance of the tree-shaped image of the stone rafter tomb in the four provinces of Sulu, Yuwan, and Anhui, we must place it in the image system of the stone rafter tomb and its generation environment.
2. The sacred tree as a ladder
Man is an animal that exalts symbolic behavior and is also a maker of meaning. Human society is distinguished from animal groups by establishing a cultural system through symbolic behavior, which includes verbal communication, mythological thinking, and scientific cognition. In other words, "Human beings live in a symbolic world." Even the most cultured and intelligent among us are constantly using symbols and recognizing their role. Wearing some kind of religious garment symbolizes a person's devotion to God. The colored ribbon on the collar indicates solidarity with AIDS patients. A separate earring implies membership in a gay community. By paying homage to a flag, singing an ode, and putting on a jersey, uniform, or a special costume, national pride, a sense of group belonging, and a sense of teamwork can be inspired. [[English] Fiona Bowie, Introduction to the Anthropology of Religion, translated by Kanazawa and He Qimin, Beijing: Chinese University Press, 2004, p. 45.] For the people of the Han Dynasty, the stone tomb was both a place where the dead were buried and a symbolic building for the dwellings of the undead. The structure of the stone rafter tomb simulates the home of the deceased and the deceased, that is, the structure of the celestial realm, and the content of the stone rafter image is naturally also a symbol of the celestial realm. Mr. Wu Hong once summed up the symbolic structure of the Eastern Han Dynasty stone rafter portraits: "The scene of the sky appears at the top; the scene of the entrance and the symbol of the universe occupy the front and back files respectively; the pictures on both sides of the sarcophagus are composed of a variety of themes, but always highlight a specific theme, such as the guardianship of the soul, feasting, and the transcendent Confucian ethics of the immortal world." [ Wu Hong: The Symbolic Structure of The Portrait of a Sarcophagus in Sichuan, in Fine Art in Etiquette: A Compilation of the History of Ancient Chinese Art by Wu Hong, translated by Wu Hong, Zheng Yan et al., Beijing: Sanlian Bookstore, 2010 edition, p. 185.] For the Han Dynasty stone rafter portraits of the four provinces of Sulu, Yuwan, and Anhui, there is also this inherent symbolic correspondence between the content of the images and the structure of the universe. However, compared with the Sichuan stone rafter portrait, the content of the stone rafter portrait in the Sulu Yuwan area is relatively simple, and it highlights the route and direction of the tomb owner's undead ascension process.
As far as the coffin structure where the tree image is located, it mainly exists in the rear and side stalls, and the image content depicted on the back and side files is a whole, so before interpreting the symbolic meaning of the tree image, it is necessary to understand the image content depicted in the front and side files of the stone rafters. Judging from the portraits carved on the front file of the stone rafters, it is mainly based on the scene of the Gate of heaven, so the jade bi and the ring of the head of the stone rafters have become the main content of the portraits of the front files of the stone rafters. The ring of the head ring image is actually a jade bi, and the head of the shop is a mythical beast that guards the Gate of Heaven in the mythological world. In the han dynasty tomb structure, the yubi symbol of the heavenly gate is a fixed symbolic pattern of the tomb image, which has become a self-evident image statute. Let us cite just two examples to illustrate. The first example is the Bronze Medal of the Han Dynasty in Wushan County, Chongqing. Fourteen gilded bronze plaques from the late Eastern Han Dynasty were unearthed in Wushan County, Chongqing, four of which were painted with images of Yubi and inscribed with the title of "Heaven's Gate" above the jade bi [ For details, see the Chongqing Wushan County Cultural Relics Administration bureau and the Three Gorges Task Force of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: "Discovery and Research on gilded bronze plaques in the Eastern Han Dynasty in Wuxian County, Chongqing", Archaeology, No. 12, 1998, pp. 77-86. ], yubi apparently appeared here as a symbol of the Gate of Heaven. The images related to the above-mentioned jade bi are engraved with symbols of the Western Queen Mother, the Double Que, the Feather Man, the Divine Beast, etc., which indicate from the side the attributes of the jade bi as the symbol of the Heavenly Gate. The second example is the Han portrait stone tomb at No. 61 East of Yaogou Village on the outskirts of Luoyang in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. The image depicted on the back wall of the front hall of the Han Tomb No. 61 East of Yaogou Village on the outskirts of Luoyang (Figure 2) makes the connotation of The Jade Bi symbol of the Gate of Heaven clear at a glance. The partition beam picture is trapezoidal, and in the middle of the picture are two doors, one of which is half open. The upper part of the door is painted with five light green jade bi, and the bottom of the jade bi is diamond-shaped. On both sides of the picture are symmetrical images, each depicting a flying dragon stepping on a purple-green mountain peak, and a feather sitting on the dragon's back. The jade bi is located at the top of the door, which clearly symbolizes the heavenly gate into which the deceased and the undead will enter. This shows that the meaning of Yubi symbolizing The Gate of Heaven is consistent in the Han portrait stone tombs throughout the country, and people have already understood the special meaning of symbolizing the Gate of Heaven when they see Yubi.
Figure 1 Wushan County Starch Factory bronze plaque decoration "Yubi Tianmen Map"
The picture is taken from the Chongqing Wushan County Cultural Relics Administration Bureau and the Three Gorges Task Force of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: "The Discovery and Research of Gilded Bronze Plaques in the Eastern Han Dynasty in Wuxian County, Chongqing", Archaeology, No. 12, 1998, p. 78, Figure 1-2.
Figure 2 Brick carving of the partition beam of Tomb No. 61 of Yaogou "Wuyubi Tianmen Map"
Photo taken from the Cultural Relics Task Force of Henan Provincial Bureau of Culture: "Luoyang Western Han Mural Tomb Excavation Report", Luoyang Normal University Heluo Culture International Research Center, ed., "Luoyang Archaeological Integration: Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties Volume" (Part 1), Beijing: Beijing Library Press, 2007, p. 396, with Figure 6-3.
The Han Dynasty stone tomb is a miniature universe that simulates the structure of the center of the universe. Further, the front gear of the stone rafter is the location of the deceased's head, and the rear gear is the location of the deceased's foot. According to the statute of pictorial symbolism, the content depicted in the two must be related. Specifically, the image in the front file of the stone rafter depicts the heavenly gate that the deceased undead want to enter, that is, the boundary of the center of the universe, and the image depicted in the back file is the ladder that enters the heavenly ladder as the central passage of the universe. This means that the tree-shaped symbol carved on the back file of the stone tomb in the four provinces of Sulu, Yuwan and Anhui is a ladder symbolizing the passage to the center of the universe. In this regard, conclusive evidence can be provided in the images of the tombs of Chen Gou Tomb Group (East District) in XiaoXian County, Anhui Province, numbered M12 (Figure 3). The front of the stone rafter is divided into two by a diamond-shaped ornament, with a jade bi on each side of the diamond-shaped ornament, and an arrow carved on the upper end of the jade bi; the rear rail is carved with a ladder-shaped straight line, and a straight line in the middle divides the back gear into two, with a tree-shaped symbol on each side. In the stone rafter portrait, the image of the jade bi on the front file symbolizes the portal of the kingdom of heaven, and the arrow at the top of the jade bi clearly alludes to the direction of the kingdom of heaven. The tree symbol on the back slot indicates that the undead arrived in heaven through this tree. The M12 stone rafter portrait of the Chengou Tomb Group in Xiaoxian County describes a scene in which the undead have reached the Gate of Heaven through the passage in the center of the universe with the help of the sacred tree that serves as a ladder. This stone rafter portrait shows that the tree depicted on the back stall mountain is a sacred tree, which is also a cosmic tree that reaches the heavens, it is a tool for the ascension of the undead, and it is also a passage to the center of the universe.
Figure 3 Portrait of the front and back files of the Chengou stone rafter M12 in Xiao County, Anhui Province
On the left side of the screen is the first gear, and on the right side is the back file. The picture is taken from the Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the XiaoXian Museum of Anhui Province: "Briefing on the Excavation of chengou tomb group (east district) in Xiaoxian County, Anhui", Southeast Culture, No. 1, 2013, page 33, Figure 4.
As a ladder, the sacred tree in the stone tomb connects the heavens and the earth, and it is the celestial realm at one end and the human world at the other. We can learn this from the picture depicted in the M2 tomb of the Shanxi Han Stone Tomb in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province (Figure 4). On the west (rear) of the south rafter of this stone rafter, a small river divides the picture into two parts, while dividing the cosmic tree in the middle of the picture into two parts. In the upper part of the tree, two women danced and two men stood and stood, which was obviously a scene waiting for the undead to ascend to heaven. At the lower part of the tree are the dead on horseback preparing to ascend to heaven, and two waiters stand by and wait. The scene depicted in the M2 picture of the Shanxi Han Stone Tomb in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province, shows that the tree-shaped symbol is the symbol of the cosmic tree, through which communication between people and gods takes place, and the undead also ascend to heaven through it. In this way, it is easy to understand the symbolism of the tree centered on the jade side bracket of the stone rafter and the combination of images such as birds, jade bi, houses, cars and horses. In the mythological world, birds fly in the sky during the day and inhabit the earth at night, while the gods dwell in the celestial realm and humans live on the earth, so birds become messengers who communicate between heaven and earth and human gods. The stone rafter portraits and the birds that inhabit the trees are actually messengers who guide the dead to heaven, responsible for introducing the dead to the gates of heaven. As for buildings such as Shuangque and Houses, they are all symbols of the Gate of Heaven, implying that the deceased's souls will arrive at their destination [ See Zhao Dianzeng and Yuan Shuguang: "Examination of the "Heavenly Gate":On the Combination and Theme of Sichuan Han Portrait Bricks (Stones)," Sichuan Cultural Relics, No. 6, 1990, pp. 3-11. ]。 In the Han portrait stone, the chariot and horse do not symbolize the Gate of Heaven, but it is a tool for the ascension of the undead. [See Wang Qian, "On the Spatial Structure of The Portrait of Chu Lanhan in Suzhou, Anhui", Journal of Zhongxing University (Humanities and Social Sciences Edition), No. 55, 2015.] Understanding the symbolic meaning of the above symbols, we understand the image implication of the stone tomb: all these portrait scenes express the content of the ascension of the undead, the front file depicts the gate or entrance of the celestial realm, the back file is the passage to the center of the universe, and the auxiliary birds, carriages and horses and other symbols are the messengers or tools that guide the undead to heaven. As for the content depicted in the side file, it is basically the content of the celestial realm, emphasizing that the undead have arrived at their destination and enjoy the immortal heavenly life.
Figure 4 Shandong Zaozhuang Xiaoshan West Han M2 South Rafter Room West File Portrait Facsimile
The picture is taken from the Zaozhuang Municipal Cultural Relics Management Committee Office and the Zaozhuang City Museum: "Shandong Zaozhuang Xiaoshan Xishan Han Portrait Stone Tomb", Cultural Relics, No. 12, 1997, page 42, Figure 23.
Figure 5 Model of ceramic construction wood in Sijiangou, Jiyuan, Henan
The picture is taken from the Henan Provincial Museum: "Excavation of Three Han Tombs in Sijiangou, Jiyuan", Cultural Relics, No. 2, 1973, page 51, Figure 8.
So, what is the tree depicted in the stone rafters of the four provinces of Sulu and Yuwan? The relevant details provided by the stone rafter portrait only indicate that its function is to guide the undead to ascend to heaven, and does not provide more information on this. Judging from the scene depicted in the portrait, this sacred tree should be a jianmu expressed in the mythological texts of the Han Dynasty. The Huainanzi Topographical Training says: "Jianmu is in Duguang, the emperors are from top to bottom, there is no scenery in the day, there is no sound, and the heavens and the earth are also covered." [Chen Guangzhong's translation: Huainanzi (Part 1), Beijing: Zhonghua Bookstore, 2012 edition, p. 204.] Jianmu is the cosmic tree, that is, the ladder of gods going up and down, the heavens and people interacting, and it is also the sacred tree that marks the center of the universe. The shape of this tree is extremely peculiar, and the "Shan Hai Jing Hai Nan Jing" has this expression: "There is wood, its shape is like an ox, and it has skin, and it is a wisp and a yellow snake." Its leaves are like Luo, in fact, like Luan, and its wood is like a lotus, and its name is Jianmu. On the weak waters of the west of the temple. [Yuan Ke's Annotation: Notes on the Classics of Mountains and Seas, Chengdu: Bashu Book Society, 1996 edition, p. 329.] The expression of Jianmu in the Shan Hai Jing hai nan jing is carried out by analogy, and we cannot know its specific shape, but the shan hai jing hai nei jing has a clear statement: "There is wood, green leaves and purple stems, Xuanhua huangshi, and the name Jianmu." There are nine branches, and there are nine wolfberries underneath, which are actually like hemp, and its leaves are like mangs. The Great Emperor has done it, the Yellow Emperor. [Yuan Ke's Annotation: Notes on the Classics of Mountains and Seas, Chengdu: Bashu Book Society, 1996 edition, p. 509.] The nine hills mentioned in the text are actually cosmic mountains, and the building wood standing on them is naturally a cosmic tree. The building has nine branches, which differs from the brief triangular tree shape depicted in the stone rafter portrait. This is actually very easy to understand, because the tree image in the stone rafter tomb is more related to folk beliefs and myths, because of the particularity of the stone rafter picture, it depicts more of the function of the building wood, rather than the shape of the building wood, with nine branches and bright colors of the building wood is only represented as a triangular simple tree shape. However, the late Western Han Dynasty pottery jianmu excavated from the Sijiangou Han Tomb in Jiyuan, Henan Province, provides a more vivid physical model (Figure 5). This clay model of jianmu is rooted on the base of the triangular vertebral body symbolizing the Cosmic Mountain, and the straight trunk has nine branches on which birds, cicadas and other animals are on it. These animals climb on trees, and only the sacred birds stand at the ends of the trees. This shows that Jianmu is actually a cosmic tree, and no matter how its appearance changes, its function of communicating heaven and earth has not changed.
Further, the tree-shaped image in the portrait of Shi Han Dynasty in the four provinces of Sulu, Yuwan and Anhui indicates such an orientation pattern: the universe is divided into two parts centered on the sacred tree, the celestial realm is inhabited by gods, and the earth is inhabited by human beings, and the two communicate through the sacred tree. This dichotomous pattern of orientation is not an accidental phenomenon, it is common in chinese Han Dynasty text myths and myths, rituals, and images with ethnic minorities. [See Wang Qian, "On the Cosmological Significance of the Symbol of the Sacred Tree In The Portrait of the Han Dynasty in Northern Shaanxi", Journal of Baise University, No. 3, 2013, pp. 15-22.] In other words, the vertical orientation pattern depicted in the images of the Han Dynasty stone trees in the four provinces of Sulu, Yuwan, and Anhui is an integral part of Chinese cosmology, which, together with other myths, constructs the Chinese vertical cosmological model.
3. The prototype of the image of the sacred tree
Most of the stone rafter portraits inscribed with sacred trees in the four provinces of Sulu, Yuwan and Anhui are works from the early Western Han Dynasty to the early Eastern Han Dynasty, dating back only 2,000 years, but the cosmological model centered on the sacred tree it reflects can be traced back to the oral era of no writing. Further, the stone tree-shaped portrait of the four provinces of Sulu, Yuwan and Anhui has a long pictorial origin, and it is closely related to the worship and belief of sacred trees in Prehistoric Chinese culture. A large number of sacred tree symbols excavated by archaeologists mainly based on archaeological excavations tell the prehistoric prototype of the sacred tree image in the form of an image narrative, and also uncover the oral source of the sacred tree image of the stone rafter tomb in the four provinces of Sulu, Yuwan and Anhui.
According to archaeological excavation reports, 14 pieces of pottery are carved on the pottery symbols, of which 8 are carved single tree symbols, 5 are heavy tree symbols, and 1 is a two-component tree symbol [See Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Bengbu Museum, ed., "Bengbu Shuangdun - Neolithic Site Excavation Report" (Part I), Beijing: Science Press, 2008 Edition, page 183, Table 2. ]。 Specimen number 91T0819(15): 83 The bottom of the pottery bowl is engraved with a single tree symbol, the trunk is thin and leafless, and there are nine branches standing upright on the trunk (Figure 6). We cannot confirm that this tree is the mythical building tree with nine branches, but we can be sure that it is an extraordinary sacred tree. The reason is very simple, the pottery technology of the Shuangdun Cultural Site in Bengbu, Anhui Province, was the most advanced technology at that time, pottery was an extremely expensive artifact at that time, and the tree carved at the bottom of the pottery bowl must not be a common object, it is either a sacred tree or a tree with some kind of sacred symbolism. Whatever exactly the tree symbol means, there is a deep tree worship or belief behind it as a cognitive basis. It can be concluded from this that the tree-shaped carved symbols on the 14 pieces of pottery at the Bengbu Shuangdun Cultural Site in Anhui Province were not done arbitrarily by people at that time, but were created out of a certain mythological belief in the sacred tree. Regardless of the specific content of this mythological belief, it is related to the sacred wood and has an inseparable relationship with cosmology.
Figure 6 Pottery bowl tree-shaped carved symbols at the Shuangdun site in Bengbu, Anhui
Photo taken from Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Bengbu Museum, ed., "Bengbu Shuangdun - Neolithic Site Excavation Report" (Part 2), Beijing: Science Press, 2008, Color Plate 33, Figure 2.
Judging from the shape of the tree-shaped symbols, the tree-shaped symbols depicted at the Bengbu Shuangdun site are very similar to the jade trees excavated from the Lingjiatan Cultural Site in Anhui Province, which shows that this belief in sacred trees was very common in the prehistoric period. Anhui Lingjiatan Sacred Tree Yushu is a Neolithic product (number 87M4:68-1), about 5300 years ago, and its shape (see Figure 7 for the image of the jade tree) has a strong symbolic meaning. According to the cross-sectional view of the tomb provided by the archaeological excavation report (Figure 8), the head of the tomb owner numbered 87M4 in Lingjiatan, Anhui Province, was buried to the south, and the yushu was located near the navel of the tomb owner, and the excavated artifacts associated with this Yushulian were the jade turtle numbered 29, the jade plate numbered 30 (Figure 9), and the jade huang numbered 34, 75-1, and 82. According to the image relevance protocol, the meaning of these images is closely related to their position. The jade turtle and jade plate located near the navel have a cosmological symbolism, which in turn is related to the shape of the turtle. "The turtle has a round dome-arched dorsal carapace and a broad flat belly carapace, which is related to the ancient Chinese's idea that the sky is round arched and the earth is flat." [[United States] Ailan, The Mystery of the Turtle: A Study of Shang Dynasty Mythology, Sacrifice, Art, and Cosmology, translated by Wang Tao, Beijing: The Commercial Press, 2010 edition, p. 132. The position of the jade turtle symbolizes the center of the universe, and the inner circle carved in the jade version is an octagonal star, with a small circle followed by a large circle, and the image structure depicting eight symmetrical gui-shaped ornaments inside the outer circle further indicates the meaning of the navel symbolizing the center of the universe. As for the jade juan numbered 34, 75-1, and 82, its cosmological symbolism is obvious. A consensus reached in the mythological community is that the shape of the jade is very similar to the shape of the rainbow, and the pronunciation of the rainbow is similar, so the jade is the jade rainbow, the rainbow is the mythical animal of the sky, and the jade is therefore a symbol of the sky bridge. The location where Yu Huang is located is naturally the center of the universe, because only the center of the universe is the intersection of heaven and earth, and it is also the channel for the communication between gods and men. Then, the role of the Yushu tree is also clear: it is the myth of the center of the universe, and it is also the ladder for the owner of the tomb to ascend to the heavens. This concept of reaching the celestial realm through the cosmic sacred tree at the center of the universe is not limited to Anhui in the prehistoric period, it was also common in the Prehistoric Sichuan region, and the bronze sacred tree excavated at the Sanxingdui site in Sichuan strongly proves this.
Figure 7 Jade trees and carvings excavated from the Lingjiatan site in Anhui
The picture on the left above is a jade tree, and the picture on the right is a jade tree carving. Photo taken from Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, ed., Lingjiatan Jade, Beijing: Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2000, p. 16, Figure 6.
Figure 8 Flat section of 87M4 in Lingjiatan, Anhui
Photo taken from Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, ed., Lingjiatan - One of the Archaeological Excavation Reports of Lingjiatan, Beijing: Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2006, p. 48, Figure 27.
Figure 9 Jade plates excavated from the Lingjiatan site in Anhui Province
Photo taken from Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, ed., "Lingjiatan - One of the Archaeological Excavation Reports of Lingjiatan", Beijing: Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2006, color edition 20, Figure 2.
Eight bronze sacred trees have been excavated from the Sanxingdui site, which means that the sacred tree occupies an extremely important position in the Sanxingdui culture. The bronze sacred tree (Figure 10) excavated from the Sanxingdui No. 2 Sacrifice Pit has a residual height of 359 and a height of 396 centimeters, the base of the bronze sacred tree is dome-shaped, the lower part of the base is a circular seat circle, the base is composed of a triangular hollow block surface with three arcs, and the three-legged connected genus within the three sides constructs the image of the "sacred mountain" connected by the three mountains, thus implying that the sacred tree is born in the holy mountain. The bronze pedestal is carved with a "" pattern and cloud pattern symbolizing the sun, which suggests that the sacred tree is related to the celestial realm. This shape of the Sanxingdui bronze sacred tree vividly indicates that it is a cosmic tree that connects heaven and earth, and the sacred objects such as sacred birds and dragons standing on the tree indicate this attribute from another side. As explained earlier, birds fly in the sky during the day and between tree branches at night, and their activity routes are vertical up and down, similar to the movement route of the sun. The nine sacred birds embedded in the branches of the three layers are messengers to communicate with heaven and earth, and are also partners between the sacred tree and the sun. In this way, the bronze sacred tree of Sanxingdui narrates such a mythical cosmology: the universe is divided into heaven and earth in a vertical manner, and there is a cosmic tree located on the cosmic mountain as the center of heaven and earth, which is the only passage connecting heaven and earth, during which there are sacred birds, dragons and other divine beasts walking, and they travel back and forth between heaven and earth, transmitting the information of the two worlds. As far as the cosmic model is concerned, the sanxingdui bronze sacred tree and the Lingjiatan jade sacred tree depict the same concept of the universe, both of which divide the universe into two parts, heaven and earth, and both regard the sacred tree as a passage connecting heaven and earth.
From a comparative mythological point of view, this cosmology centered on the sacred tree is very common, and the sacred tree shape is particularly prominent in mythological images around the world, and the sacred tree image was common throughout Greece during the Mycenaean period,[ Various sacred tree images and related interpretations, see Arthur. J.Evans，Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult and Its Mediterranean Relations,The Journal of Hellenic Studies,Vol 21(1901),p.99—204.] Images of sacred trees from the Assyrian era have even been unearthed at the Nimrud site in the Two Rivers Basin (Figure 11). Although we cannot know the exact location of the Assyrian sacred tree from the image, the protective gesture of the two gods standing next to the sacred tree shows that the Assyrian sacred tree is a cosmic tree, which is the core of the universe. This cosmic tree is also a tree of life, which is related to the survival of the universe and is also a channel for the gods to communicate with human beings. It can be seen from the above images of the sacred tree that although the prehistoric images of the sacred trees around the world differ in detail, the cosmology expressed is the same: the universe is vertically divided into two parts, heaven and earth, and the sacred tree is located between heaven and earth, which is the bridge connecting the two. In this regard alone, the prehistoric sacred tree image is nothing more than the prehistoric prototype of the stone tomb tree image in the four provinces of Sulu, Yuwan, and the mythical belief in the sacred tree is the source of its thought.
Figure 10 Bronze sacred tree excavated from Sanxingdui No. 2 Sacrifice Pit, Photo: Wang Qian
Fig. 11 Assyrian sacred tree relief Nimrud bas-relief, 900 BC.
图片采自Félix Guirand，eds.New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. London: Hamlyn, 1959, p.70.
Conclusion
Through the analysis of the portraits of the sacred trees in the Han Dynasty stone tombs of the four provinces of Sulu, Yuwan and Anhui, it can be seen that the sacred trees in the stone rafters are actually the mythical cosmic trees, and they are also the tools for the ascension of the undead. What gave birth to this type of image was the Han Dynasty dichotomical mythological cosmology. This cosmology emphasizes that the universe is vertically divided into the celestial realm and the human world, and the two are sensed through the sacred tree located at the center of the universe. The gods are the world of the immortal gods, and the human world is the space where mortals must die. For human beings on earth, the dead and the undead can ascend to heaven through the myth of the center of the universe as a ladder, and then obtain eternal immortal life. On the surface, the binary cosmic mythological cosmology only emphasizes the spatial structure of the universe, and does not involve the content of the temporal level. In-depth analysis will find that the Portrait of the Sacred Tree of the Han Dynasty stone rafters depicts the structure of time, because it portrays the celestial realm as the final destination of the deceased and the undead, and the human world is the space where the deceased lived before death. Up and down, heaven and earth, the two correspond to the space where people are located after death and before death, that is, the two time periods of the other life and this life. This means that the time structure of the Han Dynasty stone tree image is expressed by means of spatial structure, and the cosmology expressed in the content of the portrait is a mythical cosmology of time and space mixing, which is no different from the mythological cosmology expressed in the Han Dynasty mythological texts "Huainanzi" and "Shan Hai Jing".
(Editor-in-Charge Su Qing)
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