On March 20, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology sent exciting news. Archaeologists spent more than 6 months of in-depth investigation, exploration and excavation, found six new "sacrifice pits" at the Sanxingdui site, and unearthed more than 500 important cultural relics such as gold mask fragments, giant bronze masks, bronze sacred trees, and ivory. This archaeological discovery has enriched the value connotation of the Sanxingdui site, which will help us better understand the overall situation of Sanxingdui culture and promote greater progress in sanxingdui cultural research.
Fragments of newly unearthed gold masks from Sanxingdui
The Sanxingdui site has been hailed as "one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of mankind in the 20th century." 35 years ago, the first large-scale excavation unveiled the mystery of the ancient Shu kingdom, and many exquisite bronze artifacts were unearthed, such as the exaggerated longitudinal mask, the bronze Da Liren known as the "King of the World's Bronze Statues", and the bronze sacred tree with a height of 3.95 meters casting. These self-contained bronzes show future generations the fantasies, art and even the hearts of the ancient Shu people.
The author Xiao Yi followed the archaeological journey of China National Geographic for 10 years, and went deep into many representative archaeological excavation sites in Sichuan, and collected them into the book "Searching for Shu: Looking at Sichuan from Archaeology". In the book, not only the Sanxingdui and Jinsha ruins that readers are familiar with are introduced, but also many rare on-site witnesses, such as the Pujiang ship coffin and the Jiangkou Shenyin, the time span from the Neolithic Era to the Qing Dynasty, interpreting the Bashu culture from the site, showing the history and evolution of Sichuan.
With the authorization of the publishing house, this article excerpts the chapter of the book", "The God of Vertical Eyes, the Bronze Age of Sanxingdui", follows the author's footsteps, and walks into the archaeological site of Sanxingdui together to understand the mysterious Bashu world behind the cultural relics.
"Searching for Shu", by Xiao Yi; Guangxi Normal University Press; January 2021
The eyes are the impression given by the ancient Shu people
One evening in the summer of 1986, the fishers on the Duck River in Guanghan, Sichuan Province, shouted early to drink ospreys into the cabin, and a cloud of black smoke came from the brick factories on the riverbank, floating in the sky for a long time, and the roar of the excavator made the summer here seem hot and dry. Years later, this hot and dry summer still remains in the memory of many people. On this very day, the excavators of the brick factory accidentally discovered an amazing treasure. These are two sacrificial pits where a large number of precious cultural relics are buried, and a large number of precious cultural relics such as bronze erection figures, longitudinal masks, and bronze human heads have been excavated from the pits. Through these beautiful artifacts, an ancient kingdom tells its descendants about its people, wars, art and even the misfortunes of its demise.
The large mask, 65 centimeters high and 138 centimeters wide, stood upside down in the sacrificial pit when it was unearthed, looking like a chair from a distance, and when it was excavated, it turned out to be a giant mask. Its long knife eyebrows, eagle hook nose, flat mouth seems to have a smile, the most especially eyes, in a cylindrical shape, protruding forward, even the eye muscles are attached to the eyeballs and pulled out, as if struggling to open the eyes. The craftsmen of the ancient Shu Kingdom skillfully blended man and beast to create this exaggerated and unique work.
The longitudinal mask is 136 cm wide and has mortise holes above and below both cheeks, and it is speculated that it was enshrined high in the Jongmyo Temple, which may represent the worship of the eyes of the Sanxingdui people. Guangxi Normal University Press
There is an ancient Chinese idiom called "Shu Dog Barking Day", which says that dogs on the Chengdu Plain rarely see the sun, and when the sun shows its face, they feel strange, feel that it is a monster to bark, to bite. The Chengdu Plain has been foggy since ancient times, the sky is basically gloomy, and it is not easy for the Shu people living here to see something farther away. One view is that the longitudinal mask was made against this background, and that the eyes of the mask were cylindrical, which undoubtedly meant that it had an extraordinary ability to look far and could see far; the two pointed ears were like the two wings of a bird, and in the eyes of the ancients, birds flying in the sky could hear distant sounds, even the instructions of gods beyond the clouds. Therefore, the longitudinal mask has won the title of clairvoyant and downwind ear.
Another view is that the longitudinal mask creates the image of the Silkworm Bush of the King of Shu. The "Huayang Guozhi" records: "There was a Silkworm Bush of the Marquis of Shu, whose eyes were longitudinal, and who were originally called kings, died to make sarcophagus sarcophagus, and the people of the country followed it, which was called the longitudinal eyes of the people. Is the so-called "longitudinal eye" like the mythical Erlang god, with an eye growing in the middle of the forehead? After the discovery of the sacrificial pit, scholars suddenly realized that the original "longitudinal eyes" may be like these masks, and the eyes are protruding outward. Some people may ask, how can the Silkworm Bush of the King of Shu grow like a monster? As everyone knows, the longitudinal mask is a remembrance of the silkworm bush of the King of Shu, and such an image has obviously undergone the fantasy and artistic processing of the ancient Shu people.
Sanxingdui bronze longitudinal mask and bronze human head Guangxi Normal University Press
In addition to the large mask of the longitudinal eye, Sanxingdui has also unearthed many artifacts related to the eyes. The "eye shaper" has three styles: diamond-shaped, obtuse triangle, and right-angle triangle. The diamond is a complete pattern, the obtuse triangle is composed of two pieces up and down to form a diamond, and the right triangle must be composed of four pieces to form a diamond. In the middle of the diamond shape, a prominent circle is formed, and they represent the "longitudinal eyes" of the ancient Shu people.
The eye is an important motif of the artistic expression of ancient Shu bronzes, and it is interesting that although there are more than 20 kinds of "Shu" characters in the oracle bone, each writing method has a big "eye" character. The ancient Shu people in history did not leave their own writing, so why did the Shang Dynasty oracle bones represent the Shu people with eyes? Judging from the eye worship in bronzes, the ancient Shu people at that time created a large number of prominent images of the eyes, which were enshrined in the Zong Temple or Shrine. Contemporaries of the Shang Dynasty, who may have seen or heard of these idols, recorded them in a pictographic way, which may be the origin of the "Shu" in the oracle bones.
The oracle bone account of "Shu". Guangxi Normal University Press
The largest archaeological discovery after the sacrificial pit
The large mask of the longitudinal eye, the large size of which indicates that it is not worn on the face, is associated with a mortise above and below its cheeks, presumably assembled on a large columnar building and enshrined high; the four corners of the eye-shaped vessel have small holes, indicating that it was assembled on some buildings in the past. All indications are that the ancient city of Sanxingdui once had a huge temple that housed precious bronzes and jades from the ancient Shu kingdom, and was also a place for shamans to hold major sacrifice ceremonies.
The restoration of the Sanxingdui Temple, the excavated cultural relics in the two sacrificial pits, may have been hung in the Zongmiao Temple in the past. Illustrated by Jin Leilei and Guangxi Normal University Press
This inference was confirmed in 2013, and the newly discovered Sanxingdui Qingguanshan site shows future generations the magnificent architecture and hidden sacrifices of the ancient Shu kingdom. When I came to Qingguan Mountain, in the huge archaeological exploration, I loomed a rectangular building site with a length of 55 meters and a width of 15 meters, which, according to the analysis of the remaining pillar holes, consisted of 6 to 8 houses, symmetrically distributed along the middle corridor. There is a dense row of earth pits inside and outside the base of the wall, with a total of nearly 200, which may be the "cornices" supporting the eaves of the roof, and the bottom is made of braised earth, mixed with a large number of pebbles.
Qingguan Mountain is bordered by the Duck River in the north and the Mamu River in the south, which is the highest feng shui treasure land in Sanxingdui, and standing here, the entire ancient city can be seen. Archaeological exploration shows that the Qingguanshan terrace is distributed with a large area of red boiled soil and rammed earth, the existing area of about 16,000 square meters, dating is determined in the Shang Dynasty, which is also the second largest Shang Dynasty architectural site found in China after the site of the No. 1 palace in Anyang Huanbei Shangcheng in Henan.
The Qingguanshan site, probably the Zongmiao Temple of Sanxingdui, is also hailed as the largest archaeological discovery after sanxingdui's two sacrificial pits. Guangxi Normal University Press
Located in Anyang City, Henan Province, Huanbei Shangcheng is the capital of the middle Shang Dynasty, located in the No. 1 palace base site on the north-south axis, with an east-west length of 173 meters and a north-south width of about 90 meters, with a "Hui" glyph structure, composed of the main hall, the ear temple, the Liaotai, the Nanxiao and other parts, this discovery traces the history of the Chinese courtyard back to the Shang Dynasty. The four closed steps that have been excavated have well-preserved wooden steps, each facing the main chamber, and two of the main chamber pits where pigs, dogs and sheep are sacrificed. Similarly, there are many broken jade bi, stone bi and ivory buried under the Qingguan Mountain, which may have been buried at the time of foundation laying. Jade bi and ivory have been found many times in the sacrificial pits, and they are the sacrificial heavy weapons of the ancient Shu kingdom, which can be used to glimpse the noble status of Qingguan Mountain.
Due to the limited excavation area, Qingguan Mountain has so far only revealed the tip of the iceberg, from the jade bi and ivory used in the foundation of the foundation, there was a ceremonial building on the foundation site of Qingguan Mountain, which may be the ancestral temple of the ancient Shu Kingdom, which is hailed as the largest archaeological discovery after the two sacrificial pits.
Qingguanshan F1 north wall base buried Shi Bi Guangxi Normal University Press
Bronze man head, who are they?
The image of the longitudinal eye has become the characteristic of the Sanxingdui bronze ware. The bronze human head is also longitudinal, but it is still very different from the longitudinal mask - the eyes bulge out of the orbit, there is a horizontal ridge in the middle, although mysterious, but not as exaggerated as the longitudinal mask, may represent the chief or priest class.
The bronze man's head wears a mask, as the leader of the ancient Shu kingdom, in order to remain mysterious, it is not easy to show his true face, wearing a mask, not only covers his face, but also isolates the connection with the world. I once saw a local altar performance in Lushan County, Ya'an, which is an ancient local opera in Lushan, and when the altar masters who are over 60 or 70 years old put on their masks, their bodies seem to be infused with vitality, and they suddenly dance with their hands and feet.
Scholars generally believe that human heads used to have bodies, but bronze was precious, and their bodies were replaced by wood or mud, and they were destroyed before being buried in the sacrificial pit. In Sanxingdui, the only one who can enjoy the honor of all-bronze casting is the 260-centimeter-high bronze da liren, which lay flat in the sacrificial pit when it was unearthed, surrounded by longitudinal masks, human heads, jade objects, and 60 or 70 tusks of more than 1 meter.
Bronze tall 260 cm tall. Guangxi Normal University Press
The appearance of Da Liren is not much different from the bronze head, thick eyebrows, long eyes, high nose, wide mouth, big ears, but his body is also made of bronze casting, exhausting luxury: wearing a double-layered crown, wearing three layers of Chinese clothes, the outer coat is decorated with four flying dragons, much like the dragon robes of the later emperors, the hands are huge, exaggeratedly held on the chest, in the past may be holding ceremonial instruments such as jade or ivory, and seems to be intoxicated in a grand sacrifice ceremony. The Dali people occupy the highest position among all the portraits and are the chief of the ancient Shu kingdom.
Interestingly, of the 64 recognizable bronze figures, there are only two hairstyles: one with a long braid dragged behind the door of the head, called "braided hair"; and the other with a curled up tied behind the head with a braid (an ancient hairpin), called "braided hair". In ancient times, the hairstyles of different tribes were generally different - that is, the "braided hair" and "braided hair" that appeared in the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit were two tribes with very different customs and dresses.
Bronze figures with "hair" are often mysterious, and their work is almost entirely related to religion. Dressed in magnificent costumes and standing high on the altar, the bronze erection man with his hands infinitely exaggerated on his chest is reveling in the magnificent ceremony; the bronze standing man wearing a bird's head crown and bird's foot pants underneath seems to be flying in the clouds... Without exception, they are all "hair-stoppers".
Bronze figures with "braided hair" seem to be doing nothing all day, and a change a few years ago destroyed their fragile wooden, earthen bodies, and faced with lonely human heads, it is difficult for us to restore their former lives. Unlike the "braided hair" who are obsessed with sacrifice, the "braided hair" may be a secular power group, which is commonly referred to as the royal power.
On the left is the braided bronze head, and on the right is the bronze head of the braided man. Guangxi Normal University Press
In ancient times, state power was often divided into two parts: religion and royal power. The two hairstyles of the bronze figure reveal the internal regime model of the ancient Shu state: the "hair" represent the theocratic class, which controls the spirit of the Sanxingdui people and acts as a medium for communication between the Sanxingdui people and the gods; the "braided hair" enslaves the body of the Sanxingdui people and firmly grasps the royal power in their own hands. In this way, the regime of the Sanxingdui Ancient Kingdom was divided into two, with one clan possessing theocracy and the other taking the royal power into its pockets.
The true identity of the two tribes has aroused great interest among scholars. Sun Hua, dean of Peking University's School of Archaeology and Literature, believes that one of them is an indigenous tribe on the Chengdu Plain, and the other may be from the Xia Dynasty royal family in Erlitou. We can even boldly imagine a scene of change in ancient times: more than 3,000 years ago or earlier, a Xia Dynasty royal family from Erlitou came to the Chengdu Plain, and the local indigenous tribes treated them with courtesy. The mysterious and devout rituals of the royal family attracted the hearts of the natives, who remained behind to serve as wizards of the ancient Shu kingdom. The royals eventually replaced the indigenous wizards and further seized the divine power of Sanxingdui. On the plains of Chengdu, there was a situation where theocracy and royal power went hand in hand.
In the sacrificial pit, the number of "braided hairs" far exceeds that of "braided hair". However, the number may not have much to do with power-sharing. Four of the bronze figures wear gold masks, which expose secret agreements between the two tribes. In ancient times, bronze was precious, and gold was even rarer. The four bronze figures should represent the supreme power of the ancient Shu state. Their two "braided hairs" and two "braided hairs" happen to be equal in number, seemingly deliberately maintaining some kind of balance.
Gold mask bronze human head Guangxi Normal University Press
There is no basis for the claims, and they seem to have signed an agreement. On a golden staff, there is a picture of four feathered arrows shooting in parallel into the heads of two people, the arrows penetrating the heads of the two fish, and the tail of the arrows is two birds with spread wings. A recent theory is that the two heads represent the two tribes of "braided hair" and "braided hair", the fish and bird are their totems, and the feather arrow is equivalent to the oath. This is the contract carved by the "braided hair" and "braided hair", written solemnly and solemnly.
The maverick Bronze Age
In addition to the bronze statues, the Sanxingdui people also cast a lifelike animal world in bronze. Bird-shaped objects are the most common, there are birds on the branches of the bronze gods, there are birds on the bronze statues, and many birds are single shadows when they are unearthed, and no one knows where they originally inhabited. The most powerful is the bronze big bird head, 40.3 cm high, big eyes, long hook beak, may mean the Shu king fish after the silkworm bush, the "凫" character of the fish, refers to the fishing water bird.
Copper Bird Guangxi Normal University Press
At the Sanxingdui site, dragons also appear from time to time. For thousands of years, dragons have been Chinese believed, and ancients with different totem worships have grafted their tribal totems onto dragons. Tribes that worship pigs say that dragons are thick; tribes that worship snakes say that there are no horns on dragon heads; tribes that worship sheep say that dragons have beards. The dragon we see today was finalized after Qin Shi Huang unified the whole country. Sanxingdui bronze dragon pillar, a small dragon lying on the bronze, staring at the eyes, opening its mouth, revealing sharp teeth, is stretching its head around, and its hind paws are tightly hugging the bronze pillar. It has a pair of large ears, a pair of horns on the inside of the ears, but a goatee beard.
Bronze snakes are mostly S-shaped, as if they are swimming or attacking with their heads held high, their eyes are rounded and protruding, their abdomen has a row of scales, and their heads and backs have wings. The Classic of Mountains and Seas records that there are snakes in the fresh mountains, which look like snakes, but have four wings and sound like rocks. It is said that the snake is an ominous thing, and when it is seen, it will cause a drought. Sanxingdui people also cast tigers, roosters, cranes and other animals in bronze, and together with sanxingdui people, they played the joy of life.
The Sanxingdui site unearthed a statue of a kneeling figure on the top of a brass constellation. Guangxi Normal University Press
The exquisite bronze casting technology of the Shang Dynasty also influenced the ancient Shu people. Although the cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui are quite mysterious, many cultural relics can see the backs of merchants, such as bronze zuns, 罍, etc., which should be made by Shudi craftsmen imitating the bronze ware of the Central Plains. As early as 3,000 years ago, the ancient Shu people, who were full of exploration consciousness, had already stepped out of the Chengdu Plain, actively communicated with the outside world, and absorbed many essences from the vast Shang civilization, but they were self-contained. This makes Sanxingdui retain its whimsical fantasy while adding the atmosphere and majesty of the Yin Shang civilization.
Since Dayu cast Jiuding, bronze containers such as Ding, Zun, Yi, Pan, Bean, and Gui have become the mainstream of Chinese bronze civilization, but Sanxingdui has its own system, and these bronzes are used by them for sacrifice, recalling their famous ancestors, omnipotent gods and dead relatives in their history.
The bronze sacred tree with a height of 396 centimeters may be the mythical and legendary sacred tree Fuso. Guangxi Normal University Press
Sacred trees, bronze men, flying birds, pairs of mysterious eyes. More than 900 bronze artifacts from Sanxingdui have successfully built up the height of the ancient Shu bronze civilization, drawing a long-lost ancient empire back to our side. Perhaps, when the wind blows through the ancient country, the people of the whole kingdom can listen to the music played by the swaying and collision of metal, and the crisp sound proves that a great Bronze Age reached its peak in the Chengdu Plain, and its own theme, singing the ancient but maverick epic.
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