【Focus on Sanxingdui】The most fascinating ‖ the unknown world is the success report

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The unknown world is the most fascinating

Success report

The Bashu civilization of an independent system.

The world marveled at the mystery of Sanxingdui, and the unearthed "treasure" was too dazzling and unique.

Culture is deeply influenced by the Yellow River civilization, the Yangtze River civilization and foreign civilizations.

The heroic result of spiritual wisdom

The production level is very superb, and the products are exquisite.

Among the many bronze artifacts excavated from the Sanxingdui site, the bronze figure is the most eye-catching.

According to relevant statistics, a total of 29 bronze standing figures, 57 bronze human heads and 32 bronze human masks have been excavated from the Sanxingdui site, and the world's largest and most complete preserved bronze standing figure - the king of bronze statues, is 260.8 centimeters high and weighs 180 kilograms.

The bronze figures seem to be designed to be cast into abbots, priests, people participating in sacrifices, and idols and deities worshipped according to the needs of religious sacrifices and rituals at that time.

The shape can be divided into bronze standing figures, bronze human heads, bronze masks, bronze kneeling figures, etc., all of which have become the pinnacle of bronze portrait art history in the Shang Zhou Dynasty with their unique styling characteristics and artistic charm.

Among the excavated cultural relics, bronze sacred trees, golden staffs, bronze masks and bronze Dali people have set off a climax of exploration of the history and culture of the ancient Shu kingdom by the archaeological community, academia and enthusiasts because of their peculiar and beautiful shapes.

Along with the shadows, it also brings a series of secrets that have not yet been solved.

Why does the Bronze Divine Tree Divine Bird fold its wings with a bow branch?

Like the Western scepter, is the golden scepter a symbol of authority? Or a magic wand of witchcraft?

The huge bronze mask, who exactly wears it?

What is the purpose of the bronze dalit people holding their hands in a ring shape?

In 1986, during the excavation of Sanxingdui No. 1 and No. 2 sacrifice pits, 6-8 sacred trees were unearthed. In April 2021, the restoration of The Sacred Tree No. 3 has been initiated and is beginning to bear fruit. More than 70 bronze fragments excavated 35 years ago have been pre-spliced by cultural relics restoration experts and have re-emerged as "growing", revealing the mysterious and beautiful style of the sacred tree. After the complete restoration is completed, together with the treasure of sanxingdui town hall, the No. 1 bronze sacred tree, it will jointly display the religious beliefs and outstanding artistic creativity of the Sanxingdui people's sacred tree worship.

Pre-spliced No. 3 Sacred Tree, the first appearance of the face.

On the bronze tree seat, the main trunk of the sacred tree is wound in two and spreads to the sky; the branches of the sacred tree are divided into two layers, and there are dense hanging holes on the branches, showing that there were ornaments hanging; on the top of the tree, the mysterious human head bird figure spreads its wings and the tail plume is erected high...

The entire sacred tree looks only about 1 meter, but the beautiful shape that is completely different from the No. 1 and No. 2 sacred trees still amazes the knowledgeable museum staff. According to the preliminary conclusion, the depiction should be the Fuso tree in the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

The No. 1 sacred tree is huge and placed in a fixed place; the small bronze sacred tree can be flexibly moved and placed for use in different sacrificial sites.

From the perspective of function, mainly used for religious sacrifices and rituals, it has a strong religious color, and seems to convey the concept of gods and witches and spiritual and cultural appeals of the ancient Shu ancestors, hoping to give artifacts a peaceful desire to communicate with the gods and pray for blessings and disasters.

Artistic techniques, mostly using exaggerated deformation, strengthen the typical characteristics of the eyes, mouth, ears and so on, showing obvious imagery and stylization tendencies, with a strong spiritual deterrent, reflecting the solemn, mysterious and mysterious aesthetic style.

Jade in Pit 8 of Sanxingdui Ruins (Courtesy of Sanxingdui Research Institute, Sichuan Provincial Research Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)

The prosperity of the ancient Shu bronze craft has laid a solid material and technical foundation for the development of goldware, and the development of bronze, jade carving, lacquerware and other processes has also promoted the development of gold craftsmanship, which can play an aesthetic function in a wider field in more diverse forms.

The gold ware of the Sanxingdui site has many types and large shapes, and the Shang cultural sites are the most abundant.

Gold leaf masks are used by pasting on a copper head.

Unearthed gold products, as well as gold tigers, gold leaves, goldfish, gold zhangs, gold belts, etc. made of gold leaf or gold sheets, the production process adopts hammer flattening, cutting and trimming, plane carving and other techniques. Such as gold leaves, shaped like slender leaves, on which are depicted with bas-based carving techniques a number of groups of "∧" shaped parallel lines, and between each group of "∧" lines are covered with thorny stripes, showing a unique decorative effect; on both sides of the leaf stalk, there are small notches like fish's head shapes, and there are small holes for wearing. It is closely related to the ritual activities of the ancient Shu kingdom.

The gold mask is another masterpiece of the ancient Shu people's use of gold products.

The production process, first of all, the pure gold hammer into gold leaf, made into a similar silhouette to the bronze human head, the shoulders, eyes hollowed out, wrapped on the human head, through the hammer, rubbing, culling, gluing and other processes, made and bronze portrait of the gold mask.

Gold-faced bronze head, composed of a copper head and a gold mask.

The bronze head is flat-topped, with hair combed backwards, braided behind the head, and tied at the upper end of the braid. The head is dignified and dignified, with extraordinary dignity, golden light, dazzling eyes, like the "golden-faced messenger" of the king's qi, who holds the power of life and death, and has the meaning of the king's rule.

When casting bronze figures, the ancient Shu ancestors adopted the six-point positioning casting method, which fully considered the spatial positioning of the human parietal bone, top mound, nodule, jaw and corner angle, so that the entire portrait shape was rounded and full of tension.

The artistic technique of viewing objects and taking images has shifted from the initial perspective of looking at animals to looking at human beings themselves, breaking the traditional artistic expression of bronzes in the Xia and Shang dynasties with animal realism as the object.

The ancient Shu Kingdom, centered on Sanxingdui, used a large number of bronzes in its sacrifice activities, and a large number of three-dimensional statues of people, animals, and plants and ornaments in the shape of humans and beasts appeared, becoming a model of early Bashu bronzes.

In the process of relatively independent development, an artistic style that was very different from that of the Central Plains bronzes at that time was bred, creating a refreshing new aesthetic model, and opening up a distinct and active and unique field in the feminine ancient oriental art.

Under the conditions of low productivity, the ancient Shu people were able to control the smelting, casting and carving of bronzes so skillfully and freely, and the technology and creativity were amazing. As Hegel said, "The cleverness of his hands, the wisdom of his heart or the result of valiantry".

Piece by piece cultural relics carry civilization

Beauty is contemporary.

The flower of art is rooted in the soil of history, and although it is varied, it inevitably bears the imprint of history.

Globalization in the Bronze Age. On the one hand, the copper ware manufacturing technology and wheat, cattle, sheep "packaged", accepted by the Central Plains, the technical level of the east, south, to the Chengdu Plain; on the other hand, the westward transmission of millet (millet) is also the spread of planting technology.

"Atypical" characteristics. Influenced to varying degrees by the Central Plains civilization and other surrounding civilizations, it is different from the various human characteristics of China in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. In terms of artistic style, the facial demeanor is almost solemn, the eyes are wide open, and the prominent position of the eyes in the face is deliberately expressed, and it also contains the factors of the civilization of the same period such as West Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, mediterranean-Aegean Sea and so on.

In the pre-Qin period, the Central Plains regime always regarded the lowlands of the East Asian continent as a safe hinterland, regarded the Eurasian steppe highlands as "Xi rong", and the ancient Indo-European people as "ghost fang". As a result, the "globalization of the Bronze Age" centered on the Luoyang Basin stayed at the superficial technical level of metal, crops and livestock, and introduced bronze, cattle and sheep, and wheat into the field of "Qi and Rong", which not only deepened the heterogeneity of the Eastern and Western sides of the Bronze Age, but also made Sanxingdui in the Chengdu Plain in the pre-Qin period become the core of a strong East Asian civilization.

The relationship between different civilizations, interactive, two-way, multi-directional cultural exchanges, and different historical periods may have an imbalance in the flow direction, but there is no simple one-way acceptance. Sanxingdui art, it is difficult to find a completely isolated state of independence from the outside world.

Part of the artifacts excavated from the No. 3 sacrifice pit of Sanxingdui Site (Courtesy of Sanxingdui Research Institute of Sichuan Provincial Research Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, photo by Yu Jia)

Strong economic and cultural strength, often hold grand and sacred religious sacrifices, attracting many nationalities and countries from near and far to come to exchanges, a variety of cultural exchanges. A large number of sacrificial supplies, with different regional characteristics, indicate that Sanxingdui was once the center of pilgrimage in the world.

At the same time, it also brings a lot of fog that needs to be solved so far.

Does the fire in the pit correspond to the "burning sacrifice" in the sacrifice?

After the fire is buried in the soil, is it the corresponding "burial" in the sacrifice?

The brass bells and birds hanging on the bronze god tree are the "hanging" in the sacrifice?

The wheel shaper, which is jokingly called the "steering wheel", is it really a ceremonial instrument of "hanging sacrifice"?

History is written from generation to generation.

Piece by piece cultural relics carry civilization.

A variety of stories and dazzling relics record the past of human races and nation-states, and also illuminate the unknown tomorrow and the long future. Precious national treasures arouse people's enthusiasm, and the glorious "evidence" of the past glory of "Sanxingdui People" tells the cultural roots that have been passed down for thousands of years.

Look forward to the appearance of words.

Can we further prove that the burial pit is related to the former temple ritual system, and whether the internal scene of the temple can be restored; whether there are vertical god statues other than the current three vertical god statues to demonstrate the relationship between man and god in the entire Sanxingdui civilization system; whether there can be a third large sacred tree with the same size as the current No. 1 and No. 2 sacred trees, whether it is inseparable from the myths and legends of Fuso in the east, Ruomu in the west, and Jianmu in the center in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas"; whether there are more ceremonial weapons.

(This article is published in the special issue of "Focusing on Sanxingdui" in the 5th issue of the History of Bashu in 2021)