Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, a beautiful and magical place.
Not only is it picturesque, but there are also cultures such as the Three Gorges Hanging Coffin, the Three Gorges Festival, and many ancient and mysterious legends, the "Golden Cave" is one of them.
For thousands of years, when people sailed to the Three Gorges Qutang Pass, they could always see a strange and mysterious cave on the cliff of Chijia Mountain by the river, and it is the legendary "Golden Cave".
As for how strange and mysterious the "Golden Cave" is, what are the legends about it, and what secrets are hidden in the cave?
Here, we will reveal the secrets of it one by one.
The origin of the thousand-year-old mysterious cave "Golden Cave" of the Three Gorges cliff
Qutangguan, also known as Kuí Gate, is located in the foothills of Qutangxia in Fengjie County, Chongqing, and belongs to the west gate of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River.
Chijia Mountain is located on the north side of Qutangguan, across the Yangtze River from Baiyan Mountain on the south side. Between the Yangtze River and the two mountains, it enters the Three Gorges section.
"Golden Cave", a mysterious cave in the middle of the cliff of Chijia Mountain, is located in the middle and upper part of the entire cliff, about 250 meters from the water surface of the Yangtze River and about 100 meters from the top of the cliff, which seems to be formed naturally and like artificial excavation.
Because the "Golden Cave" is located in the middle and upper part of the cliff and is sunken into the cliff, its location is precipitous and there is no way, so many people speculate that it is a strange cave formed by nature.
However, those with excellent eyesight, when climbing the White Salt Mountain to look at the opposite "Golden Cave" in excellent weather, there are faint traces of excavation in the cave, and there are some "the" shaped gouge marks under the cave entrance.
Therefore, some people also speculate that it is an artificial cave carved out by the ancients, which may contain some precious treasures as expensive as gold.
Later, the saying that there was a treasure hidden in the cave gradually spread among the people, and over time there was a "golden cave", which also added some mystery to it.
The "Golden Cave" contains three legends of treasures
Due to the spread of the theory that the "golden cave" contains treasures, the people have also begun to speculate who hides these treasures, and what are the treasures hidden?
In the continuous circulation and constant speculation, three legends about the "golden cave" baby were slowly formed.
Legend 1: The treasure in the "Golden Cave" was left by the "Ba people" during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.
Legend has it that during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, there was a "Ba State" founded by the "Ba people" in the Sichuan region. They combined various local indigenous cultures to create the "Ancient Three Gorges Culture" and created their own script.
Later, the Qin state, which was adjacent to the "Ba State", continued to grow, and in order to expand the territory, the Qin State sent troops to the "Ba State", resulting in the destruction of the "Ba State".
After being destroyed, some of the remaining "Ba people", in the face of the pursuit of the Qin army, retreated to the area around Mengmen while fighting.
Later, under the constant pursuit of the Qin army, the last "Ba people" took their wealth and hid in the current "golden cave".
Legend 2: The treasure in the "Golden Cave" was left by Gongsun Shu, who built the "Dacheng Dynasty".
In 25 AD, Sun Shu, the Duke of Taishou, took advantage of Wang Mang's usurpation of the throne and occupied Shuzhong, calling Emperor Jian the "Dacheng Dynasty".
Declared emperor, Gongsun Shu was the emperor to protect the throne, looking for dangerous places in Shu to prevent foreign enemies, and then established the "White Emperor City" at the gate of the gate, calling himself "White Emperor".
Later, Gongsun Shu was unable to govern, which led to the people's complaints, and Liu Xiu used this to send troops to fight.
According to folk legends, when Liu Xiu sent troops to fight, Gongsun Shu knew that he was invincible, so before the defeat, he hid a large amount of gold and silver jewelry in the "golden cave" of Chijia Mountain, adjacent to the White Emperor City, so that he could make a comeback in the future.
Legend 3: The treasure in the "Golden Cave" was left by the Shu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms.
Legend has it that in 214 AD, after Liu Bei of the Shu state failed to attack Guanghan, Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and other generals personally led their troops from the Jingjiang River against the river, and after occupying Menmen, they used this as a stronghold to conquer Badong.
After that, Mengmen was regarded as an important place by the Shu Han and sent heavy troops to guard it, and there was an ancient saying that "if you want to take Bashu, take Mengmen first".
After Shu was destroyed by Wei, the remnants of Shu Han hid their remaining wealth in the "Golden Cave". Legend has it that among these riches are Zhuge Liang's book of soldiers and Liu Bei's double-stranded sword.
However, this legend is the least credible, while the legend of Gongsun Shu is the most widely circulated.
The legendary "Golden Cave" treasure hunt
Since there are many legends of "golden cave" treasures, there will be people who hit the idea of these "treasures".
In 1939, when Feng Yuxiang was fighting in Sichuan, he passed through the gate of Kumen, with the inscription "Step out of the witch, fight away the Wokou", and ordered Chen Congmo of the division to find someone to carve on the cliff of the gate.
At the same time, in order to find out whether there is really a treasure in the "golden cave", and who is the treasure hidden in the cave. Feng Yuxiang ordered the guards to use ropes to descend along the cliff wall in an attempt to enter the "golden cave" and find out the real situation inside the cave.
However, due to the dangerous location of the "Golden Cave", after many attempts, the guards still could not enter the cave, and the treasure hunt could only go here.
Later, the Sino-British joint expedition in 1994 and the Sino-French joint expedition in 1995 both explored the "Golden Cave", but they all ended in failure.
In 1996, China and Britain and Gerland again formed a joint expedition to explore the "Golden Cave" again by abseiling from the top of the cliff. Four members of the expedition successfully reached the "Golden Cave".
However, due to the limited conditions at that time, and the fact that there was only one mainland expert in the team entering the cave, the real situation in the cave was not made public. The inside of the "Golden Cave" is still a mystery!
Didn't anyone really go in, and no one found anything in the "golden cave"?
Actually, it's not!
As early as 1958, a medicine collector in Fengjie County visited the "Golden Cave" and found something in it.
The unexpected discovery of the medicine collector in the "golden cave"
In 1958, Yang Wenping, a medicine collector in Fengjie County, was collecting medicine in Chijia Mountain and passing above the cliff where the "Golden Cave" is located, when he was suddenly attracted by a large group of birds flying out from the bottom of the cliff.
Seeing a large flock of birds flying out from under the cliff, Yang Wenping concluded that there should be a gathering place for birds to roost under the cliff.
There are gathering places for flocks of birds, indicating that there will also be "swallow fat" formed by bird droppings.
In order to get these "swallow fat", Yang Wenping carried a back basket and used hemp rope and other tools to climb down from the top of the cliff.
After climbing and sliding down for a long time, Yang Wenping unexpectedly came to a cave, and this cave is the legendary "Golden Cave".
After entering the "Golden Cave", Yang Wenping did not find "Yan'er Fat". However, shortly after he continued his journey, he unexpectedly saw several coffins.
After seeing the coffin, Yang Wenping felt embarrassed and a little scared, so he did not dare to continue walking inside.
However, when he left the "Golden Cave", he did not return empty-handed. Seeing a bronze sword and some bronze objects next to the coffin, he picked it up and put it in the back basket.
Later, the bronze sword that Yang Wenping picked up may be the "Ba style willow leaf sword" used by the "Ba people" (the current bronze sword is preserved in the White Emperor City Museum).
And this identification also makes the legend of a treasure in the "Golden Cave" even more believable! And some people conclude that the treasure in the cave was left by the "Ba people" during the Spring and Autumn Warring States period.
However, some people have also questioned this, arguing that even if the bronze sword is left by the "Ba people", it cannot be left over during the Spring and Autumn Warring States period.
Thanks to the advent of the bronze sword and various ongoing controversies, there were three expeditions between 1994 and 1996.
The expedition team explores the millennium mystery "Golden Cave"
After three expeditions in the nineties, for some reason, the exploration of the "Golden Cave" stopped. It wasn't until 20 years later, in 2017, that the scientific expedition to it began again.
In 2017, led by the CCTV program team, a scientific expedition team composed of professional expedition teams, scientific experts, UAV teams, local cultural experts, and CCTV reporters was re-established.
This expedition team, both in terms of skills and equipment, is very professional!
This time, this professional scientific expedition team decided to uncover the secret of the "golden hole".
First, the road on the cliff
Traveling upstream along the Yangtze River, the expedition team came to the west gate of the Three Gorges. Standing at the foot of the cliff of Mt. Chiko, looking up from the river, you can hardly see the "Golden Cave".
According to Zhao Guilin, a local literary scholar in the expedition, after the Three Gorges Reservoir was impounded, the "Golden Cave" was still more than 250 meters away from the river.
The "Golden Cave" is barely visible from under the cliff, and it is more than 250 meters away from the river.
It seems that it should be impossible to climb the "golden hole" from under the cliff. The only way is to slide from the top of the cliff into the "Golden Cave".
After deciding on a way to slide down the cliff into the cave, the expedition team inquired among the local villagers to see if they could find a way closer to the "Golden Cave".
After many inquiries, the expedition team really found an informed villager.
The villager told them that there was a path in the upper part of the cliff that led to a small platform above the "Golden Cave". The small platform is closer to the "Golden Cave", but it is still about 100 meters.
Hearing that there were paths and platforms, the expedition members were very excited and immediately decided to hire this villager as a guide.
Led by this villager, the expedition team took what he called the path. As a result, this path really surprised the expedition members.
The path that the villagers call is not technically a road at all, it is just a stone beam protruding from the cliff, about half a meter wide. When people walk on it, they also need to turn slightly sideways, and if they do not pay attention, they are very likely to fall under the cliff.
However, even on such a road, the expedition members are happy! After all, it's much closer than sliding down a clifftop.
After walking a long distance, the expedition team finally came to what the villagers called the small platform. About 100 meters below the platform is the "golden cave" they want to explore.
Second, abseiling a millennium mystery
After arriving at the small platform that was only more than two meters wide, the expedition team put down its equipment and found that because the "golden hole" was sunken on the cliff, standing on the platform and looking down, it was impossible to see its specific location.
At this time, the drone group on the top of the mountain, through the observation of the remote control drone, sent them the exact location of the cave entrance.
Knowing the exact location of the opening, the expedition team began to study how to slide down. In the process of studying how to decline, there was another accident.
It turns out that the reason why the "golden cave" is sunk in the cliff is because the upper and lower parts of the cave entrance have a large protruding rock, and the vertical distance from the cave entrance to the protruding rock is more than 3 meters.
When passing through the protruding rocks and sliding down to the entrance of the cave, the body of the team member will inevitably hang in the air, and it will not be possible to approach the entrance of the cave at all.
In the middle of the cliff at this height, the mountain wind blowing is very strong, once the person is out of the support point on the cliff and hangs in mid-air like a swing, it is very likely to be blown by the mountain wind to hit the cliff wall, which is very dangerous.
Faced with this situation, the expedition team had no choice for a while.
Later, they thought about ways to descend below or to the side of the "golden cave" and then climb towards the mouth of the cave. However, this method was quickly rejected by them.
The reason is that this method not only consumes time, but also tests the physical strength of the players.
At the same time, in the process of climbing up or moving sideways, there is also a great danger because the safety rope loses its traction effect.
In desperation, they finally chose the first method, rappelling from the small platform to the "golden hole", and then swinging into the "golden hole" by swinging.
Although it is possible to hit the cliff wall in the process of swinging towards the "golden cave", this method is the fastest and most direct.
Third, the true face in the "Golden Cave"
After nearly seven hours of abseiling, the expedition team finally swung into the "golden hole".
At this time, it was already past 3 p.m., and there was not much time left for them to explore inside the cave!
When the expedition team members entered the cave, the scene in front of them was beyond their expectations.
In the cave that resembles a hall, there are platforms full of rubble. These platforms are obviously built manually.
The expedition team speculated that these platforms were where coffins were placed among the medicinal collectors. It's just that now those coffins have long disappeared without a trace for unknown reasons.
Walk through the rock-filled platform and further inside is a narrow opening. The mouth of the cave is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, in the shape of a "human".
After walking through the narrow "human" hole, they encountered an even narrower passage, which could only be walked by cats.
However, just a few steps in the narrower passage, the captain in front of him shouted softly: "Be careful, don't step on those bones!" ”
Hearing the captain's shout, the team members found that in the narrow passage, there were all kinds of bones everywhere, and among these bones, there were some bronzes that had long been rusted.
Seeing this scene, everyone couldn't help but feel a little scared, and at the same time, they also increased their vigilance.
In this bone-covered passage, the team walked about 20 meters forward, and a larger cave hall appeared in front of them, which was also the bottom of the "golden cave".
At the bottom of the cave, the expedition team found some patterns similar to words.
Later, it was identified that these text-like patterns were likely to be the "Bashu Tu language" more than 2,000 years ago.
This "Bashu language" is said to be composed of tiger-shaped patterns, tree-shaped patterns, eye-shaped patterns, hand-shaped patterns, heart-shaped patterns and other patterns. Several patterns are combined to count as a word, or to record a thing.
However, because of the age and the lack of corresponding reference materials, the vast majority of this "graphic language" cannot be cracked.
After carefully exploring the cave, the team members felt that there was nothing new in the cave, and they left the "Golden Cave".
At this point, the scientific expedition of the "Golden Cave" has also ended.
The final conclusion is that this cave is most likely related to the ancient "Ba people", as for whether it is the legendary "Ba people" in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, because there is too little evidence in the cave, so it is not certain for the time being.
The "Golden Cave" still exists today
Although there is no treasure of the legendary Gongsun Shu in the "Golden Cave", there is no sword and soldier book of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms, only the bones and "pictures" of suspected Ba people, but this is also adding new mysteries to the "Golden Cave".
According to relevant records, during the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, when the Qin Dynasty attacked the land of Bashu, a team of Bashu people did flee.
However, at that time, the weapons used by the Pakistani were still wooden weapons, and they did not master the technology of bronze manufacturing.
In this way, the bones and "Tuyu" of the "Golden Cave" were really left by the Ba people who fled here? Is the cave really where the Ba people store their coffins or take refuge?
If so, where did the bronze weapons found in the "Golden Cave" by the medicine collector Yang Wenping and the members of the scientific expedition come from?
If not, who left these bones, "tulu", bronze weapons?
These are still an unsolved mystery!