Thought Weekly, · Policy Theory| The Dansha Road: An example of economic and cultural interaction in the Yangtze River basin 2,000 years ago

New Chongqing-Chongqing Daily Li Fei

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out that the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the ecological protection and high-quality development mechanism of the Yellow River Basin should be optimized. The Yangtze River is the mother river of the Chinese nation and an important support for the development of the Chinese nation. The Yangtze River has created a thousand-year-old cultural context from Bashan Shushui to Jiangnan Water Town, which is a representative symbol of the Chinese nation and an iconic symbol of Chinese civilization, and an important source for cultivating the core values of socialism. How to further promote the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and protect, inherit and promote the Yangtze River culture? On the occasion of the upcoming 2024 Yangtze River Civilization Forum, Chongqing Daily has launched a special edition for readers.

—Editor's note

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that the Yangtze River has created a thousand-year-old cultural context from Bashan Shushui to Jiangnan Water Town, which is a representative symbol of the Chinese nation and an iconic symbol of Chinese civilization, and an important source for cultivating the core values of socialism. The cinnabar unearthed from the Daping Han Tomb in Wuchuan outlines the historical picture of the economic and cultural interaction in the Yangtze River basin 2,000 years ago, and provides a vivid footnote for promoting the protection and inheritance of the Yangtze River culture.

In the autumn of 2007, an archaeological team led by me found 33 pieces of cinnabar the size of corn kernels in the fill of a brick chamber tomb in the Daping Han Tomb Group. At first glance, they look like ordinary stones, except that they are dark red. This discovery was exciting, and we made the search for cinnabar an important direction in the subsequent cleanup. The hard work paid off, and cinnabar was finally found in 24 of the 47 tombs cleaned, accounting for 51% of the total number of tombs, which is one of the most important discoveries of the Daping Han tomb. Combined with the investigation of the local folklore of Daping, we provide two possible explanations for the burial custom of sprinkling cinnabar at the bottom of the tomb: one is religious use. The local Mr. Yin and Yang still occasionally uses cinnabar in today's funeral activities, and its role is said to be "calling the dragon and connecting the veins". Mr. Yin and Yang believes that cinnabar is a natural spiritual thing, and in a terrain with poor feng shui, cinnabar can communicate with the earth qi and attract good dragon veins. The second is a symbol of wealth. The most valuable minerals and metals used to be considered by the local folk were cinnabar, mercury, gold, copper, and tin, with cinnabar ranking first.

Cinnabar, also known as dansha and cinnabar, is chemically known as mercury sulfide (HgS), which is the main mineral raw material for mercury refining. In ancient China, cinnabar was used as a paint pigment, medicine, alchemy raw material and religious items for thousands of years. More than 6,000 years ago, the residents of Hemudu used cinnabar as a color paint, and the use of cinnabar for funeral activities began in the middle and late Yangshao period (5300-4700 years ago), and the tombs of the Yin Shang period used cinnabar to cover the deceased. Since the Warring States Period, due to the rise of alchemy, cinnabar has become one of the main raw materials for alchemy, through the Qin and Han dynasties, in the two Jin Dynasty, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Sui, the Tang, the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty. Cinnabar has been unearthed in the tombs of the Ba people during the Warring States Period at the Luojiaba site in Xuanhan, Sichuan, which is an example of the early recognition and use of cinnabar by the Ba people.

According to modern scientific investigations, mainland cinnabar is mainly distributed in four mercury metallogenic areas: Kunlun-Qinling metallogenic area (Gannan, southern Shaanxi, etc.), Sanjiang metallogenic area (western Sichuan and central and western Yunnan), Wuling metallogenic area (western Hunan, southeast Sichuan, southwestern Hubei and southwest) and Youjiang metallogenic area (southeast Yunnan, southwest Guizhou and Guangxi). In ancient literature, the origin of cinnabar is Ba, Yue, Chenzhou, etc., such as Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jiezi" said: "Dan, the red stone of Ba Yue." It can be seen that the adjacent "Wuling metallogenic area" of Hunan, Guizhou and Chongqing, namely Tongren, Wanshan and Wuchuan in Guizhou, Fenghuang, Xinhuang and Baojing in Hunan and Youyang and Xiushan in Chongqing, have been important producing areas of cinnabar since ancient times. Wuchuan cinnabar mining in the Ming Dynasty is quite prosperous, Ming Jiajing "Sinan Mansion Chronicles· Geographical Chronicles · Customs" said that the people to "sand mining for the industry", and because "Wuchuan has the benefits of sand pits, businessmen and merchants, many people are rich, good advice, difficult to treat." The rulers will not be long enough, but they will be departed with sin."

Cinnabar was used in the early tombs of the Western Han Dynasty in Daping, and it has been used throughout the cemetery. Combined with the fact that the local cinnabar reserves in Wuchuan are extremely rich, we can completely speculate that the cinnabar from the tomb is produced locally. To confirm this hypothesis, during the excavation, we collaborated with the Laboratory of Science and Technology Archaeology of the School of Archaeology and Museums of Peking University to sample and analyze the cinnabar in the tombs, mines and rivers. Preliminary test results showed that the S isotope of cinnabar was consistent in each location, indicating that the cinnabar in the tomb was of local origin. This greatly advanced the history of cinnabar mining in Wuchuan from the Ming Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, and rewrote the history of cinnabar mining in Guizhou with physical evidence. In other words, the time of cinnabar mining in the "Wuling metallogenic area" should be no later than the early Western Han Dynasty.

Archaeological excavation materials show that the Daping Han tomb is similar to the style of the Han tomb in the Xiajiang area, but slightly different from the Han tomb in southern Guizhou, especially in the excavated objects. Relics such as garlic pots and pottery house models with half tops are not found in Han tombs in southern Guizhou, but are more common in Han tombs in the Xiajiang area. In addition, the same shape of the "bear" pillar house, manhole cover model, terracotta figurines and so on are also more common in the Xiajiang area of the Han tombs. The cultural connotation reflected in the Daping Han Tomb shows that it is one with the Han Tomb in the Xiajiang area, and there are at least two cultural factors, Qin and Bashu. In view of the consistency of the appearance of the Han tombs, it seems that the people who moved here entered the Wuchuan area from the Xiajiang area in the early Han Dynasty against the Wujiang River and its tributaries or along other routes, and the rich local cinnabar deposits may be an important reason for this group to enter the area.

The Yangtze River is a cultural channel, a linear cultural heritage that flows across historical time and space, and plays an important role in the historical process of Chinese civilization. The ancient Yangtze River has moistened the vast land and the people along its shores, carried thousands of years of ethnic memories, and accumulated a thick history and culture. The abundant cinnabar deposits in Wuchuan may be an important reason for the upward movement of people in the Xiajiang area against the Wujiang River and its tributaries into the area. With the crowd coming south, a large amount of dansha went down the Wujiang River, and then sold along the Yangtze River to various places. As Mr. Ren Naiqiang said in the "Huayang Guozhi School Supplementary Annotation": "Its Dan follows this water, turns the Wujiang River to the Mandarin, and sells it throughout China", thus weaving a red "Dansha Road".

When the Hunan Museum conducted a study on the cinnabar painting of the cultural relics unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb, it was found that the mercury sulfide on some pottery and silk paintings was usually accompanied by relatively high barium. In the cinnabar deposits in South China, the Wuchuan mercury mine is characterized by the symbiosis of cinnabar and barite (barium sulfate), and both cinnabar and barite are heavy minerals. Harvard University's examination of some of its Han Dynasty painted pottery collection has also found barite mixed in cinnabar pigment. According to the mineral combination, Mawangdui is likely to use cinnabar from the "Wuling metallogenic area". In addition, some scholars believe that the source of cinnabar in Yinxu is most likely to be in the southwest region centered on Guizhou. In this way, the trade network of "Wuling Metallogenic Area" Dansha "Shipped and Sold to the Whole of China" has loomed. In the future, through the analysis of cinnabar samples including S isotopes, this red "Dansha Road" is expected to be presented more clearly.

(The author is the director and research librarian of Guizhou Provincial Museum)