Santai County has a long history and splendid culture. Originating from the ancient Kingdom of Qi, the Western Han Dynasty set up Guanghan County, Sui and Tang As Zi Prefecture, Song and Yuan as Tongchuan Prefecture, Ming as Tongchuan Prefecture, and Qingsantai County, which has a history of more than 2700 years. During the Tang Dynasty, it was the seat of the Dongchuan Jiedu envoy, and enjoyed the title of "the important town of northern Sichuan and the famous capital of Jiannan".
There are tens of thousands of cliff tombs in Santai, which is known as the "hometown of Han tombs". In 2009, in the former Shuangsheng Township of Sandai County (now under the jurisdiction of Zhongxiao Township), a Han Dynasty clay pit brick chamber tomb group with obvious characteristics of Central Plains burial customs was found, which has high research value. What was found this time is that the burial customs of the brick chamber tomb group are extremely common in the Central Plains, and are relatively rare in Sichuan Province. Through the preliminary analysis of the architectural structure of the tomb, the cultural relics staff found that the brick chamber tomb group had a lot to do with the culture and customs of the Central Plains.
Cultural relics workers found stencils of chronological inscriptions and a coiled knot pattern of one of the Eight Treasures of Buddhism from the Chinese bricks in several exposed tombs, witnessing a period of history and the origin of the "Chinese knot" in the early introduction of Buddhism to China and Santai. When I was working at the newspaper, I accompanied the cultural relics staff to the scene to interview...
Han Tombs Now Thieves Caves The mountain beams are covered with broken bricks
At the beginning of March 2009, at the site of the Xiaowan Shanhan Tomb Group in Lianhuan Village, Shuangsheng Township, the three ancient tomb groups found were in the shape of circular earthen barriers, and the mountain fort near the tomb group was washed by rain and exposed bricks. The traces of the robbery cave dug by the stolen tomb are clearly visible, and outside the opening of the ancient tomb, there are a large number of Han bricks with geometric patterns and chronological inscriptions, through a deep cave opening, the outer wall of the solid brick arch tomb is closely interlocked in a trapezoidal layer, and the ancient tomb has not been dug through the tomb wall by thieves. Several other holes were dug in pairs.
Han Dynasty brick chamber tomb robber cave entrance
The Han Dynasty Brick Chamber Tomb unearthed a chronological inscription brick with a long knot pattern
Discovery of chronological inscription bricks and prototypes of "Chinese knots"
According to the cultural relics staff, the chronological inscription bricks found in the Han tomb group have great archaeological value, the bricks are rectangular clay pottery, and the specifications are 36x28x102cm. Two different chronological inscription bricks have been found in several Han tombs, with long knotted patterns on the sides. Han brick mold printing on the book as "Yuan and three years of seven days of growth and parents more (year) brother", one is "Yuan and two years have achieved ten thousand years of incense", the two Han brick era time difference of one year, are early Lishu, Yang carving, its word length and width, jagged, calligraphy style and its similarity, it is estimated that it should be written by one person, the same craftsman workshop.
Unearthed chronological inscription bricks and two years of achievements in the 10,000 years of incense
Unearthed chronological inscription bricks and three years and seven days of growth and parents more (year) brothers
After research, Yuan He is the second era name of emperor Zhang of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and this brick is only more than 30 years later than the earliest inscription brick found in Sichuan, "The Second Year of the Five Fengs of the Western Han Dynasty". The three characters of wannian incense on the bricks of the Yuan and Ernian inscriptions are zhu ode, which means close to the meaning of the later idiom "Wangu Liufang".
Buddhism in the Han Dynasty has been introduced to Santai "Chinese knot" originated in Santai
Excavated plate-long knot patterned bricks prove that the "Chinese knot" originated in Santai
On the sides of the two kinds of Han bricks found in the Tombs of the Han Brick Chamber in Xiaowan Shandong, archaeologists found a clear pattern of long knots, according to the "Illustrated Book of Legal Objects", the plate long pattern decoration is the eighth of the Eight Treasures of Buddhism, and the disc long pattern symbolizes the continuous loop. Zheng Xuan of the Eastern Han Dynasty said in the "Notes on Zhou Yi": "Knotting the rope is a covenant, the matter is big, the big knot is the rope; the matter is small, the knot is the rope." The disc long ornaments found this time are very similar to the popular "Chinese knots", which can be verified that the Chinese knot is the evolution of the Han Dynasty disc long ornaments, and also proves that the "Chinese knots" originated from Santai.
Chinese knot
The era of Buddhism introduced to China is mostly based on two Han theories, one is said to be the Western Han Emperor, the other is said to be the Eastern Han Ming Emperor Yongping 10 years, the Xiaowan Mountain Han tomb group excavated the long pattern of the ornaments prove that Buddhism has been introduced to santai at that time, and quickly spread in the folk and laid down roots.
Author Wu Gongbin