Text/Xia Yun
A new round of archaeological excavations at Sanxingdui has once again focused on the eyes of the world. The Sanxingdui site, known as one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of mankind in the 20th century and the ninth wonder of the world, has been excavated for more than 90 years and is still foggy. The No. 1 bronze tree, which can be called the treasure of the town hall, is the most mysterious unsolved mystery. Although many scholars believe that it confirms the record of the ancient sacred tree in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, it seems that past research has stopped here.
Does the Bronze Sacred Tree really exist in reality? Could it be a reference to some kind of real tree? Few people are considerate. This article combines its shape and historical records to try to do research.
Bronze Sacred Tree. Photo by Xia Yun
White pigeon from ancient times
Sanxingdui No. 1 Bronze Sacred Tree is 3.96 meters high, which is the largest bronze object found in the world.
It consists of a base and a body, and the top of the tree is mutilated. The branches of the tree are divided into 3 layers, each layer has 3 branches, and each branch has a upturned and drooping distribution. There are 9 birds in total, standing on upturned branches.
The shape of each flower branch of the sacred tree is basically two bracts of a long length and a short one wrapped in a flower-like fruit-like object. Looking closely at this shape, it is completely consistent with the relict plant Tung tong left over from the Tertiary Period of the Cenozoic Era 10 million years ago, which Western botanists call the "Chinese pigeon tree".
It is called a pigeon flower (tree) because its flowers resemble pigeons spreading their wings. The large white bracts resemble the wings of a pigeon, and the dark red head-like inflorescence resembles the head of a pigeon. When the flowers are in full bloom, especially when the breeze blows, it seems that the white pigeons in the trees spread their wings and want to fly.
It is believed that the prototype of the bronze sacred tree is the tung tree, which is mainly based on 3 points of research.
There is no hollow shape on the flower bud of the Bronze Sacred Tree No. 2, which is more similar to the tung tree. Photo by Xia Yun
The first is in line with the worship of birds in the Sanxingdui civilization.
Among the artifacts unearthed from Sanxingdui, bird-shaped vessels and bird ornaments account for the vast majority. There are 9 birds on the Bronze Sacred Tree No. 1, and the symbol of kingship and divine power, the Sanxingdui Golden Staff, occupies the center. It can be seen that the ancestors of ancient Shu worshipped birds as totems. Then, it was only natural that they chose to make the bronze sacred tree, the most important sacrificial artifact, based on the bird-like tong. It does not matter whether the bird totem of the ancient Shu ancestors is a pigeon, because it is shaped like a bird, and after it was introduced to Europe in 1869, it was called pigeon flower, and it can also be called other bird names. And plants that look so much like birds and are called birds by bird names are rarely seen except for the tung tree.
Second, the form is surprisingly consistent.
The flowers have no petals and contain large bracts with dark red inflorescences, which evolved from the leaves. When the flowers first bloom, the bracts are pale green. After 10 days, it gradually becomes milky white and slowly droops.
Looking at the flower branches on the bronze god tree, there are upturned and drooping flower branches on one branch, and the upturned flower branch bracts are small, and the drooping flower branch bracts are large, showing a clear large and a small shape. It is completely in line with the flower buds on the branches of the tung tree when it blooms, there are two types of upturned and sagging, the flower buds are upturned when the flowers are just blooming, small and wrinkled, and the flower buds droop when they become larger and whiter, and show the characteristics of one large and one small.
The Tung tree flower has two forms: upturned and drooping. Photo by Wang Jiang
The upturned and drooping flower branches on the bronze sacred tree are almost identical to the shape characteristics of the upturned and drooping buds of the tung tree.
More scholars believe that the sacred tree Wakagi recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas is a bronze sacred tree. The "Classic of Mountains and Seas" clearly records the form of Wakaki: "There is a red tree, green leaves, and red flowers, and the name is Wakaki." "If the wood is blue leaves, red flowers. Isn't that what the tung looked like when it first bloomed? If the wood refers to the flower of the tung tree, then the green leaves that the ancients called here should refer to the buds of the tung tree, which today science calls the bracts formed by the metamorphosis of the leaves.
We should not underestimate the wisdom of the ancients in observing nature, they should recognize its leaf-like characteristics, specifically describing the cyan color of the bracts when they first grew. Because the leaves of most plants in nature are cyan, if not referring to their leaf-like bracts, there is no need to describe the color of the leaves here.
Some scholars believe that the shapes on the bronze sacred tree are only images of leaves and fruits. I think that if you have seen the shape of the tung flower, you should not think like that again. Except for the tung tree, it is really difficult to find a plant with a high degree of similar appearance to the bronze sacred tree, and it is really difficult to imagine that the ancients forged such a sacred and exquisite artifact, and it would be just three or two ordinary leaves placed on it.
If it is a flower, then what kind of flower is only two or three petals, and one is large and one small, with a huge bud in the middle?
When it first blooms, it has an upturned shape, with pale green bracts and an appearance similar to the upturned branches of a bronze sacred tree
The third is a rare thing, which should be worshipped.
It is one of the few rare species left over from the Quaternary Ice Age, and is a unique single plant in China, and is called "living fossils of the animal and plant kingdom" together with giant pandas.
In 1869, after the French missionary Armand David introduced the tung found in Ya'an to the West along with the giant panda, it immediately caused a sensation, was praised as a shocking discovery, and was regarded as a treasure by Western botanists, calling it "the most beautiful tree in the northern temperate zone".
It has high requirements for the natural environment and only grows in evergreen broad-leaved mixed forests at an altitude of 1500-2200 meters. In China, it is only distributed in a few places along the mysterious 30º north latitude line, and it is not as common and easy to obtain as other species.
The ancestors of Sanxingdui chose to sacrifice things, and they must also choose precious species. After discovering this rare species, he saw that when it bloomed, it was like a tree full of gods and birds flying, which suited his totem worship, so he cast it as a bronze god tree to communicate with the gods of heaven and earth. Nine birds are cast on each upturned branch of the sacred tree, which is undoubtedly a vivid restoration of the scene of the birds spreading their wings when the tree blossoms.
Pigeon flower with sacred tree
Wakagi is born like water
The above only from the appearance of the bronze sacred tree of Sanxingdui is compared and analyzed to infer the prototype of the sacred tree, and the following, combined with the growth place of the ancient tree, is further empirically studied, and there are more surprising discoveries.
Previously, more scholars believed that the 9 birds standing on the bronze sacred tree of Sanxingdui corresponded to the record of the Tongtian God Tree in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Professor Sun Hua of Peking University believes that the closest thing to the bronze sacred tree should be fuso and wakaki in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. In the Sanxingdui Museum, the bronze sacred tree is also introduced: "It is generally believed that the bronze tree reflects the myth of the 'Ten Days' and is very related to the legendary "Fuso", "Jianmu", "Wakaki" and other sacred trees. This tree, or Fuso and Wakagi, is a physical portrayal of the 'Ten Days' myth? ”
The Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Overseas East Classics says: "There is Fuso on Yutani, bathed in the ten days, in the north of black teeth." In the water, there are large trees, nine days to live in the lower branch, one day to live in the upper branch. What we are talking about here is the ancient myth of the "Ten Days", and it is also the earliest source of the story of the Houyi Shooting Sun that we are more familiar with.
The ancients believed that the movement of the sun was carried by birds that flew freely in the sky, and every day a bird took turns to carry the sun from the east to the west. In the Classic of Mountains and Seas, fuso in the East China Sea and Wakagi in the west pole are sacred trees for the sun to inhabit, and the sun rises from Fuso in the morning and sets at Wakagi at night. There are 9 birds on the bronze tree, and the tenth bird is likely to be in the broken top part of the tree, or it may be on duty in the sky.
The Classic of Mountains and Seas contains a record of Wakagi's appearance of "Aoba and Akahua", as well as a record of its geographical orientation. The Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Classic of Hai Nei says: "Beyond the South China Sea, between the black water and the blue water, there is a wood name called Ruomu, and if the water comes out. There is also a basically identical record in the Notes on the Water Classics.
The South China Sea here should be the residence of the Pan-Chinese ethnic groups. Wakamizu originates from the place where Wakasagi grows. The "History of the Five Emperors" says: "Changyi, the son of the Yellow Emperor, descended to Ruoshui. Take the daughter of the Shushan clan, the servant of ChangChang, and the birth emperor. "Ruoshui was a place name in ancient times. Xingjing County, Sichuan, has always been known as the hometown of emperor Huan, the ancestor of Chinese humanities, which is derived from the ancient name of Ruoshui in ancient times.
Since it is called ruoshui, is there any wakagi? The answer is that this is the "Hometown of China's Tung Tong" awarded by the China Wildlife Conservation Association, and the county is distributed with the largest area of wild Tung trees in the world, of which 300,000 mu are distributed in pieces, which is called an ecological wonder. Such a coincidence, does not it correspond to the ancient records from a realistic point of view, confirming that the bronze sacred tree is Wakaki, and Wakakagi is the Tung Tree?
dove tree. Photo by Xia Yun
Let's see if the actual geographical location is consistent with the ancient records.
Xingjing was called Ruoshui in ancient times, and after the Qin Dynasty destroyed Shu, the county was named Yandao, and the Tang Dynasty was named after the Xingjing River (i.e. Ruoshui), which originated in Niubei Mountain. Known as the largest 360º viewing platform in Asia, the Niubei Mountain System is the watershed of the Tsing Yi River and the Dadu River. The Tsing Yi River is the ancient name of Qingshui, and the Dadu River is also called Lushui, which is the ancient name of Black Water. Niubei Mountain, between Qingshui and Heishui, is home to a large area of wild tung forests and is the birthplace of the Xingjing River (Ruoshui). It is completely consistent with the historical record.
In ancient mythology, Wakaki is a sacred tree for the sun to inhabit, and since it is for the hot sun to inhabit, the prototype of the sacred tree should be more in line with the criteria chosen by the ancient ancestors if it is not afraid of fire. Coincidentally, one of the major characteristics of the biology of Tung is that the water content is particularly large, and the living standing wood in the wild can hardly be ignited, which is one of the few tree species that the locals have never used as a match.
It is a "living fossil of glaciers" that survived the ice age, and its unique and magical biological characteristics of being like flowers and non-flowers, like leaves and not leaves, and not afraid of ice and fire, are highly consistent with the ancient Chinese yin and yang transformation, Taiji moderation philosophical thought and cosmology, which should be a major reason why the ancients used it as a sacred tree to communicate with the gods of heaven and earth.
The mystery of sanxingdui bronze raw materials
After examining the prototype of the Bronze Sacred Tree of Sanxingdui is The Tongtong, locking its eyes on Xingjing County, which has the world's largest area of wild Tung Forest, and then delving deeper, this place that is in the mysterious 30º north latitude area with Sanxingdui is inextricably linked to the mysteries of Sanxingdui, and it may be possible to find deciphered codes here.
The earliest record of copper mining and coinage in China is found in the "Pipe and Mountain Power" written in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period 2500 years ago. Henggong asked Guan Zhong for advice on the method of financial management, and Guan Zhong mentioned: "Tang mints coins with the gold of Zhuangshan, and redeems the people's grainless sellers." ”
China Kokokoji name daisy dictionary, Zhushan
Where is Chuang Shan? The Commercial Press's 1931 Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Place Names in China clearly records: "ZhuangShan, that is, Yandao Tongshan." Salt and iron are made of Yanshan. There are copper mountains in the Hanshu Shu Yan Road. Later Han avoided secrecy and changed his solemnity to strictness. The gold of the mountain was minted as a coin. ”
The "gold" mentioned in the ancient books is not gold, but the alloy brass and bronze of copper. Judging from these historical records, Chengtang, who established the Yin Shang Dynasty 3600 years ago, has already mined copper coins in Zhuangshan.
According to the above account and today's archaeological excavations, Yandao Tongshan in Xingjing County was mined and used at least from Yin Shang, with a history of more than 3600 years, or even longer. We can reasonably guess that the Yan Dao Xingjing, as one of the oldest copper mountains in ancient China, not only participated in the origin of the bronze civilization in the Central Plains, but also most likely provided a steady stream of copper ore raw materials for the development of the Sanxingdui civilization in the ancient Shu kingdom.
Yandao Copper Mountain is the closest copper mountain to Sanxingdui in history, and at least before the Han Dynasty, it was one of the most famous copper mountains in ancient times, and the history of copper mining lasted for thousands of years. The "Chronicle of History" says: "Emperor Wen of Han gave Deng Tongshu Yandao Copper Mountain, which was obtained from minting money. Dunn's money, cloth the world. Emperor Wen of Han gave this famous copper mountain to the most favored minister, Deng Tong, to mine and mint coins, leaving behind the idiom allusion of "rich and invincible".
The Bronze Age was the beginning of human civilization. Judging from the bronzes excavated from Sanxingdui, it has communication with the Central Plains Yin Shang Civilization of the same era. As the most important scarce resource of the Bronze Age, copper ore raw materials, Yandao Copper Mountain may have become the meeting point of two civilizations.
Sanxingdui also has a big unsolved mystery, that is, although there is a highly developed civilization, no writing has been found. The undeciphered symbols found on artifacts excavated from Sanxingdui are known as the Bashu Tuo language. Another unsolved mystery similar to those symbols on the Sanxingdui artifacts, also known as the Bashu Tuo language, is the Bashu Seal. The door to cracking may be in the Xingjing, because the Bashu seals unearthed here account for more than half of all the excavated Bashu seals.
The mysterious Bashu Turkish language
In fact, it is very logical for Xingjing to be used as a raw material for Sanxingdui bronze. Artifacts such as gold masks and golden scepters with distinctly Western features unearthed from Sanxingdui show that China's communication with the Western world is much earlier than we think.
A southern Silk Road (also known as the Shu Body Poison Road) that preceded the Northern Silk Road, realized the exchange of ancient Shu and Eurasian civilizations. Xingjing is exactly the only way and key node of this international trade corridor. Researchers generally believe that Sanxingdui bronze raw materials come from Yunnan, Yandao Copper Mountain is located on the necessary road from Sanxingdui to Yunnan, why should the ancient Shu ancestors give up the near and far? Yandao Copper Mountain should be the most likely and extremely reasonable Sanxingdui bronze raw material.
It is precisely because of the mining of copper that the ancestors of Sanxingdui had the opportunity to reach the mine in the deep mountains and dense forests, found the living fossil of the plant that grew here and had never been seen before, and worshipped it as a deity, casting a bronze sacred tree according to the image.
From the physical modeling to the historical records and the field confirmation, the prototype of the bronze sacred tree should be in line with the scientific presumption.
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