Recently, Dong Hong, a former producer of the "Huaxia Cultural Ties Project" and the "Snowy Sky Glory" TV drama preparatory group of the Gansu Organizing Committee of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a member of the Cultural Work Committee of the Gansu Provincial Democratic League, the executive president of the Gansu Huaxia Cultural Research Association, the executive director of the Gansu Tianma Cultural Research Institute, and a well-known scholar-type writer in Gansu, started from the perspective of "historical geography" and found that the "Xia Men Tai" and "Si Ya Tai" in Tianzhu Haxi Town in Gansu Province were the "cremation platforms" of the ancient Qiang people, thus deciphering the national key cultural relics protection units." Heaven blessed the copper yak" the mystery of the sacrificial uses. This discovery provides an important support point for Wuwei to use cultural tourism as a bridge to promote exchanges and cooperation between Gansu and countries along the "Belt and Road", and is of great significance for deeply excavating the cultural connotation of the "Tibetan-Qiang-Yi Cultural Industry Corridor" and protecting and carrying forward the "national" and "bronze" culture.
Haxi Town, which belongs to Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, Wuwei City, Gansu Province, is located in the northwest of Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, bordering Zhangyi Town and Gufeng Township of Liangzhou District to the east, Jiaxi Xiulong Town and Anyuan Town to the south, Zhugu Township of Menyuan County of Qinghai Province to the west, and Dahonggou Township and Maozang Township to the north. The administrative area is 509.8 km². As of the end of 2018, the registered population of Haxi Town was 21,545 people. The town of Haxi is a transliteration of the Tibetan word for "hachi" in Haxi, meaning "seat of the father and king". It is said that in ancient times, there was a chief of ten thousand Tibetan households living here, hence the name. During the Yuan Dynasty, the territory of Haxi Town was under the jurisdiction of Xiliang Province. In the third year of the Ming Dynasty (1438), it was under the jurisdiction of The Ancient Wave Shou Yu Qianhu. During the Qing Dynasty, it was under the jurisdiction of Liangzhou Prefecture. In August of the 38th year of the Republic of China (1949), it was the fifth guarantee of Tianzhu District of Yongdeng County. In May 1950, it became the fourth township of Tianzhu Autonomous Region.
Schematic map of the eastern section of the Hexi Corridor during the Han Dynasty
One day in June 1972 (just after the Dragon Boat Festival), the Xia Mentai Production Team of the Friendship Brigade of Haxi Commune, Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, Gansu Province, was organizing members to build a breeding yard. A member of the company was digging a pit to take soil, digging more than 50 centimeters above the ground, and with a bang, the shovel hit a hard object. The member of the society opened the soil and saw that it was a bronze vessel, so he summoned everyone to dig it together. After some twists and turns, this bronze yak will see the light of day again. Unearthed at the same time as the yak, two bronze horses, riding on "pulleys", could not be preserved due to severe rust. Only the copper yak was finally preserved after several tribulations due to its thick texture.
Since the copper yak did not have any inscription on it, nor was it excavated from the tomb, the two bronze horses excavated with it have long disappeared and lost their only reference. Therefore, archaeologists have searched for a long time in the place of its discovery, and have not found other related artifacts as evidence. When is the bronze yak a relic? After appraisal by Wuwei cultural relics workers, it is considered to be a cultural relic of the Song Dynasty, no later than the Ming Dynasty. According to the Tianzhu County Museum, this bronze yak was cast in the Yuan Dynasty, but this claim has been questioned. In 1982, Wuwei cultural relics workers denied the original view, believing that it was possible that the Tuguhun people were cast in the Tang Dynasty, and then buried and disappeared after encountering war, and a Tianzhu cultural worker created the "Legend of the Copper Yak" according to this, which was widely circulated.
Copper yak unearthed in Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, Gansu
Who cast the bronze yak? Some people think that it was created by the Sui and Tang Dynasties by the northern nomadic people who plundered han craftsmen, while others say that it was a good composition of the Western Xia people during the Two Song Dynasties. Others believe that this is a trace left by the Mongols. Recently, there is a new myth that the copper yak was the dowry of Princess Honghua, and was later transported to the Huarui area for burial due to the war caused by the Tuguhun people. Opinions on these issues are currently divergent. These claims, which span a wide time span, lack conclusive evidence. Many papers are included, and they are mainly speculative. Wuwei cultural researchers believe that the historical events behind the copper yak have not yet been conclusive, so it should be the unshirkable responsibility of Tianzhu, Wuwei and even gansu people to trace the roots of the copper yak at an early date and verify the correct body. First of all, Gansu and Sichuan cultural relics workers have encountered the same problem, is the "excavation pit" of the copper yak a "buried pit of national treasures" or a "sacrifice pit"?
One. Bronze yak out of the land of the ancestors burial customs
In 1951, the archaeologist Mr. Xia Nai published an article entitled "Records of the Excavation of The Washan Mountain of Lintao Temple" in the fourth volume of the Chinese Archaeological Journal, pointing out that in the area of the Tao River Basin suitable for the Qiang in ancient times, the Qiang people had practiced the cremation system, and the discovery of the Cremation system of the Siwa Mountain enhanced the relationship between the Siwa culture and the Qiang ethnic group. This opened up a research method that combined archaeology with ethnology and ancient documents, and also opened the prelude to the discussion of the issue of ancient cultural family genera.
The original Haxi Commune Friendship Brigade Xia Mentai production team excavated from the "copper yak" is very remote, and the village is about three or four miles south of the mountain, the grass and trees on the mountain are green, and the Haxi River originates from the mountain. From the town of Haxi to the south, there is only one mountain dirt road, which is a small village with a pristine taste, the west is a hillside, the east is next to the cliff, under the cliff is a small river, surrounded by mountains near and far, and it is a pastoral scenery. This is a small village inhabited by Han and Tibet, named after "friendship", showing national friendship, which was named in 1958. According to the elders, this place was originally deserted, full of white bones, and no one dared to come. The Han people who live now originally lived in the area of Tianti Mountain and Zhang Yibao, dozens of miles away, and many of their families had moved here before liberation to hide from the Kuomintang Ma Buqingbu. Tibetans who live now speculate that their ancestors may have moved to this area during the meeting between the Mongol prince and the White Pagoda Monastery of Liangzhou, the living Tibetan Buddha. Tubo is now part of the Tibetan and ancient Qiang ethnic groups. After the Warring States period, some Qiang tribes, such as the Fa Qiang and the Mitang Dynasty, gradually migrated to the present-day Tibet region. They merged with the local people, multiplied and developed, and formed the Tubo people. Gansu Tianzhu County and Qinghai Mutual Aid County are only separated by one river, with a neighboring length of more than 20 kilometers. At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wuwei County was bordered by Xiongnu to the north and Qiang tribes to the south, and the local people were afraid of foreign plunder, and many abandoned their farmland. It can be inferred from this that before the Yuan Dynasty, it was a Qiang residential area.
In Songshan Village, Songshan Township, Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, dozens of flexed burial tombs and urn coffin tombs have been cleaned up. In 1980, Mr. Yu Weichao, director of the China History Museum, published an article entitled "Discussion on the Ownership of Ancient 'Xirong' and 'Qiang' and 'Hu' Cultures" in the inaugural issue of the Journal of the Qinghai Archaeological Society, pointing out: "Combining the Anguo type, the Siwa culture, and the Cayo culture, the relationship between them and their unique characteristics shows that they are all Qiang cultures." ...... The Tangwang and Xindian cultures in the Huangshui area, according to their geographical outlook, should obviously still be the cultural relics of the Qiang people. ...... Perhaps the more developed Majiayao, Mid-Levels, Horse Factory types, and Qijia culture are the pioneers of some of the earlier Qiang cultures. His point of view is very clear, and the main prehistoric cultural relics in the Ganqing area are regarded as the cultural relics of the Qiang people.
The main burial methods of the Qiang people are cremation, earth burial, water burial and rock burial. Among them, cremation is the oldest traditional burial custom, which is still used by the Qiang people today. The Mozi Festival Burial Chapter, volume VI: "Whoever has a kingdom of righteous canals in the west of Qin dies, gathers firewood and burns them, smokes them, and calls them to ascend, and then becomes a filial piety." Volume XIX of the Xunzi Outline: "The people of the Qiang Dynasty, their captives, do not worry about their tiredness, but worry about them not burning." Qing Jiaqing's "Wenzhi Jiluo" has "Death and fire, pick up bones to hide it." Volume 94 of the Taiping Imperial Records of the Four Yibu cites Zhuangzi as saying: "When the Qiang people die, they burn and raise their ashes." The Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Biography of the Southern Manchu Southwest Yi, vol. 68: "Ran Yi Qishan has six Yi, seven Qiang, and nine qi, each with its own tribe... If he dies, he burns his body. The Old Book of Tang and the Biography of Dang Xiang, vol. 198: Dang Xiang Qiang people "died and burned their bodies, called cremation." ”
Another important reason for the Qiang cremation was war. From the Shang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, successive feudal dynasties have continuously suppressed the Qiang people, and the Qiang people have also resisted continuously, and the continuous wars have made the Qiang people displaced and displaced, and there is no place to live, and the Qiang people are the most concerned people, and the soldiers who died in battle will never make them violent. In 1969, a seal of "General Broken Qiang" was unearthed from the Han Tomb No. 1 in Wuwei Leitai. In the military system of the Ming Dynasty, the chief military officer of the Gansu region was called the general, known as the General of Pingqiang. The Ming Dynasty's Gansu General Soldiers, Shanhaiguan General Soldiers, Jizhen General Soldiers, Zuo Du Governor, and Shangzhu Guoguanglu Grand General Yang Jiamu (正一品武官) were direct descendants of the Northern Song Dynasty Lieutenant, Datong Army JieduShi Envoy, and general Yang Ye Yang Jiajian, who was known as the "Golden Sword Linggong", and once hung the seal of "Pingqiang General". Qi Bingzhong (1573-1622), a native of Mingxining (now part of Qinghai), was a chinese poet. Tu nationality. In the nineteenth year of the Wanli Calendar (1591), he succeeded his father Shixun to command tongzhi. Forty-four years as Yongchang staff general, Liangzhou deputy commander-in-chief, but also hung the "Pingqiang General" seal. It can be seen that from the Han Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the Qiang people have always existed in Gansu and played an important role.
In the eyes of the Qiang people, fire is a symbol of light and has the magic power to ward off evil spirits. Therefore, when burying these brave warriors who died in battle, the method of cremation was naturally adopted, one is to comfort the soul of the deceased, the second is to make the soul of the deceased go home, and the third is to show the respect and respect of the Qiang people for the war dead. Under the historical background of resisting foreign humiliation and protecting the basic right to life of the nation, the Qiang gradually formed the martial concept of "taking death in battle as auspicious and illness as ominous" in the continuous battle. Yuan Hong's "Later Han Dynasty" said of XiQiang: "Men who died were famous, and thought they were auspicious." "Cremation has been given a sacred aura by the cruel war that has existed in the outside world for a long time, and has become a traditional burial custom of the Qiang people.
Schematic map of the distribution of ancient ethnic minorities
Two. Tianzhu copper yak unearthed Qiang crematorium
In 1981, Zhong Changfa, deputy director of the Wuwei Regional Museum, published an article entitled "Large Copper Yak Unearthed in Tianzhu County, Gansu Province" in the 11th issue of Cultural Relics magazine. Gansu Tianzhu County and Qinghai Mutual Aid County are only separated by one river, with a neighboring length of more than 20 kilometers. It is understood that this was discovered by members of the Yaogou Production Team of the Friendship Brigade of Haxi Commune in this county when they were in a flat field on a slope. About three or four miles to the south of the village, there is a large mountain, the mountain is green with greenery, and the Haxi River originates from this mountain.
The situation of the earth pit: it is a long groove in the east-west direction, with the west end of the village road and the east end of the cliff. About half a person deep, rough excavation, width and narrowness, depth and depth, not regular, hasty excavation and burial traces are obvious. The pit was leveled in June 1972 and used as a wheat farm for many years by the production team, and later converted into a production team feeding yard. The location of the pit was originally far from the villagers' courtyard, where some families built houses in the 1990s, and now they are covered by a courtyard. The south of the pit was later built with several courtyards, and the courtyards were connected by partition walls.
Soil layer: The soil bag and soil trough are all yellow and white gravel soil of the same color, and are not artificially rammed. The upper part of the soil package is very hard, the pickaxe is very laborious, seven high and eight low, and the signs of random accumulation are obvious. The soil of the trough is slightly soft and belongs to artificial landfill. The upper hard layer of the soil package belongs to the rainwater infiltration plate knot, and the soil layer of the lower part of the soil package and the soil trough layer are naturally implemented, and no traces of water accumulation and water erosion are found in the soil trough.
1 piece of copper yak and 2 pieces of copper horse excavated from the same pit are about the same size. A large yak bronze vessel unearthed is 1.18 meters long, its height is 0.7 meters, its abdominal diameter is 0.3 meters, its back height is 0.51 meters, its horn length is 0.4 meters, and its weight is 75 kilograms. They were all buried in 1972 on the "Xia MenTai" in Haxi Town, Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County. Try to see the "pit circumference": here is the southern foothills of Mount Ebo, where the east pillow cliff of the big pit of copper yaks was excavated, and the bottom of the cliff is a crop field. The cliffs are oriented in a north-south direction, such as a wall, and can be four feet high. A hundred steps away from the cliff is the Haxi River, which flows from south to north. According to the old people, the pit cliff under the north direction of about ten steps, and then turn east to about eight or nine steps away from the cliff, originally a large ditch, the water often penetrates, do not know its depth and breadth, because it often fell cattle and sheep after being flat destroyed, is now a crop field. Dong Hong believes that this is obviously a natural place for "water burial". The pit is about twenty steps south of the cliff head, and there is an earthen hole on the half cliff, which is full of burning ashes, and in the 1960s and 1970s, the ash was taken out for agricultural fertilizer, and the soil hole was buried. Dong Hong believes that this is obviously a place for "water burial". The location of the cave is now next to the farm yard. More than ten steps south from the cave, there is another earth pit under the cliff, which is also filled with burning ashes, and there are still traces. Dong Hong believes that this is obviously a trace left after the "cremation", and the "Xia MenTai" belongs to the "cremation platform" of the Qiang ethnic group.
About two or three miles across the Haxi River, there is a village called Xitan Village, and at the mouth of the village there is a cliff platform named Tai temple, which was originally a temple. The temple and the temple were demolished in 1958 when the bricks were removed during the "great steel smelting", and the type and age of the bricks under the foundation and the bricks and stones under the wall were obviously different when they were demolished. In 1958 and later, in the "Hirata Land Preparation", piles of human skulls were dug up around the temple cliff platform, and the human skulls were stacked and arranged. Xitan Village and the nearby Tuanjie Village and several other villages in the area, far and near, to the square farmland, hillsides, ravines continue to dig out into pits into pits of headless white bones, ash pits, until the 1980s, the total number of no less than a few thousand.
When the small temple was demolished in 1958 and rebuilt in the 1990s, many copper coins were unearthed, and the copper coins were slagged into slag, and there were also a few intact copper coins from later generations. The village was originally named a name as unpleasant as a mass grave, so it was renamed Xitan Village in 1958. Just across the river, the side of the Seven Groups of Friendship has not dug out anything in decades.
The Travels of Marco Polo records the custom of burning the corpses of the Xiangqiang people of the Western Xia Dynasty: "Before the burning, the relatives of the deceased built a wooden house in the way of the coffin, and carried gold brocade. When the coffin passes through this house, the people in the house offer wine, meat and other food in front of the corpse, and cover the time when the deceased enjoys it in the world as if they were alive. At the place where the body was cremated, relatives and others prepared paper, horses, camels, coins and the corpse together. According to Yun, the deceased in the next life will therefore have slaves, livestock, money, etc., if the number of burns. When the coffin is traveling, all musical instruments are played. Dong Hong believes that the small temple on the "temple cliff platform" should have been built by the Saban reform sect in the Yuan Dynasty, and before that, the platform also belonged to the "cremation platform" of the Qiang people. The "paper-tied people, horses, camels, and coins" used in "cremation" belong to the "burning sacrifice" items, so the "burning sacrifice" unlocks the secret of the "death as life" use of the copper yak and its two copper horses "buried sacrifice".
Manidui Obo at the top of Maomao Mountain in Tianzhu County (1)
"Ao Bao" is a Mongolian word meaning "heap", which is also translated as "brain bag" and "Obo", which means wood, stone and mound. It is a "stone pile", "mound" or "wooden block pile" made of artificial piles. In the old days, it was found all over Mongolia, mostly made of stone or sand and soil, and some were made of branches, but now the number has been greatly reduced.
The Mongolian Ao Bao is made of stone blocks, generally built on the top of the mountain or on the hill, and the shape is mostly conical, with different heights. Ao Bao is the main carrier of Mongolian sacrifice, because the gods of heaven and earth have no idols, the Mongolian people use the pile Ao Bao as a symbol and become a national worship object.
The Mongolian people have a long history of worshipping Ao Bao, and the content of its sacrifice is very rich. The shamanism of the Mongol nation worships the blue sky. In the minds of the Mongols, there is indeed a supreme deity, that is, the "Immortal Heaven", which the Mongols have given it great divine power. Volume 72 of the "History of the Yuan" has a record of the custom of offering sacrifices to the heavens: "Yuan Xing Shuo Desert, there is a ceremony of worshiping the heavens. The crown is still in quality, the sacrifice vessel is still pure, the emperor is close to him, and the clan relatives help the sacrifice, and its meaning is deep and ancient, and the newspaper is the opposite, out of nature, not strong. ”
In the ancient Mongol conception, heaven and earth were one and the same, believing that heaven gave life to man and earth gave man form, so they honored heaven as the father of compassion and benevolence, and the earth as "the mother of goodness." They also worship the mountains, they worship the rivers, and they think that all this is ruled by the gods.
Because the Mongols worshiped all things as gods, and thus also worshiped mountains and rivers and other parts of the land or the gods who controlled this part, this holy place could be divided into two categories: common and individual. This other holy place is called Ao Bao. Therefore, the sacrifice of Ao Bao is not a single sacrifice heaven or place of sacrifice. Matsuri Ao Bao is a comprehensive concept that worships various gods.
This sacred place was built by each clan on their own territory, and it originated in clan society. It has the meaning of the landscape of this piece of heaven and earth left by the ancestors, so it is a representation of the ancestral homeland. The Mongolian word for surname is derived from the word Ao Bao.
The Ao Bao of The Inner Mongolia Wushen Banner, such as Hadhen, Agurjin, Harred, and Chahar, which are enshrined in the clan unit, are enshrined in the names of the thirteen clans of the Wushen Banner, so the Ao Bao is the symbol of the clan and the deformation of the flag emblem.
There is also a saying about the origin of Ao Bao, in ancient times, the vast grassland, vast and boundless, heaven and earth are connected, the direction is not easy to distinguish, the road is difficult to confirm, the boundary is easy to blur, so people have thought of a way, piles of stones, as a sign.
Ao Bao yuan refers to stone piles or mounds marked by stones or dirt at nomadic junctions and roads. As recorded in the "Qinghui Code": Mongolia; the place where nomadic borders, no mountains and no rivers are the aspirants, and the stones are the zhi, which is called Ao Bao. Later, it was gradually regarded as the dwelling place of the gods, and was sacrificed and enshrined as a worship object. As a result, the original boundary signs and road signs have become places to worship gods such as mountain gods, road gods, and village protection gods, and can be built according to needs.
The Ao Bao worship was originally a god of nature, and later included the deity of the ancestors. In short, Ao Bao became the dwelling place of the gods. Ao Bao became the protector of a certain clan, a certain Sumu, and a certain area. Fang Guancheng's "Miscellaneous Records of the Army" Cloud: High on the peak ridge, the accumulation of stones into a tomb, the name of Obo, said to be the dwelling of the gods; Ji Yun's "Urumqi Miscellaneous Records" Cloud: Obo, the rubble of stones for the gods, so it is a sacred place for people to worship.
Manidui Obo at the top of Maomao Mountain in Tianzhu County (II)
3. The mysterious ritual of "Cai'ebo"
In ancient times, people engaged in political and religious activities such as measuring the heavens, worshipping the gods of heaven and earth, and praying for rain and agriculture on the altar, which was an extremely sacred place to communicate with heaven and man. The "society" is generally built on an altar or on a hill, and such an altar is called a "social altar".
According to Zheng Xuan's annotation to the sentence "Sacrifice the mountains and rivers to the forest ze with the tanuki" in the "Zhou Li Dazongbo", in ancient times, people sacrificed the gods in two ways: when offering mountains and rivers, they buried the sacrifices in the ground, called "buried sacrifices"; when offering rivers, they had to sink the sacrifices into the water, called "sinking sacrifices". Bury the sacrifice also, increase the cattle and enjoy the sheep feeding. The "Chinese" records: "The monarch has the cattle to enjoy, the doctor has the sheep to feed, the soldier has the foundation of the guinea pig, and the common man has the recommendation of the fish." ”
The son of Heaven will shoot his own cattle, and the queen will shoot his cattle, and the queen will shoot herself, and the princes and temples will shoot their cattle, cut sheep, and strike the pigs, and the lady will take advantage of it. According to the "Salt and Iron Treatise on Scattered Deficiencies", "The ancients, the sacrifice of the mermaids, and the spring and autumn repaired their shrines." The first temple of the priest, the third doctor, the time has something to do in the five worships, and there is no sacrifice to go out. Nowadays, the rich people pray for the name of Yue, look at the mountains and rivers, vertebrae ox drumming, drama and advocating statues, the middle ones Nanju Dang Road, the water cloud platform, the slaughter of sheep and dogs, the drums blowing sheng. The poor chickens are five fangs, wei bao scattered wax, and the social field is covered. This means that in ancient times, the common people sacrificed fish and beans. In the spring and autumn, the ancestral temple is repaired, the priest has an ancestral temple, and the doctor has three ancestral temples, and he engages in five kinds of sacrifice activities on time, and there is no sacrifice outside the family gate. Now, the rich sacrifices worship the famous mountains and rivers, beat drums and kill cattle, and act and play puppets. Intermediate sacrifices are built on the main road to the south, high platforms are set up on the water, sheep are slaughtered, musical instruments are played, and the poor people use chickens and pigs to pray for blessings, and distribute sacrificial meat, and during the sacrifice, the car cover is like a cloud, crowding the community. Not only the famous mountain is sacrificed, but also the ancestors are sacrificed in the tomb, and the vertebrae are also sacrificed as sacrifices.
Tianzhu County is located at the confluence of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Loess Plateau and the Inner Mongolian Plateau. Maomao Mountain, called Amigai Nian in Tibetan, is the name of the mountain god, and was historically called Bumao Mountain, Watershed, Mumao Mountain. At an altitude of 4,070 meters, the summit has a huge Obo (prayer flag mani pile for sacrifice) to climb Maomao Mountain, which can view the West Tiantan Grassland in the north and the County seat of Tianzhu in the south. The Mao Mao Snow Mountain is like a dragon lying on the ground, with its neck arched and its back, infinitely vast. Every year from September to May, covered with several meters of ice and snow, it looks like a silver snake dancing wildly, magnificent and holy, and the local residents worship it as a sacred mountain, and they must sacrifice and worship on every auspicious day. At the turn of spring and summer, the snow line moves, and the cracks in the bare rocks of the mountain, but the smell of flowing water is babbling, and there is no su lian shen yun. On the mountainside, the bushes are overgrown, lush and airtight. Immediately following the bushes grow a large area of primeval forest, with ancient trees and branches, shading the sky and the sun, which is spectacular. The autumn wind blows, the sunny slope is a mess, and the red wild fruits are hanging from the branches, as brilliant as the sunset in the sky. There are snow lotus flowers on the top of the mountain, which is unique and becomes the queen of mountain flowers. In the mountains and forests, there are roe deer, roe deer, wolves, foxes, hares and other animals from time to time, as well as blue horse chickens, pheasants, eagle vultures, larks, snow chickens and other birds. A variety of Chinese herbal medicines are in the mountains and wild, including Qianghuo, Yellow Cedar, Sand Ginseng, Astragalus, Chai Hu, Dang Ginseng, Qin Gang, Tanggu la Ruixiang, Cordyceps sinensis, Shellfish, Half Summer, Jing mustard and other production is considerable. Forest by-product resources are also very rich, sea buckthorn, mushrooms, strawberries, fungus, wild roses, morel vegetables and other mountain delicacies, making people feel salivating, lingering, the entire forest area is a treasure house.
Dong Hong believes that it was originally a sign of the road and realm made of stones by people in the vast grassland, and later gradually evolved into a symbol of worshiping mountain gods, road gods, and praying for a good harvest and happiness and peace for their families. The ritual of offering "Cai Ebo" in You'ai Village, Haxi Town, Tianzhu County, is a custom formed by the Mongols after the Yuan Dynasty unified China. Judging from the bronze artifacts excavated from the Sanxingdui site, the "buried sacrifice" of copper yaks and two bronze horses in Tianzhu Haxi Town shows that the objects of sacrifice exceed the treatment of ordinary people, and there has never been an emperor here, nor has an imperial palace been built, and it is obvious that the copper yak is an item for the sacrifice of "Obo Mountain" (Maomao Mountain).
Copper masks unearthed from Guanghan Sanxingdui in Sichuan Province
Four. Copper yak and Sanxingdui culture are of the same origin
The Shu Kingdom has a long history, originally founded in the Xia Shang Dynasty, and perished in the late Warring States period, which continued for more than 1500 years. The earliest Shu king Silkworm Cong clan was originally a mountain tribe, a branch of the ancient Qiang tribe. The Sanxingdui civilization shocked the world because people saw the unprecedented height of this civilization, not only relying on legends, documents or deliberate exaggerations, but relying on real archaeological excavation artifacts. So many large bronzes, so many exquisite jade tools, so many precious gold tools, all in a "remote" ancient cultural site called Shu, it is indeed a miracle!
According to some records, the origin of the descendants of Yanhuang actually comes from two important ethnic groups in the ancient period of China, one is the ancient Huaxia tribe, and the other is the ancient Qiang ethnic group. After thousands of years of absorption and integration, the Huaxia ethnic group has gradually transformed into the main ethnic group of the Chinese nation, the Han nationality. After thousands of years of historical evolution, the ancient Qiang people have become important members of the Han people through differentiation and integration, and some of them have become important members of the Han people; more are gradually differentiated and become an important source of more than a dozen independent ethnic groups today, and the ethnic history of these ethnic groups has maintained close ties with the ancient Qiang people. As the famous sociologist Mr. Fei Xiaotong said: The Qiang people are a nation that transfuses blood outwards, and many ethnic groups have the blood of the Qiang people.
The study of Sanxingdui culture is Chinese archaeology and an important topic in Chinese cultural history. However, due to the confusion of the magic of Sanxingdui's cultural outlook and cultural origin, it has also brought great difficulties to scholars' understanding and research. It is difficult to study and explore the ethnic and cultural origins of the Sanxingdui culture. Due to the diversity and complexity of the cultural ecosystem in the Bashu region in history, the diversity and complexity of ethnic origins, especially the long-term ethnic exchanges, ethnic migration and cultural oscillations, it is still difficult for people to sort out the ethnic relations within Bashu.
Historian Li Xueqin once said: "A series of core questions and mysteries in the early days of Chinese history and culture probably had to be solved in Gansu. "It should be said that the area around the Dadiwan ruins in eastern Gansu and the Hexi Corridor in western Gansu are areas that must be paid attention to. Mr. Deng Shaoqin, former deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Museum, believes that the "Shu Xian Silkworm Cong Clan" contained in the "Benji of the King of Shu" and the "Huayang Guozhi" originated from the Qiang and Qiang tribes in the Hehuang River Basin of Qinghai, Gansu, and both belong to the Sino-Tibetan language family, which confirms Dong Hong's conclusion that the Tianzhu bronze yak and the Sanxingdui bronze are "of the same family". At the same time, the two "cremation platforms" of "Xia Men Tai" and "Si Ya Tai" in Tianzhu Haxi Town, Gansu Province, have provided new evidence for the origin of Sanxingdui culture from the ancient Qiang people, and deepened people's understanding of the importance of building the "Tibetan Qiang Yi Cultural Industry Corridor".