The impression of Chinese civilization in the past is that the Central Plains is a unique "moon and star rare" pattern, but Chinese civilization has been an inclusive style since ancient times, and some scholars have said that Chinese civilization is actually a pattern of "full of stars and buckets", and it is a variety of civilizations that have created Chinese civilization together.
Image from Sanxingdui Museum
Strong support for this "starry sky" claim is the Sanxingdui site.
01
What is Sanxingdui
Sanxingdui site is located in the northwest of Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, on the south bank of the Yazi River, the distribution area of about 12 square kilometers, the top of Sanxingdui originally had three undulating and connected mounds, about 10 meters wide, because of the Moon Bay Terrace on the north bank of the Mamu River across the river, Qing Jiaqing 'Hanzhou Zhi · Shan Chuan Zhi" has the reputation of "three stars with the moon".
The Sanxingdui site was inadvertently discovered in 1929, and the first excavation was carried out in 1931, but due to conditions, it ended after lasting more than ten days and unearthing more than 600 pieces of jade and pottery, and the excavation work has been at a standstill until the excavation of the No. 1 and No. 2 sacrificial pits in the spring of 1986, which finally made Sanxingdui a world-class archaeological discovery that shocked the world after thousands of years of sleep.
02
Sanxingdui has some amazing treasures
The thousands of precious cultural relics that have been unearthed are all valuable cultural heritage of mankind, and can be called one of the most historical, scientific, cultural, artistic and ornamental cultural relics in China.
Among them, there are 2.62 meters high bronze da liren, 1.38 meters wide bronze masks, and 3.95 meters high bronze sacred trees, all of which can be called unique gods. The gold ware represented by the golden staff and the jade ware represented by the edge zhang full of patterns are also rare treasures that have never been seen before.
Bronze Da Li Ren
The face is characterized by a high nose, thick eyebrows, large eyes, and a broad mouth, with obliquely erect eyes, large ears, and a perforation on the earlobe. There is a hairline at the back of the head. The figure is thin and tall, with thick and exaggerated arms and hands, and the two hands are in the shape of a hug.
The whole body is inlaid by the segmented casting method, the body is hollow, and it is divided into two parts: portrait and base. The portrait wears a high crown on the head, wears a three-layered coat with narrow sleeves and half arms, and the ornamentation on the clothes is intricate and exquisite, mainly dragon patterns, supplemented by bird patterns, insect patterns and eye patterns, and wears checkered belt ornaments. Its hands are hollow in the shape of a ring, and its arms are slightly wrapped around the chest. Wearing a foot bracelet on his feet, he stands barefoot on a square monster seat, and the overall image is solemn.
This is the world's largest bronze standing figure found so far, with a height of 1 meter 72 meters, a seat height of 2.62 meters, and a weight of 180 kilograms, and is revered as the "King of The World's Bronze Statues".
Large bronze longitudinal mask
The mask is 1.38 meters wide, 80 centimeters high and weighs 100 kilograms, with an extremely exaggerated shape, resembling both a human and a monster, with towering ears and protruding eyeballs. Like the clairvoyant and tailwind ear in the mythological story, it is very vivid and mysterious.
What is particularly special is that there are four bronze heads with gold masks, these gold masks are pounded with gold nuggets into gold skin, and then shaped according to the human head, the upper and lower jaws are covered, the left and right sides are covered with ears, earlobes are perforated, the eyebrows are hollowed out, and the mask and the human head are blended with raw lacquer and lime as a glue, and the gold mask is firmly glued to the bronze head.
The appearance of the head portrait is also very peculiar, apricot-shaped standing eyes, garlic nose, lips tightly closed, slightly smiling, the face is plump and full, among the copper heads unearthed in Sanxingdui, the most realistic style.
Bronze Sacred Tree
After the restoration, the height of the remnants is nearly 4 meters, due to the missing parts at the top, the estimated full height is about 5 meters, and among all the bronze cultural relics unearthed on the mainland so far, this sacred tree is the largest one.
The trunk is straight and covered with three layers of branches. Three branches protrude from each layer, all sagging softly like willows, nine branches roughly the same, short branches protruding from the middle of the branches, with buds, each with a bird with its tail cocked, and a snake on the trunk that is about to snake down from the tree.
Da YuZhang
The length is 54.4 cm, the upper width is narrow, and the two sides of the shoot and the handle are engraved with two groups of patterns, each group includes 5 patterns, including people, mountains, water, and clouds, and each pattern is separated by two parallel lines, which seems to express the meaning of the mountain of water sacrifice.
Golden Wand
It is 1.42 meters long and 2.3 centimeters in diameter, wrapped in pounded gold leaf and wrapped in a wooden pole that has long since been carbonized, leaving only a complete net weight of about 500 grams of gold leaf. At one end of the golden staff, engraved with a pattern, it is divided into three groups. Near the end are two symmetrical heads, wearing five-toothed crowns, triangular earrings, and smiling heads.
The other two patterns are the same, with two birds with opposite ends at the top and two fish with opposite heads on their backs below. Their necks are stacked with a pattern that resembles an arrow, which is magnificent and abnormal.
03
Sanxingdui - the new origin of Chinese civilization?
Around Sanxingdui, archaeologists around the world have debated for decades, some people preconceived that like the twenty-eight houses, the concept of yin and yang, the lunar calendar, bronze casting technology, the products of these civilizations have long existed in West Asia before China, and the excavated cultural relics of Sanxingdui have many obvious differences with the Xia Shang culture in the Central Plains, so they also believe that the Sanxingdui civilization is from a foreign land, such as the West Asian civilization.
The image comes from the Internet
Ironically, however, if this inference holds, then there should have been a corresponding record in the literature of ancient Egypt or elsewhere, but so far no trace of such a record has been found, so this inference can only be imaginary without factual basis.
What's more, the history of civilization in the land of China is not just the development process of a single civilization center such as "Xia, Shang, and Zhou", but there are multiple civilization centers. Based on the rich archaeological results known, we can conclude a conclusive historical fact, that is, the Chinese civilization originated in many regions, and gradually converged into a powerful homogeneous civilization with its roughly common appearance.
Although the core of the Chinese civilization is the Yanhuang civilization in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, before that, many of these prehistoric civilizations have created brilliant results that are no less than the Xia Shang culture, and the Yanhuang civilization is also multi-point distribution and multiple origins.
Such as the Longshan culture, Yangshao culture, Erlitou culture in the Yellow River Basin, hongshan culture in western Liaoning, Qujialing culture and Hemudu culture in the Yangtze River Basin, the Xia Dynasty began in 2070 BC, and the Liangzhu civilization in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River confirmed that the Chinese civilization has a history of at least 5300 years, which is nearly a thousand years earlier than the Sanxingdui civilization...
Sanxingdui's civilization did not arise out of thin air, nor did it exist in isolation, it was a source of water, a tree with roots, an authentic Chinese civilization, and it was inextricably linked with other civilizations in these regions, although they may not exist in the same time and space.
Although Sanxingdui has disappeared, her cultural core has not completely dissipated, but through various channels, it has integrated into the rolling torrent of Chinese culture.
Of course, what cannot be ignored is that in the process of the convergence of ancient civilizations, the Yanhuang tribe played an absolutely leading role, and it is precisely under its continuous expansion and integration that the Chinese nation has created a prosperous situation in which the Yirong Barbarian Di clan has a common ancestor and a thousand surnames in the east, west, south, and north.
Diversity means compatibility, and compatibility often creates strong tension. It is precisely in the step-by-step compatibility that the Chinese civilization has formed a long and powerful vitality.
The world's four ancient civilizations, ancient Egypt, ancient Babylon, ancient India, ancient China, only China's civilization has not broken the line, maintained about 5,000 years of cultural heritage, this achievement is worthy of every Yanhuang descendants of pride and pride!
04
What other unsolved mysteries are sanxingdui
People have excavated Sanxingdui, an ancient civilization that has been sleeping for thousands of years, but it is as if they have walked into a labyrinth that spans time and space, and there are too many mysteries waiting to be solved one by one.
How did the ancient Shu kingdom appear, and why did it suddenly disappear? The ancient city of nearly 4 square kilometers suddenly became a ruin because of the huge flood? Was it because of the sudden foreign invasion? Is it because of civil unrest? Did the Sanxingdui civilization completely disappear along with the burial of these artifacts?
These exquisite cultural relics unearthed with superb craftsmanship, the shape and aesthetics are obviously different from the Xia Shang cultural relics in the Central Plains of the same era, bronze masks and portraits, high noses and deep eyes, prominent cheeks, wide mouth and large ears, the difference in appearance characteristics is so large that people feel incomprehensible and extremely mysterious.
Could it be that the Sanxingdui civilization is the result of fusion and hybridization with other regional civilizations? Or even from these civilizations?
Among the thousands of cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui, there are a large number of sea shells and ivory, which have many common characteristics with ancient South Asian civilizations, does this also show that the civilization of Sanxingdui is the result of overseas trade and cultural integration between the ancient Shu State and ancient India, ancient South Vietnam and other regions through the "Southwest Silk Road"?
What tools did the ancient Shu people who lived in Sanxingdui use for agricultural production? Where did they go to collect gold, copper and jade? How do they dig hard ore?
Who exactly created the Sanxingdui civilization? The ancient Shu people did not even have a decent script at that time, and such a brilliant and illuminated civilization was really created by them? If it wasn't for this civilization created by the ancient Shu people, then who brought this civilization here? Is the Sanxingdui civilization really a civilization from an alien planet?
The Sanxingdui site has only excavated more than 8,000 square meters of area so far, so what are the hidden secrets of other more unexplored places?
05
The infinite possibilities of Sanxingdui
On March 20, 2020, archaeologists restarted in-depth investigation, exploration and excavation of the Sanxingdui site, and in the newly discovered No. 5 pit, the Sanxingdui archaeological excavation unearthed a large number of gold artifacts, including a unique gold mask.
Compared with the gold masks unearthed in the First and Second Pits of the Sanxingdui site, the newly excavated gold masks are particularly thick and distinctive.
The Sanxingdui site is known as "one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of mankind in the 20th century", and it is the most mysterious star in the "starry sky" of Chinese civilization.
As for what kind of surprises the newly discovered 6 sacrificial pits will bring to us, I believe that all people will expect sanxingdui to "wake up and shock the world".