At the Hanging Spring Site in Gansu Province, archaeologists sifted out an important cultural relic with a sieve, which is a book and the earliest handwritten letter of the ancients. Through meticulous research, archaeologists have unexpectedly restored the real living conditions of the ancients. What's going on here? What is the content of this unearthed private book? If you want to know, let Xiaobian reveal the secret for you:
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In 1987, the Jiuquan District Cultural Relics Census Team received instructions from its superiors to carry out a carpet-style archaeological excavation near the sweet water well on the An dun Highway in Dunhuang City, Gansu Province, and found a huge Han Dynasty site in the operation, known as the "Hanging Spring Site".
By 1990, the Jiuquan District Cultural Relics Census Team officially carried out large-scale excavations of the hanging spring site, and excavated more than 30,000 cultural relics from it, including 15,000 bamboo tablets and 17,650 pieces of various physical objects, which greatly enriched the treasure house of cultural relics research in China's Han Dynasty. At the same time, the unique geographical location of the Hanging Spring Site is exactly the place where the ancient Silk Road must pass, so it has also been jointly applied for by China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and has been successfully included in the World Heritage List.
Archaeological excavation activities are not easy, archaeologists not only need to master sufficient professional knowledge, but also have a certain sense of patience and responsibility, otherwise it is easy to lose touch with precious cultural relics. When excavating the cultural relics of the Hanging Spring Site, archaeologists used the latest excavation technology to peel off the cultural relics little by little, so that the precious objects originally buried in the soil were revealed. As we mentioned earlier, there are more than 30,000 cultural relics excavated from the Hanging Spring Site, and each cultural relic needs to be manually cleaned, and the labor intensity of the archaeological experts can be imagined.
It is worth mentioning that when the excavation of cultural relics is over, all the soil where cultural relics have been buried will also be collected together for a powerful screening activity, which is called "sifting soil" by the cultural relics community. Every time the sieve soil in the archaeological activity, there can be a new discovery, because the small objects in the soil are often ignored by archaeologists, and these small objects may contain a lot of useful information. Sure enough, while sifting through the soil at the site of the Hanging Spring, archaeologists accidentally found a book folded into small pieces.
This book is a common plain book in the Han Dynasty, and the folding method is first horizontal two folds and then vertical three folds, because its folding degree is too tight, resulting in obvious handwriting on the plain book. Using advanced means, archaeologists carefully opened the book and found that the handwriting on it was clear and regular, and it was written for the subordinate. There are 10 lines of text on the plain, and each line varies from 44 characters to 6 characters, and only the last line is cursive calligraphy. According to experts, through the interpretation of the text on the su shuai, it can be clearly found that it is a private letter, a letter written by a border soldier named "Yuan" to his friend "Zifang". However, judging from its folding and entrainment method, it is likely that the letter did not reach its destination, but was lost near the suspension spring during transportation.
At this time, a question ensued, what was the content of this unearthed private letter? The letter mainly elaborates on three things, and we will explain them one by one below.
The first thing: "Huiyuan Dang from Tun Dunhuang, Lack of (鞜), Zi Fang knows also." Yuan is not from the outside, may the son Fang Xing buy a (鞜) one or two, silk Wei, two inches long; pen five, the good, Yuan Xing is even more. Money please so that the house belongs, do not dare to bear. May the son of Fang Be fortunate to pay attention to the fact that the Tsutomu (鞜) wants to get its thickness can be walked. The sub-party knows that the number of elements is troublesome, and it is difficult to be 鞜 (鞜). Luckily! Luckily! ”。 The general meaning is: Yuan indicated his identity in the army in Dunhuang and could not leave his post without authorization, so he asked The Zifang to help him buy a kind of shoe called "沓", because Dunhuang did not produce such shoes, and there were silk horses and five brushes that were one foot and two inches long.
The original text of the second thing: "Lü Zidu is willing to engrave the seal, do not dare to report, do not know the Yuan is not Xiao, so that the Yuan please Zi Fang, may the Zi Fang xing for the engraving of the royal history of the seven points of the seal one, turtle on, the seal: the seal of Lu An." Only the son of the party pay attention". Roughly speaking, it means: Yuan hopes that Zifang can carve a turtle seal by himself, which is a seven-inch square imperial history seal letter with the inscription "Seal of Lu An".
The original text of the third thing: "Those who send two hundred yuan to buy a whip sent by Lieutenant Guo Ying, may they be good at it, and they are willing to pay attention." The translation is: Yuan instructed Zifang not to forget the 200 money he sent, which belonged to "Guo Yingwei" and wanted to ask him to buy a whip of "Shanming (Loud)".
From this, we can find that the sub-party is likely to be a low-level official, who can not only read, but also freely engrave seals. Yuan himself was a warm-hearted person, and of the three things written in the private letter, two of the things entrusted by his friends were indeed commendable.
The excavation of the private letters of the Han Dynasty reflects the real living conditions of the Han Dynasty society, there are no flowery words in the letters, nor too many compliments, but it appears to be concise and concise, the words are simple, and it is an excellent source material for studying reality and social life in the Han Dynasty. Regrettably, however, the personal letter did not reach the recipient in the end, and the letter writer's wishes were frustrated, which cannot help but feel a little sad.
Wen xiucai, editor-in-chief of Wenlan Hairun Studio, written by: Special history writer: Changshan Zhao Zi worm