Basic Introduction Chinese Name: Bayu Symbol Nickname: Bayu hieroglyphics and characters unearthed in Sichuan Province, China: introduction of artifacts, history and research from the Warring States Period to the early Western Han Dynasty. Introduction Bayu symbol refers to a stereotyped hieroglyph cast or carved by the ancient Bayu indigenous people on objects (mainly bronzes, but also a few lacquerware and pottery) or seals, and is a manifestation of the ancient Bayu cultural system. Ancient Chinese characters found in Bashu area can be divided into two categories: one is graphic symbols, that is, palms, flower stems, water waves, houses, heads, tigers, birds and cicadas, etc. In addition, it is a kind of written symbol, a few of which are consistent with the Central Plains characters, and most of them have not been interpreted so far. Bashu symbol refers to the former, while Bashu script is developed on the basis of Bashu symbol, so Bashu symbol is older than Bashu script. Many Bashu symbols, such as mask pattern, sacred tree pattern, eye pattern, hand pattern, heart pattern, Zhang pattern and Ge pattern, still have the original witchcraft color of Shamanism. These symbols can't be read one by one. Only when these graphic symbols form a set of specific "symbols" can they have meaning, and this meaning can only be explained by the parties. These inexplicable explanations are ". Are they words? Is it a family emblem? Is this a painting? Or is it a specific symbol, that is, a religious symbol in a certain region? Or, some have literal meaning? People disagree and can't reach an agreement. Because there are few artifacts with "Bashu symbol" unearthed and there is no record in historical documents, the "Bashu symbol" has never been cracked. Bashu symbols are mainly distributed on bronze weapons, musical instruments, seals and other objects, of which more than 90% are carved on bronze weapons by carving. The seal of "Ba Shu Fu" is relatively rare, and it is only unearthed in the tombs of senior officials such as Wang, Hou and General. More than 200 meaningful combinations of Bashu symbols have been found, and thousands of articles with "Bashu symbols" have also been found. Typical Bashu symbols include tiger pattern, palm pattern and flower pedicle pattern, and the most common ones are tiger, turtle, peacock and flower pedicle pattern. The combination of these figures and symbols does not pay attention to rhythm or symmetry, and they have more profound significance than decorative patterns. The "Bashu symbol" in historical Sichuan appeared in the Western Zhou Dynasty and was popular in the Warring States Period. It is inferred that Bashu symbols may have originated in the enlightened dynasty of ancient Shu. More than 200 kinds of Bashu symbols have been discovered, from the Western Zhou Dynasty in the 9th century BC to the Western Han Dynasty in the 1 century BC, which lasted for 800 years. According to documents, ancient Shu people wrote books and made biographies in the Six Kingdoms period. Although it was rare, it stayed after all. Many scholars believe that Shan Hai Jing was preserved by this ancient symbol. After Qin unified the six countries, "Bashu symbols" and "Bashu characters" were abolished. About 192 1 years ago, nearly a thousand ancient bronzes with Bashu symbols were unearthed in Baima Temple and Tan Jun Temple in the northern suburb of Chengdu. This is the first batch of cultural relics about Bashu symbols. When they were discovered, they were looted and later distributed to collectors. Collectors have studied these bronzes with mysterious symbols and think that they are cultural relics of the Central Plains in the Xia Dynasty, and those symbols may be their long-awaited Xia Dynasty characters. This view was not clarified until the 1940s. These ancient bronzes were collected by Mr. Juxian Wei. 1942, he published a batch of materials in Shuowen magazine, thinking that these bronzes were Ba-Shu cultural relics in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and put forward the concept of "Ba-Shu culture", which was the earliest public record of Ba-Shu symbols. As for the symbols or patterns left by ancient Shu people on bronzes, it was not until the 1980s that they were officially named as "Bashu symbols". Since then, archaeologists have discovered bronze ge and seals engraved with symbols, and these symbols with the same characters have also been included in the category of "Bashu symbols". So far, archaeologists have found at least 300 different characters on bronze weapons, musical instruments, ritual vessels and various seals and lacquerware. However, these symbols are rarely deciphered by later generations. Because the shape of "Bashu symbol" is very similar to decorative symbols, it was not regarded as words at first. With the progress of archaeological work, more and more similar symbols have been found, and people realize that they are not simple patterns, but may be an ancient Chinese character used by the ancestors of Bashu. In the 1950s, due to the excavation of coffins in eastern Sichuan, a large number of symbols different from the Chinese language and writing system in the Central Plains were found on the unearthed bronzes and bronze seals. In 1970s, bronze inscriptions were discovered in the east and west of Sichuan Plain. In the 1950s and 1970s, the academic circles put forward the concepts of "Bashu symbols", and Wang Jiayou collected more than 300 symbols for this purpose. At that time, it was generally believed that these language symbols were created by Ba people in eastern Sichuan, and they still hold the view that there is no writing in Shu. However, Meng believes that the characters in Chengdu were developed in the early Han Dynasty, and great writers emerged one after another, thus inferring that Shu people should have characters. However, the deciphering of Bashu symbols still makes it difficult for scholars to start, and the study of Bashu symbols was once difficult to open up the situation. The three bronze seals with the same structure and shape unearthed from Tomb No.50, Dongsunba, Baxian County in 1954, recorded in the Report on the Excavation of Ship Coffin Funeral in Sichuan Province, may make experts who study ancient Shu characters see a ray of precious light. Among the three rectangular bronze seals, two are Chinese characters "Renzhong" and the other is a Bashu symbol, which looks like a bunch on top and two tadpoles lined up on the bottom. Some scholars have pointed out that the upper bunch of tadpoles corresponds to the Chinese character "Ren Zhong", and the lower two tadpoles represent "Ren". If this speculation is correct, these three bronze seals are likely to be a starting point to unlock the Bashu symbols. According to the excavation report of Sichuan coffin burial published by 1960, there are two kinds of Bashu characters, one is a symbol, and the other is similar to Chinese characters instead of Chinese characters. Tong published an article in 1976, giving a scientific explanation of the latter writing. 1982, Li Xueqin published an article, which divided Bashu characters into two categories, A and B, and considered them all characters. Wang Jiayou and Li Fuhua published an article in 1984, arguing that Bashu symbols have the function of conveying messages by pictures, and put forward that Bashu characters are related to Xia, which is the culture of Xiling, the grandmother's home of Xia people. These works have prepared the conditions for the emergence of a new * * * in the study of Bashu characters. 1988, Qian published the article "There are Pinyin Characters in Ancient Shu", which initiated the view that Bashu symbols are actually Pinyin characters, and believed that Bashu characters were related to ancient Yi characters. Later, it provided a further supplementary argument for this view. This new view has aroused heated discussion, and Wei Xuefeng and Liu Zhiyi have written articles questioning and opposing this view. Many newly unearthed archaeological materials deny the view that ancient Shu had no writing. Lin Pi revealed the inscription number on Sanxingdui pottery, and both the Sanxingdui Excavation Report and the Chengdu Twelve Bridges Site Briefing published the inscription symbols and written materials unearthed from the site, which contributed to the emergence of new archaeological achievements in Sanxingdui. Duan Yu published a paper in 199 1, pointing out that there are not only two types of Bashu characters, but also traces of their origins can be found in Shang Dynasty, and that Bashu characters originated in Shu and later spread to eastern Sichuan, becoming popular characters in Bashu area. Other archaeologists don't think so They think that "Bashu symbol" is not a kind of writing. Some people think that "Bashu symbol" is a kind of picture semantic symbol that understands its meaning by looking at images, and it is a "cartoon" without text explanation. Sun Hua, vice president of Peking University Wenbo College and a famous archaeologist, believes that it is no accident that "Bashu symbol" appears on many weapons. Therefore, the "Bashu symbol" is an auspicious symbol with primitive witchcraft color, not a text. The purpose of casting this auspicious symbol on weapons is probably to protect users, prevent users from being hurt, give users strength and courage, and inspire users to fight bravely. In his view, the number and types of "Bashu symbols" are too few, and there is still a big gap from the words that can record the language. Some archaeologists believe that the ancient Shu people wanted to express their respect and nostalgia for the ancient Shu king through Bashu symbols, which were engraved on bronzes and seals and passed down from generation to generation in an almost mysterious way. Others believe that Bashu symbols and Mayan languages come from the same source. Through research, Mr. Wang Dayou found that the symbols in Bashu and Mayan languages have similar symbols and combinations. Tujia people are descendants of Ba people, and there is a complete legend of Fuxi pushing gossip, Nu Wa creating human beings and the great flood. The oldest civilization factor of Indians is also Tai Hao culture-Tai Chi, Eight Diagrams, Fusang Altar, Dragon and Phoenix, and sun worship ... In this sense, the Bashu symbol is likely to have a similar origin to Maya ... Through the unremitting efforts of scholars of all ages, the mysterious Bashu symbol seems to have gradually revealed the tip of the iceberg. Scholar Qian claimed to have read the word "Chengdu"; Feng speculated that Chinese characters and Bashu symbols were popular in Sichuan at the same time, and Chinese characters also borrowed Bashu symbols; It is also said that Confucius' thought of "benevolence" can be seen from this ... the cracking of Bashu symbols seems to be close at hand. Although the above viewpoints are still inconsistent, ancient Bashu does have characters, which has become a generally accepted conclusion in academic circles. Many linguists are still engaged in interpreting these words. The mainstream view holds that "Bashu symbol" is a tool, family emblem, totem or religious symbol used by Bashu ancestors to record language, a hieroglyph and the embryonic form of Bashu characters.