The hometown of "the lips are dead and the teeth are cold"
Guo was an important vassal state in the Western Zhou Dynasty. According to records, there were two vassal states at that time, which were given to Zhou Wenwang's two younger brothers, Guo Zhong and Guo Shu. Guo Guo, which was sealed by Guo Zhong, is located in Xingyang, Henan Province, and was called Dongguo in history. Guo Guo, who was sealed by Uncle Guo, was in Baoji, Shaanxi, and his name was Xiguo. Is Guo discovered in Sanmenxia Dongguo or Guo? According to the records of Guo Shu's fief, it is inferred that Guo found in Shangcunling is a member of the Xi Guo family who moved here with Pingping in the last weekend.
There is another well-known story about this country. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the State of Jin became increasingly strong and expanded its territory on a large scale. Guo was one of them. But there is a dangerous country between Jin and Guo, and the crusade against Guo must go through dangerous places. Some advisers suggested that Jin Xiangong take bribes to escape from the country, so Jin Xiangong acted according to the plan. Greedy Yu Guojun readily promised. "Doctor Yu" said: "Yu and Guo are as close as lips and teeth. After the destruction of the country, it must be the next one. " But the groggy monarch didn't listen to his advice. Sure enough, after the army of the State of Jin wiped out the State of Guo through the State of Yu, it seized the monarch of the State of Yu who personally greeted the State of Jin and wiped out the State of Yu. This is the story of "false danger destroys the enemy, and the lips are dead and the teeth are cold" recorded in Zuo Zhuan's Five Years of Xi Gong.
Although the archaeological excavations in 1950s found the tombs of the nobles of the State of Guo, they did not find the tombs of the monarch of the State of Guo. Exactly where the monarch's mausoleum is has become an unsolved mystery.
Suffer from wild poaching
1989, villagers in shangcunling began to build houses on a large scale more than 0/00 meters north of Guo cemetery discovered by archaeology in 1950s. Many residents here are employed by archaeological teams and know a little about archaeology. When treating the building foundation before construction, it is found that the soil in some places has special color and texture, showing square marks. They realized that it might be an ancient tomb, so they held the idea of "making a fortune and digging an ancient tomb" and stole a lot of cultural relics by drilling and digging holes.
The news that the jade hand dug up the treasure soon spread, and more people followed suit. Precious ancient tombs in the village were stolen one by one, and a large number of cultural relics dealers also entered Sanmenxia. The Millennium treasure is at stake! A large number of precious cultural relics attracted the attention of the police, and finally a group of criminals who stole and sold cultural relics were brought to justice. Subsequently, in order to rescue and protect these ancient tombs, the archaeological team once again stationed in Shangcunling. In this way, the prelude to a great discovery quietly opened.
After the robbery, I was shocked to see the world.
The tomb numbered M200 1 was cleared up first. This tomb is quite well preserved. It is a vertical cave tomb with a pit, 5.3 meters long, 3.55 meters wide and about 12 meters deep. The tomb wall is treated with cyan paint, which is smooth and bright. The burial tool is a wooden coffin, and the burial method is straight limb burial. The cultural relics found in the tomb include copper, iron, gold, jade, stone, pottery, bamboo, leather, hemp, etc., with a number of more than 3,200 pieces. Could this be the long-awaited monarch's tomb? With the continuous appearance of exquisite funerary objects, everyone's hearts began to be full of expectations.
Soon, the evidence appeared, and through careful cleaning, a bronze ritual vessel group consisting of 9 ding and 8 reed was found in the tomb. Ding and Gui were the most important bronze ritual vessels in the two-week period. They are symbols of power, sacred and inviolable, and their use follows a strict system. Chu Zhuangwang's Northern Expedition in the Spring and Autumn Period was recorded in Zuo Zhuan. It was considered extremely rude to ask the messenger of the Zhou Emperor about the weight of Jiuding used by the emperor. From the words "Ding Ding" and "Win Ding" handed down to this day, we can also see the importance these bronze ritual vessels received at that time. However, in the tomb of Guo Wang discovered in the 1950s, the ritual vessels with 7 pots and 6 reeds were used, so the tomb owner who could use 9 pots and 8 reeds for burial was undoubtedly in a higher position. It is almost certain that M200 1 is the tomb of the monarch of the State of Guo. The monarch who has been sleeping for many years has finally been awakened!
The dignity of the monarch is naturally extraordinary. The discovery of M200 1 is like opening a just visiting to the Zhou Dynasty, and amazing discoveries are coming.
Iron sword with copper handle: M200 1 More than 200 pieces of various weapons were unearthed, especially the iron sword with copper handle. The copper handle is inlaid with jade and turquoise, and the joint between the sword body and the handle is also inlaid with turquoise pieces. The iron sword body is wrapped in a layer of silk and then put into a sheath made of cowhide. This weapon is made of jade, copper and iron, which reflects the unique technology of China's early iron smelting products and is very precious. After testing, it is the earliest artificial iron smelting product confirmed in China. This great discovery advanced the era of artificial iron smelting in China to the late Western Zhou Dynasty.
Jade Cladding: M200 1 also unearthed a large number of jade articles, but the most mysterious thing is the jade cladding covering the face of the tomb owner. It is a set of masks made of jade pieces, with eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth shapes, covering the face of the tomb owner. The features of these jade articles look lifelike, as if the owner of the tomb was lying on his sofa, ready to speak. The ancients were convinced that jade contained the aura of heaven and earth and had mysterious power, so they covered the seven orifices of the deceased with jade when they were buried, in order to keep the soul of the deceased and protect the immortality of the body. Of course, this can only be a beautiful imagination, but this jade cover is the ancestor of later generations, and it has left an important mark in the history of jade and funeral in China.
In M200 1, gold belts, bronze bells and other treasures were unearthed, and the list goes on. M200 1 was rated as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China by 1990 because of its important archaeological relics and historical research value, and was called the "Oscar" in China archaeology. Unexpectedly, the next year, this laurel fell on the head of another tomb of Guo Jun, M 2009. The same site won the highest honor in archaeology twice, and for two consecutive years, which is not only unprecedented, but also hard-won.
M2009, like the vertical hole tomb in the earth pit, is in the north-south direction. Its scale ranks first among all tombs found in Guo Cemetery. Its tomb mouth is 5.6 meters long and 4.4 meters wide, with the bottom slightly larger than the tomb mouth, 6 meters long from north to south and 4.62 to 4.92 meters wide from east to west. The bottom of the tomb is19.3m deep from the surface. The walls of the tomb are specially decorated with light green pigments. The burial tool used in the tomb is a single coffin with a large coffin cover outside.
In 2009, more than 20 bronze ritual vessels 120 were unearthed, including 29 ding vessels. The two sets of bells unearthed are even more precious. The inscription above records that the tomb owner assisted Zhou to govern the world and manage his subjects before his death, and his status was even higher than that of M200 1. This clock is also the earliest two sets of chimes unearthed in archaeological excavations in China. M The jade unearthed in M2009 is rare in the archaeology of the Zhou Dynasty, because of its large quantity, complete variety, exquisite workmanship and excellent jade quality. Most of the 724 jade articles (groups) are masterpieces, such as dragon jade and blue gluttonous jade. The most exquisite jade articles are bionic animal jade carvings, such as mysterious jade dragon, fierce roaring jade tiger, spreading wings jade eagle, lively and lovely jade rabbit and so on.
Speculation on the identity of the tomb owner
The tomb has been opened, so which Guo monarch is buried in these two tombs? The unearthed bronze inscriptions are the most direct evidence. Several bronzes in M200 1 have the title of "Ji Guo", and correspondingly, a large number of inscriptions of "Guo Zhong" can be seen in M2009. So, the owners of these two tombs are Ji Guo and Guo Zhong respectively. But this did not finally solve our mystery, because in the Western Zhou Dynasty, Zhou implemented a strict patriarchal system, which was a way to show the closeness between the royal family and nobles. Among them, the eldest son is regarded as the "big head" of a family, that is, the main vein, and his brothers obey his collateral "small clan", which is passed down from generation to generation and passed down to the new family. An important manifestation of this system is the names used by nobles. On the name, you should not only indicate your family, that is, your surname, but also explain your close relationship with your family, that is, your ranking among brothers. Therefore, "Bo, Zhong, Shu and Ji" are generally chosen to represent order, which means that harmony actually has many positions in the Guo family. These terms are regarded as honorifics rather than names.
Can't you know exactly who the tomb owners of M200 1 and M2009 are? Scholars have made a detailed analysis of this. The idea is to judge their more accurate age through comprehensive study of tombs, and then compare them with literature records, so Guo Zhong and Ji Guo who lived around this period are undoubtedly the real tomb owners. Through analysis, Ji Guo, the tomb owner of M200 1, was probably the ruling minister Guo Wengong in the Zhou Xuanwang period, and his position was equivalent to that of the later prime minister. According to "Mandarin", he put forward his own ideas of governing the country to Wang Xuan many times. However, Guo Zhong, the owner of the tomb of M2009, may be the eldest son of Guo Gong, an important official who helped Zhou Liwang to conquer the south and allow foreigners. However, the movement against foreigners did not win, and the tyranny of King Lee made people more and more dissatisfied with him. Finally, he was driven out of the capital. The "Uprising in the Late Han Dynasty" was an important event in the history of China, and his father Guo was also recorded in the literature.
In fact, all the princes of Guo, including Duke Wen of Zhou and the eldest father of Duke Guo, were important ministers around the Emperor of Zhou in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, ranking above the general princes. Therefore, these two tombs are considered to be the tombs of Zhou nobles with the highest rank and the richest funerary objects.