-Sanxingdui Site
On the outskirts of Guanghan, Sichuan, there is a strange building similar to flying objects in space, with an oblique oval bottom and a conical main body, and ethereal music can be heard from a distance. This is a museum built for Sanxingdui site, the eighth wonder of the world.
Mysterious ancient Shu culture
-Sanxingdui Site
On the outskirts of Guanghan, Sichuan, there is a strange building similar to flying objects in space, with an oblique oval bottom and a conical main body, and ethereal music can be heard from a distance. This is a museum built for Sanxingdui site, the eighth wonder of the world.
Sanxingdui site is an ancient Shu cultural site dating from 5000 to 3000 years ago, with an area of 12 square kilometers. This is one of the major archaeological discoveries in China in the 20th century. Since the 1920s, Chinese and foreign archaeologists have carried out a lot of archaeological excavations and special studies, and discovered the ruins of city walls and a large number of exquisite cultural relics. The discovery of Sanxingdui ruins and cultural relics strongly proves the existence of the ancient Shu state three or four thousand years ago and the diversity of the origin of Chinese civilization. 1988 1 was announced by the State Council as a national key cultural relics protection unit.
There are three different but developing archaeological cultures in Sanxingdui site, namely, the first-stage culture represented by Zhixia site group in Longshan era in Chengdu Plain, also known as "Baodun culture"; The second stage culture represented by the large ancient city of Sanxingdui in Shang Dynasty and the highly developed bronze civilization; The culture from the end of Shang Dynasty to the beginning of Western Zhou Dynasty, represented by Sanxingdui, is the "Twelve Bridges Culture" in Chengdu.
In the second phase of Sanxingdui culture, the cultural characteristics of bronze civilization have always occupied a dominant position, and its influence has also exceeded the Chengdu Plain where the traditional ancient Shu kingdom was distributed, and spread to southern Shaanxi and Jianghan Plain. At the same time, the bronze civilization was strongly influenced by Xia and Shang civilizations in the Central Plains, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and southern Shaanxi civilizations, showing the strong cohesion and external extension of the ancient Shu civilization.
There are many mysteries in Sanxingdui site and its unearthed cultural relics. Archaeologists from all over the world have been arguing for more than half a century, but there are still many eternal mysteries that are still difficult to decipher. Many foreign media say that Sanxingdui site comes from the culture of "aliens".
A large number of precious cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui truly and strangely show us the splendid ancient Shu civilization. Among them, the most amazing and amazing are many bronze statues. These bronze statues are exquisitely cast and have different shapes, ranging from exaggerated shapes to exquisite and delicate portraits, which constitute a mysterious group in various ways.
There are three famous models of "clairvoyance and ears" in many bronze statues. They are not only huge, but also have eyeballs protruding from the eye sockets. Their ears are extremely exaggerated, they look like animals' ears, and their mouths are wide enough to make people feel an indescribable surprise and strangeness. And their lips kissed the triple corners of the mouth with a smile, giving people a sense of mystery and intimacy. The largest one is 65 cm high and 138 cm wide, with a cylindrical exophthalmos 16.5 cm. Another piece of the bridge of the nose is inlaid with an ornament as high as 66 cm, which is like a cirrus cloud pattern stretching into the sky and a dragon with a feathered tail and curly horns about to take off. Extremely grotesque, it adds a magnificent momentum and unbreakable meaning to this huge bronze face that combines the characteristics of man and beast.
Among all the archaeological discoveries in the world, the bronze sacred tree unearthed at Sanxingdui site is a unique and extremely wonderful artifact. The bronze sacred tree is divided into three layers, and nine sacred birds inhabit the branches. Obviously, it is a portrayal of "the next nine days of work." When unearthed, the top of the tree was broken and has not been restored. It is speculated that there should be a god bird symbolizing "living in the upper branch for a day". At the same time, the portrait of the head bird or the bronze bird standing on the bud unearthed may be it? The bronze sacred tree is full of luxuriant foliage, fruits and flowers, and there is a dragon climbing down from the top, which makes people wonder: What is the use of the ancient Shu people casting this bronze sacred tree full of magical imagination with extremely superb bronze craftsmanship and plastic arts?
Where does Sanxingdui culture come from? Is it developed by Sichuan alone, or is it the product of the influence of Central Plains culture, Jingchu culture or foreign cultures such as West Asia and Southeast Asia? What race are the residents of Sanxingdui site? What is the political nature and religious form of Sanxingdui ancient Shu State? How did the superb bronze smelting technology and bronze culture of Sanxingdui Bronze Group come into being? Why did Sanxingdui Ancient Shu Kingdom come into being, how long did it last, and why did it suddenly die out? What is the age and nature of the two pits where thousands of cultural relics were unearthed? One of the great mysteries of post-Shu culture is "Bashu Yu Tu". Are the symbols on the gold staff unearthed in Sanxingdui words, family emblems, pictures or some religious symbols? Interested friends may wish to crack it! □
◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆ Sanxingdui
North of Nanxing Town, Guanghan, Sichuan, the ancient Mamu River winds through and forms a crescent-shaped bend-Moon Bay in Sanxingdui Village. On the south bank of the river, facing it are three undulating loess piles, which are the "three-star moon piles" recorded in Hanzhouzhi during Jiaqing period of Qing Dynasty. This is the famous Sanxingdui site at home and abroad.
Sanxingdui site covers an area of 12 square kilometer, which is the site with the widest scope, the longest duration and the richest cultural heritage in Sichuan. 1988 1 was announced by the State Council as a national key cultural relics protection unit.
The discovery of Sanxingdui site is purely accidental, but the excavation and research of Sanxingdui site has been going on for decades.
1929 In the spring, local farmer Yan Daocheng found a beautiful jade stone tool while digging a ditch next to his house, which attracted worldwide attention because of its rich regional characteristics of ancient Shu. 1933, Ge, an American professor at West China University, and his assistants both excavated Sanxingdui for the first time, and the excavation results were highly praised by Mr. Guo Moruo, who lived in Japan at that time. As a result, the excavation and research process of Sanxingdui lasted for half a century.
In the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, the archaeological community in Sichuan continued to work hard to explore the land of Sanxingdui.
From 65438 to 0980, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the Sichuan Provincial Museum and the History Department of Sichuan University jointly conducted a large-scale archaeological excavation of Sanxingdui site, exposing a large number of housing sites and taking aerial photographs. But what really made Sanxingdui famous in the world were1two large sacrificial pits discovered in the Shang Dynasty from July to September, 1986. Thousands of national treasures and heavy objects in the two pits came crashing to the world and shocked the world. The British newspaper The Independent wrote that Sanxingdui's discovery was "more striking than the famous Chinese Terracotta Warriors." Soon, Mr. Su, president of China Archaeological Society, visited Sanxingdui Site, which he called "Ancient Culture, Ancient City and Ancient Country Site". After visiting the cultural relics unearthed from two pits in Sanxingdui, the former Minister of National Defense, General Zhang Aiping, wrote a eulogy of "Sleeping for a thousand years, waking up and shaking the world".
1989, Sanxingdui was dissected by Sichuan Archaeological Department, which proved that it was artificially rammed. 1990 excavated and confirmed some east city walls, and found adobe bricks more than 3,000 years ago; 1992, western wall test confirmation; 1994 discovered and excavated the south city wall. So far, the existence of Sanxingdui ancient city has been confirmed. Surrounded by city walls in the east, west and south, the duck river is a natural barrier in the north, covering an area of more than 3 square kilometers. Such a big ancient city is rare in contemporary culture in China.
Sanxingdui site culture is 4800 ~ 2800 years ago, which lasted for nearly 2000 years, that is, from the late Neolithic Age to the late Shang Dynasty and the early Zhou Dynasty, which pushed the history of Sichuan forward by 1000 years. At the same time, Sanxingdui culture has distinct regional characteristics, and its pottery is based on high-handled beans, small flat-bottomed cans and bird's head spoons unearthed in Sanxingdui, including bottle-shaped cups. There are also pottery in many sites, which is quite distinctive. Generally, it is thirty or forty centimeters high, with three baggy feet at the lower part and a hollow middle, which can increase its capacity. It is generally believed that it is used to warm wine, and most of its jade articles are jade and Zhang used to worship heaven, especially Zhang, who is known as the "frontier king Zhang", with a residual length of 159 cm and a thickness of 65438. Such a large and exquisite jade article has only been found in the existing archaeological discoveries in China, but in the excavation of Sanxingdui, few tool-like cultural relics were unearthed, and there was a lack of metal harder than jade at that time. So how are these jades processed?
During the excavation of two sacrificial pits in Sanxingdui, more than 80 pieces of ivory were unearthed. There are many views on its origin and function in academic circles, some think that it comes from trade, and some think that the ecological environment in ancient Sichuan is suitable for elephants to survive. The evidence is mainly that a large number of semi-fossil ebony is found in the local area, and the monomer is huge. But no matter what its source is, it can be considered as a symbol of the wealth of the rulers.
The bronzes unearthed in Sanxingdui include bronze heads with different shapes, painted faces when unearthed, earrings and earlobes. It seems that our ancestors loved beauty very much. In addition to these bronze statues, there are many sacrificial statues. There are a variety of animal and plant shapes, including bronze chicken, which is regarded as a masterpiece of realism, and a large number of exquisite cultural relics such as bronze sun-shaped vessels unearthed for the first time in China. All of them are significantly different from the Central Plains culture, which shows that Sanxingdui culture is not only a typical representative of ancient Shu culture, but also the center of ancient civilization in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, thus once again eloquently proving that the origin of Chinese civilization is pluralistic and integrated.
Moreover, Sanxingdui cultural relics have filled important gaps in the fields of archaeology, aesthetics and history in China. The world needs to reevaluate China's ancient civilization. Among the cultural relics in Sanxingdui, the bronze sacred tree with the functions of "Fusang", "Jian Mu" and "Ruomu" is 3.95 meters high and has nine branches in three layers, each with a bird. It is not a bird in the general sense, but a god bird representing the sun. The bronze portrait known as the king of bronze statues and the bronze vertical mask regarded as the idol of Can Cong, the ancestor of Shu people, are1.42m long. As a scepter, the golden staff is engraved with exquisite and mysterious patterns, with two birds facing each other, the fish back facing each other, and an arrow pressed on the head and neck of each bird. There is also a head full of mysterious smiles. Jade-edged seals with patterns, as well as dozens of bronze heads close to the size of real people's heads, are unprecedented and are rare treasures displayed in clusters. In bronze smelting, the use of model casting and separate casting, as well as the smelting of ternary alloys dominated by lead, tin and copper, show that there was a highly developed bronze civilization in Sanxingdui ancient Shu State in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, which strongly refutes the fallacy of traditional historiography about the backward culture around the Central Plains.
Indeed, there are few records about the history of ancient Shu in ancient history, and Yang Xiong's Biography of the King of Shu only collected some legends about the history of ancient Shu, so it is difficult to outline the general outline of the history of ancient Shu. The Classic of Mountains and Seas is of great reference value to the study of Sanxingdui culture and Bashu culture today, and it is praised by Mr. Lu Xun as "an unparalleled book of wizards". Therefore, most of the calendars of ancient Shu ruled by the former dynasties can only be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Even Li Bai, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty with a long history, can only sigh that "it was not until the two rulers in this area crowded in the foggy years".
However, since ancient times, the historical legend of ancient Shu, which is difficult to distinguish between true and false, has become a faithful history because of Sanxingdui. Can Cong, Guan Bai, Du Fu, Du Yu and Ming Kai are the emperors of Sichuan. The most prosperous period of Sanxingdui was probably in the period of the Qing Dynasty, and the jade symbol, commonly known as the fish woman, unearthed a large number of birds and bird-shaped utensils at Sanxingdui site. In addition, Sanxingdui established a city, produced highly developed bronzes, and had a large-scale religious sacrifice place, all of which were symbolic factors of the early country. The existing research results show that these two pits are the products of sacrifice, and the three mounds of Sanxingdui are probably artificial rammed altars. Sanxingdui is popular in worship of gods, mainly worshipping the sun god. Such a large number of shells, as the currency of commodity circulation, symbolize wealth. In a word, Sanxingdui confirmed the origin and center of the ancient Shu kingdom.
Sanxingdui cultural relics are charming, rich in connotation, attractive and shocking. 1In May 1993, some cultural relics of Sanxingdui were first exhibited in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, and then successively exhibited in France, Britain, Denmark, Japan, the United States and other countries. Everywhere they go, there are crowds of tourists. Therefore, we don't need to doubt that Sanxingdui cultural relics are cultural relics with world influence and belong to the category of world cultural heritage.
Although there are still many unsolved mysteries in Sanxingdui, with the increasing influence of Sanxingdui cultural relics, the study of Sanxingdui culture has gradually become a prominent research. We believe that with the continuous excavation and research of Sanxingdui, the mystery will be solved one day, the mysterious and dreamy ancient Shu kingdom of Sanxingdui will finally reappear in front of the world, and Sanxingdui cultural relics will also glow with infinite charm.