Three Observation Dimensions to Unravel the Mystery of Sanxingdui

Since the excavation of the six newly discovered "sacrificial pits" in Sanxingdui, the world's attention to the bronze civilization of Sanxingdui has become hot again, and various speculations and explanations are even more dazzling. The reason why people feel mysterious about Sanxingdui is because we used to be too accustomed to observe it with traditional eyes and ways of thinking, and use our known "knowledge map" to compare this unknown world. So far, the archaeological excavations of these six pits in Sanxingdui are still in progress, and we do not know how many new things and new phenomena will continue to emerge, which will make people shocked or even more confused. For example, everyone is looking forward to the discovery of text in the subsequent Sanxingdui archaeology, so as to solve the mystery of Sanxingdui in one fell swoop. In fact, this is still guided by traditional concepts: all highly developed civilizations should have written characters. Yin and Shang had such characters as oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions, but why did Sanxingdui not have them? If no text is found, does the distinctive Sanxingdui civilization still belong to the Chinese civilization system? Therefore, what kind of vision to observe Sanxingdui, to look at the various archaeological relics and relics that have been unearthed and about to be unearthed, so as to lead the scientific road to uncover the mystery of Sanxingdui, is very important at present.

The author participated in the archaeological excavation of Sanxingdui in 1986, and has been paying attention to relevant research progress for many years. I think that there are three important dimensions to observe Sanxingdui. The first important dimension, from the perspective of the development of ancient Shu civilization, Sanxingdui is not a source of water or a tree without roots. In terms of archaeological discoveries, elements similar to the early Sanxingdui culture can be found in the Baodun culture in the Chengdu Plain and the prehistoric Neolithic culture in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River. They may be one of the sources of the Sanxingdui culture. In the literature and classics, two ancient writing systems closely related to the Sanxingdui civilization can also be seen. One is the cultural system of the Central Plains. There was a record of "Shu" in the Western Zhou Dynasty. "Shangshu·Mu Oath" recorded that King Wu of Zhou attacked Zhou, and among the "Eight Kingdoms of the Western Land", there were people from Shu who participated in the war. "Historical Records: The Chronicles of Five Emperors" records that when the ancestor of Shu was born in the emperor, the Yellow Emperor and his wife Leizu's son Changyi married "the daughter of the Shushan clan" and lived in Ruoshui, and later sealed her branch in Shu. The other is the Bashu cultural system. "The Chronicles of the King of Shu" and "Huayang Guozhi" all record that the ancient Shu period experienced successive generations of silkworms, cypress trees, fish malls, Du Yu, and enlightenment. From the founding of Silkworm Cong to the destruction of Qin by the Ming Dynasty (316 BC), although several kings of ancient Shu were far away from the Central Plains Dynasty, they were regarded by the Central Plains princes as a "barbarian tribe" with a "vertebral knot", but they also became their own. One line, loomingly, has always maintained a connection with the Central Plains Dynasty, neither a foreign visitor nor an alien race.

The second important dimension is the relationship between the Sanxingdui civilization and the Yin and Zhou civilizations in the Central Plains. Indeed, the tall bronze statues, the peculiarly shaped bronze masks and heads, the golden masks, golden rods and other utensils found in the Sanxingdui "Sacrificial Pit" successively make people feel shocking and puzzling. The "common sense" of the skeleton cannot be explained, and it has never been unearthed before, so various assumptions and conjectures have arisen. In fact, this is the original creation of the ancient Shu people. Based on the mother body of Chinese civilization, they adopted romantic art forms to express the communication between "God and Man", which added rich content to China's Bronze Age and made unique contributions to Chinese civilization and world civilization.

For example, the bird on the Sanxingdui bronze sacred tree and the dragon pattern wrapped around the trunk are common motifs in the mythological system of traditional Chinese culture. If combined with mythological records such as the "Shan Hai Jing", it is very likely that such a sacred tree is The legendary sacred trees such as Jianmu, Ruomu, and hibiscus are symbols of the cosmic tree and the sun tree that can "reach the sky and the earth". Another example, the so-called "ritual vessel" that expresses social rank and identity with bronze tripods, gui and other vessels in the Yin and Shang bronzes has never been found in Sanxingdui in the past, but this time it has appeared in the No. 3 "Sacrificial Pit". At least seven bronze statues corroborate with the many bronze statues and scorpions unearthed in two "sacrificial pits" in 1986, suggesting that the Shu people may have used such a combination of bronze vessels as ritual vessels. In the No. 3 "Sacrificial Pit", a bronze statue of a god and man with both hands on the top of the head was also found, which also shows that the "zun" has a special meaning in the Sanxingdui bronze ware, which is highly respected and used in the Central Plains culture. Bronze vessels have the same meaning as ritual vessels. The shapes of these bronze statues and bronze pots unearthed in Sanxingdui are basically modeled on the same type of bronze wares in the Central Plains, but they are more characteristic of Shu in the decorative style. The most common thing with the Central Plains culture is the large number of jade Zhang, jade bi and jade cong unearthed in the "Sacrificial Pit" as a sacrificial ceremonial guard. They are almost the same as the jade unearthed in Erlitou and Yin Ruins. , in terms of shape and function, it reflects the ancient Shu Kingdom, which was located in the southwest corner, and was also deeply influenced by the etiquette culture of the Central Plains. In the past, bronze plaques inlaid with turquoise, pottery pheasants and other artifacts similar to the Erlitou culture in the Central Plains were unearthed in Sanxingdui, leaving many traces of the influence of the Central Plains culture.

It now appears that the cultural factors accepted by Sanxingdui may be multi-faceted, most of which are from the Central Plains, and some may be introduced into the Sichuan Basin through the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the northwestern Gansu-Qingdao and northwestern Sichuan, Yunnan and Guangdong and Guangxi regions. . Among them, the shape and decoration of Sanxingdui bronzes, especially the images of mysterious animals such as dragons, tigers, birds, and big-eyed beast faces, are also closely related to the bronze system in southern my country (such as Hunan). The late archaeologist Mr. Yu Weichao once speculated on the relationship between Sanxingdui and the ancient civilization in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River based on the ancient history legend of "Three seedlings escape from three dangers", and believed that this was one of the sources of Sanxingdui. Of course, the ancient Shu people did not completely imitate the bronze culture of the surrounding areas, but on the basis of absorbing the extremely rich cultural elements of China, they carried out innovation and reconstruction, and wrote a new chapter for the complete picture of the origin and development of Chinese civilization. , providing new evidence for the breadth and depth of Chinese civilization.

The third dimension is Sanxingdui from the perspective of the ancient civilizations of the world. Is Sanxingdui an alien civilization? This is one of the most eye-catching issues at the moment. If the Sanxingdui civilization is identified as a product of foreign civilization as a whole, it lacks scientific basis. In addition to the above-mentioned archaeological facts such as the close relationship between Sanxingdui and the Yin-Shang civilization in the Central Plains, it should also be pointed out that under the conditions of roughly the same cultural level, ecological environment and social development, different civilizations have It is not surprising that some similar cultural phenomena have arisen independently. For example, the worship of the mysterious big eye, the god tree (the sun tree, the universe tree, the god tree of life, etc.), the sun god, etc., exists in all ancient civilizations in the world, and there are differences in the form of archaeological art. , it is impossible to attribute such archaeological phenomena in Sanxingdui to alien civilizations. Moreover, even some similar cultural phenomena require more careful observation and analysis. For example, the golden mask was used in ancient Egypt and ancient Persian civilization as a "cover" after the death of the king. This custom and tradition has been passed down in the Eurasian steppe culture for a long time. However, Sanxingdui is used to cover the surface of bronze statues of people or gods, and their symbolic meanings are obviously different, and other similar situations cannot be generalized.

Similarly, from the perspective of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, the Bronze Age in China where Sanxingdui is located has sufficient conditions for exchanges with foreign civilizations, and it is also possible to absorb some foreign cultural factors. In particular, the ancient Shu was located at a traffic hub. Later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty dispatched Zhang Qian to "carve out" the Western Regions and open up the Silk Road. One of the motivations was that Shu cloth and citron sauce exported from Shu were discovered in Central Asia and South Asia. , Qiongzhu sticks and other specialties, it is known that there must be private trade channels that can be used. In fact, as early as the prehistoric era, which is more ancient, there are already some physical evidences that show that there were different degrees of contact and communication between Chinese and Western cultures. For example, Professor Li Shuicheng of Peking University found that in the northwest and southwest regions of China along the Silk Road, "sceptre heads" have been unearthed as the head of the wand, indicating that the use of "sceptre" to express authority is an early practice. It has appeared in mainland China in prehistoric times, and is likely to have come from outside the region. The discovery of a "scepter" made of gold in Sanxingdui does not seem to be an isolated case. This time, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect silk protein in the ash layer of Sanxingdui Pit No. 4, indicating that silk once existed in Pit No. 4. Microscopic observation found that there were also textile residues on the surface of some bronzes in Pit No. 3, which may also be silk residues. mark. This also proves that as early as the Sanxingdui era, Shu has been able to produce and use silk as a high-grade valuable item. After the Qin and Han dynasties, silk became the main product of the country's foreign trade exchanges, and the ancient Shu had laid this foundation as early as the Bronze Age. Therefore, if it is said that the Sanxingdui civilization contains some influence, communication and interaction factors from more distant civilizations outside the region, this possibility cannot be ruled out objectively; on the contrary, whether the Sanxingdui civilization has also radiated and affected the ancient civilization outside the region. Civilization (such as the early spread of silk), this possibility also cannot be ruled out, but we still need more archaeological evidence to confirm both aspects.

The most mysterious and shocking thing in Sanxingdui bronze culture is the "bronze god system" composed of tall bronze gods, bronze masks with strange shapes and bronze heads of various head shapes and hairstyles. This is undoubtedly beyond the scope of our current knowledge and cannot be explained clearly by the so-called "common sense" of the past. Although we have not been able to make the most reasonable interpretation of it for the time being, we should examine it in the grand vision of the ancient civilizations of the world, compare the known archaeological results, and seek as many clues as possible. , is an important direction we should work towards.

The Sanxingdui archaeology is still in progress. No matter what artifacts or archaeological phenomena beyond "common sense" will be unearthed, one thing is certain, they are all unprecedented contributions made by Chinese civilization to world civilization in history. Understanding and entering Sanxingdui from the above three dimensions may be the only way to unravel the mystery of science.