Master Archaeologist

Chapter 321 The Beauty of Sanxingdui Culture

"Huayang Guozhi" contains: "Zhou lost the discipline, Shu first became king, and Shuhou Cancong, whose eyes were vertical, first became king."

The meaning of this passage is that when the royal family of the Zhou Dynasty was in vain, Cancong, the Marquis of Shu, took the lead in becoming king.This person's appearance has a very obvious feature: "his eyes are vertical", that is, the eyeballs are obviously protruding outward.

Based on this record, many scholars believe that the prototype of the Zongmu mask is the silkworm.

In Yang Xiong's "The Chronicles of the King of Shu", Cancong is also the founder of the ancient Shu Kingdom and the first person to become king.

The people in the Bashu area regard Cancong as the "first silkworm", saying that he was the first to teach the people to cultivate silkworms and reel silk, and call them the "God of Tsing Yi". The name "Silkworm Cong" may be derived from this.

The ancients believed that the ancient Shu Kingdom existed. Yang Xiong of the Western Han Dynasty wrote "The Chronicle of the King of Shu", and Chang Zhu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty wrote "Huayang Guozhi".

The gold-leaf scepter, unearthed from the No. 1.42 sacrificial pit in Sanxingdui, has a total length of 2.3 meters and a diameter of [-] centimeters.Three sets of patterns are engraved on the upper end of the rod, the two sets of patterns on the top are the same, with two fish at the top, two birds in the middle, and a feathered arrow piercing through the fish and the bird.

The last group of patterns is a human head wearing a five-toothed high crown.

This image is obviously also a symbol of the king.

Who is the king who owns this golden battle?
Some scholars believe that the fish and birds on the scepter are fish and mallards, and mallards refer to osprey birds of prey.

In the legend of the ancient Shu Kingdom, there was a king named "Yufu", and the owner of this scepter is likely to be this person.

Although, such an explanation is somewhat far-fetched.

But this is already the most reliable explanation that can be proposed, and it can link the written records about the ancient Shu Kingdom left by the Chinese civilization with the cultural relics unearthed at the Sanxingdui site.

When were Cancong and Yufu?

How long is the history of the ancient Shu Kingdom?
This has always been a mystery that has plagued modern scholars.

More than 1000 years ago, the poet Li Bai once wrote: "Cancong and Yufu, how at a loss to found a country! You are [-] years old, and you will not live with Qin Sai."

The "history" of Li Bai's poems is based on the records in Yang Xiong's "The Book of the King of Shu": "Before Shu, the kings were Cancong, Baiguan, Yufu, Du Yu, and Kaiming....From Kaiming From above to Silkworm Cong, it is thirty-four thousand years old."

Based on this, Li Bai said that "I am forty-eight thousand years old", which is an exaggerated language to express the long history of the ancient Shu Kingdom.

Of course, he would not believe that Cancong and Yufu were people tens of thousands of years ago.

Therefore, the sentence "How at a loss was the founding of the country" expresses his doubts about the history of the founding of the ancient Shu Kingdom and his desire for the truth.

"Benji of the King of Shu" also said: "These three generations (referring to Cancong, Baiguan, and Yufu three generations of Shu kings) are each hundreds of years old. They are all deified and immortal, and their people follow the king." The founders spoke amazingly.

This is obviously a bit too fantasy.

According to "Huayang Guozhi", Cancong became king in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

After Cancong died, Baiguan and Yufu became kings one after another.

Later, Du Yu and Kaiming both proclaimed themselves emperors.

On the contrary, this statement is more in line with realistic logic.

At present, the academic circles also widely believe that the statement in "Huayang Guozhi" is closer to the real history of the ancient Shu Kingdom.

Moreover, in "Huayang Guozhi", Cancong is not considered to be the founder of the ancient Shu Kingdom, but only said that he was the first person to become the king of the ancient Shu Kingdom.

Before becoming a king, there was already the ancient Shu Kingdom and the Marquis of Shu.

Who was the founder of the ancient Shu Kingdom?
"Huayang Guozhi Shuzhi" also said:
"Shu is a country, which originated from the Emperor Ren, and was in the same area as Ba. To the Yellow Emperor, his son Changyi married the daughter of the Shushan family and gave birth to a son Gaoyang. He was called Emperor Ku. He entrusted his branch and concubine to Shu, and he was called Hou Bo in the world. In Xia, Shang, and Zhou, King Wu defeated Zhou, Shu and Yan."

What does it mean?
That is to say, the Kingdom of Shu was the first to become a country, and it was the first to be sealed by the Emperor.

And the Renhuang here, in connection with "Zhi Huangdi" below, shows that it should be the Shennong clan earlier than Huangdi.

In this way, according to the statement in "Huayang Guozhi" that "Shu is a country, it originated from the emperor", the ancient Shu country has a history of at least 5000 years.

Later, Huangdi married the daughter of the Shushan family for his son Changyi, and gave birth to Gaoyang, Zhuanxu, one of the "Five Emperors".

Zhuanxu enfeoffed his branches and concubines in the land of Shu, and he was the Marquis for generations, and experienced several dynasties of Xia, Shang, and Zhou.

When King Wu defeated Zhou, Shu also sent troops to participate.

The ancient Shu State sent troops to participate in King Wu's defeat of Zhou, which is recorded in "Shangshu · Mushi".

The word "Shu" first appeared in oracle bone inscriptions.

Because the oracle bone inscriptions contain records such as Shang's conquest of Shu, some scholars believe that the ancient Shu Kingdom existed in the Shang Dynasty at the latest.

The cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui also confirm this point.

The sanxingdui sacrificial pit that has been excavated is about 3300 to 3000 years old, which is equivalent to the middle and late Shang Dynasty.

The records about the relationship between the Yellow Emperor, Zhuanxu and Shu, and the actual archaeological discoveries of the Sanxingdui civilization can actually be mutually confirmed.

First of all, through the four cultural stratifications of the Sanxingdui civilization, it can be determined that the earliest Sanxingdui civilization did begin in 3000 BC.

Even as far back as the Late Neolithic!
This undoubtedly corresponds to the time of Shennong's existence.

Afterwards, Huangdi married the daughter of the Shushan clan and gave birth to the Gaoyang clan, that is to say, Zhuanxu, one of the five emperors, whose maternal ancestors came from Shu.

And later, Zhi Shu was enfeoffed in Shu.

This is also corroborated by the archaeological discoveries at the Sanxingdui site.

Sanxingdui has always been influenced by the culture of the Central Plains and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and has introduced advanced technology from the Central Plains and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, absorbing the advanced artifacts of these cultures.

The Sanxingdui civilization has never been isolated and developed independently, but has always had exchanges with the Central Plains culture.

Obviously, the reason why there are such frequent exchanges is because the Sanxingdui civilization is Zhuanxu's mother clan and a member of the Central Plains cultural circle, so of course they will communicate closely!

In the oracle bone inscriptions, there is indeed a record of the place "Shu", and even records related to the Shang's conquest of Shu.

This also shows that the Shu culture still existed during the Shang Dynasty.

Not to mention the later period when King Wu defeated Zhou.

The several sacrificial pits currently excavated in Sanxingdui are all from the late Shang Dynasty, which proves that the Sanxingdui civilization was already a highly developed civilization in the late Shang Dynasty, and its bronze craftsmanship was not inferior to that of merchants.

Then of course they have the strength to participate in this large-scale war movie that swept across the entire East Asian region 3000 years ago: King Wu defeated Zhou!

If based on the mutual verification of "Huayang Guozhi", Oracle Bone Inscriptions and "Shangshu Mushi".

It seems that the origin and inheritance of the Sanxingdui civilization can be clarified.

However, things did not go so smoothly.

If the Sanxingdui civilization is the later ancient Shu Kingdom.

The prototype of these vertical-eye masks is Cancong, and Cancong, as the sacrificial recipient, is the ancestor of the "Sanxingdui people".

Then the age he lived in was earlier than the Sanxingdui sacrificial pit, not the Spring and Autumn Period mentioned in "Huayang Guozhi"!

All of a sudden, the timeline doesn't match up again!

At least in the late Shang Dynasty, Sanxingdui had the habit of offering sacrifices to the "King of Zongmu".

Is Cancong earlier than Zongmu, or Zongmu earlier than Cancong?

When scholars thought they had solved the mystery of Sanxingdui, a bigger mystery followed!

And this is the charm left by Sanxingdui culture!
(End of this chapter)