Yellow River Craftsman

Chapter 23

After a while, the rumbling sound of the engine was heard, a thick black smoke sprayed out from the exhaust pipe at the stern, and the iron boat pushed away the waves and chugs away from the shore.

We went upstream along the ancient road of the Yellow River. Today's weather is fine, sunny and calm.We all sat on the deck to enjoy the natural sunbathing, the humid river breeze warmed our faces, and the feeling of coolness was wonderful.

Grandpa may also be in a good mood, and while steering the helm, he sang his favorite Yellow River folk song.Throughout the ages, many folk songs have been sung along the Yellow River, but all the boatmen who go out on the boat will sing some. No matter when they are busy or free, whether they are happy or depressed, people on the banks of the Yellow River love to sing two songs The Ballad of the Yellow River: "The water of the Yellow River flows continuously...flowing past home...to the east..."

Professor Ye spread out a map in front of us: "Since the ancient corpses of Xixia warriors are contained in the tortoise coffin, there is no doubt that the tortoise coffin is a product of the Xixia Dynasty. To find the origin of the tortoise coffin, we have to enter Territory. I don’t think you are unfamiliar with the famous Xixia Dynasty.”

Gu Meidi nodded, and then explained in detail: "Xixia, also known as Bangni Dingguo or Baigao Daxia Kingdom, is a conquest dynasty established by the Dangxiang clan in Chinese history. The Dangxiang clan is the main body, including the Han nationality. , Uighur, Tubo and other nationalities. Because it is located in the northwest of China, it is called Xixia in history.

The Dangxiang clan originally lived in the Songpan Plateau of Sichuan, and moved to northern Shaanxi during the Tang Dynasty.Because of his meritorious service in calming the chaos, he was named Xiazhou Jiedushi by the Tang Emperor, and he surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty successively.After the Xiazhou regime was annexed by the Northern Song Dynasty, Li Jiqian re-established the country because of his unwillingness to surrender, and was canonized by the Liao Emperor.Li Jiqian adopted the method of connecting Liao to Song Dynasty, and successively occupied Lanzhou and the Hexi Corridor area. In 1038, Li Yuanhao proclaimed himself emperor and founded the country, that is, Xia Jingzong, and Xixia officially established the country.

After that, Xixia roughly won the Song Xia War and the Liao Xia War, forming a situation where the three kingdoms stand together.After Xia Jingzong's death, the power was in the hands of the emperor's queen mother and the mother party, which is known as the period of the mother party's dictatorship in history.Xixia was in civil strife because of the confrontation between the royal party and the mother party, and the Northern Song Dynasty took the opportunity to attack Xia many times.Xixia successfully resisted and defeated the Song army, but the loss of Hengshan caused holes in the defense line.After the rise of the Jin Dynasty wiped out the Liao Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty one after another, Xixia surrendered to the Jin Dynasty and obtained a lot of land.The two countries established the Golden Summer Alliance, which was generally peaceful.

During Xia Renzong's reign, there were natural disasters and Ren Dejing's division of the country, but after the reform, a prosperous age appeared in the Tiansheng period.However, the Great Mongol Kingdom in Mobei rose and broke up the Jinxia Alliance after six invasions of Xixia, allowing Xixia and the Jin Dynasty to kill each other.There were also many incidents of regicide and civil strife within Xixia, and the economy tended to collapse due to wars, and finally died in Mongolia in 1227. "

Speaking of this, Gu Meidi took out a pen and drew a large map on the map: "The capital of Western Xia is Xingqing Prefecture, which is today's YC City in Ningxia Province. Its ruling area is roughly in Ningxia today. Gansu, XJ, Qinghai, NMG, and some parts of Shaanxi have a territory of thousands of miles, with the Yellow River in the east, Yumen in the west, Xiaoguan in the south, and the desert in the north, with a vast territory."

I sighed and said: "It seems that it is not easy to find the origin of the turtle coffin!"

Professor Ye said: "It's actually not difficult. Just think about it. Where do coffins usually appear? Of course they are in ancient tombs. The tortoise coffins we found are all extremely precious yin wood coffins, but inside they only contain funeral objects." It can be seen that these tortoise coffins must have come from a royal tomb in Xixia. Think again, why are the coffins wrapped in tortoise shells? Why can the tortoise coffins float down the Yellow River? According to these two clues, it is obvious This royal tomb of the Xixia Dynasty was built on the bank of the Yellow River, so the coffin inside was washed away by the river. Moreover, I speculate that this ancient tomb is likely to be a rare underwater tomb, so the outside of the coffin was wrapped Holding the turtle shell! Judging from our current analysis, as long as we go upstream along the ancient road of the Yellow River, we will definitely find this underwater tomb of the Xixia Dynasty!"

Gu Meidi and I gave Professor Ye a thumbs up in admiration. The professor is indeed a professor. A matter that seemed complicated at first suddenly became much easier under the professor's analysis.

We have been driving on the ancient road of the Yellow River for several days, and the road is safe and sound. Although some boats and vehicles are exhausting, we have enjoyed a lot of beautiful scenery along the river, and learned a lot of customs and customs, which greatly enriched our life. .If it wasn't for the task, I think this trip must be a wonderful trip that I will never forget.

Of course, in addition to the beautiful scenery of the Yellow River, there is also Gu Meidi, a great beauty, accompanying her day and night. Watching the scenery, tasting food, talking about ideals, and chatting about life with her, the feelings hidden deep in the two people's hearts are also unconsciously sprout.

On this day, our iron boat has sailed into Ningxia.Ningxia Province is located in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, with Helan Mountain in the north and Liupan Mountain in the south. The Yellow River runs through the entire northern part. It has a long history and culture.The Xixia Dynasty once established its capital in Yinchuan, Ningxia, so we speculate that the royal tomb of Xixia is likely to be in Ningxia.

Next to the alpine desert in the northwest, although it is located in a semi-arid area, there is still a fertile land with the scenery of the south of the Yangtze River. This is the famous Fortress Jiangnan.Entering the territory of Ningxia, such scenery becomes more and more obvious, with sandy deserts, loess hills, green rice in water towns, green forests and red flowers.Here you can not only appreciate the diametrically opposite different scenery, but also you will be surprised to find that these two different scenery are blended so ingeniously, interweaving a magnificent and beautiful picture.

Even Grandpa couldn't help but sighed: "I always thought that there were only high mountains and deserts in the Northwest. I didn't expect to see such a beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River here. The natural world is so wonderful, this place is simply a fairyland on earth!"

Professor Ye is also a person who enjoys life very much. When the tin boat was sailing south of the Fortress, he found a fishing rod from the cabin and sat on the deck to fish leisurely.It can be said that there are swarms of fat fish in the south of the Yangtze River. Professor Ye caught several fat fish in a short time.

Gu Meidi and I cleaned up the fatty fish, set up a stove at the stern, and grilled the fatty fish on the stove.The fat fish sizzled on the fire, and the rich meaty aroma wafted out, making people salivate.

Gu Meidi brushed the hair on his forehead, patted my shoulder and said, "Tuoba Gu, look at the opposite mountain wall!"

I raised my head and looked at the opposite mountain wall. At that time, the sun was setting and the afterglow of the setting sun dyed the mountain wall red.I saw one huge picture after another suddenly appeared on the opposite mountain wall. Those pictures were rich in content, simple in line, and full of strong artistic atmosphere.Large pictures can reach tens of meters in length and width, and small pictures can also be more than ten meters long. The lines of some pictures are gray and white, while the lines of some pictures are colored.Even after hundreds of thousands of years of sun, rain, and water vapor erosion, those pictures are still gorgeous.From a distance, it is magnificent.

People in the Western Regions like to paint in mountains or caves. The painting style is rough and public, with a strong visual impact. This can be seen from the famous murals of Mogao Grottoes, which has distinct regional characteristics.

We walked all the way, and saw about a thousand individual paintings distributed on the rocky walls of the mountains stretching for nearly one kilometer on both sides of the river.

The art form of the picture is rough and vigorous, the composition is simple, the posture is natural, and the realism is strong.Human heads accounted for more than half of the total, followed by animal figures such as cows, horses, donkeys, deer, birds, and wolves.

The pictures of human heads are simple and strange. Some heads have horns, some have feathers, and some wear pointed or round hats.The petroglyphs depicting women, some wearing headdresses, and some wearing hair buns, are elegant and elegant, reproducing the ancient women's pursuit of beauty thousands of years ago.Some have big ears, high noses and hairy faces, some have bones in their mouths, and some have striped or curved lines on their faces.There are also several facial features resembling a standing human figure with bent arms, legs spread apart, and a long knife at the waist, showing the image of a totem witch.

The composition of animal graphics is rough, vivid and lifelike.There are running deer, blue sheep with protruding horns, galloping horses, dogs wagging their tails, figures of flying birds and beasts, pictures of some human hands and the sun, and scenes of primitive religious activities .

One picture after another made us dizzy, and we were completely shocked by the superb artistic expression techniques of the ancients.You know, in that age when technology was backward, it was a arduous and difficult project for ancient artists to paint on the mountain wall, which made me have a deep admiration for ancient artists.

Professor Ye told us that these pictures carved on the mountain walls are called "petroglyphs", as the name implies, they are paintings left on rocks.The local people also call it "Tian Shen Tu", and they believe that these patterns are carved on the mountain wall by the gods in the sky.These petroglyphs have a wide range of themes and expressions, and are very imaginative, giving people a feeling of truth, kindness, solemnity and innocence.These petroglyphs provide extremely precious cultural relics for us to understand and study the history, culture, economic situation, customs and customs of ancient nomadic peoples, and can be called a precious national art gallery.

When we were enjoying these petroglyphs, the sound of firecrackers, gongs and drums suddenly came from a distance, breaking the tranquility of the Yellow River Ancient Road in the evening.

Hey, who is setting off firecrackers on the Yellow River at this time?

We looked around and saw three large fishing boats appearing on the water a hundred meters away.The three fishing boats were connected end to end and sailed on the river without slowing down.What surprised us was that the three fishing boats were all decorated with lights and festoons, and the boats were hung with red curtains, which looked very festive.

(End of this chapter)