Looking at the East from the Beauty of Civilization ｜ Sanxingdui Ancient Shu Civilization in the Process of Ancient Civilization in China

　　Author: Professor Peng Bangben, History Department of Sichuan University.

　　As we all know, Chinese civilization has long formed a grand pattern of pluralism and integration. "Yuan" is a unit, which refers to all the components that make up the above grand pattern, that is, many regions or ethnic groups and their cultures that coexisted in the East Asian continent at that time. This pluralistic and integrated pattern also has an ancient course of origin, formation and early development in ancient times, and Sanxingdui civilization is an important element in the above-mentioned ancient course pattern.

　　Sanxingdui Civilization Site inherits the strata of the late Neolithic Age, and successively follows the Jinsha-Shiqiao Site in Chengdu Plain (which once coexisted during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties). The cultural outlook and style are basically the same, and the context is continuous. Therefore, it should be completely called Sanxingdui-Jinsha Civilization, which is an early civilized community located in the southwest of China in the pre-Qin period. Academic circles usually associate it with pre-Qin Shu dynasties such as Can Cong, Baiguan, Yufu and Du Yu, which are recorded in the literature. The ancient Shu Kingdom generally existed in Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Like the Central Plains and other regional civilizations that coexisted at that time, it gradually formed many sources of the torrent of Chinese civilization from Qin and Han Dynasties in a pluralistic pattern, which has very important historical status and academic research value.

　　According to the local document "Huayang Guozhi Shuzhi", the ancient Shu kingdom in the pre-Qin period was once quite wide and Liao, and its land was "connected to Pakistan in the east, Vietnam in the south, Qin Fen in the north, and Emei in the west", that is, in the Sichuan Basin, it was roughly divided from Pakistan by the Fujiang River, and it had penetrated into the western Sichuan Plateau in the west, reached the Qinling Mountains in the north, and was adjacent to the Sino-Vietnamese border in the future, with a vast area and many ethnic groups. Later, the book details the territory of the Kingdom of Du Yu "with Baoxie as the front door, Xiong ‘er and Lingguan as the back households, Yulei and Emei as the battlements, Jiang, Qian, Mian and Luo as the pool, Wenshan as the animal husbandry, and the south middle as the garden." This is obviously a political and civilized community with a vast territory, spanning industries and ecological areas, that is, a confederation of nations and ethnic groups with Du Yu’s or even earlier Yufu’s dynasty as the co-owner. This description and the radiation range of Sanxingdui ancient Shu civilization revealed by archaeological discoveries can generally form macro mutual evidence. The site area of Sanxingdui ancient capital is about 3.6 square kilometers, and the whole site area where the capital is located has reached more than 12 square kilometers, which is the first-class scale in East Asia at that time, enough to show its important position as the civilization center in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the southwest. A large number of precious cultural relics unearthed in the sacrificial area of Sanxingdui site also reveal that the rulers of the ancient Shu kingdom have huge wealth, which also fully shows that the scope of their collection is actually wide and numerous. The following is a brief analysis and discussion based on archaeological discoveries and literature records.

　　Ban Gu’s History of Han Geography in Han Dynasty pointed out:

　　Ba, Shu and Guanghan were originally from the south, and Qin thought it was a county.

　　This statement is well-founded. Earlier in The Warring States Policy, Qin Ce I, when Qin Huiwang and his ministers Sima Cuo and Yi Cheung discussed the strategy of cutting Shu and unifying the world, they clearly pointed out:

　　Fu Shu, a secluded country in the west, and Rong Di’s strength is also.

　　It can be seen that in the pre-Qin period, Ba and Shu, as the co-owners of the confederation of nations and ethnic groups in Southwest China, both belonged to Southwest Yi in the view of China.

　　Sima Qian, a famous historian in the Western Han Dynasty, was ordered by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to go to the southwest for a field trip. In Historical Records Biography of Southwest Yi, the ancestors in the southwest were roughly divided into three categories: first, the farming and settlement ethnic groups who were all married, plowed fields and gathered in cities; Second, the nomadic people who "all weave hair, migrate with livestock, and do not live in the usual place"; The third is the semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral ethnic group, which is between the first two, "its vulgarity or indigenous, or migration"

　　Coincidentally, the hair styles (including crowns and other hair ornaments) of many bronze figures unearthed in Sanxingdui ruins (Figure 1) can be described as a symbol festival.

　　figure 1

　　In ancient times, the so-called "knot" was to fix the hair on the top of the head with a hairpin or a clip to form a cone-shaped bun. This is a typical hair style or hair accessory of the farming ethnic group, which should be caused by the settled production lifestyle of the saying "face to loess and back to the sky", otherwise it is at least inconvenient for production. This kind of hair accessories are quite eye-catching in Sanxingdui site (Figure 2 and Figure 3). For example, the famous bronze statue unearthed in Sacrifice Pit No.2 is presumed by many scholars to be the King of Shu, who combines political and religious authority. Its crown hair style is a typical embodiment of this kind of farming group, which can be called its luxurious version. Agriculture has long been an advanced way of production and life in the era of farming civilization, so this kind of ethnic group has obvious advantages in geography and industry, and the prominent position of bronze statues in its bronze statue group just reflects its ruling status in the four directions of King’s Landing. The area of "Jiang, Qian, Mian and Luo" in the cited documents is the core area of the ancient Shu Kingdom, which is dominated by Chengdu Plain. Together with the so-called Ikezawa Yunyun, it is the historical reflection of the Chengdu Plain revealed by archaeology as a rice farming industry and ecological area since Baodun Culture.

　　Figure 2

　　Figure 3

　　The records of "Xi Yan E Gui" and "Wenshan is an animal husbandry" in Huayang National Records, and the "braided hair" of "migrating with animals and not staying in the usual place" written by Tai Shigong, reflect the hair style of nomadic groups in the higher altitude areas of western Sichuan and Yunnan, and are also reflected in the portraits of human beings and gods unearthed in Sanxingdui and Jinsha sites (Figure 4, These ethnic groups or nations, whose main livelihood is nomadism, have monotonous production economy, especially products, which are not fully self-sufficient, so they must rely on agricultural ethnic groups to provide relatively complete living materials and resources. They happen to correspond to the stone figures unearthed at Sanxingdui-Jinsha site, belonging to important allied countries or ethnic groups, but their relationship with the co-owners may be relatively distant and even often rebellious and uncertain, reflecting the instability of the early confederacy.

　　Figure 4

　　Figure 5

　　Between the settled farming and nomadic ethnic groups, there are semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral ethnic groups. They are either nomadic and nomadic, or even engaged in animal husbandry while settling down and farming, which is called "producing animal husbandry" in historical books, and most of them swim in a small range. When engaged in agricultural production, it is necessary to fix hair at least temporarily, so there is a hairstyle and image of curly hair in the bronze portrait of Sanxingdui (Figure 6). The west of Sichuan and Yunnan is just next to the famous Hu Huanyong line, on the half-moon cultural communication belt painted by the famous archaeologist Tong Enzheng, and in the Hengduan Mountain area and its vicinity. The landform and climatic conditions are complex and diverse, so it is just an ecological transitional zone where various ethnic groups are mixed, which is exactly consistent with the historical information provided by unearthed materials and literature records.

　　Figure 6

　　It can be seen from the above that Sanxingdui Ancient Shu Kingdom is an early civilized community with vast territory, numerous ethnic branches and diverse ways of doing business in the southwest of ancient China. As a large-scale and almost integrated regional civilization community in ancient Southwest China, it has a very important historical position in the early civilization process of China.

　　Sanxingdui civilization not only has an important position, but also has very distinctive characteristics. In recent years, Sanxingdui’s major archaeological discoveries have come to the fore, striding into the public’s field of vision from the ivory tower closed by academic circles, which is quite eye-catching. In addition to its great academic value and vigorous media propaganda, it is undoubtedly inseparable from its unique and diverse images of a large number of bronze statues, golden jade vessels and precious ivory, which are dazzling, magnificent and highly ornamental. Among more and more archaeological discoveries in a period of time, there are not many cases like Sanxingdui and Jinsha, which are both very important and very beautiful, and often inspire viewers to speculate and imagine endlessly while watching. This undoubtedly constitutes the remarkable characteristics of Sanxingdui civilization.

　　In this regard, the hair style or hair accessories of the bronze portrait of Sanxingdui are discussed briefly. For example, a small bronze portrait unearthed in 1986 (Figure 7) has a strange and wonderful hairstyle, which shows the trend of combing the forehead and curling the hair. Even today, it looks quite avant-garde, reflecting the eternal charm of Sanxingdui ancestors’ aesthetic art through ancient and modern times.

　　Figure 7

　　Another example is the hairstyle of the other three bronze portraits published this year, which is characterized by a bun that rises into the sky and is extremely towering, and the shapes of the three seem to be different, which makes people daydream or guess the political and religious implications.

　　Figure 8

　　In addition to figures’ hair ornaments and other shapes, a large number of animals and plants in the cultural relics unearthed from Sanxingdui site are also very beautiful, such as their bronze sacred trees, large and small, and the shapes of various animals such as birds, which are often beautiful and contain profound political and religious meanings. The exquisite and dynamic "Sun Bird" gold foil unearthed from Jinsha site, which is closely related to Sanxingdui, has become a symbol of China’s intangible cultural heritage. The 143-cm-long golden staff in Sanxingdui is similar to the image of the golden crown belt unearthed from the Houjinsha site in terms of connotation and form. The ornamentation on the golden staff includes the portrait of King Shu wearing a crown, and the pattern of a hooked-billed osprey carrying an arrow stuck into the fish and flying with wings. According to the research, the person wearing the crown may be the image of Yu Fu, the king of Shu, and the golden staff should be the sacred symbol of his kingship.

　　The bronze ware system in Shang and Zhou Dynasties is characterized by solemn ritual vessels such as tripod and reed, while the bronze ware in Sanxingdui is the most striking one with a large number of statues of people (gods). The latter is people-oriented (prototype) and lifelike, which seems to have a "literary style" and should be the source of the artistic style of Bashu culture in later generations. In a word, it is not difficult for friends who have visited Sanxingdui site or its museum to get a deep impression. This is an early regional civilization with unique style and distinct personality.

　　Moreover, there are indications that ancient Shu, represented by Sanxingdui and Jinsha sites, as an ancient regional civilization, has reached a quite advanced level in its political integration and civilized development process. For example, due to "sleeping for three thousand years", Sanxingdui civilization was unknown to the world after Qin and Han Dynasties for a long time, and even the earliest existing local historical book "Shu Wang Benji" in Sichuan regarded the ancient Shu civilization as a flood, and even asserted that it "had no rites and music". However, the archaeological discovery of Sanxingdui-Jinsha has completely refreshed people’s understanding, and its level of ritual civilization should have been quite high. Moreover, with Shu Wang as the co-owner, a set of unified order and norms system has been established, showing the strong integration of ethnic groups across countries. For example, the bronze statue of Shu Wang unearthed from No.2 Sacrificial Pit in Sanxingdui, which is 172 cm in height, 90 cm in base and 262 cm in height, is the co-owner of the alliance of Shu nations and nations, and obviously comes from the farming ethnic group with a fat spine. It is the highest bronze portrait unearthed in the world so far. In Jinsha Site, which is only 30-40 kilometers away from Sanxingdui, a small bronze portrait with a height of more than 10 centimeters was unearthed. Its modeling style and gesture are exactly the same as those of the giant portrait of Sanxingdui, but there are three long braids dragging behind its head, which is quite opposite to the characteristics of the giant portrait, and it is obviously from the braiding group. The hair accessories of bronze figures from Sanxingdui and Jinsha are different, but their manners and manners are the same, which vividly reflects,In the ancient Shu kingdom, which has a vast territory and spans ethnic groups and industrial ecological zones, there is already a set of ritual civilization with fairly unified regulations, and its level of integration of politics and religion is quite high, which is consistent with the splendid bronze civilization revealed by Sanxingdui-Jinsha site and a large number of precious cultural relics.

　　Figure 9

　　It should be pointed out that the ancient Shu civilization with a long history not only has a very distinctive style, but also has a profound relationship with the ancient Chinese civilization represented by Shang and Zhou Dynasties. It has long been influenced by the culture and civilization of the Central Plains, and has long been in interactive contact, which is one of the elements in the process of multi-interaction and integration of early Chinese civilization. Records of the Five Emperors in Historical Records:

　　The Yellow Emperor lived in the hill of Xuanyuan and married the daughter of Xiling’s family for Lei Zu. Lei Zu was the imperial concubine of the Yellow Emperor, and gave birth to two sons. Then there was the world: the first one was that it was for Qingyang, and Qingyang lived in the river; The second is Changyi, and it is like water. Changyi married Shushan’s daughter, called Chang’s servant, gave birth to Levin, and Levin was virtuous.

　　Ruoshui, the famous Yalong River on the western Sichuan Plateau, flows into Jinsha River in Panzhihua City today. The "river water" where Qingyang lived means that Minjiang River is the mother river of ancient Shu civilization represented by Sanxingdui and Jinsha sites, so the Tang Dynasty Sima Zhen’s "Suoyin" only means that "Shu has these two waters". As a matter of fact, the saying that the second son of the Yellow Emperor "Qingyang lives in the river, and Changyi lives in the water" is not original by Sima Qian, but actually comes from the pre-Qin classics Shiben and Da Dai Li Ji, and its words are even basically copied from the latter’s Five Emperors’ Virtues and Imperial Family Names. Painted pottery of Majiayao culture and Miaodigou culture discovered in the upper reaches of Minjiang River in recent years confirms this legend from the macro-historical process, and reveals the information that two important branches of the Huangdi ethnic group migrated to Sichuan from the Yellow River basin about 5000 years ago, which constituted one of the sources of ancient Shu ancestors. From prehistoric times to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the Shu ethnic groups originating from outside the Bashu region such as the Yellow River basin were of course more than the above two branches, but because the ancient Shu kingdom with Chengdu Plain as its core area was isolated in the southwest, it became a land of Yidi because it was far away from the Central Plains culture for a long time. This shows that in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, especially in the Warring States period, the so-called "long-term military skills" of the ancient Shu nationality in the vision of the Chinese nation actually had a very old relationship with China, which can be described as the same source and different currents, and had long-term interaction with the Central Plains countries in the pre-Qin period.Thus, it can be said that it is closely related to Chinese civilization and has a profound internal relationship for a long time. As a result, according to Records of the Three Generations, its descendants scattered in the border area of Sichuan and Yunnan were still called "the descendants of the Yellow Emperor" until the Han Dynasty.

　　?It indicates that the interaction between ancient Shu civilization and Chinese civilization in Sanxingdui will be strengthened and deepened day by day, which will inevitably lead to the historical trend of integration of the two, and become an important part of the pattern of multiple integration of Chinese civilization, which is the inevitable result of the historical process of early Chinese civilization determined by the geographical and historical conditions of East Asia continent. (Peng Bangben)