How much do you know about the jokes in the Spring Festival Gala? Come and understand the stories that have been forgotten for thousands of years

The tadpole wishes you a happy new year!

Did everyone watch the Spring Festival Gala on time yesterday? What classic scenes did you remember?

The following are some of the outstanding students in the Spring Festival Gala joke test:

Social phobia VS social bully, it's clear at a glance

"The Husky Who Destroyed the House"

"The joy of the entire Spring Festival Gala was brought by Sa Beining"

Tadpole was fascinated by the girls in Only Green. I remember Tadpole wrote about the secret of why the color of A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains has not faded for thousands of years: Chinese paintings are still colorful after thousands of years, all thanks to the pigments.

Although everyone says this is bowling (it’s not)

There is also the Sanxingdui bronze mask, a “heavyweight” cultural relic brought to us by the Sanxingdui Archaeological Research Institute of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.

This Sanxingdui mask is from Pit No. 3 of the Sanxingdui Ruins. It is the largest bronze mask known in the world. It brings us the shock of three thousand years at a glance!

The temperature technology and alloy ratio of the large bronze mask belong to the same system as the Yin Ruins in Anyang, reflecting the profound influence of Central Plains culture on Sanxingdui culture and confirming the diversity, unity and profoundness of Central Plains civilization.

In the well-known Sanxingdui ruins, in addition to the large bronze mask, there are many strange things, such as ivory, gold leaves, stone chime fragments, etc. These seemingly unrelated things are not placed randomly, and there is a "original intention" behind them that has been buried for thousands of years.

Ivory? Sun?

Ivory has been found in many sacrificial pits at the Sanxingdui site, including No. 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8.

In fact, as early as 1986, more than 80 complete ivory tusks and over 100 ivory products were discovered in the No. 2 sacrificial pit at the Sanxingdui site.

It is difficult to tell the difference just by looking at these ivory and ivory products, but archaeologists have found several clues based on the archaeological excavations when the ivory was discovered:

1. The phenomenon of ivory being “buried at the top”.

Archaeological excavations have shown that these sacrificial pits contain not only ivory but also other relics, such as bronze artifacts in this excavation, and jade and gold artifacts in the 1986 excavation.

But no matter what kind of objects it coexists with, ivory is usually placed at the top of the sacrificial pit. This can be called the "top burial" phenomenon of ivory. This phenomenon shows that ivory may have a supreme position in sacrificial activities.

2. The "symbiosis" phenomenon of ivory and elephant-shaped bronze ware.

In 1986, in addition to ivory and ivory products, several noteworthy bronze artifacts were also discovered in the No. 2 sacrificial pit of Sanxingdui.

For example, in the bronze standing figure below, you will find that the crown-shaped hat he wears has a peculiar shape. The academic community currently believes that the upright objects on both sides of the hat are shaped like "elephant ears" and the protrusion in the middle is shaped like an "elephant trunk".

Bronze standing human figure unearthed from the Sanxingdui site (Source: Journal of Southwest University for Nationalities)

Take the large bronze standing figure below as an example. We can clearly see that the base is shaped like an "elephant head".

A large bronze standing human figure unearthed from the Sanxingdui site (Source: Journal of Southwest University for Nationalities)

There is also the bronze vertical-eyed human-faced statue below, the upright objects on both sides of which resemble "elephant ears".

A human face with vertical eyes unearthed from the Sanxingdui site (Source: Journal of Southwest University for Nationalities)

These three bronze products were unearthed together with ivory from the No. 2 sacrificial pit in 1986. This means that there is a symbiotic relationship between ivory and elephant-shaped bronzes, which further highlights the extremely important position of "elephant" in the sacrificial behavior of Sanxingdui culture.

Combining the above two clues, some scholars have proposed the "sun worship theory".

The worship of the sun is a common phenomenon among ancient civilizations around the world. For example, at the Jinsha Ruins in Chengdu, not far from the Sanxingdui Ruins, there is "gold foil" painted with the pattern of the Sun Bird.

Some scholars speculate that the ancestors of Sanxingdui may have thought that ivory was huge and its curved shape matched the sun's rays, so it could be used as a sacrificial offering for sun worship. (Personally, I think it's a bit low-end compared to the gold foil at the Jinsha Ruins...)

The "Gold Foil with Sun Bird Pattern" unearthed from the Jinsha Site in Chengdu, Sichuan, is now stored in the Jinsha Site Museum (Source: Official Website of the Jinsha Site Museum)

The mysterious "gold leaf"

In addition to ivory, nearly 60 gold leaf ornaments of various sizes and shapes (hereinafter commonly referred to as "gold leaves") were also found in the Sanxingdui No. 8 sacrificial pit.

These "gold leaves" are highly realistic, and even after thousands of years, the vein patterns on their surface are still clearly visible.

But what are these gold leaves used for? Archaeologists have discovered two important clues:

1. There are holes on the top of the "gold leaves", which means that these gold leaves are most likely used for hanging and are parts of some complex objects.

2. In addition to gold leaves, many objects resembling tree branches were found in Pit 8.

The leaves and branches that can be hung are easily associated with the famous unearthed cultural relics in the Sanxingdui ruins - the bronze sacred tree. There are many different opinions in the academic community about the meaning of the bronze sacred tree, which are generally:

1. Jianmu theory. It is believed that the sacred tree is the "medium" for the Sanxingdui people to communicate with gods, heaven and earth.

2. The theory of community trees: It is believed that the sacred trees represent the trees planted near the sacrificial sites.

3. The cosmic tree theory: It is believed that the sacred tree reflects the worldview of the Sanxingdui people.

So, how much do the golden leaves and branches discovered this time have to do with the bronze sacred tree that has been discovered?

According to the "Sanxingdui Sacrificial Pits" report published in 1996, a total of 6 bronze sacred trees were discovered in the Sanxingdui No. 2 Sacrificial Pit.

The bronze sacred tree No. 1 is relatively well preserved. It is divided into three layers, each layer is divided into three branches, a total of nine branches, each branch is divided into two "fruit branches", and there are lifelike birds standing on the fruit branches, called sacred birds, a total of nine. The whole tree also has 27 lifelike fruits cast on it.

The bronze sacred tree unearthed from Sanxingdui No. 2 sacrificial pit is now stored in the Sanxingdui Museum in Guanghan, Sichuan (Source: Sanxingdui Museum official website)

First of all, the material of the tree branch-shaped artifact discovered this time has not been announced. If it is made of copper, it would be called "copper branches with golden leaves". If it is made of gold, it should be called "Golden God Tree".

Secondly, the plant-shaped accessories of the sacred tree in the "Sanxingdui Sacrificial Pit" report seem to be mainly "fruits" cast by the split casting method. If the "gold leaves discovered this time are accessories of the sacred tree" is true, then its plant-shaped accessories will be mainly hanging "leaves". The two obviously have very different styles.

Therefore, I have reservations about the inference that the golden leaves and branches may belong to a sacred tree.

What is a stone chime?

Next, let’s talk about the sacrificial pit No. 8 (it’s really YYDS!). Fragments of stone chimes, large bronze bells, and relics that are suspected to be drums were also unearthed from Pit No. 8.

Cultural relic restoration experts pieced together the fragments of the stone chime and restored it to a stone chime that is 1 meter long and more than 50 centimeters wide. After all this talk, what exactly is a stone chime?

Experts are piecing together the fragments of the stone chime (Source: Red Star News)

The chime is actually an ancient percussion instrument. It was originally made of stone. One view is that it originated from flaky stone production tools. Later, copper and other materials appeared. The appearance of the chime in the Sanxingdui sacrificial pit is a very important signal.

First, during the development of the "chimes", some of them gradually developed into ritual vessels. Ritual vessels were used by some people of high social status in ancient China in ritual activities such as sacrifices and funerals, which could show the prominent status and identity of their users.

In other words, in order to save face, some "superior people" began to use the "chimes" originally used for playing music as instruments for ceremonies. This may explain why stone chimes appeared in the Sanxingdui sacrificial pits.

Secondly, the "chime" is relatively high-grade among ritual instruments. Let's take the grade of burial objects in the tombs of Chu nobles in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty as an example: (Edit means "complete set")

The first-level "Tomb of the King of Chu" usually contains several sets of chime bells, chime stones, and chime bells.

The second-level "tombs of feudal lords and senior officials" usually have chime bells and chime stones, but no chime bells.

In the third-level "Lower Officials' Tombs", there were only zithers, drums, and qins, but no bells, chimes, or bells.

That is to say, in the Chu State at that time, only the senior officials and nobles above them could use the chimes.

Therefore, the discovery of the stone chimes may further prove that Sanxingdui was the power center of the southwest region at that time.

In addition, the large bronze bells unearthed at the same time as the stone chimes, as well as objects resembling big drums, also reflect that early ritual and music phenomena already existed in the Sanxingdui area at that time.

Have you fallen in love with this romance that has been buried for thousands of years?

References:

Zhang Zhiheng. General Theory of Chinese Archaeology[M]. Nanjing University Press: Jiangsu, 2009

Yang Quanxi. Chu Culture[M]. Cultural Relics Publishing House: Beijing, 2000

Zhang Hong, Wang Xiaohong. The connection between the Five Pecks of Rice Sect and the ivory sacrifice of ancient Shu in the pre-Qin period[J]. Journal of Southwest University for Nationalities (Humanities and Social Sciences), 2014, 6

Zhang Xiaoma. Research on the bronze sacred tree in Sanxingdui Pit No. 2[J]. Sichuan Cultural Relics, 2006, 6

END

The author of this article: Archaeology Xueqi, Master of History from Wuhan University, majoring in Shang and Zhou Dynasty archaeology.

Tadpole Musical Notation original article/reprint please indicate the source

Editor/Xiao Xitushuo