The King of the King-What stories can the bronze statue of Sanxingdui tell us?

In terms of time, the bronze statues of Sanxingdui are almost in the same era as ancient Egypt and ancient India, that is, around 300 BC. In this era, the four ancient civilizations successively possessed skilled bronze casting techniques. The world called it the Bronze Age. About five thousand years ago, the Babylonians began to cast bronzes and entered the Bronze Age ahead of time. They created many bronze statues, such as the statue of the "Bearded" king, the statue of the bronze goddess, and the statue of the priest. The fine works of, especially the 176 cm tall naked figure of a priest with a crown, unearthed at the Haifaji site, is hailed by the archaeological community as the symbol of the ancient Babylonian bronze civilization and the highest achievement of the early world bronze civilization. The artists of Sanxingdui portrayed some huge and disproportionate facial features, bronze heads with the same expression, and tall bronze standing figures. No one has seen these shapes and appearances before, which makes archaeologists at home and abroad feel strange: Where did this bronze civilization come from? In particular, this large bronze statue of 2.62 meters high is called a "leader" figure. Some people call it the "Oriental Giant". It is the largest bronze figure in the world at the same time. Compared with the former Yin Shang jade and bronze statues unearthed in the Yin Ruins of Anyang, they are really "little witches" and "big witches". From a global perspective, the size and height of the bronze statues of Sanxingdui surpassed the statues of Babylonian priests. There is no bronze statue in ancient Egypt and ancient India to compare with. Compared with Western classical art, Egyptian pharaoh statues, bronze statues of Pebi, and pottery statues of Cyprus all pursue objectivity and realism in their modeling concepts. Sanxingdui artists used abstraction, deformation and other methods to increase the mystery and three-dimensionality of the statue. These unique artistic features make the bronze statue an independent and complete system. The exquisite bronzes can completely match the ancient Babylon, Ancient Egypt, and Ancient Greece. Bronze civilization is comparable.

The vertical portrait is cast by the segmented casting method. It consists of a base and a portrait. The portrait is hollow and has a height of 262 meters. The portrait is 1.72 meters high and the base is high. 09 meters. The base is composed of a base and legs are formed by a table top. The base is trapezoidal and has no patterns on it. Experts suspect that this part may be buried under the ground of a palace or temple. The legs have four connected elephant heads. The composition, of course, some experts believe that this image is an animal face, but its long nose looks like an elephant in reality. Experts believe that the base on which the large statue stands should be a sacred mountain or an altar. The portrait wears a sun-patterned crown on the head, three tops, ornaments on the body, bracelets on both hands and feet, and stands barefoot on the altar, with exaggerated hands as if holding something. It is generally believed that this image is a figure like a king and a great wizard, and is the supreme leader who combines the identities of gods, witches and kings. But the hand is not in proportion to the body. The hand is shaped to be very large, with an inner diameter of 12 cm, which is about twice the inner diameter of the actual hand when holding an empty fist. Because Darling is the highest leader in Sanxingdui, some people think it The golden rod in his hand should be a symbol of rights. However, the golden rod is too thin. Obviously, Dali’s hands cannot grasp the thin golden rod. Some experts believe that Dali’s hand should be a jade cong. Jade Cong is a characteristic artifact in the Liangzhu culture. It is a magical tool used by shamans to communicate with the gods in sacrificial activities. However, the jade Cong is square, and Da Liren’s gesture is obviously a circle. Cong does not seem appropriate either. Moreover, Darling’s hands are not in a straight line, so now many experts and scholars believe that Darling has an ivory in his hand, because the top layer in the sacrificial pit he unearthed contains a lot of ivory. There are also experts who believe that the large portrait of the statue did not hold anything in its hands, combined with the shape of the hands on a large number of artifacts unearthed in Sanxingdui, such as the hand of the jade zhang on the "mountain worship picture", and the hand of the man pressed on the mountain, and the bronze sacred tree is cast with a dragon. The hind paws are human hands. The ancients of Sanxingdui may have a kind of adversary worship, which is a unique part of the religious system of Sanxingdui. However, it is still unclear whether or not the hands hold objects or what they hold.

However, similar gestures have been found elsewhere. For example, in the bronze statues unearthed from the Yuguo Tomb in Shaanxi, you may have noticed that the gestures of the portraits are somewhat similar to the statues of Dali. Is there any connection between them? Here is a brief introduction for everyone. In fact, all questions start from the Yuguo site. Since the 1970s, archaeologists have discovered a number of tombs from the Western Zhou period in the Rujiazhuang belt of Weishui, Shaanxi. They are buried here.A country that has long since disappeared-the country of fish. In history, the Yu Kingdom was a short-lived but legendary country. The leader of this country was once courteous to King Zhou, and King Zhou also married a woman from his family to him. However, this country is mysterious, no one knows where they came from, and no one knows why it exudes a strong ancient Shu atmosphere. Archaeologists try to solve the mystery through cultural relics. During archaeological excavations, a kind of sharp-bottomed pottery has attracted the attention of experts. It seems that the number of it can not be dug out. This means that the people here have a unique hobby for it. Sharp bottom ware is a kind of pottery with strong regionality. It is mainly unearthed in the area where the ancient Shu people were active. A nation will never use pottery from other nations for no reason, unless they have a special connection or even the same line. . The unearthed bronze statues of Sanxingdui in 1986 are more telling. The hands of the two bronze statues are disproportionately held in a circle, but the figures unearthed in Shaanxi are only those who serve the king, and the identity of the bronze figure of Sanxingdui with large differences. Some experts suspect that after the disappearance of the ancient Shu Kingdom of Sanxingdui, in addition to some moved to Jinsha, some moved north to the Shaanxi belt, and the exaggerated gestures may be just a sacrificial gesture, and there was nothing in it. The ancients moved to various places, and they also changed religions. Faith and sacrificial methods have been brought to various places.

The huge ring-shaped hands are an exaggeration constructed by the ancient Shu people out of awe of the emperor or wizard, but it is more likely to be the "real" existence at that time. Obviously, no matter who it is, it is impossible to have such big hands. The only possibility is that the emperor or wizard held two ring-shaped hand ornaments in both hands during witchcraft ritual activities, that is, magic instruments, and under the cover of the sleeves of the robe, they looked like a real hand from a distance. This double giant ring-shaped hand-shaped artifact is too heavy to be used if it is made of bronze; it is estimated that it is made of wood, and the scene of its use is recorded in bronze. The large bronze standing figures in Sanxingdui and the bronze figures unearthed from the Yuguo Tomb in Rujiazhuang, Baoji, that people see today are the true images of the ancient Shu emperors or wizards in witchcraft and ritual activities more than 3,000 years ago. The posture freezes instantly.

Of course, in addition to the exaggerated gestures, the clothes on the standing portrait are also particularly eye-catching. The art comes from life, through Da Liren and some other bronze figures. We can roughly understand what the people of Sanxingdui wore three thousand years ago.

Let’s take a look at Da Liren first. Since he is the lofty king of Shu, he naturally wears extraordinary clothes. Da Liren was a little damaged when he was unearthed. After the experts repaired him, he was surprised to find that he was wearing a gorgeous long dress. The front part was over the knee and the back part was in the shape of a dovetail. It looked like a tuxedo worn by Westerners today. There are a large number of exquisite and weird patterns. It has been verified that the main ornamentation is a group of dragon patterns, in addition to bird patterns, insect patterns, and eye patterns. Experts believe that the clothing worn by Da Liren is likely to be what we later call "dragon". robe". In the Western Han Dynasty, Yang Xiong once said that the clothes of the ancient Shu people were very strange. They belonged to Zuo Gu. The unearthed bronze statues proved Yang Xiong's words. In the history of clothing, Zuo Ji refers to the front of the clothes, and Zuo Ji means that the front of the clothes is hidden to the left. . In fact, the ethnic groups in the ancient southwest region generally had the habit of opening the neckline to the left. The idiom "disappeared on the left side" refers to ethnic minorities. The costumes of the ancients in the Central Plains were almost always concealed to the right, while the costumes of the terracotta warriors and horses were all to the right. Therefore, Zuo and Right have also become an important basis for archaeologists to distinguish the identity of the ancients.

It can be seen from the side of the portrait that the portrait is not wearing three clothes, the outermost is the gorgeous outerwear, the clothes in the middle are the longest, the innermost underwear is the shortest, and the dovetail is the hem of the middle coat. The tuxedo we are familiar with is dragged on the outside. Such a strange combination is a special case in the history of Chinese clothing. Generally, the clothes that we are familiar with are those of foreigners and shorts. Why are Sanxingdui people’s clothes on the contrary? From the perspective of our current people, this is also a strange combination. Some scholars believe that this costume was worn by the king of Shu when offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods. Three thousand years ago, the king of ancient Shu probably wore this elegant and noble costume and appeared frequently on important occasions in ancient Shu. The material of this dress is very elegant, and experts believe it may be woven from silk. As early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the ancient Shu people on the Chengdu Plain had begun to raise silkworms and spin silk. They may be the first people in the world to wear silk. However, it is difficult for us to see the silk fabrics of ancient times in their entirety today, because they are not easy to preserve and decay easily. But the bronze statueUnearthed, but we are fortunate enough to see extremely gorgeous clothing styles thousands of years ago.

On his head, Da Li is also wearing a crown, which contrasts with his gorgeous clothes. According to Ban Gu’s "Book of Han", the earliest hats and crowns in China were used by Wang Mang at the end of the Western Han Dynasty because of his baldness. Here Ban Gu is somewhat ridiculous. In fact, as early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, more than a thousand years ago from the Western Han Dynasty, hats and crowns began to be worn on the heads of ancient people. The hats were worn by ordinary people, and the crowns belonged to the status class. The crowns of the Central Plains are strictly customized and belong to different classes. In addition to Darling's crown, Sanxingdui also unearthed a figure wearing a beast's crown. One of the beast heads is crowned with a portrait, and he wears a hat resembling the head of an elephant. The elephant is opening a big mouth, with small round holes on both sides of the mouth, which may be used to install other accessories or decorations. The sun patterns on both sides of the mouth again reflect the sun worship concept of the ancient Shu people. At the same time, this crown shape makes We think of the heads of the two sacred beasts at the bottom of the altar, from which we may be able to find some inner connections. This beast-head crowned figure is the same as the giant figure. His hands are also raised flat on his chest, but his hands are separated more. It is unlikely to take ivory. Please pay special attention to the little finger of his right hand, just like today’s "Orchid Finger" "The same is upturned, giving people endless imagination, but unfortunately he only left his upper body when he was unearthed. We don’t know what the other parts are like, especially the style of his clothes because of the lack of his lower body. A puzzle. However, from this point of view, the attitude of the ancient Shu people towards the crown seems to be much more open and free than the Central Plains region. Of course, this may also be because the Central Plains royal power has been established, and the ancient Shu Kingdom has a strong color of theocratic power.

The crown on the head of the bronze giant is called a lotus-shaped high crown. From a distance, it looks like a blooming lotus. The center of the crown is carved with a radiant sun. This mysterious hat and the noble king's clothes are just right fusion together.

We have learned about the clothes worn by the king. What kind of clothes do ordinary people wear? Below we can learn about it through a few other figures.

In the Central Plains, clothes were valued by the ancients as part of etiquette. People of different ranks have different costumes and must not be overridden. Disorders are regarded as gross negligence. When Qi Jinggong was drunk and undressed while drunk, Yan Zi criticized him for being rude, showing the importance of clothes. Like Zhongyuan, Sanxingdui people also have their own clothing system. Just like his identity, the magnificent coat of the bronze Dali is also unique, except for him, no one wears such magnificent clothes. Normal Sanxingdui aristocrats like to wear a pair of shirts. This is often found on statues unearthed in Sanxingdui. If there are two bronze kneeling figures, they look like they are offering sacrifices from their kneeling posture, and the kneeling posture is different. One is kneeling. One is kneeling on the side, which may show the postures in different ritual activities. Among them, the eyebrows, eye sockets, and eyeballs of the kneeling figure still have black marks. Of course, we have to admire the superb skills of the ancient Shu craftsmen. Every part of them has been cast so finely that we can still see them wearing plackets. To this day, double-breasted clothing is still popular among ethnic minorities such as the Miao, Bai, Hui, and Li nationalities. Unlike the general left or right gusset, the double-breasted clothing is split symmetrically from the middle. It is loved by the ancients because of its simplicity and convenience. Sanxingdui people's double-breasted clothing has no collar and no buckles. The two breasts are crossed in a "V" shape. It looks like a sweetheart collar. The ancients of thousands of years ago seemed to have a soft spot for this kind of neckline clothes.

There is another bronze kneeling figure unearthed in Sanxingdui. He wears a short blouse with a right gusset without any ornamentation. However, this bronze kneeling figure is perhaps the most unique among the unearthed figures in Sanxingdui. The short coat of his right gusset puzzled archaeologists. Why is his clothes made of right gusset? Isn't he from Shu? What’s more interesting is that although he wears calf-nosed trousers on his lower body, it is different from ordinary calf-nosed trousers. His trousers are very short. According to Sima Qian’s records in "The Biographies of Sima Xiangru", the trousers are made by servants. Clothes for rough work. What puzzles us is how can he do rough work in these pants? His identity is still a mystery. However, judging from his kneeling style and dress, he is somewhat similar to today's sumo wrestling in Japan.

inIn Sanxingdui, we also found portraits without tops. For example, the top figure sitting on the knees, with the upper body and breasts exposed, may be a woman. The clothes we usually refer to are the top clothes, and the chang refers to the lower clothes, also called the lower clothes. Her lower skirt is like a skirt, and the bottom is wide and flared, which is a bit like the current flared pants. We don't know why this figure is not wearing a jacket, but from the perspective of her kneeling on the altar with the bronze statue on her head, it may be a representation of a wizard kneeling on the top of the mountain to make sacrifices. Moreover, this top statue, sitting on knees, has solved an eternal mystery of the ancient bronze statue's use. In the past, we only knew that the statue was used for sacrificial activities, but how it was used has been difficult to know. This top statue The unearthed kneeling figure shows us the specific method of using this kind of ritual vessel in sacrificial activities.

This kneeling figure holding Zhang is also one of the most precious cultural relics. It tells us a specific method of use in Sanxingdui, so it is as precious as the kneeling figure sitting on top.

Different classes wear clothes of different styles and textures. This is the epitome of the strict internal hierarchy of the Sanxingdui Kingdom three thousand years ago. However, some other people in Sanxingdui ancient country are worth looking for. Wearing thick armor, they should be the guardians of the Sanxingdui bronze statues of King Sanxingdui and the pioneers of the territory. They wore strong armor, muscular, and gave people a majestic feeling. Although their heads were decayed when they were unearthed, it is not difficult to imagine that they should have helmets on their heads, so that they can play a role in battle. The role of head protection. Helmets were called cubits in ancient times, and were only called helmets after the Han Dynasty. It is not difficult for us to imagine that mighty armor, sturdy helmets, this cold and hard protective equipment is undoubtedly the magic weapon for the Sanxingdui people to defeat the enemy in the war. These small bronze statues may be ordinary soldiers or tribal leaders. Maybe they all died in a war to defend their homes and the country. Sanxingdui people cast them into statues, enshrine them in the temple, and accept them forever. The worship and remembrance of posterity.