Author: Liao Junqi
Editor: Wan Jun
Japan's cultural formation is later than Chinese culture, so the early prehistoric culture is supplemented by The Historical Record of China, such as the record of the legendary Queen of Japan, Beimihu, from the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Biography of Wei Zhi Wuren" ("Wei Zhi Wuren Biography" is the Japanese "Wei Shu (commonly known as "Wei Zhi") and Dongyi Biography in the Chinese history book "Three Kingdoms Chronicle" in the "Book of Wei (commonly known as "Wei Zhi") and "Dongyi Biography").
According to the Wei Zhi, at the end of the second century, there were many small countries on the island of Japan, and wars were raging for many years. At this time, a woman appeared in the evil Matai kingdom, she quelled the civil unrest and ascended to the throne, controlling the surrounding small countries, and then obtained the golden seal of "pro-Wei Wei King" from Cao Wei to consolidate power. This woman is the Queen of Beimihu, who reigned for more than 70 years.
Humble in the comics. Image source: clic575 |ameblo.jp
The Tomb of the Evil Horse Tai Kingdom and The Humble Mihu
In the recently released movie "Tomb Raider: Battle of Origins", the protagonist Laura's father disappeared without a trace in order to find the legendary "Beimihu Tomb", and she followed the clues left by her father to embark on a journey to the legendary "Evil Matai Kingdom". So where is the tomb of this evil Matai kingdom and Beimihu?
In the historical records, Beimihu was 17 years old and became king, but in his old age he was unmarried and had a younger brother to assist in ruling the country. After ascending the throne, Beimihu lived in the palace, and almost no one saw her, and the palace and the city tower were equipped with strict fences, and only a man responsible for delivering food to her could enter. After The tomb was posthumous, the diameter of the tomb was more than 100 steps (the step was measured in units, one step in the Qin and Han dynasties was about 1.38 meters, and in the Wei dynasty it was about 1.44 meters), and more than 100 slaves were martyred.
Concept map of The Humble Hu in a mobile game. Image source: qjp2.kunlun.com
There have been many views on the location of the tomb over the years, all of which are related to the location of the evil Matai State.
Conventional wisdom holds that the Kingdom of Evil Matai should be located on the Japanese island of Kiuchi or Kyushu. The Japanese pronunciation of The Evil Horse Terrace is "Yamatai", which is similar to the Yamato pronunciation of "Yamato", and the stronghold of the Yamato Imperial Court, which is only about a century away from the Evil Horse Terrace Kingdom, is in Kiuchi, so there is a view that the Evil Horse Tai Kingdom is in Kiuchi. If this is the case, the tomb of Beimihu may be the ancient tomb of the Tomb of Nara Prefecture in Japan, with a diameter of about 150 meters, which is exactly the scale of more than 100 steps.
Another view is that the evil Matai Kingdom is on the island of Kyushu, which stems from the fact that archaeologists have found a large number of iron tools on the Japanese island of Kyushu, so it is inferred that the Evil Matai Kingdom at that time may have mastered a large number of iron weapons and was backed by powerful force to sweep away the crowd. If Kyushu is correct, then the Ishizuka-san Kofun is a strong candidate, and the tomb is about 120 to 130 meters in size.
However, according to the Wei Zhi, the evil Matai Kingdom was neither in Kyushu nor on Kyushu Island, but in the sea south of Kyushu Island. Although proponents of the Kiuchi or Kyushu island theories believe that the Wei Zhi is wrongly documented, there are also some arguments that the evil Matai kingdom may have been some former island.
In 2010, Japanese marine geologist Masaaki Kimura suggested that the evil Matai Kingdom may have originated in Ryukyu. According to Kimura, the location and terroir recorded in the Wei Zhi were close to Ryukyu, and after studying the sedimentation of the seabed of Yonaguni Island near Ryukyu, Kimura discovered that there had been a large earthquake that had caused the entire island to sink. He firmly believed that it was the earthquake that caused a large influx of refugees from the island to Japan at that time, which formed the later queen state regime. In addition to location and deposits of terroir and earthquakes, he also found on the seabed the remains of man-made excavations (although some believe that they were naturally formed) that could prove the glorious past of the Evil Matai State.
Himiko kore Amaterasu Omikami?
There is a sentence in the "Biography of Wei Zhiwu" for Beimihu that "things are ghostly and can confuse the people." The protagonists in Tomb Raider believe that Beimihu has supernatural abilities related to death, which may be based on this sentence.
In some historical studies, it is believed that The "superpower" of Beimihu may be related to celestial phenomena, and she is the prototype of the Japanese mythological sun god "Amaterasu Daijin" (also known as Amaterasu Daijin).
Murals depicting the Amaterasu Daimyo. Image source: Public domain
Amaterasu Daimyo is the goddess of the sun in the ancient Japanese mythology Kojiki. Written in 712 AD, the Kojiki was compiled for the Japanese Emperor Taian Wanlu and records the historical genealogy from ancient mythology to the emperor. At that time, there was a series of political struggles in the Japanese court, and the emperor sent people to write this book to correct his position in order to consolidate his imperial throne, which was also the first historical book in Japan.
The Ancient Chronicles hidden in The Temple of True Blessing. Image credit: Ken'yu| Wikipedia
According to the mythological story recorded in the "Ancient Chronicles", the Japanese archipelago was born of a pair of male and female gods (Izanagi and Izanami), because they were the first pair of men and women (before that the gods were all asexual reproduction), so they were not familiar with how to give birth, and the deformed children born after the wrong attempt were small outlying islands in Japan, and after the gods met to establish the correct way of fertility, a relatively complete large island was produced. But the good times are not always good, the goddess burned herself to death after giving birth to the fire god, and the male god decided to go to the land of the yellow spring in the land of the dead to find the goddess due to excessive sadness. However, a series of accidents occur there, and the goddess who transforms into a demon is hunted down and killed to escape the country of Yellow Springs, and blocks the entrance with a large stone, and the two worlds of life and death are forever separated. After escaping the danger of nine deaths, when the male god washed by the river, the sun god "Amaterasu Daigo" and his younger brother moon god "Moon Reading" were born from his eyes, and when he washed his nose, he produced the storm god "Susanoo" (if you have seen Naruto, these names should be familiar, because many of the tricks Sasuke uses are derived from the names of these gods).
Why is it said that Beimihu is the god of Amaterasu? There are two main pieces of evidence for this inference, one is linguistic and the other is from astronomy.
In Japanese, the pronunciation of Berumi is "Himiko", and scholars who have studied etymology believe that "miko" means "witch" and "hi" means "sun", so it is believed that Beimihu should correspond to the sun goddess in Japanese mythology.
In astronomical calculations, there were two eclipses before and after the death of Bemihu, on March 24, 247, and September 5, 248. This may correspond to the mythical event in which the sun god hid in a cave and caused the world to go dark (the mythical Amaterasu's younger brother Susa Nenghu cried all day to see his mother and caused trouble everywhere). In addition, if the average reign of the emperor is calculated statistically and pushed back to the mythological era, the era of the "Amaterasu Daimyō" can be echoed with the events of The Humble And the Eclipse. This may be what the movie says: all legends have a basis in reality.
Note: The "Kojiki" is not a canonical history, and japan's first shoshi has another book, called the Nihon Shoki, compiled by Prince Sheren and written in 720. Although the reason for the writing is not clear, some historians believe that it is based on the nature of diplomacy, after all, the whole text is written in Chinese and chronicle form, perhaps in order to show off with the Chinese at that time that "we in Japan also have a correct history." Both the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki record the myths of ancient Japan, so they are collectively called "Kiki Myths".
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Typography: Xiaolan
bibliography:
National Geographic Society (2016), Supernatural Events: Real Cases That Science Is Difficult to Explain, National Geographic Special Issue.
Masaaki Kimura (2010). Yamataikoku was Okinawa! Third Civilization Company.
Ken Matsumae (1974). "Gods of Japan". Chuokoronsha.
Shinshin Chikushi (2002). The Birth of Amaterasu. Kodansha.
Motohiko Izawa (1993). The Paradox of Japanese History series. Shogakukan.
Kimiaki Kawa, Kiyotaka Tanikawa, Mitsuru Ai (2003). Changes in the geo-inertia rate inferred from the ancient eclipses of China and Japan. Astrodynamics N Physical Fitness Research Group.
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