Archaeologists have found a stone cow in the tomb of The Lady of the Yin Ruins in Anyang City, Henan Province, and it is precisely because of the excavation of this stone cow that they have cracked the secret of a modern occupation name. What the hell is going on? How can modern occupational titles be related to funerary goods? If you want to know, let Xiaobian reveal the secret for you:
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In 1928, in a village in Anyang City, Henan Province, archaeologists stumbled upon an ancient ruins buried in the ground for thousands of years, and after careful investigation, experts determined that the site was dated to the Shang Dynasty, so it was named "Shang Dynasty Yin Ruins Site". Fast forward to 1976, in the process of excavating the ruins of Yin Ruins, archaeologists found a tomb of a member of the Shang Dynasty royal family in the southwest of the base site of the C Group in the Zongmiao District of the Yin Ruins Palace, which was 5.6 meters long from north to south, 4 meters wide from east to west, and 7.5 meters deep. On the tomb, there is a hall called "Mother Xinzong" by the oracle bones, and experts have determined that the owner of the tomb should be the queen wife of Wuding, the king of the Shang Dynasty. The area of the tomb is not large, but its specifications are quite high, and there are 1928 funerary utensils in the tomb, including bronze, jade, and gemstones. Among the many artifacts, there is a stone cow that stands out, which is 14 cm high and 25 cm wide, and is a round sculpture of white marble. The cow as a whole is kneeling, with its head protruding forward and head held high, its horns bowed back, its ears low, its ears small holes, and its nose with long teeth. Not only that, the jaw of the stone cow is also engraved with the word "Sixin".
According to the formal system, as a queen of a generation, although her status is respected, her tomb specifications cannot be so high, what kind of woman is she? In fact, don't say I don't know, I am shocked to say that I am not a gentle and virtuous woman in our impression, she is a veritable hero. Under her leadership, the Shang Dynasty army has defeated more than 20 small countries such as the Northern Tufang, the Southern YiGuo, the Southern Pakistani State, and the Ghost Fang, making great contributions to the Shang Dynasty's expansion of territory.
At this time, a question arose, what does the stone cow unearthed in the tomb of the woman mean, and the inscription "Sixin" at the bottom of it? In order to be able to solve the mystery of the word "Sixin", archaeologists consulted Xu Shen's "Explanation of Words and Characters" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, which wrote: "Si, Lord also", which means that "Si" is the meaning of the master. What does "Sim" mean? "Xin" is actually the temple number after the death of the woman. The two words combined are "the master and wife are good", from which it can be seen that the stone cow was deliberately buried by the Shang King Wuding to the woman.
At this time, a question followed, why did the Shang King Wuding send a good stone cow to his wife? This is also explained by the relationship between the Shang Dynasty and cattle. In ancient times, the productive forces were very low, and the productive capacity of the people was extremely limited, so the cattle with great strength became members of the "labor army". Legend has it that the ancestor of the Yin merchant was Wuhai, who was industrious and intelligent, and in order to make the labor more efficient, he began to use cattle for heavy physical labor, known as mastering the "art of serving cattle".
When the Yin merchants drove ox carts to trade with other tribes, the tribal leaders were very surprised by it, and some even had the impulse to take it for themselves. In the end, many tribes banded together and robbed the ox cart caravan of Wuhai and killed them. When Wuhai's son heard that his father had been killed, he was furious, and immediately organized the young adults of the tribe, defeated the robbery tribe one by one, and gradually became the overlord of one side. After this, Yin merchants drove ox carts around to trade, which gradually made the word "merchant" a synonym for people who did business. The reason why King Wuding of the Shang Dynasty would bury the stone cow as a good woman was to let the woman "live" underground and keep in mind the supreme glory of her ancestors.
Archaeology is indeed the golden key to open the door to the mystery of history, it can reveal the secrets of thousands of years ago, but also provide many important bases for historical research - think about it, a stone cow, unveiled the origin of the word "merchant", what a remarkable thing!