This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of modern Chinese archaeology and a fruitful year of archaeological discoveries. On November 16, 2021, archaeologists disclosed that the earliest, longest,700-word Chinese "First Long Wenyao" excavated from the Zhengjiahu Cemetery in Chengguan Town, Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, was excavated, which is the most important discovery in this archaeological activity.
Readers familiar with the history of archaeology are no strangers to the place of "Cloud Dream". The famous Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Jian was excavated here. So, what is the significance of the "first long wen yao" unearthed this time? What are the important archaeological discoveries of Yunmeng?
I. "First Long Text": the earliest and the longest
What is Yao? It was originally a copper drinking vessel. It is long, cylindrical, with a large trumpet-shaped mouth and slope-like high circle feet. Bronze Yao first appeared in the early Shang Erligang culture, began to decline by the early Western Zhou Dynasty, and was rare after the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The Analects records that Confucius said, "Yao Bu Yao, Yao Zhao, Yao Zhao!" "That is to say, if there is no Yao, is it still called Yao?" Is that still called Yao? The second "觚" means angular, which means that there were no edges and corners at that time. Confucius attached great importance to "correcting the name", so it was believed that it could not be called "Yao".
This "First Long Wen Yao", excavated from the Qin tomb in the late Warring States period, has nothing to do with the bronze Yao used as a wine vessel during the Shang Zhou Dynasty, but is only a kind of wooden Jane that records the text. However, it is more distinctive than the general Jane Mu, which is made of a longitudinal section of a log, 34 cm long and 3.5 cm wide. The semicircular wooden surface was also trimmed into seven prisms, each about 0.5 cm to 0.6 cm wide, and the text was written; the flat section was also divided into seven lines, of which six lines were written. In 1977, a 212-character wooden piece of the middle Western Han Dynasty was excavated at the Han Dynasty Beacon Site in Yumen Guanhuahai, Gansu, and the "First Long Wen Yao" was earlier and had more writing.
What does the "First Long Essay" say? At present, the interpretation has not yet been published. According to experts, it records that in the late Warring States period, the five eastern countries formed an alliance against Qin and won victory, so they sent strategists to the Qin state to lobby the King of Qin for a truce. Citing the scriptures, this writer mentioned the allusions of the three kingdoms of Wu, Yue, and Wei at the time of the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, and used what he saw and heard, combined with the characteristics of the Qin kingdom, which was strong in the army and abundant in people and materials, to persuade the king of Qin to stop the army and make the people live and work in peace and contentment. The style is similar to the Warring States Policy, but it is not recorded in the literature, providing us with new historical materials for the Spring and Autumn Warring States; its writing is written by Qin Li, which also provides us with valuable calligraphy materials.
The whole picture of "The First Long Wen Yao" Source: Hubei Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics
In addition to the "First Long Wen Yao", the Zhengjiahu site has also unearthed many precious cultural relics. According to reports, archaeologists have cleaned up more than 100 tombs of the Warring States Qin and Han Dynasties by the time of reporting, and unearthed more than 800 pieces (sets) of precious cultural relics, of which the largest number is lacquered wood, a total of more than 400 pieces (sets), mainly including ear cups, cups, boxes, cups, flat pots, bottles, bottles, bi, figurines, etc., of which the character painting flat pots, tiger head pillows, double-mouth pots, ear cup boxes are all treasures. Of particular concern is the rare number of wood-paneled burial utensils. Among them, the two wooden panels of the tomb door panel are well preserved, and four character stories are painted on them, which is very exquisite.
A painted wooden door excavated from the Zhengjiahu site
The excavated cultural relics from the Yunmeng Zhengjiahu site are only the tip of the iceberg, but their significant archaeological value can also be glimpsed. The place name Yunmeng, of course, is not the first time it has entered the public's field of vision. About 3 kilometers away from the Zhengjiahu lake site, is the famous Sleeping Tiger Land Site, in December 1975, a batch of world-renowned Qin Dynasty Bamboo Jane, that is, Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Land Qinjian was unearthed here; in November 2006, a batch of Han Dynasty Bamboo Jane, that is, Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Land Hanjian was unearthed here; about 1 km from the Zhengjiahu Site, in October 1989, a batch of Qin Dynasty Jianmu was unearthed here, that is, Yunmeng Longgang Qinjian.
Because the Sleeping Tiger Land Qin Jian is more familiar with the public, the following only introduces longgang Qin Jian and Sleeping Tiger Ground Han Jane.
2. Longgang Qinjian: The law after the unification of the Qin Dynasty
From October to December 1989, archaeologists conducted the first excavation of the Qin and Han cemeteries in Longgang, and excavated a total of 9 ancient tombs, all of which belonged to the tombs of the Qin Dynasty. Among them, more than 70 artifacts have been excavated, including 35 pieces of pottery, 26 pieces of lacquerware, bamboo and wood ware, brown rope, liubo chess and so on. Pottery includes urns, pots, kettles, koshiki, cups, etc.; lacquerware includes cups, cups, ear cups, cups, flat pots, etc.; bamboo and wood utensils include wooden sticks, bamboo janes, bamboo poles, and so on. The most concerned is the more than 150 bamboo sticks excavated from Tomb 8. Because Zhu jian is seriously mutilated and does not have a complete legal name, scholars divide it into five categories: forbidden garden, Chi Dao, horse cattle and sheep, Tian Ying taxation, and other five categories.
The so-called Forbidden Garden refers to the palace of the emperor. The law on the forbidden garden is the main content of Longgang Qinjian. There is a similar stipulation in Qin Jian's "Eighteen Kinds of Qin Laws and Field Laws" of sleeping tigers, saying that if the dogs of the people enter the forbidden garden, if they are not chasing the beasts of the forbidden garden, they do not need to be killed; only when hunting the beasts of the forbidden garden, they need to be killed. Dogs killed in the security zone need to be handed over to the government; those killed in other areas can eat meat and only need to be handed over. The difference is that the Sleeping Tiger Land Qin Jian is called "The People", while the Longgang Qin Jian is called "Qianshou".
The "History of Qin Shi Huang Benji" says that after Qin Shi Huang unified the world in the twenty-sixth year (221 BC), he renamed the people "Qianshou". In this way, we can know that Longgang Qin Jian is definitely the law of the Qin Dynasty. What can be confirmed is that the word "sin" in the Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Jian is always written as "辠", and the "Explanation of Words" says: "Qin is like an imperial character, and it is changed to a crime." And the "sin" in the Longgang Qin Jian is indeed the word "sin". It can be seen that the Qin laws involved in the Sleeping Tiger Land Qin Jian are before the unification of the Qin Dynasty, while the Qin laws involved in the Longgang Qin Jian are after the unification of the Qin Dynasty, and the two can participate in each other and complement each other, which helps us to fully understand the Qin Laws.
In Longgang Qinjian, the law on the management of Chi Dao is not found in Qin Jian of Sleeping Tiger Land, and it is the only physical material for studying Qin Han Chi Dao. There are relevant provisions on chi, yong and crossbows. Regarding the law on the management of horses, cattle and sheep, sleeping tiger land Qin Jian is also involved, but this part of Longgang Qin Jian is different from the sleeping tiger land Qin Jian, for example, mentioning the place where the horse and cattle pass, it is forbidden to guard against traps and utensils for catching animals. With regard to the law on the taxation of land wins, it is more important to mention the fake land system and the provisions on the collection of land rent and the protection of the land boundary. Scholars believe that the fake land system is to obtain land use rights by paying land rent, which is a transitional form of transformation from land state ownership to private ownership.
In addition to the above bamboo jane, a wooden piece was also unearthed, introducing some information about the tomb owner himself, which is the only physical object that can be seen so far about the Qin law judgment. Judging from the content of the wooden mu and the bamboo jane, the owner of the tomb should be a Nanjun Shaxian person, who was a scholar who studied the prohibition of criminal law, but was sentenced to execution for the crime, and was cut off his feet, responsible for guarding the Yunmeng Forbidden Garden. The Yunmeng Forbidden Garden and the Dune Forbidden Garden were equally famous at that time, and both were the emperor's palaces. The tomb owner was not pardoned throughout his life, and was not exonerated as a commoner until after his death through "meditation judgment".
Third, Sleeping Tiger Di Han Jian: Supplementing the story of Wu Zixu
In November 2006, archaeologists excavated Tomb No. 77 of the Sleeping Tiger Tomb, which is a Han tomb from the end of Emperor Wen to the jingdi period, unlike the Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Tomb. A total of 37 pieces of lacquered wood and pottery were excavated from the tomb, including 18 pieces of lacquerware, 2 pieces of wood, 6 pieces of bamboo, 8 pieces of pottery, and 1 piece of lead, bronze mirror and stone stone with research and research stone. The most noteworthy are the 2137 bamboo tablets and 128 bamboo wood tablets unearthed among them, which scholars have divided into categories such as qualitative days, official documents, private books, legal codes, arithmetic, books and japanese books. The finishing process is still ongoing.
The Quality Day is a form of document circulating during the Qin and Han dynasties, which records public and private affairs based on calendars, equivalent to a diary, which involves the public and private activities of the tomb owner from the tenth year of emperor Wen 's reign (170 BC) to the seventh year of the later yuan (157 BC). Official documents include judicial documents, animal welfare (livestock management) documents and meritorious documents. Private books include accounts of the death of the tomb owner's sister and mother. The legal codes have appeared more often in the Zhangjiashan Hanjian "Two-Year Law", and there are also new legal texts such as the "Municipal Law". Books such as arithmetic and Japanese books have also been unearthed in Zhangjiashan Hanjian and Sleeping Tiger Di Qinjian. From the above-mentioned Jian Mu, it can be seen that the tomb owner served as an Anlu County Zuo and Anlu County Yangwu Xiang Zuo.
According to archaeologists, Zhu Jian recorded more than 30 stories in the form of dialogue, most of which are found in the documents of the Warring States Qin and Han Dynasties, but there are some differences in the text, among which the story of Wu Zixu appears. Wu Zixu was a Wu state in the Spring and Autumn Period, and was originally a native of the State of Chu. According to the "Left Biography", Wu Zixu's father Wu Hao was imprisoned by King Chuping, who tricked Wu Shang and Wu Zixu's brothers into casting their nets. Wu Shang went away in order to fulfill his filial piety, but Wu Zixu fled to the state of Wu in order to take revenge. Later, with the assistance of Wu Zixu, the King of Wu invaded the Chu state of Yingdu, and Wu Zixu was revenge. Because Wu Zixu is full of legends, from the Warring States period onwards, his exile story has been constantly added. "Han Feizi" said that Wu Zixu's escape process was not smooth sailing, when Wu Zixu walked to Zhaoguan on the border of Wu and Chu and was stopped by the guards. Wu Zixu said that the King of Chu arrested himself because he had a jewel, but now that he had lost it, if you wanted to arrest me, I would be sure that you had swallowed it. Do you dare to arrest me? Sure enough, the keeper let it go. The "Spring and Autumn of the Lü Dynasty" says that Wu Zixu once fled to the State of Zheng, but thought that the monarch was faint, and fled to the State of Xu. Xu Guojun spat toward the southeast, and Wu Zixu understood the spirit, which reached the State of Wu.
Portrait of Wu Zixu
In the brief story of Wu Zixu, there is the content of Wu Zixu's discussion of Zheng in "Lü's Spring and Autumn", and the record of Wu Zixu crossing the river is added. According to the record, at that time, Wu Zixu unsheathed the sword of a thousand gold and asked the boatman to help him ferry, but the boatman said that the bounty offered by the king to catch you had thousands of gold and millions of acres of good land, and he refused to accept it. In the "Biography of Wu Zixu", which is later than Wu Zixu's story, it is said that Wu Zixu fled to song and Zheng provinces, and then reached the Yangtze River through Zhaoguan in the Chu state. It is also mentioned that he crossed the river with the help of the boatman, which is the absorption of the relevant records of Wu Zixu's story Jane. Then he added Wu Zixu, who was sick and hungry, and begged all the way to reach the capital of the Wu kingdom.