On the morning of June 10, 2012, a group of villagers in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, were carrying out the construction of Metro Line 3 in front of a small hillside commonly known as "Laoguan Mountain" on the east side of the Tumen Community Health Station in Tianhui Town, Jinniu District, Chengdu.
At about nine o'clock in the morning, when a villager driving an excavator used an excavator to dig up a shovel of dirt, he suddenly found that there was a piece of black wood in the soil that did not slip like rotten wood.
The captain who led the construction team came to check and found that the piece of wood was more than one meter long, sixty centimeters thick, dark throughout, and there were some patterns faintly on it. The well-informed captain suddenly realized that this might be part of an ancient coffin, and they dug up an ancient tomb.
One
Sichuan is rich in ancient tomb resources. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, cultural relics and archaeologists in Sichuan have investigated and excavated more than 3,000 ancient tombs in the Chengdu area alone.
According to the results of the cultural relics census carried out in Chengdu in 1987, there are still as many as 622 well-preserved ancient tombs in Chengdu, especially in the Han Dynasty.
Why are there so many Han Dynasty tombs in Sichuan? This is related to the rapid economic and cultural development of the Sichuan region during the two Han Dynasties, coupled with fewer disasters of war and relative stability. Among these Han tombs, except for some Shu culture tombs, most of them belong to the Han cultural system.
At the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the whole country was in chaos and Bashu was alone, and the social order was not greatly impacted, so thick burial was very popular.
Therefore, the Han tombs in Sichuan, the coffins are mostly painted with red paint, with more burial products, general ancient tombs in addition to funerary mirrors, Ding, gold, in, clay pots, clay pots, lacquer boxes, lacquer ear cups and other living utensils, noble tombs also have copper, spear, plutonium, sword and other weapons buried. These burial weapons also reflected the customs of the Shu people at that time.
After the villagers working at the construction site found the tomb, the village chief immediately called the police. Soon, experts from the cultural relics department arrived at the scene.
Experts have preliminarily identified this ancient tomb as a Han Dynasty tomb. Because the damage to the tomb is relatively serious, it can no longer be protected in situ, so after consulting the superiors, a rescue excavation of the tomb was launched.
Two
At that time, not many people realized that this ancient tomb was a major archaeological discovery in the Chengdu area. During the excavation, cultural relics workers cleaned up 4 earth pit wooden tombs in the Western Han Dynasty, and a total of more than 620 relics were unearthed.
This ancient tomb is a wooden tomb with a vertical pit. This burial method is to first dig a vertical cavity, in the vertical cavity built into the mortise structure inlaid into the lacquered wooden rafter, the wooden rafter is wrapped in green paste mud, the rafter chamber built-in burial tools and burial goods. This special burial custom is unique to the Sichuan region of the Han Dynasty and has rarely been found in previous archaeology.
During the excavation, the workers dug out some pottery fragments from time to time, and experts studied the texture and texture of these fragments, judging that they were Pottery of the Han Dynasty. It's just that these pottery are so badly broken that experts call it a pity.
This afternoon, while cleaning up the mud from the burial chamber, the experts found a complete copper bracelet. The bronze bracelet is round, carved with semi-curved lines, and covered with green rust.
This discovery has greatly excited experts, because before this, such a complete copper bracelet was rarely found in the excavation of Han tombs in mainland China.
The discovery excited the experts. Next, they cleaned the sarcophagus and the lid of the coffin, and found that the sarcophagus was about 2 meters long, and the outer coffin wall was cracked due to weathering, but the pattern on the coffin surface was still faintly visible.
The lid of the sarcophagus is printed with three four-petaled flowers, and the long side wall of the sarcophagus is a travel map, with 10 people in long sleeves holding an object and moving in the same direction; on the other side, a person is riding on a horse, with attendants in front and behind, and two people behind are holding long swords, as if playing and entertaining.
The wider side wall of the sarcophagus depicts two men dressed in long sleeves, facing each other, each holding a mirror-like object, and the two men's tails intersect like snakes. Experts speculate: this is a "female snail map of Fuxi".
On this "Fuxi Female Snail Chart", the Fuxi holding the moment is on the right, and the hand-holding Gui Nuwa is on the left. Fuxi Nuwa hugged her upper body, and the clothes were outlined or painted in red color, and the sleeves flew. The lower body of the snake tail intersects, the tail is thick and long and curved inward, and the tail of the snake is edged with red and black lines.
The top of Fuxi Nuwa's head is depicted with red ink lines of the sun, moon and stars, symbolizing the continuous movement of the entire celestial body in the universe.
Experts look at the sleeves, dresses and hairstyles of Fuxi female snails, which have typical Han Chinese characteristics; but the faces of Fuxi and Nuwa are high noses and deep eye sockets, and Fuxi still has a beard and some cultural characteristics of ethnic minorities. This shows that in the Han Dynasty, both the Han and ethnic minority peoples in Sichuan had developed a cultural identity with Fuxi Nuwa.
Three
In this Han tomb, a large number of Jian Mu from the Western Han Dynasty have been unearthed, including official documents and witchcraft. A large part of "witchcraft" is ancient medicine.
Archaeologists found a large number of "medical janes" in the tomb, and sorted out medical works such as "The Theory of Medicine in the Past", "The Marquis of Pulse Death", "Sixty Sick Prescriptions" and "Book of Medical Horses".
These records a total of more than 920 bamboo tablets of Han Dynasty medicine. Due to its age, the text on the bamboo strip is difficult to identify with the naked eye, and archaeologists have cracked the content recorded above through infrared scanning.
The contents of these bamboo tablets, which have never been recorded in historical records before, involve internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics and veterinary medicine at that time, among which the most notable is the long-lost classic medical books of the Bian Que school.
In these medical briefs, the words "敝旧曰" appear many times. Experts believe that "敝昔" is a generic character for "Bian Que", and "敝昔曰" is actually "Bian Que Yue".
Bian Que was a famous doctor in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, famous for diagnosing pulses, and his methods of checking and curing diseases through pulses were recorded in detail.
For example, "the heart qi is red, the lung qi is white, the liver qi is cyan, the stomach qi is yellow, and the kidney qi is black, so the five visceral qi colors are used" on the medical jane, which is the specific method of finding the disease through the observation and diagnosis of the pulse, which is also the characteristic of the Bian Que pulse theory.
According to historical records, Bian Que did not go to the Sichuan region during his lifetime, but he traveled around the world all his life, practiced medicine everywhere, and accepted many disciples. Experts speculate that these medical books may have been that after Bian Que's death, one of his disciples came to the Sichuan region to practice medicine, collected disciples near Chengdu, and spread Bian Que's medical skills to the Sichuan region.
Because there are few records in the history books, the character of Bian Que has been controversial in the history of medicine, and some people even think that he is only a legendary figure, not a real person in history.
Now in this Han tomb, the medical book written by Bian Que has been found, and its significance lies in the fact that it confirms that Bian Que is a real medical scientist in history, which is of great significance.
The medical jane excavated from the tomb of Laoguanshan Han is of extremely high academic value. Previously, some Han Dynasty medical books had been found in Mawangdui, but their contents had many elements of witchcraft, and this batch of medical texts recorded many prescriptions for curing diseases, including many compound recipes.
This can prove that in this historical period from the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, Chinese medicine has produced great developments, and has gradually moved away from witchcraft and become a scientific discipline.
Chengdu Laoguanshan Han Tomb Bamboo Jian composed of medical book "Sixty Sick Prescriptions" is an important Han Dynasty medical clinical literature that is relatively well-preserved and more standardized, and its value even exceeds the famous Mawangdui Han Tomb "Fifty-two Sick Prescriptions".
The "Fifty-two Sick Prescriptions" records a total of 280 medical prescriptions and more than 100 disease names, involving internal, external, gynecological, pediatric, five senses and other clinical disciplines, the vast majority of which are surgical diseases, and is the oldest medical prescription book in mainland China.
The "Sixty Sick Prescriptions" records nearly 100 diseases, the total number of medical prescriptions is 81, mainly based on diseases, treatment methods and prescription drugs, and the clinical disciplines involved include internal, external, gynecological, pediatric, and five senses, and the "Fifty-two Sick Prescriptions" that records a large number of surgeries have their own emphases, and their academic value has its own strengths.
In addition to listing the diseases and treatment methods of some difficult and complicated diseases, the "Sixty Sick Parties" also records the detailed symptoms of these diseases, and also details some contraindications of these diseases after treatment, which is more comprehensive and specific than the content of the "Fifty-two Sick Parties".
In the "Fifty-two Sick Prescriptions", the dosage units of drugs are mostly estimated, such as stiff, bundle, handle, pill, etc., and rarely use accurate units of measurement;
The dosage of drugs in the "Sixty Sick Prescriptions" uses the "points" of the Han Dynasty's popular quantitative units, such as "Sixteen Zhi Decadence Mountain, Take The Cocoon Ten Points, Shaoxin Four Points, Thick Two Points, Apricot Core Zhongshi, Gui, Shu Pepper, and Banana Pods Each One Point."
Combined, take the medicine by half a dagger in square inches", which is undoubtedly more detailed in the dosage and has more research value.
Many of the prescriptions in the "Fifty-Two Prescriptions" are directly used as medicines using some animals, plants and minerals in nature that do not need to be processed, such as live fish, heart soil, mud in wells, mustard seeds, mulberry sap, etc., in contrast, it is also a relatively primitive medical method.
However, in the "Sixty Sick Prescriptions", this original drug is not too common, and the drugs and methods of medication recorded above have been used so far, including aconitum, Shu pepper, fine spices, zhuyi, peony, Sichuan root, platycodon, Magnolia, skullcap, Banxia, Baizhi and other drugs that are used frequently in traditional Chinese medicine.
The vast majority of these drugs are also the most commonly used drugs in Chinese medicine after the Han Dynasty.
In general, "Sixty Sick Prescriptions" is more mature than "Fifty-two Sick Prescriptions", especially the drug compatibility, standardized disease names and a variety of treatment methods and contraindications based on compounds should belong to the earliest, complete content and the largest number of compound prescriptions compiled by doctors so far, which occupies an important position in the history of traditional Chinese medicine, especially in the history of traditional Chinese medicine clinical and prescription science.
In addition to these precious medical relics, the most valuable cultural relics of this Han tomb are a delicate lacquered statue of the human body through the acupuncture point.
It is a small wooden figure with black paint around its body, and on the surface of the black human body, it is depicted with red paint lines all over the body.
So when it came out, it was called "the earliest model of human meridians, which is the oldest wooden mannequin marked with meridian flow in the world to date." "
This figure is about 14 cm tall, the facial features and limbs are accurately depicted, the meridian lines and acupuncture points depicted in white or red on the body of the portrait are clearly visible, and the lines of "heart", "lung", "kidney" and "basin" are also engraved in different parts.
Experts compared it with the meridian medicine books unearthed in the tomb and found that the two could correspond exactly one-to-one. This shows that in the Warring States period, the study of human meridians by mainland Chinese medicine was already very perfect.
Compared with the "Shuangbao Mountain Lacquer Sculpture" excavated in the spring of 1993 in Shuangbao Mountain, Yongxing Town, Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, this "Jingpu Lacquer Figure" has meridian circulation, caves and inscriptions, which are more elaborately made and better preserved.
It has a total of 22 red lines and 29 white lines on its body, and its circulation of similar meridians not only includes ren pulses, belt veins, but also longitudinal meridians, as well as 3 horizontal distribution meridians, and meridians follow paths and intersections, almost reflecting most of the distribution characteristics of the twelve meridians of the "Lingshu Meridian".
Its meridian number, path and intersection information are more abundant and complex, showing the status of a landmark node from top to bottom, filling the gap in medical materials in this academic transition period, and having important medical and cultural relics research value.
Four
In this archaeological excavation, four unprecedented models of the Shu brocade jacquard machine were unearthed, which is the only complete model of the Western Han Dynasty loom found on the mainland so far. At the same time as the loom, more than a dozen painted wooden figurine weavers were excavated, standing or sitting, which together constituted the scene of the Han Dynasty Shujin Textile Workshop.
Historical records record that during the Han Dynasty, Chengdu's Shu brocade weaving industry was very developed, and the imperial court set up an official office and workshop in Chengdu dedicated to brocade weaving, which is also the origin of chengdu's title of "Jinguancheng" in later generations.
At that time, people washed The Color was particularly bright on the side of the special river, and other rivers could not wash this color, so this river was called "Jinjiang".
The looms and painted wooden figurines unearthed this time seem to let us see the former glory of a brocade factory in the Chengdu area of the Han Dynasty. In the history of brocade weaving in the world, China originated earliest, and The Western Shu is the hometown of the origin of hammer satin.
"Yang Yiyi II", Chengdu in the Han and Tang Dynasties was a brilliant city in the history of Chinese cities. Shu Jin and Shu Embroidery play an important core role in laying the historical position of Chengdu city to concentrate and exchange international wealth.
The Han Dynasty YangXiong and Jin Zuosi's "Shu Du Fu" both vigorously depicted the image of Chengdu's Bei Jinfeicheng, Ali Qianjing, Mao Color Jiangbo, and the magnificent and rich Jincheng, at that time Chengdu was already a city with "bribes and mountains of goods, beautiful stars", "hundred rooms away from the house, machine and phase", and the brocade industry was quite developed.
Long before Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, Shu cloth from Chengdu had already appeared in the countries of Central Asia and West Asia. In 122 BC, Zhang Qian reported to Emperor Wu: "I saw Shu Bu in Bactria and asked him, saying that he was from Shu County. ”
At that time, merchants along the "Southern Silk Road" trafficked Shu cloth and silk to Yunnan, Guangxi and other places, and then sold them to West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia through Myanmar, Afghanistan, India and other countries to trade and communicate with the world.
Seeing these unearthed looms and painted wooden figurines, we seem to be able to touch the horses full of goods one or two thousand years ago, all the way south from Chengdu, and hear the crisp sound of horses' hooves, the pleasant sound of bells, mixed with the laughter and shouting of Sichuan businessmen, resounding throughout the valleys and villages along the way, resounding throughout the southern Silk Road.
Five
Unfortunately, the skeleton of the owner of the tomb was not found in this tomb. Experts found a robbery hole in the tomb and, based on the size of the cave, deduced that the tomb was visited by tomb robbers shortly after the tomb owner was buried.
The robber's cave is facing the rafters, indicating that the tomb robbers are very clear about the location of the tomb.
No gold and bronze objects were found in this Han tomb, indicating that these things, which were also valuable at that time, had been stolen by tomb robbers, and looms, pottery figurines and bamboo janes were not valuable in the eyes of tomb robbers, so they stayed in the tomb.
Today's Chinese medicine is being attacked by Western medicine, and even some people think that Chinese medicine is a "pseudoscience", which also makes the development of Chinese medicine encounter some difficulties.
The excavation of Bian Que's medical book proves that the systematic inheritance of Chinese medicine for thousands of years, the advanced medical knowledge in medical books, is an important supplement to traditional Chinese medicine, and has an irreplaceable role in the development of traditional Chinese medicine.
After the discovery of this ancient tomb of the Han Dynasty, the relevant units also rewarded the villagers who found this ancient tomb. But the villagers were not happy, but regretted it.
It's not that the villagers are greedy, but that they unknowingly used an excavator to dig up a wooden rafter in the burial chamber, causing some damage to the thousand-year-old tomb.
Although this was their inadvertent mistake, the simple villagers still regretted it, saying that if they had been more careful in the construction, they might not have caused such damage to the tomb.
These remarks of theirs also made the cultural relics experts sigh with emotion: China's farmers are really simple and kind!