Elephant News reporters: Shen Zizhong, Li Junfeng, Chen Zhengyi, Zhang Yu
The 22,000-square-meter Yinxu Museum has 3 basic exhibitions, 4 special topics, and 1 digital immersion exhibition hall, with about 4,000 pieces of bronze, jade, pottery, and oracle bone inscriptions.
Among the many bronze products, in addition to weapons, the proportion of wine utensils in ritual vessels is quite large.
Due to their different uses and formats, they have a variety of names.
Strange name of the barware
If you want to know more rare words, you can come to the Yinxu Museum, as far as the display cabinet of the artifact exhibition hall can see, almost all the rare words: 簋 (sound ghost), Yi (sound meaning), 斝 (sound Jia), 罍 (sound thunder), 鎣 (sound ying), 卣 (sound friend), Yao (sound valley), 柶 (sound four), 瓿 (sound part), 盉 (sound and), 觥 (sound bow) ......
Of course, there are also the more familiar honors and lords, and most of the uses of these copper or pottery utensils are related to wine. Either wine-making, or wine-packing, as well as bartending, warming, drinking, drinking, one-stop service in place.
Many of the shapes of Yinxu wine vessels are extremely in line with the aesthetics of modern people - the simple and cute "Yachang Niu Zun", and the round and fat buttocks make people laugh.
The "pottery mustache-shaped pig's head cover" in the shape of Peppa Pig attracted many young people to take photos and check in. In addition, there is a bronze object in the display case that seems to have the mouth of the bottle unwashed, which is very eye-catching compared to the other objects side by side.
Yachang Niu Zun
The edge of the top port of this artifact, called "Ma Wei Folded Shoulder", is covered with a thin layer of brown leaves, and the slender texture is clearly visible. The tour guide said that this was unearthed 20 years ago from the tomb of M303 Ma Wei in Anyang Dasikong, and after expert research, these leaves are a kind of Chinese herbal medicine. This mouth is the "medicine jar" used to hold medicinal wine.
The horse is in danger and his shoulders are respected
"Our Chinese medicine is very old." Archaeological specialist Yu Chenglong gave a clear answer, the name of the Chinese herbal medicine is "short stem southern snake vine", a vine shrub medicinal material, with the effect of clearing heat and detoxifying, dispelling wind and dampness, and invigorating blood and removing stasis.
"Four Famous Wines" in the Early Years
Yu Jackie Chan explained in detail the "four famous wines" in the early years for reporters——
First of all, rice wine, made from grains, is cheap and good, and is the most popular.
The second is fruit wine, which has a 9,000-year-old history in China, as early as pottery fragments found at the Neolithic site of the Jiahu people in Wuyang, Dr. Yu said, "by fermenting fruit juice and honey together." ”
The emergence of medicinal wine, or the processing method of Chinese medicinal materials, is about 1,000 years later than fruit wine. At present, the earliest remains of archaeological discoveries are a pottery kettle unearthed from the site of cross-lake bridge in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang, with smoke traces on the outside of the pottery, and a bundle of black plant stems and leaves inside, which is the residue of people decocting herbs at that time.
In addition, in the middle of the Shang Dynasty site in Gaocheng, Hebei Province, and the Gaojiabao site in Jingyang, Shaanxi, there are Chinese herbal medicine relics found. "As early as 8,000 years ago, the ancient people in the mainland had a sufficient understanding of the pharmacological effects of animals, plants and minerals in nature, from the Neolithic Age to the Western Zhou Dynasty, people's pursuit of medicinal efficacy, so that the technique continued to mature, Chinese medicine into wine, but also the ancients quite wise skills."
Dr. Yu focused on the most sacred and noble "鬯 (Yinchang) wine" in the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
The main ingredient for brewing the liquor is black millet, which is a rare grain variety, one skin and two grains, and vanilla tulips are added when making wine, which is not only fragrant, but also can be used as medicine. In the oracle bone inscriptions, there are more than 180 records about "鬯", which are mostly used for sacrifices. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the wine was the gift of the Son of Heaven, and in the Western Zhou Dynasty, there was a clear record of "giving you a piece of wine".
"Liquor was the most noble gift in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period," Yu Jackie Chan said, adding that different aristocratic classes in the Western Zhou Dynasty had different gift specifications. At the first level, the gift is generally given by pheasants, "because pheasants have an arrogant temperament, they cannot be caught alive, otherwise they will die of anger." "At the doctor's level, send geese to each other," the geese flew in line, indicating that the behavior was moderate. "At the first level, make a gift with precious leather. And one of the rituals of the Son of Heaven is mellow wine.
How to write the word "wine".
Dr. Yu Chenglong further explained that there is a special container for holding the wine, called "Tiliang 卣". Through the study of oracle bone inscriptions, the most important time to use hundreds of catties of wine in the Yin Ruins, "equivalent to two or three hundred catties of wine, but also shows the extravagance of the life of the Yin Shang nobles." ”
Having said all this, which is the word "wine" in the oracle bone inscription?
Yu Chenglong wrote a "unitary" character, the glyph is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, "'You' is the big mouth of wine." He explained that the oracle bone inscription "unitary" and "wine" are connected, but later three points of water were added to form the shape and sound characters.
Even if Chinese characters have evolved to the present, it is not difficult to find that those with the character "酉" next to them are mostly related to wine and sacrifices, such as liquor, cheese, alcohol, zun, dian, drunk, awake and so on. Among the Yin Shang pottery and bronze ware that have been excavated, wine vessels account for the largest proportion. There are more than 200 bronze ritual vessels buried with the women's tomb, of which 70% are wine utensils.
The so-called "major affairs of the country are in the worship and fighting", the sacrifice focuses on consolidating the political power internally, and the war focuses on plundering resources externally. It is no wonder that some historians paint a great historical picture of the Yin Shang era: they indulged in predictions of the unknown, and planned their actions through the communication between spirits and ghosts.
They gathered together, raised their fine wine glasses, and gulped down fine wine made from grain, juice, and herbs. or scattered, some wielding spears, driving chariots to fight in all directions, killing people like hemp. Or catch the ox cart, fill it with shell currency, and make the business "quasi-global".
This kind of romantic temperament of "I am born to be useful", "I must drink 300 cups" and "I hope that I will not wake up after a long drunk", perhaps, as Yi Zhongtian said, "Shang is the naughtiness and wildness of our nation's youth." ”
Is there a word "drunk"?
The elephant news reporter asked Yu Cheng Chan if there was the word "drunk" in the oracle bone inscription, and he said that he had not found it yet. The reporter tried to reason "cracking" in the simplest way: a "unitary" plus a "pawn" did not drink to death, but the brain was so excited that it was short-circuited and broken.
In fact, the word "drunk" first appeared in the Warring States period, and on the other side of the word "unitary", it was a human figure with unsteady steps.
And Yin Ren's obsession with wine is also easy for modern people to think of an idiom - "wine pond meat forest", and then think of the brutal Emperor Xin in the novel "Fengshen Bang".
"The smearing of Di Xin and Yin Shang was done by the Zhou people later. In fact, Di Xin attacked Dongyi and had no time to take care of himself, allowing the Zhou people to take advantage of the loophole. "Holding Jackie Chan's statement, from ancient times to the present, there have always been many people. Mencius once said, "It is better to believe in books than to have no books." Gu Jiegang even argued that among the 70 charges against the "liquidation" of the king in later generations, 53 belonged to the continuous "framing" of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Western Han Dynasty, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and "the authenticity is questionable, and the credibility is reduced"......
In fact, in the archaeological practice of Yinxu in the past hundred years, the relevant academic theories have also evolved and developed on the basis of the research of predecessors. For example, "Simu Wu" is accurately defined as "Houmu Wu", and another example is Tang Jigen's exploration of the concept of "Chinese business" on the basis of "morning and evening business".
Archaeology, like exploring a bottomless river, is more like tasting a pot of mellow wine, as long as you drink two sips, either "full of gloom, extremely sad and sad", or "relaxed and happy, its joyful", if it is real and illusory, but also real and false.
But only if you have been drunk and loved, you know that the wine is deep.
"Yinxu Code" series of reports
Chief Planner Shi Shunying Yu Chao
Curated by Zhao Dan
Reporter: Chen Zhengyi, Zhang Yu, Li Junfeng, Shen Zizhong