"Sleeping for thousands of years, waking up and shocking the world" Sanxingdui site has unearthed many amazing cultural relics, and the flourishing bronze god tree has become one of the types of cultural relics talked about by the world because of its unique shape and rich cultural connotation. There are many remnants of the sacred tree among the newly unearthed artifacts from the No. 3 to No. 8 sacrificial pits at the Sanxingdui site, which allow cultural preservation workers to continuously recover the lost branches of the bronze sacred tree through meticulous cleaning and restoration work, so that they can be "reborn" again across thousands of years; Or keep "growing taller".
On July 23, the digital restoration results of Sanxingdui No. 2 Bronze Divine Tree were officially announced, which once again attracted attention. What is the relationship between the Sanxingdui Bronze Sacred Tree and the three ancient sacred trees contained in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" - Fusang, Jianmu and Ruomu, and what kind of concept does it reflect the ancient Shu people? What are the commonalities and characteristics between the several Bronze Sacred Trees? What other parts of the Bronze Divine Tree are to be found, and how can cultural preservation workers make the Bronze Divine Tree continue to "grow taller"?
Recently, China News Service's "East and West Question" interviewed Yu Jian, deputy director of Sanxingdui Museum and director of the Cultural Preservation Center, to reveal the restoration process and results of the bronze god tree, and to get a glimpse of the ancient Shu people's desire to communicate the sacrifice system and religious concepts of heaven, earth, man and god.
Sanxingdui No. 1 Bronze Sacred Tree, 3.96 meters high. Photo by Wang Lei
The transcript of the interview is summarized below:
China News Service: What are the commonalities and characteristics of the bronze sacred tree unearthed in Sanxingdui, and what kind of concepts and cognitions do they convey to the ancient Shu people?
Yu Jian: Since 1986, about 8 bronze sacred trees have been unearthed from No. 1 to No. 8 sacrificial pits at Sanxingdui site, and a total of 3 can be restored at present, namely No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 bronze sacred trees.
The No. 1 bronze sacred tree with a height of 3.96 meters was unearthed in the No. 2 sacrificial pit in 1986 and was restored by more than 200 fragments. The sacred tree is divided into three layers, each layer has three branches, a total of nine branches; On each branch, there is a vertical and a hanging two fruit branches, the fruit branch stands a sacred bird, and there is a copper dragon on the side of the tree that winds down like a rope.
The No. 2 Sacred Tree, which has recently announced the results of the digital restoration, is about 2.88 meters tall, the same as the No. 1 Sacred Tree, with a main trunk as the axis, divided into three layers, each with three branches, and a standing bird on each branch.
The No. 3 sacred tree, which is about 1.1 meters high, is made up of more than 70 fragments, and the three main trunks of the twisted flower rotate upwards to "grow", and the three statues of the gods with human heads and bird bodies "sit firmly" on the top of the tree, with the tail stretched and the tail feathers high. According to the Han Dynasty writer Dongfang Shuo's description of the shape of the Fusang tree in the "Chronicles of the Ten Continents in the Sea": "The tree grows in pairs and pairs with the same root, and is more dependent on each other, so it is named Fusang", and the No. 3 sacred tree may depict the Fusang tree.
Although the No. 3 sacred tree does not have a main trunk, it also has a total of 9 branches. This is the common denominator of all three. This kind of styling design is likely to be associated with the "Legend of the Decameron". In addition, the figure of the head of the bird at the top of the No. 3 sacred tree represents the image of the sun god, reflecting the sun worship of the ancient Shu people.
The wings of the standing birds on the No. 1 and No. 2 sacred trees are of different shapes, facing upwards and downwards respectively, which may indicate that the place where the tree is located is the place where the sun rises and sets. It is possible, then, that they portray the images of Fuso and Wakaki respectively. Each sacred tree is different in size, or indicates that its function and purpose are different.
At present, the research on the bronze sacred tree mainly focuses on the No. 1 divine tree, which has a copper dragon head on the main trunk of the "Tongtian Divine Tree" facing down the lower edge of the tree, and it is speculated that the ancient Shu people used the divine tree as a medium to communicate with heaven and earth, and the divine dragon can descend to the world through the sacred tree. This design may show that the ancient Shu people had an understanding of heaven and earth and a desire to communicate with the gods.
Sanxingdui No. 2 Bronze Sacred Tree Digital Restoration Results, about 2.88 meters high. Courtesy of Sanxingdui Museum
China News Service: What are the difficulties in the restoration of the No. 2 sacred tree, which announced the results of digital restoration? How can conservation workers "reborn" the sacred tree from the fragments?
Yu Jian: In July last year, the restoration and cleaning of the main trunk, base and some branches of the No. 2 Sacred Tree was basically completed. In the past year, we have continued to clean up some standing birds, tree branches, etc., and also scanned and collected more than 30 pieces of 3D data from the No. 2 sacred tree, and spliced and restored them according to the consistency of the fracture joint, digitally restoring the style of the No. 2 sacred tree. The restoration process is also shown to the audience through a digital video.
According to traditional restoration, the biggest basis for splicing restoration is the fracture opening, and if the fracture coincides, it can prove that it is an artifact. In the case of the No. 2 Sacred Tree, the main trunk is the most obvious clue for restoration, and the diameter of the remnants of the main trunk is the same, and the thickness and base of the tree can also be matched. In addition, based on the shape of the branches, we also tried to use the AI's ability to recognize patterns as an aid.
Although the main parts of the No. 2 sacred tree were unearthed in the No. 2 sacrificial pit excavated in 1986, we found its fragments in the No. 3, No. 7, and No. 8 sacrificial pits, such as the identical bronze bird, etc., so this artifact clearly belongs to the cultural relics that crossed the pit. The reason why the No. 2 sacred tree has not been welded and replenished for traditional repair, and only digital restoration has been carried out, is because there are still many small fragments to be found, which is also one of the priorities of our future work.
More than 17,000 numbered artifacts have been unearthed from the No. 3 to No. 8 sacrificial pits of Sanxingdui site, and about 4,000 pieces of bronze, gold, jade and ivory have been protected and cleaned up. It is worth mentioning that we also found two important parts missing from the No. 1 Bronze Sacred Tree in the artifacts unearthed in the No. 8 sacrificial pit - the tail and tail of the bronze dragon. After the matching, the fracture between the two fragments and the fracture between the two parts and the connection with the main trunk are consistent.
Sanxingdui No. 3 bronze sacred tree, about 1.1 meters high. Photo by Wang Lei
China News Service: What are the unsolved mysteries of the Sanxingdui Sacred Tree? What are the plans for future restoration work?
Yu Jian: First, the top of the main trunks of the No. 1 and No. 2 sacred trees is still missing, and there are currently 9 standing birds on the two sacred trees. Is there a standing bird or human-headed bird-like statue on the top of them, which corroborates the "legend of the decennium"? We also need to see if we can find the artifacts that fit the fracture in the follow-up cleaning.
Second, a large number of sacred tree branches and other fragments were unearthed from the No. 1 to No. 8 sacrificial pits of Sanxingdui site, but due to the lack of the main trunk and the lack of key restoration clues, the restoration of the bronze sacred tree has brought great difficulties. We hope to find the remnants of the main trunk and restore the new bronze sacred tree in the follow-up work.
Thirdly, many of the fragments of sacred tree branches have the same distinct feature: they have flowers on them and standing birds on them. Although the shape of the standing birds varies, most of them are hollowed. Some of them have copper rings under their beaks and flowers, and although the specific purpose is uncertain, combined with a large number of copper bells, gold leaf and other small ornaments unearthed in Sanxingdui, it is reasonable to speculate that there may be hanging ornaments under the copper rings. In the next step, we hope to clean up the remaining more than 10,000 unearthed artifacts in recent years, and then classify them according to their shapes, such as which ones belong to bronze human heads, which belong to bronze vessels, etc. The cleaned up pieces of the sacred tree need to be sorted according to their size to better carry out the matching work.
So much attention is paid to the protection and restoration of bronze sacred trees because they are relatively tall in shape, and the overall structure is of great help to the study of the bronze casting process of the ancient Shu people. Judging from the current research, it can be clear that the ancient Shu people have mastered the bronze mixed casting process, including one-time casting and separate casting. The bronze sacred tree is a typical sub-casting process product - after casting the tree base, main trunk, branches, etc., it is then cast.
In addition, no matter how tall the shape is, the bronze sacred tree is inseparable from the religious sacrifice customs of the ancient Shu people, which is the concentrated embodiment of the religious outlook and cosmology of the ancient Shu people who worship nature, and also expresses their desire to use the "Tongtian Divine Tree" as a medium to communicate with the gods in the sky.
Interviewee Profile:
Yu Jian was interviewed by China News Service. Photo by Wang Lei
Yu Jian, associate research librarian of cultural relics and museums, graduated from Northwest University in 2004 with a major in cultural relics protection, and is currently the deputy director of Sanxingdui Museum, director of the Cultural Heritage Protection Center, and a member of the China Cultural Relics Restoration Association and the China Cultural Relics Protection Technology Association. He has been engaged in the protection and restoration of bronze, iron, jade, ceramics and other cultural relics for 19 years, and is responsible for the management of museum collections, exhibitions, preventive and digital protection, and the protection and restoration of metalware, jade, ceramics and other cultural relics. Completed three national key cultural relics protection special fund projects such as the protection and restoration of the bronze sacred tree.
(Chinanews.com)