"The Classic of Mountains and Seas" is a strange book, written in the Warring States period to the early Han Dynasty, and the "Book of Changes", "Yellow Emperor Neijing" and called the "Three Great Strange Books of Antiquity", there are many brain-opening descriptions, such as "Fusang":
The overseas Eastern Classic records: "There is Fusang in the Tang Valley, and the ten-day bath is in the north of Moya." In the water, there is a big tree, which is on the lower branch for nine days, and the upper branch for one day. Among them, "Tanggu" is the "Yanggu" where Xi Zhong is located in Yaodian, located in the east, and Yu Yuan refers to the legendary sunset, located in the west.
In short, Fuso is located in the east, north of the "Moya", where there is a "big tree" with nine suns on the lower branch and one sun on the upper branch. The Han Dynasty Dongfang Plastic's "Records of the Ten Continents in the Sea· Fusang" explains as: "There are many forests, and the leaves are like mulberries." There is also a tree, the tree is 2,000 zhang old, and the big is more than 2,000 around. The tree grows in pairs with the same root, and it is more dependent on each other, and it is named Fusang. ”
There is no doubt that Fuso Shenmu and the Ten Days are certainly not real history, but the product of the spiritual world of the ancients, which belongs to the ancient cosmology. The question is: is this the cosmology of the Qin and Han dynasties of the Warring States period, or is it a remnant of an older cosmology? Sanxingdui archaeological discoveries rewrote cognition, and another secret of the Xia Dynasty was revealed.
A major discovery in Sanxingdui
In 1986, at the Sanxingdui site in Guanghan, Sichuan, two large sacrificial pits were excavated, and a large number of gold, jade and bronze artifacts were unearthed, which shocked the world, but the most precious of them was the "Bronze Sacred Tree".
The bronze sacred tree unearthed at the Sanxingdui site, there are a total of eight, of which the restored one is as high as 396 centimeters, which is the largest single bronze cultural relic found in the world, which is named the No. 1 sacred tree, and there are 9 standing birds on the branches, see the figure below for details.
The ten sacred birds circulate in a circle, which is ten days, that is, ten days, and thirty days is a month. The reason why there are only nine sacred birds symbolizing the sun on the bronze sacred tree is because there is one more "going to work".
There is no doubt that the existence of the bronze sacred tree and the nine sacred birds is very consistent with the records of the ancient universe such as Fusang, Ruomu, and Ten Days in ancient books of the Central Plains such as "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" and "Huainanzi".
Therefore, the bronze sacred tree inhabited by nine sacred birds reflects the cosmology of the ancients before the Zhou Dynasty, which can confirm the records in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and is extremely precious, so it is included in the "Catalogue of the First Batch of Cultural Relics Prohibited from Going Abroad (Territory) for Exhibition". (Below, three-legged golden crow)
Where did the Bronze Sacred Tree come from?
Ji Xiaolan of the Qing Dynasty characterized the Classic of Mountains and Seas as an "absurd novel of strange things", but looking at the bronze sacred tree, the Classic of Mountains and Seas is undoubtedly a very valuable ancient book. But the question is, the bronze god tree in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, which era is the cosmology?
First of all, Yaoshi already had a ten-day culture
Judging from the literature, the Dayi shooting sun (misrepresented as Houyi shooting the sun) in the Diyao era shot nine golden crows, which shows that there was a ten-day legend at that time, perhaps there was a myth of Fusang Shenmu at that time; In the early Xia Dynasty, there was a "day name system", that is, the first word in the emperor's name was a distinguishing word, and the latter word was "a certain character in the ten dry characters".
Modern scholar Chen Mengjia pointed out in the "Summary of Yin Xu's Divination" that the Taikang, Zhongkang, and Shaokang of the Xia Dynasty were actually Da Geng, Zhong Geng, and Shao Geng, plus several emperors in the later period, Yinjia, Kongjia, and Xu, so at least six emperors in the Xia Dynasty adopted the Japanese name system for naming. As for the Shang Dynasty, it was systematic, and after the first prince and Wang Hai, all adopted the Japanese name system.
Therefore, judging from the literature, the bronze god tree culture originated from the "Ten Heavenly Stems" culture can be traced back to the era of the Five Emperors before the Xia Dynasty, and should belong to the Central Plains culture.
Secondly, Xia culture influenced Sanxingdui
There is a lot of debate on the Internet about the relationship between Sanxingdui and Erlitou or Xia culture, but in fact, the archaeological facts are very clear.
Du Jinpeng of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences pointed out in "The Relationship between Sanxingdui Culture and Erlitou Culture and Related Issues": "Sanxingdui cultural pottery comes from Erlitou culture, and it is by no means the opposite. Therefore, the archaeological basis for the view that Sanxingdui culture is one of the sources of Xia culture is unreliable. ”
Li Jingheng and other scholars of Sichuan Normal University pointed out that Sanxingdui accepted part of the culture of Erlitou, that is, Sanxingdui culture is a combination of Erlitou culture and local culture, "Sanxingdui is located in ancient Shu, which is covered by the 'Xia ceremony', and (after the fall of the Xia Dynasty) still preserves some of the Xia culture or Xia Dynasty to which Erlitou belongs. ”
Third, Shang culture influenced Sanxingdui
Regarding the relationship between Sanxingdui and business culture, there is no controversy about this point now, that is, Sanxingdui has been influenced by business culture.
Wang Wei, chairman of the Chinese Archaeological Society, pointed out: "Among the newly discovered cultural relics in Sanxingdui, many of them are relics from the style of the Xia and Shang dynasties in the Central Plains. ”
For example, in 2021, Wang Wei pointed out that the jade and jade cong in Sanxingdui are unlikely to be the remnants of the Liangzhu culture that disappeared more than 4,300 years ago, "It should be that the Central Plains Dynasty absorbed some elements of the Liangzhu culture, and then formed a part of its own culture, and then spread to Sanxingdui."
However, the bronze god tree in Sanxingdui has not been found in the Shang culture sites, which shows that the Sanxingdui bronze god tree should have another source and not originate from Shang culture.
Judging from the current data, since the Sanxingdui Bronze Divine Tree is not derived from the Shang culture, and Sanxingdui is influenced by Erlitou Xia, then the source of the Bronze Divine Tree born from the Ten Days Culture should be the Xia culture.
Therefore, the Sanxingdui bronze sacred tree should be the embodiment of the Xia Dynasty's cosmology, which was probably introduced to Sichuan around the time of the fall of the Xia Dynasty. From this point of view, the Fuso Sacred Tree, the Legend of the Ten Days, etc., recorded in the Book of Mountains and Seas, are not fictional products, but are actually cosmology of a more ancient era, with the lower limit being the Xia Dynasty, which has been more than 4,000 years ago.
Aftermath
There are three other points worth thinking about in this article:
First of all, looking at the Sanxingdui Bronze Sacred Tree, the Book of Mountains and Seas is not an absurd book, but an ancient book containing real history. Moreover, a considerable part of it is in the Xia Dynasty at the latest, reflecting the social style, mountains and rivers geography of the Xia Dynasty.
Secondly, as a dynasty that has existed for more than 400 years, one of the materials left by the Xia Dynasty may include part of the content of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and later generations added and deleted on this basis to form the Classic of Mountains and Seas of later generations.
Third, the reason why the Classic of Mountains and Seas is fantastic may lie in the "translation" error of later generations, such as the "nine tails" of the nine-tailed fox is essentially "tail correction", and the fantasy caused by the translation error of later generations. However, translation errors are unfortunate, but they are all the more true, because the text and the society behind it are constantly changing, and the so-called time changes, and future generations cannot fully understand the previous generations, so errors are inevitable. Of course, China is inferior to the West in this respect, and this problem is basically absent from ancient Western documents.
References: "Classic of Mountains and Seas", "Li Jingheng - The Relationship between Sanxingdui Culture and Central Plains Civilization", "China News Network - Chairman of the Chinese Archaeological Society: Sanxingdui and the Xia Shang Dynasty in the Central Plains Have a Very Close Relationship", etc