Chapter 1,432: Moving forward a thousand years of history
The elephants still haven't figured out why those two tusks have become their death talisman.
It's sad, but they still have to face reality.
The discovery of ivory in Sanxingdui is not just recent. In fact, when Sanxingdui was first excavated thirty years ago, more than 80 ivory tusks were found.
In addition, thousands of ivory tusks have also been unearthed from the Jinsha site, which is inextricably related to the Sanxingdui site.
It can be seen that ivory has entered people's lives thousands of years ago and has become the best sacrifice in sacrificial activities.
So the question is, are such a large number of ivory from local elephants or imported elephants? Where did such a large number of ivory come from?
The Sanxingdui ruins have a history of more than 5,000 years, corresponding to the Xia and Shang periods in history.
According to historical records, the ancients of the Xia and Shang dynasties had just entered the civilized period at that time.
Bronze casting and other processes are not advanced, and it can basically complete the casting of tripods and weapons.
On the other hand, the cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui, especially the thin gold mask, show superb technical craftsmanship.
Just imagine, how long does it take for such a superb and developed civilization to be formed?
A rough estimate is that it lasts at least a thousand years.
From this we can basically conclude that the Sanxingdui civilization pushed the Chinese civilization forward by at least a thousand years.
During that period, were there elephants in China?
To solve this problem, you need to read ancient books and find information in them.
In fact, without detailed search and confirmation, you can easily find many clues about elephants.
Therefore, we further came to the conclusion that the elephant is a native elephant.
Sanxingdui corresponds to the Xia and Shang dynasties of Chinese civilization. One embarrassing thing about this period is that writing was not very developed.
There was no writing during the Xia Dynasty, or we have not discovered it.
However, based on oracle bone inscriptions, even if there was early writing in the Xia Dynasty, it should be very complicated, and it should still be at a slightly advanced level than knotting events.
Therefore, no one knows what the monarchs of the Xia Dynasty did for work, which is also a major reason why many scholars do not recognize the Xia Dynasty.
It was not until the Shang Dynasty that people began to carve characters on tortoise shells, forming the first oracle bone inscriptions.
Many important events have been completely recorded.
There is a relevant record in "Lu's Spring and Autumn Period: Ancient Music Chapter": The merchants obeyed Xiang and abused the Eastern Yi, so the Duke of Zhou drove them away to the south of the Yangtze River.
A simple translation of this sentence means that merchants once drove elephants to tyrannize Dongyi. Duke Zhou then led his army to expel the elephants and drove them to the Jiangnan area.
In addition, in "Ancient Chinese Mythology", Emperor Shun, one of the Five Emperors, once tamed wild elephants for farming.
The Yushun period and the Sanxingdui civilization belong to the same period.
It can be seen that there were indeed many elephants living in the land of China at that time, and the ivory in Sanxingdui most likely came from the mainland.
In addition, there are also relevant records in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", which are very similar to the Sanxingdui Civilization.
"The Classic of Mountains and Seas" is known as the encyclopedia of ancient China, recording many folklore and geographical knowledge in ancient times.
It involves a lot of knowledge about mountains, rivers, ethnic groups, products, sacrifices, witch doctors, etc.
It seems absurd and unruly now, but many of them can correspond to reality.
The ancient bronze tree unearthed in Sanxingdui is related to the hibiscus tree in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas".
It can be deduced from this that the knowledge recorded in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" is not groundless, but has great reference value.
There is a record in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas": Three hundred miles to the northeast is Mount Min, where many animals are rhinoceros and elephants.
It can be seen from this that as early as thousands of years ago, Asian elephants really existed in our land of China.
Where is Minshan? It is the birthplace of Silkworm Cong.
The silkworms here are the ones Li Bai wrote in his poems: Silkworms and yufu, how confused the founding of the country was.
This guy was the king of the ancient Shu Kingdom. It is recorded in "The Book of the King of Shu" that there was a lord of Shu named Cancong, whose eyes were straight, and he was first called the king.
At first, Cancong did not live in the Guanghan area of Sichuan Province. They first lived in the Minshan area in the northwest.
That place is extremely desolate and is known as the "Nine Danger".
The GDP of the residents at that time was so low that it was almost impossible to see, but Cancong was born with a strange nature, and at first glance he was someone who was doing great things.
He lived in the cave when he had nothing to do, and began to think about how to lead everyone to make a fortune.
There are many wild elephants living in the Minshan area, and hunting has become a part of their daily lives. It is not easy to get some ivory.
They followed the wild elephants, hunting and migrating, until they reached the Sichuan Plain area.
Of course, there are also many indigenous residents living here, but there is no doubt that they cannot withstand the brave and capable northwest men.
As a result, the Cancong tribe took root here.
Silkworm Cong taught tribal people how to raise silkworms and grow mulberry trees, and residents' GDP also increased dramatically.
Many people still question whether Cancong and others exist
Cancong Yufu and others were recorded to have lived hundreds of years, and the five ancient emperors recorded by Sima Qian basically all lived to be hundreds of years old.
This has led many scholars to conclude that such records are false.
The reason given seems quite reasonable, that is, the average life span of ancient people during the Xia and Shang Dynasties was very low. Those who lived to 20 years old were the lucky ones. How could they live to be hundreds of years old?
Many netizens also gave different opinions, claiming that Cancong and others really existed, but they were not ordinary people, but the first generation of people created by God.
They have their own immortality and longevity genes, which laid the foundation for the rise of early human civilization.
As time goes by, fewer and fewer of their longevity genes are passed on to their offspring, so fewer and fewer people live long and have great talents.
After the Shang and Zhou dynasties, there were no such great talents who could live for many years.
This is not unreasonable, but the truth is still unknown.
Although it is said that the more Sanxingdui is dug, the more it becomes lost in the lake, but the only thing that does not make it lost in the lake is that Sanxingdui is still a part of Chinese civilization.
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Sanxingdui is not the so-called "civilization from the stars" at all, and the theory of aliens is just people's imagination.
Furthermore, "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" is really a wonderful book. If with the improvement of science and technology, the mysteries in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" are revealed one by one, I believe that Chinese civilization can once again shock the world.
The history of our country is really interesting.
Therefore, Chen Wenzhe has always liked history, and it is because of his liking for history that he gained the ability to identify antiques and treasures.
It's just some ivory. If you want to understand it, you need to know a lot.
For example, the ancient Xia and Shang civilization, the ancient Yellow River civilization, the Yangtze River civilization, and even ancient works such as the Classic of Mountains and Seas need to be studied with scientific thinking instead of looking at them for fun.