Chronicles of Secrets in Centennial Major Archaeological Discoveries

Author: Yu Qiwei, Zhang Bo
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-05-01
Features: [Excerpt:] After Wang Yirong pioneered the collection of oracle bones, some epigraphers also joined the ranks of searching and collecting. Among them was a dedicated individual who developed a strong interest in this field—he was Liu E, the author of A Journey to the West. After Wang Yirong's death, most of his collected oracle bones were acquired by Liu E, in addition to those purchased through intermediaries, bringing his total collection to nearly 5,000 pieces. In 1903, Liu E selected over 1,000 pieces from his collection to create rubbing prints, compiling them into Iron Cloud's Collection of Oracle Bones. This marked the first specialized work on oracle bone inscriptions, opening the way for the study of oracle bone script. However, Liu E's fate was even worse than Wang Yirong's. Although also a loyal and righteous man, he was exiled to the frontier by the Qing government for opening the imperial granaries and relieving the people of famine, dying in a foreign land. When Liu E began collecting oracle bones, he already paid attention to their places of origin, as only by identifying these sites could the mysteries of the oracle bone script be revealed. However, the locations remained a mystery to the general public. Antique dealers, aware of the consequences of revealing the secret, kept silent. The profit-driven dealers told Liu E that the oracle bones originated from Tangyin or Jixian, but never mentioned Anyang. At that time, transportation was inconvenient, and there were no modern communication facilities, allowing the dealers to get away with their deception. Liu E remained firmly convinced that the oracle bones originated from Tangyin in Henan until his death, the author of the specialized work on oracle bones, still in the dark. His published work had a significant impact internationally, and the "Tangyin theory" similarly misled the Japanese for a period, becoming the mainstream view regarding the origin of oracle bones. However, the lies woven by the cunning merchants were eventually exposed—not by others, but by themselves. Under the persuasion of the epigrapher Luo Zhenyu, the profit-driven dealers finally revealed the true origin of the oracle bones. Luo Zhenyu, styled Shuyan and known as Xuetaang, was a famous epigrapher from Shangyu, Zhejiang, during the Qing Dynasty. Although he was conservative and anti-revolutionary, a staunch loyalist, this did not hinder his dedication to scholarship, his expertise in historical research, and his profound knowledge of epigraphy. He became close with Liu E and, upon encountering oracle bone script, devoted himself entirely to its collection and study. After learning the truth about the origin of oracle bones, he conducted further research, examining historical records to prove that Anyang was the capital of the Shang Dynasty and that the sites where oracle bones were unearthed were indeed the ruins of Yinxu! This revelation brought great joy to Luo Zhenyu. He realized that these mysterious characters were left by the people of the Shang Dynasty three thousand years ago, making them the earliest ancient script discovered in China! Overwhelmed with excitement, Luo Zhenyu acted swiftly. He first sent his brother Luo Zhenchang and his brother-in-law Fan Zhaochang to Anyang to collect oracle bones, and he personally traveled to the Yinxu site in Xiaotun, Anyang, for field investigations, yielding rich results. That year was 1916, marking the first time epigraphers set foot on the ancient Yinxu ruins. Luo Zhenyu collected tens of thousands of oracle bones and published multiple specialized works, becoming the earliest authority in the study of oracle bone script. The development of oracle bone studies has never ceased, but since the discovery of Yinxu, it has gradually become part of Yinxu and increasingly a small part of it. Yinxu, having traversed the wilderness of history, has now been fully revealed to us, its rich cultural heritage and continuously discovered relicsing the world! Yinxu is located northwest of Anyang, Henan Province today, with geographical conditions. It sits on the alluvial plain of the Yellow River, with the Huanshui River flowing eastward from west to east, with fertile land along both banks suitable for irrigation. Protected by the Yellow River on the front and the Taihang Mountains on the back, its terrain is strategically advantageous, making it difficult to defend but easy to attack. Its geographical location was relatively central in the Shang Dynasty's map, facilitating control over surrounding small states, making it indeed a auspicious site for building a capital. As the political center of the late Shang Dynasty, Yinxu was always a hub of economic and cultural prosperity. Although its surface structures were severely damaged when the Shang Dynasty fell, it left behind countless underground relics and artifacts, with the world-famous oracle bone script being only a small part of them. There are still more and better remains waiting to be discovered. The millennium-long slumber of Yinxu is about to be awakened by the people's voices.
"The journey to Shu is as difficult as climbing the sky.
The ancestors Cong and Yufu, how could they found the state in such confusion?
Four thousand eight hundred years have passed since then,
No connection with the Qin and Shu regions."
Over 1,200 years ago, the great Tang poet Li Bai, with his rich imagination and bold brushwork, vividly depicted the beauty and danger of the Qin-Shu road, while marveling at the "confusion" of the ancient Shu state's founding. Yet, modern historians still feel bewildered when faced with questions about when and where the ancient Shu state was established. According to Chang Qin's Huayang Guo Zhi·Shu Zhi, "The state of Shu originated from the human emperor. During the time of the Yellow Emperor, his son Changyi married the daughter of Shushan, giving birth to Gaoyang, who became the Emperor Kui. His collateral branches were enfeoffed in Shu, ruling as feudal lords for generations." It existed through the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, even participating in the campaign against the Shang tyrant under King Wu of Zhou. According to Shu Zhi, if the state of Shu was founded during the time of the human emperor, a figure from ancient mythology, then it would have a history of over 45,000 years—a claim too exaggerated even for the romantic poet Li Bai to include in his poetry. Even if the state was founded during the time of the Yellow Emperor, its establishment before the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties remains unbelievable to rigorous historians.
The Selected Works of Liu Kui notes that the Shu King Annals by the Western Han litterateur Yang Xiong states, "The ancestors of the Shu king were named Cong, Ban, Yufu, Puze, and Kaoming. They wore their hair in a bun on the left, spoke only Shu, and had no written language or rituals." The Huayang Guo Zhi·Shu Zhi provides brief introductions to these Shu kings. It states that Shu Marquis Cong was the first to be called a king, characterized by his "long eyes." After his death, he was buried in a stone coffin and sarcophagus, and the people followed this practice, leading to the belief that stone coffin tombs were the graves of the "long-eyed" descendants of Cong. After Cong came Ban, and after Ban came Yufu. It is said that one day, King Yufu went to Qianshan (located in Guanxian) to farm and suddenly attained immortality. The people of Shu missed him greatly and built a shrine in Qianshan in his honor. Next came Du Yu, also known as Puze, or the "King of the Dawn." After Du Yu (Puze) came Kaoming. In the early Warring States period, the ninth Kaoming king changed his title from "emperor" to "king." One night, he dreamed that his capital had moved, and upon waking, he decided to move the capital from Pi to Chengdu. At that time, the Central Plains states were engaged in constant warfare. Shu, located in the far southwestern corner, relied on the of the Qinling Mountains and the Jianmen Pass to isolate itself, closing its borders and strengthening its economy. It encouraged agriculture, silk production, and economic development, becoming extremely prosperous and extending its influence from east to the Fu River, west to the Dadu River, north to Fengxiang in Shaanxi, and south to Yibin in Sichuan. In the fifth year of King Shen of Zhou (316 BCE, the ninth year of King Hui of Qin), the Qin minister Zhang Yi, Sima Guo, and General Mo led troops into Shu. Soon after, they killed the Shu king and destroyed the Shu state, ending the history of ancient Shu.
Looking back at the history of ancient Shu, the Kaoming dynasty has the most records, while the Du Yu and Cong periods have only fragmented textual accounts, often mixed with myths. The political, economic, and social conditions of that time, as well as Shu's relations with its neighbors, remain unclear. The discovery of jade artifacts at Moon Bay brought a glimmer of hope for the study of ancient Shu culture, but this hope remains just that—a hope. From the 1930s to the 1970s, research on ancient Shu culture made little progress, and no remarkable archaeological discoveries emerged, bringing the field to a standstill. At this very moment, major archaeological findings were made near Sanxingdui.
However, a sculpture is only successful if it captures both likeness and spirit. The striking feature of the Terracotta Army figures is their emphasis on conveying spirit, striving for harmony between form and spirit, portraying the different expressions of people of various identities, ages, and personalities. The Terracotta Army sculptures form, but not for form's sake. They must also be expressive. For example, the mustaches of the warrior figures are made in various ways: directly carved on the lips, attached with clay pieces, formed from solid clay blocks, or carved using the reduction method. The types of mustaches are also diverse: full beards, three-drop milk-like mustaches, mustaches with drooping horns, and mustaches with upward-curving horns. However, the type of mustache corresponds closely to the person's age and personality. Those with full beards have dense facial hair on both cheeks, with a pair of upward-curving big mustaches on the upper lip, generally indicating an older age and a rough character. Those with small mustaches have two short mustaches placed horizontally on the upper lip, with a small mustache on the chin, generally appearing younger and more agile. Those with downward-curving mustaches have two mustache strands hanging naturally from the corners of their mouths, with a small mustache on the chin, generally indicating a gentle character.
In addition, the eyes may be stern, profound, wide open, clever, or sharp; the ears may be large or small, thick or thin; the noses may be flat, high, short, or thin; the lips may be thin or thick; the mouths may be angular, half-open, or tightly closed; and the eyebrows may be long and thin, short and thick, dense, like mountain ridges, or like crescents. All these details enhance the spirit of the Terracotta Army figures.
It is precisely because the individual's external form is combined with their inner spirit that the Terracotta Army art has left us so many typical figures. A gaunt old general with a long beard and a calm expression looks steady and wise; a middle-aged general with a broad face, large ears, and mountain-ridge-like eyebrows appears fierce and magnanimous; a soldier with a round face, fine eyebrows, large eyes, and puffed-out lips looks lively and innocent; a person with long eyebrows and large eyes and thick lips has a dignified demeanor; a person with robust features and wide-open eyes looks heroic; a person with tightly closed lips and attentive ears looks alert and intelligent; and a person with smooth eyebrows and thoughtful eyes looks elegant and composed. Truly, "a thousand faces, few are the same."
In the creation of the terracotta horses, the artists also focused on key features like the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth to highlight the horse's spirit. The bell-shaped eyes, pointed ears, large flaring nostrils, long and snarling mouths, combined with muscular and powerful limbs, a curled tail, and flowing manes, give the horse a spirited and unrestrained posture, as if ready to gallop across the battlefield for a thousand miles. No wonder some have said, "Their appearance marked the true beginning of the long-standing tradition of terracotta horse sculptures in ancient China."
It was precisely because the creators of the Terracotta Army inherited and developed the modeling art of previous generations, combining round, relief, and line carving techniques, and employing methods such as modeling, stacking, pasting, carving, shaping, and painting, that they achieved artistic effects in terms of volume, weight, form, spirit, color, and texture. Through artistic exaggeration and refinement, they embodied stillness in motion, combining movement and stillness, seeking variation within unity, and highlighting individuality within the. Within the disciplined and orderly ranks of the massive army, they sculpted numerous vivid and distinct figures, whose brave and valiant spirit perfectly matched the impending battle atmosphere of the formation.
After the clearance of the side compartments of the coffin box was completed, the coffin boards were dismantled, and the lid of the coffin chamber was opened. The lid had two layers, and upon opening it, it was discovered that the coffin was a nested coffin with four layers! The first layer was a black lacquered plain coffin. The exterior of the coffin was covered with dark brown lacquer, without any painted patterns, while the interior was coated with vermilion lacquer. After dismantling it, the second layer of painted coffin was exposed. The interior of the coffin was also coated with vermilion lacquer, with very few patterns. The exterior of the coffin was black lacquered, with complex and varied cloud patterns painted on it, interspersed with lifelike mythical creatures. Commonly seen on the paintings were creatures with faces resembling neither sheep nor tigers, with long horns, and with tails. These creatures often held snakes in their mouths or manipulated them, while others stood upright in robes, with limbs resembling apes, with indistinct hands and feet. Shanhaijing·Zhongshan Jing states, "On Dongting Mountain, the two daughters of the emperor live there. They often roam the Jiang Yuan, and whenever they enter or exit, they are accompanied by fierce winds and storms. There are many strange gods there, resembling humans but carrying snakes in their hands and arms." Chu was known for its belief in witchcraft, and the Jiangxiang region was filled with mythical creatures. The rulers of that time painted gods manipulating snakes on the coffins, often implying the purpose of warding off evil and achieving immortality. The third layer coffin was also a painted coffin. The interior and exterior of the coffin were coated with vermilion lacquer, with bright colors. On the lacquered surface of the coffin exterior, bright tones such as blue-green, light brown, pale brown, reddish-brown, and yellow-white were used to paint auspicious symbols like dragons, tigers, the Vermilion Bird, deer, and immortals, serving the same purpose of praying for blessings and warding off evil.
The painting methods of the two painted lacquer coffins were similar to those of later architectural murals. First, the wood surface was leveled with lacquer, and then colorful oil paints were used to draw patterns. The composition was rigorous, leaving no empty space, emphasizing balance and symmetry. The painting techniques often used fine-line outlines or flat coloring, with smooth and varied lines. In terms of color, not only was layering considered, but the overall effect was also taken into account, with attention paid to the combination of different tones. The colors were brilliant and flowed freely, showcasing the strong artistic style of the Han Dynasty.