The disappeared ancient Dian Kingdom

 

The disappeared ancient Dian Kingdom

 

When Lacuo, Agudengba, Azhuo and Chu Sanxing drank Pu'er tea at the Tea Horse Inn, they met John, a foreign tourist. John had visited the Silk Road, and this time he came to inspect the mysterious ancient Dian Kingdom and Sichuan and Tibet. Tea-Horse Road. 　

The communication between Latso and John was very harmonious. John wanted to investigate the mysterious ancient Dian Kingdom. Lacuo promised John to help him find a senior archaeologist, but this archaeologist lived in Kunming. At this time, the coachman Azhuo received an order for horse racing. The merchant purchased a batch of Yunnan horses and wanted to find someone who could horse racing to help him choose the quality of the horses. So Azhuo accepted the job and stayed. I stayed there and did not go to Kunming with Lacuo and Agudengba.

The next day, Azhuo came to see Chu Sanxing and brought bad news to Chu Sanxing.

He told Chu Sanxing:

I didn’t expect that the businessman had come from Myanmar before. He was actually a friend of the Burmese musician Dorje. Dorje’s daughter Yadan became ill and bedridden. Yadan’s best friend Xiang Qima took care of her and she also contracted the disease. An unknown virus.

Chu Sanxing was very disturbed when he heard the news. Yadan's best friend Xiang Qima should be his wife. Agudengba also became anxious: whether Dawa, his friend when he came from Bangladesh to Myanmar, would also be cured of that strange disease.

Agudengba, A Zhuo and Chu Sanxing discussed that A Zhuo stayed here due to business relations, and Chu Sanxing returned to Myanmar as soon as possible to find Mr. Dorje and visit Dawa, Xiang Qima and Yadan.

In this way, Agu Demba, A Zhuo and Chu Sanxing officially separated.

Agudengba, Lacuo and his caravan still went to Kunming as originally planned.

Agudenba suddenly lost two friends and felt a little uneasy. But the foreigner John also changed his itinerary and decided to go with Lacuo and Agudengba.

On the Sichuan-Tibet Tea Horse Road, Lacuo and John were still chatting about the ancient Dian Kingdom.

John was very curious: Why did the ancient Dian Kingdom, which had existed for more than 500 years, suddenly disappear? Where did the people of the ancient Dian Kingdom go?

 Latso told John:

The ancient Dian Kingdom is one of the most mysterious countries in Chinese history. Not only is it said to possess the art of evil, one of the three major evil arts in Southeast Asia, but it also created a highly developed bronze culture.

There is a Shizhai Village in Shangsuan Township, Jinning County, Yunnan Province. There is an inconspicuous earth mountain called Whale Mountain. However, an ancient tomb was discovered on this unremarkable mountain that shocked the archaeological community. After archaeological experts rushed to the site to conduct some investigation, they were surprised to find that there was a large group of tombs, at least hundreds of them. What is even more surprising is that after the excavation work was officially launched, archaeological experts not only unearthed many gold and jade objects in the tomb, but also unearthed a large number of bronze objects. It is said that before the emergence of iron tools, bronze wares were commonly used by high-ranking officials and nobles. This means that these ancient tombs should have a high level and a long history.

 Legend has it that the shapes of these unearthed bronzes are very strange, completely different from the bronzes unearthed by archaeological experts before. There are no inscriptions on them. Therefore, when the archaeological experts first excavated, they did not understand the age and location of these ancient tombs. The identity of the tomb owner.

"Historical Records" records that during the Western Han Dynasty, the largest of the dozens of ethnic minority countries in southwest China was the Yelang Kingdom, and further to the west was the ancient Dian Kingdom. The tombs in Shizhai Village are next to Dian Lake, so experts We believe that these tombs are likely to be related to the ancient Dian Kingdom.

I only know that the ancient Dian Kingdom is a mysterious country. It was established during the Warring States Period more than 2,000 years ago. At that time, the ruler of the Chu State sent the Chu State General Zhuang Qi to lead his army to the Dian Lake area in Yunnan, hoping to conquer this area. The occupation belongs to Chu State. But at this time, the Chu State was captured by the stronger Qin State. Zhuang Qi and his army knew that if they returned at this time, they would only belong to the Qin State, otherwise they would be destroyed, so they He stayed in the Dian Lake area and established the Dian Kingdom.

The archaeological expert I know told me that the archaeological experts did not connect the tombs in Shizhai Village with the ancient Dian Kingdom at first. This archaeological expert's name is Aza, who is already eighty years old.

 Mr. Aza told me:

During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, in order to open up the Silk Road in the southwest, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che once sent a large army south to conquer some ethnic minority tribes in the southwest, including the ancient Dian Kingdom.

However, the ancient Dian Kingdom was different from other ethnic minorities. Its rulers knew that their country was not as powerful as the Western Han Dynasty, so they did not resist, but led the whole country to surrender to the Western Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty saw that the ruler of the ancient Dian Kingdom was so praised, so he said that as long as the ancient Dian Kingdom obeyed the central jurisdiction in the future, the ruler of the ancient Dian Kingdom could continue to be the king, and awarded him the "Seal of the King of Dian". So why did the ancient Dian Kingdom that surrendered to the Western Han Dynasty disappear from history? John, Lacuo, and Agudengba finally arrived at Jiucheng Village in Chengjiang County, where they met the archaeological expert Aza. Old man Aza told John, Lacuo, and Agudengba that he has been living here since his retirement because he likes this mysterious land very much.

Old man Aza took out the pictures he collected, including a seal.

Old man Aza said:

This is a golden seal with the four Chinese characters "Seal of the King of Dian" engraved on it. These are cultural relics unearthed from ancient tombs related to the ancient Dian Kingdom. This means that the tombs in Shizhai Village are indeed from the ancient Dian Kingdom and belong to the royal family.

Old man Aza talked about another archaeological discovery about the Dian Kingdom:

That was twenty years ago. Archaeological experts unearthed a gruesome tomb on Jinlian Mountain east of the old city village of Chengjiang where I lived. Jinlian Mountain is not high, only about 25 meters, and its area is slightly larger, about 120,000 square meters. However, its underground is full of dense human remains, which are stacked on top of each other, layer after layer. A rough estimate suggests that there are at least tens of thousands of them. Because there were many burial objects such as bronzes among the human remains, which were completely the same craftsmanship and style as the bronzes in the tombs in Shizhai Village, all archaeological experts quickly determined that these were also tombs from the ancient Dian Kingdom.

But where did these densely packed human remains come from? According to the "Book of Han" records, in the first few years after the ancient Dian Kingdom surrendered to the Western Han Dynasty, the ancient Dian Kingdom, as the local government of the Western Han Dynasty, always lived in peace with the central court, obeyed the jurisdiction, and paid tribute regularly. However, as the Han court continued to increase the Sinicization of the southwest region, in 86 BC, a large-scale local tribal uprising broke out in Yizhou County of the Han Dynasty to which the Dian Kingdom belonged.

Therefore, archaeological experts initially believed that because the Dian Kingdom challenged the authority of the Han Dynasty and was suppressed by troops, the Dian Kingdom soldiers and civilians suffered numerous casualties due to massacres during the war, so there were tens of thousands of human remains superimposed on each other, which directly led to This led to the demise of the Dian Kingdom and its disappearance from the long river of history.

Although this speculation seems reasonable, it cannot withstand careful examination. Why do you say that?

If it was true that this uprising war caused so many human remains and the demise of the ancient Dian Kingdom, there should be many traces of sword wounds on these remains. But in fact, archaeological experts found that only a very small part of these remains had marks of sword wounds. Most of the remains were complete, and there were also the remains of many women and babies. In addition, archaeological experts have reviewed more historical materials and found that this tribal uprising was mainly concentrated in the Tonghai area in the south of Dianchi Lake, and the leader of the uprising was not the king of Dian. Since the theory that the country was massacred during the war is not valid, could it be that the country was destroyed after its citizens died of a plague? In ancient times, the only things that could cause such a large-scale death were smallpox and the Black Death. However, medical experts also rejected this speculation after sampling and testing these remains. So what is going on?

The mass graves of the ancient Dian Kingdom on Jinlian Mountain cannot appear out of thin air, and it is even less likely that the ancient Dian Kingdom disappears out of thin air. There must be a reason!

Old man Aza said to John, Lacuo, and Agudengba that I decided to live here after I retired. I just want to find answers here and am willing to be the tombkeeper of this site.

I went through all the remaining documents and historical materials of the ancient Dian Kingdom, and finally came to a more reliable conclusion, that is, although the Dian Kingdom, as a minority tribe, had been sinicized in many aspects at that time, it still retained its cultural and cultural heritage. Funeral customs are different in other areas of the Central Plains. That was the popular secondary burial in the ancient Dian Kingdom. After a citizen died, he was first buried in his own cemetery. After a certain period of time, a tomb was built on the ancestral grave to serve as a cemetery. Then the remains of the citizens were collected and buried in the cemetery. If there are too many burials, the layers will naturally pile up. And in order to save space, people in the ancient Dian Kingdom did not even use coffins when they were buried for the second time. This also shows that the disappearance of the ancient Dian Kingdom has nothing to do with these tens of thousands of remains.

As for the mystery of the disappearance of the ancient Dian Kingdom, archaeological experts found some clues among many local ethnic minorities during further in-depth investigation and research in Yunnan. For example, a dance performed by male shamans of the Hani people in Honghe, Yunnan during sacrifices is very similar to the dance movements in the bronzes unearthed from the ancient Dian Kingdom. In addition, many remote ethnic minority villages in Yunnan also retain some of the living customs of the ancient Dian Kingdom. However, these countless and few clues can only show that the ancient Dian Kingdom had a profound influence on these ethnic minorities at that time. To prove that the disappeared people of the ancient Dian Kingdom finally came to these ethnic minorities, the evidence is not sufficient.

However, just when we archaeological experts were at a loss what to do, news about the ancient Dian Kingdom came from the distant Sumatra Island. On a small island in Sumatra called Samosir, there lives a group of Badak people. The houses these Badak people live in are the most typical Yunnan-style buildings in historical records, with long ridges and short eaves. The roofs are all tilted upward. According to the local Badak people, their ancestors were indeed foreign nationalities who moved here for some reasons. They also had the same cruel custom of "headhunting" and double burial as the ancient Dian Kingdom. Although the Badak people have so many civilizations and customs similar to those of the ancient Dian Kingdom, it seems to be enough to prove that the ancestors of the Badak people are the people of the ancient Dian Kingdom who were forced to secretly migrate to Sumatra during the Western Han Dynasty in order to get rid of the powerful rule of the Western Han Dynasty. , but if you want to be more certain, you still need to take samples for DNA comparison. Unfortunately, because biological scientists have not found effective DNA information among the existing remains of the ancient Dian people, it remains to be further verified whether the current Badak people are descendants of the disappeared people of the ancient Dian country.

Old man Aza smiled and said to John, Lacuo and Agudengba:

What is the truth behind the disappearance of the ancient Dian Kingdom? Now some people say that there is an underground passage hidden in the mountains in southwest China. You don't have to climb mountains and ridges, you just need to pass through a secret passage to reach India. Is there really a secret channel that allows them to do business with the whole world? The first person to believe this legend was Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Wanting to find this passage, he went to Afghanistan to buy horses to fight against the Huns. Because Zhang Qian told Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that he had seen Sichuan silk and satin in Afghanistan, which proved that Sichuan people had long known about this secret passage. But Sichuan people say that the entrance to this secret passage is in Yunnan, and it is a secret that the ancient Dian people of Yunnan will never tell anyone. So, in 109 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty conquered the Dian Kingdom, and the Dian King surrendered. But after that, the Dian Kingdom was no longer recorded in Chinese history books, and the Dian Kingdom disappeared. In reality, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not discover this secret passage, nor did he go from Yunnan to India or Afghanistan to buy horses.

At this time, the laughter of several girls came from outside the house. They were singing and dancing happily. They sang the Yunnan ballad "Beautiful Fuxian Lake":

 

The Jade Emperor, who lives deep in the heavenly palace,

After stepping out of the palace gate,

I looked out into the distance.

Found a pearl shaped like a gourd,

Embedded in the clouds and mountains,

The sparkling blue lake water,

Let the Jade Emperor fall for him,

He urgently announced that two gods had descended to earth.

Quickly describe the beauty of this world,

Take it back to the Heavenly Palace to decorate heaven.

 

The two immortals hurriedly flew into the clouds and mist,

Falling in the southeast direction of the Pearl,

The blurred beauty unfolds before our eyes,

Surrounded by rugged rocks,

Majestic and colorful,with numerous manners, Sitting alone on a lonely mountain in a foggy　lake,

Suddenly big and sometimes small, sometimes rising and falling,

Ethereal and unpredictable,

When there are no waves, the level is as soft as a mirror,

When the waves rise, the white waves are full of broken jade.

 

The two gods held hands and touched their shoulders,

Just watching and admiring endlessly,

I was so obsessed that I forgot my return date,

Intoxicated by the bewildering beauty,

The gods turned into two stone peaks,

Become the overlooking pearl Shiren Mountain,

This is the origin of Fuxian Lake.