In 1986, the Sanxingdui site also unearthed a national treasure-level cultural relic known as "clairvoyance and ears". What does it look like?What are the special uses and meanings?
In August 1986, archaeologists were working hard at the archaeological site of Sanxingdui, where they had discovered two large "sacrificial pits", which unearthed thousands of precious cultural relics such as ivory, jade, bronze and gold. Everyone involved in the excavation was extremely excited, and they had no idea what surprises awaited them next.
In late August, a week after the excavation of the No. 2 "sacrificial pit", the archaeologists who cleaned the No. 2 "sacrificial pit" found a huge bronze vessel on the south side of the pit.
As the excavation and cleaning work progressed, the artifact became more and more revealed, resembling the back of a chair in its overall shape, with two long armrests on the left and right sides. Could this be the throne of the King of Shu?Could this pit be the burial pit of a certain generation of ancient Shu kings?Everyone was looking forward to the answer.
The earth around the artifact was gradually removed, and the huge bronze finally revealed its true face: a hook-shaped nose appeared on the semicircular bronze vessel, and on either side of the nose were two long cylindrical "eyeballs", like the protruding eyes of a crab. Wow, this is not the throne of the King of Shu, but an upside-down, strangely shaped bronze mask!The "back of the chair" is actually the lower jaw part of the mask, and the two "armrests" are actually the two long ears on the mask.
The huge size and bizarre appearance of this bronze mask are so unique that it is the first time in the history of archaeology in China and even in the world.
The mask is 66 centimeters high and weighs more than 80 kilograms. The maximum distance between its two large, long, pointed ears reaches 138 centimeters. The eyebrows on the mask are like two knives, and the tips of the eyebrows are raised, looking majestic and dignified. The most unique are its two huge cylindrical "eyeballs", which protrude from the mask's eye sockets and reach a length of 16 centimeters. Look at its high nose in the shape of a hook, and the wings of the nose have a huge hook cloud pattern. It also has a huge mouth with a closed mouth, thin lips and upturned corners of the mouth with the tip of the tongue exposed in the middle, as if smiling mysteriously and playfully at us.
With such exaggerated eyes and ears, it is unique among the many bronze masks unearthed in Sanxingdui, so it has been given a very vivid name - "clairvoyance, ears to the wind". Many people will be shocked by this huge mask when they see it, and they can't help but have a lot of questions in their hearts: What is such a huge bronze mask for?Who does it represent?And why is there such a strange and exaggerated shape?
Such a large, heavy bronze mask would certainly not have been worn on a human face. If we look closely, we will find that there are square holes on each side of the mask near the ears, a total of four square holes, which are supposed to be used to help fix the mask. It is likely that the ancients hung bronze longitudinal masks on the heights of the temples or shrines, or tied them to pillars, and they used ropes to pass through these square holes to fasten the huge masks somewhere. There is also a square hole in the middle of the forehead of the bronze longitudinal mask, which may have been inserted with some kind of unique ornament.
Therefore, experts speculate that the mask may be an image of a god worshipped by the ancient Shu Kingdom. Which deity could it be?
One theory is that it was the legendary candle dragon. In the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", it is recorded that this god named Candle Dragon. He is thousands of miles long, with a pair of long, large eyes, and his eyes control the light and darkness of the world, and when the eyes are open for day, when closed they are night. The long eyes on the bronze longitudinal mask unearthed in Sanxingdui just match the eye characteristics of the celestial candle dragon.
There are also scholars who have other opinions, they believe that the bronze longitudinal mask represents the first generation of the ancient Shu kingdom Wang Silkworm Cong. When describing the appearance of the first generation of the ancient Shu Kingdom, the silkworm cong is described in the "Huayang National Chronicles", it is said that "its eyes are longitudinal", and "vertical" has the meaning of "from back to front", that is to say, the silkworm cong has a pair of eyes that poke out forward. The bronze longitudinal mask is an exaggeration and deification of the eyes of the silkworm bush. Perhaps in the minds of the ancients, Silkworm Cong was a god with superpowers. It is precisely because of the high status of the silkworm cong that the people of that time cast such a huge and exaggerated mask as an idol of his god to worship him. This is also the reason why the name of this artifact has the word "Zongmu" in it.
Some people also feel that this mask is a manifestation of the ancient Shu people's hope that they can gain superpowers. Li Bai once wrote "Shu road is difficult, it is difficult to go to the blue sky", more than 3000 years ago, the ancient Shu road traffic was very underdeveloped, and the ancient Shu people living in the Sichuan Basin were very eager to understand the outside world, so they cast such a mask statue with big ears and long eyes, eager to communicate with the gods through it, and obtain divine power, so as to hear farther, see wider, and get more information outside the basin.
Two similar longitudinal masks were unearthed in the No. 2 "sacrificial pit", but they were much smaller. One of them has an intricate and elaborate forehead ornament in the middle of the forehead, and experts speculate that the bronze longitudinal mask must have been a similar ornament in the middle of the forehead. In addition, in the newly discovered No. 8 "sacrificial pit" in Sanxingdui, a more compact longitudinal mask was unearthed, which was only the size of the palm of a human hand. The appearance of so many masks with similar shapes shows that the image represented by the Zongmu mask must have a special meaning in the hearts of the ancient Shu people.
Although experts have different interpretations of this peculiar bronze longitudinal surface, everyone has seen the unique aesthetic concept and rich imagination and creativity of the ancient Shu people from its exaggerated shape, and also felt the awe of the ancient Shu people more than 3,000 years ago.