The relationship between stones and human beings has a long history. The first tool primitive humans used was stone. According to anthropology, it is precisely because humans have learned to make and use tools that they have evolved themselves. Stone has given human power and made human beings have a rich imagination of stones, so various myths and legends closely related to stones, as well as worship and worship of stones. We all know the legend of Nuwa refining colorful stones to make up for the sky, which is one of the most widely circulated stories in the creation myths of the East. With this foundation, it was only with this foundation that the loess was kneaded, the marriage system was created, and the musical instruments were successfully realized, and only then did human society have a broad and beautiful future. This beautiful and magical legend is not only a spiritual portrayal of the ancestors' reverence for stones, but also has a wide and far-reaching impact on the national psychology in the future. There is a long tradition of stone worship in the southwest of China. The formation and prevalence of this ancient custom has a lot to do with the rise of the Xia people. Legend has it that Dayu was born in Shiniu, and there is a custom of worshipping blood stones near Beichuan Yu Cave, which is related to the birth of Dayu. In "Huainanzi Xiuwu Xun" and "Art and Literature Gathering" volume 6 quotation "Sui Chaozi" have a record of "Yu is born in stone". Legend has it that Dayu's son Qi was also born from breaking stones, and ancient books such as "Mozi" and "Shu Dian" recorded the legend of "breaking the north and giving birth to Qi". The records of these hand-me-down documents show that the Xia people have a strong belief in stone worship. Due to the special relationship between the Xia people and Xiqiang and ancient Shu, the concept of stone worship of the Xia people is also prevalent in Xiqiang and ancient Shu. 
Beichuan Shinew, near Yuwanggou, legend is the birthplace of Yu in Xiqiang, such as in the primitive belief of the Qiang people, the continuation of the white stone worship has always occupied an extremely important position. The ancient custom of the Qiang people is in the same vein as the stone worship concept of the Xia people, and at the same time, it adopts the form of legends to carry out magical explanations and beautiful plays. According to the word-of-mouth epic "Qiang Ge War" that has been passed down from generation to generation of the Qiang people, the Qiang people originally lived in the northwest prairie with abundant water and grass, beautiful cattle and sheep, and then were invaded by foreign races in the north and forced to migrate, the nine brothers of the Qiang people led nine tribes of men and horses to run their own journeys, and the people and horses led by the eldest brother were attacked by the enemy soldiers on the way, and suffered heavy losses, they prayed to the heavenly maiden Mu Jizhuo and prayed for help, Mu Jizhuo threw three white stones from the sky, and turned into three snow-capped mountains on the Min Mountain, blocking the enemy soldiers, and the Qiang army was able to get rid of the enemy and rebuild their homes. Therefore, the Qiang people decided to "hold a white stone on the top of the snow-capped mountain, and the white stone is offered in the middle of the roof" to repay the grace of God. Later, the Qiang people were invaded by the Goki people, the Qiang people were invincible repeatedly, and they were helped by the gods, and the Qiang people used white stones and rattan to deal with the white snow and hemp stalks of the Goji people, defeated the Goji people, and finally settled down in the upper reaches of the Min River, which made the Qiang people strengthen their belief in the worship of white stones. 
The white stone worship customs of the Qiang peopleThe Qiang people used a milky white quartz stone as a symbol of idols, which were enshrined on the mountain, in the ground, on the roof, or in the temple. In addition, there are also white stones enshrined in the lintels, windows, watchtowers, and woods as symbols of the gods. The belief and custom of worshiping Baishi has had an important impact on the thinking and behavior of the Qiang people. In the long course of history, it has gradually penetrated into all aspects of social life and accumulated into a stable national psychological factor. For such a long-standing and rapidly evolving ethnic group as the Qiang people, the Baishi worship has had a far-reaching impact from generation to generation, and has played a role in inheriting the Qiang culture. 
Sichuan Ganzi Taoping Qiang Zhai watchtower and "white stone worship" ancient Shu people's stone worship, as a long-standing symbol of faith, also has a hidden and complex cultural connotation. Judging from the literature records, the "Huayang Guozhi Shu Zhi" records that the Shu Marquis Silkworm Cong, who was the first to be called the king in the ancient Shu era, "died, made a sarcophagus and a coffin, and the people followed it", which revealed the primitive custom of the ancient Shu people to worship Dashi. This undoubtedly has a lot to do with the living environment that lived in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River during the ancient Shu silkworm cong period. 
Huayang National Chronicles" Minjiang River upper valley is the hometown of silkworm cong and the place of rise, Yangxiong "Shu King Benji" has "silkworm cong began to live in the stone chamber of Minshan Mountain" said, linked to the legend of later generations of silkworm cong deeds mostly in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River, it can be known that silkworm cong may have inhabited the Minjiang River valley area at first, and then gradually moved from the Minjiang River valley to the Chengdu Plain. Archaeological discoveries have also revealed that the upper valley of the Minjiang River was the habitat of the ancient Shu ancestors, such as the archaeological discovery of Yingpan Mountain, and the discovery of tens of thousands of sarcophagus burials in the upper valley of the Minjiang River, which has given full confirmation. Located in the suburbs of Maoxian County, not far from the Yingpan Mountain site, backed by the mountains, the Minjiang River surrounds and flows, the platform is gentle, the field of vision is broad, the site is located on the open platform, the area has 150,000 square meters, archaeological excavations have revealed, here was the habitat of the ancient Shu ancestors more than 4,000 years ago, there are sacrificial places, and there are burial areas, leaving a large number of sarcophagus burials. 
Maoxian Yingpanshan sarcophagus burial site, archaeologists found a large number of sarcophagus burials here After the ancient Shu people moved out of Minshan and into the Chengdu Plain along the Minjiang River, the tradition of worshipping big stones is still prevalent. "Huayang Guozhi Shu Zhi" said that in the enlightened period, "every king, standing a big stone, three zhang long, weighing a thousand jun, for the epitaph, now the stalagmite is also", is a good explanation. This custom of worshipping Dashi reflects the psychological concept of the ancient Shu people, which has both the elements of natural worship and the strong characteristics of ancestor worship. According to the literature, the relics of the big stone left in the ancient Shu era, in addition to the famous double stalagmites, there are also Wudan stone, stone mirror, Tianya stone, corner stone, five stones, branch stone and so on. According to Mr. Liu Lin, these boulders "are all signs in front of the tomb of the ancient Shu king" and "were mined and transported from the mountains dozens or even hundreds of miles away". Most of these boulders have magical legends, standing in the rich and beautiful Chengdu, forming a special landscape. One of the most peculiar is the double stalagmites outside the west gate of Chengdu, Du Fu's poem "Stalagmite Xing" describes: "You don't see the west gate of Yizhou City, Mo on the stalagmites double squatting." According to the records of the Song and Yuan dynasties, "the northern bamboo shoots are one zhang and six feet long, and the circumference is nine feet and five inches; The south bamboo shoots are one zhang and three feet long, and they are surrounded by one zhang and two feet", which is indeed a pair of tall and magnificent boulders. "Customs Record" said: "There are stalagmites in the west of Yizhou, the dimension of heaven and earth, with the eyes of the sea, and the waves are overflowing. "Chengdu Chronicles" also has a similar account of this: "Two or three feet away from the stalagmite, heavy rain in the summer month, often sink into the soil hole, the water is clear, the depth of the bamboo measurement is unreachable, the rope is tied to the stone to cast it, the more it is cast and the more infinite it is, so there is the saying of the sea eye." "The huge stalagmites are used to control the sea eye, and it depends on it so that there will be no floods. This shows that the boulder, as a symbol of the worship of the ancient Shu people, also has the role of water control and water control. Flood control has always been a prominent topic in the ancient Shu era, and it is obvious that this is also an important component of the cultural connotation of Dashi worship. 
Du Shi Detailed Notes (Chinese Sinology Library) is located in the west of Chengdu Wanli Bridge five stones, according to legend, also has the role of Zhenhai eye. "Sichuan Tongzhi" volume 49 describes: "Five stones in the west of the Wanli Bridge in the south of the county, five stones stacked on top of each other, more than one zhang high, double the circumference, it is said that there is a sea eye under the legend, the people of the past tasted its stone, wind and rain. "The miraculous statement about the sea eye is reminiscent of the Sichuan Basin, which was once a huge inland sea during the distant Carboniferous, Permian and Triassic periods, and may be an explanation for Chengdu's groundwater. If the legend of the double stalagmites and the five stones of the sea eye of Zhenhai embodies the concept of worship of the big stone and the connotation of water control in the town of water, thenThe legend of the branch stone is even more magical, it is not from the mountains but from the sky, directly expressing the ancient Shu people's understanding and imagination of the universe. "Shuzhong Famous Places" quoted "Taoist Spiritual Experience" said: "The branch stone, that is, the seafarer brought it, obtained from the Tianhe, the weaver girl ordered to ask Yan Junping." "Chengdu has a branch stone and Junping Street, which is related to this legend and Yan Junping. "Naturalist" also describes this legend, to the effect that there is also a river in the sky, and the sea on the earth, so someone took the chariot and drifted into the heavenly river, in a place to see the woman brocade, the husband took the cow, brought a piece of the Weaver Girl gift of the stone back, to Shu in the astronomical strange person Yan Junping for advice, only to know that what he saw was the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, and brought back the Weaver Girl branch stone. "Art and Literature Gathering" volume.
8. Volume 94 also cites this story recorded in the Naturalist Chronicles. What a wonderful imagination! In the custom of Oishi worship, the concept of the interconnectedness of heaven and man is demonstrated through the legend of the association. It is this concept that makes the spiritual world of the ancient Shu people shine with magnificent brilliance. 
The branch stone, which is said to be the stone of the heavenly weaver girl cushion loom, is now hidden in Chengdu Cultural Park
The relics of the portrait of Yan Junping in Shuzhong are not unique to the Chengdu area, and there are stalagmites or boulders in many places in Sichuan, most of them are naturally formed huge stone pillars, attached to magical legends, and become a symbol of worship. This shows that the worship of Dashi was a fairly common behavior in the ancient Shu era, from the ruling class of the ancient Shu to the common people, all had the concept of worshipping Dashi. Starting from the silkworm cong, it continued through the enlightened period to the Qin and Han dynasties, and was still popular in Shu. According to the investigation of scholars since the thirties of the twentieth century, in addition to tombstones and monoliths, there are also stone relics in Sichuan. For example, Xinfan has the so-called "flying stone", and the 49th volume of the "Sichuan Tongzhi" records: "Xinfan is all skin and soil, and the huge rocks here are craggy, and the fathers and elders fly from other places, or the meteor is also." The most famous is the Eight Arrays arranged in stone, the one located in Fengjie is called the "Water Eight Arrays", and the one located in the new capital Mimu Town is the "Dry Eight Arrays". Volume 33 of the "Notes on the Book of Water" records that the eight formations of water are in the place of "flat moraine", "there are eight formations made by Liang, and the east spans the old base, all of which are made of fine stones." Go to the west from the base, gather eight lines of stones, and two zhang between the lines, because it is said: the eight formations have been completed, and since the current division, Shu will not be defeated, and they all want to have the right to hide the troops, and those who know well since then can't." Whether there is a secret hidden in it and the secret of using troops to deploy the formation is something that ordinary people cannot understand. The arrangement of the stones in the Eight Arrays of Dry Rice is very similar to that of the Eight Formations of Water, but the number of stone piles has increased, and there is a more detailed record of this in the "Latitude Strategy" quoted in the 49th volume of the "Sichuan Tongzhi". Mr. Feng Hanji, who served as the director of the Sichuan Museum, had investigated the Dashi cultural relics in the Chengdu Plain, and in 1939 he went to Xinfan to investigate the "Flying Stone", which was about 6 northeast of Xinfan CountyOn the north bank of the Qingbai River, 5 kilometers away, it was found that this is a well-preserved stone ruins. Later, many scholars conducted in-depth research on the cultural relics of Sichuan and the worship of the big stones of the ancient Shu era, and had a more real and clear understanding. Mr. Tong Enzheng pointed out in "Ancient Bashu": "Lieshi is also known as 'Shixing' in archaeology, and Sichuan is commonly known as 'Eight Formations', and it is attached to the place where Zhuge Liang trained his troops. In fact, it is likely that it was a monument erected by the rulers of the ancient Shu Kingdom for some purpose. "These" large stone relics on the Chengdu Plain were all transported from the Qionglai Mountains in the west. More than 2,000 years ago, the slaves of the ancient Shu Kingdom had to go to the deep mountains to mine stones, cut through thorns and thorns, build roads and bridges, and then use rolling wood inch by inch to transport large stones weighing several tons to the site more than 100 miles away", what a difficult labor. The rulers of the ancient Shu kingdom "tried to erect these boulders to praise their 'exploits', but in fact they were all monuments to the great creativity of the working people". These relics of the Dashi culture left in the ancient Shu period have high preservation and research value, whether as an ancient symbol of Dashi worship or as a long-standing cultural tradition. After Qin merged with Bashu, Li Bing, who served as the Taishou of Shu County, gave full respect to the traditional concepts of the Shu people. When Li Bing built the Dujiangyan Water Conservancy Project, he carved three tall stone figures, standing in the water, used to measure the water level, and also said that the stone god could defeat the river god to suppress the water monster; Later, five stone rhinoceros were made and placed in Chengdu and Guan County. "The Book of the King of Shu" recorded: "The river is harmful, Shu Shou Li Bing made five stone rhinos, two in the house, one under the city bridge, and two in the water, so as to dislike the water essence, because the stone rhino is also." Li Bing's practices are very clever, and the ancient Shu people's tradition of worshipping Dashi is skillfully integrated with the comprehensive scientific management of floods, thus winning the support of the Shu people. As a sign and symbol, the stone man and the stone rhinoceros not only embody the primitive religious consciousness of the Shu people, but also play an important role in measuring the water level, which can be called a high degree of harmony between science, mythology and religion. Li Bing's strategy of controlling water and Shu was a great success, bringing permanent wealth to the Chengdu Plain and creating a true land of abundance. In the history of the development of human civilization, Dashi culture is not an isolated phenomenon. Ancient Egyptian civilization, ancient Greek civilization, ancient Indian civilization, ancient Babylonian civilization in Mesopotamia and Mayan culture in Central and South America, the stone buildings and sculptures left behind are closely related to the big stone. From the islands of the Mediterranean to the Atlantic coast, you can see some huge stones erected, which is extremely spectacular. These megaliths are the most abundant and diverse in Western Europe, and some scholars believe that they can be roughly divided into three types: "Menhill type", "Dolmen type" and "Kromlek type". The most typical example is Stonehenge on the small plain of Heatsbury in Werther County in western England, and in the mid-twentieth century, some experts have determined that Stonehenge was built between 1800 BC and 1400 BC, during the early Bronze Age in England, with the help of scientific and technological exploration and analysis of archaeological stratigraphy. But what was the real purpose of building Stonehenge? It remains a puzzling mystery to this day. Looking at megalithic remains throughout Europe and around the world, it shows that in the distant Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages, the Great Stone Culture was indeed extensive. Their bizarre forms not only have common or similar characteristics, but also show different cultural connotations and regional characteristics. They are all products of human civilization; Human civilization is diverse, and the Dashi culture also shows this characteristic. 
Monolithic statues on Easter Island
The boulder worship of the ancient Shu people at Stonehenge in England is undoubtedly a strange chapter in the history of inland agricultural civilization. Compared with the Dashi culture in other parts of the world, the ancient Shu Dashi culture has at least the following characteristics: one is ancient and long, the second is the regional characteristics are distinct, the third is the cultural connotation is extremely rich, the fourth is to show the unique spiritual world of the ancient Shu people, and the fifth is to integrate into the traditional customs. The ancient Shu Dashi culture not only has the primitive religious consciousness such as the worship of sacred mountains and the worship of large stones, but also is related to major activities such as funerals and ceremonies in the ancient Shu era, and later integrates the content of water control. These all show the distinctive characteristics of the ancient Shu Dashi culture and illustrate the originality of the ancient Shu Dashi culture. (This article was originally published in Monthly Reading, Issue 3, 2024.) The author is a researcher at the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and a special librarian of the Sichuan Provincial People's Research Museum of Culture and History).
Relying on the resource advantages of Zhonghua Book Company, Monthly Reading magazine systematically sorts out traditional cultural resources, uses the past for the present, brings forth the new, pays attention to the combination of current political hotspots and major events, etc., and deeply excavates the ideological essence and moral essence of the excellent traditional Chinese culture, injects new connotations of the times into the traditional classics, and provides a traditional source of nutrition for the contemporary society.
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