Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1465 Seal

"Then let's try." Jiang Tianxi made the decision: "If we can discover the identity of the tomb owner, we can determine the level of rescue excavation as soon as possible. Due to the urgent time requirements of the Three Gorges Project, of course, the sooner the better. "

"Elbow, that's up to you." Teacher Deng pushed the tool box towards Zhou Zhi: "Director Yuan said you are very powerful, a master who can draw the continuation of warp and weft on silk books."

Literature and history really do not separate families. It seems that Yuan Dongjue of the Institute of Ancient Books has given this capable person a lot of bragging rights.

However, the Ancient Books Research Institute, which was originally affiliated with the library, has now been placed under the jurisdiction of the museum. It is said that they are one family.

Zhou Zhi was no longer polite, took the tool box and started operating it.

This is also the first time that the friends have seen Zhou Zhi's working status with their own eyes. To be precise, it is one of the working statuses of this child. They all hold their breath and dare not speak.

Archaeological tools are actually very simple and have not changed much in decades. Except for brushes, bamboo sticks, tweezers, etc., the rest are not much different from those used by masons, but some have more compact models.

Zhou Zhi's hands were very steady. He first lit the alcohol lamp, and then based on the position of the bamboo curtain, mud layer, and copper button, and after checking the distance, he used the alcohol lamp to bend the bamboo stick and turned it into a small probe. The soil around the copper button was scratched and the approximate range of the copper button at the bottom of the bamboo curtain was determined.

During the exploration process, I kept spraying water on the copper button with a watering can to take away the scratched soil. After a while, the top of the copper seal connected to the entire copper button was exposed.

This determined the general scope of the copper seal, and everyone was relieved when they saw it. Although there was a bamboo curtain above the copper seal that could not move, there was a working surface on the side, and you could dig it out from the side.

After discussing the plan and getting Jiang Tianxi and Huo Wei's approval, Zhou Zhi inserted a small pointed scraper from the side of the copper seal, and then opened up the mud on the side of the copper seal.

This is clean and neat, and after removing the silt, you can still see that there is still a thin layer of silt on the side of the copper seal. This means that Zhou Zhi's knife is extremely stable, and the trajectory of the knife and the copper seal remain less than one millimeter. Although the distance was extremely close, they did not touch each other at all.

The next step is simple. Use a bamboo skewer and a water spray bottle to continue cleaning the bottom and sides of the copper seal. Finally, after hollowing out the bottom of the copper seal, gently press the top of the copper seal with a bamboo skewer. After you find it is a little loose, you can carefully remove it. Use the original bamboo stick with the top bent to draw out the copper seal.

"Awesome!" Teacher Deng couldn't help but admire her. She was already a master at this, but Zhou Zhi's operation made her feel ashamed.

It is really stable and fast, and the brain is also flexible.

For example, you can bake bamboo sticks into bends and make them into improvised tools. She had never thought of this idea.

"Hurry and look at the seal surface to see if there is any seal left." Jiang Tianxi didn't have time to boast, he was more concerned about this. Zhou Zhi turned over the copper seal covered with mud. At this time, he did not even dare to use bamboo sticks. If the seal had been rusted, the bamboo stick might shave off the seal that had turned into patina, which would be a heavy loss. .

Therefore, I only dare to use a brush and a water bottle to turn the soil on the printed side into mud, and then brush it away with a soft-bristled brush.

After the seal began to appear at the bottom, everyone found that the seal was quite well preserved. Although there was rust on the bottom, it was probably due to long-term use that the seal was protected by patina and sludge, and the oxide layer was thin and thick. It is even and even in better condition than many ancient coins from the Tang and Song Dynasties.

Although everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Jiang Tianxi couldn't help but sigh when he saw the finally cleaned seal: "Ba Shu seal, this is the undecipherable Cuban Shu seal."

"What is the Cuban Shu seal?" Although Zhou Zhi knew seal cutting because of his calligraphy, this thing was completely different from what he was familiar with. It was too professional and completely separated.

"We already know that this generation is the seat of the country of Cuba. The Ba people are an ancient ethnic minority living in Sichuan and surrounding areas from the Neolithic Age to the Qin Dynasty. Their founding era lasted for thousands of years from the late Shang Dynasty to the late Warring States Period." Huo Wei explained: "During the Warring States Period, the ancestors of Bashu developed a developed seal culture. However, unlike the seal systems of Qin and the Six Kingdoms, the ancient seals of Bashu had obscure meanings. They were not Chinese characters or Chinese characters. It’s hard to tell whether it’s words or pictures.”

"At present, we can only call it the Bashu symbol seal." Huo Wei said: "Its quality is mainly copper, with stone and pottery. The button style is mainly nose button, just like this seal."

"The content of the seal is very special and consists of various unique Bashu symbols. In terms of its individual symbols, it can be broken down into three categories: Category A is obvious pictographic symbols, such as Lei, Duo, Cut, Ge, Hand, Person, Horses, insects, birds, frogs and other animals. Category B is an abstract but stable symbol, and it is a basic symbol that appears many times. Category C is very weird and is still available for the time being. I can’t grasp its form at all.”

"Leaving aside Category C, judging from the more than 150 stable symbols on the more than 1,000 Bashu seals that have been unearthed and recorded, they must represent some specific meaning." Jiang Tianxi introduced: "According to the late Professor Xu Zhongshu, an expert on pre-Qin history and philology, speculated in the "Comparison Table of Ancient and Modern Scripts" that these Bashu symbols can only express meaning, not a language that can be read word by word. Only wizards can understand it, and they need to be explained with many metaphors, otherwise it will be difficult for ordinary people to understand. .'"

"This is also the common understanding in the academic community so far. Although it cannot be interpreted, the Bashu symbolic seal must be a seal with practical functions such as identification, possession, title, and emblem."

Jiang Tianxi said: "And we also discovered one thing, that is, the ancestors of Bashu were very fond of seals. The practice of using seals for burials was far more popular in the Central Plains countries at the same time, including the Chu State. In the surrounding areas of Cuba, Shu, Qin and Chu, etc. During the exchange, Bashu symbolic seals may have contributed to the rise of image seals in the Qin and Han Dynasties.”

Here there are issues involving cultural input and output exchanges, and like common cultural exchange phenomena in history, this kind of input direction is often opposite to the strength of culture, economy, and society.

The more powerful, stable, and developed a social group is, the more it likes to accept novel and interesting cultural elements. As a result, the culture of surrounding underdeveloped social groups is often exported to them.

For example, Buddhism was introduced in the Han Dynasty; Hu Xuan Wu and Hu music were popular in the Tang Dynasty; Goryeo folding fans, Japanese swords, and Su Muzhe were popular in the Song Dynasty; blue and white porcelain made from Suma Liqing in the Ming Dynasty; and Hendostan jade in the Qing Dynasty were all of this type. representative of cultural phenomena.

(End of this chapter)