Master Archaeologist

Chapter 242 What is Ritual Collapse?
"Tsk tsk. So many tripods?"

"One, two, three, four, five..."

"There must be more than 20 tripods here?"

"Hai Hunhou, as a prince, even if he was a king or emperor, he can't use so many tripods, it's still copper tripods!"

"Is this the era after the legendary ritual collapse and music destruction?"

With his hands on his waist, Chen Han was speechless as he looked at the more than 20 tripods that had been cleared out of Dongzang's room.

The Dongzang Room, which is the kitchen room cleaned by the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Social Sciences, unearthed a large number of bronze wares.

There are kitchen utensils such as 鋗, pot, Zun, Ding, cauldron, mortar, pestle, spoon, etc.

Some bronze wares have words such as "Changyi Shiguan" and "Jitian" on them, which reflect the identity of the owner of the tomb, as well as the "food official" system and the "emphasis on agriculture" sacrificial system in the Western Han Dynasty.

Among them, bronze vessels such as copper tripods, copper pots, and copper long-necked pots are very exquisitely shaped.

However, the most important thing is the discovery of the words "Changyi Shiguan".

Haihunhou Liu He was the king of Changyi before he became Haihunhou.

And his Changyi throne is inherited from his father, and he has been the Changyi king for ten years.

After that, there will be no princely throne like King Changyi.

That is to say, the one who can engrave the word "Changyi" on the bronzes used can basically only be Liu He, or his father Liu Wei.

Liu He's father, Liu Wei, the fifth son of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, died in Changyi.

And Changyi is located in Juye County, Heze, Shandong, which is a bit too far away from Jiangxi.

Then, the tomb of Marquis Haihun in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province can basically determine who the owner of the tomb is.

The only possibility is Liu He.

Although, the key seals engraved with names such as "Haihun Houhe" and "Liu He" have not been found yet.

But for the owner of this tomb, everyone in the archaeological base has basically reached a conclusion.

It was Haihunhou Liu He who didn't run away.

However, after confirming the identity of the owner of the tomb, the discovery of so many bronze tripods in the eastern Tibetan room is a bit too surprising.

Counting, there are 24 pieces in total, most of which are three-legged tripods.

How could it be possible for a lieutenant to be buried with 24 bronze tripods?

The emperor was buried with the nine tripods and eight gui, not to mention the princes?

How courageous is Liu He to risk the world's disgrace and bury with him a bronze tripod that far exceeds the number of nine tripods?
This is the largest number of bronze tripods unearthed at one time among all Han Dynasty tombs!

However, just when everyone was puzzled.

Lines of words engraved on the belly of the bronze tripod are the answer.

"Changyi Jitian Bronze Dingding Capacity Ten Liters and Weight 48 Jin Second"

"Changyi Jitian Copper Cauldron Capacity Ten Liters Weight 48 Jin Third"

"Changyi Jitian copper tripod..."

A large number of inscriptions about "Jitian" were discovered by everyone at the Institute of Archeology, Academy of Social Sciences.

This discovery, can be regarded as let everyone know.

It turns out that these bronze tripods were not used as ritual vessels to show status and were buried with them.

These bronze tripods were ritual vessels cast by Liu He when he participated in the Jitian ceremony.

The so-called Jitian ceremony is a kind of ancient auspicious ceremony.

That is, in the first month of Mengchun, before the spring plowing, the emperor led the princes to plow the fields in person.

This etiquette system was carried forward in the Han Dynasty. The emperor himself took the lead and worked in the fields in the spring every year to show that he valued farming.

In the Western Han Dynasty, this kind of "jitian ceremony" has developed a mature system.

From the son of heaven to the princes and kings to the princes.

As long as there are people with fiefdoms, no matter how big or small the fiefdom is, they will take the lead in performing the land registration ceremony during spring plowing.

On the one hand, it is to show that I attach importance to farming, and on the other hand, it is also to beg God to give me a good harvest.

When holding the Jitian ceremony, before plowing, you must first worship the gods and send them to the prison.

At this time, it is time for the copper tripod to play a role.

Tailao sacrifices are all placed in copper tripods and then offered to the gods.

At this time, the bronze tripod does not symbolize rights, but is only used as a sacrificial tool, returning to its earliest use.

In fact, when the tripod was first created, it was used for cooking and offering sacrifices.

It's just because in the ancient tribal period, the person who held the "sacrifice" right was often the most powerful person in the tribe.

In the tribal era of ancient China, theocracy and kingship were one.

According to the legend, after Emperor Zhuanxu passed through the heavens and the earth, the saint kings in ancient China were the ones who held the power of the king and the power of the gods.

He is the son of heaven who has the blood of gods and can communicate with gods.

Unlike in the West, religion and politics are separated, and theocracy and kingship belong to the pope and king.

Therefore, when the sage kings dominated the sacrificial power, the tripod gradually evolved into a symbol of power.

Especially in the Shang Dynasty, no matter how big or small the businessman was, whether they were in a good mood or not, they would kill individual animals to sacrifice to their ancestors, and frequently used tripods as a tool for sacrifices.

Therefore, over time, owning a tripod is equivalent to owning rights.

Ding also evolved from the Shang Dynasty, which only had the functions of "sacrifice" and "steaming food", to the Zhou Dynasty and became a symbol of power.

Most of Liu He's tripods were cast when he used them to sacrifice to the gods when he was in Jitianli.

Theoretically speaking, it is indeed not considered to be specially cast as a ritual vessel, as can be proved from the inscription on the tripod.

However, after his death, these bronze tripods used in the Jitian ceremony were all buried in the tomb together, which was more or less against the etiquette.

It can only be said that the Western Han Dynasty is worthy of being a dynasty re-established from the ruins, and the rituals and music were indeed completely destroyed.

According to historical records, when the Western Han Dynasty established the country, Liu Bang searched all over the country, but he couldn't find a few people who knew Zhou rituals.

As a result, there was basically no complete etiquette system in the early Western Han Dynasty. Shusun Tong wanted to rebuild the etiquette system, but in the end he only had time to set up a set of etiquette during the Great Court Ceremony.

As for the emperor's attire, apart from the preservation of the Mianfu, there are basically no other systems.

Moreover, in fact, in the early Western Han Dynasty, the specific wearing system of the mianfu was not confirmed.

The emperor, prince, prince, princes and princes are all eligible to wear crown clothes.

"Zhou Li Chun Guan Si Fu" contains: "The king's clothes: if you worship the God of Haotian, you will wear a big fur and wear a crown, and the five emperors are also the same; if you enjoy the ancestors, you will wear the crown; if you enjoy the ancestors, you will wear the crown; When offering sacrifices to the mountains and rivers in all directions, you get the Wu Mian; when offering sacrifices to the five sacrifices to the state, you get the Xi Mian;

As for the Daqiu Mian, Dagon Mian, Yu Mian, Xuan Mian, Yu Mian and other crown clothes, simply put, the difference is that some have twelve chapter patterns, some have nine chapter patterns, some have three chapter patterns, and some have one chapter pattern.

However, these mianfu are all the clothes of the "king", but different mianfu are worn on different occasions.

There is no saying that the son of heaven wears twelve chapters and twelve crowns, princes wear nine chapters and nine crowns, and kings wear five chapters and five crowns.

Therefore, in the early Western Han Dynasty, when Liu Bang, Liu Ying, Liu Heng and other emperors held some sacrificial ceremonies and important dynasties, the princes and princes and kings wore the same clothes as the emperor, all wearing red and black crowns. All wearing beaded curtains.

At that time, the only thing that the emperor could wear and other people could not wear was the Liu's crown created by Liu Bang, which only the emperor of the Liu family could wear.

And this rule is not a Zhou ritual, but a new ritual set by Liu Bang.

It was not until the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty began to think of re-establishing the etiquette system.

It was not until the Eastern Han Dynasty that the Chinese etiquette system was re-established, but it was already very different from the Zhou etiquette.

In fact, people in the Western Han Dynasty probably didn't know as much about Zhou rituals as people in modern times.

After all, modern archeology has unearthed many Spring and Autumn and Warring States, and even earlier noble tombs, and there has been a lot of research on their etiquette.

The people of the Western Han Dynasty had no way to do archaeology everywhere, so they could only rely on some scattered records in documents to restore the rituals of Zhou.

Of course, compared with ritual, the loss of music is more serious
We must know that the Zhou Dynasty was a dynasty that could not speak without reading "Poems" and "Books".

At that time, no matter what the princes did, they went out to fight or returned to the country, or faced each other, welcomed guests, and made a triumphant return...

All have supporting rites and music, and a complete set of procedures for thanking and saluting between the king and his ministers.

You should know that "Wind" in "Book of Songs" is a ballad from various places in the Zhou Dynasty, "Ya" is the formal song of the Zhou people, and "Song" is a song of sacrifice for the Zhou royal court and the noble ancestral temple!
These are songs!All ritual music that can be sung with music!

But by the time of the Han Dynasty, all these things had been lost, and all kinds of elegant music were only recorded in writing. As for what the original music was like, I don’t know for a long time.

The graves of musicians from all over the world are so tall, where can we find complete ritual music scores.

The Western Han Dynasty was rebuilt from the ruins of the troubled times at the end of the Qin Dynasty. In a sense, the system and culture were indeed redeveloped.

This is why, we are now Han people instead of Zhou people.

Chinese civilization is dominated by Confucian culture rather than other schools of thought in the Warring States period.

Why do Chinese people advocate all kinds of goodness and filial piety first.

It all started in Han!
(End of this chapter)