You may have heard that the ancients were buried with horses, dogs and even monkeys, but have you ever heard of giant pandas?

In 200 1 year, in order to cooperate with the construction of the Three Gorges Project, the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted a comprehensive excavation of the Guanzhuangping site in Zigui County, Hubei Province.

In this archaeological activity, many cultural relics of 4000 years ago were unearthed in this site. Unexpectedly, when archaeologists excavated Tomb No.77, there was a giant panda skeleton buried in the tomb.

Archaeologists were extremely shocked, because they were buried with pandas, and it was the first time in the archaeological history of China for such a long time.

In addition, only 1984 excavated the upper Nanling of Xi Bailuyuan (the side room of Liu Bang, the tomb of Emperor Wen's mother) has ever unearthed the panda's bones. From the analysis of funerary objects, the Queen Mother kept a panda as a pet at that time, so the panda was buried with her.

Guanzhuangping site is different. It is a prehistoric relic more than 4,000 years ago, which is quite consistent with the legendary Chiyou period.

Then the problem is coming. It is said that the mount of Chiyou, the leader of Jiuli tribe, is a panda, and the ancients often buried him with his beloved mount. So, is this tomb No.77 of Guanzhuangping Site, where pandas are buried, the legendary tomb of Chiyou? And the Guanzhuangping site itself, could it be the Jiuli tribe that fled when the Yellow Emperor fought Chiyou?

The combination of ancient myths and legends and the amazing discoveries of modern archaeology finally gives us a glimpse of the truth of ancient history.

On the Internet, it can be seen everywhere that Chiyou's mount is an "iron eater". According to the sacred classics, the iron-eating beast is a panda.

As for the book Miraculous Classics, you can actually know from its name that it is "both supernatural and different", and the contents in the book are almost all ancient myths and strange novels, and their contents cannot be used as specific historical materials, so the statement that "iron-eating beasts are equal to pandas" must first be marked with a big question mark.

Secondly, I checked a lot of historical materials, and I couldn't find out whether Chiyou's mount came from an iron beast or a panda. Therefore, the rumors circulating on the Internet, such as "Chiyou was mounted as a panda, and the battle between Zhuolu and Chiyou was pitted by a panda", should be a happy stalk made by netizens, and that's all.

But Sima Qian's account in Historical Records shows that the lovely panda was probably eliminated in the ancient war.

Xuanyuan is the name of the Yellow Emperor. It is said that the alliance between the Yellow Emperor and Yan Di was fought in Hanquan. The Yellow Emperor tamed a group of wild animals and drove them to attack Yan Di. After World War III, the Yellow Emperor finally won a total victory.

The brave and brave in this record are considered pandas.

Seeing this, it is estimated that many people will think, when did it become a panda?

Frankly speaking, I had the same doubts as everyone else, but after providing the skills of consulting historical materials, I found that the "brave" in this ancient population is probably another name for the panda.

Wang Shizhen, a celebrity in Qing Dynasty, was an official in the criminal history of Kangxi Dynasty. In his "dragon tree suicide note", there is a record:

The description of the origin and appearance of the brave in this passage, including "dull as a bear" and so on, is quite consistent with the panda's statement. In fact, there is a similar description in the Records of Mount Emei, and there is another sentence in the Records of Mount Emei, which means that "the ancient fur is famous, and those who travel easily are brave".

The above is the real historical origin of the sentence "You are a panda".

Therefore, it is possible that one of the "beasts" in Sima Qian's Historical Records that was driven by the Yellow Emperor to attack Emperor Yan was really a panda.

It's just that this is really fun. I want to come to the bloody battle site of the Yellow Emperor War. I only heard the captain of the Yellow Emperor tribe panda team shout, "Little friend, give me a hard bite!" " A group of pandas with dark circles under their eyes were driven by the breeder and rushed to the enemy. Even if they can't bite you, we will sprout you to death. Just thinking about that scene can make people laugh.

Get down to business.

According to previous research, there is no definite evidence that Chiyou's mount is a panda, but the panda may be used as a beast weapon in ancient battlefields. Then, can the pandas buried in Guanzhuangping site be used as some archaeological evidence of ancient tribes in China?

And the Guanzhuangping site unearthed from the remains of pandas, will it be just one of the legendary tribes of the Yellow Emperor?

Obviously, to solve this mystery, we must first understand what kind of ancient site Guanzhuangping site is.

Guanzhuangping Site belongs to Xiangxi Town, Zigui County, Hubei Province. There is a small river in the town called Xiangxi River, so it is named "Xiangxi".

According to legend, this Xiangxi River is the hometown of Wang Zhaojun, and Du Fu wrote the poem "Wanzhongling Valley is near Jingmen, and Mrs. Guang was born in a village where she grew up".

Wang Zhaojun's hometown is in the upper reaches of Xiangxi River, and the lower reaches of this river is where Guanzhuangping site is located.

Guanzhuangping site was first discovered at 1958 in the early days of the People's Republic of China. 198 1 year, Hubei Provincial Museum conducted a trial excavation and found a number of Zhou Dynasty remains.

From 65438 to 0994, the Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project was officially launched. In the same year, large-scale protection of the Three Gorges cultural relics began, and the Guanzhuangping site entered a comprehensive excavation period.

Since Guanzhuangping has been in the throat area of Hubei from the Three Gorges to Bashu since ancient times, there are many cultural relics here, not to mention those after Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Only the prehistoric culture of the Neolithic period has many foreign cultural relics, such as Qujialing culture and the late Shijiahe culture.

Tomb 77, where the panda remains were found, belongs to the "late Shijiahe culture".

Shijiahe culture originated in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and was named after the Shijiahe site in Tianmen, Hubei. It is one of the most typical prehistoric cultures in Jianghan Plain. Its late age is about 4400-3900 years ago. According to logical reasoning, this era is the period of "Three Emperors and Five Emperors" mentioned in Historical Records.

According to historical records, the Yellow Emperor fought with the panda, and the panda's remains were buried in the tomb of the late Shijiahe culture in Guanzhuangping site. Could the late Shijiahe culture be one of the tribes of the Yellow Emperor?

Objectively speaking, from the coincidence of geographical location and age, coupled with the extremely special characteristics of pandas, it should be said that this possibility cannot be ruled out.

If it can be confirmed in archaeological argumentation that the late Shijiahe culture is one of the tribes of the Yellow Emperor, it will be a major breakthrough in the origin of Chinese civilization, and it will be the first time in archaeology that there is definite archaeological evidence to prove the existence of ancient myths and legends such as Yanhuang and Chiyou.

It may be a good idea to start with the special case of panda burial, and look forward to more archaeological discoveries in this field in the future.

Looking after the details of panda remains unearthed at Zhuangping site also revealed a lot of useful information.

A pair of pandas' complete mandibles were unearthed from Tomb 77, with intact buccal teeth, deciduous front teeth, deciduous left canine teeth and well-preserved right canine teeth. According to the law of mammalian age and tooth growth, this giant panda should still belong to a young individual.

From the research results, it can be seen that the skeleton of a young panda is buried in this tomb. According to the concept of an ancient tomb, it is obvious that pandas have extraordinary significance to the owner of the tomb.

Why did the tomb owner do this?

There are two theories.

First, the owner of the tomb was probably a panda keeper before his death, just as soldiers bury weapons and potters bury pottery. This keeper buried the panda bones together, which shows his occupation.

Based on this speculation, it shows that the ancient ancestors of China had the experience of artificially raising pandas more than 4,000 years ago.

Of course, the purpose of raising pandas at that time was naturally not to continue the panda population. There are two reasons, either fattening and slaughtering meat like pigs or training "panda soldiers" to fight like the Yellow Emperor.

In fact, I personally think that it is more likely to raise and kill meat. After all, the figure of panda flesh is visible to the naked eye.

Frankly speaking, it's hard for me to imagine the recipes of ancient ancestors, such as roast panda and stew panda. We really can't even think about it.

The second guess is relatively simple. Maybe the owner of the tomb once ate panda meat and thought it was delicious. Based on the concept of "death is like life", he buried it with leftover panda bones, hoping to continue eating pandas underground.

These are all speculations. After all, thousands of years have passed, and we don't know what it was like.

Dajiangdong has gone to the waves, a romantic figure through the ages. Now 4000 years have passed, and the story of the Yellow Emperor's war against Chiyou has finally become a legend. Everything in Guanzhuangping is lost in the dust of history with the swift river, leaving only the ruins that have already declined, silently telling the glory of the past.

However, decline is only the other side of prosperity. Decline is only to accumulate strength for prosperity again. Only by combining prosperity with decline can we glimpse history and see the future.

Civilization has a pulse, and everything has a spirit. There is no Yellow Emperor or Chiyou in the world, but this Wan Li Mountain is forever engraved with the immortal mark of the word Yanhuang.

Reference: Brief Report on the Trial Excavation of Guanzhuangping Site in Zigui, Jianghan Archaeology,1984;

Research Report on Animal Remains of Guanzhuangping Site in Hubei Province, Journal of Anthropology, 2005;

Historical Records by Sima Qian in the Han Dynasty, Dragon Tree Suicide Letter by Wang Shizhen in the Qing Dynasty, Emei Mountain, etc.