You may have heard that the ancients were buried with war horses, dogs, and even monkeys, but have you ever heard of giant pandas being buried with them?
In 2001, in order to cooperate with the construction of the Three Gorges Project, the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology conducted a comprehensive excavation of the Guanzhuangping site in Zigui County, Hubei Province.
During this archaeological activity, many cultural relics from 4,000 years ago were unearthed in the site. However, what is unexpected is that when the archaeologists excavated Tomb No. 77, a mysterious artifact suddenly appeared in the tomb. The skeleton of a giant panda buried with it.
The archaeologists were extremely shocked because it was the first time in the history of Chinese archeology that a panda was buried with a panda from such a long time ago.
Apart from this, only the remains of pandas have been unearthed from the Nanling Mausoleum in Bailuyuan, Xi'an (the side chamber of Liu Bang and the tomb of Empress Dowager Bo, the biological mother of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty) excavated in 1984. According to the analysis of the burial objects, Empress Dowager Bo had raised a panda at that time. He only kept pandas as pets, so he was buried with them.
The Guanzhuangping site is different. It is a prehistoric relic with a history of more than 4,000 years, and this age is quite consistent with the legendary period of Chi You.
So here comes the question. It is rumored that the mount of Chi You, the leader of the Jiuli tribe, was a panda, and the ancients also often used the tradition of burying their beloved mounts in sacrifices. So the tomb No. 77 of the Guanzhuangping site where a panda was buried with him, Is it the legendary Chi You’s tomb? And the Guanzhuangping site itself, could it be the Jiuli tribe that was defeated and escaped during the Yellow Emperor's battle with Chi You?
The combination of ancient myths and legends and the astonishing discoveries of modern archaeology has given us a glimpse of the truth of ancient history.
On the Internet, you can see everywhere that Chi You's mount is an "iron-eating beast." According to the "Shenyi Jing", the iron-eating beast is a panda.
As for the book "The Book of Divine Miracles", you can actually tell from the name that it is "mysterious and strange". The contents in the book are almost all ancient mythology and strange novels. Its contents cannot be used as There are specific historical data, so the statement that "iron-eating beasts are equal to pandas" must first put a big question mark.
Secondly, I checked a lot of historical materials, but could not find a specific source that Chi You's mount was an iron-eating beast or a panda. Therefore, there is a rumor circulating on the Internet that "Chi You's mount is a panda, and Chi You was tricked by a panda in the battle between Zhuolu and Zhuolu." Waiting for the rumor, it should be a happy meme created by the majority of netizens, nothing more.
However, Sima Qian's account in "Historical Records" shows that the cute panda may have appeared in ancient wars.
Xuanyuan is the name of the Yellow Emperor. This passage says that the two major tribal alliances, the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor, fought in Banquan. The Yellow Emperor tamed a group of ferocious beasts and drove them to attack the Yan Emperor. After three battles, the Yellow Emperor finally defeated the Yan Emperor. A total victory.
The Pixiu in this record is considered to be a panda.
Seeing this, many people may think, Pixiu is Pixiu, when did it turn into a panda?
Frankly speaking, I originally had the same doubts as everyone else, but after using my skills in researching historical materials, I discovered that the "Pixiu" in the ancient people's mouth is probably another name for the panda.
Wang Shizhen, a famous scholar in the Qing Dynasty, served as Minister of Punishment in the Kangxi Dynasty. He once recorded a passage in his book "Remaining News of Longshu":
The origin of Pixiu in this passage , shape, including "sluggish, bear-like" and other descriptions are consistent with pandas to a certain extent. In fact, there are similar descriptions in "Emeishan Chronicles", and there is an additional sentence in "Emeishan Chronicles": "ancient legend." "Pi Xiu," which means that the local people call this animal that looks like a panda "Pi Xiu", and outsiders think it is "Pi Xiu".
The above is the true historical origin of the saying "Pixiu is a panda".
Therefore, one of the "beasts" driven by the Yellow Emperor to attack Emperor Yan in Sima Qian's "Historical Records" might actually be a panda.
It’s just that this fact is very exciting. I think that on the iron-blooded battlefield of the Yanhuang War, I only heard the panda team captain of the Huangdi tribe yelling: "You guys, rush up and chew hard. "!" A group of pandas with black eyes were driven by the keepers and rushed forward to fight with the enemy. Even if we can't bite you to death, we will kill you with cuteness. Just thinking about that scene can make people laugh and cry.
Let’s get down to business.
According to the previous research, there is currently no definite evidence that Chi You’s mount is a panda, but it is possible that pandas were used as a beast weapon on ancient battlefields. So, are the pandas buried with them in the Guanzhuangping site? Can it be used as some kind of archaeological evidence of the use of "Panda Warriors" by tribes in ancient China?
And the Guanzhuangping site where the panda remains were unearthed, could it be a branch of the legendary Yellow Emperor’s tribal alliance?
Obviously, in order to solve this mystery, we must first understand what kind of ancient ruins the Guanzhuangping site is.
The Guanzhuangping site belongs to Xiangxi Town, Zigui County, Hubei Province. There is a small river in the town called Xiangxi River, so this place is named "Xiangxi".
It is said that this bank of the Xiangxi River is the hometown of Wang Zhaojun. Du Fu’s poem says, “When the mountains and valleys go to Jingmen, there will be a village of Mingfei.” This is where the poem is about.
Wang Zhaojun’s hometown is in the upper reaches of Xiangxi River, and the lower reaches of this river is where the Guanzhuangping ruins are located.
The Guanzhuangping ruins were first discovered in 1958, the year after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. In 1981, the Hubei Provincial Museum conducted a test excavation and discovered a number of relics from the Zhou Dynasty.
In 1994, the Three Gorges water conservancy construction project was officially launched. In the same year, the large-scale Three Gorges cultural relics protection work began, and the Guanzhuangping site entered a comprehensive excavation period.
Since Guanzhuangping has been the choke point from Hubei to Bashu via the Three Gorges since ancient times, there are many cultural relics here. We will not talk about those after the Shang and Zhou dynasties, only the prehistory of the Neolithic period. Culture has appeared many foreign cultural relics such as the Qujialing Culture and the late Shijiahe Culture.
Tomb No. 77, where panda remains were found, belongs to the "Late Shijiahe Culture" in age.
The 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 the Jianghan Plain of the two lakes. Its late period is about 4400-3900 years ago. year, if logically deduced, this era happens to be the "Three Emperors and Five Emperors" period mentioned in "Historical Records".
"Historical Records" says that the Yellow Emperor used pandas to fight, and the remains of pandas were found in the tombs of the late Shijiahe Culture at the Guanzhuangping site. So could the late Shijiahe Culture be the Yellow Emperor? One of the tribal alliances?
Objectively speaking, from the geographical location and age consistency, coupled with the extremely special characteristics of the panda, it should be said that this possibility cannot be ruled out.
If it can be confirmed through archaeological evidence that the late Shijiahe culture was one of the Yellow Emperor's tribal alliances, it will be a major breakthrough in exploring the origin of Chinese civilization, and it will also be the first time in archeology that Conclusive archaeological evidence proves the existence of ancient mythical and legendary figures such as the Yanhuang Emperors and Chi You.
Starting from the special situation of panda burials may be a good approach. We look forward to more archaeological research discoveries in this area in the future.
Let’s take a look at the details of the panda remains unearthed from the Guanzhuangping site, which also revealed a lot of useful information.
What was unearthed from Tomb No. 77 was a complete mandible of a panda, with a complete set of cheek teeth. The incisors and left canine were lost, and the right canine was well preserved. Referring to the age and tooth growth patterns of mammals, this giant panda should still be a young individual.
It can be seen from the research results that the skeleton of a panda that was still in its prime was buried in this tomb. According to the ancient people’s concept of burial, it is obvious that the panda has extraordinary significance to the owner of the tomb.
Why did the tomb owner do this?
There are two speculations.
First, the owner of the tomb was probably a panda breeder during his lifetime. Just like soldiers bury weapons and pottery makers bury pottery, the keeper buried panda skeletons to show his Profession.
If this speculation is followed, it means that more than 4,000 years ago, China's ancient ancestors had the experience of raising pandas in captivity.
Of course, the purpose of raising pandas at that time was not to continue the high-end panda population. There were only two reasons for this, either they fattened them like pigs and then killed them for meat, or they raised them like the Yellow Emperor. "Panda Warriors" go to war.
In fact, I personally think that it is more likely to be kept and killed for meat. After all, the panda has a fleshy and round body, and you can tell with the naked eye that it has a lot of meat.
Frankly speaking, it’s hard for me to imagine what the recipes of our ancient ancestors were like. For example, roasted panda and stewed panda, we really can’t even imagine it.
The second speculation is relatively simple. It may be that the tomb owner once ate panda meat and found it delicious. In line with the burial concept of "death as life", he used the leftover pandas Buried with the bones, I hope I can continue to eat pandas underground.
The above are all speculations. After all, thousands of years have passed, and we no longer know what the situation was like at that time.
The great river eastward swept away all the famous people, and now 4,000 years have passed. The story of the Yellow Emperor's battle with Chiyou finally turned into a legend, and everything in Guanzhuang Ping also went eastward. The river was annihilated in the dust of history, leaving only ruins that had long since declined and silently spoke of its former glory.
However, decline is just the other side of prosperity. Decline is just to accumulate strength for prosperity again. The combination of prosperity and decline allows us to glimpse history and see the future.
Civilization has a pulse, and all things have synergy. The Yellow Emperor and Chi You have long been gone in the world, but these thousands of miles of mountains and rivers have forever engraved the immortal mark of the two characters Yan and Huang.
References: "Brief Report on Experimental Excavation of Guanzhuangping Site in Zigui", Jianghan Archeology, 1984;
"Research Report on Animal Remains of Guanzhuangping Site in Hubei", Journal of Anthropology, 2005 ;
"Historical Records" by Sima Qian of the Han Dynasty, "Remaining News of Longshu" by Wang Shizhen of the Qing Dynasty, "Records of Mount Emei", etc.