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Archaeologist in Sichuan, China publication This week, they revealed evidence of an ancient effort to communicate with fairies. Evidence of bronze, jade, cash of gold relics, and ancient sacrificial rituals was unearthed. According to scientists, some of the artifacts are unique objects that suggest a “fairy world” of ancient Chinese religion and thought. But if you’re drawing folk beliefs and Tinkerbell, think again.
The discovery was made at the famous Sanxingdui site in Guanghan, southwestern Sichuan. A true treasure trove was unearthed from sacrificial pits 7 and 8 by a joint team of scholars from Peking University and Sichuan University. Among the items was a bronze and green jade box, decorated with a dragon’s head pattern and once wrapped in silk.Professor Li Haichao of Sichuan University, who directs Pit 7, told the Chinese news “Given its unique shape, excellent craftsmanship, and original design, it is no exaggeration to say that this ship is of that kind.”
The intricate collection of sculptures includes mythical creatures, human-snake hybrids, and bronze heads adorned with gold masks. The iconographic program of sculptures, primarily located in Pit 8, is “complex and imaginative.” Chao Hao, as an associate professor at Peking University Said “It reflects the fairy world that people had imagined at the time, showing the diversity and richness of Chinese civilization.”
This discovery has received a great deal of attention, not only because of the historical significance of the site, but also because of the use of the word “fairy” in media statements. But here, “fairy” may be a misunderstanding. This term is Old English (fairy) From Old French (Faye) And refers to a woman who is skilled in magic, fascinating things and illusions. In pop culture, the word fairy is most commonly associated with Tinkerbell in English-speaking countries. If you want to think of yourself as cultural, packs: forests, garden bottoms, little magical creatures with wings associated with wishes. In Chinese mythology, an entity called a “fairy” is often a stronger spirit associated with a particular location, especially mountains, rivers, and seas.
These “spirits” can be well-meaning or malicious and may be associated with the guardian of the local spirit, the spirit of the ancestors, and the original human or animal transformed into a god. Spirit Guardian (JingweiFor example, Mount Departing-Doves transformed into a bird spirit guardian when drowned in the Tokai region.Former mortal, Strasburg Chinese veterinarian Describe her as both a “goddess” and a “guardian of the spirit” and note that Taoists identify her as a “transcendent”. [human]And it is “a symbol of someone who refuses to accept defeat” in modern China. Jin Wei’s story is about metamorphosis, and liquidity is amplified only by changing the interpretation of her status over time.
The call for the word “fairy” in news reports, however, is not only what it tells us about finding problems, but how it reveals the exclusion of fairies from the Western supernatural consciousness. Shining for.If you look up at the “fairy” Cambridge In the English dictionary, you can see that fairies are “fictitious”. Find out more Christian-friendly “angels”. seek Complete lack of existential judgment.
Communication with angels, spirits and fairies is not another kind of activity. Talking to fairies sounds strange, but if it seems that you are expected to make sacrificial offerings to the spirits, we stumble upon our Christian-centric English cultural prejudice. In the irreversible hierarchical patchwork Pantheon of Anglo-American culture, the fairy is at the bottom of the pecking order and has no chance of promotion. But Chinese mythology does not share our assumptions and distinctions. If the current interpretation is correct, the people of Sanxingdui were in contact with entities that could be explained as easily as spirits and gods. The word “fairy” captures the way Chinese spirits and gods were often hybrids of animals and humans, but as the Sanxingdui image shows, they are aesthetically quite different. There is no pixie cut here.
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China news service
Scientists have not announced the exact date of the latest discovery, but the Sanxingdui site dates back 3500-4800 years, experts say. Said The artifacts are about 3000-4500 years old. They are very important for what they have revealed about the Shu civilization that flourished in the area until 316 BC (when the area was conquered by the Qin dynasty). Archaeological studies are a major way to reconstruct this mysterious civilization, as literary references to the ancient nation are largely mythical and originated in the 4th century BC. Chronicles of Huayang..
Previous studies of the discovery of Sanxingdui have shown that the culture that flourished there during the Bronze Age coincided with the culture of the Shang dynasty and shared certain elements in common with its myths and religions. Among these is the use of bronze sacrificial offerings as a means of communication with spirits. (This interpretation of Pitt is disputed: Chen Shen claimed in 2002 Book The pit may have been a burial pit, not a place of sacrifice. There are no human bodies in the pit).
In the report on the statue found in Sacrifice Pit 1, Shen Jung Chan and Robert Jones write During this period, Shan’s religion thus says that “the spirit was especially worshiped.”At the same time, as Robert Bagley has written“Shan’s archeology has nothing to prepare for the size and sophisticated bronze sculpture found in Pit 1.” Bagley Claim The “sacrificial ritual that created the two [Sanxingdui] pit [1 and 2 ] There are no exact similarities elsewhere in Chinese archeology and can only be associated in the most common way with ritual archaeologists excavated at other Shan ruins. Lan Hong Lin, Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology, Sichuan Province, Said Recent discoveries have shown that some elements of the sculpture resembled Zhou dynasty items.
In other words, the discoveries from Samsung Bank are of great importance to anything that can tell us about contact between different kingdoms of ancient China, the development of metallurgical techniques, and religious ceremonies of ancient China. The discovery of these more complex and ornate sacrificial offerings helps to color both Shu’s cosmology and culture, as well as a rough sketch of what Hong Lin calls “the early exchange and integration of Chinese civilization.” .. When Professor Hao talked about “the world of fairies,” the focus of his remarks was actually on “the diversity and abundance of Chinese civilization.” The report on ancient Chinese fairies is eye-catching, but touts both the spirit of ancient gods and the importance of discovery a little shorter.
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