Warriors of Ancient Ba Tribe
In the 1980s, archeologists discovered a strange boat-shaped sign on the bronze ware where the 鈥済anlan-type鈥 pictographs were found. The sign consists a unique combination of the images of boats, ships, and birds. Some researchers believe that the signs were related to death. The boats and birds play roles in leading the dead to the nether world.
Other boat secrets are buried in ancient Egyptian pyramids. The secret is connected to the sun. Ancient Egyptians believed that by boarding the sun boat, the deceased could avoid demons and arrive in paradise. This is the famous 鈥渟un boat鈥 legend of ancient Egypt. Where was the sun boat in the hearts of the ancient Ba? Did they link death with the sun too?
These symbols are often seen on Ba bronzes. Archeological research has proved that they were the Ba people鈥檚 symbol of the sun. Archeologists were excited to find the symbol of a cross on top of the boat symbol on the bronze 鈥渃hunyu鈥. It was a typical sun symbol of the pictographic language of Ba and Shu.
In remote antiquity, the sun鈥檚 orbit was the foundation of the Ba people鈥檚 concept of the soul. The sun moves from the east to the west duriing the day. In the night, it moves back to the other end of the earth. The Ba believed that the sun moved in a world of darkness during that process and they believed that death was a passage through the world of darkness too, that this world of darkness was a boundless expanse of water. They considered death to be as transient as the sun鈥檚 passage in darkness. They could reach the ideal realm by boat. Boat coffins were the Ba people鈥檚 sun boat.
During the last century, boat coffins were discovered in many parts of southern China. Some were buried in the ground, others were in the cliffs of gorges. The willow-leafed swords look murderous even today. But many other secrets have sunk forever into darkness.
On April, 2002. We came to the exhibition room of the China Martial Arts Administration Centre in Beijing. Here we saw the Ba-style willow-leaf-shaped bronze sword donated by Hu Yaxin. It was corroded, but the decorative pattern was still astonishingly beautiful. It seemed that its story had just begun.
The state of Ba disappeared over 2,000 years ago. With the fragments of bronze, we are now reconstructing a picture of their life.
The rattan coat of mail, the conical hair bun, the long bronze dagger-axe and the short willow-leaf-shaped sword give us a vague image of the Ba people. They were warriors and dancers. Their 鈥渟unboats鈥 seem to be sailing to us. They are coming back to life in our world of the 21st century.
Editor:Xiang Jing Source:CCTV.com
