Chapter 27: The Mystery of the Hanging Coffin

The priest paced a few steps through the hall, turned around, looked at me with astonishment, shot a cold light, and suddenly asked:

"Can you tell me who you really are?"

"What is my true identity......?" What is my true identity? At the moment I myself was confused, and I was speechless in the face of the priest's question.

"Why are you so interested in the history of Pakistan?" the priest continued.

"It doesn't matter who I am, but what is certain is that I have good intentions for Pakistan. At this point, that's all I can say.

But the hexagram showed a bad omen. "The priest's eyes were pressed into me like a sharp sword.

"Then why did you save me in the first place?" I still don't understand, but the hexagram clearly shows a bad omen, but the priest says that I am the messenger of the Emperor, so that I will not be killed.

"Because...... Because I want to know from you about what's going on outside. "It turns out that the priest was also curious about the outside, which I did not expect.

"What's the use of knowing what's going on outside?"

"Because my Ba people have been living in this dark cave for too long, because I hope that the Ba country will become strong again one day and compete with the princes of the Central Plains. The priest's answer was shocking and astonishing, and it was ironic to think of the queen's ambitions, both of whom were insane.

"There is no war outside now, and people live and work in peace," I replied lightly.

"Who will believe your words?" the priest seemed to answer himself.

"Someday you'll believe it. "I almost felt the urge to tell him about the real world out there, but it would have been the opposite of my purpose, and he would have taken me for a madman.

"I can't believe everything you say until I know who you really are. "The priest still has a grudge against me.

I ignored him and moved on to the third mural.

The third mural is painted on the right wall of the hall and is divided into two parts, the first part is a picture of many people cutting down huge trees in the mountains, and tall pavilions are being built in the flat dam: the second part is a huge flood, the houses have collapsed, and there are huge trees and corpses floating in the water, and a text next to it records a catastrophe that occurred before the sudden disappearance of the White Tiger Ba, and a historical mystery has been solved inside.

The third paragraph is the most interesting:

"In the 415th year that King Ping moved eastward, the country of Ba took Yin Gan, a Chu person, as the prime minister, and introduced the government of Nongsang and Revolution, and the national strength was flourishing. The countries of Fuyong, Shu, Lu, Peng, and Pu are all Yuyong, and their territories are unprecedented. It is to cut down big trees, build civil buildings, and build palaces. Before it was done, it rained heavily, the moon did not stop, the house collapsed and the landslide collapsed, the river rose dozens of feet, the big wood floated corpses in the river, and the water could not be drunk. It is made of driftwood coffin, the corpse is contained in the rock crevice, and the wood is returned to the soil. After a few months, the water fell into Jiangping, and Yin Gan said: "There is a hole in Nanshan, move to it." ”

This passage reveals the following important information: First, King Ping moved east for 415 years, which should refer to King Ping of Zhou's move to Luoyang. King Zhou Ping moved eastward in 770 BC, and then 415 years, which should be around 355 BC, which was the Warring States Period. At that time, Pakistan appointed Yin Gan, a native of Chu, as the prime minister, introduced agricultural production, reformed the government, and became increasingly powerful in the country, and conquered the neighboring small countries such as Shu, Yong, Lu, Pu, and Peng, and the territory was unprecedentedly vast.

Second, the capital was moved to Yuyong, a large number of civil works, the construction of the palace, but it has not yet been completed, heavy rain fell in the sky, several months of non-stop, flash floods, the formation of huge mudslides, houses were washed down, landslides formed a dammed lake, the Yangtze River water rose dozens of zhang, driftwood and corpses spread all over the river, the water was also polluted, there may have been a serious plague, the white tiger of the Ba suffered heavy losses. So the big tree in the water was carved into a wooden coffin, and the floating corpse was collected into it and placed in the rock crevice on the river bank. After the rain stopped, a hanging coffin was formed.

Third, after the heavy rains, King Ba lost the house where he lived, and Yin Gan suggested that there were many caves in Nanshan that he could move there to live.

This passage clearly states that the capital of Pakistan was moved to Yuyong in 355 BC, and briefly explains the reasons for the formation of hanging coffins.

However, there are also several doubts: First, what exactly does its territory include? Can the neighboring countries Yong, Shu, Lu, Peng, and Pu that it conquered be included in the scope of Pakistan.

The second is why the king of Ba would give up the flat and salty Yanyang and move the capital to Yuyong, which is located in the mountainous area, whether this Yuyong is today's Kuicheng, because there were continuous wars at that time, and Yuyong was a natural danger with Kuimen and high mountains and mountains, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack, or because Yuyong was located in the center of Shu, Yong, Lu, Peng, Pu and other countries for easy control?

The third is that it rains heavily, non-stop for several months, flash floods, and landslides, why is there no detailed record in the later history books, is it because the vassal states fought frequently at that time and took care of themselves, or because of the original records, but was burned by Qin Shi Huang when he burned books and pit Confucianism?

Fourth, according to the text, the formation of the hanging coffin should be around 350 BC, that is, the late Warring States period in China, which is consistent with the archaeological excavations on the earliest age of the hanging coffin, but the archaeological excavation determined the hanging coffin in addition to the late Warring States period, as well as the Qin and Han dynasties, is there a mistake in the scientific determination?

I remember once visiting the kiln, and the people from the research institute told me that even if it is the same ingredients, the same heat and the same firing time, the porcelain will be different. As long as there is a difference in the external weather at the time of ingredient, the color will also be different.

So is it possible that the corpses buried in different weather, different water quality, and different trees will have different isotope decay coefficients, so that scientific instruments will judge the hanging coffins of the same era as different eras?

Or there is also the possibility that there have been several major floods in history and formed dammed lakes, and when there was a flood, people carved the driftwood into coffins and stored the corpses in the caves, and the water receded to form hanging coffins.

And the water level of each dammed lake is not consistent, so the height of the hanging coffin is also inconsistent. But this explanation is a bit far-fetched, and there is no trace of the first flood in history for various reasons. So how could the major floods after the Qin and Han dynasties not be recorded?

In any case, one thing is certain, the hanging coffin must have been mainly a product left after the Great Flood, and it is difficult to imagine how much manpower and material resources people would spend on building an elevated frame or using other heavy means to place the coffin in a high rock crevice in the ancient era when the productive forces were very backward.

In fact, some of the things that happened in ancient times were originally very simple, but things have changed and people don't know the actual situation at that time. Today's society is too complex, and interpersonal relationships are also complicated, so it is natural to complicate things that were originally very simple in ancient times, and even do not hesitate to cite scriptures or use experiments to prove them. I am most afraid that others will say that my ideas are too simple and my explanations are too superficial.

So, are modern people smart or stupid?

Or we can also understand that between the 6th century and the 2nd century B.C., the vast Yangtze River basin and the areas south of it were in a period of geological activity, and there was a lot of rain, which caused floods and caves to collapse in many areas. This also explains why hanging coffin burials always take place in canyon areas where there are bodies of water flowing through.

These murals and texts also convey to us the fact that the ancient White Tiger Ba was once a very powerful and warlike tribe, and for a long time, the White Tiger Ba can be said to represent the entire Ba country, although the other tribes were not completely subjugated.

At the same time, the White Tiger Ba can also be called a "guerrilla tribe", its early history is a process of continuous conquest, expansion, migration, plunder, and because of this, for a long time, the White Tiger Ba did not have a fixed territory, nor did it establish a complete set of state machinery, so the Ba at that time could not be regarded as a country in the real sense of the word, but could only be called the Ba tribe or the White Tiger Tribe.

Since Yin Gan had it, he began to settle down in farming, officially established the national capital, and established a complete national system, which can be regarded as a real country. But the good times did not last long, and not long after the founding of the country, two catastrophes were encountered one after another. Overnight, from a powerful remote country to a small tribe that is deceived by others, if it had not been hidden in the valley, it would have been extinct long ago, but the white tiger in the valley regarded itself as the orthodoxy of the country, not that there was no reason.