Wenfeng Pagoda Cemetery, inside Tomb M33.

Chen Han, Zhuang Yunpeng, and Zhang Jianbo were squatting in the pit, cleaning up the burial goods in the tomb.

It's still an old partner, a familiar recipe, a familiar taste.

From the ruins of Lajia to the Han tombs of Phoenix Mountain and then here, Chen Han has already excavated seven or eight exploration methods with the two of them, and they can be regarded as a tacit understanding with each other.

You don't need to speak, just a look, a movement, you know what the other party wants to do, and the work is very efficient.

"Hey, I don't know which great-uncle's tomb this is, why don't the people of Zeng Guo like to engrave their names on bronzes?"

picked up a bronze Ge and found that it was only engraved with an inscription of "Uncle Zeng's own Ge", Chen Han was a little frustrated.

"Rebirth: The Great Age of Waves"

For archaeologists and historians, everyone is full of a sense of uncertainty about the "Zeng State", a vassal state of the Western Zhou Dynasty that is rarely recorded in the history books.

Whether it is the monarchs of the Zeng Kingdom, or the ministers and nobles, what they have done and how much influence they have had on Chinese culture.

Zeng's social situation, the country's system, culture, people's livelihood, economic situation, etc...

It's almost all a blank.

Therefore, Chen Han is eager to find more records related to Zeng Guo from underground, and it is best to restore this lost marquis that is not inked by history.

But it's a pity that the cultural relics unearthed here in the Wenfeng Pagoda cemetery.

Although there are many bronze inscriptions, most of them are just written "XXX production".

And many of the names here are just "Zengzi", "Great-grandson", "Great-Uncle", "Great-Uncle" and the like, and they don't even have a full name.

That is, on the bell of Zeng Houyu, it is just a brief explanation of the origin of Zeng Hou's lineage and his participation in the battle of Wu Chu.

Bamboo slips, bamboo slips, wooden slips, and other objects that can record more information do not appear.

But it's understandable to think about it.

After all, this is a cemetery of the late Spring and Autumn period.

Judging from the results of archaeological excavations, bamboo slips in the Spring and Autumn period are very rare.

Although it is said that according to the record of "Shangshu Toast": "Wei Yin ancestors, there are books and classics", as well as the characters such as "dian" and "book" in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, it can be seen that as early as the Shang Dynasty, people have used bamboo and wooden slips to form a book with rope.

However, in the actual archaeological process, not to mention the Shang Dynasty, there are no bamboo slips that can be confirmed as the Western Zhou Dynasty.

The occasional discovery of bamboo slips that are inferred to be from the late Spring and Autumn period has also been questioned.

The Spring and Autumn bamboo slips that can be found are only a few fragments, and the text is obscure, and it is difficult to determine whether it is the Spring and Autumn Period or the early Warring States period.

Relatively speaking, the bamboo slips found more and in volumes can only be traced back to the early Warring States period.

The reason may also be because from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period, the Zhou royal family and the princes and nobles attached more importance to the monopoly of writing.

Writing and knowledge were usually in the hands of a very small number of nobles, and they had to be kept in strict secrecy and passed down from generation to generation.

At that time, there was no such thing as spreading knowledge and educating the people.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, the bamboo slip books were mainly mastered by the princes, clans and nobles, and it was strictly forbidden to leak them, and even only the heads of the family and heirs could learn them.

Moreover, in addition to recording the historical materials of the country, there are very few other books, and there are basically no private writings.

It may be that only the nobles of the past generations have summed it up and written the "family heirloom book", which has been passed down from generation to generation in the families of each noble.

That is, the family tradition of each family.

And this kind of family tradition cannot be buried in the tomb as a burial object after the death of a nobleman.

If it is buried in the ground, what will future generations learn?

In fact, this can also explain why there were no other writing carriers unearthed in the Shang Dynasty except for oracle bone inscriptions.

Because the bamboo slips that recorded the knowledge were the most important items at that time, they could not be used for burial, and they had to be left in the family for generations.

In the earlier Xia Dynasty, why it was seen in the history books, but there was no unearthed text, it seems that it can also be answered.

The earlier it goes, the more the written word (knowledge) is a very, very important thing that needs to be monopolized and kept secret.

At that time, there may have been a writing carrier similar to bamboo slips, but it would definitely be well protected and would not be carried underground.

Similar to the "stone slabs" in the West, the earliest Chinese can only find the Chencang stone drum in the Spring and Autumn Period.

This can only be said to be the different development directions of Eastern and Western cultures.

Unlike Europe, China did not carve words on stone during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, but only used bamboo or wooden boards to remember things!

It was not until the early Warring States period that the hundred schools of thought began to rise and the first large-scale spread of "knowledge" began, and there were some "scholars" who used the classics of Zhuzi for burial.

During the Qin and Han dynasties, a large number of bamboo slips recorded in the pre-Qin classics were preserved.

It will be discovered by modern archaeologists.

If you want to find the bamboo slips that record the history of the Zeng Kingdom, I am afraid that you have to find them from the tombs of the Warring States Period of the Zeng Kingdom, so that you can hope to find one or two.

It's just a tomb from the Warring States period of Zeng, and a few haven't been found yet.

Zeng Hou Yi is counted as one, but there is no record in the tomb of Zeng Hou Yi that Zeng Guo's bamboo slips were unearthed, otherwise the mystery of "Zeng Sui" would have been solved long ago.

In addition to Zeng Hou B, the drum mound of Zeng Hou B's tomb was unearthed, and there are four Zeng Hou level tombs that have been surveyed but not excavated next door to Wang Jiabao and Cai Jiabao next door to Zeng Hou Yi.

And the era should be after Zeng Hou Yi.

It's a pity that the state doesn't allow active excavation, but can only protect it.

"Hey, we're doing archaeology, isn't that what we're doing?"

"The few inscriptions unearthed in the tombs of the nobles of the Zeng Kingdom are like leaves."

"And the history of Zeng is a complete big forest."

"Every day we try to recreate an entire forest with a few leaves."

Zhuang Yunpeng shrugged his shoulders and said with conviction: "Although this is difficult, challenging things will inspire people's fighting spirit, isn't it?" ”

Yo, Chen Han raised his eyebrows, a little surprised.

My own salted fish brother can still say such a philosophical sentence?

It's really impressive!

He nodded again and again in agreement: "Senior brother is right! ”

Zhuang Yunpeng smiled, he finally found a little bit of the feeling of being a senior brother in front of Chen Han, cool!

Just when he was about to continue to say a few words full of "philosophy" and wanted to teach his mentor more.

Chen Han beckoned suspiciously.

"Senior brother, come and take a look!"

"There seem to be traces of wax flow on this copper plate!"

"Huh?" Zhuang Yunpeng was stunned and said suspiciously: "The wax flow is the wax flow, this copper plate is cast by the lost wax method." ”

But Chen Han ignored him, carefully extracted the copper plate from the soil, and lightly brushed off the clods attached to the copper plate, with a solemn expression.

"Senior brother, have you forgotten?"

"The lost wax casting method has never really been proven, it is the craft of the Eastern and Western Zhou periods!"