Overview of Xiangtianfen
? Xiangtian Tomb, Yi nationality, the history of burial groups in ancient tombs to heaven, the upper limit is more than 2 years, and the lower limit is about 4 years ago. On a tomb called "Abo Tomb" in Laoguying Tomb Group, there is an ancient bougainvillea tree growing for nearly a thousand years, which can vividly witness the historical age of this tomb group "Xiangtian Tomb". Also known as "tomb to the sky" and "tomb to the sky", it is praised as "Oriental Pyramid" by scholars at home and abroad because of its pyramid-shaped tomb. It is the remains of the cremation site of the ancestors of the Yi people. This burial custom is named after the combination with the carrier of the Yi people's "soul"-"heaven", and it also refers to the grave built by cremation after death. The feature of this burial form is that the top of each mound has a circular notch facing the sky to bury the crock containing the ashes of the deceased; Because the mouth of the tomb faces the Beidou constellation in the sky, it is also called "Xiangxing Tomb".
? It is a unique form of tomb in ancient times, so it is named because the top of the tomb chooses the direction of the sky. According to a recent survey by some scholars, there is a kind of Yi tombs with distinctive mound shape in Weining, Hezhang, Guizhou, Zhaotong, Chuxiong and Leibo, Sichuan. Judging from its shape and structure, it can be roughly divided into three types: circular ring, single frustum and three frustum pyramid. The most prominent feature of this kind of tomb is that there is a circular notch facing the sky at the top of each mound. After cremation, the deceased will put the ashes in a crock and then bury them in the notch. Therefore, some people in Weining and other places call this kind of grave "Xiangtian grave".
Everyone knows that' grave' is the final destination of life, and it is more important. The folk call it "geomantic omen" and metaphysics calls it "geomancy". Those who are proficient in geomancy are familiar with the jargon "A first-class gentleman watches the stars, a second-rate gentleman watches the water, and a third-rate gentleman walks all over the mountain." However, Mr. Third-rate is everywhere, and Mr. Second-rate is not lacking, but Mr. First-rate is unheard of. Occasionally, those who label "first-class" mistake "Stargazing" for "Li Luan Tou". As everyone knows: comparable, heaven. Yu, tunnel. The sky is high and low, that is, looking up at astronomy and geography, and the five elements are parallel. Can we ignore their spatial position relationship? The tomb of the Yi nationality "Xiangtianfen" is in the shape of a "gold" with the star as the direction of the grave, so it is named "Xiangxingfen" or "Xiangtianfen".
? Yi people advocate animism (called "Zeni Wudu Ju" in Yi language), and there is a close relationship between man and nature. The Yi people have the custom of worshipping the stars since ancient times. (In Yi language, it is called "Ji Mu Ju Luo".) The Yi scriptures contain: there is a star in the sky, and there are people in the underground. A night star in the sky, a family on the ground. There is a star in the sky and a person underground. The star-Ming people are lucky, and the star-hui people are unlucky. The stars have become the spiritual sustenance and soul destination of Yi people. Living Yi people ask the wise man of their own nation "Bimu" to calculate their own astrology with his own four pillars of Geng (called "Cuo Dou Cuo Ju" in Yi language), so they have the saying of "knocking, feeding and remembering" (nemesis). The dead Yi people's souls are immortal, which is called "living in a fine place" in Yi language. There are three kinds of souls, one is "to protect the fruit and find a bucket" (Chinese meaning: trace the ancient migration road of ancestors to their hometown). One soul goes to "Piheng" (ancestral hall) and becomes a "Pipi" (ancestor) to enjoy the memorial service of future generations. Guard the tomb with one soul. The undead who migrated to their ancestors' hometown will finally return to their own stars. "Nesu's Obsessed Numbers" ("Yi People's Guide Sutra") contains: When the king dies, he goes to the sun and returns to the position of "revenge knocking". When the courtiers die, they go to the moon and return to the position of "Bi Yu". Bumu died, became a star, and returned to the position of "Beginning Chu". People die, and the stars are all over the sky, and each one returns to his place. People have grades, and stars are noble and low. Jun Chang takes Jun Xing as the direction, and Jun Xing has four, and fighting is one of them. The courtiers took the stars as the direction and assisted Jun Xing. In combination with the route of the stars in the burial season, the location and address of the cemetery are selected. When buried, the center of the tomb is aimed at the stars to which it belongs, and it is believed that the undead can return to their places smoothly, so there is a custom of burial to the sky.
? Xiangtian graves belong to cremation tombs, and the earthenware pots are covered with three-frustum or single-frustum tombs. On Miaopoling Hill in Yikou Village, Ziwu Town, 19 small stone pyramid-shaped tombs were found. The size of their tombs is not much different, and generally three or four people can move them together. Most of them have no patterns, and a few of them are engraved with linear octagonal patterns around the base of the platform, or with lotus leaf patterns around the side edge of the platform. In the east of Taiyi Village, Luhe Town, there are two single-frustum-shaped tombs facing the sky, which are surrounded by three layers of coarse stones. The frustum is 1.5 meters high and 1.12 meters in diameter, and the filled soil in the middle is only 3-4 centimeters higher than the enclosure.
In the depths of the Luhong Mountain on the roof of Guizhou, there is an ancient and mysterious Yi tomb group called "Xiangtian Tomb". The connotation of this kind of tomb originates from the Yi people's ancient belief that "there is a star in the sky, a person on the ground, and the dead soul returns to the star". As a classification of ancient architecture, this is the only ancient architectural relic in the world that faces the sky and stars except the pyramids of ancient Egypt and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
? The ancient Xiangtian tombs of the Yi people are mainly distributed in the area of about 1 square kilometers around the seat of the government of Yancang Town, Weining Autonomous County, and can be divided into Dafenliangzi tombs, Buzaglo-Laoaoying tombs, Machishui-Dingnapingzi tombs, Sehuping-Jiaziyan tombs and Caijiagou tombs. In the 198s, there were 45 tombs in scale, and the remains are still obvious, with more than 4.
? In weichu, there are a large number of stone carvings to the celestial grave. In Gaofeng Township, Lufeng County, this kind of tomb has developed into a huge scale. After a large number of investigations, ethnic scholars discovered the amazing secret behind Xiangtian Tomb. The literature records that the Yi people used the solar calendar at that time, which is very similar to the ethnic groups living in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. They all used the same chronological method.
? Tombs face the stars, recording and reflecting the ancient star worship custom of Yi people, and combining the star worship with the principles of five elements, four images, nine palaces and eight diagrams, dividing the starry sky into five elements of "dragon, tiger, sparrow, tortoise and snake, middle palace" and nine palaces of "eight directions and the center". Depending on whether the tombs are in the middle palace or the center, they all have their four image areas or expanded eight directions (hexagrams) More importantly, through this phenomenon, it reveals the information of astronomy and calendaring that once developed in ancient Yi people. Watching the stars and setting the calendar is to guide agricultural production and is a symbol of the history of agricultural civilization.
? Taking the physical remains as the carrier, the Yi people interpreted the historical archives and cultural connotation of the Yi people's Guide to the Road, and organically integrated the two cultures of burial and cremation in ancient Yi people, thus confirming the historical records of the Yi ancestors who represented these two cultures recorded in the literature.
-modern scientific investigation-
? Some experts argue that "Xiangtianfen is an astronomical observatory of ancient Yi people", and its argument is the profound ancient Yi culture of ancient Yi ancestors, such as astronomy, geography and calendar, because "Xiangtianfen" is the product of great Yi culture and the crystallization of the wisdom of Yi ancestors. Ancestors once looked up to the boundless universe to know astronomy, looked down to vast expanse's earth to know geography, and calculated the sequential calendar of time and phenology. Today, the tomb to heaven we see is the "reference object" of the ancient Yi calendar "vertical pole surveying shadow". Human civilization begins with knowing the time, and the "calendar" of ten thousand years is the pride of the ancient Yi people standing between heaven and earth! "Xiangtian grave" is not only a "grave", but also a reflection of the splendid and sacred Yi culture!
? According to the investigation of relevant ethnic researchers and scholars in China Academy of Social Sciences, these cremation tombs are tombs of Yi people heading for heaven, and they are ancient observatories with two observation methods: observing the sun in winter and summer by the October solar calendar of Yi people and pointing to the cold and heat by bucket handle. It is believed that the newly carved octagonal pattern on the stone tomb crown represents the periodic chronology of the "year of eight directions" of the Yi people's October solar calendar; Some scholars also call it "Bai Yi grave" or "Bai Yi grave" according to the local name. At the same time, some scholars also found that there are many striking similarities between Maya culture and Yi culture on the other side of the ocean. Yi people crossed the sea and created a splendid ancient civilization in the tropical rain forest of South America. These different opinions need further study and demonstration, but the discovery of Xiangtianfen has important scientific research value and extraordinary significance in ethnology, folklore, archaeology and astronomy.
February 3, 213