Wenfengta Cemetery, inside Grave No. M33.

Chen Han, Zhuang Yunpeng, and Zhang Jianbo were squatting in the pit, cleaning the funerary objects in the tomb.

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

From the Lajia Ruins to the Han Dynasty Tombs in Fenghuang Mountain and then here, Chen Han has already excavated seven or eight exploratory excavations with them, and they have a tacit understanding of each other.

No need to speak, just a look or an action, you know what the other person wants to do, and the work is very efficient.

"Hey, I don't know which uncle Zeng's tomb this is. Why don't Zeng people like to engrave their own names on bronze vessels?"

Picking up a bronze sword, Chen Han was a little frustrated when he found that it only had the inscription "Uncle Zeng used the sword himself" engraved on it.

For archaeologists and historians, the "Zeng State", a vassal state of the Western Zhou Dynasty with few historical records, is full of a sense of unknown.

Regardless of whether they were the successive kings of the Zeng State or the ministers and nobles, what they had done in the past had a great impact on Chinese culture.

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

Almost all is blank.

Therefore, Chen Han urgently wants to find more records related to Zeng Guo from the underground, and it is best to restore this lost kingdom that has not been written down by history.

But it is a pity that the cultural relics unearthed here in Wenfeng Pagoda Cemetery.

Although there are many inscriptions on bronzes, most of them just say "Made by XXX".

And many of the names here are just "Zengzi", "Zengsun", "Zengshu", "Zengshuzi" and the like, not even their full names.

That is to say, the chime of Zeng Houyu briefly explains the origin of Zeng Houyu's lineage and his participation in the battle of Wu and Chu.

Bamboo slips, bamboo slips, wooden slips and other objects that can record more information have not appeared.

But it’s understandable if you think about it.

After all, this is a cemetery in the late Spring and Autumn Period.

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

Although, according to the record in "Shangshu·Duoshi": "Only the ancestors of the Yin Dynasty, there are books and canons", as well as the characters "dian", "book" and other characters 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, woven together into a volume with rope.

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

The occasional discovery of bamboo slips presumed to be from the late Spring and Autumn Period has also been questioned.

The bamboo slips of the Spring and Autumn Period that can be found are only a few fragments, and the writing is vague and obscure. It is difficult to confirm whether the bamboo slips are from the Spring and Autumn Period or the early Warring States Period.

Relatively speaking, relatively many bamboo slips have been discovered, and the volumes of bamboo slips can only be traced back to the early Warring States period.

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

Writing and knowledge are usually in the hands of a very small number of nobles, and must be kept strictly confidential and passed down from generation to generation.

At that time, there was no idea of ​​spreading knowledge and educating the people.

Bamboo slips and books in the Spring and Autumn Period were mainly in the hands of princes, clans and nobles, and were strictly prohibited from leaking out. Even only the head of the family and heirs could study them.

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

Perhaps only the nobles of the past dynasties themselves summarized and wrote the "Family Book", which was passed down from generation to generation in each noble family.

That is the family tradition of each family.

And this kind of family history knowledge cannot be buried in the tomb as a funerary object after the death of a certain noble.

If it is buried underground, what will future generations learn from it?

This can actually explain to some extent why no other writing carriers have been unearthed in the Shang Dynasty except oracle bone inscriptions.

Because the bamboo slips that recorded knowledge were the most important items at that time, they could not be buried with them. They had to be kept in the family and handed down from generation to generation.

As for the earlier Xia Dynasty, why there is no unearthed text in the history books handed down from generation to generation, which seems to be able to be answered.

The earlier we go, the more writing (knowledge) becomes a very, very important thing that requires monopoly and confidentiality.

There may have been writing carriers like bamboo slips at that time, but they would definitely be well protected and not taken underground.

As for the "slates" similar to those in the West, the earliest Chinese can only find Chencang stone drums from around the Spring and Autumn Period.

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

China is different from Europe. During the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, it was not popular to carve words on stones. They only used bamboo or wooden boards to record events!

It was not until the early Warring States period, when hundreds of schools of thought began to rise, and "knowledge" began to spread on a large scale for the first time, that some "scholars" would bury the classics of the scholars with them.

It was only during the Qin and Han dynasties that a large number of bamboo slips recording pre-Qin classics were preserved.

Only then was it discovered by modern archaeologists.

If you want to find the bamboo slips that record the history of Zeng Guo, you may have to look for them in the tombs of Zeng Guo during the Warring States Period. Only then can you hope to find some of them.

Only a few tombs from Zeng Guo and the Warring States Period have not been discovered so far.

Marquis Yi of Zeng counts as one, but no bamboo slips recording the state of Zeng were unearthed from the tomb of Marquis Zeng Yi. Otherwise, the mystery of "Zeng Sui" would have been solved long ago.

In addition to Zeng Houyi, the Leigudun mound of Zenghou Yi's tomb was unearthed, Wangjiabao and Caijiabao next to Leigudun and four other Zenghou-level tombs have been surveyed but not excavated.

And the era should be after Zeng Houyi.

Unfortunately, the state does not allow active excavation and can only protect it.

"Hey, isn't that what we do in archeology?"

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

"The history of Zeng State is like a complete forest."

"We are trying to restore an entire forest through a few leaves every day."

Zhuang Yunpeng shrugged and said with confidence: "Although this is difficult, only challenging things can inspire people's fighting spirit, right?"

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

How could my senior brother Xianyu still say such philosophical words?

It’s really impressive!

He nodded in agreement: "Senior brother is right!"

Zhuang Yunpeng chuckled, finally feeling a little like being a senior brother in front of Chen Han, it was so cool!

Just when he was about to continue to say a few "philosophical" words and wanted to teach his juniors more.

Chen Han waved his hand in surprise.

"Brother, come and take a look!"

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

"Huh?" Zhuang Yunpeng was stunned and said doubtfully: "Wax flow is just wax flow. This copper plate was cast using the lost wax method."

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

"Senior brother, have you forgotten?"
Chapter completed!