In
ancient China, the White Tiger is a collection of seven stars in the western
group of 28 Constellations (while the eastern, northern and southern seven-star
groups are respectively called Gray Dragon, Black Turtle and Red Phoenix).
The White Tiger is said to oversee the weapons and wars of mankind, and
is known as a god of fighting and killing. During the wars of the Western
Zhou (c.1100 BC – c. 771 BC) and Shang Dynasty (c.1600 BC –
c. 1100 BC), a brave and resourceful army got high praise from King Wu of
Zhou, thereby claiming the name of “huben” and “hushi”,
both meaning “brave warriors.” These were warriors of the ancient
Ba people. The tiger later became an important component of central Han
culture.
The History of the Eastern Han depicts the totems and origins of the
Ba people and their first king Lin Jun. Many historians regard it as an
important source for solving Ba mysteries. The book says, “After
Lin Jun died, his soul turned into a white tiger. The later Ba generations
watered it with human blood and offered human bodies as sacrifices for
it.” This gives written evidence that the ancient Ba people took
the white tiger as their totem and thought it to be their ancestors.
Archaeological discoveries in the Three Gorges area in 1998 provided further
evidence that the ancient Ba people sacrificed men for the tiger. In a
Ba-style tomb, archaeologists found two human skulls at the foot of the
remains of a Ba warrior, besides common burial articles such as bronze
weapons. Obviously, the skulls were sacrifices. In another tomb, the dead
had been cut into several sections to be used for sacrifice. These accidental
or inevitable occurrences gave people thousands of years later the possibility
to decipher its ancient mysteries.
The book doesn’t give a detailed conclusion about the death of Lin
Jun, the Ba’s first king, but you can still imagine the scene then:
the Ba people mastered the skills of fishing and hunting and military
conflict and conquest were frequent among the tribes. As a military leader
who set up the Ba State, Lin Jun could only be thought of to have died
in battle. The later Ba people respected him as their god -- the white
tiger.
In the minds of the ancient Ba people, the white tiger was the same as
their ancestors and that’s why the custom of offering sacrificial
humans to the tiger was handed down.
Qingjiang River,
called Yishui in the past, originates from Enshi County of Hubei Province
and flows through such places as Lichuan, Badong, Digui and Jianshi. Most
of these areas hosted the Ba culture throughout history. Today we can
still find the Tujia ethnic group there, who are thought to be the direct
descendants of the Ba. It is completely appropriate if we compare the
present Tujia area as a frozen space in historic time. The primitive scenes
of the Ba culture are preserved well and handed down. For example, today’s
Tujia people still imitate the jumping, fishtailing and face washing actions
of a tiger when offering sacrifices to the dead. Meanwhile, they sing
songs about tigers and the tiger also appears in different images on the
front gate of the diaojiaolou (houses seated on wooden columns) of the
Tujia ethnic group. Human were still sacrificed to the tiger until the
1930s, but today the Tujia people only have their forehead cut in a gesture
of sacrifice to the white tiger.
The Tujia people living along the Qingjiang River in today’s Changyang
County, Hubei Province, still offer sacrifice in their boats. The deity
they worship is the Wuluo Zhongli Mountain nearby, where they believe
their ancestor Lin Jun was born. Many activities today are symbolic rather
than being heavy and magical in remote antiquity. History has recorded
the religion, belief and customs of ancient ethnic groups.
Shiben (Origin of the World), compiled by the Qin and Han people and after
which Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-25 AD) wrote his Historical
Records, said that there were two caves in the Wuluo Zhongli Mountain,
one was red, the other black. The first king of the Ba State Lin Jun was
born in the red cave. The Ba people were composed of five family groups
with different surnames. Lin Jun, due to his accuracy in throwing swords
and leading positions in boat-racing, became the leader of the five groups.
Now the red cave and the temple to worship Lin Jun can still be found.
Standing on the Wuluo Zhongli Mountain and looking far into the dark blue
Qingjiang River, one can be lost in history.
To the east of Wuluo Zhongli Mountain and on a platform of the Qingjiang
River Valley, people found the Xianglushi (Stone used as an incense burner)
Cultural Ruins, which cover an area of 70 square meters. From the articles
unearthed there, we can vividly see the ancient scenes as recorded in
historical documents. The huge oracle bones were mainly sculptured from
gill covering of big fish or tortoise shells. This, to some degree, shows
the fishing and hunting life of the early-stage Ba people. The oracle
fish bone has not been found in any other ruins of the same period.
For the Ba people, migration was as important as war. Previous archaeological
surveys came to the conclusion that the Ba people entered the Yangtze
River by way of the juncture where the Qingjiang River joins the Yangtze.
However, some later facts reversed this conclusion. Archaeologists believed
that the ancient Yangtze River had a larger volume of water than today
and landslides occurred time and again. Therefore, it was hardly possible
for the ancient Ba people to go upstream among turbulent rivers and treacherous
shoals in their simple canoes.
On the contrary, there is proof that the Ba people entered the Yangtze
River through the Daxi. The Daxi has become a dry river bed today and
is situated about 30 km to the east of Qutang Gorge. In the past, it moved
toward the Qingjiang River, parallel to the Yangtze River. Going across
the watershed between the Qingjiang and Yangtze rivers, Daxi entered Enshi.
The Enshi section was available for navigation until the 5th century.
During the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC), Ba troops were frequently
spotted in Zhijiang, Songzi and Jiangling of Hubei Province. So we can
say that the Ba people went eastward along the Daxi.
The Yangtze River became a new starting point for the Ba people. The usually
strong Ba people began a pastoral life on two banks of the Yangtze River.
They planted rice and oats, collected mulberries to raise silkworms and
brewed wine with high-quality grain. As they got abundant food to eat,
they used their surplus rice to make cosmetics. At intervals of wars,
the Ba women would try their best to show their beauty.
According to archaeologists, the Ba people set up their homes mainly on
tributaries of the Yangtze River as they first entered the area. The relatively
weak Ba people found flat platforms and fertile soil convenient for living.
Later, the Ba became prosperous in division and unity with the Chu and
Shu states. As a result, they built capitals in Fengdu, Zhongxian and
Fuling along the river.
Chongqing, now the largest industrial and commercial city in west China,
used to be the most important capital of the Ba State and called Jiangzhou.
Though more than 2,000 years have passed, we can still feel the enthusiasm
and straightforwardness of the men and beauty of the women in the city.
The residential houses supported by wooden columns, the boats connecting
with each other and the endless stone stages may remind us of the past
Ba life style.
In history, any ethnic group which adored war would never cease migrating.
In the following hundreds and thousands of years, the Ba people covered
nearly half of China. But later their force gradually decreased.
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