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.
(CCTV.com translated by Li Jinhui for China.org.cn, June 21,
2003)