Seeing this, Song Siyuan had already translated all the Sogdian characters on the Baihua booklet and continued: "Judging from the information provided by the Sogdian characters, Queen Shanshan is consistent with our guess. She came from the Xiwangmu tribe in the Kunlun Mountains. However, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Western Queen Mother Kingdom had been renamed the Aboluo Kingdom. With the merger of the Aboluo Kingdom and the Shanshan Dynasty, this small country located near the Kunlun Mountains disappeared."
Now, Song Siyuan felt that they had obtained enough information and began to coordinate the information they found.
Let’s not talk about the ancient Xia and Shang dynasties. Since the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Mu of Zhou led his chariots and cavalry to Kunlun in order to conquer the barbarians in the west. He discovered the tribe of the Queen Mother of the West east of the Kunlun Mountains.
Since the country of the Queen Mother of the West is a matrilineal society, the most noble women in power in the tribe are collectively called the Queen Mother of the West. In the eyes of the people of the Queen Mother of the West, their Queen Mother of the West, even though she is thousands of years old, still remains young and beautiful, and can live as long as the world has. well-being.
King Zhou Mu was keenly aware of this during his contacts with the people of the Queen Mother of the West. He had always liked to seek immortality and asked questions. In his opinion, people who could live for thousands of years but remain young forever must be gods.
For this reason, King Zhou Mu brought his envoys into the Kingdom of the Queen Mother of the West, hoping to ask the Queen Mother of the West for the secret of immortality. After the Queen Mother of the West saw him, he realized that the so-called Queen Mother of the West was just a deified concept, and in fact everyone ruled supreme. They are all called Queen Mother of the West.
When King Zhou Mu learned of this situation, he of course lost the opportunity to obtain the elixir of immortality. Since he came here to receive the warm hospitality of the Queen Mother of the West, as the king of Zhou of a country of etiquette, he would not be too disrespectful to the Queen Mother of the West. After the banquet, The conversation was very pleasant.
Maybe the Queen Mother of the West fell in love with him, or maybe the Queen Mother of the West had other plans. In short, the Queen Mother of the West wanted to marry King Mu of Zhou. I want to continue traveling westward and come to get married when he returns.
Of course, these statements were all excuses made by King Mu of Zhou. In order to gain the trust of Queen Mother of the West, he even gave the Yin Fish to Queen Mother of the West. Seeing that he was sincere, Queen Mother of the West generously let King Zhou Mu leave.
After that, no matter whether King Zhou Mu succeeded in his western expedition, he never returned to Kunlun Mountain. Even the Yinyu Pei stayed in Kunlun and in the tribe of the Queen Mother of the West.
This fish pendant became the treasure of the Queen Mother of the West. At this time, the country of the West Queen Mother was transitioning from a clan slave society to a feudal society. The matrilineal clan had long been unable to suppress the challenges of the patriarchal system. The people of the Queen Mother of the West happened to discover the magical power of the fish pendant and took advantage of it. The magical power created the authority of Yupei. At the same time, it also re-established a matrilineal society for the people of the Western Kingdom, strengthened the concept of royal power and suppressed domestic disturbances.
From the Zhou Dynasty to the Qin, Han and Eastern Jin Dynasties, the Western Queen's Mother Kingdom changed its name many times. Finally, in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was determined to be the Aboluo Kingdom. It was active along the desert coast with the reputation of Aboluo Kingdom.
During this period, the desert rivers changed their courses, the climate changed drastically, and the oases began to decrease. In order to alleviate this situation, the Shanshan Dynasty decided to share the imperial throne with the Aboluo Kingdom. During this period, the nobles of the Shanshan Hu people and the Aboluo people also An intermarriage was carried out, so that the legal and imperial authority of the two countries belonged to the same family.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, fish pendants did play a role in allowing the oases in Shanshan to exist longer. However, under the general trend of drastic climate changes, the oases eventually continued to disappear. When the oases could no longer support the survival of the people, Shanshan The queen began to lead her subjects and guards across the hinterland of the desert to the Red and White Mountains, where she created another oasis and built the Sand Sea King City.
Afterwards, many people from Shanshan Kingdom learned about the situation and migrated to Shahai King City. Some people who were unwilling to follow them into Shahai King City also moved their families and families to other desert countries.
From then on, all the city-states of the ancient Shanshan Kingdom were abandoned, and eventually turned into ruins covered by loess after the wind and sand swallowed up the oasis.
The historical process is moving forward. When Shahai King City was established, it was already the late Southern and Northern Dynasties. As the Sui and Tang Dynasties unified the Central Plains, they began to plot to restore the territory of the Han Dynasty and prepare to take back the Hexi Corridor and the Western Regions.
In the Tang Dynasty, the time was finally ripe. Li Shimin sent Kunqiu Dao to march to conquer the Western Regions, including Qiuci, Gaochang, Gumo, Shule, Yarkand, Pishan, Khotan, Shule, Niya, Qiemo, Ruoqiang, Loulan... …All the small countries in the Western Regions were destroyed, and their territory was included in the territory of the Tang Dynasty and came under the control and management of the Tang Dynasty.
When the Tang Dynasty army attacked the Shahai Royal City, Queen Shanshan was resolute and unwilling to destroy the country. She once again used the fish pendant to make the entire royal city disappear without a trace. General Ashina, who was responsible for this war of annihilation, witnessed it with his own eyes. What he saw was that he recorded all his travels in the Western Regions in the Thousand Buddha Cave, which not only served as a narration of his mural achievements, but also left a record about Shanshan King City for future generations.
So far, from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, the ancient Shanshan Dynasty, which enjoyed eight hundred years of reign, was like the bright fireworks blooming in the night sky, burning out its glory and completely disappearing into the endless void and night, leaving only the following to future generations. There are countless ruined walls hidden in the long sand.
If anyone finds traces of the ancient Shanshan Kingdom again, it will be the recent story of Stan Hein stealing the underground palace.
After hearing this, Xu Xiake asked curiously: "There is nothing else, just why the Maoboluo Kingdom insists on matrilineal clan rule. You want to say that it has fish pendants since the Western Zhou Dynasty. This makes sense. In the time before the Western Zhou Dynasty, What maintains their matrilineal rule? As early as the Xia and Shang dynasties, most regimes had already transitioned from matrilineal rule to patrilineal rule."
Song Siyuan thought for a moment and explained to everyone: "I guess it has something to do with the mountain civilization in ancient times. In the story about Queen Ambala, they also mentioned the walking marriage system."
Walking marriage refers to walking marriage, which is a very unique marriage method among ethnic minorities in southwest China. It is completely different from the traditional marriage of men and women. The walking marriage system emphasizes that men do not marry women and women do not marry men. The union does not require any official documents or private contracts at all, it all depends on the compatibility.
Once they fall in love with each other, these marriageable men and women will form walking couples, forming either stable or short-term marriage relationships. During this period, the offspring produced by the marriageable men and women will not belong to the man, but to the woman's maternal family. .
Even though the man and the woman have offspring, they are not part of the woman's family. They still have to return to their matrilineal family to help the women in the family raise their children.
Speaking of this, Song Siyuan paused: "Whether it is the walking marriage system of the southwest ethnic minorities or the walking marriage system of the Maboluo Kingdom, they all have a common feature, that is, walking marriage comes from matrilineal clan tribes, which can be regarded as an early matrilineal clan. The remaining customs of society.”
She continued to explain: "The Kunlun Mountain area has many mountains but little land, and they make a living by fishing and hunting. They adopt the method of men hunting and women keeping house to maintain their lives..."
This way of life is doomed to the fact that men have to work hard outside to hunt, and most of the losses are caused by men. Once the number of men in the clan decreases, the remaining women can continue to increase the population to make up for the decrease in men. "
This is originally the way of life in a matriarchal society. In the harsh environment and difficult conditions of the Kunlun Mountains, the Aboluo people can only achieve the purpose of reproducing the population by ensuring the number of women. So, since they have to rely on Women reproduce the population and take care of family affairs, so it is natural for women to hold the highest power in the family.
This matrilineal power structure extends from the people to the royal family, which is what they see as the Queen Mother of the West. All the highest female powers in power can be called the Queen Mother of the West.
Xu Xiake asked: "Then, are we sure that the royal city of Queen Shanshan is indeed in the Red and White Mountain?"
Yue Guanchao nodded: "With the news about the underground palace murals, combined with the birch tree booklet, we can see that there is indeed a Shahai King City near Hongbai Mountain. The remaining 10% is because Keli said that he and Uncle Gunizi went to Hongbai Mountain At that time, no trace of the royal city was found at all.”
Until now, no one has a clue as to how the Shahai King's City disappeared. No matter whether it is the Xuan Shu Iron Coupon, the underground palace murals, or the Sogdian documents, there is no reason for the disappearance of the Shahai King's City. It only records that the Shahai King The city disappeared without a trace until the Queen sacrificed her fish pendant.
At this moment, everyone followed Yue Guanchao's gaze to the map in the living room. There was a clear route to the east foot of the Red and White Mountains, which was probably the route Keli and Gunizi took when walking. After Keli waited for Song Siyuan to come out, Pick up the iron branch and point to the Red and White Mountains at the western end of the desert.
In the past, they had only heard of the Red and White Mountains, and their understanding of the mountain was limited to its name and geographical features. At this moment, they were taking advantage of Keli's instructions to carefully analyze the structure of the Red and White Mountains, and maybe they could also find the reason for the disappearance of the Sand Sea King City. reason.
The Red and White Mountains they talk about seem to be a whole. If they are divided from a geographical point of view, they are indeed three independent mountains. They are not connected. From west to east, they are Rostag Mountain, Antique Mountain, and Red and White Mountains. , the three mountains are distributed in a line, as if a long mountain was cut into three sections, with long sides and short middle. They appear in the hinterland of the desert from west to east, tilting from northwest to southeast, with the east side protruding into the Hotan River.
Keli explained: "If there is a Shahai King City, it must be at the eastern foot of Hongbai Mountain, that is, near the Bu-shaped river bank formed by the intersection of Hongbai Mountain and Hotan River. However, there is obviously nothing here. There is indeed nothing there now. There are rivers, but I don’t know where the Sand Sea King City has gone.”
Yue Guanchao pinched his chin and said what he was guessing: "Could it be that some kind of flood disaster occurred, which directly flooded the Shahai King City? Under the sedimentation, the King City was completely filled in, forming the formation you see. Desert wasteland.”
"impossible!"
Keli retorted: "The Hotan River is not a seasonal river. This river is a thousand-year-old river. It has never stopped flowing since ancient times. If there is a flood, it is absolutely impossible that it will only flood the eastern foot of the Red and White Mountains and continue for thousands of years." Absolutely, now we will nourish the eastern foothills into an oasis."
"Besides, both the new river channel and the old river channel are still some distance away from the eastern foothills. The eastern foothills of the Red and White Mountains are much higher than the Hotan River. There are many small tributaries between them. Exploring the Hotan River is just a general statement. , in fact they are still far away from the Hotan River."
Yue Guanchao asked: "Then this is strange? Could it be that the fish pendant can really make the king's city disappear out of thin air? Or maybe the Yin fish pendant, like the Yang fish pendant, can open certain mirror spaces and hide the oasis in it. In fact, It’s not that the oases have disappeared, it’s that they are no longer visible to the human eye.”
