? The history of Tian Xiang tombs, Yi people and ancient tombs is more than 2,000 years ago, and the lower limit is 400 years ago. There is an ancient bougainvillea tree that has grown for nearly a thousand years on a tomb named "Abo Tomb" in Laoguying Tomb Group, which can vividly witness the historical age of this tomb group "Tian Xiang Tomb". Also known as "Tongtian Tomb" and "Tongtian Tomb", 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 Yi ancestors. This burial custom is named after its combination with the carrier of Yi people's "soul"-"heaven", and it also refers to the grave built by cremation after death. This burial form is characterized in that the top of each mound has a circular notch facing the sky for burying 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, named because the top of the tomb chooses the direction of the sky. According to recent investigations by some scholars, there is a kind of Yi tombs with distinctive mound shape in Weining, Hezhang, Zhaotong, Chuxiong and Leibo, Sichuan. Judging from its shape and structure, it can be roughly divided into three types: circular ring, single cone and three cone. The most prominent feature of this kind of tomb is that the top of each mound has a circular notch facing the sky. After cremation, the deceased will put the ashes in a crock and bury them in the notch. Therefore, some people in Weining and other places call this kind of tomb "Tian Xiang Tomb".
Everyone knows:' grave' is the ultimate destination of life, and it is more important. Folks call it "Feng Shui" and metaphysics calls it "Feng Shui". People who are proficient in Feng Shui are familiar with the jargon that "first-class gentlemen look at the stars, second-rate gentlemen look at the water, and third-rate gentlemen walk all over the mountain". However, Mr. Third-rate is everywhere, Mr. Second-rate is not lacking, and Mr. First-rate is unheard of. Occasionally, some people label "first-class" and mistake "stargazing" for "Li Luantou". As everyone knows: comparable, heaven. I don't understand, tunnel. The sky is high and low, that is, looking up at astronomy and geography, the five elements are parallel. Can we ignore their spatial relationship? The tomb of Xiangtianfen of the Yi nationality takes the star as the tomb direction and is in the shape of "gold", so it is named "Xiangxingfen" or "Xiangtianfen".
? The Yi people advocate animism (called "ZENI Wuduju" in Yi language), and there is a close relationship between man and nature. Yi people have the custom of worshipping stars since ancient times. (In Yi language, it is called "Jim Guluo". ) The Book of Changes says: There are stars in the sky and people underground. A night star in the sky, a family on the ground. There is a star in the sky and a man in the ground. Xingming people are lucky, but Xinghui people are unlucky. Stars have become the spiritual sustenance and soul destination of Yi people. Living Yi people ask their wise men to "Bimu" to calculate their own astrology with their own four pillars (called "Cuo Dou Cuo Ju" in Yi language), so they have the saying of "knocking on food" (Nemesis). The souls of the dead Yi people are immortal, which is called "living in a beautiful place" in Yi language. There are three kinds of souls, one is "protecting fruit and fighting" (Chinese meaning: tracing the ancient migration road from ancestors to hometown). A soul goes to "Piheng" (ancestral hall), becomes "Pippi" (ancestor), and enjoys the memorial service of later generations. Guard the grave with a soul. The dead who migrated to their ancestors' hometown will eventually return to their own planet. "Nirvana Mysteries" ("Yi People Guide Classics") contains: When the king dies, he will return to his grandson and return to the position of "revenge knocking". The courtiers died, went to the moon and returned to the position of "Jasper". Bumu died, became a famous star and returned to the position of "Chu Chu". When people die, there are stars all over the sky, and everyone goes to his place. People have grades, and stars have dignity. Chang Jun takes Xing Jun as the direction, and Xing Jun has four, and fighting is one of them. The courtiers took the stars as the direction and assisted Xing Jun. Choose the location and address of the cemetery according to the route of the stars in the burial season. When buried, the center of the tomb is aimed at the stars it belongs to, thinking that the dead can return to their places smoothly, so there is a custom of burial to the world.
? Tian Xiang's tomb belongs to the cremation tomb, and the gray pottery jar is covered with a three-cone or single-cone tomb. 19 small stone pyramid tombs with three circular platforms were found on Miaopoling Mountain in Yikou Village, Woods Town. The size of the tomb is not much different, and generally three or four people can move it together. Most of them have no patterns, and a few have linear octagonal patterns around the middle abutment, or lotus leaf patterns around the side of the abutment. At the east end of Taiyi Village in Liuhe Town, there are two single-cone tombs facing the sky and surrounded by thick stones. The frustum is 1.05m in height and 1. 12m in diameter, and the intermediate fill is only 3-4cm higher than the enclosure.
Deep in the Luhongshan Mountain on the roof of Guizhou, there is an ancient and mysterious Yi tomb group named "Tian Xiang Tomb". The connotation of this tomb comes from the Yi people's ancient belief that there are stars in the sky, people on the ground, and dead souls return to the stars. As a classification of ancient architecture, this is the only ancient architectural relic facing the sky and stars in the world except the pyramids of ancient Egypt and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
? The ancient tombs in Tian Xiang of Yi nationality are mainly distributed in the area of about 10 square kilometer where the government of Yancang town in Weining county is located, and they are divided into the tombs of Dafen Liangzi, Buzaglo-Laocaoying, Mahoutou-Dingnapingzi, Sehuping-Jiaziyan and Caijiagou. In the 1980s, there were 45 tombs, and the remains were still obvious, with more than 40 tombs.
? In Wei Chu, a large number of stone carvings point to celestial burial tombs. In Gao Feng Township, Lufeng County, this kind of tomb has developed to a huge scale. After a lot of investigation, minority scholars discovered the amazing secret behind Tian Xiang's tomb. The literature records that the Yi people used the solar calendar at that time, which was very similar to the people living in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. They all used the same chronological method.
? The tomb faces the starry sky, which records and reflects the ancient star worship custom of Yi people, and combines the star worship with the principles of five elements, four images, nine palaces and eight diagrams, and divides the starry sky into five elements of "Dragon and Tiger, Sparrow, Tortoise and Snake, Middle Palace" and nine palaces of "Eight Directions and the Middle". Depending on whether the tombs are in the middle palace or the center, they all have four image areas or eight directions (hexagrams). More importantly, through this phenomenon, it reveals the astronomical and calendar information that the ancient Yi people once developed. Staring at the stars and setting the calendar is to guide agricultural production and is a symbol of the history of agricultural civilization.
? With the physical remains as the carrier, the Yi people interpreted the historical archives and cultural connotation of The Yi People's Guide, and organically integrated the burial and cremation of the ancient Yi people, thus confirming the historical records of the Yi ancestors who represented the two cultures recorded in the literature.
-Modern scientific research and investigation-
? Some experts argue that "Xiang Tiancai is the astronomical observatory of the ancient Yi people", and its argument is the profound ancient Yi culture such as astronomy, geography and calendar, because "Xiang Tiancai" is the product of the great Yi culture and the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancient Yi people. Ancestors once looked up at the boundless universe to understand astronomy, looked down at the boundless land to understand geography, and calculated the time series calendar of time and phenology. The Tongtian Tomb we see today is the "reference object" of the "vertical pole survey" in the ancient Yi calendar. 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! "Tian Xiang Tomb" is not only a "tomb", but also a reflection of the splendid and sacred Yi culture!
? According to the investigation of relevant ethnic researchers and scholars of China Academy of Social Sciences, these cremation tombs are tombs of the Yi people heading for heaven, and they are ancient observatories. There are two observation methods: observing the sun in winter and summer with the October solar calendar of the Yi people and referring to the cold and heat with the 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" in the October solar calendar of the Yi people. Some scholars call it "Bai Yi Tomb" or "Bai Yi Tomb" according to the local name. At the same time, some scholars have found that Maya culture has many amazing similarities with Yi culture on the other side of the ocean. The Yi people crossed the ocean 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 Xiangtian powder has important scientific research value and extraordinary significance in ethnology, folklore, archaeology and astronomy.
20 13 February 3rd