In May, the smell of water vapor and the sun filled the mountains in Zhejiang, and summer came as scheduled. The coach is driving in the lush mountains. There are more than 20 young people on board, from two outdoor adventure clubs in Ningbo and Wuxi. I walked with them and found the tadpole cliff engraved with the legendary tadpole. It is said that the cliff stands in Danzhu Township, Xianju County, Zhejiang Province, and the cliff wall is covered with strange design symbols such as sun pattern, moon pattern, insect pattern and fish pattern. Some people say that it is a tadpole stone carving left in the south when Dayu was fighting water.
Only one of my colleagues has been where we are going. At this time, he is telling a story with great interest: "I have been to Danzhu Township twice, and the second time I asked a local to take me up the mountain. This is very dangerous. There is no road at the top of the mountain. It is difficult to climb to the top of the mountain unless you use climbing tools. It is said that only local herbalists know the way up the mountain! " The words brought the hearts of young people to a state of excitement, and everyone showed their determination not to give up until they reached the top of the mountain.
Are tadpoles writing words?
The place we are going to is Weiqiang Mountain, a branch of Kuocang Mountain Range in Zhejiang Province. China's first local chronicles, Linhai Collection, written in the Southern Dynasties wrote that Weiqiang Mountain "has a stone wall with words like tadpoles", and Song Dynasty's Twenty-four History of Zhoushu County also wrote: "Tianmu Mountain (another name for Weiqiang Mountain) is connected with Kuocang Mountain, and there are tadpoles on the stone wall.
So what is a tadpole? Before leaving, I looked through some ancient philology materials and found that there were not many words about taking out tadpoles in philology, but "bird and insect books" were very common. The so-called book of birds and insects is to add animal images such as insects, fish and birds to the strokes of words, such as tentacles, fish heads, wings and birds. The Book of Birds and Insects was one of the six ancient Chinese characters in China before Qin Shihuang unified the writing, which was used to write on banners conveying orders. Because the strokes are complex and difficult to imitate, it has the function of confidentiality. After the Han Dynasty, bird and insect calligraphy mainly appeared in seal script and became a full-fledged calligraphy. However, tadpole book is named after its thick head and thin tail, so it is also a kind of bird and insect book. From the perspective of philology, it is still a question whether tadpole handwriting is written or not.
Although the answers provided by academic materials are discouraging, it seems that we are more willing to accept such a report: People's Daily once published an article saying that at present, eight mysterious primitive characters or symbols have been discovered in China, namely, Cang Zhuan Shu and Xia Yushu Shu in Guizhou, Hongyan Tianshu and Yelang Tianshu, and those unearthed in Sichuan.
Among the above eight characters, the tadpole characters in Xianju are the earliest, and the difficulty of interpretation is the most important. The other seven characters belong to Xianzi, but the tadpole characters are confusing, and the script of its seal script has not been seen so far.
The purpose of our trip is to see the true face of tadpoles. ...
Confused and confusing words
Chen Ruishan, a retired primary school teacher in Renshang Village, Danzhu Township, is a capable old man who tirelessly takes us everywhere.
"That's Tadpole Cliff!" He pointed to a mountain peak in the clouds in the distance and said. We tried to identify tadpole cliffs among seven or eight similar peaks. Its altitude is relatively not too high, about 800 meters, and the hillside below is covered with subtropical jungle plants. Tadpole Cliff is actually a hard rock without plants on the top of the mountain. Its side is vertical and steep as a knife, and the legendary tadpoles are engraved on the surface of the cliff.
People in Danzhu Township regard Tadpole Cliff as their pride. That night, I read in the "Diary of Agricultural Situation" of the head of Danzhu Township: "... the terrain of this township is high in the south and low in the north, with beautiful scenery. Is the county forestry and tourism key towns, with eternal mystery, Tianzhu Rock ... ".
Ren Shangcun's 75-year-old grandfather came to chat with us. He is the person who knows Tadpole Cliff in detail in the village. He said that there was a scholar in Zhu Xia village, not far from Shangcun, who was knowledgeable and asked someone to extend the words on the Tadpole Cliff. He studied rubbings all his life until he was 90. He passed on only one ballad to his descendants, the last of whom died 30 years ago. His house with Tadpole Cliff rubbings was burned down during the Cultural Revolution.
In other words, there is no exquisite "evidence" on the local tadpoles.
The next day, we divided into two teams, led by two tour guides respectively. The guide has a machete in his hand, and we have crutches in our hands. Fortunately, the mountains are full of plants with leaves. Under the dense branches and leaves, the air is cool and humid. We went up the mountain without a road. Three hours later, we were close to the top of the mountain.
In fact, we can't reach the top of the mountain, that is, the top of Tadpole Cliff. It needs to bypass another mountain to get there. The place we went to was the nearest observation point to Tadpole Cliff, just 50 meters below the left side of Tadpole Cliff.
The naked eye can only see an obvious rectangular frame on the cliff surface, which seems to have been deliberately chiseled out. We set up a high-powered telescope and more than 20 people took turns to observe. But I didn't see anything. Really, there is only a flat, bare rock in the lens.
We found that the rocks near the observation point are very similar to those in Weiqiang River, and their surfaces are also uneven, some places are as rough as walnut skin, while others are as regular as sarcoma on the Buddha's head. We filmed all this, but the mystery in our hearts became more and more clear: this so-called "Tadpole Cliff" may be a naturally formed rock wall with a regular spherical structure for some reason, and the locals artificially chiseled a frame on it, and then attached the legend of tadpole characters. ...
Interpretation of Tadpole Cliff
However, if the tadpole cliff is really formed naturally, why are there so many ancient legends about tadpoles? Why do locals always show mysterious and awe when talking about tadpoles?
A year later, I came across a book "Going to Loulan", in which there was a passage: "... Sima Yan had a headache for a group of bamboo slips unearthed during the Warring States period. These bamboo slips are "letters from Gizuka". It is said that ancient times were written in tadpole characters and spread to Sima Yan 500 years later. He took those incomplete bamboo slips out of the secret room, asked the merchant to' proofread two places and look for an exam', and then copied them down in the words of the time.
The famous minister Zhang Hua is very enthusiastic about this textual research. He and Suo Jing hit it off and became the closest friends. Suo Jing is in Dunhuang precisely because he knows the words seal script of birds, animals and insects and tadpole. He wrote a book in Dunhuang, saying: Cang Xie, the founder of the Yellow Emperor, once wrote a book contract, the word is tadpole bird print. That kind of word is pictographic, flexible and ingenious. But because of advocating simplicity, it was lost after it became an official script. ……"
"A Letter from Jizhong" is an ancient book written by a man named "Ban" in Ji County, Henan Province in 279 BC, in a cemetery of Xiang royal family during the Warring States Period, using dozens of bamboo slips unearthed. Mu Zhuan is one of them. Mu Zhuan is written with tadpoles, which shows that tadpoles are not only an artistic writing, but also a writing with the same function as seal script and official script, and its reading and writing methods contain twists and turns that are difficult for modern people to interpret.
Because tadpole writing is an abstruse ancient writing, the residents in Danzhu Town worship tadpole writing without roots. Characters are inextricably linked with the inheritance of civilization. It is said that the tadpole inscription on tadpole cliff represents a stop of ancient civilization in the eyes of local people, and it has always been the pursuit of China people and even people all over the world to follow the footsteps of their ancestors.
The answer on the cliff of tadpoles
So I thought, are the marks on the tadpole cliff naturally generated? What is the connection between the tadpoles on it and those on the letter from Jizhong?
Chen Anze, a researcher from Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, explained to me the origin of those grotesque stones on Weiqiang Mountain and Weiqiang River.
He said that these stones are typical acidic volcanic rocks and can be seen everywhere in the mountainous areas of Zhejiang Province. The scientific name of this volcanic rock is "stone bubble rhyolite", and its stone bubble structure is the spherical protrusion on the surface of tadpole cliff.
Obviously, tadpole cliff has been recognized as a natural formation at present, but I still dare not easily conclude that the local people are "faking". Because the feelings in the eyes of the villagers are sincere and the records in the history books are true, the question is, what is the connection between this naturally formed tadpole cliff and tadpole characters?
So I knocked on the door of Mr. He, a scholar from Peking University who was mentioned many times in the book "Going to Loulan". After seeing the photos, Mr. He said that this is a typical volcanic rock, but this frame is artificially chiseled and is a "dumb mark".
The truth of tadpole cliff comes out
In ancient times, when humans had no language and needed to communicate with each other, they used gestures and expressions to express it. For example, when two tribes meet, if one of them throws a fruit at the other tribe, it means friendship. If you throw a stone, it means "go, or I'll hit you!" " This is sign language, which uses images and feelings to express meaning.
"Why is Tadpole Cliff dumb?" I asked.
"The naturally formed rocks are covered with tadpole-like protrusions, which reminds the ancestors who passed by here or settled here in ancient times of a past that they can't let go for a long time, that is, their ancestors came from the Yellow River Basin. In other words, the Yellow River is their mother. The ancients described the Yellow River as a' river' and the mother as a' mother'. When the ancients expressed that' the Yellow River is our mother', they just said the word' hippo'. In the language of the Yellow River basin, which is now Shaanxi dialect, the pronunciation of "hippo" becomes "Homa", and this pronunciation happens to be the pronunciation of "toad" in Shaanxi dialect. "Tadpole" is the descendant of "toad", which means that we humans are the descendants of "hippo" ... We are "Homa", which is a stupid sign. The ancients carved a frame on the tadpole-shaped rock wall to remind future generations that they are descendants of the' hippo' and their ancestors came from the Yellow River Basin. "
"So this is the tadpole written in the history book?"
"Can sayno.. Say yes, because the tadpoles mentioned in ancient books themselves contain the above components of sign language. Tadpole handwriting is called tadpole handwriting because it looks like a tadpole, and the ancients made this handwriting to convey the message of the dumb sign mentioned above-that our ancestors came from the Yellow River basin. In a sense, the tadpole cliff in Danzhu Township is the real tadpole writing. "
"Say no, because tadpoles in ancient books are a kind of real words, with pronunciation and meaning. This kind of writing appeared in bronzes and bamboo slips during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. "
"In fact, tadpole prose is a variant of going to Luwen, and it is a kind of note writing that records the natural science dominated by astronomy at that time. Both Tadao and Quluwen originated in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and are variants of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. In Zhou Wenwang, Oracle Bone Inscriptions was translated into many languages, including Qulu and Tadpole, and spread to the people. The purpose of the transformation is to better preserve the information contained in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. However, since Qin Shihuang unified the characters, tadpole characters were forbidden to circulate, so a large number of documents in the Western Han Dynasty were concentrated in Loulan area, and the main characters in those documents were Quluwen or tadpole characters. "
"The banned tadpole literature was later spread to the people in the form of manuscripts, and some even converted into Buddhist grottoes. The information in the literature was preserved in sign language. Perhaps the rectangular frame on the Tadpole Cliff in Danzhu Township was carved at that time, and it conveyed the message that our ancestors came from the Yellow River Basin, and our real history of civilization started from there. "
Although Mr. He's explanation is unheard of, it has satisfactorily solved my doubts about Tadpole Cliff in Danzhu Township. First of all, the tadpole-like protrusions on the tadpole cliff are naturally formed; Secondly, the rectangular frame on the tadpole cliff was deliberately chiseled by the ancients, and their intentions came from a distant and tortuous history. Although this history is only hidden among the people as an "undercurrent" until today, it is true.
At this time, I thought of the description of tadpoles in Jin Yong's novel Chivalrous Man. Those martial arts experts with culture and martial arts in the novel are not obsessed with the "literal" of tadpoles.
Meaning without rhyme or reason? Shi skyshatter can't read Chinese characters, but he knows the secrets of tadpoles through his feelings and fonts. This case is similar to what we saw with our own eyes.