<Articles>Eject-Eyed Masks from the Sanxingdui Site and Their Place in the Myths of Ancient China

With its strong "non-Chinese " character, the bronze assemblage from the Sanxingdui site in Sichuan, China has been perplexing the academic community, most of whom insist on analysing this unique discovery only in connection with the Shang civilization of the Yellow River valley. Focusing on the eject-eyed masks, which are the most representative as well as mysterious of the Sanxingdui civilization, the author has identified them to be the figure of the dragon of the Sanxingdui Shu kingdom and has traced their true background by an investigation of the famous classic "Shanhaijing (山海経)." The largest mask in fact precisely represents 'Chu-long (燭龍)' who was described as having a 'human-face, ' a snake (dragon)-body, ' and 'straight (eject)-eyes.' The two smaller masks can be indentified with 'Ku (鼓)' and 'Qinpei (欽䲹)', the two sons of 'Chu-long' who carried their father. Through understanding the role that 'Chu-long' was supposed to have played, we can infer a part of the ritual activities which took place in the Sanxingdui Shu society during the second milleninum B. C. and conclude that they belong to a Sun belief-system established in ancient Sichuan, an area sharing relatively little sunshine within China. Further analysis has led to the conclusion that the location of Mt. Kunlun (崑崙之丘, els. 鐘山, 章尾山), at the foot of which 'Chu-long' lived, could have been no other than the Mt. Minshan (岷山山系) ranges. The Tukuang Plain (都広之野) is where the myth concerning the Sun belief-system is most closely related and can be indentified with the western Sichuan plain, where the Sanxingdui site is located. The two adjacent areas were supposed to be the centre of the world (天下之中), a concept showing what had been deeply believed in the would of the Sanxingdui Shu Domain, the region of the present western Sichuan. Furthermore, the author has recognised that 'Chu-rong (祝融), the great deity in the South as recorded in "Shanhaiqing, " shows strong affiliation with 'Chu-long' and might have evolved out of the latter in the current of cultural unification of China throughout the Spring-Autumn period and the Warring-States period. 'Chu-rong' plays almost the same role as 'Chu-long' does and is closely linked with Sun-belief although his appearance has changed to become more human and less beastly. Because 'Chu-long and Sun-belief were indivisible in origin, it is natural to see that 'Chu-rong' appears with the 'Sprite tree (扶桑)' on the T-shaped painting Silks of the Mawangtui Tombs of the Han dynasty in Changsha, Hunan Province. This unification incontroveitibly illustrates how this essential element of the Sanxingdui belief was inherited in China several centuries later. To conclude, the Sanxingdui discovery will not only be verified as an independent civilization, but will also most likely lead us to the conclusion that the basic part of the myth recorded in "Shanhaiqing" was originally the belief of the ancient Shu and was gradually absorbed into the belief-system of the Yangtez valley after the fall of that civilization. Eventually this belief was accepted by the rest of China.