Warriors of Ancient Ba Tribe

Hu Yaxin has retired 40 years later, but he keeps his special fondness for cultural relics. In his home we see many books on literature and history and imitations of antiques. The story of the special sword remains fresh in his memory.

Hu Yaxin (Retired teacher, Dicui Secondary School, Yunyang County, Chongqing):

It was shaped like a willow leaf. The pattern of a tiger was carved on one end of the sword.I thought it was an avaricious ogre mask.But when I looked at it, I found it was a tiger鈥檚 pattern. An expert confirmed that it was a tiger鈥檚 pattern and the object was a typical weapon of Ba.

In 2001, an archaeological team carried out excavation by the Pengxi River not far from Hu Yaxin鈥檚 home. It came from Sichuan University. Over the years, members of the team had excavated the site of habitation and tombs of the Ba people living during the Warring States Period. The abundant cultural sediments astonished the archaeologists. In many of the tombs, each person was buried with more than two kinds of bronze weapons like swords, spears, battle-axes and metal arrowheads. Experts believed that they were typical weapons of the Ba people and the willow-leaf-shaped bronze sword was an absolute symbol of Ba weapons.

In 1982, the State Physical Culture and Sports Commission collected cultural relics all over the country. Hu Yaxin donated to the state the bronze sword he had kept for 20 years.

Hu Yaxin:

I was awarded a Big Lion Cup which weighed a few kilos. I also got a money award card of 2,000 yuan. I was very happy. My monthly salary was less than 30 yuan. The figure of 2,000 yuan was astonishing.

Besides Hu Yaxin, some other people donated cultural relics. They didn鈥檛 expect that their actions would be connected with the great archaeological undertaking at the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River about ten years later.

The objects washed away from the Pengxi River that had puzzled the villagers attracted the attention of the department in charge of cultural relics. In 1993, the archaeological team of Sichuan University began excavation on a large scale. A mysterious world emerged under the archaeologists鈥feet. This was the Lijiaba site of the Ba people, one of the ten great archaeological finds in China. The excavation is still going on. Many secrets are to be revealed from the earth.

Historical records and legends give the impression that the Ba people had a martial spirit. From the unearthed objects of the Ba people, archaeologists have found a good many pictographs and puzzling inscriptions. Due to the lack of relevant unearthed objects, the mysteries of the Ba people remain a great puzzle to be solved in Chinese history. Like many other ethnic groups, the civilization of the Ba people was lost long ago. Their images appear in the imagination of people today.