Cultural Relics Prohibited from Being Exhibited Overseas (III)

The Bronze Holy Tree
Time: Shang Dynasty (about 1,600 BC-1,100 BC)
Specification: 3.93 meters high
Excavation: Sanxingdui Site in Guanghan, Sichuan Province, in 1986
Collection place: Sichuan Cultural Relics and Archeological Institute
The bronze tree vividly shaped but its top lost, is 3.93 meters high. With a dragon circling the trunk, the tree was believed to be capable of reaching Heaven. On each of the nine winding branches a bronze bird perches on a bud. And along with this bronze tree some other bronze birds, each on a bud, were also unearthed.
With nine birds on it and its top missing, this tree reminds people of the legendary holy tree described in the book Shan Hai Jing (Scriptures of Mountains and Rivers). In ancient times, so the legend goes, there were ten suns instead of one. They lived in one holy tree and rotated their duties. Everyday the one on duty would move to the top of the tree and the rest nine stayed on lower branches. This story led some to believe that one of those separately unearthed birds should have been originally on the top of the tree.