WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.839 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are doing 00:00:02.839 --> 00:00:04.580 something a little different. Usually, you know, 00:00:04.580 --> 00:00:06.019 when we talk about history, we look at the big 00:00:06.019 --> 00:00:09.740 picture, the rise of empires, the fall of dynasties, 00:00:09.740 --> 00:00:13.820 sweeping maps. But today I want to start really 00:00:13.820 --> 00:00:17.440 small. Like microscopic almost. Right. I want 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:19.739 to zoom in on a single piece of fabric. Just 00:00:19.739 --> 00:00:21.660 imagine you're out in the Tacoma Crown Desert. 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:25.899 It's October 1995. You're standing in the ruins 00:00:25.899 --> 00:00:29.179 of Nia, which is this incredibly desolate... 00:00:29.690 --> 00:00:32.030 windswept archaeological site out in Xinjiang. 00:00:32.189 --> 00:00:34.250 It's a place that has basically been swallowed 00:00:34.250 --> 00:00:37.590 by the sands, totally frozen in time. Exactly. 00:00:37.829 --> 00:00:40.429 And you're digging into a tomb, but not just 00:00:40.429 --> 00:00:42.450 an ordinary tomb. It's a really wealthy one. 00:00:42.549 --> 00:00:44.329 And right on the arm of a corpse that has been 00:00:44.329 --> 00:00:47.130 lying there for nearly 2000 years, you find a 00:00:47.130 --> 00:00:49.729 brocade armband. It's bright, it's colorful, 00:00:49.969 --> 00:00:52.789 peacock blue, red, yellow, white, and it has 00:00:52.789 --> 00:00:55.070 a message woven right into the silk. And that 00:00:55.070 --> 00:00:57.549 message, it isn't just a fashion statement. It's 00:00:57.549 --> 00:01:00.450 actually a piece of political propaganda, a prayer, 00:01:00.649 --> 00:01:03.490 and a military order all rolled into one. It 00:01:03.490 --> 00:01:05.430 links the movement of the planets directly to 00:01:05.430 --> 00:01:07.700 a bloody conflict on the Chinese border. Yeah. 00:01:07.819 --> 00:01:10.260 So we are talking about the five stars rising 00:01:10.260 --> 00:01:13.019 in the East Armband. For anyone who follows archaeology, 00:01:13.099 --> 00:01:15.420 this artifact is massive. It dates back to the 00:01:15.420 --> 00:01:17.819 Eastern Han or maybe the Western Jin era. So 00:01:17.819 --> 00:01:22.620 we are looking at roughly 25 to 316 A .D. Which 00:01:22.620 --> 00:01:25.519 is a huge span of time, but a very specific political 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:27.629 climate. Right. And the reason we're doing a 00:01:27.629 --> 00:01:29.629 deep dive into this today is because this one 00:01:29.629 --> 00:01:32.269 object basically synthesizes everything about 00:01:32.269 --> 00:01:35.049 that era. We're talking astronomy, war, superstition 00:01:35.049 --> 00:01:38.230 and just the sheer logistical nightmare of maintaining 00:01:38.230 --> 00:01:40.489 the Silk Road. We're going to decode exactly 00:01:40.489 --> 00:01:43.230 what this fabric says, why it involves the planets 00:01:43.230 --> 00:01:45.250 and how it connects military strategy to the 00:01:45.250 --> 00:01:47.590 stars. It really is a perfect microcosm. You 00:01:47.590 --> 00:01:49.829 have the cosmos above and the gritty reality 00:01:49.829 --> 00:01:52.290 of desert warfare below. And they were literally 00:01:52.290 --> 00:01:54.670 woven together in this one piece of cloth. Yeah. 00:01:54.709 --> 00:01:56.590 And it's cultural weight. Today is just astronomical, 00:01:56.870 --> 00:01:59.530 pun intended. It's actually forbidden to leave 00:01:59.530 --> 00:02:01.909 its home country, which said you a lot. That's 00:02:01.909 --> 00:02:03.689 fascinating. So let's set the scene properly 00:02:03.689 --> 00:02:05.890 for everyone listening. This was found at the 00:02:05.890 --> 00:02:09.030 Naya Ruins in 95 by a joint team of Chinese and 00:02:09.030 --> 00:02:11.409 Japanese scholars. You mentioned it's frozen 00:02:11.409 --> 00:02:13.830 in time. I've heard it described as the Pompeii 00:02:13.830 --> 00:02:16.129 of the East. Yeah, that's an apt comparison. 00:02:16.729 --> 00:02:19.710 Naya was once this thriving oasis city. It was 00:02:19.710 --> 00:02:22.569 a crucial stop on the Silk Road. If you were 00:02:22.569 --> 00:02:24.629 a merchant moving silk or bringing glass back 00:02:24.629 --> 00:02:27.530 to China, you stopped there. But then, quite 00:02:27.530 --> 00:02:29.909 suddenly, it was abandoned. The desert took over. 00:02:30.030 --> 00:02:32.250 And because the climate is so incredibly dry, 00:02:32.449 --> 00:02:35.189 organic materials that usually rot away like 00:02:35.189 --> 00:02:37.849 wood and crucially, fabric were preserved in 00:02:37.849 --> 00:02:40.150 pristine condition. Which explains why this armband 00:02:40.150 --> 00:02:41.449 looks like it could have been made yesterday. 00:02:41.629 --> 00:02:44.289 Exactly. So the archaeological team finds this 00:02:44.289 --> 00:02:47.810 tomb, designated M8. Inside, they find a double 00:02:47.810 --> 00:02:50.310 coffin. Clearly, this wasn't a peasant's grave. 00:02:50.750 --> 00:02:52.969 Definitely not. The grave goods included pottery, 00:02:53.189 --> 00:02:56.770 wood, iron, extensive textiles. This was a person 00:02:56.770 --> 00:02:59.889 of real status, maybe a local lord or a military 00:02:59.889 --> 00:03:02.509 official. And the placement is what really gets 00:03:02.509 --> 00:03:04.669 me. It wasn't folded up in a beautiful box at 00:03:04.669 --> 00:03:06.189 the foot of the bed or something. It was on the 00:03:06.189 --> 00:03:09.689 body, specifically right near the elbow and waist 00:03:09.689 --> 00:03:12.590 area. Which suggests it had a function. It wasn't 00:03:12.590 --> 00:03:15.050 just a decorative sash. It was likely an archer's 00:03:15.050 --> 00:03:17.909 arm guard, or at least worn in a way that mimicked 00:03:17.909 --> 00:03:21.030 one. It was intimate. This person wore this message 00:03:21.030 --> 00:03:24.030 right on their body. Believing it offered protection, 00:03:24.229 --> 00:03:27.129 probably. Yeah, protection or power. Okay, let's 00:03:27.129 --> 00:03:29.030 get into the message itself. What does the armband 00:03:29.030 --> 00:03:31.949 actually say? Right, so the text is woven right 00:03:31.949 --> 00:03:34.050 in between these beautiful clouds and animals 00:03:34.050 --> 00:03:38.050 and celestial bodies. The Chinese phrase is Jing 00:03:38.050 --> 00:03:40.729 Shu Zhong Fang Li Zhong Gu. The Sheng Shu Zhong 00:03:40.729 --> 00:03:43.919 Fang Li Zhong Gu. And that translates to? It 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:46.080 translates to simultaneous appearance of five 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:49.120 stars in the eastern sky is a propitious sign 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:52.840 for the Middle Kingdom. Or, more simply, five 00:03:52.840 --> 00:03:55.860 stars rising in the east being a propitious sign 00:03:55.860 --> 00:03:57.919 for the Middle Kingdom. On the surface, that 00:03:57.919 --> 00:03:59.919 just sounds like a standard patriotic slogan. 00:04:00.180 --> 00:04:02.379 But we need to unpack the astronomy here because 00:04:02.379 --> 00:04:04.419 five stars isn't just a random number. We're 00:04:04.419 --> 00:04:07.080 talking about actual planets, right? Yes, we 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:10.400 are. In ancient times, the five stars were the 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:13.900 classical planets visible to the naked eye. But 00:04:13.900 --> 00:04:16.139 they didn't use the names we use today. Right. 00:04:16.199 --> 00:04:17.879 They had their own system. Exactly. They had 00:04:17.879 --> 00:04:19.800 names that described their nature. So you have 00:04:19.800 --> 00:04:22.360 Changsing, which is Mercury, Tai Bai, which is 00:04:22.360 --> 00:04:26.120 Venus, Yinguo, which is Mars, Susing, which is 00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:28.920 Jupiter, and Zengxing, which is Saturn. And this 00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:30.680 connects deeply to the five elements theory. 00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:33.199 It does. And that's the absolute core of their 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:35.449 worldview. You can't understand the politics 00:04:35.449 --> 00:04:38.189 of this era without understanding the cosmology. 00:04:38.470 --> 00:04:40.730 The five planets were directly linked to the 00:04:40.730 --> 00:04:44.410 five elements. Water, metal, earth, fire, and 00:04:44.410 --> 00:04:47.269 wood. So Mercury is water, Venus is metal, Mars 00:04:47.269 --> 00:04:50.009 is fire, Saturn is earth, and Jupiter is wood. 00:04:50.170 --> 00:04:52.550 Spot on. And here is where it intersects with 00:04:52.550 --> 00:04:55.490 the idea of auspicious omens. Everything in this 00:04:55.490 --> 00:04:57.949 system is interconnected. The east represents 00:04:57.949 --> 00:05:00.589 the element of wood. Oh, I see. Yeah, so if you 00:05:00.589 --> 00:05:02.009 have Jupiter, the wood star, appearing in the 00:05:02.009 --> 00:05:04.160 east, the wood direction. That's a massive resonance. 00:05:04.379 --> 00:05:06.980 But the armband mentions all five stars rising 00:05:06.980 --> 00:05:10.680 in the east. A planetary alignment. Yes. A conjunction. 00:05:11.399 --> 00:05:16.360 It means Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter 00:05:16.360 --> 00:05:20.100 are all visible in the eastern sky at dawn simultaneously. 00:05:20.920 --> 00:05:23.779 For the state, this was the ultimate cosmic green 00:05:23.779 --> 00:05:27.259 light. If all five elemental forces are gathering 00:05:27.259 --> 00:05:30.199 in the east, it meant heaven itself was validating 00:05:30.199 --> 00:05:32.879 the empire. It was a sign of immense good fortune. 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:35.339 Wow. So if you're the emperor and your astronomers 00:05:35.339 --> 00:05:37.279 tell you this is happening, you feel invincible. 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:40.079 The universe is literally organizing itself to 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:42.620 support your reign. Exactly. It wasn't just superstition. 00:05:42.620 --> 00:05:45.439 It was statecraft. But here's where the story 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:48.319 takes a really fascinating turn. For a long time, 00:05:48.339 --> 00:05:50.199 people just focused on that first phrase, the 00:05:50.199 --> 00:05:52.120 general blessing. But there was another piece 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:54.199 of cloth found later, wasn't there? Yes, there 00:05:54.199 --> 00:05:56.639 was. And this is the twist that changes everything. 00:05:56.959 --> 00:05:59.160 They found a smaller fragment with the exact 00:05:59.160 --> 00:06:01.540 same pattern, but different words. And what did 00:06:01.540 --> 00:06:04.300 that one say? It read Teonan King. Which means 00:06:04.300 --> 00:06:06.959 put down South King. Right. Defeat the South 00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:09.360 King. So when you synthesize these two findings, 00:06:09.500 --> 00:06:11.839 when you combine them, the full message is totally 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:14.600 different. Five stars rising in the east being 00:06:14.600 --> 00:06:16.860 a propitious sign for the Middle Kingdom to put 00:06:16.860 --> 00:06:19.180 down South King. Exactly. It changes the tone 00:06:19.180 --> 00:06:22.500 completely. It goes from a general vague blessing 00:06:22.500 --> 00:06:25.600 of good fortune to a highly specific military 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:28.939 objective. The planetary alignment was viewed 00:06:28.939 --> 00:06:32.839 as cosmic backing for a very real, very bloody 00:06:32.839 --> 00:06:35.759 military campaign. That's incredible. It transforms 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:38.540 the armband into a literal talisman for war. 00:06:38.699 --> 00:06:40.819 The person wearing this was involved in a specific 00:06:40.819 --> 00:06:43.579 campaign against the South King. Yes. And this 00:06:43.579 --> 00:06:45.720 wasn't just a random slogan someone made up on 00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:48.579 the spot. The historical roots are very deep. 00:06:48.889 --> 00:06:51.569 The phrase closely resembles text found in the 00:06:51.569 --> 00:06:53.569 records of the Grand Historian, specifically 00:06:53.569 --> 00:06:56.649 Scroll 27. Wait, Sima Qin's work? The very same. 00:06:56.750 --> 00:06:59.250 The text there reads, five stars align in the 00:06:59.250 --> 00:07:01.730 center of the sky, gathering in the east, benefiting 00:07:01.730 --> 00:07:04.139 China. So they were basically quoting classical 00:07:04.139 --> 00:07:06.959 history on their clothing? Exactly. And the South 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:08.959 King reference connects to another major text, 00:07:09.180 --> 00:07:11.860 the Western Han essentials, Scroll Fummy 6. So 00:07:11.860 --> 00:07:13.800 let's talk about the geopolitics of that. Who 00:07:13.800 --> 00:07:15.699 were the South King and why did they need to 00:07:15.699 --> 00:07:17.819 be put down? To understand that, you have to 00:07:17.819 --> 00:07:19.860 look at the geography of the northwestern province 00:07:19.860 --> 00:07:23.720 of Gansu. The Han Empire established what are 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:26.019 known as the Four Ancient Commanderies in that 00:07:26.019 --> 00:07:28.189 region. These were military strongholds, right? 00:07:28.250 --> 00:07:32.269 Yes. Specifically, Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Zanye, 00:07:32.410 --> 00:07:35.670 and Wuwei. These locations were the throat of 00:07:35.670 --> 00:07:38.550 the Silk Road. If you controlled them, you controlled 00:07:38.550 --> 00:07:40.910 the trade and the flow of information. And Dunhuang 00:07:40.910 --> 00:07:44.050 is famous today for the Moga Caves. Right. But 00:07:44.050 --> 00:07:46.230 back then, these were hard frontier garrison 00:07:46.230 --> 00:07:49.350 towns. The Qing were a confederation of nomadic 00:07:49.350 --> 00:07:51.829 and semi -nomadic tribes living on the fringes 00:07:51.829 --> 00:07:54.110 of the empire. And they were constantly threatening 00:07:54.110 --> 00:07:56.529 the Han control of this vital corridor. So this 00:07:56.529 --> 00:07:59.089 war was a massive, multi -generational struggle. 00:07:59.250 --> 00:08:01.730 And this armband served as a piece of propaganda 00:08:01.730 --> 00:08:04.490 linking the movement of the stars to the Empire's 00:08:04.490 --> 00:08:06.730 right to control these specific territories. 00:08:07.069 --> 00:08:09.850 It perfectly captures the mindset. The weaver 00:08:09.850 --> 00:08:12.149 of this armband saw no distinction between the 00:08:12.149 --> 00:08:13.930 movement of Jupiter and the military strategy 00:08:13.930 --> 00:08:16.850 in the commanderies of Gansu. It makes you think 00:08:16.850 --> 00:08:19.319 about the soldier wearing it. He's out there 00:08:19.319 --> 00:08:21.920 in the desert facing fierce nomadic warriors, 00:08:22.019 --> 00:08:24.759 and he looks down at his arm and sees a promise 00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:27.800 that the cosmos itself wants him to win. It's 00:08:27.800 --> 00:08:30.439 powerful psychological warfare. I have to ask 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:32.720 about the astronomy part of this. We talked about 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:35.139 how rare this alignment is. Did it actually happen? 00:08:35.259 --> 00:08:37.679 Like, did the five stars actually rise in the 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:39.700 east during this period? That is where modern 00:08:39.700 --> 00:08:42.320 science steps in, and it's fascinating. Researchers 00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:45.470 from a Japanese observatory actually ran the 00:08:45.470 --> 00:08:47.970 calculations to see when this specific alignment 00:08:47.970 --> 00:08:50.330 would occur. No way! They fact -checked the ancient 00:08:50.330 --> 00:08:53.590 armband. They did. And planetary cycles are like 00:08:53.590 --> 00:08:55.769 clockwork, so you can trace them backward and 00:08:55.769 --> 00:08:58.289 forward in time. They confirmed that these alignments 00:08:58.289 --> 00:09:01.570 do happen, separated by long intervals. But the 00:09:01.570 --> 00:09:04.429 really wild part is the specific date they provided 00:09:04.429 --> 00:09:06.490 for the next five stars to the east alignment. 00:09:06.669 --> 00:09:10.440 When is it? Or when was it? March 21, 2022. 2022. 00:09:10.679 --> 00:09:13.419 You're kidding. So we literally just lived through 00:09:13.419 --> 00:09:16.320 the exact cosmic event that this 2000 year old 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:18.460 piece of silk was talking about. Yes, we did. 00:09:18.620 --> 00:09:20.980 Yeah. The ancient astronomers didn't have computers, 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:24.320 but they had centuries of observational data. 00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:26.659 They knew how to track these synodic periods. 00:09:26.779 --> 00:09:30.059 That blows my mind. The sheer mathematical capability 00:09:30.059 --> 00:09:33.179 of the ancient astronomers. Woven into a piece 00:09:33.179 --> 00:09:35.860 of fabric. And that profound historical and scientific 00:09:35.860 --> 00:09:39.460 value is exactly why the artifact is treated 00:09:39.460 --> 00:09:41.580 the way it is today. Right. It's considered a 00:09:41.580 --> 00:09:43.720 national treasure. It's beyond just a treasure. 00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:47.000 In 2002, it was officially designated as one 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:49.879 of the cultural relics that are absolutely forbidden 00:09:49.879 --> 00:09:52.659 to be exhibited abroad. That's a very exclusive 00:09:52.659 --> 00:09:55.539 list. It is. And this restriction underscores 00:09:55.539 --> 00:09:57.740 its immense significance to the national heritage. 00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:00.620 It's a physical document that ties together the 00:10:00.620 --> 00:10:02.840 history, the science, and the political struggles 00:10:02.840 --> 00:10:05.799 of the era. It proves the deep historical continuity, 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:08.620 the presence of the Central Plains culture in 00:10:08.620 --> 00:10:10.659 the western regions. It's an anchor to the past. 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:13.580 Precisely. So just to recap the journey we've 00:10:13.580 --> 00:10:15.980 been on today. We started with a beautifully 00:10:15.980 --> 00:10:18.700 preserved piece of brocade found on a corpse 00:10:18.700 --> 00:10:22.019 in a desert tomb at the Naya Ruins, and we discovered 00:10:22.019 --> 00:10:24.379 that it represents a 2 ,000 -year -old belief 00:10:24.379 --> 00:10:27.340 system where the movements of Mercury, Venus, 00:10:27.679 --> 00:10:30.899 Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn weren't just pretty 00:10:30.899 --> 00:10:33.720 lights in the sky. They were the ultimate geopolitical 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:36.539 indicator. They signaled victory for the Middle 00:10:36.539 --> 00:10:38.940 Kingdom over the South Kang. It really makes 00:10:38.940 --> 00:10:41.279 you reflect on the human desire to find meaning 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:43.659 in the stars. We always want to feel like the 00:10:43.659 --> 00:10:46.159 universe is validating our actions, especially 00:10:46.159 --> 00:10:48.340 in times of conflict. Yeah, we look for signs 00:10:48.340 --> 00:10:50.039 that we're on the right track. But I want to 00:10:50.039 --> 00:10:51.899 leave everyone listening with a final thought 00:10:51.899 --> 00:10:55.120 to mull over. When we look at that second phrase, 00:10:55.340 --> 00:10:58.539 put down South Kang, it raises a huge question. 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:01.360 How much of history is actually written in the 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:03.419 stars and how much is just written on the sleeves 00:11:03.419 --> 00:11:05.220 of the people fighting the battles? That's the 00:11:05.220 --> 00:11:07.940 real debate, isn't it? It is. The exact meaning 00:11:07.940 --> 00:11:10.360 and the intent behind combining those two phrases 00:11:10.360 --> 00:11:13.580 is still open to interpretation. Was it a badge 00:11:13.580 --> 00:11:15.580 of triumph for a war they knew they were going 00:11:15.580 --> 00:11:18.720 to win? Or was it a desperate prayer worn by 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:21.179 a man marching into a brutal conflict, hoping 00:11:21.179 --> 00:11:23.639 the fabric would save him? What do you think 00:11:23.639 --> 00:11:26.159 was the intent of the person who wore it? It's 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:28.360 something we might never fully know, but it's 00:11:28.360 --> 00:11:30.919 incredible to think about. It really is. Thank 00:11:30.919 --> 00:11:32.860 you for taking this journey into the sands with 00:11:32.860 --> 00:11:35.440 us today. Keep looking up, and we'll see you 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:36.779 on the next Deep Dive.