The aristocrats of the Dian Kingdom travel, the men ride horses, the women ride shoulders, and the common people can only walk. The horse gear of the Dian people is gorgeous and complete. The Dian people’s harness in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty is already very complete. The horse’s head is relatively complete, and the horse’s neck belt, forehead belt, nose belt, pharynx belt and cheek belt are all complete.
There are tassel decorations on the horse’s collar, a chest in front of the horse, and a bell around the horse’s neck. The saddle bridle is also more mature. During the Western Han Dynasty, “rope-loop” stirrups had already appeared in the Dian Kingdom. At the same time, boating is the most common mode of transportation for the Dian people who live by the water.
“Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biography of Southwestern Yi” records that at that time around Dianchi Lake, “the river and soil were flat, and there were many parrots and peacocks. There were fishers in salt ponds, rich in gold, silver and livestock”; Teaching Confucianism. From 84 to 87 AD, “the king of Shu County pursued him as the prefect, and the politicalization was very different…. Schools began to rise, and their customs gradually changed.”
The Southwestern Yi people also took the initiative to go to the inland to learn the cultural knowledge of the Han nationality. During the time of Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty, Yin Zhen, a native of Cang County, “since he was born in a barren land and didn’t know etiquette and righteousness, he learned from Xu Shen and Ying Feng in Runan. . In 1901, Zhaotong, Yunnan discovered the “Meng Xiaoju Stele” of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The stele recorded that Meng Xiaoju went to the mainland at the age of 12 to “receive the “Han Shi” and master the second volume of the “Book of Filial Piety”. The inscription called Confucius “the great sage” .
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, all the heroes came together, and the tribes under the former Yongchang County became self-reliant one after another. In 225 A.D., Zhuge Liang led his army to conquer the south, and in the autumn, he pacified the local powerful forces in Nanzhong. Because if the army is left to occupy directly, it will inevitably arouse the dissatisfaction of the local wealthy people, and it will be difficult to deal with the rebellion.
Therefore, the governance of the Shu Han also focused on the “peaceful” policy, adjusting the four counties in Nanzhong to seven counties, changing the name of Yizhou County to Jianning County, and moving the government from Dianchi County to Zhuwei County.
Yang Shen said in “Dian Zai Ji”: “The barbarians admired the virtue of Marquis Wu, and gradually went to the mountains and forests, moved to flat land, built cities, and worked in farming and mulberry, so the tribes began to have surnames.”
In addition to farming, the indigenous people also domesticated animals such as cattle and horses, and provided strategic materials such as gold, silver, dan, lacquer, cattle, and war horses to the Shu Han. During Zhuge Liang’s Northern Expedition, he also recruited athletes from various ethnic groups in Nanzhong to form the “Wudang Flying Army”, and showed extremely strong combat effectiveness during the expedition.
