Cuneiform in Persian culture

The ancient Persian civilization has been lost for more than two thousand years, and the cuneiform writing in ancient Persia has already become a "language of death". For most people, it is quite strange. How can we see through the fog of the Millennium? In the western part of the Persian Plateau, near the border between Iran and Iraq, there is a commercial city called Kermansha, and 2 ~ 3 kilometers east of the city, there is a small village called Beston. For more than two thousand years, it has been quietly away from the hustle and bustle of the city, forgetting the past and being forgotten by people in the corner of memory. Today, however, the name "Ci" not only goes out of Kermansha, but also out of Asia and into the world. This should be attributed to a cliff near it, because there is an ancient Chinese character on it, which makes people find the lost civilization; This is also due to an Englishman named rawlinson.

1835, British major rawlinson was ordered to go to Iran to serve as the military adviser to Governor Courdie. Shortly after the amateur archaeologist arrived, he got wind that there were stone carvings nearby. Of course, he won't turn a deaf ear. He ran to have a look, and sure enough, he found a large cliff stone carving near Bethesda village. I saw that the cliff stone carving is about 100 meters from the ground, and the stone carving itself is about 8 meters high and 5 meters wide. The upper part is a relief, and the lower part is an inscription written in three cuneiform characters: ancient Persian, Elamite and Akkadian. Cuneiform is an ancient script in West Asia with a history of more than 5,000 years. This kind of writing is written on the clay tablet with a stick or reed as a pen. The clay tablets with words written on them are dried in the sun or dried with fire and saved as "books". If it is a letter, put a layer of powder on the outside of the clay tablet document, and then put it into an "envelope" made of mud for transmission. Archaeologists call this kind of writing "cuneiform" because its strokes are cuneiform.

Why write in three languages? Because ancient Persian cuneiform is not a historical script, but a purely artificial script, and its use is limited, and few people know it. Therefore, when using it to issue imperial edicts, it is necessary to translate them in Elamite and Aramaic commonly used at that time. This is why the inscription is written in three cuneiform characters.

However, with the demise of Persia in 330 BC, the cuneiform characters in ancient Persia gradually became an unknown extinct language, and the other two cuneiform characters have long been lost. Therefore, people don't know what these words are telling people. Rawlinson is determined to solve this mystery! He risked his life to climb the cliff, carefully and abnormally extended the inscription, and began the arduous interpretation and translation work. Where there is a will, there is a way. Following in the footsteps of predecessors, after 12 years' research, rawlinson finally successfully decoded the ancient Persian in 1845, and the contents described in the other two languages are estimated to be consistent with Persian. Since then, this puzzling thing on the cliff is no longer a mystery, and people know the little-known story behind it.

In March 522 BC, the Persian emperor Cambyses Ⅱ led an expedition to Egypt. A monk named Gomeda took the opportunity to pretend to be Baldia, the younger brother of the emperor who was executed by Cambyses, and launched a rebellion in Persia and Medea. The rebellion lasted for half a year. Emperor Cambyses died suddenly on his way back to Persia from Egypt. Gomeda became emperor in the name of Baldia. But he never summoned ministers and lived in seclusion every day. It's not like what an emperor did. Ministers were full of doubts, and rumors spread everywhere for a time. Some people say that this Bardia is actually a Zoroastrian monk Gomeida, but he has no conclusive evidence. Later, a princess in Cambyses discovered that the new emperor had no ears and told her father Otanes about it. Otanes immediately concluded that the new emperor was not Baldia, but Gomeda, a monk. Because when he was emperor in Ju Lushi, this Gomeda was ordered by Ju Lushi to cut off his ear because of negligence. Otanes immediately told the truth to six other Persian nobles, including the later emperor Darius I, who decided to launch a coup, kill Gomeida and regain power. They succeeded, but there is controversy about who is the most qualified to be emperor. Persian nobles were once leaderless. Later, Otanes quit, but the remaining six remained uncompromising. Finally, they agreed that six people would ride in the suburbs the next morning, and whose mount would be the emperor first. Darius made his groom play a trick to make his horse cry first and become emperor. Darius was a resourceful man. He took advantage of the lack of contact between the "rebels" to break through one by one and finally put down the rebellion for a year.

Bethesda's cliff stone carvings record the great achievements of Darius and are full of praise. The inscription, written in the first person, reads: "I, Darius, the great king, the king of kings, the king of Persia, the king of provinces, the son of Hystad Spa, the grandson of AlShama, Ahmennied ... According to Ahumazda's will, I am the king." It turned out that after the country was firmly established, Darius felt successful and returned home in triumph in September 520 BC. When he traveled in a small village called Besidun near Akbatana, the capital of Mites (now Hamadan, Iran), he was filled with a very heroic mood. Recalling the ups and downs of these years, he was deeply touched, so he ordered people to engrave his great achievements, especially the deeds of suppressing the rebels, on the cliff near the village in order to leave a name for future generations.

The protagonist on the stone relief is naturally Darius, who is complacent. I saw him leaning on the bow, wearing a shawl, majestic, wide-eyed and far-sighted. His left foot stepped on the fallen king Gomeida, and his right hand pointed to Ahumazda, the god of light and happiness worshipped by Persians. Behind them were two nobles carrying quiver and spears in their hands. Eight generals were tied around their necks by ropes and fell at Darius' feet. These rebel leaders were carved very short, in sharp contrast to the tall and strong Darius.

The deciphering of the inscriptions (that is, cuneiform characters) on the cliffs of Beston has also opened people's memories of the dusty ancient Persian Empire and gradually presented a clear and spectacular historical picture for the world.

The founder of the Persian Empire was Ju Lushi. In 550 BC, Ju Lushi destroyed the kingdom of the Medes and established the Ahmenid dynasty with Susa as its capital, which was the beginning of the Persian Empire. In 529 BC, Ju Lushi was defeated and killed, and his son Cambyses succeeded him. In 522 BC, Darius succeeded to the throne, which was called Darius I. Modern scholars generally believe that the record of pseudo-Baldia (Gomodah) in Bethesda's inscription is completely a carefully fabricated lie, with the purpose of defending Darius I's usurpation. The historical truth is that Cambyses Ⅱ's efforts to strengthen the kingship after he ascended the throne aroused the envy of the nobles, and he was determined to get rid of it quickly. Cambyses Ⅱ was killed in a coup. His brother Baldia succeeded to the throne, inherited his brother's unfinished business, and continued to embark on the road of strengthening kingship, but the ending was equally tragic. The cabal headed by Darius I finally staged a coup, and the kingslayer usurped the throne.

In any case, the Persian Empire tended to be brilliant during the reign of Darius I. On the one hand, it carried out military conquest and established a huge empire, with its territory stretching from the Indus Valley in the east, Asia Minor in the west, Thrace in Europe in the north and the first waterfall of the Nile in the south. On the other hand, China has carried out reforms, adopted a series of effective measures and made remarkable achievements.

After Darius proclaimed himself emperor, he vigorously strengthened centralization and established authority. He not only claimed to be the king among kings, but also advocated the divine right of monarchy and pursued formal dignity. In the court, he wore a golden crown, a crimson robe, a gold belt around his waist, and a golden "scepter" in his hand, sitting on the golden steps. Behind them stood a large group of attendants and guards, holding feather fans and umbrellas high. Ministers should kneel on the ground and appear before the emperor. In order to prevent the minister's tone from blaspheming the emperor, the emperor and the minister should be separated by a curtain. In order to save his life, he established a guard of 6.5438+0.2 million people, which is called the "immortal team", because their number will never change, and there are reserves to fill the vacancy at any time. In order to prevent rebellion, he divided the whole country into many military regions, and the heads of the military regions were only responsible to him, and no one had the right to mobilize troops. Administratively, Persian aristocrats replaced local aristocrats as provincial governors, and the military and the government were divided and ruled directly by the king. He also ordered the construction of a post road with a total length of more than 2,000 kilometers, which was called "Imperial Road". There are more than 100 post stations along the way, and the letters of the post stations use relay to transport materials, which is very fast. It is said that Darius did this to send his favorite Aegean fish to the palace in time, so the Greeks said enviously, "The king of Persia lives in Babylon, and Aegean fish enter the palace." Darius also ordered the construction of a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, which is the predecessor of the modern Suez Canal. Although there are more than one post road and canal used for military purposes, they promote economic and cultural exchanges between different places.

Darius also consolidated his rule in law, compiled codes and revised the original laws in various places to adapt to imperial rule. After he ascended the throne, he fixed the tributes of the provinces, unified measurement. He ordered the casting and use of the gold coin "Big Liuke", with his head on the front and archers on the back. This kind of coin has become a treasure in the eyes of ancient coin collectors. He did not practice "ethnic chauvinism" in solving the problems of many ethnic groups and different languages in China, but decided that Aramaic, which was popular in West Asia at that time, was the official language of the country and issued imperial edicts and official documents, allowing all localities to continue to use the local language to handle local affairs. In literature and art, the empire has also made great achievements. For example, the Inscription of Bethesda and the Inscription of Naxi Roustan are all documents written in poetic language with a rigorous structure and elegant style, which set a good example for ancient Persian literature and later literature.

However, after all, the Persian Empire is a multi-ethnic slavery country established by force, with complicated internal contradictions, frequent class conflicts, ethnic conflicts and religious conflicts, and repeated crises of imperial rule. Persia was defeated in the Sino-Persian War, which caused heavy losses to the Persian Empire, and the once great empire began to decline. At the same time, the provinces within the empire rose up and rebelled in succession, demanding to get rid of the rule. Internal troubles and foreign invasion aggravated the crisis of the empire. In 330 BC, Persia was destroyed by Macedonian troops led by Alexander.

Ancient Persia disappeared, but ancient civilization was not completely annihilated. Because countless clay tablets engraved with cuneiform characters such as "Ci Ming" have survived, because there is wisdom among human beings.