Editing Sichuan (section)

===Ba and Shu Kingdoms===
[[File:三星堆出土青铜大立人像, 2017-09-17.jpg|thumb|upright|Bronze figure of a [[high priest]] from [[Sanxingdui]], dating from the [[Shu (kingdom)|Shu kingdom]]]]
[[File:太阳神鸟金箔片, 2017-09-17.jpg|thumb|[[Golden Sun Bird]] from [[Jinsha site]]]]
The most important native states were those of Ba and Shu.

[[Ba (state)|Ba]] stretched into Sichuan from the [[Han River (Shaanxi)|Han Valley]] in [[Shaanxi]] and [[Hubei]] down the [[Jialing River]] as far as its confluence with the [[Yangtze]] at [[Chongqing]].<ref name=kongzi>{{cite book |title=Ancient Sichuan and the Unification of China |author=Steven F. Sage |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VDIrG7h_VuQC&pg=PA2 |publisher=State University of New York Press |pages=2–3 |year=2006 |isbn=0-7914-1038-2 |access-date=10 March 2016 |archive-date=30 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130195606/https://books.google.com/books?id=VDIrG7h_VuQC&pg=PA2 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Shu (kingdom)|Shu]] occupied the valley of the [[Min River (Sichuan)|Min]], including [[Chengdu]] and other areas of western Sichuan.<ref name=kongzi/> The existence of the early state of Shu was poorly recorded in the main historical records of China. It was, however, referred to in the ''[[Book of Documents]]'' as an ally of the Zhou.<ref>[http://ctext.org/shang-shu/speech-at-mu Shujing] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117022051/http://ctext.org/shang-shu/speech-at-mu |date=17 November 2015 }} Original text: {{lang|zh-hant|王曰：「嗟！我友邦塚君御事，司徒、司鄧、司空，亞旅、師氏，千夫長、百夫長，及庸，蜀、羌、髳、微、盧、彭、濮人。稱爾戈，比爾干，立爾矛，予其誓。」}}</ref> Accounts of Shu exist mainly as a mixture of mythological stories and historical legends recorded in local annals such as the ''[[Chronicles of Huayang]]'' compiled in the [[Jin dynasty (266–420)]],<ref name="sanxingdui">{{Cite book |last=Sanxingdui Museum |author2=Wu Weixi |author3=Zhu Yarong |title=The Sanxingdui site: mystical mask on ancient Shu Kingdom |publisher=[[:zh:五洲传播出版社|China Intercontinental Press]] |year=2006 |pages=7–8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O0UlsHXmv9IC |isbn=7-5085-0852-1 |access-date=10 March 2016 |archive-date=30 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130195603/https://books.google.com/books?id=O0UlsHXmv9IC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |trans-title=[[Chronicles of Huayang]] |script-title=zh:華陽國志 |trans-chapter=Book 3 |script-chapter=zh:卷三 |author=Chang Qu |url=https://archive.org/stream/06061130.cn#page/n90/mode/2up |pages=90–91 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314081232/http://archive.org/stream/06061130.cn#page/n90/mode/2up |archive-date=14 March 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> and the Han-dynasty compilation ''{{ill|Chronicle of the Kings of Shu|zh|蜀王本紀}}''.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3XG3H_WlM8C&pg=PT182 |title=A Companion to Chinese Archaeology |editor=Anne P. Underhill |chapter=Chapter 8: The Sanxingdui Culture of Sichuan |author=Sun Hua |isbn=978-1-118-32578-0 |publisher=Wiley |date=2013 |access-date=15 January 2019 |archive-date=17 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200117130948/https://books.google.com/books?id=I3XG3H_WlM8C&pg=PT182 |url-status=live }}</ref> These contained folk stories such as that of {{ill|Duyu|lt=Emperor Duyu|zh|杜宇}} who taught the people agriculture and transformed himself into a cuckoo after his death.<ref name="perf"/> The existence of a highly developed civilization with an independent bronze industry in Sichuan was excavated in 1986 at a small village named [[Sanxingdui]] in [[Guanghan]], Sichuan.<ref name="perf">{{cite book |title=Ta Chʻeng, Great Perfection – Religion and Ethnicity in a Chinese Millennial Kingdom |author=Terry F. Kleeman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FAJrw0yInnAC&pg=PA17 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-8248-1800-8 |pages=17–19, 22 |access-date=10 March 2016 |archive-date=30 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130195605/https://books.google.com/books?id=FAJrw0yInnAC&pg=PA17 |url-status=live}}</ref> This site, believed to be an ancient city of Shu, was initially discovered by a local farmer in 1929 who found jade and stone artifacts. Excavations by archeologists yielded few significant finds until 1986 when two major sacrificial pits were found with spectacular bronze items as well as artifacts in jade, gold, earthenware, and stone.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sanxingdui Museum |author2=Wu Weixi |author3=Zhu Yarong |title=The Sanxingdui site: mystical mask on ancient Shu Kingdom |publisher=[[:zh:五洲传播出版社|China Intercontinental Press]] |year=2006 |pages=5–6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O0UlsHXmv9IC |isbn=7-5085-0852-1 |access-date=10 March 2016 |archive-date=30 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130195603/https://books.google.com/books?id=O0UlsHXmv9IC |url-status=live }}</ref> This and other discoveries in Sichuan contest the conventional historiography that the local culture and technology of Sichuan were undeveloped in comparison to the technologically and culturally "advanced" [[Yellow River]] valley of north-central China.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}