According to the great philosopher, upon
waking up the eldest son would attach a solar ignitor to his belt as he
dressed for the day. It was his duty to focus the solar rays onto
kindling to start the family’s cooking fire.
According to another early text, the Zhouli,
which describes rituals dating far back into Chinese antiquity, “The
Directors of the Sun Fire have the duty of transferring with burning
mirrors the brilliant flames of the sun to torches for sacrifice.”
Although scholars found over the years many ancient texts discussing solar ignitors, the discovery of an extant yang sui eluded
them for centuries. Quite recently came the Eureka moment. Digging up a
tomb that dated to about three thousand years ago, a team of
archaeologists found in the hand of a skeleton a bowl-shaped metal
object. While the inner side could have passed for a wok, the exterior
trough had a handle in its center. That’s what caught the eye of the two
archaeologist in charge of the dig, Lu Demming and Zhai Keyong. They
immediately brought the relic back to the local museum and ordered its
specialists to make a mold from the original and then cast a copy in
bronze.
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