The Lost Tomb : Extras & Special Stories

(Extra: Wu Xie's Private Notes) Chapter 21: The Bronze Tree

The ancient people's worship of the sacred tree could be learned from the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" [1]. In several chapters of the book, there were records of the trees of life such as "Ruomu" and "Fusang" [2], but the only record of a bronze tree that could be found was in Sanxingdui [3].

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Notes:

[1] Remember, "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", also known as "Shan Hai Jing", is a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. It is largely a geographical and cultural account of pre-Qin China as well as a collection of Chinese mythology. The book is divided into eighteen sections; it describes over 550 mountains and 300 channels.

[2] The "Classics of Mountains and Seas" has the places where the sacred trees were, or they could even be the names of them. There is information about Fusang which refers to several different entities in ancient Chinese literature, often either a mythical tree or a mysterious land to the East. The term later became a poetic name of Japan. In the "Classics of Mountains and Seas", the term refers to a mythological tree of life, alternatively identified as a mulberry or hibiscus, allegedly growing far to the east of China, and perhaps to various more concrete territories east of the mainland.

[3] Sanxingdui, or "Three Star Mound", is an archaeological site and major Bronze Age culture located in modern Guanghan, Sichuan, China. They actually did find a bronze tree.