Author: The king called me to patrol the mountains again
Contents
First, the discovery of copper galloping horses
Second, the repair of copper galloping horses
Third, the study of copper galloping horses
Fourth, the controversy of the copper galloping horse
5. The honor of the Bronze Galloping Horse
Sixth, the stupidity of the copper galloping horse
(Full text 6000 words)
This year (September 2021) marks the 52nd anniversary of the discovery of the National Treasure Copper Galloping Horse. Copper galloping horse, also known as "Ma Ta Fei Yan", "Ma Chao Dragon Sparrow", is the Eastern Han Bronze, a rare masterpiece in ancient Chinese bronze artworks, excavated in October 1969 in the Leitai Han Tomb in Wuwei City, Gansu Province, now in the Gansu Provincial Museum, in 1983 by the National Tourism Administration as a Chinese tourism symbol; in 1996 by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage expert group identification as a national treasure level cultural relics; in 2002 by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage listed in the first batch of precious cultural relics prohibited from overseas exhibition; the treasure of the Gansu Provincial Museum and Town Museum.
Copper Galloping Horse Pass is 34.5 cm high, 45 cm long, 13.1 cm wide and weighs 7.3 kg. The whole is galloping, the head is slightly left, the horse's head is decorated with a majestic victory, the ears are sharp, the eyes are round, the nostrils are open, the head is hissing, the neck is thick and long, the chest is wide and the hips are round, the feet are thin and wide, the long tail is fluttering, the end is knotted, the three legs are in the air, and a huge horse with a huge body steps on the back of a galloping dragon finch, and the little dragon sparrow looks back in surprise, showing the majestic posture of the horse soaring in the air and running fast. The bird has a pit on its square tail, which should be a swallow falcon. The galloping horse uses ink lines to outline the mane, whiskers, lips, nose, eyes, eyebrows, etc., the mouth and nose are coated with vermilion, the teeth are painted white, the inner perimeter angles are painted with Zhu, the eyeballs are painted white, and the black ink is dotted, and then the color is applied to enhance the vivid effect of the demeanor, and on the saddle side of the horse's abdomen, there are traces of Zhu and white paintings. The galloping horseshoe stepped on the bird, showing the speed of the horse, and at the moment when the bird looked back in surprise, it had surpassed the bird flying like a meteor. The focus of the whole body is concentrated on the foot of the super-trampled bird, and the spread wings of the bird just play a role in supporting the balance, accurately grasping the balance principle of mechanics, and having an excellent level of process technology.
Copper galloping horse casting process for the sub-fan casting, that is, fan casting horse body, and then with the horsetail, horse legs, hoof birds and other parts of the cast and production, copper legs sandwiched with iron core to enhance support and strength, copper galloping horse casting exquisite, superb technology, ingenious conception, for China's ancient bronze artworks in the rare masterpiece.
Copper galloping horses were unearthed in Leitai, wuwei county, Gansu Province. The platform is 106 meters long, 60 meters wide, 8.5 meters high, and has an area of 124,000 square meters. The rectangular rammed earth platform is located with the Leitai Temple, which is called "Leitai" because of the statue of Leizu in the apse.
Thunder
In September 1969, members of the Thirteenth Production Team of the Fresh Brigade of Fresh Commune in Wuwei County discovered a tomb while excavating a war-ready tunnel south of Leitai. At that time, the tomb was full of neatly arranged copper carts, copper horses, and copper people, and there was a coffin in the inner chamber, which contained two corpse skeletons, and several clay pots were stacked at the foot of the skeleton. In the dim light, some people regarded these bronze carriages and horses as golden people, golden horses, and golden carts. At that time, Wang Hongshang, the leader of the production team, told the members not to spread the news, and then put all the valuable things inside, including copper people, copper horses, copper cars, etc., into sacks, and transported them to the brigade warehouse with a shelf car and sealed them. Without any protection measures and the involvement of archaeologists, the tomb was thus uncovered. At that time, it was a special period, due to the lack of attention to cultural relics, the tomb was seriously damaged, the tomb was turned into a mess, the remaining traces of some perishable utensils such as wood, lacquerware, silk fabrics and so on were destroyed without a trace, leaving only broken clay pots and residual copper coins, and some important materials of great research value disappeared.
Leitai Tomb
Half a month later, the news of the discovery of the ancient tomb under Lei Tai reached the ears of Dang Shoushan, a cadre in charge of propaganda and cultural relics at the Wuwei County Cultural Center, and he immediately asked Zhang You, the political and legal officer of Jinyang District, Wuwei County, to go straight to Lei Tai to investigate the matter. According to Dang Shoushan's recollection: "I have been engaged in cultural relics for more than 10 years, and this is the first time I have seen a large tomb like this, and inside the tomb is a large amount of money for paving the ground, and some pottery." In addition, there are overturned coffin boards and some bones. Dang Shoushan, who has rich experience, immediately concluded that such a large-scale tomb cannot have only a few pieces of pottery, and a large amount of paving money shows that the owner of the tomb was very rich before he died, his burial items should be very rich, and a large number of important cultural relics may have been artificially transferred. They immediately reported to the leadership of the Commune.
After listening to the report, Sun Tianqing, the secretary of the commune, also realized the seriousness of the matter, and immediately rushed to the fresh commune with Dang Shoushan, called a meeting of cadres and members to learn that because two horses of the production team had died suddenly not long ago, the brigade wanted to sell these bronzeware to the waste collection station and exchange some money to buy horses for production, so it kept it a secret from the outside world. Sun Tianqing immediately gave a clear instruction: "These ancient cultural relics cannot be sold, let alone destroyed, and the commune must reflect them to the superiors." At this critical moment, in order to avoid the artificial destruction of a large number of cultural relics such as copper galloping horses, the secretary of the commune can be said to have made an indispensable contribution.
After repeated mobilization by Dang Shoushan and others, and patiently explaining the important value of these cultural relics, the production team leader agreed to let them see the cultural relics hidden in the brigade's warehouse. Dang Shoushan was stunned when he saw this batch of precious cultural relics, and due to improper storage, these cultural relics were seriously damaged, the tail of the copper galloping horse was broken, and the head and hooves of some horses were also broken. In order to avoid further damage, he immediately registered all cultural relics in detail, transferred the cultural relics to the Collection of the Temple of Literature for safekeeping, and at the same time made a special report to the relevant departments of Gansu Province.
In October 1969, the Literature and Art Office of the Political Department of Gansu Province and the Provincial Bureau of Culture, Yue Banghu, Zhang Xuezheng, Zhang Pengchuan, Hu Shoulan, and Ning Duxue of the Provincial Museum Cultural Relics Task Force, formed an archaeological working group to go to the Wuwei Leitai tomb to conduct archaeological investigation and comprehensive cleanup. After the archaeologists entered the ancient tomb, after detailed investigation, the structure of the tomb was first clarified, the tomb door was opened to the east, composed of multiple burial chambers, divided into three main burial chambers in front, middle and rear, the front chamber was composed of a corridor and a tomb passage to the east, the front chamber had the left and right ear chambers symmetrical to each other, and the middle chamber only had the right ear chamber, no left ear chamber, compared with other burial chambers, the back chamber appeared smaller, there was no left and right ear chambers.
Leitai Tomb Diagram
According to the investigation of the members of the society concerned and the cleaning up afterwards, it was learned that the location of the burial utensils and burial utensils was roughly as follows: at that time, the bronze carriage and horse warrior ceremonial warriors and copper galloping horses were neatly arranged on the right ear room of the front room and the second floor platform outside the door, and the pottery building courtyard was placed on the second floor of the Nanbi second floor, a bronze bull was placed at the door of the left ear room of the front room, and on the three sides of the middle room, there were copper lotus lanterns with exquisite design and unique shapes, as well as daily necessities such as copper pots, copper statues, and copper smokers, and most of the pottery was placed in the right ear room. The back room is smaller and is where the coffins are placed, where the four stone turtles that support the coffin bed are still placed, and four silver seals of the turtle button with the inscription "General □□" have been unearthed here. After the cleaning and summarizing statistics of all excavated cultural relics, there are 231 pieces of gold, silver, copper, iron, jade, bone, lacquer, stone, pottery, etc. buried in the tomb, including 17 bronze warrior figurines, 28 slave figurines, 39 bronze horses, 14 copper carts, and 1 bronze ox. Experts believe that these bronze carriages and horses and bronze figurines should be a guard of honor. In addition, there are more than 28,000 copper coins on the floor, which is simply an underground museum with rich reserves.
Regarding the construction age of the Leitai Ancient Tomb, people can not find more written records, can only be analyzed and judged by the tomb Chinese objects, there are currently two views: First, because most of the tomb Chinese have the characteristics of the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and the copper horse inscription on the "left riding thousand people" official name and "Liangzhou Zhangye County" establishment, only appeared in the Han Dynasty literature. Therefore, some experts set the construction date of the Leitai Tomb at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty; Second, some other experts found new clues in the floor money of the tomb, and some "five Zhu qian" without gold characters were unearthed in the tomb, and the "baht" character of the "five baht money" in the Han Dynasty had a gold character next to it. The "Five Zhu Qian" minted during the Wei and Jin dynasties did not carry gold characters next to it, so it is generally believed that the Leitai ancient tomb should be built in the Wei and Jin dynasties.
It is not difficult to see from the large number of burial items in the ancient tomb that the status and identity of the tomb owner before his death are very prominent. Although the tomb has been stolen many times in history, a large number of precious cultural relics have been unearthed. Although there is no epitaph and other historical records in this tomb, which has caused many difficulties in judging the true identity of the tomb owner, through the specifications of the tomb and the mighty lineup displayed by the excavated bronze carriage and horse honor guard team, there are also individual horses inscribed with inscriptions "Shou Zhangye Chang Zhang Junqian's wife Zhang Junqian's wife Will Be a car slave, from one person", the back of the figurine is engraved with inscriptions "Zhang ShiNu", "Zhang Shi Qi", especially the information provided by the silver seals of the four turtle buttons, indicating that the tomb owner's surname is Zhang, a general. He also served as the head of Wuwei County, the head of the four counties of Hexi.
On November 3 and December 12, 1969, Wei Huaiheng and Zhang Xuezheng of the Provincial Museum Cultural Relics Task Force came to Wuwei on the orders of the Propaganda Group of the Political Department of Gansu Province. The burial chamber passage was searched and cleaned again, and a copper unicorn was excavated at the tomb door, and some frescoes were cleared on both sides of the tomb. During the clean-up process, two new robbery holes were discovered, and in the mound under the middle chamber robbery hole, some small pieces of gold and silver and bone objects were excavated, indicating that the tomb had been stolen many times in the past. However, due to the fact that the tomb robbers only know gold and silver and know nothing about the bronze national treasure, the bronze carriage and horse honor guard can be well preserved to this day, and eventually become the common heritage of mankind.
After that, the relevant departments of Gansu Province decided to raise all the cultural relics excavated from Leitai to the provincial museum for preservation, and the copper galloping horse was also listed among them, because the museum was not exhibited to the outside world at that time, and the copper galloping horse had not yet been known to the outside world.
The copper galloping horse was unearthed in a broken piece, with several holes the size of 1 cm in the neck and a broken tail.
In September 1971, Mr. Guo Moruo, then vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, accompanied foreign guests on a visit to northwest China, although the schedule was quite tight, but Guo Lao, who was quite interested in history and culture, still squeezed out a little time to go to the Gansu Provincial Museum to see, in this regard, Guo Lao actually found a treasure of the town and country that had not yet been noticed among the many cultural relics - copper galloping horse. But the national treasure is badly damaged, so what should we do? The Forbidden City is preparing to hold a cultural relics exhibition in December, and after Guo Moruo returned to Beijing from Gansu, he immediately added the "Ma Ta Fei Yan" copper galloping horse that he had in mind to the exhibition, but at this time, the copper galloping horse was not only scarred, but also the mane on the head was also lost, and even the tail was gone, how could it be taken out for the exhibition like this? So found the bronze restoration expert Zhao Zhenmao, after receiving the task, Zhao Zhenmao immediately rushed to the Beijing Palace Museum to report, and at this moment the copper galloping horse appeared in front of Zhao Zhenmao for the first time. After carefully observing the bronze horse, he found that there were several one-centimeter-sized holes in the neck of the copper horse alone, several strands of mane on the horse's head and tail had fallen off, and the cores of the three hooves were empty. Zhao Zhenmao first cleaned the copper horse, and then used the soldering method to link the welding, for the broken hole in the neck of the galloping horse, he used copper and tin welding patch, filled in the gaps, smoothed out, some of the ornaments were slightly intermittent, Zhao Zhenmao used a carving knife to modify smoothly, but where the repair Zhao Zhenmao used the traditional old method, made the background color through the copper rust, can not see a little repair traces. Later, seeing that the horse's three horseshoes were empty, Zhao Zhenmao felt that such an exhibition was not very elegant, but if it was not filled well, the aura of the whole bronze would be greatly reduced, Zhao Zhenmao used glue to blend the soil to some Zhang Danhong, filled like mold soil, after the modification of the horseshoe and the original mold mud, just like Zhao Zhenmao's repaired ma ta fei yan, when ma ta fei yan appeared in front of Guo Moruo again, it was new and impeccable. The dynamic performance of the horse's gallop is vivid, reflecting the horse and the bird scrambling to patrol the moving, and cleverly highlighting the briskness of the horse's hoof. How did the Romantic poets of the Tang Dynasty write such a verse: "Pi Ma Xi returned from the sky, and the whip was only fought by the birds to fly." "It seems to be the best interpretation of Ma Ta Feiyan's agility."
Zhao Zhenmao, a native of Shenxian County, Hebei Province, is an expert in bronze restoration. After 1952, he served as a technician and technician in the restoration plant of the Palace Museum, and a member of the National Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee.
For a long time, the academic research on the copper galloping horse has also become a hot topic, what kind of horse is it? Why did this perfect shape of two thousand years ago not appear in the culturally prosperous Central Plains, but in the remote Hexi Corridor Liangzhou ancient city of Wuwei? What is the relationship between Dawan's sweat and blood horses and ancient Liangzhou, which is now Wuwei, Gansu?
According to historical records, the Han people have a long history of horse breeding, but before the Warring States, horse breeding was mainly to pull carts. In the Han Dynasty, the talented Emperor Wu of Han was determined to strengthen the strength of the cavalry in the army, and when he learned that there were purebred horses in the distant Dawan kingdom, the Han Wu emperor who loved horses immediately sent emissaries to buy the horses of the Dawan kingdom with golden horses of the same size, but the Dawan people killed the emissaries and stole the golden horses, and the angry Han Wudi swung the sword of revenge at the Dawan kingdom. In 104 BC and 101 BC, Emperor Wu of han sent the general Li Guangli (李廣利) to launch two wars against the State of Dawan, forcing the State of Dawan to adopt a strategy of peace negotiations, giving the Han Dynasty dozens of sweat and blood horses and thousands of good horses. With the continuous eastward arrival of good horses in the western region, Wuwei has become an important horse breeding base. In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, an official in charge of horses was also set up in Wuwei, and the main post was called "Pastor Yuan", and the deputy post was called "Bow Ma Wen". Sun Wukong in Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West is given the title of Bow Ma Wen Shepherd Tianma, an official position that was intercepted from the Han Dynasty Wuwei Horse Herding Official. It is precisely because Wuwei has too many good horses, so it is natural that two thousand years ago, the shape of the copper galloping horse was born here.
Li Xueqin, a professor at Tsinghua University and an academician of the International Academy of Asian and European Sciences, believes that "the copper galloping horse unearthed in Wuwei is a very special bronze, it is not a practical artifact, and it is not a funerary product specially made for martyrdom. Turning over the classics of the Han Dynasty, whether it is the "History" or the "Book of Han", there are many records of the sweat and blood horses, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty once gave the name of the Dawan Khan Blood Horse as "Tianma"; The Chronicle of Dawan says: "Dawan is in the west of the Han Dynasty, about ten thousand miles, and Dawan produces good horses, and the horses sweat like blood, and they are the descendants of Tianma."
Some scholars have studied the pace of the copper galloping horse, the copper galloping horse one hoof treading on the bird's back, the other three hooves soaring over the air, the two legs on the same side at the same time in one direction, which is not seen in the general horse running, this posture has a special term, called "contralateral step", according to legend, the Great Wan horse is a master of walking on the opposite side. Therefore, according to the contralateral step shape of the copper galloping horse, some people believe that the prototype of the copper galloping horse comes from the Dawan of the Western Regions. However, some people believe that the shape of the copper galloping horse not only shows the characteristics of the fast and stable Dawan horse, but also has some characteristics of the Mongolian horse, its muscles are thick, and the body is slightly thick, which shows that it is not a purebred Dawan horse. It should be that after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty introduced the Dawan horse, he crossed with the Mongolian horse to form a Chinese horse with a unique style, combining two horses with different body shapes.
In 1977, in the Sixteen Kingdoms period tomb murals of Dingjiazha in Jiuquan, Gansu Province, a painted pegasus figure was found, a sacred horse painted with a red mane and a red tail, flying in the sky in the clouds, which had a striking resemblance to the copper galloping horse. When the copper galloping horse was unearthed, archaeologists found that there were obvious painted marks on its head and back. Nearly two thousand years have passed, and the colors have gradually fallen off with the corrosion of the bronze surface, and the colorful patterns depicted on the copper galloping horse can no longer be seen, but today people can still faintly see the traces that were depicted at that time in the eyes, lips, teeth, etc. of the horse, and see the paintings of the galloping horse pattern and the cloud pattern in other copper horses.
1. The controversy of running "horses"
There are four main theories about what a copper galloping horse is. One said it was "Pegasus". The bronze galloping horses unearthed from the Leitai Han Tomb are tall and soaring in the air, very similar to the "Heavenly Horses" introduced from the northwest during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty; the second is the "Divine Horse". The sacred horse is also called "Heavenly Donkey", riding fast. "Tiansi" originally refers to the fourth star of the Seven Heavenly Dragons of the Twenty-Eight Stars in the Heavens, named "Fang", also known as "Matsu God"; the third is "Purple Swallow". A black hyena and a black-tailed purple-red horse ride fast, like a flying swallow. Emperor Wen of Han had nine good horses known as "Jiuyi", one of which was the "Purple Swallow Horse"; the fourth said it was "Terre Horse". Teller Was originally one of the "Six Horses" owned by Tang Taizong, and when he ran, one side of his front and back legs flew in the air at the same time, called "contralateral step", and the horse that could run "contralateral step" was a special good horse, which was very rare.
2. The controversy of stepping on the "bird"
The most controversial bronze galloping horse is the "bird" it steps on. The first view is what Guo Moruo calls "swallow"; the second view is "dragon sparrow". In the Eastern Han Dynasty Zhang Heng's "Tokyo Fu", there is a saying that "dragon sparrow cockroach, tianma half Han", the dragon bird is the wind god of Qin and Han mythology and legend "Fei Lian", which can step on the wind god under the hoof; the third view is "Swallow Falcon". The swallow falcon is the size of a pigeon, shaped like a swift, and flies quickly; the fourth view is the "crow". This theory is inspired by the "Tianma Xingkong" diagram in the Longyou Grottoes in Zhejiang: the front hooves of the "Tianma" are above the back of the "Wu", as if chasing the crow.
3. Disputes over the dynasty to which they belong
The Gansu Provincial Museum believes in the archaeological report that the tomb dates to the late Eastern Han Dynasty, during the "Period of the Three Years of the Eastern Han Ling Emperor Zhongping to the Xiandi Emperor (186-219)", so it is called "Leitai Han Tomb", which is based on the excavated "Five Baht" money and cultural relics on the inscriptions such as "Shouzuo Riding Thousand People Zhangye Chang Zhangjun", so it is concluded that the copper galloping horse is a cultural relic of the Eastern Han Dynasty; however, some scholars disagree with the conclusion of the archaeological report, and put forward five theories such as the Eastern Han Dynasty, han Wei, the Western Jin Dynasty, the late Jin Dynasty, and the former Liang.
4. Disputes over the owner
In the archaeological report, the Gansu Provincial Museum believes that the owner of the copper galloping horse is "General Zhang Mou", but some scholars believe that it should be the Eastern Han Dynasty "Zhang Jun", who served as the left riding officer of Wuwei County. In addition, there are "Zhang Jiang", "Zhang Xiu", "Zhang Rail", "Zhang Jun" and so on.
However, regardless of the name it eventually adopts, this bronze figurine will eventually be the "peak of ancient Chinese art", and its bold imagination and genius casting skills have left a rare work of art for the world.
In October 1983, "Ma Ta Fei Yan" was identified as a Chinese tourism symbol by the National Tourism Administration, directly because when it was exhibited in the United States, the bronze galloping horse jumped on a huge poster to become the symbol of the cultural relics exhibition, so when selecting the Chinese tourism sign, it won the championship among thousands of precious cultural relics.
The reason why it is used as a graphic symbol of China's tourism industry has three meanings:
1. Flying in the sky, soaring and uninhibited, symbolizing China's tourism industry with a bright future.
2. Horses are an important tool for ancient and modern tourism, a symbol of endeavor, and tourists can enjoy tourism in China.
3. This flying horse is not only an outstanding work of ancient craftsmen, but also a representative of many cultural relics in China and a symbol of ancient Chinese civilization.
In front of the most serious archaeologists, if someone asks why the image of a copper galloping horse appears on the Internet, the archaeologists will smile but refuse to answer. In fact, the copper galloping horse is popular, not only its legendary history, but also the side of the heroic posture, the back of the mighty domineering, the tail swing exaggerated, the hissing Kong Wu powerful, the big face is thick and lovely, because the copper galloping horse is like this...
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