Introduction: With the continuous updating of archaeological excavation techniques, more and more cultural relics have been discovered. These cultural relics not only have good research value, but also have good ornamentation. Therefore, many precious cultural relics are later put into museums for people to visit and admire. Among them is a very famous cultural relic, "Ma Ta Fei Yan".
However, careful people will find that whether it is a promotional photo about this cultural relic, or a photo taken by netizens, almost all of them are taken on the side, and few people go to take a picture of its front, why is this?
For this cultural relic, I think everyone is very familiar with it. It was discovered in an air raid shelter in Gansu in the late 1960s.
At that time, the production team was digging an air raid shelter, but inadvertently dug through an ancient tomb. There are many cultural relics in the ancient tomb, and the team members saw the situation and immediately carried these cultural relics to the production brigade. Fortunately, this matter was discovered by the then secretary of the commune, who reported to his superiors while leading people to protect these cultural relics.
Soon, archaeologists and antiquities experts arrived at the scene. Most of these cultural relics were found to be bronze vessels, including bronze maids, bronze horses, bronze pots and so on. One of the bronze horses has a very peculiar shape, only to see this horse take off on three legs and a swallow with one foot, in the shape of galloping.
Experts unanimously determined that this bronze horse was exquisitely crafted, conformed to the principle of mechanical balance, and was a fine bronze piece of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
This bronze horse is now known as the "horse stepping flying swallow".
However, this artifact was originally called "Copper Galloping Horse". Because although everyone knows that there is a bird at the feet of this horse, there has been controversy about what kind of bird it is.
Symbolically, the bird should be a dragon finches. In ancient mythology, the dragon sparrow is not only a member of the phoenix family, but also a wind god. And placed here, it can better set off the speed of pegasus faster than the wind god. Therefore, this cultural relic should be called "Horse Dragon Sparrow" is more in line with it.
But Guo Moruo, a famous historian in modern times, thinks. Although the dragon sparrow was more popular in ancient times, modern people know very little about it. Moreover, the appearance of the dragon finch is very different from that of this bird, according to the records, it is a deer-headed bird body, so this bird is not a dragon finch.
So he thought the bird should be a swallow. Swallows have symbols of auspiciousness, good luck, hard work, thrift and so on. It is more appropriate to name this cultural relic "Ma Ta Fei Yan".
Since then, some people have put forward the idea of "stepping on a swallow falcon" or even "stepping on a crow". And what exactly this bird under the horse's hoof is, has not been solved.
But people don't seem to care about that, as long as the name is loud enough and domineering enough. Therefore, the name "Ma Ta Fei Yan" has become more and more widespread, and it is still familiar to this day.
As a national treasure-level cultural relic that is forbidden to be exhibited abroad, this bronze horse has always been concerned. Now it is in the collection of the Gansu Museum, which is also the treasure of the museum.
Therefore, many people come to see how this horse is stepping on the flying swallow.
But the strange thing is that the photos we can see about this cultural relic are basically the side that can show the cool and heroic posture of Pegasus, but they can rarely see the front, and people rarely shoot its front.
In fact, the reason why I don't shoot the front is because the front photo is so funny. Nowadays, there is a popular phrase called "back shadow killing", and this "Ma Ta Fei Yan" is a veritable "frontal killing".
Below we can take a look at its front.
From the front, the bronze horse has its head on the side and its expression is twisted and ugly, as if it is a wild horse that has lost its reins, and it looks like a group of wild horses that are spreading joy. There is no seriousness in the side view, and instead it is humorous and funny.
The contrast between this side is huge, and people can't help but laugh after seeing the front photo. It's no wonder people rarely photograph its front.
But experts gave an explanation. The reason why the front of the original bronze horse has such a funny state is precisely to reflect the design technology of the ancients.
Because the copper horse is galloping, the side head of the copper horse can be balanced, which is why it is in line with the mechanical balance.
After hearing this explanation, people were awe-struck, deeply lamenting the exquisite craftsmanship of the ancestors, of course, also showed the strength of the Han Dynasty.
Finally, I have to say that this cultural relic represents a free-spirited, vigorous spirit, and even the funny and humorous frontal photos are to fit the overall balance effect of the copper horse. This is well worth studying and researching.
References: Book of Han, Archives of National Treasures