In terms of astronomical observation, China's ancient ancestors have always been at the forefront of the world, which is not only mostly found in historical documents, but also in archaeological discoveries, experts have also found a lot of strong evidence. For example, in the tomb of the Marquis of Ruyin in the Western Han Dynasty, two pieces of "unknown" lacquerware have been unearthed, and after thirty years of research, experts have found that it is an advanced astronomical observer. The following Xiaobian will reveal the secret to you from the beginning.
(All pictures in this article, all from the network, thanks to the original author, if you infringe your rights, please contact the author of this number to delete.) Pictures have nothing to do with the content, please do not enter the seat) The tomb of the Marquis ruyin of the Western Han Dynasty, located near fuyang airport in Anhui, originally there was a seal of more than 20 meters high, in 1957, due to the construction of the construction site caused by the sealing soil was destroyed, after the archaeological experts surveyed, found that the tomb has been stolen, but because there was no excavation conditions at that time, so it was temporarily sealed and protected. It was not until 1977 that the Cultural Relics Department of Fuyang City decided to carry out a protective excavation of the tomb.
As experts expected, although the ancient tomb has long been stolen, due to the unprofessionality of the tomb robbers, a large number of burial items have been unearthed, such as pottery figurines, bronze mirrors and bronze weapons, etc., and according to the excavated bamboo text records, it is determined that the owner of the tomb is the Western Han Dynasty Ruyin Marquis, that is, Xiahou Zao, the son of Xiahou Bao, one of the eight great heroes of the Western Han Dynasty. It is worth mentioning that among the many burial items, the most confusing to experts is two pieces of wood lacquerware. The wooden lacquerware was piled on the west side of the burial chamber and was already indelible when experts found it, but the patent leather on the surface of the wooden lacquerware was still very well preserved, and it was also painted with golden lines. Later, the experts took a lot of effort to take out the two rotten wood lacquerware in their original form and send them to the museum at the first time, and then the research work on these two pieces of wood lacquerware began.
After careful observation, experts preliminarily judged that one of them was a long strip, measured to be 68 cm long and 6.2 cm wide, with a hinge in the middle, which seemed to be folded open. The other is disc-shaped, measuring 23 cm in diameter and with small holes in the surface. For a time, experts wondered, the usual unearthed wooden lacquerware, not the box on the bowl, not the ear cup or the beanware, but for the two strangely shaped wooden lacquerware in front of them, the experts do not know what it is, let alone what they are used for.
With the passage of time, more than 30 years have passed since the excavation of the tomb of the Marquis of Ruyin in the Western Han Dynasty, but archaeologists have still not been able to crack the secret of the two pieces of wood lacquer. Until the turn of the millennium, once the experts of the National Astronomical Observatory organized an event to visit the Fuyang Museum, and then accidentally saw the two pieces of wood lacquerware, at that time, the two pieces of wood lacquerware, placed in a corner of the exhibition hall, and marked "unknown wooden lacquerware". The astronomer took a look at it, quickly raised his interest, after some research and discussion, speculated that they may be an astronomical instrument, although there were no research conditions at that time, but the astronomer took a few photos, he returned to the institute, first combined with ancient astronomical historical materials, and then carefully studied. It was finally determined that they were gui tables and equatorial observers.
The Gui table is an ancient instrument that measures the length of the shadow of the sun and determines the two points and two solstices (spring and autumn equinoxes, summer solstice and east solstice), which has a great role in guiding agricultural production and determining solar terms. As recorded in the "Zhou Li", "Tu Gui to four hours of the sun and the moon", "Tu Gui ruler has five inches, so that the day", of which "Tu Gui" is the Gui table, and the Gui watch excavated from the tomb of the Marquis of Ruyin is still the earliest Gui watch object so far, which is also a very rare physical material for the study of ancient astronomical technology. Another equatorial observer is even more powerful than the Gui watch, which astronomers call the "Twenty-Eight Astrological Disks." During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, when observing the starry sky, the ancient ancestors divided the movement of the sun, moon and five stars into twenty-eight star zones, and were widely used in astronomy, calendar and astrology, which had a great impact on people's production and life. The equatorial observatory excavated from the tomb of Marquis Ruyin was used to observe the twenty-eight stars. For example, Liu An, the king of Huainan, has been explained in the "Huainanzi Astronomical Training".
All in all, with the joint efforts of astronomers and archaeologists, the mystery of "unknown wooden lacquerware" has finally been unveiled, and these two cultural relics have also shown us the superb science and technology of the ancient ancestors. At the same time, cultural relics, as the best evidence of history, have also sent their own "powerful" voices to the world, and the greatness of the Chinese nation has existed in ancient times, and today's strength is a kind of inheritance of history. Wenlan Hairun Studio Editor-in-Chief Wen Xiucai, this article is written by: Special History Writer: Liu Lijiang's