The Yellow River is China's mother river, from the first dynasty Xia, the Yellow River has been settled, from Xia to Jin, dozens of powerful dynastic economic and political cores are gathered in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, thousands of years of civilization here was conceived, the Yellow River is also the cradle of Chinese civilization.
But there is a saying that good saying, blessings and misfortunes depend on each other, the endless Yellow River water feeds hundreds of millions of acres of fertile fertile land, but also brought serious floods, because ancient science is not developed, it is difficult to dredge the river, often with some superstitious methods to manage the river, such as often heard of "hebo marries his wife", or to control the yellow river water to create four iron cattle.
In the "I Ching", it is said: "Cow elephant Kun, Kun is soil, soil wins water", the ancient saying has clouds: soldiers come to cover the water, the ancients made iron cattle is a kind of deterrence to the flooded Yellow River water, the ancients also pay attention to the opposite of yin and yang, while casting iron bulls, they also cast four iron men, imitating the seven stars of the Big Dipper to create seven-star iron pillars.
The four iron bulls were found at the site of Pujindu Ferry, 2.8 kilometers from the west bank of the Yellow River, which has been a major transportation route since then, and almost all dynasties have had to build bridges in Pujindu, and in the "Spring and Autumn Left Biography", there is a record: "In the year of the Zhao Dynasty, the Prince of Qin ran to Jin and built boats on the river".
The "History of Qin Benji" also states: "In the fifty years of King Zhaoxiang of Qin (257 BC), the river bridge was first made, and Yuwen Tai and Emperor Wen of Sui of Western Wei built pontoon bridges here, and in the thirteenth year of Tang Kaiyuan (725), the economy around Puzhou developed rapidly, and Puzhou City was one of the six major cities in the country.
The traffic status of Pujindu was also more important, with horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians flocking to the bridge, the bamboo rope boat bridge was dilapidated, affecting the development of Puzhou City, and the Yellow River flooding was not stopped, Tang Xuanzong ordered that the bamboo rope boat bridge be changed to an iron rope bridge, and suppressed with iron cattle.
These four iron bulls weighed differently, the lightest was 45 tons, the heaviest reached 72 tons, in the "General Code" and "Tang Huijiao" are recorded, Tang Xuanzong in order to build the iron bull, is the strength of the whole country, tens of thousands of people day and night to cast iron cattle, but with the Song and Jin wars, Pujindu was destroyed, the four iron cattle were abandoned.
Although the Ming Dynasty has reused the iron bull to build bridges four times, but by the Qing Dynasty, the Yellow River was diverted to the west to control the flood, Pujindu was completely abandoned, the iron cow sank in the water, in the 1940s, during the dry season, the past ships will encounter the bottom of the ship by the horn of the bull, in the 60s and 70s, it was deeply immersed in the silt of the Yellow River.
It was only re-excavated in 1998, but after the four iron bulls were washed clean, they did not see the oxidation and rust of the iron bulls, generally speaking, iron products were placed in humid air, and they would rust in years or even months, and the iron bull and the iron man were still "new" after thousands of years, which was simply incredible.
The experts are even more difficult, they do not know how to protect the four iron bulls, through unanimous consultation, finally decided to protect in situ, the iron cattle from the original 12.2 meters, on the surface to restore the original appearance, open air display.
Four iron bulls unearthed from the Yellow River, although 1,000 years have passed, they are still brand new, and experts are difficult to explain