The farmers in Xuancheng, Anhui Province, dug out a golden thing, but they did not expect it to be a treasure from 3,000 years ago

In 1999, when a peasant in Xuancheng, Anhui Province, was working in the fields, a shovel went down and dug out a golden thing, and when he reached out to pick it up and look at it carefully, he was suddenly shocked.

This farmer was Chen Zhong, a villager in Xuancheng Shishan Village, it was January, the weather was good that day, so he ate breakfast and came to the field near the village, ready to clean up the silt in the pond, dug all morning, the whole person was tired enough, and was preparing to go home for lunch, suddenly a shovel went down, suddenly heard a bang, at first he thought he had dug up the stone, even when he saw it clearly, Chen Zhong was suddenly stunned, it turned out to be a golden thing, a look was an ancient treasure, this can make him happy He was so shocked that he couldn't pick it up when he quickly took it with one hand, and what treasure was so heavy, so he picked it up with both hands.

At this time, Chen Zhong's exhaustion also disappeared without a trace, he quickly cleaned up the mud on the treasure, looked around and saw that there was no one, quietly put it in his pocket, picked up the shovel and went home.

After arriving home, Chen Zhong quickly hit a basin of clean water, put the treasure he dug up in the water and carefully cleaned it again, this cleaning, the whole baby was even more golden, Chen Zhong was excited in his heart, was this treasure made of gold? It seems that he is really going to get rich, and the family members are very happy to see it, and they have said that this thing must be worth a lot of money.

After cleaning, Chen Zhong carefully observed this treasure, only to see that it was about 40 centimeters high, with many patterns engraved on it, and felt that the workmanship was very fine, but as a farmer, after all, his knowledge was limited, he wanted to come and go, and finally did not think of what kind of treasure it was, so he had to quietly hide it in the house first.

However, there is really no impermeable wall in the world, Chen Zhong dug up the treasure in the field, I don't know when it spread in the village, some villagers immediately reported to the local cultural relics department, the cultural relics department experts heard that the villagers dug treasures in the ground, think it is likely to be precious cultural relics, so they rushed to Chen Zhong's home.

Chen Zhong saw that the experts had found the door, his heart suddenly panicked, he could not dream of dreaming, he quietly dug up the treasure alone, how the experts knew, but since people have already found the door, it seems that concealment is not the way, so the treasure is taken out for the expert to look over, the experts are also surprised when they see the baby.

It turned out that after expert identification, this treasure turned out to be the beast face cloud pattern bronze cymbal of the Shang Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, which is one of the most distinctive percussion instruments in ancient China, and is also one of the earliest bronze instruments, the original function was used for the dissemination of orders in the military, and later evolved into an instrument, often played with cymbals, popular in the late Shang Dynasty and the early Zhou Dynasty. The Shang Dynasty beast face cloud pattern bronze is 37 cm high, the body is short and wide, the drum part is decorated with animal face pattern, and the rest is decorated with cloud pattern, weighing 13.5 kg. After more than 3,000 years of vicissitudes, the color is still golden, the ornamentation is very exquisite, and the preservation is very complete, which can be described as the best of the bronze cymbals of the past generations, and it is also a well-deserved bronze treasure.

Digging up such a precious cultural relic, of course, can not be appropriated for their own, so the experts persuaded Chen Zhong to hand over the bronze cymbals, but it was not easy to dig up a treasure, how chen Zhong was willing to hand it in, he thought that he did not steal two or two, why dig a treasure and give it to you. No matter how the experts persuaded, he was unwilling to turn them in, and held each other for half a day, the experts saw that Chen Zhong's will was firm, and it was not early in the day, so they had to give up the persuasion for the time being and then return sadly, planning to find time to persuade them again.

After the expert left, Chen Zhong thought about it left and right, thinking that this thing was placed at home, sooner or later it would leave him, and it was better to sell it quickly. Thinking of this, he immediately contacted the local antique dealer who had been selling cultural relics for many years, and agreed to sell the bronze cymbals at a price of 80,000 yuan. In the nineties of the last century, 80,000 yuan for a farmer, is really not a small amount, not to mention that the antique dealer cheated him is a farmer, do not understand the market, so the price may not be high, you can imagine how high the value of this bronze cymbal is!

However, before Chen Zhong's transaction was successful, the news that he planned to sell the bronze cymbals soon reached the ears of the experts, and the experts could not sit still, such a precious cultural relic, if it was sold, the loss would be great. In order to be able to take back the cultural relics in one fell swoop, the experts immediately contacted the local public security department, and everyone cooperated together to come to Chen Zhong's home again, this time after some persuasion by the experts, Chen Zhong finally agreed to hand over the bronze cymbals, and the experts finally breathed a sigh of relief and happily returned home with the cultural relics.

So why does this bronze cymbal made of bronze show a golden luster? Why did it appear in the Xuancheng area?

Originally, when the ancients made bronze, in fact, the use of copper, tin, lead and other raw materials, after a certain proportion, made into a hard alloy, that is, bronze, the ancients called it "Ji Jin", the bronze made of the alloy, the original color is golden, but most of the bronzes we have seen, in the long years after a variety of complex environment, and finally after being eroded the appearance became green, so it is difficult to see the original color when it was originally manufactured. And this piece of bronze unearthed in Xuancheng, Anhui, because of the high proportion of copper contained in the original manufacture, coupled with its in a relatively special environment, so it is very rare to retain its original color, so that people can see the original face of bronze thousands of years ago.

The reason why it appeared in the Xuancheng area, experts speculate that it is likely to be from the hands of the Baiyue ancestors, because in the Shang Zhou Period, the Xuancheng area already had a famous copper mining and smelting center, so the Baiyue ancestors in this area had mastered a certain technology of casting and smelting bronzes at that time.

This Shang Dynasty animal face cloud pattern bronze cymbals, is indeed a very rare precious cultural relics, its excavation shows us more than 3,000 years ago the exquisite skills of craftsmen and the Shang Dynasty bronze culture, for the study of the history and culture of the Shang Dynasty has an important significance, but also for the discussion of the age, nature and function of the southern China bronze cymbal provides valuable physical information, so it is worthy of a precious national treasure level cultural relics.