Western Zhou semi-circular dragon pattern copper cymbal. Courtesy of Suizhou City Museum
Suizhou City Museum collection of Yejiashan excavated bronzes unique blue rust. Arterial imaging
Marquis Fang of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Courtesy of Suizhou City Museum
Drum Dun No. 2 Tomb Chime Bell during the Warring States Period. Courtesy of Suizhou City Museum
Suizhou, Hubei, hometown of Emperor Yan. In 1978, the Zenghou Yi chimes unearthed from suizhou Suixian Drum Pier stunned the world, causing Zeng Guo, which was not recorded in historical records, to attract the attention of scholars. In the same year, the Suizhou City Museum was founded. Over the decades, as archaeological work continued, more and more treasures were discovered.
The new museum of Suizhou City museum is adjacent to the ancient tomb group of Dougudun, and now has more than 10,000 pieces (sets) of cultural relics, including 318 national first-class cultural relics (sets), and most of the collections are Shang zhou bronzes. The museum basically displays 7 permanent exhibitions with the theme of "Handong Great Power", including "Yandi Shennong's Hometown", "Standing in Handong - Suizhou Yejiashan West Zhou Cemetery", "Zeng (Sui) National Lost Tracks", "ZengHouyi Tomb", "Drum Dun No. 2 Tomb", "Hanfeng Tang Yun" and "Recovered Treasure", and has a Zenghou Yi Chimes Orchestra Recital Hall and the Exhibition Hall of Hubei Provincial Honest Government Cultural education base, telling the legendary stories that occurred in this land with a long history from multiple angles.
Cracking the "Mystery of the Past"
Entering the exhibition hall, on the ancient map of the yellow relief, the four large characters of "Handong Great Country" are particularly eye-catching. The "Great Power of Handong" is the Zeng Kingdom as it is known today. However, before the excavation of a large number of national treasure-level cultural relics from the tomb of Marquis Zeng, historians did not know the existence of Zeng Guo, because there is no record of Zeng Guo in historical documents. The "Zuo Biography" records: "The country of Eastern Han is as big as it gets. However, what is puzzling is that a large number of cultural relics excavated in the Spring and Autumn Period of Zengguo are exactly the location of Suiguo recorded in the historical materials, and the cultural relics named Suiguo have not been unearthed here. Scholars call it "the mystery that once followed.".
Entering the exhibition hall of "Zeng (Sui) National Mystery Traces", various bronzes such as axes, yao, bells, dings, axes, chisels, knives, and ges come into view. People often used "bell ringing ding food" to describe the luxurious life of the ancient nobility. The size of the ding is a symbol of power and status. The animal face pattern excavated from Anju Yangzi Mountain was cast in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, with a tall body, and the abdomen and the roots of the three legs were decorated with domineering animal face patterns, with the raised ribs as the forehead and nose, forming three groups of upper and lower connections, which were quite majestic.
Zeng Hou and the chimes are even larger. A group of 8 chimes was excavated in 2009 in the Wenfeng Pagoda cemetery in Suizhou, the largest of which is 112.6 cm high and weighs 149.5 kg, which is the largest bronze Yong bell found in archaeology except for the ZengHou Yi chimes, and its exquisite production and structural complexity are comparable to the Zeng Hou Yi chimes, and the degree of ornamentation on the body even exceeds the Zeng Hou Yi chimes. To the surprise of archaeologists, there are inscriptions cast on the front and back of the bell body, and these 169-character inscriptions provide a key basis for the cracking of the "zeng sui mystery".
One of the bells of Marquis Zeng was given to Him by King Hui of Chu. When the State of Chu was in power for a while, why did King Hui of Chu make a set of bells to respectfully sacrifice Marquis Zeng? The inscriptions of Zeng Hou and Chimes give the answer: in the Battle of Wu-Chu, the State of Chu was once in the ascendant, and it was Zeng Hou's "pro-Bo Wugong" that made "Chu's life is quiet, and the King of Chu is restored". Zeng Guo protected the King of Chu, and the King of Chu established an alliance with Zeng Hou and restored the territory that Zeng Guo had once had. Zeng Hou and the special casting of this bell record this great feat. This inscription corroborates the fact that "Wu Shi entered the Battle of Yin, and the King of Chu avoided danger and followed" in the Zuo Zhuan and Shi Ji and other documents. Based on this, experts deduced that Zeng Guo was a suiguo, two members of one country.
Zenghou and the No. 3 bell bear the inscription "Zenghou and Yue: The Grandson of Yu Ji." "稷" is hou ji (後稷), the ancestor of the Zhou people. It can be seen from this that Marquis Zeng was a descendant of Hou Ji and belonged to the same surname as King Zhou.
Explore the changes in the country
If zengguo is a princely state with the surname Ji that the king of Zhou has divided, then who is the king of the first seal, and why did zengguo pass on for several generations? The exhibition "Standing in Handong - Suizhou Yejia Shanxi Zhou Cemetery" introduces the history of Zeng Guo. Yejiashan Cemetery is located in Jiang Zhai Village, Zhehe Town, Suizhou City, after two archaeological excavations in 2011 and 2013, more than 7,000 pieces (sets) of bronzes, pottery, jade, lacquerware, etc. were excavated, many of which had the inscription "Zeng Hou" on them, and "Zeng Hou Zhi" and "Zeng Hou Hou" appeared the most. Archaeological research has found that at least 3 Zenghou were buried in the Yejiashan cemetery, which should be from the early Western Zhou Dynasty.
The Nangonggui is one of the important cultural relics displayed here. Gui is an ancient food vessel and ceremonial vessel. The upper circle of the Southern Gonggui is symmetrical and solemn, and the body is decorated with a cloud-patterned animal face, and the casting skills are exquisite. The inscription "犺查列考南公宝尊彝" is inscribed on the body, indicating that The father of Zeng Hou was nan gong. Combined with the history books and Jinwen records, it can be seen that the Southern Duke is nangong Shi, the founding hero of the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Taigong Fengqi, Zhou Gongfeng Lu, Zhao Gong FengYan, and Nan Gong feng Yu Nantu, arched the Zhou royal family.
Although the 5 chimes unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Houyi are not as exquisite as the chimes of the tomb of Zeng Houyi, they are the earliest and most numerous chimes found in China. The semi-circular dragon-patterned bronze cymbal unearthed at Yejiashan shows that Zenghou had a high status as a rebel on behalf of Zhou Tianzi at that time. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the axe was a symbol of power, and the King of Zhou personally used it for conquest or ceremonial activities, or granted to princes and high-ranking officials to exercise the power of military conquest. The dragon-patterned copper-shaped bronze is in the shape of a dragon, bent into a half-ring from the dragon's head to the dragon's tail, and there are two rings under the dragon's tail, which are the places where the wooden staff is connected. The bronze cymbal is engraved with the inscription "Taibao 虘". Taibao was one of the three dukes of the Zhou Dynasty, second only to Taishi and Taifu. Gazing at this qi, you can imagine the mighty image of Zeng Hou holding a copper cymbal thousands of years ago, commanding the three armies and conquering the four sides.
Many cultural relics together show that zengguo had been enfeoffed in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, and together with the nearby bad state, he guarded the southern frontier and defended Against Jingman, that is, the State of Chu. The Suizhou City Museum also has a large number of bronzes from the Kingdom of Nightmare, reflecting the rise and fall of the mysterious princely state of the Kingdom of Nightmare and its association with the State of Zeng.
Hubei is referred to as E, the ancient Tong "nightmare" character. In 2007, inscriptions such as "Badhou Zha Brigade Yi" and "Badhou Zha Brigade Bao Zun Yi" were found on the bronze vessels excavated from tomb No. 4 of Yangzishan in Suizhou, proving that this place was once the location of the Badhou Kingdom.
In the exhibition hall, the strange shape and three-dimensional and vivid decoration of the nightmare Hou Fangmu make people can't help but stop and admire. In general, green rust is common on the surface of bronze, while the surface of the bad hou fang is covered with blue rust, which is more mysterious and noble. According to reports, the formation of blue rust on bronze is not only related to the composition of bronze, but also closely related to the burial environment.
So, why did the country that cast such exquisite bronzes disappear later? According to the Jin wen records on the excavated cultural relics, in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, hou Yifang joined forces with Huaiyi and Dongyi to rebel, and was eventually destroyed by the army sent by King Li of Zhou. After the fall of the Badnate, its original fiefdom was taken over by Zeng Guo, which made it possible to achieve the "kingdom of Handong and become large" in the Spring and Autumn Period.
From the exhibition area of Yejiashan Cemetery, to the exhibition area of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, and then to the exhibition area of the second tomb of Dougudun, one cultural relic after another tells the historical changes of zengguo from prosperity to decline. Archaeological research has found that there are 11 Zenghou with exact names, from Zenghou Zhi and ZengHou to ZengHou Yi and Zeng Hou Bing. In the Spring and Autumn Struggle for hegemony, as the power of the State of Chu grew, The State of Zeng adopted diplomatic strategies such as marriage and alliance with The State of Chu. In the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, the tomb of Zeng Houbao and his wife Qijia unearthed 19 chimes, and the inscription records that Qijia was the daughter of the Prince of Chu, and soon after marrying Zeng Houbao, ZengHoubao died young. Li Jia bravely shouldered heavy burdens, governed the country and protected Xinjiang, and achieved outstanding political achievements.
In the early Warring States period, zeng guo did not fall behind in the confrontation with the chu state, and the national strength reached its peak during the Zeng houyi period. A total of more than 10,000 cultural relics (sets) were unearthed from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, including 4,777 pieces of weapons, such as ge, halberd, spear, shield, bow, and hammer, and the military strength of Zeng Guo is self-evident. The No. 2 Tomb of Drum Dun, discovered in 1981 102 meters west of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, is dated to the middle of the Warring States period, although the time is later, the casting technique of bronze is much rougher than that of the zeng hou yi period, showing the decline of the Zeng state. Tomb No. 13 and Tomb No. 6 of The Drum Dun, between the middle and late Warring States periods, produce artifacts with The characteristics of Chu culture, indicating that during this period, the Zeng state had been annexed by the State of Chu.
The ingenuity is amazing
Although Zeng Guo has disappeared into the long river of history, the artistic treasures left behind have amazed the world. The bronze double-tone chimes excavated from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng are exquisitely cast and have twelve laws. The 36 chimes excavated from tomb No. 2 of The Drum Dun complement the rhythm of the chimes of Zeng Houyi and are combined with each other, which can be called the "sister bells" of ZengHouyi chimes. The two sets of music bells (except for the boring clocks) total 100 pieces, which can be divided and combined, are a complete and magnificent series of chimes.
The drum dun No. 2 tomb chime bell, also known as the God Man Snake and Beast Face Pattern Yong Bell, is the treasure of the Suizhou City Museum. When unearthed, it was placed in the form of a large bell set and a small bell, and there was no bell frame. The whole set of chimes has a thick bass, a rounded alto, a crisp and pleasant treble, can be transposed, plays many famous Chinese and foreign songs, and has the same world-wide C major as modern pianos. The history of the piano is only about 300 years, but the history of chimes is more than 2400 years, and the musical wisdom of the Ancient Chinese people has amazed the world.
The ingenuity of ancient craftsmen on bronze eating vessels is also amazing. The Suizhou City Museum exhibits a gift from Chu Guojun to Zeng Houbing. It consists of a round koshiki and a three-legged separate bristle, and is a utensil for cooking food. Its subtlety lies in the fact that the mouth is hollowed out by 10 symmetrical pores along the lower edge, and when the water vapor in the koshiki reaches a certain density, the gas will be emitted downwards, similar to the principle of modern pressure cookers.
The Ophiross copper smoke lamp is also a rare treasure. The copper smoke lamp is composed of three parts: a monster-shaped lamp holder, a lamp lamp and an incense mask. The monster's abdomen is hollow, used to hold oil, the back is connected to the lid by a chain, the beast's forehead is wide and flat, standing upright with a lamp, the tail is rolled back, and an incense mask is erect. This vessel has the function of oil lamp and incense, which is rare in the excavated cultural relics of the same era, and is both practical and environmentally friendly.
The kingdom of Zeng has been destroyed and has existed everywhere. In the exhibition area of "Yandi Shennong's Hometown", it can be traced back to a more ancient past than ZengGuo; in the exhibition area of "Han Feng Tang Yun", you can see the prosperity and progress of the Han and Tang Dynasties suizhou. Stepping out of the museum, we will continue to write prosperity.