[Original title] These cultural relics have changed their names, can you still recognize them?
Names are one of the most important identities in each of our lives, have beautiful meanings and are not easily changed, and are always closely associated with us.
The same is true for cultural relics, the naming of each cultural relic is very rigorous, following the principle of characteristics, just a few words should be able to show the most prominent and important characteristics of a cultural relic, to let people "look at its name and know its appearance".
Generally speaking, the name of the artifact will be fixed after it is determined and will not be changed. But even then, there are still "special cases" that arise. And those cultural relics that have undergone name change are also famous!
1
Simu Pengding? Stepmother Pentad!
Houmu Pengding is the largest and heaviest bronze ceremonial vessel unearthed in China so far, with a height of 133 cm, a mouth length of 110 cm, a width of 79 cm, a weight of 832.84 kg, a foot height of 46 cm, a wall thickness of 6 cm, a wide mouth edge, and a straight contour. The body ornament is beautiful and solemn, and the craftsmanship is exquisite.
Collection of the National Museum of China
In the initial excavation report, the excavators referred to it as "Simu Pengfangding" based on the inscription on the inner wall of the artifact's abdomen, and then Guo Moruo, who was the president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the time, interpreted the inscription as "Simu Pengding" and changed its name to "Simu Pengding".
In the early years, scholars believed that "si" was "祀", which means "sacrifice". Under this theory, it is believed that "Mother E" is the mother of King Wending of the Shang Dynasty, indicating that the Ding is a vessel cast by the King of Shang to sacrifice his mother. Some scholars who agreed added to this, "Shang is called Nian Yue Qi and Si Ye, and Si is the ancestral character." As a result, the title of "Simu Pengding" was fixed and continued for decades.
Pattern of inscriptions on the inner wall of the abdomen of Simu Pengding/Houmu Pengding.
In 1976, the tomb of Nühao was discovered, and among the bronzes unearthed was an inscription of "Mu Xin". Experts and scholars, while identifying the tomb of the woman "Simu Xinding", proposed that "Simu Pengding" can actually be interpreted as "Houmu Pengding".
When the term "Houmu Pengding" was first proposed, some scholars pointed out that the Shang Dynasty font was relatively free, the partial head could be placed or moved at will, the text could be written forward or backward, and "Si" may be the reverse of "Hou", which is the same word.
However, scholars have different views on the interpretation of "hou". Some scholars believe that the "queen" of "post-mother" means "great, great, and respected." For example, the word "Hou" in the word "Emperor Tianhou Earth" is synonymous with "Emperor", which means "lofty and prestigious".
On March 6, 2011, the CCTV news channel "News 30 Minutes" called the artifact "Houmu Pengding", so that everyone found that the National Museum had changed the name of "Simu Pengding" to "Houmu Pengding" in the display exhibition, and at this point, it seemed that the name dispute had come to an end. But this does not mean that one of the "divisions" and "after" must be wrong, but in recent years, everyone thinks that the interpretation of the latter is more accurate.
2
Ma Ta Fei Yan? Copper galloping horses!
The bronze galloping horse is now in the Gansu Provincial Museum, and it is the main image of the identification mark of the National Tourism Administration of the People's Republic of China and the logo of "China's Excellent Tourist City". This is a bronze artifact of the Eastern Han Dynasty excavated in 1969 from the ancient tomb of Leitai in Wuwei, Gansu, and was sent to the Gansu Provincial Museum shortly after it was discovered.
Copper Galloping Horse Gansu Provincial Museum Collection.
The bronze galloping horse was once named "Ma Ta Fei Yan", also from Mr. Guo Moruo.
In 1971, Guo Moruo accompanied foreign guests on a visit to Lanzhou, and when he visited the Gansu Provincial Museum, he saw the copper galloping horse, and while he was overwhelmed by the artistic charm of the cultural relics, he sighed: "It is the treasure of this batch of cultural relics!" Imaginative, solitary, even if it is brought to the world, it is a first-class art treasure. ”
After sighing, Guo Moruo named the cultural relic Ma Ta Fei Yan.
It is said to be "horse stepping flying swallow", but in fact, the bird at the foot of the galloping horse is not a swallow. According to scholars, the shape of the bird's tail is in unison, and the swallowtail should be the shape of a split scissors. So no matter what, the name should at least be "Horse Andi Bird".
However, when the copper galloping horse was first sent to the Gansu Provincial Museum, it was called after the registration. It's just that "Ma Ta Fei Yan" is more catchy, and for a while everyone mistakenly thought that this was its original name.
Flying Bird (Copper Galloping Horse Partial), Gansu Provincial Museum Collection.
In addition to Ma Ta Fei Yan, people also have many different "unofficial nicknames" such as Ma Chao Dragon Sparrow, Pegasus, Pegasus, Copper Stork Horse and so on.
The earliest scholars who proposed the name "Ma Chao Dragon Sparrow" named it "Tianma Half Han, Dragon Sparrow Flying Dragon Fly" according to the literature of Zhang Heng's "Tokyo Fu", named it "Beyond the Wind God Dragon Bird's Journey to the Sky Sky Horse", referred to as "Heavenly Horse Dragon Bird" or "Ma Chao Dragon Bird", which means "Sky Sky Pegasus Walking In the Star Han Galaxy, Wind God Dragon Bird Curling Up and Looking Back in Shock".
In the "Dictionary of Chinese Art" published by the Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House in 1987, the main entry of "Ma Chao Dragon Bird" is also included, and the interpretation says that "after examination, the so-called flying swallow is not a swallow, but a 'dragon bird' in ancient legends, and the horse is also an extraordinary horse, but a divine horse, that is, a 'heavenly horse'".
3
Concubine Xin Chai? Concubines?
Xin Chai was originally a female immoral wet corpse excavated from Tomb No. 1 of the Mawangdui Han Tomb, named after the unearthing of a seal engraved with the words "Concubine Xin Chai".
The 1978 excavation report "Changsha Mawangdui No. 1 Han Tomb" introduced the seal as follows: "Square, 2.7 cm on the side, the three characters of the Yin seal book 'Concubine Xin □', the characters are long and horizontal, which may be the name of the deceased." ”
The 1982 report "Mawangdui Han Tomb" has a more specific description: "Engraved with the three characters of 'concubine Xin [chase]' (the latter word seems to be 'chase')".
Seal facsimile Image source: Zhou Shirong, "Research on the Western Han Seals Unearthed in Changsha and Related Issues"
In recent years, some scholars have once again analyzed the seal through in-depth research on the glyph writing method of ancient characters, the production process and use of the seal, and then proposed that "it should be 'concubine avoidance' rather than 'concubine pursuit'".
Combining the printed photographs with the Qin and Han chinese text materials currently unearthed, scholars have proposed that "Xin Chai" is actually a variant of the word "avoidance". In other words, the seal circled in the figure below should be a separate and complete "avoidance" character, rather than "Xin Chai".
But if it is "concubine avoidance", is it reasonable that a single word "avoid" occupies 2/3 of the printing area? Scholars have also noticed differences in layout.
They believe that in fact, in order to pursue aesthetics in the Qin and Han seals, in fact, this kind of double-character seal, which occupies more than half of the area of one word, is very common.
However, the interpretation of "concubine avoidance" can not convince all scholars, there are still scholars who feel that it is more appropriate to "concubine Xin chai", they believe that although "opening" and "avoiding" are similar, most of the Qin and Han seals use "to avoid" instead of "avoid", and the word "avoidance" is rare, and it is rare to see "avoidance" in the seal.
On this basis, scholars of the "concubine Xin Chai" theory believe that instead of forcibly interpreting the juxtaposition of the side together as "avoid" (and the word "avoid" is very rare in the Chinese seal), it is better to regard it as a complicated or false writing of "chase".
So far, whether it is "hard to chase" or "avoid" has not yet been completely determined. It is precisely because of the responsibility for history and culture that scholars will deliberate so repeatedly.
Walking into an exhibition hall, each cultural relic we encounter has its own name, every word is worth scrutinizing, and we can find the corresponding culture and a point in the cultural relics. You know, behind the naming and renaming of cultural relics is countless details and historical evidence
【References】
Wei Yihui Zhang Chuanguan Xiao Yi," "Mawangdui No. 1 Han Tomb So-Called "Concubine Xin Chai" Seal Identification"
Zhu Wan, "Mawangdui No. 1 Han Tomb Unearthed "Concubine Xin Chai" Seal Re-Identification"
When was Simu Pengding Why should it be renamed Houmu Pengding? 》
Author: Cheng Lang
This article is excerpted from the WeChat public account of the museum 丨 watch exhibition, December 28, 2021
Source: See the exhibition WeChat public account