Forty-two years
Once upon a time I was in the past,
Willow Yiyi.
Now I come to think,
Rain and snow.
The Book of Poetry and Tsai Wei describes for us the homesickness of a warrior during the Western Zhou Dynasty. When the soldiers went out, it was spring, and now it was winter, but the war was not over, and this long and months of war made the soldiers feel homesick. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the continuous invasion of xiǎn made the Zhou Dynasty have to send troops to defend against foreign enemies, and the generals left their hometowns and went to the battlefield.
◎ Forty-two years
In 2003, the cellar of Yangjia Village in Meixian County was excavated
Collection of Baoji Bronze Ware Museum
On January 19, 2003, when five villagers in Yangjia Village in Meixian County were taking soil on the northern slope of the village, they accidentally opened a Western Zhou cellar, and a total of 27 cultural relics were unearthed, with a grand shape and exquisite ornamentation, and each piece had an inscription, and the number of inscriptions reached 4048 words. Through the inscription, it is known that this batch of artifacts belonged to a nobleman in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Shan family. Today we will learn about the story of the eighth generation of the Shan family.
Xiao Yong is a good warrior
A long inscription of 281 characters cast in the forty-two years of Kuiding records that the owner of the artifact, Shan Kui, left his hometown and went to the battlefield, and fought bravely against the foxes on the orders of King Xuan.
The story begins with the day when King Xuan of Zhou reigned in mid-May in the forty-second year of his reign, the day before the king lived in the Zhou Kangmu Palace, and the next morning at dawn, the king of Zhou came to the Taimiao Temple to seal the throne. His superior, Gong San, entered through the middle gate and took his seat in the middle of the hall, facing north, waiting for the King of Zhou to reward him. In this book of edicts, a war is mentioned: the King of Zhou originally made his eldest father Hou Yu Yangdi, and ordered Him to help his eldest father attack The Fox, first repelling the enemy army for the first time in Jing'a and Li, and then assisting the eldest father in taking advantage of the victory to pursue and achieve the final victory in the Battle of Bow Valley. The King of Zhou was very happy and rewarded Kui with fine wine and land, and in gratitude for the reward of the King of Zhou, he cast two pieces of ding, recording the event.
A tough tribe in the northwest
The inscription mentions the foxes, also known as inurongs, which were strong tribes in northwest China during the Yin Zhou Dynasty. When the Zhou Dynasty was strong, the Zhou people could take the initiative to attack the Zhou Dynasty and make it submit; since the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, with the weakening of the Zhou Dynasty's national strength, the power of the Inu Rong gradually flourished, especially the Yan Lynx constantly increased the pressure on the Zhou royal family, invading from time to time. Shan Kui accompanied his eldest father in his conquest of the Fox, and although they won a partial battle, they could not change the dilemma of the Zhou Dynasty facing the passive beating of the Fox, let alone the fate of the Zhou Dynasty on the verge of collapse, and the Western Zhou Eventually died under the iron hooves of the Dog Rong (猃狁).
Shan Kui used the method of Ji Jin Ming casting to record his outstanding deeds and the king's rich reward for him in the bronze heavy vessel, so that future generations can remember this glory and pass on his fighting spirit. This inscription in the forty-two years of Kui Ding is a complete book of fortunes in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which allows us to see the whole process of the Western Zhou society's appreciation ceremony and the historical facts of the conquest of the Fox during the Western Zhou Xuanwang period; more importantly, the record of the year, month, day and moon phase in the inscription is the code for us to solve the mystery of the history of the Western Zhou Dynasty!
Chang'an Chang'an·
No winter is insurmountable!
No spring cannot come!
May the future be promising,
There is still the style of Qin Sweeping the Six Kingdoms,
The beauty of the Tang Dynasty,
Come on Xi'an!
★
Editor: Jin Wanying
Editor-in-charge: Zhai Huiping
Review: Kang Junjian