Artifacts are like lost time – you can look back, but you can't do it all over again! Those things that have existed for hundreds or even thousands of years are a spiritual exchange between contemporary people and ancients, a dialogue of wisdom...
In Cangzhou City, Hebei Province, stands a majestic male lion - it steps on the land of China, and the blue sky above its head. If you look closely, you can even see the vigorous and powerful handwriting of the carving master thousands of years ago!
For thousands of years, this male lion has been staring at the whole of Cangzhou like a guardian deity. However, with the passage of time, its body began to crack and rust.
It makes people feel very uneasy, they want to keep it in captivity, to protect it. But again and again it backfired!
One. Zhenhai roared
1. Battle dragons
In Cangzhou folklore, there is such a legend - a thousand years ago, Cangzhou was surrounded by green water. The people lived affluent lives. We are in a rare heyday.
However, all these beautiful scenes attracted a dragon living in the sea near Cangzhou - it liked Cangzhou, a treasure of feng shui. I want to drive the people out of Cangzhou so that I can thrive here.
So the evil dragon continued to lead the water in the sea to Cangzhou, and for a time the flood overflowed, and the people did not have a good life. But the people of Cangzhou have always been reluctant to move away from the place where they have lived for generations, and the evil dragon has launched round after round of tsunamis.
People had to run to the highest mountain nearby to take refuge.
Just when the people were in despair, a golden light cut through the sky —Manjushri Bodhisattva descended from the sky riding a red-and-yellow lion.
The lion fought fiercely with the dragon. Manjushri Bodhisattva was in the rear to rescue the flooded people of Li. The male lion finally drove the dragon away after three days and three nights of fighting the dragon.
Since then, people have lived in peace and contentment. But the dragon didn't really leave. It has been recuperating in the deep sea, waiting until the time is ripe to plague Cangzhou again.
In order to prevent future troubles, the people of Cangzhou took the initiative to build this iron lion - it is more than six meters long, 5.47 meters high, and occupies a total of 3 square kilometers of land. It weighs 32 tons.
The iron lion's head and neck are cast with the words "Lion King". It held its head high and its eyes wide open. The whole body is in a state of imminent triggering. In addition, there is a lotus throne engraved on the back, waiting for Manjushri Bodhisattva to return at any time.
It was named "Zhenhai Roar" and the names of the donors were engraved on the lions as a souvenir. Ever since Cangzhou had this lifelike iron lion, the evil dragon really hadn't appeared again!
Of course, legends are always legends – and no one has yet been able to prove the reason for the construction of the Cangzhou Iron Lion.
2. Guard the territory
There is another theory about the iron lion, which is recorded in the Cangzhou Chronicle:
"Iron Lion, in front of kaiyuan temple in the old state city." There are three characters of the Lion King on the top of the head and on the neck, seven characters cast by The Great Zhou Guangshun in three years on the right side and the edge of the teeth, and five characters of Shandong Li Yunzao on the left rib. According to legend, Zhou Shizong cast this, B Town Prefecture City".
It is said that in the Later Zhou Dynasty, there were frequent wars between the Central Plains and the Khitans. In order to quell the war, Zhou Shizong Chai Rong personally led an army to the north to attack the Khitans. The two sides were deadlocked for nearly a month and eventually the Khitan were driven out of the Central Plains.
As the saying goes, "It is easy to fight the country and the country is difficult to defend the country". In order to be able to defend Cangzhou, Zhou Shizong ordered the casting of "iron lions" in the form of the male lion, the king of all beasts.
After the construction was completed, Zhou Shizong personally inspected the work. When he saw the iron lion, the whole person was stunned, as if the real giant lion was in front of him- the Cangzhou iron lion carried a huge lotus pot on its back, and its head was facing southwest and south.
The hairs on the iron lion's body are wavy or undulating or curled. There are also delicate bands on the chest and hips. The most surprising thing is that the iron lion's abdominal cavity is also cast with a Vajrayogini script in Lishu script.
But how is such a huge project built in an era of lack of resources and backward technology?
Historians have studied and investigated many aspects and found that the ancients used to cast in blocks.
The iron is first made into iron blocks with a length of about 40 centimeters, and then the iron blocks are stacked layer by layer, and finally cast. It took a total of 600 such iron blocks to finally make such a majestic iron lion.
It can be seen that the ancients were superb in technology and superior in wisdom!
It is said that the iron lion built by Hou Zhou can not only help reincarnate the lone soul who committed the crime, but also guard the north, so that Hou Zhou will no longer be invaded by the Khitan from now on.
But this claim was quickly denied by experts.
First, during the war years, Zhou Shizong was worried about internal and external troubles, and it was impossible to have extra energy and money to forge such a majestic lion.
Second, the Diamond Sutra is a Buddhist scripture, and Zhou Shizong did not believe in Buddhism. It would never have taken so much effort to carve scriptures. There are also many theories about iron lions. But none of them have enough evidence to support it.
In fact, it doesn't matter what the Iron Lion was built for. What is important is that it represents the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancient working people of our country and the spirit of courageous struggle.
For thousands of years, the iron lion stood on the land of Cangzhou to experience the beating of wind and sand and the baptism of heavy rain. For the world, this iron lion should never fall.
However, it is being eroded a little bit – not only from nature, but also from the "protection" of those experts!
Two. Rusty male lion
According to records, in 1803 there was always a strange wind. One day, a fierce wind came from the northeast, and the yellow sand was everywhere, and the debris on the street also whistled with the wind. The poor people who had not yet had time to go home were swept away.
The iron lion, located on the southeastern suburbs of Cangzhou, was not spared — the huge iron lion tumbled to the ground in strong winds. The originally standing lion was like a giant lying on the ground.
But this did not attract the attention of the imperial court at that time, and the iron lion had been lying on the ground for nearly 90 years.
In the past ninety years, the half-faced lion body of the iron lion has begun to rust, and subtle cracks have begun to appear on the front legs.
The tail and abdomen were also badly damaged by people who had no sense of cultural relics and were crawling on them.
It was not until 1893 that the Iron Lion was tried to be lifted up by the Qing Dynasty – but because the Qing Dynasty at that time was in a very turbulent period, it was impossible to come up with money to repair the Iron Lion of Cangzhou.
In this way, the damaged millennium iron lion stood alone in the wind and rain. It is experiencing the vicissitudes and pain that all cultural relics have to go through.
Nature's destruction of the Iron Lion seems to be endless. In the 1950s, Hebei suffered a flood that was rare in a century, and the heavens seemed to be sad for whom it rained heavily for more than half a month.
The low terrain of the Cangzhou Iron Lion causes the rain to flood the Iron Lion's abdomen directly. The lion's legs have been soaked in water for a long time, and there has been severe rust. The iron lumps under the abdomen also began to fall off layer by layer.
In fact, natural damage is inevitable – if only natural damage is insignificant for the iron lion. However, if the world does not have the professional skills to protect cultural relics, and then infringes on them, the consequences are unimaginable!
In 1949, the early days of the founding of New China. Everything is in a state of waste. The Chinese people's awareness of the protection of cultural relics has gradually awakened, and the Cangzhou Iron Lion has also attracted the government's extreme attention!
However, at that time, there were no experts proficient in the protection of cultural relics in China. Plans to repair the Cangzhou Iron Lion can only be put on hold for the time being.
Until 1956, the Soviet Union, which had befriended our country, sent people to China for technical exchanges. Among them were many historians and cultural relics experts who were attracted by the tall and mighty iron lions as they passed through Cangzhou.
They had a heated discussion around the iron lion, and one of the experts said, "It's so mighty, but the rust on its body and the shedding iron skin make me very uncomfortable." I think you should protect it! ”
At the suggestion of this expert, the local heritage house built an octagonal pavilion above the iron lion. The iron lion, who has experienced thousands of years of wind and frost, suddenly has a pavilion to shelter from the wind and rain, which is still a little uncomfortable at first glance.
But what is surprising is that this octagonal pavilion not only does not play a role in protecting the male lion, but also accelerates the corrosion of the male lion.
Originally, the iron lion was located in a depression, and after the octagonal pavilion, the moisture in the air around the iron lion was difficult to evaporate, resulting in the pavilion being in a state of high temperature and high humidity for a long time.
Over time, the water vapor ran into the belly of the iron lion, causing the decay of the iron lion to become more and more serious.
Hindsight experts didn't tear down the octagonal pavilion until 1975 – although the Iron Lion has returned to its original exposure to the blue sky, it has caused irreversible damage to the Iron Lion in the past two decades!
After experiencing this incident, the experts did not give up the restoration and protection of the Iron Lion.
In 1984, the local Antiquities Protection Bureau decided to fundamentally solve the problem of the Iron Lion.
They believe that the problems of the Iron Lion are only due to the low terrain. As long as the iron lion is raised a little higher, it will no longer be flooded by rain.
After several experts discussed, they devised a new conservation plan - moving the iron lion to the next water barrier pedestal.
However, it is not an easy task to move this behemoth, and to ensure that nothing goes wrong, they call more than a dozen large cranes at the same time.
However, there are still many problems in the hoisting process, resulting in many damages and cracks of the iron lion. Fortunately, he finally succeeded in moving the iron lion to the pedestal!
At this time, the experts remembered the scene in the history of the iron lion that had been blown by the wind, and in order to prevent such a thing from happening again, they decided to fix the iron lion's limbs - they poured sulfur anchorage on the legs of the male lion.
But the restorers forgot to remove it in time, and these rapidly expanding chemicals caused serious cracks in the lion's legs.
Since then, experts have tried countless ways to repair Iron Lion many times, but the results have become more and more serious. What a steal of chicken and not to eat rice!
There may be natural factors that cause the Iron Lion to become increasingly damaged, but it is more human factors, and experts will improperly repair the Iron Lion when the technology is not mature enough!
Three. Reinvigorate
By 1994, the iron lion could no longer stand steadily—it could only be fixed by countless iron pipe supports, including ten iron pipes up to fifteen centimeters in diameter supporting the base and the body of the Cangzhou lion. This allows the Iron Lion to stand again.
But experts believe that as long as the iron lion has complete limbs, it does not need an iron tube brace. After discussion they wanted to refill the four lion legs by watering them – this time using a mixture of materials with a very small coefficient of expansion.
After the watering is complete, the iron lion seems to have returned to its original majesty.
But the good times did not last long, and the mixture of watering the lion's leg swelled up rapidly after encountering rain, which directly led to dozens of new cracks in the iron lion's leg.
And these mixtures remained in the lion's leg until 2000, when they were cleaned up!
The Cangzhou Cultural Relics Administration has restored the iron lion four times. However, due to the immature technology, it has aggravated the damage of Cangzhou Iron Lion.
This has to cause people to think deeply - for very precious treasures, there is not enough knowledge and ten levels of certainty, perhaps should not rush to action, otherwise it will be counterproductive!
The Cangzhou cultural relics management department conducted a deep reflection on the previous maintenance accidents. In the years that followed, no one did anything to repair the Iron Lion.
By 2006, the China Academy of Cultural Heritage had included Cangzhou Iron Lion in a conservation research project where researchers conducted three-dimensional spectral analysis of iron lions.
In the end, it was decided to solve the problem of instability from within the Iron Lion.
The researchers removed all the stents on the outside of the Iron Lion and made a solid inner support in the Iron Lion's inner tank. In addition, the height of the pedestal is lowered. Then a pavilion was built again for the Iron Lion.
In order not to repeat the mistakes of the past, the pavilion built this time is as high as 20 to 30 meters - both to cover the rain and ensure good ventilation!
Cangzhou is also known as the "Lion City" because of such an iron lion.
Cangzhou Iron Lion bears witness to the long history of our country for thousands of years, which not only represents the history and culture of our country, but also symbolizes the unparalleled wisdom of the working people in this long period of time!
Nowadays, the Cangzhou Iron Lion has long been a scenic spot and one of the "Four Treasures of North China"!
However, with the passage of time. The Cangzhou Iron Lion is dilapidated. In order to better protect it, in 2009, the state removed the old Cangzhou lion and re-infused a new iron lion according to its appearance.
The new Iron Lion is 1.32 times larger than the old Iron Lion and weighs 120 tons. Not only does it preserve the original physiognomy foundation, but it also incorporates advanced modern elements! It is the largest iron lion in the world today.
The new Iron Lion was placed in Lion City Park in Cangzhou City.
Of course, as of today, China's cultural relics protection technology has been very mature! In China's more than 5,000 years of historical heritage, more and more cultural relics and treasures have been preserved intact – many of which have long been symbols of the city!