The Wuhan Museum has a bronze vessel called "Phoenix Pattern Fangwei", which is simple in shape and dignified, it is a Wine Vessel of the Shang Dynasty, which has a history of more than 3,000 years.
In 1968, Zhao Kaixiang, a cultural relics expert at the Hanyang County Cultural Center, was passing by a waste collection station when he heard a noise coming from inside, and when he looked closer, it turned out that several people were bargaining around a bronze jar, and the staff of the waste collection station was only willing to give 5 cents, but the farmers who sold bronze jars thought that it was too little. Zhao Kaixiang carefully looked at the bronze, at that time his eyes lit up, he pulled out his pocket, found that there was only 3 yuan in his pocket, he quickly said to the farmer who sold the bronze jar: "I accepted this thing for 3 yuan." In this way, a national treasure-level cultural relic was saved from the doom of being thrown into a steel-making furnace.
Bronze jars
In March 1966, Wang Lin, a farmer in Yong'an Town, Caidian District, Wuhan City, was working in the fields with his son, Wang Lin pulling the plough in front and his son supporting the plough in the back. Maybe the plough was too deep, and suddenly the plough was stuck, and Wang Lin thought that there were stones in the soil that stuck the plough, so he and his son worked hard together to pull the plough out of the soil, but no matter how they moved, the plough could not be pulled out. So the father and son pulled open the soil around the plough and found a bronze jar in the soil, and the plough hung on the edge of the jar.
"What is this?" The father and son looked at the bronze jar with the edges exposed and felt strange, so they found a shovel and dug out the bronze jar. I saw that the bronze jar was rectangular in shape, and it was also carved with various ornaments, which was an old object with a sense of age.
Wang Lin's father and son did not take the bronze jar seriously, they carried the metal jar to the edge of the ground, and then continued to plough the ground, and when the plough was finished, the father and son returned to the village with the bronze jar.
The villagers saw Wang Lin's father and son carrying back a bronze jar and ran to watch, because of the local folk custom of using jars to hold ashes, most villagers thought that the jar that Wang Lin dug up was unlucky, and it may be a jar containing ashes. Wang Lin's father and son felt very obscure when they heard the villagers' words, but it was a pity that such a large bronze jar was thrown away, so after Wang Lin asked the village chief, he put the bronze jar in the storeroom of the village department.
Selling scrap
In 1968, the village wanted to form a drum band, but it lacked a brass gong. Due to the shortage of materials at that time, if you buy a gong, you need to exchange it with the same amount of copper to the store. Where to get copper? Wang Lin suddenly thought of the bronze jar he had dug up two years ago, so after he and the village chief reported, the village chief readily agreed, and sent two villagers with Wang Lin to carry the bronze jar to the store, they wanted to take the bronze jar to exchange for a gong.
Wang Lin and the three of them carried the bronze jar to the store selling the gong, and after explaining their intentions, the salesman carefully examined the bronze jar they had brought, and then told them: "This thing is blackened, and it is not certain that it is copper", and resolutely refused to let them buy it.
Wang Lin and the three of them discussed with the salesman for half a day, but the salesman resolutely disagreed. There was no way, the three of them had to carry the bronze jar out of the store. The three of them discussed that since this bronze jar could not be exchanged for a gong, and it was too heavy to carry back, it was better to sell it as a waste.
So the three men carried the bronze jars to the scrap collection station. Who knew that after arriving at the waste collection station, the staff who collected the waste goods looked at the bronze jars and resolutely refused to buy them according to copper, and could only buy them according to cast iron, and after weighing them, they were only given 5 cents according to the purchase price of cast iron.
Wang Lin was very angry after hearing this, and the three of them bargained around the staff who collected the waste, Wang Lin wanted the staff to give more money, but the staff said nothing.
At this moment, Zhao Kaixiang, a cultural relics expert at the Hanyang County Cultural Center, passed by this place, and he heard a noise from the waste collection station and walked in. When he saw the bronze jar on the ground, his eyes lit up at once, he touched his pocket and found that there was only 3 yuan in his pocket, so he said to Wang Lin: "Don't argue, I took this thing, you see that I only have 3 yuan on me, is it okay?" ”
Wang Lin heard that someone was willing to pay 3 yuan to buy bronze jars, and immediately agreed. Subsequently, Wang Lin and the three of them helped carry the bronze jar to the Hanyang County Cultural Center.
Regrettably, in that turbulent era, Zhao Kaixiang 3 yuan from the waste collection station to retrieve the bronze jar did not attract the attention of the cultural center leaders, the bronze jar was moved to the cultural center's warehouse to eat 10 years of ash. It was not until 1978, when experts from the Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics came to the Hanyang Cultural Center to investigate and saw the dusty bronze jar in the warehouse, that its fate ushered in the dawn.
Phoenix-patterned square
So, what kind of cultural relics is the bronze jar that Zhao Kaixiang bought for 3 yuan?
This bronze is 38.5 cm high, 16.2 cm in diameter and is made of bronze. The whole is oblong and round, and the shape of the bronze is extravagant, straight neck, round shoulders, drum abdomen, adduction of the lower abdomen, and square circle foot slightly skimmed. The body of this bronze has edges in the middle and corner on all four sides, which looks angular and very three-dimensional; the shoulders are decorated with animal face patterns, and there are animal head rings on both sides, which looks magnificent; the bronze body is lined with cloud thunder patterns, and the neck, shoulders, abdomen and feet are decorated with five long crown phoenix patterns, pointed bird patterns and burnt leaf patterns, and the complicated ornaments make the whole bronze look dignified and generous.
According to expert identification, this bronze is a bronze pendant of the Shang Dynasty and is a ceremonial vessel. Because this bronze vessel is cast with five long crown phoenix patterns, experts name it "Phoenix Pattern Square Silk".
It is a kind of wine vessel used in ancient sacrifices, which belongs to a kind of ceremonial vessel. This kind of ceremonial vessel was very popular in the Western Zhou And Spring and Autumn periods, and at present, a variety of instrument-shaped vessels have been found in China, but square ones like this are still relatively rare. There is no inscription and some relevant historical information on this phoenix-patterned square, and after expert identification, this square is a ceremonial instrument of the late Western Zhou Dynasty, and it is inferred from the phoenix pattern on the square that it is a ceremonial instrument used by the princes at that time and is a precious cultural relic. At present, the phoenix pattern fangmu is collected in the Wuhan Museum and is one of the "treasures of the town museum" of the museum.
epilogue
In the 1960s and 1970s, people's ability to identify cultural relics and protect them were not very strong, and after the discovery of this statue, many people thought that it was an unlucky artifact and did not pay attention to it. Later, this statue was almost sold to the waste collection station, but fortunately it met the cultural relics expert Zhao Kaixiang to avoid the doom of being thrown into the steel-making furnace. Expert Zhao Kaixiang has made contributions to the cause of cultural relics protection in China and left us a precious cultural relic.
The surviving amount of Fang Wei is rare, and it is the third generation of bronze ware second only to the copper ban. Unfortunately, this statue did not have a lid, and later, the Wuhan Museum asked someone to customize a lid according to the shape of Fang Miao, if the lid of this statue could be found at that time, then this Square Silk could definitely be called a "rare treasure".