Chief reporter of Jimu News Rong Yu
"A rescue excavation found a mysterious princely state that is not recorded in the history books..." Recently, CCTV launched a program inviting the heads of major museums and cultural experts across the country to "unlock the archaeological code and explore historical civilization." In the latest episode of the program, the tomb of The Great Marquis of Hubei has become the protagonist, and one of the treasures of the Hubei Provincial Museum, Zeng Hou Yizun, made a stunning appearance, and the host's comment that "it has not been possible to copy this national treasure so far" has aroused heated discussion among netizens. Why can't modern high technology perfectly replicate bronzes from thousands of years ago? Listen to what the bronze experts have to say.
Thousands of years ago, the craftsmanship is no longer available
The bronze ware that carries the Chinese Lile civilization is not only the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancients, but also the witness of the splendid civilization of the Bronze Age, and the Zenghou Yizun Plate, whose casting process is a divine skill, is one of the best.
In the program "Chinese Archaeological Congress", the host called Zeng Hou Yizun the "most complex and exquisite bronze instrument in the Spring and Autumn Warring States Era", which made the audience marvel after watching it. According to Fang Qin, director of the Hubei Provincial Museum and director of the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the Zenghou Yizun Plate was excavated in 1978 from the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Suizhou City, Hubei Province, and consisted of two utensils, zun and pan, the top is zun and the bottom is the plate, "Zun Li is loaded with wine, the plate is filled with water, which can be used for warm wine or ice wine." "The structure of the artifacts is very complex, the shape is exceptionally exquisite, it is the first batch of precious cultural relics that are forbidden to be exhibited abroad, and it is currently one of the treasures of the top ten town halls of the Hubei Provincial Museum."
According to reports, the height of the Zenghou Yizun disk is 30.1 cm, the caliber is 25 cm, the height of the disc is 23.5 cm, and the caliber is 58 cm. Zun's mouth edge is a multi-layered set of hollowed-out attachments, which look like clouds from a distance, but are actually hollow patterns composed of dragon snakes, which spiral around each other as if swimming in the air; Zun's neck is attached to 4 leopards that spit their tongues and crawl upwards, and the leopard body is also decorated with hollow dragon snakes; Zun's abdomen and circle feet are dragons with cockroach patterns and reliefs. The production of the disc is more complicated.
In early archaeological reports, archaeologists described The Zenghou Yizun Disk as follows: "The exquisitely transparent hollowed-out ornaments are like flowing clouds and flowing water, and dragons and snakes squirming." Its plastic arts and casting techniques have reached the level of pure fire. Among all the Shang zhou bronzes handed down and unearthed, it is a breathtaking work of art. "The archaeological community unanimously believes that the Zenghou Yizun Plate is the pinnacle of Shang Zhou bronzes.
Due to the complexity of the casting process, Zeng Hou Yizun Pan was considered to be a bronze that could not be perfectly copied and the production process could no longer be obtained in the program of the "Chinese Archaeological Congress", "even with modern technology, it is impossible to accurately model it in three dimensions." ”
What cannot be copied is not only the Zenghou Yizun disk
Fang Chen, a bronze restoration expert who works at the Hubei Provincial Museum, told Jimu News on January 11 that the reason why the Chinese Archaeological Conference said that the Zenghou Yizun disk could not be copied was based on two considerations, "First of all, for the sake of cultural relics protection, such a national heavy weapon, if it is not necessary, it is not allowed to be copied." Secondly, because the overall shape of the zun disk is complicated and the structure is complex, the entire zun body is decorated with 28 dragons and 32 cockroaches, and the plate body is decorated with 56 dragons and 48 cockroaches, which reach the extreme point of bronze in the pre-Qin period, "What method did the ancient craftsmen use to make the zun disk?" Modern academic circles have always been controversial on this issue, one school believes that it is the lost wax method, and the other school believes that it is the fan casting and welding process. ”
It is understood that in 2006, archaeologists used the lost wax method and spent nearly 20 years to copy the Zenghou Yizun disk, but there was still a gap between the replica and the original in terms of exquisiteness and charm.
According to Fang Chen, in addition to the Zenghou Yizun plate, the Hubei Provincial Museum also has some national treasures that cannot be perfectly copied by later generations, such as the Zenghou Yijian drum base, which is also from the tomb of Zeng Houyi. It is also from the Warring States period and is now in the collection of the Hubei Provincial Museum. Composed of eight pairs of dragons and dozens of entangled dragons, the dragon's body is intertwined with each other, and countless entangled dragons are coiled together and climb upwards, giving people a strange feeling of being both chaotic, unpredictable and stretched, vivid and orderly, and the base is hollowed out and inlaid with turquoise. ”
In fact, compared with the reproduction of national treasures, Fang Chen is more concerned about restoring national treasures, so that more precious cultural relics can be exhibited and meet the audience across time and space. As one of the main forces of the Hubei Provincial Museum's cultural relics conservator team, Fang Chen once participated in the restoration of zenghou and M1:2 Yongzhong excavated from the Wenfeng Pagoda cemetery in Suizhou City, completing an "impossible task" in the eyes of outsiders.
According to reports, this Yong bell is seriously broken, the size is larger, the repair difficulty is extremely high, Fang Chen and the team first use three-dimensional scanning, 3D printing technology to make a resin model of the missing part of the bell body, and then combine the lost wax method to make bronze accessories, and finally embed the fragments into the bronze casting low temperature welding, so that the Yong bell can be restored. Today, visitors only need to enter the museum to see this national treasure that has been perfectly restored and displayed in its best condition.