In 1864, Liu Mingchuan, who was then a general in the Huai Army, led his generals to fight against the Taiping Army in southern Jiangsu. One night, Liu Mingchuan inspected the military camp and inadvertently walked into the palace of Chen Kunshu, the original Taiping Army. At this moment, he suddenly heard a crisp metal crashing sound, and the accompanying guards were shocked, thinking that there was an assassin, so they rushed into the palace to search, but after searching for half a day, they did not find anything abnormal.
At this time, Liu Mingchuan suddenly walked quickly to the stables. He found that it was a military horse eating grass with its head down, and the horse's head hit the manger, causing a burst of metal noise. Liu Ming ordered the people to take out the manger and wash it. If you look closely, it turns out to be a copper plate, which is 41.3 cm high, 130 cm long, 82.7 cm wide, and weighs 600 pounds. The bronze plate has a peculiar shape, with a gluttonous ring on it, and the bottom of the plate is engraved with an inscription of 110 characters.
Liu Mingchuan was a big old man, and he didn't have much research on antiques, so he handed the copper plate to his family. The family saw that this copper plate was so heavy that it could be used as a bathing basin, so Liu Mingchuan's son and grandson bathed in it.
In the following years, Liu Ming spread the word everywhere to fight, because this copper plate was quite easy to use for bathing, and his family was not willing to lose it. Later, Liu Ming passed on his military merits and was awarded the title of Baron of the First Rank. One day, a collector came to Liu Mingchuan's house as a guest and suddenly bumped into Liu Mingchuan's granddaughter-in-law bathing her son. That tub sparkled in the sun.
This man quickly stepped forward, touched the copper basin with both hands, and exclaimed: "This thing is a treasure of the world, how can we allow women and children to play with it so blasphemously!" Under the popular science of friends, Liu Mingchuan knew that this was the White Plate of the Yu Jizi, a cultural relic of the Western Zhou Dynasty, dating back more than 3,000 years.
Liu Mingchuan suddenly realized that this was not a bath, but a very valuable treasure, so he protected this copper plate, and also sent troops to send the treasure back to his hometown in Hefei overnight. However, the news that Liu Mingchuan was happy to have obtained the treasure did not go away, and also alarmed Weng Tonggong, the teacher of the Guangxu Emperor at that time. When Weng Tonggong learned of this, he immediately asked Liu Mingchuan for it, but Liu refused.
In January 1896, Liu Mingchuan died, and before he died, he told his descendants that the treasure must be well taken care of. In 1930, the American collector Johnson entrusted an agent to China to find Liu Mingchuan's fourth-generation descendant Liu Suzeng, willing to buy 800 taels of gold at a high price, and willing to take the Liu family to live in the United States.
Later, businessmen from Japan, France, Britain and other countries also came to the Liu family to buy treasures, and the price of the report soared to 1500 taels of gold. However, Liu Su had refused.
Later, during the Republic of China period, Li Pinxian, chairman of Anhui Province, wanted to ask for this treasure at a high price of 100,000 yuan and the high-ranking official Houlu, but was rejected by the Liu family. Later, Li Pinxian, who was embarrassed and angry, kidnapped Liu's family, but Liu Suzeng remained unmoved.
Li Pinxian had no way to dig three feet into the Liu family, but he did not find any trace of the treasure. Later, after liberation, cultural relics expert Guo Moruo learned of the whereabouts of the copper plate and immediately sent someone to the Liu family to do work. Only then did Liu Su promise to hand over the treasure to the state.
It turned out that this treasure was buried in a pile of garbage. In recognition of Liu Suzeng's actions. The state moved Liu's family into the city, assigned them jobs, and made a documentary on Liu Suzeng's deeds. Later, Liu Suzeng died, in order to take care of Liu's family, the state also sent a subsidy of 10,000 yuan to his family, and in 1988, he also arranged work for Liu Suzeng's young daughter.
Together with Mao Gongding and Sanshi Pan, it is known as the Three Treasures of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The pan now exists in the National Museum of China and has become a treasure of the town museum. According to expert estimates, the price of this disc is far more than 10 billion. Of course, its cultural value is immeasurable. It can be said that Humen has no dogs, and in the face of thousands of gold, he is not moved, and he cannot buy Zhengzheng's patriotic heart, and Liu Su once served as a model for the people of the country. Kudos to the four generations of the Liu family