In 1969, the villagers of Pudaozhai Village in Xilin County, Guangxi Province, dug up an ancient copper coffin when they were building a road, and the cultural relics in the copper coffin were looted by the villagers who built the road. The experts of the Cultural Relics Bureau rushed to the scene and found that the copper coffin was exquisitely made and aged, considering that the precious cultural relics in the copper coffin were robbed by the villagers who built the road, the experts immediately asked the superior for instructions, hoping that the superior unit would coordinate the collection of the cultural relics that were robbed by the villagers and protect the copper coffin. However, the instructions of the superiors were: immediately melt the copper coffin.
Copper coffin
In December 1969, villagers in Pudaozhai Village, Xilin County, Guangxi Province, were building a road, and when they reached the front of the Puda Grain Station, a villager inadvertently shaved a hard object and sent a metal crashing sound from the pickaxe. The villager's arm was shaken straight and numb, "What is it?" The villagers, with doubts in their hearts, gently shaved with a pickaxe, and found that there seemed to be a metal plate underneath, which immediately aroused the interest of the road builders, so everyone worked together and it did not take long to dig out the object.
After digging it out, everyone found that it was a copper coffin full of green rust. The copper coffin was rectangular in shape, and the coffin was also inlaid with a bronze statue in the shape of a grimace, and after seeing the full picture of the copper coffin, the timid villagers avoided it from afar. But a few courageous villagers, despite the persuasion of others, found a crowbar and pried open the lid of the heavy copper coffin. After the coffin lid was pried open, everyone found that the copper coffin was piled with all kinds of bronzes and some gold and silver objects, so the road construction workers rushed up and snatched up the contents.
The person in charge of road construction rushed to the scene immediately after hearing the news that a copper coffin had been excavated at the construction site, but when he arrived at the scene, only a copper coffin and 6 heavy slabs were left at the scene. Looking at the copper coffin full of patina and strange shape, the person in charge of road construction felt that the situation was serious, and he realized that he might have dug up the cultural relics, so he immediately reported the situation to the cultural relics department.
Melt away
After arriving at the scene, the experts of the cultural relics department conducted a careful and meticulous investigation of the copper coffin and found that the copper coffin was ancient in shape and should be an age-old cultural relic. Given that no such strange copper coffin has ever been unearthed in the local area, and there is no custom of burial with a copper coffin, experts cannot determine for a while what age the copper coffin is. After learning that there were still cultural relics unearthed in the copper coffin, which had been robbed by the villagers who built the road, the expert felt that the situation was serious, so he immediately asked his superiors for instructions: how to dispose of the copper coffin and how to recover the cultural relics that the villagers snatched from. However, the instructions of the superiors were: immediately melt the copper coffin.
Why did the superiors instruct the precious copper coffin to be melted down immediately? This is related to the general environment at that time.
As we all know, in 1969 China was in the midst of a fanatical movement, and people at that time were very radical, especially some young people, who were particularly disgusted with the cultural relics left over from feudal society, believing that those cultural relics were the remnants of feudalism and must be eradicated. After the copper coffin was unearthed, it was defined as the "four olds", and the superiors, in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, instructed: Immediately melt the copper coffin.
In the general environment at that time, even if the experts of the site survey knew that the copper coffin was a precious cultural relic, they did not dare to express their opinions too much. As a result, the copper coffin was sent to the furnace of the agricultural machinery factory, which was melted into copper water and made into agricultural machinery materials needed by farmers for production. The copper coffin can also be regarded as a certain contribution to the development of society. The cultural relics that were stolen by the villagers who built the roads were left in the hands of the peasants, and the cultural relics department did not pursue them, and those cultural relics were eventually blessed by misfortune and survived.
Haiku Town
So, what is the origin of the copper coffin that was melted down and the cultural relics that were robbed by the villagers who built the road?
In 1971, archaeologists found several ancient tombs in Xilin, Guangxi, and unearthed some strange bronzes in them, which immediately attracted the attention of the domestic archaeological community. Guangxi Xilin area in ancient times was not a Han people's gathering area, but an ethnic minority area, in the minority areas to find the ancient bronze culture is a more interesting thing, so many experts have come to Xilin to investigate and investigate.
Through the study of the cultural relics excavated in Xilin, experts concluded that Xilin was the center of power of the Southwest Yi-Jurchen State recorded in the historical records.
The Jurchen Kingdom is a small country in the southwest region of China, and it is on a par with the Kingdom of Yelang, Lailuo, and Dian. Originating in the Shang Dynasty, the Jurchen Kingdom was located at the junction of Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, and during the Warring States period, the Jurchen Kingdom began to flourish, and by the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, the Jurchen Kingdom had reached its peak. During the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, the king of the Jurchen Kingdom assisted the Han army in quelling the rebellion of the Fang State in Yizhou County, and was given the title of "King of Jurchen". After Wang Mang usurped power, he wanted to degrade the king of Jurchen as a marquis, but the king of Jurchen was dissatisfied, and sent an army to engage in a protracted fierce battle with Wang Mang's new army, and later, Wang Mang collapsed, and the war between the two sides ended without winning or losing. After the Jin Dynasty, the Jurchen Kingdom disappeared from the historical records of our country, and the reason for its demise has always been a mystery.
Gilded bronze mask of the Western Han Dynasty
Bronze artifacts excavated in Xilin, Guangxi in 1971 are considered to be relics of the Jurchen Kingdom, dating from the early Western Han Dynasty. Experts regret that the bronze coffin full of artifacts unearthed in 1969 should have been from the same period and more precious, but it was smelted.
Fortunately, the cultural relics inside the copper coffin were saved after being robbed by the villagers. After the discovery of the ruins of The Jurchen Dynasty, cultural relics workers preached cultural relics knowledge in Pudazhai Village and surrounding villages, and many villagers handed over the cultural relics they had robbed to the cultural relics department, the most famous of which was the Western Han Gilded Copper Mask.
The Gilded bronze mask of the Western Han Dynasty is 21.7 cm long and 19.1 cm at its widest point, made of bronze and gilded on the surface. The mask as a whole is in the shape of a human face, with open eyes, bulging nose, and closed mouth, and the whole form is angry, which makes people feel palpitations after watching. According to the feedback of the villagers who handed it in, the mask was embedded around the copper coffin at that time, and the middle and right part of the mask was broken when the mask was removed from the copper coffin, and it was only presented after being repaired by experts. This Gilded bronze mask of the Western Han Dynasty is currently in the collection of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Museum and is one of the "treasures of the town hall" of the museum.
epilogue
The smelting of the bronze coffin of the Western Han Dynasty of the Jurchen Dynasty has always been the pain in the heart of the expert, but in the general environment at that time, no one dared to dispute this treatment, a precious national treasure cultural relic, in the face of the torrent of history, seems so insignificant, this is the sadness of cultural relics, but also the sadness of a nation. I hope that each of us has a reverence for cultural relics, and hope that such a historical tragedy will not be repeated.