The major museums in the country have their own treasures of the town hall, full of dazzling and exquisite products. This column will show you the story behind the cultural relics and uncover the unsolved mysteries.
The Twenty-three Years of the Left Transmission and the Duke of Zuo records such a story:
Because of the difficulties of Li Ji, he had not yet become a heavy ear of the Duke Wen of Jin and fled abroad and lived in the Qin State.
One day, his wife was holding a pot of water and pouring water for him to wash his hands.
After washing her ears heavily, she waved her wet hands randomly, causing the lady to become annoyed, and she said, "The Qin Kingdom is the same as the Jin State, why do you look down on me?" It means that the heavy ears look down on the Qin State.
It turned out that this daughter was Huai Wei, the daughter of Qin Mugong.
After such a rebuke, he remembered the identity of the princess, so he became afraid, took off his shirt, and begged her for forgiveness one after another.
Jin Wengong
Since then, Huaiwei, who is full of courage and dares to speak out, has been remembered by people.
This is the famous "accident caused by a handwashing" in the history of the mainland, which shows the strict rules of the state of etiquette.
"Wo" means "watering", "勿" means "wash your hands and wash your face", and before ancient sacrifices or feasts, you need to perform the "Ritual of Wo".
This time, we want to introduce the same artifact used for "Wo Shu", which also involves the fate of a woman in the Spring and Autumn Period.
In 1997, a bronze plate that had been living abroad for many years, wandering in antique shops and private collectors, finally came to the Shanghai Museum, which was the Zizhong Ginger Plate.
It was originally paired with another bronze pot on the land of the Jin Dynasty, which was filled with water and plated to carry water.
Unfortunately, it is unknown when it was lost to its original match.
Zizhong Ginger Pan, the name comes from the inscription cast on the inner wall of the plate "Early June Ji Xinhai / Master as Zizhong Ginger Foam / Pan Kong Shuo and Good / With Prayer Mei Shou / Descendants Forever Used as Treasure".
These tell us that this bronze plate was made by a subordinate official of the Jin State during the Spring and Autumn Period for his wife Zhongjiang.
Most of the women's Surname Jiang comes from the great country of Qi, with the surname of Jiang, so scholars speculate that after a woman married into a foreign country, she received such a gift from her husband and was blessed with "longevity" and "long-term descendants".
Unlike the fate of Huaiwei who is not valued by her husband, through this well-made and interesting artifact, we seem to be able to see that this woman has spent a happy life with her beloved, and she is very likely to realize the long-cherished wish of countless women.
People who cherish and love her will take the trouble to cast such a delicate bronze plate, right?
Different from the solemnity and viciousness of the early bronze ceremonial vessels, this bronze vessel has a unique shape, which is particularly agile and cute.
Climbing on the wall of the plate, the tortuous horned dragon who protrudes from the dragon's head to explore the water in the plate, the tiger that bears the weight, and the 31 aquatic animals such as fish, frogs, turtles, and water birds decorated on the plate are vividly depicted.
The animals in the plate are arranged in five weeks, and the bas-based carvings are combined with round carvings, with different shapes but no sense of messiness. On closer inspection, there is also a stark difference between the male bird standing in the center of the plate and the four female birds in the outer circle: the male wears a feather crown and is slightly larger; the female bird has a slightly bulging chest, a flat abdomen, and a more upturned tail.
Ma Chengyuan, director of the Shanghai Museum, once said that the early Spring and Autumn Period is generally considered to be a period of stagnation or regression in bronze casting technology, but the casting technology of Zizhong Jiang Pan reflects the new technical height of this era that is little known. Why?
It turned out that as the water flowed into the plate, the round eagle animal would rotate along the water in place, as if it had been given life in an instant. Later, it was discovered through tomography that this was because these animals were equipped with hinges inside to support their rotation.
In order to allow fish and birds to rotate smoothly, the craftsmen made the top of a type of shaft into a cone, and the pointed cone was topped with the animal's back ridge, leaving a gap in activity.
It can be seen that on the basis of inheriting traditional craftsmanship, ancient craftsmen pursued the unity of artistic beauty and craftsmanship, did not slacken the mud, but served the needs of artistic aesthetics through technological innovation, and the endless life of Chinese civilization benefited from this.
Zizhong Ginger Plate is one of the most popular collections of the Shanghai Museum, and it is a rare bronze treasure.
The subtlety of the ancients' conception and the pursuit of interest are vividly expressed in it.
Moreover, until now, it has touched the "girlish heart" of many people - "vote for me with a wooden peach, and repay it with Qiong Yao". Carrying emotions in things, lasting and renewing.
Founded in 1952, the Shanghai Museum is a large museum of ancient Chinese art, now located at 201 Renmin Avenue, Huangpu District, on the south side of downtown Shanghai. The museum has a collection of nearly 1.02 million cultural relics and more than 140,000 precious cultural relics, especially bronzes, ceramics, calligraphy and paintings.
Producer | First of all, Hongming
Edit | Yu Xin
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