Text/Yangcheng Evening News reporter Huang Zhuhui Correspondent Hu Tiantian
Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of the King of South Vietnam (except by signature)
On January 26, the exhibition "Discover liangzhu" opened in the exhibition area of the Tomb of the King of Nanyue King Museum in Guangzhou. Sponsored by the Nanyue Wang Museum, the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and the Liangzhu Museum, and co-organized by the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the exhibition exhibits 296 exquisite cultural relics ( sets ) , including 11 first-class cultural relics ( sets ) . The exhibition will run until May 20.
"Discover Liangzhu" exhibition scene Huang Zhuhui photographed
Liangzhu culture is an archaeological culture of the late Neolithic period of the mainland, dating back to 5300-4300 years ago, with the two towns of Liangzhu and Bottle Kiln in Hangzhou as the core, distributed in a vast area of more than 36,000 square kilometers centered on the Taihu Lake basin in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Because this culture was first discovered in Liangzhu, in 1959 the famous archaeologist Mr. Xia Nai named it "Liangzhu Culture". On July 6, 2019, the ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City were inscribed on the World Heritage List, becoming the 55th World Heritage Site in China, marking the recognition of China's 5,000-year history of civilization by the international community.
Liangzhu culture is one of the important sources of Chinese jade culture. The six types of jade ware of "琮, 璧, 璜, Gui, Zhang, and 琥", the so-called "Liu Rui", are symbols of the jade ritual system after the Shang Zhou Dynasty, and the first three have appeared in the Liangzhu culture.
The "Discover Liangzhu" cultural relics special exhibition also brings together fine cultural relics from Liangzhu and Lingnan, highlighting the exchange and integration of diverse cultures in the prehistoric period, and showing the early appearance of the chinese nation and the Chinese civilization in the process of formation and development.
【Fine Cultural Relics】
1. Yu Chun
Yu Chun is a typical jade of the Liangzhu culture, shaped as a cylinder with an outer square and an inner circle, which runs up and down. As a special ritual vessel for heavenly sacrifice, as its production becomes more and more standardized and its body shape becomes more and more tall, the use of jade is also tending to be monopolized. Only one person has the power to speak to and communicate with the heavens, and this power is concentrated in the power of one person, which is a turning point in the history of China's five-thousand-year civilization. The divine emblem is the motif of the Liangzhu jade pattern, and it is also a deity jointly respected by the ancestors of Liangzhu, which takes the jade as the main carrier and is expressed in large quantities on the jade in various forms.
Yu Chun
As for Lingnan, many prehistoric sites in the Lingnan area have found cultural relics similar to or almost identical with Liangzhu cultural artifacts, of which the Shixia site is the most. The jade qun, jade ring, jade cone, stone tungsten and pottery ear pot excavated from the Shixia site have obvious Liangzhu characteristics.
2. Yubi
Yubi is one of the most common artifacts in ancient Chinese jade, dating from the late Neolithic period through the Shang Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties; geographically in the late Neolithic period, the Hongshan culture in the north to the northeast, and the Shixia culture in the south to Lingnan have been discovered.
Yu Bi
As a symbol of ancient ritual vessels and wealth used for sacrifices and funerals, jade bi was considered by the ancients to have the meaning of auspiciousness. The jade bi is a large artifact in the Liangzhu jade ceremonial system. It is speculated that yubi should be used as a kind of sacrifice in the sense of "jade god" in Liangzhu culture, and most of them are all in voxel.
A total of 71 pieces of jade bi have been excavated from the tomb of King Wen of Nanyue, of which the D54 jade bi excavated in the head box of the coffin in the main coffin room of the tomb has been identified as the visual source of the decorative pattern of the medals of the 2022 Winter Olympics. The Liangzhu jade objects exhibited in "Discover Liangzhu" and the jade excavated from the tomb of King Wen of Nanyue represented by Yu bi reflect the inheritance and development of jade culture, and also show the origin and evolution of the ritual system.
3. Jade
The hammer evolved from an axe and symbolized power and majesty. The character for "king" in oracle bone and gold scripts is a hieroglyphic character that evolved from qi. It was the weapon of the ancestors of Liangzhu and symbolized military power in the hands of the nobility. Unearthed in high-grade tombs, the jade is also a symbol of kingship, and when the jade is engraved with a divine emblem and a bird pattern, the royal power is given to the will of the gods. This idea of divine sovereignty has influenced China for thousands of years since its inception.
Jade
A luxurious jade pendant consisting of a body, a molybdenum, a molybdenum, a 柲, and a small jade pendant, lacquered with a body and inlaid with jade grains, which is extremely gorgeous.
4. Jade crown-like vessels
The shape of the crown is taken from the meso-shaped crown hat of the Liangzhu God-Beast Face Pattern, which is flattened and inverted trapezoidal, often with a raised tip in the middle of the upper end, and a pin hole at the bottom that meets the ivory or wooden comb teeth and inserts it into the hair. Judging from the burial of the crown vessel, the person who possessed this headdress generally had a higher social status. The owner of the tomb wears a crown-like vessel and regards himself as the embodiment or spokesman of the gods, which is a manifestation of the theocratic rule of Liangzhu culture.
Jade crown-like vessel
The top of the coronal apparatus is divided into three forms: flat top, semi-circular top and mesoform top.
5. Jade trident
The edge of the trident is generally circular and curved, with three forks on it, and the jade pipe is often equipped with a jade pipe above the midfork, so that the length of the midring is greatly extended. Through the bottom end of the hole and the hairpin body socket, as inlaid with the crown inlaid in the comb, are used as the tomb owner after the hairpin plug. This trident is yellow-brown, slightly curved on the front and cut into two upper and lower bumps on the back, the upper part to the fork, and the lower part only has a rectangular bump perpendicular to the midske. The left and right forks are double-sided drilling, and the middle fork is drilled on one side with the upper and lower facing directions. The midriff hole and its lower hole can be penetrated vertically. There was a long jade pipe on the middle fork at the time of excavation.
Jade trident
6. Yu Huang
"Sayings": "Juan, Half Bi also." "In the Songze culture, there have been huangs with animal heads engraved on both ends. Liangzhu culture is connected to Song Ze, and a large number of jade huang have been excavated from the tomb. Liangzhu's jade huang is mainly in the shape of a semi-bibi, and a few are carved with the face of the gods, humans and beasts, and combined with the jade pipe to form a string of huang pipes. These lyches buried with the head are often accompanied by female tomb owners and have distinct gender characteristics. After the middle of the Liangzhu culture, with the establishment of male authoritarian status, Huang gradually withdrew from the stage. During the Liangzhu period, Yu huang had a clear gender identity. In the Han Dynasty, the wearing of jade huang was no longer closely related to gender, and the ornamentation was more delicate and complex, and could be combined with various ornaments such as jade bi and bead ornaments to form a group of jade pendants.
Yu Juan
7. Jade fish
The river network around Liangzhu Ancient City is dense, and there are large areas of wetlands, which provide rich aquatic resources for the ancestors of Liangzhu, such as fish and snails. This jade fish was unearthed on the right side of the tomb owner's upper body. Long strips with oval cross-sections. The head is cut to appear slightly convex, the eyes are carved, the back is arched, the fins are forked, and the lines are carved in a diagonal direction. The belly of the fish has two small hanging holes, a ring bracelet worn by the arm, and a string of pipe beads, stitched cards, and jade objects in the shape of birds, turtles, fish, cicadas and other animals, which together constitute the decoration of the royal family.
Jade fish
In ancient China, the meaning of fish was very rich: because of its vigorous reproductive ability, it was regarded as a symbol of having many children and many grandchildren. The ancients used "carp" to refer to letters, such as "Drinking Horse Great Wall Cave Line": "The guest came from afar and left me a double carp." Hu'er cooks carp, and there is a ruler book. "In order to avoid Li Hu's name, Tang Gaozu changed the tiger symbol to a silver charm and then to a fish symbol. Emperor Gaozong Xianheng for three years stipulated that the five or more products of the Beijing officials should be given fish bags and silver jewelry, making the fish bag an important status level symbol.
8. Black pottery pieces
The pottery industry of the Liangzhu ancestors was developed, and pottery was the most commonly used utensils. Black pottery, also known as "black leather pottery", is one of the representative utensils of Liangzhu, commonly using the wheel method and regular shape. Most black pottery carcasses are gray pottery, with only the surface black. The production method is that when the pottery in the kiln is about to be fired, not only seal the kiln, but also stuff the wet wood soaked in water, so that it is smouldered in the kiln and smoke is emitted, so that the black smoke penetrates into the surface of the pottery. The micropores on the surface of this type of pottery are not easily infiltrated by black smoke because of the infiltration of black smoke.
Black pottery pieces
A large number of carved symbols have been found in the Liangzhu cultural site, including abstract symbols and pictographic symbols. This shows that the ancestors of Liangzhu hoped to express certain information with the help of these symbols, or can be regarded as the "original script" of the Liangzhu cultural period.
This fragment of black pottery engraving is small, but the ornamental unit is complete, and it is a cross-bird head snake body tattoo. This kind of separate and slightly realistic pattern is relatively rare in Liangzhu carved pottery.