What is the origin of this collection of the Henan Museum, which was banned from being exported for exhibition 20 years ago? A drought, the water level in the reservoir area fell and rushed out of the thousand-year-old tomb, and the excavated cultural relics were forbidden to leave the country!
In January 2002, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage issued the "Regulations on the Administration of Cultural Relics Going Abroad (Border) Exhibition", which was attached to the "Catalogue of the First Batch of Cultural Relics Prohibited from Going Abroad (Border)", a total of 64 pieces (groups) of precious cultural relics were selected, of which two were collected in the collection of the Henan Museum: one was the famous "Lotus Crane Copper Square Pot", and the other was called "Spring and Autumn Cloud Pattern Copper Ban", which was far less well-known than the Lotus Crane Copper Square Pot.
Lotus Crane Copper Square Pot, also known as Spring and Autumn Lotus Crane Square Kettle, Lotus Crane Square Pot is a bronze wine or water container made in the middle of spring and autumn, excavated in 1923 in Henan Xinzheng Lijialou Zheng Gong Tomb.
In that year, nearly 100 complete bronzes were excavated from zhenggong tombs, in addition to hundreds of cultural relics such as jade and pottery, known in history as "new Zheng Yi ware". Experts believe that these cultural relics are the sacrificial heavy objects of the Zheng royal family, and their owners may be the infant of the Zheng Kingdom.
The main part of this pot is a popular square pot shape since the late Western Zhou Dynasty, with a lid, amphora, a circle foot, a center of gravity on the lower abdomen, and various additional decorations decorated under the body, which not only causes an exceptionally magnificent decorative effect, but also reflects an important change in the aesthetic concept of bronze art in the Spring and Autumn Period.
The square pot excavated from zhenggong tomb is a pair of two pieces, the weight of the two pots is the same, both are 64.28 kg, there are slight differences in height, a pot is 125.7 cm high, called "crane square pot", a pot pot height of 126.5 cm, called "lotus crane square pot". The Standing Crane Square Pot is now in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing, and the Lotus Crane Square Pot is now in the Collection of the Henan Museum.
In 1999, the lotus crane square pot replica of zhongding bronze was designated as a diplomatic gift and given to national leaders and foreign presidents and prime ministers. The Lotus Crane Square Pot has thus become the treasure of the town hall of the Henan Museum.
Who is sacred and can enjoy this honor, which can be ranked with the Lotus Crane Square Pot among the first batch of Spring and Autumn Cloud Pattern Copper Ban that prohibits cultural relics from being exhibited abroad?
Spring and Autumn cloud pattern copper forbidden, also known as the copper ban excavated from the Huaichuan River. The copper ban unearthed in Huaichuan intuitively tells everyone from the name that it comes from the land - Huaichuan County in Nanyang, Henan.
Speaking of Huaichuan, modern people will think of the south-to-north water diversion, because the head of the canal in the middle line of the south-to-north water diversion is in the Huaichuan. In fact, the history of Huaichuan is also very thick, and there are many historical and humanistic stories that can be told.
Known as Danyang in ancient times, Huaichuan is one of the birthplaces of Chu culture, with a long history and splendid culture. In the more than 800 years of history of the Chu State, the capital of Danyang has been set for more than 300 years. Taking Danyang as the starting point, the Chu people took Wei Ding hegemony in the Spring and Autumn Warring States, opened up the territory and expanded the territory, marched all the way to the south, successively unified more than 50 small countries, became the hegemon of the south, and created a splendid culture.
In the hot land of Gu Danyang, a number of important historical figures such as Fan Li, a generation of Shang Sheng, Fan Ye, historian Fan Ye, and materialist thinker Fan Zhen were born.
The Spring and Autumn Cloud Pattern Copper Forbidden was excavated from the Spring and Autumn Chu Tomb at the Lower Temple in Huaichuan County, and is a bronze vessel for the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period. The height of the Spring and Autumn Cloud Pattern Copper Forbidden Passage is 28.8 cm, the length of the body is 103 cm, the width is 46 cm, and the weight is 95.5 kg. The cloud-patterned copper ban is rectangular in shape and consists of three parts: the forbidden body, 12 dragon-shaped beasts, and 12 dragon-shaped beasts.
The center of the forbidden surface is light-free, and the four sides and sides are cast with multiple layers of copper stems to form a delicate and interconnected crab pattern. Five round eagle tigers are each on each of the two long sides of the forbidden side as seat feet, and the two long sides are forbidden to climb four tigers each, and the narrow sides on each side are attached to two tigers, and the tiger's head is high above the forbidden surface, making a swallowing and vomiting shape. The climbing tiger and the footed tiger are staggered up and down.
The "forbidden" is a ceremonial instrument that was made after King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang. Zhou Gongdan wrote the Shangshu Jiuyu (尚書·Wine 诰) on the orders of King Cheng of Zhou, and warned Uncle Kang, who had first sealed the Song of the Imperial Dynasty, that he could only drink alcohol during the sacrifice, and could not get drunk. The Liturgy of the Crown of The Priests notes: "The name is forbidden, because the alcohol ring is also." ”
There is the earliest prohibition order in the mainland in the "Shang Shu Jiu Jie", which stipulates when and how to drink: using wine to sacrifice and worship the gods, pension and worship, you can drink alcohol, that is, you cannot get drunk and drink with the crowd. When king Ping of Zhou moved east to Luoyang, Li Le collapsed, and the prohibition of alcohol in the Zhou Dynasty was like a blank piece of paper, and almost no one enforced it. However, the "prohibition" as a ceremonial instrument continued until the end of the Warring States period.
The excavation of the cloud-patterned copper ban has a dramatic accident - because of a major drought, the copper ban of the Chu kingdom that has been sleeping for more than 2,000 years can be seen again.
At the end of the summer of 1977, due to drought, the water level of the Danjiang Reservoir dropped, and a thousand-year-old tomb hidden deep under the reservoir was washed away, and a large number of bronze and jade objects were washed out of the Danjiang River and exposed on both sides of the Danjiang River.
After receiving the report, the local cultural relics management department immediately rushed to the scene and began to collect scattered cultural relics and explore the site. After some exploration, the archaeologists found that this was a group of Spring and Autumn Chu tombs with dense tombs. However, due to the rainy season at that time, the water level of the Danjiang River rose, and the excavation work was forced to be interrupted.
The following year, the cultural relics department immediately carried out rescue excavations of this cemetery, excavated a total of 24 Chu tombs and some Han tombs in the Spring and Autumn Period, and unearthed many valuable precious cultural relics, of which Tomb No. 2 unearthed a complete set of bronze ceremonial vessels.
The reason why the copper ban unearthed in Huaichuan was selected as one of the first batch of cultural relics prohibited from being exhibited abroad was that it was cast by the lost wax method in its production process - the cloud pattern copper ban as a whole.
The lost wax method is one of the three major casting methods invented in ancient China, which is a casting method that uses the fusability of wax to cast parts with complex structures and are not easy to separate.
According to early literature, the earliest use of the lost wax method in China was in the early Tang Dynasty, and the excavation of the cloud-patterned copper ban pushed forward the history of the Chinese lost wax casting process by 1100 years.
(Image from the Internet)