In 1971, inside the Gansu Provincial Museum, an octogenarian was standing by an exhibition stand in a daze, muttering incessantly, "It's so beautiful!" It was so beautiful! ”
At this time, the director of the museum, who was entertaining Cambodian visitors, finally finished his business and came to the old man. The old man said to the curator: "This is really a fantasy, alone, that is, to take it to the world, are first-class art treasures!" ”
The curator smiled and said, "It doesn't have a name yet, or Elder Guo, you should give it a name." ”
The old man looked back, and he was none other than Mr. Guo Moruo, a famous archaeologist on the mainland. By this time his hair was gray, but his eyes were filled with excitement and vitality. "What's the name?" Guo Lao pondered, "Let's call it 'Ma Ta Fei Yan'!" ”
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Tomb of Leitaihan
In 1969, in the Wuwei Fresh People's Commune in Gansu Province, the villagers of the 13th production team were arranged by the commune to work the construction site, constantly excavating the loess in the field in order to build an air raid shelter here.
But when they dug and dug, they suddenly hollowed out, and looked through the hole, which was filled with various bronze statues, and in the middle lay a rather huge coffin. The villagers reported the incident to the organization, and soon after, an archaeological team came to the site of the incident and began to study and protect the tomb.
Among the tombs there are various bronze horses, some of which have inscriptions on the chests of some of the figurines. According to the inscription, this tomb is the tomb of Zhang Jun, the governor of Zhangye in the Western Regions, so it is inferred that this ancient tomb was a Han tomb built during the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the specific year of completion should be between 186 and 219 AD. Because the burial chamber is close to Leitai, it is named "Leitai Han Tomb".
Ma Ta Fei Yan
A large number of cultural relics were found in the leitai han tomb, and there were many gold and silver jade objects, but the most precious one was still the bronze horse maid. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Wei Qing and Huo Fuyi each led 50,000 cavalry deep into the north of the desert to seek and kill the Xiongnu, which finally brought the Hexi Corridor under his rule, opened up the western region, and placed all the western regions including Zhangye, Wuwei, Dunhuang, and so on under the rule of the Han Emperor.
Therefore, during the Han Dynasty, horses were particularly fond of horses. Emperor Wu of han was extremely obsessed with good horses, and once made a special "Heavenly Horse Song" to praise the heroism of horses, in order to:
Taiyi Gong was under the heavens, and the sweat was red and foaming. Chengrong and Xi Are Thousands of Miles, and now Anpi Xilong is a friend.
Therefore, it is not surprising that so many horse figurines have been found in the tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty. But the leading horse at the front of the bronze horse maid's horse formation still amazed the experts.
The shape of this horse is the same as that of a real horse, with its head held high, heroic and divine, its body shape is healthy, its three hooves are in the air as a galloping shape, a hoof is on top of a flying bird, the bird looks back, it seems to be equally incredible, just such a situation, it will be the Pegasus wind galloping, the sense of speed of thousands of miles perfectly expressed, can be described as a typical of the static, the treasure of world art!
Positive fun photos
It is precisely for this reason that when Mr. Guo Moruo first saw this bronze galloping horse figurine later, even he was full of admiration for a while. After that, this batch of bronze figurines, including "Ma Ta Fei Yan", was also taken to the world for traveling exhibitions, which shocked the whole world for a while and highlighted the romance and brilliance of Chinese civilization.
Interestingly, in this "horse stepping on the flying swallow", the flying bird that the galloping horse steps on is actually not a swallow, and the current research shows that this flying bird is more likely to be a "dragon bird" or "swallow falcon", of which the dragon bird is the wind god Fei Lian in the Qin and Han mythology, and the Eastern Han Zhang Heng also has the saying of "dragon bird cockroach, tianma half Han", so the dragon bird is currently believed by the academic community to be the most likely mythical creature for this bird.
In addition, although the side photo of this "Horse Flying Swallow (Finch)" looks very smooth and flowing, the front photo is actually very funny and interesting. The horse in this flying swallow is itself "turning", which is more obvious from the front. And the bronze horse in the front photo is grinning, the expression is witty, it looks unbearable, and suddenly there is no such wind of galloping horses, and the remaining animation cuteness.
epilogue
Ma Ta FeiYan is a national treasure of the mainland, a supreme treasure in the history of mainland art, and also reflects a characteristic of Chinese culture, that is, the perfect grasp of artistic conception. How to use the immovable sculpture to show the speed of a pegasus that travels thousands of miles a day? Ma Ta Fei Yan gave us a perfect answer.
Resources
LI Chonghan. The Mystery of the Life of a Horse[J].National Humanities and History, 2014:57-59.
ZHANG Jinshuo. Ma Ta Fei Swallow has been wrongly trampled on for more than 40 years[J].Knowledge is Power, 2014:56-59.
LI Yue. The Performance of Horses in Sculpture Art from ma Ta FeiYan[J].Selected Essays: Part II, 2017:117-118.