M. Tatsu
#三星堆篇-18 #
Dear friends, thank you for your support along the way, follow the "All the World Museum" from
Ancient Civilization Series
Of Egypt, India, Greece, Mexico as well
European series
Russia has been all the way to
Asian Series
Singapore, Indonesia, Turkey, China. Right now
China
——
Sanxingdui Museum
In progress. Little friends, speed onlookers! (The pictures in this article were taken by M. Chen, Chroma,
All rights reserved
）
("Bronze Cash Cow", Sanxingdui Museum Collection)
In the previous space
Chenguan introduced a large number of rare artifacts unearthed in the ruins of the ancient Shu Kingdom of Sanxingdui (hereinafter referred to as "Sanxingdui"), such as a large number of strangely shaped, unpredictable, confusing and still unknown to the world
Bronze longitudinal mask, bronze sacred tree
wait. Today, the treasure we are about to see is a little small compared to the mysterious artifacts before it: it is neither unique in the world nor mysterious in its function. It is loved by the people because of its auspicious meaning and intuitive shape, it is:
Treasures of Sanxingdui Museum——
Bronze cash cow
Hey, the topic of "cash cows" is more fascinating:
Why is it called a "cash cow"? Who invented the "cash cow"? Was there really a cash cow in the world?
The truth is coming soon!
(Part of "The Bronze Cash Cow")
The origin of the "cash cow"
In the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Shu, and The Biography of Bing Yuan, there is a story that in ancient times, a man named Bing Yuan found a string of money on the road, and because he did not know who the owner was, he hung the money on a big tree. Later, when people passing by saw money hanging from this tree, they thought it was a sacred tree and a tree of wealth, so they also hung their own money on the tree in the hope that it would produce more money.
Later, the money on this tree hung more and more, so that people mistakenly believed that this tree could really make money. As a result, the name "money tree" spread, and later it was unconsciously passed on as a "cash cow".
Later, the Custom of Thick Burial in the Han Dynasty prevailed, and the "cash cow" as a symbol of wealth and auspiciousness made it a kind of Ming ware (Ming Ware: Burial Utensils).
(Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Shu, Biography of Bing Yuan: Bing Yuan... If you taste the money and get the money, pick up the branches, the money will not be taken, and the more people who tie the money, the more they ask the reason, the connoisseur is called the tree of the gods... ）
The construction of a cash cow
Take the Sanxingdui bronze cash cow as an example: most of the cash cows are composed of three parts: the seat, the trunk and the branches.
Among them: 1. The tree seat is usually ceramic or stone; 2. The trunk is mostly made of bronze; 3. The design of the branches and leaves is more complex, and it is usually cast with various shapes such as gods, figures, and animals.
The uppermost part of the trunk of the Sanxingdui cash cow is a suzaku (a sacred bird, symbolizing the sun god) that spreads its wings, representing the meaning of heaven and the gods; the middle branch part, the branches and leaves are cast with various characters and animal shapes such as sheep, monkeys, people, and copper coins. Here "sheep" through "xiang", "monkey" through "Hou"... They represent auspicious meanings such as "blessing, lu, longevity, promotion and wealth", expressing the wishes and yearning of people for a better life at that time.
(Details of "The Bronze Cash Cow")
The prevalence and fading of cash cows
The ancients' love for trees has been around since ancient times. In ancient times, due to the level of productivity and the limitation of people's cognitive ability, people still flourished and flourished although trees were destroyed by wind, rain, thunder and lightning, and they had a strong worship psychology. People believe that trees have a strong reproductive force of life and have the divine power of thousands of years of immortality, so they worship trees as "tree gods".
So, one day in a certain year, when the "tree god" met the "wealth" (邴原 hanging money), the image of the "cash cow" was born. Because the cash cow not only represents the prosperity of the descendants, longevity and longevity, but also represents the continuous source of wealth, wealth and prosperity, so once it came out, it was loved and warmly welcomed by the public, and finally formed the custom of using the cash cow as a funeral.
Bronze cash cows flourished from the early Eastern Han Dynasty to the late Three Kingdoms Shu Han Dynasty, until the Western Jin Dynasty completely faded. The cash cow survived for about two hundred years and was mainly used as funerary utensils.
("The Cash Cow of the Eastern Han Dynasty", in the collection of the Mianyang Museum.) Image source Mianyang Pavilion)
At present, there are about 200 cash cows unearthed in the mainland, of which about 20 are relatively complete.
The most famous is the "Eastern Han Dynasty Cash Cow" now in the Mianyang Museum in Sichuan.
(Above.) In 1996, the No. 2 Tomb of Hejiashan in Mianyang was excavated; a national first-class cultural relic; and one of the 64 national treasure-level cultural relics in the "Catalogue of Cultural Relics of the First Batch of Prohibited Overseas Exhibitions" issued by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage).
“
Eastern Han Dynasty cash cow
”：
With a height of 1.98 meters, it is the tallest, largest and best-preserved cash cow on the continent known today
。 Its branches and leaves are decorated with strings of coin shapes, jade bi, sacred beasts and immortals, etc., expressing the spiritual appeal of the ancients for wealth and immortality, feathering and ascending immortals.
A very interesting phenomenon is that of the 200 cash cows that have been unearthed, the vast majority of them have been found in the southwest of the mainland, with Sichuan being the most common.
According to expert analysis, the reason may be because the economy of Sichuan was developed at that time, the metallurgical casting technology was more advanced than that of other regions, coupled with factors such as folk customs and customs, so the cash cow was extremely popular in Sichuan. The reason for the eventual decline of the cash cow may be because after entering the Three Kingdoms period, the frequent wars and chaos still caused the local economic recession, resulting in a serious shortage of financial resources for people to mint the cash cow; on the other hand, after entering the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties era, the state banned thick burials, so that the cash cow as a thick burial tool lost the market, and gradually faded.
The cash cow is a kind of yearning and expectation of the ancients for a better life. People hang copper coins on the sacred tree in the hope that it will be able to make money, and then harvest more wealth, and can enjoy the glory and wealth of life.
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Finally, the question Tatsukan would like to ask his friends is:
If someone were to hang money on a tree like Hohara today, do you think there would still be a phenomenon of a "cash cow"? Do you think the money on the tree will hang more and more, or will there be no night at all?