The opening chapter is the culmination of Jingchu culture
North of the Great Lake, the most beautiful river city. Chu culture has led the way for hundreds of years, welcome to the Treasure House of Jingchu Culture - Hubei Provincial Museum.
The ancestor of the Chu people is the fire god Zhu Rong, and the civilization created with fire has lit up the history of the Jingchu land, and more than 240,000 historical relics are treasured in this mysterious cultural treasure house that we guard day and night. The dance of fire and copper has created many exquisite ceremonial vessels and weapons. We believe that the ancestor Zhu Rong was born in the fire, turned into a sacred bird phoenix, flew for nine days, and ran endlessly through the long river of time, and finally washed away this moment into eternity and inscribed here.
We have selected three pieces from more than 240,000 cultural relics in the Hubei Provincial Museum - the Yue Wang Gou Jian Sword, the Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Jian and the Zeng Hou Yi Chime, which still regulate our lives today.
These three cultural relics are a good interpretation of Chinese's unique understanding of love and law from the three levels of individual, social and national. Chinese civilization has a long history and has bred the precious spiritual character of the Chinese nation, and every member of the 1.3 billion people should become the main body of spreading Chinese virtues and Chinese culture.
Fang Qin
Gatekeeper of Hubei Provincial Museum
The sword, an important carrier of the gentleman's sword culture, is one of the ancient weapons, which belongs to the "short soldier" and is known as the "king of a hundred soldiers". In the Shang Dynasty, where the bronze smelting industry was developed, there were already very short ancient swords, and in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the monarchs and princes of various countries tried their best to search for craftsmen to forge swords in order to protect themselves. Countless legendary swords were born in this era. According to the records of the "Record of Examination Workers", the craftsmen of the Warring States period have accumulated enough experience to fully grasp the technology of smelting bronze, and the proportion of copper to lead and tin in the alloy is also different according to the different uses of the appliance. Such smelting technology is nearly a thousand years ahead of Western countries.
Yue Wang Gou Jian Sword, a cultural relic of the late Spring and Autumn Period, was excavated in 1965 from Tomb No. 1 of Wangshan in Jiangling, Hubei Province. When unearthed, the sword was inserted in the black lacquered wood sheath, although it was buried deep underground for more than 2400 years, when it was unsheathed, the sword body was still cold and shining, without any rust, and the blade was thin and sharp. In the near grid of the sword body, there are two lines of 8-character bird seal inscription - "Yue Wang Dove Shallow Self-Use Sword". It indicates that it is a bronze sword of the Yue King. The sword is 55.6 cm long, with the head rolled outward in a hoop shape and cast with 11 extremely fine concentric circles. The round stem is hollow, and the stem is 8.4 cm long. The sword grid is 5 cm wide, with blue glass on the front and turquoise inlay on the back for a beautiful ornament. The sword is 47.3 cm long and covered with black wilted geometric patterns on both sides.
The exquisite craftsmanship of the Yue Wang Gou Jian Sword is unparalleled, integrating various advanced bronze smelting techniques at that time, representing the highest level of Wu Yue sword casting technology at that time, rigid and soft, both tough and sharp characteristics, making the Qian Wang Gou Jian sword a rare national treasure level cultural relics.
Duan Yihong, the guardian of the national treasure
I'm no stranger to the story of Yue Wang's Gou Jian, but when I see the real thing, I am still surprised: the sword is much smaller than I thought. But it is such a small sword that has made countless people worry about it for thousands of years.
This sword, which does not look domineering and ostentatious in appearance, can stand out among countless swords and become the "world's first sword", I think not because of its gorgeous appearance and superb forging technology, but because it has accompanied the vicissitudes of Gou, worked hard, and worked hard to witness the chaotic Spring and Autumn of the sea!
A unique sword condenses the aura of heaven and earth and shows the courage of the king.
Past
Lying down to taste the courage to cast spring and autumn
The Yue Wang Gou Jian Sword is a very good story link in our middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, from the Yue Wang Gou Jian to the Wu Wang Jia, all the way to our Chu State. Through such a sword, we can tell the historical scene of wind and fire in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the Spring and Autumn Period.
--Gong Liang, President of Nanjing Museum
In the middle of the 6th century BC, it was the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, which was an era of great change in Chinese history - the decline of the Zhou Dynasty, the collapse of ceremonies, the division of princes, and frequent conquests. At that time, the internal political turmoil of the countries located in the Central Plains, while the Chu, Wu, and Yue in the south also began a fierce conquest, and for a time the situation of the Three Kingdoms was formed. The state of Wu was in present-day southern Jiangsu, with its capital at Wu (present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu); The Kingdom of Yue was in present-day northern Zhejiang. The capital was Huiji (会稽) (present-day southeast of Shaoxing, Zhejiang).
First, Wu and Chu fought for hegemony, and the Yue state adjacent to the State of Wu often attacked the State of Wu while Wu was busy attacking Chu. In 496 BC, King Changyun of Yue died, and Prince Gou jian took the throne. King Wu, who had returned to China after the victory of Chu Chu, took the opportunity to raise an army to cut down Vietnam. The young King of Yue defeated Wu Shi with a treacherous plot, and King Wu was wounded and died.
Two years later, Fu Cha, the son of Lu Lu, rebuilt his army to avenge his father. The Yue kingdom was greatly defeated, and Gou Jian asked for surrender, and Fu Cha withdrew his troops on the condition that the Yue king hostage Wu. Since then, Gou Jian has become a servant of Wu Wang Fuchai, "driving and raising horses" for Wu Wang, serving for three years, enduring humiliation and burden, going through hardships, and finally winning the trust of Fu Cha and being released back to China.
After the Yue King returned to China, he did not forget the shame of the court, "Fang was anxious and worried, and put his courage in the seat." Sitting down is to lean on the gall, and eating is also tasting the gall" ("History of the Yue King's Gou Jian Family"). On the one hand, he was paid a salary and tasted courage, and on the other hand, he reformed the state administration and revitalized the economy with the assistance of the sage Fan Li and the wens. After more than ten years of hard work, in 482 BC, it made a comeback and raised troops to cut down Hao. In 473 BC, Fu Cha committed suicide and the state of Wu fell. Gou Jian marched north along the path of Fu Cha, and the princes of the assembly marched north at Xuzhou (徐州, in present-day Teng County, Shandong), and "the Yue soldiers ran rampant in the east of Jianghuai." The princes Bi He, known as the overlords" ("History of the Yue King's Gou Jian Shi"), Yue finally became the last overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period.
In the Spring and Autumn Warring States, the situation was turbulent, and in order to cope with the continuous war, the princely states constantly improved and manufactured a large number of weapons of all kinds, and carried out an unprecedented "arms race." All countries have skilled craftsmen who cast bronze swords. The land of Wuyue has been the place where sword qi has been in the sky since ancient times, and it is famous for its exquisite casting technology. According to the "Yue Zhi Shu And Sword Chapter", Xue Zhan, a sword connoisseur at that time, commented on the "pure jun" sword that Yue Wang had practiced: "The hand vibrates, yang Qihua, and quenches like a hibiscus." Look at its sheet metal, as brilliant as the journey of the stars; Look at its light, muddy as water overflowing in the pond; Look at its broken, rocks and rocks are like trivial stones; Looking at its talents, Huan Huan's work ice release... Although the city is full of gold, the pearls and jade are exhausted, and they still cannot get a thing. ”
It is the specific carrier of the dream of a powerful country such as the Yue King's practice of lying down and tasting courage. Later, in our traditional Chinese culture, the sword, a symbol, also became a spiritual weapon.
--Cai Ju, Deputy Director of Zhejiang Provincial Museum
Reproduce
The last relic of the Spring and Autumn Overlord
The Yue Wang Gou Jian Sword was unearthed in 1965 in Chuji, Wangshan, Jiangling, Hubei Province. After the excavation, when it was pulled out of the sheath of the sword, it was found that there was writing on it. "Yue Wang Zi Bian with a sword" 6 words Everyone knows, and what the other two words are is crucial, but no one knew it at the time. Including Mr. Guo Moruo, a group of top experts in China at that time, after more than three months of letter discussion, finally unanimously determined that it was Yue Wang's gouge.
-Wan Quanwen Deputy Director of Hubei Provincial Museum
In the winter of 1965, in order to improve the local irrigation system, the Jiangling area of Jingzhou, Hubei Province, began the construction of channels for the Zhangzhou Reservoir. When the canal was built near the former site of the ancient Chu capital City Yedu, more than 50 large and small ancient tombs were found, of which Wangshan No. 1 Mu was a relatively large Warring States Chu Mu.
The Gangneung area has a high groundwater level, more water in the tomb pit, poor soil conditions, and the middle of winter, often rain and snow. After the painstaking work of the archaeologists, from this Tomb No. 1, a sharp sword was unearthed, which is a medium-sized earth pit wooden rafter tomb with two coffins inside and outside, of which the structure of the inner coffin is complex and tight. And the bronze sword in the black lacquer sheath was placed on the left hand side of the skeleton of the owner of the inner coffin.
Archaeologists cleaned the scabbard and pulled out the bronze sword, found it exquisitely made, and could not help but be amazed. They found that there were two lines of 8-character bird seal inscriptions in the near grid of the sword body, of which 6 words were "Yue Wang Zi Cha used the sword", and the other two words should be the name of a certain Yue King according to the previous inscription convention found on the sword.
However, in the Spring and Autumn Period, the Yue Kingdom was destroyed by Chu from Changyun to Wujiang, and there were 9 Yue kings successively. It's hard to decide for a while. Therefore, a "grand pen meeting" was held in the fields of archaeology and ancient writing, and after the study of more than a dozen well-known experts and scholars such as Guo Moruo and Tang Lan, it was determined that the name of the person on the inscription was "Dove Shallow", and "Dove Shallow" was the tongkan character of "Gou Jian", thus determining that this sword was an important relic of Gou Jian today. One of the relics discovered by scientific archaeology left by this legendary historical figure is the Gou Jian Sword, which is the most important national treasure-level cultural relics of this historical figure, which is of great significance to the study of Wu-Yue relations and Chu-Yue relations.
As for why a Yue King's sword appeared in the Chu tomb, there are two speculations in the archaeological community, one is the dowry theory, and the other is the trophy theory. In fact, the land of the sword of Wu Yue was rarely within the territory of the ancient Wu state and Yue Gu, and often within the territory of the Chu state and the Jin state, which was due to the emergence of the Wu-Jin and Yue-Chu alliances during the Spring and Autumn Period. According to the "History of the Yue King's Gou Jian Shi Family", "Gou Jian zi hui hui gui for seven years", heeded the advice of the doctor Fu Tong, and adopted the policy of "qi qi, pro-Chu, jin, and hou wu" in diplomacy. When carrying out "pro-Chu" diplomacy, it is very likely that the beloved bronze sword was given to the Chu state as an important gift. According to records, Gou Jian's daughter married King Chu Zhao, and her son was King Hui of Chu, so the sword probably flowed into the Chu State as a dowry, and Gou Jian may have offered the "Gou Jian Sword" as a dowry to the King of Chu to obtain the support of the Chu State.
Life
Awaken a national treasure that has been sleeping for thousands of years with the latest technology
Narrator: Jiang Xudong, Deputy Director of the Cultural Protection Center of Hubei Provincial Museum
The Yue Wang Gou Jian Sword was unearthed in 1965, and in its story of this life, 1977, is a very important year. In that year, it was escorted to Shanghai by a special plane to undergo proton X fluorescence nondestructive testing, becoming the first national cultural relic in China to undergo such testing. The test results have caused a sensation in the entire academic community, and have set off a research boom in China and even the world. However, due to the scientific and technological conditions at that time, many conjectures are still pending. 40 years later, in 2017, the Hubei Provincial Museum launched the "Secondary Scientific Research of the Yue King's Gou Jian Sword". That is, the use of the latest science and technology and equipment to carry out a comprehensive and in-depth non-destructive test of the Yue Wang Gou Jian Sword.
The Yue King's Sword is an unattainable idol for many archaeologists, and we want to awaken it and use the most advanced technological means to understand what it is going to say to us.
This is the first time in nearly 40 years that Gou Jian jian has received such a major testing activity, with the platform of "National Treasure", the researchers have shown the latest results of this test for everyone, hoping to once again open everyone's attention and research boom to yue wang Gou Jian sword.
The first research result finally found the door to the microscopic world of the Yue Zheng Gou Sword, and took everyone to the microscopic world between the Yue Wang Hook Lines to have a look.
We put the Yue Wang Gou Jian Sword under a 500-fold microscope and took thousands of microscopic photos. It took more than two general periods to stitch together the panorama, which is a very precious photograph.
On the 500-fold magnification of the photo, you can see a yellow part, which is its blade, and you can also see the densely arranged structure of the edge branches, which is called "branch crystal". This is the fine abalone of the sword. This kind of cell is the "metallographic organization" inside the metal. Through this metallographic group called branch crystals, it is possible to speculate and study its casting process and the alloy composition in it. In other words, we are equivalent to getting a key to understand the mystery of the Sword Making Process of the Kaiyue King.
We can see from observing the branch crystal that the sword blade and the branch crystal of the sword body are connected, which shows that the metallographic organization is coherent, that is, the sword body and the blade are cast at one time, which is a sword cast in one piece, and the material used is the same. This also overturns the conclusion of the predecessors that "the sword body and the blade are different".
The second research result - explains the reason why the Yue King's sword is "incorruptible for a thousand years".
The more the sword was buried deep underground for more than 2,400 years, and when it was unearthed in 1965, it was cold and eye-catching, without any rust, and the blade was sharp enough to be broken by more than 20 layers of paper, these mysteries attracted a large number of scholars to painstakingly study and try to uncover the legend hidden in the thousand-year-old sword. There had been a speculation that the sword had not decayed for thousands of years because it had been vulcanized.
However, such a view is only a speculation, and there is no conclusive evidence, which still needs to be examined. We have some new discoveries in this research, and the other two excavated from the same tomb as the Yue Wang Gou Jian Sword contain sulfur on the surface of the wound, and we found that the sulfur is actually more serious corrosion, that is to say, the vulcanization treatment is not at all the reason for its "thousand years of incorruption". After summarizing our research this time, there are three reasons why Yue Wang wrote that the money is "incorruptible for a thousand years": First, the sword itself is suitable for selection and the lead content is very small. Because utensils with high lead content in the same tomb are seriously corroded; Second, the burial environment is good and the air is isolated; The third is to carry the sword with the sheath of the sword, which is a double protection for it. It should be said that it is these three points that have caused its "millennium incorruptible".
The third research result - the Yue King's Gou Jian Sword True Rong Da Restoration.
Under a 500-fold microscope, we can see the diamond-shaped lines of the sword body. The black groove in the middle, the white striped part on the side, collapsed in its entirety. We speculate that it was made in the form of "casting grooves and filling tin", that is, when casting the sword, the diamond-shaped grooves were first cast on the sword, and then the tin was filled in the inside. Because tin is silvery-white and bronze is golden-yellow, according to our conjecture, the restoration figure from 2500 years ago should be yellow-white, and what we see now is yellow-black, which is the result of more than 2500 years of corrosion.
If it is not through the means of science and technology, it is estimated that future generations will always look like a veil on the national treasure itself. Today, through scientific testing, we are closer to the truth of the Yue King's sword. 40 years ago, dedicated experts and scholars tested the Yue Wang Gou Jian sword for us, and the results shocked the entire academic community. 40 years on the line. Through the means of science and technology, we lead everyone into the microscopic world of the sword, in this world, concentric circles are turned into deep valleys and grooves, and the metallographic organization of the sword body is dotted with branches and crystals, like an astrolabe, and the diamond-shaped patterns are removed from the black surface, revealing the silver light. We explore the incomparable vast scenery of the Gou Jian Sword, and we also explore the unparalleled wisdom of our ancestors. This is an opportunity given to us by the progress of the times and the progress of science and technology, so that we can interpret national treasures and glimpse history from another dimension.
The Zhao Wang's sword is very much in line with the aesthetic concept of Chinese tradition, in addition, it also has the ideological connotation of straightness in the middle of the song, rigidity in the soft, flexion and stretching, Natural Daofa, and unity of heaven and man.
--Ma Xiaolin, President of Henan Museum
Experiencing
The only scientific and technological perspective
Mentioning this sword, I have to say that she really let us experience the realm of "human sword unity". Saying that she is a sword is not really a sword in the true sense, but she is also called "the first sword in the world", and perhaps our "fine division" of her begins from this moment.
People who practice martial arts must be no stranger to her, and she, who claims to be one of the best-preserved bronze swords, is like a beauty who holds a pipa and half-covered face, and whenever she feels that she has seen her true face, it seems that there is another big mystery hidden behind her, unfathomable.
I wanted to talk about our Chinese sword ritual and sword soul on the sword body itself, but when I thought about it carefully, it seemed that I had thrown away the Yue King's sword itself, and there was always a sense of off-topic. We dug deeper, trying to cut from the spiritual level of the sword, and even found the J-20 fighter jet as the embodiment of the "Yue Wang Gou Jian Sword" in the 21st century (the brain hole is sometimes opened, and it really can't be filled back). We walked majestically on this road until we returned to the relic itself and pondered the ins and outs of the sword, and we found that we seemed to have gone far again. At this time, there is only about a week left before the recording time, but the sharpness of this sword is still not clear to us.
Under the chase of time, we broke through the boat, overturned all the previous inferences, picked up the sword again, and from another perspective, after entering from her microscopic world, we found that it was really a sword and a world, a glance and a mystery. We began to want to expand cultural relics from the regular liberal arts disciplines to science and engineering, and we hope that the audience can understand our national treasures from more dimensions, not just the historical and cultural level. Because chinese civilization still flows with the blood of reason and science, these are also the most solid cornerstones of the progress of our civilization. So we want to open up a new world of scientific and technological archaeology through the Yue King's sword. 2017 is also a full 40 years since the first scientific and technological identification of this sword, all of which seems to be doomed, and we have to take it out and talk about it together. After 40 years of scientific and technological progress, what do we see in this sword of our ancestors? How much do we know about the wisdom of our ancestors? Behind her veil, have we explained those mysteries?
Among the 27 national treasures, this is the only interpretation with a unique sense of science and technology. But to be honest, we also feel that we have not done enough, and this regret has always made us think about how we can do this bridge well. Let each interpretation really start from the level of everyone's cognition and resonance, rather than indoctrinating giving. But we believe that when everyone walks into the museum again, there will be one more dimension to look at cultural relics, look at history, and see the world.