Welcome to the new edition of The Babo Micro Classroom! Today, I will introduce the jade carving products for you - the Western Zhou Dynasty carved jade deer.
This jade deer was excavated in 1974 in The No. 1 Tomb of Rujiazhuang, the National Cemetery of Baoji City, with a height of 9 cm and a thickness of 0.4 cm. Jade is used for decoration, but there is no ornamental decoration around the body, and only the eyes, nose, kiss, hooves, and limbs are outlined with yin lines. So do you know what makes it special?
Right! Its special feature lies in its shape, the jade smith with superb skill and keen observation, not only captures the frightened deer in the run of the momentary state, but also uses superb jade technology and artistic expression techniques to carve it into eternity, exquisite portrait, lifelike, showing us the most vivid scene in nature three thousand years ago, but also let us truly realize that only the works that permeate the style of the times and the extraordinary artistic talents and ideas of the jade seekers can be called jade carving masterpieces, and have eternal artistic charm.
Deer were regarded as gods in ancient times, and people believed that deer can bring auspicious happiness and longevity, and the meaning in traditional Chinese culture is also very rich. Deer nature in the docile, kind, feminine, introverted temperament, are the object of praise and praise, so the deer in traditional Chinese culture is the embodiment of beauty and kindness; at the same time, the deer is also a symbol of love, the ancients married, the man to send the woman to two deer skins as a dowry, meaning to marry a beautiful girl; also as a sign of power, in ancient times the deer is the object of hunting in people's lives, so it is borrowed as a metaphor for the ruler's pursuit of power.
From ancient times to the present, there are many allusions related to deer, which ones do you know? I'll start with a few, and each of the pictures below is an allusion.
Refers to deer as horses
When emperor II of the Qin Dynasty was emperor, Zhao Gao wanted to rebel, and fearing that other courtiers would not go along with it, he set a trap and tried to test it. He offered a deer to the SECOND and said, "This is a horse." Niseki smiled and said, "Is the minister wrong?" Say the deer is a horse. Asking the people next to them, some were silent and did not speak, some catered to Zhao Gao and said that they were horses, some said they were deer, and afterwards Zhao Gao secretly killed the people who said they were deer. The metaphor reverses right and wrong.
Deer killed whose hands
During the Jin Dynasty, five ethnic minorities in the north became independent, and sixteen countries appeared successively, historically known as the "Five Hu Sixteen Kingdoms". In 319 AD, Shi Le rebelled against Zhao and established himself as emperor and established the State of Zhao, historically known as Later Zhao. Shi Le established the capital Xiangguo and formed a decisive situation with the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Chenghan Dynasty. Once, at a banquet to welcome envoys from Goguryeo and other countries, Shi Le was very happy, and asked his minister Xu Guang on a drunken ride: "Which king in history can my merits be compared with those of a king in history?" Xu Guang took the opportunity to compliment him and said, "Your Majesty's wisdom and martial courage surpassed That of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, and surpassed Cao Cao. Since the emperors of ancient times, no one can compare with you. Shi Le smiled and said, "You have gone too far. How can a person not understand himself? If I met Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, I would be willing to be his subordinate, obey his command, and compete with Han Xin and Peng Yue to serve first; if I met Liu Xiu, the emperor of Han Guangwu, I would have to compete with him in the Central Plains, but I would not know whose hands the deer died and whose hands the world fell. "The courtiers were very impressed by Shi Le's words." "Whose hand the deer dies" means not knowing whose hands the regime has fallen into; it also means not knowing who has won the final victory.
Cover the deer in search of bananas
Once upon a time, there was a Zheng Guoren cutting firewood in the wild, and when he saw an injured deer running over, he beat the deer to death, fearing that the hunters would come after him, so he hid the dead deer in a small ditch and cut some banana leaves to cover it. It was dark, and he wanted to find the dead deer to carry home, but unfortunately he couldn't find it. So he had to give up, as if he had the same dream. The parable sees the real thing as a dream and repeatedly fails.
Today's Baobo micro class is here! At this moment, do you still have a lot of allusions related to deer in your mind, if you are still unfinished, you can leave a message below to communicate Oh ~ We will see you in the next issue!
Reference: Chen Liang. Treasures of Baoji Bronze Ware Museum[M].Xi'an:Northwest University Press,2021.
Image source: Cultural relics photo from Baoji Bronze Museum; Image from the web.
Edit: Bai Dan
Editor-in-charge: Cui Ruihua
Review: Li Qi