In the Spring Festival Exhibition of the Year of the Tiger held at the Shanghai Museum, there is a gilded bronze tiger from the Western Han Dynasty, with a majestic and stable shape, quietly crouching in a corner. This bronze tiger is used to press the seat town. Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were no chairs and other seats today, and meals and rest were "sitting on the ground". In order to avoid affecting the manners due to folding the corners of the mat or worrying about the clothes when getting up and sitting down, people used heavy objects to press the four corners of the mat and temporarily seat the town.
"Sit in the white jade town""
The "Gao YiTu" by the Tang Dynasty painter Sun Wei in the Shanghai Museum shows the use of Xizhen in real life: in the corner corner of the seat, there is a xizhen shaped like a bell, with buttons on the top and ties.
Now the earliest Xizhen physical object in the era of discovery, excavated from the no. 1 tomb of Rujiazhuang in Baoji, Shaanxi, is oval in shape, the outer copper shell is tightly wrapped in cobblestone, and the surface is decorated with animal face patterns, which is 3.8 cm high, 10 cm long, 8 cm wide, and weighs 0.45 kg. The first tomb of Rujiazhuang is dated to the time of King Mu of the Western Zhou Dynasty, 3,000 years ago.
In the pre-Qin period, there were already documents on the use of suppression seats. The Chu Ci has the phrase "Yao Xi Xi Yu Zhen", and the Eastern Han Dynasty Wang Yi notes that "the white jade town sits in the seat". Archaeological excavations also confirm the authenticity of this record: 19 pieces of jade towns were excavated from the Yinshan Tomb in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, with white color, gray-black sandwiched, the whole resembles a steamed bun, the body has eight longitudinal folding edges around the body, and the whole body is engraved with fine hooked cirrus clouds.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Xizhen was more cast in bronze. The 4 pieces of copper town excavated from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Suizhou, Hubei Province, are hemispherical in shape, and eight intertwined dragons are hollowed out on the spherical surface, some lying on the sphere, and some arching their bodies. In particular, the dragon body arched at the top cleverly becomes a dragon-shaped button, which holds the ring, which can be described as exquisite and practical casting.
The hemispherical shape is the basic shape of Xizhen in this period, but there are also special cases - four pieces of wrong silver winged divine beasts excavated from the tomb of Zhongshan King in Pingshan County, Hebei Province, with the head of the beast on the side, the round neck straight and vertical, the whole body is strong, the wings are high, all of which are more than 40 centimeters long, more than 24 centimeters high, and weigh more than 10 kilograms, and their functions may be both xizhen and furnishings.
"Mottled and splendid harmony of nature"
During the Han Dynasty, most of the towns were in the shape of reclining animals, maintaining the semicircular outline of the body. Common animal-shaped towns include tigers, leopards, bears, deer, turtles, etc.
Tiger Town, the whole is mostly in the shape of a circle of crouching, hook head rolled, flexed limbs and tails. Among the known seat towns, Tiger Town accounts for the largest proportion. The tiger town of Beizhuang Han Tomb in Dingxian County, Hebei Province, has a wrong gold and silver ornamentation on the body and head, and there is an elegant and solemn atmosphere in the majesty.
Leopard Town, the shape is close to Tiger Town, but more dynamic, Hebei Mancheng Han Tomb Leopard Town, the mouth is coated with cinnabar, the two eyes inlaid with white agate, but because of the fusion material with vermilion pigment, the overall appearance is red.
In the Han Dynasty, people regarded bears as auspicious animals. Its cute image is made into a seat town, which can add a lively atmosphere to the home. The gilded bear town unearthed in Hefei, Anhui Province, is gilded throughout, squatting on the back, bending the front paws, raising the head and opening the mouth, the shape is vivid, thick and cute.
Since ancient times, deer have been loved by people for their cute and tame and beautiful meaning. The materials used in Luzhen are more special, made of sea shells and bronze. The Shanghai Museum has a set of gilded deer-shaped towns, the deer body is bronze gilded, the deer's back is inlaid with tabby shells, and the deer's head is raised, as if it is singing. To increase the weight of the town, the deer's bodies were also filled with lead. The splendid harmony of mottled shells and gilded nature, the vivid shape and practical function are skillfully combined.
In addition to deer town, tabby shellfish can also be made into turtle town. The turtle town of the Western Han Tomb in Hunyuan Bi Village, Shanxi, has a head up, a snout upturned, an inlaid tabby shell on the upper part of the back armor, a yin carved scale armor underneath, and four claws slightly exposed, showing the turtle's posture of wanting to stop moving.
Tabby shell surface is smooth, mostly white or yellowish white, but also has black-brown spots of different sizes, produced in tropical and subtropical seas, and is distributed in Taiwan and the South China Sea Islands.
In addition, the tomb of Chang'an Han in Shaanxi Province has also unearthed Dragon Town, which is lying down, the dragon head is high, the body is slightly spiral-shaped, the mouth is slightly open, the ears are reversed, the front paws are pickpocketed, and the hind paws are pedaled.
"Town, Bo press also""
The "Explanation of Words" says: "Town, Bo pressure also." "This reveals another function of the town, which is used for play.
Bo opera became popular during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and became a very popular game during the Qin and Han Dynasties. The game equipment is mainly composed of games, chess, and baskets. A set of tools has been excavated from the Fenghuangshan West Han Tomb in Jiangling, Hubei Province, including one piece of lacquer bureau, six pieces of qi, and twelve chess pieces. According to the tomb dispatch strategy, there is also a Bo Xi body, but no physical object has been found, and it may have decayed.
Studies have shown that the game of the six games is about two people sitting towards the game, twelve chess pieces on the game, six people each; the game is placed next to the throwing table, for the use of throwing; when the game is opened, one party first takes the six sticks by hand to throw, which is to throw the ball, and then according to the result of the throw, the chess is played on the game. The function of the town is to press the seats laid on the maple.
The numerous portrait stones and portrait bricks of the Han Dynasty fully confirm this function of the town. For example, the portrait stone on the tombstone letter of Xinjinya in Sichuan, the game of the two immortals, the situation is similar, there are short legs, the town on the throwing table, the chip is clearly depicted, and the four towns are quite three-dimensional.
In short, the Qin and Han Dynasties and the previous Xizhen are not only convenient and dexterous household practical utensils, but also exquisite small crafts. The superb bronze casting technology, vivid and lively shape, and the skillful gilding, wrong gold and silver, and gem-setting technology reflect the development level of handicraft industry, and also show the ancient people's diligent pursuit of a better life.
(The author Ma Jinhong is a research librarian of the Bronze Ware Research Department of Shanghai Museum)