In September 1968, Kong Zhongliang, a primary school student in Wolfjiagou, Hanjiawan Township, Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, did not choose to go home after school, but played in a small forest west of the Changling Tomb where Han Gaozu and Lü Hou were buried.
This grove was his "secret base" and would come here for a walk whenever he was in a bad mood.
When he walked to the small ditch next to the woods, he suddenly saw that there was something emitting soft light in the ditch, and when he approached, he saw a very exquisite piece of jade.
At that time, Kong Zhongliang was still young, he didn't understand what it was, but he just thought it was very beautiful, so he carefully put it in his bag and took it home to show his father.
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Kong Zhongliang's father, Kong Xiangfa, read it and told Kong Zhongliang that it was a seal.
Shaanxi is one of the important birthplaces of the Chinese nation and Chinese culture, and 14 regimes have established capitals here since ancient times. In such a long historical background, it can be said that archaeologists pay close attention to the place, known as the archaeological capital.
Kong Xiangfa looked at the font on it not like modern characters, Kong Xiangfa had not studied ancient characters, naturally did not know what was engraved on it, but intuition told him that this was most likely a cultural relic. In order to set a good example for his son, he decided to take his son to the local antiquities bureau to turn it in.
The next day, Kong Zhongliang and his father handed the seal to the Shaanxi Provincial Museum.
After expert appraisal, the material of this seal alone is very precious, and it is the best Xinjiang Hetian mutton fat jade. The seal is carved with a cockroach, exquisite and unusual, and the material and workmanship of this seal alone is a valuable collection.
Later, experts carefully studied the text on the seal, which belonged to the seal script and interpreted it as: "Seal of the Queen".
These four words can surprise the experts, through the interpretation of the text, it can be seen that this seal comes from a queen, the value of the queen's things must be very high, so the experts immediately found colleagues to consult the joint study.
After the experts' own research, it was finally determined that this seal was the empress seal of the Han Dynasty Empress Lü Yan. The HanGuan Old Yi records that:
"Empress Yuxi, Wen and Emperor Tong." Queen's Seal, Golden Tiger Button. ”
The description of this sentence is consistent with the physical characteristics of this jade seal.
After learning that it was Something that Lü Yan had, the value of this seal immediately rose to the highest level, it was the earliest queen seal found so far, and it was also the only one in the existing Han Dynasty empress jade seal, which was the only one in the world, and the degree of preciousness could be imagined, which belonged to the national treasure level cultural relics.
After Kong Zhongliang's father and son learned that this object was so precious, they immediately said that they would hand it in free.
For Kong Zhongliang's father and son to hand over such precious cultural relics, the museum sincerely thanked him. Considering that Kong Zhongliang's father and son rushed from the countryside to the city, a leader of the museum rewarded Kong Zhongliang's father and son with 20 yuan at his own expense as a way home.
Today, this seal of the Empress of Han is preserved in the Shaanxi History Museum and has become one of the treasures of the town hall.
44 years later, Shaanxi Province established the Han Cultural Protection and Development Foundation to commend individuals who have contributed to the protection of cultural relics and call on everyone to develop cultural relics protection. When it was learned that this piece of such a precious empress jade seal was actually donated by a 13-year-old primary school student at that time, the foundation inquired around and finally found Kong Zhongliang, commended him, and awarded him a certificate.
The picture above shows the experts taking a group photo with Kong Zhongliang (right).
At this time, Kong Zhongliang was more than 50 years old and still remembered the donation of national treasures that year. When the Foundation approached him, he said excitedly:
"I didn't expect that someone would think of me today. Although my life is not very good, I have not regretted that I donated such a priceless treasure for free, and I will continue to contribute to the protection of national cultural relics! ”