The Nanjing Museum is an extremely famous museum in the mainland, and is also known as one of the "three major museums".
As early as 1933, the famous master Cai Yuanpei and others advocated the establishment of a National Central Museum, and the Nanjing Museum became one of the earliest museums created in China under such an opportunity, and its status in Chinese museums was also quite high.
Statistics by 2010, the Nanjing Museum has more than 420,000 pieces of various collections, ranking the forefront of China, from the Stone Age to the contemporary era, and the cultural relics are innumerable.
Among its "treasures of the town hall", there is a "treasure of Guiyuan" that is particularly eye-catching, according to folk experts, the value of this item has reached 900 million.
One of the "treasures of the town hall" of the Nanjing Museum
The Nanjing Museum, which has countless treasures, has never disappointed in the "treasure".
However, in 2007, after the selection of experts and the voting of the public, a total of 18 "treasures of the town hall" from the Nanjing Museum were selected, which can be described as a good one.
Among them, in addition to the "Treasure of Town Protection" golden beast and the "Treasure of Heaven" human-bird-beast jade ornaments, the most eye-catching thing is the "Treasure of Guiyuan" Golden Cicada Jade Leaf.
In the Song Dynasty, there is a famous sentence that is popular among the people: Once the golden wind and jade dew meet, they will win, and there are countless people in the world.
There have been many examples of this "combination of gold and jade" in cultural relics, which can also illustrate the aesthetic experience of the ancients for the integration of "gold" and "leaf".
Among so many feudal dynasties, the Ming Dynasty of the Zhu family was a period of very extensive use of gold and silver, which was especially reflected in jewelry, and in the minds of many people, the level of craftsmanship of the Ming Dynasty was difficult to compare with the peak dynasties of Tang, Song and Yuan.
However, the ming emperors in history have also taken many methods to promote the rapid development of the commodity economy, and as soon as the economy developed, it gave birth to many "local tycoon" groups.
The power in the hands is not enough, and the money cannot be spent, which is very easy to make these people have more "upstart" psychology, full of the taste of showing off their wealth, and the production of gold and silverware will also rise again.
In addition, the thick burial style was very popular at that time, so in the burial items, there were also a lot of gold and silver objects that were stuffed in.
The Ming Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, and the Yuan Dynasty all played with gold and silverware, but the style of gold and silverware in the Song and Yuan eras was more simple.
However, the craftsmanship of gold and silverware in the Ming Dynasty gradually moved to a complex road, and these rich people also liked to inlay various gems on the gold and silverware, and the rich atmosphere of wealth would soon be revealed.
On May 16, 1954, the Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Working Group excavated a tomb in Wufeng Mountain, Jiaoshan Township, Wu County, and as usual, archaeologists arranged the tombs here by number.
In Tomb No. 14, called Zhang Anwan Family Tomb, experts unearthed a particularly uniquely shaped golden cicada jade leaf, which, after preliminary analysis, is a product of the second half of the fifteenth century.
The length of the golden cicada is about 2 cm, the width is 0.8 cm, the thickness is also 0.6 cm, and the weight of the whole golden cicada is 4.65 grams.
After identification, the color of the golden cicada is 95%, which has a high gold content and belongs to the hairpin of the hostess.
From the appearance, this golden cicada as a whole is shining with dazzling light, the head of the cicada is extended forward, the eyes are raised, the cicada body has 8 layers of convex lines, and each layer has countless vertical short lines to show its details.
In addition, the cicada has two wings on the left and right, the length of the outer wing is about 1.7 cm, and the thickness is only 0.2 mm, which is lifelike in the overall design, which is enough to see the cleverness of the craftsmen in ancient times.
On this "golden cicada jade leaf", the ingenious design is not limited to the golden cicada, but also to the jade leaf.
The length of the jade leaf is 5.2 cm, the width is between 1 cm and 3.2 cm, and the materials used are all sheep fat white jade produced in Xinjiang, which is carefully refined and made, showing a transparent gelatinous shape, which looks very delicate.
Moreover, the blades are very thin, only between 0.2 and 1.5 mm thick, and are divided into 8 lobes.
There is a main vein on the leaf, and there are 4 branches on each side, which makes the leaf more realistic, and the carving process of the whole leaf is very high and the workmanship is quite fine.
The golden cicada and the jade leaf are made of different substances, but they can be cleverly formed into a whole, which fully shows that the skill level of the craftsmen has reached a fairly high level.
On top of the jade leaf, there are also large outer and inner small round holes, the outer diameter is about 2 mm, and the inner aperture is also 1.5 mm, and the golden stem under the golden cicada is directly inserted into the middle hole of the jade leaf, which forms the shape of lying on the leaf.
The two elements of the golden cicada and the jade leaf are combined, the jade leaf can support the golden cicada, and the golden cicada also lies on the jade leaf, and the static movement is integrated, the concept is very clever, and the image is particularly realistic.
According to the recollections of archaeologists, when the "Golden Cicada Jade Leaf" was just excavated, a silver handle with a length of about 4.7 centimeters was also found.
At the top of the stalk, there is also a silver tray of 1.65 cm to 1.7 cm, and there is also a small hole with a diameter of 2 mm on it.
Through the design, the golden cicada, jade leaf and silver tray in the "Golden Cicada Jade Leaf" are cleverly combined into a single whole.
Since the location of these parts was on the head of the hostess at the time of excavation, in addition to this, gold and silver inlaid jade arrangements were also found on the spot.
All this is enough to prove that this "golden cicada jade leaf" is undoubtedly hairpin, and there is no other possibility.
The beautiful meaning of "gold" and "jade"
It is worth mentioning that the owner of this excavated tomb is not a big person, and this tomb is also a joint tomb of a man and four women, and from the epitaph, it can be seen that the original owner of the golden cicada jade leaf is the concubine of the tomb owner.
In ancient times, only large households could have three wives and four concubines, which was also a very common thing, which also showed that although the tomb owner did not reach the level of power, he still had a certain degree of local power.
In ancient times, the word "golden branches and jade leaves" had a period of time to describe the only descendant of the royal nobility, and later it was described as a person with a very noble status, which is not difficult to infer that the tomb owner was very fond of this concubine.
Therefore, he spent a lot of money to create this headpin, and let this concubine take this hairpin to be buried, which also shows that the tomb owner hopes that his concubine can also have a noble status in the future.
After all, in ancient times, the status of the concubine was relatively low, and she had no way to change in this life, so she had to pin all her hopes on the next life.
This "golden cicada jade leaf" can be described as a masterpiece in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and it is also the only treasure unearthed in mainland China so far, which is also a major reason why it can become the "treasure of the town hall".
Don't look at the "golden cicada jade leaf" is just a hairpin, but its production process is very complicated, using a variety of processes such as die casting, thin leaf extension, engraving, welding and so on.
Especially in the manufacture of jade leaves, experts in related industries are full of praise.
The jade leaf draws on the traditional yang line, yin line and other jade craftsmanship, and the polishing is also very delicate, and has reached the artistic realm of pure fire.
On the whole, the conception of the picture is also very clever, with high appreciation value.
Cicadas are also a common artistic model in the history of ancient Chinese culture, and in the long history, cicada modeling utensils are usually based on funerary products.
This is because the ancients believed that people would be reborn like cicadas after death, so it is not so strange that "golden cicada jade leaves" appear in funeral products.
"Gold" and "jade" have also been revered in thousands of years of traditional culture, and eventually reached the point of enduring.
In the past, people always maintained a high yearning for good things.
They believe that jade has always been an elite that has been deposited in the mountains for many years, so it is also enshrined, while gold is the elite of minerals, which is also a precious embodiment.
Gold jewelry is not afraid of oxidation and rust at all, nor is it soluble in acid, and its ductility is also very strong, and many thinkers praise it as a symbol of ethics and morality.
Not to mention the jade, in addition to describing the gentleman, its body also has the characteristics of toughness and delicacy, crystal and gorgeous, which also makes people throughout the ages love it.
Under the gradual development of ancient Chinese culture, many ancient names praised beautiful women as "golden branches and jade leaves", and the cicada itself had a deep and long-standing relationship with the thoughts and lives of the ancients.
Since the Han Dynasty, it has been said that the jade cicada is put into the mouth of the deceased as a metaphor for rebirth, and if the cicada is carried on the body on weekdays, it is regarded as a symbol of purity and purity.
In the course of economic development, there is also the practice of placing jade cicadas on the waist, the harmonic sound is "waist wrapped around the waist", and some people have found a breakthrough in the cry of cicadas, hanging cicadas on their chests, which means "a blockbuster".
From the long life history of cicada pupae to growth, people can see the state of cicadas after pushing off and then re-emerging, which also has a kind of "temporary death" after rebirth.
Ancient people always used the image of this insect to contain the good intention of wishing everyone good luck and longevity.
The Ming Dynasty also had a large amount of gold and silver jewelry, but the shape of this headdress was very light, and there was no superfluous decoration, which generally revealed a very simple beauty.
For women, cicadas have many more meanings.
For example, in some places, the cicada is called "knowing", "knowing" harmonic sound is "branch", the golden cicada jade leaf can also represent the "golden branch jade leaf" at this time, the golden cicada plays, and the jade leaf will vibrate accordingly, which is also the artistic reproduction of the golden sound and jade vibration.
Throughout the ages, the splendid Chinese civilization has given birth to many cultural treasures, for archaeologists, the story of love and hatred behind the tomb owner seems to be out of their scope of exploration, but these also attract a lot of speculation from the people.
The golden cicada in the tomb can still shine after so many years, and once again enter the public's vision, it is also reminiscent of the culture that has lasted for thousands of years, no matter how glorious and painful it has been, it can be rejuvenated.
I have to say that many tourists sighed after seeing the "golden cicada jade leaves":
"It turns out that ancient China is a real country of craftsmen, and the rigor and innovation of this artwork are definitely at the forefront of the world."
reference
Eighteen treasures of the Nanjing Museum, People's Daily
SHEN Xian. The Craft Treasure of Gold and Jade Combination:Golden Cicada Jade Leaf[J].Southeast Culture,1993(01):203.
The golden cicada jade leaf from the Ming Dynasty contained 95 gold, and the hairpin that Zhang Anwan gave to the concubine was worth 900 million, and it is said that the cicada was buried in the mouth when it was dead!