As one of the three major museums in mainland China, Nanjing Museum has a large collection of objects. The two treasures of the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest and the Rongqi Period" in the first issue of "National Treasures" and the arch of the glass pagoda of Dabao'en Temple attracted a lot of attention as soon as the program was broadcast, and the number of people who paid attention to these two cultural relics in the exhibition area surged. At the same time, however, a bronze with a legendary lineage is unknown, and few people know that behind him there is a story that the family tried to protect.
It is the "Chen Zhang Round Kettle", a beautifully crafted wrong gold and silver bronze round pot. On this pot, the body of the pot has hollowed out flower branches and 576 blooming peach blossoms, and some of the peach blossoms are welded and operated with wrong copper rings, and the circle is also welded with sharp-angled dragon head-like auxiliary heads, and there are also inlaid beads near the dragon heads. In addition, this pot also has inscriptions in Yan and Qi fonts.
On February 10, 1982, spring was about to be sown, but the villagers of Mahu Village in Jiangsu Province were a little worried. It turned out that the canal used for water diversion and irrigation at the head of the village had been blocked by silt in the past winter. Wan Yicai, who had been elected as the leader of the highway squad for historical reasons, pulled up a squad to clean the canal at the urging of the villagers.
Together with Wan Yicai and his younger brother Wan Yiquan, the whole squad had a total of 17 people, and everyone divided the water canal into 17 sections, and one person was responsible for cleaning up a section of the water canal. However, this kind of water diversion irrigation canal also has a depth, seeing that everyone has contracted the shallower places, Wan Yicai did not say much, leaving the deepest two pieces to himself and his brother.
Wan Yicai worked very quickly and soon completed his own character. Concerned about his brother, he was planning to go to his brother's place to help dig together, but suddenly heard his brother call him in surprise, "Brother, I have dug something!" Wan Yicai looked over and it turned out to be a round lid-like thing.
With a lid, will there be a corresponding jar? The brothers carefully continued to dig down, and soon a dirty jar came out of the ground. When it was taken out and placed on the ground, it was not stable, and as soon as it landed, the lid of the jar fell down and made a muffled sound, followed by several shining gold nuggets that fell to the ground.
The villagers who heard the sound were instantly attracted to the attention of the gold. They all came forward to watch, and some people wanted to touch the fish in muddy waters. Wan Yicai saw this posture and hurriedly packed up the jar and beckoned his brother to move the jar and gold to the house, while he stopped the villagers who wanted to come up in the back. The news of the village head spread quickly, and not long after Wan Yiquan ran home, Wan Yicai's door was full of people.
It was not easy to run all the way to get rid of the villagers before Wan Yi returned home, but found that the daughter-in-law of the fourth brother Wan Yinian and his daughter-in-law were discussing the equal division of this gold between the three brothers' families, and the women were discussing and rejoicing, but none of the three brothers answered the call. At this moment, Wan Yinian and Wan Yicai carefully examined the gold taken out of the jar, and they found that it was not just ordinary gold, each piece had a shape and ornament.
It took me a long time to feel that things were big. He ordered no one in the family to touch the jar of gold, asked the two younger brothers to carefully watch the jar and not let others get close, and he carried two pieces of gold straight to the township government. When they arrived at the township government, the cadres were holding a meeting, and the people at the door originally stopped Wan Yicai from letting him in, but Wan Yicai felt that the matter of his family digging up gold must have spread rapidly in the village, and it was difficult to deal with these people by relying on his two younger brothers.
He broke into the conference room in spite of the obstruction, the secretary Dai Tianquan was in a meeting, he was shocked to see him rush in, after Wan Yicai took out the gold to make it clear, Dai Tianquan also felt that this matter was important, suspended the township assembly, and found people from the bank to test the two pieces of gold, and the test results showed that these were high-quality pure gold with a gold content of 99.9%.
Hearing that Wan Yicai said that there were still more than forty pounds of such gold nuggets in his home, Dai Tianquan could no longer sit still, called the police of the Public Security Bureau, and the group rushed to Wan Yicai's home. At this time, Wan Yicai's house was already surrounded by crowds, the door bolt was kicked off, and even the pigsty and grass piles in the house were already full of people. These people, both from their own county, also hurried from neighboring counties. Some people just wanted to see what the gold looked like, and some people offered to buy it, but they were all blocked out by their two younger brothers with sticks and shovels.
Under the communication and coordination of the township government, this pile of treasures was donated to the Nanjing Museum by Wan Yicai. After the smooth transfer to the Nanjing Museum, experts counted and found that compared with the gold, the round pot wrapped in silt was the real treasure. According to the inscription experts on the pot, this copper pot should be an artifact of the Yan court during the Warring States period. When the Qi general Chen Zhang attacked the Yan capital, he was taken out and inscribed with an inscription, and then he fled all the way to the Chu state and came to Xuyi, Jiangsu.
The discovery of this copper pot has added important information to the study of ancient Chinese bronze casting technology, and the release of the inscription on the vessel has unveiled the mystery that has not been solved for many years and added a new chapter to China's archaeological work. The inscription reflects the historical facts of the State of Qi and the State of Yan in 315 BC, and can also confirm and supplement the records of the literature, and also confirm the historical changes of the ancient city of Sizhou.
In order to reward the three brothers of the Wanjia family who donated the round pot and gold ornaments, the provincial, municipal and county governments gave a total of 10,000 yuan to the three brothers of the Wanjia family. At that time, it was already a considerable amount, although this money was far less than the value of excavating cultural relics, but it was also some compensation for the righteous deeds of the Wanjia brothers, and the Wanjia brothers also distributed this money on their own and improved their living conditions.
Article 5 of the Mainland's Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics stipulates that all cultural relics remaining in the underground, inland waters and territorial waters of the People's Republic of China shall belong to the State.
Ancient cultural sites, ancient tombs, and cave temples belong to the state. Immovable cultural relics such as memorial buildings, ancient buildings, stone carvings, murals, representative buildings of modern and modern times designated for protection by the State shall belong to the State unless otherwise provided by the State.
The ownership of state-owned immovable cultural relics does not change due to a change in the ownership or use right of the land to which they are attached.
The following movable artifacts are owned by the State:
(1) Cultural relics unearthed within the territory of China, except as otherwise provided by the State;
(2) Cultural relics collected or kept by state-owned cultural relics collection units and other state organs, troops, state-owned enterprises, public institutions, and so forth;
(3) Cultural relics collected or purchased by the State;
(4) Cultural relics donated to the State by citizens, legal persons and other organizations;
(5) Other cultural relics owned by the State as provided for by law.
The ownership of movable cultural relics owned by the State shall not be changed by the termination or change of their custody or collection unit.
The ownership of state-owned cultural relics is protected by law and cannot be infringed upon.
Therefore, all the cultural relics unearthed in China belong to the state, if found to have excavated cultural relics, should be handed over in time, if there is a private hiding behavior, not only will the public lose the opportunity to peek at the historical treasures, but also constitute illegal, once found, but also more than worth the loss.