Han kuo Golden Leopard Town Cangzhou Museum Collection
In the historical exhibition hall on the second floor of the Cangzhou Museum, there are two "star exhibits", one of which is a small leopard, the leopard's body is crouched, the leopard's head is slightly lifted, and the wrong gold roll grass ornament is all over the body; the other is a pair of small turtles, with mussel shells embedded in their backs, as a creeping head. Often the audience asks, is this the "hand-made" ornament of the ancients? In fact, these two cultural relics are practical artifacts of the ancients, named "XiZhen".
What is Xizhen? Before the invention, popularization and enrichment of furniture, people's lifestyles were very different from today's, and meals and rest were sitting on the floor. Because the mat is made of puddle, it is relatively soft and can be easily rolled up, in order not to touch the crooked mat when getting up and sitting, it is necessary to press the heavy object of the mat, that is, "Xi Town".
Confucius
The materials of Xizhen are very diverse. Southern Dynasty Yao Cha's "Hanshu Xunxun" Yun: "瑱, it is said that the pearl and jade pressed seat is also decorated." "It can be seen that the original town was made of jade. However, the unearthed jade material Xizhen is very rare, and the bronze material is the most, and there are also iron, lead, gold, silver and so on. Judging from the material, Xizhen is not something used by ordinary people. The Analects says: "If the seat is not right, do not sit", "If the king gives food, he will eat the right seat, and taste it first." It shows that in ancient times, "Xi Zheng" was a requirement of Zhou Li, and this requirement was obviously a requirement for the ancient upper class. Even if ordinary people have seats at home, it is estimated that they will not have too many requirements for the seats, even if they need to press the mats, all kinds of heavy objects can be used, and there is no need to use seats with precious materials and complicated shapes.
Collection of Han gilded mussels and turtle towns, Cangzhou Museum
The shape of xizhen is very rich, and it is different from historical stage to stage. There are mainly animal shapes, human forms and geometric shapes, especially animal shapes occupy more than half of the town, such as tigers, leopards, deer, sheep, turtles, dragons, evil spirits and other things that exist in reality or imagination. Judging from the excavated cultural relics, the animal shape is the most in the town, and the tiger and leopard are the most. In the early Western Han Dynasty, the number of Xizhen excavations was small, the volume was larger, mostly tiger and leopard-shaped towns, and the shape was mostly a vigilant posture of lying on the side with its head held high, its mouth open, and its eyes wide open. Since the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, under the shape of the main body of the animal-shaped seat town, there has been a pedestal, such as the Cangbo Museum's collection of the wrong golden leopard town; at the same time, the popularity of a large number of inlaid shell-shaped animal-shaped towns with basically the same shape is also a major feature of this period, such as the Cangbo Museum's collection of gilded mussels and turtles. Although the shape of the instrument is small, the shape of the animal-shaped town is diverse, and it is more delicate and exquisite in the depiction of animal details, and the decorative techniques such as gilding, wrong gold and silver, inlaid treasure, and inlaid shell are used to the extreme in the animal-shaped town in this period. In the late Western Han Dynasty, the types and number of seat towns decreased accordingly, and the tiger-shaped towns that prevailed in the early and middle periods rarely appeared in the late Western Han Dynasty, and other animal-shaped towns with auspicious meanings were still widely popular during this period.
The earliest historical record of Xizhen began in the Spring and Autumn Period, flourished in the Western Han Dynasty, and was popular in history for more than 400 years, its history is not short, but the amount of existence is very small. This has a lot to do with the fact that Xizhen only serves the upper class and the common people do not have a demand for Xizhen. Although in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, the town of Bronze Seat began to be miniaturized to meet people's daily needs. However, by the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the continuous development of lacquerware, iron and porcelain and widely used in the daily life of the people, the bronze seat town had declined. By the time of the Wei and Jin dynasties, the seats had been equipped with three-sided screens, the mats had been carefully protected, the town had lost its practical role, and its overall decline and demise had become a historical necessity.
The masses of the people are the creators of history, and whatever the masses of the people do not need will soon perish. Such as Xi Zhen, such as a copper mirror, such as wrapping small feet... Although xizhen has died, the need to flatten items still exists, and the evolved "paperweight" still plays its role in the study of the literati and scholars.