In the crowded Shaanxi History Museum, there is a heavyweight cultural relic, the "Seal of the Empress" jade seal.
The status of this jade seal is pivotal in the history of mainland archaeology. The "Seal of the Empress" is the only jade seal of the Empress of the Han Dynasty found so far, and it is also listed as a cultural relic that is forbidden to go abroad (border) for exhibition.
And such a cultural relic, to be seen in the sky is not the credit of archaeologists, but a 13-year-old primary school student found it while playing.
So, how was this "Queen's Seal" discovered? What is the untold mystery behind it?
(Western Han Dynasty Queen's Seal)
First, encounter treasures
It all started on an ordinary day in September 1968...
Kong Zhongliang, a 13-year-old student, was born in an ordinary rural family that could no longer be ordinary, and attended Hanjiawan Primary School in Hanjiawan Commune.
His family has been farming for generations and has lived a relatively poor life.
At that time, rural children went to school not like now, and the car was delivered.
After all, in that era, bicycles were known as one of the "three major pieces". Like Kong Zhongliang's family, no matter how far away the road is, they can only trek on foot.
Kong Zhongliang, like all rural children, crossed mountains and mountains, and was able to shuttle through mountains and rivers very briskly and freely.
One day after school, Sun Zhongliang made a fortuitous discovery on his usual way home, which made the history of Chinese archaeology write a heavy stroke.
Kong Zhongliang is full of curiosity and longing for everything on the side of the road.
A 13-year-old boy's endless desire to learn appeared in his clear and bright eyes, shining like a bright star.
One moment he broke the flowers on the side of the road, and the next he was curious about the unknown road.
In this way, Kong Zhongliang chose a path that he had not traveled in the past.
The sound of babbling water on the side of the road attracted his attention even more.
Like all little boys, he loved to pick up stones and throw them at the surface of the water, and he had to triumphantly count the number of splashes he had made.
After he threw a few stones, he noticed something strange.
He noticed that there was a glittering thing on the edge of the canal in the distance, shining even more in the sun.
He rushed up with an arrow and hurriedly used the branch next to him to hook it to the side of the road.
He took the unidentified glowing stone in his hand and examined it carefully. This was completely different from the stones he had collected in the past.
At this moment, he couldn't have imagined that this was a jade seal, a treasure of great value.
In his eyes at the time, it was just an unusual stone, an object that could be shown off to his family and classmates.
In this way, Kong Zhongliang carefully put it in his bag and went home with excitement.
When I returned home, I found that my parents, who had worked in the fields, had not yet returned, and only my brother was playing at home.
So he couldn't wait to show this good object to his brother first.
The elder brother was a few years old, Sun Zhongliang, and he could see at a glance: this is not an ordinary object, but a cultural relic!
My brother felt that this thing was a bit familiar, and found that the seal in the house was also shaped, square.
So the two began to rummage through the boxes and cabinets, looking for their parents' seals.
Because the cultural education in the countryside was generally not high at that time, and there were very few people who really read and read, most people would engrave a private seal instead of signing.
The two were still looking around, and the father pushed the door back.
The tired father saw the two of them making a mess of the house, and just when he wanted to scold, he saw the white objects on the table.
At a glance, my father recognized that it was a cultural relic, mostly a jade seal, and it must be of great value.
Why would a father with little cultural knowledge recognize this?
Only because of the geographical location and the cultural attributes of the land.
It is located in Xianyang, Shaanxi. Xianyang is at the beginning of the long river of Chinese history and culture, and is an important birthplace of Qin and Han culture.
Xianyang is full of Qin bricks and Han tiles, and there are as many as 4951 cultural relics in the territory.
On the Five Tombs, the tombs of 28 Han and Tang Emperors, such as the Changling Tomb of Han Gaozu, the Tomb of Emperor Yang of Hanjing, the Mausoleum of Emperor Mao of Han, the Tomb of Emperor Taizong of Tang, the Qianling Tomb of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Wu Zetian, which stretch for hundreds of miles, are unparalleled in the world. It is known as the pyramid capital of China.
In other words, tens of thousands of artifacts sleep under this land.
From this, we can also understand why his father Kong Xiangfa felt that this object was a cultural relic.
Father looked at the relics and couldn't help but be silent.
The house he lived in was not dilapidated, but only barely survived. At this time, he felt more tired and painful in his body.
Years of field farming had already bent his spine. What was bleak was not only the days, but also the hopelessness in his eyes and the toil revealed by his body.
In the early years, there were often cultural relics dealers in the fields to collect cultural relics, and the prices were often expensive.
The money exchanged for cultural relics may not be able to save so much in a lifetime.
What lay before him were family interests and moral choices.
At that moment, he hesitated.
"Daddy", the son Kong Zhongliang saw his father sluggish, and hurriedly spoke, "Daddy, is this really a cultural relic?" ”
The father shouted, "Well, it's really a cultural relic, and it's worth a lot." ”
"Then let's give him to the police uncle, who often says that if he picks up something, he will give it to the police uncle, and the uncle will reward the little red flower." "Well, listen to you, good son, we'll go and hand him over to the museum, and the museum will have someone to protect him."
When the father heard his son's words, he could not help but be ashamed and embarrassed, and immediately discarded the evil thoughts in his mind.
He decided to listen to the child and do the right thing.
My father accelerated the pace of the autumn harvest, thinking of finishing the farm work as soon as possible and handing over the cultural relics to the state.
Because once you miss the wind, you will not be able to produce many incidents.
Therefore, the father repeatedly told his two sons not to mention the collection of cultural relics with anyone.
The father carefully wrapped up the cultural relics and put them in his own cellar for good life to protect.
2. Hand over cultural relics
In this way, after the busy autumn harvest, the father took his son Kong Zhongliang, who had picked up the treasure, to the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum together. Along the way, my father carried the treasure in his arms, afraid that something would happen on the road.
The artifacts were wrapped layer after layer in cloth.
The father and son traveled a long way and reversed the bus several times before they reached the museum.
The eyes of the two dusty servants revealed uneasiness and nervousness, looking around, as if they were looking for something.
Their unusual behavior quickly attracted the attention of the museum staff.
The staff member stepped forward and asked, "Fellow, is there anything wrong?" ”
The father said, "I want to see your curator, where is your curator?" ”
"Fellow, if you have anything to tell me first, the curator is very busy."
"Comrade, take me to your curator, I have something very important."
"Okay, come with me."
The father and son got their wish and met the curator.
Seeing that there was no one else around, my father put his mind at ease.
"Curator, please take a look, this is what my second baby picked up next to the stream in the field, and we want to hand him over to the state."
The curator concentrated on looking at the objects brought by this plainly dressed farmer, and his eyes lit up.
The curator, with many years of archaeological experience and rich knowledge of historical artifacts, immediately concluded that this cultural relic was not an ordinary cultural relic.
He took it in his hand and looked at it carefully.
After preliminary judgment, this object should be a jade seal from the Western Han Dynasty, and there are four words engraved on the back: "Seal of the Empress".
The curator will smile, and the eyebrows will reveal joy.
He couldn't help but praise it= to: In his life, he had never seen such a beautiful jade seal from the Western Han Dynasty. As a historian, it is a great honor to be able to see and touch the artifacts in person.
Because the cultural relics tell history and support history, the Western Han Yuxi is now vividly telling the past years.
The curator excitedly extended his hands and thanked the farmers in front of him.
Kong Xiangfa said hurriedly, I should be more grateful to my child, he once made my father feel ashamed of himself, hey.
Having said that, he smiled awkwardly.
The curator looked at the 13-year-old child in front of him and shook hands with Sun Zhongliang kindly.
At this time, this child could not imagine how indelible he had made an indelible contribution to the history of Chinese archaeology and written a rich and colorful stroke.
"What a good boy, worthy of being a good boy of our great peasants, sincere and kind."
After saying that, the curator said that he would apply to the relevant departments to give a strong commendation to the two.
Kong Zhongliang maintained the tradition of collecting gold and took the lead in refusing.
The curator saw the situation and immediately allocated 20 yuan from the finance, saying: At least the round-trip travel fee must be given, the farmer is not easy, such a big and long distance, which can make you pay for a trip out of your own pocket.
The two saw that they could not resign, so they accepted the 20 yuan.
The curator called experts in the museum for talks and studied the cultural relics handed in.
After the restoration of the artifacts, the artifacts of this cube were found:
2.8 cm square, 2 cm high, weighing 33 grams carved from Xinjiang Hetian mutton fat white jade;
The jade color is pure and flawless, crystal lustrous. Jade is hard and dense, without any phenomenon of being subjected to moisture;
The seal button is a high-relief creeping tiger shape;
The image of the tiger is fierce, the posture is strong, the limbs are strong, the eyes are round and open, the eyeballs are round and protruding, the nose is square, the mouth is open, the ears are shrugged, the tail is hidden in the clouds, the back is carved with a thick curve that swings with the body, and the 6 upper teeth are also carved with the yin line.
Drilled under the abdomen of the tiger to penetrate the holes in order to penetrate the ribbon;
The four sides of the seal are flat rectangular, and a rectangular yin line frame is carved out, which is carved with 4 cirrus patterns that are upside down and hooked with each other, each of which is connected to the border by a double yin vertical line.
Inside the yin line groove, there is a part of cinnabar remaining.
(Tiger)
And the seal face is engraved with the seal book "Seal of the Queen" 4 characters.
Third, the clouds see the fog
Experts in the museum could not help but applaud this cultural relic, saying that it was really a work of magic.
After admiring the shape of the instrument, the researchers immediately proceeded to the next step.
That is to study the age of the object, the possible place of origin, and which queen the owner of the Queen's Seal was.
With all kinds of mysteries, they began a long research journey.
The history told by each cultural relic is different.
To understand the meaning of the cultural relics themselves is also very cumbersome and complicated.
This requires finding possible traces of it in a large number of historical materials, and corroborating it, as well as having real evidence to show all this.
This is a dialogue of time and space spanning thousands of years.
The experts who met together decided to use the tiger above the jade seal as one of the entry points.
The ant tiger is an exotic beast image in ancient legends, which is mostly used in the jade of the Warring States and Han Dynasties, and represents the divine martial arts, strength, power and symbolism of the king's demeanor in the ancient culture of the Chinese nation.
It can be seen from this that the tiger is also a symbol of ancient royal power, which is a high embodiment of the idea of divine empowerment of monarchy.
Especially in the Han Dynasty, it was widely used on the jade seal of the Son of Heaven.
In addition, the mysterious four character patterns at the bottom of the seal: the ancient and elegant seal character "Queen's Seal".
(Queen's Seal)
All of this is very clearly pointed out: this seal is likely to be the special jade seal of an empress in the Han Dynasty.
The enthusiasm of the experts boiled over. Because they will personally fill in the blanks in the history of Chinese archaeology, they have witnessed all this.
At the same time, they can't help but be full of respect and gratitude for the simple and unpretentious 13-year-old child.
Fortunately, this time the artifacts were picked up by well-meaning children. Otherwise, under the temptation of interests, the fate of this national treasure is unimaginable.
After reviewing many documents and classics from the Han Dynasty, experts finally found a record in the "Old Yi of the Han Palace": "Empress Yuxi, Wen and Emperor Tong." Queen's Seal, Golden Tiger Button. ”
In this way, after continuous research and discussion, coupled with field investigation at the place of excavation, combined with the nearby cemetery where Han Gaozu Liu Bang and Empress Lü Lu were buried together, the experts finally unanimously determined:
This jade seal was used by Empress Lü.
As soon as this news came out, it shocked the archaeological community, shocked the historians, and shocked countless Chinese people.
They were even more awe-inspired when they learned that the jade seal had been donated free of charge by a 13-year-old child.
The Seal of the Empress is the only jade seal of the Empress of the Han Dynasty found so far, which is of great significance to the study of the seal system of the Qin and Han Emperors.
Fifth, belated rewards
The time has come in the blink of an eye
December 1, 2012.
On this day, the Shaanxi Shenzhou Han Culture Protection and Development Foundation held a summary and commendation meeting for the protection of large sites and the promotion of Han culture.
At the conference, more than 10 advanced individuals were commended and rewarded for their contributions to the protection of ancient cultural sites.
Among these more than 10 advanced individuals, Sun Zhongliang was impressively listed.
More than 40 years have passed, and he has long lost the appearance of his original teenager.
The wrinkles on his face tell the story of his life over the years, which has not been very satisfactory; the white whiskers of his sideburns are also indicative of his age.
Before the award, experts specifically found Sun Zhongliang. After receiving the certificate and receiving the commendation, Kong Zhongliang looked very excited:
"I didn't expect that someone would think of me today. Although my life is not very good, I have not regretted donating such a priceless treasure for free! I will continue to contribute to the preservation of national cultural relics. ”
(Kong Zhongliang recent photo)
Kong Zhongliang's words show that he has always adhered to the spirit of collecting gold in his youth.
No matter how long it takes for such an outstanding young person, the country will never forget it.
Whether or not meritorious service is engraved on the certificate, its glory will never be erased.
And those criminal elements who buy and sell state cultural relics and make a fortune are trampling on the precious historical relics left by their ancestors, and they are even more a powerful proof of the existence of this ancient Chinese country with a splendid civilization history of 5,000 years.
The loss and demise of any national treasure is not only the tribulation of this country, but also the irreparable loss of the people of the entire world!
From this, we can also glimpse how valuable and elegant the behavior of this 13-year-old child was, and this honor and reward was what he deserved!
Later, when the government offered to give him an additional reward, he again politely declined.
He said: "Back then, I didn't ask for those extra rewards, and I won't ask for them now, and I won't want them in the future, because that's what I should have done!" ”
Every discovery of a major historical artifact is always inseparable from the farmers, because they are the people closest to the land.
Kong Zhongliang, as his name suggests, has always practiced what is loyal and what is the self-respect and self-love and maintenance of history in the bones of the Chinese people!