Originally, I wanted to dig a well for irrigation, but unexpectedly, I found a national treasure

Originally, I wanted to dig a well for irrigation, but unexpectedly, I found a national treasure

In March 1937, several villagers in Nanluo Village, Zhikou Town, Lintong County, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, were digging a well in the field, and when the villagers punched a deep hole in the ground, they found that the water coming out of the place did not appear as high as expected. On the contrary, the tools used to dig the well actually fell into this dark deep well and disappeared.

Originally, I wanted to dig a well that could irrigate the farmland, but who would have expected that not only did the well not come out, but also lost the tools for digging the well, which really lost the lady and folded the soldiers.

So where did these villagers' tools go? It turned out that the villagers had inadvertently discovered a cellar in the process of digging a well, and all the tools for digging the well had fallen into the cellar. The archaeologists who heard the news immediately conducted a field investigation of the cellar. After careful and meticulous investigation, it was determined that this cellar was built in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and a large number of cultural relics were excavated from the cellar, such as 151 bronzes such as Ding, Zun and Jug. The excavation of one of the copper grates caused a sensation throughout the academic community.

This bronze gui is the Li Gui, which is the earliest known Western Zhou bronze on the mainland. The ligui is 28 cm high, 22 cm in diameter and weighs 7.95 kg. The upper part is round, extravagant, bulging, and there are two animal-shaped ears on both sides, and there are drooping ears on the animal-shaped ears; the lower half is a square base, with a solemn and calm shape. The abdomen , hoop feet , and square seats are shaded by cloud thunder patterns. Among them, the abdomen is decorated with a cold and grotesque food pattern as the main pattern, and the circle foot is decorated with a hammer pattern. The four corners of the square seat plane are decorated with cicada patterns, and the abdomen of the square seat is also dominated by gluttonous patterns, and two dragon patterns are provided on the left and right. The inscription is cast on the inner sole of the abdomen with four lines and thirty-two characters, which has become the biggest highlight of this gui.

The inscription inscribed on the ligui uses the large seal font, which represents the typical style of the Jin script in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. The glyphs are flat and long, uniform and regular, and the strokes are vigorous and simple, retaining the characteristics of the Shang Dynasty inscription glyphs, giving people a simple and generous feeling, and also highlighting the natural and vivid style of the times.

Gui is an ancient food vessel, popular in China from the Shang to the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, mainly used to place rice, equivalent to the large bowl we use in modern eating. To this day, the Guangdong region of the mainland still has the saying of "nine big gui".

So, what does the "Nine Great Gui" refer to?

The ancients believed, "At the beginning of creation, the nine great races competed." The "Nine Greats" here mainly refer to: wind, rain, thunder, clouds, sea, fire, heaven, earth, and sun, all of which are the best of all things. And "Gui" is a large bowl that can hold five to six pounds of rice. According to the current amount of people's food, the "Nine Great Gui" can be enjoyed by more than 100 people.

It can be seen that the meaning of "Nine Great Gui" refers to the extremely rich meal, which is used to boast the specifications of the feast. For example, near Dongzhimen in Beijing, there is a place called "Guijie Street", which gathers many restaurants for people to eat and gather.

During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, in addition to being a vessel for holding food, the "gui" was also an important ceremonial vessel during sacrifice or feasting, which was used in conjunction with the ding and enshrined on the altar to sacrifice ancestors. The shape of the gui is generally round abdomen, extravagant mouth, circle foot, with no ears, two ears, four ears. Among them, most of the gui in the Shang Dynasty period had no cover, no ears or two ears; the gui in the Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn periods was often with lids, two ears, and four ears. There are also circles under the feet with square seats or three-legged guises attached to them. After arriving in the Warring States, gui was rarely seen.

Usually, gui appears in an even number. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, it was often used in conjunction with ding, becoming an artifact that distinguished the rank of the nobility. According to the provisions of the Ding system in the Zhou Dynasty ritual system, only the Son of Heaven could enjoy the highest etiquette of the combination of "Nine Dings and Eight Gui". The princes are six and seven dings, the doctors are four and five dings, and the soldiers are two and three dings.

This bronze ligui is the earliest Western Zhou bronze found on the mainland so far. Its surface is decorated with animal face patterns, and the animal face is concentrated and concentrated, which looks very severe and terrifying. The animal face pattern is also known as the gluttonous pattern, which is a mysterious monster pattern imagined by the ancients, and such ornaments can often be seen in the bronze vessels of the Shang Zhou Dynasty.

Look closely at this sharp gui, on both sides of the animal face pattern and the part of the circle foot are also decorated with dragon patterns, and the cloud thunder pattern is used as a shading. The three ornaments of gluttony, dragon and cloud thunder are jointly decorated on the same bronze vessel, with smooth and clear lines, which add a bit of mysterious color to this solemn and solemn Western Zhou Ligui.

So, this only reflects the superb casting skills of the early Western Zhou Dynasty, why is it called "Li Gui"? This has to mention a key figure: the King of Shang.

In the history of China, King Huan was a famous emperor. During his reign, he indulged in the wine pond meat forest all day, abandoned the government, and never paid attention to the major affairs of the national economy and the people's livelihood, which led to social unrest.

During this period, the Western Shang Dynasty belonged to the Zhou Kingdom, but it was like the sun in the sky, and the country was rich and the people were strong. Corporal Li Xian, the King of Zhou Wu, appointed a man of merit and actively planned a crusade against shang. However, at this time, although the Shang Dynasty was in decline, it was still a strong military force, and it was still more difficult for the King of Wu to cut down the silk. According to legend, the military scholar Jiang Ziya led Various immortals such as Yang Jian, Na Jia, and Lei Zhenzi to reveal their divine powers to help King Wu negotiate the Shang Dynasty, and launched a great battle with the King of Wu in Makino, and finally helped the King of Wu achieve a key victory, thus ending the rule of the Shang Dynasty.

There are many myths and stories about the Wu King's cutting, and the "Fengshen Yanyi" is an interpretation based on this history; but there is never any historical record. It was not until the excavation of Li Gui that this deadlock was broken.

Relevant experts found records about the Battle of Makino in the inscription at the bottom of the Lygus. "King Wu Zhengshang, Wei Jia Zi Chao, Shi Ding, Ke Shu You Shang, Xin Wei, Wang Zai Shi, gave Si Li Jin, used as the Treasure of The Duke of Tan." Just thirty-two words are enough to prove the historical fact that King Wu fought with King Huan.

In the inscription, it is recounted that on the day of the Battle of Muye, King Wu of Zhou broke the Shang army, and eight days later, King Wu of Zhou was stationed in the army and rewarded copper to those generals who were brave and fearless in battle. One of the copper materials was given to Yuji at that time, Li.

"Yousi" here is an ancient official title, and after receiving the reward, he felt very honored, so he cast a copper grate with the copper given by the King of Wu as a treasure for eternal commemoration. Because its caster was Li, later generations called it "Li Gui". It witnessed the major historical events of the Wu King's conquest of merchants, so it was also called "Wu Wang Zheng Shang Gui".

The Koshi Day mentioned in the Ryo is the time of the Battle of Makino. By reckoning, experts have locked the date of king Wu's harvest in 1046 BC. For more than 2,000 years, many Chinese and foreign scholars have formed more than forty inferences about the age of the Wu Dynasty based on various documents and their understanding of the Western Zhou calendar. Among them, the earliest is 1130 BC, and the latest is 1018 BC, a difference of 112 years between the two. The discovery of bronze Ligui provides an important basis for the final solution of the Shang and Zhou chronological divisions.