In the Danfeng County Museum in Shaanxi Province, there is a Warring States bronze sword, this bronze sword is simple in shape, even after more than 2,000 years of baptism, its blade is still sharp. This Warring States bronze sword is a national second-class cultural relic, and it is also the "treasure of the town hall" of the museum.
Friends who know the history of this bronze sword know that this ancient sword was not excavated by archaeology, but was inadvertently discovered by a migrant worker working on the construction site in the process of sifting sand. After discovering this ancient sword, many cultural relics dealers took the initiative to find this migrant worker to buy, and even some cultural relics dealers bid 200,000 yuan. However, the migrant worker brother refused all the cultural relics dealers' requests to buy and donated the Warring States bronze sword to the state free of charge. A reporter interviewed the migrant worker and asked him if he would regret donating the baby free of charge, and he replied categorically: "No regrets."
Ancient swords were found while working on the construction site
Li Lei is a native of Danfeng County, Shaanxi Province, and after graduating from junior high school, Li Lei dropped out of school to work as a farmer at home. After a few years of farming at home, Danfeng County Cement Prefabricated Plate Factory recruited workers, and Li Lei went to work in the Prefabricated Panel Factory with his small friends in the same village. In the cement prefabricated panel factory, Li Lei's job is to sift the sand, that is, to sift the sand pulled by the truck with a fine sieve.
In the early hours of one day in October 2014, Li Lei, who was working the night shift, was sifting through the sand when a shovel shoveled down the sand when Li Lei inadvertently found something like an iron piece in the sand pile. Li Lei was very curious, so he walked over and picked up the "iron piece", and took a closer look, it turned out that the iron piece turned out to be a bronze sword. Li Lei carefully inspected and found that the handle of the sword was full of green rust, but the sword body and blade were still very bright and sharp, Li Lei casually waved a few times, feeling that the sword was very handy. In a hurry to work, Li Lei casually placed the bronze sword next to the sand pile.
After work, Li Lei took the bronze sword back to the dormitory. The friends in the dormitory saw that the bronze sword that Li Lei was holding was all gathered around, and everyone rushed to see the bronze sword. After reading it, a small friend told Li Lei: "This bronze sword has a simple shape, and there is green rust on the handle, which should be an ancient sword." Knowing that Li Lei had picked up a bronze sword, the friends were very envious of Li Lei's good luck, and everyone agreed that if Li Lei sold this bronze sword, he would be rich.
Refuse to sell, and hand it in free of charge
Within a few days, the news that Li Lei had picked up an ancient bronze sword on the construction site spread in the county town. Soon, several cultural relics dealers took the initiative to find Li Lei and wanted to buy the bronze sword he had picked up. The bid of the cultural relics dealers rose from 5,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan, but Li Lei did not sell them. After the cultural relics dealer left, Li Lei was afraid that the bronze sword would be lost in the dormitory, so he secretly hid the bronze sword in a safe place.
A few days later, a luxury Mercedes-Benz car was parked outside the dormitory at the construction site, and a big boss in a suit and leather shoes stepped out of the car, and he asked the workers in the dormitory where Li Lei lived and directly found Li Lei. He introduced himself as the manager of a cultural relics store in Xi'an, heard that Li Lei had picked up a bronze sword, wanted to see it, and expressed to Li Lei his willingness to buy it. Li Lei took out the bronze sword and handed it to him, and the boss turned it over and looked at it for a long time, and finally he said to Li Lei, "Sell it to me, I am willing to pay 200,000 yuan to buy this bronze sword." ”
The workers heard that a big boss had paid 200,000 yuan to buy the bronze sword in Li Lei's hand, and they all ran to see the hilarity. When Li Lei was hesitating, a small friend from the same village as Li Lei pulled Li Lei aside, and he said to Li Lei: "Since the boss bid 200,000 yuan to buy this sword, it means that this bronze sword is a valuable cultural relic, if you sell it privately, once you are accused, you may go to jail..." Li Lei usually watches jianbao and legal programs, he knows that selling cultural relics privately is a kind of illegal act, and after listening to the advice of the small partner in the same village, Li Lei immediately refused the boss's request to buy it.
That night, Li Lei lay on the bed in the dormitory and couldn't sleep, he thought about it, and finally figured out that this bronze sword originally did not belong to him, but by chance, he was picked up by himself, and yu Yufa himself should hand it over to the state, it is better to simply hand it over to the state free of charge, and he can save a lot of troubles. Therefore, early the next morning, Li Lei went to the Danfeng County Museum with the bronze sword and handed the bronze sword to the state free of charge.
Bronze sword
So, what kind of sword was the bronze sword that Li Lei handed over to the Danfeng Museum?
Let's first appreciate this ancient sword: this bronze is made of bronze, the sword is 46.5 cm long, the body is 4 cm wide, and the weight is about 610 grams; due to its age, the handle part of the bronze sword has produced green patina, and the end of the hilt is carved with a fine pattern; it is surprising that the body part of the bronze sword is still shiny and the blade is extremely sharp. According to the shape, material and ornamentation of this bronze sword, experts have judged that the bronze sword is dated to the Warring States period, which has a history of more than 2,000 years.
When examining the bronze sword, experts found that although the sword had been baptized for more than 2,000 years, the body of the sword was still bright and the blade was still sharp. What is the reason why the body of this thousand-year-old sword has not corroded? After the experts conducted the test, they found that the sword body of this bronze sword was oxidized by chromium salt, which is a chemical treatment method, and this process was also found on the sword unearthed by the Terracotta Warriors of Qin Shi Huang, due to the chromium salt oxidation treatment, so the bronze has super corrosion resistance and rust resistance.
After further research, experts concluded that this bronze sword was the sword of the nobles of the Chu state during the Warring States period. The reason for this judgment is that the sword body of this sword is slightly shorter, and the front part of the sword body has a waist, which is completely different from the bronze swords of the Qin state and other princely states in the same period, and is the same as the Chu sword of the same period. Judging from the workmanship of this bronze sword, it is a sword of a Chu nobleman before his death, and the bronze sword was used as a funerary after the death of the owner, because there is no inscription on the sword body, so the identity of the sword owner can no longer be judged.
epilogue
The bronze sword found by Li Lei is the most intact bronze artifact unearthed in the Danfeng area in recent years, in view of the high cultural relics value of this bronze sword, as well as the noble quality of Li Lei's discovery of cultural relics handed over in time, the Danfeng County Cultural Bureau decided to reward Li Lei, and they awarded Li Lei an honorary certificate and a 500 yuan bonus.
A reporter interviewed Li Lei after winning the award, and the reporter asked: "Why did you take the initiative to hand over this bronze sword free of charge in the first place?" Li Lei told reporters: "I used to watch treasure hunting and legal programs, and I knew that the ownership of all underground and aboveground cultural relics belonged to the state, so I did not hesitate to hand it over to the state." The reporter asked him: "The cultural relics dealer gave you 200,000 yuan, you did not sell it, but handed it over to the state free of charge, do you regret it?" Li Lei replied crisply with two words: "No regrets."
Li Lei's act of discovering and voluntarily handing over cultural relics is worthy of praise and learning, which is a noble quality. However, some netizens believe that the reward given by the state to Li Lei is too small, which hurts the hearts of those who turn in cultural relics. Fang Yuan personally believes that when rewarding those who take the initiative to hand over cultural relics, can we consider the value of cultural relics and appropriately increase the intensity of the rewards, only in this way will more people be willing to take the initiative to hand over the found cultural relics to the state, and the country's cultural relics protection work will develop healthily.