The surging news learned that the Hunan Provincial Museum recently for the first time on the Mawangdui Han tomb unearthed unstructured textiles to systematically clear the warehouse, from the Mawangdui Han tomb unearthed in the diamond pattern, the latest discovery of woven characters, etc., to fill the research gap in related fields. It is reported that this is the first time that the diamond pattern qi excavated from the Mawangdui Han Tomb has woven characters, which is a typical seal and reflects the superb textile weaving skills of the early Han Dynasty.
Mawangdui Han Tomb is located in Mawangdui Street, Furong District, Changsha City, Hunan Province, and is the family cemetery of The State Minister of Changsha and Hou Licang in the early Western Han Dynasty. From 1972 to 1974, three archaeological excavations were carried out, and more than 3,000 precious cultural relics were unearthed, including more than 700 exquisite lacquerware with intricate craftsmanship, more than 500 pieces of finely woven silk clothing, etc., which is one of the world's major archaeological discoveries in the 20th century. The discovery of the Mawangdui Han Tomb provides important information for the study of the burial system in the early Han Dynasty, the development of handicrafts and science and technology, and the history, culture and social life of Changsha.
Yu Yanjiao (right) is instructing the staff to clear the cultural relics excavated from the Mawangdui Han Tomb. Source: Hunan Provincial Museum
According to Xinhua News Agency, the Hunan Provincial Museum completed the systematic clearance of cultural relics excavated from the Mawangdui Han Tomb on the 21st, numbered all the cultural relics that were not recorded in the warehouse in an orderly manner, and cleared out more than 21,000 pieces of the collection. Among them, there are more than 19,000 textile libraries and more than 1,700 lacquered wood libraries.
Dong Xianyan, deputy research librarian of the Hunan Provincial Museum, who has long been engaged in the protection, restoration and research of ancient textile cultural relics, said that due to the large number of silk fabrics excavated earlier, the fragments of broken pieces and the "silk bricks" formed by a large pile of textiles adhered to and piled up have not been graded and recorded, and are only preserved as data and cultural relics. In this clearance, experts archived fragments with information, certain characteristics and significance.
"The purpose of clearing the treasury is to better protect and preserve cultural relics." Yu Yanjiao, director of the Mawangdui Han Tomb and Collection Research and Exhibition Center of the Hunan Provincial Museum, said that writing was found in the fragments of Lingwenqi during the qingku. "This is the first time that the diamond pattern qi excavated from the Mawangdui Han Tomb has woven characters, which is a typical seal and reflects the superb textile weaving skills of the early Han Dynasty." Yu Yanjiao said that the Chinese characters woven in the silk fabric are sealed, and a Chinese character has been found: this character is a cursive character on the top and a "none" character on the bottom.
In addition, experts found new patterns of silk fabrics in the qingku, enriching the understanding of tomb cultural relics. Yu Yanjiao said that in the longevity embroidery, it was originally thought that there was only a dragon pattern, and this time the phoenix pattern was found. Mawangdui phoenix bird pattern is the standard image of the phoenix bird in the early Han Dynasty, inheriting the Chu style of phoenix bird, implying beauty, auspiciousness and longevity, which is in line with the Han Dynasty's desire for immortality and feathering and ascension.
This is the silk field "longevity embroidery" excavated from the Mawangdui Han Tomb. Source: Hunan Provincial Museum
Experts from the Hunan Provincial Museum also further studied the only "feather appliqué silk" unearthed in China that uses feathers as coffins in the process of clearing the warehouse. "Ancient documents have recorded the use of paintings to make coffins, but the use of feathers as coffins is the only one found so far." Dong Xianyan said that there may be 3 to 4 kinds of feathers in the shape analysis, but due to the strong carbonization, it is difficult to determine which kind of animal the feathers belong to.
Feather appliqué silk excavated from the Mawangdui Han Tomb Courtesy of Hunan Provincial Museum
In addition, in this systematic clearance, dozens of fragments of the book with handwriting were also found, and it can be determined that some of them are from the C chapter of the book "Criminal Virtue", which provides new information for related research.
This is a part of the first part of the book "Punishment Virtue" excavated from the mawangdui Han tomb. Source: Hunan Provincial Museum
There are three parts, A, B and C, all of which were excavated in 1973 at Tomb No. 3 of Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan Province. Among them, Part A is an important chapter of the theory of criminal virtue in the early Han Dynasty, and Part B is mainly about the explanation of the operation law of criminal virtue and the interpretation of the "Nine Palaces of Punishment Virtue", as well as the provisions on measuring the victory or defeat of war by astronomical weather such as clouds, wind, rain, and thunder.
Yu Yanjiao said that the first part of the book "Punishment virtue" was copied by ancient Li, which is well preserved, the text is roughly readable, the Nine Palace Diagram and the Dry Branch Table are clearly recognizable, and it is inferred that it was copied during the reign of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, and has important academic research value; the second part is copied in the Lishu, and the date of copying should be around the first year of Xiao Hui (194 BC), which provides an important reference for determining the transcription time of the same kind of book manuscript in the Book; and the C part is copied on a 48 cm wide and about 82 cm long.
Part II of the book "Punishment Virtue" excavated from the Tomb of Mawangdui Han Hunan Provincial Museum
Some of the fragments found this time can be determined to be from the book "Criminal Virtue" part C. "The extant original objects of the first part of the "Punishment Virtue" are framing into 18 fragments, all of which are copied in Zhu Wen, and the columns of the article are all black silk columns, and there is a very thick ink line border around the periphery. Yu Yanjiao said.
Experts pointed out that some of the Mawangdui books have Zhusi bars or Wusi columns, and some scholars have believed that they were woven, and this time according to the comparison of fragments, it is determined that they are painted.
More than fifty books have been unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb. "All the books are manuscripts, and each person's handwriting is different, so each one has its own characteristics. Therefore, the handwritten font feature can provide a basis for distinguishing which book the words on the fragment belong to. Yu Yanjiao said.
Part C of the book "Punishment Virtue" excavated from the Mawangdui Han Tomb Courtesy of the Hunan Provincial Museum
In fact, handwriting recognition requires years of experience accumulated in research, so the "homecoming" of fragments of the book can only rely on manual search and comparison. In addition, because the layers of the book are adhered to each other, the ink will produce positive and negative printing and dyeing, and layer by layer of infiltration dyeing.
"Fifty-two Sick Prescriptions" Book Hunan Provincial Museum Collection Data Map
"When the book was first unearthed, it was complete, but it became a 'brick', and due to the technical limitations of the time, in order to uncover the book page by page, it had to be dampened by the most primitive steam fumigation method, and then to uncover it, and in the process, many fragments were produced." Chen Rui, deputy director of the Mawangdui Han Tomb and Collection Research and Exhibition Center of the Hunan Provincial Museum, said that in order to "return" the fragments of the book, it is necessary to find out what kind of books they belong to, and how the books were stacked at that time, so that we can distinguish between the infiltration and anti-Printing languages, and then determine which layer the fragments belong to, which work is quite difficult.
The Hunan Provincial Museum has cooperated in the research of the fragments of the newly sorted book with characters and the Research Center for Excavated Documents and Ancient Characters of Fudan University, and these "beads" are of great significance to the restoration and improvement of the book and the compilation of its revised version.
Excavated from 1972 to 1974, the Mawangdui Han Tomb is the tomb of the three families of the Western Han Dynasty Changsha State Minister and The Yuanhou Licang family, and a total of more than 3,000 precious cultural relics have been unearthed, including more than 700 exquisite lacquerware with intricate craftsmanship, more than 500 pieces of finely woven silk clothing, etc., which is one of the world's major archaeological discoveries in the 20th century. Among them, more than 100,000 words and more than 50 extensive documents have been unearthed to inherit the knowledge and wisdom of the philosophers, and the remains of "Lady Xin Chai" unearthed from Tomb No. 1 are the longest-preserved wet corpses in the world.
Archaeological excavation site of Mawangdui Han Tomb
(This article is synthesized from Xinhua News Agency, Wenbo Shanxi)