Today we introduce cultural relics, which is a bronze that first appeared in the word "China" - He Zun. Now in the Baoji Bronze Museum of China, the heavy ware of the Western Zhou Dynasty is known as the "treasure of the town" of the museum.
He Zun, height 38.5 cm, diameter 28.9 cm, weight 14.6 kg. Round-mouthed prismatic, long neck, slightly bulging abdomen, high hoop feet. The gastropods have a delicate high-relief animal face pattern, and the horn ends protrude from the surface of the vessel. There are four ribs on the side of the body. The shape is strong and the craftsmanship is exquisite.
Isn't it atmospheric? Heavy? And that's not the most important thing about her! There are 12 lines of inscriptions, 122 characters on the inner bottom, 3 characters damaged, and 119 characters are extant, which is recognized as the earliest artifact with the word "China".
Its content describes the inheritance of King Wu's will, the construction of the eastern capital into Zhou, is an important admonition and encouragement proclamation of King Cheng of Zhou, and "Shangshu Summoning" and "Yi Zhou Shu Duyi" and other ancient documents are consistent, is the bronze of the Western Zhou Dynasty with a clear date.
Since she is an important weapon of the country, let's see what twists and turns and bizarre stories she has! In 1963, in the countryside near Baoji, Shaanxi Province, a farmer found this "national treasure" from a soil cliff that collapsed after rain, and after picking it up, it has been placed as a "waste product". In 1965, the leaders of the Baoji City Museum found the artifact at the local scrap yard and bought it for 30 yuan, which became a collection of the museum. Since the inscription had not yet been discovered at that time, the staff did not pay much attention to it, but felt that the vessel was beautiful and a rare wine vessel from the Western Zhou Dynasty. In 1975, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage requisitioned the Baoji City Museum collection to tour abroad, the cultural relics were sent to the Shanghai Museum for transit, then the director of the Shanghai Museum, the national famous bronze expert Mr. Ma Chengyuan, found that the bottom of the artifact was rusted, and thought that the artifact was exquisite and should have an inscription.
(Mr. Ma Chengyuan) So after obtaining the consent of the Baoji City Museum, the bottom of the artifact was rusted and cleaned, and a large number of inscriptions were found, and the honor was named "He Zun". So He Zun canceled this trip abroad and was designated by the State Council as the first batch of cultural relics prohibited from going abroad. Now, do you particularly want to understand the meaning of the word "China" that appeared in the earliest place, so let's talk about the "China" in He Zunli?
The content of He Zun's inscription is very rich: in April of the fifth year of King Cheng, King Zhou began to build the capital in Cheng Zhou, coinciding with the sacrifice of blessings to King Wu, King Zhou admonished a clan boy "He" in the Beijing palace room, and the content said that He's father followed King Wen, and King Wen was ordered by God to rule the world. After King Wu destroyed the Shang, he sacrificed to the heavens, using this land as the center of the world to rule the people. The king of Zhou rewarded He Bei with 30 pengbei, and he was honored as a commemoration for this. In the inscription, the king of Zhou says: "Yu Qi Zhaizi China (living in the central region), since Zi 乂 (yì, governing) the people." "This is the first time that the concept of China has appeared in Chinese civilization, and many people think that this concept only appeared in modern times, but in fact, it existed as early as the pre-Qin era. However, the "China" in the text is the "earth" and "earth" in the ancient books, which means "in the world", which is a regional concept. This relocation of the capital corroborates each other with the records of the Historical Records and the Book of Shang, which provide important material materials for the study of the history of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the dating of bronzes.
There are many explanations about the word "middle", and there are mainly the following three: one is to plant a flagpole to observe the sun, like a sundial; The second is to draw a symbol in the middle of the flagpole with streamers to indicate the meaning of the middle; The three theories are like drawing a long vertical line in the middle of a circle, and drawing two fluttering flag bands at the upper and lower ends of the vertical line, so as to indicate that the flag is in the circle, and this circle is believed by scholars to be used to represent tribes.
The oracle bone inscription does not have the glyph of the national character, there is an or character. It is the original character of the domain, which is composed of 囗 (pronunciation: wéi) and ge, which means that the city is guarded with ge. In the Jin text, there is a way to add 囗 (pronunciation: wéi) to or outside, and when the character is simplified, it is abbreviated or abbreviated as jade. In the earliest days, the state referred to the capital city, and the domain generally referred to the territorial territory. Later, the scope of the state was expanded to refer to the territorial territory, so the meaning of the domain was merged into the national character, and it became the territory and city-state defended by force.
Zun, an ancient wine vessel, used to hold wine. It is also one of the important utensils in the bronze, which was owned by the ancient princes and nobles, showing the supreme atmosphere and the symbol of the noble status of the master. In the fifth year of King Cheng of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the nobles surnamed "He" made the respect, the shape of the instrument is heavy, and the production is exquisite. There are 12 lines of inscriptions and 122 words of inscriptions on the inner bottom, among which Zhaizi China is the earliest written record of the word "China", which shows that she is noble and worthy of the country's important weapon.