In the Palace Museum, there is a super luxury gold cup, the wine glass is 12.5 centimeters high, the diameter is 8 centimeters, the gold alone is used 20 taels, and it is also inlaid with 11 pearls, 9 rubies, and 12 sapphires...... What is this bejeweled gold cup used for? The answer is very "metaphysical," and this is what Qianlong used to "pretend to be a dream."
This cup is called the Golden Ou Yonggu Cup, which was specially created by Emperor Qianlong for the sense of ritual of the New Year.
Since Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty, there has been an important New Year's ceremony - the opening ceremony of the Ming window. The emperor should burn the candle in the bright window of the palace of nourishing the heart, and then pour the Tusu wine that dispelled evil and righteousness into the wine glass, and drank while praying silently in his heart, and then wrote the auspicious words of his heart on the red paper with the imperial pen, in order to pray for a smooth wind and rain in the New Year, and peace and security of the country and the people.
Emperor Yongzheng was frugal and did not make any special requirements for the ceremony, but Emperor Qianlong, who had a nouveau riche temperament, had other requirements. Qianlong not only renovated the Yangxin Palace, but also opened a hut with a wooden mallet fan in the place where the west end of the East Warm Pavilion faced the window in the south, and hung the Qianlong imperial pen "Ming Window" plaque indoors, so that the pen opening ceremony had a specific place, and the props used in the ceremony were very particular.
He asked the candlestick of the ceremony to be "jade candle long tune", the pen was named "Wan Nianqing", and the drinking cup should naturally be high-end and high-grade. Qianlong enriched the Ministry of Internal Affairs to produce gold three-legged cups.
According to the Qing Dynasty's "Internal Affairs Office Activity Files", Qianlong made three "Jinou Yonggu" cups in his early years, and repeatedly instructed and supervised the manufacturing process of "Jinou Yonggu" cups. Before the cup is made, the pattern must be drawn and submitted to the imperial view, and Qianlong can only undertake it with approval. Moreover, Qianlong also issued an edict to approve the use of precious materials such as gold, pearls, and precious stones in the Inner Treasury by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Moreover, even if the craftsmen have already started production, Qianlong has to become a "supervisor", carefully arranging every detail, and repeatedly revising it in the production process......
There was an emperor, and you can imagine how sincere and fearful the craftsmen at that time were.
So what does the cup that Qianlong attached so much importance look like? Extremely luxurious! Extremely bright!
Qianlong made a total of four gold cups in his lifetime, and the one made in his later years was preserved in the Palace Museum. We can see that the cup is 12.5 centimeters high, 8 centimeters in diameter, and 5 centimeters in foot height. The "Golden Ou Yonggu" cup is in the shape of "Ding" as a whole, symbolizing the stability of the society, implying the stability of the foundation; it is being placed as a national treasure gold bottle, which is placed upside down like a crown, symbolizing the royal dignity......
The cup is engraved with a dragon as the ear, and the head of the dragon is a pearl; the head of the three elephants stands on the top, the nose is curled as the foot, and the gold wire ivory encircles both sides of the foot; the cup body is engraved with a flower pattern of entwined branches, the heart of the flower is raised, inlaid with pearls and red sapphires, the place between the patterns is decorated with emeralds; the mouth is engraved with a back pattern, the front is engraved with the seal text "Jin Ou Yonggu" four words, and the back is engraved with the "Qianlong year" paragraph.
Extravagant and gorgeous, it has the "luxury bearing" that Qianlong loved.
But if we take a closer look, we can see that in addition to the jewels of this cup, it also reveals Qianlong's ultimate dream as an emperor.
The word Jinou has been regarded as the synonym of "Jiangshan Sheji" since ancient times. The golden ou is eternal, implying that the country's territory is complete and unbreakable. This is the wish and goal of countless emperors throughout the ages.
Moreover, not only does it use the beautiful meaning of the golden ou, but even the selection and setting of pearls and gems are also of metaphysical significance.
The gold cup is inlaid with pearls, sapphires, rubies, tourmalines, pearls symbolize health, sapphires are used as amulets, rubies are also known as Zhaodian red, symbolizing the blessing of wealth, tourmaline is also called "broken evil gold", there is the meaning of warding off evil spirits.
And it is said that the layout of these 36 jewels also has the magic of the nine palaces of "Zhou Yi". According to legend, when the last pearl was inlaid that year, there was an auspicious image of the sun and moon in the same sky and five stars!
Qianlong, the "perfect old man", longed for the Qing Dynasty to be eternal for thousands of years, he used solid gold, the most precious jewelry to make gold cups, and even in his life, such behavior happened four times, but unfortunately, his mind was spent in the wrong place.
Kangqian was the last dream of the Qing Dynasty, and in the following decades, the fire and cannon of the British and French forces burned the Old Summer Palace, which made Qianlong's dream of "eternal solidity" sparse, and the two gold cups hidden in the garden were robbed, and 114 years after the last "golden Ou Yonggu" cup was made, the Qing Dynasty collapsed.
Today, two of the four gold cups are still in the Wallace Collection in London. The other two, one in the Forbidden City in Beijing and the other in the Forbidden City in Taipei, China......
In just a few decades, the country has been shattered. What did Qianlong do wrong?
Qianlong was the sixth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, reigned for 60 years, and was still the actual decision-maker after the Zen throne, and actually held power for 63 years and 4 months, making him the emperor who actually held the highest power of the country for the longest time in the history of the mainland, and the longest-lived emperor in thousands of years.
Qianlong was loved by Kangxi, which gave Yongzheng more advantages in the battle for succession, so he was already selected by Yongzheng as his heir. In the early years of Qianlong, the political reform solved some of the shortcomings of the Kangyong period, until the middle of Qianlong, the rule of the Qing Dynasty was still stable, and the territory was also actively expanded.
But since the middle of Qianlong, it has gone downhill. The Gansu Fraud Case and the Zhejiang Corruption Case marked the decline of Qianlong's rule. In his later years, Qianlong was very happy, went to the south of the Yangtze River six times, and spent a lot of construction and construction to empty the treasury. The corruption of officials, combined with the emperor's own seasonal extravagance and profligacy, turned the already abundant treasury into a pile of bad debts.
In addition, closing the country, usurping books, building literary prisons, and ruling the world in prisons have all caused irreversible harm to the country.
In fact, Qianlong's "fall" can be seen from the "New Year's ceremony" in which he participated in this precious golden cup.
Qianlong cast a total of 4 gold cups in his life, representing the aesthetics and pursuits of Qianlong's youth, prime of life and old age, and these gold cups are more luxurious than the other. However, in the opening ceremony in which Jin Bei participated, Qianlong's wishes on Chinese New Year's Eve every year became more and more sloppy.
In the 21st year of Qianlong, he looked forward to the early peace of the border and peace in the four seas, and wrote "The world is peaceful, and the Jieyin morning report is ...... In the 25th year of Qianlong's reign, when the war in the northwest was settled, he took pity on the fatigue of the people after a long time of using the army, and wrote "Martial arts are successful, rest and recuperate"......
However, since then, Qianlong has been arrogant and arrogant, resting on his laurels, and the New Year's window opening wishes for decades are almost all clichés such as "It is appropriate to enter the New Year, everything is good, Sanyang Qitai, Vientiane is more (Dimensional) new, harmonious and auspicious, and the harvest year is Rui".
The officials shouted long live, covering the cries of the people from all over the world, and the brilliant beauties in front of them blocked the maladministration and corruption of the imperial court. The vain and empty Qianlong was intoxicated with his dream of being a "perfect old man".
The hidden dangers of the country and the suffering of the people can no longer touch the hearts of the supreme powers, so this expensive wine cup made of gold and inlaid with gems is naturally a bitter wine with weak development and approaching external troubles.
An article published on Xinhuanet said it very well: the national treasure of artifacts can only mark the glorious past of a nation. Whether or not a country can forge a brighter future depends on what it treasures.
What do you think about this?
The picture comes from the Internet.
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