In the 60s of the last century, the peasant brothers in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, would dig up bronzes from the ground from time to time from the Western Zhou Dynasty. Due to the lack of awareness of cultural relics protection at that time, most of these cultural relics were sold to scrap yards as scrap copper. Some cultural relics workers lamented this, so they made a habit of running scrap yards
One day in September 1965, Lao Tong, a cadre of the Baoji City Museum, went to the scrap yard to hunt for treasure as usual, and accidentally found a very eye-catching object in the pile of broken copper and iron
The sensitivity of the profession and the full desire for knowledge drove Lao Tong to step forward quickly, and picked out the "rag" with his hands. After looking at it for a while, he had an answer in his mind, this rusty object should be from an ancient bronze
Lao Tong, who has a strong sense of mission and responsibility for his work, immediately reported this discovery to the curator. After a while, an antiquities expert arrived at the scrap yard
After a long period of analysis and research, the experts were dumbfounded, and the so-called "waste product" in front of them was a cultural relic of special research value! So they found the proprietress of the scrap purchase station, and after some bargaining, they finally bought the "tattered" for 30 yuan
After returning to the museum, the curator convened the scholars and experts in the museum to conduct a comprehensive research on this unique artifact, and finally confirmed that this is a national treasure-level cultural relic, which belongs to a kind of wine vessel in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, and is made of bronze
This exquisite bronze statue is 38.8 centimeters high, 28.8 centimeters in diameter, and weighs 14.6 kilograms
How could such a precious artifact end up in a scrap yard? Back in 1963, two years ago...
One day in August of this year, after a rainstorm, Chen Dui, a villager in Jiacun Town, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, found that a loess cliff in the backyard of his house had been washed away by the rain
That night, Chen Dui got up at night to go to the toilet in the backyard, and suddenly found that there were two green and faint lights on the earth cliff not far away
After a sleepless night, the next day, as soon as the sky was bright, Chen Dui had the courage to go to the backyard to find out, and when he approached the mound, he found that the green light he saw came from two green copper nails inserted in the soil
Chen Dui found a hoe and wanted to dig out the two copper nails that scared him, he planed and planed, and found that the thing was getting bigger and bigger, and finally dug out a bronze vessel covered with green embroidery
After cleaning up the soil on it, Chen Dui felt that this thing was quite big and suitable for loading things, so he took it home
Since then, the bronze has been used as a container for storing grain. At this point, the national treasure became a grain storage tank until two years later...
In 1965, Chen Dui felt that the grain storage tank was too much of a space and the economy was a little tight, so he took the bronze to the scrap yard and sold it as scrap copper for 20 yuan
Since then, this noble weight has been lying in the scrap yard as a tattered piece along with other scrap copper and iron, and secretly sad in those days when no one cares
It is gold that always shines, even if it is buried deeply, it is a maxima and you will definitely meet the Bole who appreciates you. Just the day before the owner of the scrap yard was about to pull the copper and iron in the yard back to the furnace for smelting, Lao Tong, who was discerning and knowledgeable, found the bronze that had been sold by Chen Dui
In 1975, this bronze statue of the Western Zhou Dynasty was transported to the Forbidden City in Beijing for an exhibition. Mr. Ma Chengyuan, then director of the Shanghai Museum and an expert on bronzes, found an inscription at the bottom of the inner wall of the bronze statue
After the rust removal and cleaning, the inscription inside the bronze statue was revealed, with a total of 12 lines and a total of 122 words: "Only the king is at the beginning of the palace, and the house is in Chengzhou...... He Cibei Peng, used as Yu Gong Bao Zun Yi. Only the Five Rituals of the King"
This inscription describes a series of activities of King Cheng of Zhou to build the capital, hold sacrifices, and reward his courtiers
Among the people who were rewarded was a minister surnamed He, who specially made this statue as a souvenir. So this bronze statue was later officially named "He Zun"
The bronze belt inscription is like the letter of the Volkswagen car, the value is high, He Zun not only has the inscription, but there are four words in the inscription that are particularly eye-catching: "Zhaizi China"
This is the first time that the word "China" has appeared as a phrase, which is of great significance, indicating that the word "China" has appeared more than 3,000 years ago, and as a Chinese, we should remember this important event
"How can the experts believe that He Zun is from the Western Zhou Dynasty? I still think it was from the previous week. ”。 An iron man in the comment area asked puzzled
Expert: "According to the judgment of the shape and ornamentation of this bronze, combined with some unearthed bronzes in the museum, it is determined that it was produced in the Western Zhou Dynasty about 3,500 years ago."
"He Zun" is now collected in the Shaanxi Baoji Bronze Museum, which is the treasure of the museum
In 2002, "He Zun" became the first batch of cultural relics prohibited by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage from going abroad (outside the territory) for exhibition