In February 2024, some of the bronze treasures from Hunan came to Shanxi and appeared in the temporary exhibition "This Hunan Gifts" at the Shanxi Bronze Museum, one of which is the mainland's "cymbal náo king", which is learned and remembered.
1. Elephant pattern big bronze cymbal náo (cymbal king)
In the late Shang period, the height was 103.5 cm, the wall thickness was 2.9 cm, and the weight was 221.5 kg. In 1983, when the members of Yueshanpu Commune in Ningxiang County, Hunan Province dug the ground, they found that the whole body was gray-brown, slightly dark green, and dull. Ningbo and the cavity are hollow and communicated, and the texture is red copper (pure copper) from the broken part of the Yongkou.
This cymbal náo is the largest of the ancient cymbals, and it can be called the "cymbal king".
The front motif is decorated with a beast face pattern composed of thick lines, and the eyes of the animal face are outlined by thick lines in semi-relief. The cloud and thunder patterns are coiled around, and the main drum is decorated with a group of elephants standing opposite each other, the trunks of the elephants are connected, and the elephant's body is decorated with cloud and thunder patterns.
The elephant pattern big bronze cymbal was unearthed on a hill more than 100 meters high, and 250 meters to the west, which is another national treasure cultural relics Siyang Fangzun out of the land.
Many bronze heavy vessels have been unearthed in Ningxiang County, Hunan Province, known as the "Ningxiang Bronze Group", and their sources and users have always been the subject of discussion in the academic community.
When the cymbal was unearthed, it was 30 centimeters away from the surface of the earth, it was an oval-shaped soil pit, there was nothing else in the pit, and the pottery pieces sandwiched in the filling soil were the characteristics of the Shang Dynasty.
Second, the name of "cymbal".
There are only three kinds of bronze music bells in the Shang Dynasty: braided cymbals, large cymbals and bó, which are popular in the north, and large cymbals and plutonium bells are from the south.
"Cymbal" as the name of the instrument, first appeared in the "Zhou Li", saying "to stop the drum with a golden cymbal." Zheng Xuan of the Han Dynasty made a note: "The cymbal is like a bell, there is no tongue, there is Bing, and it is persistent and ringing to stop the drumming." Meaning: The cymbal is shaped like a bell, but has no tongue and a hollow handle, and is a hand-held percussion instrument, which is used to beat the drum to stop the retreat of the army.
Modern scholars refer to a kind of bronze music bell without a tongue, with the mouth facing upward, percussion, and holding chí (plant) sound in the late Shang and early Western Zhou dynasties, as cymbals, and the cymbals have no self-inscription.
3. The past life of the big cymbal
The previous life of the big cymbal may have been a braided cymbal.
In the late Shang Dynasty, the capital city was in Yinxu, Anyang, Henan, and many groups of cymbals were unearthed in the tombs of Yinxu, and the most common is three cymbals into a braid, the size is secondary, and the pitch is in a row, which is the regular system of Yin Shang cymbals.
The height of the cymbal is generally between 10~25 cm, and the ornamentation is mostly a simple animal face pattern and string pattern.
The Yinxu Women's Tomb is the only tomb where five cymbals have been unearthed, but three of them are arranged in a row, and the other two have cymbals with the inscription "Ya弜jiàng", which were not cast at the same time as the three-piece group.
In the late Shang period, the cymbals of Yinxu spread to the southeast, and the unique "big cymbals" developed in the south.
At present, the earliest large cymbal unearthed is seen in the Shang tomb of Xingan Oceania in Jiangxi, and three cymbals have been unearthed, dating from the period of Shang King Wuding.
Fourth, the characteristics of the big cymbal in the Shang and Zhou dynasties
According to statistics, there are more than 130 large cymbals in the Shang and Zhou dynasties in the mainland, and Hunan Province has unearthed the most, with 75 pieces.
The cymbal has great local characteristics, which are mainly reflected in four aspects:
(1) Excavation site: The southern cymbal is mainly unearthed in the cellars of the mountaintop, hillside, foothill, riverbank, lake and other places. When it was unearthed, there were few accompanying things.
(2) Volume: The southern cymbal is very large, with a height of more than 30 centimeters. The cymbal weighs 221.5 kilograms, and it is manual work to carry and progress the cabinet.
(3) Ornamentation: Yin Shang cymbal ornamentation is simple, mostly string pattern and simple animal face pattern. The southern cymbal ornamentation is complex and diverse, such as cloud and thunder patterns, back patterns, animal face patterns, etc.
(4) Arrangement: single piece use.
Youyun Hunan cymbal is "five points of ceremony, four points of sound, one point of music".
Fifth, the use of the cymbal
There are different theories about the use of the cymbal, but it may be:
(1) Worship natural gods such as wind and rain, stars, rivers, and earth gods, and bury them after the sacrifice.
(2) Hit the top of the cymbal mountain, you can gather your troops and command the army to show your authority.
(3) It is used for banquets and music.
When playing the cymbal, the mouth of the cymbal is facing upwards, the handle is inserted into the wooden pedestal, and the player strikes the mouth edge of the cymbal, that is, the main drum of the cymbal, with a mallet chuí, the sound is loud and resounding in all directions, and it is most likely a ceremonial weight used in the sacrifice.
The big cymbal later developed into the core instrument of the Zhou Dynasty's ritual music system - the chime.