Screenshot of the video of the movie "The King's Feast".
There is a scene in Lu Chuan's movie "The King's Feast" - in front of the palace of the Qin Dynasty, Xiang Yu, played by Wu Yanzu, scoffs at Qin Shi Huang's policy of writing the same text and cars on the same track, and is determined to let the generals who followed him in the uprising return to their own country and "write your own history in your own words".
This may be what Xiang Yu really thought at the time, and perhaps it also represents the thinking of the Chinese of that era—they felt that the measures to strengthen centralized power implemented by Qin Shihuang after unification were perverse.
Today, thousands of years later, history textbooks have highly affirmed Qin Shi Huang's measures such as unifying weights and measures, unifying writing, and unifying currency. This is called historical limitations.
The Qin Palace in the film and television drama is located in today's Xi'an, standing on the third floor of the Qin and Han Pavilion of the Shaanxi History Museum and looking north, you can see the rammed earth remains of the palace. Back then, those edicts that changed the course of Chinese history were born on this land.
Many cultural relics unearthed in the Xianyang area of the Qin capital have become the most direct witnesses of these policies thousands of years later. For example, the Gaonu copper and stone right, which is a standard weighing instrument that has been used from the time of King Qin Zhao to the era of Qin II. Gaonu is located in today's northern Shaanxi region, more than 100 kilometers away from Qin Xianyang City, in order to ensure the same accuracy of weights and measures nationwide, this weighing instrument was recalled from Gaonu twice, calibrated the accuracy, and engraved with the edict of Qin Shi Huang and Qin II on the unification of weights and measures.
Qin half two
For example, the Qin half-tael coin, with the small seal font used by the state, engraved the word "half-tael" on the unified currency. Its birth greatly facilitated commercial exchanges, and also laid the basic form of the "round square hole" of ancient Chinese coins for thousands of years.
The rut marks on the road surface of the Qin Dynasty are clearly visible.
Another example is the well-preserved Qin Dynasty road surface, on which the rut marks are clearly visible. It was packaged and moved to the special exhibition of "City and Mausoleum" in the Qin and Han Pavilion of the Shaanxi History Museum, allowing visitors to intuitively understand the track gauge of the Qin Dynasty vehicles. The so-called "car on the same track" is equivalent to today's national standard for automobile manufacturing, and the concept of standardization has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people today, and the source can be traced back to the Qin Dynasty.
Traces of weighing utensils, coins, and Qin dynasty vehicles have been unearthed in many parts of China, and they, along with the county system and the Qin law, laid the foundation for the Qin state to rule over a vast territory.
Han Gaozu Liu Bang, like Xiang Yu, participated in the war to destroy Qin. In the movie "The King's Feast", when Xiang Yu expounded his governing philosophy in front of Xianyang Palace, Liu Bang played by Liu Ye, in addition to some dissatisfaction, there was also a trace of incomprehension in his eyes.
can't get a glimpse of Liu Bang's thoughts at that time, or he is completely taking one step at a time, or maybe he is seeing farther than Xiang Yu. Therefore, when he seized the world, in the face of a vast territory and complex situation beyond his imagination, he still managed the country according to the Qin Dynasty's method. His descendants have basically continued his ideas and continued to strengthen the centralization of power through institutional and theoretical innovations.
The pottery animal in the exhibition hall of the Qin and Han Pavilions of the Shaanxi History Museum
The equestrian figurines and pottery figurines arranged in the exhibition hall of the Qinhan Pavilion of the Shaanxi History Museum are the direct embodiment of the Chinese concept of "death is like life", and they carry the mission of protecting and serving the master in another world. There are also pottery stoves, pottery granaries \ pottery animals...... They fully embody China's concept of "food for the people" - the matter of eating well is very important, whether in life or death.
In museums elsewhere in China, similar equestrian figurines and terracotta figurines can be seen, as well as pottery stoves, pottery granaries, and pottery animals. They have the same purpose, and the style and shape are also "very different", which is in stark contrast to the different styles of bronzes in various parts of China in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which shows that the funeral culture is the representative, the national unified cultural concept is being formed, and little by little it has become a "convention".
Equestrian figurines and terracotta figurines in the exhibition hall of the Qin and Han Pavilions of the Shaanxi History Museum
Obviously, Xiang Yu's ideal of China has not been realized. Liu Bang was born a revolutionary, but he became the successor of the Qin Dynasty's concept of great unification. The long tomb where he rested was chosen near the ruins of Qin Xianyang Palace, and it can also be seen on the third floor of the Qin and Han Dynasty Museum of Shaanxi History Museum looking north.
Qin and Han, city and mausoleum, converged on the Xianyang Plain, and in the poems of later generations, they together constituted the artistic conception of "sad Qin and Han meridians". The cultural relics unearthed in this area have become an important support for the Qin and Han Dynasty Museum of Shaanxi History Museum, and the inheritance between the two dynasties is clearly visible. The golden cake is a very eye-catching exhibit in the Qin and Han Dynasty Pavilion of the Shaanxi History Museum. In history, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used the excuse that the gold cakes offered by the princes and kings to the central government were not in good condition, and cut off more than 100 titles of marquis in one go, which can be regarded as a complete solution to the hidden danger that the princes and vassal kings could not be lost.
The gold cake on display in the Qin and Han Dynasty Pavilion of the Shaanxi History Museum
There is also the money fan displayed in the display case, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty on the basis of Qin Shi Huang's unified currency, the right to mint coins was returned to the central government, so around Chang'an City during this period, many money fans were unearthed, and there was even a Han Dynasty royal mint factory such as the Zhaolun site in the Yiyi District.
The northern attack on the Xiongnu expanded the territory while consolidating the security of the border, and the Han civilization was able to spread far and wide; "Deposing a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism" has unified the thinking of the whole country, provided theoretical support for pioneering and innovation, and also made Confucian culture deeply affect the values of Chinese people until today; The export of salt and iron equally, actively exploring the path of the country's macroeconomic regulation and control, stabilizing prices, opening up tax sources, and ensuring economic stability and sustainability......
Today, we are accustomed to refer to Emperor Qin and Wu of the Han Dynasty together, because the governance of these two kings is indeed highly similar, and what is even more interesting is that soon after their deaths, there were many bad comments about them, and even some of their policies were denied by their successors - it was Xiang Yu who denied Qin Shi Huang, and it was Confucianism who denied Emperor Wu of Han.
A new media installation in the Qin and Han Dynasty Pavilion of the Shaanxi History Museum
The Qin and Han Dynasty Pavilion of the Shaanxi History Museum has a new media installation that showcases the views of the salt and iron conference held during the reign of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty, allowing visitors to choose who to support. At this meeting, the Confucian scholars, under the banner of "not competing with the people", debated with Sang Hongyang, an important economic minister during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and demanded the abolition of the policy of salt and iron official camps. For political reasons, the minister Huo Guang sided with Confucianism, but it was discounted in practice, so that some of the major policies of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty were still continued.
Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, who created Zhaoxuan Zhongxing, said the truth when educating the prince in the future, "The Han family has its own system, and it is complicated to overlord it." ”
This concept of judging the situation ran through the Western Han Dynasty, and also allowed Qin Shi Huang to continue the great cause, quantitative changes caused qualitative changes, and China changed from unification to unity. In later dynasties, although there were also divisions and melees, and dynastic changes, all parties involved in it would take great unification as the ultimate goal, and no longer turn back history like Xiang Yu did after he destroyed Qin.
The basic exhibition of the Qin and Han Dynasty Pavilion of the Shaanxi History Museum is "the same under heaven".
The basic exhibition name of the Qin and Han Pavilions of the Shaanxi History Museum is "the unity of the world", which can be understood as the formation of China's unified multi-ethnic state, which not only relies on military unity, but also needs the "sameness" in culture and economy. And this exhibition, including this museum, uses enough space, enough cultural relics and modern auxiliary exhibition methods to comprehensively tell this history from unity to unity. The curators did not simply divide the exhibition line by era, but under the general theme, the cultural relics of the two dynasties were fused together, visually showing the continuity contained in them, and telling every visitor that the Han and Qin systems were not copied, but carried forward, which also ensured the formation of today's unified multi-ethnic state. (Text/Jing Zehao, Chen Jiaxin, Wang Jingsheng, Ding Jiahao)