【Chu Culture Mystery】What did the "seven-star hotel" in the Chu kingdom look like two thousand years ago?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Wen/Zhang Weiping </h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > figure/Jinling</h1>
Human desire is never-ending, and even the luxury of a five-star hotel is hard to stir people's nerves, and Dubai built the world's first seven-star hotel. In such a tropical desert city with no cultural monuments and no magnificent rivers and mountains, it has become a popular tourist attraction because of the luxury of "the world's first".
However, in the Chu kingdom more than 2,000 years ago, the king of Chu also built a "seven-star hotel" of that era with great effort.
How beautiful, spectacular, and luxurious is the Chu Palace? The king of lu voted with his feet.
In that year, when Lu Zhaogong paid a state visit to the Chu state, he was arranged to stay in the Legendary Andatai of the Chu Palace Zhanghuatai in the rivers and lakes.
Unexpectedly, this Lu Zhaogong, who let go of his own home in the Lu Wang Palace, did not live, let go of his own country's king improperly, left Jiangshan Sheji alone, and was actually blinded by the "seven-star" guest room in the Chu Palace, and Lai lived in the Chu Palace for a year before reluctantly returning to China.
The ruins of the Chu State Official Hall Zhanghuatai at sunset
The State of Lu, which was the hometown of Old Master Kong, was a state that paid great attention to the etiquette of the Zhou system. So, what exactly was in the Chu Palace that pulled Lu Zhaogong's leg? What about lu zhaogong's heart?
It is reasonable to say that the royal palaces of various countries are not short of luxury and comfort, at that time, they were also considered "five-star hotels", perhaps, it was the more shocking luxury and unique style of the Chu Palace that could proudly stand in the depths of the hearts of the kings of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which made Lu Zhaogong make a move that was contrary to the Zhou etiquette and insulted the national character after visiting the scene!
Archaeological excavations have unearthed the shell road of the Chu Palace Zhanghuatai site
For the luxury of the Chu Palace, Qu Yuan once had a detailed description, which he described in "Chu Ci Summoning Souls":
Gao Tang Yu Yu, Sill Layer Xuan Some. The terraces are stacked, and the mountains are more up. The net household is embellished, and the carved square is connected. Winter has a sudden building, summer room is colder. The river valley trails back and forth, and the streams flow a little more. Guangfang turned to Hui, and Chonglan was more. Enter the room, and the vermilion feast will be somewhat. The stone is green and the hanging is curved. The emerald beads are covered, and the rot is lighter. Shu Ah flicked the wall, Luo Wei opened up a little. Usurp the qi, knot qi huang some. The view of the room is more precious. Leave the curtain to be repaired, and wait for the king to be between some. Emerald tent, decorated with a high hall. Red wall sand board, Xuan Yu liang some. Look up at the carved trees and draw dragons and snakes. Sit in the hall and prostrate the sills, and bend the pond some. Hibiscus starts, and there are more lotuses. Orchid thin household trees, qiong wood hedges.
This passage, translated into the vernacular, is to the effect that the railing upstairs has several floors. There is a platform on the stage, and there is a museum on the museum, and the building is on a high hill that overlaps and overlaps. Creeks and streams, rings of inlets everywhere, the sound of running water makes the ears like. Beaded curtains are hung on the doors, the lintels are carved, and there are warm kang in winter and cool breezes in summer. The autumn breeze shakes the fragrance of the flowers, and the aroma of orchids ripples in the spring. Ascend to the high hall and walk into the cave room, the vermilion mat, the vermilion bed. The walls of mica are mirror-like, and jade is hung on a jade hook. There are pearls and emeralds on the quilt, which are generally brilliant and glow. The curiosity in the room is too good to say. In the curtain of the cave house, waiting for your free time. Emerald draperies hang on the high halls, cinnabar slab walls, black jade beams. Carved eaves painting building walking dragon snake, look up, golden splendor. There is a fence in front of the hall, a pond hall under the hall, a rhombus and a lotus in the pool, and lotus flowers are opening. Sitting among the orchid bushes, the jade tree is used as a barrier.
Qu Yuanxiang Photography: Zhang Weiping
The great poet Qu Yuan's brilliant brushwork makes us think about it, but archaeologists have discovered the details of the former Chu Palace from the dust of the annihilated history.
In 1975, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage specially organized a nationwide archaeological conference battle at the ruins of the ancient capital of Chu, Ji Nancheng, and archaeology giants Zhang Zhongpei and Mr. Yan Wenming had done archaeological excavations in Ji NanCheng for a year, engaged in the excavation of the palace ruins numbered No. 30. The two gentlemen led archaeology students from Peking University or Jilin University to clean up the ruins of this large palace building in the Chu state.
Although the buildings above the ground have long been destroyed, the palace is 63 meters long and 14 meters wide, judging only by the remaining wall foundations. What kind of building would such a grand palace have been more than two thousand years ago?
Mr. Guo Dewei, the former director of the Chu State Historical and Cultural Research Institute, who has spent almost a lifetime studying the restoration of the architecture of Ji Nancheng, believes that the main building of the No. 30 step palace should be a four-Arab-style heavy eaves roof, a gaiwa, "the middle ridge is 23 meters high, equivalent to a modern five- or six-story building, plus the height of the platform, which is quite impressive." What a marvel! ”
This also confirms the records of ancient history. Yu Zhigu, a Tang dynasty official, wrote in "The Past Affairs of the Zhu Palace": "In the beginning, King Cheng took the stage and came to the harem, and everyone in the palace looked up."
However, this is only about the tall and majestic palace of the Chu King, so what is the decoration of the interior of the palace? Mr. Liu Binhui, a Chuxue expert who was the vice chairman of the Chu State Historical and Cultural Society in Hubei Province, said: "The Chu-style building structure is complex, scientific, and gorgeously decorated, and there are such descriptions in Qu Yuan's poems, such as 'layers of platforms are tired', 'net household Zhu embellishment, carved square lian', 'looking up at the carved trees, painting dragons and snakes' and so on. This shows that historians also agree with the slightly exaggerated depiction in Qu Yuan's poems.
Lacquer ear cups
Here, we may wish to imagine the luxury and magnificence of the Chu Palace through a small screen of painted wood carvings of the Chu kingdom that is famous in the world. In 1965, archaeologists excavated a painted wood carved small seat screen from the Tomb of Wangshan No. 1 Chu in Jingzhou, decorated with double-sided images, 51.8 cm long and 15 cm high, composed of a flat base and a square plane, with shallow, high relief and hollow carving and other carving techniques, the surface was painted, and the screen consisted of 4 deer, phoenixes and birds, 2 frogs, 11 small snakes, and a two-sided continuous pattern centered on the double phoenix snake, and there were 8 relief small snakes on the screen frame. There are also 22 large pythons on the screen seat that are intertwined with each other. It is painted in black paint with red, yellow and blue colors for phoenixes, bird feathers, deer plum blossom markings, snakes and python scales, etc. The sides of the frame are painted with red, blue, and silver color. 55 small animals are skillfully interlaced and interspersed, fighting with each other, and the changes are complex and regular; and the outer frame is connected with the carving screen with a bird's tail and a small snake, and the python head or tail intersects on the seat, connecting the screen seat with the carving screen, presenting the rich imagination of the Chu people and the outstanding achievements of lacquer painting and wood carving.
Renderings of the Chu King's Palace of the tourist project Niu
This small seat screen carved from a whole piece of wood, each part is a single cute round carving work, and together is a group of vibrant fairy tale worlds, which is not only a national treasure-level cultural relic, but also one of the representative works of ancient wood carving and lacquer art, and is the only example of such pre-Qin artifacts found so far.
Mr. Gao Jiehua, the main advocate of architecture and cultural research in China, said: "This screen was an indoor decorative display at that time, and such a magnificent 'small woodwork' carving technique was not used in the architectural decoration at that time. It can be seen from this that the Zhang Huatai 'Tong Guan' and 'Extravagant Sexuality' that Wu Ju denounced are not false words. Qu Yuan's depictions of "looking up at the carved trees, painting dragons and snakes", as well as buildings such as "Zhu Yu", "Fang Lian", and "Lingzhuo" are also realistic. ”
A drop of water can see the sun. Mr. Gao Jiehua believes: "The decorative art of Chu artifacts has a twin relationship with architectural decoration and decoration, whether it is from the content and form of its production process and art. ”
More than 2,000 years ago, the Chu State Palace, with the destruction of Ji Nan City has long ceased to exist, it is the advent of this painted wood carving small seat screen, let us through the unique skills of carving and painting, to imagine the luxury and magnificence of the Decoration of Chu Palace in those years.
Looking back at King Lu Zhao, although he was persuaded to return to the country by the heavy ministers at that time, but living in the Lu Palace, which was a hundred times more shabby than the Chu Palace, the sullen King Zhao almost lost sleep at night, and suddenly thought in extreme distress, why not clone a Chu Palace!
Therefore, King Zhao ordered the designers and engineers of the Chu State to rebuild a miniature version of the Chu Palace in the capital of the Chu State according to the design and decoration standards of the Chu Palace. After staying in the Chu-style palace cloned from the Chu Kingdom, King Zhao felt like a king, and only then did he sleep peacefully and slowly fade away the "panda eyes" that he had boiled out in the past few days.
Painted pig-shaped wine box
Perhaps, it was precisely because King Lu Zhao took this head under the strong stimulation of the luxurious Chu Palace, and the wind of comparison could not be stopped until now. As a result, the construction of luxurious office space beyond the standard has become a stubborn disease that has been repeatedly prohibited.
In this regard, the historian Mr. Liu Binhui has a point of view, he believes: "Lu Guojun's move is a violation of the Zhou ceremonial system, and the other is to reflect that the architectural art of the Chu State has exceeded the level of construction industry in the Central Plains. I once said that entering the Chu Palace is like entering a fairyland. The Chu Palace built with this kind of architectural technology and decorative arts with Chu cultural characteristics will make people reach the point of lingering... The role of Chu culture in the development of China's ancient culture cannot be underestimated. ”
Ruins of the Beacon Tower in The Ancient Capital of the Chu Kingdom
However, the magnificent city of Jinan City, the former capital of the Chu State, the luxurious palaces, the prosperous streets, the gorgeous songs and dances, the rich classics and even all the extraordinary splendor created by the Chu people, mysteriously disappeared without a trace after the Qin general slaughtered the city in vain and let go of the soaring fire.
In ancient times, when the market economy civilization was not yet born, we often could only see the progress of ancient civilization from the "image project" of the emperors and generals.
In the feudal era of thousands of years, kings disregarded the national strength and did not hesitate to play luxury. After the Qin Dynasty unified the world, it finally collapsed after one "super-large image project" after another.
The "seven stars" super luxury in the Chu Palace, in addition to giving the King of Chu a show of wealth and enjoyment, has no positive effect on the national economy and the lives of the people. In ancient China, there was no "planned economy" from the emperor to the "market economy" of the people, so the buildings and pavilions were built and destroyed, destroyed and built, and always became a historical strange circle without solution.