China has a long history and has created a brilliant and splendid civilization. As a witness to civilization, many cultural relics are also amazing. Xiao Jue has introduced a lot of cultural relics, including the ingenious Four Sheep Fang Zun, the magnificent Stepmother Peng Ding, and the shining Yue Wang's Gou Jian Sword. However, the cultural relics to be talked about today are really not beautiful enough from the appearance point of view, but because of the inscription on it, it has become a well-deserved national treasure and a witness to Chinese history.
This is the Warring States Martingale Fangsheng in the Shanghai Museum, which is 18.7 cm long, 7 cm long, 12.5 cm horizontal, 2.3 cm deep, and has a volume of 202.15 cubic centimeters, only 0.69 kg. It looks rusty, much like tools on a construction site, and there really isn't much beauty to be had. However, the inscriptions engraved on the three sides and bottom of the wall of this artifact have multiplied its value. Among them, the inscription on the left wall is the most important:
Eighteen years, Qi led qing dafu to hire, winter December yi unitary, Da liang made martingale, the accumulation of sixteen (inch) five (inch) one ascension.
The "Daliang zhao martingale" here is the famous shang martingale in history, and the daliangzao is the official position he held at that time. The inscription means that in the eighteenth year of Qin Xiaogong, the State of Qi sent a delegation composed of Qing Dafu and others to jointly discuss the unification of weights and measures. On the day of December of that year, the martingale was set at a volume of sixteen and one-fifth cubic inches as one liter.
This shows that at the time of the shang martingale transformation law, not only did it formulate various laws in the military and political aspects of the Qin state, but also took the lead in carrying out the reform of weights and measures, and this Warring States shang martingale Fangsheng was the official customized measuring tool at that time.
On the inner wall opposite the handle, the word "heavy spring" is inscribed. Regarding these two words, there is still controversy in the academic circles, and most people believe that Chongquan refers to Chongquan Village, Qixi County, Pucheng County, Shaanxi, and Chongquan County during the Qin Dynasty. Some people also believe that Chongquan can not simply be considered as a place name, but represents the meaning of "heavy power", power in ancient times is also a unit of weight, "The Book of Han Shu Vinaya" "The right holder, baht two pounds of junshi also", the weight here refers to this container filled with water, should be the weight of a right.
On the right wall, there is the least number of words, only a "pro" word, which is also controversial in academic circles. Some believe that it represents a geographical name. However, some people also think that this is the word "subject", congpin, congchen, representing the three kinds of vessels of weights and measures, and the minister is the supervisor of the supervising worker.
Originally, the inscription with these three sides is already very, very important, which allows us to personally feel the vigorous vitality of the era of the Shang Martingale Transformation Law. However, the inscription at the bottom is even more striking:
In the twenty-sixth year, the emperor annexed the princes of the world, qianshou Da'an, and established the title of emperor, which was the emperor of the imperial court, and the law measure was not one to apologize, all of them were clear.
The meaning of this inscription is not difficult to understand, it means that after Qin Shi Huang unified the world, he called himself emperor, but the weights and measures of the six kingdoms had not yet been unified, and this was used as the standard. This shows that although Shang Martin himself paid the price of his life for the change of the law, the results of the change of the law were still recognized by successive Qin kings, including Qin Shi Huang.
This kind of cultural relics full of historical records is naturally very important and can be called a national treasure. So how was it discovered and how was it collected by the Shanghai Museum?
It turned out that it had been excavated as early as the late Qing Dynasty, but it was hidden and scattered among the people. Later, it was purchased by two brothers, Gong Xinzhao and Gong Xinming, from Qinghui Pavilion with heavy money, and hid it in Gong's Tangquan Villa. They not only loved it, but also studied it in detail, and even invited celebrities such as Weng Tonggong to appreciate and left ink treasures.
No matter how the domestic situation changes and the ups and downs of the family business, they still regard it as an heirloom and keep it secret. It was not until after liberation that this national treasure was donated to the country by the descendants of the Gong family, along with some other cultural relics. Still that sentence, although it does not look amazing, it has won the reputation of a national treasure with a thick history.