news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

baoji bronze museum

in the baoji bronze museum,

there is a bronze statue with the same name as the "houmuwu dafang ding".

there are 122 inscriptions on the bottom of the inner wall of the bronze statue.

it records an important minister of the zhou royal family,

a story about wanting to "live in the center of the world".

in the inscription, the word "china" appears on the artifact for the first time.

this is the name of the motherland that chinese descendants are proud of.

the first appearance in the long history of five thousand years.

he zun's front view,early western zhou dynasty, with a height of 38.5cm, a diameter of 29cm, and a weight of 14.6kg. it is collected by the baoji bronze museum. (picture provided by baoji bronze museum)

but it is such a precious national treasure,

but he once lived in a scrap collection station.

if it were not for the staff of baoji museum

i bought it for 30 yuan.

maybe it will be melted down as scrap metal.

one day in june 1963, chen dui, a villager in jiacun, jiacun town, baoji county, could not live in his old house, so he rented two houses next door to chen guishan. one morning after a rain in august of that year, chen dui discovered in the backyard that there seemed to be light on the collapsed earth cliff after the rain. curious, he and his wife zhang guifang dug with their hands and a small hoe, and found that there was light on the collapsed earth cliff. a strange-looking bronze vessel was dug out. the couple did not know how to identify cultural relics, so they temporarily placed it in the attic to contain grain.

he zun's profile,early western zhou dynasty, with a height of 38.5cm, a diameter of 29cm, and a weight of 14.6kg. it is collected by the baoji bronze museum. (picture provided by baoji bronze museum)

the next year, chen dui and his wife were going out of town for some reason. before leaving, they gave the bronze to his brother chen hu for safekeeping. in 1965, due to difficulties in life, chen hu sold the bronze ware stored by his younger brother to a scrap collection station for 30 yuan. the master at the scrap collection station did not understand cultural relics, so he stored the iron lump with other scrap copper and iron to prepare for sending to the smelting plant. as a result, this unrecognized "national treasure" almost had to be melted down together with scrap copper and iron.

the "taotie pattern" on he zun

a month later, in september 1965, a cultural relics worker named tong taifang discovered the bronze. although he had little work experience and could not explain the reason, he was sure that it was a bronze artifact, so he called wang yongguang, director of the baoji museum's custody department. wang yongguang has worked for many years and is well-informed. he immediately recognized that this was a bronze from the shang and zhou dynasties. after reporting it to his superiors, he took out 30 yuan and bought back the national treasure from the junk shop. after preliminary identification by archaeologists, it was determined that this was a bronze wine vessel from the early western zhou dynasty, and the relief on it was called the "taotie pattern".

the "taotie pattern" on he zun

time flies, in 1975, in order to commemorate the establishment of diplomatic relations between china and japan, the state administration of cultural heritage wanted to hold an exhibition of chinese unearthed cultural relics in japan. mr. ma chengyuan, then director of the shanghai museum and a famous bronze expert, went to beijing to organize the preparations. after review, ma chengyuan quickly mobilized 100 first-class cultural relics from all over the country, including the taotie pattern bronze statue unearthed in baoji.

ma chengyuan (1928~2004) studied bronzes

ma chengyuan had only heard about but never seen this bronze statue in the past. after seeing the real thing, he looked at it several times and kept wondering why there was no inscription on such a large artifact. then he rubbed his hands repeatedly on the inner wall and bottom of the bronze statue, and suddenly felt that there seemed to be words engraved somewhere on the bottom. he was so excited that he immediately had the rust removed. after removing the dirt and rust, a long inscription was found at the bottom of the bronze statue. ma chengyuan was so happy that he immediately made a rubbing. after research, the inscription was determined to have 122 words:

inscriptions on the bottom of the inner wall of he zun

but wang chuyu lived in chengzhou. return the blessings to the king from heaven. in the fourth month of bingxu, wang gaozong's son came to the capital and said: "in the past, i was in erkao gongshi and defeated king tuwen. king siwen received this order. however, king wu defeated the merchants in dayi, so the court reported to heaven, saying: i his home is in china, and he is here to serve the people. even though you are ignorant, you are worthy of being honored by god, and you are worthy of your honor! wang xiangao. how can i give you thirty pennants of shells to be used as a treasure for the duke of yu to honor the yi people? there are only five sacrifices to the king.

▲ rubbing of he zun’s inscription, “zhaizi zhongguo” (see the top 4 words on the 6th line from the left)

the inscription is relatively difficult, but after experts translated it, it was shocking. it records the story of an important minister of the zhou royal family who vowed to "live in the center of the world":

in april of the fifth year of king cheng of the zhou dynasty, an important official of the zhou royal family named "he" received instructions and rewards from the newly residing king in luoyi (called "chengzhou" and "wangcheng" in bronze inscriptions in the zhou dynasty). "he" used the reward he received to cast this bronze statue to record this great honor. among them is the sentence "yu qizhai is in china", which means "i want to live in the center of the world." this is the first time that the word "china" appears as a phrase on an artifact.

the word "china" in the inscription

at that time, the inscription "中" was a fluttering flag, raised high. people can't help but think of the five-star red flag flying on various important occasions today. at that time, the inscription "国" was a soldier holding a gun, standing tall with his head held high. just like today's republic soldiers silently guarding peace. at that time, china was a small place. today's china is the common home of more than one billion chinese people!

"china"

afterwards, ma chengyuan named him "he zun". because of this important discovery, the state administration of cultural heritage canceled he zun's arrangement for an exhibition in japan. in 1998, the baoji bronze museum was completed and opened, and ma chengyuan was invited. when visiting the newly completed baoji bronze museum, when the docent introduced "he zun is the treasure of the museum", he immediately pointed out: "it should be the treasure of the country, not just your treasure."

he zun

western zhou dynasty/ hidden in: baoji bronze museum

in order to ensure the safety of cultural relics, in january 2002, the state administration of cultural heritage issued the "catalogue of the first batch of cultural relics prohibited for exhibition abroad (border)", which stipulated that 64 national treasures across the country are permanently prohibited from being exhibited abroad. "he zun" is one of them. one.

to this day, "he zun" is still preserved in the baoji bronze museum for visitors to enjoy. on january 7, 2005, 72-year-old zhang guifang took her children to the baoji bronze museum. after 42 years, she once again saw the national treasure "he zun" discovered by her that year.