Bronze chariots and horses buried in the mausoleum of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor
What is the Bronze chariots and horses buried in the mausoleum of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor
Qin bronze chariot, Qin bronzes, grand ancient bronze antique ,first-class cultural relics in China, were unearthed in June 1978 in the west of the Qin Mausoleum Seal in Lintong District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, and are now collected in the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum.
The Qin Qin bronze chariot were broken into more than 3000 pieces when they were unearthed due to their long history. After nearly 8 years of careful restoration, they were displayed in 1989. Two Qin bronze chariot, one is "vertical chariot", the other is "an chariot", both of which are ancient single shaft double wheeled carts, and are made according to 1/2 proportion of real human chariots and horses in the Qin Dynasty. Qin bronze chariot are cast in bronze as a whole, with gold and silver ornaments weighing more than 14kg. They are assembled from more than 3500 parts by casting, inlaying, welding, mother child buckle connection, movable hinge connection and other processes .
Qin Qin bronze chariot are the largest, most complex and most complete ancient chariots and horses unearthed in the archaeological history of China, known as the "crown of bronze" .
Amazing grace
Qin Qin bronze chariot has complex structure, clear and lifelike details, superb metallurgical casting technology, and various techniques. The production of components in the car is extremely difficult, with exquisite craftsmanship, accurate and realistic shapes, and dynamic and vivid human and horse movements. The driving gear and horse decorations are complete, with a clear relationship between the two. The painted patterns are exquisitely decorated, combined with reliefs, showcasing the original materials, structures, and features of different parts of the carriage. The artistic expression of painting on bronzes was an initiative of the Qin Dynasty. It broke through the limitations of casting patterns on bronzes in the Yin and Zhou Dynasties and inlaying gold and silver patterns in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period, making the patterns on bronzes more colorful.
Copper horses wear gold and silver, gold and silver collars, gold and silver jewelry, gold and silver bubbles, etc. Gold and silver ornaments account for about half of the total number of parts, making them elegant and luxurious. Allowing full body color painting on bronze vessels was a pioneering work of the Qin Dynasty. With a white background and auxiliary colors such as red, purple, blue, green, and black, the patterns are colorful. Although the milky white background has mostly fallen off over time, the patterns inside the cover, inside and outside the car doors, front windows, and outside the cabin are still clear.
Qin bronze chariot are no less complex than many modern mechanical manufacturing in terms of design, casting, processing, connection, assembly and other links. In terms of casting, multiple joint casting methods, red sleeve casting methods, joint casting, embedded casting, and ladle casting were used; In terms of connection, socket connection, riveting, welding, buckle connection, joint connection, hinge connection, chain link connection, etc. are adopted; In terms of simulating shaping performance, methods such as circular carving, relief carving, chiseling, grinding, punching, as well as painting and painting were used.
How about the masterpiece's profound mystery of production technology？
Qin bronze chariot are painted in full body color, with blue, green and white being the most popular colors. Eight horses are all white in color, with only pink applied to their nostrils, mouth, and other areas. The face and hands of the imperial figurine are painted in two layers, with an inner layer of pink and an outer layer of white, highlighting the texture of the character's skin. The hair is blue black, and the long robe is sky blue. The paint on the car body is painted in white with colorful patterns, with a simple and fresh tone. The patterns of color painting include disguised Kui dragon and phoenix patterns, flowing cloud patterns, as well as various diamond patterns and various geometric patterns. The high car is mainly composed of geometric patterns such as diamonds and squares, with various cloud patterns and vortex patterns between them, mainly distributed on the inner side of the car railing, the surface of the car bumper, and under the car umbrella. The Anche is mainly decorated with Kui dragon and Kui phoenix patterns, with flowing cloud patterns and geometric patterns forming the edge decoration pattern, highlighting the imperial aura of Anche and demonstrating the different functions of the two carriages. The Kui dragon and Kui phoenix patterns are mainly distributed on the inner side of the car cover, the upper layer area around the rear bumper, and the inner side of the rear bumper door. The flow cloud patterns and geometric patterns are mainly distributed on the corners of the inner side of the car cover, the skeleton supporting the car cover, the inner and outer side rails of the front bumper, the upper layer of the outer side of the rear bumper, and the inner corner of the rear bumper door.
Most of the patterns of Qin bronze chariots were painted directly in color, and then the side wheels were outlined with ink or white lines. There are also some patterns that are first outlined in the sample, then colored, and finally outlined with ink lines. 1、 The pattern on the lower floor of the second car is drawn using the stacking method, with protruding lines and a strong sense of three-dimensional effect. This artistic technique has never been seen before and is also the first to be used. Paintings not only make the Qin bronze chariot of the Qin Dynasty more magnificent, but also cover up the inevitable trachoma, repair marks and other defects of the Qin bronze chariot when casting, and also delay the oxidation process of bronze.
The main material for making Qin Qin bronze chariot is tin bronze. Generally speaking, the content of tin is 6-13%, and the content of lead is about 1%. The Qin bronze chariot uses different alloy proportions according to the different properties of the casting: components with large bearing force, such as horse legs, car supports, etc., require high mechanical hardness, and their tin content is relatively high; Components that require a certain degree of toughness, such as reins and bridle ropes, have a relatively low tin content. The mechanical strength requirements of each component vary, and the amount of tin content also varies.
Most of the components of the Qin Qin bronze chariot were cast. In terms of casting methods, different casting methods were used according to the size, thickness and shape of the components: large and thin components, such as the arched canopy cover, used the casting forging combination process, casting the canopy first, and then heating forging, which was a great innovation of the Qin Dynasty; Some large thick walled or long rod castings use hollow casting, which not only reduces weight and saves a lot of metal, but also avoids defects such as casting porosity and cracks caused by heating, improving material properties. In addition, decomposing some complex components into some simple components and casting them separately, and then combining these simple components into a complete component is also an innovation in the Qin bronze chariot casting process.
The connection process of Qin Qin bronze chariot is more diverse, including loose leaf connection, child mother button connection, child mother button plus pin connection and button ring connection. The loose leaf connection is mainly used for the connection between the door leaf and door frame, as well as the connection between the window leaf and window frame on the second car. The structure of the loose leaf is almost identical to that of modern hinges. In addition to the Qin bronze chariot of the Qin Dynasty, many pieces were also unearthed at the site of Xianyang, the capital of the Qin Dynasty, which shows that the bronze processing technology of the Qin Dynasty has been widely used in real life.
The connection method of mother and child buttons with pins is widely used on the saddles of Qin bronze chariot, such as bridle rope, bridle rope, bridle rope, etc., which are all made of copper or gold and silver components, and the chain is formed by the connection method of mother and child buttons with pins. This connection method involves machining one end of two small components into a concave convex shape, and then inserting the convex end of one component into the concave end of the other component to make the two components fully fit. Additionally, a pin is added at the fitting point to fully connect them, but there is still some room for movement.
The button ring connection is a method of connecting two objects together using a circular ring, as shown in the connection between six copper balls with spikes in copper dysprosium. This connection method has a simple structure, convenient production, and free movement between various components.
Values
The Qin Qin bronze chariot is the earliest, largest and best preserved bronze chariot and horse found in the archaeological history of China. It is the largest combined bronze ware seen in archaeology, and is of great value to the study of smelting, bronze manufacturing technology, vehicle structure, etc. in the Qin Dynasty of China. In the Qin Dynasty, Anche was also known as the Qin Shi Huang. According to the record of the fifth tour of the Qin Shi Huang in the Records of the Historian, Qin Shi Huang's Chronicle, there are many references to the chariot. The excavation of the second carriage not only gave people a deeper understanding of the Qin Dynasty's brine book system and ancient carriage burial system, but also gave them a clear understanding of the shape and structure of ancient chariots.
According to Kao Gong Ji, "if one piece of work gathers together, there will be many cars", which shows the complexity of making wooden cars and horses. The Qin bronze chariot made of bronze are more difficult than wooden cars. The production of Qin bronze chariot comprehensively adopts casting, inlay casting, package casting, welding, as well as various mechanical connection, machining and other processes and technologies, reflecting the brilliant achievements of China's metal manufacturing process more than 2000 years ago [2].
The Qin bronze chariot in the Qin Mausoleum can help people further understand the ancient chariot system, especially the way of chariots. The Qin bronze chariot in the Qin Mausoleum are the reappearance of the emperor Cheyu of the Qin Dynasty. The car body is modeled after the actual object, and all details are presented in a very concrete and realistic manner. Provided physical materials for the historical research of ancient Chinese art, chariot system, and court uniform system.
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