Introduction of Hunan Shang and Zhou Bronze Wares
The long years have brewed a brilliant Chinese civilization. The Bronze Civilization of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties is one of the most dazzling pearls.
The Siyang Fangzun, a bronze model, the thick and mysterious square tripod with human faces, and the wandering and bumpy San Fangqi... Since modern times, hundreds of Shang and Zhou bronze wares have been unearthed in Sanxiang, including many of the above-mentioned famous bronze wares.
Why did Hunan, which was regarded as a barren land at that time, have such a developed bronze civilization? Who is the owner of these bronze vessels? And who cast these bronzes?
Sheng Wei, a librarian of the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology, led everyone to travel through time at the Changsha Museum, trace the past with objects, tell the charm of bronze, and solve historical mysteries.
Digging sweet potatoes, washing vegetables, and swimming "picked up" bronze wares
It is very interesting to look back at the discovery process of Shang and Zhou bronzes in Hunan.
In 1919, when a farmer in Qijiahe Town, Taoyuan County was leveling the land in front of his house, he accidentally dug out a dish called "King of Fangfu". This also opened the curtain of the accidental discovery of Shang and Zhou bronzes in Hunan.
One day in April 1938, brothers Jiang Jingshu, Jiang Jingqiao, and Jiang Xiqiao from Longquan Village, Huangcai Town, Ningxiang went to Zhuanerlun, not far from home, to reclaim wasteland and plant sweet potatoes as usual. While digging, Jiang Jingshu suddenly made a "dang" sound under the hoe, and pushed the soil away, and a huge, dark green metal object with four horned sheep's heads appeared in front of him. This is the national treasure Siyang Fang Zun, which was later written into history textbooks.
Square statue of four sheep unearthed in Ningxiang
In the autumn of 1959, on the earth platform in front of Xinwuwan Mountain in Shengxi Village, Huangcai Town, Ningxiang, a farmer surnamed Deng found a metal object when he was participating in the construction of the Huangcai Reservoir, and took it home. During the period of great iron and steel smelting, he sold it as scrap copper to the scrap collection station. Fortunately, a fragment of the utensil was discovered by a master dispatched by the Hunan Provincial Museum to the scrap copper warehouse to select cultural relics, so he followed up and found more than 10 remaining fragments, which were spliced together to form an adult square tripod.
Fang Ding with human face unearthed in Ningxiang
There are many other examples like this: the Tiliang You with animal-mask patterns filled with more than a thousand pieces of jade was discovered by a villager in Huangcai Town, Ningxiang, when he was washing vegetables by the river. Known as the "King of Bottles", the giant bottle with animal face patterns was discovered by four students when they were swimming in the Weishui River near Tanheli, Huangcai Town...
Analysis Gongs of Three "Analysis Vessels" Discovered in Cellar No. 1, Fufengzhuang, Shaanxi
Rubbings of Inscriptions on Three Utensils of Analyzing Zun, Analyzing You and Analyzing Gong
At the end of the review, we found that the interesting thing is that most of these bronze wares were unearthed by chance, and were not obtained through scientific archaeological excavations.
The "babies" who lost their "birth certificates"
In archaeological research, the unearthed background of cultural relics is very important.
"For archaeological research, the unearthed background of cultural relics is like a baby's birth certificate, and cultural relics without unearthed background are like a trafficked baby. Just as we cannot know the birth date, place of origin, and parental status of a trafficked baby, etc. It is also difficult for us to know more information about this cultural relic." Sheng Wei used a vivid analogy.
Since most of these bronze wares were not unearthed through archaeological excavations, a large amount of background information was lost, and some wares themselves showed characteristics different from common bronze wares in the Central Plains, which caused great difficulties for the dating research of bronze wares.
Sheng Wei said: "Dating is the basis of archaeological research. It is precisely because of the difficulty of dating that many disagreements have caused the academic circles to fail to form a unified understanding of the source of Hunan Shang and Zhou bronzes for a long time. It is called 'The Mystery of Hunan Shang and Zhou Bronze Wares'."
In the past, there were two main understandings about the source of Hunan Shang and Zhou bronze wares. One believed that most of these bronze wares were produced locally by the ancient Yue people imitating the Central Plains bronze wares. The second believed that most of the bronze wares were escaped after Zhou destroyed Shang Brought by merchant survivors.
"Going Home" and "The King of Liang's Contest"
Bronze ware is both material and cultural.
Bronze ware is a symbol of power and status, and it is a symbol of "high and low, distinguished and ranked" in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Especially heavy utensils like tripods are symbols of the country, so there are sayings in ancient books that "Jie had a faint virtue, and the tripod was moved to Shang" and "Shang Zhou was tyrannical, and the tripod was moved to Zhou".
"I just want to go home, why is it so difficult?" In "National Treasure", the actor Huang Bo plays the body of Sang Fang, who is living overseas, and the long road to "go home" makes people sigh and cry. Coincidentally, a very influential dispute event also occurred in history.
The 罍 is a large wine container and ritual vessel. "The Book of Songs · Zhou Nan · Juan Er" has a saying: "My aunt drinks that golden 罍, and I will not cherish it forever." During the Western Han Dynasty, the 罍 had become a collection that princes and nobles competed for. Liu Wu, the son of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, Liang Xiao Wang, had a 罍, which was regarded as a treasure. Before his death, Liu Wu left a will: "Be good at protecting Guzun, but never give it to others." Later, Liu Wu's grandson Liu Xiang succeeded to the throne, namely King Ping of Liang. His queen, surnamed Ren, was arrogant and domineering. When she learned of this, she asked Liu Xiang for it. Liu Xiang spoiled the queen, disregarded the precepts of his ancestors, and disregarded his grandmother's objections, and forcibly took out the 罍. This incident caused a lot of uproar in Liang Wangfu, and was later sued to the court. Emperor Wu of the Han thought that King Liang's dispute with his grandmother was extremely unfilial and should be punished, so he ordered the removal of eight cities in Liang State, and beheaded the culprit Queen Ren in the city.
This event was known in history as "Liang Wang's Contest". Is this 罍 a dish fang 罍? There is no way to know, but the preciousness of bronzes can be seen from this.
There are two tiger-eating man-stoves unearthed at the junction of Ningxiang and Anhua, both lost overseas, one in France and one in Japan
"Xiang" Hou is "Xiang" Hou
From birth, development to prosperity, Hunan's bronze culture is closely related to the Central Plains Dynasty.
Taking "Pan Geng moved to Yin" as the boundary, archaeological habits divide the Shang Dynasty into two stages. In the early Shang Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty was powerful and actively expanded to the south, which brought about the spread of bronze culture. Bronze wares that were completely consistent with the characteristics of the Central Plains began to appear in Hunan. In the late Shang Dynasty, Shang culture gradually faded in the south, but the bronzes with southern characteristics represented by Zun and Zun entered Hunan along the Yangtze River system under the background of inter-regional cultural exchanges, which contributed to the continued development of Hunan bronze culture.
After the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang Dynasty, the enfeoffment system was implemented, and the "separation device" was born. Many feudal states of the Western Zhou Dynasty appeared in the southern region, and they were collectively referred to as the Southern Kingdoms in the inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The so-called "divider" means that the Zhou Dynasty will snatch a large number of precious items such as bronzes and jades from the nobles of the Shang Dynasty and distribute them to its subordinate nobles. This is an important means for the king of Zhou to reward heroes or win over all forces.
Against this background, a large number of bronze wares with the characteristics of the late Shang and early Zhou began to appear in Hunan, and based on the imitation of Central Plains bronze wares and local pottery, local bronze wares represented by "Vietnamese Ding" and large copper cymbals were produced.
In 1976, three "analysers" were found in the No. 1 cellar of Fufeng Zhuangbai, Shaanxi, namely Xi Zun, Xi Gong and Xi You. The inscriptions on these three analyzers all record that King Zhao of Zhou met a man called "Xiang" Hou in the residence during his tour of the southern kingdom, and rewarded him. The famous historian Li Xueqin believes that the so-called "Xiang" Hou is the "Xiang" Hou, and his feudal state is in the south of Hubei, probably in today's Xiangjiang River Basin.
From this, we can speculate that those bronze vessels that lost their "birth certificates" may also have come from "splitters".
Is "Xiang" Hou the owner of the ruins in Tanheli?
So, where exactly is the feudal state of the "Xiang" Hou?
In Hunan in early March, the spring rain never stopped. The Tanheli site in Ningxiang was empty in the rain, but it was not desolate. The terrain here is flat, surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing water on two sides. The scenery is beautiful and easy to defend but difficult to attack.
According to Zhang Yuan, a staff member of the Tanheli site management office, the Tanheli site is located in the Huangcai Basin in Ningxiang City, where the bronze ware is most concentrated in Hunan. From 2001 to 2005, the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted 3 researches on the site. During the first archaeological excavation, important relics such as city walls, moats, large palace buildings, and bronze tombs were discovered. The discovery of these high-level remains shows that the Tanheli site is not an ordinary village site, but a city site, which is the central settlement of a local bronze culture in the Xiangjiang River Basin during the Western Zhou Dynasty, or a place independent of the Zhou Dynasty The capital of Fang Kingdom.
"This is a major breakthrough in the archaeological research on Shang and Zhou bronzes in Hunan. The Tanheli site coincides with or intersects with the Ningxiang bronze group in terms of age and spatial location, and the two must have a very close relationship. If we take Tanheli as' The origin of the bronzes is easy to understand if we understand the feudal state of Xiang'hou." Sheng Wei believes that this provides a key to unraveling the mystery of many years.
Generally speaking, Hunan Bronze Civilization originated in Shang Dynasty, prospered in Zhou Dynasty, was conceived in the mother body of Central Plains culture, and grew up in remote southern soil.
Is whose bronze ware important?
Whose bronze ware is it important?
It's important, and it's not important.
As an archaeological issue, it is of course important to archaeologists; but it does not seem to be very important to the general public.
According to Sheng Wei's explanation of the origin of Hunan Shang and Zhou bronzes, some of these bronzes belonged to "Henan people", some belonged to "Jiangxi people" or "Sichuan people", some belonged to "Shaanxi people", and some It was "Shaanxi people" who robbed "Henan people" of bronze wares and distributed them to "Hunan people". It seems that most of them are not "Hunan people".
In fact, no matter whether these bronze wares belong to "Henan people", "Shaanxi people" or "Jiangxi people", they are all "Hunan people" in the end. They were unearthed in Hunan, belonged to ancient "Hunan people" in ancient times, and belonged to modern Hunan people in modern times.
Bronze wares should not be just cold exhibits, they carry a living history, and we have the responsibility to discover and understand them.
"Mystery of Bronze" still has doubts, and the road of exploration has never stopped...
■Memorabilia
In 1919, the San Fang Fu was unearthed in Qijiahe Town, Taoyuan County. This is the largest and most exquisite piece of Fang Fu unearthed so far, and it can be called the "King of Fang Fu". At that time, there was a war, which caused the body of the vessel to be exiled overseas, and only the cover remained in the country. In 2014, the government came forward to buy it back and put it in the Hunan Provincial Museum, completing the "unity of body and head".
In April 1938, the Siyang square statue was unearthed in Longquan Village, Huangcai Town, Ningxiang. After that, it changed hands several times, was displaced, and was shattered into more than 20 pieces by Japanese bombs during the Anti-Japanese War. After the founding of New China, it was restored by cultural relic experts and settled in the National Museum of China, becoming the treasure of the town hall. Among the many works in Hunan that absorbed the styles of the Central Plains, there are many breathtaking masterpieces, and the Siyang Fang Zun is undoubtedly the best among them. This utensil is also considered to be the pinnacle of the traditional pottery casting method and a representative of bronze culture.
In the autumn of 1959, the human-faced Fang Ding was unearthed in Shengxi Village, Huangcai Town, Ningxiang. This is the only Fang Ding with a human face as the main decoration found in the country. As for the interpretation of the human face, there are at least the following theories so far: Taotie, Zhu Rong, Chi You, the statue of the king, Nuo face, the four faces of the Yellow Emperor, Chong Li, the ancestor god of the owner, and so on. It is now in the Hunan Provincial Museum.
In 1963, the Tanheli site was discovered and confirmed for the first time.
In June 1983, a large bronze cymbal with elephant pattern was unearthed in Huangcai Town, Ningxiang. Nao is the king of bronze musical instruments in the Shang Dynasty, used for military camps, sacrifices, and banquets. Among the many bronze wares unearthed in Ningxiang, Nao accounted for 22 pieces. This bronze cymbal weighs 221.5 kilograms. It is the largest single musical instrument among the pre-Qin bronze musical instruments discovered so far. Many kilograms.
In 2001, a giant ampoule with animal face patterns was discovered in Weishui River near Tanheli, Ningxiang. This is the largest copper bottle found in my country so far, and is known as the "King of Bottles".
In 2005, the Tanheli site was rated as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in 2004 due to the discovery of the city site and burial area of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
In May 2006, the Tanheli site was approved by the State Council as a national key cultural relic protection unit.
In September 2016, the Tanheli Bronze Museum in Ningxiang was completed and opened.
■Comment
In the study of pre-Qin bronzes in Hunan, several concepts that need to be clearly distinguished are often blurred or confused: one is the difference between the origin of bronze culture and the place where bronzes were cast; the other is the change between early bronze users and late bronze users; The relationship between the Wangji area of the Shang and Zhou dynasties and the so-called "Yaofu" and "Desolate Fu" areas; the fourth is the difference between the development process of the Dongting Lake area and the development process of the remote mountainous areas in Hunan; the fifth is the influence of the disappearance of prehistoric ethnic groups and the continuation of prehistoric culture.
By distinguishing these concepts, we will find that the owners of pre-Qin bronzes in Hunan have changed and are different in different regions and different eras. Combining archaeological culture, bronze wares, historical documents, ethnic groups and folklore studies, we discovered the ebb and flow of different ethnic groups in Hunan's pre-Qin historical period. At least from the middle and late Shang Dynasty, Hunan can cast high-level bronze wares represented by large bronze cymbals. The masters of Hunan bronze wares from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the Warring States Period include merchants from the Central Plains, Zhou people, and Chu people, as well as local and surrounding areas. The Hufang people, Jing people, Yangyue people, Pu people and so on. This collision of multiple cultures has contributed to the splendor of Hunan bronzes, and some of the cultural elements can still be found in Hunan today.
——Xiong Jianhua, director and researcher of the Museum Division of the Hunan Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics
The academic circles generally refer to the large number of Shang and Zhou bronze wares unearthed in the Xiangjiang River Basin of Hunan Province as the "Ningxiang Bronze Ware Group", because Ningxiang is not only the area with the largest number of Shang and Zhou bronze wares unearthed in Hunan, the most complete types, and the most concentrated distribution. Moreover, the style of Shang and Zhou bronzes unearthed in Ningxiang is quite unique and representative to a certain extent. According to incomplete statistics, so far, more than 400 pieces of bronze wares from the Shang Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty have been unearthed in the Xiangjiang River Basin of Hunan Province, of which nearly 300 pieces were unearthed in Ningxiang, and more than 100 pieces were mainly found in Changsha, Xiangtan, and Zhuzhou near Ningxiang. , Yiyang, Yueyang and other lower reaches of the Xiangjiang River.
The archaeological culture in Tanheli was greatly influenced by foreign cultures represented by the Shang and Zhou cultures in the Central Plains, not only in daily life but also in rituals and customs. But from the perspective of the overall cultural outlook, it definitely does not belong to the category of Shang culture and Zhou culture. Therefore, the archaeological culture represented by Tanheli should be a local bronze culture.
The Tanheli site is the first ancient city site discovered in Hunan during the Western Zhou Dynasty, and it is rare in the entire southern region. It is of great significance for the study of Hunan's local history, local bronze culture, and the formation of early state society. The archaeological culture to which the "Ningxiang Bronze Ware Group" belongs to has been found, which has attracted much attention from the academic circles, providing important materials for the study of the Shang and Zhou bronze civilizations in the Xiangjiang River Basin and even the entire southern region.
——Xiang Taochu, director and professor of the Archeology Department of Yuelu Academy, Hunan University, and director of the excavation of the Tanheli site
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