These bronze vessels deny that "Shang culture cannot surpass the Yangtze River"
The exhibition "Wangjun Ji'an", which presents the cultural relics in Ji'an, Jiangxi Province, was recently exhibited in the Capital Museum. Ji'an is located in Jiangxi, formerly known as Luling. Based on historical clues, this exhibition is divided into five parts: "Thick Soil in the South", "Connecting North and South", "Kiln Transformation for a Thousand Years", "Guangyao Luling", and "Red Cradle". It highlights the cultural relics of the Shang Dynasty in Xingan Oceania, various Jizhou ware porcelains, Luling culture represented by Bailuzhou Academy and Jinggang Mountains. The exhibition gathered 15 cultural and museum units, with a total of 280 pieces (sets) of cultural relics exhibited, of which more than half are first-class products.
In 1989, the villagers of Chengjia Village, Oceania Town, Xingan County were busy maintaining the Ganjiang River levee. When they were carrying the sand dune for soil, an antique and mottled bronze round belly tripod unexpectedly appeared in the sand dune. This is the beginning of the excavation of the Oceanian Shang Tomb in Xingan County. The small accident shocked the archaeological community. According to scholars' research, the discovery of the tomb rewritten the civilization history of Jiangnan during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, greatly advancing the civilization history of Jiangnan and refreshing the previous understanding of the academic community that "Shang culture is no more than the Yangtze River".
More than 1000 cultural relics were unearthed in this archaeological excavation, including more than 400 pieces of bronze, more than 700 pieces of jade and more than 100 pieces of Ceramic. The large quantity and unique shape of bronze ware can be called the crown of Jiangnan commercial tombs. As a representative of southern bronze, Xingan bronze has the artistic characteristics of the Shang Dynasty and unique local aesthetics.
The first part of this exhibition, "Southern Thick Soil," is based on archaeological excavations in Xingan Oceania, using cultural relics unearthed from commercial tombs in Xingan Oceania to trace the Chinese civilization in the Jiangnan region. Two of the most famous works unearthed from the Shang Tomb in Xingan Oceania, namely, the bronze head of the double-sided god man and the copper crouching tiger with bird and tail, also came to the Capital Museum this time.
Unlike the bronze head statue of Sanxingdui in Guanghan, Sichuan, the "Double sided God Man Head Bronze Statue" unearthed in Xingan is a hollow and flat double-sided mask, with a square hole below the mask that can fix a wooden handle. The mask has a unique appearance, with towering cheekbones, curled fangs, and horns on both sides, making the overall image appear ferocious and mysterious. The purpose of the mask may have been as a divine artifact at that time, through which believers could communicate with the gods and have a symbolic significance of the unity of gods and humans, enriching the expressive power of art.
Another characteristic of New Gan Oceania is the shape and decoration of the "tiger", which can be seen on ritual vessels, weapons, and miscellaneous items. In terms of expression, there are both realistic three-dimensional tiger sculptures, flat line tiger patterns, and patterned abstract tiger head patterns, which constitute the tiger characteristics of the Xingan bronze culture.
Some scholars speculate that tigers may be worshipped by the tomb owner's family, or have a certain relationship with their family history and legends. Some scholars also believe that tigers are related to local ethnic groups, cultural traditions, and religious beliefs. As soon as you enter the exhibition hall, the first cultural relic in sight is the "Funiao Double tailed Copper Crouching Tiger". This bronze tiger is shaped using realistic three-dimensional expression techniques, with engraved lines depicting cloud patterns.
Due to its pleasing and adorable appearance, this cultural relic was placed on a commemorative ticket of the Beijing Hong Kong subway in 2010, demonstrating its importance. The "tiger ear tiger shaped flat footed copper round tripod" in the exhibition hall is also unique in creativity, with two ears cast with sleeping little tigers, and the flat feet of the round tripod are in the shape of tiger feet. Scholars speculate that the Xin Gan tiger shaped flatfoot tripod was later than the Kui shaped flatfoot tripod and the fish shaped flatfoot tripod, which is the result of further development of flatfoot tripod casting technology and also belongs to the "fusion type bronze ware". Its era is equivalent to the middle period of the Yin Dynasty.
The second part of the exhibition is "Connecting North and South", which starts a historical discussion around the largest river in Jiangxi - "Ganjiang", highlighting the connection between humanities and geography. In 221 BC, the Qin army invaded Baiyue in the south and stationed troops for 5 miles. Later, it extended to the upper reaches of the Gan River through the Luling Mountains, making the Gan River a necessary passage for north-south communication.
The Qianli Ganjiang River has been the mother river of Ji'an since ancient times, giving birth to the ancient county of Luling. Since the Western Jin Dynasty, there have been frequent wars in the Central Plains region. Located in the hinterland of Jiangxi, Luling has been relatively quiet and has gradually become one of the homes for people from the north to move south. The collision and fusion of northern and southern cultures have created a unique Luling culture. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Jiuling built a post road through Dayu Mountains and south to Guangzhou, connecting Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River. The Ganjiang River has since become the north-south transportation artery from Lingnan to the Yangtze River basin. In the Southern Song Dynasty, goods from all directions gathered at the docks along the Ganjiang River, gathering and distributing in various places, and commerce flourished.
The Xuanzong imperial bronze bell in Ji'an Museum was built in the sixth year of Xuande Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1432). The size of the copper clock is extremely large, making it the focal point of attention in the exhibition hall. There are four trapezoidal inscriptions on the bell, three of which are Buddhist scriptures, and one side is the edict of Emperor Xuanzong, indicating that the bell was specially named "Guangfu" to bestow blessings on the newly built temple in Luling County, Ji'an Prefecture at that time. It is hoped that the temple monks can recite scriptures and pray for blessings to the people.
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