Chapter 1,398 The Bronze with the Most Inscriptions
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Sioux City became an enemy-occupied area, which coincided with the death of Pan Zu, the head of the Pan family.
Since there were no elders in the clan to make the decision, the young people of the Pan family did not want this national treasure to be obtained by the Japanese.
Finally, after some negotiation, the young people of the Pan family buried all the cultural relics including the Great Menu Tripod.
In the following years, criminals often coveted these treasures buried underground.
Fortunately, the Great Cauldron miraculously survived and was not stolen.
After the victory of the Liberation War, the Pan family witnessed the prosperity of their motherland and saw the best destination for the Great Meng Ding.
This time, the Pan family gathered together again to make arrangements for the future of Daye Ding.
At that time, the eldest member of the clan was Pan Dayu, Pan Zuyin’s granddaughter-in-law.
Ms. Pan proposed donating the Great Menu Cauldron to the motherland, and this suggestion was unanimously approved by the Pan elders.
In this way, a hundred years after it was unearthed, this large pot was displayed in the exhibition area of the Maritime Museum for the public to visit.
In 1959, when the History Museum (now the National Museum) was opened, the Great Cauldron was transferred to the capital and became the first batch of national treasures to participate in the exhibition.
Later, the Great Cauldron was officially settled in the National Museum, and we can still see its elegance at the National Museum today.
Obviously, in the dim and incompetent Manchu Dynasty, the court did not have the power to maintain this important national weapon;
In the era of the Republic of China, which was ruled by warlords, this national treasure could not be properly protected.
Only in the new China, when the country is prosperous and the people are strong, can this large lamp cauldron shine its brightest light and tell the story of the past that is buried in the sea of history.
As for the legend of the Xiaoyu Ding, this device was lost during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Another theory is that the Yuan family in Xiangcheng actually hid this weapon and buried it in the ground. The whereabouts are unknown today.
Although the original Xiaoyu Ding has been lost, the Xiaoyu Ding has always been one of the most famous bronze vessels.
Because its inscription is about 400 words long, it is the bronze inscription with the largest number of words in the early Western Zhou Dynasty.
Its content is of great significance for discussing the history and regulations of the time.
The Small Menu Tripod is also a bronze vessel from the reign of King Kang of the Western Zhou Dynasty. In recent years, research has mostly pointed to the bronze vessels from the Period of King Zhao of the Zhou Dynasty, which were unearthed at the same time as the Large Menu Tripod.
There must be a reason why these bronze tripods are famous.
For example, the Mao Gong Ding is the bronze vessel with the longest inscription.
The Great Cauldron - one of the "Four National Treasures" and the "Three Treasures at Sea" in the late Qing Dynasty.
The Small Yu Ding is the bronze vessel with the largest number of inscriptions in the early Western Zhou Dynasty.
Such a famous treasure has mysteriously disappeared.
Therefore, the national treasure Big Menu Ding also has a "mysterious" brother Xiao Meng Ding, which few people know.
You have to see clearly here, he is an elder brother, not a brother.
This tripod was lost during the Republic of China and its whereabouts became a mystery. It is not easy.
Now many people know that there is a large bowl cauldron in the Museum of Chinese History.
But more people don’t know that Da Yu Ding also has an older brother named Xiao Yu Ding.
Have you been misled by the name before? The size of the large and small Yuding must be arranged according to size.
This is really not the case. Logically speaking, Da Yu Ding is the elder brother and Xiao Yu Ding is the younger brother.
How come it's the other way around here?
How come Da Yu Ding is the younger brother and Xiao Yu Ding is the older brother?
Why is the order of this pair of Yu Ding reversed?
Why was Xiao Yu Ding lost? There are reasons for these.
In fact, all this starts from the 30th year of Daoguang's reign, that is, 1850.
At that time, there was another rich man named Song Zhaokui in Fengming Town, Xishan County.
This rich man of the Song Dynasty read poetry and books, and although he held positions such as being a lecturer in Nanzheng County, a professor in Hanzhong Prefecture, etc., he was still a minor official.
He simply let his son study hard and concentrate on business.
After years of business, the Song family has become the largest wealthy owner in the area.
After Song Zhaokui got rich, he felt that gold and silver and other frivolous wealth were easily lost, so it would be safer to save a treasure that could be passed down to the family and bequeathed to future generations.
It just so happened that there was a rich man in Lijia Village, Changxing Town, Mei County, who wanted to sell the Big Menu Cauldron.
He used a cartload of silver, estimated at 3,000 taels, to buy this heavy bronze artifact from the Western Zhou Dynasty back home.
This bronze vessel from the Western Zhou Dynasty is a large tripod with a height of 101.9 centimeters, a diameter of 77.8 centimeters, and a weight of 153.5 kilograms.
What's even more precious is that there is a 291-word inscription inside.
The content of the inscription is that King Kang of Zhou Dynasty instructed his minister "Yu" to keep in mind the lesson that "the Yin Dynasty died due to alcoholism, while the Zhou Dynasty prospered due to avoidance of alcohol", and must work hard to assist Zuo himself in governing the country... Song Zhaokui named it "Yu".
Big cup.
Not long after, the rich man dug out a larger bronze cauldron under the cliff where he found the Great Men's Cauldron.
After Song Zhaokui learned the news, he did not hesitate to spend a lot of money and bought a second bronze tripod that weighed more than 500 kilograms, was about 110 centimeters high, and was more "powerful" than the Big Menu tripod, and bought it for his home.
The second larger bronze tripod was also awarded to the minister "Yu" by King Kang of Zhou Dynasty. How should it be named?
You can't call it Lao Yu Ding, or call it Chao Yu Ding, right?
Although the second bronze tripod is large in size, the 400-character inscription inside is a bit small, so it was named Xiaoyu tripod by Song Zhaokui.
The small tripod weighing about 300 kilograms became the large tripod.
The big tripod, which weighed about 500 kilograms, became the small tripod.
There is a saying in "Poetry of Mulan": Two rabbits are walking next to each other on the ground, and they can tell whether they are male or female - here, if you don't explain it clearly, you won't be able to tell which tripod is bigger and which tripod is smaller.
Generally speaking, those who don’t understand antique cultural relics can call them whatever they want.
So, in modern times, why have these mistakes not been corrected?
In fact, this involves the naming rules for bronze vessels.
There is a basic principle in the academic world for naming bronze vessels with inscriptions, that is, the name of the vessel is the name of the owner.
For example, the famous wall plate unearthed from the Bai No. 1 cellar in Fufengzhuang, Shaanxi was named based on the owner's name "wall" and the object was the plate.
In most cases, the name of the owner of the vessel will be preceded by an official or clan name. For example, Qiangpan is also called Shiqiangpan because Qiang was a historian in the Zhou Dynasty.
When the name of the owner of the vessel is missing, the vessel is named after the person for whom it was made, such as the Simu Wu Square Ding, which is a square tripod made by a female ancestor with the temple name Wu.
However, archaeologists often encounter different bronze vessels of the same owner, so scholars use the time of the vessel to distinguish them.
For example, in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Cao Ding was built in seven years and Cao Ding was built in thirteen years.
Five Sacrifice Weiding and Nine Sacrifice Weiding!
In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, there were the 42-year-old Ding and the 43-year-old Ding.
The Big Menu Ding, which is stored in the National Museum, and its "brother" the Small Menu Ding, are rather peculiar.
The date of the former inscription is "twenty-three years", while the latter is "twenty-five years". Some scholars think it is the thirty-fifth year.
Then, according to the naming principles of bronze ware, the two vessels should be called "Twenty-three-Year-Old Yu-ding" and "Twenty-five-Year-Old Yu-ding" respectively.
If we calculate it according to the age, the big ones are really big and the small ones are small, that’s right!