Chapter 1,399 The most unique example of naming bronze vessels
The naming of a bronze vessel will naturally not be determined strictly in accordance with academic regulations.
For example, the name of the Big and Small Yuding was determined by accident.
In fact, regardless of whether the naming was right or wrong at the time, the academic community continued to use the original name.
Of course, there are rules for this, because the rule used later is: use size to distinguish two bronze tripods made from the same bowl.
So, why is this?
A common saying is that the "23rd year" Yuding is larger in size than the "25th year" Yuding, just like the big Keding and the small Keding.
The size of the body has become the standard for naming large and small Yuding.
However, not long after it was unearthed, the small Yuding disappeared in the hands of greedy curiosity hunters, and its whereabouts are still unknown.
"The Sword Comes"
There are recorded inscriptions now, but only a few unclear rubbings of the inscriptions were left.
According to the research of Mr. Chen Mengjia, the rubbings of the small bowl and tripod found in the records come from Luo Zhenyu's "Three Generations of Jijin Wencun".
The original rubbings in private collections include Chen Jieqi, Yu Shengwu and the two rubbings discovered by Qi Lu.
The original recorders did not record the size, shape, and patterns of the small Yu ding, making it impossible for some modern experts to compare the size of the small Yu ding.
However, judging from the inscription rubbings of the two vessels that can be seen so far, the inscriptions on the Great Meng Ding total 291 words.
Because the small Yu tripod is so heavily rusted, people can only decipher more than 100 characters, but it is estimated that the original inscription contained more than 400 characters.
Judging from the number of words, the small Yu Ding has far more inscriptions than the large Yu Ding.
Although the font size of the former is smaller, its huge number inevitably requires more abdominal wall space.
Therefore, we can't help but be full of doubts about the size of the two vessels.
Recently, some scholars have discovered that in a letter written by Chen Jieqi, a collector in Weicheng, Qilu Province in the late Qing Dynasty, to Wu Yun, another famous collector, there is this sentence: "The large bowl and tripod can hold eight stones, and the small bowl and tripod can hold twelve stones."
stone."
As mentioned before, Chen Jieqi collected the original rubbing of the small ding cauldron, and as a well-known collector in the country, Chen should have seen the original device and may even have personally measured its volume.
Based on the volumes of the two vessels, it can be imagined that the small Yu Ding is actually larger than the large Yu Ding.
Therefore, what is closest to the truth is that the large Yuding was named "big" because of the larger inscription font, while the opposite was true for the small Yuding.
This has also become the most unique example of bronze naming.
Of course, the name is not important, the most important thing is where the thing is!
It can be said that the experience of both Yuding and Yuding was very bumpy.
For such a treasure, everyone wants it, and this is the crime of holding a treasure without any guilt.
At that time, the magistrate of Qishan County, Zhou Gengsheng, used his power to deceive others. In the name of appreciating the tripod, he defrauded the Song family of the large tripod, but in fact, he secretly sold it to the capital.
It was such a coincidence that at that time Song Zhaokui's grandson Song Jinjian was serving as an imperial scholar in the capital.
When he was wandering around Liulichang, he discovered this large pot.
How could he not recognize his own things?
He used 3,000 taels of silver to redeem the large pot.
Then he traveled thousands of miles and sent him back to his home in Xishan County.
There is a proverb in our country, which is called: The beauty of a gentleman will be cut off in five lifetimes.
The meaning of this sentence is that a wealthy family will generally become poor within five generations.
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[My system is not serious]
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At that time, there was a descendant of the Song family who was obsessed with officials, and he spent money to donate a post to the county magistrate.
In order to establish the county magistrate, he did not hesitate to give the small Yuding to the then governor of Xishan, and the governor made him the county magistrate of Dong'a.
The Great Cauldron was sold by another son of the Song family who smoked Fushou Ointment. After liberation, the Great Cauldron was dedicated to the country by a big collector from Dahai.
Next, let’s talk about the whereabouts of the Little Meng Ding. According to historians’ research, this official-obsessed son of the Song family, and the governor of Western Shaanxi who gave the Little Meng Ding to was supposed to be named Sheng Yun.
With the fall of the Qing government in 1912, Shengyun's good days also came to an end.
Although he also tried hard, contacting the Communist Party members in Tianjin and Daoqing successively in an attempt to restore the country, in the end he only achieved nothing.
He was severely hit and died of illness in Jincheng in 1931.
Shengyun held a heavy bronze artifact from the Western Zhou Dynasty in his hand, but he always kept it a secret.
But after his death, this small Yuding became a stepping stone for Shengyun's descendants to get promoted and make a fortune.
This is speculation, because the social environment at that time was chaotic, and we could only infer the whereabouts of Xiao Yuding according to secular ways of doing things.
Of course, this is not just speculation.
Because there were later works that recorded the Xiaoyu Ding. For example, Zhang Fuwan published an article in the magazine "Northwestern History and Geography" in 1938, which contained records of the whereabouts of the Xiaoyu Ding.
"The Bronze Ware of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties mostly came from Fufeng County, Fengxiang, Qishan, Qishan, and Baoji Counties in present-day Western Shaanxi Province," once mentioned this important hand-me-down weapon of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
The small tripod may also be an artifact of the Song and Jin Dynasties. In the early years of the Republic of China, Lu Jianzhang, who was the governor of Western Shaanxi Province, acquired it.
When Lu went to Shaanxi, he was intercepted by Wang Yinxi, the king of the imperial court, at Dongguan, the provincial capital, and brought back to the imperial court.
After the king's death, it was acquired by his subordinate Fu Zhenjia, and his whereabouts are unknown.
If the above records are translated in a layman's terms, it is the order in which the small Yuding was circulated during the Republic of China.
The governor of Western Shaanxi Sheng Yun → the governor of Western Shaanxi Lu Jianzhang → the warlord of Western Shaanxi Wang Feihu → Wang Feihu’s subordinate Fu Zhenjia → then Xiao Yuding truly disappeared.
But there are also legends that the small ding cauldron, an important weapon of the Western Zhou Dynasty, is hidden in Persimmon Village in Dalixi.
Because this is the hometown of many Western Shaanxi warlords such as Wang Feihu...
In fact, after seeing this, Chen Wenzhe was almost 100% sure that the wooden box that was pushed into the river and sunk to the bottom of the river should contain the small ding cauldron.
At the beginning, he saw that the box was very big, and there was a bronze item inside.
If you say that the Small Menu Cauldron is smaller than the Large Meng Meng Cauldron, then it is not right.
However, if you are just a little familiar with the records of the Small Ude Tripod, it becomes clear that the Small Ude Tripod was named that way only because of the small inscription inside.
If it were the weight of real coins, it would be much heavier than the large cauldron, and most importantly, it would be almost ten centimeters taller.
Such a large bronze vessel sank into the river very quickly after being pushed out of the boat, without even making waves.
How can ordinary people know that the large Yu cauldron is smaller than the small Yu cauldron?
What's even more coincidental is that the Great Cauldron is hidden in Dahai City.
On June 19, 2021, the National Museum and the Maritime Museum jointly organized the special exhibition "A Thousand Years of Prosperity - A Bronze Tripod Donated to the Maritime Museum".
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In addition to the opening of the Maritime Museum, the biggest highlight of this exhibition is undoubtedly the second of the "Three Treasures of the Sea".
"Three Treasures in the Sea" is the reputation given to the three largest tripods seen at that time in the collection circles of the late Qing Dynasty: the Great Ding, the Dake Ding, and the Mao Gong Ding.
The two pieces on display in Dahai City at one time are the Big Menu Tripod and the Big Ke Tripod.
Now that Chen Wenzhe has discovered the whereabouts of the Little Yu Ding, wouldn't it mean that three of the five most precious cauldrons in the country have all fallen into Dahai City?