The perfect combination of shape and decoration of this painted pottery flower lantern is truly ingenious.
In the Han Dynasty, the shapes of lamps mostly adopted the image of auspicious birds and animals.
Whether it is the exquisite and extraordinary shape or the luxurious and impressive momentum of this lamp, it must have been an object enjoyed by the aristocracy of the Han Dynasty.
At the same time, it is also a typical embodiment of the Taoist idea of ascending to immortality in the Han Dynasty.
The ancient people of the Han Dynasty believed in the connection between heaven and man, and dreamed of living happily together with gods and humans, and of immortality.
Placing such a lamp in the tomb is expected to ascend to heaven and become an immortal after death.
It is said that when this lamp is turned on, it can illuminate the entire room with almost no shadows, so people praise it as the "shadowless lamp" in ancient times.
The painted flower lantern is made of pottery, and its main body consists of three parts: a lamp holder, a lamp post, and a lamp panel.
The bottom of the lamp holder is decorated with mountains surrounded by peaks, and the base is surrounded by animals with different postures.
Tigers, monkeys, deer, rabbits and other animals are either running and jumping, or sitting, lying and crouching, with different postures, each with its own wonder.
However, all living things gather in this heaven and earth, but they are so harmonious and peaceful.
Such techniques are definitely master-level craftsmanship, and Chen Wenzhe naturally wants to replicate them.
Of course, making ceramics is simple, and he is very skilled in making it. Even if this painted pottery flower lantern is very complicated to make, he should be able to make it very quickly.
While looking at the bronze shadowless lamp, Chen Wenzhe was thinking about how to design a new lamp.
There is still a market for this kind of thing. After all, modern people are extremely bored and still pursue romance.
Wouldn't it be exciting to light up such a shadowless lamp and have a candlelight dinner?
It's a pity that Chen Wenzhe is a bachelor, and Cao Qingchun and others are also die-hard old bachelors.
"Your gains this time are really quite big. What are the last two items?"
Cao Qingchun said proudly: "Rabbit, to be precise, it should be the Rabbit Lord!"
Chen Wenzhe was speechless. As long as he could be respected, it was not easy, let alone the Rabbit Lord. This thing should be very rare.
Among the animals in my country’s bronze ware, the rabbit statue is certainly a rare one.
Judging from unearthed records and bronze ware catalogs across the country, at the earliest, only three rabbit statues were unearthed from the Zhaohou Tomb in the North of Qucun, Quwo County, Xishan Province.
From 1982 to 1992, the Qucun site was brutally destroyed, almost all the important tombs were robbed, and all the funerary objects were looted.
In order to make up for the losses, our country's archaeological team conducted rescue excavations, including three bronze rabbit statues.
These three bronze rabbit statues are very cute, with different shapes but similar similarities.
These are rabbit-shaped cultural relics from more than 3,000 years ago, and their appearance has also brought us modern people into close contact with the ancient rabbit culture.
With the appearance of these three rabbit statues, some more rabbit statues were unearthed later, and there were even rabbit statues made of jade.
"You will never imagine how many rabbit statues I found this time!"
Just when Chen Wenzhe was distracted, Cao Qingchun said proudly again.
Chen Wenzhe was even more speechless, aren't there just two of them?
You have already said it, and there are still two pieces left. Could it be that they are both Rabbit Lords? Such luck!
Sure enough, Cao Qingchun brought out two rabbit statues, one made of bronze and the other made of jade.
Obviously, Cao Qingchun was more interested in the jade rabbit statue.
Looking at the Jade Rabbit thrust into my hand, I guess it can be called Jade Rabbit.
This is a Shang Dynasty "jade rabbit" carved from blue and white jade, with a diameter of 0.9 cm and a height of 2.1 cm, about the size of a red date core.
Its two ears are hollow, the round eyes are slightly convex, the bottom is concave, and it is carved into a three-dimensional column.
Such a jade rabbit, no matter how you look at it, is extremely precious.
This "jade rabbit" should have been a kind of decoration or a ritual vessel in ancient times.
The bronze rabbit statue is definitely an important sacrificial vessel. They have common characteristics, such as their bright bodies and their prostrate posture.
Looking inside the rabbit statues, we can see that there are more or less leaf-like objects from more than 3,000 years ago stuck inside these rabbit statues. Chen Wenzhe speculated that they were wine vessels.
"How is it? I found two rabbit statues at once, and I felt a little uneasy. Is it too much?"
At this time, Cao Qingchun behaved a little more normally.
Since it has been said that rabbit statues are relatively rare, he bought two at one time. Is this abnormal?
No matter who Cao Qingchun invited to watch, he was always very uneasy.
This is incomparable with Chen Wenzhe, because he can cheat, so even without careful identification, he knows that these two items are genuine.
"Not to mention anything else, a lot of them were unearthed from the tomb of the Marquis of Jin in the Western Zhou Dynasty, maybe seven?"
Whether there are seven Jinhou Rabbits or not? Chen Wenzhe's memory is a bit vague.
However, after he concentrated for a moment, he remembered that there were indeed seven bronze rabbits, and they were rare bronze rabbits in the country. Each of their shapes had a full sense of ritual.
For example, in the Jin State Museum in Xishan Province, there are four rabbit statues on display, two large and two small, in two shapes.
A big rabbit is prostrate on a short rectangular base, with a trumpet-shaped mouth on its back.
Another big rabbit statue has a rectangular mouth on its back and a lid on it. Its legs are curled up and its ears are pushed back together, as if it is about to jump.
The other two little rabbit statues have the same shape as it.
They were unearthed from the same tomb and looked very much like a family of four.
Bronze statues are utensils for holding fine wine. These four naive rabbit statues were unearthed in the early 1990s from the tomb of Marquis Jin Mu in Qucun, a national key cultural relics protection unit at the Tianma site. They have a history of nearly 3,000 years.
This tomb is well preserved and has not been disturbed, truly reproducing the condition of the unearthed relics.
The father of Jin Muhou, Jin Xianhou, was not so lucky.
According to archaeological data, his tomb was stolen in 1992.
Fortunately, even if they were stolen, three bronze rabbit statues survived.
One rabbit statue has a trumpet-shaped mouth on its back, and the other two rabbit statues have the same shape and different sizes. They both have rectangular mouths on the rabbit's back, and the mouths are covered.
This "family of three" is now collected in Xishan Museum.
Because there are very few bronze rabbit statues unearthed in archeology in our country, even if there are 7 rabbit statues, they are still very precious.
Don’t talk about anything else, just talk about artistic achievements.
In terms of artistic image design, these seven rabbit statues not only present the characteristics of simplicity, realism, and practicality, but also have the elegant and noble aristocratic temperament of Western Zhou ritual vessels.
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There are three concentric circles on each side of their abdomens, followed from the inside to the outside by fire patterns, four alternating diagonal thunder patterns and interlocking thunder patterns.
So why do the fathers and sons of Jin Xianhou and Jin Muhou prefer Rabbit Zun?
This is a question that has no answer at present. It may be related to the beautiful meaning of rabbits.
Jin Xianhou Su was the seventh king of the Jin Dynasty. He had fought with the King of Zhou and was rewarded. To commemorate this event, a set of 16 bronze bells was cast.
After the death of Marquis Xian of Jin, not only this set of chimes but also a large number of bronze, gold and jade objects were buried with him.
As well as the largest chariot and horse pit discovered in my country during the Western Zhou Dynasty with the largest number of sacrificial vehicles, as well as the three bronze rabbit statues.