Chapter 1869 Yunlong Stone Sculpture, Kowloon Danbi
For a long time, folk kiln porcelain has had a very enthusiastic response to the "fish transforming into a dragon" pattern, with many paintings and good paintings.
In addition to the impact of the imperial examination story itself, this may be related to the government's ban on the use of dragon patterns among the people in the early Ming Dynasty.
Folks dare not use the standard dragon pattern with long horns and claws, but the general fish-turned-dragon pattern appears in large numbers on various porcelain and various wood carvings, stone carvings, and jade carvings, satisfying the psychological needs of the people for using dragon patterns.
For thousands of years, everyone has a different understanding of how fish transforms into dragons.
In fact, dragons often live in people's hearts as a kind of belief.
As a mythical auspicious sign, no matter whether it really exists or not, people always feel its existence and beauty in their hearts.
In the final analysis, the love and admiration for the ichthyosaur culture stems from the cultural heritage deep in the heart of the Chinese nation.
Now that Chen Wenzhe has seen our cultural heritage, he never thought that there are so many dragon-shaped stone sculptures in China.
Of course, some scattered dragon-shaped stone carvings are just that.
However, Chen Wenzhe was really surprised when he saw the Yunlong stone sculpture placed in the final place.
Stones are natural treasures given to humans by nature, everyone knows this.
Since the birth of the earth, it has experienced a long and complex evolutionary history of more than 4.5 billion years.
It is not only the "place where cones were built", but also provides the basic materials for human beings' daily necessities of life. Stone is inseparable from everything in people's lives.
From ancient times, Nuwa quarried stones to mend the sky, and Jingwei held stones to fill the sea, to everyone in modern life collecting beautiful jade and stones;
From the ancient emperors using various kinds of Tianhuang, Shoushan, and chicken blood stones to carve seals and issue documents, to ordinary people grinding rice and wheat, building houses and walls.
Stones bring us so many surprises, and ancient stone buildings or carvings also contain many meanings.
But those stones can be famous throughout the ages? Needless to say, one of them must be the "strange" stone "Yunlong Stone Sculpture" in the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City, formerly known as the "Forbidden City", was the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
So as a royal palace, everything in the palace must symbolize imperial power.
As for the Yunlong stone sculpture, its location is very conspicuous, behind the Baohe Hall, and it is very "huge".
The entire body of the Yunlong stone sculpture is 16.75 meters long, 3.07 meters wide, 1.7 meters thick, and weighs more than 200 tons. It is truly a giant in the stone.
It is carved from a whole piece of mugwort bluestone, with nine dragons carved on it, rolling in the sea and river teeth;
At the same time, there are also five peaks engraved on it, with "Nine" and "Five" combined together, which means "The Lord of Nine and Five".
According to historical records, at that time there was a place called "Dashiwo" in Fangshan, the capital of Shendu, which was rich in stone. This "Yunlong Stone Sculpture" came from there.
In that era when there were no trucks, craftsmen used their ingenuity and used a method called "dry transport" to "drag" the huge stone into the Forbidden City.
The specific method is: wait until the cold winter, dig a well every other mile along the way, and then sprinkle the well water on the road to let it freeze into ice;
Finally, the boulder was placed on the icy road and allowed to "slide" to the Forbidden City.
From this point of view, we really have to admire the wisdom of the ancients!
There are stone steps on both sides of every palace in the Forbidden City.
In the middle of the steps is a long oblique stone, carved with various patterns such as dragons, phoenixes, sea water and river cliffs. This thing is called "Lingchi".
There is one of the largest spiritual temples in the Forbidden City, behind the Baohe Hall, which is the Yunlong stone sculpture carved from a single piece of stone.
This is the largest stone sculpture in the Forbidden City. It was originally carved in the Ming Dynasty and re-carved during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.
In the pattern, there are nine swimming dragons playing with pearls among the cliffs, sea water and flowing clouds. Their images are full of dynamic and vitality.
The stone carvings are carved with entwining lotus patterns around them, with sea water and river teeth at the bottom, and flowing clouds in the middle to set off nine dragons and state dragons.
The image of Yunlong is vivid, the carving is fine and meticulous, and it has high artistic value.
Outside the Baohe Hall, there is also a design of thousands of dragons spitting water.
Thousand Dragons are more than a thousand stone carved dragon heads protruding from the bottom of the Hope Pillar.
Whenever it rains, rainwater is discharged from the dragon's mouth, so that the practical function of diverting rainwater and the ornamental function of architectural art are organically combined.
The spectacular sight of thousands of dragons spitting water comes from the three-story platform on which the three main halls of Taihe, Zhonghe and Baohe stand.
"Santai" covers an area of about 2,500 square meters and is made of large pieces of white marble.
There are Xumi bases carved around the base of each floor. On the Xumi bases, large rectangular stone strips are placed horizontally, which are called ground burdens.
These are all related to the dragon-shaped stone carvings in the Forbidden City. It is said that there are thousands of dragons "hidden" in the buildings of the Forbidden City. Where are these dragons hidden in the Forbidden City?
The Forbidden City was once the royal palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and 24 emperors lived and tutored here.
The emperor has been called the "True Dragon Emperor" since ancient times, so the Forbidden City is also the world of dragons.
There are too many dragons in the buildings of the Forbidden City. According to legend, there is a dragon in Guang Taihe Hall, but in fact it is very similar.
According to the literature released by the Palace Museum, there is a total of dragons in the dragon decoration of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
The total area of the Hall of Supreme Harmony is more than 2,000 square meters, supported by 72 large nanmu pillars.
The interior and exterior of the Hall of Supreme Harmony are splendidly decorated, with numerous dragon patterns carved and painted throughout the entire Hall of Supreme Harmony. This is the highest level of architectural form in feudal society.
Each of the three steps outside the main hall is surrounded by carved stone railings. Under the pillars decorated with dragon and phoenix patterns, 1,142 white marble chi heads (faucets) for drainage protrude.
In addition, there are 19 gold-lacquered dragons on the emperor's throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
There are 79 carved dragons on the screen behind the throne. Together with the golden lacquered wooden platform and other furnishings under the throne, there are a total of 590 dragons.
On both sides of the throne, there are 6 coiled dragon gold pillars.
On the top of the throne is a caisson well, in the middle is a huge dragon with a pearl in its mouth, and 16 golden dragons are flying around the deep well.
The ceiling of the main hall is covered with golden dragon patterns, a total of 3909 colorful dragons, which are dazzling.
There are 40 doors in the front and back of the hall, each door has 5 wooden carved dragons.
Including the dragons painted on the doors and windows, there are a total of 3,504 dragons.
If you add the carved dragon patterns on the stone railings outside the Hall of Supreme Harmony, there will be a total of dragons, dragons, dragons, dragons and stripes inside and outside the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
The "Nine Dragon Danbi" stone in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony best reflects the skills and wisdom of ancient craftsmen.
Of course, this is actually talking about the Yunlong stone carving, which is respectfully called the "Nine Dragon Danbi" stone.
In addition to these dragons, when you go to the Forbidden City, have you ever noticed the roof of the palace building?
There are many mythical beasts sitting on every roof of the Forbidden City.
Two of them are the sons of the legendary dragon.
One named Chiki had a soft mouth and a thick throat and was easy to swallow, so he became a spine-swallowing beast at both ends of the palace ridge, using it to extinguish fires and eliminate disasters.