After carefully studying the outline of the pattern on the cover, he raised his head and said in surprise: "Could this painting be the pattern of a tomb-crushing beast? If you look carefully, does this pattern look a bit like the clam stone sculpture unearthed in Puyang, Henan decades ago?"
Yao Yumen couldn't help but nod after seeing it, "Don't tell me about the head, it's really similar. If I remember correctly, the site in Puyang was from the late Neolithic period, right? It was much earlier than the Western Zhou Dynasty."
I couldn't understand what they meant, so I asked Sister Yu what this clam sculpture was.
Sister Yu told me that this thing has the tail of a monkey and the head of a pig. No one knew it when it was dug out. Later, some scholars discovered that the prototype of this thing is very similar to an animal called clam sculpture in the ancient Book of Mountains and Seas. So it was
With this word, people in the industry thought that the one in Puyang was an orphan, but they did not expect that there was a bronze with the same pattern here.
"Oh, that's it. It's really precious, but it's a pity that it's all black and rusty and rotten." I sighed, expressing my pity for this precious bronze.
Black dry rust is a term used in the tomb robbing industry. This kind of rust is the least popular among people in the industry, because almost all bronzes with this kind of rust color come from dirty pits. Things in dirty pits have the lowest prices and are not in good quality.
By the way, let me tell you more. People in the industry divide the rust colors of bronze casings from the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the Warring States period into four types. Jade can be identified by looking at the skin, and bronzes can also be priced by looking at the rust.
These types are dry green rust, also called flat rust, which is the kind of rust that is green all over. It is common in the northern areas of Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. The second type of rust is mercury rust, which refers specifically to things fished out of the water.
, this kind of rust is a white layer and is poisonous. Bronze items with mercury rust must be treated before you dare to play with them, otherwise they will be poisoned.
Now it’s red and blue anti-lead rust. This type of rust sells at the highest price in the industry. Mr. Sun once told me that if you encounter large-scale red and blue anti-lead rust, don’t wash it with the method of killing it. If you wash it, the price will be greatly reduced.
.
The last one is the black dry rust on the bronze vessel in front of you. The black dry rust growing on the bronze vessel indicates that there have been dirty pits underneath. Dirty pits refer to dirty places such as manure piles, latrines, pig pens and sheep pens.
He picked up the head and smelled the bronze vessel, frowned and said, "Indeed, it smells like feces and urine." Real tomb robbers have very good noses and are experienced with their heads, so naturally we will not doubt his words.
Continuing to dig deeper, two more bronze vessels with black dry rust were unearthed one after another. The last two unearthed were also quite strange in shape. Each one was different. One cover had a swimming figure engraved on it.
Little man, this little man is covered in fish scales and is tumbling in the water.
The last one is even weirder. It looks like a monster with eight legs and a tiger head. There is a four-legged snake wrapped around the tiger head and neck.
"Are these...these other two items the ancient totem gods worshiped by the ancient Yue Kingdom?" Sister Hong said in surprise after looking at them.
"Xiao Hong, what do you know?" asked the head.
Sister Hong nodded and confirmed: "That's right, these are those two things. I used to be interested in paleontological legends. I have read the old version of Shan Hai Jing more than once. This, this little man with fish scales swimming in the water
It’s called Zuoyu, the thing with the eight legs and the tiger’s head is called Zuqi, and the first one dug out is indeed called the clam sculpture.”
"These patterns were once worshiped by the totem culture of the ancient Yue people. Head, Yunfeng, if you continue to dig deeper, I doubt you can dig out anything else."
Sister Hong held her chin and thought: "Yunfeng, do you still remember the patterns on the gold coffin and silver coffin?"
I said of course I remembered that there were soldiers engraved on the gold and silver coffins, and there were four-legged snakes coiled above the heads of those soldiers.
"That's right," Sister Hong nodded and said, "The ancient Yue soldiers had four-legged snakes on their heads, and their prototypes should be this Zuqi."
She looked at the crowd and said solemnly: "The clues are connected. This mustard is not only a great nobleman of the Western Zhou Dynasty, but may also be a descendant of a certain branch of the ancient Yue people in the ancient Yue Kingdom. Otherwise, it would be impossible for mustard to bring these totem elements into
In the tomb.”
"Totems and ancestor gods, these patterns are not only patterns, but also a kind of writing thousands of years ago. This is a kind of pictorial writing of the ancient Yue people. Now no one can decipher it, and no one knows the meaning of these animal patterns. However,
.....A late old professor once published a note before his death, in which he believed..."
"These ancient patterns...may be the origin of oracle bone inscriptions."
