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Chapter 372: Luxurious Accompanying Collection
......... After putting away all the bronzes in the second large cave, three passages of different widths appeared around them. Judging from the things placed in the passages, it was obvious that there were more behind each of them.
This time Liu Dong didn't choose specifically, and walked directly into the leftmost one. After putting away the bronze wares and occasionally mixed lacquerware in the aisle, he also came to another vast cave space.
This cave is not much different from the second cave he passed just now, with an area of about a thousand square meters. However, the stalactites here are still very obvious, and the ground has not been specially treated.
However, the temptation here is much stronger than that of the previous cave. As soon as Liu Dong came in, his eyes were filled with golden light.
Placed not far from the entrance here, there are actually a set of gold ritual vessels such as the Nine Tripods and Eight Gui made of gold. However, compared with the huge bronze vessels that Liu Dong had put away before, these gold imitation Nine Tripods and Eight Gui ritual vessels are very small.
The small and largest wok tripod has a height and inner width of about 50 centimeters, but even so, it can be regarded as the largest gold artifact among the cultural relics unearthed during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
What's even more rare is that these gold vessels were made using the lost wax method. The body of the vessel is engraved with gorgeous cloud and thunder patterns. The middle of the body is also engraved with the Taotie pattern in relief. The rim of the vessel is also engraved with cloud patterns. In addition,
In addition, there are four round carved Kui dragons around the body, which are very gorgeous.
In addition to these patterns, these nine tripods and eight gui gold vessels are also inlaid with turquoise and glass! Yes, it is glass, but during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, these glasses had another name - ancient colored glaze!
Liuli, also known as "Ruli", is one of the traditional handicrafts of the Chinese Han people. It is a crystal work made of artificial crystals of various colors as raw materials and using the ancient bronze lost-wax casting method to dewax at high temperatures. Its colors are vivid and beautiful.
It is magnificent; its quality is crystal clear and dazzling.
The history of making colored glaze in ancient China can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty. The original material for making colored glaze was obtained from the by-products of bronze casting. After refining and processing, it was made into colored glaze. The colors of colored glaze are various, and the ancients also called it
"Five Colored Stones".
By the Han Dynasty, the level of making colored glaze was quite mature. However, the smelting technology was in the hands of the royal family and was kept secret. Because it was difficult to obtain among the people, people at that time regarded colored glaze as even more precious than jade.
The famous sword of King Goujian of Yue was inlaid with blue colored glaze, and this set of nine tripods and eight guis with the inscription "King of Chu Xiong and his wife used to hold" were inlaid with colorful colored glazes.
In addition to this set of nine tripods and eight guis, there are also some pure gold utensils such as cups, pots and plates for food, wine and water. However, the largest one is only about 20 centimeters, and the smaller ones are
They are all about ten centimeters, and the number is not many, only about a hundred pieces, which is far less than the number of bronzes, but its value is still immeasurable.
In addition to these gold vessels, the rest are lacquered wood vessels, bone vessels, tooth horn vessels, and a small amount of pottery. However, they add up to more than 600 pieces. It can be seen that Uncle Li and the others only took out some of them.
Most of the fine items are left in the tomb of King Zhuang. After all, in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, lacquered woodware was actually processed, and objects such as bone vessels were generally small pieces. It is difficult to find fine items, and the market value has never been high.
However, Uncle Li and the others picked out many fine products, the largest of which was an elephant statue with a height of 1.2 meters and a length of nearly 2 meters. It was made of gold and silver. This elephant statue fits the characteristics of the lacquerware of the Spring and Autumn Period.
The outside is dark, with cloud patterns, geometric patterns, and animal face patterns, and the inside is red. What’s even more rare is that there are no traces of splicing on the top and bottom of this elephant statue, and it should have been taken out of a whole piece of wood.
In addition to this largest elephant statue, there are also a series of daily utensils such as a large lacquerware wooden box and a lacquerware bed. The total number of lacquerware is more than 400 pieces, accounting for the vast majority of everything here.
"It seems that Uncle Li also knows a lot about how to preserve cultural relics. These lacquered wood vessels, tooth horn vessels, and pottery have all been fixed with fixatives, and they are quite well preserved!" Liu Dong thought to himself after packing almost everything.
road.
But even so, the original paintings on most of the pottery and woodware have disappeared, which is distressing to see.
"I hope my relic Yuanguang can restore them!" Liu Dong had some expectations in his heart, but he didn't know how much they could recover.
After putting away everything around him, Liu Dong turned his eyes to the last three coffins left.
The largest of the three coffins is a copper coffin, but it is not as big as what Liu Dong saw outside. This bronze coffin is three meters long, and its width and height are also close to three meters. It has a large number of phoenix patterns engraved on it, and
From some images of gods and monsters with animal heads and human bodies, as well as some relief scenes of palace life, it can be seen that the people who can enjoy this coffin must be the queen of Chuzhuang King Xiong Lv, or an important guest concubine or the like.
In addition, this coffin, like King Zhuang's coffin, has not been opened.
However, the two coffins next to them did not have such good luck. By the time Liu Dong opened the two coffins, which were about 2.5 meters long and about 1.5 meters wide and high, Uncle Li and the others had already taken out the bones inside.
Throw them away. Now the two coffins are filled with dense jade articles, as well as small pieces of gold and silver. Basically all the styles of jade articles from the Spring and Autumn Period can be found inside. However, there are no large jade articles inside, and these
It also conforms to the characteristics of jade in the Spring and Autumn Period.
Of course, looking at these two coffins filled with jade, gold and silver, Liu Dong still felt a little regretful. The jade from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period rarely had excellent quality. They were basically a mixture of jade and stone, so don't look at it.
There are thousands of pieces of jade here, large and small, but their real value is probably not as valuable as these small pieces of gold and silver.
Of course, the value of cultural relics and cultural value cannot be calculated in this way.
"It would be great if there were one or two large pieces of jade!" After putting away the three coffins, Liu Dong couldn't help but thought to himself.
Of course this is basically impossible anymore.
After putting away the things, Liu Dong saw that nothing was missing, so he came out along the passage, and then walked towards the stalactite cave in the middle. However, as soon as he entered, Liu Dong's eyes suddenly widened, and his face was full of shock.
,"my God!"
No wonder Liu Dong reacted like this. In this large space of about 800 square meters, all the instruments were placed, and the most eye-catching ones were chimes, cymbals and cymbals.
Liu Dong counted the numbers and found that the set of chimes with the inscription "King Chu Xiong couple" here is about the same size as the chimes of Marquis Yi of Zeng, but there are only 64 of them. Of course, Marquis Yi of Zeng has more chimes given by "King Hui of Chu"
Chime bells, otherwise there would be the same number of chimes as this set here.
However, even if one chime is missing, this set of chimes is still a national treasure of inestimable value.
In addition to this set of chimes, there is also a set of chimes next to it. Compared with the 19 chimes unearthed in Jinsheng Village, Taiyuan, this set in the tomb of King Zhuang is undoubtedly more numerous and more gorgeous.
Liu Dong simply counted a total of 61 pieces of three-layer knitting. The largest piece is over 150 centimeters tall and weighs nearly two hundred kilograms. The breasts on it are thicker than an adult's arm, which is really astonishing.
And this is also the largest set of codes currently known.
However, what puzzled Liu Dong was how come King Chuzhuang, the overlord of the late Spring and Autumn Period, still had cymbals in his tomb, and there were 36 pieces of them. Logically speaking, the peak period of cymbals should be from the late Shang Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty.
In the early days, by the Spring and Autumn Period, the development and use of chime bells and chimes had gradually declined, and they were mainly used for military command. They were instruments used in the army to direct the advance and retreat.
Of course, this kind of thing is something that archaeologists and historians need to consider. Liu Dong was just puzzled for a moment and was quickly filled with the excitement of obtaining a national treasure.
In addition to these three sets of chimes, chimes and cymbals, there are also a large number of musical instruments such as chimes, drums, zithers, shengs, panpipes, etc., and they are not all one piece. However, in comparison, the most popular ones are the qin, to be precise.
They were Qixuan Guqins. Liu Dong counted almost sixteen of them. Although most of them were broken, the main bodies of these Guqins were still intact, so it was not too difficult to repair them.
In addition, in addition to the wooden guqin, Liu Dong also discovered a jade Fuxi-style guqin and an ivory Boya-style guqin.
"Xiong Lu, King of Chuzhuang, once owned one of the four famous guqins, the 'Rao Liang'. It's no wonder he loved the guqin so much and buried so many of them with him. But Uncle Li actually took out all these things!" Liu Dong
I thought to myself.
Next, Liu Dong naturally collected all the more than 200 musical instruments here, including chimes.
When the last cave was left, Liu Dong also knew what he wanted to see most, the twenty-six cauldrons representing the achievements of King Chuzhuang, and the remaining twenty-four should appear.
However, things are often unexpected. What appears in the cave on the right are all weapons, and the cave is also very small, only less than 200 square meters.
However, after taking a look at the relic Yuanguang, Liu Dong felt relieved.
Then he started to pack up the weapons in the cave.
Like most emperors with great talents and strategies, King Zhuang of Chu, who conquered the north and south and brought the strength of the Chu State to its peak, naturally had his own hobbies for weapons, and the weapons of the Chu State, especially swords, were not that good.
No less than Wu and Yue. Therefore, the sixteen swords placed here are all rust-free, with a clear cold light, and each one has an inscription on it. Liu Dong picked up one and looked at it. Eight of them were filled with gold.
The bird seal script means "Zong Hou Yan Jia Zi Ying Zhi".