In the dim light, treasures compete with each other. Although there is no warm and clear atmosphere and dazzling colors, they show the splendid civilization of each era with their unique shapes and profound sense of history, which is awe-inspiring.
Among these national treasures, a bronze cultural relic named "the bronze drum seat of the Dragon and Tiger Four Rings" is an unremarkable one. Compared with contemporary bronzes, it doesn't have the resounding reputation as Bing Jian, the huge volume as Ding, and the good luck of relying on the strong and bullying the weak in the Spring and Autumn Period. However, these can't weaken its domineering and charm at all, because its existence remembers the roots of China's Millennium civilization.
Name: bronze drum seat of Longhu Fourth Ring Road
Year: Spring and Autumn Period
Land: Shucheng County, Anhui Province
Collection location: Anhui Provincial Museum
Value of cultural relics: national first-class cultural relics
As the saying goes: you can't find a place to get it, and you don't have to work hard to get it. In the history of China, many national treasures and cultural relics were unearthed by accident, and the bronze drum platform on the Fourth Ring Road of Longhu was no exception.
1September, 980, workers of kiln factory in Jiulidun Village, Kong Ji Town, Shucheng County, Anhui Province dug up an ancient tomb in the process of taking soil, and then provincial and county cultural relics workers arrived. It was identified as a tomb in the Spring and Autumn Period and was salvaged.
According to on-site investigation, the tomb was obviously stolen twice, and experts concluded that many precious cultural relics were stolen by grave robbers. However, to the delight of experts, although they were patronized by grave robbers, they finally cleared out 183 documents, including 170 bronzes. In this regard, Professor Shang Chengzuo, an ancient philologist and archaeologist of Sun Yat-sen University, was amazed and wrote a poem praising: "It was difficult to catch a cow-shaped basin in the Spring and Autumn Period. Hengxuan's legacy is really a doll, and it is shocking to see the truth. "
Just as the cultural relics workers were happily and anxiously sorting out their objects, a hollowed-out tripod bronze ware aroused their interest.
At first glance, this bronze ware is round as a whole, a circular copper ring with no bottom, and the upper part is slightly incomplete. The whole seat is 80 cm in diameter, 29 cm in height and weighs about 100 kg. It is particularly strange to observe its shape carefully. The mouth is a tiger's head and a dragon's roll, and the tiger's ears are upright, glaring and screaming. The dragon's single horn is upturned and intertwined with the tiger, which can be described as the dragon and tiger are interdependent and the image is very vivid. The main body of the container is covered with flat stripes.
Its outer wall is also decorated with four rings, and the inscription is cast for two weeks, which is lifelike. About 98 words last week and about 52 words next week. As far as the number of inscriptions is concerned, this is enough to make cultural relics workers excited. You know, among the bronzes unearthed in Anhui, except for the Oroqen Banner Festival unearthed in Shouxian in 1959, no bronzes have so many inscriptions.
So what kind of bronze ware is it and what is its use? The research results are unexpected!
At first, because its inscription was badly corroded, it was difficult to read through, and almost everyone did not know what it was. After being appraised by the expert group of the National Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee, the word "drum roll" was first recognized as "bronze drum seat". Later, because there are two symmetrical tiger heads and four intertwined dragons on it, it was named "Dragon Tiger Drum Seat", and because there are four rings on its side, it is also called "Dragon Tiger Four Rings Bronze Drum Seat". It also has other names "Spring and Autumn Copper Drum Tower" or "Four Rings".
In the final analysis, this thing is the drum seat, which, as the name implies, is the seat frame that carries the drum. In ancient times, drums were musical instruments used for war, sacrifice, music and dance. "Guoyu Wuyu" has a cloud: "Drums are always built and often caught. Ten thousand people think of it as a square. " Judging from the images of amphibious assault, the sword drum, as a military instrument, is often used with Ding Ning.
According to ancient documents, the dragon is the head of the aquarium and the tiger is the king of the mountain animals. This thing is a combination of dragon and tiger, and its supreme authority can be seen only from the inscription. The tiger father has no children, which shows that the drum position he carries is even more extraordinary. We can imagine that after 3000 years, the bronze drum platform on the Fourth Ring Road of Dragon and Tiger will sit on a high platform, listening to the inspiring drums coming from overhead, admiring the passionate sergeants and praying for their triumph.
As for the identity of the owner of the bronze drum seat in Longhu Fourth Ring Road, it is still confusing. However, from the bronze funerary objects such as bells, ding, chariots and horses, halberds and so on. , and recognized inscriptions, it can be roughly inferred that the owner of this tomb may be a monarch in Shu Qun at that time. The so-called Shu Qun, that is, in the Spring and Autumn Period, seven small countries, including Shu, Shu, Guo Yong and Shu, United into a military group. Today, in the areas of Lu 'an and Shucheng in Anhui, it is said that they are descendants of Hao Tao.
It's fortunate that the bronze drum base of the fourth ring of the Dragon and Tiger can escape the clutches of grave robbers and be preserved.
The most rare and precious thing about the national treasure "bronze drum stand with four rings of dragon and tiger" lies in that it is the first place in China to build a drum stand with inscriptions, but not in how superb this carving skill is, but in the root of the 5,000-year civilization it represents-the dragon and tiger culture.
In our national culture, dragon and tiger, as the most domineering existence, are often endowed with special cultural significance and exist in political, economic, military, religious, language, literature, medicine and other forms of expression.
The dragon and tiger culture of the Chinese nation originated from the fusion of ancient times and Emperor Yan, and Yangshao culture also showed signs. The integration of Dragon Nuwa and Tiger Fuxi into China culture can be found not only in the literature. In recent years, a number of prehistoric cultural relics have been unearthed one after another, which is the most convincing evidence. 1987, the dragon and tiger figure made of mussels was first excavated from the tomb of Yangshao cultural site in Xishuipo, Puyang, Henan Province (see the picture below). "Dragon and Tiger Zun" unearthed in Funan, Anhui Province, and "Dragon and Tiger Jade Belt Hook" unearthed in Nanyue King's Tomb of Western Han Dynasty in Guangzhou. ...
(Mussel looks like a dragon and tiger, and some scholars have revealed that it is an archaeological fake. )
Dragon and Tiger is the patron saint and mascot with the longest duration and the greatest influence in ancient China. There were four great beasts in ancient times, namely, Qinglong, Baihu, Suzaku and Xuanwu. The imaginative ancients thought that they lived in the sky and shouldered the responsibility of guarding the Heavenly Palace, and defined their specific positions by dividing the stars in the sky as the standard for forecasting seasons.
Later, because of their respect for status and the meaning of guardianship, emperors all over the world also loved to call themselves dragon and tiger, and dragon and tiger gradually became a symbol of imperial power. Comrade Shu, the history of Liu Tangzhi, said: "The tiger lives in the dragon plate, and the emperor shows his respect." There are dragon and tiger patterns on bronze ritual vessels in Shang dynasty, and there are also dragon and tiger patterns on many utensils. For example, during the Warring States period, a pair of dragons and tigers were clearly painted on the lacquer box in Ceng Houyi, and the dragon and tiger buttons were also painted on the imperial seal in the Han Dynasty.
Tigers and dragons were worshipped by the ancients, but after the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the status of tigers was greatly reduced. As the patron saint of imperial power, dragons and tigers were gradually replaced by dragons and foreign lions. The dragon became the only symbol of the emperor-the emperor's face or face was called "Long Yan", and the emperor was happy to be called Yan Long Da Yue. The clothes he wore were robes, and even the embroidered patterns on the emperor's robes were called Long Lin. Du Fu's poem "Autumn Prosperity" says: "Clouds move to the end of the palace mountain, and the sun goes around the dragon forest to know the holy face." The bed that the emperor slept in was also called the dragon bed. In the Book of the Afterlife, Mrs. Hua Rui's palace words said, "The aroma of the imperial furnace flies to the dragon bed."
"Dragon" is as powerful as "tiger". Why can the dragon become the embodiment of Emperor China, but the tiger can't? It's not even as good as a lion?
There are many natural reasons, but the main reason is the existence of dragons in real life, which everyone has seen. They have no mystery, but they are brave but invincible. Dragons are different. People can't see it in real life. It is a kind of god beast. If there is something, there is nothing. That's what the so-called "the dragon sees the head but doesn't see the tail" means. The cultural attribute of the dragon caters to China's mystical centralism, so there is a "god-making movement"-raising the dragon to the status of a great god.
However, with the development of Taoism, the status of people in the Dragon and Tiger culture has never wavered, and there are still two generals, Qinglong and Baihu, in the Taoist temple.
Both dragons and tigers are the hegemons in their respective fields, so people usually use dragons and tigers to describe mighty and majestic people to show their leadership. The dragon represents the highest authority of the ruling class, and the tiger represents the strongest force in the secular world. The relationship between the dragon and the tiger has opposite meanings, so there is a saying among the people that the dragon and the tiger compete.
Legend has it that a tiger went to a pool in Sizhou to drink water. The dragon in the pond thought that the tiger had invaded his territory, so he jumped out of the water to fight with the tiger. As a result, the thirsty tiger lost to the hungry jiaozi, was knocked unconscious by the dragon's tail, wrapped it up and swallowed it. Su Dongpo wrote a poem on this basis: "There are hungry dumplings in the diving scales, and the tail is thirsty for tigers."
Because the dragon is in charge of the rain, and the relationship between the dragon and the tiger is so subtle, there is a matter of throwing the tiger's head for rain in the drought. According to legend, during the drought in the central and southern parts of the Tang Dynasty, villagers often tied tiger bones with long ropes and threw them into Longtan. Russia leans. "In the pool of Yun Qi, the rain also falls.".
Now, Long Hudou's sayings are more inherited by Feng Shui masters, which are used to survey the location of houses and calculate marriage. In many places, especially in rural areas, many people think that men and women belonging to the dragon and tiger are not suitable for marriage. Why? The reason is that the superstitious legend of "Long Hudou" transplanted Long Hudou culture into people's marriage taboos. Up to now, in some places, there are still people who think that "the dragon and the tiger are bound to get hurt", "the dragon can't last long" and "the snake (dragon) tiger is like a knife file, and the white horse is a green cow".
On the other hand, how dragons and tigers live in harmony is also of infinite strength. Dragon and tiger are one, domineering and invincible. In the process of language creation, the ancients especially liked to call dragons and tigers the same. Idioms such as "Long Teng Hu Tao", "Long Pan Hu Ju" and "Dragon and Tiger Fengyun" all show proud momentum and prestige.
This kind of dragon and tiger culture not only exists in the national language, but the official prefers to make it into an object to show his supreme authority and glory. In the ancient Spring and Autumn Period, bronzes carved by dragons and tigers became particularly popular and were highly sought after by princes and nobles. The four-ring bronze drum stand of Dragon and Tiger is the work of this period. Of course, such noble carvings are not allowed to be used casually even by nobles, and they will be beheaded if they are not careful, which is a great sin.
Data comes from reading history.