When it comes to chimes, many people may think of Zeng Houyi, who is well-known at home and abroad. In fact, there is a set of chimes in history that is more than 400 years earlier than those in Ceng Houyi, and it also has a lot of value, that is, the chimes of Jin Housu. According to the archaeological findings and historical data, the late master of Jin Dynasty and historians concluded that he was the early monarch of Jin State in the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Located in Qucun, a small village in Quwo County, houma city, Shanxi Province, in the 1980s, the tombs of the 9th generation 19 marquis of Jin State and his wife were accidentally discovered, including the owner of the chime, Jin Housu. The site was named "the site of Jinhou Cemetery", also known as the site of Tianma in Qucun. The scale of the tomb is huge, which almost runs through the whole Western Zhou Dynasty, so it is a very complicated and time-consuming archaeological project. However, in the 1990s, grave robbery was rampant in this area. Due to poor protection, Tomb No.8 of Jinhou Cemetery was stolen, and many funerary objects were stolen, including this set of Jinhou Su 14 chimes.
According to the normal logic, stolen cultural relics will usually find buyers and sell them everywhere soon, but it is strange that no one is in this set of chimes, and it has also flowed to the antique market in Hong Kong over time.
Obviously it is a national treasure, don't antique players know the goods? It turns out that this set of chimes has always been regarded as a fake by all "experts", including the owner of the Wan Wen store that owned this treasure at that time! In all unearthed bronzes, inscriptions and patterns are engraved on pottery models in advance, and then naturally left on bronzes during casting. This set of chimes is very good, not only the surface is covered with a fresh layer of soil rust, but also the inscription on it is carved with a sharp tool. The score is still obvious, and there are too many traces of "counterfeiting". So at that time, individual collectors and museums thought it was a fake, and no one cared at all.
It was not until later that Professor Zhang Guangyu of the Chinese University of Hong Kong came across it. He invited Mr. Ma Chengyuan, then the curator of Shanghai Museum, to engage in the research and identification of bronzes and bamboo slips for a long time, and cultivated a pair of "golden eyes" to identify cultural relics. Ma Chengyuan has been dealing with cultural relics for almost half his life. According to his long-term experience in immersing in bronzes, and according to the photos uploaded by Professor Zhang from the Internet, he vaguely thought it might be genuine.
Later, he carefully studied each chime, and once again affirmed that these are real national treasures, because the inscription on each chime is not a separate article, and there are more than 300 words engraved on it. The content of the last clock is connected with the content of the next clock, expressing a complete narrative. Together, it tells the whole process of Zhou Liwang's thirty-three years (846 BC) when Jin Housu was ordered to conquer Sui. If cultural relics dealers want to forge them, there is no need to write these events in inscriptions that are not even recorded in historical materials. Besides, even if they want to forge, they should make them more authentic. Such a fake is too deceptive.
After judging that these chimes are genuine, Ma Chengyuan immediately expressed great concern about this matter and decided to boldly buy back these "fakes" in the antique market. After applying for leadership in Hong Kong, he urgently contacted Zhang Guangyu, who was far away from Hong Kong, and asked him to negotiate with his boss immediately, in any case, to "grab" the chime back. Of course, the boss doesn't know the truth. Some people are willing to buy and the price is good, so they are willing to sell. In this way, the clock of 14 was put into the box of 14 and sent to Shanghai overnight. After removing the rust on the surface of the chime, the words "Jin Hou Su" were revealed. Unexpectedly, the experts at the Shanghai World Expo were too excited to speak.
The wandering treasure finally saw the sun again, and after more than three thousand years of silence, it made a sound again. Later, two Jason Chung were unearthed in the cemetery of Jinhou, Shanxi Province, and their size and characters can be related to the previous 14, which proves once again that the 14 chime, which was regarded as a fake, is indeed a national treasure, while the original set of chimes has 16. Today, 14 of them are in Shanghai Museum, and the other two are in Shanxi Museum.