My system is not decent

Chapter 1787 Exorcising evil spirits and avoiding disasters, welcoming blessings and auspiciousness

Later, when Zhao Zhenxiu learned about the country's policies and regulations on unearthed cultural relics, he actively handed in the bronze rhinoceros, and described in detail the process of discovering the copper bull.

According to Zhao Zhenxiu, there were still some things in the urn, some of which were still in the "cow's" stomach, and some were put directly in the urn.

After cleaning, in addition to the rhinoceros, there were 24 pieces of cultural relics such as bronzes, irons, and pottery.

Finally, it was identified as a bronze wine vessel from the Western Han Dynasty.This gorgeous, realistic and cleverly used copper rhinoceros statue with mixed gold and silver cloud patterns has witnessed the charm of rhinoceros in my country 2000 years ago.

With thousands of years of history, there must be more than one bronze statue cast in ancient my country.

Now folk discoveries and some unearthed, due to the popularity of the Internet, several have been discovered.

This also proves that there were really rhinos in ancient my country.

Chen Wenzhe really opened his eyes this time, because he saw all kinds of ancient rhinos here.

Not only bronzes, but also rhinos in other forms.

Of course, the most famous one must be the bronze rhinoceros, especially in ancient times there seems to be a special love for rhinoceros.

In fact, the ancients had known about rhinos for a long time. Rhinos once lived widely in the central and southern regions of ancient my country.

Rhino fossils have been unearthed in many early Paleolithic sites in Xi'an.

For example, the Xishuidong site in Lantian County, the Huashilang site in Luonan County, and the Tianshuigou site in Dali County have unearthed Meishi rhinoceros fossils.

Ancient animal rhinoceros fossils have also been unearthed in Xishan, such as the plate-toothed rhinoceros fossils located in Malan Town, Xunyi County.

Including the maxilla, upper molars, lower incisors, scapula, hip bones, etc. 62 pieces.

Experts from the Shendu Natural Museum and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences carried out restoration and mounting. The restored ancient rhinoceros fossil is 4.8 meters long and 3.1 meters high.

This is considered to be the first known plate-toothed rhinoceros fossil in the world that can be restored and mounted, and it is now on display in the Xunyi County Museum.

In the Han Dynasty, the countries in the rhinoceros-producing areas once paid tribute to the rhinoceros to the Royal Animal Garden of the Central Plains, and raised them together with lions, elephants and other animals.

Palace craftsmen made various wine vessels based on the images of these animals in order to drive away evil spirits and avoid disasters, and to welcome good fortune and prosperity.

In the Tang and Song Dynasties, rhinoceros were relatively rare in China. In the Tang Dynasty, a rhino horn called Tongtian rhinoceros was actually "valued at a huge price". In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, people no longer knew what a rhinoceros was.

In 1975, in the mausoleum of Han Wendi Liu Hengsheng's mother, Empress Dowager Bo, a rhinoceros and a giant panda were found buried, which is the only archaeological find in China.

In the mausoleum of Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, a pair of stone rhinoceroses were found, located on the east and west sides of Shinto;
The stone rhinoceros on the east side was moved to the stone carving room of Chang'an Forest of Steles Museum in 1960, and the stone rhinoceros on the west side was buried underground.

Of course, these are not very attractive to Chen Wenzhe.

The most attractive to him must be the bronze rhinoceros of the Western Zhou Dynasty.

The animal sculptures of the Western Zhou Dynasty are famous for their freedom and vividness in the creation of images, and have made great achievements.

A large number of animal sculptures at that time appeared in daily necessities, and the rhinoceros statue was a typical wine container at that time.

From the Shang Dynasty to the Warring States period, people regarded rhinoceros and elephants as magical animals, and created many containers with images of rhinoceros or elephants, called rhinoceros or elephant statues.

This kind of container usually has a cover on the back, so that it can hold, fetch and keep fresh.

For example, the "Bronze Rhinoceros Zun" unearthed in Baoji is one of the most outstanding works.

This rhino has a strong image and a lifelike body.

Its head is raised flat, with two horns growing on it, and its four short legs are thick and strong, supporting the heavy body powerfully, making the whole image like a hill protruding from the hanging rock.

Although its eyes are not big, they are full of spirit.

The whole work is exquisite in craftsmanship, reasonable in structure, and the animal images are vivid and full of vitality. It is a model of the organic combination of practicality and beauty in ancient Chinese handicrafts.

Among the rhinoceros-shaped bronzes unearthed around the world at the same time, the rhinoceros statue unearthed in Xishan must be the top grade.

Its preciousness lies in the fact that it embodies the rich imagination and skilled metal casting processing technology of ancient craftsmen.

This exquisite and ornate "rhinoceros" is cast in bronze.

Its shape is a fat and strong rhinoceros, with a realistic style.

There are two horns on the head, one in front and one in the back, short and erect ears, small eyes, slightly raised tail tip, strong and strong short legs, and three-lobed hooves.

Its bones, head outline, muscles, hooves and feet are well-proportioned, resembling the real creature "rhinoceros".

The craftsmanship is exquisite and gorgeous, the shape is realistic and lifelike, and the highly decorative moiré patterns expressed by the mixed gold and silver technology, the gold, silver and the background color of the copper body complement each other brilliantly.

The whole body is covered with gorgeous staggered gold and silver cloud patterns, plus the extremely thin gold wire symbolizes the "vellus hair" of the rhinoceros, which looks luxurious without affecting the integrity of the body;

There is a movable cover on the back that can be opened and closed, and there is a pipe flow on one side of the cow's mouth. The design is exquisite, the structure is reasonable and practical, and it has high artistic value.

With the addition of more archaeological data, some people in modern times speculate that the production time of this rhinoceros statue may be earlier than the Western Han Dynasty.

Its staggered gold and silver decorative patterns all over the body fully reflect the new changes in bronze craftsmanship during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods.

The bronze ware at this time broke through the constraints of molded decorations, and invented the gold and silver interlacing technique of decorating the surface of the utensils with gold and silver threads.

The use of mixed gold and silver craftsmanship on bronze ornaments began in the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, prevailed in the Warring States Period, and gradually declined after the Western Han Dynasty.

As early as the pre-Qin period, nobles used gold and silver to inlay bronze objects. This kind of decoration technology is commonly known as "gold and silver wrong", also known as "wrong gold and silver".

The so-called inlaid gold and silver refers to inlaying various gorgeous and beautiful patterns with gold and silver threads or pieces on the cast bronze ware, and then polishing the surface of the ware.

Making a piece of gold, silver and bronze wares requires not only a high degree of skill, but also a lot of labor and effort.

The process is divided into casting, appraising grooves, inlaying, and grinding.

The development of this technology is inseparable from steel knives, steel chisels, and steel mirrors.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the development of productive forces, iron tools were widely used, which provided material conditions for the development of this technology.

Wrong gold and silver technology, including inlay and wrong two technologies.

Inlay means to inlay things in or add borders to the periphery, and inlay means to inlay things in the gaps. "Wrong" means to grind them with stones to make them smooth and smooth. The craftsmanship can be described as precise and meticulous.

The production process is to pre-cast shallow grooves or glyphs on the surface of the bronze ware.

Then use a harder tool to carve shallow grooves, and then insert thin gold and silver wires and pieces into the shallow grooves.

Then use the stone to smooth the surface of the embedded gold and silver wires, sheets and copper ware.

Finally, the surface of the device is further polished with charcoal and water to make the surface of the device more brilliant.

The surface of the utensils decorated with "wrong gold and silver" technology, the different luster of gold, silver and bronze complement each other, making the patterns and inscriptions extraordinarily gorgeous and elegant.

The emergence of gold-staggered craftsmanship has increased the atmosphere of wealth and honor, and added a new technique to the decoration of bronze ware.

(End of this chapter)