Master Archaeologist

Chapter 94 Sky Balance Bar!

Taking the mobile phone from Kong Jianwen, what Chen Han saw were some black and white bamboo slip photos.

"Is this taken with that spectral imager?" Chen Han asked curiously.

Calculated according to the restoration process of the bamboo slips, the batch of bamboo slips sent to the Jingzhou Cultural Protection Center should have just finished cleaning and just about to be decolorized, and it is at least half a year before they are completely restored.

And now it's the Spring Festival, so the Cultural Heritage Center should not be working.

Then these photos must have been taken with that amazing spectral imager.

As long as the bamboo slips are cleaned, even if they are carbonized and completely black, the handwriting can be restored with a spectral imager.

"Yes, this was sent by Minister Rong a few days ago. Everyone was on vacation before, so I didn't notify you." Kong Jianwen simply explained.

In fact, these photos have been in his hands for seven or eight days.

Just now when everyone got together, Kong Jianwen remembered this.

He remembered that his disciple's ability to read seal script was very good.

"Come on, let's see if there are any important records in it."

"Okay." Chen Han nodded, carefully flipping through the photos.

There are not many bamboo slips unearthed from tomb M168.

There is only one bamboo tablet, which is the letter to the ground.

There are only more than 60 bamboo slips, and the least one has 2 characters, and the most has only 14 characters. The total sum is only a few hundred characters.

Chen Han quickly flipped through most of it, and said with certainty, "Teacher, this should be a volume of "Repatriation Book"."

In fact, when these bamboo slips were unearthed, Professor Li could tell from the remaining rope marks on the slips that they were a volume of books assembled in sequence by dividing the upper and lower layers with fine hemp rope.

It's just that when they were unearthed, the order of the bamboo slips was scattered because the braided ropes were rotten.

After reading it carefully, Chen Han reported back to his instructor: "Teacher, the content of this volume includes the name, size, and quantity of the utensils, as well as the name, quantity, and location of the utensils."

"This is convenient for us to name the unearthed cultural relics."

The names of most of the unearthed cultural relics are actually not their names at that time, but renamed by modern people.

For example, the Simuwu Ding was named Simuwu Ding only because there were three characters "Simuwu" on the tripod.

And it has been corrected now, the oracle bone inscription is not the word Si, but the word Hou, and the official name has been changed to Houmu Wuding.

As for what exactly this tripod was named when the Shang king Zu Geng or Zu Jia cast it, I don't know for a long time.

Perhaps it has no name at all, and maybe it is called "Sacrifice Ding".

Generally speaking, after the cultural relics are excavated, they are named with reference to the characteristics of the cultural relics themselves.

For example, the pair of exquisite three-fish-eared cups unearthed from tomb M168 were simply and crudely named three-fish-eared cups when they were registered and named.

But now the dispatch book has appeared.

In the dispatch book, there is a record of this pair of three fish ear cups, and the accurate record is "a pair of painted three fish pattern lacquer ear cups."

If there is no accident, as long as the cultural relics unearthed in tomb No. M168 have accurate names in the dispatch book, they will be named according to the dispatch book.

Kong Jianwen shook his head regretfully: "The cultural relics excavated from the Fenghuangshan tombs have all been sent to the Jingzhou Museum and the Cultural Heritage Center. They will sort them out according to this dispatch book. We don't have to worry about it."

"Unfortunately, this is just a dispatch book, and there is no other content recorded."

"However, apart from sending the booklet, there is also a surprise, you can turn to the last page and have a look."

A surprise?

Chen Han turned to the last page with some doubts.

A three-sided scanned photo of a long strip of bamboo appeared in front of Chen Han.

Isn't this exactly the piece of bamboo that Chen Han found at the bottom of the bamboo stalk before!

After being restored by the spectral imager, the text that Chen Han hadn't seen in time reappeared on the bamboo surface.

One side of the bamboo slips reads: "It is called Qian Heng for the baby's family in Yanghu, Shiyang."

On the other side, it reads: "Taking money as a burden, impeachment (engraving) is called 'four Zhu (baht)', and the two ends are equal to ten. Dare to choose the weight and balance and use it, impeach and punish you, and the family will live for ten days."

On the thin side, there are still three characters written, but the first character has been completely blurred, leaving only the word "Huang Lv".

After barely recognizing the words on the bamboo slices, Chen Han was shocked.

"This, this is a sky balance pole?!"

Kong Jianwen nodded: "Yes, this is a balance pole, to be precise, it should be a weighing scale."

What do the two sentences engraved on the bamboo slice mean?

The first sentence "is called Qian Heng for the infant family of Shiyang household." Obviously, it is an account of the maker and user of this balance.

"Zheng" means Li Zhengguan.

The Shiyanghu Renyingjia shows that this balance was made and used by a family named Yingjia in Shiyangli.

Moreover, since this "Weighing Qianheng" can appear in Mr. Sui's funeral objects, it is obviously something closely related to Mr. Sui's life.

Maybe it was a family heirloom, or maybe it was something he used to use.

In short, this "Yingjia" must be Mr. Sui's family.

Mr. Sui's mouth contains a jade seal with Yin characters, and the seal only has one word "Sui".

According to the Chinese seals unearthed in the past, if the printed text is one character, it is usually the user's name.

In other words, Mr. Sui should have the surname Ying and the first name Sui.

Ying Shi, after Jin doctor Ji Ying.

The Han Dynasty did have the surname Ying, and it was not considered a minor surname.

This is a relatively important discovery.

However, the next sentence on the other side of the bamboo slice is the real heavy news!
Taking money as a burden, the engraving is said to be four baht, and the two ends are equal to ten.Dare to choose the weight and balance and use it, impeach and punish you, and stay at home for ten days.

What does it mean?
"Using money as a burden" means using money as a weight to weigh the four and a half baht used in transactions.

In "Han Shu Shi Huo Zhi", Ying Shao has such a comment, he said, "The current money weighs four baht, and the legal money is worth a catty of sixteen Zhu, and at least a few pieces of money are enough to make Manping even." .

This passage is a good illustration of the use of French money as balance weights in the Han Dynasty to weigh money.

One end of the balance puts a hundred pieces of French money, and the other end puts a hundred pieces of four-and-a-half pieces of money used in transactions, so that the balance can be balanced.

If the four-and-a-half baht coins used in the transaction are less than the official four baht weight, a number of coins must be added to keep the balance in balance.

Judging from the writing on the balance pole, the method of using the unearthed Qian Heng is similar to this.

The difference is that the French money and the four and a half baht coins placed at both ends of the unearthed scale are ten pieces each.

"Ten at both ends" means this.

In other words, this balance pole is used to weigh money, no wonder it is called "weighing money"!
Kong Jianwen smiled slightly and said excitedly: "When modern people mention balance, the first thing they think of is the balance of Egypt."

"Indeed, according to papyrus records, as early as 1500 BC, the Egyptians had already used balances."

"Some scholars even believe that the time when the Egyptians used the balance may be earlier than this time, and they used the balance before about 5000 BC."

"However, the balance is not an imported thing for us Chinese people!"

"Instruments with a balance structure also appeared in ancient China, and they were produced very early!"

"When did it first appear, there is no way to trace it back."

"However, at least in the late Spring and Autumn Period, our Chinese balance and weight manufacturing technology has been quite sophisticated."

"It has been recorded in the history books that bamboo slices are used as balance poles, silk threads are used as knobs, and a copper plate is hung on each end."

"It was only later that because it was troublesome to weigh objects with a balance, I gradually switched to a scale, that is, the old-fashioned manual scale with a weight on one side and a hook on the other."

"The older generation still uses this kind of scale to sell things!"

"Of course, the balance is not completely eliminated, it is only used when weighing small objects."

"In ancient China, when money and silver were weighed, they were all weighed with a balance."

"In traditional Chinese medicine stores, scales have been used to weigh things since ancient times!"

"The balance, it can be said that the Egyptians started using it earlier than us, but it is absolutely impossible that we learned it from the Egyptians!"

"The Chinese balance was also invented and researched by our Chinese ancestors!"

"This sky balance pole is the most powerful proof!"

(End of this chapter)