In the early 1980s, there was a wave of intangible cultural heritage applications in the world, and many countries took out their national essence to apply to the United Nations. Japan was also very excited and rushed to join in the fun. Unexpectedly, their application was rejected by the United Nations because China unearthed a cultural relic that proved that Japan's so-called national essence was just a copycat. What's going on? Today we will tell this story.
There is a folk theory about the origin of Japan, that the Japanese are the descendants of Xu Fu, and that Japan's Emperor Shenmu is actually Xu Fu. Although this is only a legend and has no relevant historical facts, it is an indisputable fact that many of Japan's culture originated in China. Japan's relations with China began as early as the Han Dynasty, when Liu Xiu, the Guangwu Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, also gave the Japanese emissary a golden seal of the Han Dynasty, and the Later Han Shu Dongyi Lie biography also recorded this event: "In the second year of the Jianwu Dynasty (57 AD), the Uighur Kingdom paid tribute to the pilgrimage, making people call themselves doctors, and Guangwu gave them the seal silk. ”
At that time, China was far ahead of Japan in many aspects, Japan was very envious of China's advanced culture and technology, many times sent people to China to study, the Tang Dynasty period reached its peak, called the Tang Envoy, many of China's cultural technology thus flowed into Japan, including food culture and clothing culture, Japan's tea ceremony and kimono have the shadow of Chinese culture, clogs were also introduced to Japan during this period. Clogs, also known as "foot clothes" in China, is a kind of Hanfu foot clothes, which first appeared in the Shang Dynasty period in China and disappeared with the demise of the Qing Dynasty.
After the introduction of clogs to Japan, it was quickly welcomed and popular among the Japanese. Later, the Japanese made some improvements to the clogs, marking the surface of the wooden tire with a gray background, and then applying various colors of paint, called lacquered clogs. Before the 1980s, international historians and archaeologists believed that lacquered clogs were invented by the Japanese. At that time, there were no historical records and excavations of lacquered clogs in China, so the domestic historians and archaeological circles did not dispute this statement, and the so-called national essence submitted by Japan to the United Nations was this kind of lacquered clogs.
Unexpectedly, as soon as Japan's application report was submitted, a pair of extremely exquisite lacquered clogs were unearthed in Ma'anshan, Anhui, China. This pair of lacquered clogs was found in the tomb of Zhu Ran, a famous eastern Wu general of the Three Kingdoms, and has a history of more than 1700 years. This pair of lacquered clogs is 20.5 cm long, 9.6 cm wide and 0.9 cm thick, and the clogs and teeth of the clogs are chiseled from a single plank. The clogs are curved round heads in front of and behind, and the black and shiny surface of the clogs is dark and shiny, and the lacquer surface is also dotted with bright colored small stones, which is even more gorgeous. As soon as this discovery was announced, it immediately shocked the international archaeological community, and it directly proved that lacquered clogs were first invented in China and then introduced to Japan. Japan's so-called national essence is only a copycat version of China, and Japan's application for heritage was rejected by the United Nations.