In the I Ching, it is said: "Cow elephant Kun, Kun is soil, soil is better than water". The ancients also clouded: soldiers will block, water will come to cover.
Cast iron cattle are placed on the banks of the river, which is believed to be a deterrent to the flooding of the Yellow River, symbolizing the flood, conquering the flood, and benefiting the people.
The Tang Dynasty Kaiyuan Iron Bull was buried by mud and sand and re-excavated in 89
The famous ferry port on the ancient Yellow River, Pujindu, is located on the east bank of the Yellow River outside the west gate of Gupuzhou City in Yongji City, Shanxi Province. In addition to the Pujin Bridge, the famous Tang Kaiyuan Iron Bull is also located here.
Kaiyuan Iron Bull, also known as Tang Dynasty Iron Bull and Yellow River Iron Bull, is located fifteen kilometers west of Yongji City, and there are four statues on each side of the Yellow River Ancient Road west of Puzhou City. The iron bull was cast in the thirteenth year of Tang Kaiyuan, in order to stabilize the Pujin pontoon bridge and maintain the traffic of Qin and Jin.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the bridge was destroyed for a long time, so it was called "Zhenhe Iron Bull".
This giant iron bull has a variety of other functions in addition to the role of fixing the rope bridge. After that, due to the eastward movement of the Yellow River, Kaiyuan Iron Bull and others did not enter the water and quietly disappeared.
In the 1940s, the river flowed along the western city wall of Puzhou, and according to local elders, during the dry season, the horns of iron cattle could be touched in the water, and the bottom of the boat was injured by the horns of the boat.
After the 1950s, due to flood storage in the Sanmenxia reservoir area, the siltation of the riverbed, and the westward movement of the river, the iron cattle had been buried deep in the river beach more than 2 meters below the surface of the Yellow River in the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1988, with the strong support of the county party committee and the county government, the Yongji County Museum finally discovered and unearthed Tang Kaiyuan Iron Bull and Iron Man in August of the following year, which attracted the attention of people from all walks of life.
The Kaiyuan Iron Bull is huge and priceless
The Kaiyuan Iron Bull is the most prominent, well-preserved and most ornamental cultural relics in the Pujindu site, with the Ming Dynasty strata about 7 meters above the surface. There is also an iron man next to each of the four iron bulls, such as the Herding Cow.
The iron bull is divided into two groups, north and south, two oxen in a group, swinging forward and backward, facing west. Iron bulls and other relics of the Tangpujin Bridge are still arranged as listed in the front bridgehead, which can also be seen in the Tang Dynasty Bridge Construction Project.
Each iron bull is about 1.9 meters high, about 3 meters long, about 1.3 meters wide, and has a horizontal shaft behind the tail of the ox, with a diameter of about 0.4 meters and a length of about 2.3 meters. There are ornaments on the head of the shaft, and each axis is different, with beaded ornaments, diamond flowers, curly grasses, and lotus flowers.
Mr. Tang Huancheng, a famous bridge expert, once praised the iron bull and the iron man and said: "This is a specific project construction, an art treasure with practical functions, a typical example of the organic combination of technology and art, a contribution of Chinese people to the cause of bridges, metallurgy and sculpture in the world, and an eternal and priceless treasure in the history of world bridges." ”
Priceless cultural relics are preserved in the open air, which is really helpless
According to the experience of the excavation of cultural relics in the past, most of the excavated cultural relics have been preserved in special places, and special personnel are also responsible for storing them to prevent damage, but the iron cattle on the edge of the Yellow River have been placed on the open river bank after being fished out.
In fact, it's not that experts don't want to protect them, it's that they don't know how to protect them and don't dare to do it easily.
First of all, these iron bulls, along with various pieces and pieces, each weighed about 70 tons and was quite large, and it was not easy to find a suitable place for them, so they were placed on the bank of the river.
In addition, how to properly protect large-scale iron cultural relics has always been a world problem, not only China's cultural relics protection units do not have a good way to protect, but foreign experts have not been able to put forward some better suggestions.
In the past, our experts also went through some exploration in order to properly protect the iron bull, but in the process of exploring the method, they suffered a lot of losses.
In the end, after some tossing and turning, the cultural relics not only failed to be well protected, but also made the situation worse, and even accelerated the speed of their rust.
You know, this iron bull has been soaking in the water of the Yellow River for a long time, but there is no rusting situation, and now let the experts "protect" it, the result is a problem, how dare the experts who cherish the cultural relics as fate dare to try it easily?
brief summary
As far as the current situation is concerned, the condition of the Yellow River iron bull is still quite good, but fortunately, the casting process of the ancients is very powerful, and the quality of the iron cow manufactured is excellent.
Therefore, in the short term, those rust stains will not expand, let alone endanger the main body of the iron bull, so the best way to protect them now is not to do any intervention in case the situation becomes bad.
Because of the weight of the iron bulls, it also ensures that even if they are stored in the open, they will not be stolen, and it is believed that it is the best way to stay on the bank of the Yellow River and let them continue to protect the safety of the people.
Reference: I Ching
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