Cultural relics are the memory of history and the carrier of cultural inheritance. Whether a country can become an ancient civilization can be confirmed by the number of types of cultural relics unearthed in the country and the degree of history.
Archaeologists and historians who want to excavate new unknown historical materials can only start from the cultural relics unearthed in ancient times, study the difficult to read words on them, and restore the original historical appearance of the time little by little.
Therefore, the cultural relics with written engravings have greater historical research significance, such as tortoise shells and animal bones engraved with symbolic characters.
Of course, the oracle bone can only be regarded as the oldest script with a relatively complete Chinese script, because there are more ancient JiaHu inscriptions, which are also considered to be a kind of writing, but unfortunately, only a few symbols of the Jiahu inscriptions have been unearthed, and it is difficult to study how much valuable things are from them.
As the carrier of cultural heritage, what is the inheritance of cultural relics?
When it comes to the oldest writing that is more complete, it is impossible to avoid cuneiform writing, because it is the oldest script known.
So what exactly is wedge-shaped text in the world known today? It is recorded in A Brief History of Mankind:
"29,086 unit barley 37 months cousing."
The translation is:
"In 37 months, a total of 29,086 units of barley were received. Signed off by Cushing. ”
The first text in human history was not only not philosophical ingenuity, not poetry, not legend, not law, not even a tribute to the royal family, but a seemingly boring, meaningless ledger that recorded various taxes, debts, and ownership of property.
That's interesting, right, so what does that mean? This shows that money has always been an important factor stimulating the development of civilization, and another important factor is war.
Coincidentally, there is also such a cultural relic in China, which also has a record of taxation, a treasure that has been lost for hundreds of years, was used by a couple to "spread pancakes", and later appeared at auction, and its value was as high as 200 million. To this end, experts also said that nearly 200 million were wasted!
It is the nail plate, which some people jokingly call "the most expensive pan in history".
The history of the armor plate
The history of Xijia Pan has a long history, and it was specially given to him by King Xuan of Western Zhou in order to reward a man named Xijia for his military exploits. There are 133 words on it, and the inscription is to the effect of:
In March of the fifth year of King Xuan of Zhou, the king personally led an army to fight against the badgers, and Xi Jia went out with the king, killing the enemy and prisoners, and making meritorious achievements, and King Xuan rewarded the Xi Jia horses with four chariots. He also ordered Xi Jia to take charge of the grain payment of the four sides and the four sides.
Nan Huaiyi was originally a vassal of the Zhou Dynasty, and did not dare not pay tribute, nor did he dare not transport trade goods, otherwise he would raise an army to fight. All those who belonged to the Southern Huaiyi must stay in the designated places; the merchants who engaged in business had to go to the markets managed by the government, and those who dared to disobey the orders of the King of Zhou were punished.
The princes and people under the Zhou Dynasty who did business and dared not go to the market and dared to accept the barbarian merchants without authorization were also severely punished.
From this inscription, someone summed up four points:
1. Xi Jia followed the Zhou king's Northern Expedition to the Xiongnu to win. Another bronze plate, "Yu Jizi White Disk", which is a few years later than the Xijia Plate, also records the Northern Expedition and is the treasure of the National Museum.
Second, Xi Jia governed The Southern Huaiyi and maintained the stability of the dynasty's southeast frontier.
Third, Xi Jia supervised tribute, standardized commerce and trade, strictly enforced the law, and was an important minister in governing the country, which opened the Western Zhou Zhongxing.
Fourth, the tribute of Nanhuaiyi to Zhou was mainly silk fabrics, and the route from Huanghuai to Shaanxi was the early "Silk Road".
Xi Jia is said to be Yin Jifu, the character Ji Father, Yi Zuo Ji Fu, Xi Shi, Ming Jia, Jin Wen Zuo Xi Jia, Xi Bo Ji Fu. He was a member of the Bo clan after the Yellow Emperor, and his original surname was 姞, and he was also known as Yin Jifu because he was named Yin.
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, Yin Jifu fought in Pingyao, Shanxi, and Nanpi, Cangzhou, Hebei, where he ate yifang and died in Fang.
Yin Jifu's exploits are not only a little battle feat recorded on the Xijia plate, he is also the collector, compiler, and great poet in Chinese history of the Book of Poetry.
Moreover, he is an outstanding thinker, politician, military man, philosopher, writer, musician, martial artist, educator, the earliest tax official, the earliest market management official, the monarch of the Yin Kingdom, and the common ancestor of 2 million Yin people and 600,000 Ji people. Have you ever seen an all-rounder? This one is.
As far as Chong Yin Jifu's personal resume is concerned, the value of a cultural relic belonging to him is self-evident.
As we said above, cultural relics are only valuable because they are carriers of culture, and behind them hide one after another or amazing or interesting true stories.
If it is only used as a metal utensil, how much is 2 pounds of copper, and no matter how exquisite the pan is, it cannot sell for an amazing price. The cultural heritage contained in the Xijia plate is worth 200 million.
In fact, xijia pan became famous in the Song Dynasty, appeared in the inner mansion of Shaoxing during the Southern Song Dynasty, and later due to the war, the Jin soldiers invaded, and the Xijia pan was lost in the chaos.
Until the time of the Yuan Dynasty, the great calligrapher and connoisseur xian Yushu at that time, when the family of Li Shun's father found this plate, he had broken the plate and used it as a cooking utensil, so he bought it. This is the origin of "the most expensive pan in history".
Then, when it appeared in the written records again, it had reached the Qing Dynasty era and was collected in the public warehouse in Baoding.
Later, in the late Qing Dynasty, Western imperialism invaded, wantonly plundered China's cultural relics, changed hands several times, and finally wandered into Western countries. It wasn't until 2010, when it was discovered that the plate had appeared at an American auction, that the artifact was truly known to the world.
brief summary:
It is worth mentioning that at that American auction, a patriotic Chinese person spared no expense to buy this national treasure heavy weapon that has been handed down for thousands of years. Four years later, at the first "China Hubei Cultural and Art Fair" held in Wuhan, Xijia Pan was publicly displayed in China for the first time.
At the time of the exhibition, the China Cultural Relics Information Consulting Center invited several experts from the State Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee to conduct the appraisal, including scholars who have been studying the poetry of Yin Jifu for more than 30 years.
In the end, after many appraisals, whether it is from the shape, ornamentation, shell rust, casting traces, and inscriptions, it can be determined that this is the authenticity of the long-lost and famous Western Zhou heavy weapon Xijia plate.
information:
Yuval Harari, A Brief History of Mankind
21st Century Business Herald "The Past and Present Lives of 212.75 Million National Treasure Xijia Pan Were Compared with Mao Gongding"
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