Cultural relics have experienced the baptism of time, the change of dynasties, the changes of history, and they can still survive to this day, which is not easy. Their existence not only represents the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancient working people on the mainland, but also a bridge connecting ancient and modern times, and a medium for dialogue between ancient and modern people.
Although the cultural relics cannot speak, they use their own colors, materials, shapes, etc., to silently convey information to us and tell their own stories.
Cultural relics are of great significance to us, and what they bring us is an endless wealth of knowledge. In particular, those rare cultural relics can better represent the distinctive characteristics of a dynasty. By understanding them, we can indirectly deepen our understanding of that dynasty.
Introduction to the Yellow River Iron Bull
The Yellow River Iron Bull sounds like an ornament standing by the Yellow River, so is that true?
In fact, the Yellow River iron bull casting is the thirteenth year of Tang Kaiyuan, with the nickname of "Tang Dynasty Iron Bull" and "Kaiyuan Iron Bull", which is a famous zhenshui god beast on the bank of the Yellow River, which plays the role of fixing the bridge cable.
So why did the Tang Dynasty people cast iron cows instead of other animals? This is because "soldiers will block, water will cover the soil", cattle represent the soil, so people think that cattle have the effect of calming water and driving disasters.
The iron bull has a variety of shapes, about 3 meters long, 1 meter 3 wide, 1 meter 9 high, and weighs 70 tons. They have two rows of heads, west, tail, and east, facing the river, with their front legs as kicking legs and their hind legs squatting, with their heads held high and their chests held high, looking very athletic.
The iron man on the side is pulling, the majestic look, which can't help but be reminiscent of the idyllic scene of a faction driving cattle. From the outside, they represent different ethnic groups, which also shows that Chinese civilization is extremely inclusive. Iron Bull is not only huge in size, but also ingenious in its production process.
The Tang Dynasty relied on the mature ironmaking technology of the fire to bring every iron cow to life. To prevent rust, ancient craftsmen also coated its surface with a thick coating.
The iron bull was unearthed and re-seen in the open air
With the change of the Yellow River, the Yellow River Iron Bull was also submerged by sediment. In the 1940s, whenever the water was dry, people could still touch a cow's horn when they went into the water. Because of this, bull horns often scratch the bottom of passing ships. By the 1950s, the Yellow River iron cow had been buried so deeply in the mud and sand that even the horns could not be touched.
Because the Yellow River iron bull has a long history, the river has been washed away for a long time, and it has had a certain corrosion on its surface. This makes the Yellow River iron bull more fragile and makes it more difficult to excavate.
In order to maximize the protection of the Yellow River Iron Bull, the experts decided to adopt the "local protection" approach after careful consideration and detailed discussion. Experts raised the base for the Yellow River Iron Bull and placed them on the surface using a series of tools.
The excavated Yellow River iron bull is also accompanied by realistic iron figures, which have clear ornaments on their bodies, which shows that the casting process is very good, which can't help but make people marvel.
Open-air displays await the plan, but experts dare not protect it
In order not to let the Yellow River iron bull disappear, the local authorities decided to remove the iron cow from the river, but why did the experts dare not protect it when it was successfully transported ashore?
That's because there have been regrettable situations in the past cultural relics protection work. For example, the iron lion "Zhenhai Roar" in Cangzhou, Hebei Province, has not rusted after a thousand years of baptism of wind and rain. However, as soon as the staff carried out protection work on it, it became rusty and very badly damaged.
What a shame that such a consequence has been caused by the failure of the protection technology! Therefore, in order not to repeat the same mistakes, experts do not dare to act rashly without the support of mature technology.
Therefore, what experts do not dare to protect is not to protect cultural relics, but to rush to use uncertain, even imperfect, immature technology to do protection work for them.
Because instead of letting the cultural relics bear the risk of secondary damage, it is better to put them aside for the time being and wait for the opportunity to appear. For these thousand-year-old artifacts, perhaps no harm is the best protection.
The protection method of iron cultural relics has been plaguing experts until now, they have to consider various emergencies when cultural relics are unearthed, consider which method to choose, which tools to use to excavate cultural relics, and how to prevent the rust of cultural relics.
How to successfully protect and maintain iron cultural relics is a big problem in this world, and I hope that one day it can be solved. In this way, we can protect the painstaking efforts of the ancients and let the classics live on forever.
Summary: The protection of cultural relics is not only an important cultural heritage for maintaining national stability, but also an important prerequisite for promoting the development of the diversity of world civilizations. Therefore, it is the unshirkable mission and responsibility of all Sons and Daughters of China to do a good job in the protection of cultural relics and to continuously improve and improve the methods of protecting cultural relics.
The excavation and protection of cultural relics in the mainland has been continuing, and I believe that in the near future, the protection of cultural relics on the mainland will certainly produce a qualitative leap!