Chinese culture has a long history, broad and profound, as the only country without faults in the four ancient civilizations, the history of the past five thousand years has left us too many treasures. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, with the maturity of archaeological technology and the development of science and technology, more and more cultural relics have been displayed in front of the eyes of the world, and these precious cultural relics are all historical relics of historical, artistic and scientific values, and all of them are treasures of the Chinese nation.
However, due to the age, the preservation of cultural relics has always been a major problem in the archaeological community, a little careless, these precious cultural relics may be annihilated, so all the excavated cultural relics are carefully protected, if the technical level is not reached, it is better not to excavate than let it be damaged. However, there is such a precious cultural relic, unearthed in the open air, without any protective measures, what is going on?
In 1989, during the promotion of the Three Gorges Project, experts inadvertently discovered the site of Pujindu of the Yellow River in Yongji, Shanxi, and then "unearthed" four huge iron cows, each of which was about 1.9 meters high, about 3 meters long, and about 1.3 meters wide, and had a horizontal axis behind the tail of the ox, with a diameter of about 0.4 meters and a length of about 2.3 meters. The shaft head has ornaments, and each shaft is different, with beaded ornaments, diamond flowers, curly grass, lotus flowers and so on. Each weighs about 30 tons, plus the chassis, it can reach 70 tons!
At that time, the discovery of the iron bull caused a huge sensation, so "behemoth" was found under the Yellow River, which inevitably made people have some "strange power and chaotic gods" ideas, the mainland has had a "pagoda town river demon" since ancient times, is these iron cattle are river gods, used to guard the yellow river water monsters?
Of course, the idea of the incarnation of the river god is nonsense, but the saying of "town guard" is true, the I Ching says: "Cow elephant Kun, Kun is soil, soil is better than water." Cast iron cattle are placed on the banks of the river, which is a deterrent to the flooding of the Yellow River, symbolizing the flood, conquering the flood, and benefiting the people. After many investigations, archaeologists finally determined that these four iron bulls should be the thirteenth year of Tang Kaiyuan (725), Tang Xuanzong cast to stabilize the Pujin pontoon bridge and maintain the traffic of Qin and Jin, which has a history of 1,200 years, which is a real "old antique"!
Speaking of this, we have to mention the site of Pujindu, which is one of the ancient Yellow River crossings, where the history of building bridges has a long history, "Spring and Autumn Left Biography" records: In the year of Zhao A.D., The Prince of Qin ran to Jin and built boats on the river. "Beginner's Record": "Gongzi Xian made a boat in Puban Xia Yangjin, and now the Pujin Pontoon Bridge is also." ”
In other words, the land of Pujindu embodies the achievements made by successive dynasties in bridge transportation, flood control, casting technology, etc., and can better reflect the changes in the water level of the Yellow River and the changes in the river channels of the dynasties.
Therefore, the discovery of the Pujindu site is of great significance, and the four Yellow River iron cattle found as the stable objects of the Pujindu pontoon bridge are self-evident, and Mao Yisheng, a famous bridge expert in the mainland, once said: "Among the anchors of the pontoon bridges, the Iron Bull Anchor of the Pujin Bridge is the most famous."
The discovery of iron cattle is easy, how to protect but let the experts headache, the preservation of iron cultural relics has always been a difficult problem, there is no good solution in the world. Ironware and moisture in the air after contact, very easy to rust, if the protection is not effective, these four precious iron bulls are very likely to be "swallowed" by rust, thus disappearing in the long river of history, which we absolutely do not allow! At the beginning, the iron lion of Cangzhou, Hebei Province, "Zhenhai Roar", was due to poor protection, rusty, almost collapsed, making people extremely regretful and heartache, the lessons of the past and the future, the same mistakes must not be made again!
Experts have set up a special protection group to discuss how to properly protect the Yellow River iron bull, in the process of research, some experts put forward a "surprising" suggestion, that is, not to protect, completely open in the open, artificial do not intervene too much, why is this?
It turned out that experts found that these four iron cows have been cast for more than 1,200 years, and have sunk under the water for hundreds of years, but after being fished up, they look lifelike, the pattern on the body is clearly visible, and the main body has almost no embroidery, which shows that the ancients have considered the problem of rust when casting, which must have undergone special treatment, otherwise it is impossible to sink under the water for hundreds of years without rotting!
Therefore, experts boldly suggest that we do not deliberately protect, nor do we intervene too much by people, let it develop naturally, and see how effective it is. Facts have proved that the experts' conjecture is correct, the Yellow River iron bull has been out of the water since 1989, has a history of thirty years, and in these thirty years, the main body of the iron cow placed in the open air has hardly any embroidery!
In ancient times, when productivity was not developed, how did the ancients do this? Some people speculate that the ancient casting process is not mature, the iron used in casting iron cattle must have a lot of impurities, so it is not easy to rust, and some people say that the ancients coated it with a preservative layer. What the truth is, waiting for future generations to reveal!
References: "I Ching", "Spring and Autumn Left Biography", "Beginner's Record"