When it comes to cultural relics that are forbidden to be exhibited abroad, there are many museums in Hunan Province.
In addition to the previously mentioned T-shaped paintings and Western Han Dynasty Qufu Plain Yarn Zen Clothes, there is also a cultural relic that is also prohibited from being exhibited, which was listed by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage as the "Third Batch of Cultural Relics Catalogue prohibited from exporting for exhibition" as early as August 2013.
This cultural relic is also the treasure of the Town Hall of Hunan Province----- the Shang Dynasty Dahe people face pattern Fang Ding.
(At that time, the history uncle took a picture in the museum, and all the surroundings were elementary school students)
What's so strange about a Ding?
Dahe human face pattern Fang Ding, is currently the only Chinese face pattern as an ornament, unlike the Shang and Zhou periods usually with animal face pattern as the theme of the ornament, human face pattern decoration is still relatively rare.
This Ding is 38.5 cm high, the mouth length is 29.8 cm, the width is 23.7 cm, the color is turquoise, the appearance of the body is carved with a semi-relief human face, and the inner wall of the Ding is cast with the inscription "Dahe", so it is called "Dahe Fangding".
Originally used primarily for cooking food, ding gradually upgraded with the development of bronze culture, and in addition to recurring in sacrifices, it was also linked to power and became a status symbol.
And Dahe Fangding, originally excavated in Huangwu Town, Ningxiang County, Hunan.
In the autumn of 1959, a farmer surnamed Huang was working in the farmland when he suddenly inadvertently dug up a rusty bronze while digging the ground.
However, the farmer did not understand that it was a cultural relic, although there was a human face protruding from the bronze, which was more strange. So he sold the bronze to a local scrap toll booth.
However, the bronze was too big, so he had to smash the bronze into several pieces, carry it down and finally sell it to the local waste recycling station.
Why does this ding have a semi-embossed human face?
At that time, the whole country was in the era of "large-scale steel smelting", and this bronze had long been classified and concentrated in the Maojiaqiao waste copper warehouse in Changsha along with all the local scrap metal products, waiting for classification and sending it to the smelter, where it was recast into copper water.
At the same time, archaeologists rushed to the Maojiaqiao scrap copper warehouse, sealed all the scrap copper and rotten iron, and after a long search, they were almost sent to the furnace and found more than 10 fragments of bronze.
After the staff's patchwork and repair, it was found that this bronze was still one leg short, but after two years, the missing leg of the bronze was also found, and this big he fangding was lucky to be preserved.
For the identity of this ding's half-human and half-beast, scholars have put forward many theories, such as gluttony, Zhu Rong, Xuan You, Bangjun statue, Wu Mian, the four sides of the Yellow Emperor, the owner's ancestral god, etc., but still can not give a definite answer.
It was not until 2007 that Liu Senmiao, an expert in bronze research, proposed a new theory, and he found that the word "Dahe" was related to the --- Hehou State, a small country at that time.
In the excavated Yin Ruins oracle bones, there is the phrase "Shangsi Hehou", which translates to a person named "Shangsi" who meets Hehou.
This Ding adopted the Central Plains style that was very popular at that time, popular from the Shang Dynasty to the early Western Zhou Dynasty.
Therefore, scholars believe that since the Dahe Fangding appeared in Ningxiang County, it means that this place was once a princely state in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, so it is believed that this Ding may be the heavy instrument of the Zongmiao Temple owned by Hou Guojun.
At the same time, this person's face ornament, the face ornament is wide and round, the eyebrows are curved like a crescent moon, coupled with the rich lips and no beard, it is inferred that it belongs to the female, and it is likely that it was the god of the Heguo faith at that time, or the image of the ruler.
And the use of women as gods, it is very likely that the Heguo was a feminist system at that time, and the ruler may be a woman, if this is the case, then as early as before Wu Zetian, there was already a female feudal supreme statistician in China?
Of course, the truth needs to be left to the future.
As the world's only human face pattern Fangding, Dahe Fangding has also become a national treasure among national treasures with great historical value.
However, there are still many unsolved mysteries on its body, and it needs to wait for time to answer.