The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized the promotion of high-quality development of the "Belt and Road". Let us visit those glorious historical monuments in the museum, and appreciate and look forward to the glory of yesterday and the glory of tomorrow of the "Belt and Road".
This article was published in China Women
Look back at the prosperity at the beginning of the ancient Silk Road
Recommended by/Li Yadan
The Terracotta Army stands majestically at the beginning of the Silk Road
The Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang stands majestically, the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum worships the ancestors and drums continuously, the Buddha Shakyamuni relics shine with the light of the Buddha, and the Xi'an city wall tells the prosperity of the ancient capital in the past... This is the starting point of Zhang Qian's envoy to the Western Regions, and on the ancient Silk Road, which stretches for thousands of miles and lasts for thousands of years, the ancient capital Chang'an is dazzling.
I have always been curious, what was the scene of Chang'an City at that time, with the four Yi and the Wanbang dynasty? Why has it attracted envoys, business groups and scholars from all over the world to become an "international metropolis"? What is the charm of the distant and meteorological Tang Dynasty? Exploring the museum at the beginning of the Silk Roads may tell me the answer I want. As a result, the Shaanxi History Museum became the first choice for my trip to Xi'an.
Walking into the museum, one by one the cultural relics in the collection seemed to be whispering to me, displaying the "commemorative book of growth" that recorded the land of the Three Qins...
The treasure of the town hall - the gold-encrusted beast head agate cup
This is an exotic "treasure of the town hall" - an agate cup with a gold beast head. At first glance at this cup, its mysterious beast head decoration and unique shape are incompatible with the world, as if it was born out of thin air. It turned out that this was an agate raw material from the Western Regions and the popular "Laitong" corner cup shape in the Greek Peninsula at that time, and it was also a testimony to the Tang Dynasty aristocracy's admiration of Hu style and imitation of novel banquet and drinking. My thoughts traveled through thousands of years, and I looked at the gold-encrusted beast-headed agate cup, as if I saw a jade road, a trade road, and a road of civilization exchange stretching across the vast land from the Mediterranean coast to Chang'an City.
The treasure of the town hall - the three-colored camel carrying trick figurine
There are many treasures with the Western Regions style: exquisite and transparent crystal eight-curved long cups, convex glasses that are more expensive than gold, and even many gold and silver currencies of Central and West Asian countries... These treasures, which were brought to Chang'an via the Silk Road, encompass the style of the Western Regions countries, penetrate into art, dress, living habits and handicraft production, and truly reproduce the "foreign trade circle" at the beginning of the Silk Road. Through these magnificent and peculiar cultural relics, we can still touch the pulse of cultural integration, vitality and prosperity brought by the Silk Road to the Tang Dynasty.
Since ancient times, Xi'an has had the geographical advantages of connecting the east and the west, connecting the north and the south, gathering and distributing all directions, and radiating the whole country. The past millennium, without the smooth and active Silk Road, there would not have been the birth of these exquisite cultural relics; Without the Tang Dynasty's embracing diverse social culture, these treasures would not have left us with a unique historical memory.
Mandarin duck lotus petaled gold bowl
The thousand-year-old Silk Road, heard the sound again. This city, which has led the world economic and cultural center, has been moving forward in the process of building the core area of the "Belt and Road", a national central city and an international metropolis. The Chang'an, a China-Europe train between China and Central Asia and Europe, is shortening the trade distance between many Chinese cities and countries and regions along the Silk Road, accompanied by a loud whistle shuttling back and forth on the new trade route.
Chang'an lights are like day, and the ancient capital is still at night. Today's Xi'an, under the accumulation of thousands of years of history, has ushered in a new chapter of development, and is rushing from a "historical and cultural city" to an open capital of the "Belt and Road" with its head held high.
Pick the flowers of cultural integration in the desert
Referrer/Li Hanyu Photo courtesy/Mo Ding
Xinjiang, mysterious, ancient, and amazing, has always been a place in my heart. The mountains and rivers are magnificent, the Hanhai is boundless, the grasslands are thousands of acres, the Gobi is strange, the Kunlun is frozen for thousands of miles, and the unpredictable desert; It is not only a vast and rich melon and fruit town, a country of gold and jade, but also an "underground museum" full of historical sites and strange folk customs, ancient tombs, thousand Buddha caves, Loulan ruins, and the ancient city, in this colorful land accounting for one-sixth of China's total area, there are countless strange stories buried all over the world.
On the last day of my trip to Xinjiang, I brought my son to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum, hoping to experience the beautiful natural landscapes and imprint a deeper and unique Xinjiang memory in my heart through the museum's historical and cultural edification.
The colorful murals record unique memories of Xinjiang
Located in the heart of Asia and Europe, Xinjiang is a well-deserved point of the ancient Silk Road and a meeting place of Eastern and Western cultures, as evidenced by the Ancient History and Cultural Relics Exhibition Hall. Ancient fossils, exquisite jade, vivid clay figurines, brightly colored fabrics, rare simple swords, ingenious murals, as well as the writings and currencies of various ethnic groups in ancient Xinjiang, etc., more than a thousand exhibits show this cultural and historical pearl hidden in the desert in front of our eyes, which makes people dizzy and breathtaking.
Painted clay sculpture playing polo figurines
My son's favorite exhibition hall is to reproduce the sand table model of the ancient Silk Road, the merchants trading back and forth have different shapes, the camel caravan carrying goods is lifelike, close up, as if traveling back to the bustling silk trade road thousands of years ago, in front of the dazzling goods, the ears are crisp camel bells and lively shouting, the son observed excitedly and carefully, looked at it for more than ten minutes, and asked me with interest, "Is the Silk Road still there?" I touched his head and said, "Yes, the Silk Road has always been there." ”
The ancient corpse exhibition hall is the "treasure" exhibition hall of the Xinjiang Museum, and countless tourists come to admire it. Dry, saline, sterile, unique environmental conditions, Xinjiang has become the world's most unearthed ancient corpses, the best preserved area, among the 21 ancient corpses on display, the most famous is the "Loulan beauty" that has been incorruptible for 4,000 years. Facing the "Loulan beauty" in the glass case, the son was both afraid and curious, covering his eyes and secretly observing from between his fingers, his face was tan, the bridge of his nose was high, his eye sockets were deeply sunken, his chin was pointy, his brown straight hair was scattered over his shoulders, his thick curly eyelashes were clearly visible, immortal, stunning the world, it is not difficult to imagine that this unknown foreign woman must have been a beautiful woman who fell in love with the country before her death.
My son turned to me and said she was like a mummy, and I said it was different, the mummy was artificially embalmed, and the dried corpse in Xinjiang was naturally formed. Although the 21 ancient corpses have been buried here for a long time, thousands of years ago, they came from different peoples and countries, migrated here through the Silk Road, crossed cultural and linguistic barriers, and mixed with each other in history, creating a colorful Xinjiang culture, "Loulan beauty" is a beautiful "silk visitor".
There are many exhibition halls in Xinjiang Museum, which is worth visiting again and again
Loulan, Tianshan, Ili, Hami, Douzhuan Star Shift, the vicissitudes of the sea, the once Western Regions, are unreachable frontier places; Today's Xinjiang is a shining pearl in the desert. The once prosperous ancient Silk Road, stretching for thousands of years and endlessly, has now developed into the "Belt and Road" that benefits the world, which is unique and inclusive, distant and modern, which not only confirms the development history of Chinese civilization of diversity and integration, but also witnesses the birth of a more open and brilliant new era, always with the most warm, open and full attitude, to welcome visitors from all over the world, meet and know each other here, and share the prosperity.
Listen to the echoes of the waves of a century-old shipwreck
Recommended by/Li Mengjiao Photo courtesy of Guangdong Maritime Silk Road Museum
A visit to the Guangdong Maritime Silk Road Museum was a fortuitous accident. My friend and I are both fans of "Tomb Robbery Notes", and when we went to Guangdong last year to play, we found this museum that we almost missed, which displayed ancient Song Dynasty commercial ships salvaged from the bottom of the sea.
Guangdong Maritime Silk Road Museum is one of the three most famous shipwreck museums in the world
The Guangdong Maritime Silk Road Museum is located on the corner of the coast, like undulating waves and flapping seagulls, under its brilliant appearance, wrapped in an ancient ship full of thousands of years of history. Entering the venue, I went straight to the Crystal Palace containing the ancient ship "Nanhai I", a scarred ancient ship wrapped in silt, full of mottled cultural relics, infinitely magnified by the huge glass jar in front of me. In this way, modern civilization and historical relics have realized the intersection of time and space, the crumbling hull, the crumbling mast, in the moment of sinking to the bottom of the sea, have you ever thought of the day when you will see the light of day again? I couldn't help but wonder, where did it start and where it was going, what kind of cargo was carried by such a cargo ship, and how should the damage caused by its sinking be compensated? Just as I was in my mind, my friend suddenly reached out and shook it in front of my eyes, pulling me to the exhibition hall to see the artifacts salvaged from the bottom of the sea.
A chrysanthemum petal disc from Zhejiang Longquan kiln salvaged with "Nanhai I"
There are more than 4,500 gold, copper, iron, porcelain and jade cultural relics of various kinds, and more than 6,000 copper coins of the Song Dynasty. The porcelain is unique in shape and exquisite in craftsmanship, and although it is obviously fragile, it has been preserved in a catastrophe, completing the fateful encounter with each of our visitors. Friends sighed that these porcelains are too beautiful, and the craftsmanship is not inferior to the porcelain produced in Jingdezhen now.
Looking back in history, it is as if we saw the merchant ship full of goods in the Song Dynasty coming towards us
The economy of the Song Dynasty was unprecedentedly prosperous, and as the economic center moved south, the southern cities near the sea relied on their unique geographical advantages, coupled with policy support, and maritime trade was unprecedentedly developed. The shipbuilding industry and navigation industry of the Song Dynasty were at the international leading level at that time, the ships were large in size, the hulls were also very strong, and they were silent for nearly a thousand years, but they were still well preserved. Mainland porcelain is exported to Southeast Asia, Europe, etc., in the era of no convenient means of transportation, the maritime Silk Road is a magic pen to promote world exchanges and trade, and also laid the foundation for foreigners to love Chinese porcelain and tea.
After the reform and opening up, especially in the new era, the economy of the southeast coast of the mainland has developed rapidly, and Guangzhou is still the premier port city. Today, hundreds of giant ships depart from the ports of Guangdong every day, carrying goods from China to all parts of the world. Spanning 800 years of history, that legendary sea ship is sailing through the hunting sea breeze.