The Chinese ancestors used physical principles nearly 2,000 years earlier than the West

Mondo Culture Updated on 2024-02-01

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1. An accidental discovery that has survived the hands of tomb robbers throughout the ages.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Qi economy was prosperous and military was strong, and the cultural heritage of Qi naturally became an inexhaustible treasure house of craftsmanship and art, in September 1992, Shandong Linzi Cement Plant was expanded, and the expansion land was located on the west side of Shangwangzhuang Village, Linzi District. The Linzi Museum and the Qi State History Museum conducted archaeological surveys on the site of the expansion project, and rescued more than 100 tombs from the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few worthless tombs, the more than 80 tombs that have been excavated have all been looted by tomb robbers throughout the ages.

A few months passed, the time came to the end of winter, and it was also the difficult season of field excavation, and the joint excavation team was ready to stop work to take a final look at the last two small tombs in the northwest corner of the entire cemetery. These two small tombs are not in sight because they have been found to have been broken by the ash pits of other Han tombs, and the tombs have been stacked with steel. However, it was this inconspicuous accident that found the only two intact Warring States tombs that had not been stolen and excavated among the nearly 100 tombs, and the archaeological team named them M1 and M2 of the tomb of King Shang. This unexpected gain does not want to become another major discovery of the archaeology of Qi since the tomb of King Qi in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty. Among them, there are nearly 300 pieces of pottery, bronze, iron, gold and silver, jade, lacquer, bone and material ware, which can be said to be a fruitful harvest.

Old cement factory in the 90s of the last century.

2. The accident of the accident - the discovery of the bronze wine brewer.

Contemporary archaeological research focuses on the comparative study of vessel types, and so far there is not much research on the aesthetics and manufacturing process of bronzes in Qi Kingdom, and even fewer studies on the rare special-shaped bronzes in some tomb excavations.

Among the more than 100 bronze vessels in the ** soil of the M1 women's tomb in Shangwang Village, Linzi, a bronze long-handled wine drinking vessel is extremely rare. The device has a height of 652 cm, outer diameter 14 cm, inner diameter 08 cm, spherical ventral diameter 72 cm, the upper end of the overall shape is a hollow four-section bamboo shape long handle, the abdomen is hollow, and the top is decorated with a dragon head ring. The lower end is a spherical device, shaped like a lotus bud, with two layers of lotus petals, each layer is four petals, the petals are convex arcs, and the shape is three-dimensional. The slub handle and the spherical device are through, there is a small square hole at the second section above the slub stalk, and there is a round hole at the bottom of the spherical device at the lower end.

From the point of view of casting process, the wine brewer is cast in three sections, the first section is the dragon head ring, the second section is the hollow bamboo tube, and the third section is the lotus bud-shaped spherical vessel. In particular, the three parts of the bamboo section of the wine drinking vessel, the ring and the three parts of the section are no different from the real bamboo, and this extremely realistic bronze casting process is made by the composite fan process superimposed on the "incineration method" process, reflecting that the bronze smelting and casting of the Qi State in the Warring States Period has reached a high level.

From the point of view of artistic characteristics, in the late Warring States period, Qi founded the Jixia School Palace, various trends of thought surged, and the study of Huang Laozhi represented by Tian Piao became the mainstream thought of Qi in the late Warring States period, and the aesthetic taste of Qi paid attention to the combination of man and nature, which was reflected from the Qi tile to the unearthed bronzes. The shape of the vessel has become lively from the majesty of the Western Zhou Dynasty, from heavy to kitsch, and the use is closer to life, eliminating the heavy style of the previous bronze.

3. The siphon principle was understood in the era of 400-300 BC.

When this wine extractor is used, the spherical vessel is sunk into the wine jug full of wine, and after the wine extractor is soaked with wine, use one finger to block the small square hole at the upper bamboo joint, and then put it out as a whole, and then release the finger, the air pressure inside and outside the cavity is balanced, and the elixir can flow out from the round hole at the bottom, which is also the "siphon phenomenon" in our physics today. This technique of using atmospheric pressure to draw wine is nearly 2,000 years earlier than the 1643 Torricelli experiment in Italy, and is of great scientific value.

As early as the Shang Dynasty in the oracle bone inscription, there is a record of "rainbow drinking in the river", which is also the earliest record of the ancients to discover the principle of siphoning, this bronze wine drinking vessel, the end of its handle is decorated with the dragon head ring, according to the speculation that the dragon head ring should be related to "dragon water absorption". We know that in oracle bone inscriptions, the shape of the "rainbow" and the dragon is very similar. The dragon head ring of the wine drinker, as well as its soaring momentum, should be derived from the ancient myth of "the dragon absorbs water", and the difference is only that the rainbow evolved into a bamboo section later.

Fourth, the wisdom of the Chinese ancestors is admirable.

The bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties are divided into four parts: food vessels, wine vessels, water vessels and musical instruments, with a total of 50 categories, of which there are 24 types of wine vessels such as wine cooking vessels, wine containers, drinking vessels, and wine storage vessels, but there are few records about wine drinking vessels. Archaeological discoveries similar to the M1 tomb unearthed in Shangwang Village, Linzi are also very rare, and there are only three wine vessels unearthed by archaeology at present. One is unearthed from the tomb of Qin and Han in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in Shaanxi County, and the style of the wine bowl unearthed from the tomb of the Shang King is similar, but the three sections are connected by copper hoops, and are only decorated with leaves that symbolize bamboo buds, and its craftsmanship level is far inferior to that of the wine bowl in the tomb of the Shang King. In addition, there are two pieces unearthed from the tomb of the king of Xuyi, Xuyi, Jiangsu, with gold and silver inlaid with precious stones. The social atmosphere of the Western Han Dynasty changed, and the aristocracy deliberately pursued the luxury of appearance, which made the utensils themselves heavy and rigid, and lost their realistic spirituality.

In addition, the ancestors of the past dynasties also designed and produced "two-heart pots", "fair cups" and other living utensils containing various physical principles.

The inside of the two-heart pot is designed with double water bladders, which are not connected to each other. The two water inlets are cleverly set at the lower end of the birthday cane and the wine gourd hanging from the shoulder. It is named because it can be poured and poured into two different liquors at the same time"Jug of conscience"The homonym of the two-hearted pot!Legend has it that the famous general of the Eastern Han Dynasty Ma Yuan conquered the Southern Barbarians, and the King of Barbarian Miao set up a Hongmen banquet, and toasted Ma Yuan with the rare Jiuqu Mandarin Duck Pot in ordinary times. King Miao mistakenly thought that the poisonous wine was ineffective, and lifted the Jiuqu Mandarin Duck pot and drank it all, but then he died violently.

The fair cup is a very distinctive drinking vessel. This type of wine vessel generally has ornaments on the inside and has a gorgeous appearance. Pour wine into a glass and only pour 10% of the capacity in the glass at a time. If there is more, the wine will flow out of the bottom of the glass until it is finished. This kind of cup, in addition to being used as a drinking vessel, is also a kind of "precept" vessel, persuading people not to be complacent, drinking and paying attention to moderation, and so on. Therefore, the fair cup is also called the "persuasion cup".

These exquisite wine vessels make full use of the principles of atmospheric pressure such as "siphons" and "communicators", and skillfully apply the simple physical principles to the living utensils.

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