The reason why China's history can continue is that in addition to the records of historical documents, there is also a unique experience and witness - cultural relics.
Cultural relics are priceless to us, not only because of their inestimable value, but also because they represent an indelible history.
It is precisely because of the existence of cultural relics that we can more clearly recognize the ancient history and appreciate the breadth and profundity of Chinese culture.
In our opinion, cultural relics are priceless, and picking out any one can make ordinary people struggle for several lifetimes.
In this case, cultural relics should be well preserved, and museums are their best home, and in today's China, many cultural relics are collected in museums, which are well protected and managed.
With a proud attitude, they tell the history and stories behind them to generations of people
It's just that in the course of history, there are many cultural relics that have been damaged and have not been protected as they should be, which is really a great loss.
Fortunately, we are no longer the same as we used to be, we have the ability to protect our own things, and the artifacts that are found have a safe place to live.
But there are exceptions, there is a piece of unearthed in our country that has not been "carefully" protected, let alone sent to the museum's collection of cultural relics, but has been placed in the open air, and no one even protects it.
Its name is Kaiyuan Iron Bull, also known as the Yellow River Iron Bull, of course, it is not only one, but there are four.
Up to now, the Yellow River Iron Ox has been unearthed for 33 years, after the baptism of wind and rain, although they have been imprinted with the traces of time, but still maintain an awe-inspiring majestic postureLet people be able to look back at the Tang Dynasty for a thousand years.
Since the Yellow River Iron Ox is a national treasure-level cultural relic, why has it been placed in the open air, some scholars have said the answer: they dare not move at all.
So what's the story behind this?
In Chinese history, many cultural relics have not been protected and managed for various reasons.
For example, during the Qing Dynasty, due to wars and political turmoil, many cultural relics were damaged or lost overseas; In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, due to the lack of protection awareness and capital investment, many cultural relics were not well protected and managed.
However,These cultural relics, which are not protected and managed, often have important historical and cultural value, and the Yellow River Iron Ox is no exception, but the only difference is that the Yellow River Iron Ox itself does not need urgent protection, after all, they have the capital to maintain their true colors.
Back in the late eighties of the last century.
With the strong support of the county party committee and the county, the Yongji County Museum in Shanxi Province officially opened the exploration of both sides of the Yellow River Ancient Road in the west of Puzhou.
Of course, this exploration is not a blind exploration, but evidence-based, according to the recollection of local eldersWhen they were young, they would always go down to the river to play, and during the dry season, they could feel the hard horns in the water, and some local fishermen also had the case of the bottom of the boat being scratched by hard objects when they were sailing in the river.
This is enough to show that there must be unknown objects in the river.
After more than a year of investigation, experts and scholars from the Yongji County Museum finally discovered that there were huge iron oxen and iron men under the river.
Now that they have been discovered, there is no reason to let them sleep at the bottom of the river, so after several months of intensive preparation, all four iron oxen were unearthed.
In the subsequent excavation process, four iron men, two iron mountains, a group of seven-star iron pillars and three earth and stone rammed piles were unearthed.
The Yellow River Iron Ox is about 1 height each9 meters, about 3 meters long and about 1 meter wide3 meters, according to calculations, the weight of each iron ox is about 30 tons, if you count the chassis river iron pillars below, each head is about 40 tons, which is a typical Big Mac.
There is a transverse axis behind the tail of the iron bull, with a diameter of about 04 meters, about 23 meters, the head of the horizontal axis has a variety of ornaments, painted with rhombic flowers, curly grass, lotus flowers and other flowers.
The iron bull head west and tail east, facing the river in two horizontal rows, lying down as a whole, the eyes are open like copper bells, showing the posture of moving forward with a load, and the image is very realistic.
After cleaning the soil on the surface of the iron ox, experts and scholars immediately studied the iron ox, and finally came to the conclusion that the Yellow River iron ox was cast in the thirteenth year of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, which has a history of 1298 years.
Initially,The casting of the iron ox is to stabilize the Pujin Ferry pontoon bridge and maintain the best traffic.
The Pujin Crossing Pontoon Bridge was a very important traffic artery at that time, but it was repeatedly destroyed by the impact of the Yellow River, and Tang Xuanzong ordered Zhang Shuo, the secretary of the military department, to rebuild the bridge.
Zhang said that the solution he came up with was to cast iron and cast cattle to make piers instead of wooden piles, and then smelt iron knotted chains instead of ropes, and there were six huge barbed iron pillars under the iron ox, firmly rooted in the ground, so as to build an iron bridge that could resist the impact of the Yellow River.
According to the estimates of relevant people, this project is very large, about 1,100 tons of iron was consumed, accounting for four-fifths of the country's iron production in the Kaiyuan period.
As for why the image of the "cow" was chosen, it is because of the influence of the Book of Changes, which has clouds:
The cow is like Kun, Kun is the soil, and the soil is better than the water.
Therefore, these four iron bulls are beyond reproach in the minds of the ancients, and with its existence, the people on both sides of the river can be extremely at ease.
The huge investment of the iron bull pontoon bridge stands proudly in the wanton erosion of the Yellow River, guarding the people on both sides of the river for hundreds of years, which promoted the prosperity of the Yellow River Basin.
During the Jin-Yuan War, the Pujindu pontoon bridge was destroyed, and at the same time, with the rise of the Yuan Dynasty, the strategic position of the Pujindu pontoon bridge gradually weakened, so the pontoon bridge was never rebuilt, and the iron bull finally unloaded the burden on his shoulders and quietly watched the changes of the years.
LaterAfter the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Sanmenxia reservoir area was discharged, the riverbed silted up, and the river continued to move westward, in the sixties and seventies, the iron cow had been buried in the river beach several meters below the surface of the Yellow River.
After the excavation of these four iron bulls in Yongji County, it was natural to consider how to preserve them, and there was controversy for a while, and finally adopted the protection plan of the Shanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau
Raise the Iron Ox, Iron Man, and Iron Pillar by 12 in place2 meters, restored to its original appearance above the surface, displayed in the open air.
As for why this plan was chosen, it is because these four iron bulls make people dare not move at all, because they are large and heavy, and they are easy to suffer secondary damage in the process of moving, which is not in line with the original intention of cultural relics protection.
Some people may say that the open-air display will not make the iron ox suffer from rust, and this is not also the destruction of cultural relics?
In fact, the materials used by the Iron Ox are far from what we think, and they have been washed by the river for hundreds of years, so they have the problem of resisting rust.
Until now,The protection of iron cultural relics is still a worldwide problem, and it is safest to display them on site when you have not thought about how to better preserve them.
In short, cultural relics are the precious cultural heritage of mankind, with irreplaceable significance and research value, and we need to strengthen the protection and management of cultural relics, so that these precious cultural relics can be permanently preserved and passed on.
Only then will we be able to better understand the historical and cultural context; Only in this way can we better carry forward the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation; Only in this way can we better promote the great rejuvenation and development of Chinese culture!
References: "Old Tang Book", "Puzhou Mansion Chronicles", etc.
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