The treasure of the country Chinese Dragon .

Mondo Culture Updated on 2024-02-08

The dragon is the totem and symbol of the Chinese nation, in the history of China's civilization for more than 5,000 years, the image of the dragon is as bright as a flower, as vast as a sea of smoke, which one can be called the "Chinese dragon"?

Walking into the China Archaeological Museum, which is adjacent to the central axis of Beijing, a blue dragon rises from the sky in the LED light waterfall pouring down from the ceiling in the "Zhaizi China" exhibition area, and the display cabinet below it is the precious cultural relics called the "Chinese dragon" by many experts and scholars - turquoise dragon-shaped vessels.

Turquoise dragon-shaped device "dragon head" and "dragon body" part.

In 2002, the turquoise dragon vessel was unearthed in a high-ranking aristocratic tomb in the south courtyard of the No. 3 palace of the Yanshi Erlitou site in Luoyang, Henan. The location of the tomb close to the central axis of the palace and its abundant funerary goods show that the owner of the tomb was very prominent during his lifetime.

Henan Luoyang Yanshi Erlitou Archaeological Site Park.

In the No. 3 tomb excavated in the south courtyard of the No. 3 palace of the Yanshi Erlitou site in Luoyang, Henan, the turquoise dragon-shaped ware is beginning to emerge.

When the turquoise dragon was unearthed, it was located from the shoulder to the hip bone of the tomb owner's body, with the head facing northwest and the tail facing southeast. The length of the dragon is 645 cm, about 4 cm from the tail there is an inlaid turquoise strip perpendicular to the dragon's body, and the overall artifact is more than 70 cm. The dragon-shaped vessel is made up of more than 2,000 pieces of turquoise, which are fixed with adhesive to a long bracket (decayed). The giant curls its tail, the dragon body is curved, and there is a copper bell decorated with a convex string pattern in the middle of the dragon body, and there is a jade bell tongue in the bell.

Left: A turquoise dragon-shaped vessel now in the collection of the China Archaeological Museum. Right: Line drawing of a turquoise dragon-shaped device for scientific research display (drawn by Zhou Qi).

As the largest and most special artifact in the tomb, the turquoise dragon-shaped vessel is undoubtedly cherished by the owner of the tomb, and it should also be an important ritual vessel of the Xia Dynasty at that time.

The description of the sacrificial scene in the Book of Songs is quite consistent with the coexistence of turquoise dragon-shaped vessels and copper bells, which has caused scholars to compare and speculate about the use of this artifact.

A copper bell and a jade bell tongue located in the middle of the "dragon body".

Yang Shuo, deputy director of the archaeological research department of the Erlitou Xia Capital Ruins Museum, introduced that the dragon was not only a god worshiped by the whole nation in ancient China, but also a symbol of the emperor. There is also a view that the owner of the tomb may be the royal dragon clan of the Xia Dynasty who was responsible for sacrificing totem fetishes, and the fixed combination of the dragon flag and the copper bell in the image of a turquoise dragon-shaped vessel should be a ceremonial instrument used in the sacrificial occasion.

The term "China" first appeared on a bronze vessel named "He Zun" in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, whose inscription referred to the Luoyang Plain, including Yanshi, as "China", which means "among the world".

Around 3,800 years ago, the Central Plains region centered on Yanshi Erlitou gave birth to China's earliest core culture and a wide-area royal state. With the development of the "Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasty Project" and the "Chinese Civilization Exploration Project", combined with the comprehensive research of documentary records, carbon-14 dating, astronomical estimation, etc., the view that the main body of Erlitou culture is Xia culture has been accepted by most people.

Close-up of the turquoise dragon "dragon head". Xinhua News Agency (courtesy of Erlitou Summer Capital Ruins Museum).

Zhao Haitao, an associate researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, introduced that the emergence of the core culture of Erlitou marks that Chinese history has entered the era of the kingdom dominated by the Central Plains region and integrated development from the previous era of starry sky and pluralistic coexistence of states to the era of the kingdom dominated by the Central Plains region, which opened the prelude to the civilization of Xia, Shang and Zhou rites and music and dynastic civilization, which is of epoch-making significance.

As a traditional belief of the Chinese nation, dragon totem worship has been inherited since the Neolithic Age. "The dragon culture of the Erlitou site inherited the dragon culture of the Longshan era in the Central Plains and had a new development, which had an important impact on the later Shang culture, and the dragon culture of the Xia Dynasty has an important position in the history of the development of Chinese dragon culture, and is one of the most important sources of dragon totem worship," Yang Shuo said.

The turquoise dragon-shaped ware is very rare among the early Chinese dragon image cultural relics, and has extremely high historical, artistic and scientific value.

The huge dragon head is composed of three solid semicircular green and white jade pillars on the frontal middle ridge and the bridge of the nose, the turquoise garlic-shaped nose end is huge and eye-catching, the two sides of the nose end are cut out of the symmetrical orbital outline, and the eye socket is eyed by the round cake-shaped white jade with the top arc convex, and the multiple arcs stretched out by the dragon head seem to show the image of the dragon's whiskers or hair.

The dragon body is spliced together by multiple diamond-shaped units to form a long body, and the splicing between each unit is tight, and the shape is regular. The trim on both sides of the midline of the dragon's spine is chamfered to make the trim fit tightly and form an angular back line. Each piece is finely polished, ranging in size from 2 to 9 mm and only about 1 mm thick, and is continuously distributed throughout the body like scales.

Close-up of the diamond-shaped ornament on the "dragon body" of the turquoise dragon-shaped vessel made of ornaments.

For the needs of research and display, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has made a 1:1 imitation of the turquoise dragon-shaped ware.

The reproduction process makes us realize that it has undergone a sophisticated pre-design and a long production process, and the combination of ornaments and splicing methods show the elegant aesthetic standards of the ancestors of Erlitou", Zhou Qi, a technician from the archaeology department of the former cultural relics protection center laboratory of the institute, who participated in the scientific research and reproduction of cultural relics, recalled the work of that year.

At the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, archaeologists conduct laboratory archaeological cleaning of unearthed turquoise dragon-shaped objects.

Above: A turquoise strip 4 cm from the "tail" of the turquoise dragon is distinguished by a piece carved with a convex string pattern. Below: Carefully polished turquoise plaques scattered next to a turquoise dragon-shaped vessel.

Today, this high-precision replica of the turquoise dragon is displayed in an important booth at the Yanshi Erlitou Summer Capital Ruins Museum in Henan Province, showing its style to visitors.

Turquoise raw materials were mined from Shaanxi, Hubei and other places, transported along the waterway to the capital of Erlitou Wangdu, and born by the hands of craftsmen in the workshop area, the whole process reflects the strong resource allocation and integration ability of Erlitou Wangdu under the control of high-level royal power", Yang Shuo said, "At this time, the Erlitou settlement already has the connotation and meteorology of a super-large capital in East Asia."

The sun and the moon pass through the sky, the years go by, and the Chinese civilization continues endlessly. The dragon, coexisting with civilization, traveling with history, and prospering with China, is the spiritual bond that maintains the sons and daughters of China, and is also the precious spiritual wealth of the Chinese nation.

*:Xinhua.

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