There are many types of ancient bronzes, before Zhou and Zhou, ritual vessels and musical instruments are the majority, among them, the ritual vessels are mostly tripods, and the musical instruments are the most bells, so the predecessors will take the bells as the general name of various bronzes, and the inscriptions on the bronzes also have the name of the bells and dings. However, the bronze ware is not limited to the two categories of bells and tripods, and the inscriptions are sometimes engraved or cast on other bronzes such as weapons and measuring vessels, so the "Zhong Ding Wen" can no longer well include the inscriptions on the bronzes, and we call the inscriptions on the bronzes more "golden texts".
So why is it called "Jinwen"?
I still remember that there is a phenomenon in the use of ancient characters called:Ancient and modern meanings, that is, the meaning of the same word is different in ancient and contemporary times. "Gold" here belongs to the ancient and modern meanings. Before the Spring and Autumn Period, that is, in the Bronze Age, copper was called "gold"; After the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China entered the Iron Age, and the technology of smelting metals developed rapidly, and in addition to copper, which had a low melting point, iron and other metals were also used in large quantities, and the meaning of "gold" gradually changed.
Zuo Chuan: Lu Xuangong Three Years".
In the past, there was virtue in the party, distant pictures, tribute gold and nine herds, casting tripod elephants, and preparing all kinds of things, so that the people knew the treachery.
The gist of it is: in the past, Xia ruled the country in a good way, and the people of the land of Kyushu came to pay tribute to the copper, and the Xia paid tribute to the gold, that is, the copper was cast into a tripod, and the images of various things drawn down were cast on the tripod, and all things were available, so that the people knew the gods and ghosts.
The "gold" here is copper.
Hanshu Food and Goods".
Hanshu Food and Goods Chronicles has "gold, knives, turtles, and shells". Yan Shigu, a scholar and historian in the early Tang Dynasty, commented: "Gold is the gold of the five colors." The yellow one is called gold, the white one is silver, the red one is called copper, the green one is called lead, and the black one is called iron. ”
Orthography: Kanebe".
In the last years of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Zilie, a prisoner of the country, wrote "Zhengzitong Jinbu": gold, five-color gold. White gold and silver, lapis gold, tin lead, red gold copper, black gold and iron, ** for the long.
The "gold" in these two places refers to metals, and the meaning of this sentence is to the effect that there are five kinds of (common) metals, white is silver, cyan is lead, red (red) is copper, black is iron, and yellow is gold (the best quality is **).
Copper is our modern name, in the period of the prosperity of the bronze civilization (today's scholars generally believe that the upper limit of China's Bronze Age is 2000 BC, the lower limit is before and after the Qin Dynasty, spanning about 2,000 years) "gold" refers to our bronze today, which is also the reason why the inscriptions on the bronze are also called "golden texts".
China is currently more recognized as an excavationThe earliest bronzesIt is a bronze knife unearthed in 1975 in Linjia, Dongxiang, Gansu Province, and the Majiayao culture, which was determined by C-14 to be about 5,000 years old. The bronze jue and bronze jue unearthed from the Xia cultural site in Yanshi Erli, Henan, have been discovered in China so farThe earliest bronze vessels, about 4,000 years ago.
The copper knife unearthed from the Majiayao culture is stored in the National Museum of China
Erlitou Cultural Bronze Jue
Although bronzes appeared earlier, Jin Wen appeared much later. In the archaeological data available,Jin Wen first appeared in the middle Shang periodIn the early days, there were more graphic symbols or a few simple texts, which only represented the clan emblem or the name of a person, and did not have a complete sentence. Limited by productivity and experience, in short:
According to Ma Chengyuan and other "Chinese Bronzes" research, there are about 12 kinds of formats of Shang and Zhou (mainly Zhou) gold inscriptions: emblems, sacrifices, orders, exegesis, notes, filial piety, covenants (referring to documents and deeds used as evidence in ancient times), legal decrees, edicts, edicts (inscriptions on utensils used as dowries), music laws, and the names of Wule workers. The content involves a number of systems such as politics and economics. This shows the wealth of historical information it contains.
among othersThe name of the workerIt is the name of the official who is responsible for supervising the production of bronzes, the name of the foreman, and the name of the caster craftsman are cast or engraved on it to test its sincerity, which can be said to be the earliest" (production).Accountability"That's it.
Mao Gongding, which is housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, is the bronze with the most inscriptions found so far
Part of Mao Gongding's inscription has 497 words (one says 499 words).
Therefore, bronzes with inscriptions are particularly valued by researchers in history, philology, paleography and other disciplines. Its preciousness is also reflected in the first batch of 64 cultural relics banned from leaving the country in 2002, of which 11 bronzes contain longer or more important inscriptions.
Due to the limitation of productivity, the Shang and Zhou Dynasty bronzes were mainly owned by the aristocracy, its shape was simple and atmospheric, and it was mostly used as a ritual vessel, when the Eastern Zhou Dynasty that experienced the "ritual collapse and happiness" stepped into the Qin and Han dynasties, the bronze gradually lost its ceremonial use, and more into the homes of ordinary people, and the function was more to the practical utensils, as well as the maturity of iron-smelting technology - from iron ** to daily necessities, iron gradually replaced bronze.
At this point, a glorious and brilliant era in human history has come to an end, and a magnificent and prosperous dynasty in human history is kicking off.
The longest circulating five-baht coin in history, Han