Stone drums during the Warring States period? Not the kind of stone drum that can ring, but ten stones like drums. Ordinary, ordinary granite, engraved with some words, describes a king's hunting and scenery, and does not record any historical events.
The origin of these stone drums has not been completely determined. I don't know who carved it, when, and who the king described. Anyway, these stone drums are full of mystery, and I'm afraid it's hard to figure it out again.
But these ten stone drums, which don't look very impressive, are known as? The treasure of the town? What's the word on it? A word is worth ten thousand gold? Why is it sought after by scholars such as Du Fu and Su Shi?
Actually, the reason is not complicated. The characters on the stone drum are big seal script, which is even older than the small seal script used by Qin Shihuang. It is the only surviving orphan, so it is highly respected and regarded as the ancestor of seal script by later generations. Calligraphers of all ages are proud to get the rubbings of these characters.
In 627 AD, the first year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty, in Chencang Mountain, Shaanxi Province, an old shepherd found ten strange stones between Shan Ye, each two feet high and more than a foot in diameter, which looked like a drum. What's more strange is that there are many ancient words engraved on the stone, and readers don't know what they are.
The local rich man offered a large reward to find someone to crack the stone drum figure, but there was no result. People gradually regard these stone drums as miracles, and burn incense and worship in succession, adding a bit of mystery to the stone drums. What do you call these stone drums discovered by Chen Cang? Chen Cang Shi Gu? .
Because Chencang is remote, Shigu's reputation has been confined to the local area for more than 100 years. It was not until the arrival of an emperor that Shigu began to drift from place to place for thousands of years and became its national treasure.
The emperor is Tang Suzong, the son of Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. He was in Yongcheng, near Chencang. When he heard about these stone drums, he ordered people to move them to the city to enjoy them, which made them famous all over the world. But a few months later, the Anshi Rebellion approached Yongcheng, and Tang Suzong had to be buried in the wilderness because he could not take such a heavy stone drum.
After the Anshi Rebellion, Han Yu, one of the eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties, wrote to the emperor, demanding that the stone drum be dug up and moved to the local Confucius Temple for safekeeping. The imperial court approved it and found that only nine of the ten stone drums were left, and most of the characters were incomplete, which made everyone very sorry.
During the war in the late Tang Dynasty, the local Confucius Temple was burned down and the stone drum in Chencang was stolen and disappeared. However, no one cares about them at this time. After the demise of the Tang Dynasty, there were five dynasties and ten countries, and the world was in chaos.
After the establishment of the Song Dynasty, Song Renzong accidentally saw Chen Cang's stone drums in Tang Dynasty Copy, and sent a reward to find them. Stone drums need not really be found. The person who made this contribution is Sima Chi, the father of Sima Guang.
However, this Sima Chi is eager to make contributions. He thought it was not enough to find nine stone drums. He actually found a craftsman to copy the lost stone drum and wanted to win the favor of Song Renzong. Probably the level of imitation is not enough. Sima Chi's trick was exposed. Instead of being rewarded for meritorious service, he was convicted of cheating the monarch. Fortunately, Song Renzong is generous and the punishment is not too severe. Otherwise, there may be no later Sima Guang.
The person who really discovered the tenth stone drum was a famous stone collector Xiang. When he found the stone drum, it had become the butcher's grindstone. The middle of the stone drum was pulled out of the rice groove, and most of the words were damaged. Ten-sided stone drums were finally reassembled and preserved in Imperial Business School.
Song Huizong also likes Chen Cang's stone drums, but this cheating emperor even wants to pit them. He ordered people to fill words with gold and put it in a golden body. When Jurchen entered the capital of song dynasty, she mistakenly thought that these ten stone drums were treasures and shipped them all the way to Yanjin. After stripping the gold, Jurchen would not admit the value of these stones, so she abandoned them in the wilderness.
It was not until the demise of the Jin Dynasty that the ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty rediscovered the stone drum in Yanjing and stayed in Beijing. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Shigu was transported to Chongqing. On the eve of liberation, because the stone drum was too heavy, it was airlifted to Taiwan Province Province and finally stayed in Chinese mainland.
Chencang Stone Drum went through a lot of hardships and was recovered three times, and many words on it were damaged. Therefore, the earlier calligraphy rubbings are, the more valuable they are. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, rare rubbings can be sold for one word, which shows the preciousness of these words.
According to the stone drum writing, experts speculate that the described king may be Qin Huiwen, and the production time was around the fourth and fifth centuries BC. Perhaps it is the mystery of the stone drum that makes it the first antique in China and the treasure of the town house.