Li Gui, also known as "Wu Wang Zheng Shang GUI", "Zhou Tian Mie GUI" or "Tan Gong GUI", is a bronze ware of the early Western Zhou Dynasty. It was unearthed in Lingkou Town, Lintong County, Shaanxi Province in 1976 and collected in the National Museum of China. It is 28 cm high, 22 cm in diameter and 7.95 kg in weight.
It has a sharp mouth, an animal's head, ears and abdomen, and a square seat under its feet. The body and square seat are decorated with Taotie pattern, and the four corners of the square seat are decorated with cicada pattern. This kind of bronze was first seen in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. On the inner bottom of the vessel, there are four lines and 33 characters of inscriptions, which record the important historical event of King Wu's killing Zhou in the early morning of Jiazi day.
Li Gui is a new type in the Western Zhou Dynasty. The content of the inscription of Li Zhen is completely consistent with that recorded in ancient Chinese literature. The craftsman was named "Li". He took part in the war with King Wu and was rewarded after the victory. He made this bronze ware to record his merits and pay homage to his ancestors. Li Gui is the earliest bronze ware of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Li Zhen adopts the shape of upper circle and lower circle, which is a typical shape of copper Zhen in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. It is also the embodiment of the ancient Chinese concept that the sky is round and the place is round .
Name source
Inscriptions on the inner wall
Interpretation of text
There are four lines of 33 characters on the inside of the abdomen
The king of Wu was only in the Jiazi Dynasty when he was in charge of business. He was in charge of business at the age of Sui Ding. He was in charge of business at the age of Ke Hun. He was in charge of business at the age of Xin Wei. The king was in charge of the division of LAN, and he granted some money to use as a treasure of Tan Gong to respect Yi.
The main idea of the translation is as follows:
① King Wu of Zhou conquered King Zhou of Shang Dynasty. In one night, the merchant perished, and in the morning of Jiazi day when the year star was in the sky, he occupied Chaoge. On the eighth day after Xinwei, the king of Wu gave you Shili a lot of copper, tin and other metals, and you Shili used it as a sacrificial device for his ancestor Tan Gong, in memory of his ancestor Tan Gong. (the interpretation is made by Mr. Zhang Zhengzhen)
② King Wu launched his last attack on the capital of Shang Dynasty at the dawn of Jiazi day. At that time, the star of the year was in the middle of the sky. Until dark, he occupied the capital of Shang Dynasty. On the eighth day of Xinwei, the king of Wu gave you Shili a lot of copper, tin and other metals. You Shili used it as a sacrificial device for his ancestor, Tan Gong, to commemorate his ancestor, Tan Gong. (interpretation by Mr. Huang Huaixin)
③ King Wu of Zhou conquered the state of Shang, held a year-old sacrifice on the morning of Jiazi day, and carried out Zhenbu, and got the auspicious divination that could conquer the Shang. The news was spread to the officers and soldiers, and their morale was greatly boosted. On the morning of the next day, Yi Chou took possession of Shang. On the day of Xinwei, King Wu of Zhou's army was stationed in LAN. The last time he left Shi Li copper, Li used these copper to make Tan Gong Bao Zun Yi.
Dispute of interpretation
Tang Lan, Yu Shengwu, Zhang zhenglang and Xu Zhongshu have all made textual research and interpretation of Li Zhen since its excavation. However, the term "Sui Ding" in the inscription of Li Zhen is quite different. Some scholars associate "Sui Ding" with "Sui bu" in the oracle inscriptions, and think that "Sui Ding" refers to "asking about a year's event"; others think that "Sui Ding" should be interpreted as "asking about a year's sacrifice"; some scholars hold that "Sui Ding" has nothing to do with "Sui bu" in the oracle inscriptions, and "Sui" refers to "Sui Xing, that is, Jupiter"; in addition, some scholars think that "Sui Ding" should be interpreted as "Yue Ding", meaning "Yue Ding" Think of as "won the Ding" person.
Zhang zhenglang interprets "Sui" as "Sui Xing" (Jupiter), and "Ding" as "Ding", which means "Sui Xing is now".
Xu Zhongshu thought that Ding should be read as a rule. According to Guo Zhongshu's saying in Pei Luo, "Zhen is the tripod in ancient prose, while Ding is the rule in Pei Wen.". Mr. Xu Zhongshu and Mr. Zhang zhenglang think that "year" is the year star.
Mr. Tang Lan thinks that these two words should be "Yue Ding", which means seizing the Ding.
Chui Fengnian, the same person, is not Sui Ding. He thinks that these two words should be Shu Huang, that is, the commander of the merchants stationed here.
Qi Guiyan thinks that "Sui Ding" is a good omen, that "Sui" is a good omen, and that "Ding" is a good omen.
Yu Shengwu, Zhao Cheng, Huang Shengzhang and Wang Yuxin believed that the two words should be "Sui Zhen", that is, to ask Zhen at the time of year-end sacrifice. Zhao Cheng thinks that "the year is a year's event" also makes sense.
Appreciation of cultural relics
Ornamentation
Li Zhen's abdomen and square seat wall are decorated with Taotie pattern as the theme, with inverted Kui pattern on both sides, Kui pattern belt on ring feet, cicada pattern on four corners of square seat surface, and cloud and thunder pattern as the background to set off the theme. The shape of the animal face on the square seat is similar to the main animal pattern on Li Zhen's abdomen. The giant eyes gaze at the animal face, which is solemn and terrifying. If you look carefully, Kui dragon pattern is also decorated on the foot of Li Zhen, which shows two continuous patterns around Li Zhen, and cicada pattern is decorated on the four corners of the square seat. The animal face pattern, Kui dragon pattern and cloud thunder pattern are decorated together on the bronze Li Gui. The lines are smooth and clear, which adds a bit of dignity and mystery to the solemn bronze Li Gui of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
The main part of Li Gui is decorated with Taotie pattern. Taotie pattern, like Kui pattern, dragon pattern and phoenix pattern, belongs to the mythological animal of fantasy. From an artistic point of view, the image of Taotie pattern is depicted as centered on the bridge of the nose, with eyebrows, eyes, ears and corners symmetrically arranged on the left and right sides.
The ferocious terror presented by the Taotie pattern has a mysterious sense of dignity, which reflects the historical inevitable power of the rising slave owners, and is a kind of "ferocious beauty"; but it also reflects the brutality, that is, there is ugliness in beauty. On the one hand, the Taotie pattern is for the ruling class to publicize their dignified rights, to deter evil spirits and fool the common people; on the other hand, it is for the purpose of admonishing their descendants and servants not to be too greedy.
Kui pattern's image is big head, long mouth, open mouth, thin body, tail tip for curly shape, are a foot, a corner. Kui pattern and Taotie pattern have the same decorative function, so Kui pattern is often decorated on utensils.
Cloud thunder pattern is one of the most common typical patterns on bronzes. The basic feature is a geometric figure composed of continuous convoluted lines. Some make round continuous composition, also known as cloud pattern; some make square continuous composition, also known as thunder pattern. Cloud and thunder patterns are often used to decorate the blank space of the bronze decoration as the background to set off the theme of the decoration, such as the cloud and thunder patterns on Li Zhen are used to set off the Taotie pattern.
The decorative patterns on the body of Li Gui ware have a unique historical appearance and style of the times. To a certain extent, they reflect the characteristics of Arts and crafts in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. These decorative patterns are closely related to the social production, life and ideology of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, where bronzes were popular. They are part of the superstructure of the slave society.
Written words
The typography of Li Zhen inscription is consistent with that of Shang oracle bone inscriptions and Jin inscriptions. It is one of the representative works of the early Western Zhou Dynasty.
Value status
value
The most important and valuable thing is the four lines of 33 character inscriptions on the bottom of the vessel. Although it is very simple, it records a major historical event, that is, the "battle between the herdsmen and the wild" of King Wu's attack on Shang. Therefore, some people call it "King Wu's attack on Shang".
Li Zhen's inscriptions clearly record that the battle of "King Wu's expedition to the Shang Dynasty" took place in the morning of the "Jiazi" day of a certain year, and the "Sui" star was in the middle of the sky. Before that, due to the lack of material data, there have been many disputes in the history circle about the specific date of the Muye war for thousands of years. According to the relevant records, scholars of the past dynasties calculated dozens of times. During the implementation of the "Xia Shang Zhou dating project", the carbon 14 dating experts used the carbon samples unearthed from the remains of the early Western Zhou Dynasty to make the dating, and gave the time range of King Wu's cutting Zhou from 1050 BC to 1020 BC. According to the astronomical phenomena of the "Jiazi" date and "Sui" (MU) star in the middle heaven recorded in the inscription, and referring to the astronomical records recorded in Guoyu zhouyuxia, the astronomers calculated the age of King Wu The time of killing Zhou was on January 20, 1046 BC. As a result, this famous campaign in ancient history has an absolute age, which provides an important basis for the division of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
The discovery of Li Zhen not only clarifies the previous doubts about the specific date of King Wu's killing Zhou, but also confirms some specific historical facts recorded in Shangshu, Mushi and yizhoushu, Shifu. For example, King Wu killed Zhou in the morning of Jiazi, and every year (wood) star was in the sky, which confirmed the record of "Jiazi day was not pleasant, and the king was in the suburbs of Shang Dynasty" in the book of history, Mu Shi, and also consistent with the ancient literature such as Huainanzi Bing luexun. For example, the inscription of Li Zhen confirmed the correct record of "breaking the state of Zhou on one day of war" in ancient books. In a word, the inscriptions of Li Zhen have very important historical value.
Status
In 2003, Li Zhen was listed in the second batch of Chinese Archival heritage list along with 34 archival documents. On January 18, 2002, Li Zhen was identified as one of the first cultural relics to be banned from going abroad for exhibition.
In 2012, the National Humanities and history (formerly known as literature and history reference) exclusively invited nine experts in archaeology, culture and museum to consider and weigh the trade-offs among national treasures, and found out the nine "treasures of Zhenguo" among Chinese cultural relics. Li Zhen is a bronze ware of Zhen state.
