In the history of our country, there have been many magical items that are simply unbelievable. These things will definitely feel very strange to us modern people today. How could ancient people create such things?
But the reality is so wonderful, many incredible things just happen.
Chasing Rabbits and Digging for Treasures
In the last century, in 1927, in a small mountain village in Dingxi City, Gansu Province, there lived a young man named Qin Gong.
One day Qin Gong went to the mountains to herd sheep. He said they were herding sheep, but they were just a few thin little goats . Qin Gong led the sheep to a grassy slope and let them graze on their own. Then he turned around and started Digging up wild vegetables.
While digging, Qin Gong looked up, only to see a gray shadow flashing in the distance. When he looked closely, it turned out to be a hare. Qin Gong couldn't help but feel happy when he saw it. This was a rare meat.
So Qin Gong quietly followed the wild rabbit and pounced forward when it was not prepared. However, the rabbit was very alert and avoided Qin Gong with a kick and turned and ran away.
Qin Gong chased the rabbit all the way, and when he arrived at a ravine not far away, he saw that the rabbit had gone directly into a soil hole.
Qin Gong lay down in front of the hole, stuck out his butt and dug inside. He hoped to catch this cunning rabbit, but as soon as he fumbled around, Qin Gong felt his fingers touch something cold. Round and flat.
Qin Gong pulled the thing out and took a look, and saw that it was a "discus". The weight was really not light. Qin Gong took out it twice more and took out a bigger "discus", which was at least nearly as big as the discus. Twenty pounds.
Seeing this, Qin Gong didn't dare to dig any further, and threw the things into the hole. He hurried home and found his father and told him about it.
After hearing this, Qin Gong's father took a hoe and a shovel and went to the cave with Qin Gong. The father and son picked up the hoe and dug out eight metal objects of different shapes, including round ones. Some were flat, some were flat, and there were two copper poles with strange symbols engraved on them. Qin Gong and his son did not know what these meant for a moment.
Moreover, these things were really heavy to hold. The largest one probably weighed fifty or sixty pounds. For a moment, Qin Gong and his son felt a little happy.
It's so heavy, even if it's not gold or silver, even if it's copper, it's probably worth some money.
The two of them carried these things back home, but what exactly were these things?
Qin Gong's father took an artifact to the home of Shen Xiucai, the only scholar in the village. Shen Xiucai was well-informed and had gone to the provincial capital to pass the exam, so he must be able to recognize what it was.
As a result, Shen Xiucai looked at it for a long time, shook his head and said that he didn't know what it was.
Qin Gong's father was immediately disappointed. He didn't even know what the thing was, so how could he sell it for money? Is it really sold as scrap metal?
After returning home, Qin Gong's father threw these things into the sheepfold, thinking about it later.
When the Chinese New Year came, Qin Gong's brother Qin Rang was on vacation from school in the provincial capital. When Qin Rang returned home, he found these things and carefully distinguished them. Although Qin Rang didn't know what these things were, he He knew that it must not be simple, it must be a cultural relic.
The father and son of the Qin family discussed it and decided to let Qin Rang and Qin Gong take these things with them to try their luck in the provincial capital the next day.
The next day, brothers Qin Rang and Qin Gong brought these eight items to Lanzhou. In an antique shop, the owner Ma Shizhai recognized these items as bronzes at a glance, and they were valuable bronzes.
But "there is no business without treachery." Ma Shizhai looked at the two children in front of him, but he shook his head and sighed. He said that this place was broken, and that there was rust there. In the end, out of 8 heavy bronzes, Ma Shizhai only produced 60. The price of an ocean.
60 oceans, which is already a huge windfall for the Qin family, whose family background is not very good.
Qin Rang and Qin Gong agreed to Ma Shizhai's bid, and the two brothers returned home happily with sixty yuan.
As a result, not long after, Ma Shizhai took these eight bronzes and found a " "Senior" was Zhang Shouting, a famous antique dealer in the northwest at that time.
As soon as Zhang Shouting saw these eight bronze wares, his eyes widened immediately. He grabbed them and looked at them carefully, almost putting his face on them.
After some identification, Zhang Shouting identified these bronzes as "Mang Quan", which was a tool for the unified weights and measures of the New Dynasty established by Wang Mang between the two Han Dynasties. This is simply a priceless treasure.
Bronze Mangquan
Wang Mang was born in the late Western Han Dynasty, and his aunt was the queen of Emperor Yuan of Han Dynasty Wang Zhengjun.
During the Han Dynasty, the government was controlled by relatives and eunuchs in turns. Wang Mang was naturally considered a relative. He could have lived an "extremely happy" life relying on the power of his aunt,
but Wang Mang did not do this. Instead, he lived a simple life. , treats people kindly, behaves like a humble gentleman, and is simply a "moral model" among aristocratic families.
After Wang Mang entered the official career, he relied on his good reputation, outstanding ability, and extraordinary family background to rise through the ranks.
Later, Wang Zhengjun's son Emperor Ai of Han passed away, and her grandson Emperor Ping of Han came to the throne. Naturally, there was another relative, the wife of Emperor Ai of Han, Wei.
At this time, Wang Mang had already fallen into the whirlpool of power and could not extricate himself. In order to frame the Wei family, he poisoned his own son Wang Yu in prison, and married his daughter Wang Yan to Emperor Ping of the Han Dynasty. In this way, Wang Mang became more and more powerful.
Finally in 9 AD, Wang Mang forced the last emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, the 5-year-old Han Xuan Emperor, to give him the Zen throne. He ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. The country was named "Xin Dynasty", he claimed to be the new ancestor, and the reign name was "Shijianguo".
After Wang Mang became emperor, he carried out a series of drastic reforms. These reforms were retro in system. Everything was in line with the Zhou Dynasty in the pre-Qin period. Everything (such as land, servants, etc.) Confiscation, private trading is not allowed.
But in terms of utensils, he was very advanced. He even invented the bronze vernier caliper and other very advanced and even close-to-modern weights and measures measurement tools. So when people later inspected Wang Mang's new policy , there was no Few people think that Wang Mang "traveled" to the past.
However, Wang Mang's reforms can be said to be made overnight, and eventually turned into a pot of porridge, causing chaos in the world. After nearly ten years of war, the new dynasty finally perished.
The capital of the new dynasty founded by Wang Mang was still in Chang'an, but Wang Mang changed its name to "Chang'an", which means that this place in Gansu is still within Wang Mang's rule. The bronzes from Wang Mang's era were unearthed here, which is very special. Reasonable.
Moreover, these Mang Quan are divided into bronze feet, copper weighing poles and stones, two hooks, nine pounds, six pounds, and three pounds of copper ring rights. The symbols on them that the Qin family father and son do not recognize are the inscriptions on the bronzes, which are engraved with the decree issued by Wang Mang. The laws on weights and measures,
Wang Mang's reign title "The Founding of the Kingdom", and Wang Mang's 81-character "Declaration of Accession to the Throne" are very valuable for studying the history of the Han Dynasty and are rare treasures.
In the end, Zhang Shouting bought these eight bronzes for 240 oceans. Zhu Baihua, an antique dealer in Peiping , also came after hearing the news and bought two bronze pieces for 140 oceans, namely Tongheng and copper right .
He returned to Peiping and found an antique shop called Zun Gu Zhai in Liulichang . After asking someone to identify it, Zun Gu Zhai immediately bought the two bronze pieces for 5,000 oceans. .
At this time, the original price of 60 yuan has increased nearly 100 times, and these are only two pieces of bronze Mang Quan, and there are another 6 pieces that are still in Zhang Shouting's hands.
Several foreigners also heard the news and came to Lanzhou specifically to "collect" these bronze Mangquan. However, the warlord Liu Yufen at the time sent his Yang Muchi here, saying that the national treasure must not be lost to the In foreign countries, another 800 oceans were left behind, and he raised his hand and took away the remaining 6 bronze mang rights.
Although Zhang Shouting was unwilling in his heart, this was also the case as "when a scholar meets a soldier, it is hard to explain why." They came with guns in hand. How could Zhang Shouting dare to reason with these soldiers and bandits?
A few years later, the situation became increasingly chaotic. In order to prevent these six bronze pieces from being damaged, Yang Muchi directly donated them to the Lanzhou People's Education Center.
After another twenty years of wandering around, three of these eight pieces were collected by the National Museum of my country, and the other five were collected by the "National Palace Museum" in Taipei.
These eight pieces of bronze mangquan are all of great value and can be regarded as important national treasures, but they were dug out of the pit by a young man herding sheep. It is really amazing, and we don’t know what is under our feet. There are so many amazing cultural relics left in this land.
