What is the historical story of the Four Sheep Fangzun?

One morning in April 1938, on Zhuanerlun Mountain (later part of Tanheli Ruins Park) in Huangcai Town, Ningxiang County, Hunan Province, three brothers, Jiang Jingshu, Jiang Jingqiao, and Jiang Xiqiao, were planting sweet potatoes in the middle of the mountainside.

Suddenly, the sound of metal colliding with the hoe "dang" caught their attention. A huge metal artifact appeared in front of Jiang Jingshu's brothers. They didn't know what the dark green thing with four curly horned sheep's heads was, and they guessed it must be a treasure.

The three brothers, who had found the treasure, kept looking at the treasure and striking it with their tools, accidentally knocking off a piece of the palm of their hand from the edge of the mouth.

After Jiang Jingshu took it home, he weighed it with an old-fashioned rod, about 64 pounds, although it was not clear what the value of this treasure was, but the extraordinary appearance and color like black lacquer made Jiang Jingshu think that he had dug up "Ujin" and cherished it.

The news that Jiang Jingshu dug up the treasure soon spread in the town, because Changsha has always been a treasure land for the unearthing of bronze cultural relics, and cultural relics dealers often have a lot of eyeliner in the countryside, so the boss of Wanli Mountain in Huangcai Town also got the news at the first time, and he immediately offered a price of 400 oceans to buy this rare treasure that was later called "Siyang Fangzun".

At that time, Jiang Jingshu was only 17 years old, living in a big family of more than 10 people, and the family relied on the meager income of his grandfather to make tofu and his father to do short-term work.

After being exploited by the local chief, the first chief, and the squire, there were only two hundred and forty-eight pieces left in Jiang Jingshu's hands in the four hundred oceans. When Jiang Jingshu sold the treasure, he also subconsciously left the piece of knockdown as a souvenir. In 1976, he dedicated the fragment to the state.

Artifact features:

The body of the four sheep is square, the square mouth, the big edge, the neck ornament is extravagant, the length of each side is centimeters, and the length of its side is almost close to the height of the centimeter of the body. Long neck, high hoop feet. The neck is high, and the four sides are decorated with banana leaf patterns, triangular crests and animal face patterns.

The shoulders, abdomen and feet are cleverly designed to form four curlyhorn sheep.

The four corners of the shoulders are four curly horned sheep's heads, the sheep's head and the sheep's neck are stretched out of the vessel, and the sheep's body and legs are attached to the belly and hoop feet. The whole device has a beautiful pattern and smooth and strong lines. The belly is the front breast of the sheep, and the leg of the lamb is attached to the hoop foot, bearing the weight of the body.

The front chest and neck of the sheep are decorated with scales, and the sides are decorated with beautiful long crown phoenix patterns, and the circle feet are crested with patterns.

In the spring of 1938, Ningxiang County.

On the Moon Mountain in Huangcai Town, when the Jiang Jingshu brothers were planting sweet potatoes, a huge metal artifact appeared in front of the Jiang Jingshu brothers. This was later called the "Four Sheep Fangzun."

A national treasure.

Four sheep Fangzun, each side of the length of centimeters, height centimeters, weight kilograms, four sheep square neck decorated with triangular pattern and animal face pattern.

The shoulders are adorned with high-relief snake body and clawed dragon motifs, which snake from the four sides of the statue, and are extremely delicate.

After hearing the news, the boss of Wanli Mountain bought this Siyang Fangzun and prepared to sell it to Zhao Youxiang. Zhao Youxiang hurriedly rushed back to Changsha to raise money and buy Siyang Fangzun with three antique dealers. County.

**Learned the news, immediately sent police officers to investigate and deal with the matter, and Siyang Fangzun was handed over to Hunan Province at that time**.

In November 1938, the Japanese army moved south, and in a Japanese air raid, the team was hit by enemy planes, and the building was razed to the ground.

In 1952, the premier of the People's Republic of China.

sent people to Changsha to track down the whereabouts of Siyang Fangzun, and finally found the Siyang Fangzun broken into more than 20 pieces. After nearly a year, the Siyang Fangzun was finally successfully restored, once again showing the magnificent figure of 3,000 years ago.

Cultural implications. The four sheep Fangzun shows the supreme atmosphere in the wine ritual vessel with the shape of four sheep and four dragons. The sheep has become the object of the bronze heavy weapon's performance, which has its own unique symbolic meaning. Pre-Qin period.

People have two generalizations about the personality of sheep: kindness and courtesy; Soft on the outside and rigid on the inside.

The habit of "kneeling" of sheep is regarded as kindness and etiquette, and even interpreted by later generations as a model of filial piety to parents; The outer softness and inner rigidity are also derived from many sacred qualities, the legendary ancestor Gaotao.

Respecting the sheep, there is also "King Wen" in "The Book of Songs: Zhaonan."

of government, integrity, virtue like a lamb".

The most popular or folk symbolic meaning of sheep is "auspicious", at least since the beginning of the Han Dynasty, sheep has been associated with auspiciousness, Han Dynasty Wadang, bronze mirror and other inscriptions to see "Yihou Wang Daji sheep (auspicious)" inscriptions, auspicious sometimes directly written as "auspicious sheep".

The bronze vessels unearthed in Hunan Province that focus on the representation of sheep represented by the Four Sheep Fangzun not only retain the original totem worship, but also have the meaning of replacing sheep as a sacrifice to the gods, and also contain the expectation of the prosperity of sheep and other domestic animal breeding, and may also germinate various concepts about sheep in later generations.

The above content refers to the Encyclopedia - Four Sheep Fangzun.

The introduction of the Four Sheep Fangzun is:

The Four Sheep Fangzun is the largest of the Shang Dynasty bronze statues in China, with a length of centimeters on each side, a height of centimeters, a weight of kilograms, a long neck, a high ring foot, a towering neck, and the four sides are decorated with banana leaf patterns, triangular patterns and animal face patterns.

The middle of the statue is the center of gravity of the vessel, each of the four horns of the statue is a sheep, the four horns of the shoulder are four curly horned sheep's heads, the sheep's head and the sheep's neck stretch out of the vessel, and the sheep's body and legs are attached to the belly and the ring foot.

At the same time, Fang Zun's shoulders are decorated with a dragon pattern with a high relief snake body and claws, and the four sides are in the middle of the two sheep, and each has a pair of horned dragon heads poking out of the device table, winding from the right shoulder of each side of Fang Zun in the middle of the front dwelling.

The casting process of Siyang Fangzun:

According to the analysis of archaeologists, the four sheep Fangzun is cast by two sub-casting technology, that is, the horns and the dragon head are cast separately, and then they are arranged in the outer fan, and then the whole casting.

The whole utensil is cast with the block method, which is done in one go, which is ingenious, showing a superb casting level. Siyang Fangzun set line carving, relief, round carving in one vessel, the plane decoration and three-dimensional sculpture integration, the utensils and animal shapes combined, just right, with an exceptionally superb casting process made.

Among the bronze statues of the Shang Dynasty, the dignified and elegant shape of this vessel is unparalleled. This statue is simple, graceful and majestic, and is known as "the ultimate bronze model". Considered the pinnacle of traditional clay casting, this artifact was once mistaken for a new casting process due to the incredible level of achievement achieved by this masterpiece.

The Four Sheep Fangzun is a bronze ritual vessel and sacrificial article in the late Shang Dynasty. In 1938, it was unearthed on the mountainside of Yueshan Puzhuanerlun, Huangcai Town, Ningxiang County, Hunan, and now belongs to the site of Tanheli. It is in the collection of the National Museum of China.

The Four Sheep Fangzun is the largest surviving Shang Dynasty bronze statue in China, with a length of centimeters, a height of centimeters, and a weight of kilograms. - Encyclopedia

The formation period of the Siyang Fangzun began in the Shang Dynasty, and it can be said that the Siyang Fangzun is the largest of the bronze Fangzun. Siyang Fangzun was unearthed in Hunan Province in 1938, but unfortunately the smuggling of cultural relics was very serious at that time, and Siyang Fangzun was also lost in the war-torn period afterward. And during the war, Siyang Fangzun was unfortunately shot and blown into more than 20 pieces, but after the consultation of experts, the Siyang Fangzun was finally restored and became a national special cultural relic.

The four sheep Fangzun is surrounded by a square mouth shape, and each side is as much as a centimeter, it can be said that the neck is high, and there are banana leaf animal face patterns and other patterns on the 4 sides, especially the 4 weeks are also cleverly designed into 4 curly horned sheep, which looks very beautiful and luxurious, and the lines are clean and powerful. After archaeological research, it will be found that the Siyang Fangzun is made by two casting techniques, first to build the surrounding horns and dragon heads, and then to create the general scope of the Fangzun, in which the two are embedded in the overall building, it can be said that the whole operation method is completed in one go, and also highlights the superb bronze casting technology of the Shang Dynasty.

Siyang Fangzun looks noble and elegant, and the shape is very simple, and it is also known as the pinnacle of casting technology at that time, which is really incredible, and it is very valuable for research.