Cultural and Museum Calendar丨Shanxi is abbreviated as "Jin", which is actually related to it →

Bird statue

The bird is the most obvious shape in its appearance

Zun is a wine container

More than 3,000 years ago

It was born in the era when bronze ware was popular.

It is an outstanding representative of Western Zhou bronze technology.

How is it different?

Three highlights to help you get to know the "Bird Statue"

The owner is the founding emperor of the Jin State

Carved with the earliest "Jin" character unearthed so far

Jin State (1033 BC - 376 BC)

It was a vassal state of the son of King Wu of Zhou in the Zhou Dynasty.

In the early Zhou Dynasty, he was granted the title of Marquis by the Zhou Emperor.

The first monarch Tang Shuyu

The country was named Tang

After Tang Shuyu's son Xiefu ascended the throne

Changed the country's name to Jin

The bird statue is an important piece of evidence of the history of the Jin Dynasty.

There are two birds on the bird statue

The small bird on the big bird's back is attached to the lid of the vase

Open the lid and you can see the inscription inside the lid

△Inscription inside the lid of the bird-shaped vessel

There are two key words in the whole inscription:

One is the Marquis of Jin. In the Zhou Dynasty, the king was called Marquis.

This confirms that it was used by the monarch.

Second, to the room

In ancient texts, "大" means "太", "室" means "temple", and "大室" means "ancestral temple".

Translated meaning

This is an item used for sacrifice in the ancestral temple of the Jin State.

The bird-shaped vessel was unearthed from the tomb of Xiefu, the founding emperor of the Jin Dynasty.

Clear written records

The bird-shaped statue became an important material evidence of the founding of the Jin State.

It also became the source of "Jin" culture

The bird's body is a combination of a bird and an elephant

The restoration took 19 years to complete after many twists and turns

Such an important bird

When it was unearthed, it was "broken to pieces"

△The appearance of the bird statue when it was unearthed

Late 1990s

Tomb robbers blew up the tomb of Marquis Jin

The bird statue is under the explosives

October 2000

School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University and Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology

Forming a joint archaeological team

Rescue excavation of the Jinhou Cemetery in Beizhao Village, Quwo County, Shanxi Province

It was found in Tomb 114, the Tomb of Xiefu.

The bird statue had been blown into more than 100 pieces.

Archaeologists have

In the form of "boxing" (packing together the soil and fragments)

Sent to the Peking University Cultural Relics Restoration Laboratory for restoration

△The bird statue is under restoration

The initial restoration of the bird statue was completed in 2002

Invited to exhibit at Shanghai Museum

As soon as she appeared, she conquered the audience with her appearance alone

The exquisite design of bird-elephant fusion

The dense and orderly exquisite patterns on the surface are amazing

But it is still not "complete" at this time

Because when it was first unearthed

The middle part of the trunk was not found.

Restoration experts prepare to make a "simulated" elephant trunk

But it is not clear whether the trunk curls inward or outward.

There is also much debate in the industry about this

Finally, after the members of the Shanghai Bronze Restoration Team combined the opinions of most experts,

According to the direction of the pattern

The decision to restore the trunk was made to curl it inwards

In recent years, the Cultural Relics Restoration Laboratory of Peking University

When sorting out the cultural relics brought back from the cemetery

The trunk fragments of the bird statue's tail were accidentally found in the mud.

After comparison, the direction of the elephant's trunk curling is consistent with what the experts imagined.

19 years after the excavation

Passing by the Cultural Relics Restoration Laboratory of Peking University, Shanghai Museum, Shanxi Museum

Restoration by multiple experts

In 2019, the bird statue finally came together perfectly

A Masterpiece of Western Zhou Bronze Art

The top of the bird statue is a phoenix looking back upwards.

The tail is an elephant with a curled trunk

The two arcs achieve an aesthetic balance

The inward-curled trunk and legs form a stable three-point support

The surface of the bird statue is also decorated with

Cloud pattern, thunder pattern, feather pattern, standing feather pattern, feather pattern

Complex but not chaotic

A bird statue with unique shape and gorgeous patterns

Became an outstanding representative of Western Zhou bronze technology

It is also a treasure in the treasure house of Chinese bronze art.

Producer: Tang Yi

Producer: Wu Huifeng

Copywriter: Wang Mohan

Visual丨Ding Lijie

Editor: Zhou Jiayi

Technology丨Tang Pei

Proofread by Zuo Zhongming

Co-ordination: Liu Ying, Dai Guangyu, Zhang Chenjin

Special thanks to Shanxi Museum, Shanxi Station, China Cultural Relics News Agency