Bronze with the longest inscription
The bronze ware with the longest inscription in China is the Mao Gong Ding. The tripod is 53.8 cm high, 27.2 cm deep, 47.9 cm in diameter and 34.7 kg in weight. It has a large mouth and a round belly. There is a double ring ornament on the mouth edge, with two big ears on the top and three hoof shaped feet under the abdomen. The two ears are tall, the pattern is simple and the appearance is simple. There is an inscription in the tripod with 497 characters.
Mao Gong Ding, made in the Western Zhou Dynasty, was unearthed in Qi County, Shaanxi Province in the last year of Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty.
"Mao Gong Ding" is a bronze tripod made in the reign of King Xuan of the Western Zhou Dynasty. It is engraved with 500 characters of gold inscriptions on the inside of the tripod, It is a masterpiece of prose in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and its calligraphy is also the highest level in gold inscriptions [Note 1]. Therefore, it has the reputation of "one piece of Shangshu", "four national treasures" of the late Qing Dynasty and "three treasures of bronze" [Note 3]. It is now one of the "three treasures" of the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
The inheritance of Mao GONGDING
According to he Shiming's research, "Mao Gong Ding" was excavated by Dong Chunsheng, a villager of Dongjia village, in Zhouyuan (now Qishan County, Shaanxi Province) in the 23rd year of Daoguang reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Qing Dynasty. It was excavated in the west of the village by Dong Chunsheng, a villager of Dongjia village. Su Zhaonian and Su Yinian, the antique merchants of yonghezhai in Beijing, were well-known. They bought the tripod with 300 taels of silver. However, when the tripod was transported, it was blocked by another villager, Dong Zhiguan, and the sale was not made. The antiques dealers bribed the county magistrate with heavy money. Dong Zhiguan was arrested and sent to prison to be punished for hiding national treasures. The tripod was finally transported to the county government, and was secretly transported away by antique merchants and hidden in Xi'an [6]. Zhang Shihu, the son of Zhang Yanchang, happened to see the tripod, so he copied the inscription inside the tripod into a double hook drawing and sent it to Xu Tongbai, a famous scholar in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, and wrote an article on the research and interpretation of Zhou MaoGong Ding.
In 1852, in the second year of Xianfeng, Emperor Wenzong of the Qing Dynasty, Chen Jieqi, a gold and stone expert and collector in Beijing, bought it from Su Yinian and gave him 1000 liang of it. The tripod was hidden in the secret room, which was rarely known. After Chen Jieqi died of illness, Chen Xiaosheng, his grandson, sold the tripod to duanfang, governor of Liangjiang, with 10000 taels of silver in 1910. The latter side was sent to Sichuan to suppress the road protection movement and was killed by the revolutionary army. After duanfang's family, Mao GONGDING was pawned to huarussian Daosheng bank, which was set up by Russians in Tianjin. British journalist Simpson paid 50000 US dollars to buy from the end of the family. He thought the money was too small and refused to give up. At that time, there were patriots who strongly appealed for the protection of national treasures. Mao GONGDING was transferred to ye gongchuo, a great collector who was then the transportation chief of the Beiyang government and later the curator of the Sinology Museum, and deposited it in the mainland bank.
When the war of resistance against Japan broke out in 1937, ye gongchuo avoided Hong Kong, and Mao Gong Ding was hidden in his residence in Shanghai. Because ye gongchuo bought Mao Gong Ding under a pseudonym, the Japanese could not find out its whereabouts. Ye gongchuo told his nephew ye Gongchao, "the Americans and the Japanese paid high prices for Mao GONGDING twice, but I didn't agree. Now I entrust Mao Gong Ding to you. I can't sell it, pledge it, or let it go abroad. One day, it can be dedicated to the country. ". Mao GONGDING changed hands several times, and was almost taken away by the Japanese military. Fortunately, ye Gongchao tried his best to protect it and refused to acknowledge that he knew the whereabouts of the Baoding. In order to save his nephew, ye gongchuo made a fake tripod and handed it to the Japanese army. After ye Gongchao was released, he fled to Hong Kong in the summer of 1941. Soon, Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese army, and ye Jia entrusted German friends to transport Mao Gong Ding back to Shanghai. Later, because of his poor life, he pawned Mao Gong Ding to the bank and redeemed it with the help of Chen Yongren, a giant businessman. Only in this way can Mao Gong Ding be kept away from home. In 1946, Chen Yongren donated Mao Gong Ding to the national government. The next year, it was transported from Shanghai to Nanjing for collection in the Central Museum (now Nanjing Museum).
In 1948, a large number of precious cultural relics of the Forbidden City came to Taiwan with the government of the Republic of China. Mao Gong Ding is also included in it. It is now collected in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
The value of Mao Gong Ding
It is believed that the most famous work of the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty is "the imperial edict of the Zhou Dynasty". His calligraphy is also the highest level of gold inscriptions. Li Ruiqing said in the inscription "Mao Gong Ding" that "Mao Gong Ding" was written in the temple of Zhou Dynasty, and its writing was "Shangshu". He did not learn Mao GONGDING when learning calligraphy, and even Confucian scholars did not read Shangshu. Therefore, it was listed as one of the "four national treasures" and "three treasures of the sea" in the late Qing Dynasty, and it was the oldest one among the "three treasures of the Forbidden City".