Chapter 372: A Luxurious Companion Collection

………… After putting away all the bronzes in the second large cavern, three passages of different widths appeared around them, and judging by the contents placed in the passages, it was clear that there were more behind each of them.

This time, Liu Dong didn't deliberately choose, and walked directly into the leftmost one, and after putting away the bronzes in the aisle and the occasional mixed lacquerware, he also came to another vast cave space.

This cave is not much different from the second cave he passed through just now, the area is about 1,000 square meters, but the stalactites here are still very obvious, and the ground has not been specially treated.

But the temptation here is much stronger than the previous hole. As soon as he came in, Liu Dong's eyes were full of golden light.

Not far from the entrance here, there is a set of ritual utensils made of gold such as nine tripods and eight 簋 made of gold. However, compared with the huge bronzes that Liu Dong put away before, these gold imitation Jiuding and Eight Gui ritual vessels are very small, and the largest one is a wok, with a height and inner width of about 50 cm, but even so, this is the largest gold vessel among the cultural relics unearthed in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

And what is even more rare is that these gold vessels use the lost wax method to write, the body of the vessel is engraved with gorgeous cloud and thunder patterns, the middle of the body is also carved with a relief technique, the position of the edge of the mouth is the cloud pattern, in addition to the four round carving dragons around the body, which is very gorgeous.

In addition to these ornaments, these goldsmiths are also inlaid with turquoise and glass! That's right, it's glass, but in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. These glasses have another name - ancient glass!

Glass. Also known as "Ruli". One of the traditional handicrafts of the Han nationality in China, using various colors of artificial crystal as raw materials, using the ancient bronze lost-wax casting method to dewax the crystal works at high temperature. Its colors are colorful and beautiful; Its quality is crystal clear and dazzling.

The history of making glaze in ancient China can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty, when the original material for making glaze was obtained from the by-products produced during the casting of bronzes, which were refined and processed and then made into glaze. There are many colors of glaze, and the ancients also called it "five-color stone".

to the Han Dynasty. The level of glaze production is quite mature. However, the smelting technology was in the hands of the royal family and nobles, and it has been kept secret. Because it was difficult for the people to obtain, people at that time regarded colored glass as even more precious than jade.

The famous Yue Wang Goujian sword is inlaid with blue glass, and this set of gold vessels engraved with the inscription "King of Chu and Xiong Couple" are inlaid with colorful glass.

In addition to this set of goldware, there are some pure gold bowls, pots, plates and other foodware, wine and water vessels, but the largest is about 20 centimeters, the smaller ones are 10 centimeters, and the number is not much only about 100 pieces, far less than the number of bronzes. However, in terms of value, it is still immeasurable.

In addition to these gold objects, the rest are lacquered woodware, bone ware, and tooth and horn ware. and a small amount of pottery, but they add up to more than 600 pieces, it can be seen that Uncle Li only took out the fine products, and most of the rest remained in the tomb of King Zhuang. After all, in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, in fact, the processing of lacquered wood, bone and other objects are generally small pieces, it is difficult to have high-quality products, and the market value has not been high.

However, Uncle Li picked out a lot of fine products, the largest of which is a height of one meter two, a length of nearly two meters, the wrong gold and silver elephant, this elephant is in line with the characteristics of lacquerware in the Spring and Autumn Period, the outside is black, there are moire, geometric patterns, animal face patterns, and the inside is red. What's even more rare is that there is no trace of splicing on the top and bottom of this elephant, and it should have been taken out of a whole piece of wood.

In addition to this largest elephant, there are a series of household utensils such as a large lacquerware wooden box and a lacquerware bed. All the lacquerware together has more than 400 pieces, which accounts for the vast majority of everything here.

"It seems that this Uncle Li also knows a lot of ways to keep cultural relics, these lacquered wood and tooth horns, as well as pottery have been added with fixatives, and they are quite well preserved!" After Liu Dong almost packed up his things, he thought to himself.

However, even so, most of the pottery and wood have disappeared from the original paintings, and it is distressing to look at.

"I hope my relics will be able to bring them back!" Liu Dong had some expectations in his heart, but he didn't know how much he could recover.

After putting away everything around him, Liu Dong's eyes turned to the last three coffins.

The largest of the three coffins is a bronze coffin, but not as big as Liu Dong saw outside, this bronze coffin has a length of three meters, width and height are also close to three meters, a large number of inscriptions on it are phoenix patterns, and there are some beast-headed human figures of gods and monsters, as well as some relief pictures of court life, from which it can be seen that the person who can enjoy this coffin must be the queen of the Chuzhuang King Xiong, or the important status of the concubine and other figures.

In addition, this coffin, like the coffin of King Zhuang, has not been opened.

But the two coffins next to them did not have such good luck, and when Liu Dong opened the two coffins with a length of two meters and a half and a width and a height of about one meter and a half, the bones inside had already been taken out and thrown away by Uncle Li, and now these two coffins are full of dense jade, as well as small pieces of gold and silverware, basically all the jade styles of the Spring and Autumn Period can be found in it. However, there are no large pieces of jade inside, and this is also in line with the characteristics of jade in the Spring and Autumn period.

Of course, looking at these two coffins full of jade and gold and silverware, Liu Dong still has some regrets in his heart, there are few jade artifacts in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period with excellent texture, basically they are a mixture of jade and stone, so don't look at the jade here, there are thousands of large and small pieces, but their real value is probably not as valuable as these small pieces of gold and silver.

Of course, the value of cultural relics and cultural value must not be counted in this way.

"If only there were one or two large pieces of jade!" After putting away the three coffins, Liu Dong couldn't help but think in his heart.

Of course, this is basically impossible.

After putting away the things, Liu Dong saw that there was no omission, so he came out along the passage, and then walked towards the stalactite cave in the middle, but as soon as he came in, Liu Dong's eyes suddenly widened, and his face was full of shock, "My God! ”

It is no wonder that Liu Dong reacted in this large space of about 800 square meters, all of which are placed with musical instruments, and the most eye-catching instruments are bells, braids and cymbals.

Liu Dong counted and found that the bell-shaped system engraved with the inscription of 'King of Chu Xiong' here is about the same size as the bell of Zeng Hou Yi, but there are only 64 pieces, of course, Zeng Hou Yi bell has more of the bell given by the 'King of Chu Hui', otherwise the number of bells here is the same.

However, even with one less chime, this set of chimes is still a national treasure of invaluable value.

In addition, in addition to this set of bells, there is also a set of bells next to it, compared with the 19 pieces of bells unearthed in Tai-Yuan Jinsheng Village, this set in the tomb of King Zhuang is undoubtedly more, and more gorgeous.

Liu Dong simply counted a total of 61 pieces of upper and lower three layers of braided rods, the largest one was more than 150 centimeters high, weighed nearly 200 kilograms, and the milk on it was thicker than an adult's arm, which was really amazing. And this is the most known set of braiding rods so far.

However, what puzzled Liu Dong was that the overlord of the late Spring and Autumn Period was the king of Chuzhuang, how could there be a cymbal in the tomb, and how big were 36 pieces, it stands to reason that the heyday of the cymbal should be the late Shang Dynasty from the east coast to the early Western Zhou Dynasty, and in the Spring and Autumn Period, the development and use of chimes, the cymbal has gradually declined, and has been mainly used for military command, and is a tool used in the army to command advance and retreat.

Of course, this kind of thing is something that archaeologists and historians need to consider, and Liu Dong was quickly filled with the excitement of getting a national treasure just by his doubts.

In addition to these three sets of bells, braided pistons and braided cymbals, there are also a large number of musical instruments such as chimes, drums, se, sheng, pan flutes and so on, and not one, but in comparison, the most is the qin, to be precise, the seven Xuan guqin, Liu Dong counted almost sixteen. Although most of them are broken, the main body of these guqins is still intact, and it is not too difficult to restore.

In addition, in addition to the wooden guqin, Liu Dong also found a jade Fuxi-style guqin, as well as an ivory-textured boya guqin.

"King Xiong Lu of Chuzhuang once owned one of the four famous qins, 'Winding Liang', and it is no wonder that he likes the guqin so much and has been buried so much. But Uncle Li actually took out all these things! Liu Dong said secretly in his heart.

Next, Liu Dong naturally put away all the more than 200 musical instruments here, including chimes and so on.

When there was the last cave left, Liu Dong also knew what he wanted to see the most, the twenty-six statues represented the great tripod of King Chuzhuang's merits, and the remaining twenty-four statues should appear.

However, things are often unexpected, the cave on the right is full of weapons, and the cave is also very small, only less than 200 square meters.

However, after taking a look at it with the relics Yuanguang, Liu Dong was also relieved in his heart.

Then he began to pack up the weapons in the cave.

Like most of the emperors with great talents, King Zhuang of Chu, the monarch who fought in the south and the north and developed the strength of Chu to the peak, naturally has his own hobby for weapons, and the weapons of Chu, especially in sword casting, are not inferior to Wu and Yue. Therefore, the sixteen swords placed here are all without rust, the cold light is clear, and each one has an inscription on it, Liu Dong picked up one and looked at it, and the eight gold-filled bird seals on it meant that 'Zonghou Yanjia held by itself'.

……………… (To be continued......)