"Chimes?!"

Chen Han quickly followed and walked out with Zhang Jianbo.

"Senior Brother Zhang, how many bells are in this group?"

"For the time being, three have been unearthed, one of which is relatively dilapidated, and the other two are in good condition."

As soon as he mentioned the chime, Chen Han immediately thought of the chime of Zeng Hou Yi.

There is no way, this set of chimes is too famous, even more famous than the Yue King Goujian Sword, and it is a real national heavy weapon.

However, in addition to the bells of Marquis Yi of Zeng, Chinese archaeology has also unearthed many complete sets or unique bells.

The chime music is crisp and bright, melodious and beautiful, and can play the same melody as singing, and is also known as the song bell.

As early as 3,500 years ago in the Shang Dynasty, there were chimes in China, but most of the bells at that time were a set of three.

The real rise of chimes was after the Western Zhou Dynasty.

In the Zhou ceremony, music was also a type of ceremony, and at that time only nobles could enjoy music, and different levels of nobles enjoyed different music.

For example, the sentence in the "Analects" "Eight beautiful dances in the court are tolerable, which is unbearable." It is the Ji Passover system used by Confucius to scold the Lu State.

Qiao is the ranks of music and dance, one Qiao refers to a row of eight people, eight Qiao eight columns of sixty-four people.

According to the strict system of Zhou Li, only the Son of Heaven can use eight Qiao, the princes use six Qiao, the Qing doctor uses four Qiao, and the scholar uses two Qiao.

Ji is the Zhengqing of the Lu State, and he can only use four beautiful according to the system, but he exceeded the specifications of music and dance that can only be enjoyed by the Son of Heaven, and was scolded by Confucius.

Confucius used the phrase "etiquette collapsed and music was bad" to describe the social mentality of the late Spring and Autumn Period, which shows that in the eyes of the Zhou people, music is a kind of sacred and advanced thing, which is closely linked to the whole society.

In fact, not only in China, but also in the history of Europe, early music was also a high-class entertainment that only the upper class aristocracy could enjoy.

As a special musical instrument for the upper-class aristocracy in China, the chime is a symbol of rank and power, and there is also a set of usage specifications.

The chimes of the Shang Dynasty needed to be composed of at least 3 bells, and 5 bells if they were more.

In the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty, chimes had developed from 3 or 5 bells to groups of 8, which could produce two scales separated by a minor third or a major third.

At that time, chimes were often used for court banquets and were called "the music of bells and drums".

In the middle and late Spring and Autumn period, it was increased to a group of 9 pieces or a group of 13 pieces.

By the Warring States period, the number of a set of chimes was even higher.

Depending on the owner's "financial resources" and love for music, you can continue to add more bells to increase the sense of depth and grandeur of the performance.

The famous Zeng Hou Yi chimes are a set of 65 pieces of various kinds of super-large chimes.

It not only highlights the pinnacle of China's music culture and bronze casting technology, but also the chimes of Zeng Hou Yi are nearly 2,000 years earlier than the appearance of keyboard instruments of the 12 equal laws in Europe.

When it comes to playing the 12 equal temperaments, the piano is the younger brother in front of the chimes!

Now the bell has also been unearthed from tomb M1, which is a big deal!

But Chen Han was so excited, and he ran quickly towards the cultural relics storage room.

It's not that he loves music much.

Mainly, this bell has an inscription!

Almost all chimes will have an inscription on the bell body, and the content of the burning is generally very informative!

Within a few steps, Chen Han and Zhang Jianbo came to the cultural relics storage room.

It was already past eight o'clock in the evening, but the cultural relics storage room was still brightly lit, and Professor Li and Kong Jianwen, together with several researchers from Xia Shangzhou and Qin and Han Research Rooms, all gathered around the table in the center of the room.

The three chimes were surrounded by them in the middle, and they were constantly being watched.

Chen Han hurriedly leaned over and looked at it.

The shape of these three bells is roughly the same, they are all Yong bells, the bell body is flat and round like a tile, with edges, thin at the top and thick at the bottom, and the appearance looks similar to those chimes on display in the museum.

The body of the vessel is decorated with dense and fine pan mantises, and I feel that if I touch it with my hands, it will definitely be tricky.

The three chimes differ in size, with the largest being estimated to be three or four times the size of the smallest.

"Xiao Chen, are you here?"

Kong Jianwen, who noticed Chen Han, waved his hand and called him over, and introduced to him: "These three chimes have just been cleared out of the sand mound of Tomb M1. ”

"As I have just measured, the largest bell No. 1 is 112 centimeters high, No. 2 is 48 centimeters high, and No. 3 is 23 centimeters."

"It's a pity that the No. 2 chime is so badly damaged, and if we can find the broken pieces of the chime in the sand, we might be able to repair it."

"But the important thing is the number 1 chime!"

"There are inscriptions on the front and back cymbals of the No. 1 bell body, the front and left and right drums, and the back and right drums."

"There are 169 golden words in the whole **!"

"Professor Li's preliminary identification should be a big seal."

"I'll rub it down as soon as possible, and we'll study it together to see what is written on this inscription."

Kong Jianwen's expression was a little excited and excited, and he had a feeling of exploring secrets.

Jin Wen refers to the inscriptions cast on the bronzes of the Yin Shang and Zhou dynasties, also called Zhong Dingwen.

It is the general name of the inscription font on bronze ware in the Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn Period, and Warring States Period.

The big seal is a kind of writing that was popular in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, inheriting the oracle bone inscription and the small seal of the Qin Dynasty.

It is precisely because the handwriting is mostly engraved on the bell and the ding, so it is generally better than the oracle bone inscription to preserve the original writing, with a simple style.

However, the Great Seal was not a unified script throughout the country during the Zhou Dynasty.

In different periods, the font of the inscriptions engraved on the bronzes varies greatly.

Especially in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, due to the division of the countries, the great seals of various countries have formed regional characteristics.

It can't be said that it is completely different, but it is indeed not a small difference.

Otherwise, Qin Shi Empress would not have come to make a book and a text for this, and came up with Qin Seal (small seal).

"Da Seal, Tomb M1 is the tomb of Marquis Zeng, that should be the Chu Seal used?"

Chen Han frowned, and after greeting several researchers, he took a closer look at the inscription on the drum surface of the No. 1 chime.

Sure enough, the inscription on the No. 1 bell is slender in shape, with thin strokes and consistent ends.

It looks neat and beautiful, and the gestures are round and smooth.

In terms of form, it is roughly similar to the oracle-seal inscription system inherited from the Central Plains, but it has its own uniqueness.

"The Legend of the Fairy Tree"

The Chu seal of the Western Zhou Dynasty is not much different from the big seal of the Central Plains.

It was not until the end of the Spring and Autumn Period to the middle of the Warring States Period that the Chu State added bird-shaped decorations on the basis of the seal script, and evolved the bird seal and insect script that were quite different from the Central Plains script.

The inscription on the No. 1 bell is only in shape biased towards the slender wind of Chu Seal.

However, the expression of the text line was not transformed into decorative animal ornaments such as birds, insects, and fishes.

It's just that even if it's a big seal, it's a bit beyond the scope of Chen Han's knowledge.

His skill points are on the small seal...

The small seal is evolved from the Qin script.

Because it was the Qin State that unified the world, in the history of the development of Chinese characters, the Qin script represents the mainstream of the development of Chinese characters, and the script of the Six Kingdoms only represents the tributaries.

Therefore, the writing of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period can be divided into two series, namely the Qin script and the Six Kingdoms script.

The bell inscription in tomb M1 obviously belongs to the Six Kingdoms writing system, and it is also the Chu script that is unique in the south in the Six Kingdoms writing system...

Chen Han, who is proficient in small seals, is also a little helpless in the face of these 169 Chu State seals.