Chapter 333: Peak showdown

"Come, present the treasures I have collected." Zhao Ji seemed excited. As soon as the golden mouth opened, the two eunuchs were ready to lift a rectangular bottle-shaped object from the side hall.

The object is shaped like a big bowl, round mouth, ears, and circle feet. The body of the instrument is carved with bronze patterns. When you look closer, you will see that there is a evil tiger chasing the deer. The evil tiger is extremely ferocious, as if it descends from the sky, and the elk flees in all directions.

Six or seven tribute students all looked at the artifact, holding their breath.

Zhao Ji smiled slightly, his face was a little bit lustful. It is probably not easy to get these tribute students to rank. It must be noted that Duanyu has reached a state of level, and its level is comparable, so it is difficult to distinguish the superiority. The only way is to set questions and ask difficult questions. The more difficult the questions are, the more people can be eliminated one by one.

Zhao Ji has treasured this artifact for a long time. Today he appears, and he is confident that he can stump the Yu Gongsheng. He smiled and stroked his beards, and his eyes fell on Zhao Heng from time to time. His deep eyes seemed to have a trace of suspicion, and finally fell on Shen Ao, with a faint expectation in his heart. Should Chen Ao win, or will Zhao Heng win the championship?

He knows Chen Ao very well. He is a person who will never suffer losses. Even if he knows that the other party is himself, he will never show mercy when competing. Therefore, even if Chen Ao knows Zhao Heng's identity, he will definitely show all his strength.

The dragon fights with tigers, Zhao Ji is happy to see it.

There were pens, ink, paper and inkstones on the tables in front of the tribute student. As long as he recognized the artifact, he could write down the age and origin of the artifact on paper and submit it to the emperor for his reading.

When the artifact was brought up, not only the tribute students looked at each other, but even those who liked to break jade were staring at the strange artifact intently.

Chen Ao only looked at the shape of the bronze utensils and immediately understood that these were ritual vessels from the end of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The so-called ritual vessels had strict hierarchical differences. Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, ritual vessels were widely used in the aristocratic class. By the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, due to the strengthening of the ritual system, some rituals used for sacrifices and banquets were given special meanings and became the embodiment of the ritual system. This is the so-called "hiding rituals in utensils".

For example, the so-called "rowing tripods" composed according to the ritual system have very strict regulations. The "Nine Cauldrons of the Emperor, Seven Princes, Five Doctors, and Three Yuans" passed down from later generations were the main hierarchical characteristics of society at that time.

The artifact in front of him was neither a tripod nor a pot, which reminded Chen Ao of a utensil recorded in later encyclopedias - Gong.

The so-called gourd was originally just a tableware used to serve rice in the middle and late Shang Dynasty. With the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the ritual system was gradually established, and the tableware gradually evolved into ritual vessels. The gourd in front of me was exquisite in style and clear in patterns. It was absolutely impossible to serve rice. The main purpose should be sacrifices.

The manufacturing process of the goblet has been more and more sophisticated from the corner ring foot style at the end of the Shang Dynasty, to the elliptical dragon head cover ring foot style in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and then to the rectangular hanging beast head cover ring foot style in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The craftsmanship has become more and more sophisticated, and the square goblet in front of you has obviously the craftsmanship characteristics of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.

However, this square goblet gives people a strange feeling. Goblets are ritual vessels, and ritual vessels have regulations on ritual vessels. For example, what pattern the emperor carved and how large the princes could only use, these rules must be followed. In addition, there are patterns, patterns that are not allowed to be innovative and fabricated at will. After all, they are objects that sacrifice to ancestors and cannot make any mistakes.

Although the patterns will gradually change over time, the patterns of this square goblet are a vicious tiger competing for deer, which is almost a taboo in the patterns. The carvings of goblets can be drawn by dragons and tigers, but the style of the goblets cannot be carved.

As early as the Zhou Dynasty, deer gave many sacred meanings, such as the palace built by King Zhou of Shang, called Lutai. In addition, deer is also a wine vessel, which belongs to a ritual vessel and cannot be desecrated. Later, it evolved into Qin losing its deer, symbolizing the deer into royal power. Therefore, whether it is Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han Dynasties, the word "Traveling" is a taboo word.

A ritual vessel for sacrifice carvings such patterns was almost considered a rebellious thing at that time.

Chen Ao couldn't help but complain in his heart, looking at other tribute students. These people and themselves were all in deep thoughts, frowning, afraid they could all notice something strange. Chen Ao held his breath and began to recall the history of that era. According to the truth, there was only one prince who could do such a ruthless act at that time - the King of Chu.

During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the king's power declined. First, King Heng of Zhou conscripted the disobedient vassal state Zheng State, but returned in great defeat. Since then, Zheng State rose, and the Chu State at that time also took advantage of this period to establish itself as king.

This action was a major event that shocked the world in the Zhou Dynasty at that time. There was no sky or sun, and there were no two tigers in the mountains. The King of Zhou divided the princes and various countries. The State of Chu actually dared to establish himself as a king. This shows that the State of Chu had no respect for the King of Zhou at that time, and had already developed ambitions and always wanted to replace the Zhou Dynasty.

Therefore, especially during the reign of King Xiong Tong of Chu, it was absolutely possible to create various illegal ritual vessels. The State of Chu had such strength and ambition. They compared themselves to tigers and the King of Zhou and the princes of the East to elks, and had already developed the desire to compete for the deer.

This is the most reasonable explanation at the moment, but when Chen Ao looked at the goblet carefully, he smiled bitterly again. The characteristics of Chu culture are slightly different from those of Central Plains. If the goblet is on the goblet, then his judgment is extremely correct. However, not only does not have the mark of Jingchu culture, but also the traces of Central Plains culture are vaguely visible, but it has some characteristics of Yanzhao culture.

This is surprising. At that time, the two countries of Yan and Zhao always claimed to be orthodox princes. It is impossible to teach them to do such acts that violate etiquette. The reason is very simple. Compared with the countries of Qi, Chu, Qin and other countries that coexisted at that time, they were not strong enough to make them have ambitions. Once such a disobedient act was made, the great power had every reason to form a coalition force to attack them. At that time, once small and medium-sized countries lost their moral commanding heights, they would sooner or later have a catastrophe.

This has become the problem. The most unlikely to make goblets were made, and the most unlikely to make the country created this ritual vessel. In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, where rituals and music were broken, such a thing was enough to be horrifying.

Chen Ao was pondering, holding his pen and wandering. It was at this moment that a smile appeared on Zhao Heng's lips and he had already started writing quickly on the desk. Chen Ao looked at Zhao Heng in shock and couldn't help but think: "Can the eldest prince already see the origin of this goblet?"

Chen Ao was a little surprised. The strength of the eldest prince was indeed not to be underestimated. With pressure, Chen Ao calmed down and didn't think about anything else, and was completely immersed in thinking.

Suddenly, the name of a vassal state passed by Shen Ao's mind like amphibious lightning - Zhongshan.

The so-called Zhongshan was a country in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. It was very different from the Eastern vassal states, and even the ethnic composition was different. If Chu was still from the Gaoyang clan, although it was deposed as a barbarian, its bloodline was still no different from that of the various vassal states. However, this Zhongshan was composed of the Xianyu tribe alliance at that time and belonged to the authentic barbarians. They first gained a foothold in northern Shaanxi and were destroyed by Jin, and then moved to Hebei to establish a country, and survived for hundreds of years.

Since this Zhongshan Kingdom did not belong to the feudal system of the Zhou royal family, they always appeared in the face of the Zhongshan king after they established their own country. On his neighbors, when Yan and Zhao were still lords, they had already proclaimed themselves kings.

After entering the heartland of the Central Plains, this ethnic alliance gradually began to learn the cultural skills of Yan and Zhao, and also absorbed some characteristics of the Yan and Zhao ritual system. However, their ritual system was different from the vassal states of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty at that time. The nine cauldrons of the emperor and the five cauldrons of the princes were naturally not subject to their rules and regulations for the people of Zhongshan.

Only this reason can explain the strange goblet in front of you. It can be imagined that at that time, Zhongshan Kingdom, a foreign race, began to absorb the skills and culture of Yanzhao. They learned the craftsmanship of making bronze ware and began to make various ritual vessels for sacrifice. However, the people of Zhongshan disdained the complex ritual regulations in the Central Plains culture. They had their own unique culture, their own ancestors, and their own customs. Therefore, when they were offering sacrifices, although they also began to use bronze ware to comfort their ancestors, there were no strict requirements for the patterns of the ritual vessels. They acted casually, carved tigers on the goblet, and then carved elks scattered in the places. The tigers were metaphorical about the ancestors who sacrificed, praising their bravery during their lifetime. As for the elks, they were the enemies and opponents of the ancestors. They surrendered, feared, crawled under the fangs of the ancestors, panicked and frightened.

Shen Ao sighed, and his eyes fell on the craftsmanship of the bronze goblet. Sure enough, at many joints, Shen Ao saw many subtle flaws, and some of them could even be described as coarse. This confirmed his idea. In the late Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the manufacturing process of bronze ware had reached a perfect point after hundreds of years of development, especially this kind of sacrificial ritual vessel, which was more delicate in manufacturing. Not to mention flaws, even a little bit of subtle omissions were also a blasphemy to our ancestors. It can be imagined that although the Zhongshan people at that time learned the method of making bronze ware, their technology was not superb, so that even the ritual vessels for sacrifice were suspected of being crudely made.

The most important quality of treasure appraisal is to make bold assumptions and carefully verify them. Assumptions require extremely rich historical knowledge and an active and wise brain. When proofing, they must be extremely delicate and meticulous. Shen Ao first made bold assumptions, and then observed them carefully. At this time, he had a little confidence in his heart.

However, another problem arises again. It is the Zhongshan ritual vessel, but Zhongshan Kingdom is divided into three periods, namely Zhongshan, Zhongshan Kingdom, Zhongshan Kingdom, and Zhongshan Kingdom in the north of Shaanxi. It was soon destroyed by Jin. The Zhongshan Kingdom in the front was located in the territory of Wei, and was immediately defeated by Wei. Later, Zhongshan migrated to Zhao Kingdom and established the country with Taihang Mountain as the foundation, and was finally destroyed by Zhao Kingdom.

These three Zhongshan Kingdoms spanned hundreds of years. If they could not determine their characteristics, it would be difficult to determine the age of the bronze goblet.

Chen Ao immediately fell into deep thought again. Xianyu Zhongshan can be temporarily eliminated, because the Zhongshan Kingdom in this period could not be influenced by the Yanzhao culture in Hebei at that time; as for the post-Zhongshan era, the Zhongshan Kingdom at that time had been completely integrated with the Central Plains culture, and there was no difference from the various vassal states in the Central Plains, and it can be temporarily eliminated.

The biggest possibility is the former Zhongshan Kingdom, because the former Zhongshan Kingdom had gradually migrated to Hebei at that time, and quickly established the country while the three families divided Jin. It began to imitate the Central Plains culture, integrating some characteristics of Yan and Zhao culture, and at the same time, it had a certain degree of independence.

If it is positioned as the former Zhongshan Kingdom, it would be simple to continue to infer. Such a ritual vessel cannot be a single item, and should be a set. Not only should there be a goblet, but there will also be a variety of sacrificial items such as tripods, cauldrons, gui, and ju.

For a small Zhongshan country, it is not easy to smel these bronze ware in a complete set. Even in the Yan and Zhao countries, hundreds of craftsmen needed to work day and night. However, Zhongshan country was already in a place with few people, so it was even more difficult to recruit so many craftsmen.

Then, this bronze goblet can be inferred that it should have been cast during the most prosperous period of the former Zhongshan Kingdom. The history of the former Zhongshan Kingdom was only a hundred years, and there were only two kings in power, so there was no need to analyze them one by one. Chen Ao targeted the Duke of Zhongshan. This Duke of Zhongshan was the first former Zhongshan Kingdom monarch who led his tribes to leave the mountainous areas and migrated to the eastern plains. Duke of Wu imitated the ritual system of the Chinese countries, established the political and military system of Zhongshan Kingdom, and carried out preliminary governance of the country. During his lifetime, the former Zhongshan Kingdom quickly became prosperous. After his death, his son had just ascended the throne and was soon invaded by Wei. Three years later, the former Zhongshan Kingdom was destroyed.

It can be imagined that at that time, Wu Gong of Zhongshan envied the Central Plains culture. After the founding of the country, he took advantage of the peace and began to govern the country and pushed Zhongshan to an unprecedented prosperity. In order to imitate the various vassal states in the Central Plains, he also began to mobilize manpower and material resources to establish ritual instruments to demonstrate his identity. This bronze goblet was one of the ritual instruments of Zhongshan at that time.
Chapter completed!