Chapter 275: Astonishing the Internet! The Twelve Golden Men of Qin Shihuang! And a complete set of the Nine Zhou Dings! (1)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The discovered bronze tripod bore the characters for “Qingzhou.”
As a result, anyone in the world of cultural relics would instantly think of the Qingzhou Ding from the Nine Zhou Dings collection. Luo Feng glanced in the direction of the gilded door.
It was precisely to the east.
“In ancient times, Qingzhou was situated to the east of Mount Tai. The placement of this bronze ding also lies in the east,” he remarked.
“It must hold some significance, right?”
Luo Feng spoke up.
Gu Santong nodded, “It should. Let’s take a closer look!”
One could say that this discovery was truly momentous.
If it were truly a tripod from the Nine Zhou Dings, its value would be immeasurable.
Not to mention their local branch, the entire global cultural relics circle would be thrilled.
Even officials and the Forbidden City might not be able to contain their excitement.
This was just how highly the Nine Zhou Dings were regarded. “Damn! Could it be? Could it be a Nine Zhou Ding?”
“I’m telling you, host, just say it – Is it a Nine Zhou Ding or not?” “If it’s a Nine Zhou Ding, can it be sold for a 100 million yuan? “Heh, add two more zeros and you’ll see that it’ll still have a market!”
“Damn! Add two zeros? What the hell?” “Stop bragging!”
Luo Feng, however, remained silent.
The scale of this ancient tomb was truly extraordinary.
Even in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, whether the Nine Zhou Dings was present there or not remained unknown. And yet, here, they had discovered one of the Nine Zhou Dings?
Of course, the Nine Zhou Dings were not made during the Qin Dynasty; it was created by the founder of the Xia Dynasty, Yu the Great.
Originally, it was created to symbolize the unity of the realm.
In the early years of the Xia Dynasty, Yu the Great divided the land into nine provinces, each governed by a provincial governor. The governors were then ordered to contribute bronze to create the nine dings. People were sent to draw the famous mountains, rivers, landscapes, and peculiar objects of each province, and then renowned craftsmen were chosen to carve those images onto the dings, each symbolizing one province. The carved images also reflected the province’s famous landscapes.
The nine dings represented the nine provinces, reflecting national unity and the centralization of power, indicating that the Xia King had become the ruler of all under heaven, acting in accordance with the “mandate of heaven.” This was the origin of the saying, “All under heaven belongs to the king, and all who dwell within the borders are his subjects.”
In other words, the Nine Zhou Dings had a similar meaning to the imperial jade seals of later generations.
It represented royal authority.
It represented the entire realm.
Otherwise, why would there be a proverb like “a word weighs nine dings”? It meant that your words were extremely trustworthy, more valuable than the nine dings or the entire realm.
And “contending for the Central Plains” meant vying for supremacy over the whole world.
When the world was divided into three powers, it was called “three-legged ding. ”
In fact, in the beginning, the character “ding” referred specifically to the Nine Zhou Dings.
Only these nine dings were the real dings.
The dings of later generations were not real dings.
It might be a bit confusing to understand this.
Let’s put it another way.
In ancient times, only the Yellow River was called a river; other rivers were called waters.
The name “river” originated from the Yellow River.
As for the Yangtze, it was the original name for the river, and only later did many other rivers come to be called by the same name.
In the beginning, the terms “river” and “Yangtze” referred specifically to these two river systems, not to any subsequent bodies of water that could be called “xx River” or “xx Yangtze.”
At that time, they were all called “xx waters.”
[ Ding! Bronze Ding! Dynasty: Qin Dynasty! Value: ??? ]
What does this mean?
Its value is incalculable!?
Now that it had come to this, Luo Feng could be sure that this object was not one of the Nine Zhou Dings.
After all, the Nine Zhou Dings were created during the Xia Dynasty.
And this artifact was said to be from the Qin Dynasty, so how could it still be a Nine Zhou Ding?
This discovery left Luo Feng somewhat disappointed.
But where were the real Nine Zhou Dings? No one knew. It was only known that after Qin Shihuang’s grandfather destroyed the Zhou royal family, the nine dings were transported back to Xianyang from the Zhou royal family’s possession. However, one of them seemed to have been lost along the way.
“Let’s go in and take a look!”
After bypassing the supposed Nine Zhou Ding, there was a large screen behind it.
The area was spacious.
Many boxes were laid out on the ground.
Inside the boxes were various exquisite items, crafted from gold, silver, and jade.
Each one was incredibly intricate.
Even in the Qin Dynasty, these items would have been considered luxurious possessions, only owned by wealthy households or merchants.
Upon opening another box, Luo Feng saw items of peculiar design.
He had no idea what they were for.
“What is this? It looks strange!” “It’s probably not for ordinary use at home, right?”
“Yeah, I can’t figure out its purpose.”
Luo Feng examined the items closely, recognized their significance, and smiled, “These are the six ritual jade objects used for sacrificial ceremonies: the jade bi, jade cong, jade gui, jade hu, jade Zhang, and jade huang. These were used in ancient sacrificial ceremonies to worship the heavens, earth, and the four cardinal directions. The two directions of heaven and earth are combined with the four directions of east, south, west, and north, making a total of six ritual objects. The bi is used to worship heaven, the cong to worship earth, the gui to worship the east, the hu to worship the west, the Zhang to worship the south, and the huang to worship the north.”
“Damn!”
“This host! I’m impressed!”
“Are you just making things up?
“Making things up, my *ss! These objects are obviously for sacrificial ceremonies; it’s just that you’re too ignorant to know it!”
Soon, Luo Feng began to examine the jade objects.
Most of them were made of Qinghai jade, which was not valuable. Although the material was not expensive, the antiques themselves held great value..
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