“It’s really worth this trip to appreciate these collections and feel the atmosphere of Song Yun culture without going out of the market!” Ms. Li, who is watching the bronze exhibition in Wuyi County Museum, said with a smile.
The Wuyi County Museum is holding the “State Learn Treasures – Song and Yuan Dynasty Ancient Bronze Exhibition”, which gathers nearly 100 pieces of Song and Yuan Dynasty ancient bronze unearthed in Zhejiang’s cellars, tombs, pagoda palaces and other places over the years. It is a good time to get close to the charm of the Song and Yuan Dynasties.
The exhibition is divided into four units: “learning treasure from the state”, “worshiping ancient times and restoring rites”, “offering pure literature and Confucianism” and “believing in the world”. Each unit has its own theme and corresponding cultural relics highlights.
The word “state learning treasure” comes from the inscription on the ritual vessels of the Confucian Temple unearthed in Wuyi Cave. In September 1983, during the construction of the radio station in Wuyi County, a bronze hoard of the Song Dynasty was found, and ancient bronze artifacts including jue, ding, gui, gui, gu, and hu were unearthed. According to Mr. Tu Zhigang, the former curator of Wuyi Museum, who was involved in the clearing of the cellar, the bronze ware was buried about 1.6 meters underground, which was originally a vegetable garden. The cellar site is about two or three hundred meters away from the county Confucian Temple, which should be the ritual vessels of Wuyi County Confucian Temple.
The main contents of this unit are as follows: First, “Treasure Articles”, which focus on displaying the ritual articles of the Confucian Temple in Wuyi County; The second is “state and county memorial ceremony”. The state learning here refers to the state learning of Wuzhou. As one of the important Confucian schools in the Southern Song Dynasty, Wu learning and Yongjia school are two important branches of the East Zhejiang School. The representative figure is Lu Zuqian, a philosopher in the Southern Song Dynasty. He once gave lectures in Zhaoshan Mountain of Wuyi Ming Dynasty and wrote books to establish his own ideas. Therefore, Zhaoshan Mountain of Ming Dynasty became the “famous academic mountain” of Wu learning.
“Worship of the ancients” includes not only royal sacrificial vessels, but also various copper and ceramic sacrificial vessels from official temples, tombs and local schools. Among them, there are three pieces of blue porcelain from the official kilns of the Southern Song Dynasty at the Tiger Cave in Hangzhou.
The “Wen Ru Qing Gong” shows a batch of antique stove bottles unearthed in Zhejiang Province in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, as well as daily utensils or furnishings such as stationery and play, which gives us a glimpse of the elegant life of the literati in the Song Dynasty. The four arts of life of Song people include incense burning and flower arrangement. The so-called “folding two tables, burning incense in a row of furnaces, and arranging flowers in bottles for appreciation”.
“Believing in the world” turns its vision to Buddhism, Taoism and other fields outside of Confucianism. It mainly displays various bronze offerings unearthed from Haining Smart Pagoda and Haiyan Town Pagoda. Because of their fashionable shapes and valuable materials, ancient bronze artifacts are worshipped by believers in expressing their devotion to Buddhism and Taoism. At the same time, the stationery on the desk of scholars and scholars also appeared in the underground pagoda and other palaces, reflecting the trend of integration of Confucianism and Buddhism.
Hu Cheng, deputy curator of Wuyi County Museum, introduced that Wuyi is located in the middle of Zhejiang Province, and benefited from the previous southward migration of northerners. Its culture has become increasingly prosperous, reaching its peak in the Song Dynasty. For example, the bronze ware collected in the Song Dynasty kilns found near the former site of the Confucian Temple in Wuyi County is rich in categories and excellent, which is rare elsewhere. It is reported that this special exhibition is strongly supported by the provincial museum and 19 cultural museums in the province and will last until April 10.