Video | Amazing Treasures - Exploring Treasures Season 2: Spring and Autumn Zizhong Ginger Plate Technology | Production | Ginger Plate
This is a water game from 2700 years ago.
The sturdy tiger bears the bottom of the tray, while the mischievous dragon climbs the outer wall. Fish, frogs, and waterfowl are leisurely and contented.
When not filled with water, the 12 birds and beasts are just static decorations. If clear water flows through both hands and into the belly, in an instant, a shallow beach emerges from the earth, and the animals become the protagonists. The sound of water ripples and shimmers. Fish swimming on frog drums, a naive expression.
Animals form concentric circles centered around male birds, harmoniously performing the natural waltz.
If a line is made between the male bird and peripheral animals, then the disk will be divided into eight equal parts. The craftsmanship of the designer is hidden in various details. 12 round carved aquatic animals are fixed at the bottom of the plate, but they can all rotate 360 degrees in place, making the technique of making bronze vessels unparalleled.
Ding Zhongming, Deputy Director and Research Librarian of the Cultural Relics Protection Science and Technology Center of the Shanghai Museum, used computer tomography technology to analyze the connection and internal structure between the round carved aquatic animals, climbing dragons, tiger feet, and ear appendages of Zizhong Jiang Pan and the disc body. It was found that each round carved animal was equipped with a shaft and cast to the disc body.
"The thickness of the plate bottom is about 3 millimeters, and the cylindrical shaft is about 1.5 millimeters deep into the plate bottom. Upon careful observation, no cylindrical shaft can be seen protruding from the plate bottom, indicating the superb manufacturing technology."
Ding Zhongming stated that the Zizhongjiang plate is made using casting technology, which requires embedding the rotating axis of the round carved animal in the bottom layer of the plate, maintaining verticality and being able to rotate flexibly, with a high degree of difficulty. "During the Spring and Autumn period, bronze casting craftsmen inherited the advanced pottery techniques of their ancestors and made breakthrough innovative applications."
The plates of the Shang Dynasty were decorated with aquatic animals and birds, exuding an overall majestic aura. The Zhou people created objects with a more intimate visual effect. In the Spring and Autumn period, the designer of Zizhong Jiang Pan conceived a clever device and created dynamic scenes.
The inner wall of the plate is inscribed with six lines and thirty-two characters: "At the beginning of the sixth month, the auspicious Xinhai Festival was celebrated/by the master/by the son Zhong Jiang Mo Pan/by Kong Shuo and good/by praying for eyebrows and longevity/by using it as treasure for future generations.". Ding Zhongming introduced that this is a bronze plate made by a master of the Jin state in the early Spring and Autumn period for her wife Zhongjiang. The 32 character inscription on the copper plate symbolizes praying for longevity.
Pan and Gui are a set of utensils used for washing, often appearing in the dowry items of the Zhou Dynasty nobles. Duke Wen of Jin once crafted an exquisite plate for his daughter Meng Ji, as a tribute to her distant marriage to the state of Chu. The "tools" related to daily life pass through the curtains of the inner house and leap to the forefront of history.
From the Owl Zun, a female hero in the Shang Dynasty, to the copper square box of the Marquis of Jin in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and then to the plates of the Spring and Autumn Period, we look back time and time again, glimpsing the personal space of ancient women, the bronze vessels carrying the etiquette and righteousness of family and country, and injecting more free and romantic imagination.
The small animals inhabit the copper plate, displaying lively vitality in perfect cleverness, guarding their owner's "little fortune". In the passionate Bronze Age, they are beauty that cannot be ignored.
