In 1970s, a sensational archaeological discovery was born in Xi, Shaanxi. On the local capital construction site in the southern suburbs of hejia village, the construction workers suddenly found a large pottery urn containing many gold and silver vessels, and then found a similar pottery urn and a silver jar filled with priceless treasures.
Although there are only three containers, people have poured out more than 1000 precious cultural relics in them. Most of them are gold, silver, bronze, jade and precious stones, including three national treasures and dozens of first-class cultural relics. This is the famous hejia village cellar. It's not a tomb, and cultural relics are not funerary objects. At present, the most recognized view is that these cultural relics should be left by Serina Liu, the renter of Shangshu in the Tang Dynasty.
Among the three national treasures, the silver pot of gilded horse cup is very eye-catching. It is not only expensive in materials and exquisite in workmanship, but also represents the customs of the Tang Dynasty with its unique style and rare patterns.
The pots we see now are all the same, but the shape of this silver pot is quite unique. At first glance, it seems that the skin of ethnic minorities holds wine and water, and even has a silver chain with a length of 14 cm. Just above the pot, an arched hanging beam and a vertical tubular spout are welded, which makes people feel like a pot.
Its pot body is oblate and smooth, and it still shines after 1000 years. The patterns of the pot body, lid and arch beam are all gold-plated, which makes the pot not only look magnificent, but also change its color. Skin was originally a drinking vessel for nomadic people in the north at that time, and pots were used by people in the Central Plains. The perfect combination of the two fully demonstrated the situation of cultural integration at that time and the open and broad mind of the Tang Dynasty.
This cultural relic, if you only look at the shape, will definitely not reach the national treasure level. Only by carefully looking at the pattern of the pot will you applaud. This design is a thin horse with a ribbon around its neck, which is magnificent and shows elegant bearing between strutting. Horses are neither carved nor painted, but are struck on the pot wall by the ductility of silver.
It is conceivable that it is rare to play such a delicate and vivid pattern on the pot body with less than 100 square centimeter. The exquisite skills of craftsmen in the prosperous Tang Dynasty have been fully demonstrated in this work. Not only that, but even the horse in the pot has a heavy sense of history.
It turned out that the horse on the pot was not an ordinary horse, but a horse that could dance at that time. Do you think it is dancing? In the Tang Dynasty, there was a stunt in the court to train horses, which allowed them to dance for fun. Especially in Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, it was very popular. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty was emperor for 44 years. It is said that at the birthday party, the dancing horses in the palace performed 25 performances for him.
Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty was a famous son of heaven in the pear garden. He had great artistic talent and even created Dress in Clothes. If you pay so much attention to dance, these dancing horses will never just go through the motions. Their performances must be quite wonderful. At that time, the prime minister Zhang said, once raised a glass to praise the heroic posture of the dancing horse:
The holy emperor is the supreme virtue, the harmony between heaven and earth, and the heavenly horse goes to the west. Wrist and foot prostrate, bow down, so arrogant that you can't step on a thousand hooves. When I was excited, I squatted and stepped on it, angry and awkward. There was even a last banquet, and I was drunk with my head down.
Even Du Fu, the poet saint, once left a poem "Nine lives in the dance steps, and autumn flowers are behind". In fact, according to Du Fu's experience, he has never seen a horse dance performance in the imperial court, just because the horse dance is famous, and the poet gave sincere praise through imagination.
However, with the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, even the clothes were broken, let alone dancing horses. Later, this batch of dancing horses was acquired by An Lushan's subordinates. They don't understand the goods at all, and treat them as ordinary war horses. Once when the army was drinking and having fun, these dancing horses danced to the beat of the music. The foot soldiers were so frightened that they thought it was a monster coming down to earth that they beat them to death with a whip.
Tang Wu's horse training method has not been handed down, and we will never have a chance to see such a scenic spot again. However, on this national treasure of "gilded horse cup and silver pot", we can travel through 1000 years and imagine its elegance in those years.