Chapter 421

"Moreover, there is a curse hidden on them."

"That is, whenever there is war, they disappear."

"There are ten Chencang Stone Drums in total, as you all have seen, each weighs about a ton."

"There are characters engraved on them, they can be said to be the earliest stone-carved writing in China, and also the earliest stone-carved poetry in China."

"The font on them is the Stone Drum Script before the unification of the Qin State."

"The specific content tells the story of the Qin ruler's hunting poems."

"Although they are called stone drums, they have little to do with drums, they are just a stone."

"Don't look at their low appearance, but they represent China's 2,000-plus years of history."

"Just now we said they were products of the pre-Qin period, but in fact, when they were discovered, it was already the Tang Dynasty, a thousand years later."

"What happened in between, we don't know, and there is no record in history books."

252. Witness to Chinese history, the number one ancient object!

"627 AD, which is the year Tang Taizong Li Shimin started the Reign of Zhenguan."

"An old man who was herding sheep accidentally discovered ten huge granite stones while herding sheep on Chencang Mountain."

"At that time, all the villagers gathered around, and someone splashed water on one of the stone drums."

"After the dirt was cleaned away, everyone discovered that there were characters on the giant stone."

"The most important thing is that they didn't recognize these characters."

"You have to know, in ancient times, if characters appeared on a giant stone, it meant something big was going to happen."

"So the matter of discovering the giant stone spread, and there were rumors everywhere."

"They thought this stone was bestowed by the gods."

"Many people came to offer incense and kneel, even those who couldn't write and were uneducated came to worship."

"Those who were educated took rubbings of the characters on the stone back to study slowly."

"Just like that, the stone sat there for more than a hundred years."

"755 AD, the An Lushan Rebellion broke out, and Tang Suzong Li Heng came to the vicinity of Chencang to take refuge."

"At that time, he and the civil and military officials observed these ten stone drums together."

"But because the rebels were approaching, to prevent the stone drums from being discovered, people buried the stone drums underground."

"This was also the first time it was lost when encountering war."

"Decades later, 806 AD."

"The ten stone drums were found again. Han Yu, one of the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song, had a very strong awareness of cultural relic protection."

"He petitioned the imperial court to move the stone drums to Chang'an City for safekeeping."

"It's a pity that the imperial court didn't take this matter seriously at the time."

"Han Yu was very depressed because of this, and he sighed alone holding the characters rubbed from the stone drums given to him by Zhang Ji."

"For this, Han Yu also wrote a poem called 'Stone Drum Song'."

"'Zhang Sheng holds the stone drum text, urging me to try to write a stone drum song. Shaoling has no one, the immortal died, what can I do with the stone drum with my thin talent...'"

"Fortunately, a few years later, a person named Zheng Yuqing saw Han Yu's memorial."

"He very much agreed with Han Yu's idea, so he also petitioned the imperial court to request the protection of the stone drums."

"This time, the imperial court took it seriously and agreed."

"It's just that when they went to find these ten stone drums, one of them, called the 'Zuo Yuan Drum', was inexplicably lost."

"Later, many stories happened around the lost Zuo Yuan Drum."

"Decades later, 907 AD, the Tang Dynasty perished."

"The wheel of history rolled toward the war-torn Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms."

"The stone drums were lost in war for the second time."

"Until after the Northern Song Dynasty was established, a calligraphy-loving emperor appeared, Song Renzong Zhao Zhen."

"This person was very good at writing Feibai script. Once, while reading, he was accidentally stunned by the story of the stone drums."

"He ordered the prefect at the time, Sima Chi, to find the stone drums."

"Maybe everyone doesn't know Sima Chi, but everyone should be very familiar with his son."

"The author of the Zizhi Tongjian, Sima Guang!"

"Sima Chi didn't dare to be negligent after receiving the order and hurried out to find the stone drums."

"Fortunately, the stone drums were too big, and it was difficult for people at the time to move them, so he found them quickly."

"However, he only found 9 of them, the Zuo Yuan Drum was lost and couldn't be found."

"But Sima Chi pretended to be smart and did something unnecessary, making a fake Zuo Yuan Drum."

"Mixing the real with the fake, he packed all ten stone drums and sent them to the emperor."

"Such an ancient object, how could it be so easily faked? The emperor could tell at a glance."

"So Sima Chi was greatly rewarded for finding the stone drums, but as a result, he almost lost his life because of the fake cultural relic."

"In 1052 AD, the lost Zuo Yuan Drum was finally found."

"A gold and stone scholar, Xiang Chuanshi."

"His initial connection with the stone drums came from a rubbing of the Tai family's stone drum text that he bought with heavy gold."

"But the problem is that the Zuo Yuan stone drum had already disappeared for 200 years, it had been lost for more than 200 years, it was impossible for a new rubbing to come out."

"This matter kept him awake all night."

"After many investigations, he came to the Tai family village, but it was a pity that the whole Tai family died of the plague half a year ago."

"To prevent the plague from spreading, the government burned down all the Tai family's houses and property."

"For Xiang Chuanshi, this was like a bolt from the blue."

"Physically and mentally exhausted, Xiang Chuanshi settled down in a nearby inn with a feeling of extreme disappointment."

"As a result, the next morning, Xiang Chuanshi was awakened by the sound of knife sharpening from the backyard."

"It turned out that a butcher was sharpening a knife. What shocked Xiang Chuanshi was that there were still some familiar characters faintly visible on the butcher's whetstone."

"The funny thing is, this was the lost Zuo Yuan stone drum he had dreamed of."

"But when it was found, it was already unrecognizable. The upper part had been shaved off by the villagers, and the middle had been hollowed out into a concave shape to pound rice."

"And the two broken edges on it were used by the butcher to sharpen knives. The characters on the stone drum were even more worn away, and it was severely damaged."

"This stone drum is the stone drum with the strange shape that the mayor just dug up!"

As Fang Yang's voice gradually fell.

The mayor suddenly realized from his previous immersion.

He exclaimed repeatedly: "I said mine looked a bit like a rice pounder, so that's why!!"

Others couldn't help but look at the severely worn stone drum.

Once such a cultural relic is damaged, it is irreversible.

It cannot be repaired.

It can only be said to be a pity.

When netizens saw this stone drum, they suddenly thought of the Dushan Jade Sea that Fang Yang dug up last time.

【Popularity】 +1+1+1+1.

—【I'm laughing to death, could it be that national treasures have to suffer to be worthy? Wasn't that pickle jar last time the same? It was taken by a Taoist temple and used as a pickle jar for hundreds of years. This one is even more miserable, it was shaved flat, and not only used to sharpen knives but also to pound rice.】

—【If it doesn't go through some hardships, why is it called a national treasure? Is it just because it's big? That bronze bell just now was very big, but after listening to what Fang Yang said, I can feel the gap between the two cultural relics. The bronze bell is the emperor's thing and is very awesome, but the stone drum has passed through the hands of many emperors. It is like an old man walking in the world, a witness to all dynasties.】

—【Seriously, if these ten big stones were placed in front of me, I would only think they were interesting stones at most, and I wouldn't be able to see their preciousness at all. Let alone see that they are national treasures. Such cultural relics can no longer be measured by their own value.】

—【We Chinese, no matter what, must have some national sentiment. It is the witness to our country's history. Seeing them, it's like I saw the 2,000-plus years of historical development of our nation.】

After a simple exchange of pleasantries.

Fang Yang started to explain again.

"Although the Zuo Yuan Drum was severely damaged, fortunately, the ten brothers are finally reunited."

"1061 AD, 25-year-old Su Shi came to Fengxiang for his first political position."

"The first thing he did when he took office was to go to the Confucian Temple to see the stone drums."

"The first poem he wrote in the Confucian Temple was the Stone Drum Song."

"'Winter, twelfth month, year Xinchou, I first entered politics and saw the Lu old man. I heard of the stone drums before, now I see them, the characters are like dragons and snakes running...'"