流失海外近百年，康侯簋終於得以回國「省親」

每件藝術品都有一個虛構的參照點，在這參照點周圍分布著處於完美的均衡狀態中的線條、外表和塊體。

所有這些樣式的結構目的都是為了取得和諧，而和諧則使我們的美感得到滿足。

——里德

中國國家博物館重磅大展「大英博物館100件文物中的世界史」已於前日正式開幕，於2017年3月1日在中國國家博物館隆重開幕。

展覽自3月2日至5月31日期間，全面向觀眾開放。

在這次展覽中，就有一件來自西周初年的康侯簋，又稱「沫司徒疑簋」，它是祭祀祖先的禮器，更是彌足珍貴的青銅重器。

康侯簋

自流失海外後，這次是首次「回家」。

康侯簋是證明海內衛氏以封國得姓的難得一見的實物資料。

正如我們現在廚房中大小深淺不一的平底鍋一樣，這件器物應該也是一套不同尺寸的青銅器中的一件。

康侯簋

就造型和紋飾而言，《康侯簋》堪稱西周早期簋的經典範本。

器身高24厘米，口徑41厘米，腹壁微彎曲，口沿外侈，近腹底圓曲內收，雙半環耳垂長方形餌。

紋飾方面頸和圈足相間排列圓渦紋和四瓣目紋，腹部飾直棱紋，雙耳做獸首狀，莊重典雅、樸素簡約。

由於這種紋飾搭配從西周中期後就基本消失了，因此在康侯簋的這看似簡單的造型紋飾搭配中，又多了幾分「歷史距離」之外的決絕。

康侯簋銘文的位置

器物內部雖然只有二十四個字，但是內容很重要，它印證了西周開國的一段歷史：周朝的第二代君王——成王討伐商朝舊貴族的叛亂之後，把原來商朝的都城分封給了衛國的國君——康叔。

康侯簋銘文

話說商朝末年，紂王昏庸殘暴，殘酷剝削奴隸和平民，修建了許多宮殿、園林，終日飲酒和打獵。

在他的統治下，百姓苦不堪言。

此時，渭水流域的周族在周文王的治理下，國力日漸強盛。

周文王死後，兒子武王姬發即位，決定討伐紂王，還百姓一個太平盛世。

公元前1046年，周武王進攻商的都城朝歌（今河南省淇縣）。

經過牧野一戰，周武王大敗商軍，推翻了紂王的統治，建立了周朝。

武王伐紂

滅商之後，武王分封了紂王的兒子武庚為諸侯，繼續統治原來的地方。

武王又在武庚的周圍，分封了自己的三個弟弟：霍叔、管叔和蔡叔，以達到監視武庚的目的。

可是，武王死後，武庚就聯合霍叔、管叔和蔡叔，在東方一些國家的支持下，發動了叛亂。

武王的兒子——成王在周公的輔佐下，平定了叛亂，把一些親戚和功臣分到了一些重要地區作國君，作為自己王朝的屏障。

作為重要戰略意義的封地——商朝的舊都朝歌，成王把它分封給了自己的叔叔康侯姬封。

此後，姬封以朝歌為中心，建立了衛國。

康侯的大臣——疑，也分到了一塊地方。

疑備感榮耀，就鑄造了這件青銅器，希望得到祖先的護佑。

中國最重要也是最常見的古代宗教儀式，便是為逝者準備祭祀的食物。

中國最早的兩個王朝——商朝（前1500——前1050）與周朝（前1050——前221），都製作了大量盛放食物和酒水的青銅容器，用於七天一次或者十天一次的大型祭祀活動。

他們相信，如果這些食物酒水準備得當，逝去的祖先便能享用，並會因此保佑子孫後代衣食豐足，當然，我們所看到的的這些青銅器，是極奢華的日常生活用品，並非主要為葬禮準備，但如果某個重要人物去世，人們相信他在死後還是會繼續用食物供奉祖先，更確切地說，是以盛宴來取悅他們。

——傑西卡·羅森爵士

那麼這件器物是怎麼發現的呢？

1931年的一天，一場暴雨過後，河南濬縣一個叫辛村地方，某村民沿著山坡挖窯洞，突然，一個村民挖出了一件奇怪的東西，仔細一看，是一件周身帶著銅銹的青銅器，看起來像個大碗，兩側有兩個把手。

村民認為這是一件稀罕物，就興奮地叫其他人來看，大家一看是青銅器，猜想下面一定是個古墓，於是又挖了起來。

果然，地下是一座寶庫，大大小小的青銅器、陶器，一件接著一件被挖了出來。

辛村挖出了青銅器的消息不脛而走，文物商、古董販子蜂擁而至，搶購出土的古董。

郭寶鈞

河南古蹟研究會聞訊後，也立刻派人前往，希望制止村民胡亂挖掘墓葬的行為。

可是，在他們趕到之前，出土的二十幾件文物，早已被文物販子搶購走了。

第二年，在考古學家郭寶鈞的主持下，河南古蹟研究會又重新發掘辛村古墓，這一片長約500米、寬約300米的墓地，共發掘出了80多座墓葬。

根據墓葬的規模和出土青銅器的銘文判斷，這個墓葬群，竟然就是西周時歷任衛侯的墓地。

可惜的是，這些墓葬大多都已被盜，墓葬中的隨葬品也所剩無己。

許多珍貴的器物早已被文物販子賣到了文物市場上，還有一些輾轉被賣到了國外，珍貴的康侯簋就這樣流失到了海外，並於1977年被大英博物館收購。

沒看夠的話，小編再貼心地奉上BBC廣播對於康侯簋的解說。

PS……

全英文的……

Chinese Zhou ritual vessel

(made around 1050 BC).

Bronze gui,

found in western China

Howoften do you dine with the dead? It may seem a strange question, but if you're Chinese it may not be quite so surprising, because many Chinese, even today, believe that deceased family members watch over them from the other side of death, and can help or hinder their fortunes. When somebody dies, they're equipped for burial with all kinds of practical bits and pieces: a toothbrush for instance - money, food, water - possibly a credit card and a computer. The Chinese afterlife often sounds depressingly (or perhaps I mean reassuringly?) like our own. But there is one great difference: the dead are paid huge respect. A well equipped send-off is just the beginning: ritual feasting - holding banquets with and for the ancestors - has been for centuries a part of Chinese life.

"The primary and most ancient religion in China consists of preparing ceremonial meals for the dead." (Jessica Rawson)

"In Chinese way it's ritual, particularly of banquets, offering your ancestor food." (Wang Tao)

Today's programme is about a spectacular bronze bowl, which around three thousand years ago was used for feasting in the company of both the ancestors and the gods. Families offered food and drink to their watchful dead, while governments offered to the mighty gods. This is a vessel that addresses the next world, but emphatically asserts authority in this one, and around 1000 BC, at a troubled transitional moment for China, the link between heavenly and earthly authority was all.

From the Mediterranean to the Pacific, around three thousand years ago, existing societies collapsed and were replaced by new powers. In China the Shang Dynasty, which had been in power for over 500 years, was toppled by a new dynasty, the Zhou. The Zhou came from the west - from the steppes of central Asia. Like the Kushites of Sudan who conquered Egypt at roughly the same time, the Zhou were a people from the edge, who challenged and overthrew the old-established, prosperous centre. The Zhou ultimately took over the entire Shang kingdom and, again like the Kushites, followed it up by appropriating not just the state they'd conquered but its history, imagery and rituals. Central to the ritual of Chinese political authority was the practice of elaborate feasting with the dead, and this involved magnificent bronze vessels, which are both instruments of power and major historical documents.

I'm in the Asia gallery of the British Museum, and I'm with a handsome bronze vessel called a gui. It is about the shape and size of a large punch bowl, about a foot (30 cm) across, with two large curved handles. What you first notice I think, looking at the outside, is the elaborate, flower-like decoration that run on bands on the top and the bottom; but undoubtedly it's the handles that really are the most striking element, because each handle is a large beast, with tusks and horns and huge square ears, and it's caught in the act of swallowing a bird whose beak is just emerging from its jaws. Bronze vessels like this one are among the most iconic objects made in ancient China. They often carry inscriptions which are now a key source for Chinese history, and this bronze, made about 1000 BC, is just such a document. It's part of the story about the end of one Chinese dynasty - the Shang - and the beginning of another one - the Zhou.

The Shang Dynasty had seen the growth of China's first large cities. Their last capital, at Anyang on the Yellow River in north China, covered an area of 30 square kilometres and had a population of 120,000 - at the time it must have been one of the largest cities in the world. Life in Shang cities was highly regulated, with 12-month calendars, decimal measurement, conscription and centralised taxes. As centres of wealth, the cities were also places of outstanding artistic production in ceramics and jade and, above all, in bronze, and all these skills continued to flourish after the Shang had been replaced by the victorious Zhou.

Now making a bronze vessel like our gui bowl is an extraordinarily complicated business. First you need to mine and smelt the ores that contain both copper and tin, in order to make the bronze itself. Then comes the casting, and here Chinese technology led the world. Our gui was not made as a single object, but as separate pieces cast in different moulds which were then joined together to make one complex and intricate work of art. The result is a vessel that at that date could have been made nowhere else in the world.

The sheer skill, the effort and expense involved in making bronze vessels like these make them immediately objects of the highest value and status, fit therefore for the most solemn ceremonies. Here's Dame Jessica Rawson, renowned expert on Chinese bronze:

"The first dynasties of China, the Shang and the Zhou, made large numbers of fine bronze containers for food, for alcohol, for water, and used these in a big ceremony, sometimes once a week, maybe once every ten days. The belief is that if food, wine or alcohol is properly prepared, it will be received by the dead and nourish them, and those dead, the ancestors, will look after their descendants in return for this nourishment. The bronze vessels which we see today were prized possessions for use in life. They were not made primarily for burial, but when a major figure of the elite died, it was believed that he would carry on offering ceremonies of food and wine to his ancestors in the afterlife, indeed, entertain them at banquets."

Our bowl would have been one of a set of vessels of different sizes, rather like a set of saucepans in a smart modern kitchen - although we don't know how many companions it might once have had. Each vessel had a clearly defined role in the preparing and serving of food at the regular banquets that were organised for the dead.

If you look inside our basin, there is a surprise. At the bottom, where it would have normally been hidden by food when in use, there is an inscription written in Chinese characters, that are not so unlike the ones still used today. And this inscription tells us that this particular bowl was made for a Zhou warrior, one of the invaders who overthrew the Shang Dynasty.

At this date, any formal writing is prestigious, but writing in bronze carries a very particular authority. The inscription at the bottom of the gui tells us of a significant battle in the Zhou's ultimate triumph over the Shang:

"The King, having subdued the Shang country, charged the Marquis Kang to convert it into a border territory to be the Wei state. Since Mei Situ Yi had been associated in effecting this change, he made in honour of his late father this sacral vessel."

So the man who commissioned the gui, Mei Situ Yi, did so in order to honour his dead father, and at the same time, as a loyal Zhou, he chose to commemorate the quashing of a Shang rebellion in about 1050 BC by the Zhou king's brother, the Marquis K'ang. It's through inscriptions in bronze like this one that we can reconstruct the continued tussling between the Shang and the Zhou throughout this period. As writing on bamboo or wood has perished, these bronze inscriptions are now our principal historical source.

It's not at all clear why the smaller and much less technically sophisticated Zhou were able to defeat the powerful and well organised Shang state. They seem to have had a striking ability to absorb and to shape allies into a coherent attacking force; but above all, they were buoyed up by their faith in themselves as a chosen people. In first capturing, and then ruling, the Shang kingdom, they saw themselves - as so many conquering forces do - as enacting the will of the gods. So they fought with the confidence born of knowing that they were to be the rightful inheritors of the land. But - and this was new - they articulated this belief in the form of one controlling concept, which was to become a central idea in Chinese political history.

The Zhou are the first to formalise the idea of the Mandate of Heaven: the Chinese notion that heaven blesses and sustains the authority of a just ruler. An impious and incompetent ruler would displease the gods, who would withdraw their mandate from him. So on this view, it followed that the defeated Shang must have lost the Mandate of Heaven, which had passed to the virtuous, victorious Zhou. From this time on, the Mandate of Heaven became a permanent feature of Chinese political life, underpinning the authority of rulers or justifying their removal, as Wang Tao, archaeologist at the University of London tells us:

"That transformed the Zhou, because that allowed them to rule other people. If you kill the king or senior member of the family, it's the biggest crime you could make. So to turn the crime against authority or against a ruler into some justifiable action, you had to have an excuse, and that excuse is the Mandate of Heaven.

"Here in the west, we have the concept of democracy, and in China it's the Mandate of Heaven. For example, you can see if you offend the heaven, or offend the people, then you will see the omens from heaven - thunder, rain, earthquake. That's why every single time that China has an earthquake, the political rulers were scared, because they were reading that as some kind of Mandate of Heaven."

So the Zhou's ritual feasting with vessels like our gui was in part a public assertion that the gods endorsed the new regime. Gui such as ours have been found over a wide swathe of China, because the Zhou conquest continued to expand until it covered nearly twice the area of the old Shang kingdom. It was a cumbersome state, with fluctuating levels of territorial control. But nonetheless, the Zhou Dynasty lasted for as long as the Roman Empire, and indeed longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history.

And as well as the Mandate of Heaven, they bequeathed one other enduring concept to China. It was the Zhou, who three thousand years ago gave to their lands the name of Zhongguo: the Middle Kingdom'. And the Chinese have thought of themselves as the Middle Kingdom, placed in the very centre of the world, ever since.

展覽信息

大英博物館100件文物中的世界史

開館時間:9:00 — 17:00（15:30止票，16:00停止入館，16:30清場，17:00閉館）周一為閉館日

展期：2017/3/2 —5/31

地點：國家博物館 北10展廳

票價：50元

門票獲取：①提前預約或憑有效身份證件現場領票獲取國家博物館免費參觀券；②入館後在「大英博物館100件文物中的世界史」展廳門口購票參觀；③更多詳情參見國家博物館官網www.chnmuseum.cn

PS:展覽禁止拍照

作者簡介：陸青松，北京大學歷史系博士，目前供職於吳江博物館，曾參與撰寫文博親子類圖書《博物館裡的中國》。

【參考資料】尼爾·麥格雷戈《大英博物館世界簡史（上）》、里德著作《藝術的真諦》，展品圖片由拿破破拍攝，並獲得授權。

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