“Cherish not your gold-thread wears,/But do value your youthful years.” We learn about gold-thread wears in a Tang poem. But it is the first time for us to see silver-thread wears. The silver-thread wears of Cao Song, father of Cao Cao, was a funeral garment, a first-gade cultural relic of the state. It is also known as jade small box, composed of the five parts of head, coat, glove, trouser and shoes. It was made of 2,464 pieces of variously sized jade slices and silver threads, featuring complex technologies and fine workmanship.
The green glazed bronze money tree ,of pottery base, is a real eye opener. It stands 152cm high. The base is a red pottery decorated with green glaze, upon which are molded the mythical animals Tianlu and Pixie. The tree, made of bronze, comprises trunk, leaves and red birds. The tree trunks are separated to six sections, with 64 leaflets hanged, implying wealth and luck.
Among the exhibited works, the stone inscription rubbings of Rolling Snow, said to be written by Cao Cao himself, attracted many calligraphy fans. It is reported that when passing Hanzhong, Cao Cao saw the river keep surging forward, like white snow. So he wrote down the two characters. He was asked why deleted the left part of the character Gun (rolling), meaning water. He replied “there is so much water in the river. Why should I gild th lily?” Calligraphers commented on the character “snow”, saying it looked at ease. The “rolling” character was ended in the shape of kindling waves, so life like in figure and manner. The calligraphy work could be said a portrait of calligraphy in transition from Li script of Han to Wei stele style.
Besides, there was exhibited a pottery tomb figure of Eastern Han period, painted in color, who told stories while beating a drum. He smiled with a simple and naïve look, identical to the tomb figure as stated in history textbook. There are only two such objects in the world, representing the highest achievements of folk art during the Three Kingoms period.
There were many articles for daily life in the exhibition. The copper smoothing iron, built in 503, might be used to iron clothes when loaded with charcoal. It was actually the earliest ancestor of electric iron. The celadon fragrant fume, unearthed from Hubei, showed the upper class of the time favored flavors.
Editor: Shi Liwei
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