"chimes?!"

Chen Han followed quickly and walked out with Zhang Jianbo.

"Senior Brother Zhang, how many chimes are there in this set?"

"Three of them have been unearthed for the time being, one of which is relatively damaged, and the other two are in very good condition."

When Chen Han mentioned chime bells, he immediately thought of Zeng Houyi chime bells.

There is no way around it, this set of chimes is so famous, even more famous than the Yue King Goujian's Sword, and it is truly a national-level weapon.

However, in addition to the chimes of Zeng Houyi, Chinese archeology has also successively unearthed many sets or individual chimes.

The chime music is crisp, bright, melodious, and can play a singing-like melody, so it is also known as a singing bell.

As early as the Shang Dynasty 3,500 years ago, China had chimes, but at that time the chimes were mostly in sets of three.

The real rise of chimes came after the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Among Zhou rites, music was also a type of rite. At that time, only nobles could enjoy music, and nobles of different levels enjoyed different music.

For example, the sentence in "The Analects of Confucius" "Eight people dancing in the court are tolerable, but no one can be tolerated." This is what Confucius used to criticize the Ji family's transgression system in Lu.

Yi is a procession of people playing music and dancing. One Yi refers to a row of eight people, and eight Yi refers to sixty-four people in eight rows.

According to the strict system of Zhou rites, only the emperor can use eight ren, the princes can use 6 yi, the ministers and officials can use 4 yi, and the scholars can use 2 yi.

Ji was the chief minister of the Lu State, and according to the regulations, he could only use four qian, but he exceeded the standard of playing music and dancing that could only be enjoyed by the emperor, so Confucius pointed his nose at him and scolded him.

Confucius used "the collapse of rituals and the destruction of music" to describe the social mentality in the late Spring and Autumn Period. It can be seen that in the eyes of Zhou people, music is a sacred and advanced thing, which is closely linked to the entire society.

In fact, not only in China, but also in European history, early music was also a high-end entertainment that only the upper class could enjoy.

As a musical instrument exclusively used by the upper-class Chinese aristocracy, chimes are a symbol of rank and power, and they also have a set of rules for their use.

The chime bells of the Shang Dynasty needed to be composed of at least 3 bells, and if more, it would be 5 bells.

In the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty, chime bells have developed from 3 or 5 to a group of 8, which can produce two tone levels separated by a minor third or a major third interval.

Chime bells at that time were often played at palace banquets and were known as the "music of bells and drums".

In the middle and late Spring and Autumn Period, the number increased to a group of 9 or 13 pieces.

By the Warring States Period, the number of sets of chime bells was even greater.

Depending on the owner's "financial resources" and love for music, more bells can be added to increase the layering and grandeur of the performance.

The famous Chime Bells of Marquis Yi of Zeng is a set of super large chime bells composed of 65 pieces of various types.

Not only does it highlight the pinnacle of my country's musical culture and bronze casting technology, but Zeng Hou Yi's chimes are nearly 2,000 years earlier than the emergence of the European twelve-well-tempered keyboard instrument.

When it comes to playing equal temperament, the piano is the younger brother among the younger brothers in front of the chimes!

Now a chime has been unearthed from Tomb M1, which is a big deal!

But Chen Han was so excited that he ran quickly to the cultural relic storage room.

It's not that he loves music much.

The main thing is that this chime has an inscription!

Almost all chimes have inscriptions engraved on the bell body, and the inscribed content generally contains a large amount of information!

In just a few steps, Chen Han and Zhang Jianbo arrived at the cultural relic storage room.

It was already past eight o'clock in the evening, but the cultural relics storage room was still brightly lit. Professor Li and Kong Jianwen, along with several researchers from the Xia, Shang, Zhou and Qin Han Research Labs, all gathered around the table in the center of the room.

The three chimes were surrounded by them and were constantly being looked at.

Chen Han quickly came over and took a look.

The shape of these three chimes is roughly the same. They are all Yong bells. The bell bodies are oblate and round like a tile, with ribs, thin at the top and thick at the bottom. Their appearance is similar to those on display in the museum.

The body of the vessel is decorated with dense relief carvings and tiny patterns, which would definitely be tricky if you touch it with your hands.

The three chimes are of different sizes, and the largest is estimated to be three or four times the size of the smallest.

"Xiao Chen, are you here?"

Kong Jianwen noticed Chen Han, waved his hand and called him over, introducing him: "These three chimes have just been cleared from the sand pile in Tomb M1."

"I have just measured it. The largest bell, No. 1, is 112 centimeters high, No. 2 is 48 centimeters, and No. 3 is 23 centimeters."

"It's a pity that the No. 2 chime is so badly damaged. If the broken pieces of the chime can be found in the sand, it might be possible to repair it."

"But the important thing is this bell No. 1!"

"There are inscriptions cast on the front and back of the bell body of No. 1 Chime Bell, the left and right drums on the front, and the left and right drums on the back."

"There are 169 inscriptions in the whole world!"

"They are all inscribed in bronze. Professor Li initially identified them as large seal characters."

"The rubbing will be done as soon as possible. Let's study it together to see what is recorded in this inscription."

Kong Jianwen looked a little excited and excited, with a feeling of exploring a secret.

Bronze inscriptions refer to the inscriptions cast on bronzes of the Yin, Shang and Zhou dynasties, also called bell and tripod inscriptions.

It is the general name for the inscription fonts on bronzes during the Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, and Warring States periods.

The large seal script is a type of writing that was popular in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. It is based on oracle bone inscriptions and is inspired by the small seal script of the Qin Dynasty.

It is precisely because the popular writings are mostly engraved on bells and tripods, so the original writing can be preserved better than oracle bone inscriptions, and it has a simple style.

However, Dazhuan was not a unified script throughout the country during the Zhou Dynasty.

In different periods, the fonts of inscriptions engraved on bronze vessels vary greatly.

Especially during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, due to the separation of various countries, the seal scripts of each country developed regional characteristics.

I can't say they are completely different, but the difference is certainly not small.

Otherwise, Empress Qin Shi would not have created the Qin Zhuan (small seal) specifically for this purpose.

"Big seal script, Tomb No. M1 is the tomb of Marquis Zeng, so it should be the Chu seal script used?" Chen Han frowned, and after saying hello to several researchers, he looked closer at the drum surface of Chime No. 1.

's inscription.

Sure enough, the inscription on Chime No. 1 is long and slender, with thin strokes that are consistent from beginning to end.

Although it looks neat and beautiful, the strokes are round and smooth.

However, from a physical point of view, it is different from the oracle bone inscription-seal script-small seal script system that was inherited from the Central Plains.

The Chu seal script of the Western Zhou Dynasty was not much different from the large seal script of the Central Plains countries.

It was not until the late Spring and Autumn Period to the middle of the Warring States Period that the Chu State added bird-shaped decorations to the seal script, and evolved bird seal script and insect script that were quite different from the Chinese characters.

The inscription on Bell No. 1 is just more slender in shape than the Chu seal script.

It does not transform the expression of text lines into decorative bird, insect, fish and other animal patterns.

However, even the large seal script was a bit beyond Chen Han's knowledge.

His skill points are on Xiaozhuan...

Xiaozhuan evolved from the characters of the Qin Dynasty.

Because it was the Qin State that unified the world, in the history of the development of Chinese characters, the Qin scripts represented the mainstream of the development of Chinese characters, while the Six Kingdoms scripts only represented the tributaries.

Therefore, the scripts of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods can be divided into two systems, namely the Qin scripts and the Six Kingdoms scripts.

The chime inscription in tomb No. 1 obviously belongs to the Six Kingdoms writing system, and it is also the Chu writing system that developed exclusively in the south...
Chapter completed!