The epitaph of Yuchi Jingde and the picture of smiling ladies from the Shaanxi Zhaoling Museum, the stone carved Hu Xuan dance tomb gate from the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Museum... Recently, the "Zhenguan - Li Shimin's Long Song of Prosperity" exhibition co sponsored by the China Cultural Relics Exchange Center, the National Library (the National Archives Museum) and other units was held in the National Archives Museum, More than 240 precious cultural relics were presented to the public.

This exhibition is the first large-scale Zhenguan themed cultural relics exhibition in Beijing, presenting the growth path and the atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty of Li Shimin, the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty, so that the audience can experience the historical scene through thousands of years of time and space.

Gather 249 high-quality cultural relics

In the history of China, the Tang Dynasty was powerful and famous. Li Shimin laid a solid foundation for the founding of the Tang Dynasty and the stable development of the dynasty. During his reign, Li Shimin was politically clear, economically prosperous and socially stable.

According to Sun Xiaobing, deputy director of the China Cultural Relics Exchange Center, this exhibition gathers 140 groups of 249 exhibits from 15 cultural and museum units, including the Zhaoling Museum, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Museum, the National Library (the National Museum of Classical Books and Records), covering pottery figurines, gold and silver ware, colored glass ware, stone statues, epitaphs, etc., showing the style and features of the Tang Dynasty from multiple perspectives.

"More than half of the cultural relics in this exhibition come from the Zhaoling Museum, which is the tomb of Emperor Taizong Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty. There are more than 200 accompanying tombs in the south by east direction of the main tomb, with royal relatives, concubines, meritorious officials, etc. The archaeological survey of Zhaoling excavated some accompanying tombs, and unearthed precious cultural relics such as pottery figurines, murals, steles, and epitaphs." Feng Xue, director of the outreach office of the China Cultural Relics Exchange Center and curator of the exhibition, said.

For Song Zhengrong, the curator of this exhibition, the coordination of cultural relics among the 15 museums is a big challenge. "Two days ago, I read the WeChat chat records and found that it has been about a year since I put forward the motion for this exhibition last April."

As for the selection criteria of the exhibits, Feng Xue told the reporter that the first thing to see is whether the age of the cultural relics conforms to the exhibition theme. "The cultural relics on display include those in the early Tang Dynasty, as well as those in the Northern Zhou Dynasty and the middle and late Tang Dynasty. The reason for this choice is that we hope the audience will pay attention to the background of the times before and after Li Shimin was born and the impact of some policies during the Zhenguan period on future generations. Secondly, we will try our best to bring high-quality cultural relics to the audience. For example, the epitaph of Yuchi Jingde is the first time to leave Zhaoling Museum for exhibition."

Show the life of early Tang Dynasty people

This exhibition is divided into four parts: "God of War in the Arena, Little King of Qin", "Immortal Talent, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty", "King of the People, Heavenly Khan", "One side of ordinary people, Li Shimin". With the theme and logical context of Emperor Taizong's opening of the Zhenguan governance in the early Tang Dynasty, through the exhibition of key cultural relics, digital light and shadow display, restoration of Tang style scenes, interactive manual play, various research courses Hot events, such as clocking, lead the audience to understand Li Shimin's extraordinary life from multiple perspectives and let the audience deeply understand the history and culture of the early Tang Dynasty.

"Looking at the figures in these terracotta figures and murals, I can feel the life of people in the early Tang Dynasty. These figures have calm and vitality between their eyebrows, which reflects the unique style of that era." The audience, Ms. Li, said.

Ms. Li stopped for a long time in front of the blue painted female figurines. Through the display case, we can see that the female figurines wear high buns, their faces are plump, their eyebrows are painted with ink, and their lips are dotted with vermilion. Wear a robe with a small collar and narrow sleeves, tie the waist, and put your hands in front of your abdomen. The robe is painted with dark blue, and white flowers are sprinkled all over the robe. The flowers are a little light brown. The pleats are clear, natural and smooth, graceful and luxurious, and vivid.

"The most precious part of the blue colored female figurines is the blue color, which is extremely rare in the early tri colored glazed pottery of the Tang Dynasty," said Song Zhengrong.

On the display board next to the blue colored female figurines, they applied lead powder and rouge... A group of sketches showing the makeup sequence of women in the Tang Dynasty also attracted the attention of many viewers. "I feel their life is delicate and fresh," Ms. Li said.

In the exhibition hall, the posture of a pair of painted glazed pottery male figures riding on horses and whistling is impressive - they all wear red hoods, pale green robes, black belts, and black pointed boots. One figure covered his mouth with his left hand, raised his right hand and roared to the sky. The other raised his left hand and roared to the sky.

According to the staff, in the Tang Dynasty, whistling was a kind of professional skill, which was used for ritual performances with the cooperation of fingers, mouth shape and tip of tongue.

The white pottery hoof raising horse adjacent to this pair of painted glazed pottery male figures riding a horse and whistling is also related to the entertainment life at that time. The white pottery dancing horse stood on the flat board with three legs, muscular and elegant. The right front hoof is raised, the body's center of gravity falls on the left front leg and two back legs, the neck is raised and the head is lowered, the mane is waved on the left side of the neck, and it seems that the dance steps are rhythmically stepping with the music.

"People in the Tang Dynasty are proud of their joy in playing zither and being good at singing and dancing. Scholars in the Tang Dynasty often hold banquets accompanied by singing and dancing. From these cultural relics, we can see that the society in the Tang Dynasty was open and tolerant at that time." Feng Xue said.

Let the audience closer to history

In 627 AD, Li Shimin, who was 28 years old at that time, started the Zhenguan governance, and created the first shadow of the Tang Dynasty with clear politics, prosperous economy and splendid culture.

In this exhibition, Yuchi Jingde's epitaph was also moved into the exhibition hall. The audience can identify the inscription on the cover - "The epitaph of the late Situ Bingzhou Governor of the Tang Dynasty, the leader of the State of Hubei, Yuchi Mansion, the loyal prince of the State of Hubei" and the patterns around it. The epitaph has a large volume, crystal stone color, exquisite carving and beautiful characters.

According to Song Zhengrong, the epitaph of Yuchi Jingde is the largest of the 45 compound epitaphs unearthed from the accompanying tomb of Zhaoling. What is rare is that the strokes carved by Zhigai are only high or low, and there is no color difference. If the book is written on paper, it will be slightly white, so it is called Feibaishu, "which is very unique".

"The previous understanding of Yuchi Jingde was that his image was pasted on the doors of thousands of families as a door god in the form of New Year pictures during the New Year to pray for good fortune and eliminate disasters. Seeing the epitaph, I felt that the characters were enriched, and I wanted to know more about the stories between Yuchi Jingde and Li Shimin, as well as between Li Shimin and other famous officials and generals at that time." said one audience.

What makes the audience further extend their previous understanding of the governance of Zhenguan is the collection of treasures selected by the National Library - Wang Shiqin Youtang's engraving Zhenguan Zhenguan Zhengyao in the third year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1370). It is reported that Zhenguan Zhengyao is a historical book recording the political achievements of Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, and the comments of the monarch and his officials. The book takes the monarch's way, the regime, the appointment of officials, the admonition, and the advice of the monarch and his officials as the titles, and extracts respectively the political comments, memorials, and major political measures of Li Shimin, Minister Taizong of the Tang Dynasty during the Zhenguan period.

Zhang Zhiqing, the executive vice curator of the National Library, said that the audience should combine watching cultural relics with reading ancient books, so that archaeological discoveries can be confirmed with the handed down ancient books, so as to better understand the spirit of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty.

In the exhibition hall, the gold coated figurines of military officers, described by many audiences as "amazing", "beautiful from any angle", "finally knowing what the military officers were wearing at that time", frowned, wore red robes, bright armor, arms decorated with tiger head and shoulders, and feet dressed in black round headed boots. All of them were decorated with carefully designed patterns, many of them were gilded, and their hands clenched as weapons. His expression is serious and his manner is heroic and dignified.

"This curation makes me feel that the curators are like chefs, and the cultural relics in the exhibition are like the limited ingredients in the hands of chefs. The curation is to integrate these cultural relics in a limited space," said Song Zhengrong.

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