People like to use "heavenly steeds flying freely" to describe the imagination of free jumping. As the source of China's tourism signs, the bronze galloping harness, a 55 year old cultural relic of the Han Dynasty, resembles the romantic imagination of the ancients.

May 19 is the 14th "China Tourism Day". Let's take a look at the romance and ingenuity of the ancient "top class".

Although the bronze galloping horse is cast in bronze, it conveys a sense of flexibility and strength. The horse raised its head and hissed, three feet flew into the air, and its right rear hoof stepped on a bird. Its mane and tail wire rose back, which fixed the dynamic moment of "speed is equal to that of birds and animals, and leaps thousands of miles".

Archaeologists said that the bronze galloping horse was unearthed in Leitai Han Tomb in Wuwei City, Gansu Province in the 1960s. The shape of this cultural relic is very special, which is totally different from other burial carts and horses that stand still. It may be an object designed and cast by the tomb owner during his lifetime.

Since the bronze galloping horse was unearthed, it has always had its own "names". Horse treading on flying swallow, flying swallow bay, Ma Chao dragon bird, horse god Tiansi... Many names have interpreted the shape of the bronze galloping horse, or expressed different understanding of the flying bird, or understood from the historical background of the bronze galloping horse. In terms of the controversy over its name, the bronze galloping horse, as a masterpiece of ancient Chinese bronze art, has also inspired the imagination of contemporary people.

In addition to the imaginative aesthetic shape, the reason why the bronze galloping horse can only support its own weight of more than 14 kg with one leg is that its casting technology is very exquisite.

When casting bronze galloping horses, the ancients followed the traditional pottery mold casting method of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, casting the horse head, horse body, horse legs, and birds under the hooves and other parts separately and then casting them into a whole. The horse tail and the horse wreath were inserted into the reserved holes separately.

Ban Rui, deputy curator of Gansu Provincial Museum, said that through X-ray flaw detection scanning, it was found that the ancients also skillfully used bronze and iron, two metals with different melting points, to design and manufacture special components as stiffeners in the right rear support leg of the copper galloping horse, and made special tenon and mortise treatment on the casting joint between the horse body and the leg root, ankle joint, hoof, foot, wrist and other stress points, Made of solid "iron bone and copper leg".

"It's like adding steel bars in cement columns, which greatly increases the strength and support," said Ban Rui.

In 1983, Tongbengma "passed five passes and killed six generals", stood out from a crowd of ancient "competitors", and was identified as a symbol of China's tourism by the former National Tourism Administration. In 2002, Tongbengma was listed in the first batch of cultural relics prohibited from going abroad for exhibition by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

As for why the bronze galloping horse can be selected as the symbol of Chinese tourism, Ban Rui believes that: "On the one hand, the bronze galloping horse is a concentrated reflection of the wisdom, aesthetics and superb skills of the ancient people, with important symbolic characteristics. On the other hand, the fusion gene of the bronze galloping horse itself is also consistent with today's tourism exchanges, cultural exchanges, etc."

Cultural relics have been preserved for a long time. The beauty of Han horses more than 2000 years ago hit the hearts of ancient and modern Chinese.

In the summer of 2022, the cultural and creative doll products based on the copper galloping horse became popular throughout the network, becoming the "top stream" of cultural and creative products. By the end of 2023, the sales of this series of cultural and creative products will reach 7 million yuan.

Cui Youxin, the director of the Cultural Innovation Center of Gansu Provincial Museum, said that at first, the cultural innovation team only paid attention to the bland expression of the Bronze Galloping Horse. With the endless flow of imagination, they gradually came up with the idea of endowing the Bronze Galloping Horse with character, so there were standing "green horse jumping" and running "green horse clumsy". They were positive and grinned all day long.

The Han people respected horses, and today people also sing about horses. With the wind blowing in the summer and the horse's hooves breaking down, let's take the horse as the axis to meet the past and the future.

Planner: Hu Guoxiang

Final judgment: Feng Xuan

Reporter: He Wen

Editor: Nie Yi, Zhao Lulu