The Cangzhou Iron Lion weighs about 32 tons. It has survived for thousands of years, but it fell due to the clever protection of experts. Why?

Introduction:

China has a history of development of more than 5,000 years since ancient times. During these thousands of years of development, our country's culture has become increasingly profound. Moreover, many of the wisdom and technologies of the ancients are still beyond our reach. Most of the wisdom of the ancients has been condensed into numerous handicrafts that have been passed down to this day. Nowadays, those handicrafts have become the cultural symbols of a city, just like the landmark buildings of a city.

Every city has its own culture and its own handicrafts behind it, and the city of Cangzhou in Hebei we are going to talk about today also has its own cultural identity. Cangzhou City, Hebei Province is called the Lion City because of an iron lion. This iron lion in Cangzhou weighs about 32 tons. It has withstood thousands of years of wind and rain, but it still stands as it is in Cangzhou City. But so many years of guarding did not bring about a good ending. The Iron Lion was eventually destroyed by those he guarded.

01

After people discovered the iron lion in Cangzhou City, many archaeologists were sent to study it. Finally, after a series of studies by archaeologists, it was deduced that it should have been built in the third year of Guangshun in the Later Zhou Dynasty (953 AD). This iron lion was located in front of a temple in Cangzhou City. In China, this iron lion is already the oldest and largest iron lion in China.

The casting of this iron lion is very magnificent, giving people a very majestic feeling. The entire body of the iron lion faces south, but the lion's head faces southwest. The whole lion gives people the feeling of aiming at prey and preparing to attack. The title of Lion King is also printed on this lion's body, and a lotus throne is carved on its back. In the end, historians concluded based on a series of ancient books that the lion should be the mount of Manjushri Bodhisattva in the temple. Because in ancient times, Manjushri Bodhisattva's mount has always been the Lion King, and the lion's posture and other carvings indicate that it should be waiting for Manjushri Bodhisattva's arrival.

02

This Cangzhou lion would be very difficult to cast even today, let alone for the ancient craftsmen at that time. But the wisdom of the ancients cannot be underestimated. They cast iron in pieces and then cast it in layers to make this iron lion stand here. Perhaps they never thought that this iron lion could stand here for thousands of years. This also shows the exquisite forging technology of the ancients, and we still have a lot to learn from the ancients.

However, experts later based on the records in "Cang County Chronicles", believed that this iron lion may have been cast by Zhou Shizong specifically to suppress tsunamis, so it also has a name of "tsunami suppression". Because the geographical location of Cangzhou in the past was not the same as it is now. In the past, Cangzhou was close to Canghai, and the climate environment here was not good. The seawater in Canghai often flooded, and local people had to experience sea disasters from time to time. For Cangzhou at that time, such a sea disaster made people unable to withstand the wind and rain of life.

03

Later, these villagers collectively raised funds and asked Li Yunlai, a very famous caster at the time, to cast this iron lion to help them suppress the tsunami. The names of these donors and the foundry master Li Yunlai were engraved on the iron lion. There is another legend about the Iron Lion. In ancient times, Cangzhou was a geomantic treasure land. An evil dragon took a fancy to Cangzhou, a geomantic treasure land, and wanted to launch a tsunami to drive away the local people. Once when the evil dragon did evil, he was driven out of Cangzhou City by a lion. However, because the evil dragon still existed, the people built this iron lion in order to keep it away from Cangzhou City. To express commemoration, people called this lion Zhenhai Roar.

In order to protect this iron lion, Cangzhou specially invited cultural relic experts from the Soviet Union. But Soviet experts suggested that they build a pavilion to protect the Iron Lion. As a result, the iron lion began to rust rapidly because it could not evaporate water in time. After the iron lion rusted, they demolished the pavilion, but then began to "toss" the iron lion again.

At that time, people in Cangzhou City specially built a pedestal for the lion. In order to place the iron lion on this pedestal, they injected a lot of cement into the iron lion's legs. This move caused a lot of cracks in the iron lion. In order to repair these When the cracks appeared, they inserted steel pipes around the iron lion to support it, but the situation did not improve, and the cracks in the iron lion increased again.

Conclusion

The Iron Lion fell to the clever protection of those experts and lost its mighty appearance. It is said in "Shang Shu Cai Zhong's Ming": "If there is no cleverness, the old rules will be messed up." If it were not for the improper behavior of the experts, perhaps the iron lion would not have been damaged so quickly. Therefore, in the subsequent process of protecting cultural relics, their handling methods became more careful and meticulous to avoid irreparable losses.