Relics of the Tang Dynasty

On the Relics of the Tang Dynasty – the Exhibition of the Hoarded Classic Excavations from Hejiacun village opened at Shannxi Historic Museum, over 300 selected hoarded excavations from Hejiacun village were displayed, including the Gilded Ox Head Agate Cup, the Gold-decorated Handled Silver Pot with the Pattern of Parrots, the Gold-decorated Silver Kettle with the Pattern of a Dancing Horse and the Gold Bowl with the Pattern of Mandarin Ducks and Lotus Petals. For more than half of these items, this show marked their debut.

The Gilded Jade Armlet

In October 1970, two pottery urns and a handled pot were excavated during an infrastructure construction at Hejiacun village in the southern suburbs of Xi’an, where the Xinghua Workshop of Changan during the Tang Dynasty had been located. There, more than one thousand silver, gold, jade and copper items as well as precious medicine were unearthed.

Because the Tang Dynasty was the most powerful epoch of ancient China, with silver, gold and jade items as its dominant media of arts and crafts, the hoard at Hejiacun village during the prime Tang Dynasty is undoubtedly “the jewel in the crown,” which also passes for “the Treasure at Hejiacun village” or “the Relics of Tang Dynasty.” In correspondence with “the Relics of Amu Darya,” the renowned occidental archaeological discovery, it has turned out to be the major one among the Chinese archaeology history during the 20th century. Nevertheless, the definite conclusion to the owner of the workshop and the reason for the hoard of the relics remains unclear, and remains for further exploration.

The Gold-decorated Octagon Silver Cup with Pattern of Musicians

The curiosa display area, the major part of the show with the theme of “Tang Style,” was divided into three unities in accordance with materials and utilities. The first unity, “Gorgeous Jade,” exhibited the 30-odd jades and gems unearthed at Hejiacun village, including the curiosa of Shannxi Historic Museum - the Gilded Ox Head Agate Cup. The second one, “Resplendent Silver and Gold,” showed the silver and gold items featured in the exquisite techniques of the craftsmen at Tang Dynasty, which were mainly made at the prime epoch, the seventh and eighth centuries. The third one, “Treasure Collection,” with 466 gold, silver and copper coins, ranging from the Warring States to the Tang Dynasty, at home and abroad, was the initiative display with diverse coins at the archaeology history of coins. Among the coins, Jin Kai Yuan, a real picture of the imperial life at Tang Dynasty was also unearthed for the first time.

The Gilded Ox Head Agate Cup

The Gilded Ox Head Agate Cup, a curiosa of Shannxi Historic Museum and also the only jade sculpture of the Tang Dynasty, displays an exquisitely skillful technique used in presenting its natural color, and has already been listed as one of the most precious relics not admitted out of the territory. The cup, in the shape of an ox’s head with a glided mouth, is graceful and gorgeous, the design of which is believed to be traced from a kind of Western wine set titled as “Passage” by the Greeks.

Experts are still divided over its origin; some believe it is from the Western while some believe it was made by the craftsmen at Tang Dynasty. No matter where it was made, it is a precious treasure for research on the exchanges with other countries during the Tang Dynasty. It’s also been pointed out that the item in the shape of alien styles actually reflects the luxurious life of the noble in the first phase of Tang Dynasty, as well as the profound cultural and material exchanges between China and countries in western and middle Asia.

The Gold-decorated Handled Silver Pot with the Pattern of Parrots

The Gold-decorated Handled Silver Pot with the Pattern of Parrots, one of the most exquisite silver pots of the Tang Dynasty, is decorated with the pattern of cloud flowers centering round parrots while the rest are mainly flowers and grasses. The neck and foot of the pot are all ornamented in a circle of rhombus flowers designs. There’s one line written in China ink inside the pot lid, namely, “fifty-liang Chinese milk vetch, twelve-liang climbing nightshade,” which denotes that this silver pot was used for storing medicine. When it was excavated at Hejiacun village in 1970, it was half-full with a thin gold foil floating in the water. Meanwhile, twelve exquisite deep-colored gold dragons stood on the gold foil around which scattered ten-odd gems of diverse colors.