Qin Gong Bi: Witness to the Qin People's Pioneering Spirit

In late January 1978, members of the Taigongmiao Brigade of Yangjiagou Commune in Baoji County, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province (now Chencang District, Baoji City) found bronze artifacts in a pit while taking soil in the village. The villagers protected the scene and reported it step by step. After excavation and cleaning, experts found 5 bronze bells lined up in a row and 3 bronze bi arranged in a semicircle around the bronze bells in the pit 3 meters deep from the surface.

It has been confirmed that these 8 bronze percussion instruments are well preserved and inscriptions have been found on the instruments. Among them, the 3 Qin Gong bi are completely the same in shape, decoration and inscriptions except for their different sizes. After identifying the content of the inscriptions, experts confirmed that the owner of this batch of bronze instruments was a king of the Qin State in the Spring and Autumn Period.

The Qin Gong bi is now in the Baoji Bronze Museum. The largest of the three bi is 75.1 cm tall, 53 cm tall, and weighs 62.5 kg. The body of the bi is composed of buttons, dances, door edges, gongs, pieces, drums and other parts. It has a majestic shape and exquisite craftsmanship.

The drum of Qin Gong Bi is level, with four door edges in the middle. The two door edges on the side are shaped like nine coiled flying dragons, and the two in front and back are shaped like five flying dragons and a phoenix. There is a dragon and a phoenix on each dance part, back to back, looking back, and the image is vivid. There is a strip pattern on the upper and lower parts of the bi, which is composed of deformed cicada patterns and stolen patterns, which are lifelike, elegant and vivid.

The bi is a large single percussion instrument, which was popular in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It was used in harmony with chime bells and chime stones during noble sacrifices or banquets. It is a rhythmic instrument used to conduct the orchestra.

More delightful than the exquisite shape is the 135-character inscription on the body of Qin Gong Bi. The characters in the inscription are thin and the strokes are heavy at the beginning and light at the end, with the ending point being shallow, thin and sharp. It is a transitional script from large seal script to small seal script, and has extremely high calligraphy artistic value. It plays a connecting role in the entire evolution process of Chinese character art, and is also an excellent model for learning bronze inscription calligraphy.