The Mystery of a Bronze Dragon Plate

By Ye Yanli

March 17, 1984 was a cold day. Tong Shougen, a villager of Wenling County, Zhejiang Province, was digging a grave for the burial of his father on a hillside near the village. About 50 centimeters down into the earth, his hoe hit on something hard and metallic. Curious, Tong kept digging. Pretty soon, he found himself stare at a huge bronze plate. It looked like a wash basin, ornamented all over with fine antique patterns. The centerpiece of the plate was a dragon head. Tong had never seen anything like this. But he was impressed by the shape, the size, and the pattern of the bronze piece. His instinct told him that it was something unusually valuable.

He showed the piece to his fellow villagers. The whole village buzzed. The sensational news spread like a prairie fire. Pretty soon, the local government learned of the unearthed treasure and the rare find went into the possession of the government.

Experts from the provincial cultural authorities confirmed that the bronze utensil dated back to the late Shang Dynasty (c.1600-c.1100BC). As a matter of fact, it was the largest and most ancient bronze antique of its kind ever unearthed in Zhejiang. And it is a solitary object that proves nothing and disapproves nothing known to archaeologists in the whole province.

So unearthed together with the bronze piece was a mystery unraveled even today. Nothing else was unearthed at the same spot. It came out alone. And there is nothing in the neighborhood that can help tell the story of the bronze plate. There are some stone artifacts unearthed in Wenling and they went back to the Neolithic Age. There are some artifacts of the Warring States and the Han Dynasty unearthed in Wenling. The bronze plate is the only thing in the province that represents a big gap of about 1,000 years between the Shang and the Warring States. The bronze plate represents the finest craftsmanship of the Shang Dynasty, but Wenling was an area remote from anywhere. This triggered a series of questions. Who in Wenling could have owned such a precious piece? Where had it come from? How on earth it ended up in Wenling? What else came together with the plate but vanished in the ashes of history?

Archaeologists have tried in vain to figure the plate out. The nearest cousin is a bronze plate now in a Japanese museum. Made in the late period of the Shang Dynasty, that plate has a similar dragon head in the center of the bottom of the plate; on the edge of the plate are six tiny squatting birds. It is said that it was unearthed somewhere in the area between the Yangtze River and the Huai River, that is, at least about 500 kilometers away from the hillside near the village. Experts assume that the plate unearthed in Wenling may have had something to do with the plate unearthed in the north.

A possible local link was a ruin of an ancient city about 5 kilometers away from the ground zero. The royal city is mentioned in local annals created in the Southern Song Dynasty. During a period of six years from 2002 to 2008, archaeologists did large-scale field studies and trial digging there twice. The evidence unearthed there points to a kingdom much younger than the bronze plate. All the efforts came to no avail.

It is easy to understand why archaeologists in Zhejiang were so eager to dig around the ground zero. The plate is 26 centimeters in height and 61.5 centimeters in diameter. It weighs 22.5 kilograms. It has a rich and delicate variety of ornamental patterns. It represents the very best of the bronze workmanship of the ancient Shang dynasty. Experts say that it cant have been an ordinary utensil used in everyday life. It must have been a ritual piece for important sacrificial ceremonies. Archaeologists have to make sure that such a bronze masterpiece is not a solitary thing.

Even though archaeologists have not been able to find its identity, the bronze plate remains one of the countrys most valuable antiques. It made its national fame in 1993 when it was displayed for the first time to the public in an exhibition in Shanghai. Nearly 200 pieces (sets) of the countrys finest antiques were on display. The bronze plate caused a sensation. It is confirmed that it is the largest and most beautiful bronze plate of the Shang Dynasty ever unearthed in China. Shortly after its national debut, it was officially designated as a national-grade antique.

Since then it has appeared in many exhibitions. In 1998, it was exhibited in Guggenheim Museum in America in an exhibition entitled An Exhibition of Arts of Chinas 5,000-Millenia Civilization; in 1999, it appeared at an exhibition at Zhejiang Museum in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic; in 2000, it was on display in an exhibition held in Japan to showcase the best of the four major world civilizations.

Wenling County was upgraded to Wenling City a long time ago. Today, an enlarged replica of the original bronze plate stands in front of the administrative center of Wenling City Government. The modern duplicate is eight times larger than the original plate, and displays all the ornamental patterns. □