Restoring cultural relics: Starting with the crying Tang Dynasty figurines

The bamboo slips record the Qin state's sacrifices at the Yongwu Altar, including the types and quantities of sacrificial offerings, the date of the sacrifice, and the participants.

The content is not complete; although several sections are missing, it is still of great historical reference value!

Su Yuan placed the bamboo slips on the worktable in order and reconnected them with thin hemp rope.

After finishing the editing, I stepped back and looked at it. The order of the eighteen main and simplified sections was correct, and the text was relatively fluent.

After he finished, he whispered something:

"Okay, see how it goes. I know you've been watching."

After a few seconds of silence, a faint fluctuation of spiritual energy emanated from the bamboo slip. It was a very soft voice: "Very good... Thank you..."

Su Yuan smiled and said, "You're welcome. It's good that you can speak."

"Can...some..."

The voice on the bamboo slip was broken: "I've been scattered for many years... I can't remember who I am... But now it's alright... I remember everything..."

"I am a historian of the Qin state... recording matters of sacrifice..."

After the bamboo slip finished speaking, the fluctuations in spiritual consciousness gradually stabilized until they became completely quiet.

Seeing that there was no further movement, Su Yuan wrapped the bamboo slips in Xuan paper, put them in a brocade box, and labeled them:

"Warring States Qin Bamboo Slips: Records of Sacrificial Rites at Yongwu Altar, Eighteen Pieces"

Just as Su Yuan was about to hand the brocade box to Lin Xi, Zhao Cheng came up the stairs in the corridor and asked, "Is it fixed?"

"Um."

Zhao Cheng nodded and went to Zhang Weiyi's office.

Su Yuan found Lin Xi and was about to hand her the bamboo slips when Lin Xi smiled, looked at his face, and said:

"They changed their story and said to keep the bamboo slips in our warehouse for now. You can keep them for now. Liu Dong has already gone back."

Su Yuan had no choice but to put the brocade box back on the shelf in the storeroom.

Around 7:30 the next day, Su Yuan had just finished breakfast and walked to the second-floor corridor when he heard a chattering sound coming from the warehouse.

Xiao Jue's voice was the loudest: "Don't push, don't push, speak one at a time!"

"I was here first!"

One voice spoke first, followed by another, unconvinced voice: "When did you get here? I've been squatting here since before dawn!"

Su Yuan hurriedly pushed open the warehouse door and saw three items on the worktable.

A pottery granary from the Han Dynasty, a white porcelain bowl from the Tang Dynasty, and a bronze candlestick from the Ming Dynasty.

The three things fell silent as soon as Su Yuan entered.

Tao Cang spoke first in a low voice:

"Master Su, I have a crack in my body, and the grain in the granary keeps leaking out, so it can't be stored at all."

Su Yuan picked it up and looked at it. It was more than 20 centimeters high and more than 10 centimeters wide. There was a crack the width of a grain of rice on the belly of the earthenware granary, which extended from the belly all the way to the bottom of the granary!

He nodded and put it down, then looked at the white porcelain bowl: "What's wrong with you?"

The white porcelain bowl hurriedly said, "Master Su, I chipped a piece off my foot and it's unstable now. It keeps wobbling when I put it on the table..."

Su Yuan turned it over and looked at it. Sure enough, a small piece was missing from the foot ring, about half a centimeter wide.

Before Su Yuan could ask, the bronze candlestick said, "The foundation on my base is loose, so it tilts when a candle is inserted."

Su Yuan sighed and opened the toolbox: "Okay, don't rush, let's do them one by one."

He first repaired the pottery granary.

I mixed lacquer with ceramic powder, filled it into the cracks, smoothed it with a scraper, and waited for it to dry slowly.

Next, the white porcelain bowl was repaired. The small piece of the foot ring that was missing was filled with porcelain material, polished smooth, and then colored with mineral pigments to give it an antique look.

Finally, there's the bronze candlestick.

Su Yuan soldered it with tin, polished it, and then aged it to its original state.

After repairing the three items, Su Yuan put them aside, tidied up his tools, washed his hands, and prepared to go out.

The Warring States Qin bamboo slips in the brocade box suddenly emitted a faint fluctuation!

Su Yuan stopped and turned to look.

The spirit within the bamboo scroll slowly emerged, its voice becoming much more coherent: "Master Su... I have something I want to tell you..."

Su Yuan returned and sat down on the stool: "Mm."

Qin Jian's voice sounded quite old.

"I've been scattered for many years, and my memories are incomplete. After you pieced me together, I remembered some things!"

Su Yuan listened intently.

"What I'm recording is about the Qin state's sacrificial rites at the Yongwu Altar..."

"Duke Xiang of Qin first established the Western Altar, later Duke Wen of Qin established the Fu Altar, Duke Xuan of Qin established the Mi Altar, and Duke Ling of Qin established the Upper and Lower Altars of Wuyang..."

Qin Jian paused for a moment, then continued:

"The Five Altars are dedicated to the Heavenly Emperors: the White Emperor, the Green Emperor, the Yellow Emperor, and the Flame Emperor."

Su Yuan had read these things in the documents, but hearing them spoken by a bamboo slip from more than two thousand years ago was a completely different experience!

Qin Jian continued, "What you've pieced together isn't just me, but something else as well."

Su Yuan was startled: "What do you mean?"

"Of my eighteen bamboo slips, two do not belong to me..."

Qin Jian continued to recall:

"Those two pieces also contain sacrificial records, but they are from a later period than mine, and the handwriting is not exactly the same. They were added in later!"

Su Yuan frowned as he recalled the events.

He did notice that the handwriting on two bamboo slips was slightly different when he was piecing them together yesterday, but he assumed it was just a difference in the writers and that the general meaning of the text was the same as the whole text, so he didn't think about it any further.

"What are those two pieces mainly for recording?" Su Yuan asked hurriedly.

Qin Jian was trying hard to recall:

"It's also a sacrificial ceremony... but not at Yongwu Altar. The ceremony is held to the east, near Hangu Pass. There are people among the offerings..."

Su Yuan shuddered upon hearing this!

During the late Warring States period, there were very few records of human sacrifices in the Qin state, but they did not disappear entirely.

If those two bamboo slips record such a thing, then it's more than just an ordinary sacrificial record.

"Do you remember the original content?"

Qin Jian's emotions subsided somewhat: "I can't remember very clearly... those memories are too fragmented to piece together."

"There's one thing I remember... I didn't scatter those two bamboo slips myself; they were deliberately separated."

"Deliberately dismantled?" Su Yuan was puzzled.

"Um... I was originally a whole roll, but it was later broken into pieces, and the two different pieces were sandwiched in the middle."

"Looks like they want to hide it so no one can see what's on it... That's all..."

After hearing what it said, Su Yuan didn't have time to think much and hurriedly took Qin Jian out of the brocade box again and laid it on the worktable.

He then picked up a magnifying glass and carefully examined the two bamboo slips with different handwriting.

The edges of the bamboo slips do indeed show signs of having been trimmed, unlike the natural marks on other bamboo slips!

The weaving marks on the back are also different. The spacing between the two weaving lines on the top and bottom of the other bamboo slips is the same, while the spacing between these two slips is slightly narrower.

Su Yuan quickly took out his phone and sent a message to Zhou Peiyuan:

"Teacher Zhou, the Warring States Qin bamboo slips sent by the province include two bamboo slips that were inserted later, and their contents may be unusual."

Less than half a minute after the message was sent, Zhou Peiyuan called.

"Xiao Su, what did you say?"

Zhou Peiyuan's voice clearly betrayed surprise. Su Yuan repeated what Qin Jian had said. After listening, Zhou Peiyuan quickly said:

"Don't touch those two bamboo slips yet. I'll have Gu Yuanhang send someone over to take a look."

"If it's really as you say, then this matter might involve more than just cultural relics!"

"Teacher Zhou, what do you think it could be?"

"It's hard to say."

Zhou Peiyuan was over there, seemingly moving a chair:

"Records of human sacrifice during the late Warring States period are extremely rare. If it truly existed and was deliberately hidden in a Qin bamboo slip, there must be a reason behind it..."

"Perhaps...it's related to the interlayer!"

Su Yuan's heart skipped a beat:

"You mean, those two bamboo slips might not record ordinary rituals, but rather rituals related to cracks and crevices?"

"That's possible."

Zhou Peiyuan instructed, "Xiao Su, don't make a sound yet. Put the bamboo slips away safely. Gu Yuanhang's men will arrive this afternoon."

After hanging up the phone, Su Yuan took out the two bamboo pieces, wrapped them in Xuan paper, put them in a new brocade box, and placed them in the tool cabinet.

The remaining sixteen pieces were put back into the original brocade box!