Xinhua News Agency, Shijiazhuang, October 22. Title: Beijing Winter Olympics flame lanterns: creativity comes from the Western Han Dynasty Changxin Palace lanterns
Xinhua News Agency reporter Gao Bo
On October 20th, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Tinder successfully arrived in Beijing. The winter Olympic tinder collected from Greece was stored in the tinder lamp and came to Beijing.
The originality of the Beijing Winter Olympics torch relay flame lantern originated from the “First Light in China”-the Western Han Dynasty Changxin Palace Lantern. According to Li Jianye, the designer of the torch for the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Changxin Palace Lantern was a Western Han Palace lantern more than 2000 years ago. The originality of the tinder lamp originated from the Western Han Dynasty Changxin Palace Lantern, which hopes to express people’s pursuit and yearning for light and hope through the meaning of “long letter”. The flying red ribbon surrounds the top of the tinder lamp, which is unified with the visual image of the torch “flying” and symbolizes the passion for the Olympics.
The Changxin Palace Lantern was unearthed in Hebei, one of the competition areas of this Winter Olympic Games. It was unearthed in the tomb of Dou Wan, the wife of Jing Wang Liu Sheng of Zhongshan in Mancheng, Baoding City, Hebei Province in 1968. It is now in the collection of Hebei Museum. As a large cliff cave tomb of the princes and kings of the Han Dynasty, the excavation of the Han tomb in Mancheng has created several archeological records, which fully reflects the magnificent style of the heyday of the Western Han Dynasty.
Tinder lights taken at Beijing Capital Airport on October 20.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Chenlin
The long letter palace lantern is 48 cm high and gilded throughout. The lamp is engraved with “Yangxinjia”, “Changxin Shangyu”, “Longxin Shangyu”, and “Longxin Shangyu” with a total of 65 characters in 9 places. It is named Changxin Palace Lantern because of the inscription “Changxin Shangyu” at the bottom of the lamp holder.
Fan Dewei, a research librarian at the Hebei Museum, said that the shape of the lamp is the image of a court lady kneeling and holding the lamp. The goddess of the palace is graceful, holding the lamp panel in her left hand, with a wick in the center of the lamp panel, raising her right arm high, and the hanging sleeve tube becomes the lampshade. The lamp panel has a short handle that can be turned back and forth. The two arc-shaped plates on the lamp panel can also be opened and closed, which can not only block the wind, but also adjust the brightness and direction of the light.
The picture shows the Changxin Palace Lantern courtesy of Hebei Museum
“The wonderful thing about Changxin palace lanterns lies in its environmental protection concept.” Fan Dewei said that most lamps in the Han Dynasty used animal fats as fuel, and the charcoal and ashes produced by combustion easily caused pollution. The long letter palace lantern cleverly connects the sleeve tube of the palace lady with the body to form a flue. When the lamp is lit, the soot slowly enters the body along the lady’s sleeve. The lady’s body is hollow, which can absorb and exhaust smoke and keep the room clean. This advanced environmental protection concept is worth learning from today.
The structure of Changxin Palace Lantern is reasonable. The whole lamp is made of six parts: head, body, right arm, lamp holder, lamp panel, lampshade, etc. Each part can be disassembled, and it is very convenient to clean the soot accumulated inside. . After more than 2,000 years, although the lamp body is rusty, it still reflects the superb level of the gilding craftsmanship of the Han Dynasty.
The picture of the inscription on the Changxin Palace Lantern courtesy of Hebei Museum
A lamp knocked on the door of Han Shixiongfeng. The long letter palace lantern provides important material materials for understanding the social life of the Han Dynasty today. Changxin Palace Lantern has changed the mysterious and heavy of the previous bronze vessels, and the whole shape and decoration style appear to be relaxed, light and gorgeous. It is a practical and beautiful lamp treasure. Because of its exquisite craftsmanship and ingenious and unique artistic design, it is known as the “first lamp in China”, which is second to none among palace lanterns in the Han Dynasty, and is a concentrated expression of the wisdom and aesthetics of the ancients.
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