论西辛战国墓裂瓣纹银豆——兼谈我国出土的类似器物

On the Silver Multi-lobed Dou-Stemmed Bowl Unearthed from the Tomb of the WarringStates Period at Xixin——Also on the Similar Artifacts Unearthed in China

西辛裂瓣纹银豆是中国年代较早的银器。银器在中国出现较晚,晚于青铜器和金器。金器,真正属于容器,要到春秋战国之际,比近东晚得多。银器,真正属于容器,要到战国中期,特别是战国晚期。中国的青铜冶铸一枝独秀,以致掩盖了其他金属工艺。这一点中西方存在差异。中国所谓"金石",金中最爱青铜,石中最爱软玉。中国理解的"宝"主要是宝贝和软玉,这和西方理解的"宝物"大不一样。他们更爱黄金、白银和宝石。中国的金银器和欧亚草原、中亚、近东是什么关系,值得长期探讨。裂瓣纹银豆的出现是一个不可多得的线索。

The silver multi-lobed dou-stemmed bowl unearthed from the tomb of the Warring-States Period at Xixin is an early silverware in China. Silverwares appeared in China rather late, not only later than bronzes but also later than gold wares. As early as in the Erlitou Period, gold objects have emerged in present-day Ningxia. As for the real gold vessels, they emerged suddenly around the transitional time between the Spring-and-Autumn and Warring-States Periods, which was much later than that of the Near East. The real silver vessel emerged, even much later, at the mid Warring-States Period, or late Warring-States. Among the metalwork techniques of China, bronze casting is the unique one and so developed that other metalwork techniques, such as gold and silverwork, hammering（repoussr）and lost- wax （c/re perdue）, were overwhelmed. On this point, the views of the people in China and the West were different;in the so-called ＂treasures＂ in China, the favorite metal was bronze and the favorite non-metals were cowry and nephrite. These were sharply different from the view of the Western people, whose favorites were gold, silver and gemstones. It has been an issue worthy of further discussion and exploration that what relationships the gold and silver wares had with the Eurasia Steppes, the Central Asia and the Near East; the discovery of the silver multi-lobed dou-stemmed bowl is a valuable clue.