The eighth wonder of the world, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang, has reappeared after two thousand years of dust, and it has been 3 1 year. However, around the qualification of the "discovery right of terracotta warriors and horses", several well-digging farmers in Lintong, Shaanxi Province have embarked on a long road of safeguarding their rights. From June, 5438 to February, 2003, Yang Xinman, one of the farmers in that year, on behalf of nine "Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses Discoverers", jointly submitted an application report for the qualification of "Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses Discoverers" to the Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, asking the museum to issue a certificate to confirm the "discovery right" of nine farmers including him.
However, the Shaanxi cultural relics department has remained silent on this matter. The local cultural relics department refused several farmers who dug wells for the right of discovery because the Cultural Relics Law commended specific individuals, and only those who made outstanding contributions to the donation and protection of cultural relics were given the title of cultural relics researcher or other titles.
Just as they were deadlocked with the local cultural relics department on the right to discovery, this incident caused an uproar a few days ago. Zhao, the former director of Lintong Cultural Center, came out from behind the scenes and insisted: "I am the discoverer of the Terracotta Warriors, because I was the first person to realize the historical value of the Terracotta Warriors."
In recent years, Zhao, a 70-year-old cultural relic worker and former director of Lintong Cultural Center, has been hiding behind the scenes, shouting for the dispute of "the right to discover terracotta warriors and horses". In his view, the demands of several farmers who dug wells in those years for "the right to excavate terracotta warriors and horses" were "simply ridiculous".
"I am the discoverer and the only one." Zhao is full of confidence in this. He believes that no one will criticize him for being the first person to realize the historical value of the Terracotta Warriors, so Zhao firmly believes that he is the real discoverer of the Terracotta Warriors, because the definition of the word "discovery" in Ci Hai is to see things or laws that no one has seen before, such as Newton's discovery of gravity.
"I restored the Terracotta Warriors like embroidery."
Zhao believes that in the 1970s, nine farmers who dug wells could only say that they saw the Terracotta Warriors at first, but they didn't take it seriously.
It was not until 45 days after the Terracotta Warriors were dug up that these cultural relics, which were randomly disposed of by farmers, appeared in front of Zhao, who worked in Lintong Cultural Center. Surprised, he immediately organized members to collect the lost pieces of pottery figurines, and at the same time went to the waste collection station to recycle the pieces sold by farmers at a fixed price. He also led the team to screen all the well soil with an iron sieve, and screened out a lot of residual bricks and pottery pieces, including the fingers and ears of the pottery figurines. Later, he asked the team members to pack the broken tiles into three shelves and pull them to the cultural center.
Zhao preliminarily sorted out the fragments of these terracotta figures and realized that there were many things in them, so he personally went down to expand the excavation. Since then, Zhao has been busy in the cultural relics restoration room of the cultural center all day, carefully cleaning up these clay figurines with missing arms and legs, splicing and bonding them like embroidery, and successively repairing two intact samurai clay figurines. "In my hands, the broken terracotta figures were thus repaired," said Zhao Kangmin proudly.
Zhao recalled that in 1986, Gu Mu, then vice premier of the State Council, saw the restored Qin figurines during the inspection and said to Zhao, "You have made great contributions to the country." Zhao said: "It was discovered by farmers while digging wells. I met it." Vice Premier Gu Mu said: "No, farmers have dug wells and don't know each other. You know each other. You have done meritorious service. If I meet, I don't know, and I am useless. "
Farmers who dig wells become professional signers.
"The real motivation for claiming the right of discovery is interest-driven." Zhao believes that the current "Qin figurine fever" is getting higher and higher, which is the root of the "discovery right" that was not a problem 3 1 year ago, but has become the focus in recent years.
In this tide of "Terracotta Warriors", a young manager who runs a tourist shop in the Terracotta Warriors Museum came up with a unique trick to attract tourists. He invited Yang Zhifa, the farmer who dug the pottery figurines first when drilling a well, to the store as a "special guest" and privately engraved the seal of "the discoverer of the eighth wonder in the world" for Yang Zhifa to sign and stamp for his customers. Yang Zhifa became famous for this, and once took a group photo with US President Bill Clinton as a souvenir.
Signature is not free, it is paid. After the store deducts profits, Yang Zhifa can earn thousands of dollars a month. Inspired, many "Terracotta Warriors and Horses Discoveries" suddenly appeared around the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum. Zhao told reporters that at the peak, around the Terracotta Warriors Museum, more than a dozen people signed books in the name of "the discoverer of Terracotta Warriors".
The farmer who dug the well vowed to fight for fame and fortune to the end.
Yang Xinman, one of the nine well-drilling farmers, admitted that he had signed in the name of the discoverer, but just before the Spring Festival, he and another well-drilling farmer, Yang, refused the invitation to sign. "We don't want others to make irresponsible remarks and say that we only ask for the discoverer qualification for making money."
Yang Xinman told reporters that the reason why he picked up his hair and asked for "the right to discover" was because he could not forget the advice of several dead well-drilling farmers before they died: "Xinman, you must win the championship for us! No birthright, always let others gossip, no one can face this world! "
Yang Xinman has always hoped that the provincial cultural relics department can issue them a certificate of "Terracotta Warriors and Horses Discovery" and put a steel seal on their photos. If possible, he also wants to engrave the names of their nine discoverers in front of the pit of Terracotta Warriors Museum 1. "Otherwise, when we say that we are the discoverers of the Terracotta Warriors, we always feel insecure." Yang Xinman said that "birthright" has become a heart disease for them. Several farmers who discovered bronzes in Baoji, Shaanxi, went to Beijing to receive prizes, which aroused their enthusiasm for "discovery right".
After their request was rejected by the local cultural relics department, several farmers who had bid farewell to the "professional signers" did not give up. They said that the efforts to win the qualification of the discoverer of terracotta warriors and horses will not stop.
Yang Xinman: "Without us, can there be this world miracle?"
"As early as 1985, before the tourism boom started, several of our discoverers asked the authorities to confirm the qualifications of' discoverers'."
Yang Xinman told reporters: "When introducing the discovery of Terracotta Warriors, the Terracotta Warriors Museum only vaguely said that 1974 was discovered by farmers digging wells. Why not mention the names of the nine of us? It's not fair. Without us, will there be this miracle that shocked the world? "
Zhao Kangmin: "Without my recovery, the Qin figurines would not be a real discovery."
"They are all making profits in the name of the discovery of terracotta warriors and horses, and they are not qualified at all. At first, they didn't realize that tile fragments made of clay were treasures. It was I who put the collected broken tiles together and repaired them, restoring the original appearance of the Qin figurines. This creative work is done through intellectual activities and is a real discovery. " Zhao believes.