these days, a special exhibition of bronze statues of animal heads in Old Summer Palace is being held at the Old Summer Palace Museum in Beijing. The cow head, tiger head, monkey head, pig head and horse head of the twelve animal heads in Old Summer Palace are reunited in Old Summer Palace after a lapse of 163 years.

was originally a fountain component of the twelve zodiac signs in Haiyan Hall of Yuanmingyuan. The horse head of the five songs will officially return to Yuanmingyuan in 2020. According to the work arrangement of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the School of Archaeology, Culture and Museum of Peking University used portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, X-ray camera and other methods to analyze and detect the horse head material, casting process.

: It is mainly red copper, containing lead, iron some alloy to make, after a hundred years without rust, intrinsic fine, very delicate. Its casting process is made by the lost wax method. Its shape is very realistic and realistic, which is different from the horse in our traditional Chinese painting. It can be seen, including the horse's mane, that its nose is like breathing, with a sense of breathing, subtle, fleetingly visible, with a sense of skeletal muscle flesh.

After being displaced, the cow head, tiger head, monkey head and pig head that returned to the motherland in 2000 were all collected by Poly Art Museum. Each piece was beautifully shaped. According to expert research, they were all damaged to varying degrees in the process of loss.

Poly Art Museum: For example, there is a deep pit on the right cheek of the monkey's head and a similar pit on the right back brain of the pig's head. We speculate that it is the scar left at that time. Moreover, we can see that the tiger's beard is only half a root, about one centimeter of residue, and other pores are visible, proving that there should have been a copper beard. Therefore, in terms of manufacturing technology, it should have been well preserved at that time, but now we can only see the current incomplete situation.

Up to now, seven animal heads, including tiger head, cow head, monkey head, pig head, mouse head, rabbit head and horse head, have returned to the motherland. In 2018, a suspected lost dragon head item appeared on the shooting scene. Snake head, sheep head, chicken head and dog head are still missing.

"Water Method" Chinese and Western Beast Head is both a fountain and a timekeeping

Yuanmingyuan this special exhibition of bronze statue of animal head will last until tomorrow (29th). The head of the twelve zodiac animals in the Old Summer Palace is a red bronze statue from the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. It was originally part of the fountain outside the Haiyan Hall of the Old Summer Palace. At the same time, it can tell the time with water and is famous all over the world.

, there are a large number of "water law" sites in the western scenic spot of Yuanmingyuan. "Water Law" means fountain. All kinds of fountain facilities and exquisite buildings have been destroyed. The bronze statue of the twelve zodiac animals was originally located in the "Water Law" area in Haiyan Hall.

Headquarters reporter Wang Shengdong: Haiyan Hall sits east to west, with 11 rooms on top and bottom. The entrance is a splayed-down spray tank. A total of 12 bronze statues of human and animal heads sit above the tank. These bronze statues will spray water outward at different times, and at 12 noon, the 12 bronze statues will spray water outward at the same time. The scene is spectacular. This group of bronze statues mainly plays the role of timing, also known as "hydraulic clock".

zodiac was designed by Italian Lang Shining. It is a beast head. The fountain technique was designed by French Jiang Youren. The bronze statue corresponds to the 12th hour. According to the time node, it can finally ensure that each hour is sprayed with water from the corresponding bronze beast head to form a landscape, and the time can be judged by this.

: In addition to the familiar fountain, the most important thing about this main building is a building that plays the role of a water storage building. On its top floor, there is a tin sea made of tin plates, similar to the current swimming pool, which can store water. Through pressure, there are copper pipes and waterways below to transport it to the fountain of Dashuihe and Haiyan Hall. This design is very clever. According to the results of some archaeological excavations, it is proved that the water in this fountain can finally be recycled back to the water truck house, and then go through such a process again.