The Chinese kingdom that recorded its history in Bronze

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More than 2,000 years ago, the southwestern frontier of the vast Chinese empire was home to the Dian Kingdom. Before it faded away, the mysterious domain produced a fascinating collection of bronze and gold artifacts.

The biggest treasure trove left by the Dian Kingdom was discovered on the shores of Dianchi Lake near Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province. Were it not for the collection of exquisite bronze sculptures and gold ornaments, nobody would have known about the existence of such an iconic ancient culture.

The glory days of the Dian Kingdom are best reflected in the Cattle and Tiger sculpture.

CGTN Photo

"The cattle sculpture is the most typical image in Yunnan's bronze culture,” said Fan Haitao, a researcher at the Yunnan Provincial Museum. “You can see the prominent hump on the neck of the cow. It's more of a scene than a figure. The tiger is trying to devour the bull, under which stands the calf."

The sculpture was first found during a dig in 1972 and has since been ranked as one of China's most valuable cultural relics. Weighing nearly 13 kilograms, it stands 43 centimeters in height and measures about 80 centimeters in length.

The sculpture appears to portray the bull's attempt to protect the calf. But archaeologists see a deeper significance beneath.

While depicting the struggle between predator and prey, Fan believes that it also represents the renewal of life and the calf emerging from under the bull is a symbol of rebirth.

CGTN Photo

In the chronicles of ancient China, the Dian Kingdom was briefly described in the works of Sima Qian, a historian from the early Han Dynasty in the second century BC. But that aside, there's virtually no other record of the frontier culture. Its existence was not proven until its royal seal was unearthed on the shores of Dianchi Lake in the late 1950s.

Shortly after, some local farmers stumbled upon a trove of bronzewares and archaeologists were brought in for extensive excavations. In the spring of 1972, the number 24 tomb at Lijiashan yielded some spectacular artifacts. The Cattle and Tiger bronze was among them.

Archaeologist Zhang Yongkang was at the dig.

"We wrapped it up in soft paper and tied it securely,” he recalled, “We had to borrow the farmers' dung basket to carry it to our living quarters in the village at the foot of the hill. Then we unpacked it and tried to figure out what it was."

CGTN Photo

Since the 1950s, archaeologists have found about 12,000 bronze artifacts in northern Yunnan, where the Dian Kingdom once thrived. Different from those in central and northern China, the bronze artifacts of the Dian Kingdom feature a broader range of topics. Besides wars and religious rituals, buildings and scenes of daily life were also portrayed with remarkable sensitivity.

Scholars believe that the Dian Kingdom, which lacked a writing system as sophisticated as civilizations from further north, were attempting to record its history in bronze.