Recently, the news about the bronze statue of the animal head of the zodiac in Yuanmingyuan has been endless: due to the dispute over the authenticity of the "bronze cast dog head" and the criticism from all walks of life in Hong Kong that "stolen goods cannot be auctioned in Hong Kong", Zhenguan International Auction (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. announced on September 17 that the auction plan was shelved; It happened that Poly Art Museum bought back the "Bronze Pig Head" from America. Some experts even revealed the amazing news that another set of "Zodiac animal heads" still exists in the world, and the legend is placed in the warehouse of an institution in Beijing! It is reported that this spring, the bronze statue of "Pig's Head" was visited by private collectors in the United States by people from the special fund for rescuing lost overseas cultural relics in China. After repeated identification, experts believe that the bronze statue belongs to the same series as the three bronze statues previously collected by Poly, and can be confirmed as one of the bronze statues of the Lunar New Year in Yuanmingyuan. After hard negotiations, American collectors finally agreed to transfer the "pig head". Mr. Hong, member of the Standing Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hong Kong Shun Tak Group, immediately contacted the China Special Fund for Saving Lost Overseas Cultural Relics, invested in the purchase of national treasures and donated them to the Poly Museum for collection. Consultants of Poly Museum are easily asked why it is a coincidence that bronze statues of "pig's head" and "dog's head" were found at the auction. He said that the bronze statue of "pig head" was bought at a price of less than 7 million yuan, which was lower than the auction price of three bronze cast animal heads bought at the auction in 2000. The reason why it was published in Hong Kong for the first time was to let the public see the difference with their own eyes. It is reported that the Poly Museum will publicly display pig heads and bronze statues of bull heads, monkey heads and tiger heads in Beijing from June 5438 to 10 this year. On the afternoon of September 19, Zhang, a researcher in the Department of Literature and History of Yuanmingyuan, Beijing, solemnly told reporters for the first time that the "animal heads of the first 12 zodiac animals in Dashui Law" reported by domestic and foreign media were all wrong! In fact, the "Zodiac Animal Head" is placed in front of the "Haiyan Hall". The person in charge of Yuanming New Garden in Zhuhai also told the author that in the Yuanmingyuan 1 8 landscape they copied according to the ratio of 1, the "Zodiac Animal Head" was placed in front of Haiyan Hall after textual research based on historical materials. Yin said: There are three fountains in the landscape of the West Building of Yuanmingyuan, namely "Heqi", "Haiyan Hall" and "Dashuifa". In the fountain in front of Haiyan Hall, there is an image of the "Twelve Zodiacs" wearing a robe of arhat, and each Zodiac animal can spray water with its mouth to tell the time. There is a sika deer in the center of the pool of Dashuifa, surrounded by ten dogs, which is called "hunting dogs for deer" and can also spray water. However, it is not clear whether the dog head in Dashui Law is made of copper, and it is not recorded in historical materials. Luan Guiming, a researcher at the China Academy of Social Sciences, also told reporters that these bronze animal capitals of the "Zodiac" are made of molds, so it is theoretically impossible to make only one set. Researcher Ma Chengyuan, the former director of Shanghai Museum, thinks that several sets have been invested. Another expert who asked not to be named revealed that there is another set of "Zodiac animal heads" in the world, which is said to be in the warehouse of an institution in Beijing! He believes that as an important part of the royal building, there is every reason to pour another set as a spare part. Zhang analyzed that if another set was poured at that time, it might have been Cixi. Because Cixi likes the fountain of the zodiac very much, she copied the Haiyan Hall in Yuanmingyuan and built another Haiyan Hall in Zhongnanhai. Because there were no photos at that time, only hand-painted by later generations, it is still difficult to verify whether the animal heads in these two "Haiyan halls" are exactly the same. Some scholars were shocked by the news that two sets of animal heads and a set of expensive "Zodiac" animal heads were stored in an institutional warehouse in Beijing. When the reporter interviewed Mr. Su Bai, a famous archaeologist and professor of Peking University Wenbo Archaeological College in Beijing, he was very puzzled by this statement. He said that he had never heard of another set. Professor Xu Kai, an expert in Peking University history, also believes that it is unlikely that another set of animal heads will appear. He even said that the statement that "an expert who did not want to be named" was placed in the warehouse of an agency in Beijing was not rigorous. "At least the basis for this statement should be indicated." A reporter from Beijing called Jiang Yingchun, director of Poly Museum, who has animal heads of "cow, tiger and monkey". Jiang Yingchun also expressed surprise. He said it was the first time he heard that there were more than one set of animal heads in Yuanmingyuan. Since the animal heads of the Yuanmingyuan Zodiac appeared in overseas auctions in the 1980s, domestic experts have conducted in-depth research on the animal heads. According to historical records, Yuanmingyuan has only one set of animal heads that can spray water, but it is not credible that China has another set of animal heads. A newspaper also said that during the return of Pig's Head, Mr. Zhang Yongnian, the head of the special fund for rescuing lost overseas cultural relics, also said that according to historical records, there was only one set of animal heads in Yuanmingyuan, which was acquired by Poly Group. Regarding the statement that Ma Chengyuan, the former curator of Shanghai Museum, thinks that several sets of animal heads have been cast, Jiang Yingchun said that the cow's head, tiger's head and monkey's head acquired by Poly Group were exhibited in Shanghai Museum in 2000. Mr. Ma Chengyuan personally cut the ribbon for the exhibition, but he never heard Mr. Ma say how many sets of animal heads were sprayed with water. However, Professor Wang Daocheng, an expert on cultural relics in Yuanmingyuan and a researcher at the Institute of Qing History of the National People's Congress, believes that the two sets of animal heads have certain basis. Professor Wang said: "Some historical materials mentioned that Zhongnanhai also had a set of animal heads. There is a saying that the zodiac of Yuanmingyuan moved to Zhongnanhai. I think it's about two sets; Moreover, in the Qing Dynasty, two sets of bronzes were often cast, such as the bronze pavilion (Baoyunge) summer resort in the Summer Palace, so two sets of animal capitals are possible. " However, Professor Wang also believes that this statement remains to be verified. Shen Hong, a professor in Peking University, said that there are indeed two sets of bronze animal heads in the Zodiac, and the controversy over whether there are two sets of bronze animal heads in the Zodiac has become a hot news in major media, causing widespread concern. Many media in Beijing interviewed experts and expressed their opinions. At that time, there were different opinions. At this time, a foreign language expert from Peking University took the initiative to go to the Beijing Morning Post to confirm to reporters that there are indeed two sets of bronze animal heads in the National Treasure Zodiac, one for spraying water and the other for lighting. Professor Shen Hong, a doctoral supervisor of English Department in Peking University, said that according to the data, there are indeed two sets of bronze animal heads in the Yuanmingyuan Zodiac, which have attracted much attention and are evidenced by photos. Professor Shen Hong told the reporter that these two sets of bronze statues of the Chinese zodiac in Beijing were actually recorded in books written by foreign missionaries and politicians from the middle of the19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, and they also left precious old photos, which can help experts restore the true colors of history. Shen Hong said that the bronze statue of the 12 Zodiac of Haiyan Hall in the West Building of Yuanmingyuan was designed and produced for Emperor Kangxi under the guidance of French Catholic missionaries. From the etchings painted by missionaries, it can be clearly seen that the bronze statues of the Chinese zodiac are lined up on the left and right, and each statue has six, representing the twelve hours of the day respectively. Every hour, the bronze statue of the Chinese zodiac, which represents this hour, will automatically spit out the fountain from its mouth. As the Yuanmingyuan experts recalled, Empress Dowager Cixi later used naval military expenses to build a large-scale project in the Summer Palace, and at the same time modeled on the bronze statue of the zodiac in Haiyan Hall of Yuanmingyuan, a set of bronze statues of the zodiac was built in the East Palace. This set of bronze statues is not used to make fountains, but Cixi's favorite fashionable new gadget-electric lights. Because there was already a generator in the Qing court palace at that time. Professor Shen pointed out that from the old photos, it can be seen that the bronze statue of the zodiac in the East Palace is almost identical to the bronze statue of the zodiac in Haiyan Hall in Yuanmingyuan. But these bronze statues don't spray water from their mouths, but they all hold lotus-shaped electric lights in their hands. Every hour, the electric light in the hand of the bronze statue of the zodiac representing that hour will automatically light up. The two information photos provided by Shen Hong come from the western language books collected by Peking University Library. Shen Hong said that in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, China had frequent diplomatic activities, and foreign scholars and missionaries gained unprecedented freedom and privileges. They recorded the inside story of the Qing court and the style of the capital with pens and photos, which are often invisible to contemporary China writers. Last year, Shen Hong, as a doctoral supervisor of the English Department of Peking University, found more than 20,000 pictures of western language books while assisting Peking University Library in sorting out foreign language materials. It took him half a year to scan the old photos one by one and make a "backup" of these precious historical materials. These photos were originally taken around 1850. Because the owners of the photos are all foreigners in Beijing, old photos are rare in China's books, and even the famous history professor of Peking University doesn't know their existence. Zhenguan Company finally canceled the dog head auction. Hong Kong Zhenguan Company finally decided to cancel the dog head auction scheduled for 654381October 26th at 3pm on September 23rd. Lin Jiguang, the company's general consultant, issued a solemn statement, saying that "the auction of' National Treasure Return' launched by Zhenguan Company in Hong Kong has the same nature and effect as the' National Treasure Project' recently launched in the Mainland, and both are dedicated to protecting and rescuing the precious cultural heritage of the Chinese nation lost overseas, so that national treasures can return to the same destination through different routes". "Although the dog head auction is cancelled, Zhenguan Company will still display the dog head at the auction for interested people and collectors to see at a glance. He also said that the view that "Yuanmingyuan Royal Garden should have more than one set of nozzles" put forward by mainland experts a few days ago was the conclusion drawn by Chinese and foreign experts on the basis of comprehensive argumentation and objective inspection. The cancellation of the dog head auction by the company is not due to some pressure. Data link: What's the difference between a pig's head and a dog's head? The pig's head is basically hollow, with a serrated bayonet in the middle, which goes straight into the mouth. At that time, water entered the pig's head from the neck, which is the same as the existing three animal heads of cattle, tigers and monkeys in Poly Museum. There is a small hole in the back of the dog's head to be auctioned by Zhenguan Company. According to the data, it is a water inlet, which is connected with a copper pipe. Color: Four animal heads, namely, ox, tiger, monkey and pig, are refined from copper, and the color is red. The dog head to be auctioned by Zhenguan Company is black and green bronze.