【Relics Become Icons】 Bird-shaped Zun of Marquis of Jin State

如果用一件文物打开山西，那必须是“晋侯鸟尊”。它是山西博物院的镇馆之宝，也是无数外地朋友来山西旅游时必定打卡的文物“宠儿”。就连山西博物院的院徽标志，也源自鸟尊的形象——其地位之高，可见一斑。

If there is one cultural relic that opens the door to Shanxi, it must be the “bird-shaped zun of Marquis of Jin state.” It is the centerpiece treasure of the Shanxi Museum and a must-see artifact for countless visitors to Shanxi. Even the emblem of the Shanxi Museum is derived from the image of this bird-shaped zun—a testament to its unparalleled significance.

晋侯鸟尊出土于晋国第一代晋侯——燮父的墓穴，是一件用于宗庙祭祀的高级青铜酒器。它的造型堪称奇绝：主体是一只昂首回眸的凤鸟，背部立有一只小鸟，尾部则呈象首形。鸟象征祥瑞，象象征吉祥，鸟兽集于一身，构思巧妙至极，成为中国青铜艺术中罕见的珍品。

The bird-shaped zun of Marquis of Jin state was unearthed from the tomb of Xiefu, the first Marquis of Jin during the Jin State’s founding. It is a high-grade bronze ritual vessel used for ancestral ceremonies in the Jin State’s royal temples. Its form is nothing short of extraordinary: the main body is a phoenix-like bird raising its head and looking back, with a small bird standing on its back and a tail shaped like an elephant’s head. The bird symbolizes auspiciousness, while the elephant represents good fortune. By combining bird and elephant in a single form, the design achieves remarkable ingenuity, making this vessel a rare masterpiece in Chinese bronze art.

作为西周早期的宗庙礼器，鸟尊的价值远不止于造型之美。器身上刻有9字铭文，其中“晋”字的出现，代表了3000多年前在山西建国的晋国最早的文字记录。这使得鸟尊不仅是晋国开国的重要物证，更成为“晋”文化的源头所在。

As an early Western Zhou ancestral temple ritual vessel, the bird-shaped zun’s significance extends far beyond its aesthetic beauty. Inscribed with nine characters, the vessel bears the character “Jin”—the earliest written record of the Jin State, which was established in Shanxi over 3,000 years ago. This makes the bird-shaped zun not only crucial physical evidence of the founding of the Jin State but also the very origin of “Jin” culture itself.

然而，这件国宝的“重生”之路却充满波折。2000年，晋侯鸟尊在山西省曲沃县晋侯墓地出土时，已碎裂成100多块碎片。经过长达19年的反复拼合、比对、人工补配，它才终于完美合璧，重现昔日风采。

However, the journey to “rebirth” for this national treasure was fraught with challenges. When the bird-shaped zun of Marquis of Jin state was excavated in 2000 from the Marquis of Jin cemetery in Quwo County, Shanxi Province, it had been shattered into more than 100 fragments. After 19 years of painstaking reassembly, comparison, and artificial restoration, it was finally restored to its former glory.