A farmer picked up a gold bug and refused to become a household worth ten thousand yuan. After turning it over to the state, he became a first-class national treasure. What is the current situation?

Although it is hard work to search for thousands of pounds, you will only get gold after blowing all the sand.

This poem by Liu Yuxi comes from "Nine Poems on Langtaosha", which literally means that only by filtering thousands of times and going through innumerable hardships can gold be obtained from the sand. It is indeed not easy to pan for gold, but a young man handed over the gold bugs he had worked so hard to find to the country for free.

This is not because this gold bug is not valuable enough. On the contrary, it is now a priceless first-class national treasure and an "Internet celebrity". Even in that era, as long as he sold this gold bug, this young man could become a "ten thousand yuan household" almost effortlessly, but he said: "This thing should be returned to the country, and ordinary people cannot keep it."< /p>

Pick it down with a hoe and pick up a gold bug

“If you hoe it down at any time, you will find cultural relics, and if you hoe it down again, you will find an ancient tomb.” This sentence is used to describe the two ancient capitals of Xi’an and Nanjing. All appropriate. The long passage of history has left many relics to future generations, and any dig will turn out to be a huge tomb. Some people joked that it was difficult to do real estate here, and work had to be stopped from time to time to protect the ancient tombs.

In fact, the scope of this sentence may be expanded to the entire Shaanxi. The Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the First Emperor of Qin, and the largest tomb of Qin Gong, many tombs have been unearthed from Shaanxi. Because ancient tombs are easy to find in Shaanxi, in order to better protect cultural relics, the state sent people to popularize archaeological knowledge to local people. This measure is obviously effective.

In the winter of 1984, the weather was very cold. Tan Fuquan, a villager in Shiquan County, Ankang City, Shaanxi Province, led several of his children to the river outside the village to pan for gold. He is an out-and-out villager. His income from farming is not high, his family is not wealthy, but he has many mouths to eat. Digging for gold in the sand is a habit of the locals, and Tan Fuquan also tried to do it while carrying gold mining tools.

The river was very cold and it was difficult to pan for gold. At first, Tan Fuquan and a group of children did not find much gold despite all the hard work. However, in the afternoon, he unexpectedly found a golden thing in the sand basket, which looked quite big. Tan Fuquan washed the thing in the cold river water, and after taking a closer look, he discovered that it was a shining "golden silkworm." He immediately clenched his fists, quietly put the golden silkworm into his pocket, and led a group of children back home without saying anything.

As soon as he got home, Tan Fuquan showed the golden silkworm to his wife. She was so surprised that she quickly wrapped the golden silkworm in red silk and put it in a special mahogany box. They didn't publicize it in a big way, but there was no airtight wall in the world, and the news that the Tan family had found a treasure still spread like wildfire. Villages from all over the country came to see the excitement. A teacher in the village wrote the incident into a radio script and read it to everyone through the loudspeaker in the village.

Soon, more and more people knew about it. A local radio station came to interview the Tan family and specially reported the matter. A leader from the county also came to check out the golden silkworm and said it was a gilt copper silkworm. However, only by contacting experts from the province could he determine whether it was a cultural relic. Tan Fuquan immediately said that if it was a cultural relic, he would donate it to the country.

Holding the treasure to borrow travel expenses

But for more than half a year, the experts have not come, but there is an endless stream of cultural relic dealers. Some people even paid 8,000 yuan to buy golden silkworms. This was by no means a small amount in the 1980s, when "households worth 10,000 yuan" were a rarity.

If the golden silkworms are sold, the Tan family will no longer have to go to the river to pan for gold in the middle of winter. The family’s living standard will be qualitatively improved, and it can even be said that they will not have to worry about it for most of their lives. But this huge sum of money convinced Tan Fuquan that the golden silkworm was definitely a cultural relic. He remembered the "cultural relics protection knowledge" that cultural relics experts had come to the county to promote, and finally sent the cultural relics dealer away. The villagers were talking a lot. They thought it was for sale. It seemed that the price of 8,000 yuan was too small and they wanted to wait for a higher price.

It is still necessary to make a conclusion whether the baby is genuine or not. The experts promised by the county leader to contact have not come, so he will go there in person. In 1985, Tan Fuquan decided to personally take the golden silkworm to the province for expert appraisal. But the round trip fare plus the expenses on the road cost dozens of yuan, and the Tan family really couldn't afford it at the moment. As a last resort, he borrowed 50 yuan for travel expenses from his cousin and took a ride to Xi'an.

Tan Fuquan went through all the trouble to find the Provincial History Museum and donated the golden silkworm. "This is a rare treasure, a priceless treasure!" The relevant leader told him that this gilt-copper silkworm is undoubtedly a valuable cultural relic, but the specific results will not be available until expert appraisal. The province paid Tan Fuquan 70 yuan in accordance with regulations, but when he learned that Tan Fuquan had borrowed even his travel expenses, he added another 30 yuan, making up 100 yuan for round-trip travel expenses.

After Tan Fuquan returned home, word spread about his free donation of golden silkworms. Some people praised him for his profound sense of justice, while more people called him a fool for wasting the opportunity to become a "ten thousand-yuan household" and deserved to be poor for the rest of his life. Tan Fuquan said, "I feel at ease when I leave it to the state." After that, Tan Fuquan continued to live his life as he farmed and panned for gold, completely ignoring the sighs and sarcasm of the villagers, and seemed to have forgotten about the golden silkworm. However, the expert appraisal results have not yet come out, and he is still thinking about it after all.

"Internet celebrity" gilt-copper silkworms

In the summer of 1986, Tan Fuquan went to ask the county leaders and learned that the gilt-copper silkworms he picked up and donated that year belonged to a A national treasure, it is now collected in the Shaanxi History Museum.

This matter was reported in a special article. The article stated that the golden silkworm was a cultural relic of the Han Dynasty, made of red copper, and gilded on the outside. It is the only one in the country and is extremely valuable.

The Tan family was happy for this golden silkworm for a long time, but also worried for a long time. They couldn't bear to sell it, and they were worried that thieves would miss it if they kept it at home. Now that it has been donated to the country, Tan Fuquan's worries are gone. He said: "This thing should be returned to the country, and ordinary people cannot keep it."

At the "One Belt, One Road" Summit Forum, the gold-plated copper silkworm appeared in the leader's speech and suddenly became " "Internet celebrity" has therefore entered the public eye. This gilt-copper silkworm donated by Tan Fuquan is shaped like spinning silk with its head raised. It has nine abdominal segments along its body, and its thorax, abdomen, and tail are all complete. It is very delicate and lifelike.

The leaders said that "the ancient Silk Road opened a new window for friendly exchanges between countries, and the thousand-year-old 'gilded copper silkworms' have witnessed this history." Indeed, the sericulture and silk reeling industry was very developed in the Han Dynasty. The silk fabrics were brightly colored, with various patterns and fine workmanship. They were very popular in China at that time and were also famous around the world as the "Silk Road".

Shiquan County, where the gilt-copper silkworms were unearthed, had a prosperous sericulture industry in ancient times, and the gilt craftsmanship also developed greatly. At that time, many people would use gilt silkworms as burial objects. There are many records in historical documents, but before Tan Fuquan discovered the gilt-copper silkworm, there had never been a gilt-gilt silkworm. His discovery and donation filled a gap in archaeology and made outstanding contributions.

In 2000, Tan Fu fell seriously ill and was unable to be admitted to hospital in time due to family constraints. He did not listen to the advice of his relatives and friends, did not write to the relevant departments for help, just as he quietly donated the golden silkworms, he passed away quietly. It was not until the gilt-copper silkworm became an "Internet celebrity" that the world discovered that this man had passed away, leaving only regrets.

In short, from Tan Fuquan's refusal of the temptation of huge sums of money and his determination to donate the golden silkworms to the country for free, people can see his persistence in indifference and poverty. The author feels sorry for his death, but even more sorry for his final choice in life. If he could not be so indifferent to fame and fortune, he might still be able to see the day when the "golden silkworm" he discovered would shine in the world. But Tan Fuquan has never taken credit for himself, which is one of the reasons why this matter deserves to be made public.