前言

公元前584年，吴王寿梦在即位的第二年突袭楚国东部边境，楚人猝不及防，吴国大胜。经此，吴楚关系再未修复。吴国凭此战向中原列国纳上了投名状，从楚国北上争霸的跟从堂而皇之地登上春秋争霸的舞台。不过，同时期的史官有着更敏锐的洞察力，将晋国大夫巫臣刚刚结束的访吴之行与吴、楚决裂并书于简帛。

文献中晋、吴本是姬姓同宗，吴乃大王之昭，晋为武王之穆。吴国困于东南泽沼，除泰伯、仲雍让贤之名，先君事迹失载于诗书经传；晋国起于河汾之东，至两周之际经文侯勤王、曲沃代翼、并国服邦、尽去公族等重大事件，实现政权更替与疆域扩张，遂成表里山河之势。际遇迥异的二邦越山渡水相会，既缺少了伍子胥奔吴复仇的戏剧，也没有勾践卧薪尝胆的传奇，但背后是春秋战国诡谲局势下真实的交攻之道，亦隐见宗法制崩溃前的一丝气血连枝。

按《左传》所记，晋吴交往是晋以兵车和战法补吴人所阙，而三晋地区丰富的两周考古遗存再造了更为鲜活的互动场景。自清同治以来，山西地区出土了数量与样式繁多的吴国有铭青铜器，其中有泥留指爪的零星偶见，更多的则与晋式青铜礼器同处一室，尽显玄鏐吴钩在晋地贵族中掀起的吉金风尚。晋人赠予吴国的也不止于鼎簋、钟磬与圭璋，生产技术的分享、审美艺术的熏陶、仪礼习俗的传教拉近了吴人与中原的距离，方才成就“穆穆延陵子，灼灼光诸华”的儒学典范。

本次展览主要借用出土文物，以巫臣的视角走入晋、吴的百年交往，重现两国的兴衰成败，随着这段历史还原展示的，还有春秋时期国与国之间的联盟和干戈、人与人之间的誓言和背弃。

海内无远近，相知即为邻。姑苏城内重遇吴国故人、重温春秋故事，离不开远方友朋山西博物院、河南博物院、蚌埠市博物馆和山西省考古研究院、南阳文物保护研究院的倾力支持，在此致以最诚挚的感谢！

谢晓婷

苏州博物馆 馆长

二〇二五年三月

进入展厅

Foreword

In 584 BC, during the second year of his reign, King Shoumeng of Wu launched a surprise attack on the eastern border of Chu Kingdom. Chu was unprepared and Wu won a great victory. After this war, the relationship between Wu and Chu was never restored. With this war, Wu submitted a petition to the various kingdoms on the Central Plains of China, and turned from a subordinate in Chu's northern expansion into a competitor on the stage of the Spring and Autumn power struggle. However, in their bamboo and silk records, historians of the period had a keener insight by interconnecting the visit to Wu by the Jin official Wu Chen with the split between the two kingdoms.

In the historical documents, both Jin and Wu originally belonged to the same family name of “Ji”. Wu descended from Tai Bo, the elder of the Zhou lineage, while Jin originated from King Wu of Zhou, the younger branch. Wu was firstly trapped in the southeast swamp. Except the fames of Tai Bo and Zhong Yong, the deeds of their predecessors were not recorded in poetry, books or classics. Meanwhile, Jin emerged from the East of Yellow River and Fen River. During the transition from Western Zhou to Eastern Zhou periods, with primary events such as Marquis Wen saving the king, Quwo replacing the regime of Jin, territorial expansions through annexations, and the removal of ducal clans, the Jin kingdom ultimately realized its regime change and expansion of the territories, forming a stronghold surrounded by mountains and rivers. Two kingdoms with different fortunes met after climbing over mountains and crossing over the rivers. Without the dramas of Wu Zixu fleeing to Wu for revenge or the legend of Gou Jian enduring hardship to achieve vengeance, however, it reflected the real strategies of alliance and conflict in the intricate political situation of the Spring and Autumn Periods and the Warring States Periods. A bit of blood connection could be vaguely seen before the fall of the patriarchal clan system.

According to the “Zuo Zhuan” (Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals), in the communication between Jin and Wu, Jin supplemented Wu’s deficiencies in chariots and tactics. The rich archaeological remains of Western and Eastern Zhou periods in the Three Jin regions have reconstructed more vivid interactive scenes. Since the reign of Emperor Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, a large number of various bronze wares with inscriptions from Wu have been unearthed in Shanxi Province. In most cases, Wu-style wares were located in the same place with Jin-style bronze ritual wares, demonstrating the popularity of the Wu’s bronze wares among the Jin’s nobility. The gifts given by Jin to Wu were not limited to Ding and Gui vessels, bell and chimes, Gui and Zhang (ritual jade objects). Sharing of production technology, the cultivation of aesthetic arts, and the passing-on and teaching of ritual customs all made the people of Wu aligned with the Central Plains civilisation. In this way, the Confucian model celebrated in the verse “Jizha the noble prince of Wu whose fiefdom was at Yanling, his virtue shone brightly across the Central Plains.” was established.

This exhibition mainly presents cultural relics in order to showcase the century-long exchanges between Jin and Wu from the perspective of Wu Chen, recreating the rise and fall of the two kingdoms. Along with the historical restoration, there are also alliances and wars between kingdoms during the Spring and Autumn Period, as well as vows and betrayals between people.

True neighbours are not defined by distance, but by mutual understanding. Meeting old friends of Wu again and revisiting the stories of Spring and Autumn Periods in Gusu City cannot be done without the full-strength support of friends in distance, including Shanxi Museum, Henan Museum, Bengbu Museum, Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Nanyang Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. We extend our deepest gratitude to them!

Xie Xiaoting

Director of Suzhou Museum

March 2025