Every Treasure Tells a Story
　　Authored by the Production Team of Every Treasure Tells a Story
　　Price： RMB 118
　　Paperback， 268 pages
　　Published by China Intercontinental Press
　　Bringing life to the cultural relics collected in museums， the heritage standing on the vast land， and the characters written in the ancient books； vitalizing the cultural spirit that breaks down the barriers of space and time， spreading across borders， and having eternal enchantment and contemporary values； and presenting the fruits of our cultural innovations that combine traditional merits and modern values， and feature universal qualities deriving from our homeland. To achieve these goals is what the book Every Treasure Tells A Story has aimed to do. One hundred treasures have been carefully selected for the book， each of which tells a legendary tale. The book introduces each of the treasures and talks about their relationships with the civilizations embodied in these artifacts. It celebrates the unique creativity， development path， and values of Chinese culture by telling breathtaking stories about the treasures， presenting extensive pictures， and providing an appealing， informative， and meaningful narrative. To let 100 national treasures “speak” for themselves， the production team visited nearly 100 museums and archaeological research institutes， traveled to more than 50 archaeological sites， and recorded more than 1，000 pieces of cultural relics in Chinese history from the Neolithic Age to Song， Yuan， Ming， and Qing dynasties， all for the purpose of interpreting the legendary stories and rebuilding a Chinese history of cultural relics.
　　The history starts from chapter one entitled “Human-headed Pot： Gazing at Old Times.” Most ancient civilizations across the globe emerged from the birth of portrait art. The human-headed pot was made of red clay by the ancestors of the Yangshao Culture dating back to between 6，000 and 6，500 years ago. At that time， people carved out stone tools， and began to raise livestock， reclaim wasteland， and gradually form tribes. This marked the beginning of the Neolithic Age of human history. In the history of humans， pottery was the first experiment to be created from scratch. With their own hands， people used soil， water， and fire to produce physical and chemical reactions and achieve a transformation of substances.
　　The portrait’s lips are slightly curled upwards， exhibiting an innocent and sincere look of a child. The body of the pot serves as the body of a human. The large rotund belly seems to represent the full figure and fertility of a female. On the back of the pot， a spout with an oblate section extends out and was used for pouring water into the pot， while the eyes and mouth form the outlets for the water. The water discharged from the eyes of the humanheaded pot looks like tears， signifying the initial pain of human birth. The clay figures molded by people of ancient times to resemble their own image have had a longer life than their creators. Their life is as old as mother earth herself， while their faces remain clearly intact to this very day. Besides a large number of vivid cultural relics， the book presents the wisdom of ancient Chinese and their achievements in science and technology. There is one chapter named， “Longshan Eggshell Black Pottery Cup： A Delicate Craftwork 0.2MM Thin.” In the field of archaeology， this black pottery cup from Longshan period has been hailed as “the most delicate piece of craftwork among human civilizations from 4，000 years ago.” The rare thin-walled cup， made from the simplest materials and displaying the most superb craftsmanship， was unearthed in the middle to lower reaches of China’s Yellow River， provides us with a masterpiece of that time. Can you imagine that it is just as thin as a cicada’s wings？