Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1525 Vegetarian dishes are not necessarily cheaper than meat dishes

At ten o'clock in the morning that day, Zhou Zhi had already arrived at the Capital Airport carrying three statues.

When the three statues were transferred to Shudu Airport, they almost got into trouble when going through the security check because they did not buy first-class tickets and go through the special channel.

Because the airport staff were very serious and responsible, they carefully pulled the large aluminum alloy suitcase. There was nothing inside, just a quilt wrapped around the three statues, which immediately aroused suspicion.

Zhou Zhi wanted to prove that he was not a trafficker who smuggled cultural relics, so he took out the consultant certificates from the Forbidden City and the National Museum.

These two certificates are indeed very difficult to obtain. The reason why Zhou Zhi was able to obtain them was mainly due to his contribution to the return of the national treasure six scrolls.

Although the six-hand scroll is still in his personal possession, according to national regulations, such national treasure-level cultural relics will no longer be allowed to leave the country and can only be circulated within the country in the future.

Therefore, the choice of most buyers is to store these auctioned collections in overseas auction houses and are unwilling to bring them back to China. The purpose is self-evident, which is to be able to circulate overseas at higher prices in the future. .

Zhou Zhi brought these national treasures home, which made Mr. Wang and Mr. Qi feel that this child was really promising. As a reward, his experience and qualifications were almost enough, so they got him two certificates.

However, the suspicion caused by these two certificates is even more serious. The customs do not believe that the two top museums in the country have such young cultural relics consultants!

Fortunately, it is easy to communicate on the phone now, and Zhou Zhi did not look panicked. He followed the person into the inquiry room honestly and answered all questions. After some negotiation, he realized that Zhou Zhi was indeed here because of a national mission. I came to Beijing in a hurry, so the reporting procedures were not neatly arranged.

Now that things have come to light, the airport simply upgraded him and sent two police officers to accompany him in the VIP room until he was put on the plane.

After getting off the plane, he did not take the shuttle bus out of the station, because Shudu Customs had notified the capital, and the police were also sent directly here. Zhou Zhi was sent to the police car as soon as he got off the car, and the siren sounded long all the way, and he was taken away. The goods were delivered to the National Museum.

Mr. Wang and Mr. Qi are already waiting here. In addition to these two, there are also several old men surrounding them, with a group behind them.

The reason why such a big battle was used was because this kid's previous results were really good, and until now, he had never made any mistakes.

Everyone didn't have time to exchange greetings and went straight to work. Surrounded by Zhou Zhi, he dragged a big box into a studio of the National Expo.

Lacquerware, like silk and papermaking, is China's first handicraft, and even in a long historical period, it is original.

The oldest ramie statue in the world is from the Sui Dynasty, 610 AD.

If Zhou Zhi’s discovery is true, in the seventh year of Tianbao, that is, AD 556, it will replace the Amitabha Buddha in the Walters Art Museum collection and become the earliest existing dry lacquer and ramie statue in the world, pushing the date back to the Northern and Southern Dynasties!

When the large aluminum alloy suitcase was opened, what came into view was a silk quilt, which made everyone frown.

But when the statues of the Three Saints of Huayan were taken out one by one and placed on the soft wool felt on the workbench, all eyes were attracted at once.

Zhou Zhi also explained embarrassingly: "Because the matter was too urgent, I could only wrap it in a quilt and transport it. Because I was worried about unloading the goods at the airport, I didn't dare to check it in. I even caused some trouble there..."

But no one paid any attention to him.

"Open your eyes and open the door..." An old man next to Mr. Wang was so excited that his lips trembled. In the eyes of these big guys, whether something is true or false is basically clear at a glance, and they can confuse their things with "false things." , in fact, most of them are legends and novels. Over the years, only one Gao Huowang has succeeded in making pottery figurines.

In fact, it is not really a success, because the civil servant warrior figurines of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which were popular, had flaws discovered by Zhou Zhi. There are many such stories in the calligraphy and painting industry, but even a famous artist like Zhang Daqian could deceive Chen Banding, but he could not deceive Zheng Zhuyou.

Good things speak for themselves, especially when it comes to top-notch government-made craftsmanship.

This set of statues of the Three Huayan Saints is like this. The materials used are low-key and the colors are restrained. The statues are somewhere between the styles of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Northern Qi Dynasty, blending the essence of both.

There is often a saying in the aesthetics of calligraphy that "the muscles of the face and the bones of the willows" are both in line with the aesthetic style of the Tang Kai style of tightening the middle palace and stretching in all directions, but they are different in emphasis.

In terms of sculpture style, the Northern Wei Dynasty is similar to Liu Gongquan, and the Northern Qi Dynasty is similar to Yan Zhenqing.

The three current statues can be seen to have the beauty of an excessive style. Most of the bodies and faces were modeled in the "new style" of the Northern Qi Dynasty at that time, while the clothing, expressions and inner spirits of the figures were more reserved. The "ancient style" of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

The styles of both are very distinct, but they are not abrupt when blended together. The reason lies in the extremely superb craftsmanship of the statue maker.

In addition to the ramie craftsmanship itself, various carving techniques such as bas-relief, openwork, and round carvings are also used on the Buddha statues. Using a push knife to create a "Cao Yi Chu Shui" effect on the statue, a form of tulle close to the body, is truly wonderful. .

This is the pinnacle of Chinese statues - "Northern Qi style is the most exquisite".

Stone sculptures similar to statues were passed down in Qingzhou and were called "Qingzhou-style". The Longxing Temple statue in the Qingzhou Museum is a typical example.

The statues of Longxing Temple in the Tang Dynasty in central Sichuan in the Sichuan University Museum also have a similar appearance.

However, apart from the relatively easy-to-preserve stone sculptures, other sculptures such as clay sculptures and dried lacquers with ramie are difficult to preserve, so very few of them can be passed down.

Because of the difficulty of post-processing, it is difficult for metal sculptures to achieve such high-level artistic achievements.

"It's really a return to nature. This should be the highest level of dry lacquer and ramie sculptures, right?" Mr. Wang asked the extremely excited old man just now.

"It is indeed number one." The old man nodded repeatedly: "Although the statues of Northern Qi are said to be the highest in history, they also started to decline at that time."

"In the late Gaoyang period, the ruling class began to be extravagant and extravagant, ignoring the livelihood of the people. The statues also declined from exquisite craftsmanship to complicated carvings; the modeling also gradually changed from focusing on the serenity and tranquility of spiritual connotation to vulgar rigidity; the body shaping also changed from smooth and graceful to Bloated and dull.”

"These three statues have completely abandoned decoration, paint and other vulgar means, and relied entirely on the craftsmen's superb skills and knife skills to express the spiritual connotation of aesthetics. As you just said, they have returned to nature and achieved extremely high artistic achievements."

An old man next to Mr. Qi said: "However, considering the craftsmanship level of the craftsmen, it takes tens of thousands of statues to reach this level. Isn't this another kind of extravagance?"

These words awakened Zhou Zhi. Before setting off, he praised Yang Min's sagacity and aesthetics. Only now did he realize that Yang Min's sagacity has been proven by history, but sagacity is not the same as simplicity.

Just like Yongzheng liked simplicity and elegance, Qianlong liked fancy porcelain. However, the most difficult porcelains to burn were those elegant imitation Song kilns that Yongzheng liked, and the plain porcelains such as Langhong, Langlu, and Apple Green created by Kangxi. .

The labor, energy, and money spent on these three statues may not be less than those decorated with gold, silver, and gems!

Master Zhang Yuanfu knows best that vegetarian dishes are not necessarily cheaper than meat dishes!

(End of this chapter)