Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1526 Modern High Technology

"I don't dare to ask these two..." Zhou Zhi knew that this place was full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers, and now he had the opportunity to ask the two old men their names.

"Oh," Mr. Wang said with a smile, "I forgot to introduce you. This is Lao Xia next to me. Xia Gengqi is our top lacquerware appraisal expert in the country. This is Lao Shen and Jin Shen, the Buddha statue appraisal expert in the Forbidden City. ”

"By the way, the earliest dry lacquer and ramie statues in our country are the statues of the Eighteenth Saints that exist in the White Horse Temple. They were identified by Lao Jin and Lao Xia." Mr. Qi continued to introduce.

"Wow, I've admired you two for a long time." Zhou Zhi was immediately in awe. Lacquerware statues themselves are relatively unpopular, and most appraisers include them in miscellaneous items. These two are the only remaining experts in the country.

"The naked eye can basically confirm that it is authentic. Regardless of the materials used, the paint, the inner tube, and the carving method, this is the dry lacquer and ramie technology of the early Northern Qi Dynasty." Xia Gengqi is an expert in this regard: "The early dry lacquer and ramie The craftsmanship has not yet formed a fixed system, so the number of passes of cloth and pressed ash is somewhat random. However, the cooked varnish ash and mat varnish used for the long face and clothing patterns are stacked at least two times. The knife and carving method pays attention to smoothness. The engravings like to show sharpness, and for the dirty chamber, the requirement is not to introduce cinnabar and other chemicals to prevent corrosion and insects as in later generations, so there is no need to paint the chamber twice with vermilion. "

"The things are old at first glance, and the rules conform to the rules of Northern Qi statues."

"Yes, such a thing can actually be seen at a glance." Jin Shen nodded: "This is the pinnacle of Northern Qi statues. It is difficult to imitate the front and back. The most commendable thing is that these three statues are so well protected. It is in perfect condition, even better than all the known statues of Sui, Tang and Song and Yuan Dynasties. It is really a rare national treasure. "

"Should we do a scientific examination?" The two of them said so definitely that Mr. Wang had to raise some doubts and asked after careful consideration: "Is the enshrinement plaque behind the main statue of Vairocana Buddha a bit fake? The taste of "wanting to cover up"?

"Old Wang, you are being unreasonable." Even Mr. Qi could not stand these things: "There are many famous brands of Buddha statues with portraits of worshipers before the Tang Dynasty, from Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes to Longmen Grottoes, and Various gold and bronze statues have almost become a fixed format.”

"Just like porcelain counterfeiters will imitate the original mark, but you can't just say that all the porcelain with the original mark may be fake, right?" Mr. Qi spread his hands: "Isn't this putting the cart before the horse?"

"It's not complicated to do a scientific inspection." Xia Gengqi said: "Lacquerware is originally made of linen and raw lacquer. Both of them are organic matter. It is most convenient to do carbon 14, and the error is only within 70%. Between years and one hundred and fifty years.”

"If it is really the statue made by Gao Yang in the seventh year of Tianbao in the Northern Qi Dynasty, then the technical testing date should be between 480 AD and 630 AD. Do you know when it is?"

"The first was the second year of Jianyuan in the Southern Qi Dynasty and the fourth year of Taihe in the Northern Wei Dynasty. During this period, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty reached its peak through the 'Taihe Reorganization'."

"The next one was in the fourth year of Zhenguan. In this year, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty sent Li Jing to destroy DTZ and captured Jieli Khan."

Xia Gengqi and Jin Shen looked at each other. They heard that this kid was a consultant for two museums. They just thought it was a bit childish. It doesn't mean that if they have connections and money to buy national treasures back to the country, they can just give them the title of consultant. of.

Therefore, I started to compare, hoping that Zhou Zhi could report the dynasties, especially the reign names of the Northern and Southern Dynasties in the front, which was completely hopeless.

Although memorizing the chronology table is a must-pass for almost everyone who engages in connoisseurship, ordinary teachers will also relax some requirements for the chaotic Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

I didn't expect Zhou Zhi to be able to open his mouth and briefly describe the important historical events of the year. And with this posture, it would be no problem for him to elaborate. This level is quite excellent. Masters and PhDs from the history departments of ordinary universities may not be able to get it so easily.

Experts can tell if there is one as soon as they reach out. By just asking this question, Xia Gengqi and Jin Shen knew that Lao Wang Laoqi was not messing around in this matter. Although Zhou Zhi was young, he was quite solid in his skills.

"Then you have to go find Xiao Zhang," Jin Shen said, "In addition to carbon 14 dating, they seem to have many other methods."

The Xiao Zhang in Jin Shen's mouth is actually Zhang Xingquan, director of the Cultural Relics Inspection Institute of the National Museum, who is also in his forties or fifties.

"As for the dating method of ramie statues, the easiest one to think of is the carbon 14 dating method." Director Zhang is now sitting in the large laboratory to introduce "modern high technology" to everyone.

"The carbon 14 dating method is actually called radiocarbon dating in the discipline." Director Zhang introduced: "It uses the decay characteristics of carbon elements to determine the age of cultural relics. However, this method has a prerequisite, that is, the cultural relics must They are organic matter or mainly composed of organic matter, such as ancient utensils, wooden buildings, etc. And due to the limitation of decay time, this method is only applicable to cultural relics that are less than 50,000 years old.”

"The second method is thermoluminescence dating. This method is to estimate the time it has been exposed to sunlight or heating by measuring the electron energy levels generated by the natural radiation accumulated in the cultural relics. It is more suitable for ceramics, stone Methods for dating artifacts such as artifacts and rocks.”

"The third method is lead isotope dating, which is used to estimate the age of cultural relics by measuring the ratio of lead isotope luminescence in cultural relics. This method is highly accurate for the age identification of metal cultural relics such as copper and lead."

"I think we can use a three-pronged approach. For these three statues, we can use all three methods to increase the accuracy of dating."

"Wait a minute!" Thinking of the amount of samples taken from cultural relics for each measurement, Zhou Zhi became a little flustered: "Director Zhang, you just said that thermoluminescence dating is suitable for ceramic stone products, and lead isotope dating is suitable. Bronze and other metal cultural relics, but what we want to measure now are lacquerware, dried lacquer and ramie statues!”

"This is the valuable experience we have accumulated in appraising the statues of the eighteen saints in the Great Buddha Hall of Cining Palace." Director Zhang smiled proudly: "Because the base of the ramie statue will use a large amount of bricks, tiles, and ash. They are all formed by high-temperature heating, so thermoluminescence dating can be used to detect the time since the bricks were formed.”

"The reason why the lead isotope dating method can be used for the ramie sculptures is because the ancients would add medicinal powder to the lacquer when making the sculptures, as a regulator to control the drying time of the lacquer..."

"Monk Mi Tuo!" Zhou Zhi understood immediately.

"Huh?" Director Zhang was slightly surprised: "You also know this?"

"He is no stranger to lacquerware." Mr. Wang revealed Zhou Zhi's background: "I gave him all my Ming and Qing furniture. If he doesn't study it carefully, he will be spanked!"

(End of this chapter)