Riding the wind of rebirth

For example, the Yuan Dynasty Jingdezhen blue and white dragon-patterned lotus leaf lid jar collected by Zhou Zhi is comparable to the Yuan Dynasty Guiguzi Going Down the Mountain jar from the previous life. The highest auction price of the Guiguzi Going Down the Mountain jar was 230 million yuan, but the auction price of the equally famous Chicken-glazed Cup in the previous life was as high as 280 million yuan!

Many laymen often judge the value of an ancient porcelain by its size, but they do not know that the smaller and more delicate the porcelain, the higher its value. At least after the Ming Dynasty, cups were the most expensive.

For example, cups from the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty were already very valuable in the later dynasties of the Ming Dynasty. Collectors often valued them more than treasures, and a small cup could be worth a mansion.

The four Ming Dynasty cups in Li Fopan's collection - the Chenghua Doucai Horseshoe Cup with Grape Pattern, the Xuande Doucai Hat Cup with Flower and Butterfly Pattern, the Jiaqing Doucai Figure Crock Cup, and the Wanli Blue and White Five-Colored Lotus Seed Cup with Baby Playing Pattern - are no worse than the Chicken Crock Cup.

Especially the Chenghua Doucai purple grape cup, which is much rarer than the Chicken Cup. The three emperors of the Qing Dynasty searched for it all over the country. If they couldn't find it, they ordered the official kiln to imitate it, just to satisfy their craving.

As for the remaining eight Qing Dynasty cups, the three from Qianlong are of similar quality to the Xinglin Chunyan bowl that was auctioned in Hong Kong Island in the previous life.

The Xinglin Chunyan Bowl was also a top-quality product that was sold for 180 million yuan.

As for the three Kangxi Doucai pieces and the two Yongzheng enamel pieces, they can all be sold for around 30 to 40 million in Hong Kong Island now. In another 20 years, their value will only be higher than the Xinglin Chunyan bowl.

  In other words, these twelve cups are now worth more than 600 million at an auction in Hong Kong Island, and will be worth nearly 30 billion in the future!

Even if antiques from troubled times were worthless, these twelve cups were still top-tier at the time. They were invaluable and easy to carry, so everyone speculated that they were used to raise military funds.

However, it has been a long time since the incident happened, and perhaps only the former owner of the underground knows the truth.

Zhou Zhi knew what the two elders liked, so he didn't need to bring any gifts this time. It would be worth more than anything else to bring back these twelve cups for them to admire.

"In addition, there are these four scrolls." Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "I have never opened them, just to let the two elders enjoy the whole process from beginning to end!"

As an old family member who cares about Zhou Zhi, of course she could hear some rumors. Considering Zhou Zhi's performance in the past two days, the fourth cousin's aunt laughed and teased: "Is it possible that he knew he was uneasy and didn't dare to open the seal?"

"Have you brought the things? Let's start." After seeing the twelve precious cups, the fourth cousin could not wait to get the four scrolls.

Zhou Zhi then opened the box and took out all four scrolls.

On the other side, my fourth cousin also turned on the video recorder. This was also in response to the requirements of the Palace Museum and the National Museum, to record the essence of Yanggong restoration techniques for reference by future generations.

The scroll was wrapped in a linen tube on the outside and fine cloth on the inside. The fine cloth was opened to reveal the intact brocade belt and the tied ribbon.

The patterns of the brocade used are complicated and special, and the silk tapestry has been embroidered with cloud patterns and ruyi patterns, which serves the purpose of reinforcement and facilitates manual operation.

Although there were no gold, pearls or jade decorations, my fourth cousin and my aunt could tell at a glance that this was the craftsmanship of the imperial court in the early Qing Dynasty. "Elbow, I don't know whether to praise you or scold you." My aunt was both angry and amused: "You are really becoming more and more stable. How can you endure until now?!"

"I opened a roll in New York once." Zhou Zhi smiled shyly, "I opened it and saw that it was a little broken, so I didn't dare to unfold it. After I brought it back to China, I have been running around and busy with it until now."

"Then start with the volume you opened, and be careful." said my fourth cousin.

My fourth cousin's family is now also using the large-sized calligraphy and painting restoration table invented by Zhou Zhi, the kind with a backlight. Zhou Zhi carefully took out the scroll, which had some cracks on the edges that were obviously visible to the naked eye due to poor storage, and slowly opened it on the restoration table.

On the edge of the opened scroll, there was a small piece of paper with a line of words written in elegant small regular script: "The Biographies of Women of Benevolence and Wisdom, four paintings of the mother of Zang Sun of Lu, the Duke of Lu riding on Si, the burden of Qu Wo of Wei, and the mother of General Kuo of Zhao. I suspect they are the same as the copy by Gu Kaizhi of the Song Dynasty. They can be used to supplement the collection of the palace. Yucun wrote this."

  "Is this true?" The three of them were shocked by the note, and everyone's first reaction was "Impossible"!

"Biographies of Women" is a book about the behavior of women in ancient China. Some people also believe that the book is a history of women. It is said that the reason for writing this book was that Emperor Cheng of Han was addicted to wine and sex and favored Zhao Feiyan and her sister, which caused the power of the government to fall into the hands of relatives and endangered the Liu regime. In response to this situation, Liu Xiang, the fourth-generation grandson of King Yuan of Chu, compiled the materials of virtuous concubines, chaste women, and favorite concubines recorded in history from ancient times to the Han Dynasty, and presented it to Emperor Cheng of Han, hoping that he would learn lessons from it and maintain the Liu regime.

The palace turmoil during the Western Han Dynasty was mostly related to foreign relatives. Liu Xiang believed that "the king's teachings should start from the inside and spread to the outside, starting with those closest to him", that is, the king's teachings should start with the people around the emperor, so he wrote this book to advise the emperor, concubines and foreign relatives. The stories selected in "Biographies of Women" reflect the Confucian view of women, and some of the praises in it are now seen as unfair treatment of women.

The book is divided into seven volumes: Biographies of Women, namely, Motherly Virtue, Virtuous and Wise, Benevolent and Wisdom, Chastity and Obedience, Justice and Righteousness, Eloquence and Wisdom, and Evil and Favorite, which tell the stories of 105 women in total.

In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the painter Gu Kaizhi painted the stories of the women in the "Renzhi Volume" of the book based on the descriptions in the book, and recorded the eulogy after each painting, noting the characters painted.

This is the "Biographies of Virtuous and Wise Women", which is as famous as "The Admonitions of Court Instructress" in the history of Chinese painting.

Of course, Gu Kaizhi's original painting is gone. What is now stored in the Palace Museum is a copy left by the Song people, or a fragment. Among them, seven stories of "Deng Man, King Wu of Chu", "Lady Xu Mu", "Wife of Cao Xi", "Mother of Sun Shuao", "Wife of Jin Bo Zong", "Lady Linggong" and "Yang Shuji of Jin" are preserved intact, three stories of "Ling Zhongzi of Qi", "Mother of Jin Fan" and "Girl of Lu Qishi" are only half preserved, and the remaining five stories are all lost.

"Mr. Wang has made another discovery about the "Scroll of Benevolence and Wisdom." Zhou Zhi said as he gently unfolded the scroll: "Later generations actually spliced ​​the right half of 'Lady of Lu Lacquer Room' and the left half of 'Mother of Jin Fan' together when mounting it, making people mistakenly think that it is one story. Mr. Wang discovered this mistake and pointed it out."

The Scroll of Benevolence and Wisdom is an important collection of the Palace Museum. Although it is a copy of a Southern Song Dynasty palace painting, it is also the copy that is closest to Gu Kaizhi's brushwork. Although the selection of subject matter and painting layout are similar to traditional forms, the creation of characters is not stereotyped.

Because the stories are historical anecdotes that people are familiar with, Gu Kaizhi did not describe the plots of these stories, but instead focused on depicting the facial expressions of the characters, and made appropriate descriptions based on the characters' demeanor and identity.

In this set of scrolls, Gu Kaizhi broke away from the previous conceptual pictorial method of depicting the image of women. He painted based on his profound understanding of the characters' spiritual outlook and used artistic techniques to recreate the images of historical figures, making his depictions very vivid and interesting.

However, this is an ancient copy and a painting that has been highly valued by emperors of all dynasties. If any content that can be supplemented is discovered, then the imperial court has no reason not to add it to the "Scroll of Benevolence and Wisdom".

"This Gao Shiqi has a criminal record." The fourth cousin pointed at the name on the small piece of paper and said, "It's possible that this person is so bold." (End of this chapter)