Riding the wind of rebirth

Gao Shiqi was also a remarkable man in the reign of Emperor Kangxi. He came to Beijing with his father at the age of nineteen. His father died soon after, and he became so poor that he had to make a living by writing couplets.

In the eighth year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, he entered the Imperial College and was recommended by Mingzhu. His essays were particularly favored by Emperor Kangxi, who personally granted him the qualification to take the imperial examinations. He ranked first in both examinations within half a month, and was thus registered as a Hanlin scholar, thus embarking on his official career.

After that, he basically kept around Kangxi, serving in the Hanlin Academy, the Zhanshi Mansion, the Zuochunfang and Youchunfang, the daily lecturer, the daily recorder, the Hanlin lecturer, the Minister of Rites, and even when Kangxi went on tours and wars, he was always with him. Finally, he was posthumously named "Wenke".

Emperor Kangxi commented: "It was only after I got Shiqi that I learned the ways of learning." It is said: "Shiqi had no military achievements, but I treated him well because he helped me to increase my knowledge."

Emperor Kangxi was also a person with quite high comprehensive qualities among emperors. The fact that Gao Shiqi was able to "add great knowledge" to his life shows that he was no ordinary person.

Although he was not from the two lists, Gao Shiqi participated in all the major compilation works related to the court and literature, such as "History of Ming Dynasty", "Complete Collection of Ancient and Modern Books", "Complete Tang Poems", "Peiwen Yunfu" which is a must-read for Zhouzhi studies, and "Kangxi Dictionary", etc.

This is the ultimate achievement of a scholar.

He was indeed studious throughout his life and wrote many books, with considerable attainments in astronomy, geography, classics, poetry, history, mathematics and even Western natural sciences.

Among them, he is best at "The Book of Changes", "Spring and Autumn Annals", "Zuo Zhuan" and Tang poetry.

He is also very famous in the collecting world because he has always served as an appraiser of calligraphy and painting in the imperial court and as Kangxi's calligraphy and painting consultant.

There is a saying about the "Three Villages" in Qing Dynasty collections, namely Liang Qingbiao's pen name "Tangcun", An Qi's pseudonym "Lucun", and the remaining one is Gao Shiqi's pseudonym - "Jiangcun".

The value of all calligraphy and paintings that were appraised by Gao Shiqi suddenly increased tenfold. However, this man had a big problem, that is, he would keep the real masterpieces for himself, and the rest were divided into two types: the common ones were given away everywhere, and the high-quality ones were sent to the inner palace to honor Emperor Kangxi.

Emperor Kangxi gave Gao Shiqi a couplet: "Loyalty is the exterior and filial piety is the heart; words are meaningful and actions are consistent", and also gave him a seal with the words "Home of Loyalty and Filial Piety". He often gave him gifts, medicine, poems and plaques.

But when it comes to collecting, Gao Shiqi kept the good stuff for himself and gave the inferior stuff to the emperor. This can't be considered "loyalty" in any way.

"I still don't dare to believe it easily." Zhou Zhi said: "Although I am familiar with Gao Shiqi's handwriting, there are too many smart people in the world, and it is not particularly difficult to forge such an independent note. The main reason is that the "Volume of Heroic Women" is too precious. I don't believe he has such courage."

The fourth cousin held Zhou Zhi's hand, signaling him not to rush to unfold it, and said with a smile: "Then let's guess, is there a 'eternal secret play' seal in the painting?"

"It's hard to guess because there's neither the word 'send' nor the word 'enter'," Zhou Zhi said.

Gao Shiqi's collection has a characteristic. Generally, there are paintings and calligraphy with his ordinary seals and words such as "送" and "赠". These were all gifts to the imperial court or relatives and friends. Not only are they inferior products, they may even be fakes. However, those with collection seals, especially a "永存秘玩" seal, are absolutely treasures.

"If this note is genuine, then I suspect Gao Shiqi hid the painting for himself to play with, but because the scroll is too important, he was afraid of being held accountable if something went wrong, so he still wrote down his own appraisal opinion."

"If they really find out, they can just say that they just completed the appraisal and just didn't have time to hand it in." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "Didn't you see that there's not even a time on the note? That's called being greedy and cowardly. So I guess there's no print on it. What do you think, Fourth Aunt?"

"It has to be real." Fourth aunt said, "I won't guess based on a small piece of paper." "Isn't there a wrapping?" Fourth cousin made his own judgment: "This is true, and this scroll was also made in Kangxi's inner workshop, which means that this painting finally entered the palace."

"Even if they are in the palace, they are not necessarily fakes." Fourth Aunt continued to pour cold water on everyone, saying: "There are more than one or two pieces of calligraphy and painting listed in the Shiqu Baoji that are fakes."

There is a lot of speculation about this story. The most famous one is about the two paintings of "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains", one real and one fake. The real one was thrown aside as if it were a fake, while the fake one was included in the "Shiqu Baoji" as if it were the real one.

Then Zhou Zhi and his fourth cousin thought of this possibility at the same time. Only if the palace had fakes would they be brought into the palace but not taken seriously, and eventually lost out.

"So this is what Li Fuqing is going to use to cheat foreigners?" Zhou Zhi was a little dumbfounded: "Holding a dozen cups..."

“Hahahaha…” The fourth cousin was amused by Zhou Zhi’s anxiety: “It’s just that you haven’t mastered it enough. Can this little interference affect the judgment?”

"Those twelve cups are all obvious at first glance. There is no doubt about it. Let's just look at the painting."

"Wait, you haven't told me whether you have Gao Shiqi's secret seal."

"Of course not. No matter which possibility we guess, there will definitely be no secret seal. Since everyone has the same answer, there is no point in guessing." Fourth Aunt smiled and said, "Be careful when you open it, the edges of the paper are brittle."

Gu Kaizhi was actually a typical literati, good at poetry and prose. When Liu Yu led a northern expedition against Murong Chao of Southern Yan, it was Gu Kaizhi who wrote the "Sacrificial Toya (Flag) Text".

Painting is just another of his strengths. With his background as a scholar, his aesthetic taste in painting naturally tends to be closer to the intention and aesthetic of poetry. He advocates vividness and pays attention to the finishing touch, believing that "the vividness of the spirit lies in this."

Adu means "this thing". In Wang Yan's mouth, it refers to smelly copper coins, and in Gu Kaizhi's mouth, it refers to human eyes.

In addition to the eyes, there are also details and embellishment. It is said that when he painted the portrait of Pei Kai, he added three hairs on the cheek, which made him look radiant; and when he painted the portrait of Xie Kun in the rocks and ravines, he highlighted the character and interests of the person.

From the perspective of brushwork, the facial features of the characters are extremely meticulous, and the dynamics are handled naturally and generously. The folds of clothes are drawn with ancient silk lines, with tight and continuous lines, and then light ink is used to enhance the sense of volume. Later generations commented that his paintings of characters are like "spring silkworms spinning silk, spring clouds floating in the sky, and flowing water on the ground", which are extremely natural and smooth.

The opened scroll had turned black due to its age and poor storage, but the three people present were all experts who knew how to look at an unrestored painting. They could find the painter's real brushstrokes in the black picture and make a rough inference of the whole.

But after some deduction, the three of them began to look at each other in bewilderment, because "Biographies of Women of Benevolence and Wisdom" is a compulsory course for every researcher of ancient paintings, and experts and scholars over the years have studied every part of the painting very thoroughly.

But the more they knew, the less they believed it. This was because the fragment, in terms of material, painting, composition, character modeling, and eulogy, was identical to the Biographies of Women of Benevolence and Wisdom in the book.

Moreover, these are the contents that were lost in the Palace Museum version. There are four complete stories, namely the mother of Zangsun of Lu, Duke Cheng Si of Lu, Quwo Fu of Wei, and the mother of General Kuo of Zhao.

"Could it be..." Zhou Zhi's heart was pounding: "Could it be true?" (End of this chapter)