Riding the wind of rebirth

Amidst everyone's applause, Zhou Zhi made way and invited everyone to come closer to appreciate the restored scroll.

This painting was mounted in strict accordance with the mounting description in the book “Records of Superfluous Things” written by Wen Zhenheng, the great-grandson of Wen Zhengming. Wen Zhenheng was born into a family of culture and his mounting aesthetics were more “retro”. Therefore, although he was from the south, what he described in “Records of Superfluous Things” was the “assembly” of northern standards.

Zhou Zhi is the successor of Yanggong, but that does not mean he does not know how to do "Jinghuo". On the contrary, the predecessor of Jinghuo is the famous "Xuanhe Mounting", and Xuanhe Mounting is a monument that cannot be avoided in the mounting industry.

Therefore, this portrait of Lady Shexiang faithfully reflects the early Ming Dynasty's pursuit of Xuanhe style.

Therefore, Zhouzhi abandoned the round flowers and the two colors of green onion white and moon white, and adopted the soap silk with cloud and crane patterns, abandoning the hanging ribbons that appeared in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

In front of the jade pool, white silk about an inch wide and two black silk ribbons are used as dividing lines to separate the jade pool from the sky.

Because this is a large painting, the more expensive "carving and inlaying" technique of ancient times was abandoned, and the round flowers and two colors of green onion white and moon white were used.

The same is true of the original painting, which reflects a sense of "rusticism" that still existed in the early Ming Dynasty.

The four sides of the painting are made of white silk, inlaid with golden silk strips, about half an inch wide. In the Xuanhe mounting method, a "jade pool" needs to be added here. The jade pool is the place for inscriptions. Parchment is pasted next to the white silk, and "Portrait of Lady Shunde, Regent of Shuixi, Ming Dynasty" is written in neat small regular script. The words should be exactly the same as on the painting, and no additions or subtractions can be made.

According to the rules, if there are inscriptions by old people on the painting, they must not be cut out, because they are important historical and cultural materials. This painting does not have them, so they can be omitted, but the "introduction" must be left out.

The title page was originally a blank piece of paper, left for people who appreciated the painting to write poems or essays on, but this painting was not a private collection, so Zhou Zhi could not do whatever he wanted with it, so it had to be left blank.

The paper used for the title page is very particular. Traditionally, it requires Song Dynasty scripture paper, white Song Dynasty paper, and Song and Yuan Dynasty gold flower paper. Sometimes, Korean cocoon paper and Japanese painting paper are also used.

Zhou Zhi used the Song Dynasty scripture paper restored with the support of the Yu Tang Foundation. This is an antique-style bamboo paper, which was originally used for restoring precious ancient books published in the Song Dynasty. Because people after the Song Dynasty admired Song paper, this kind of paper also became the paper for calligraphy and painting in later dynasties. Therefore, it can also be used when restoring ancient paintings.

Because the portrait of Lady Shexiang is a large painting, a standard large title page was used, which is five inches wide and four inches at the bottom.

In this way, the distance from the upper axis to the center of the painting of the entire scroll is two feet in height, and the distance from the lower lapel excluding the axis is one foot and five inches in height, which is completely in line with the standards of the previous dynasty.

The scroll Zhouzhi uses the original scroll, which is a bit funny, because Wen Zhenheng hated this very much, and specifically pointed out in the book that "it is not allowed to use red sandalwood, rosewood, French blue and other vulgar products."

In his research, the ancients generally used carved agarwood and sandalwood as the axis, and decorated them with gold, gilt, white jade, crystal, amber, agate, and various gems. These were not only valuable and impressive, but also could cleanse the body and repel insects. "Taking them as a body has the deepest meaning."

If the economy is not strong enough, then only fir wood can be used as the axis. Rhinoceros, elephant and horn can be used to carve in the old style and decorate both ends.

Rosewood, rosewood and indigo were new materials in the Ming Dynasty. In Wen Zhenheng's eyes, they could be described in one word: vulgar.

However, the cultural level of the successive owners of this portrait of Madam Shexiang was far inferior to that of Wen Zhenheng. Not only did he use red sandalwood as the axis, but he also used a whole piece of aged red sandalwood, which showed his importance to Madam Shexiang. It also illustrates another problem, that is, the cultural level in the early Ming Dynasty had not yet fully recovered, the level of mounting work in the palace was still relatively poor, and the research on mounting methods was not deep enough.

Zhouzhi has completely preserved this point. It was vulgar only in the Ming Dynasty. If it were today, would you still dare to call the old red sandalwood, which has been aged for hundreds of years, vulgar because it is steady and solid?

The rest of the painting, such as the decoration and the front of the scroll, is decorated with brocade.

Brocade should be "Xuanhe Brocade", which is the ones selected by Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty from Xuanhe Painting Academy, including Chupu Brocade, Tower Brocade, Purple Camel Flower Brocade, Ying Que Brocade, Suzaku Brocade, Phoenix Brocade, Walking Dragon Brocade and Fanhong Brocade. These are all patterns of old items in the Southern Song Dynasty Imperial Palace.

In addition there are seahorse brocade, tortoise-pattern brocade, millet-pattern brocade, and leather ball brocade, which are also Xuanhe silk, new types of picture mounting that emerged in the Southern Song Dynasty.

Of course, there is a more expensive one, which is embroidery. It directly uses the flower, bird, landscape embroidery preserved from the Song Dynasty as the frontispiece, which has the most "ancient flavor". However, these would be at least national second-level cultural relics today. Therefore, this kind of decoration is a luxury that only belongs to the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Fortunately, the restoration of Song Dynasty brocade is also a project sponsored by Zhouzhi. With the help of computer jacquard software, the Sanmiancan retro Song silk and the computer-controlled retro jacquard machine, the imitation Shu brocade is almost indistinguishable from the original except that the warp and weft are too neat.

For this purpose, Zhou Zhi also invented a trick, which is to cut the strips before repairing, leaving some width, and put them on the edge of the wooden strips to scrape, stretch, fold and rub them. This will not only have an aging effect, but also make the warp and weft of the brocade strips uneven. After doing this, there is no difference from the real Song brocade.

Of course, it is not worth mentioning after the window paper is exposed, but even experts would be embarrassed by the things made by this trick. Zhou Zhi dare not spread it casually, otherwise it would be terrible if counterfeiters could get the antique silk and make fakes.

Mr. Wang was now holding a magnifying glass and carefully observing the edge of the Yingque brocade: "You really didn't use Song Dynasty silk? The National Museum doesn't have any imitations of this pattern. I know you can get carried away sometimes..."

"I really don't need it. This is something I asked Master Yang to make. I brought it here when I returned to Shudu this time."

"Then what's the matter with this meridian texture? Was it woven by Master Yang?"

“This is a secret method.”

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

"What? You can't tell me yet?"

"It's a secret method." Zhou Zhi was still trying to decide: "Of course I want to keep it as a family heirloom..."

Mai Xiaomiao had been listening to the old man's lecture, but now she leaned over to old man Wang's ear and said, "I know how to make pork elbow. There are many people here. I'll tell you the method when we get back."

"Hey!" The old man was so happy that his face was full of smiles: "You are so good, Xiao Miao! I saw you playing with grandpa's small copper stove for a long time yesterday. I think you like it. Grandpa will give it to you when you go back!"

"Hey! You can't give that bowl-shaped stove to anyone!" Zhou Zhi was shocked.

The bowl-shaped stove looks like a chicken heart when viewed from the side, or like a rice bowl used by monks to beg for alms. It is large at the top and small at the bottom, with beautiful proportions.

Mr. Wang had given most of his incense burners to Zhou Zhi, and now he only has a few left, and this bowl-shaped burner is one of them.

The bowl-shaped stove is a very rare type of stove in existence. It was larger on top and smaller on the bottom, a style that was common in the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, it became almost round.

The Xuande furnace is currently just a general term for the fine imitations of the Xuande products from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The real Xuande furnaces made from overseas wind-milled copper tribute materials have long been lost in the long river of history. Even the Forbidden City has only one inscribed with "Made in the Xuande Period of the Ming Dynasty", which is actually an imitation of a bowl-shaped furnace from the late Ming Dynasty.

The one in the old man's hand is from the middle period of the Ming Dynasty. It can be said that among all the furnaces, it is the one closest to the Xuande period. Although it may not be made from the same batch of wind-milled copper, it is at least the leftover scraps from that batch of materials. (End of this chapter)