Jianbao life

Chapter 89 Ghostwriting
Seeing the triumphant expression of the upstart-like boss, Zhao Qirui shook his head and said with a smile: "If this person doesn't know how to restrain himself after taking this white jade cauldron back, there must be problems sooner or later. Regardless of him, let's take the account Get over it and go back."

The four of them finished paying their bills and were about to go back, but they happened to meet Yu Guangjie and others at the door.

Yu Guangjie raised the words in his hand, and said with a smile: "Uncle Zhao, you must like this painting too, do you want me to lend it to you for a few days?"

Zhao Qirui shook his head and said with a smile: "That's unnecessary, Xiao Yu, you should read more books and learn more when you have time, don't be so stupid that you can't tell the difference between good and bad."

After finishing speaking, he left with Chu Chen and others.

Yu Guangjie was taken aback when he heard the words, what does this mean?Is this work a fake?Unlikely, the inscription, inscription and seal are all correct!
In fact, Zhao Qirui originally said this sentence just to mock Yu Guangjie's ignorance, but when Qian Changxing heard it, he thought of something, and his face turned pale.

Seeing this situation, Yu Guangjie knew it was broken, and angrily shouted at Qian Changxing: "If something is wrong, I want you to look good!"...

In the car, Zhao Qirui couldn't restrain his curiosity, so he asked Chu Chen, "Xiao Chu, what happened to that painting?"

Chu Chen smiled slightly and said, "This painting should be a ghostwritten work by Shen Zhou. If you are interested, brother Zhao, you can look through the catalogs of ancient calligraphy and paintings published by Cultural Relics Publishing House. Among them is Shen Zhou's "Mountain in the Rain" ", the two can be said to be almost the same, and this kind of situation is impossible for Shen Zhou."

"Maybe some people say that the fake one is the real one, but a comparison shows that it is impossible. Let's take the promotion of celebrities as an example to prove the authenticity. In that work, I remember Cao Shizhong, The promotion of Dong Qichang and others, and the collection seals of various celebrities. Based on these alone, there must be no need to say whether it is true or not."

"What's more, judging from the brushwork used in the painting, this painting should be Shen Zhou's work when he was in his 70s. At this time, Shen Zhou's brushwork was quite sophisticated, and his style had already been finalized. At this time, his style can be described as rigid and soft. economy, emphasize
"Position" means "quality", but these aspects are not shown in that work, so the painter is someone else. "

In fact, there are also records of Shen Zhou's ghostwriting in history. Shen Zhou has a gentle temperament, generosity, and never refuses when others ask for a painting.As a result, the bamboo village he built turned into a noisy hotel, where books and paintings were constantly coming and going, and the desks and baskets were full of paper and silk.

Some painters, who were not acquainted with Shen Zhou, would ask for several works in succession with just a silk scarf or other insignificant gifts, and once the agreed time passed, they would come to the door to collect debts, which made Shen Zhou extremely annoyed.

He said helplessly: "I am alive, this debt will never end; if I die, it will be over."

In order to escape such harassment, Shen Zhou went to Gusu, but he didn't dare to go to the downtown area, so he could only live in a remote temple for a short period of peace.But in the end, such a short period of peace could not be obtained, because he hadn't boarded the boat yet, and those good people were already waiting for his arrival in front of the temple gate.

His friend Liu Bangyan once wrote a poem for him: "Send paper, knock on the door, and ask for pictures, there is nowhere to escape the red dust in the monk's building, and if you return to the east to ask for the debt of traveling to the south, you must turn into tens of billions of golden immortals." Wang Jia's Epitaph of Shitian "Ming" said: "From the capital, as far as Fujian, Chu, Sichuan and Guangxi, everyone buys and seeks its traces, thinking that it is a treasure, romantic and literary, and it is also prosperous when it is reflected for a while."

In order to deal with the painters, Shen Zhou adopted two methods: procrastination and ghostwriting.For those who are far away and use letters to urge debts, he does not reply, but just keeps procrastinating.For those who came to the door in person, he asked his students to write for him. Therefore, there are many fake paintings of Shen Zhou handed down from generation to generation.

Chu Chen smiled and said: "This work should be made by Shen Zhou's students, or someone else, and then Shen Zhou promoted and sealed it, but the artist's skill is still good. Of course, this may also be related to Shen Zhou's later polishing, so the painting is still the same. It has a certain value, but let alone 400 million, 40 won’t even exist.”

Zhao Qirui was a little stunned when he heard it. He had heard of ghostwriting before, but he had never encountered it before, so he didn't care about it. But he didn't expect that a famous artist like Shen Zhou would have a ghostwriting, let alone a ghostwriter. other people?

Thinking of this, Zhao Qirui said angrily: "Isn't this a fraud, and these painters are not afraid that their reputation will be damaged by doing this?"

Chu Chen smiled and replied: "In fact, the phenomenon of calligraphers and painters asking people to "ghost writing" has been around for a long time, just like the ancient Wu Daozi was "ghostwriting" by Zhai Yan, Zhang Zang, etc., and Dong Qichang was "ghostwriting" by Shen Shichong, Zhao Zuo, etc. "Tang Bohu and Wen Zhengming also did this kind of thing, and Zhang Daqian and Qi Baishi also have their own ghostwriters in modern times."

"However, generally speaking, it is a helpless choice for them to hire someone to write a ghostwriter. After all, a person's energy is limited, and if he is famous, there are too many people asking for his work, or there are special tasks, so he can only hire a ghostwriter. And Ghostwriters are also recognized by themselves, and the level is not too bad, so ordinary people can understand it."

After Zhao Qirui heard the words, he nodded and said:

"This does have some truth, but as far as we businessmen, we don't agree with it. It's like I ordered a batch of TV sets, and all the parts inside are required to be original, but the only thing he gave me was the original picture tube. , Do you think I will be satisfied? I think that no matter how good the reason for ghostwriting is, it still has a certain degree of fraud."

Chu Chen smiled, and replied: "Well, I think we should talk about it separately. I think it's justifiable for the ancients to write ghostwriting. After all, they had no choice but to hire someone to write ghostwriting. There is a bottom line to stand the moral test, and if the ghostwriting works can stand the test of artistic level, then it is acceptable.”

"However, I think ghostwriting for commercial purposes is really unhealthy. These painters often produce works in batches, and then after they gain a certain reputation, they let their disciples ghostwrite. The commercial paintings produced in batches like this are also unhealthy. There are a lot of ghostwriting works mixed in, which is very hidden, and it also reduces its artistry."

Zhao Qirui shook his head. He still can't accept this kind of ghostwriting, and he can also appraise calligraphy works, but he can only see a rough idea when it comes to paintings, so he is very concerned about this kind of writing. This kind of ghostwriting behavior is a bit disgusting.

"I think it's better for me to be less involved in Chinese works in the future, or I might buy a ghostwritten work one day." Zhao Qirui said with a sigh.

Chu Chen smiled and didn't say much. Although he could understand the ghostwriting of the ancients, he thought in his heart that this actually encouraged the trend of fraud.

Fortunately, the ancient painters were more restrained by their morality and integrity, and they were better in terms of interests.But in modern times, some painters often find someone to write for them out of economic needs in order to fulfill the requirements of others for bulk orders. This has no morals at all, and it is also a kind of harm to the spread and development of calligraphy and painting culture.

After discussing the matter of ghostwriting for a while, Zhao Qirui immediately became happy after thinking about it. I don't know what kind of expression Yu Guangjie will have when he knows that this is a ghostwriting work, especially if Yu Guangjie has an extra 50. I felt very happy in my heart, as I had avenged that afternoon.

"By the way, Xiao Chu, is there anything unusual about the pen holder you took just now? Did you miss it again?" Zhao Qirui suddenly thought of the bamboo carving pen holder that Chu Chen bought, and suddenly became curious.

"I do have a problem with this thing, but I'm not sure if it will be missed."

Chu Chen has studied this pen holder carefully before, and indeed found a problem, but whether it is what he thinks in it will not be known until it is verified.

"Oh, Xiao Chu, tell me quickly, what's going on?"

Chu Chen handed the pen holder to Zhao Qirui, smiled and said, "Brother Zhao, you can tell the depth of it with your fingers."

Zhao Qirui took the pen holder curiously, and then pushed his finger into the pen holder. He didn't expect his finger to reach the bottom after a while. Then he took out his finger and made gestures on the outside of the pen holder, but it was only halfway up the pen holder. .

"Xiao Chu, are you saying that there might be something in it?" Zhao Qirui returned the pen holder to Chu Chen in astonishment.

Chu Chen weighed the pen holder, smiled and said: "I really think so, if there is nothing in it, it doesn't fit the style of the pen holder at all, and if there is nothing in it, don't you think it is a little heavier? ?”

Chu Chen turned the pen container over, and found nothing unusual at the bottom of the pen container, it was wrapped entirely with a wooden base.

"Brother Zhao, do you have a knife here?"

"Yes." Ah Chao opened a box in front, took out a fruit knife from it, and handed it to him.

Chu Chen used a knife to scrape the junction of the base and the pen holder with a knife, but a layer of wax-like substance was scraped out, which should be used for bonding and sealing.Gradually, the knife scraped deeper and deeper, and finally the entire base began to loosen.

Seeing that the scraping was almost done, Chu Chen took off the base with a little force, and when he looked inside, his expression became a little strange.

"What's inside?" Zhao Qirui asked strangely when he saw this.

Chu Chen poured out the contents, but it turned out to be something that looked like a round box.

The height difference of this box is about seven or eight centimeters, which is almost half the height of the pen holder. The box looks dark, and I don’t know what it is made of. It feels a little smooth, but it doesn’t look like jade. Chu Chen thinks it should be A metal product that has been coated with something else.

(End of this chapter)