Inherit For Three Thousand Years

After Zhang Donggao's identification was completed, Yu Zongwen couldn't wait to ask: "Is this "Five Kings Drunk Returning"?"

"Yes, this is indeed the original "Five Kings Drunk Returning" by Ren Renfa in the Yuan Dynasty." Zhang Donggao was also very excited when he was fortunate to identify such a national treasure painting.

Yu Zongwen frowned and asked, "Looking at the postscript by Chen Jiru above, this painting should be made by the Tang Dynasty. I originally thought that Ren Renfa's seal was an appraiser seal, didn't it?"

Although Ren Renfa was a famous artist in the Yuan Dynasty, if this painting were authentic from the Tang Dynasty, the value would definitely be higher.

In this painting, Chen Jiru's postscript is: Tang Wenhuang stone inscribed Zhaoling six horses, his descendants are many horses, Daizong has Jiuhuaqiu, and Dezong has Gods and Wisdom and Ruyi Liu. It is decorated with gold lep, charged with purple jade whip, and has one grade of material. Therefore, the pictures are circulated in the world, singing endlessly. This volume is written in Tang Dynasty. The inscription and the postscript have been cut off. Fortunately, Ma Shanger is safe, and Mr. Wang Linguo in Wuxi has been in the possession of it. His grandson Fuzhou Shoumanhong can protect it forever, playing with the truth, the posture is as raw as alive, the so-called writing The shape of a wedge is not in the water, but the shape of a stubble is from the sky. It is set by Cao Ba, that is, the public Lin generation failed to fight with him. Chen Jiru in the cloud is inscribed in the stubborn house.

If judged according to the title and postscript, this painting should be a work of the Tang Dynasty, no wonder Yu Zongwen has some doubts.

Zhang Donggao explained: “Chen Jiru believes that this painting was made by the people of the Tang Dynasty. This is a preconceived idea. At the same time, just like you, he mistakenly believed that Ren Renfa's seal was the appraising seal."

Next, Zhang Donggao gave a detailed explanation.

From the analysis of the pommel horse and the costumes of the characters in the "Five Kings Drunk Return", the entire pommel horse’s styling, horse decorations, as well as the characters’ clothing, techniques and renderings have completely continued the Tang Dynasty’s style characteristics and the characteristics of the times. Coupled with the prevalence of antiquity in the Ming Dynasty, many works with ancient styles like to raise the upper limit of the vintage.

The second is the inconvenient geographical conditions in ancient times. The chance to see famous landmarks is very rare. Chen Jiru’s "Nigulu" is a collection of essays in the Chen family's art appreciation category. It does not record Ren Renfa. Even Wang Yongji did not know Ren Renfa until he saw it. Li Jiuwei’s "Zi Tao Xuan Zhuang" was only recognized, not to mention the style and appearance of the authentic works handed down, so the mistake of using the Tang Dynasty pen is indeed excusable.

In the epilogue, Chen Jiru also stated clearly: "The posture is as raw as the bones of life, the so-called writing in the shape of a wandering valley, not in the water, and the shape of a stubble".

"Wowwa" is the hometown of Tianma, located in Dunhuang, Gansu. In the Tang Dynasty, there was Lu Lun's poem "Send Shibing Cao Judge to Loufan": "When the wowwa dragon grows and scatters the clouds, the flowers are separated by thousands of miles." And the famous Tang Dynasty The painter Cao Ba and his student Han Gan are both famous for painting famous horses produced by Wuwa and Yuxiu. Chen Jiru's inscriptions also indirectly said "The shape of a river" and "The posture is like a life." The characteristics of the Tang horse are very consistent with the horses described by Cao Ba and Han Gan. This preconceived thought led Chen Jiru to write this epilogue.

Misunderstanding that Ren Renfa and other seals are appraisal and Tibetan seals, which has a lot to do with the level of appraisal.

In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, many well-known painters have detailed poems about Ren Renfa, so Chen Jiru must be familiar with who the "Ren's Ziming" and "Yueshan Taoist" on this volume are.

However, Chen Jiru should not be familiar with Ren Renfa's paintings, and the common sense of seal inscription was also lacking, which led to the misjudgment.

Because the Ren family lacked status in the dynasty, the tribute paintings they made were not appreciated by the Yuan emperor, and their centaur painting style failed to form a radiation circle beyond the family in the Yuan Dynasty. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, only the descendants of the Ren family and a small number of teachers passed on the ancestral style. After that, the trend dried up.

The Ren family's reputation at the end of the Yuan Dynasty was so small that Xia Wenyan, their colleague, seemed to have forgotten their family and did not include them in the "Pictures and Treasures".

This shows that after Ren Renfa's artistic appearance of painting horses entered the Ming Dynasty, people in the world are very unfamiliar with his appearance except for non-identified collections, and they all know about him from the records of ancient books.

The appraisal explanation given by Zhang Donggao was too professional, and Yu Zongwen and others were greatly admired.

With the rise of Zhang Donggao’s talk, he further explained his reason for the appraisal: “The appraisal of this painting, the mounting and paper appraisal are also crucial.”

Zhang Donggao first analyzes and explains the mounting.

The main source of the court collections in the early Qing Dynasty was the collection of famous private collectors such as Liang Qingbiao, Sun Chengze, Geng Zhaozhong, Geng Jiazuo, Suo Etu, Anqi and others into the inner government.

The existing features of this volume have been replaced except for the damaged bag head, and most of the rest have retained the original mounting of the Qing Palace. The label, the front water barrier, the leading paper, and the trailing paper at the back are all materials unique to the Qing Palace, and the front and rear water barriers are kept. The original cloud and crane pattern Aya, which is often used in Liang Qingbiao and Geng Zhaozhong's old collections.

The above-compared scrolls are all mounted in the original Qing palace. The following are the mounted features of "Human Horse" and "Zhang Guolao Seeing the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty". "Five Kings Drunk Returning" also comes with the original palace jade.

Then he went on to analyze the commentary paper.

Year appraisal is the most complicated and non-destructive appraisal method in ancient calligraphy and painting appraisal. It is generally based on experience and vision. Those with experience mainly look at materials, patina, and painting style.

The material may not be absolutely authentic at the time of generation, because it is not ruled out that future generations may also use ancient materials as fakes, but if the materials are wrong, it is definitely wrong.

Not every type of material can be accurately identified, but fortunately, the paper used in "Five Kings Drunken Return" is relatively easy to identify.

Experienced appraisers can judge from the texture, fineness, pulping, and color of the surface of the roll that it is Song dynasty paper. If you look at the curtain pattern, it is easier to judge.

Due to the changes in papermaking technology, the bamboo curtains used for papermaking in the Tang and Song Dynasties have a wider pitch. The ancient mantra used to distinguish Song paper is: "Song paper curtain pattern **** wide", that is, look at the light source. The distance between the curtain pattern tie lines is **** wide, and the curtain pattern is about one finger width in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Song paper was basically still used in the early Yuan Dynasty. For example, many of Zhao Mengfu's paper paintings were painted on Song paper. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Song paper was basically not used. Until the mid-Ming Dynasty, a group of Song Dynasty leftovers were discovered. The representative of Jinsushan's scripture writing is Jinsushan scripture paper, and the use of Song scripture writing paper for calligraphy and painting is once again popular.

"Five Kings Drunk Returning Picture" is photographed against the light box, the curtain pattern is clear, and the distance between the curtain patterns is about 34 mm, which is about the width of two fingers.

After listening to Zhang Donggao's explanation, everyone felt that they were very knowledgeable.

Zheng Xiaowu also asked his doubts: "The colors of the five seals such as Qianlong Imperial Lanzhibao are different from those of the Shiqu Dingjian, Baoji re-edited, and Qianqing Palace's three seals. What is going on?"