Chapter 1,373 The Three Great Treasures of the Late Ming Dynasty
To borrow a particularly famous saying to describe the state of playing with jade, that is: "What you play with jade is the jade itself, not the name of the jade."
In the foreseeable future, all yellow nephrite will be called "Hetian Topaz".
This is determined by the laws of the market, so there is no need to worry about Huang Yu's name. It is natural for Huang Yu to step down from the altar.
After all, when all is said and done, the only ones that can guarantee that it is "topaz" in the narrow sense are almost only products made in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and modern topaz seed materials.
And how many topaz are there on these altars now?
As the saying goes, "When the emperor is gone, the yellow jade will be gone too." This is what it means.
But this time, Chen Wenzhe unexpectedly got such a batch of topaz that was truly defined in a narrow sense, which can be said to be extremely lucky.
If the value of this batch of topaz were calculated purely in terms of money, maybe this batch of topaz would still be the most valuable thing in his harvest.
Now, what he is most curious about is how this batch of topaz ended up on a merchant ship and was dragged to the ink pad.
Therefore, Chen Wenzhe used Hui Shuo without hesitation.
However, simply looking at a treasure, such as a piece of jade, yields too little information.
Looking at the raw material of jade, you can get even less information, and it is not as good as a finished jade article.
But one thing is certain, this batch of topaz did come from the palace, and it came from the palace of the Ming Dynasty.
However, the information obtained is a bit scattered, and we need to understand what exactly is going on.
As a result, Chen Wenzhe has more things to do.
For a simple thing, the most he can see is that the thing appears, arrives at the bottom of the sea, and is fished out of the water by him.
Then it seems not easy for him to obtain information about the owners of these treasures.
Of course, if you review more, you will definitely be able to see some useful information.
However, he couldn't understand the countless complicated information combined together for a while.
Even after watching too much, Chen Wenzhe became even more obsessed with the lake.
In this way, Chen Wenzhe lived a very fulfilling life in the following days.
During the day, he researched and repaired the treasures salvaged from the water, and at night he reviewed these treasures.
Because there are too many things to review this time, and the historical period that I can talk about is too long, so I can only keep reviewing them.
Day by day passed, until half a month later, when he was about to reach the sea outside Dahai City, Chen Wenzhe summarized some useful information.
"It's weird this time. It actually involves the three legendary treasures?"
A lot of ancient jades were discovered before, all of which had a clear color, which made Chen Wenzhe suspect that some of the jades and porcelain here were probably obtained by tomb robbers.
Moreover, some of them belonged to the royal family of the Ming Dynasty. If these things were in peacetime, foreign merchant ships would definitely not be able to obtain them, let alone obtain them in large quantities.
But what if it’s a time of war?
So when was the most chaotic period in the Ming Dynasty? It must have been the period at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty.
Who is making trouble during this period? Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng?
Actually no, the biggest rebel group is the Manchu Qing Dynasty!
When they rebelled, they killed several Ming Dynasty kings, and finally several emperors.
There was even an unlucky prince who not only had all his property confiscated, but was also cooked and eaten.
Some of the Ming Dynasty treasures that Chen Wenzhe obtained this time came from these unlucky men.
Therefore, among the treasures he obtained, some belonged to Zhang Xianzhong and some to Li Zicheng, and most of them should have been snatched from Li Zicheng.
After all, Li Zicheng once captured the capital at that time, and naturally obtained more Ming Dynasty royal treasures.
However, this batch of treasures ultimately did not come from Zhang Xianzhong's treasure collection, nor did it come from Li Zicheng's treasure collection, but should be part of the Manchu treasure collection.
Because whether it was Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng, or some princes and grandsons of the Ming Dynasty, they were all killed by the Manchus in the end.
It is important to note here that at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the three most famous treasures in China were the Zhang Xianzhong Sinned Silver Treasure, the Li Zicheng Treasure, and the Manchu Treasure.
The three most famous treasures in the late Ming Dynasty are not legends, because some of them have now been confirmed.
In particular, Zhang Xianzhong's treasure trove in Chenyin, Jiangkou, has been cleared and excavated several times, and almost all of it should have been dug out.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the peasants revolted, the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the country, and various forces rose up one after another, which can be described as a turbulent situation.
Of course, there are more natural disasters and man-made disasters, and wars make the people miserable.
Because various forces are competing for each other one after another, allusions have appeared one after another, which can also be said to be legends.
For example, there were three most famous legends about treasures in the late Ming Dynasty.
The first is Zhang Xianzhong's Chen Yin. However, although some of the treasures obtained by Chen Wenzhe came from Zhang Xianzhong's treasure collection, they are definitely not Chen Yin's treasures.
Zhang Xianzhong can be said to be very famous in history, and he was obviously the most controversial figure in the late Ming Dynasty.
Because it is said that he was very cruel, and it was said that he was bloodthirsty and killed people like crazy.
There are many legends and anecdotes about Zhang Xianzhong in history, such as the Seven Kills Monument.
Legend has it that Zhang Xianzhong set up a stele to express his will. On the stele, he wrote: "All things are born with humans, and humans have nothing with heaven. Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill."
There is another one, which is the mystery about Zhang Xianzhong’s Chen Yin.
There was a folk song in Sichuan: "A stone cow versus a stone drum costs ten thousand and five thousand dollars. If someone sees through it, he will buy up all the Sichuan capital."
This ballad is of course describing the amount of gold and silver treasures hidden by Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi Kingdom when it was destroyed.
Based on this point, many people believe that just a piece of Jiangkou heavy silver is definitely not enough to represent Zhang Xianzhong's treasure.
Now Chen Wenzhe has indirectly confirmed this, but this does not mean that he can obtain other Zhang Xianzhong's treasures.
Because he is not the only smart person, and he is not the only lucky person.
In the past three or four hundred years, why hasn't there been a lucky smart person?
Therefore, some of Zhang Xianzhong's treasures inevitably flowed into the market, and eventually part of them fell into the hands of Chen Wenzhe.
Through this part of the treasure chest, Chen Wenzhe may still be able to find some omissions.
It's just maybe, after all, it's been so long ago and no one knows that the place where the treasure was originally hidden must have never been found.
However, Zhang Xianzhong swept through several provinces and scratched the ground, and the treasure he obtained must not be as small as Jiangkou Chen Yin.
"History of the Ming Dynasty" says that the wealth he sunk into Jinjiang is "billions of gold treasures." How much treasure is this?
The "Records of Disasters in Sichuan" records that his wealth sank in the Minjiang River: "It was hundreds of millions, and it was enough to carry hundreds of ships."
When Zhang Xianzhong retreated, he took the gold, silver and jewelry with him and shipped them southward from Sichuan.
There are hundreds of treasure ships. How many treasures have been unearthed in the riverbed we have excavated now?