"Xijiapan"'s return journey is well documented and spread in an orderly manner, which is really rare.
Therefore, Chen Wenzhe did not think that the thing in front of him was real.
Although I don’t think it’s really the original, this one is definitely an old imitation.
Chen Wenzhe looked at the inscription inside. If you want to imitate this thing well, you must understand it.
If you don't understand the bells and dings engraved on it, you may make mistakes if you are a little careless.
Therefore, if you have enough knowledge to identify bronze vessels, the easiest way is to look at the inscriptions inside them.
Problems may arise in writing, glyphs, meanings, word combinations, line breaks, etc.
Of course, the most important thing is to look at the means of imitation.
Bronze wares have existed for thousands of years, and they have been known to be treasures since at least the Song Dynasty, so there have been imitators since then.
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Since then, various imitation methods have emerged.
But no matter how good the method is, there are always ups and downs.
Chen Wenzhe looked very carefully because he didn't find any problems.
This is his eyesight. If there is an obvious mistake, he will definitely be able to see it at a glance.
The inscriptions on "Xijiapan" describe the official system, wars, rewards, taxes, slaves, trade management and many other details of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
If you are not an expert, you will definitely make mistakes.
But this one doesn't look like a replica.
At this time, Chen Wenzhe remembered a rumor about "Xi Jia Pan", mainly due to the controversy over its authenticity.
The Xijia plate was made in the Western Zhou Dynasty and unearthed in the Song Dynasty. It was collected by the calligrapher Xian Yushu in the Yuan Dynasty.
This plate was lost after it was collected by Chen Jieqi, a collector in the Republic of China, and only the rubbings survive.
Now in the Neon Calligraphy Museum, there is a bronze plate called "Xijia Plate".
However, after research, it was found that this plate is different from the Xijia plate preserved by Mr. Chen Jieqi. The existing bronze plate in the Neon Calligraphy Museum is a forgery.
The genuine rubbings of "Xi Jiapan" from the late Western Zhou Dynasty can be seen with the seals of Chen Jieqi and Wu Dacheng.
This proves that the rubbing comes from the original "Xijiapan" and is therefore authentic.
This rubbing was compared with the "Xijia plate" collected by the Neon Calligraphy Museum, proving that the plate was a forgery.
There is also a bronze plate in the Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, which is strikingly similar in size, inscription, and decoration to the legendary "Xijia Plate" that was lost!
When Du Naisong, an expert in the appraisal of ancient bells and tripods in my country, and Professor Wang Rencong, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, appraised the plate, they discovered that this "Xi Jia Plate" was also a forgery.
The inscription on the plate is forged, using a method of etching.
When they made this inscription, they used nitric acid or ferric chloride.
Such strong acid will corrode the characters one by one.
When strong nitric acid comes into contact with metal objects, these metal objects will corrode and lines will appear in the writing.
When casting fake characters, if you use a chisel to carve it, it will easily show the chisel marks.
Using the corrosion method, this problem can be removed.
But there will also be many flaws, such as the strokes are too fat, or the strokes cannot come out.
Although this artifact from the Chinese University of Hong Kong is a real copper plate, it is not the "Xi Jia Pan" handed down from the Western Zhou Dynasty."
The best evidence is the flaw in the inscription on the fake "Xi Jia Plate" stored in the Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The inscription on this plate was forged based on the real inscription on the Xijia plate in the "Three Generations of Jijin Wencun".
The fake inscription used the corrosion method, and many flaws appeared in the fake inscription.
For example: the word "A" in the fourth line, and the word "Zhu" in the tenth line.
These are all due to excessive corrosion, and the strokes have not come out, and they are no longer words.
Some words show missing strokes, such as "无ound" in the thirteenth line.
In some cases, strong acid is injected unevenly when etching the strokes of characters, resulting in uneven thickness of strokes, such as the word "NO" in the tenth line, etc.
There were many famous collectors and connoisseurs in ancient my country, many of whom liked to collect ancient bronzes.
Historical records indicate that in the Yuan Dynasty, Yao Sui served as a scholar in the Imperial Academy and had no other hobbies in his later years. He only acquired ancient bronzes from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and he was so happy that he forgot to sleep.
He usually goes in and out of his residence, follows him around, plays with it all the time, and regards bronze as a treasure. He puts it in and takes it out, and he must do it himself, never letting others do it for him, for fear of tarnishing it.
Xian Yushu, who was promoted to the official position of the Third Bureau of History, spent his free time with Bronze in addition to official court duties.
Once, he found a copper plate at the house of his colleague Li Shun's father, whose legs had been broken off and used as a cake plate.
Xian Yushu carefully inspected it and concluded that it was an ancient artifact, so he collected the plate.
This plate has a long inscription and is a famous handed down treasure from the Western Zhou Dynasty called "Xi Jia Pan".
This vessel still existed until the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China. It was collected by collector Chen Jieqi during the Republic of China.
Since then, its whereabouts are unknown, but counterfeits appear from time to time.
However, since there are real rubbings of the original "Xi Jia Pan" in existence, it is extremely difficult for forgers to succeed.
Just because it is difficult to imitate does not mean that no one can imitate the authentic work.
After all, from the time it appeared in the Yuan Dynasty until it was lost in the Republic of China, only the rubbings of this treasure have survived.
In the following decades, people did not know its true whereabouts, and due to its loss, the Xijia Pan became a cultural relic that was constantly being forged.
For example, the piece once collected by the Neon Calligraphy Museum said it was authentic, but after careful study, they found it was not.
There is also a piece from the Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. This piece is very similar to the Xi Jia Pan, but it has also been identified as a fake.
Now, many people in the industry can clearly point out how to fake it.
Since all the fakes circulating in the world are fakes, then where is the real Xi Jiapan?
Is the copy taken by Mr. Du, a Chinese living in the United States, authentic?
It was just by chance that he took the photo. He did not know that there was such a collection beforehand, so it was actually a bit risky for Mr. Du to take the photo.
Firstly, Xi Jiapan has never been seen and passed away. Secondly, there were many fakes of Xi Jiapan on the market at that time. Thirdly, if it were genuine, the price would definitely be more than 300 US dollars.
But based on his years of vision, he believed that it was the real thing.
Such a price is probably due to the fact that the organizer did not know about it either.
Later, Mr. Du returned to China with the Xijia Pan he had photographed, with the purpose of finding experts to identify its authenticity.
Unexpectedly, the experts he called said it was a fake. Mr. Du was not reconciled and has been looking for experts to identify it since then.
Since I live in Chou Country, it is not convenient to travel there. In addition, due to the research time, it has been delayed for a long time.
In 2014, Yuan Zhenghong, an intangible cultural heritage expert from Sy City, Beihu Province, and several other experts simultaneously gave the results that this piece was indeed authentic.
It is completely integrated with the comparison between the rubbings, which is a very important identification method.
In the past, those Xijia plates whose authenticity was uncertain were also the result of comparison with the rubbings.
The only regret is that Xi Jia Pan has lost its legs, but overall, it is still a national treasure.
In the eyes of many scholars, the Xi Jia Pan with its Foot Feather Wings is superior to Mao Gong's other tripods.
Its return is of great significance to the study of the history of the Western Zhou Dynasty, as well as the culture, system, etc. at that time.