In 1950, the tomb of Mu Ying, the founding hero of the Ming Dynasty, was stolen and many artifacts were lost among the people.
This Yuan blue and white plum vase of Xiao He chasing Han Xin under the moon is one of the stolen cultural relics.
At that time, someone was selling this plum vase near Xinjiekou, Jinling City.
Fortunately, Chen Xinmin, who works for Jinling Cultural Relics Company, saw it and recognized it as a rare treasure at a glance.
Without any hesitation, he directly bought it with 5 gold bars.
Two years later, he donated the bottle to the country free of charge and it is now hidden in the Jinling Museum.
Such a treasure, you can see its beauty just by looking at the picture.
Through the pictures, Chen Wenzhe can see that the entire plum vase is exquisitely made, with clear patterns and no flaws.
Because there are only three Yuan blue and white plum vases of the same style in the world so far, it is also known as "one of the three unique Chinese porcelains".
When talking about this plum vase, we cannot fail to mention Mu Ying from the Ming Dynasty.
Muying's parents died when she was young, and she begged on the streets to make a living.
When he was 8 years old, Zhu Yuanzhang met this little beggar accidentally.
Seeing Mu Ying's resolute character, amazing bones, and piercing eyes, he accepted him as his adopted son.
After that, Mu Ying followed Zhu Yuanzhang in his southern and northern campaigns, and gradually grew into a general under Zhu Yuanzhang.
Mu Ying was the founding hero of the Ming Dynasty. After pacifying Yunnan, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered him to guard the border.
In order to express his gratitude to Mu Ying, Zhu Yuanzhang specially gave him a Yuan blue and white plum vase.
What is painted on the plum vase is "The picture of Xiao He chasing Han Xin under the moon", which means that Mu Ying is a rare and good general like Han Xin.
After Mu Ying's death, Zhu Yuanzhang specially ordered his body to be transported back to Jinling and buried on Guanyin Mountain in the suburbs. After that, Guanyin Mountain was renamed Jiangjun Mountain.
Since such a famous tomb has been stolen, it is definitely not something ordinary people can do.
This involves another celebrity, the "Tomb Robber" Kang Yonghai.
After learning that Mu Ying's tomb had been excavated, the officials were outraged. They immediately organized a capable police force to investigate the case, hoping to bring the tomb robbers to justice and return the stolen cultural relics to Zhao intact.
After conducting a careful investigation, the police finally identified the tomb robber. He was Kang Yonghai, known as the "number one tomb robber."
Kang Yonghai is a native of Jinling, and his grandfather is the famous Jinling Captain.
Before liberation, he and his father had been robbing tombs for a living.
However, after liberation, the people's government severely cracked down on tomb robbing, and Kang Yonghai had to "wash his hands in a golden basin" for a period of time under pressure.
But Kang Yonghai had no other means of making a living except robbing tombs, and his life gradually became difficult.
Since Kang Yonghai had been robbing tombs for a living before, he had become accustomed to living a life of getting something for nothing and spending money like water.
Therefore, once he lost his financial source, he became anxious.
In the spring of 1950, Kang Yonghai took advantage of the fact that the people of Jinling were busy with economic construction and neglected to manage the local ancient tombs, and secretly excavated Muying's tomb.
After successfully robbing the tomb, Kang Yonghai took the Yuan blue and white plum vase to the morning market for sale.
It was also a coincidence that I happened to meet Mr. Chen Xinmin, the cultural relic collector mentioned above.
Mr. Chen could tell at a glance that the plum vase the man was holding was unusual.
In the end, he purchased this blue and white plum vase at the price of 5 gold bars.
After receiving the plum vase, the more Chen Xinmin studied it, the more he felt that this blue and white plum vase was unusual.
Based on his research on this type of porcelain, he believed that this Yuan blue and white plum vase was unearthed not long ago.
And it is likely to come from the Ming Dynasty imperial tombs near Jinling, and the only Ming emperor tomb in Jinling is Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Xiaoling Tomb.
Thinking of this, Chen Xinmin immediately found the official with the plum bottle in his hand, and finally captured the tomb robber.
After the case of Kangyong pirates digging up Muying's tomb was solved, all the cultural relics unearthed were confiscated and returned to the public.
Mr. Chen Xinmin also handed over the Yuan blue and white plum vase that he exchanged 5 gold bars for to the Jinling Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau.
So what is so precious about this Yuan blue and white plum vase of Xiao He chasing Han Xin under the moon?
First of all, this plum vase comes from the jdz official kiln of the Yuan Dynasty;
The shape of the plum vase is very classic, with a height of 44.1 cm, a diameter of 5.5 cm, an abdominal diameter of 28.4 cm, and a base diameter of 13 cm.
Plum vase of this size is rare in itself.
What's more, the plum vase is also painted with a variety of complicated patterns.
In particular, there is a famous picture "Xiao He chasing Han Xin under the moon" painted on the belly of the bottle.
In the picture, Xiao He rides a horse and gallops forward. Xiao He on the horse looks anxious.
On the other side of the bottle's belly is Han Xin, standing by the river hesitating.
In the distance, the old boatman stood with an oar, quietly waiting for Han Xin to board the boat.
The pictures on the plum vase are dense and dense, vividly expressing Xiao He's anxiety and Han Xin's hesitation.
Many people know that Yuan blue and white porcelain is very rare in the world, but few people know why it is so precious.
In fact, the blue and white porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty has always been the royal porcelain, and the production process of this kind of porcelain is very strict.
The entire production process has extremely strict requirements on the selection of materials and processes such as porcelain clay, glaze, and painting.
Craftsmen must be very careful when firing blue and white porcelain.
After all the porcelain is fired, officials from the Imperial Household Office will screen it.
Only the top-grade blue and white porcelain without any flaws will be selected and sent to the palace.
Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as "one in a thousand".
The remaining blue and white porcelain must be smashed to prevent it from flowing into the public.
It is precisely because of the craftsmanship, production process and selection method of Yuan blue and white porcelain that Yuan blue and white porcelain has been sparse in history, which has resulted in today's situation where Yuan blue and white porcelain is "hard to find".
These exquisite Yuan blue and white Xiao He Yue Chai Han Xin plum vase must have been made in Jingde.
In terms of materials, the selected materials are Sumama Liqing imported from Xicheng.
The exact origin of these suma liqing has not yet been determined.
However, Chen Wenzhe can confirm that this is a cobalt blue material with low manganese and high iron.
The content is 10%~19.05%, so the blue and white color is very rich.
The biggest characteristic of this kind of green material firing is that dark brown crystal spots will appear where the glaze gathers.
In terms of painting techniques, this vase adopts the dot painting technique. All patterns and patterns are completed in one stroke, which is smooth and powerful. This is very different from the traditional blue and white dyeing technique.
The blue and white plum vase of Xiao He Chasing Han Xin under the Moon from the Yuan Dynasty has a small mouth, large shoulders, oblique belly and flat bottom. It has a beautiful shape, round lines, graceful and luxurious, giving people a dignified aesthetic feeling.
The white glaze is clean and translucent, while the green material is rich and elegant. The two set off each other.
Coupled with the vigorous brushwork of rubbing and painting porcelain, the painting has a wonderful painting quality.
The blue and white plum vase of Xiao He chasing Han Xin under the moon from the Yuan Dynasty depicts 6 layers of dense and dense blue and white patterns from top to bottom.
The decorative patterns of passion flower, miscellaneous treasure covered lotus, deformed lotus petal pattern, hanging bead pattern, etc. all serve the main decoration of "Xiao He chasing Han Xin under the moon" very well.
As a result, the entire object is integrated and the theme is distinct and prominent.