Compared with the South Vietnamese collectors I met before, this one is a truly great collector.
Not to mention others, even Chen Wenzhe wanted to take a look at the collection of this great collector who could build his own library.
He had no time to pass by and no means, so he could only use the set of manuscripts in his hand and backtrack to find some useful information.
Being able to copy a complete set of South Vietnam historical records in the hands of this great collector naturally has an extraordinary relationship with him.
Therefore, during the process of copying the book, Chen Wenzhe saw some of the anecdotes the two talked about.
Through backtracking, Chen Wenzhe also learned a lot about this great collector's deeds.
In ordinary people's minds, collectors should be wealthy people with considerable capital.
But Xu Huang, who first entered South Vietnam to work hard in 1992, was a small Taiwanese businessman who failed in business and was financially strapped.
Even with respect to South Vietnamese literature and history, he almost learned it from scratch.
At that time, because he failed in business in Wanwan, in order to make a comeback, he took 2,000 US dollars and went to South Vietnam alone, while his wife and children stayed in Wanwan.
It was difficult for him at first because he didn't understand the language.
He initially chose to inspect Ho Minh City. During this period, he traveled around looking for business opportunities, and finally decided to start the business of introducing neon cosmetics.
At that time, in the cosmetics market in South Vietnam, most of the highest-end cosmetics were from Europe and the United States, while the slightly inferior ones were from neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, and the worst ones were basically produced by small workshops.
He discovered that neon cosmetics had not yet been introduced to South Vietnam, and he immediately felt that his opportunity had come.
In 1994, he successfully set up a cosmetics accessories counter in a supermarket chain and earned NT$500,000 in the first month.
With the development of the store business, he had the opportunity to travel around the narrow land of South Vietnam, and his footprints were all over the corners of Vietnam.
During this process, he must have been very lonely, so he wanted to buy old books to kill time, but unexpectedly he bought a national treasure of South Vietnam.
Seeing that his career is steadily rising, Xu Huang has more energy to do the things he likes, and classical books and cultural relics are his favorites.
Once, at a used bookstall, he simply wanted to find Chinese books, but unexpectedly discovered that there were many thread-bound Chinese ancient books in South Vietnam.
Xu Huang, who studied in Wanbei when he was a student, recalled seeing the sale of thread-bound books on Kuling Street. The price of a thread-bound book in the 1960s could reach about NT$3,000. At that time, the monthly salary of a Wanwan resident
, it’s only over NT$6,000.
Xu Huang had a businessman's keen sense of smell, and he vaguely felt the potential value these ancient books might contain!
When he started buying those books, he didn't do it for any noble purpose. At least, he didn't do it for collection.
Those books are commodities to him, as long as they have a price, they are commodities.
His purpose is also very simple. He just wants to buy Wanwan back, then find a suitable buyer and resell it to make money.
It was precisely because of this idea that he thought it was a profitable thing, so he spent so much money to buy all the ancient Chinese books on the second-hand book street. He bought about 20 books the first time.
The boss also saw that he spent a lot of money, so the two parties agreed that if the boss had something good, they would notify him in time.
Sure enough, the next day, the proprietress of the used bookstall called him.
On the phone, the landlady said that she had a batch of very special goods and wanted Xu Huang to take a look.
Xu didn't think much about it, since there was good stuff, he definitely couldn't miss it.
When he arrived, what he saw was something special. It was wrapped in old newspapers and looked like a memorial.
He couldn't wait to go forward and read it carefully, and saw the era name "Sude". He recalled the history he had read, but he seemed to have no impression.
Moreover, he did not understand the history of South Vietnam at that time, so he casually asked the landlady where these came from.
The landlady replied confidently that it was something from South Vietnam, but he couldn't understand the Chinese on it and didn't know anything else.
She casually asked Xu Huang to sell it for 15,000 US dollars, which shocked Xu Huang because more than 20 years ago, this amount of money was very scary.
When Xu Huang saw this tattered document, he was still thinking: "Is this boss lady crazy? Treating him as a fool is not the way to make money! Isn't he trying to bully outsiders and want to defraud money? ?”
He said casually that he didn't have that much money.
The landlady said: "Why don't you make a price?"
Xu Huang gambled on his luck and said he only had US$3,000 in cash.
I thought that if it was true, I might be able to make some money by reselling it. If it was false, I might as well accept the loss and learn a lesson.
What people didn't expect was that the landlady agreed to him readily...
Xu Huang's first reaction was that he might have been deceived, but he still took a chance and took the things back to Wanwan to find someone to identify them.
When he returned to Taiwan with this batch of things, he thought he could make a lot of money, but in the end, he changed from a businessman to a collector.
I was very nervous when I bought this batch of things.
But what was even more bizarre was that the proprietress hurriedly called him the next day and said she wanted to buy it back for an additional $1,000.
However, Xu Huang, who has a business mind, immediately sensed something fishy and immediately rejected the proprietress's proposal.
At this time, the proprietress was so nervous that she kept raising the price to US$12,000.
Xu Huang finally couldn't help it and told the landlady that the things had been sent away from South Vietnam.
On the other hand, he asked why after just one day, the attitude of the landlady changed from actively promoting to wanting to buy it back no matter the cost.
Seeing that there was no hope of repurchasing, the lady boss told the whole story.
It turns out that there was a president of Hu Minh National University who once spent 1,500 US dollars to purchase these ancient documents.
The landlady remembered that Xu Huang had purchased a large number of Chinese books, so she called him to recommend them.
Unexpectedly, Xu Huang bid twice as much, so he foolishly sold it.
But after selling it, she reluctantly asked the principal.
The principal was shocked when he learned that the "national treasure" had been sold to others. He asked the landlady to buy it back no matter how much money he spent.
At this time, the landlady knew that she had made a loss-making business.
Only then did Xu Huang realize that he had purchased an important ancient document.
In fact, there is a difference between the Nanyue people and the Wanwan people. The Nanyue people can no longer understand Chinese characters, but the Wanwan people can.
Especially for traditional Chinese characters, people in Wanwan are more familiar with them.
Even though Xu Huang didn't know whether the items were genuine or not at first, he could see the contents inside.
Those Chinese characters are not difficult to understand for people who have been educated in classical Chinese.
He could literally tell that what he bought was the memorials and approvals of many South Vietnamese emperors, but he was not sure whether they were genuine before!