Han Peacock sneered: "Didn't I just say that most countries in the world have listed corals as national first-level protected animals, so who would dare to blatantly collect corals? Especially the government and the military. If they do this, then
Don’t you want to wait to step down?”
"Don't you like black coral very much? How come you really found it and don't care about it anymore?" Gu Lie asked when he saw Han Peacock kept playing with the red coral and ignored the black coral.
Han Peacock glanced at him and said: "Although black coral is good, the quantity is still too small. Besides, except for the black horn coral, which is more beautiful, other black corals are not popular."
"Not popular? What's going on?" Chen Qing said from the side.
"As you all know, red corals come in deep red, peach, pink, pink and white. The darker the color, the more expensive it is. The redder the red coral, the higher the density. The bigger the object, the better. In fact, the black coral that occasionally appears in the deep sea is actually
In the gem industry, it is classified into red coral and is called black red coral.
Black coral is rarer and more precious than red coral, but it is not much sought after because it is too rare and not very beautiful. Currently, due to over-exploitation, the growth rate of coral cannot keep up with the rate of mining, and the output is scarce.
As a result, the price of good red corals has been rising in the market.
Whole red coral trees were occasionally seen a few years ago, but now they are hard to find. They have good color and fine carvings. Ornaments from some years are only seen at art auctions. Some high-quality red coral rings are also available.
Although the particles are not big, they are still valuable.”
"So, you just choose the dishes based on value? Which one is more valuable, which kind of coral is more expensive, which one do you like?" Gu Lie laughed.
Han Kongque ignored Gu Lie's ridicule at all, but said seriously: "It shouldn't be said like this. In the collection world, rare things are more popular, but those with large quantities and high value are even more annoying.
, like these black corals, none of them can be destroyed, they are all used for collection, but these red corals are different, they are more plastic."
"They say they are so artistic, but aren't they all the same? You are just a money addict!" Gu Lie said with a smile.
"Are you not a money fan? If you are not a money fan, just give these corals to me for free." Han Peacock rolled his eyes and said.
"It's a nice idea, but with so many corals, when can you sell them all?" Yuan Peng said.
Han Kongque said: "Sell it slowly! Now as long as it is good, you don't have to worry about selling it."
"After all, it's not as good as in ancient times. In ancient times, these kinds of things kept their value. As long as they appeared, some rich people would buy them and hide them. If we collect these kinds of things now, they might depreciate in value," Song Min said.
Han Kongque said confidently: "Popular things will naturally depreciate when they are in large quantities, so jewelry appears. Because in principle, every piece of jewelry is unique, so I plan to make one according to the original regulations.
The entire set of coral jewelry will definitely cause a sensation when it is put on display."
"What regulations?" Song Min asked curiously.
Han Kongque said: "I have to think carefully. If it is made according to the regulations of the Tang Dynasty, it seems a bit too monotonous. If it is made according to the regulations of the Qing Dynasty, it will be too troublesome."
"What's the difference?" Gu Lie asked.
Song Min said: "What difference can there be? There were not many coral products in the Tang Dynasty, but there were all kinds of coral products in Dasheng in the Qing Dynasty, so it was very troublesome to make them."
"Were there really coral products in the Tang Dynasty? Where did they find coral at that time?" Gu Lie asked.
Song Min rolled her eyes at him and said, "I found the corals on the coast. The corals were pushed up from the bottom of the sea by the waves."
Han Kongque said: "The earliest corals were like this. These corals were delivered to the door from the seabed by themselves. But it was different later. In the early days, some people went into the water to collect corals, just like the frog girl. They dived to collect them, but that was more dangerous, and collecting them
The ones that came up were all diving corals, so later on, we started cultivating them.”
"Diving? Breeding? Are there any people who breed corals in modern times?" Not to mention Gu Lie, Chen Qing and Yuan Peng were all curious. This was the first time they had heard of someone cultivating corals.
"Even if they can dive after cultivating corals, how deep can they dive without modern machines? Even if they cultivate them, can they collect them? I mean deep-water corals." Song Min asked.
"Yes, the key issue is diving." This time, Gu Lie also began to doubt Han Kongque's character. He was lying. Don't think that they are uneducated and can be fooled casually.
Han Peacock smiled bitterly and said: "The ancients were much smarter than you think. According to historical records, our country already had diving fishing technology as early as 2,700 years ago in the Zhou Dynasty (from the 10th century BC to the 2nd century BC).
, which is the earliest record of diving and diving technology in human history.
At that time, some simple underwater work, such as fishing, catching shrimps and searching for lost property, were all done by naked people entering the water. The results of underwater work depended entirely on the physical strength and courage of the divers.
Although they can hold their breath and dive into a few meters of water for 2-3 minutes, there is obviously not much they can do. This method of holding their breath has continued for a long time in the history of our country.
It was basically maintained until the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD). It was not until the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) that diving technology was greatly improved and simple diving tools appeared.
In "Tiangong Kaiwu" published in 1637 AD, it was described that during diving, a long rope was tied around the diver's waist, and a ring-shaped empty tube made of tin was used to cover the nose, and the diver breathed through this tube.
When he was holding his breath underwater, he pulled the rope, and his friends on the surface immediately lifted him out of the water and covered him with a hot blanket or the like to prevent frostbite. From these records, we can see that my country’s early diving and Diving technology not only has a long history, but also has many creations.
Speaking of coral cultivation, don’t think that deep-sea coral cultivation is impossible. Ancient people cultivated corals by sinking large iron nets to the bottom of the sea, allowing the corals to grow on the nets, and at a certain time, the nets were pulled to harvest them.
This is just an early breeding technology. I don’t know if there is still such a way to raise corals in modern times. However, many poets often use it as an allusion. According to the method of people in the Tang Dynasty sinking iron nets to the seabed to collect corals, later "iron net corals" were
It became synonymous with collecting rare items.”
The iron net coral is a metaphor for collecting treasures, which comes from the poem "Bicheng" by Li Shangyin of the Tang Dynasty: "The moon is watching the rabbit's first soul, and the iron net coral has no branches."
These Korean peacocks are not made up randomly. The Tang Dynasty was a prosperous period in the history of our country. Xue Feng, a talented scholar in the Tang Dynasty, once wrote a poem specifically: "Guests compete to chant green poems, and beauties are drunk and give coral hairpins."
This poem praises the graceful look of ladies in the Tang Dynasty wearing coral hairpins, which shows the popularity of coral ornaments in the Tang Dynasty.
"The ancient people were really smart, but corals grow so slowly. It doesn't seem feasible to use this method to cultivate corals. First, it takes too long. Second, the iron mesh will corrode, so this should be a legend.
Rather than the real thing." Song Min analyzed it, and the analysis was very clear and logical.
"So, in ancient times, this kind of thing was secretly taught. Since there are legends, someone must have raised it like this. Besides, how do you know that there was no anti-corrosion technology in ancient times? Maybe others have ways to prevent iron mesh from rusting. Besides, if
Anyone can build a big net and put it in the sea to cultivate corals, but why would corals be so expensive?" Han Peacock said with a smile.
"You are being unreasonable." Gu Lie said.
Song Min also smiled: "Maybe that's true."
"If you don't talk about this, just talk about how you plan to deal with these corals now." Chen Qing stopped their argument and brought the topic to the numerous red corals.
"Just make all kinds of jewelry from the Qing Dynasty, mainly inlays, and then make jewelry. There are many coral jewelry in the Qing Dynasty, so it would be good to make a set for collection." Han Kongque said.
In addition to tourmaline, the royal family of the Qing Dynasty actually used more coral products. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty wore a court belt around the waist of his dragon robe, and when wearing auspicious clothes, he wore a Jifu belt. The Jifu belt was a bright yellow ribbon with pendant jewelry.
, there is a gold garden plate with dragon pattern on the surface, which can be inlaid with various kinds of jewelry.
The golden circular plate with dragon pattern on the Jiaqing Emperor's Jifu belt is inlaid with red coral. The gold inlaid red coral circular belt (with the gold plate as the base and the surface decorated with red coral) is carved with the Kui dragon pattern as the edge and the center is engraved.
There are patterns of bats, flowing clouds and eight treasures, which imply wealth, longevity and good luck.
This frieze is exquisitely carved and colorful, making it a rare clothing accessory.
When the empress dowager wears court clothes on very solemn occasions, she must wear three strings of court beads, the left and right of which are coral.
For the imperial concubine, the crown prince, the imperial concubine and the imperial concubine, except for the fact that the central string is made of amber, which is different from the empress dowager's dongzhu, the other two strings are also made of coral.
The string of beads worn in the middle by concubines, Lady Baylor, Lady Fuguo, etc. must be made of coral.
Other accessories in the royal family, such as steps, buttons, rings, bracelets, picking cards, fasting cards, earrings, wishful thinking and beaded bracelets, etc., are either made of coral or decorated with coral.
Among them, the coral bracelet is made by precisely connecting sections of arc-shaped coral, then filling them with colored wax, grinding and polishing them.
Coral Ruyi needs to be carved from coral raw materials with larger branches.
In the Qing Palace of our country, in November of the 15th year of Daoguang's reign, Yiji and others were ordered to inspect the inventory of the Old Summer Palace and found that there were fourteen handles of coral Ruyi.
In addition, corals are often made into bonsais. The homes of ancient emperors and wealthy people often collected coral trees as furnishings and decorations, and regarded them as wealth.
"Taiping Yulan" quoted Ban Gu's "Han Wu Emperor's Affairs" as saying: "Emperor Wu built the vestibule of the shrine and planted jade trees with velvet coral branches." The article records that Emperor Wu enshrined bonsais of coral and jade trees in the shrine. (To be continued.