To appreciate Xuanzong, you must understand Emperor Xuanzong. If you don’t understand Xuanzong of Ming Dynasty, it will be difficult to appraise Xuanzong.
Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji was a famous artist emperor in Chinese history.
According to Qian Qianyi's "Biography of Poetry Collection of Dynasties": "In his free time, Xuanzong played with calligraphy and ink, dyed and sketched, and then competed with Xuanhe for victory."
This Xuanhe refers to the sixth reign of Song Huizong Zhao Ji, which means that in terms of artistic achievements, Ming Xuanzong can already be compared with Song Huizong.
But unlike Song Huizong who completely went astray, Emperor Xuande was much more capable.
He was smart since he was a child, and was deeply loved by his grandfather Zhu Di, Ming Chengzu. In the ninth year of Yongle, he was canonized as the emperor's grandson. The period when he and his father were in power were collectively known as the "Reign of Renxuan".
Xuanzong calligraphy of the Ming Dynasty was produced by the Shen brothers of Huating, who can be regarded as the ancestors of Youtaige style. They are also known as Wang Xizhi of the Ming Dynasty. They are somewhat authentic works of the great calligrapher Shen Du and can be said to be outstanding.
In terms of painting, he can be said to be a genius. He can be exquisite with random touches. Landscapes, figures, animals, flowers, birds, grass and insects are all excellent.
There are many handed down works including "The Picture of the Longevity Star", "The Picture of the Playing Monkey", "The Picture of Golden Harvest", "The Picture of a Smile", "The Picture of the Slave Under the Flower", "The Picture of Wealth and Honor in the Pot", "The Picture of Cold Fragrance and Sparse Shadows", " "Panasonic Reading Picture" and so on, which are collected by major museums.
Emperor Xuande himself was an artist emperor, and it coincided with the rise of the Ming Dynasty's national power. How could he do it if he didn't do something?
With the Xuande blue and white porcelain, he felt that it was almost meaningless. After all, he was standing on the shoulders of his grandfather and father, so he had to have some unique achievements!
So the famous Xuande stove was born.
The materials used in the Xuande furnace are extremely precious, and it can be said that no matter the cost, legend has it that wind-milled copper is used as the main material, and thirty-three precious metal minerals such as red gold and silver are added. After twelve times of refining, the final product is 5,000 Xuande furnaces.
Of course, some say there are more than 3,000 statues, but there is still a lot of controversy over how many were made.
The specific year it was cast is also debatable.
However, there should be no controversy as Xuanlu ranks among the top three in the difficulty ranking of antique identification.
Its identification difficulty is even more difficult than that of Yuan blue and white.
Without it, no one knows whether there is a genuine Xuande furnace or not.
Because so far, Xuande Furnace does not have a 100% convincing reference product for comparison.
To put it bluntly, so far, there is no real statement in existence.
If a museum or major collector has a standard instrument, and everyone goes over and takes a look, oh, it turns out this is a real xuan furnace, and then you can naturally see something wrong when you look at the fake one.
But without a standard device, this matter would be difficult to handle.
Nowadays, people can only find evidence for the identification of Xuande furnaces from various ancient books and documents.
Shen Yu personally feels that there is still no convincing authentic Xuande furnace, which actually has something to do with its own material.
Because the Xuan stove is made of copper or brass!
Some people will say that copper is not easy to damage and cannot be broken even if it is smashed. How can there be no hand-made products?
Since ancient porcelain, ancient paintings, and ancient furniture have all been preserved, why is there no authentic copper stove? This is unreasonable!
The problem is that Xuanlu suffered a loss because of its copper quality.
Copper is indeed much stronger than porcelain and wood, and it can be preserved for hundreds or thousands of years just like playing with it.
But in fact, Xuande furnaces are not necessarily easier to preserve than porcelain, calligraphy and painting, furniture, etc., because copper was money in ancient times.
Antiques in prosperous times, gold in troubled times.
For example, in the late Ming Dynasty or the late Qing Dynasty, when people were so poor and crazy, it didn’t matter whether you declared the furnace or not?
Rare or not?
Precious or not?
I've financed it all for you.
This makes it extremely difficult to preserve the Xuan furnace. It is worse than porcelain. Porcelain cannot be exchanged for money, but it can still be used as a pickle jar.
Shen Yu shook his head: "This copper stove is really hard to distinguish between genuine and fake!"
Shen Yu really doesn’t know whether the Xuanlu in his hand is real or fake.
Just kidding, there are many collections of objects that no one can identify. How could he, an unknown person, identify them?
Xuan furnaces have been imitated since the Ming Dynasty. No one knows exactly how many were made.
There is a legend that the original team of people who made Xuande furnaces from the Ministry of Industry in the late Xuanzong period also rolled up their sleeves and started to imitate them, making it difficult to tell the authenticity of the current Xuande furnaces.
This can basically be concluded to be true.
But the popular saying that Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty was the minister of the Ministry of Industry or that Wu Bangzuo, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, built the Xuan furnace is a bit unable to withstand scrutiny.
Because the Minister of Industry during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty was called Wuzhong, and his given name was Sizheng, not Bangzuo.
Wuzhong, courtesy name Sizheng, moved to Youdu as censor due to his accumulated achievements. In the fifth year of Yongle, he was changed to Minister of the Ministry of Industry. He was later dismissed from office. Renzong ascended the throne and came out. He resumed his official position and concurrently served as a minister, and added Prince Shaobao. /p>
This man was a veteran of the Four Dynasties in the Ming Dynasty. From the fifth year of Yongle's reign, he became the Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
There is no such person as Wu Bangzuo, it is pure fiction.
Until the Republic of China, there were many imitations of Xuande furnaces. It can be said that there are countless folk copper furnaces called Xuande furnaces.
Because no real Xuan furnace has been born, the current experience in identifying Xuan furnace often cannot withstand scrutiny. There are no real objects. How do you say how to identify it? No one believes it!
Shen Yu could only find the identification method of Xuanlu from various materials.
It is said that the identification of a Xuan furnace must first be based on the feet. If the color of the feet of the copper furnace is very different from that of the furnace body, it must be a fake. If the color and luster are the same, it is a Xuan furnace.
Then look at the inscription. The engraving should be the same color as the furnace body, and the handwriting should be neat and without signs of wear or polishing. Only in this way can it be authentic.
The third point is to look at the casters. Casters are the casting process. Only a copper furnace that looks very exquisite can be a Xuan furnace. A copper furnace that looks ugly at first glance will definitely not be a Xuan furnace.
The fourth point is to look at the condition. A genuine Xuande furnace must have been severely worn after more than 600 years. It cannot be a genuine Xuande stove if it is in particularly good condition, and a genuine Xuande furnace will not rust.
Finally, let’s look at the copper quality. Since there are only so many pieces of wind-milled copper, all of them were used up during the Xuande period. The counterfeit ones can only be replaced by other high-quality brass, which is still somewhat different from wind-milled copper.
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These identification methods are worthy of recognition.
There are also unreliable ones.
For example, people nowadays are saying that the Xuan furnace is made of wind-milled copper.
Wind-milled copper is all kinds of good, and it is more expensive than gold, but the problem is, no one knows what kind of copper it is!
No one can tell what kind of copper wind-milled copper is, or even whether it is copper.
Current mainstream analysis says that wind-milled copper should be an alloy.
Shen Yu thinks so too.
Because this is recorded in ancient books.
Song Yingxing, a famous scientist of the Ming Dynasty, wrote in the ninth chapter of Smelting and Casting in the volume of "Tiangong Kaiwu" written by him: "Due to a fire in a certain warehouse, gold and silver mixed with copper and tin turned into a ball. The emperor ordered the furnace to be cast."
Maoxiang, one of the four princes in the late Ming Dynasty, also said, "When Xuanzong was in power, it was reported that there was a fire in the Buddhist temple, and gold, silver, jewelry and copper melted and condensed together. Xuanzong just ordered the Xuande furnace to be cast."
It is speculated that this wind-milled copper is probably mixed with copper, silver, gold and some other unknown materials, and finally got this name.
According to the above identification methods, Shen Yu felt that this Xuande furnace had no trace of forgery and was the genuine Xuande furnace.
But Shen Yu's professionalism prevents him from saying that the Xuanlu is real.
"What do they want to do? I can't see anything wrong with this Xuanzang furnace. They are going to deceive those half-hearted antique lovers, but they are not fooling them every time?
"Do you want to put it up for auction? You shouldn't! Even if they don't know which one is real and which one is fake, they can definitely insist that they are all real and let the appraisers trained by the auction houses do the appraisal.
"Anyway, we don't charge money before the auction. What are they afraid of?"
Unable to understand, Shen Yu shook his head and simply stopped thinking.
When neither the Yuan blue and white jade pot, spring vase nor the Xuande incense burner could be authenticated, Shen Yu decided to take a look at what the remaining antique was. Maybe it was genuine at first glance.
Shen Yu did it as soon as he thought of it, because he didn't have much time. He probably only had three minutes at most.
So he opened the last sandalwood box very quickly.
"Huh?"
Before opening the box, Shen Yu didn't think about what was in the box.
Is it a beautifully carved jade?
Or a set of old jade jewelry from the Qing Dynasty?
Or a Buddha statue and a Guanyin statue?
What Shen Yu didn't expect was that the sandalwood box contained an inkstone.
There is a black Duan Inkstone that is quite large, as black as lacquer, and as smooth as jade.
The inkstone is made into a rectangular shape, which is made according to the shape when selecting the stone. It is bold and bold without losing the graceful lines.
The back of the inkstone is shallowly opened to cover the hand, with a Tai Chi diagram engraved on it, and there are some writings around it. Because it is so worn, it is completely unclear what is engraved.
"I'm going? here???"
For a moment, Shen Yu felt like he was trapped!
His first reaction was that the ancient inkstone he bought from Lao Liu was stolen and placed here.
However, he was always attentive and immediately noticed the difference between the two inkstones.
His own square inkstone was engraved with a tiger going up the mountain, which was more cute than powerful, but the one engraved on this inkstone was a tiger coming down the mountain, and it was a fierce tiger with its mouth wide open and its fangs exposed.
It is exactly what is said: The fierce tiger descends from the barren mountain and roars to scare away all the beasts.
Shen Yu knew that this kind of inkstone with carvings of tigers on the mountain was mostly used by famous generals with both civil and military skills in ancient times.
Confucian scholars would not place such an inkstone in their study room, because the evil spirit is too strong and cannot be suppressed.
"Could this inkstone be a pair with the ancient Shangshanhu inkstone I got from Laoliu's stall? Otherwise, why are they so similar?"
"Weird, it's so strange!" Shen Yu couldn't help but fell into deep thought.
