Nine hundred and forty-ninth chapter nine dragons carry the coffin
Chapter 949 Nine Dragons Carrying the Coffin
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"I'm afraid only the royal family can obtain such a complete and huge top-grade white jade!"
Looking at the pure white flag jade knight with the knight and the war horse, Liu Dong sighed secretly in his heart!
Now the price of one gram of seed material and Tian first-grade white jade has exceeded 500 Chinese coins, which is almost three times the price of gold, so this white jade knight far surpasses the golden knight just now!
The fourth knight is also a knight of Hetian Baiyu, but compared to the third knight with a white flag, the fourth knight with a white flag is a combination, and the war horse and the knight are two separate individuals. Obviously, even if
Even in the royal family, it would be difficult to find such huge and top-quality Hetian jade.
Therefore, under the condition of ensuring that the jade quality is the same, they carved the war horse and the knight separately. Although the two are almost the same when combined, the value of the knight with the white flag is invisibly behind that of the white flag, one of the three flags!
The four knights representing the Zhenglan flag and the Bordered blue flag, as well as the Zhenghong flag and the Bordered red flag also appeared in front of Liu Dong one by one. They were the same as the previous Bordered white flag, with knights and war horses on horseback all combined.
It’s not an integrated system!
I don't know whether Qianlong did this because of the status of distinguishing the "Shang Three Banners" and the "Lower Five Banners", or because the materials were difficult to find, but Liu Dong was willing to believe the latter, because it represented Zhenglan Banner and Xianglan Banner.
The two knights of the flag actually used lapis lazuli to make it!
In ancient China, lapis lazuli was called Zhulin, Jinjing, Jinyu, Qingdai, etc. In Buddhism, it was called Venuli or Biliuli. It is one of the witnesses of the cultural exchange between the East and the West in ancient times. Data shows that lapis lazuli was passed through the "Silk Road".
"Road" was introduced to China from Afghanistan. It is usually produced by aggregates. It has a dense block and granular structure. The color is dark blue, purple blue, sky blue, green blue, etc.
Lapis lazuli is a relatively rare gemstone. Ancient artifacts of blue lapis lazuli are often very precious. Lapis lazuli is a blue variant of sodalite. The color of lapis lazuli is the color of the Medicine Buddha in Tibetan Buddhism and is often worn
It can bless you with safety, health, and no illness or disaster.
Zhang Hongzhao, a famous geologist in modern my country, wrote in the book "Shi Ya" that "the color of lapis lazuli is like the sky, or the gold shavings are scattered, and the brilliance is as bright as the stars in the sky." Therefore, the ancients respected lapis lazuli as "the sky." "Sky Stone" is used to gift heavenly treasures. "Qing Huidian Picture Research" states: "The emperor's court belt was decorated with lapis lazuli on the Temple of Heaven."
Generally speaking, in the selection of lapis lazuli, it is better to have a uniform color without cracks, a fine texture and no gold stars, followed by no white gold, and gold stars are evenly distributed. If the pyrite content is low, it will not appear on the surface.
Venus does not affect the quality. However, if the color of Venus becomes black or dark, or if the calcite content is too much to form large areas of white spots on the surface, the value will be greatly reduced.
The lapis lazuli currently used to make the two knight sculptures of the True Blue Flag and the Inlaid Blue Flag are basically sky blue, uniform in color, and top-grade lapis lazuli without defects. Only the chest armor part of the knight with the Inlaid Blue Flag has a small amount.
of Venus!
If Liu Dong was a little shocked that the two knights, Zhenglanqi and Zhenglanqi, were all made of top-grade lapis lazuli, then the final two knights, Zhenghongqi and Zhenghongqi, were actually sculpted with the top-grade glass red jade.
Liu Dong was simply unbelievable!
Although not all of them are the top-grade glass cockscomb red, and there are also places with slightly inferior colors, they still cannot hide their preciousness. In Liu Dong’s view, among the eight knights representing the Eight Banners, it is the last one with a red flag.
Hezheng Hongqi has the highest value. Ten tons of top-grade red jade material alone is already immeasurable in value. Coupled with the top-notch royal jade carving craftsmanship, the combined value of the two is naturally even more amazing!
Seeing Yuan Zhi Yue Ding lined up in front of him, their aura so chilling that they killed the Eight Banners sculptures, Liu Dong couldn't help but picture the scene of them guarding Qianlong's coffin in his mind!
It's a pity that Liu Dong was unable to see with his own eyes what the scene was like when they were placed in the tomb. He can only use current guesses to infer the style of the tomb of Emperor Qianlong, who represented the last glory of the Qing Dynasty!
After putting away the eight buried statues of Knights of the Eight Banners, Liu Dong looked at the last big wooden box!
The wooden box is 3 meters long, 2 meters wide, and about 2.5 meters high. Perhaps because the contents inside are too heavy, obvious cracks have appeared on the bottom board! The entire wooden box is also deformed and cracked. From the cracked gaps
You can see little bits of golden light flashing in it.
Liu Dong couldn't wait to step forward and open the wooden box. When he saw what was inside with his own eyes, a look of wonder appeared on his face!
"The Nine Dragons Carrying the Coffin, Emperor Qianlong is so courageous. There are probably not many people in the past who can enjoy it more than this man!"
This was the first time Liu Dong saw this kind of burial system that used nine five-clawed golden dragons as supports to lift a huge jade coffin!
The nine dragons are all made of gold, half a meter high, and their eyes are decorated with top-quality pigeon blood rubies. Each one is about the size of an ordinary jujube, with an average of more than 30 carats, and their value is astonishing!
The golden dragon has four paws on the ground, and there is a round tray on its arched back, and the jade coffin is placed on the tray as big as a dustpan.
The placement of the nine golden dragons is also very particular. One is in the middle of the coffin, with its head held high and its scales and claws thick and lifelike. The other eight are facing each other in sequence and in an orderly manner!
The jade coffin lifted by the golden dragon is also made of extraordinary material. It is made of top-quality Hetian white jade. It is not made of many jade pieces like the jade coffin of the Han Dynasty, but is a complete piece of jade!
There are also exquisite carvings on the four sides and top of the jade coffin. The two larger sides on the left and right use open carvings, semicircular carvings and micro carvings to express the main achievements of Emperor Qianlong's life through narrative methods, including his enthronement and coronation, the Six Beats
Jiangnan, the pacification of Zhungeer, the banquet of Qiansou, etc.!
The front and back sides are mainly engraved with some Buddhist images of Buddha, of course the most important one is Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva!
As for the top surface, Liu Dong was a little surprised when he first saw it. He was even surprised by Emperor Qianlong's boldness and wild imagination!
Because, the content of Dingmian Mountain is that Emperor Qianlong came to the underworld surrounded by many officials and soldiers, and in front of the ghost gate, the King of Hell led the underworld judge, Wuchang, and various ghosts to greet him!
Obviously, Emperor Qianlong, who believed that his achievements were comparable to those of the Qin Emperor and the Han Dynasty, thought that even if he went to the underworld, he would still be respected and enjoy glory and wealth forever!
It’s so arrogant that it’s hard to believe!
However, Liu Dong just sighed briefly and pushed open the jade coffin. It is already the 21st century, Emperor Qianlong is already a thing of the past, and there is no need to waste too many brain cells on a dead man.
Not surprisingly, Emperor Qianlong’s coffin was filled with large and small jewelry and jades, including gold and jade Ruyi, gold and jade Buddha statues, gold and jade jewelry, gold and jade dishes, jade shanzi, emeralds, red sapphires, lapis lazuli, cat’s eyes, pearls, etc.
Coral and more!
A dazzling array of jewelry and jades is enough to seduce the greed in anyone's heart, and Liu Dong is no exception, but now that he is rich, he doesn't care too much about jewelry that is precious simply because of its material, but rather jewelry that has artistic value.
He likes the royal utensils even more!
For example, there are Buddha statues and Bodhisattva statues inlaid with gold and jade of different sizes, including forty or fifty handles. For example, the sizes are different, the images are also different, and the materials are also different. For example, top-quality Hetian jade and Lantian jade are used.
Various shapes of dishes carved from lapis lazuli!
Of course, these are only mid-range among all the funerary objects in the coffin. Although the top-notch items are far less than them, they are also more precious!
Therefore, after Liu Dong opened the store, he went straight to get the things he thought were of the highest value!
The thing was packed in a notebook-sized sandalwood box. The box was inlaid with gold and covered with dragon patterns and five claws. It was obviously a royal item!
The box has a metal snap, so Liu Dong opened it very easily!
In the already slightly old yellow silk package, there is a six-sided jade seal!
The six seals were all made of tiger buttons and were made of white jade. Liu Dong picked one up and opened it to look at the inscriptions underneath. The four-character seal script "Emperor's Seal" was among them!
As expected, the seals of the remaining five jade seals are "Emperor's Xingxi", "Emperor's Letter", "Emperor's Xingxi", "Emperor's Seal", and "Emperor's Letter" among the "Six Seals of the Emperor"!
The seal is a symbol of the emperor's power, and the six seals began in the Qin and Han Dynasties.
"Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Guangwu Ji" notes Cai Yong's "Doctrine" in the third year of Jianwu: "The emperor's six seals are all jade tiger buttons. The text is called the emperor's official seal, the emperor's seal, the emperor's letter seal, the emperor's official seal, and the emperor's seal."
The seals, the emperor's official seals, are all sealed with Wudu purple clay. There are also national seals, collectively known as the Seven Seals.
It wasn't until Wu Zetian became emperor in the Tang Dynasty that he ingeniously added a divine seal of "Emperor Tian Jing Ming Ming The Virtuous One Will Prosper", and changed the system of eight seals to a system of nine seals, and at the same time changed the word 'Xi' to 'Bao'.
From then on, each dynasty called it "bao". In the Northern Song Dynasty, the number increased to twelve treasures, and in the Southern Song Dynasty, it was seventeen treasures. In the Ming Dynasty, the number increased to twenty-four treasures. In the Qing Dynasty, in addition to the daily use of the twenty-five treasures in the Jiaotai Hall, they were also enshrined.
'Ten Treasures of Shengjing'.
It can be seen that the number of seals in the past dynasties is increasing, and the size is also getting larger and larger, ranging from 1 to 4 inches in the Qin and Han Dynasties, 2 to 4 inches in the Tang Dynasty, until the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The size ranges from 2 inches and 9 inches to 5 inches and 9 inches. The largest one is the Song Dynasty's "Ming Ming Bao".
Emperor Jianwen of the Ming Dynasty wrote "Heaven's Mandate and Mingde, manifesting everything in the right direction, holding on to the essence, and eternal prosperity", but the seal of the "Mingming Divine Treasure" is one foot, six inches and nine minutes square, which can be said to be extremely huge.
The six jade seals in Liu Dong's hands are two inches nine, nearly 10 centimeters!
But they are not the Twenty-Five Treasures of the Qing Dynasty, because there are no Manchu and Mongolian characters in the seal, and all four characters are Chinese characters in small seal script! Combined with the aura on the jade seals, Liu Dong is basically certain that these six jade seals come from the Ming Dynasty!
I just don’t know for what purpose Emperor Qianlong buried them together in his tomb! (To be continued...)