Yuntai came to Beijing this time to attend his nephew's wedding, which inadvertently brought two benefits.
One is that he restored contact with his old classmate Smith, which not only gave the young people of several relatives a window to peek into the outside world. It also made them realize before most Chinese people that there may be a chance to study abroad in life.
This is the way to go.
Take the afternoon of the wedding reception as an example. Mr. and Mrs. Smith stayed at the Hong family home for a long time.
This old American man told the younger generation about the beautiful Western world and the lifestyle of developed countries with great interest. Not only did he strongly encourage everyone to find opportunities to go out and have a look, he also revealed a series of very important information about studying abroad.
It turns out that since January 14, 1981, the Republic of China has officially promulgated the "Interim Regulations on Self-Financed Study Abroad", and the road to study abroad has actually been opened.
At present, the official governments of the United States and the Republic are also communicating and preparing to hold the first "Test of English as a Foreign Language" exam in the Republic.
Smith then gave a detailed explanation. He expressed the English abbreviation of this test "TOEFL" in Chinese as "TOEFL". He said that it is provided for students from non-English speaking countries to apply to study in higher education institutions in the United States, Canada and other Western countries.
An English proficiency test.
He also said in public that if anyone wants to study abroad and can pass this exam, he is willing to provide them with a series of help within his capabilities, such as applying for schools, applying for visas, etc., and even provide financial guarantees.
To be honest, Smith's words were mostly addressed to Zhaoqing, the son of Wanyan's family. He sincerely hoped that the children of his old classmates could go abroad and receive more advanced Western education.
It's a pity that the speaker means it, but the listener has no intention. Zhaoqing is devoted to living with Xiaoqin, and all he thinks about is his unborn child. How can he be so angry?
What was even more unexpected was that it was unintentional. Shou Jingfang's son Shou Zheng's sensitive nerves were touched. On the spot, he started asking anxiously whether he could go to the United States to study medicine.
Even though he later learned from Smith that to study medicine, you must first obtain an undergraduate degree from the United States and then take relevant professional exams. He was not disappointed at all, but felt high-spirited and energetic.
This shows how important he regards studying medicine, and he seems to have made up his mind and wants to give it a try.
But having said that, although this is a good thing, Shou Jingfang also showed a little worry because of it. I don't know whether it is because he doesn't want his son to travel far away, or he is worried about the tuition fees...
In addition, Yuntai himself also did a lot of good things for Hong Yanwu.
Because Yuntai knew that Hong Yanwu was very interested in old things, and he heard from his family that this nephew "made a fortune" from stamps. So during the days he lived in the Hong family, he was not completely idle. He went out for a few walks, and the result was that
I discovered that there was another Xiaoshi in the capital.
The so-called "Xiao Market" is a spontaneous market that mainly trades secondhand goods, and the trading hours are concentrated in the early morning. The market opens before dawn and closes at dawn, hence the name.
Some people also call it "ghost market". This is mainly due to the characteristics of night trading that "a sky lantern illuminates things but not people". As for the popular name "small market", it is a fallacy.
Speaking of the history of this kind of market, it has actually been around since the Ming Dynasty. According to old legend, there was a family that wanted to exchange movables for rice and firewood as a shame, so it was formed by carrying old things to a remote place in the early morning.
But in fact, in Xiaoshi, although the items sold are mainly used goods, there are also new ones, fake ones, stolen goods, etc.
Precisely because the source of the channel is unknown, there is "a lot to be gained" from it (a jargon term that means making more money by reselling). Xiaoshi used to be one of the main purchasing channels for many antique shops before liberation.
In the old days, this kind of market was always located in remote places near the city walls such as Xuanwumen, Deshengmen, and Chongwenmen. Because Xuanwumen is close to Liulichang, most of them are antiques. Deshengmen has a lot of old furniture, and Chongwenmen is used to appraise clothes.
It's a big deal.
However, after the founding of the Republic, the new government organized the industrial and commercial, public security and other departments to vigorously rectify, establish market management offices to strengthen management, ban unlicensed vendors, and investigate and deal with illegal speculation. The scale of the second-hand goods market gradually shrank. The second-hand goods business was gradually controlled by the state.
Trust company, public-private partnership trust store replaced.
So by almost 1957, the "Xiaoshi" in the capital had completely disappeared and should have ceased to exist.
But it was precisely the advent of the "movement" that caused many cultural relics to be scattered. Ten years later, after the implementation of the refund policy, many people who did not know the goods had a lot of old things in their hands, and the number of people who were anxious to cash them in increased sharply.
In addition, after the reform and opening up, the management of private private transactions was gradually relaxed. As a result, this kind of market was revived and revived due to the return of some original "practitioners".
But there are differences between the current "Xiaoshi" and the "Xiaoshi" in the past. Taking Chongwenmen as an example, because there is no city wall, the original Dongxiao City was moved to Hongqiao.
In addition, not all of the stalls are former professional sellers, many are new entrants. They are either trying the market to make a profit, or selling idle items at home.
As a result, unprofessional verbal bargaining emerged, and the types of goods were reduced.
Currently, almost all of the products sold are semi-old antiques and second-hand goods, and there are no other miscellaneous items such as "tiger work" and "handmade goods" of daily necessities.
In this way, the past practices of using lights as a blindfold, using enchantment to palm steel mouths, and using "shills" to deceive people are gone. On the contrary, the market level has been improved and the market has been purified a lot.
(Note: Tiger work and Mao Kaohuo both refer to washing old goods and passing them off as new. The difference lies in the degree. Mao Kao goods can still be used, while Tiger work "eats people" and is almost useless when bought back. For example,
For example, there used to be people who sold fake roast ducks in Xiaoshi. They used duck racks from roast duck shops and made them with clay and oil-covered paper. The portions and appearance were exactly the same, and the buyers were afraid that they would take it for granted. This was a standard trick.
Although the card number watch made by hand splicing is also more deceptive, because the timekeeping function has not been lost, it is just a good thing.)
In this case, because Yuntai knew that he would not stay in Beijing for a long time, he was too lazy to choose slowly, so he gathered the goods and negotiated the price slowly. He adopted the "hit and miss" buying method, which is the most efficient way to grab the goods.
That is to say, based on the principle of "choose more, be diligent, spend less, buy high-quality goods, do not bargain, and save time", you can browse from stall to stall and only give a "fixed price" to the goods you like. Once the seller refuses,
Turn around and leave, never lingering.
This kind of buying method is completely contrary to other buyers who choose carefully and take their time slowly. The trick is to rely on superhuman vision and clear the gold, and win with more. You can buy all the stalls in the shortest time.
If valuable goods are "swept" once, you will never return empty-handed.
And because he only uses his eyes to scan the items once, except for calligraphy and painting, he doesn’t touch them with his hands, and he doesn’t bother with the price. He looks like an amateur and has the recklessness, so he is not afraid of surprising the other party. No one believes it.
He is really knowledgeable and has great eyes.
This will only lead to two situations. One is that the seller can't stand it anymore and calls him back, so he just pays for it on the spot, no problem. The other is that it is really a pity to miss it.
Anyway, there is another stall besides this stall. And he can't help but come here almost every day. He will try to frustrate the seller for a day, but when he comes again, he will pay the same price. The other party knows about his problem, so he may sell it next time.
In short, Yuntai used this method and returned with a good harvest almost every time. For almost the price of a bag of tea, he bought authentic works, good calligraphy, ancient porcelain, and precious gadgets.
Among the rarer calligraphy and paintings, there is a large hand scroll of "The Book of Songs? Deer Ming Zhi Shi" painted by Ma Hezhi of the Song Dynasty, a piece of "Collection of Wang Xizhi's Book of the Holy Religious Preface to the Tripitaka of the Tang Dynasty" painted by Song Dynasty, and "Shuiyue Guanyin" painted by Yin of the Ming and Tang Dynasties.
"Portrait" and "Lady" each. Master Hongyi painted a "Portrait of Sakyamuni" and hand-copied a volume of "Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra".
Among the valuable porcelain items are a Yue kiln porcelain bowl from the Song Dynasty, a pair of chicken jar cups from the Yongzheng reign of the Qing Dynasty, a pair of double-jointed porcelain vases from the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, a Gu Yuexuan porcelain vase from the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, a colored vase from the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, and a blue and white vase from the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty.
A large purple porcelain bowl.
There are also small items such as the imperial ink of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the gold crown with red phoenix feet in the Jin Dynasty, the "Duti Control Seal" Tianhuang stone seal in the Jin Dynasty, the Xuande stove in the Ming Dynasty, the ancient jade in the Han Dynasty, the jade snuff bottle, the Hotan white jade finger ring, Zhao Ziyu's cricket jar, etc.
A few pieces.
There are probably seventy or eighty pieces in Bao Duo'er. They are all treasures that can enter the museum level and are officially prohibited from sale. In total, they only cost Hong Yanwu six to seven hundred yuan.
Of course, after all, the environment is dark and the purchase is hasty. So there are times when I am unlucky and make a mistake.
For example, once Yuntai bought a copy of Mi Fu's "Four Classical Poems", but when he got home, he found that it was a fake copied by someone else.
But fortunately, there are no truly modern products these days. In the end, it was discovered that the person who copied it was actually Prince Aixinjueluo Yongxuan, the eleventh son of Qianlong. It was not a complete mistake.
This should be regarded as a special market dividend in this era.