Riding the wind of rebirth

Everyone agreed, so Zhou Zhi said: "In the 16th year of Daoguang's reign, He Shaoji passed the imperial examination. As long as he passes the final imperial examination, he can become a Jinshi."

"His Jinshi paper won unanimous applause from the examiners. The young man is not bad looking, and his calligraphy is exquisite. Everyone thinks that he should be the number one scholar."

"At this moment, a person raised firm objections. Who was this person? He was a great examiner at the time, named Zhuo Bingtian."

"Zhuo Bingtian was a man of great ability and incorruptible character. He later became a bachelor of Wuyingdian Palace and a first-class official. But he was such a person, but he firmly disagreed with the terms everyone agreed on for He Shaoji. He also found out from He Shaoji's papers Two words - 'Da Xing'."

"'Da Xing' means the death of the emperor in ancient times. It is obviously taboo to write these two words on the paper."

"The ancients always wrote vertically. On He Shaoji's test paper, 'big' and 'line' were in two columns, but they happened to be in the same row. As a result, Zhuo Bingtian clung to this and refused to let go."

"Other examiners also laughed at him for being unreasonable at first, but they recognized the truth."

"Then the examiners changed their minds - if you play against him again, what if it reaches the emperor's ears and makes him think something? Is such a risk worth taking for He Shaoji?"

"Of course it's not worth it, so in the end the other examiners had no choice but to compromise. He Shaoji, who was supposed to be the sure winner, got ten places, and he couldn't even see the emperor."

"So, why did Zhuo Bingtian insist on holding on to He Shaoji? It was because of a joke made by He Shaoji's father decades ago."

"When Zhuo Bingtian first arrived in the capital, he visited He Shaoji's father He Linghan as a junior. He Linghan had guests at home, so he told him to come back tomorrow. He also joked to the guests: 'This person named Zhuo is from Sichuan, could it be Zhuo Wen? Your descendants?'"

"Zhuo Wenjun is a woman. If Zhuo Bingtian is a descendant of Zhuo Wenjun, it would be a hint that Zhuo Bingtian's ancestors stepped in backwards."

"This was a great humiliation in ancient times."

"Just because of these words, Zhuo Bingtian planted explosives in his heart. Now that he met He Linghan's son, the explosives finally detonated. Retribution has come to He Shaoji."

"Oh, we shouldn't have told that man away just now!" An aunt laughed and said, "We should have kept him to hear this story!"

"That's right, if you don't keep your word, your descendants will suffer." Another aunt also expressed sympathy: "Look at this little He, how unlucky he is?!"

Zhou Zhi and Jiang Shuyi found it funny when they heard this. He Shaoji was from Daoguangnian in the Qing Dynasty, and he became Xiao He under their two aunts.

"It's almost time to disperse." The man who just stood up for Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "After all, this is not an exhibition hall or a museum. It would be bad if it affects the business hours for too long."

"Grandpa turned out to be from a cultural relics store?" Jiang Shuyi asked.

"I retired a long time ago." The uncle opened the counter with a smile and walked inside: "Now I am a re-employed salesperson in the store."

"That's just right." Zhou Zhi asked: "Is there any discount for He Shaoji's vertical axis couplet?"

The cultural relics store is the same as Shudu Gongmei. There is a price tag in front of every item.

However, according to Zhou Zhi’s experience, this is the upper limit of the price, and it is still negotiable.

The old man glanced at Zhou Zhi, then took down the vertical scroll on the wall: "Young people don't have jobs yet, right? Did you just learn from your family?" This is also an old rule in the antique shop. Buyers are not allowed to speak nonsense, but sellers People also need to allow buyers to get their hands on it and inspect it, without being able to refuse unreasonably.

Zhou Zhi looked at the calligraphy scroll and replied to the old man's words: "There are elders in the family who like this. They have been exposed to it since childhood, so I have learned a little bit."

He Shaoji's calligraphy is actually very unique. Most people can't learn it at all. That's his brushwork.

He Shaoji's father, He Linghan, was a calligrapher himself. His calligraphy style was based on the two styles of Yan and Chu. It also contained official and seal characters and had an ancient style.

Influenced by the northern academic style at that time, He Linghan attached great importance to Pu studies and stele studies. He Shaoji learned from his father's family and also recognized stele studies and official seal script as the foundation of his calligraphy.

This is also the artistic distinction between the art of seeking posts in the south and searching for stele in the north at that time.

After reaching a certain level of accumulation, He Shaoji began to pursue innovation and innovation, and formed his own style. Based on the great creative premise of the Beibei stele, the more ancient seal script and Li characters were integrated into the regular script. The calligraphy reads, "At the age of sixty, at Luoyuan Academy in Jinan, I began to specialize in the eight-point calligraphy." From then on, "all the stele in Tokyo were written one after another." , independent courses. Gengshen returned to Hunan and gave lectures in the south of the city, and the official courses continued uninterrupted."

He once wrote a poem: "I searched all the steles of the Northern Dynasty for books, and the original script of Kaifa was left behind by Li Fa. I bought a few incense sticks to offer "Black Girl", and only a few people knew it in my life."

Finally, he created a magical writing technique called the "wrist-turning technique". Because it resembles the movements of an ape's hands, it is also known as the "Three-branched Ape" technique.

Use the center of the pen as the main point, reverse the movement of the wrist to lift the pen, then wrap the pen with the center and press it hard, and when closing the pen, gently hold the pen forward.

The brush strokes are slow and slow, sometimes trembling, and the strokes are bold and strange. They not only have traces of the ancients, but also highlight his personal style.

Such strokes are also known as "house leakage marks". They are a major feature of He Shaoji's running calligraphy and are extremely difficult for future generations to imitate.

In addition to checking the characteristics of calligraphy, Zhou Zhi has another magic weapon than ordinary people, which is to determine the age through paper and mounting.

Now he has one more item - the appraisal of the gown shaft.

The outer part of the hand scroll can be rolled up to wrap around the head of the scroll, so it is called "the head wrap", which can protect the scroll from being stained.

Baoshou is also known as "Guoshou", "Yingshou", "Baotou", etc. In the literature, there are also elegant names such as "Ju" and "Yuchi".

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many collectors and organizers would mark the title, volume number and other information on the back of the package. These became part of the package and were often very valuable.

The most valuable Baosou is naturally Song brocade. According to ancient records, there are as many as fifty or sixty varieties of brocade colors, including precious tapestry silk, which can be described as colorful.

By the Yuan Dynasty, weaving and embroidery craftsmanship was in decline. The color of the fabric is simple and elegant, consisting of green and beige alternating small squares with the same size. The pattern is relatively simple and is called snakeskin brocade.

It was not until the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty that the craftsmanship of weaving and embroidery was restored, but the patterns of the ancient brocades of the Song Dynasty were lost.

Therefore, there were not many types of brocade used in bags in the Ming Dynasty, but they were subtle and elegant. They rarely used bright colors and exaggerated patterns. They used circles, squares, rhombuses, and octagons as the main skeletons, filled with various patterns. The size of the unit pattern is relatively small, filled with floral patterns, and the theme color is mainly yellow and green, which is relatively simple.

During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, a brocade artist accidentally collected ten pieces of "Chunhua Pavilion Tie" mounted in the Song Dynasty, and uncovered 22 Song brocade patterns. After research and imitation, they finally restored them, and finally made the Qing brocade as prosperous as the Song Dynasty. It continues to this day and production continues to grow. (End of chapter)