Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1711 Sichuan Red

When conducting the appraisal, Zhou Zhi was more careful and sent the Gannan Red and Yunnan Red wines he had collected to the China University of Geosciences for testing.

The results are very gratifying. No matter whether it is Gannan Red, Southern Yunnan Red or the current flint, the certificates from the China University of Geosciences show them all the same - hematite inclusion igneous rock agate.

The specific cause is that when silica hydrothermal fluid enters the pores of the surrounding rock, it brings in mineral ions in the surrounding rock. After cooling, the red minerals are irregularly distributed in the agate in the form of inclusions, forming a special form of agate with dense distribution and uniform color.

This is Nanhong.

Jewelry-grade southern red, which is the kind used to make imperial beads, has a texture similar to coral, and even under the light you can’t see the agate pattern, which is its special feature.

Although there are no agate patterns, under close illumination, you can see that the red color is actually made up of some dense small red dots. These small red dots are visible to the naked eye, dense and uniform. They are actually the mineral dots of ferric oxide minerals, which are called "cinnabar dots" in the jargon.

This characteristic also makes Nanhong extremely difficult to imitate, and is also one of the signs to distinguish the authenticity.

Gannan Red has the longest history and its origin is no longer traceable. It has excellent quality, extremely high density, and bright red color.

However, the red range in Gannan is relatively narrow, with the color ranging from orange-red to bright red. The stone has a better sense of heaviness and richness. In jargon, it has a strong "jade feel" or "oily feel".

The Yunnan Red in Baoshan is characterized by large cracks, so-called "no cracks, no Baoshan". The color of Yunnan Red is bright and has a wide color range, ranging from pink, orange to vermilion, but it is easy to have a foggy surface structure in visual effect. According to the aesthetic taste of the ancients, after the Gannan Red was exhausted, Baoshan Nanhong was used as a substitute. Therefore, only the orange to red color of the material closest to Gannan Red was used to make jewelry, and the rest was basically discarded.

However, since there are so many red cracks in southern Yunnan, it is almost impossible to find a bead without cracks. Therefore, this type of product is more used by people in snowy areas as a substitute for coral, and most of the surviving ones are drum beads and abacus beads.

Since the identification results are consistent, Zhou Zhi now dares to brazenly claim that the flint he discovered is from the Yi people, also known as Nanhong.

Southern Sichuan Red, or Liangshan Southern Red.

So far, Zhouzhi has discovered many unique varieties, focusing on one variety and diversification.

There is a "jade material" that is very close to the dense and uniform Gannan Red and Southern Yunnan Red. The colors range from ox blood red, brocade red, cinnabar color, and persimmon color. This kind of jade material is oily and dense, and it is not transparent when illuminated. When a flashlight is pointed at it, the aperture distribution size is similar to that of Hetian jade. This material is of course the top-grade one. In ancient times, it was the best product that could be used to make court beads. Zhouzhi called it "ox blood red", "brocade red", and "persimmon red".

The second type has a lustrous texture like that of cherry. It is translucent when illuminated, and clear cinnabar dots can be seen. The cinnabar dots are evenly distributed, but the color dots are relatively thin. Zhou Zhi named it "cherry red".

The third category is a mixture of several materials. The color spots are thin and translucent, but it is still a bright red color mixed with opaque stones such as "ox blood red", "brocade red" and "persimmon red" to form flowing patterns like solidified flames, forming natural red patterns. Zhou Zhi likes this category the most and calls it "flame red".

The last category is "glass material" that lacks iron ions. It is transparent and colorless, or chalcedony like thin rice soup, with only some bright red spots on it. Some of the spots are like "pine flowers" on preserved eggs, some are like water droplets, and some are like fog belts. It's like bright red flowers floating on ice. Zhou Zhi called it "ice floating".

In addition, there is another type that Zhou Zhi dislikes, that is, Tu Zi Ri's favorite "flint material", black agate, and "red and black material" that transitions from black to red. These two are too far from the traditional aesthetic concept of Nanhong, and now there are many varieties, so Zhou Zhi did not include them in the scope of "Nanhong".

In short, no matter what the pattern or color, it must be bright, clear and lustrous to be considered.

"I heard that many families have torn down the foundations of their houses and sold them to you," Tu Liangzhi said, "turning over orchards, digging septic tanks, and selling stones, all three are done!"

"It's not expensive anyway." Zhou Zhi said cheerfully, "One barrel of wine for one hundred kilograms of stone, it's not a big loss."

"Why don't you charge the kids this price?" Tuliangzhi asked.

"The kids can't drink alcohol." Zhou Zhi said, "And the stones they picked up were all from the river. The stones have been washed by the river for a long time, so their texture is especially good. They are called 'shuizi' (water stones), and they are of course not the same price as mountain products."

"Didn't you grind a few of them with an angle grinder a few days ago? They didn't seem to be very good."

Zhou Zhi felt ashamed when talking about this. The jade he bought was mainly seed material and he had never seen the processing steps. Apart from the raw stone, there was the finished product. Therefore, he imitated those who played with jade and used an angle grinder to remove the stone skin and learned how to "open windows and break stones".

As a result, the water head of Nanhong cannot be compared with that of jadeite at all, so the window made by rubbing cannot clearly show what the stone is like. Instead, the originally shiny "water" window is made foggy.

It looked even worse than an unwiped window, and was completely different from the snowflake cotton and blue water glass jadeite in his collection.

In the end, I had to tell myself that professional matters should be left to professionals. I selected some stones of various kinds and sent them back to Shudu, asking Feng Xueshan to send them to Suzhou. The life or death of the stone was left to several masters to decide.

Wu Renzhong took out a red stone that looked like a brand from his neck and said, "Mine is still very good-looking."

This one is indeed very beautiful. It is a standard "water stone". It is made of red sandstone from the mountain that was washed into the Meigu River and formed after years of erosion and polishing by the flowing water.

Just like the seed material of Hetian jade, the southern red seeds washed by running water are more beautiful than the ones with skins dug out from the soil on the mountain. Although Zhou Zhi's stone-grinding skills are poor, he still has the ability to use an electric grinder with a diamond needle to drill holes in the stone. Wu Renzhong's stone is the size of a plum and is flat, so it's just right to drill a hole in it as a pendant.

After listening to Zhou Zhi's words, Wu Renzhong thought that stone jewelry would become more lustrous as it was worn, so he planned to wear it until it became beautiful before giving it to Shama Ricong.

Almost no one in the room believed the idea that the stone might be valuable. The only one who was skeptical was Old Chi Ri, who was very familiar with Zhou Zhi's style.

As for Brother Dayong, it’s not that he doesn’t believe Zhou Zhi, but he has no interest in these things at all.