Riding the wind of rebirth

"The only thing worth praising about Goryeo porcelain is its painting level. For example, the painting of this plum blossom is indeed very exquisite, and it belongs to the standard literati painting with a very good style. On the other hand, judging from the painting level alone, Chinese porcelain did not reach such an artistic level until the Qing Dynasty."

"However, the method of painting with cinnabar was not invented by the Koreans, but was learned from China." Zhou Zhi said: "The creator of this kind of painting is Su Dongpo. Su Dongpo has a relative named Wen Tong, who is a famous painter of bamboo. The idiom 'Xiong You Cheng Zhu' was passed down because Su Dongpo praised Wen Tong's bamboo painting."

"Su Dongpo also learned to paint bamboo from Wen Tong, but he took a different approach and used cinnabar to paint, which also formed a genre of Chinese painting."

"During the Song Dynasty, Goryeo and China had close contacts. Goryeo folding fans and cotton paper were very popular in China. China had a profound influence on Goryeo culture. It is estimated that cinnabar painting was introduced to China at that time and was used on porcelain in the 18th century."

"Are you sure you want these pieces?" Lin Wanqiu looked at Zhou Zhi and asked, "Korean porcelain is not very valuable in the auction market. It's not worth the appraisal fee you paid today."

"Wanqiu, I'll appraise the elbow for you tonight. How much should you give him according to the normal market price?" Li Laoer was quite interested in this.

Lin Wanqiu said, "I now pay him 300,000 yuan a year as a consultant. When the artwork is appraised, I pay him separately according to its value. The market price in the industry is three points. The cultural relics in this batch tonight are all from overseas. They are much more valuable than the domestic market. Several pieces of Ming blue and white porcelain are worth millions. The enamels of the three generations of official kilns should have been worth tens of millions, but Western paintings are not popular in the domestic market, so they are calculated at millions like pastels. The remaining eighty or ninety pieces add up to one million, so the total value is about 20 to 30 million."

"I should give Elbow about one million yuan for the appraisal fee. The few pieces of Goryeo porcelain he wants to take are not worth that price."

"Why do we have to be so clear with each other? Although the glazes on these porcelains are ordinary, the painting is quite profound and has a lot of charm. They should be the work of famous Goryeo artists." Zhou Zhi has already made some arrangements for them: "This time, Samsung and Sony will be the main force in the lawsuit and will charge in the front. The old chairman of Samsung seems to like these things very much. I will ask the representative of Samsung to pass them to him as a small gift."

After saying that, he looked at Li Laoer, meaning that I have finished working for your wife, and the topic has been passed over. It’s time to say what needs to be said, right?

Li Laoer handed the biscuit plate to Zhou Zhi with a smile: "Thank you for your hard work, but I don't think you spent much time on it. This money is easy to earn."

"Don't talk nonsense!" Lin Wanqiu quickly stopped him, "Without thirty years of kung fu, you can't be as fast as an elbow!"

“Thirty years?” Li Laosan looked at Elbow as if he were a monster: “Did he bring him with him from his mother’s womb?”

“Uh… I mean, if it were someone else, they wouldn’t be able to do it without thirty years of hard work.” Lin Wanqiu waved her hand: “He’s a monster, so he’s an exception!”

Everyone laughed and said that Lin Wanqiu was right in her last sentence.

In fact, the task of collecting cultural relics requires not only various professional skills, but also a very deep cultural background. The thirty years of hard work mentioned by Lin Wanqiu is actually mainly about this. However, Zhou Zhi has loved traditional culture since he was a child. He has been learning from his uncle since he was a child, and he has been improving day by day. In addition, he has met many famous teachers. After more than ten years, he has almost become a traditional scholar. His ancient Chinese skills and abnormal memory network have made him a combination of Mr. Gu and Mr. Wang, that is, he has completely combined the academic school and the practical school.

In terms of the depth of knowledge of Chinese studies, his level is naturally hard to reach compared with Mr. Qi's epigraphy and calligraphy, Mr. Gu's rhyme studies, and Mr. Wang's Ming and Qing furniture, bronze furnaces, and porcelain. However, in terms of the breadth of knowledge, it is also what the three old men often praise, believing that Zhou Zhi has reached a breadth that they have not achieved.

That is to say, he is good at inscriptions and calligraphy, rhyme studies, and Ming and Qing furniture, bronze furnaces, porcelain, calligraphy and paintings. Although his level is not as good as those old men, he is at the general expert level.

Several old men have different attitudes towards this. For example, Mr. Wang feels that Zhou Zhi is quite like himself when he was young, liking everything and loving to play everything, and there is nothing wrong with slowly developing his career.

Mr. Gu felt a little regretful, thinking that Elbow could have made great progress in philology, but because he was too distracted, it seemed that he could only rely on his expertise in computer technology to open up a research path in ancient philology.

Although it is very impressive, wouldn’t it be more perfect if one had profound skills combined with information technology?

However, Mr. Qi wrote to Mr. Gu, saying that Elbow's approach was similar to that of pre-Song Dynasty universities, while Gu's philology was more similar to the school of elementary school in the Qing Dynasty. The two approaches, one broad and grand, and the other specialized and detailed, naturally had different functions in different eras, and each was famous for a time.

Now that a new era has arrived, it seems that computers can be used to complete the specialization, depth and precision. Therefore, starting from Elbow, transforming Gu's literature into a broad and grand path is a good thing that takes both into account.

After the oracle bone script splicing project and the oracle bone script root and character grouping research project headed by Zhou Zhi began to produce results, Mr. Gu felt that what Mr. Qi said made sense and he stopped forcing it.

With this foundation, Zhou Zhi was able to achieve twice the result with half the effort when studying cultural relics identification. One day's work was equivalent to several days' work for others. After ten years, it was not surprising that he could surpass others in thirty years.

"In fact, Elbow's identification skills are not bad, but his luck is incredible." Li Laosan said with emotion: "To find treasures, there must be treasures hidden there first. For example, in the ghost market, there must be people setting up stalls with good things. If all are fakes, Elbow's skills will be useless."

"Your statement is boring." Lin Wanqiu disagreed: "Take the Rouge Laifou dish as an example. Master Ma said that dish has been on the ghost market for a long time. He has touched it several times but dared not touch it. He took it when his elbow was there. This is a skill."

"Actually, what Third Brother said is right." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "As collecting becomes more and more popular, I estimate that in a few years, the art of collecting will be just as Third Brother said. Even if we have great abilities, we will not be able to display them, because good things will no longer appear in that way."

"It doesn't matter, we'll go abroad when the time comes!" Lin Wanqiu had already thought about it: "We'll go shopping in one country after another!"

After Elbow had eaten something, Li Laoer said, "Actually, you don't have to worry too much about the matter in the United States. Negotiations and lawsuits with unions are common there. But this time it was initiated by the Music Practitioners Union. You should know that many members of this union are actually celebrities. They have great influence themselves, so they just magnified the impact of the matter." (End of this chapter)