Riding the wind of rebirth

"That's what I want, but I dare not ask you." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "But Elder Wang and Elder Qi..."

"Don't drag us into this, you two." The two old men shook their heads together: "Whatever happens in the future, it has nothing to do with us."

This is a bit like how Patriarch Bodhi treated Sun Wukong, but Zhou Zhi and Ma Ye were also very moved. The subtext of this sentence is actually that Zhou Zhi and Ma Ye can both become masters and stand on their own.

"You two elders are considered consultants, right?" Master Ma said with a smile, "For such a big matter, we can't just give up completely. We still have a lot to rely on."

"Let's discuss the loan with Elbow first." Old Master Wang said, "Elbow, this is the first private museum in our country, and it's also your senior brother's long-cherished wish. You should support it."

"No problem." Zhou Zhi agreed readily: "Anyway, hasn't Senior Brother always been looking after the things in Demian Hall?"

"The Ming and Qing furniture here is too precious," said Master Ma. "It's well arranged. We'd better not move it if we can. I want to borrow the ones in the warehouse to decorate the storefront."

"In addition, there are paintings and calligraphy and porcelain. As far as I know, you are the only one who has collected all the fine porcelains from the five famous kilns of the Song Dynasty. I would like to borrow your porcelains for exhibition and also promote their reputation."

"The Yuan and Ming blue and white porcelain is also a series, especially the Yuan blue and white dragon-patterned lotus leaf lid jar, as well as blue and white porcelain from various dynasties of the Ming Dynasty. Junior brother has collected them all."

"As for calligraphy and painting, we don't want those paintings that caused a sensation across the country at the time. We can just put together the more than 30 scrolls of 'court paintings' from the three dynasties of the Qing Dynasty and more than 20 scrolls of paintings from the Yangzhou School of Painting, and hold a joint exhibition of southern and northern artists from the Qing Dynasty as the opening special exhibition."

"Is your temporary exhibition hall big? Are sixty or so paintings enough?"

"It would be even better if you could lend me calligraphy works by famous Qing dynasty couplets to enrich the exhibition." Ma Ye smiled and said, "Or Shi Tao's Arhat albums would be fine. Those Arhat albums seem to be rarely known to outsiders."

Zhou Zhi pondered for a moment and realized that many of his collections were not only unique pieces, but had never been announced to the public, such as the large Tianhuang seal of Huang Tingjian that he had received the earliest; the porcelains from the five major kilns of the Song Dynasty mentioned by Master Ma: the official kiln long-necked vase with string pattern, the Ge kiln fish basket seal incense burner, the Ru kiln seal box, the Northern Song Dynasty Ding kiln purple gold glaze large plum vase with incised Tang grass pattern, and the Jin Dynasty Jun kiln purple spot bowl; the Yuan Dynasty blue and white dragon pattern general jar, the Ming Dynasty Xuande blue and white Hehe Erxian general jar, the blank period and Jiajing blue and white, etc. Many people in the world actually don't know of their existence.

Now that Zhouzhi has the strength, it can gradually make it public.

Of course it would be too shocking if it were to be released all at once, so instead I display a little bit here and there through loans like I am doing now, and then gather them all together, and my future museum will be ready.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhi nodded: "Crafts, is it bad enough, brother?"

"Yes, I have more crafts, and they are more diverse, but there is one type missing, the modern ones." Ma Ye clapped his hands, "Sugong jade carvings and Nanhong are becoming very famous, and you happen to have the most, so let's add this!"

"Sister Wanqiu can also help with this." Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "Half of the Suzhou Jade Industry Park is supplying goods to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Now some fine products are sent there every month."

Lin Wanqiu agreed: "If you need it, I can borrow a few from Tianxin Silver Shop."

She is the daughter of the owner of the largest silver shop in Hong Kong Island.

"When are we going to visit that place?" Zhou Zhi asked. "Oh, by the way, I have seen most of the things that Senior Brother has collected, but I have rarely seen doors and windows and miscellaneous crafts. It's a good opportunity to go and broaden my horizons."

"It's better to go today than today." Master Ma simply invited a few people: "Why don't you go now? Otherwise, you don't know when you will be free." "Then the two elders..."

"You guys go ahead." Old Master Wang waved his hand: "The doors and windows there are also unique."

So far, no museum has a special exhibition on doors and windows. If there is one, it would be some rooms and halls in the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, where you can see the exquisite ancient decorations.

There are also Jiangnan gardens, some of which still exist.

Zhou Zhi has actually been organizing and collecting this kind of cultural relics, but most of them were rescued from various places through the Yu Tang Cultural Relics Protection Fund, such as some rescued from the Three Gorges Reservoir area, and some used in the previous renovation of several courtyard houses in the capital. Many were also moved directly from Anhui, Henan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

However, when Zhou Zhi came to this private museum to be named "Guanfu", he was still shocked by the several door and window collections there.

"Being born a few decades earlier is really enviable..." Zhou Zhi's tone was full of envy.

The number of building components rescued from the Three Gorges Reservoir area in Zhouzhi is far more than a hundred times that here, half of which are doors and windows. Many of the carvings and paint jobs are extremely exquisite.

However, all the things combined are probably not as precious as one thing here.

"It was probably in the 1970s or 1980s," said Ma Ye. "At that time, every household was busy removing doors and windows and replacing them with bright and transparent aluminum alloys, modular cabinets, and Simmons mattresses. I didn't actually spend much money when I collected these things. This set of ice-cracked windows with figures and the set of partition doors with unbreakable Bogu floral patterns seemed to have cost me a total of three thousand yuan."

"They are all made of Huanghuali and Ya'an stone!" Zhou Zhi thought he had found too many bargains, but Master Ma was not inferior to him at all: "They are still the rich in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The ones I rescued in the Three Gorges cannot compare with these..."

The so-called ice cracks refer to the lattice patterns of the windows that imitate the texture of cracks on the ice surface. They are made of many small wooden strips using a typical interlocking technique. The flexibility of the interlocking technique allows the pattern design to be arbitrary, from small to large, and constantly modified during the assembly process.

The cracks in the ice indicate that the ice is beginning to melt, the earth is coming back to life, everything is beginning to revive, and soon there will be a vibrant scene. It implies that all the unpleasant things will soon pass, and good wishes will come true.

Because the meaning fits the concept of "hard study", many literati and scholars design their study windows like this. As the saying goes, "Ten years of hard study, no one knows; one day you become famous all over the world." This "hard study" style is a combination of ice cracks and round or square patterns. The circle or rectangle in the middle is like an inkstone, breaking the ice surface, which means that only those who endure hardships can become the best.

However, the places in the middle of these ten groups of "cold windows" that represent "inkstones" have all been blessed.

The so-called opening refers to using straight, curved, long and short lines to outline frames of different shapes in the main parts of doors and windows, and then decorating patterns within the opening to highlight the theme pattern.

The openings of this set of windows are decorated with human figures. All windows are made of huanghuali wood, with very fine carvings and lifelike figures. If you look closely, you can see that there are both men and women, and they should be ten heavenly officials.

The ten celestial officials are all images of palace ladies and high-ranking officials in the court. The carvings are very delicate, and even the patterns on the sleeves and collars of the ladies-in-waiting’s robes are carved out.

Although it has been hundreds of years old, the wood is very hard and the whole is still in good condition. After years of cleaning and wiping, the wood surface has been covered with an amber luster, making the ten windows shine golden and magnificent. (End of this chapter)