Riding the wind of rebirth

"In short, you can't buy this or that!" Xu Anxin first pointed to the Yanyuan agate carved flower basket, then to the mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquer box with hydrangea design: "Then why did you call me here?"

"Who told you to have such a discerning eye, Cousin Anxin, to pick out the two most precious items in our showroom at a glance?" Wu Renzhong, having been through the ups and downs of officialdom, immediately launched into a flattering mode, even giving a thumbs up: "Truly amazing!"

"Apart from those two, you can choose anything else you like." Seeing Anxin's cousin's lips begin to curl upwards, Zhou Zhi quickly added.

"Then you help me make a decision," said Anxin's cousin.

Finally, Zhou Zhi helped Xu Anxin collect a batch of beaded bracelets, including rounded pendants and "no worries" charms. For the carvings, he selected several simple icy crystal pieces. One was "Plum Blossom and Crane," where the red dots on the icy crystal were carved into plum blossoms, one of which perfectly resembled the crest of a crane. Another was "Good Fortune," depicting a carp swimming upstream, its head also adorned with a large patch of red.

These ornaments, once packed in brocade pouches, can be perfectly housed in lacquerware jewelry boxes. Furthermore, when displaying the jewelry in the future, these brocade pouches and jewelry boxes themselves serve as two "accessories" that enhance the quality of the ornaments, creating a harmonious and complementary whole.

As for lacquer paintings, they go quite well with modern office settings and Western-style residences. Of course, they shouldn't be placed in the bedroom, as the gold and turquoise colors can easily affect sleep quality. However, they would be perfect for the study or living room.

So Zhouzhi chose a four-panel screen painting called "Silk Road Moon Spring" for his cousin Anxin. Each of the four panels can stand alone as a painting, but they can also be combined to form a large painting measuring 2.4 meters by 1.2 meters.

The painting uses the techniques of gilding and gold painting to depict the golden desert, while the camel caravan and the Hu people are depicted using the carving lacquer technique. The camels, clouds in the background sky, and the moon are also depicted in gold.

The reeds and rushes surrounding Crescent Lake are also golden, while the spring water is painted a touch of turquoise.

The overall image is very harmonious, with a large area of ​​polished, bright black background that makes the gold stand out beautifully.

The four paintings range in complexity from simple to elaborate. The simplest one features only scattered gold smoke and an abstract image of the edge of a desert, yet it is surprisingly beautiful.

Gold and black can also create a "wabi-sabi" atmosphere, simply by leaving plenty of "white space".

"Lesoag has really figured out how to live a comfortable life," Zhou Zhi said with a smile. "Cousin Anxin, isn't that enough?"

"We haven't chosen the porcelain yet," Xu Anxin said, still unsatisfied.

“These are all just ways to fool the islanders,” Zhou Zhi advised. “There are also those who are just pretending to be cultured.”

As he spoke, he fiddled with the porcelain set on the display stand: "Anyway, in my opinion, it's a bit of a hodgepodge. Have you ever seen the Japanese calligraphy? The early 'three strokes' and 'three traces' of the island nation were quite impressive, adhering to the aesthetic structure of calligraphy, that is, the structure and composition. But when Yang Shoujing, a Chinese, brought the so-called Six Dynasties calligraphy style to the island nation in the early Meiji period, the islanders went further and further astray, eventually becoming a so-called 'transcendent' state that ignored the rules and only emphasized individuality and free expression. Anyway, to me, it just looks like a wicked thing."

“That’s you.” Xu Anxin loved to argue with Zhou Zhi: “Your research on ancient porcelain and paintings has made your thinking rigid. You don’t know how to be flexible. I think these porcelains are all quite beautiful.” Zhou Zhi could only smile wryly at this. In his eyes, incense ash porcelain must be paired with Ru ware, and official kiln and Jian ware must be paired with iron porcelain. If the order is reversed, then the aesthetic logic that Zhou Zhi had built up under long-term strict and meticulous training would be subverted. No matter how exquisite it was, in his eyes it would become a “low-quality imitation”, and he would never think of it as “someone’s innovation”.

The wood-fired porcelain made by Lao Zhong this time, based on the aesthetics of the island nation, has had its body thinned and more kaolin clay mixed in. After this modification, the porcelain has become lighter and the body is more delicate and white. It is obviously catering to the tastes of modern island nation people. It has lost both the "clumsy and naive" flavor of Chinese wood-fired porcelain and the "old-fashioned flavor" of island nation porcelain. It has become an imitation of modern island nation Kiyomizu ware, Seto ware, Mino ware and Arita ware, and is not worth collecting.

“If it’s tableware, I won’t bother with you, but if it’s tea set, it’s better to be a little more particular.” Zhou Zhi didn’t have time to explain the history and aesthetics of porcelain to her cousin Anxin. In the end, she chose a set of early wood-fired porcelain by Lao Zhong, which was a celadon glaze made by adding traditional glaze and red agate: “This is very good.”

"What's with this edge?" Xu Anxin frowned. "It's so rough, aren't you afraid of getting tea stains on your mouth?"

"Because this is still a semi-finished product, the manufacturing method of this kind of porcelain is called 'inverted firing', which means that after the glaze is applied, the porcelain is turned upside down for firing. Therefore, the edge where it contacts the saggar is unglazed, which is commonly known as 'unglazed edge'."

"Ding kiln and Hutian kiln in the Song Dynasty produced a large number of such porcelain pieces. This was a firing method before the invention of spur firing. Due to its age, this set of porcelain pieces still has some iridescent glaze and flowing patterns on the bottom. It was fired very beautifully."

“Especially this ring of 'mang kou' (a type of glaze), look, cousin. They were originally bluish-gray with incense ash base, but the iron was forced out during the firing process, forming a ‘firestone red’ in this ring of 'mang kou'.”

"Is it pretty? I don't think so." Xu Anxin examined the teaware, which was white with a hint of green and had a greenish hue flowing at the bottom, for a while. She thought it was pretty, but she still couldn't accept the rim.

“If you don’t like this 'mangkou' (a type of cut of meat), you can actually have it encased in a ring,” Zhou Zhi said. “Encasing it in gold, silver, or bronze will create the desired effect.”

Xu Anxin held the teacup up to the gold part of the lacquerware and compared it to the gold: "With the gold and silver rims, it seems to look pretty good, huh?"

"That's right. Adding gold or silver trim not only elevates the aesthetic appeal but also instantly elevates the quality of the teaware."

"Alright, I'll order one set... no, five sets, of these unglazed porcelain pieces. I'll leave the edging to you!"

Zhou Zhi: "..."

The remaining products are buckwheat soy sauce, buckwheat bran vinegar, Ningnan sun-dried vinegar, buckwheat germ tea, dried mushrooms, and mushroom sauce – nothing that could attract Anxin's cousin's attention.

Originally, the items my cousin Anxin bought were also display items from the Light Industry Bureau. The Light Industry Bureau of the Autonomous Prefecture is quite poor, and many of the carvings were borrowed from Zhouzhi for the exhibition. However, the items she selected today can be considered as helping to connect businesses.

Taking advantage of the time, Wu Renzhong also took the two to visit the earth forest and Anha Village. (End of Chapter)