People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 505: Destiny is in Song
This jade seal.

it is true?
Hearing Zhao Jun's words, everyone was stunned at first, and then shocked.

You said it was fake before, how come it became true again?

"Master, don't you say that it must have the seal of the "Heavenly Mandate Stone Clan" to be considered authentic?"

Zeng Gongliang couldn't help but say: "Now there is only the 'Wei received the Han Dynasty seal'. If one moment is missing, how can we tell the authenticity?"

Not only Zhao Zhen looked at Zhao Jun eagerly, waiting for an answer.

Others including Yan Shu, Fan Zhongyan, Xia Song, Du Yan, Zheng Jian, Fu Bi, Wen Yanbo, Han Qi, Pang Ji, Zeng Gongliang, Song Xiang and others were also looking at him.

Zhao Jun said before that the real imperial seal has several characteristics, one of which is the inscription "Received the Mandate from Heaven, May you live long and prosper forever."

The second reason is that Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty and wanted to snatch the imperial seal from Queen Mother Wang. The angry Queen Mother Wang smashed the imperial seal to the ground, causing a corner of the dragon on it to be missing.

Third, Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty. In order to prove that he did not usurp the throne but was succeeded by Emperor Xian of Han, he ordered people to engrave "Wei Accepted the Imperial Seal of Han" on it.

Fourth, Shi Le took the jade seal from the Former Zhao and engraved the seal "Tianming Shishi" on one side of the jade seal.

So in summary.

The real imperial seal should be four inches in diameter, with a missing corner, and have an engraving on each side.

However, the jade seal in front of him only had one mark, which was obviously wrong.

But Zhao Jun laughed and said, "Because the 'Tianming Shi Clan' is just a rumor and is not found in any historical records."

"rumor?"

"Come to think of it, I seem to remember seeing it somewhere."

"I remember now, it's the Taiping Yulan!"

"Yes, it is the Taiping Yulan!"

Song Xiang and Pang Ji looked at each other immediately. No wonder they felt the four words "Tianming Shishi" sounded familiar.

It turns out that this was mentioned in a book they had read before.

"good."

Zhao Jun smiled and nodded: "It is the Taiping Yulan. A professor once gave an open class and talked about the imperial seal, and mentioned this matter. The four words "Tianming Shishi" were not recorded in any historical books or historical materials before the Taiping Yulan."

"Including the important historical materials of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, such as the Spring and Autumn Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms, the Spring and Autumn Annals of the Thirty Kingdoms, the Book of Wei, and the History of the Northern Dynasties revised in the Tang Dynasty, as long as there are historical materials recording the Later Zhao, there is no explanation in this regard."

He looked around at everyone and continued, "It was not until the early Song Dynasty, during the reign of Zhao Guangyi, that the term 'Tianming Shishi' appeared in Taiping Yulan. This shows that it must have been a rumor at the time or a certain unofficial history that was adopted by the editors of Taiping Yulan, such as Li Fang, Li Mu, and Xu Xuan. At least, there is no source for it in other official histories."

"What about the 'Wei received the imperial seal from the Han Dynasty'? Is it recorded in historical documents?"

Fan Zhongyan asked.

They are politicians, not historians. Although they have read some history books before, how can they be compared with historians who specialize in studying history?
Zhao Jun actually didn’t know these things. His information came from the professor’s open class.

After all, for him, he is just a student of history. In terms of knowledge and ability, he naturally cannot compare with the professor.

So Zhao Jun smiled and said, “During the public class before, Professor Li, an expert on the history of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, said that the source of the phrase ‘Wei accepted the Han Dynasty’s imperial seal’ is the Book of Wei written by Wei Shou, in the Book of Wei, Emperor’s Chronicle, Volume 4.”

"Think about it, who is Wei Shou? He was a Northern Wei native. After the fall of the Northern Wei, he lived through the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties. He wrote the Book of Wei under the order of Emperor Wenxuan of the Northern Qi, Gao Yang."

He looked at the jade seal and said, "The jade seal recorded in the Book of Wei was taken away by the Western Wei Dynasty at that time. The Northern Qi Dynasty did not have it at all. Given Gao Yang's character of repeatedly interfering in the compilation of history, if this matter is false and the jade seal does not exist, how could he allow Wei Shou to write it?"

"Oh?"

Yan Shu was smart. He understood the logic behind it after a little thought. He nodded in agreement and said, "That's true."

"Yes, Wei Shou himself is a figure of the same period, he must be very familiar with the situation in this regard. In addition, the jade seal went to the Western Wei Dynasty, and the Eastern Wei Dynasty that usurped the throne from the Northern Qi Dynasty did not have this jade seal at all. If it is a false story, Wei Shou must have changed it."

"That makes sense. There is only one reason. That is that Northern Qi also acknowledged that the imperial seal did exist. This also indirectly proves the authenticity of Wei Shou's records."

"Look, the inscription 'Wei accepted the imperial seal from Han' is genuine, plus 'received the mandate from heaven, long life and prosperity' and other features. This should be the seal that the Northern Wei Dynasty found in the temple."

"But didn't Northern Qi also claim that its seals were authentic? If so, why did Northern Qi allow Wei Shou to certify the authenticity of the Northern Wei seal? Wouldn't this tell the world that the seal in my hand is fake?"

Everyone felt that it was certain that the one unearthed now should be the jade seal of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The only question was that the Northern Qi Dynasty allowed Wei Shou to write like this. Wouldn't that be a slap in their own face?
Zhao Jun smiled and said, "Of course this is because of the time difference. It is estimated that Wei Shou compiled history first, and Hou Jing rebelled later. Northern Qi only got the jade seal after that, so it is naturally difficult to change it."

"That's true."

"It seems that the seal was first obtained by the Northern Wei Dynasty, then went to the Western Wei Dynasty, and then the Northern Zhou Dynasty usurped the Western Wei Dynasty and returned it to the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Yang Jian usurped the Northern Zhou Dynasty and obtained the seal. At the end of the Sui Dynasty and the end of the Tang Dynasty, one seal was lost each. The seals lost were those of the Northern Qi Dynasty and the Southern Chen Dynasty, and this Northern Wei seal was preserved."

"But if that's the case, then why is the seal of the Southern Chen Dynasty so clearly mentioned in official history? It circulated among many countries, passed down from generation to generation, and was never lost or damaged?"

Wen Yanbo raised an objection.

Zhao Jun said: "Do you remember where you found the one from the Northern Wei Dynasty?"

"Yecheng?"

"Yes, the Jinyang Autumn Annals record that before the reign of Ran Wei, the seal was quite normal, but after it was stolen by the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the inscription on the seal became 'By the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor Lives Long'."

Zhao Jun looked around and said, "Many officials of the Eastern Jin Dynasty also believed that this seal was fake because the inscription did not match the real "Qin Dynasty Seal". So it was speculated that the "Qin Dynasty Seal" might have been lost. Do you know why now?"

"I understand."

Zeng Gongliang suddenly realized: "Ran Wei suffered the siege of Yecheng by Murong clan of Former Yan, so he had to ask Eastern Jin for help. Eastern Jin wanted to cheat the jade seal from Ran Wei, but Ran Wei was not stupid enough to hand over the real jade seal before the arrival of Eastern Jin reinforcements, so he made a fake one. As a result, Eastern Jin did not send troops to help, and Ran Wei was in danger of being destroyed, so he hid the real jade seal in the clay sculpture of Yecheng Temple until Ran Wei was destroyed and Former Yan replaced it. Later, Former Qin destroyed Former Yan, and Later Qin and Later Yan united to destroy Former Qin. Northern Wei defeated Later Yan, and Yecheng returned to Northern Wei, and then Northern Wei got the real jade seal from the temple."

"Well, this is the only possibility."

"If you think in this way, then the origin of this jade seal is very clear."

"So the seal originally from the Northern Wei Dynasty should actually be the one from the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The historian didn't know it was a fake, so when he wrote the history, he recorded it as falling from the Ran Wei Dynasty to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and finally circulated in the Southern Dynasty, but he didn't know that the real seal had been in Yecheng all along."

Everyone suddenly understood.

If this is the case, it can explain why the seal circulated in the Southern Dynasties is so detailed in the historical materials, but the inscriptions on it are completely different from the records. It turns out that before the Ran Wei Dynasty, this seal was still a genuine product.

That is to say, from the time when Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty to the time when the Western Jin Dynasty usurped the throne, and then the Western Jin Dynasty was destroyed, the jade seal was obtained by the Former Zhao, the Later Zhao, and Ran Min respectively. All the seals during this period were real jade seals.

As a result, something went wrong during the reign of Ran Wei. The Eastern Jin Dynasty wanted to get the imperial seal for free but was cheated instead. Eventually, a fake one was circulated and reached the Southern Dynasty.

The real jade seal was hidden in Yecheng and was obtained by the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Afterwards, the fake jade seal of the Later Qin Dynasty went to the Northern Qi Dynasty, the fake jade seal made by Ran Wei went to the Southern Dynasty, and the real jade seal passed through the Northern Wei Dynasty, Western Wei Dynasty, and Northern Zhou Dynasty, and was finally obtained by Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty.

When the Sui Dynasty fell, it was not known whether the jade seal from the Northern Qi or Southern Chen was lost.

When the Tang Dynasty fell, another piece was lost.

The real jade seal was fortunately passed into the hands of Li Congke, the last emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty. Li Congke then burned himself in Luoyang, and the fire buried it in the ruins until it was dug out from the ground in Luoyang a few days ago.

It can be said that if it is really as everyone has deduced, then this imperial seal is undoubtedly full of legends.

Even though the jade seal itself is a legend, it does not affect the fantasy of this experience at all.

This also made Zhao Jun couldn't help but say: "If my inference is correct, then the Song Dynasty is really lucky. The real jade seal has actually been passed down, and it was extremely lucky that it was not lost during the three selections. It was preserved until the Later Tang Dynasty and was picked up by us."

"Does that mean it is 100% the authentic imperial seal?"

Zhao Zhen became excited again.

I even couldn't help sniffling.

The ups and downs happened so quickly that people couldn't react.

“It’s just a high possibility.”

Zhao Jun still held the imperial seal in his hand. The window next to Zhao Zhen's desk in Chongzheng Hall was open. A ray of setting sun shone in, making the imperial seal glow brightly.

Zhao Jun pointed at the seal that was slightly swollen and had cracks inside and said, "Look, the gap on the dragon's horn feels very smooth. It definitely doesn't look like it was made recently. Even if it was polished, it wouldn't look so realistic. It must have a sense of age. And then there are the cracks inside the seal."

Zhao Jun shook his head regretfully and said, "This crack should be an expansion crack caused by high-temperature burning. Because the internal structure of Hetian jade is not stable, it will expand and crack when it reaches a certain temperature. If you look through it, you can see that the skin color inside is natural and stable. It may have been precipitated for decades. If it is a newly made jade seal, and it cracks after high-temperature calcination, the crack will definitely not look as smooth as it does now, and the skin color will definitely be brighter."

Before traveling through time, Zhao Jun actually didn't know much about jade.

However, after traveling through time, there were many things made of Hetian jade at home, including not only rewards from Zhao Zhen and gifts from colleagues, but also jade sent by his wife's family.

After playing with it for a long time, you will naturally understand it a little bit.

In fact, there are many experts in this field, including Zhao Zhen.

When they are in this position, apart from national affairs, it is normal to collect antiques, calligraphy and paintings, jade and the like in their daily lives.

Before, it was because I was too obsessed with the main features of the imperial seal.

Now, after Zhao Jun's guidance, I found that just as he said, the traces inside were full of historical sense. The newly forged jade seal would definitely not look as natural and smooth as it does now.

"If that's the case, then we can be 100% sure that it is the real seal."

Everyone's eyes widened.

Zhao Jun placed the imperial seal on the desk and said with a smile, "Before I saw the real thing, I thought it was 1% fake, with only a 90% chance of being real. But now, I estimate it is % real."

"Why is it only 90%? What about the remaining 10%?"

Zhao Zhen was stunned.

"The remaining 10% is that among the hundreds of millions of people in the Song Dynasty, there was an extremely talented counterfeiter."

Zhao Jun thought for a moment and said, "This person first keenly found the real eight-character inscription based on the characteristics, and then determined the overall appearance of the jade seal from many historical books. After that, he ruled out the theory of "Tianming Shishi" and adopted the record of "Wei received the imperial seal from the Han Dynasty". Finally, he took great pains to make it look old and created a jade seal full of age. If there really is such a person, I would not blame him, but would recruit him to the palace to do cultural relic restoration work. Such a person is simply a god-like figure!"

"When you think about it, it's true. It's really too difficult."

"Yes, there are endless difficulties. Let's not talk about the real eight-character inscription, which can only be guessed. Just excluding the seal of "Tianming Shishi" is very difficult to decide. After all, "Taiping Yulan" is also a popular version popular in our Song Dynasty. Normal people will think that it was copied from some historical material and choose to adopt it. At that time, there may be a situation where "Tianming Shishi" on the left and "Wei Shouhan Chuanguo Xi" on the right, and people will find loopholes."

"Yes, by comparison, aging is the easiest, because it is purely a technical job. The previous features rely entirely on guesswork and selection. Among the countless historical books that record the imperial seal, if any one of them is not thoroughly studied, then all the research will be in vain."

After Zhao Jun's layer-by-layer analysis and unraveling of the problem, everyone realized the seriousness of the problem.

If there really is such a person who can restore a clear lineage of the jade seal under such complicated circumstances and also copy and forge a jade seal that is completely consistent with the records, it would be too exaggerated.

With such terrifying execution ability, what can't you do?
Therefore, it is very likely that this jade seal is the real jade seal, but it was mixed up in history books. Before Ran Wei, it was the real first jade seal, and after Ran Wei, it became a fake jade seal. The real jade seal became the second jade seal obtained by the Northern Wei Dynasty.

After that, it went through many strange experiences and was miraculously preserved until the Later Tang Dynasty. It was burned and turned into black stone and was buried under the ruins, thus escaping the search of the child emperor Shi Jingtang.

“I have to say, this is a miracle.”

Zhao Jun looked at Zhao Zhen and said superstitiously, "Perhaps it is really destiny that has allowed the Song Dynasty to find this divine weapon!"

"The destiny is with Song? The destiny is with Song?"

Zhao Zhen muttered to himself, picked up the jade seal, raised it above his head to examine it carefully, then laughed, "Hahahahahaha, I have a great grandson, and he also got the jade seal. It really is the destiny of the Song Dynasty!"

"Congratulations, sir! Congratulations, sir!"

"It just so happens that the imperial court will be held soon. This jade seal comes at the right time. It can comfort our ancestors."

"I believe that we should make it known to the world, so that people know that the Song Dynasty is ruled by heaven!"

"I second the proposal."

"I also second my opinion."

Many people stepped forward to announce the good news to the world.

(End of this chapter)