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Chapter 373 Northern Qi Buddha Head
"Meet your crush again?" Yu Yao also teased Pu Jie.

"I can't even say I'm joking." Pu Jie cleared his throat, "Two things. First, this year's Chinese New Year, my parents said they would invite you to my house."

Yu Yao thought for a while, "Well, I won't go there. There's nothing to talk about between the brothers. I'll get involved with the New Year's Eve. It's a little awkward."

Pu Jie interjected, "You don't want to spend time with newcomers this year, do you?"

"Don't talk about it, it's useless, I haven't decided how to live, what about the second one?"

"Forget it, it's up to you." Pu Jie continued, "Are you familiar with the stone Buddha statues in the Northern Qi Dynasty? I haven't heard you mention this before, and I haven't come into contact with it either."

"What? What sources do you have?" Yu Yao heard, "Buddha statues in the Northern Qi Dynasty are very popular among high-end collectors. However, there are very few whole ones on the market, most of them are Buddha heads."

Speaking of the stone Buddha statues in the Northern Qi Dynasty, we need to talk about some background.During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the late Northern Wei Dynasty, which unified the north, split into the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the Western Wei Dynasty; the Western Wei Dynasty was later usurped by the Yuwen family to establish the Northern Zhou Dynasty;

Among the northern Buddha statues of this period, the artistic achievements of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi were the highest.This is because both Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty and Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty launched a movement to exterminate Buddhism, which to a certain extent affected the development of Buddha statues.

The Northern Qi Dynasty lasted only 28 years and was destroyed by the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Yang Jian, the powerful minister of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, finally established the Sui Dynasty.

In 28 years, there were six emperors in Northern Qi Dynasty, and none of them lived past 40 years old.Moreover, except for Emperor Xiaozhao Gao Yan (who died at the age of 27 after reigning for less than two years), the other emperors are very poor.

Many people called the Northern Qi Dynasty the "Beast Dynasty", because the emperor's tyranny was easy to kill, cruel and impermanent, and his rule was extremely dark.For example, Emperor Wenxuan, Gao Yang, was a bit intermittently mentally ill, and he took pleasure in killing people while drinking.He once killed a concubine, then cut off his head and dismembered him, and used human bones as a pipa to play and sing by himself, which can be called extremely abnormal.

In great contrast to this, all the cruel and easy-to-kill emperors of the Northern Qi Dynasty believed in Buddhism!

At the same time, the bloody and dark Northern Qi was very artistically developed.

That's why the Buddha statues in the Northern Qi Dynasty are so famous and valued by high-end collectors.

However, the collection of stone Buddha statues has great limitations, and the Buddha head is a typical representative of folk collections.

Among them, some were stolen from the late Qing Dynasty to the period of the Republic of China, and some were unearthed.From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the period of the Republic of China, a large number of stone Buddha statues and Buddha heads flowed out of the country, and some of them have returned in recent years.In addition, there are indeed some scattered Chinese folk.

"Yes, it is the Buddha's head, Shakyamuni Buddha's head." Pu Jie said, "Can this thing be collected?"

"Where did you get the goods first?" Yu Yao frowned, "This is very troublesome. Whether it can be traded or not depends on specific analysis of specific issues."

"Don't worry, I'm just asking you first." Pu Jie explained, "It's a former comrade-in-arms of mine. After being demobilized, he returned to his hometown in southern Yunnan. Now he often runs in Myanmar to do business. He called me yesterday and said I got up and received a Buddha head from Myanmar, which flowed out from China in those years. It seems that the Buddha head was only in transit in Myanmar, and then the owner died in Myanmar and left it like this.”

"What kind of business can he receive a Buddha head?"

"Don't get me wrong. He is doing serious business, mainly agricultural products. This Buddha head was accidentally left by the grandfather of a local rubber wholesaler."

"During the period of the Republic of China, it flowed out from China. It originally passed through Myanmar. As a result, the owner of the goods died, and the Buddha's head remained in Myanmar. The grandfather of the wholesaler you mentioned kept it privately. Later, it was passed on to the wholesaler. Recently, your comrades I bought it, is that right?" Yu Yao sorted it out again.

"Yes. My comrade-in-arms also thought, since it is something from Huaxia, let's get it back first. After communicating with me, he said that if I am interested and can make money, he will ship it to me. When I make money, Add two to one and make five, as long as it is sold to Chinese people."

Yu Yao nodded, "In this case, it can be bought and sold. However, how did he know it belonged to Beiqi? Your comrade-in-arms also understands stone Buddha statues?"

"Hey! They keep the original tin box, and there are small characters written in red paint on it: Northern Qi Tianbao, Sakyamuni."

Tianbao is the reign title of Emperor Gao Yang.

"Understood, this way, you ask your comrade-in-arms to take a few more high-definition pictures and send them over. I'll take a look first."

"I've already said that he should send it now. I'm at home, I'll check my mailbox later; if it comes, I'll forward it to you."

"Well, it's good to send an email, I can see it more clearly on the computer."

Yu Yao hung up the phone, and within 5 minutes, Pu Jie sent a WeChat message, saying that it had been sent.

Yu Yao turned on the phone, entered the mailbox, and downloaded the picture.

After only a few glances at the first frontal picture, Yu Yao concluded that this must be the statue of Sakyamuni in the Northern Qi Dynasty!However, the fracture of the Buddha's head has been polished. It is not known whether only the Buddha's head was taken after it was unearthed, or it was stolen from somewhere during the Republic of China.

Being able to conclude so quickly is certainly related to Yu Yao's eyesight, but it is also related to the characteristics of the Northern Qi stone Buddha statues.

The fine stone Buddha statues of the Northern Qi Dynasty have a special soft beauty in the facial lines, and often have a subtle and calm smile in them, similar to the smile of the Mona Lisa, but more serene than the smile of the Mona Lisa , is even more mysterious.

This is extremely difficult to imitate; it seems that it is impossible to explain why in a dynasty that ruled the darkness, the emperor was cruel and easy to kill, but there were Buddha statues of such artistic level and beauty.

After Yu Yao read all the photos, he opened the door.

According to the accompanying size description, the Buddha head is about 35 cm high, not too big, but not too small either.

Similar Northern Qi Buddha heads have been auctioned in Europe, America and Japan, as well as Hong Kong Island and Taiwan Island.According to the auction records, the price of this Buddha head should be more than 500 million!
Yu Yao then called Pu Jie back, "How much did your comrade-in-arms charge?"

"50, that's a lot! Don't tell me that he was scammed by the Burmese?"

"No, open the door wide, and you can tell it's genuine just by looking at the photos. Moreover, it's no problem to sell it at ten times the price."

"Great! Then I'll ask him to find a professional antique consignment company to send it over!"

Yu Yao thought for a while, "I don't think there's any need to worry, I'll look for a buyer first. This Buddha head is a typical Northern Qi boutique. If you really know how to do it, you can basically confirm it by looking at the photos. Once you have an intention, it's not too late to ship it over to see the real thing." .Besides, the buyer we are looking for may not necessarily be from Jiangzhou."

"Well, it makes sense!" Pu Jie nodded, "It seems that you haven't been dazzled by love!"

"Ding is Ding, Mao is Mao, I have always been free from interference."

"If you say you're fat, you're still out of breath, so let's do it first!" Pu Jie hung up the phone.

Afterwards, Yu Yao called Xiao Ying again.

(End of this chapter)