After Xiao Yao returned to Hanzhou City, there were endless visitors at home, and it was not until the tenth day of the first lunar month that he calmed down.

During this period, he has been sorting out the harvest of Cuiping Mountain's treasures, and has selected some fake antiques and low-value cultural relics, and has prepared to deal with them all after a while.

Those antiques with higher value were also selected for classification and storage. It would be convenient to continue to collect or cash out in the future.

What Xiao Yao cares most about are those precious antiques worth over 100 million. Although this batch of treasures is huge, the most precious antiques and cultural relics are really valuable. Although the number of precious antiques and cultural relics worth over 100 million is only a small part, its value accounts for more than 80% of the total value of this batch of treasures.

After all the identification was completed, there were 78 antiques and cultural relics worth over 100 million in this batch of treasures, with a total value of more than 21 billion. The added value of the other treasures was about 7 billion, and the total value of the Cuiping Mountain treasure was about 28 billion.

A batch of treasures with such amazing value is a huge surprise even for Xiao Yao!

Although the collection of the Holy Soul Ring is as rich as a country, it is the wealth accumulated by Pan Wu over 3,000 years. However, this batch of treasures was obtained by Xiao Yao himself. This sense of surprise is naturally different.

Among these 78 most precious antique arts, two are very special. Although Xiao Yao does not recognize the value of these two cultural relics, these two cultural relics have special significance.

These two cultural relics are the snake head and the chicken head among the 12 bronze beast heads in the Old Summer Palace.

The bronze statue of the twelve zodiac animals in the Old Summer Palace was originally part of the fountain outside the Haiyan Hall of the Old Summer Palace. It was a red bronze statue from the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.

The head of the bronze statue of the zodiac is realistic in style, with fine castings, and the wrinkles and fluff on the animal's head are all clear and realistic.

The material used to cast the beast head was red copper refined by the Qing court at that time. It had a deep color on the outside and was brilliant on the inside. It had been rusty for a hundred years without staining, which was a masterpiece.

According to research, the bronze statues of the twelve zodiac signs were arranged in eight shapes on both sides of a pool in front of the Haiyan Hall of the Old Summer Palace, and were called "hydraulic clocks" by people at that time.

Every day, the bronze statues of the twelve zodiac signs will take turns spraying water, representing different points of the day and noon, the twelve statues will rush at the same time.

The fountain of the twelve zodiac signs of Haiyantang is a fountain clock designed according to the twelve zodiac signs in our country. Every hour, the zodiac clock belonging to that hour will automatically spray water.

At twelve o'clock noon, the twelve zodiac signs spray water at the same time, with extremely exquisite design. The main building of Haiyantang faces west, with eleven rooms up and down, with stacked water squirting troughs on the left and right of the building doors, and a large fountain pool is arranged in the shape of "eight" on the left and right of the pool. The bronze statues of human body and animal heads are arranged in the shape of twelve hours every day and night. The twelve zodiac signs spray water in turn, commonly known as "hydraulic clock".

The portrait of the twelve zodiac animals was originally located on the western building of the Old Summer Palace, on the fan-shaped pool in front of the Haiyan Hall, on the 12-stone platform on the north and south sides of the Taiwan Strait.

The south bank is the rat, the tiger, the dragon, the horse, the monkey, and the dog of Xu; the north bank is the ox, the rabbit, the snake, the sheep, the rooster, and the pig of Hai.

These portraits are all animal heads, with copper heads and stone heads. They are hollowly connected to water spray pipes. Every hour, the zodiac portraits representing that hour will spray water from their mouths. At noon, the fountains are gushing from their mouths at the same time, which is a wonder.

These bronze zodiac statues are 50 cm high and are exquisitely carved, making them the finest products among the bronzes of the Qing Dynasty.

In 1860, the British and French forces invaded China, burned the Old Summer Palace, and the bronze statue of beast-headed animals began to be lost overseas.

Xiao Yao personally does not recognize the artistic value of the twelve zodiac animals in the Old Summer Palace, but its historical significance cannot be ignored.

The artistic value of the bronze beast head in the Old Summer Palace is indeed very high, and there is no doubt that it is.

During the prosperous period of Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty was strong in its national strength and its craftsmanship was at its peak. This was particularly well expressed on the bronze statue of the twelve zodiac animals in the Old Summer Palace.

First of all, the copper it uses is an alloy copper specially refined for the palace, and contains many precious metals. It is the same as the copper used in the copper cranes displayed in the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Summer Palace. It has a deep color and contains essence. It has been shaved and has not been stained after storms. It is a unique one.

Secondly, it was carefully crafted by craftsmen from the palace construction offices who specialize in serving the emperor. The casters were finely carved with fine chiseling. The fine parts such as animal fluff were chiseled and forged. It was clear and realistic. The key parts such as nose, eyes, ears, and wrinkles on the nose and neck were all very delicate, without a trace of sloppy, showing an extremely high level of craftsmanship.

The bronze statue of the twelve zodiac animals was made by Chinese court craftsmen, and the designer was artists from Europe such as Lang Shining. Therefore, the bronze statue not only has a strong traditional Chinese aesthetic taste, but also integrates the characteristics of Western plastic art.

The artistic value of the bronze beast head cannot be ignored, but it still cannot reach the level of a national treasure.

If you only consider the artistic value of the bronze beast head, even if you come from the Old Summer Palace, your value will not exceed 100 million.

However, if the humanistic value of the bronze beast head and the historical significance it represents, its value is indeed immeasurable.

The value of antiques is only part of the artistic nature, and the proportion of some special cultural relics, humanistic value and historical significance is even greater.

The bronze beast head is a cultural heritage of our Chinese nation for thousands of years. It also symbolizes the prosperity of our motherland back then. It is also a historical witness of the plunder and burning of the Old Summer Palace by the Eight-Nation Alliance. Its historical significance is far greater than its artistic nature.

Because of the special historical significance of the bronze beast head, he still needs to consider how to deal with these two cultural relics.

Although these 78 antique arts worth over 100 million yuan are precious, they are just ordinary cultural relics after all, and they are not worth moving him. What really makes him care about is one of the jade slips.

The value of this jade slip is not calculated among these 78 precious cultural relics. Otherwise, the value of this batch of treasures would have increased by many times.

Because this jade slip is a truly priceless treasure and cannot be measured by money.

The material of this jade slip alone has exceeded the total value of all the precious cultural relics in this batch of treasures.

The materials used to make this jade slip were extinct as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, and even Panwu's long life was rare.

The jade material of this jade slip is called Kongming Shenyu, which is a special material specially used to make and store information in ancient times.

There were many kinds of materials that could store information in ancient times, but Kongming Shenyu was the most precious one.
Chapter completed!