The shopkeeper first held out a jade seal and said with a smile: "This is the jade seal of the Han Dynasty royal family. Please appreciate it."
Bai Fu held the jade seal in his hand and saw that it was a rectangular seal with a rectangular seal and Chinese seal script. The jade quality was delicate and warm, transparent and white, like gelatin. The carving was exquisite and exquisite, and the elegance was elegant, revealing the royal style.
Just as Bai Fu was about to nod, Princess Qingluan took a sip of the fragrant tea and said without raising her eyes: "This jade came out of Hotan only twenty or thirty years ago. It was newly carved by jade craftsmen from the south of the Yangtze River. The jade is all made of pulp."
The old one, judging by the technique, should have come from the toy dealers in Luoyang."
The shopkeeper laughed, raised his thumb, and said, "Your Excellency, you have good eyesight." After that, he asked the clerk to take out a sandalwood box from the inner room.
The shopkeeper carefully opened the sandalwood box and found a bronze mirror wrapped in layers of brocade.
The mirror surface was rough and stained with patina, unable to reflect the human face at all, as if it had withered away from time.
The back of the bronze mirror has intricate lines, rich reliefs and exquisite decorations. The outside of the button base is decorated with patterns of the four gods, namely: green dragon, white tiger, red bird and Xuanwu.
The shopkeeper smiled and said: "This mirror is called the 'Four God Pattern Mirror of the First Year of Yongping', and it is said to be an ancient relic from the Western Jin Dynasty. We can't say the exact origin, so we also ask the distinguished guests to help palm the eyes."
Bai Fu glanced at it. This bronze mirror was thin and small, with a mirror surface of only a few inches. The copper workmanship and workmanship were crude. The mirror buttons were shriveled. The external decorative pattern on the mirror buttons was even more monotonous. It was not like the bronze mirrors sold in the market today, with decorative patterns ranging from
Ladies with hairpins, water waves and flowing clouds, sea animals and birds, flower branches and curling grasses, fantasy and confusion, rich and colorful.
Bai Fu was afraid of showing his cowardice, so he quickly asked Princess Qingluan to appreciate it first.
Princess Qingluan put the bronze mirror in the palm of her hand and looked at it carefully. On the edge of the phoenix's wings on the mirror button, there were thirty-six words cast: 'Made in the first year of Yongping, I made a bright mirror, and I studied gold and the three trades, and I will be undefeated forever.
Bird Xuanwu, white tiger and green dragon, Changle Weiyang, Jun Yihou Wang.'
Princess Qingluan sighed and said: "This mirror is indeed an antique of the Western Jin Dynasty. The owner of the bronze mirror should be Yang Zhi, the second queen of Sima Yan, the founding emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty.
The "Book of Jin" written by Fang Xuanling records that Yang Zhi said, "Wanqi has a woman's virtues, her beauty reflects the beauty of her house, and she is very favored."
This bronze mirror is a real antique, but it is ominous. I suggest you keep this mirror sealed and not sell it again."
The shopkeeper nodded quickly and said, "I've learned a lesson. The gentleman in charge of our counter just concluded that this mirror is an ancient relic from the Western Jin Dynasty. He couldn't tell the specific origin.
Listening to what you two said today also opened our eyes. We will take this item off the cabinet right now. Unless a bronze mirror collector requests this kind of collection by name, our store will never sell it easily."
Bai Fu was familiar with the "Book of Jin" and knew the past events of the first year of Yongping.
Emperor Hui of the Jin Dynasty and Queen Sima Zhong of the Jin Dynasty, Empress Jianan was ugly and jealous. Because of Emperor Hui's cowardice, she was once authoritarian. She was the chief culprit of the "Eight Kings Rebellion" in the Western Jin Dynasty. She later died at the hands of King Sima Lun of Zhao, and the subsequent Eight Kings
The rebellion triggered the darkest era in history - the Five Husbands Rebellion in China.
On March 8, the first year of Jin Yongping, Queen Jia Nanfeng murdered Taifu Yang Jun and the Yi Qi clan. Yang Jun was also the father of Emperor Wu of Jin Sima Yan and Queen Yang Zhi.
At that time, Jia Nanfeng, who was still the crown prince, was imprisoned in Jinyong City by Emperor Wu of Jin Sima Yan for murdering the prince's other pregnant concubines. It was precisely because of the intercession of Queen Yang Zhi that Jia Nanfeng was not deposed and saw the light of day again.
After the death of Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty, Jia Nanfeng, who became the empress, took revenge. After killing the entire Yang family, she deposed the empress dowager Yang Zhi as a commoner, imprisoned her in Jinyong City, and starved to death.
That's why Princess Qingluan said that this bronze mirror is ominous, which makes sense.
Two treasures in a row failed to attract the attention of the guests, so the shopkeeper found his personal assistant and whispered a few words into his ears.
After a while, the waiter brought in a bronze tripod with mottled patina, which was more than a foot high, about eight inches wide, and weighed about twenty or thirty kilograms.
The body of the tripod is rectangular. The mouth of the tripod is slightly larger than the bottom. There are prismatic patterns around the tripod. There are wide ears on both sides of the tripod. The ears are pierced in the shape of a round arch. The upper sides of the ears are decorated with zigzag corners of animal masks.
The lower side is painted with animal face patterns on the legs and feet, and cloud and thunder patterns are the overall pattern.
The surface of the vessel is decorated with high-relief human facial patterns. The facial features are precise, wide and square, with a wide mouth, plump lips, high cheekbones, a big nose and curved eyebrows. There are cloud and thunder patterns around the human face, and the human face is
There are horns on both sides of its forehead and claws on both sides of its chin.
The shopkeeper smiled and said: "This is an old object from the Shang Dynasty. Because there is an inscription "Dahe" on the inner wall of the belly of the tripod near the mouth edge, Mr. Zhangyan named it the 'Dahe square tripod with human face pattern'."
Princess Qingluan came closer to look at it carefully, and said for a long time: "This thing must be genuine without a doubt, and it should be from the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, bronze vessels with animal face patterns as the main decoration were more common, but human face patterns were rarer and more precious. This tripod is even more unique with four identical human face patterns decorating the main parts of the vessel body.
This group of people have claws on their faces but no body, and they should belong to the legendary monster Taotie, a vicious beast with a head but no body. But the answer to the mystery is still unknown."
After hearing this, the shopkeeper looked pleased and invited Bai Fu to come and watch.
Bai Fu looked up and down the bronze tripod. The half-relief human faces on all sides of the tripod were extremely weird, giving viewers a daunting, cold and grotesque feeling, as if they would be sucked in by the faces if they took one more look.
Bai Fu couldn't help but touch the bronze tripod with his hand.
The true energy in Bai Fu's body comes from Xun and Kan Erding, one of the Nine Cauldrons of Yu the Great. The Nine Cauldrons are the ancestors of the bronze cauldrons in the world.
Just when Bai Fu was rubbing it with his fingers, a strange feeling came to his heart, making him restless and violent.
A half-human, half-animal god appeared before his eyes, with a face like an ox's head, a body like an ox's hooves, four eyes and six hands, ears and temples like swords and halberds, horns on his head, and two wings on his back.