Look up at the national flag in Tiananmen Square and look down at the national treasure at Panjiayuan Market. These are two things that many "international friends" do when they come to Beijing now. The Panjiayuan Flea Market is located at the southeast corner of the Third Ring Road in Beijing. As early as the last century
In the 1980s, this was an underground market where some players, smugglers and cultural relic dealers conducted semi-illegal cultural relic transactions.
At that time, transactions were all carried out in the early morning. Buyers and sellers took advantage of the cover of darkness before dawn to sneak out of the nearby alleys, pushing bicycles, pedaling three-wheelers, and holding small flashlights on both sides of the street.
In the open space, they took out "second-hand goods" and set up street stalls, and dispersed before daylight. This market was formed spontaneously, and people from all walks of life showed their talents and fought with the urban management, industry and commerce, cultural relics inspection and other departments for more than ten years.
Guerrilla is known as "ghost market" among the people.
Taking advantage of the reform and opening up and economic development, the domestic "art" collection market has an increasing demand. In May 1993, the first formal art auction company in modern China, China Guardian International Auction Co., Ltd., was established.
The first spring auction was held in March of the following year and was a success. In 1995, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Beijing Rongbao, Shanghai Duoyunxuan and other merchants became pilot units for direct management of cultural relics trading.
Against this background, the relevant departments also acquiesced to the existence of the Panjiayuan Ghost Market. In 1995, they set up temporary shops with canvas in the open space next to the street, allowing the "ghosts" of Panjiayuan to enter and trade in order to carry out transactions.
Formal unified management. The ideology at that time was not "open" enough, so it was not called "Antique Market", but "Panjiayuan Flea Market". The meaning of the word "flea market" is very subtle.
The subsequent development of the Panjiayuan market can be described as explosive. In December 2007, when the Cultural Relics Protection Law was revised, Panjiayuan had become the largest antique trading center in the country. When tourists sneaked into Panjiayuan in 2008, it was
There are thousands of stalls, and nearly 100,000 customers enter the market every day. dignitaries and celebrities from hundreds of countries have come here to visit. For example, a Thai princess even discussed the prices in the shop where You Fang works.
You Fang's eyes were opened here, and he deeply realized what it was like to be a country bumpkin entering the city. There were so many things he didn't understand!
In a yard not far from the shop where You Fang is, there is a store specializing in high-proof ancient porcelain. Hanging in the store is a large photo of two women: one of them is Hillary, the wife of the former US president and current secretary of state.
·Clinton, said to be the most powerful woman on earth, an old lady who can’t even take care of her own husband but always likes to meddle in China’s affairs; the other is the loud-voiced owner of this store.
One day, You Fang passed by this store and happened to take a few more glances inside. He saw a man in his sixties, with gray temples, a Chinese character face, glasses, deep forehead wrinkles, and an obvious mole next to his right earlobe.
Zheng pointed to a brush and asked, "How do you sell this thing?"
The owner of the shop with a big voice happened to be in the shop and replied casually: "That's an official kiln from the Tang Dynasty. It's very expensive!"
You Fang was drinking a bottle of black tea. When he heard the words, he almost burst out and couldn't help but laugh strangely. When antique dealers mentioned official kilns, they had specific references. First of all, they referred to Ding, Ru, Guan, Ge, and Jun in the Song Dynasty.
One of the five famous kilns, if further elaborated, it can be divided into Kaifeng official kiln in the Northern Song Dynasty and Hangzhou official kiln in the Southern Song Dynasty. Secondly, it corresponds to the private kiln. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the royal workshop in Jingdezhen that specialized in firing imperial porcelain was sometimes also called the official kiln.
Kiln, but this does not need to be emphasized.
The phrase "official kilns of the Tang Dynasty" is as funny as "Chiang Kai-shek, President of the United States".
The old man with gray temples did not smile, and walked out of the store without saying a word. When he stepped out of the threshold, he let out a long sigh of regret. Seeing You Fang's strange smile while he was poking his head with black tea in hand, he asked: "Young man."
,why are you laughing?"
You Fang is an exquisite businessman in Panjiayuan. He is loved by his boss and often takes in business. When he has time, he does a lot of private work to earn some extra money for himself. When he hears someone answering, he immediately comes forward and whispers.
He said: "Sir, please don't listen to her random talk. She will only fool foreigners who don't know what to do!... I think you are an expert. If you want to buy porcelain, come with me. As long as you can afford the price, I promise not to offend you."
...What are you talking about about the official kilns of the Tang Dynasty? They think that the porcelain becomes more expensive as it gets older, it is simply a disgrace to Panjiayuan!"
The old gentleman said oh and asked: "Isn't porcelain more expensive as it gets older?"
Hearing this, he seemed a bit amateurish. You Fang became more energetic and showed off: "You don't understand the market. The most expensive ones being speculated nowadays are Yuan blue and white, but there are so few handed down that Pan Jiayuan can't see the real ones."
When it comes to porcelain, those from the Yongle, Xuande and Chenghua dynasties of the Ming Dynasty and the Kang, Yong and Qian dynasties of the Qing Dynasty are at their peak. We have a global porcelain auction price list in our store. If you don’t believe me, I’ll show it to you for reference.”
The old gentleman seemed to be very interested in You Fang. As he walked, he asked, "Young man, I see that you are not very old, and you know a lot about porcelain?"
You Fang replied slightly proudly: "To tell you the truth, even if there is only a broken piece of porcelain, I can tell whether it is true or false. I can tell you when and what kiln it was produced in, and how much it is worth.
What price will it cost? What price will it cost if you find the right one? What price will it cost if you go to the auction house... If you don’t believe me, you can test my eyes with something to see if I am telling the truth. If you believe me, you can come back in the future.
Taobao, you can spend a little money to hire me as a palmist. When the time comes, you can choose something and negotiate the price by looking at my code... But you have to make an appointment in advance. This is my PHS number. My surname is You, and everyone calls me Xiao.
tour."
The old man looked at him with great interest and took out a small square of jade like a seal from his pocket. It was a few centimeters high and was in the shape of a square prism. It was also engraved with Han official inscriptions. The strokes were as deep and straight as a branch. There was a hole in the center of the top.
He said with a questioning look: "I don't have any porcelain, but I have a piece of jade. What's the point?"
Most people really can't recognize this thing. You Fang glanced at it for a few times and replied: "This is Yan Mao. It is not a batch of imitations from the Ming Dynasty but an ancient jade from the Han Dynasty. It is worn on the body to ward off evil spirits and ward off epidemics. The jade material
It’s a little bit worse, it’s worth several thousand dollars.”
The old man nodded and asked: "If the brush washer I just looked at comes from Song Guan Kiln, how much is it worth?"
You Fang: "It's hard to say. If it's in good condition and has good skills, it wouldn't be unusual to sell it to an auction house for millions of dollars."
Old man: "You just said that porcelain does not become more expensive as it gets older. What do you mean by expensive?"
You Fang smiled, showing his neat white teeth: "From what you always said, of course it is valuable."
The old man's expression was a little bitter, and he sighed slightly: "Things do not become more expensive as they get older. This makes sense. For example, a random stone in the wild may have a history of hundreds of millions of years. The reason why some artifacts are precious is, of course, because
Time cannot be turned back, and a historical era is difficult to replicate, but more importantly is the value given to it by the inheritance of civilization, and the information it carries has indelible significance for today. If the store owner just now was embarrassed, it was not Panjiayuan who was embarrassed.
The true value of cultural relics is first given to it by the creators and successors of civilization themselves, and not others."
You Fang blinked: "Old sir, your words are a bit profound. Are you here to do Taobao or something else?"
The old man chuckled: "I see that you are still young, but you can recognize Yan Mao of the Western Han Dynasty at a glance. I said a few more words with emotion...Then let me ask a few more questions. You just said that you can do it just by looking at a piece of broken porcelain."
It dates back generations and knows the value of similar objects. This kind of thing cannot keep out the cold or satisfy hunger when you are hungry. If it is not measured by money, then can you tell its true value? What does it mean to you and me today?"
You Fang thinks this old man is very strange, and his speech and behavior are different. Customers who usually come to Panjiayuan Taobao always want to talk about how to find things without being noticed. Who would tell him this?
Seeing that he didn't answer, the old man continued as if talking to himself: "You can date and even identify the kiln site from a piece of porcelain, and the value you know is nothing more than the market transactions, but can you tell me why?
?Can you tell from a piece of porcelain the mental state and social outlook of people in a historical era, the replacement of dynasties and the rise and fall of civilizations, and how much humanistic connotation it carries that is meaningful to you and me? Can you explain why?
Is there such an artifact in such an era? Can it trigger a spiritual resonance deep in your heart and explain and convey this resonance to people?"
This question made You Fang a little confused. He basically understood everything, but he really couldn't answer! He couldn't help but think of his father's words about a special phenomenon in antique appraisal. No matter how clever the means are to make the imitation old, it will still be old.
It is so lifelike that it can even deceive some modern testing instruments, but there is one "thing" that cannot be imitated. That is the "temperament" or "physical properties" given to the object by the changes of time, which can only be felt by immersing the mind in it.
But what my father said was just an indescribable feeling, and what the old man in front of me said was both a question and an answer. It clearly explained another feeling, which was abstract but not illusory, and answered the "temperament" or "temperament" described by my father.
Where does the "property of things" come from? Although the old man may not be as good as Yu Fang in terms of "eyesight" in appraising antiques, he has a humanistic realm that You Fang does not have, so that he can truly understand the value of all these artifacts.
How to describe it? If someone takes home a bottle worth a million dollars and temporarily separates the simple money figures from his mind, what exactly is he enjoying? Do you realize it? People exist in the material world.
But we live in the spiritual world. This is the difference between us and the walking dead.
You Fang did not get any business from the old man that day. Later, he met this scholarly elder several times in Panjiayuan, but he did not have the opportunity to communicate more. The old man may have just made an unintentional comment that day, but
However, You Fang was deeply touched and often recalled this conversation in the days that followed.
The more he saw in Panjiayuan, the more he felt that he lacked a lot. Although he had two small brushes, his real level was still far behind. He neither experienced the feeling described by his father nor understood the old man.
The realm described. This is the difference between a craftsman with good craftsmanship and a master with superb artistic conception, right?
You Fang realized that his true cultivation was not enough and his background was far behind. If he continued like this for the rest of his life, he would be just an ordinary antique dealer. The only difference was the size of his business. So he made another decision - to go to university for further studies!
Which university? Of course it was Peking University, where my brother-in-law Chi Muduo had studied, so he was at least somewhat familiar with it, otherwise he would have gone to Tsinghua University.
Confucius, the founder of Piaomen, said: "Learning without thinking will lead to failure; thinking without learning will lead to peril." You Fang is thinking and preparing to go to university. Some people may want to ask, can you go to school if you want to? That's true.
, you can do it if you want!
As far as I know, in most higher education institutions in China, as long as you have enough perseverance and perseverance, you can get systematic education in most majors. You don’t have to take the college entrance examination, you don’t have to pay tuition, and there are no final exams or roll calls in class.
It's a kind of trouble. The only regret is that I can't get the diploma and degree. If you really want it, you can go to You Fang's cousin Liu Yin to find a way.
The secret is very simple. As early as the Republic of China, many well-known scholars in Peking had used it. There are only two words - rubbish!
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PS: The Sanjiang recommendation will be on the homepage this afternoon. I sincerely ask all new and old book friends to support me!