The Ming Dynasty literary scholar Shen Defu said in his "Compilation of Wan Liye": "Bone Dong (antiques) come from a lot of forgeries, especially in Wuzhong. Then, Shen Defu told his own personal experience.
In the Wuzhong area, many literati live by selling fake antiques. There was an ancestor named Wang Bogu, and there were many fake antiques hidden in the house. Once, when Shen Defu visited Wang Bogu's house, Wang Bogu pointed to a dilapidated bucket on the wall and said, "This bucket has a history, it was given to the monk by the Emperor Taizu in the past, but it is precious." This can't fool the well-informed Shen Defu, who laughed and said, "Senior, don't fool me, I've seen this technique a lot." Wang Bogu saw that the trick was punctured by the juniors, and he was dumbfounded.
Wang Bogu himself loves to collect real cultural relics. Fan Mou, a servant of Lou Jiang's filial piety, liked to collect antique calligraphy and paintings, and had the original "Drunken Daoist Map" of Yan Liben of the Tang Dynasty in his hand, and Wang Bogu took a fancy to it, so that the painting was damaged and bought it for hundreds of taels of gold. Who knew that Fan Mou was an old slipper, before the sale, asked the local painter Zhang Yuanju to copy a painting, sold the copy to Wang Bogu, and then sold the original to others at a higher price.
This matter was later dressed up. It turned out that Zhang Yuanju was blind in one eye, and Wang Bogu laughed at him with this. Zhang Yuanju could not bear this insult, so he poked out the truth: "The "Drunken Taoist Diagram" you bought was copied by me, you laughed at me for being blind in one eye, and although your two eyes are good, they will not learn from the ancients, just like being blind. Later, the incident became a joke.
Shen Defu also recorded an ancient activity in which he participated. One day in the middle of summer, Shen Defu was on a cruise ship moored near Tiger Hill and several tall friends, Pingu, and everyone took out their own box bottom goods to show off. Dong Taishi, who was present, took out a "volume of Yan Qingchen's Book Zhu Juchuan's Confession (i.e., Letter of Appointment)" that his friend had treasured. Everyone saw that it was the handwriting of Yan Zhenqing, the calligrapher, and they all sighed as a god.
When Dong Taishi was showing up, Shen Defu questioned it, saying that there was a line on it that read, "Zhongshu Shilang Kaibo", and the Tang Dynasty did not have a surname at all, this surname only existed in the Song Dynasty, and Zhongshu Shilang was a ruling minister, so why is it that there is no record in the history books that this person was broadcast? Shen Defu immediately judged that this "opening broadcast" was a clerical error, in fact, it was the Tang Dynasty's guan broadcast, and the people who copied it did not read much, and wrote the guan mistakenly as kai (the traditional guan character and the opening character are very close).
The fake was exposed, Dong Taishi was anxious, hurriedly said, let everyone save some face for his friends, don't squeak. So has this secret been kept? They are all written in the "Wan Li Ye Ye Zhi", which can be imagined. After writing this story, Shen Defu said that he regretted that he had exposed the truth that year, and it is estimated that later collectors also knew.
Interesting, informative, with depth
The author | Liu Liping
Source| Hundred Tribunes magazine