A shroud actually sold for 130 million yuan, this is not the plot of the novel, it really happened at the auction of The Hongkaiwei Auction Company in China and the United States in 2010, this shroud is not small, its official name is "Silk Draconic Sutra", which was once the funeral of the Qianlong Emperor.
The emperor's funerary products are naturally not commonplace, but it is amazing to be able to sell such a sky-high price, so what is so special about this quilt for wrapping the body?
Why is it so expensive
The value of the Sutra is so high, first of all, because it is a funerary object of the Qianlong Emperor. As one of the three most famous emperors of the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong's funerary products naturally added to the celebrity effect, and as Qianlong's burial products, it also has many special meanings.
The two sides of the Sutra are wrapped in yellow silk, and in the middle of the yellow silk is a sandwich layer, and the middle of the sandwich is filled with Sanskrit texts, which have been enlightened by the tantric masters, implying that after death, people can be freed from the suffering of reincarnation and directly enter the world of Elysium.
Another point is that the production of this quilt requires expensive materials and superb craftsmanship, the whole piece is selected from the Tibetan antelope cashmere, silk and other valuable materials to make, of which the Tibetan antelope cashmere is still used on the sheep's tail a very small amount of hair, according to calculations, this 2 meters long 1.38 meters wide quilt production needs tens of thousands of Tibetan antelope tail hair.
Not only did it use expensive materials, but the production process was very complicated and time-consuming, and the silk reeling process used in the warp was often used to make dragon robes in ancient times. It is estimated that even if a number of skilled craftsmen who were skilled in "silk reeling" were invited to make it together, it would take three years to complete the production of this sutra.
Unfortunately, the silk reeling process has long been lost, and this sutra is regarded as a work of art representing the highest silk weaving technology more than 200 years ago, and its value is naturally immeasurable.
Finally, the cultural relics value represented by this quilt, which as a royal funeral vessel, from which the royal funeral rites at that time can be more perfectly studied, the pattern embroidery techniques on the quilt also have great research value for the textile style and technology at that time, and the position of the text pattern on the quilt tailored for Qianlong is also very exquisite, the patterns in different positions correspond to different parts of Qianlong's body, and the scriptures on the quilt also have high value for studying the tantric culture at that time.
The origin of the quilt
How did such a precious quilt be discovered by the world? This has to mention Sun Dianying.
Sun Dianying was a small warlord in the Republic of China period, since he was a warlord, his style of doing things naturally had no bottom line, and Sun Dianying not only looted the money of the living in order to raise military expenses, but also the money of the dead.
So he set his sights on the imperial tombs of the Qing Dynasty, and since the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the royal mausoleums have not been protected and repaired. Sun Dianying therefore easily entered the imperial tomb, after which he crudely exploded the tombs of Qianlong and Cixi with explosives, and in the face of the countless gold and silver jewelry and precious antiques piled up in the tombs, sun Dianying and his soldiers' eyes lit up, and soon looted the treasures of the mausoleum.
Not only that, they also destroyed countless literary and calligraphy paintings, because in the eyes of these soldiers who could not read a single character, only gold and silver jewelry were the most important, and they did not bother to look at other objects, and the "Silk Dravidian Sutra" that covered the Qianlong Emperor also made Sun Dianying, who did not know the goods, throw it aside.
At that time, after the news of Sun Dianying's tomb robbery, many of the former Qing dynasty's widows and widows were deeply distressed, and some people then carried out repair work on Qianlong's tomb, at this time, one of the former Qing widows found this piece of sutra, and he saw that this sutra must be of great value, so afterwards he quietly took the sutra home for safekeeping.
Treasures reappear on earth
In the years that followed, the exquisite artifact lay dormant in the folk until an auction in 2005. At that auction, the artifact was shown in the form of a "robe", and its appearance was unremarkable, so that not many people noticed it at that time.
However, a Mr. Qin who participated in the auction took a different interest in this "robe".
At that time, Mr. Qin felt at a glance that this treasure had a unique place, because he could faintly see the exquisite patterns and words inside the "robes". But he didn't say anything, just silently returned home. After a night of tossing and turning, the next day Mr. Qin came to the auction company again.
This time Mr. Qin made sufficient preparations, he came to the auction company and carefully identified and inspected the "robes", and then decided to buy it, and after some bargaining, the "robes" were finally sold for 90,000 yuan.
After taking the treasure, Mr. Qin's anxious heart still did not let go, because he had to make sure that his auction action could not be picked up, at least it was worth the money. In order to verify his vision, Mr. Qin carefully opened one of the corners of the "robe" and peeked inside, and he knew that he might have picked up a big bargain this time.
Because there is indeed a beautiful mezzanine full of scriptures in the "robes". The sandwich layer is not only exquisitely made, but also embroidered with patterns and characters in different languages, and the excited Mr. Qin began to prepare to find relevant experts for specific identification.
Among the experts Mr. Qin looked around was Master Sun Hongdao, the sixth emperor of the Qianlong Emperor. The moment Master Hongdao looked at the sutra, his whole body was stunned, and then he slowly uttered a sentence that made Mr. Qin also stunned: "This is my old ancestor's thing, how can it be in your place?" At that moment, Mr. Qin was overwhelmed with excitement, because at this moment he was truly convinced that he had not lost in this big gamble.
Three years later, this "Silk Dravidian Sutra" was auctioned again by Mr. Qin, and finally sold for 70.25 million yuan, but the matter was not over, and after two years, the treasure was successfully auctioned at a price of 130 million yuan. In just five years, the price of this quilt has risen from 90,000 yuan to 130 million, a total increase of nearly 1,500 times!
epilogue
Sun Dianying, who robbed the tomb at that time, would not have thought that a shroud he despised could actually sell for a hundred years later, and it was precisely because of his ignorance that this exquisite work of art could be preserved, rather than disappearing like other cultural relics that he had stolen.
As a royal work of art that embodies the blood and sweat of countless working people, the "Silk Dravidian Sutra" not only represents the highest textile skills at that time, but also carries the cultural inheritance of an era. The artistic value it contains not only belongs to the Qianlong Emperor who used it and the current owner, but also belongs to countless ordinary craftsmen who have contributed to the silk reeling process in the long river of history.
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