Speaking of the antique world, it is a group that can be seen in a mixture of fish and dragons, the city and the rivers and lakes, and the tastes of life.
Some people have been mixed up for half a lifetime, and they have the title of expert, but they often have difficulty in recognizing gold and jade; some people have shallow knowledge but they frequently pick up leaks from the high light of the fortune star.
It can be said that "one eye is true, rich and noble is half a life; one look is false, the prince is homeless".
130 million rare treasures
At the beginning of the New Year in January 2008, Huadu Hotel Beijing ushered in the first auction of the year.
The grand finale of the auction was a "robe" called the Qianlong Silk Sutra. Countless old insects in the antique world want to see its true appearance at this auction.
Almost none of the exhibits in the whole auction aroused people's interest, until the finale lot", the "Qianlong Silk Drani Sutra", appeared and pushed the auction to a climax.
In the end, this "Qianlong Silk Torani Sutra" was auctioned for 65 million yuan, plus the commission of the auction house, and the collector of this "robe" spent about 72 million yuan.
With the hammer of the deal knocked down, the ultimate buyer of this "Qianlong Silk Drani Sutra" was identified.
Because the auctioneer was reluctant to disclose his information, after the auction ended, this "Qianlong Silk Drani Sutra" disappeared from people's vision together with the auctioneer.
Until 2010, this "Qianlong Silk Dravidian Sutra" appeared again at the "Auction of Sino-American Hongkaiwei", and a mysterious man spent 130 million yuan to auction it.
In just 2 years, the price has doubled for the first time. So what is this "Qianlong Silk Sutra" that can arouse people's attention so much?
What is the Dravidian sutra?
If we want to understand the value of the "Qianlong Silk Dravidian Sutra", we must start with the Dravidian Sutra.
The "Dravidian Sutra" is also called "Past Life", "Dravidian Sutra". It looks like the robes worn by the monks are inconspicuous at first sight.
But what is written above is the Tibetan or Sanskrit mantra of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and the meritorious names of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Vajrapani.
In the Qing Dynasty, the use of the "Dravidian Sutra" required the emperor's edict, which was simply impossible for ordinary people to see. Thus the Draccharya sutras are an extremely foreign affair to ordinary people.
According to the Buddhists at that time, the "Dravidian Sutra" was preceded by the blessings of the high monks and the scriptures, so the merit was immeasurable.
However, if all deceased persons, men, women and children, can cover their bodies at the time of their funeral gifts, they can make the deceased perish from their sins and be blessed, be freed from all demonic obstacles in the world when they are in the bardo body, and be happily guided by Amitabha Buddha in their physical and mental comfort, and be reborn in the Western paradise world.
Even if he could not be reborn as blissful because of the depth of his sin karma in his lifetime, as long as he was clothed in the Dravidian Sutra and was sent to Hades, yama saw it and received three points of respect.
Although the use of dravidians in their past lives is not limited to the object, both men and women, religious or not, but the production of the "Dravidian Sutra" is very elaborate.
Almost beyond the capacity of ordinary people's homes, coupled with the etiquette and religion of feudal society and many other factors, the "Dravidian Sutra" was only allowed to be used in the Ming and Qing dynasties for royal funerals or some princes and ministers with major merits.
Although the use of the "Dravidian Sutra" by the imperial family can be traced back to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, because the Ming Emperor believed more in Taoism than Buddhism, there is no record of the "Dravidian Sutra" found in the imperial funeral items unearthed in the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, some people have questioned whether the claim that the "Dravidian Sutra" is used for royal funeral rites is a rumor.
In order to prove the value of the "Dravidian Sutra", countless experts and scholars have focused on the cultural relics excavated from the royal tombs of the Qing Dynasty.
Because since the Kangxi Dynasty, the imperial family has followed the customs of the Han royal family in large quantities and practiced earth burial.
Because the imperial family of the Qing Dynasty firmly believed in Tibetan Buddhism, from the Kangqian period onwards, a large number of "Dravidian sutras" were used for royal funerals, and the use of "Dravidian sutras" in the late Qing Dynasty was extended to the bodies of princes and ministers.
Unfortunately, the cultural relics unearthed from the tombs of the Qing Dynasty royal family are extremely limited. Except for the Qing Tombs, which were stolen by Sun Dianying, there was nothing else.
However, in the treasures excavated by Sun Dianying from the Qing Tombs in that year, there was no record of the "Dravidian Sutra", was everything rumored?
Just when people were almost about to give up the search for the Dravidian sutra, an unexpected thing happened. In 1979, the Cixi Underground Palace was opened to the public, and a large number of experts carried out rescue excavations of the cultural relics in the underground palace.
While sorting out the relics of Cixi when it was re-buried, experts found this piece of the "Dravidian Sutra" that had been severely damp and moldy on the incense scroll throne of the underground palace, so the experts organized a lot of manpower and material resources to restore it, and finally in September 2013, it was exhibited in the Zunhua Qing Dongling Conservation Area in Hebei Province.
Only then did people see the true appearance of the "Dravidian Sutra" used by the royal family.
But the questions that followed came back into people's minds. As we all know, in addition to the mausoleum of Empress Dowager Cixi, what Sun Dianying excavated and destroyed in that year also had the mausoleum of the Qianlong Emperor.
Since the "Dravidian Sutra" was found when Empress Dowager Cixi was buried, where was the Qianlong Emperor's "Draupadi Sutra" found?
Mr. Wang Qin
It turned out that the lot at the Waldo Hotel in Beijing in January 2008 was the "Dravidian Quilt" used by the Qianlong Emperor. Speaking of the story of the discovery of this "Dravidian Sutra" used by the Qianlong Emperor, there is another twist and turn.
Here's the thing. At an antique auction in Beijing in 2005. A very inconspicuous collection has emerged, the origin of which almost no one can say.
So much so that the staff of the auction house and the previous collector agreed that this was a very ordinary robe.
At that time, the starting price given by the auction house was 80,000 yuan, but compared with those calligraphy and painting porcelain, how could this "rag robe" get into people's eyes?
Sure enough, this "rag robe" eventually flowed.
Although everyone at this auction was not optimistic about this robe, a gentleman surnamed Qin had seen the difference in this robe before.
Although he could not see it up close, with his keen observation, he could faintly feel this unusual thing in this robe.
But at that time, Mr. Qin only had 40,000 yuan in his hands, and even the starting price could not reach it. After seeing this robe flowing, Mr. Qin immediately called and borrowed another 50,000 yuan from relatives and friends.
After the auction ended, Mr. Qin immediately found the auction house and agreed to buy the robe at the starting price.
Mr. Qin, who photographed the robe, carefully brought it home. After returning home, Mr. Qin immediately studied it.
At the auction, Mr. Qin vaguely saw that there were some patterns on this robe.
After returning home, Mr. Qin put the robe under the light only to find that the patterns he had seen at that time were in the mezzanine of the robe.
So Mr. Qin immediately found a tool to carefully pick out the stitches from one of the corners of this robe, and the discovery later startled Mr. Qin.
It turned out that after opening the stitches in the corners, Mr. Qin found that there was a sandwich in the middle of this robe, and inside was a quilt, and the back was densely embroidered with the Nile Sutra and the Dharma numbers of many senior monks and sages in Tibetan, Chinese, Manchu, and Sanskrit. The quilt is surrounded by extremely exquisite embroidery.
Mr. Qin has been studying antiques and has made great achievements in antiques.
Seeing this, Mr. Qin already had some speculation in his mind, although he could not be sure that the long-lost "Dravidian Sutra" could be concluded at first, but at first it could be concluded that this robe was worth a lot.
So Mr. Qin found a friend of his who played antiques and took the robe to this friend for identification. Fearing trouble, Mr. Qin went to find this friend quietly.
After some identification by friends, it was found that the quilt surface in the middle of this robe was made of high-grade Qinghai-Tibet wild Tibetan antelope cashmere, and this quilt alone was worth a lot.
From the perspective of age, the age of the finished fabric should be more than a hundred years. In addition, the production process of this quilt is called silk, and the fabric made by the silk process has always been known as the "sacred product of weaving". The complexity of the process is extraordinary.
When weaving silk, all kinds of colored wefts are intertwined with warp wire only where the pattern pattern is needed, and the warp wire runs through the whole width of the fabric, that is, the "through the warp and weft" contained in the ancient book, the process is extremely complex, and the inch width is difficult to find.
Because of this, the fabrics woven with silk were mostly used for royal tribute.
This "Dracula Sutra Quilt" in Mr. Qin's hand is a silk with a yellow satin bottom that is 2 meters long and 1.38 meters wide, with an area of nearly 3 square meters.
If a quilt face as large as the robe in Mr. Qin's hand were to be spun down with silk technology, it would take at least three years.
In addition, although this "Dravidian sutra" has experienced more than a hundred years, it is complete in appearance, the pictures and texts are clearly visible, and it has great historical research value.
Just when his friend said this, Mr. Qin inhaled a cool breath at that time. Did you really pick up a big leak? But as far as the friends said these characteristics, the value of this robe has exceeded 90,000 yuan.
So with the help of his friends, Mr. Qin found the Hongdao Master of the Buddhist Association to help him find the treasure.
Master Hongdao, after reading the scripture on the face, explained to Mr. Qin: In the world, there are good men and women who are only silently reciting the scriptures for them in their past lives, saying that the deceased recites the scriptures themselves.
It can reduce the effect of karma, so that the soul of the deceased can be guided by the Buddha in the bardo state, not fall into hell, not enter the cycle of reincarnation, and be able to live forever.
In general, good men and women are blessed by monks after their deaths. Most of the people who use the blessing of sacrifice are people with status.
This "Dracula Sutra" is embroidered with the Nilopa Sutra, as well as the Tantric Master, the Dharma name of the Buddhas, presumably a royal object.
Listening to Master Hongdao's words, Mr. Qin knew what he was doing. Southern historical records record that although the "Dravidian Sutra" was widely used in the imperial family of the Qing Dynasty, only Qianlong and Cixi were able to use the "Dravidian Sutra Quilt" woven with Tibetan silk as a burial item.
The purpose of the above verses is to protect the deceased from the test of the gods of the Western Heavens when they are in the bardo body, and the bardo body is not used for hell. Therefore, it must have been the shroud of Cixi's burial, similar to the role of the golden jade robe.
Since the "Dravidian Sutra" transmitted by Cixi had been restored by the museum collection, the one in his hand was undoubtedly the one of the Qianlong Emperor.
So why did the Qianlong Emperor's "Dravidian Sutra" appear at auction?
Sun Dianying had eyes that did not recognize gold and jade, and mistakenly regarded gold as loess
At that time, Sun Dianying wanted to chase after the Central Plains, but the military expenditure was insufficient, so it was difficult to exert his ambitions. So in order to raise enough military expenses, Sun Dianying, at the instigation of a group of native masters, did the work of touching the gold lieutenant.
Sun Dianying blew up the tombs of Cixi and Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty in the name of military exercises. The earth-shattering Tanglin robbery was created.
After the burial chamber exploded. Sun Dianying stole countless treasures from it, including the 728-carat night pearl in Cixi's mouth.
In addition, there are countless rare treasures. Like Cixi's mausoleum, there are many treasures stolen from Qianlong's mausoleum.
In addition to the authentic ink treasures of the past generations, there is also a string of jade Buddha beads worn around his neck and a nine-dragon sword.
But Sun Dianying was a reckless man after all, and after looting these real gold, silver and rare treasures, he randomly placed the bones of Cixi and Qianlong, along with the two "Dravidian quilts" that were randomly placed together.
A soldier who was present at the time rubbed around and no one quietly brought out the Qianlong Emperor's "Draupadi Sutra". I thought that even if it was an ordinary daily necessities of the royal family, it would be able to exchange two wine money for the market.
So, after the Republic of China government re-closed the Qing Tombs, these two "Dravidian Sutras", one was lost to the people, and the other was sealed in the tomb.
This "Qianlong Silk Sutra" has changed hands several times in the antique market but cannot afford to buy it.
Because there are very few people who can know this object, and how many people are willing to collect this obscure shroud in the chaotic era of food?
In the end, it can only be a robe that lies that it is a high monk's sitting, and it can barely be worth a few dollars.
So much so that when Mr. Qin saw this "Qianlong Silk Torani Sutra" at the auction house, the auction house's list of lots said that the records were all "robes".
Finally, after consulting with a number of experts, Mr. Qin determined the value of this "Qianlong Silk Dravidian Sutra". A few trusted friends contacted the auction house to evaluate the money.
It was eventually auctioned for $65 million in January 2008. After the "Cixi Dravidian Sutra" was publicly exhibited in 2013, the price of the "Qianlong Silk Dravidian Sutra" soared.
Until 2018, it has doubled again, reaching a staggering 130 million.
Mr. Qin can be said to be a well-deserved lucky person. Although there are many people who play antiques, there are only a few people who can really pick up leaks.
After the "Qianlong Silk Drani Sutra was sold", many people felt that Mr. Qin should continue to collect it, because the appreciation space of this sutra was too large.
But Mr. Qin does not think so, in Mr. Qin's view, although it is good to pick up leaks, it is not wise to cling to things.