There was once something in the antiques world that infuriated countless people. Many years ago, a young man accidentally picked up a "gold medal" during fishing, and in order to distinguish the authenticity of the metal, he took the gold medal to the National Cultural Relics Identification Center for examination.
After many tests by various experts, they found that this "gold medal" is an antique of great cultural value, and persuaded the man to hope to hand it over to the country, who thought that this man not only refused to turn it in, but casually melted this "gold medal" into a bracelet, which made countless experts heartbroken.
What is so peculiar about this "gold medal" that has excited countless experts? And what happened to the man after he picked up the "gold medal"? How did this last valuable antique become a bracelet?
Too gong fishing, "gold medal" on the bait
It happened in a backward village in the 1990s. In this village there is a man surnamed Zhang, who is idle every day but loves fishing.
One day he took his special fishing hook and went fishing on the bank of the river in the village as usual. It was sunny and breezy, making it a great day for fishing.
As soon as the bait is hung, the fishing line is flicked, the fish hook gently falls into the river, the delicious bait attracts the curious little fish to the hook, zhang guy holds the dog tail grass in his mouth, holds the fishing rod tightly in his hand, and sits on the shore quietly waiting for the big fish to be hooked.
The warm sunlight shone on the young man and made him sleepy. Just as he was about to fall asleep, the fishing rod in his hand moved uncontrollably, and the fishing line tied to the end of the fishing rod was pulled dead by an unknown object in the river.
The young man knew at a glance that a fish had been hooked, and his waist sank, the soles of his feet were stable, and his hands pulled the hooked fish out of the water with a force.
Unexpectedly, not only a huge grass carp was pulled up, but also a sparkling thing. The young man could not resist his curiosity, and soon came to the shore to check what was the glowing thing he had hung up.
He washed the dirt off his body with river water and held it up in front of his eyes in the direction of the sun. This thing is not big or small, boxy, like a small wooden board, and its whole body will glow golden when bathed in sunlight.
When the young man looked left and right, he could be sure that the thing he had caught was a golden sign engraved with many words that he could not understand.
The young man was still a treasure, and he carried the gold medal into his arms, and even the fishing tools were too late to take it, so he hurried home, afraid that someone would covet his treasure.
When he returned home, he happily told his parents about the treasure he had picked up, and soon the story of "the Zhang family boy picked up the gold medal" spread throughout the village.
There are many people in the village who do not believe in evil, and jealousy drives them to secretly argue behind their backs that this "gold medal" is actually not made of gold, and that the Zhang family guys said so in order to win the gimmick.
When the young man heard such a rumor, his excited heart gradually calmed down. As more and more people say that this "gold medal" is not made of gold, he also began to waver.
Because he had not been to school and had received relevant knowledge education, he did not know how to correctly distinguish the authenticity of gold.
In order to seek the truth, he and his wife can only distinguish the authenticity of the gold medal according to the village remedies. Whether it is a tooth bite or a fire, the young man cannot accurately distinguish the phenomena it produces with his shallow knowledge.
In the end, there was no way, the young man could only take this gold medal to the local cultural relics inspection bureau to let the relevant personnel make a judgment. Unexpectedly, the final test results surprised countless people.
Who should own the cultural relics that appeared in the river?
After multi-party testing by several experts in the Cultural Relics Bureau, it can be concluded that this "gold medal" should belong to the cultural relics of the Liao State. The experts judged on the words engraved on the "gold medal". After careful identification, the writing experts concluded that these scripts should belong to the ancient Khitan script, and the Khitan script originated in the ancient Liao state.
What kind of country is the Liao State?
It is understood that the Liao State should have a time span of thousands of years by now. At that time, the Liao state was founded by the leader of the nomadic people, Yelü Abaoji, who integrated the nomadic tribes in the northern steppe to form a huge Liao state. The Liao people are not only brave and good at war, but also good at farming, and the rich agricultural foundation has enabled the rapid development of the economy of the Liao state.
The increasingly powerful Northern Liao State put a great deal of pressure on the Southern Song State, and the rulers of the Song State perceived that if the Liao State was allowed to continue to develop, there would be a greater war between the two countries, and the Song State might cease to exist.
Therefore, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty commanded the army to take the initiative to provoke an incident at the junction of the Two Countries of Liao and Song, causing disputes, which gave the Song State a legitimate reason to start a war.
After more than ten years of arduous war, the Liao state was finally annihilated by the Song state, with a history of only more than two hundred years. In addition, most of the residents of the Liao State belong to the nomadic people, which are relatively extravagant and the cultural foundation is relatively weak. Therefore, there are not many records of the Liao state in history, which increases the difficulty of cultural scholars to understand the history of the Liao state.
The "gold medal" picked up by the young man surnamed Zhang belongs to the cultural relics of the Liao State, which is extremely important for the study of Liao culture. Not only that, the words engraved on the "gold medal" are also unique to the Liao. Because of the unique building technology of Liaoguo and the unique characteristics of writing, the value of this "gold medal" is immeasurable.
The experts were thrilled to get this antique "gold medal", but because this "gold medal" was picked up by the young man, they also had to ask the young man how he handled the gold medal.
When the expert told the boy that this "gold medal" belonged to the Liao antique and the value was immeasurable, he was very happy. He was full of thoughts that such a treasure should be able to sell for a lot of money, and he was about to embark on the peak of his life.
The dream made the young man extremely excited, and he wanted to immediately sell this antique "gold medal" in exchange for a lot of money. Just when the young man was holding the "gold medal" and wanted to turn around and leave, the experts of the Antiquities Identification Bureau stopped him.
Experts not only consider its material value, but also the historical value of this "gold medal". So the experts persuaded the young man that he could hand over the "gold medal" to the state. Because strictly speaking, this "gold medal" belongs to the young man to pick up, not simply to the young man's personal belongings.
But hearing the expert say this, the young man surnamed Zhang said that he was very angry, and he felt that this "gold medal" was picked up by himself and should belong to him personally. He also wanted to rely on this treasure to realize his dream of becoming rich.
And whether there is a cultural foundation for itself, and the things at the national level have little to do with themselves as ordinary people, why do they have to send the treasures in their hands.
Thinking of this, the young man walked out of the Cultural Relics Appraisal Bureau without looking back despite the experts' obstruction.
Cultural relics become bracelets, which is heart-wrenching
The boy who returned home with the hot "gold medal" did not sleep well at night. Because he not only had to be wary of the people in the Antiquities Appraisal Bureau, but also to prevent the people in the village from worrying about his "gold medal", so a few days after returning from the Antiquities Appraisal Bureau, the young man found a jewelry shop owner with an antique "gold medal".
The young man took the "gold medal" and asked the jewelry store owner how much money he could sell. The jewelry store owner put the weight in his hand and said to the young man that if he relied on this "gold medal" alone, it should not sell much money, because the "gold medal" was engraved with many words that could not be understood.
The young man was very anxious to hear the jewelry store owner say this. In this case, he couldn't help but think that fortunately, he didn't listen to the experts of the Cultural Relics Appraisal Bureau, and this "gold medal" was not as valuable as they said. He took the jewelry store owner's hand and eagerly asked how to deal with this "gold medal" to sell for a good price.
The jewelry store owner held the "gold medal" in his hand and looked around, and after thinking about it for a moment, he told the boy that if he wanted the "gold medal" to sell for a good price, the best way was to cast it into a brand new bracelet.
As soon as the young man heard that there was a solution, he agreed to the jewelry store owner's proposal without saying a word. Under the operation of the boss's ingenuity, this "gold medal" quickly turned into a cute-looking golden bracelet.
Looking at the slender and beautiful gold bracelet in his hand, the young man was very happy. After paying the jewelry store owner for remolding the gold, he returned home with a gold bracelet. He thought about waiting for a while for the wind and waves to calm down, and then he took this bracelet to find a good family who knew the goods to sell for a good price.
The experts of the Cultural Relics Appraisal Bureau thought left and right, or they were reluctant to give up this valuable cultural relics belonging to the Liao State, so they decided to personally come to the door and once again persuade the young man to hand over the cultural relics to the state.
When he saw the people from the Antiquities Appraisal Bureau coming to the door, the young man was not nervous but defiant. When the experts were still painstakingly begging the young man to hand over the "gold medal" he had picked up to the state, the young man said with a happy face, "Don't think about taking this gold from my hand, because you are late, I have already recast it into a brand new bracelet!" ”
With that, he took the golden bracelet from his pocket and handed it to the expert. "In fact, that gold medal is not as valuable as you say, and if it were not for the jewelry store owner who persuaded me to re-cast it into a bracelet, I would not have been able to sell it for a good price."
While the young man was still proud of his self-righteous wit, the experts stared at the bracelet in their hands in pain.
Originally an antique relic of immeasurable value, it was dissolved by ignorant people and recast into a bracelet with only material value. This loss is beyond the responsibility of anyone. The expert looked at the young man surnamed Zhang, who was only aware of money, and left the village helplessly.
Cultural relics are the magnificent treasures left by the creators of history to our descendants, but in the change of times, there are still many precious cultural relics left around the world and have not been discovered by the country.
This has produced a heart-wrenching phenomenon - when ordinary people pick up cultural relics with historical value, they cannot accurately judge their cultural value, cannot hand them over to the state in time, but sell them at will, causing huge losses to the country and even the world.
Therefore, if you pick up something similar to cultural relics in the future, you hope to go to the local cultural relics appraisal bureau for inspection in time, and if it is confirmed to be a cultural relics with cultural value, I hope that it can be handed over to the state.
Because cultural relics are an effective way for our contemporaries to understand the past and communicate with historical figures. Standing on the shoulders of cultural relics, we can communicate indiscriminately with historical figures in the vast time and space, and build a valuable bridge connecting ancient and modern times.