The 41st time in "Dream of the Red Chamber" is written that Jia Mu and others went to Miaoyu's Li Cui'an to drink tea, Miao Yu gave Jia Mu to drink Lao Junmei, the cup that drank tea was a multicolored small cover bell in a kiln, and the cup that everyone drank tea was an official kiln to fill in the white lid bowl.
One is a kiln, one is an official kiln; one is a gai bell, and the other is a lid bowl, although our ordinary readers are completely amateurs on this porcelain, and intuitively we can know that Jia Mu's tea lid bell is definitely much more expensive than the lid bowl of everyone, and in fact it is so.
Let's look at this Chengyao kiln, that is, Chenghua kiln, which refers to the court porcelain fired by the Jingdezhen Guanyao Factory during the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty.
This Chenghua is the era name of Zhu Jianshen, the eighth emperor of the Ming Dynasty. This is the most well-known historical event of Zhu Jianshen, one is that he loved Wan Guifei, who was 19 years older than him all his life, until his death; second, during his reign, chenghua wucai and his creative firing method pushed the development level of ancient porcelain on the mainland to a new height.
This multicolored firing method is to add painting to the firing method of the previous generation of blue and white porcelain, which perfectly combines blue and white and painted to form a changing and unified artistic effect. The porcelain products produced by its firing are brilliant in five colors, with diverse patterns, and they are combined up and down, and the production skills are exquisite.
Shen Defu's "Leftovers of our broomsticks" says: "The porcelain of this dynasty, with white ground blue flowers and five colors, is the crown of the present and ancient times, such as the most expensive xuan kiln." Recently, the kiln has been rebuilt and the kiln has been released. ”
The "Museum Essentials" is even more directly praised: "Into the kiln of the best product, no more than colorful."
Interestingly, this is blown into the sky of Chenghua Wucai, is the name of the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, in the Qing Dynasty, this five-color was renamed Doucai, so the author who supported "Dream of the Red Chamber" was not a group of People cao Xueqin, so according to the name of "Chenghua Wucai" that appeared in the novel, firmly believed that the author of "Dream of the Red Chamber" was Zhang Dai in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.
In fact, the beginning of the Qing Dynasty should be the time when the old and new titles of colorful and doucai are alternated, and Cao Xueqin deliberately wrote the old title of the Ming Dynasty in the novel, which is also very likely, after all, the novel begins by claiming that the book "has no dynasty age to examine".
Because Zhu Mishen of the Ming Dynasty was keen on art and was proficient in painting, and had a strong interest in petty bourgeoisie, he had no large instruments in chenghua, most of which were handsome and beautiful things, with soft lines of porcelain bodies, small and exquisite, and exuded a feminine feminine beauty everywhere.
Because of the complex process and sophisticated production, there are not many colorful chenghua, and the representative works are multicolored chicken bowl cup, multicolored grass worm cup, multicolored grape pattern cup, multicolored baby play picture cup, and colorful phoenix pattern cup.
The Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors of the Qing Dynasty were extremely fond of Chenghua Wucai, so they ordered the official kiln to imitate The Five Colors and Blue and White Porcelain, of which the Five Colors were the most respected. The underglaze blue and white and the multi-color on the glaze are skillfully integrated, and the finished product is fired, the red is as bright as blood, the goose yellow is as clear as jade, and the purple is as delicate as a ripe grape, which is breathtaking.
When it comes to the multicolored kiln, you can't help but mention the chicken bowl cup. In 2014, at the Sotheby's Chinese porcelain auction in Hong Kong, the Chenghua Multicolored Chicken Bowl Cup sold for 280 million yuan. Some people concluded based on this that the multicolored small cover clock that Miao Yu held to Jia Mu must also be worth hundreds of millions of yuan, which is of course nonsense.
Because first of all, we can't compare the value and price of porcelain today with the early Qing Dynasty hundreds of years ago; secondly, in the early Qing Dynasty, the value of a pair of kiln chicken bowl cups was only about one hundred gold, that is, one hundred and two silver, but not one hundred and two gold.
"Tao Shuo" said: "The kiln is the most colorful, and the wine cup is the chicken bowl." Shenzong fashioned the food in front of the imperial court, into a pair of cups, worth 100,000 yuan. ”
The 100,000 yuan of this late Ming Dynasty is equivalent to the price of one hundred or two pieces of silver, which is still a pair.
Therefore, in the early Qing Dynasty, the price of this bouquet of Miaoyu and Jia Mu's kiln multicolored small cover clock was about fifty or sixty taels of silver, and it would not exceed one hundred taels at most.
Because of the Kangxi Qianlong Dynasty, the official kiln had imitations of chenghua and colorful, and some people speculated that the small lid bell that Miao Yu held to Jia Mu may also be an imitation of the early Qing Dynasty, which is actually unlikely. Because of Jia Mu's origin and experience, Miao Yu would never dare to openly fool her with imitations, nor could she be fooled.
Looking back at the small cover clock in the novel where this Jia Mu drank half a cup and gave the remaining half of the tea to Liu Grandma to eat, because Liu Grandma drank it, Miao Yu threatened to smash it, and then Bao Yu asked Miao Yu to come, and finally gave it to Liu Grandma.
Some people speculate that this precious little gaizhong was later sold by Grandma Liu, and then the secret of Miaoyu's hiding in Jia Province was exposed, and finally the Jia family was accused of harboring the daughter of a criminal courtier and was raided. I feel that if I write like this later, it is not like the world love novel "Dream of the Red Chamber", but rather like the detective novel "Dream of the Red Chamber".
This kiln multicolored small cover clock, which can be sold for about fifty or sixty taels of silver, is also worth a lot of money, although it is not extremely valuable.
Today we have no clear and concrete concept of the purchasing power of fifty or sixty taels of silver. We can go back to the plot of the novel and see how valuable the fifty or sixty taels of silver are.
The sixth time he wrote that Liu Grandma entered the Rongguo Mansion, Wang Xifeng gave twenty-two pieces of silver, and the thirty-ninth time wrote about the crab feast, Liu Grandma said: "Such crabs are worth five points and one pound this year." Ten pounds and five dollars, five five two two five, three five one fifteen, and then put on wine and vegetables, a total of more than twenty two silver. Amitabha! The money for this meal is enough for our family to live for a year. ”
More than twenty or two pieces of silver is enough for Liu Grandma's family to spend a year, so it seems that this small cover clock that Miao Yu discarded casually can make Liu Grandma's family eat and wear for three years without worry, so it can be seen that Miao Yu, who avoids Living in Jia Province, is rich and how generous his hand is.
Of course, although this kiln multicolored small cover clock is very valuable, it is far less precious and rare to the point where the value is directly over 100 million, after all, if it is so precious and rare, Miao Yu will not easily take it out and discard it casually, and Bao Yu will not be reckless enough to open his mouth directly for Liu Grandma, just like today's rich people, no matter how rich they are, they will not throw away one hundred million yuan and one hundred million yuan.
Author: Lord of the Afternoon Dream Hall, this article is to read less of the original works of the Red Chamber.