Original title: Yuan Qinghua Four Love Tu Mei Bottle
The article is excerpted from "National Treasure 100" by Ma Weidu
In the autumn of 1987, on an ordinary day, a couple carried a bag to the cultural relics store in Wuhan, entered the door and asked: "Do you accept anything here?" After the teacher of the cultural relics store saw the thing, he preliminarily judged that this was a blue and white plum vase from the Ming Dynasty, and felt that the thing was not bad, so he asked: "What price do you want to sell?" The couple said, "I want to sell for 800 pieces." "It is estimated that it has been discussed at home for a long time." The masters of the cultural relics store saw this thing, and after discussing it, they said: "The state buys 600 yuan, and the state does not pit people." The couple felt that 600 yuan was a little less, the sale was not negotiated, turned around and left.
In the past, the main job of the antiquarian shop was to collect or not sell. "Less out of more sinks, thin water and long flow" is their long-term policy. The "foreign exchange" of "less than more foreign exchange" refers to foreign exchange, and this thing was sold in a small amount, more foreign exchange was created, and Chinese was not sold; this thing was slowly sold, called "thin water and long flow". So to buy something has to be very cheap, when sold, fair, add two "0", unfair to add a few more "0".
The heritage store has a voucher called the "purchase invoice". Invoices are generally issued by the people who sell things to the people who buy things, but the cultural relics store is my purchase of your things, I invoice you, and I can get off this invoice. Older people know that you want to sell cultural relics, and in those years, there was only one way. For example, when I was young, Beijing had three acquisition points: one in Dongdan, one in Liulichang, and one in Gulou. Other provinces and cities have one place. This time said that the Wuhan cultural relics store, the whole of Wuhan is this one, you want to sell cultural relics, you can only sell it.
In the past, the teachers of the cultural relics store were all strong in business, because he moved money and had to know the goods. After the couple left, the masters of the cultural relics store chanted this blue vase, a little regretful, saying that they really should have bought it yesterday, and if they didn't get it right, they would lose it today, and they would sell it to someone if they couldn't stand it. Who knew that the next day the couple came back again, and when they entered the door, they said: "We are really anxious to use money, 600 is 600, and the country will not pit us." "So, in the end, the bottle was sold to the heritage store for 600 yuan."
This matter did not happen long ago, catching up with the experts to the Wuhan cultural relics store to exchange. At that time, experts often went to the heritage shops in groups, door to door, because the antiquities stores often collected things. Experts looked at the bottle at a glance and said that this bottle was not from the Ming Dynasty, but from the Yuan Dynasty (Figure 1)! This is different. Although it was unclear how much it was worth at the time, I knew that the bottle was definitely worth it. It wasn't until 2005 that a jar of Yuan Qinghua Ghost Valley down the mountain sold for 230 million yuan, which gave us a basic price judgment on this plum bottle.
In 2009, the Wuhan Cultural Relics Store was merged into the Wuhan Museum, and the original store's collection belonged to the museum, and this plum bottle naturally became the treasure of the Wuhan Museum, and was exhibited in the Ceramic Museum all year round.
Yuan Qinghua said before that the plum bottle probably knows what it looks like, but why is the pattern on this bottle called "Four Love Diagram"? It is because there are four paintings in the opening part of the head, and the theme is related to "love" (Figure 2). There is Wang Xizhi who loves orchids - why does he love orchids? "Orchid Pavilion Collection"; Tao Yuan Ming Ai Ju - "Picking Chrysanthemums Under the Eastern Fence"; Zhou Dunyi Ailian - "Ai Lian Said", taught in middle school textbooks; Lin Hejing, Ai Mei Ai Hehe - "Mei Wife Crane".
These four love pictures are a bit interesting. Among the character patterns of Yuan Qinghua that appeared before, they are all complete stories, such as the We know of The Little Willow Camp, the West Chamber, the Three Gu Maolu (Figure 3), the Zhaojun Out of the Plug (Figure 4), the Ghost Valley Down the Mountain (Figure 5), Xiao He Yuexia Chasing Han Xin (Figure 6), etc., are relatively complete stories, but these four on the "Four Love Map", who do not match anyone, there are Jin Dynasty people, there are Song Dynasty people. This raises the question, is this thing the Yuan Dynasty?
It is known that all the stories of Yuan Qinghua are very complete stories, such as the above-mentioned Xiao He Yue chasing Han Xin, Ghost Guzi down the mountain, painting a general scene. What is Tongjing? Simply put, opening the Hand Scroll of Chinese Painting is a general scene, that is, a painting from beginning to end. But porcelain is round, and it must be painted end to end, so it must have a beginning and an end. This plum bottle is different, it is open on all sides. Opening the light is to open a window-like space on the picture, and the four love pictures are painted in these four windows, the jargon is called "open light", also called "open window".
It makes some sense to say that it is not from the Yuan Dynasty, and it is slightly different from the Yuan Qinghua. For example, the yuanqinghua is a trapezoidal mouth, which is a bouquet mouth. Go to see the yuan qinghua, most of the plum bottles are different from this one, this one is like a ribbon tied at the mouth of the bottle, and the two sides are tightened, which is such a state.
Then there is the performance of the open light, which is not a general scene, not to tell a complete story, but four open lights, showing four bridge sections.
Third, the standard yuan qinghua, the bottom is all eight yards. It is the pattern of the lotus petal under the bottle, which exists independently. Why is this thing called eight sizes? Up to now, experts and scholars have not deciphered clearly, and some people say that this is from Mongolian. The eight sizes are all independent, but this one has adhesion, that is, the petals are glued together from the petals.
Some people say that this plum bottle is not enough for the Yuan Dynasty, it is a new imitation. While arguing endlessly, coincidentally, this thing has another one! In 2006, a very similar plum vase was suddenly unearthed in the tomb of King Yingjing in Hubei Province (Figure 7).
I have talked about the tomb of King Liangzhuang before, and this is the tomb of King Yingjing. The love story of King Liang Zhuang is poignant, the love story of King Ying Jing is even more poignant, and the people in the early Ming Dynasty are more energetic and move their true feelings.
Like the tomb of King Liangzhuang, this time it is still in Zhongxiang, Hubei, and there are 6 emperors who have been crowned kings here, so it is known as the "Hometown of Emperors". Zhu Yuanzhang had a total of 26 sons, and King Yingjing was Zhu Yuanzhang's 23rd son. The tomb of King Yingjing is a joint burial tomb of Zhu Dong and his princess Guo.
According to the literature, the tomb building originally had a red wall of 127 zhang, equivalent to 430 meters, which was an imperial level tomb in the Ming Dynasty. Before this, the tombs of the same level in the Ming Dynasty were stolen many times, and the tomb of King YingJing was no exception, starting from 1998, it was stolen nine times before and after, and twice it exploded to the top of the underground palace, that is, it could not really enter the underground palace, that is, it was not stolen once. The local farmers have practiced the ability to catch tomb robbers, and the last time they robbed the tombs, they were caught by the locals. Sooner or later, there will be an accident, so at the end of 2005, the archaeological team officially excavated.
The first step in the excavations by the archaeological team was to clear the graveyard (Figure 8). But in the beginning, migrant workers could not dig this grave. Why? People don't want you to let you in, so you have to take some protective measures, right? Mixing impurities and building it up little by little with rammed earth is very difficult to dig.
It took half a month, and finally I saw the sealing stone, there were three huge stone slabs, and it was not so easy for you to open. Then there are the sealing bricks, which, after being removed, finally open the gate of the dungeon (Figure 9). A large stone door with a big red color and a large long lock on the door (Figure 10). Anyway, it took a lot of effort to enter this dungeon that had been sealed for six hundred years.
The archaeologists entered the front chamber of the dungeon first, finding almost nothing. Then there was the middle chamber, which was all rotten and looked like six coffins. Finally, when I came to the back room, I saw the coffin bed, and the coffins of King Yin Jing and The Princess had collapsed, and nothing could be seen. Looking at it again, I finally saw that in front of the two coffin beds, that is, in front of the coffins of King Yin Jing and The Princess Of Yin, there was a blue and white plum vase (Figure 11).
Why is there a plum bottle in front of this head? Was it discussed between King Ying Jing and The Princess? The porcelain placed there may have been discussed, but placing the bottle in front of the coffin bed is really an important funeral custom.
This porcelain vase is called "soul bottle" in the burial items. What is the meaning of the Soul Bottle? There is a legend: as early as the last year of the Shang Dynasty, Boyi and Shuqi successively gave up the throne, because they did not eat the grain of the Zhou Dynasty and starved to death in Shouyang Mountain. People nearby admired their integrity and were afraid that their souls would starve, so they found a bottle and put it into the grain to accompany the burial, originally called "five grain bags", that is, thinking that people are starving to death, and after death, the soul must not be hungry again.
Soul bottles have been very popular since the Han Dynasty, and the most complex periods are the Three Kingdoms and Song Dynasty, with a variety of styles. After the Ming and Qing dynasties, more substitutions were used, that is, the bottles in life were used to replace this soul bottle. This plum bottle of King Ying Jing is a substitute.
The two plum bottles have the same standard, but the ornamentation is different. The one on the head of King Ying Jing is a dragon pattern (Figure 12), and the contents of the plum bottle on the princess's head, like the one received by the Wuhan Cultural Relics Store, are all four love pictures. In this way, the 600 pieces of the Wuhan Cultural Relics Store are basically from this period. The "Four Love Pictures" paint which picture is complete, the most I have seen the "Eight Loves", such as a Huanghuali Eight Love Pattern Pen Holder in the Guanfu Museum Collection, including: Tao Yuan Caritas, Meng Haoran Aimei, Su Dongpo Aiyan, Wang Xizhi Ai Goose, Zhou Dunyi Ailian, Mi Fu Aishi, Li Bai Aijiu and Lu Yu Ai Tea.
Who is this Princess Guo of Yingjing? Her grandfather's name was Guo Shanfu. Guo Shanfu has a unique job, that is, to meet. In the past, the face was a golden rice bowl. Guo Shanfu once gave Zhu Yuanzhang a face, which was very powerful.
Before Zhu Yuanzhang unified the world, he once said to Zhu Yuanzhang: "Your face is indescribably expensive. "This is the jargon of the head above the head in the face. Then he turned his head and said to his children, "If you want to do something, follow him." Guo Shanfu let his children follow Zhu Yuanzhang to fight the world, became the founding hero, and married his daughter to Zhu Yuanzhang.
King Ying Jing had a short life and died at the age of twenty-seven. He married at the age of eighteen, that is, three years of Yongle, and after nine years, when he reached the twelfth year of Yongle, this person was gone.
People in the past are different from the present: people in the present are in love first, and when they talk about not wanting to talk, they get married; people in the past are married first, from unfamiliar to glue- As soon as this King Jing was "like lacquer", he died. After that, Princess Guo was martyred. Before committing suicide, she also painted a self-portrait of herself for her daughters. It is estimated that the princess loved this bottle very much before she was born, and before she was martyred, she picked out a favorite thing for herself, thinking that the king of YingJing put a blue and white plum vase with a dragon pattern, so Princess Guo also picked a blue and white plum vase for herself to express her love for Wang Ye.
These two four love plum bottles are a special case in the yuanqinghua. Although the paintings are slightly different, they belong to the same period and are found in Hubei, which is really a coincidence. Therefore, some people speculate that the plum bottle bought for 600 yuan should also be excavated from the tomb of the same level.
Zhu Dong, the King of Yingjing, was born in the twenty-first year of Hongwu and died in the twelfth year of Yongle. Hongwu Jia Jianwen Jia Yongle, in the past half century, this plum bottle should be new, so judging from the time, it is more appropriate to set the year as the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.
To judge the age of cultural relics, no one can be accurate to a specific year. The judgment of cultural relics is not a scientific judgment, it is a sociological and comparative judgment. Depending on what style it is, it is determined in which era.
The discovery of these two four love plum bottles solves two problems:
Solved the standard problem of the transition from yuanqinghua to mingqinghua. Yuan Qinghua's standard instrument has been said, and Daweide's pair of "zhizheng" cloud dragon pattern elephant ear bottles are, this time talking about the standard instrument of the transition period at the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.
The second unearthed plum bottle resolved the dispute over the authenticity of the first large bottle bought for 600 yuan. Two four love bottles belong to the same period and are not controversial.
Princess Ying Jing used the essence of classical culture to pick out the four loves, and this kind of culture was not uncommon after that. The unearthed plum bottle is a testimony to her love.
If the couple who sold the plum bottle to the antiquities store sold it to an antique dealer, we probably wouldn't have the place to see the artifact today. Maybe, when you see this plum bottle in the Wuhan Museum, you can meet the couple of that year, and if you want them to look at this plum bottle, you must have mixed feelings and imagination.