Written by: Zhou Caihua
One weekend in 2021, a crane-haired and childlike old man squatted in front of the stalls of the antique market, carefully looking at the porcelain in his hand. The stall owner is a foreigner, and it is very welcoming to see someone patronizing.
The porcelain in the old man's hand was a brush wash with a diameter of about twelve or thirteen centimeters. The pen wash porcelain tire is gray and white, and the tire quality is fine and moist, which is similar to the color of incense ash. The glaze is as lustrous as jade, the color is like a thousand peaks, and it is like a blue sky. It can be said that it is as green as the sky and as jade as the face. The opening film is like a cicada wing, although there is no order, but it seems to be arranged in an orderly manner.
After bargaining, the old man and the stall owner finally reached a deal for 400 yuan. The old man said that later, many people in the industry once got hands on the porcelain, believing that it was a Northern Song Dynasty Ru kiln pen wash.
The old man, named Ma Guangrong, was born in 1946 in Xiaguan, Dali, and is now 76 years old and has been engaged in ancient ceramics collection for 57 years. He was a professional driver for a transport company in his youth.
Bonded with celadon porcelain
In August 1965, less than half a year after entering the Xiaguan Automobile Transport Station, Ma Guangrong was sent by the leadership to Xuchang and Pingdingshan in Henan Province to conduct external investigations to verify the political appearance of the five people.
One day, when Ma Guangrong was eating at the Xuchang Guest House restaurant, he inadvertently saw 5 pieces of azure exquisite porcelain on the windowsill. These porcelains are all monochrome porcelain, which looks beautiful in both shape and color. Ma Guangrong, who grew up in Yunnan, had never seen such porcelain, and he especially liked it when he saw it, and he couldn't let go of it.
It is understood that these porcelains are the things of a great aunt in her 50s. The aunt saw that Ma Guangrong liked it and sold it to him for a "high price" of 20 yuan.
Ma Guangrong told us that these 5 pieces of porcelain were identified by experts from authoritative institutions as fine works of the Northern Song Dynasty Ru kiln, and they are still reluctant to sell at home.
Since then, Ma Guangrong has fallen in love with celadon and has been out of control, forming a fate with ancient ceramics for more than half a century.
Ancient Chinese ceramics are the precious wealth created and left by our ancestors for mankind, which can not only improve people's living standards, but also have beautiful instruments, rich colors, exquisite ornamentation, and integrate the best cultural elements of various eras, which can bring people indescribable spiritual enjoyment. In ancient porcelain, we can clearly see the superb level of craftsmanship and the complex social scene of ancient China, and we can also understand the development history and humanistic context of ancient China. However, due to the constraints of the level of development of productive forces, the yield of ancient celadon is extremely low, coupled with the damage during production, transportation, sales and use, as well as a large amount of damage caused by dynastic changes and social turmoil, very few can be handed down, and the fine works left by several famous kilns such as Ru, Jun, Guan, Ge, and Ding are even fewer, if we do not cherish them, future generations may not see these precious cultural relics that can witness the development of Chinese civilization.
Ma Guangrong said that this was the main reason why he was obsessed with the collection of ancient ceramics.
Love to madness
The most important thing in the collection of ancient ceramics is the identification of new and old, the confirmation of kiln mouths, the time of generation and market conditions. Some unsuspecting people think that Ma Guangrong's collection of celadons is self-taught. In fact, only he himself knows how much effort Ma Guangrong has put into the authenticity appraisal of ancient porcelain; how much time and energy he has spent, only he knows; how much loss and how much deception he has suffered, only he himself knows.
At the beginning, Ma Guangrong consulted the information according to the "treasure" in his hand and learned about the relevant knowledge in order to achieve the purpose of identifying authenticity and improving his own level. Later, through reading the papers and books written by a large number of ancient ceramic experts of authoritative institutions, he systematically learned the new and old characteristics, era characteristics and authenticity identification essentials of ancient ceramics of various dynasties and kilns.
Due to the early entry into the industry, antiques as forgery and counterfeiting rarely occur, the probability of buying fakes is relatively low, and Ma Guangrong has been in a state of actual combat, the theoretical knowledge he learned in books can be verified one by one in reality, so through a long period of study and research, his identification level of authenticity of ancient ceramics has been greatly improved. At the same time, it also strengthened his confidence in continuing to move forward on the road of ancient ceramics collection.
The obsession of some people in the collecting world with antiques is difficult to understand. Ma Guangrong's love of ancient ceramics is also surprising.
Based on the theoretical knowledge he learned and the practical experience summarized in reality, Ma Guangrong wrote the article "How to Identify Ru Kiln Porcelain". The article was well received by industry insiders, and was later adopted and published by an authoritative journal.
With the continuous improvement of the level of identification, Ma Guangrong's obsession with ancient ceramics has also reached an almost crazy point.
For a favorite piece of ancient porcelain, Ma Guangrong once almost had a fight with a person who did not understand the rules of antiques and wanted to "snatch" the "treasure" in his hands.
In order to collect, Ma Guangrong not only spent his life energy on it, but also invested all his savings in the collection of ancient ceramics. According to Ma Guangrong, in the past half century, he has invested a total of several million yuan in the collection of ancient ceramics, and now the collection of porcelain has reached 7,000 or 8,000 pieces.
Some things are obviously sold and have money to make, but Ma Guangrong is reluctant to sell. As a result, the collection of ancient ceramics not only failed to make him money, but was a bottomless pit and became the biggest burden on his entire family.
Although the number of collections is increasing, the road to collection is certainly not too far, and it is impossible to have enough funds to start seeing good things. Therefore, Ma Guangrong had to take the road of hiding and hiding.
In 2012, Ma Guangrong opened a shop in a commercial city, mainly selling tea and also selling ancient porcelain. Although the business is good, he still buys more and sells less. As a result, Ma Guangrong's collection of ancient ceramics is increasing...
More than a year of practice has made Ma Guangrong gradually understand that half-heartedness is not feasible, and it is necessary to concentrate on ancient ceramics. So his antique shop, the "Baigong Porcelain Classic", opened in the professional Panjiawan Antique Market, and collectors from the north, upper, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Sichuan came to buy "treasures" from him...
Heartache and heartbeat
After decades of accumulation, with the continuous increase of experience and the deepening of learning, Ma Guangrong's understanding of the vast sea of excellent traditional Chinese culture has gradually changed, the ideological realm has been greatly improved, personal cultivation and mental state have also undergone great changes, he is no longer as impetuous as when he was young, and it is easy to "catch fire".
Of course, no one is a sage, and no one can be ruthless. Whenever he picks up a "big leak", Ma Guangrong will also be excited to sleep well for a few days, spend a lot of money to buy fakes and hit his eyes, and he will toss and turn for several nights and find it difficult to sleep.
Although it is not common to pick up leaks, it is not absent, especially for people with rich collection experience and a relatively high level of identification.
Ma Guangrong told us that in 2010, he bought a piece of porcelain at a low price of 300 yuan, which was identified by experts as a four-ear hexagonal bottle of the Southern Song Dynasty Ge kiln; in 2020, he bought a genuine Southern Song Dynasty Jianzhan at a low price of 400 yuan...
Everyone in the collecting world knows that making antiques is a heart-pounding game. Of course, if the authenticity is not recognized, the heartbeat will become heartache. Therefore, it is particularly important to de-falsify and store truth.
In the antique world, stories of picking up leaks occur from time to time, and stories of eye-punching are often there. Collectors who have not hit the eye are basically not, even if the level is high, there is a possibility of eye beating, Ma Guangrong is no exception.
In 2000, while rushing to Dali March Street, Ma Guangrong bought a Qianlong enamel amphora for a high price of 12,000 yuan. After the deal, he was so happy that he didn't sleep well for a few days. If this thing was right, the market price at that time was more than 300,000 yuan. The price of 12,000 yuan to get 300,000 yuan of things, absolutely pick up the "big leak". However, what surprised him was that after being identified by authoritative institutions, this porcelain was a high imitation fake. Then, he didn't sleep well for a few days...
As an old man in the collection of thousands of pieces, Ma Guangrong undoubtedly experienced too much heartbeat and heartache. Today, his mentality has stabilized a lot, as if his heart is like stopping water, and he is no longer easy to rejoice and be sad.
Glory and dreams
Ma Guangrong said that engaging in the collection of ancient ceramics makes him feel very aggressive, and his current mental state is getting better and better, as if he is rejuvenated and rejuvenated, and he has endless strength every day.
Ma Guangrong said that in the collection of ancient ceramics, we should pay attention to several points: Don't buy fakes, buy fakes are not worth much; if you want to buy complete utensils, the difference in the quality of the utensils is a millimeter, and the price may be thousands of miles apart; to buy high-end kiln utensils, such as the five famous kilns of the Song Dynasty, the official kilns of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the collection value of things in the local small kilns is relatively low.
Ma Guangrong believes that the ultimate purpose of antique collection is to protect cultural relics, and all successful collectors end up collecting for the state. He said that there are still countless precious cultural relics and ancient ceramics in the folk, but the personal financial resources and energy are very limited, and the role that can be played in the protection of ancient ceramics and other cultural relics is very limited, and it is necessary for countless people to work together to protect the things left by the ancestors.
For the sake of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, Ma Guangrong very much hopes to be able to do his part to inherit and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture. Ma Guangrong said that if the country needs it, he will provide a little help within his ability in the research, collection and protection of ancient ceramics.
Part of Ma Guangrong's collection of porcelain:
Transferred from Global Masters Network