One day in June 1999, in a small village in Xinjiang's Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, villager Ma Zhong dug out a piece of porcelain while digging soil to build a house in his own farmland. Afterwards, I learned that this was a blue and white phoenix head pot from the Yuan Dynasty, there were two statues in the world, one for each luan phoenix (male and female), and the porcelain dug out by Ma Zhong was one of the phoenix (male), no wonder there were many cultural relics dealers who came to buy it, and even some people offered a high price of 100,000...
Ma Zhong's family lives in Xiningzhuang Village, Lucaogou Town, Huocheng County, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, not only Ma Zhong is very poor, the local people are not very rich, Ma Zhong's income in a year is less than a thousand yuan, plus he has a disability, life is even more difficult, but this can not stop Ma Zhong's yearning for a better life.
At the end of the 1990s, the economic development level of the mainland Xinjiang region was relatively backward, although most farmers were allocated land, but due to geographical reasons, there were many soil parcels that were not suitable for cultivation, and they could only build houses on it.
Ma Zhong had such a piece of land under his name, and since he could not cultivate it, he had to move the soil to build a house. Because Ma Zhong's legs and feet were inconvenient, he worked very slowly, but he was not in a hurry, but he worked very meticulously.
One day in June, when Ma Zhong was digging the soil, a very smooth thing suddenly appeared on the ground, Ma Zhong had always been careful, wondering if he had dug up anything? In order not to damage the items under the soil, Ma Zhong carefully cut the soil with his hands, and finally dug out a flat porcelain.
At that time, Ma Zhong did not realize the preciousness of this porcelain, but felt that this "ordinary" bottle and jar was very good-looking, Ma Zhong thought to himself, although it is not a treasure, but it is also good to put it in the home, so he brought this porcelain home.
But Ma Zhongfeng said that when he dug up the soil, he dug out a beautiful "vase", but the word changed its flavor as it spread, and the news that Ma Zhong had dug out the "treasure" did not go away, and the villagers came to observe the "treasure" that had just been unearthed.
When the villagers saw this porcelain, they felt that it must not be an ordinary vase, so they told Ma Zhong: "You may really dig up the treasure, this thing is not good to be an antique." ”
Slowly, the news spread to the outer villages, to farther places, and to the ears of the "speculative" cultural relics dealers. With more and more people coming to "see the treasure", the price given by people is getting higher and higher, and a cultural relics dealer even offered a price of 100,000 yuan to buy.
100,000 yuan was definitely a huge amount of money at the end of the 90s, and the per capita income at that time, especially in Xinjiang, was already a good family with more than 1,000 yuan a year. But the higher the price, the more hesitant Ma Zhongxin was, although he had no culture, he knew that the value of this porcelain must be more than 100,000 yuan.
Ma Zhongzhong already had a plan in mind, and he wanted to hand over this cultural relic to the state.
After that, an incident completely made Ma Zhong make up his mind. The news that the cultural relics dealers paid 100,000 yuan to buy this treasure has been spread to everyone, and many people have moved their hearts, one night, someone quietly sneaked into Ma Zhong's home to steal porcelain, but unexpectedly, Ma Zhong had already hidden it in a safe place.
When he got up the next day, after seeing the flipping marks in his home, Ma Zhong immediately understood what had happened, and then he began to contact the local cultural relics department, and finally on June 18, he officially handed over the porcelain.
When the experts conducted the identification, the results shocked everyone, this blue and white phoenix head pot is a product of the Yuan Dynasty, named blue and white phoenix head pot, there are two statues in the world, one for the luan phoenix (male and female), and Ma Zhong dug out this porcelain is one of the phoenix (male), the other is the luan (female), which was stored in the Beijing Museum at the time, unfortunately this one in Beijing is not complete, it is all fragments (in 20004 was sent to Shanghai for 13 months to repair)
Because Ma Zhong was careful when digging at that time, there was no damage, the value of this cultural relic can be imagined, in recognition of Ma Zhong's contribution to the protection of cultural relics, as well as his spirit of dedication, the local cultural relics department rewarded him with 1,000 yuan in cash.
For this, Ma Zhong was very happy, not only saved a cultural relics for the country, but also received a reward of 1,000 yuan. But the villagers began to laugh at him, and this ridicule was for many years. Some villagers even ridiculed him: "What you hand over is something worth tens of millions or even hundreds of millions." ”
Ma Zhong did not pay attention to the villagers' rumors, nor did he regret the missed opportunity to become a billionaire, he always believed that he had done something enough to show off in front of his children and grandchildren.