In the fall of 2013, at a long-awaited auction at Kuangshi Auctions in Beijing, the bidding price intensified, rising sharply from the original 6 million.
When the hammer in the auctioneer's hand fell heavily, a national treasure book sold for 26 million.
But who would have thought that such a collection-grade Song Dynasty engraving worth 26 million yuan was originally bought by an ancient player for 10,000 yuan!
Back in March 2009, Mr. Wang, who has always liked to buy antiques, stopped at an antique shop in Nanchang.
Mr. Wang is a wealthy businessman, and ordinary people may not have any conditions to shop for antiques, but Mr. Wang can be called an expert in this regard.
No, what had just attracted him was an old, inconspicuous looking ancient book.
To say that the treasures in this antique shop are really many, full of booths, but this ancient book is placed in an inconspicuous corner, presumably this shopkeeper did not regard it as a treasure.
However, Mr. Wang looked at this ancient book, and he pretended to look at it casually and walked into the antique shop.
Or how to say that Mr. Wang is an expert, he knows that if he is now exposed to the appearance of his interest, the shopkeeper will definitely ask for a crazy price.
He looked over it absently, and the shopkeeper thought that Mr. Wang was interested in it, and immediately stepped forward and said, "This is what Tufuzi got out of the Song tomb, if you want it, I will sell it to you cheaply." ”
Mr. Wang pretended to be calm, showed a half-convinced look, and put the book back, in fact, he had already determined that the book was worth a lot.
Then he walked over to the other antiques and fiddled with them, looking at this and looking at that.
Finally, before leaving, he picked a few samples that were good, and "conveniently" bought the ancient book with him for 10,000 yuan.
When Mr. Wang, who was expressionless, walked out of the store, he could no longer hold back and closed his mouth happily.
Even if he had just looked through the store, he could see that the ancient book was very old, and not only that, but it was likely to be a genuine copy.
After returning home, Mr. Wang carefully read and carefully, after such a long time in this book, the inner pages have been damaged to varying degrees, but he firmly believes that this is a real manuscript that "has a beginning".
He found a lot of expert friends to identify, and they all believe that it is more likely to be authentic.
In addition to rejoicing, Mr. Wang began to repair the work under the advice of expert friends, due to the damage and pollution of the page, it is very difficult to save, and even a few pages are seriously damaged and cannot be flattened.
Mr. Wang immediately repaired it to better preserve it, so he lined the pages of ancient books on rice paper and found a paper clip to frame it.
Mr. Wang had thought of treasureing this hard-won good treasure, but he did not expect that after a few years, there was a problem in the business, and he needed money to circulate, which gave rise to the idea of selling ancient books.
But as an insider, coupled with the identification of expert friends before, Mr. Wang knows that this ancient book has extremely high value and must be carefully calculated.
He first approached the leaders of the Jiangxi Provincial Library, told him that he had a collection of ancient books, and asked them if they intended to buy it as a library collection.
After the initial identification of experts, it was found that this should be a genuine manuscript from the Northern Song Dynasty, "Jingyou Libu Rhyme Strategy".
As soon as this result came out, everyone was pleasantly surprised, and after asking the reason for the book, everyone agreed that this should be a lonely product, and the collection and research value is immeasurable!
At this point, the leaders of Jiangxi Province were already excited, in order to more determine the actual value of this ancient book.
He immediately organized a seminar and invited Mr. Li Zhizhong, a member of the State Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee, and Mr. Chen Xianbin of the Historical Documentation Center of the Shanghai Library to re-evaluate this ancient book.
The two experts were also excited to hear such news, after all, if it is really a genuine and orphan product, it is also a very significant achievement in the archaeological community.
After hearing this, he immediately rushed to Nanchang and couldn't wait to see this "rare treasure".
Mr. Li Zhizhong has an old friend named Wei Li, who is also a fan of folk ancient book research, and even an expert.
After receiving the call from Jiangxi Province, Li Zhizhong couldn't wait to contact the old friend and invited him to go to Nanchang to identify this ancient book.
Mr. Wei Li later described the scene in the article:
"He said he had seen the picture of the book and thought it was rare and worth studying carefully, and he described the book to me about it, but there was a pause in his tone after he said it."
Mr. Wei Li and Mr. Li Zhizhong are old friends for many years, Li Zhizhong's pause allowed Wei Li to capture other information points at once, and sure enough, Mr. Li Zhizhong paused and said:
"Wei Li, there is one thing I want to tell you, although this book is good, but the Jiangxi Provincial Library wants to buy it, because they don't have a good Song version in the library, of course, you certainly don't have this book, I know you must be able to read it, but you still don't buy it, I think it's still more important for the public to buy it."
Of course, Mr. Wei Li understood what he meant, and after many years of understanding, Wei Li most admired Li Zhizhong's spirit of single-mindedness. However, since Mr. Li said so solemnly, he must be a rare good book.
"When I first saw this book, it was broken."
This is the original look he recalled when he saw the book when he was interviewed by Mr. Li Zhizhong later.
Although Mr. Wang is keen on antiques, he has no experience in the restoration of cultural relics, but fortunately, Mr. Wang is a careful and cautious person and has not brought more damage to ancient books.
After the seminar began, Mr. Wang told everyone about the origin of this ancient book and the reasons for selling it, and he personally also wanted to understand the actual value of this ancient book.
After the identification of various experts, it has been determined that this is an engraved copy from the Northern Song Dynasty.
Then Mr. Li Zhizhong made a brief introduction to the history of ancient books:
"The Jingyou Libu Rhyme Strategy, in fact, was made in the 4th year of the Northern Song Dynasty Song Renzong Jingyou, and was ordered by Ding Du and others to 'publish the thirteen places of narrow rhymes' and then publish and revise the "Jingde Yunluo". It is actually a Northern Song Dynasty version of the Xinhua Dictionary for students to use in the examination! ”
Prior to this, Japan had also found a copy of the "Reibe Rhyme Strategy", the page was already damaged, but it was still regarded as a national treasure by the Japanese and stored in Shinfuku-ji Temple.
Li Zhizhong found that the imperial names of the emperors after Emperor Renzong were not avoided in the "Rebbe Rhymes" in Mr. Wang's hand, so he speculated that it was published between 1037 and 1067, earlier than the collection of Zhenfu Temple.
Therefore, this "Libu Rhyme Strategy" is the earliest existing inscription at home and abroad, which can be described as a major discovery of ancient books in the past two hundred years, and has high academic value and cultural relics value.
"Not only did it publish more than twenty years earlier than the Collection of The True Fukuji Temple in Japan, but also the two volumes of Desheng and Jinsheng were well preserved, providing people with a relatively neat Northern Song Dynasty reading book for people today, and it is also a rare northern Song Dynasty orphan book in the market."
Li Zijun, a professor at the Department of Chinese at Jilin University, who specializes in phonology, has lost almost all of the Zhenfu Temple's collection and is missing as many as 168 Chinese characters.
Mr. Su Bai, a titan in the archaeological field, once counted that there are very few existing inscriptions from the Song Dynasty at home and abroad, and some of them are also stored in regional libraries.
Once upon a time, there was "one page of Song edition, one or two gold" to describe the hard-to-find gold of the Song engraving.
In addition, this "Rebbe Rhyme Strategy" is an authoritative official rhyme for the examination of the two Song Dynasties, which has a supreme status in ancient times, and its influence is far-reaching, presumably of great value and significance.
The leaders of the Jiangxi Provincial Library were pleasantly surprised to hear this conclusion, and when Mr. Wang asked what kind of price they would give, he decided to show his sincerity and buy it for 5 million.
Judging from many parties, this is indeed a Northern Song Dynasty inscription, as mentioned earlier, the Northern Song Inscription is very rare, although there are some ancient books annotated, but there are only a dozen that can really be recognized by the academic community.
According to the value of the book, 5 million is a reasonable price.
Unfortunately, perhaps because of the lack of luck, the Jiangxi Provincial Library eventually missed the opportunity because it did not raise enough funds.
Mr. Li Zhizhong believes that this kind of treasure should be collected in the National Library in order to be professionally preserved and repaired.
But after all, Mr. Wang also spent money to buy it, not to mention that Mr. Wang's business deficit is serious, and he urgently needs money, and Mr. Li Zhizhong is not good at opening this mouth.
In 2013, Beijing Kuangshi Auction Company contacted Mr. Wang and offered to hold an auction for the book "Rebbe Rhymes" in Mr. Wang's hand.
After the two sides reached a deal, Beijing Kuangshi also riveted enough to start publicity, not only invited experts from the ancient book research community and the archaeological community to hold a seminar, but also contacted a number of media to hold a press conference for publicity and reporting.
When the news that "Beijing Kuangshi will shoot the northern Song Dynasty's "Jingyou Libu Rhyme Strategy" in autumn" has been released, it has caused a sensation in the entire ancient book circle at home and abroad.
The value of this "Rebbe Rhyme Strategy" has been heard by everyone, and they are full of expectations for this auction, and Tibetan friends at home and abroad have also come to visit.
On December 4, the auction site was full of people, and the experts were also among them, thanks to the early publicity, "Rebbe Rhymes" started with a high price of 6 million, and then the bidding actually went all the way up.
Some buyers directly bid 15 million, and the bigwigs from all walks of life did not want to show weakness to continue to raise the price, and finally sold at the Nanjing Library for 26 million, plus a total commission of 29.9 million...
The rebbe rhyme can be raised to such a high price, not only because of its age, but also because of its extremely high historical and literary value.
In the early Song Dynasty, he not only tried the scriptures, but also tried poetry.
Writing poetry in the field of juzike field, it is necessary to keep in mind the rhyme of the words, but also not to make mistakes, which has given birth to the revision of rhyme books.
Because the book was written in the fourth year of Zhenzong Jingde, it is also called "Jingde Yunluo", which is the first "Yunluo" of the Song Dynasty.
And because the imperial examination has been in charge of the Ministry of Rites since the Tang Dynasty, and since the time of the emergence of rhymes, it has been directly used for the examination of the Department of Rites, because it is directly called "Rites Department Rhymes".
This book deletes a large number of strange and cold characters in books such as "Guangyun", and only includes 9,590 words commonly used at that time, and the annotations under each word are relatively brief.
The rhyme is also divided into two hundred and six rhymes according to the "Broad Rhyme", and the order of rhymes has not been changed.
The words "exclusive use" and "same use" in the book are more clearly marked, which is an important material for studying the actual pronunciation of the Song Dynasty.
The "Libu Rhyme Strategy" not only influenced the cultural undertakings of the Song Dynasty, until the eighth year of the Ming Taizu Hongwu (1375 AD), when Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the compilation of the "Hongwu Zhengyun", Le Shaofeng, Song Lian and other officials also referred to the "Libu Rhyme Strategy".
Some people wonder whether we overestimate the value of the Rebbe Rhymes or similar ancient books, thinking that the nearly 30 million transaction fee is already a sky-high price.
In fact, it is not, to know that ancient books themselves are the most effective carriers for studying history, the most direct way for us to understand history is to learn through the words on ancient books.
Under this premise, the role of the Rebbe Rhyme Strategy is equivalent to an ancient Xinhua dictionary.
Through this book, we can not only understand the ancient people's learning requirements and standards for the phonology of words, but also understand the historical background behind them through these works, can these still be measured by simple money?
The ancient imperial examination is equivalent to the college entrance examination and civil service examination in our modern society, which is the main way for the state to elect talents, and the "Rebbe Rhyme Strategy" as a tool book for ancient scientific examinations can be imagined.
In addition, storing it in public libraries for people to understand is also an excellent way to promote traditional culture.
Knowledge is priceless, and in today's society, a small elite in possession of wealth creates a large number of addictive pastimes in which most people who are not rich in material resources find comfort and are willing to indulge in the happiness they have created.
The tendency to entertain to death is constantly encroaching on the three views of modern people, and people indulge in simple and vulgar pleasures, but they are not aware of the spiritual lack and emptiness caused by fast-food entertainment.
In the Internet era, many concepts have undergone profound changes, and people are more enthusiastic about achieving rapid monetization through shortcuts, but ignoring the importance of mastering knowledge.
In the Internet age, we should use more optimized and convenient ways to obtain knowledge results through learning, and then realize the realization of knowledge through creative transformation, because knowledge is never outdated, which is a long-term sustainable development.
The high-priced auction of "Rebbe Rhymes" is the best proof of the value of knowledge.
From ancient times to the present, from the imperial examination to the civil service examination, society attaches more and more importance to young people's grasp of knowledge and scholarship.
At the same time as entertainment and entertainment, do not lose yourself in the torrent of the times, and constantly learn various knowledge and skills.
This is not only to avoid being eliminated in the process of modernization, but also to expand spiritual prosperity while obtaining the material foundation!