Essay 丨 Tang Qingbai: Man Ge

Full brother

Text/Tang Qingbai

Man Ge is a well-known local figure, and Man Ge's name is his nickname, because everyone calls him that, and his real name is forgotten. The Municipal Collectors Association was founded at his instigation and considered itself its president. Several boxes of business cards were printed, and the titles of the business cards were several to the effect that they were: collector, visiting professor, researcher of the Cultural Society, and so on. See acquaintances or half-baked people are hairy. Pulled a large group of officials and entrepreneurs to be his "subordinates", often wind and fire, human-like, very decent, the blame is that everyone is very obedient to him.

There are many people who learn from him, and there are many disciples and grandchildren. Especially when there was a young and beautiful woman who said that she wanted to worship him as a teacher, he was full of beauty in his heart. In the tea narrative, he is often overwhelmed, mouth-hanging, gushing, ancient and modern Chinese and foreign everything, everything to talk about, he can catch up with the topic, to reflect his profound knowledge.

Brother Man is actually not very good-looking, short, has a pair of ear-catching ears, the eyes are very small, the eyes are even smaller, it is difficult for people to see joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness in his eyes. For his own appearance, Man Ge often laughed at himself: "I have two earlobes and shoulders, my hands are over my knees, I am the face of the emperor, but because I cast the wrong fetus, I fell into the commoner's house and could not do anything." "Man Ge is very shrewd, brainy, excellent memory, can never forget, he is a typical character who belongs to the condensed essence."

Brother Man did not go to college, and before graduating from middle school, he responded to Chairman Mao's call to "go to the vast world" and went to the countryside. Like the resume of the famous painter Huang Yongyu, it belongs to the kind of middle school that has not fully graduated. There is no culture without going to college, and people with knowledge do not necessarily have "culture". Mange's ancestors were Hanlin, and there may be a legacy of family learning. He insisted on self-study no matter what adversity he was in, and he also had a hobby of buying books. The study had long been piled up, and the foot of the bed in the bedroom was also piled up. The parishor issued a stern warning: "If you still buy books, please pile them in the kitchen." "Man Ge often thinks of himself as the first person in the city's private collection of books. The don's occasional complaint in friends' small talk said, "He actually read only half of many books." This incident made him lose face, and the parish guest exposed his shortness. Man Ge is known to have accompanied the diners on the street to shop, looked at a young girl of a wonderful age a few times, and was reprimanded on the spot by the diners: "You are a person, you often eat in the bowl, look in the pot." "It made the brother blush."

The Mange family has a wealth of collections, the most precious of which are two of Zheng Banqiao's "Ink Bamboo" and one of Qi Baishi's "Shrimp". The whole lineage was handed down from the ancestors. A few years ago, Brother Man took these paintings to Beijing to find experts to identify, all of them are real guys. Man Ge started collecting very early, and in the early eighties, when people did not have a sense of collecting, he liked this line. I often ride a "permanent" bicycle to go to the village to find treasures. Every time he went to a place, he would find the village chief to lead the way and give him a box of cigarettes as a reward. Pick the big families that are broken down, or choose the poorest ones to drill. It makes sense to choose these two types of families, and although the large families that have been destroyed have undergone vicissitudes in the world, they are somewhat left behind. At the time of the land reform, the poorest peasant households also received the most property because of their good births. When people are poor and afraid of the collective, they will be very moved to see a little money, sometimes the money is less than a little food stamps, they will take out the good things in the family for Mange to choose, Mange is very good at being a person, and each person will give a grain of candy to win the happiness of children and the goodwill of adults.

Man brother engaged in collection also fainted when the brain, once the home decoration, the tang customer took 100,000 yuan to let him go to the building materials market to buy decorative materials, passed by the antique shop to rest his feet, was shocked by two contemporary masterpieces of the work, an excitement He could not control himself, bought all the money for the work, and also owed twenty thousand yuan. As soon as they got home, the two couples had a fight. The guest slept with the full brother for half a month. Two years later, the price of the work skyrocketed. Man Ge sold the work and made ten times the profit. Before going to bed that night, the donku hugged Brother Man's face and kissed him three times in a row and said, "Husband, you really have eyesight." Brother Man took advantage of the small solution to scold very slightly in the bathroom: "The woman's vision is shallow, and the man's vision is far."

The most legendary of Mango's collecting career is the process of "picking up leaks" twice, which became the classic story of his tea and dinner, and it was also a living teaching material for his apprentices. Once, a can for oil was found at a supper stall, which was a Longquan kiln during the Southern Song Dynasty. In the darkness of the night he bought it back for only a small amount of money. Another time was passing by an old farmer's house in the township and found a square table of Ming-style purple planted wood. Although the tabletop dust was very thick, it could be seen that there was a layer of paste on the outside of the wood grain, and some years had passed, and he almost called out. I didn't expect such a good thing in such a poor and remote place. After some negotiation, Man Ge bought the table at the current price of twenty catties of pork. When parting, he kept saying to the old man: "The table can't eat, go to the market to cut some meat to eat, and maintain your body." Man Ge was worried that the other party would repent, so he turned his back and called a hand tractor to drag things home. Watching this table that night, I looked, looked, and touched, and I didn't close my eyes for a night. He was so happy about this that he couldn't sleep well for three days.

Of course! Man Ge is not always able to get his hands on it, once Man Ge rushed to the morning market in the cultural relics market, spent a lot of money to buy a few Ming Qinghua vases, asked the experts of the provincial museum to identify, all of which are imitations of the Ming Dynasty in the Republic of China. I didn't expect the water inside to be so deep, and this was also the first time he "carelessly lost Jingzhou" and walked away. There have been many means of counterfeiting in the past, and there are many high-ranking counterfeiters. For this matter, Man Ge repeatedly comforted himself to the Daoist friends, saying: "The experts of the Palace Museum also have a time to look away, and those who engage in collection do not pay tuition, normal." "How many treasures there are in Brother Man's family is unknown, only a few close friends have seen a few pieces bit by bit, which are all seen when Brother Man is riding on the wine and opening his eyes to his friends." It's just that the large camphor wooden boxes in the study are very eye-catching, and they are generally not visible. Brother Man's explanation was: "Some people want good things when they see them, and if they don't give them to others, they will offend people, and people in the circle of friends are noisy and afraid of insecurity; plus I am short and short, and I have no power to do it, so if I don't get it right, it will cause trouble." ”

The teahouse is Mango's favorite, both as a source of his information and as his lecture hall. The theme of each conversation is far from collecting, and in the middle, it also talks about art, philosophy, and Zen Buddhism. When the interest comes, I will also talk about physiognomy. The face of so-and-so woman is Wangfu, the cheekbones of so-and-so women are too high to be Kefu, and so-and-so women must remarry three times before they enter the age of forty to be smooth. At this time, everyone exclaimed, "When will you do this, how can you be so god, how can you be so dead fire?" Brother Man deliberately sold Guan Zi and replied, "I have prostrated my head and worshiped the master." My master was Yang Banxian at the south gate. "Yang Banxian is indeed a local xiangshu master, famous for zhen sanxiang, even the rich woman in the provincial city will drive to see the photo, good eight characters do not have five hundred yuan not to look." Man Ge does not talk about money, pure entertainment. The tea house is also the trading place of Mange, and a considerable part of Mange's business is sold here. When he was tight on hand, he would call a few Tibetan friends to see the goods and help them bargain. Antique dealers both like him and fear him, on the one hand, they want him to introduce buyers, on the other hand, Man Ge often seizes the flaws of a certain object to suppress the price, so that the dealers make a lot less money.

Man Ge's collection is principled, and the goods of unknown sources are not collected, and the goods of tomb robbers are not collected. Brother Man hated this kind of person the most, he said: "These kings and bastards, digging up people's ancestral graves all day long, there will always be a child born without fart eyes." "Brother Man once cooperated with the public security department to arrest a group of tomb robbers and sent them all to the classroom. Afterwards, the public security department wanted to reward him. Brother Man was so anxious that he said, "I beg you, don't publicize me." I don't want money, I don't want a name, I just uphold justice, and I hope you will help me keep it a secret. "Man Brother helps friends palm their eyes, and there is no charge for identifying antiques, so people are popular, friends are wide, information is smart, and famous." Everyone is happy to deal with him, every time they get together, everyone will rush to pay the bill, Man Brother will occasionally buy a bill, and most of the time he will go to the bathroom before paying the bill. But Man Ge should be generous when he is not soft, Wenchuan earthquake year, every time he watched TV news, Man Ge was in tears, in order to help the victims, he took out several treasures, went to the auction, and all the proceeds were donated to the earthquake disaster area. Man Ge is also a master in the local collection industry, going south and north for many years, there is theory, and practical experience, in small cities can master so much knowledge of literature and knowledge is not many, small days are also sweet and moist, cars and houses are bought, less than the upper, more than the bottom. Brother Man often boasted: "Collecting relies on wisdom, eyesight to make money, rich people do not have this knowledge do not dare to play, knowledgeable people do not have capital can not play, I live in it." ”

In addition to collecting, Man Ge also loves to dance and ink. Draw some plums, orchids, bamboo, chrysanthemums, and read some ancient poems. Years of accumulation, there are also looks, the level is not low. People in the circle recognize it, and there are many people who ask him to write and paint, and they can earn a lot of polishing fees in a year. Suddenly, one day, Man Ge suddenly had an epiphany: "How can I be so stupid, always accept other people's works, why don't I let others accept my works?" Since then, Man ge has gradually retired to the collecting world. Every day at home, I pour ink and pen cultivation. Everyone does not know what it is, and it is not known whether Man Ge can become a master in the world of calligraphy and painting. (The pictures in this article are provided by the author)

Tang Qingbai, male, born in 1968, from Yanling, Hunan, graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Hunan Normal University. Chairman of Liling Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature, President of Liling Intellectuals Association. He has long been engaged in local literature and history, calligraphy and painting creation and theoretical research.