Antiques with golden eyes

When Shen Yu finished speaking, Li Hanlin and Dong Pengcheng looked at each other, and then laughed heartily at each other.

Dong Pengcheng gave Shen Yu a thumbs up, "Awesome, really awesome. When I was your age, let alone identifying Shen Zhou's authentic works, I didn't even fully distinguish between meticulous flower-and-bird painting, freehand flower-and-bird painting, and part-time calligraphy." ”

Shen Yu knew that it was time to be humble at this time: "Dong Lao Miao praised me. I just lucked out and discovered that the seal was wrong. It's just a trick. As for the power, it's even more unbelievable."

Li Hanlin spoke at this time, "Shen Zhou has grown from a commoner to having friends all over the world. Even high-ranking officials in the court have to call him Mr. Shen, such as the cabinet bachelor, the first assistant Li Dongyang, the Wenyuan Pavilion scholar Wang Hao, the secretary of the household department, etc. This is inseparable from his modest and honest temperament, which is indifferent to fame and fortune.

Let me also tell you an anecdote about Shen Zhou. Cao Feng, also known as Cao Mingqi, a minister of the Ming Dynasty, served as the prefect of Gusu. After he took office, he wanted to repair the government office because it was in disrepair and was too dilapidated. This required the participation of painters with certain painting skills. .

There was a small official in the government office who couldn't deal with Shen Zhou for some unknown reason, so he summoned Shen Zhou to the government office to work as a corvee.

Shen Zhou was already over seventy years old at the time. Many people said, Sir, you have friends all over the world, can't you just say hello casually? Who dares to let you do such menial work?

Shen Zhou said, "It is my duty to do corvee work without any honor, because wouldn't it be even more shameless to ask for help?

As a result, Shen Zhou's paintings were very good, and the government officials had no choice but to let him return home safely.

Later, when Cao Feng returned to Beijing for business, an official from the Ministry of Civil Affairs asked him, "You are appointed as the prefect of Gusu. Do you know how Mr. Shen of Gusu is doing lately?"

"Mr. Shen?"

Cao Feng was puzzled. He had no idea who Mr. Shen was, so he agreed, "Well, it's fine."

Li Dongyang, the chief assistant of the cabinet, was a good friend of Shen Zhouzhi. When they met, he asked Cao Feng strangely, "When you came to the capital, Mr. Shen didn't ask you to bring me a letter? Or did you not visit Mr. Shen?"

This frightened Cao Feng, so he had to reply, "Take it with you, I'll deliver it to you in a few days."

After returning, Cao Feng was a little panicked and quickly asked around who this Mr. Shen was.

Finally, it was his good friend Wu Kuan, one of the famous ministers of the Ming Dynasty, who was the right servant of the Ministry of Civil Affairs at that time. Wu Yuanbo told him, "Even Mr. Shen doesn't know that you are the prefect of Gusu? Mr. Shen is the world-famous Shen Zhou ,Shen Qinan!"

After knowing that Mr. Shen was Shen Zhou, Cao Feng became a little nervous. Although Shen Zhou had no fame, many people had received his favor, and Shen Zhou was the leader of the literary world at that time.

No matter what, he didn't dare to let Shen Zhou do hard labor.

He asked his servants to ride back to Gusu overnight and ask Shen Zhou to write a letter to Li Dongyang, so that the matter could be settled.

Of course, Cao Feng has a clear reputation, and this matter has nothing to do with Cao Feng. It is all the petty officials who interfered with it."

Dong Pengcheng said: "Xiao Shen, if you can identify Shen Zhou's fakes, you also know many Shen Zhou's stories. So, did anyone in the Ming Dynasty buy Shen Zhou's fakes?"

Shen Yu thought for a while and said, "Of course, Shen Zhou was so famous at that time that people asking for paintings were like crucian carp crossing the river.

Zhu Zhishan said in "Remembering the Paintings of Mr. Ishida": "Mr. Shen Zhou, the hope of the world is that people who beg for paintings may end up counting sheets of paper in one beggar, which is very disgusting, but Mr. Shen is calm."

This probably means that when someone comes to ask for a painting, he doesn't just ask for one, but shamelessly asks for several pictures. Shen Zhou still takes it calmly, is not impatient and will satisfy others, and is absolutely good-tempered.

Even when he painted a new painting early in the morning, some servants in the government said that my master painted a painting and what the painting looked like. By noon, imitations appeared in some calligraphy and painting shops. If it took about ten days, the imitations would be Flowers are blooming everywhere, which is what Zhu Zhishan said: the more fakes the better, the pieces come out in the morning, copies have been seen at noon, and they are everywhere within ten days.

There are many forgeries of calligraphy and painting in the Ming Dynasty. The biggest reason is that unlike the Qing Dynasty, the royal family did not pay much attention to calligraphy and painting, and not all good things were collected in the palace. In the Ming Dynasty, many famous paintings of the Tang and Song Dynasties were collected by private literati. .

For example, Xiang Yuanbian, Zhan Jingfeng, Gu Congyi, Zhang Chou, Yuan Shu, etc. This gave many literati at that time the opportunity to see the authentic calligraphy and painting of ancient celebrities.

Dong Qichang once worked as a teacher at Xiang Yuanbian's house, where he saw numerous authentic works of the Tang and Song Dynasties, which greatly improved his painting skills.

Out of their deep-rooted love for calligraphy and painting, it was common for literati in the Ming Dynasty to borrow each other's calligraphy and painting collections for copying.

For example, if Wen Zhengming has a painting by Li Gonglin from the Song Dynasty, and a classmate of Tang Yin's brother-in-law's cousin wants to visit him, they will not refuse as long as they are all scholars.

In this way, it will be difficult to tell the difference after seeing the authentic work and trying to fake it.

Moreover, the level of painters in the Ming Dynasty was generally very high. A fake painting would be extremely difficult to authenticate because of the same atmosphere of the era. In this environment, it is common for well-known collectors of calligraphy and painting to “make eye-catching” remarks.

Zhan Jingfeng, a great collector during the Jiajing period and a calligrapher, described an interesting incident of Wen Ming and Gu Congyi purchasing Shen Zhou fakes in the last four volumes of "The Complete Works of Eastern Pictures" written by him, "Xuan Lan Bian".

Taishi (that is, Wen Zhengming) once bought a landscape painting from Shen Qinan (Shen Zhou, also known as Qinan) to hang in the middle hall. It was suitable and praised as authentic.

Taishi said: It's not just true? It's also a proud pen.

I bought it for 800 yuan, isn't it cheap? When I thought about it, I wanted to beg it from the Taishi, but the Taishi couldn't bear to cut it off.

After he quit, he went to Zhuanzhu Lane, and someone came to sell one piece, just like the one Taishi bought, and paid him seven hundred dollars to buy it. When he asked, he was the same person who sold it to Taishi.

This means that Wen Zhengming bought a landscape painting signed by Shen Zhou in Zhuanzhu Lane, Gusu. When he returned home, he happily hung the painting on the wall of the main hall and invited his friends to come and enjoy it.

After seeing it, his friend Gu Congyi said that this should be the authentic work of Duke Shen!

Wen Zhengming proudly said that it was not only the authentic work of Shen Gong, but also his proud pen. I spent 800 cash to buy it (some say 800 taels), it was too cheap.

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Gu Congyi's eyes lit up when he heard this. Come on, can you sell this painting to me? I just want to take it back and keep it.

Mr. Li, Mr. Dong, you also know that Gu Congyi was also a great figure in the Ming Dynasty, a calligrapher, connoisseur, and a great collector. His family was rich and he was the richest man in Jiangnan.

There are many famous paintings, Dharma calligraphy, ancient books, epigraphic calligraphy and paintings in the collection, such as "The Picture of Women's History" by Gu Kaizhi of the Jin Dynasty, "The Picture of Xiaoxiang" by Li Gonglin of the Song Dynasty, etc. The collection of famous works is no worse than Xiang Yuanbian's "Tian Lai Pavilion" .

Wen Zhengming was reluctant when he heard it. How could my teacher's painting be sold as soon as he said it was for sale? I must have collected this painting myself.

Gu Congyi felt a little reluctant to say goodbye to Wen Zhengming's house. He walked to Zhuanzhu Lane in despair, and suddenly saw a man selling paintings. When he stepped forward, he saw that it was very similar to the one Wen Zhengming bought.

In order to find out what happened, Gu Congyi bargained for it and bought it for 700 Wen. Then he returned to Wen Zhengming's house. When they saw it, they both fainted. The painting was exactly the same, which was eye-opening.

"Haha, no wonder Xiao Shen, you can identify Shen Zhouzhi's real handiwork. You know so much, so it's weird that you can't identify it. Mr. Shen has a future!

"Let's go home for dinner." Dong Pengcheng said and left. He picked up Dong Bangda's "Returning to Cloud Mountain at Dusk" and his own "Jackdaw with Withered Vine" and turned around and went out.

Seeing that Dong Pengcheng had walked away, Shen Yu said: "Uncle Li, why did Mr. Dong..."

Li Hanlin chuckled: "Do you want to ask Mr. Dong why he exchanged a very precious authentic Shen Zhou for you a pair of Dong Bangda's not-so-valuable authentic? Isn't he doing a loss-making business?"

Shen Yu never hid anything from Li Hanlin, and just said whatever he wanted. He immediately smiled bitterly and said: "Yes! I can't understand this matter at all! You must know that Mr. Dong and I just met each other, and even that day I What I did was a little impolite."

"Do you know why Wanbaolou doesn't sell porcelain?" Li Hanlin picked up the tea cup and took a slow sip.

Shen Yu shook his head: "Uncle Li, please explain it to me directly. How do I know?"

Li Hanlin sighed: "Because the old Dong threw away half of his family property to buy a piece of Xuande blue and white porcelain. Later, he went to the old house and saw two Wanli colorful Eight Immortals bowls, and he almost threw away all the remaining money. .

"And the one who helped him a lot was Mr. Shen.

"He didn't know how his head was turned on at the time. When he was buying those two bowls, he found me and asked me to show him. My appraisal skills were average at the time. I looked at them for a long time and couldn't find anything wrong at all, so he just Let me ask Mr. Shen to take a look.

"We both became monks on the way, and we supported each other at this flea market. It happened to be that Mr. Shen came back to worship his ancestors during the Qingming Festival, so I invited Mr. Shen to help him visit that house.

"You must understand the rest, it's a fake!

"He also went to Mr. Shen's funeral. He gave me a check for two million and asked me to hand it over to you. I didn't need the money so I didn't ask for it. It was only two million. It was nothing more than the profit from selling two official kiln porcelains from the Qing Dynasty and the third generation. ”

At this point, Li Hanlin looked at Shen Yu and found that Shen Yu was very calm. He immediately smiled and said, "The main reason is that I think this old man is too stingy. You want to repay Mr. Shen's kindness for just two million?

"So, this time he took the initiative to come over and trade you a high-priced painting for a low-valued one, which is considered as repaying Mr. Shen's kindness."

"It turns out that it was my grandfather who set the path for me!"

Shen Yu suddenly realized it!