Inherit For Three Thousand Years

Xiao Yao did not expect to be able to see such a handed down woodcarving boutique in such a small shop that specializes in selling woodcarvings, and he was a little excited.

Judging from the carving style, this should be a wooden Buddha statue of the Jin Dynasty.

Buddhism was deeply rooted in the Jin Dynasty. From the 10th to the 13th centuries, such large-scale painted statues were made for monasteries in northern China. Many monasteries were large in size, with ornate buildings and scattered gardens, resembling palaces.

Based on this, the monarchs of the Jin Dynasty gradually accepted Buddhism as the state religion. Under such an atmosphere, Buddhist temples, tombs, and Buddhist relics in the Jin Dynasty became more abundant and colorful. Such large Buddha statues are vivid and lifelike, with rich colors and golden colors. They are offered in front of the murals in Buddhist niches in temples, accompanied by statues of other gods and arhats. They are brilliant and magnificent.

The woodcut Buddhist statues of the Jin Dynasty were deeply influenced by the style of the Gupta Dynasty in India, and also slightly reflect the traditions of the Hellenistic era. This statue has thick and light folds, as if blown by a breeze, and is naturally elegant, similar to the latter's statues.

The body of the Buddha is thick, bare-chested, with a slightly bent waist, which is not in the traditional Chinese style of sculpture, but should belong to the foreign style introduced from the Silk Road before the Tang Dynasty. The statues of the Jin Dynasty not only draw on traditional materials, but also develop a unique style. The faces are more plump and round, the expressions are detailed and detailed, and the techniques are mature and soft. It gathers the essence of statue art from the 11th to 12th centuries and shows the extremely high level of artistic development at that time. level.

And the woodcarving in front of you is one of the fine works, noble and extraordinary, but also peaceful and warm, deeply touching the hearts of the viewers, and it is rare to see such a fine woodcarving in the Jin Dynasty woodcarving that has been handed down to the world.

In addition, most of the large-scale Buddhist statues in the Jin Dynasty are collected by museums, and rarely seen by the people. Most of the Buddhist statues of the Jin Dynasty in the collection are Bodhisattva statues, and Guanyin Bodhisattva is the most. Buddha statues are very rare, which further highlights the preciousness of this wood carving.

Among the museum's collections, the most famous one is the large eleven-faced Avalokitesvara statue in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The style of this Avalokitesvara statue is very similar to that of the wood carving in front of me. For example, the facial description is plump and natural, and the lips, cheeks, and eyebrows are very similar. The sculpting techniques of the neck, back and body of the two are also similar, showing the muscles and bones with subtle undulations, as if they came from the same craftsman and workshop.

These details may not be important to the layman, but they are extremely critical to the insider.

With the comparison of similar collections in the museum, the value of this wood carving will not be underestimated.

Although this wood carving has been around for thousands of years, there are still some mineral colors on the body of the Buddha, which is very well preserved, which is even more commendable.

The market price of such a precious Jin Dynasty wood carving should be around 30 million yuan, but the boss's asking price is only 30,000 yuan. Xiao Yao is really lucky to be able to pick up such a big leak.

After appraising this Jin Dynasty wooden Buddha statue, Xiao Yao shifted his gaze to the other two wooden statues.

The other two wood carvings are the statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva and the statue of Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva.

The Bodhisattva stands in a slightly three-bending posture. He raised his chest in one hand and held a streamer in the other. The lower body is tied with a bag, the upper body is exposed, wearing a jeweled necklace, a ribbon on the arm, eyes downcast, a high bun, and a statue of Amitabha Buddha on the five-leaf crown of Guanyin.

There are vase decorations on the crown from Dashi to Wuye.

The face is peaceful and quiet, and the beauty is solemn.

Although Bodhisattvas can be made individually, most of them are presented in pairs to complement a specific Buddha, that is, "three statues in one shop". Therefore, Avalokitesvara and Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva are generally located on both sides of Amitabha Buddha, while in the past Buddha Sakyamuni's left and right attendants were Shu and Samantabhadra Bodhisattvas, and Medicine Buddha was accompanied by Sunlight and Moonlight Bodhisattvas.

Before the Song Dynasty, most Buddhist statues in my country were carved in stone or cast in bronze. In 845 and early 846 AD, the imperial court banned Buddhism on a large scale. In addition to confiscating the land and property of temples, the tax relief for Buddhists was also greatly reduced, and a large number of monks and nuns were ordered to return to secular life. Therefore, since the middle of the ninth century, the power of Buddhism in China has declined greatly. Since the accumulated wealth and annual income of temples had plummeted, from the end of the ninth century onwards wood became the superior choice for statuary, because it was cheaper than bronze and easier to handle than stone carvings. Before the Song Dynasty, although wooden-bodied Buddha statues were made, few of them have been handed down to this day. Therefore, most of the surviving Chinese wooden-bodied Buddha statues are works from the tenth century onwards.

The two statues in front of us, like most of the early Buddhist stone and wood sculptures, should have been decorated with fresh mineral pigments. Generally speaking, the robes and silks are mostly orange, blue and green, and the beaded wreaths are mostly gilt. , the skin is pink or white, and the hair is black or occasionally blue.

In fact, many of the works bear traces of painted paint and its white putty. Applying putty can not only ensure the smooth surface of wood and stone, but also make the paint more vivid and clear with gray and white background. Among the early statues in my country, the best preserved examples of original painted paintings are Buddhist statues in Mogao Grottoes, but many wooden Buddha statues from Song Dynasty, Liao Dynasty, Jin Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty also have traces of painted paintings , the famous Avalokitesvara of the South China Sea in the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, USA is the best proof.

The two statues in front of us are in the same shape as the statues of the Tang Dynasty.

However, the shape of these two statues is a bit stocky and heavy, for example, the neck is short, the head is relatively small in proportion to the body, and the body is tall and tall, and the proportion of the legs is particularly slender. The statue should be the work of the Northern Song Dynasty or even as early as the Five Dynasties.

Furthermore, the square faces of the two bodhisattvas are completely different from the full moon-like faces of most Tang Dynasty statues, and the pattern of their crowns and silk wrapping around the waist to the elbows is also consistent with the style of the 10th to 12th centuries.

The netted wreaths on these two statues are more elaborate than those commonly seen in the Tang Dynasty, but they coincide with Northern Song woodcarvings, as can be seen in a standing Bodhisattva in the Metropolitan Collection of New York.

The closest example to these two statues is a painted wooden sculpture at the Fujii Yurinkan in Kyoto. The face of the statue in the adjacent hall is similar to the two statues in front of you, but its body is slightly thicker, the torso is more plump, and the proportion of its legs is not as slender as the statue in front of it. The shaped necklaces are similar with minor differences, and the skirt pleats that hang down the legs are exactly the same. In terms of style and overall appearance, the collection of a neighboring museum is very close to these two statues, which means that the three are likely to be products of the same workshop or even the same group of craftsmen.

This is very important, and directly determines the value of the two statues in front of you.

In addition to the collections in neighboring museums, as far as Xiao Yao knows, the British Museum in London also has two wooden sculptures of Bodhisattvas of the Five Dynasties. Their style is also similar to the two statues in front of us. However, the difference between the two batches of works is that the woodcarvings in the British Museum lack specific statue rituals, and the postures of the arms of the two Bodhisattvas are the same, that is, the right arm is hanging down, and the left arm is raised as a chest. It seems that there should be multiple Bodhisattvas A combination of multiple statues in one shop, rather than a simple shop of three statues. Even so, the figure of the Bodhisattva in the British Museum is slightly taller than the two statues in front of us, and the folds of its clothes hang down the legs in almost the same way.

Similar examples of the two statues in front of us, in addition to the collections of the neighboring museum and the British Museum, there are also four wooden sculptures from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of New York. Two of these are a pair of Bodhisattvas in attendance, which were once dated to the Tang Dynasty but have been corrected to Northern Song woodcarvings dating from the 10th to 11th centuries AD. The standing Bodhisattva statue in the first necklace is dated from the 10th to the 11th century AD, and its style is also similar to the two statues in front of us.

Xiao Yao is very clear that these two statues are works of the Five Dynasties, but the dating cannot be based on his cognition alone, and there must be examples to illustrate it to be convincing.

With the above examples and carbon-14 testing, the two statues in front of us can be dated to five generations, and no one can refute them.

The carving techniques of these two statues are extremely exquisite, and they are very well preserved. Coupled with the fact that they are rare in the world, the market price of these two statues should be around 70 million yuan.

In addition to the Buddha statue from the Jin Dynasty, the market price of these three wood carvings has exceeded 100 million yuan!

Although there is still a big gap between this harvest and Xiao Yao's expectations, the whole morning was not wasted.

The shop owner didn't know the true value of the three statues, so Xiao Yao finally bought them in a package for 30,000 yuan.

Coming out of this woodcarving shop, Xiao Yao went to a few more shops, but there was no big harvest until noon. In the next hour, he only missed an ancient jade from the Han Dynasty worth more than 3 million.

After eating a few bites at noon, Xiao Yao gave up the idea of ​​simply picking up leaks in the antique market, and began to try the second plan.

His second plan is to gamble on stones in the jade market.

Xiao Yao had already consulted someone in advance about the shops where he could gamble with stones. He followed the addresses he had obtained in advance, and went to them one by one.

Facts have proved that with his current cheats, it is no problem to make a lot of money by gambling on stones, but it seems unrealistic to greatly increase his fortune. At least the jade market in Shanghai is not realistic. Maybe he can go to the domestic jade distribution center, or simply go to Myanmar, and his idea can be realized.

Although his hacks are very powerful, there are not many real valuables in the rough jadeite. The lucky thing that a piece of glass can appear when you cut a rough jadeite at random can only appear in academic works.

He went to 5 shops in a row in the afternoon, but he only found 7 rough jadeites with high value in total. If he sold all of them, these 7 rough jadeites should be able to bring him more than 60 million yuan in income.

Judging from the practice in the afternoon, it is definitely possible for him to rely on gambling stones to make a small fortune, but if he wants to greatly increase his own fortune, this plan is also not advisable.

Unless he has the opportunity to go to Tengchong or Myanmar in the future, his cheating may bring him a lot of wealth and realize his overly ambitious and idealistic goals.

But that is a future plan after all. During this period of time in Shanghai, the plan to increase one's own fortune by gambling with stones is obviously not feasible.

The gap between the first two plans and his imagination is too large, and now he can only put his hope on the third plan.

Xiao Yao asked Tian Ye to collect information on the rental of old bungalows, and he was going to spare time to go around these rented old bungalows.

Few old houses are sold to the outside world, but many are rented out.

After making an appointment with the real estate agency to see the house in the morning, Xiao Yao took Tian Ye to the appointed place.

What he is going to see soon is a garden house on Wuyuan Road.

Of course, these are not the main ones. There is only one piece of information that really makes him interested in this garden house, that is, this garden house was built in 1938.

There are still many old houses in Shanghai that have survived to this day. Some of the former owners of these old houses were business tycoons during the Republic of China, and some were celebrities from all walks of life. During the period of the Republic of China, wars were frequent and there was no fixed place to live. Until the period before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the owner of each old bungalow changed countless times.

Because of the war, it is inevitable that a small number of old houses will store a small amount of belongings that are not easy to carry. Generally speaking, after the life is settled, the original owner will definitely take all these belongings away. But if an accident happens to the original owner, those hidden properties will become ownerless.

In the next few decades, some of the less tightly stored ones must have been found out by the later owners of the old bungalow. But there are always some well-hidden ones, and it is very likely that they are still hidden somewhere, and have never been discovered.

Xiao Yao's goal is the treasures hidden in the old bungalows that have never been discovered.

For others, it's a needle-in-a-haystack move that simply isn't realistic. But for Xiao Yao who has a cheat, he only needs to turn around to know whether there are hidden treasures in the old bungalow that have not yet been discovered.

If he hadn't suddenly had such an idea, Xiao Yao really didn't know that there is still such a place in Shanghai.

The road he is walking on now is narrow, one of the few roads in Shanghai that is not accessible by public transport, it connects Changshu Road at one end and Wukang Road at the other end, and it takes less than ten minutes to walk from the beginning to the end.

A Urumqi Road runs through the middle, and the east is full of street atmosphere, with cigarette paper shops, rice noodle shops, and real estate agencies lined up along the street.

Tian Ye introduced that there was an open-air vegetable market here a few years ago, and it is said that you can buy high-end food that is not common in ordinary vegetable markets.

Walking on Wuyuan Road is like walking in the arched green corridor, and the quiet and lazy atmosphere blows over your face. Except for the grocery store at the entrance of the alley, the barber shop with simple signs and other small shops, Wuyuan Road is full of residences, with garden houses, high-rise residences and new-style alleys mixed in, with different architectural styles and years of age.

However, even the newest houses here already have a sense of history compared to the ever-changing magic city.