The Treasure Hunt of an Antique Dealer

　　As the messenger of the heavenly kingdom, Zheng He presented to many South Indian kings and chiefs a large number of gifts such as porcelain, copper and iron, gold and silver, and Jinqi saras. He also traded with the locals on an equal footing.

　　 The silk that made the kings of the small South Indian country love the unusual silk has long since disappeared. Under the tropical climate here, silk cannot be preserved for hundreds of years;

The traces of the gold and silverware that were awarded at the time are also difficult to find, because Indians especially like gold and silver jewelry, and always like to make old gold and silver jewelry into new jewelry. As a result, they are replaced by old ones. There are not many jewelry in ordinary people's home It's older.

　　 Because of these reasons, nearly six centuries later, when Zheng He's fleet left in the Ming wares in South India, basically only copper and iron ware and porcelain can be preserved.

　　 But nothing is absolute. The third gift from the Valmar family is an organic matter, an exquisite carving of ivory.

　　 A semi-hollowed dental sculpture with a length of about 30 cm. The color is dark yellow and densely covered with many fine lines. There are 12 figures and 9 horses each with a height of less than 3 cm.

　　The carving work is extremely delicate, even the beards of the characters and the mane of the horses are identifiable. It should be about the story of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei fighting on the battlefield in the Three Kingdoms period.

　　Looking at the style and sense of the times of this tooth carving, it is difficult to judge that it is very likely to be made by the royal craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty, which is different from the dental carving skills of Guangdong Province at that time.

　　 Tooth carvings have a lot of collections, and they are still the largest collection of ivory raw materials and handicrafts in China and even the world. This vision is still there.

　　 In the Ming Dynasty, only official envoys could give royal dental sculptures to the country. Indians worshiped elephants. In addition, ancient India had a tradition of carving mascots with ivory since ancient times, and Chinese dental sculptures were regarded as treasures.

　　 Zhang Nan would look at the tooth carving, and said to others: "Among the gifts Zheng He gave to the princes in South India, the ivory carvings are the most precious, and they are said to be more popular than blue and white porcelain."

　　 again to the old Valmar who was attracted by his previous analysis: "Mr. Valmar, this dental sculpture was also found in the basement?"

　　 "Yes, it was placed in a gold box in our Hindu style, sealed with strict integrity. The location is close to the outside of the basement. It may have been put in more than a hundred years ago."

　　 "rare!"

It is rare. The first few hundred years of this dental sculpture should have been properly preserved as a precious furnishing, and the time to put it underground is not particularly long, plus it is protected by a gold box, otherwise it is underground here. It will be over in a few years.

　　 "It's rare. These items obviously represent the traditional friendship between our family's ancestors and China..." Old Valmar smiled and said these words.

　　 Their family is the native king of South India, which is different from those Yankees. "Nowadays, many Indians only learn the history left to us by the British, but they don't know that these histories are actually recorded by ancient China.

　　 From the 3rd century to the 3rd century BC, 600 years ago, we still spoke in Tamil at that time. At that time, merchants from the Middle East and China were engaged in the spice trade in my hometown for a long time, and it has been there on and off.

　　 There was no war at the time. Before China, it was a peaceful and mutually beneficial business.

　　 In the 12th century, our generation split into many small kingdoms. In the second half of the 14th century, the Chinese Ming Dynasty sent envoys to visit us many times.

　　 From 1405 to 1433 AD, the great Chinese navigator Zheng He led a fleet of seven voyages, and it was the first time that he came to us. They also made high-five prices with our ancestors, wrote contracts, and traded on an equal footing. The fleet used us as a fixed replenishment of fresh water and food and a westward base.

It’s amazing, isn’t it, the powerful Ming Dynasty didn’t even have the idea of ​​occupying our fertile land as a colony. You must know that as long as Zheng He had this idea at the time, even if the kings of South India add up, the Ming Dynasty’s There is no chance of resistance in front of the powerful fleet.

I have read basic books about Zheng He's fleet voyages in the past two years. In 1433 AD, Zheng He, a messenger of friendship, an upright businessman, and a great navigator, died in our country of Guli during the last voyage... "

　　 Zhang Nan was very proud of hearing it, but he didn't expect that the old Valmar would have added the title of "honest businessman" to Zheng He, and almost didn't laugh.

　　 If Zheng He had spirit, I don't know how he would feel about this evaluation.

　　Old Valmar continued there: "Hua Xia people are kind and they only make equal transactions. Unfortunately, after Zheng He, the large-scale official exchanges between us and China seemed to be suspended for a long time.

　　 The East and the West are really different. Just 65 years after Zheng He's death, the Portuguese robber Da Gama from the West came and clashed with one of our ancestors.

　　 Although we won the battle at the beginning, in 1502, when a fleet of 20 Da-Gama warships invaded again, we were defeated and we were looted wildly.

　　 1524 AD, that Da-Gama also died in our place, but we hate him and hate this intruder!

　　 Later, our ancestors fought with the Portuguese for more than a hundred years, and it was not until 1664 that they defeated the Portuguese rule and gained freedom.

　　 But then the British and French came again. We all know the following things. At the end of the 18th century, we completely became a British colony.

　　 Mr. Allen, or the respectable Mr. Zhang, we are true friends, aren’t we? "

　　 Zhang Nan listened to the words of the old Valma, and said with a smile: "Yes, we are friends. We used to be, we are now, and we will be!"

The South Indians are a bit different, at least in the Varma family: for whatever reason, maybe it is too far away from the Himalayas. They seem to ignore the messy things in Delhi and only care about one-third of an acre. The interests of the land.

　　 India, a federal republic, with strong local power, not so united.

　　 This will bring real benefits to traditional friendship, yes, very good, Zhang Nan still likes more good friends.

There were four gifts. Old Valmar pointed to the last one and said: “We don’t know where this jar is. We think it’s very beautiful. It should have been a treasure hundreds of years ago. We don’t know why it was made into so."

　　 What he meant by "where" meant where the jar was placed and what it was used for, not where it came from-this is a blue and white porcelain dragon-patterned jar.

　　 Zhang Nan picked it up with both hands, and there was a "Da Ming Wanli" section at the bottom.

It is definitely a fine product in the folk kilns, and it may even be the official kiln fired objects, but the styles are slightly different from the several Wanli official kiln styles in memory~www.wuxiaspot.com~ After Zheng He went to the West, China The door to maritime trade has not been completely closed. As a profitable commodity, blue and white porcelain cannot be completely banned from export. At least some smuggling ships still haunt the sea.

　　Dragon-patterned jars were also used by the folks during the Ming Dynasty for a long time. For example, Zhang Nan had two Ming-dynasty dragon-patterned sugar jars in his previous life.

　　 Although the two pipes are exquisite, they are unlikely to be produced by the official kiln.

　　 The Ming Dynasty likes to canonize small countries. Even if this blue and white porcelain jar was not directly given to small countries in South India during the Wanli period, it may have flowed from Southeast Asia or was resold here by merchants from other countries.

　　 is that this dragon-patterned pot has been transformed, just like Westerners liked to add "metal coats" to Chinese porcelain two or three hundred years ago.

　　 This jar is covered by copper hoops on the bottom and mouth of the porcelain jar. The two copper hoops are welded and riveted with thick copper sheets, and a weird copper lid is added to the porcelain jar.

　　 The copper cover and the copper hoop are connected by a copper buckle, and there is a movable copper hook on the cover.

It looks strange, but Zhang Nan has seen similar objects in the museum of Nong Bosheng, and said to Old Valmar: "This is a vessel for ships. I was willing to use this vessel as a vessel on a ship 400 years ago. The owner He is definitely rich!"

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