Eyes open to the money in the city

Chapter 63 Well said!
Charity dinner scene.

Not long after Hu Yang returned to his seat, he received a WeChat message from his younger sister Hu Jiaxin, and was immediately taken aback.

"How do you know?" Hu Yang asked curiously.

"Humph, what did you hide from me?" Hu Jiaxin replied.

"Ghost spirit..."

"Don't forget to ask for my autograph!!"

"Okay, I'll try to..."

Hu Yang replied casually, and then put away the phone.

"Yo, you even took pictures?"

At this time, Zhong Wanming returned to his seat after completing the payment procedures. Since he was not at the scene just now, he missed the process of Populus euphratica taking pictures of the landscape paintings.

"Study like Mr. Zhong and make some contributions to charity." Hu Yang shrugged lightly.

Hearing this, Zhong Wanming's old face turned dark immediately. His 50 yuan was truly "charitable", because, having just refused to give up, he found another antique connoisseur who was on the scene to appraise the snuff bottle he took. The result was the same as Xing Ziliang's judgment.

Both experts made the same judgment, so the probability that the snuff bottle he photographed was genuine is too low. In other words, he spent 50 yuan but bought a snuff bottle worth about 1000 yuan. Stuff, this is really a charity!

Therefore, Hu Yang's sentence of charity just touched on his pain points.

"Really? How much did you donate?" Zhong Wanming asked coldly.

"I'm not as generous as Mr. Zhong. I only donated [-] yuan." Hu Yang shrugged.

"That's a lot." Zhong Wanming said playfully, "I don't know what good things Brother Hu took, can you show me to open my eyes."

"If Mr. Zhong wants to see it, of course there is no problem."

As he said that, Hu Yang took out the painting directly, then cleaned the round table in front of him a little, and unfolded the painting on the table.

In fact, Hu Yang also wanted to take a closer look at why this painting was so valuable.

As soon as Hu Yang opened the painting, the eyes of the whole table naturally fell on this landscape painting, especially Qian Zonglai, who was very interested in it. After all, he was very interested in antique calligraphy and painting.

This painting depicts the autumn mountain scenery. There are many scenes in the painting, including mountains, streams, fields, dense forests, and fallen leaves. Regardless of the author, it can be regarded as a superior work.

The painting is a good painting, but the overlapping of these scenes makes Populus Hu Yang feel a sense of sadness.

His eyes moved down and landed on the signature of the painting. From the light red seal, four ancient Chinese characters could be seen: Bitter Melon Monk.

This "bitter gourd monk" is the self-proclaimed name of Shi Tao, a famous painter in the early Qing Dynasty, which is consistent with Wang Dahai's introduction.

It's just that there is a seal "樨堂" next to the seal of the bitter gourd monk.

It is actually normal for two or more seals to appear on a painting, because after viewing a painting, the ancients usually left their own seals or even wrote a few strokes as comments if they liked it very much. This is probably the earliest "Danmaku", and the most famous Danmaku in history is "Emperor Qianlong". It depreciates a lot because of his seal or inscription.

In addition to this situation, when some people buy a painting, in order to prove that the painting is already owned by them, they will also put a seal on it.

Therefore, it is very common for a painting to have two seals, but this is nothing unusual.

After all, Populus Hu Yang was born in the Department of History. In fact, he still understands whether it is "Bitter Melon Monk" or "Xitang".

Bitter Melon Monk is Shi Tao’s self-proclaimed name, while Xitang is another nickname of Gao Xiang, another famous painter and engraver in the Qing Dynasty. However, he mostly uses the nickname “Xitang”.

What's interesting is that Gao Xiang and Shi Tao are very good friends, so it's not surprising that their seals appear on the same painting.

However, there is a big bug in this painting, that is, the time when the painting was made, and the date of inscription is the 48th year of Kangxi, which is 1709 AD, but Hu Yang remembered that the bitter gourd monk seemed to have passed away in early 1708, so, How could he paint in 1709 again? ?
This is definitely a big BUG! !
With this in mind, Hu Yang took out his mobile phone and searched for Shi Tao, and it turned out that he passed away in early 1708.

Then, there is a big problem with this painting.

Is it possible that a person who has been dead for a year can be resurrected to paint? ?

This is obviously impossible!

"Haha, Brother Hu, the 10 yuan you spent was really worth it!"

At this time, Zhong Wanming on the side suddenly laughed.

"What does Mr. Zhong say?" Hu Yang looked at him and asked, and Qian Zonglai also looked at him curiously.

"Isn't this painting made by the painter Shi Tao in the early Qing Dynasty?" Zhong Wanming asked with playfulness in his eyes.

"That's right." Hu Yang nodded.

"But this painting was completed in the 48th year of Kangxi, which is 1709, but Shi Tao died at the beginning of 1708. Could it be that he resurrected and painted this painting?"

Zhong Wanming couldn't help laughing, and then put his mobile phone on the painting: "Here is Shi Tao's life, and he passed away in 1708!"

In fact, Zhong Wanming didn't know much about paintings, but he did know the most obvious way to identify them, which was to check the author's biography to see if he could match the information of the painting. However, after he checked Shi Tao's biography , It actually made him discover such a big BUG, ​​so he was naturally extremely excited.

"Yes, Shi Tao died in 1708!" Qian Zonglai also frowned, and looked at Populus euphratica with a strange expression. The author is dead, so this painting is obviously a fake.

An authentic work of Shi Tao is not worth much, so a fake is even less valuable!
Therefore, Populus euphratica's [-] yuan is naturally a charity.

"Hey, the master who drew this painting was too careless. He didn't even check the author's life. He must be an idiot!"

Zhong Wanming sighed with a smile on his face, and then said to Hu Yang: "It's just that I pity Brother Hu, 10 yuan to buy such a fake painting by an idiot!!"

Hearing what Zhong Wanming said, the eyes of Qin Zixuan, Qian Xiaoer, Sun Jiaojiao and Cai Li naturally fell on Populus euphratica. Although 10 yuan is nothing to everyone, spending 10 yuan It's quite disgusting to buy such a piece of waste paper.

In particular, Qin Zixuan and Qian Xiaoer's mood was even more complicated. After all, both of them had witnessed the magic of Hu Yang. Now, seeing him deflated, they felt a little uncomfortable.

"Old Hu, is Brother Zhong right?"

Qian Xiaoer asked weakly.

"Mr. Zhong is right, this painting was indeed not completed by Shi Tao himself!"

Hu Yang nodded with a smile on his face.

"Ok?"

"What do you mean?" Zhong Wanming frowned slightly: "A fake is a fake. What do you mean it wasn't done by him?"

"Because there are two people who created this painting!"

Hu Yang squinted and said slowly: "Shi Tao, the bitter monk, died in early 1708, and this painting was painted in 1709. This is indeed contrary to common sense."

"But there is another situation, that is, Shi Tao completed half of the painting before he was alive, but left it there because of his serious illness, and after his death, someone helped him complete the painting, and the painting was left behind. Shi Tao's seal, to commemorate this deceased friend!"

After hearing Hu Yang's narration, Zhong Wanming snorted coldly with disdain: "These are just your guesses, besides, even if it is really like what you said, a painting is completed by two people, it is impossible to be valuable !"

"Then it depends on who are both parties to the painting." Hu Yang smiled lightly, and continued: "If Mr. Zhang Daqian and I have completed a painting together, even if the painting cannot be sold at a sky-high price, it is impossible. It's worthless!"

"As for the other artist of this painting, if I guess correctly, it should be Shi Tao's friend, Gao Xiang, one of the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou!"

"Gao Xiang?"

"No way!"

Hearing the name "Gao Xiang", Qian Zonglai's eyes lit up and he couldn't help but speak. Gao Xiang was a famous painter in the Qing Dynasty and one of the famous Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou. His paintings have been very popular among collectors in recent years. He remembered that not long ago, a landscape painting by Gao Xiang was sold for [-] million.

"Of course, I can't be sure that this painting must be completed by Gao Xiang and Shi Tao together, but I think this possibility is very high. First of all, there is Gao Xiang's stamp "樨堂" on this painting, which is his other name. No, that is to say, no matter whether he participated in the creation of this painting or not, at least he has seen it.

"Secondly, Li Dou recorded this in "Yangzhou Huafang Lu": After Shi Tao's death, the Western Tang Dynasty would visit his tomb every spring, and he would not stop until his death."

"That is to say, after Shi Tao's death, Gao Xiang went to visit the grave every spring and never stopped until he died."

"In addition, "Yangzhou Painted Boat Record" also has this sentence: The Western Tang Dynasty continued his paintings to mourn the dead, and the paintings were so emotional that tears filled the skirts of his clothes!"

"Li Dou clearly told people that Gao Xiang continued to paint Shi Tao's unfinished works in order to mourn him. Whenever the painting gets emotional, tears will flow all over the front of his clothes!"

"In other words, Gao Xiang did continue to paint Shi Tao's unfinished paintings. These are clearly recorded in "Yangzhou Painting Boat Records", so there is no way to fake them!"

Hu Yang paused, and continued: "The above are two points of evidence, and there are two other points. The two seals on the painting were made by the same person, and Gao Xiang was just good at engraving. He was a famous seal in the Qing Dynasty. To engrave everyone, no accident, these two seals are all from Gao Xiang's hand."

"The last point is that the style of the whole painting is compassionate, and the mourning for the deceased is everywhere. The most important thing is that there is still half a new grave here!"

Having said all that, Populus euphratica pointed to a corner of the mountain in the painting, and sure enough, a new grave could be vaguely seen, hidden among the trees.

"This……"

Hu Yang deduced that Zhong Wanming was already powerless, his eyes were wide open, his old face was dark.

Qin Zixuan, Qian Xiaoer, Qian Zonglai and the others around were all dumbfounded, looking at Hu Yang in astonishment. Everyone knew nothing about what he said, and they were fascinated by it as if they were listening to a story. , Thinking about it carefully, what Hu Yang said is well-founded, and his inference is probably tenable!
"well said!"

"I don't know how to call this little friend~!"

Just when everyone was stupefied, someone nearby suddenly clapped their hands and praised loudly,
Everyone followed the prestige, and saw that the speaker was Xing Ziliang, the president of the Jiangcheng Antique Association who had helped identify the snuff bottles before.

At this moment, Xing Ziliang's face was full of smiles, and he gave Hu Yang a thumbs up while asking questions.

……

(End of this chapter)