Every time Bimo reads a scripture, he must offer a sacrifice. When opening a big scripture, he usually kills a white rooster and dips some feathers in chicken blood and sticks it on the book. During the New Year, some even kill a cow. , sheep and other large livestock.
Most of these books are usually stored on shrines. If they are rotten, Bimo after the age of forty or fifty can copy them by himself. After copying, the old books are burned and the new books can be passed on to his sons.
The scriptures here are relatively old, with heavy traces of use, and many are still stained with chicken blood and feathers, indicating that many of them were brought here for storage by Big Bimo who was reluctant to burn them. There was a ceremony at the end.
So in a sense, the innermost big hole, or the "sutra tomb", is more appropriate.
This cave is also the most cluttered cave. Some scriptures are even piled in a messy manner at the deepest level. The state of preservation makes Zhou Zhi shake his head at a glance.
That is to say, this cave is quite dry, and with proper anti-biological measures, only some of the parchment rolls have decayed, while the remaining silk, cloth, paper, and even wood carvings are all well preserved.
However, Zhou Zhi brought the camera crew here today, more to express an attitude and to collect first-hand information. The parchment books and engravings in the innermost cave are estimated to be old. , the value also needs to be evaluated by experts.
Therefore, he did not dare to mess with the stacked information. However, he had a lot of experience in dealing with the scattered information. He still had to take some valuable things out for appraisal before he could report them to the superiors. .
The specific level of reporting depends on the results after the identification.
Sheepskin is really difficult to handle. Folding it may cause damage. Zhou Zhi chose a small one, wrapped it in straw paper, clamped it with two scattered engravings, and wrapped it with woolen cloth. Get up and take him out of the cave.
The things in the outer cave and the middle cave can be moved casually. The horse team brought by Old Chiri is used for this purpose.
"Elbow! Let's see what this is!" Everyone started to come over to help. According to the instructions of Zhou Zhi and Lao Chiri, they moved things on the horse's basket. Chi Xueli found a scroll, which was different from other things. The scriptures are a little different.
"Huh?" Zhou Zhi took the scroll and found that the center was not a bamboo pole, but two wooden axes.
With a push of the hand, one end of the wooden shaft revealed a deep color, which turned out to be extremely aged red sandalwood.
The new red sandalwood cannot be used to make wooden scrolls for calligraphy and painting. In other words, red sandalwood is simply not a suitable material for making wooden scrolls for calligraphy and painting, because red sandalwood itself can be used as a dye, which can dye cloth and paper purple. red.
Only wooden shafts and paperweights made from old red sandalwood can be used after years of aging and a layer of pulp protective film formed on the surface due to oxidation and other effects.
Who in ordinary calligraphy, painting and art stores would have the leisure time to buy materials and then put them away for decades after making them? Therefore, apart from the current ones removed from old paintings, there is basically only one place that can afford this luxury and leisure - the inner courtyard of the imperial palace.
The painting scroll is wrapped with a piece of damask brocade, which is made of fine silk. Zhou Zhi is now very familiar with the damask brocade used in calligraphy and painting. At a glance, he knows that it is produced under the unified supervision of Jiangning Mansion and is specially produced for A double-sided jacquard brocade with interchangeable inner and outer surfaces woven for the royal palace to issue imperial edicts and other materials.
This is a common high-grade brocade in the Ming Dynasty. The warp and weft of different colors are arranged one by one according to the relationship between warp and weft of the same color or similar color. The warp and weft of the same color or similar color are interwoven into two sides. Double-sided floral fabric with the same pattern and interchangeable flower and ground colors.
Such jacquards are actually still complicated. For example, this one uses miscellaneous treasure patterns, including auspicious patterns such as fire beads, silver ingots, Fang Sheng, Ganoderma lucidum, rhinoceros horns, corals, and ancient coins.
Because the patterns are very repetitive, such brocades in the Ming Dynasty had another important function, that is, anti-counterfeiting. Those patterns were various anti-counterfeiting marks, so they were often used to issue colorful imperial edicts to officials of fifth rank or above, which were colorful, graceful and luxurious. After removing the brocade bag, there was a silk and color picture scroll inside. The picture showed a middle-aged imperial woman in full dress, sitting upright. She had a graceful appearance, a soft expression, and her clothes looked quite generous. She had a bright red round collar and an inner wear. She wears a long coat, a long skirt, a Zhai crown on her head, and a Xiapei with gold embroidered clouds and Xia Zhai pattern.
"This is the color of the second-grade clothes. The political status of this imperial woman is not low." Zhou Zhi carefully searched for other writings on the scroll, hoping to confirm the identity of this woman.
Soon, Zhou Zhi saw a line of small characters written vertically in Zhengzheng official script - "Statue of Mrs. Shunde, the Regent Shuixi Xuan comfort envoy".
Seeing this line of small characters, Zhou Zhi understood the identity of this person and asked Lao Chiri: "Grandpa Chiri, I seem to have heard you say yesterday that this place is called the Empress Temple?"
"Yes." Lao Chiri said: "It is said that there used to be a temple here. The sacrifice was made to Empress Shexiang who started the cultural prosperity of our Yi people."
"That's it." Zhou Zhi Nodding: "This is the portrait of Mrs. Shexiang Like."
"Eh? Isn't this the dress of the Han people?" Chi Xueli looked at the woman on the scroll and couldn't see the characteristics of the ethnic minorities at all: "This is not that kind of thing. ...What did you say? Madam Gaoming?"
“Yes, this was painted in accordance with the regulations on the portraits of important ministers and imperial ministers in the Ming Dynasty.” Zhou Zhi nodded: “Whether it is the various materials of the scroll or the painting techniques, it is obvious that they came from the inner government.”
"History of Ming Dynasty" " records: "The first-grade lady is called first-grade madam, the second-grade is called madam, the third-grade is called Shuren, the fourth-grade is called Gongren, and the fifth-grade canonization is called "Yiren". It can only be called a decree.”
"Mrs. Shunde was the title given to her by Zhu Yuanzhang after Mrs. Shexiang came to Beijing to complain. Titles such as Shunde and Huaide are generally used by the family members of officials in Jisi Prefecture."
"But Mrs. Shexiang is a little bit special In particular, after her husband's death, his son took control of the governance of Shuixi Xuanwei Envoy, so he was called "Regent". She was not a formal Xuanwei Envoy, so "Regent Shuixi Xuanwei Envoy" was her official official position. Shunde Madam is granted a royal title.”
"Historically, there was only one Mrs. Shexiang who combined these two titles. This is consistent with the fact that this place is called the 'Empress Temple'."
"This is the title given by the imperial court to Mrs. Shexiang Of course, the portraits painted must be in imperial court clothes, because In this painting, Mrs. Shexiang looks like a Han woman wearing imperial clothes. She cannot wear national costumes."
"This cultural relic is amazing! Brother Wei, you recorded the whole process. Are you down?”
Da Wei had a camera on his shoulder, his eyes fell on the viewing window, and he made an OK gesture to Zhou Zhi.
“How long is this painting from now?” Mai Xiaomiao asked curiously.
"This is what happened during the Hongwu period of Zhu Yuanzhang, about...about six hundred years ago."
"Six hundred years?!" Mai Xiaomiao came from the United States and felt like China Really, one thing can last for hundreds of years, which is so profound. (End of this chapter)