In the fourth year of Jingyou of the Northern Song Dynasty (1037), Ding Du and others compiled the "Ritual Rhyme" has always been the most authoritative official rhyme for the poetry examination. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 As the golden rule of the imperial examinations of the two Song Dynasty, INFO has a large number of publications and a wide range of circulation, and has won the respect of the majority of scholars, has a supreme position, and its influence far exceeds the scope of the imperial examination, and has extremely high cultural value.

As the authority of the rhyme book, the "Ritual Rhyme" was regarded as a guideline by later generations, and profoundly influenced the compilation of the rhyme book "Ancient and Modern Rhyme Hui Ju Yao", "Hongwu Zhengyun" and the character book "Kangxi Dictionary", and its practical compilation characteristics, enriched the mode of compilation of Chinese dictionaries, and had a wide and far-reaching cultural influence.

"Ritual Rhyme" can be described as the "Xinhua Dictionary" of Song Dynasty candidates, candidates can bring the book into the examination room, if they encounter questions in the rhyme, as well as in the evasive words, they can be in the order of pinyin, through the "Ritual Rhyme" to find the way to write at that time.

This set of "Ritual Rhymes" accidentally discovered by Meng Zitao is printed on leather paper, the paper is thicker, the outer bark of the unsmashed yellow mulberry or tree is faintly visible, and the horizontal ribs are wide and thick; the font is simple, the knife technique is clumsy, and the ink color is jet black but not shiny; there are ten lines per half leaf, the size of the line and the number of words are different, and the left and right sides are bilateral; the plate mouth is narrow, and the fixed pattern is not formed, which is similar to some books carved by Liao from the wooden tower in Yingxian County, Shanxi, and is very different from the books engraved in the Southern Song Dynasty. There are no seals in the collection.

The printing paper of this "Ritual Rhyme" is obviously leather paper, but the texture is relatively coarse, the horizontal ribs are wide and coarse, and the yellow mulberry or tree bark that is not pounded when pounding is mostly left on the paper. In the Song Dynasty, especially in the Southern Song Dynasty, most of the paper used for engraving books was leather paper, but most of the fibers were pounded to pieces, and there were fewer unsmashed outer skins on the paper surface. Judging from the printed paper, this book may have been printed earlier.

The font of this "Ritual Rhyme" is simple, and the engraving knife method is clumsy, which is not as beautiful as the Southern Song Dynasty carved book, and the knife is skillful. The ink color is not as clean and pure as the Southern Song Dynasty carved books, which shows the simple style of early carved books.

However, this set of "Ritual Rhymes" is not the official engraving of the Northern Song Dynasty, otherwise his mood must be much more excited than now.

Nevertheless, after careful observation, Mencius can still confirm that it should be an inscription from the Northern Song Dynasty, and it is no exaggeration to say that this discovery has been able to cause a sensation in the academic world.

You must know that since the time of its writing, the "Ritual Rhyme" has been used for less than 30 years, during which it has been discontinued several times, until now, there are very few existing Northern Song Dynasty engravings at home and abroad, and most of them are collected in museums in various countries. According to statistics, there are less than 16 versions of the "Ritual Rhyme" in existence, and less than 12 strict Northern Song Dynasty versions.

Moreover, in the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty, a large number of books engraved in the Northern Song Dynasty were almost all destroyed, and some basic reference books for the imperial examination after entering the Southern Song Dynasty were used in a way that was directly printed in the Northern Song Dynasty, so whether it was an official engraving or a workshop engraving, it had important value. The popularization of the culture of the carved book itself and the circulation of books have its unique value.

Therefore, even if it is a workshop inscription, similar to the set of extremely high-quality versions found by Mencius, it is also precious, not to mention, this is still a set of workshop inscriptions from the early Northern Song Dynasty, which is likely to be the earliest inscription found now, which is even more precious.

Fortunately, because of something, Da Dahai went out for a while, but he didn't see Meng Zitao standing in one place for so long.

Meng Zitao adjusted his mood and thought about how to buy this set of books safely, at this time, Chen Zhongfeng called and heard that Meng Zitao was still in Yingdu, and asked him if he had time to attend a small exchange meeting.

He Wanyi had no opinion on this, and Meng Zitao agreed, which just happened to find an excuse for him.

After hanging up the phone, Meng Zitao found a few more ancient books, found Da Dahai, and asked him the price.

Da Dahai didn't have much interest in ancient books, and he didn't have much research on ancient books, and he didn't think there would be any treasures in them, so he just looked through them casually and asked Meng Zitao for two thousand yuan.

Meng Zitao had no reason not to agree, and after paying the money, he offered to leave.

Dang Hai proposed: "It's still early, do you want to drink tea?"

Meng Zitao smiled and said, "I have contacted my friend, and he will come to pick us up in a while." ”

Huge Hai felt a little pity: "Okay, if you have time in the future, you can come and sit with me." ”

"Certainly" Meng Zitao smiled, thinking to himself: "If you often have a treasure like "Etiquette Rhyme", I would like to come and sit every day." ”

However, Meng Zitao can also see that Danghaihai really wants to get acquainted with him, although this must be because of his identity, but he took advantage of Danghai, and he still felt a little reluctant in his heart.

Of course, in order to avoid accidents, Meng Zitao will definitely not tell the value of the ancient books of Panghai now, thinking that if Panghai is really worthy of making friends, he will still have to give him some compensation in the future. This is a later story, so I won't mention it for the time being.

A moment later, Chen Zhongfeng arrived in a car, got into the car, and Meng Zitao asked, "What kind of exchange meeting, why haven't I heard you mention it before?"

Chen Zhongfeng replied while driving: "Hey, I got the news temporarily, in fact, it is an exchange meeting, in fact, it is to take their own collections to sell in the past, but at the exchange meeting, you can barter things, of course, it depends on your own eyesight." ”

"Oh, yes. Chen Zhongfeng thought of something: "It is more expensive to spend money to buy there than to barter." ”

"How can there be such a rule?"

"It is said that the organizers thought that this would be a way to express 'communication'. Chen Zhongfeng shrugged his shoulders: "But who knows what's going on, it doesn't affect me anyway." By the way, do you want to go back and get something, and when you see something you are satisfied with, you can also use it as a 'communication'. ”

"How much more expensive can it be with money?"

"It's hard to say, but it's only one or two percent at most. ”

"Forget it, then. ”

Chen Zhongfeng nodded and said, "I brought a few things this time, do you want to take a look?"

"Okay. ”

On the way to the destination, Meng Zitao appreciated a few things brought by Chen Zhongfeng and discussed, in general, the things are not bad, but there are more or less problems, which will undoubtedly affect the value.

Chen Zhongfeng grinned and said, "Hehe, this is something I finally selected." Let's see which mallet will take the bait. ”

Meng Zitao smiled: "Then I will help you with good luck." ”

Soon, the car stopped in front of a warehouse, and by this time the surrounding area was full of cars, but this was normal, they came too late.

Chen Zhongfeng led everyone to the door, took out an invitation letter and handed it to the security guard at the door, the security guard looked at it carefully, and muttered, "Why did you come so late?"

Chen Zhongfeng hurriedly asked, "Could it be that someone has already left?"

The security guard said, "That's not it, but at this point, some guests must have changed to what they want." ”

Chen Zhongfeng looked at Meng Zitao, and Meng Zitao said, "I've come here, I can't just go home, right?"

"Let's go, go in and have a look, maybe you can get a treasure." ”

When they walked into the warehouse, they saw that the whole warehouse had been temporarily built into a long case with wooden planks, and there were no antiques of all kinds on it, as if they were setting up stalls in the antique market, of course, the things here were much better than those in the antique market.

Chen Zhongfeng looked around, nodded and greeted the people he knew, and said to Meng Zitao: "Are we together, or are we looking separately?"

Meng Zitao was about to answer, when he saw that not far away, Zheng Zongxian walked over with an old man.

"Brother Zheng, didn't you go to the capital for training, when did you come back?" Meng Zitao asked curiously.

"Just came back last night. ”

Zheng Zong smiled first, and then introduced the two parties: "This is my uncle, and I am mainly here to accompany him today." ”

Zheng Zongxian's uncle is called Zheng Xin, and he shook hands with Meng Zitao with a smile: "I have heard of you as a young man for a long time, and I am finally fortunate to meet you today." ”

"You're always gracious. Meng Zitao said modestly.

The two sides exchanged a few words, and Zheng Zong first noticed the ancient book that Meng Zitao was holding in his hand: "Is this what you brought in exchange today?"

Meng Zitao smiled: "This is what I just got, but I am reluctant to exchange it." ”

Zheng Xin's eyes lit up when he heard this: "I don't know what kind of ancient book it is?"

"The Rhyme of the Ministry of Rites". Meng Zitao replied.

"What, don't tell me, this is an official engraving of the Northern Song Dynasty, right?" Zheng Zongxian was taken aback.

Meng Zitao waved his hand: "Of course it's impossible, but I think it's also an engraved copy of the Northern Song Dynasty." ”

As soon as he heard that it was an engraved copy of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zheng Xin was quite excited and hurriedly asked to take a look. Meng Zitao also readily agreed.

Zheng Xin put on his gloves, carefully opened the ancient book, and immediately fell into a trance.

After a while, Zheng Zongxian couldn't help the curiosity in his heart and asked, "How do you think this is an engraved copy of the Northern Song Dynasty?"

Meng Zitao explained: "The mouth of the plate is the most significant feature, we generally see the Southern Song Dynasty carved books, the mouth of the book is wider, roughly close to the width of the line in the edition, there is a single fish tail, there is a double fish tail, the upper fish tail to the upper side bar of a section, or the elephant trunk, mostly used to engrave the size of the word number of this edition, the lower fish tail to the lower side of the bar section, mostly used to engrave the name of the engraver." ”

"The book is extremely narrow and not very standardized. Some of them do not have any mark above the opening of the book, but only leave an ink nail at the top of the mouth, on which are engraved with the words "Pingshengshang" or "Pingshang" in white with yin lines; some have no black cover of ink nails, and directly engrave the words "Pingshengshang" or "Pingshang" in the corresponding place; some engrave an ink line above the top of "Pingshengshang" or "Pingshang" until the upper sidebar, and some are not engraved; some are engraved with a less formed ink-colored fishtail above "Pingshengshang" or "Pingshang", and some are not engraved. ”

"The mouth of the book is lower, some are engraved with white characters with yin pattern on the black cover of the ink ding, marking the leaf code, some are black without ink nails, and the leaf code is engraved directly at the corresponding place; some are above the sound marker, until the upper column is engraved with an ink line in the center, and below the lower leaf code, until the lower column is engraved with an ink line in the center, and some are not engraved. ”

All of these show great arbitrariness and uncertainty, reflecting the immaturity and indefinite shape of the initial period of engraving and printing, which means that the book may have been opened earlier. It just so happens that my master has an engraving from the Northern Song Dynasty that meets this characteristic, so I think it is likely to be an engraving from the early Northern Song Dynasty. In addition, there are other features in addition to this......"

Meng Zitao talked eloquently, showing the characteristics one by one, and the people who gradually gathered around him nodded their heads again and again.

"So, this is the earliest engraved copy of the "Ritual Rhyme" so far?" said someone next to him with an exclamation tone.

Meng Zitao nodded and said, "I think the possibility is extremely high. ”

Meng Zitao's answer made the people around him in an uproar,

Now that he knows the value, Chen Faxin really didn't care about Meng Zitao's trick just now, licked his face and said: "Since Brother Song said that it is worth 10 million, it is worth 10 million!"

Chen Faxin said it categorically, and after that, he picked up the pen and asked to sign the check.

Meng Zitao woke up suddenly and asked, "Boss Wang just said that you only have 10 million!"

Chen Faxin raised his head, smiled, and said: "This old brother is joking, since I want to come here to buy antiques, how can I only have a net worth of 10 million, don't worry, I am a VIP in the bank, and I can still easily take out 10 million!"

"Oh, is it?" Meng Zitao was still a little uneasy.

Chen Faxin raised the check in his hand, "My brother is not at ease with me, can he still be worried about the check in my hand? I am a serious businessman!"

"In that case, I'll call the bank and check the account!" Meng Zitao said cautiously, Chen Faxin is a foreigner, and no one who was present before recognized him, which is a little strange, unless this is his first appearance in public, it can't be explained, and if it's really the first time, then it must be checked.

Chen Faxin was a little anxious, "Brother, how can you not trust me? You don't want to sell the jade ring, right?" After that, he asked for help below: "It's the first time I've come to the exchange meeting, and I've encountered such treatment, Boss Song obviously doesn't trust my character, so how can I get along with everyone in the future?"

At this time, someone below said in a loud voice: "Boss Chen, this is a transaction of tens of millions, and it is also appropriate to identify the authenticity!"

"That's right, you write a check like this, who knows if it's real or fake!"

Chen Faxin was anxious, pointed down and stared, and said angrily: "You don't want to see newcomers, I know, but I also have an identity, and my account was checked at this time, and I won't often give people jokes in the future." ”

Meng Zitao was unwavering, not to mention that he had no idea of selling this set of ancient books, it would be fine if Chen Faxin easily let him check the account, but now he is jumping up and down in an extremely aggrieved and humiliated posture, which makes him even more suspicious.

Therefore, he didn't let go at all, but said: "Boss Chen is a rich man, so naturally he can't understand the psychology of us poor people, these tens of millions are astronomical for me, no matter how cautious I am, it's not too prudent!"