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"Ladies and gentlemen, the second lot in today's charity auction is from the mysterious Oriental country of China...... A 600-year-old ancient book, it is also one of the earliest social encyclopedias, and only a few hundred copies have survived in the world......

These six precious ancient books were treasured by Mr. Bonadette and are now being used for charity, and let us dedicate a round of applause to Mr. Bonadette......"

William made a brief evaluation of the new antiques on stage, and his words also attracted the attention of some wealthy people who like to collect antiques, and they all looked at the crystal glass cabinets pushed in the middle of the venue. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The same crystal glass display case, but the objects placed in it have changed from diamond jewelry to several books, and in the first six display cases, each display case is placed a yellowed ancient book, adding up to a total of six.

The size of these ancient books is the same, nearly half a meter high, even the width is 30 centimeters, and the opening volume is magnificent, so that only one volume can be placed in each display case.

"This ...... This...... Could it be the "Yongle Grand Canon"?!"

When these showcases were pushed out, Zhuang Rui's eyes couldn't see anything else, all his attention was on the books of those showcases, regardless of the rudeness, Zhuang Rui pushed away some people in front of him, and grabbed the side of the showcase in a few steps.

"Yongle Canon, Volume 5,868-36......"

On the front of the yellowed book jacket, sixteen handiwork delicate, smooth and straight fonts are presented in front of Zhuang Rui, which are all copied by the calligraphers in the regular script of the Ming Dynasty official style one stroke at a time, which makes Zhuang Rui's body tremble slightly, yes, it is the "Yongle Canon", which is the ancient Chinese encyclopedia that condenses the crystallization of countless wisdom of the ancestors.

Although the book was not opened, Zhuang Rui could also see a layer of yellow silk wrapped in the brain from the yellowed bookcoat, making it look particularly solemn, and a rectangular bookmark was glued to the upper left of the front of the book, with the inscription "Yongle Dictionary" in the frame, and there were double lines of small characters below the word, indicating the number of volumes of the book.

The so-called book clothing is the cover of modern books, because it is wrapped around the outside of the book like the clothes worn by people, it has the name of the image of "book clothing", and the ancient book clothing is hard mounted with multiple layers of rice paper, which is the way of book binding in the Yuan Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty.

Looking at this large volume, which is rarely seen even in modern prints, Zhuang Rui can imagine that more than 10,000 copies of the grand "Yongle Canon" are placed on the shelf, like a small library, which can really be said to be a brilliant masterpiece.

Zhu Di usurped the throne and was regarded as a "great rebellion" by Fang Xiaoru and other scholars, so he thought of inheriting Taizu's unappended business of editing a large-scale book.

In this way, on the one hand, by gathering the scholars, the resistance between the government and the opposition could be eliminated, and the purpose of encircling the scholars was achieved, and on the other hand, they could also show off their cultural rule and establish their own orthodox status, so in July of the year of his accession to the throne (1403), he ordered the compilation of the "Yongle Grand Canon".

The original name of the Yongle Canon is the encyclopedic literature collection of China, with a catalogue of 60 volumes, 22,877 volumes of text, bound into 11,095 volumes, about 370 million words, this ancient cultural treasure house brings together seven or eight thousand kinds of ancient and modern books.

Speaking of the "Yongle Canon", we cannot fail to mention the two great heroes who presided over the compilation of this classic: Xie Jin and Yao Guangxiao, this ancient monumental work, it was under the auspices of the two that a large number of calligraphers were recruited in various places to carry out the work of drawing, copying, drawing and circle, and it took six years to compile it.

Xie Jin was a famous talent in the early Ming Dynasty, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di appreciated his talent very much, and appointed him to preside over the compilation of "Taizu Record" and "The Biography of the Daughters", but what made him famous in history the most was his experience of presiding over the compilation of "Yongle Canon".

As for Yao Guangxiao, it is more legendary, Yao Guangxiao became a monk at the age of 14, his legal name is Daoyan, and the people in the rivers and lakes are called the sick tiger, and the legend says that Zhu Di raised troops on the side of the Qing monarch, which is Yao Guangxiao's handwriting, and supported Zhu Di to ascend the throne of the emperor in one fell swoop, and was even called the emperor by the people, and was the person Zhu Di trusted and relied on the most.

With the participation of Yao Guangxiao, the living conditions of all the people who edited the "Yongle Canon" were very good, they lived in Chonglifang and other places not far from the Wenyuan Pavilion of the Royal Library, and the Guanglu Temple provided wine and food, tea and fruit in the morning and evening, and also issued a fire anointing fee, and the officials who participated in the compilation could be exempted from the court, and the treatment was very generous.

The scale of the Yongle Canon far exceeds all the books compiled by the previous generations, leaving many rich stories and difficult mysteries for future generations, but only one or two percent of the Yongle Canon has been handed down to today, and the rest have been annihilated in the long river of history because of natural or man-made destruction.

The Yongle Canon is like a "treasure ship" that contains all the culture of China before the 14th century, but nowadays, one can only guess everything about the sunken treasure ship by a small section of mast exposed on the water.

The history of the "Yongle Canon", bring people too much surprise and admiration, its destruction also brought the same strong sadness and regret, leaving many mysteries to be explored for future generations, now, many people do not know what the "Yongle Canon" is a book, and there are many people who are familiar with the "Yongle Canon", I am afraid that they will not have the opportunity to see the original appearance of the "Yongle Canon" in their lives.

When Zhuang Rui was studying the history of the Ming Dynasty, he once went to the National Library of China to borrow the original of the "Yongle Canon", and when he saw the rare book in the glass case at first sight, Zhuang Rui knew that these six books were definitely from the same place as the "Yongle Canon" collected by the National Library, and they must have flowed out of China.

"If you buy it, you must buy it, and no matter how much it costs, you must bring it back to your own museum......

Looking at these six "Yongle Canon", Zhuang Rui's eyes are red, you must know that although there are still hundreds of copies of "Yongle Canon" in the world, the content of each volume is different, that is to say, each of the existing "Yongle Canon" in the world is a real one-of-a-kind.

In fact, strictly speaking, the "Yongle Canon" that has survived now is not the original of the Yongle period, and there are many twists and turns in it.

Among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Shizong (Emperor Jiajing) loved the "Yongle Canon" the most, usually kept a few volumes of the "Canon" on the desk for reading at any time, a fire broke out in the palace in the 36th year of Jiajing, the three major halls were burned down, the fire spread, and soon endangered the "Canon" in the Wenlou, Ming Shizong issued three gold medals overnight, so that people rescued the "Canon" in time.

In order to prevent similar disasters in the future, Ming Shizong came up with the idea of re-recording the "Great Canon", and in the forty-first year of Jiajing, Ming Shizong appointed Gao Gong, Qu Jingchun, Zhang Juzheng and others to be responsible for the work of re-recording the "Yongle Grand Canon", and the re-recording work took 6 years, and it was finally completed in April of the first year of Ming Muzong's Longqing.

The original copy of the "Yongle Canon", after Jiajing rerecorded, became confusing, and some people believe that the original of the "Canon" was destroyed in war or fire, and has long been gone. Some people believe that the "Great Canon" should have been buried, but for hundreds of years, no original copy of the "Yongle Canon" has been revealed.

How could China, which is known for its detailed historical records, not even record the whereabouts of such a large and important classic? Many scholars who study history, including Zhuang Rui, are puzzled: What fate did the original suffer, and how did it die? It is still a major unsolved case in history.

The original copy of the Yongle Canon, which escaped the war at the end of the Ming Dynasty, was destroyed in 1900 when the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded Beijing.

The remaining 400 or so copies are collected by 30 institutions in 8 countries and regions, and even so, the Yongle Dadian is still favored by scholars today for its great material and cultural value.

Zhuang Rui didn't expect to be able to see such a precious fragment of the six volumes of "Yongle Canon" at such a private auction, which made him excited for a while, and looked carefully around the glass cabinet, completely forgetting that the auction was still going on at this time.

William on the stage saw that Zhuang Rui almost put his eyes on the glass cabinet, and thought that he was distinguishing the authenticity of the books inside, and said: "Mr. Zhuang, these six ancient books have been identified by experts and instruments, and they are indeed from your country hundreds of years ago, please rest assured that this is ......."

"Uh...... Excuse me, Mr. William, please keep ......"

Zhuang Rui scratched his head a little embarrassed, he knew that he had interfered with the progress of the auction, and hurriedly retreated a few steps back.

"These six precious ancient books are not sold separately, and the reserve price together is $3.8 million, and the price is $100,000 each time, and interested friends can start the auction......

William knew that these six ancient books from China were actually temporarily taken out by Bonadette yesterday, and the price was not very high, perhaps it was specially for the Chinese.

"Five Million Dollar ......"

Zhuang Rui made no secret of his love for these six ancient books, and when William's words just fell, he directly shouted five million, for Zhuang Rui, these unique books are unique, even if it costs more money, he will include them in his museum.

"Five and a half million dollars!"

In the corner not far from Zhuang Rui, a middle-aged man with an Asian face raised the number plate in his hand.