Ivory carving art is mainly divided into four categories: figures, animals, flowers and landscapes.

The ivory carving in Zhou Rui's hand belongs to the four major types of animals.

The dragon grabs the pearl, and the scales and claws are hideous.

Among them, the themes of ivory carving figures are mainly derived from ancient myths and legends and historical celebrities.

For example, ladies, arhats, Buddhas, eight immortals, Fu Lu Shou, military generals and historical celebrities and so on.

Character drawings are generally drawn in white, showing the facial expressions of the characters, the posture of the body, the shape of the clothing, etc., and the identity characteristics of the characters should be depicted in order to achieve a perfect artistic effect.

Ivory carved flowers are generally based on flowers, birds, butterflies, dragonflies, frogs, etc., carved concrete peonies, moon seasons, chrysanthemums, magnolias, peaches, pine, bamboo, plums, etc., the overall shape of the supporting pieces has flower baskets, vases, bamboo tubes, folding fans, rockeries, etc., which play a good role in matching the protagonist and the foil.

The animal themes of ivory carving mainly include the roar of the tiger in the forest, the roar of the lion in the deep valley, the rooster announcing the dawn, the fish leaping over the lotus pond and so on, among which the 12 zodiac signs occupy a certain position in the art of ivory carving. The landscape motifs in the ivory carvings generally depict landscapes, islands, and the sun and moon. The craggy rocks, mottled sea rocks, and rolling clouds are the most popular knife swinging images of ivory carving artists.

In many arts and crafts in our country, ivory carving is a unique one.

It is also a treasure that is deeply loved by princes and nobles.

In ancient times, anyone who could have a whole ivory to decorate a room was a prince and nobleman.

Ivory is an organic matter, the surface is smooth and clear like jade, the texture is fine and regular, and it is easy to be susceptible to knives, and it is used to carve exquisite utensils, which is a combination of natural and artificial axe chisel beauty.

At first, ivory products were only a practical tool, and later over time, decorative items gradually appeared and became the mainstream of ivory carving.

As early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, China's ivory carving technology was extremely developed, and after the Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, the ivory carving process was more exquisite.

The Qing Dynasty was the heyday of ivory carving technology, and ivory carving was the same as bamboo, wood, horn, gold and stone and other small carvings, and became a treasure on several cases.

Before the Qing Dynasty, ivory carving inherited the tradition of the Ming Dynasty, and both in terms of production technology and artistic creation, it has developed.

After the middle period, the creation of ivory carving art moved towards cumbersome decorations. At that time, ivory carving was divided into two categories: court handicrafts and folk handicrafts, the court makers were delicate and delicate, and the figures, flowers and birds were decorated with more imitation painting brushstrokes, and there were certain rules for coloring and filling.

However, there is no absolute difference between the two, and many court toothsmiths were recruited directly from the people. Ivory carving in the Qing Dynasty has basically formed two major artistic schools in Jiangnan and Guangdong. Due to the preference of the literati, fresh and elegant works appeared, in order to obtain good works, a large number of literati painters not only designed the composition, but also directly participated in the carving, so that the style of ivory carving has a new change.

In general, ivory carving developed in the Qing Dynasty and gradually developed into a trend of "small piece carving", and large ivory carvings were no longer common. Studyer's utensils have naturally become a major part of the ivory carving process. Mainly to cultural toys, ornaments, pen holders, pen holders, inkstones, ink cartridges, ink, paperweights and some stationery boxes, printing boxes, painting holders, etc. are more common, these ivory small pieces are mostly decorated with literati stories, flower and bird patterns, auspicious themes, and have a strong literati atmosphere. Ivory carving became a desk play for literati, doctors, and eunuchs.

In the Qing Dynasty, the practical products of ivory carving were not the main part of the ivory carving process, but it was by no means completely unproduced, and it was also produced occasionally, only for a few nobles, and the varieties were only small pieces such as chopsticks and fans. There are also lamps, crown racks, shoehorns, snuff bottles, and the like.

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On the ivory in Zhou Rui's hand, nine lifelike dragons were carved by means of relief.

The nine dragons are very vivid.

Dragon scales, dragon whiskers, and dragon eyes are unusually realistic.

In the center, there is also a fireball that resembles the sun.

Like a dragon ball, nine dragons chase together.

Touching it carefully, the dragon scales will give people a very smooth and tender feeling.

There is no roughness in it.

This is the result of being polished to the extreme.

The Nine Dragons Pearl-winning ivory in Zhou Rui's hand was carved with a huge ivory.

The tusks are about forty centimeters long.

It's huge.

The coarsest cross-sectional diameter reached ten centimeters.

It's a giant.

More importantly, this ivory is quite complete.

This ivory must be taken out, not to mention anything else, just this material, absolutely not less than a million.

If you add to this the historical value, the artistic value, then the value is even higher.

Zhou Rui also has ivory ivory carvings in his hands, such as the previous "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" ivory carvings.

However, such a big one, absolutely nothing.

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For the fourth red envelope, Zhou Rui received a bottle of bone-setting wine.

For the fifth red envelope, Zhou Rui got two plates of mosquito repellent coils.

Zhou Rui got a total of five ordinary red envelopes.

Two otherworldly red envelopes.

One is from "The Great Son of Tomorrow", Ming Chengzu Zhu Di's - dragon robe.

This is a real dragon robe.

It's not a fake dragon robe in a TV series, nor is it a costume in a stage play.

This dragon robe uses the most precious silk silk at that time as the warp and weft, and shows the dragon and other patterns by hand.

It can be said that it is purely handmade.

Many of the patterns inside are made of very soft gold wire, which is quite precious!

It is embroidered with a dragon-shaped pattern, and the robe with the dragon-shaped pattern is also known as the dragon gon

In 581, Emperor Wen of Sui used the best silk silk for the first time, Jilihu silk, as the warp and weft of the dragon robe. In addition, the dragon robe also refers to the dragon chapter dress worn by ancient emperors.

During the reign of Tang Gaozu Wude, the subjects were not allowed to wear yellow, and the yellow robe was the exclusive clothing of the royal family, and it has been followed as a system for successive dynasties since then.

In 960, Zhao Kuangyin "added a yellow robe" and mutined to become the emperor, so the dragon robe was also called the yellow robe.

The various dragon medallion patterns on the dragon robe have changed over the years.

According to historical records, the emperor's dragon robe was embroidered with nine dragons, one on the chest and one on the back, one on the left and right shoulders, two on the front and back knees, and one embroidered on the placket.

As for why the dragon robe is on the Nine Dragons body.

This is also exquisite.

The ancient emperors were influenced by the "Zhou Yi" and advocated the "Ninth Five-Year Supreme".

In "Yi Qian", it is said: "Ninety-five, the flying dragon is in the sky, and it is beneficial to see the adult."

It means that the dragon has flown into the sky, indicating that it has reached the highest level. It is also for this reason that the number nine and five are often used in royal buildings, furniture and living containers.

Why embroider a dragon on the placket? Because nine is an odd number, it is difficult to achieve balance and symmetry in the layout, so a dragon is embroidered on the placket. In this way, the actual dragon pattern of the dragon robe is no less than nine, and it is five on the front or back, which exactly coincides with the number of ninety-five.

However, there are exceptions, and the number of dragon patterns in the dragon robe of the Ming Dynasty emperor is more than nine.

Unearthed in 1958, the Wanli Emperor's "Silk Twelve Chapter Uniforms" has twelve dragons, which are embroidered in a circular middle, commonly known as "Tuan Long".

The twelve dragons have different names depending on their position, the dragon located on the chest and back of the gown, is the dragon with the main body, that is, the dragon facing outward, and is called the "main dragon" or "sitting dragon", and the dragon with the side is called "walking dragon", and the walking dragon is also divided into ascending dragon and descending dragon according to the different directions facing up and down.

The number of dragons on the dragon robe of the Wanli Emperor is not much compared to the "Yan Ben suit" created by Jiajing of Ming Shizong in seven years, and the dragon pattern on the "Yan Ben suit" composed of hats, robes, jade belts, socks and silk shoes is ninety-nine: the front body has a coiled dragon group pattern, the back body has two coiled dragon square patterns, the dragon pattern on the collar and sleeves is 45 together, and the dragon pattern on the placket is 36, a total of 81 pieces.

In addition, the jade belt around the waist is also decorated with nine jade pieces engraved with dragon patterns.