Chapter 949: Nine Dragons Carry the Coffin

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"I'm afraid that only the royal family can get such a complete and huge top-grade white jade!"

Looking at the white flag jade knight who was trained by the knight and the war horse, Liu Dong secretly sighed in his heart!

Now the price of one gram of seed material Hetian first-grade white jade has exceeded 500 Huaxia coins, which is almost three times that of gold, so this white jade knight is far surpassing the golden knight just now!

The fourth knight is also a knight of Hetian Baiyu, but compared to the third knight with a white flag, the fourth knight with a white flag is combined, and the war horse and the knight are two separate individuals. Obviously, even the royal family of 'the whole world is not the king's land', it is difficult to find such a huge and top-level Hetian jade material.

Therefore, in the case of ensuring that the jade quality is the same, they carved the war horse and the knight separately, although the combination of the two is almost the same, but this knight with a white flag is invisibly behind the white flag of one of the three flags in value!

The four knights representing the blue flag and the blue flag, as well as the red flag and the red flag, also appeared in front of Liu Dong one by one, they are the same as the previous white flag, the knights and war horses on horseback are combined, not one!

I don't know if Qianlong did this out of the distinction between the status of the 'upper three flags' and the 'lower five flags', or because the materials are difficult to find, but Liu Dong is very willing to believe the latter, because the two knights representing the blue flag and the blue flag actually used lapis lazuli to do it!

Lapis lazuli was called Xuanlin, Jinjing, Jinyu, Qingdai and so on in ancient China. Buddhism, known as the Vedali or Bi Liuli, is one of the witnesses of the cultural exchange between the East and the West in ancient times, according to the data. Lapis lazuli was introduced to China from Afghanistan via the "Silk Road". It is usually produced as an aggregate. It has a dense block-like and granular structure. The colors are dark blue, violet blue, sky blue, greenish blue, etc.

Lapis lazuli is a relatively rare gemstone. Blue lapis lazuli artifacts are often highly prized. Lapis lazuli is a blue variant of sodalite. Lapis lazuli is the body color of the Tibetan Buddhist medicine master Buddha, often worn to bless peace and health, no disease and no disaster.

Zhang Hongzhao, a famous geologist in modern China, wrote in the book "Shi Ya" that "lapis lazuli is like the sky, or the gold dust is scattered, and the brilliance is brilliant, if the beauty of the stars is in the sky." Therefore, the ancients respected lapis lazuli as a "heavenly stone", which was used to honor the treasure of heaven. In the "Qing Huidian Picture Examination", it is said: "The emperor took the belt, and it decorated the Temple of Heaven with lapis lazuli." ”

Generally speaking. In the selection of lapis lazuli, when the color is uniform without cracks, the texture is delicate and there is no Venus is better, no white sprinkled gold is second, sprinkled gold refers to the uniform distribution of Venus, if the pyrite content is low, the surface does not affect the quality. However, if Venus is dark and dark, or if there is too much calcite to form large white spots on the surface, the value is greatly reduced.

And now the lapis lazuli used to make the two knight sculptures of the blue flag and the blue flag is basically sky blue, uniform color, and no flaws of the top lapis lazuli. Only the armor part of the chest of the Blue Flag Knight sculpture has a small amount of gold stars!

If the two knights of the blue flag and the blue flag all use top-grade lapis lazuli as the main material, Liu Dong was a little shocked. So the last two knights, the red flag and the red flag, actually used the top glass red fei to sculpt, which made Liu Dong unbelievable!

In Liu Dong's view, among the eight knights representing the Eight Banners, it is the last inlaid red flag and the highest value of the red flag, the value of the ten tons of top red jade material alone is immeasurable, coupled with the top royal jade craftsmanship, the value of the two is naturally more amazing!

Looking at the sculptures of the Eight Banners standing in front of him side by side, Liu Dong couldn't help but think of the scene of them guarding Qianlong's coffin!

It's a pity that Liu Dong couldn't see with his own eyes what the scene was like when they were put into the tomb at that time, and he could only guess now to deduce the demeanor in the tomb of Emperor Qianlong, who represented the last glory of the Qing Dynasty!

After putting away the eight statues of the Eight Banners Knights who accompanied the burial, Liu Dong looked at the last big wooden box!

The wooden box is 3 meters long, 2 meters wide, and about 2.5 meters high, probably because the things in it are too heavy, and the bottom box board has obvious cracks! Even the whole wooden box is a little deformed and cracked, and you can see a little golden light flashing from the cracked cracks.

Liu Dong couldn't wait to step forward and open the wooden box, and after he saw the things inside with his own eyes, a burst of amazement appeared on his face!

"Nine dragons carry the coffin, Emperor Qianlong is really bold, I am afraid there are not many people who can surpass this in enjoyment throughout the ages!"

It was the first time Liu Dong had seen this kind of burial system that used nine five-clawed golden dragons as support to lift a huge jade coffin!

The nine dragons are all cast in gold, up to half a meter high, and the eyes are decorated with top-quality pigeon blood rubies, each of which is the size of an ordinary jujube, with an average of more than 30 carats, and the value is amazing!

The golden dragon landed on all four paws, and there was a round tray on its arched back, and the jade coffin was placed on a tray as large as a dustpan.

The placement of the nine golden dragons is also very exquisite, one is in the middle of the coffin, the dragon head is high-spirited, the scales and claws are clear, lifelike, and the other eight are opposite each other in turn, in order!

The jade coffin lifted by the golden dragon is also of extraordinary material, the whole body is top-grade Hetian white jade, and it is not spliced by many jade pieces like the jade coffin of the Han Dynasty, but a complete piece of jade!

There are exquisite carvings on the four sides and the top of the jade coffin, and the two larger faces on the left and right are shown by the main achievements of the Qianlong Emperor's life through narrative by means of openwork, semi-circular carving and miniature carving, including the coronation of the throne, the six visits to the south of the Yangtze River, the pacification of Zhunger, the banquet of thousands of people, and so on!

The front and back sides are mainly engraved with some Buddhist Buddha patterns, of course, the most important is the Jizo King Bodhisattva!

As for the top surface, Liu Dong was also a little surprised at the first sight, and even surprised by Emperor Qianlong's boldness and fantasies!

Because, the content of the top mountain is that Emperor Qianlong was surrounded by many officials and soldiers to come to the underworld, and in front of the ghost gate, the king of Hades led the underworld judges, impermanence, and all kinds of ghosts to greet him!

Obviously, Emperor Qianlong, who thought that his merits were comparable to those of the Qin Emperor and the Han Dynasty, thought that even if he went to the underworld, he would be able to maintain a respected status and enjoy glory and wealth forever!

It's really arrogant and a little unbelievable!

However, Liu Dong only sighed slightly, and then pushed the jade coffin away. Now that it is the twenty-first century, Emperor Qianlong is already in the past, and there is no need to waste too many brain cells on a dead man.

Not surprisingly, the coffin of Emperor Qianlong was full of large and small jewels and jade, such as gold and jade Ruyi, gold and jade Buddha statues, gold and jade jewelry, gold and jade plates, jade and mountain seeds, jade, red sapphires, lapis lazuli, cat's eyes, pearls, corals, etc.!

The dazzling array of jewels and jade is enough to seduce the greed in anyone's heart, and Liu Dong is naturally no exception, but now that he is rich, he doesn't care too much about the kind of jewelry that is precious simply because of the material, but the kind of royal utensils with artistic value that he likes more!

For example, it is inlaid with gold and jade, the size is different, there are forty or fifty handles of Ruyi, such as the size is different, the image is also different, and the material also has different Buddha statues and Bodhisattva statues, such as the top Hetian jade, Lantian jade, lapis lazuli carved into various shapes of plates!

Of course, these are only of the middle grade among all the funerary goods in the coffin, and although the top-notch things are far less than them, they are also more precious!

Therefore, after Liu Dong opened the museum, he went straight to the things he thought were of the highest value!

The thing was housed in a notebook-sized sandalwood box, with gold trim on the box, covered with dragon patterns, dragon pattern and five claws, which was obviously a royal thing!

The box is a metal looper, so Liu Dong opened it very easily!

In the yellow silk package, which is already slightly old, there is a six-sided jade seal!

The seals of the six parties are all tiger buttons, white jade, Liu Dong picked one up from it, opened it and looked at the Zhu Wen below, the four-character seal book of "Emperor's Seal" is impressively listed!

As expected, the inscriptions of the remaining five-sided jade seals are the 'Emperor's Seal', 'Emperor's Letter Seal', 'Son of Heaven's Seal', 'Son of Heaven's Seal', 'Son of Heaven's Seal', and 'Son of Heaven's Letter Seal' in the 'Six Seals of the Son of Heaven'!

The seal is a symbol of the emperor's power, and the six seals began in the Qin and Han dynasties.

"The Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Guangwu Ji" quoted Cai Yong's "Dictatorship" in the third year of Jianwu: "The emperor's six seals are all jade and tiger buttons, and the text says that the emperor's seal, the emperor's seal, the emperor's letter seal, the emperor's seal, the emperor's seal, the emperor's seal, the emperor's seal, the emperor's seal, the emperor's seal, the emperor There are also national seals, which are collectively called the Seven Seals.

Until the Tang Dynasty when Wu Zetian was called the emperor, he ingeniously added a side of the 'Emperor Tianjing Destiny Virtuous Chang' Divine Seal, and changed the Eight Seals system to the Nine Seals system, and at the same time changed the 'Seal' to 'Treasure', and since then all dynasties have been called 'Treasure'. The Northern Song Dynasty increased to 12 treasures, and the Southern Song Dynasty was 17 treasures. The Ming Dynasty soared to 24 treasures, and the Qing Dynasty in addition to the 25 treasures of the Jiaotai Hall for daily use, also enshrined the 'Ten Treasures of Shengjing'.

It can be seen that the number of treasure seals of the past dynasties is more and more, and the volume is getting larger and larger, ranging from the Qin and Han dynasties to four inches, the Tang Dynasty's two inches to four inches, until the Ming and Qing dynasties, ranging from two inches nine to five inches nine, the largest one has the Song Dynasty 'treasure treasure 'range of heaven and earth, praise the gods, Baohe Taihe, Wanshou Emperor's 'destiny treasure' seal is nine inches square, and the Ming Dynasty Jianwen Emperor's 'Mandate of Heaven, the table is ten thousand squares, the essence of one is in the middle of the world, Yongzhou Yongchang', 'the treasure of condensing life' The printing surface is one foot six inches and nine minutes square, which can be described as huge.

And the six jade seals in Liu Dong's hands are two inches and nine, close to 10 centimeters!

But it is not the twenty-five treasures of the Qing Dynasty, because there is no Manchurian and Mongolian characters in the inscription, and all four characters are Chinese characters and small seals! Combined with the aura on the jade seal, Liu Dong is basically sure that these six jade seals come from the Ming Dynasty!

I just don't know for what purpose Emperor Qianlong buried them together in his own tomb! (To be continued......)