Zhang Tianyuan wanted a cheap thing, after all, it was not easy for Xiaoshi to do business, and he was a rich man, so there was no need to take advantage of others, so he looked for it, and felt that the mat was good. However, no matter how good the mat is, it shouldn't be expensive, so Zhang Tianyuan didn't think much about it, so he casually pointed to the mat and said what he wanted.

Now because there is air conditioning in summer, so Zhang Tianyuan has not used the mat for a long time, seeing this thing, I can't help but be kind, although this kind of thing can't be brought back to China, one is unnecessary, and the other is troublesome, it just happens that it will be hotter in the next few days, so just take it to the hotel to use it, and it can be regarded as trying the feeling before. Now that life is better, you have to know how to enjoy it, right?

When he was a child, he slept on a hard kang, even if it was a bed, it was hard, but there was no Simmons mattress, so he directly spread the mat on the floor, and then lay on it and watched TV, which was also a red enjoyment.

However, when he mentioned this mat, he found that Xiao Shi's expression was a little wrong, as if he was a little reluctant.

"This ...... Boss Zhang, you are really good at picking things. ”

Why is Xiao Shi so hesitant and reluctant? There is actually a reason for this, this mat was obtained by his grandfather from a Japanese back then, it is easy to say, but the situation at that time was very dangerous, it should be a Japanese official who absconded with makeup, because of the language barrier, the two people met in a narrow way and made a move, Xiao Shi's grandfather paid the price of an arm, stabbed the Japanese devil to death. At that time, he wondered that the Japanese were dying. I didn't forget to put down a cloth bag in my hand and opened the cloth bag to take a look. It's just a mat, Xiaoshi's grandfather didn't care too much about it at that time, and then the war ended, and someone looked at it and learned that it was not an ordinary mat, but an ivory mat!

Xiao Shi's family has been passed down from generation to generation, and this thing has been passed to Xiao Shi's hands, according to the elders, this southeast is good. But you can't eat or wear, it's better to sell it for some money, but it's still a problem how to get this price, after all, Myanmar is more chaotic, and they don't dare to speak out.

But no matter what, the price of the ivory mat is very expensive, and if it is given to Zhang Tianyuan for nothing, Xiao Shi will definitely hesitate. This is perfectly normal.

Ivory weaving has achieved great development in the Qing Dynasty, it is a work of splitting ivory silk, polishing and then weaving. The ivory splitting technique was available in the Han Dynasty. Since then, it has not stopped.

Splitting is one of the most critical processes in weaving, which uses the texture and toughness of ivory to soak it in a special medicinal solution. After it is softened, it is split into thin slices with uniform thickness and width. The tooth pieces are as weak as paper and translucent. Then the ivory piece is polished smooth to show a white luster, and then weaved, and the varieties include ivory mats, palace fans, etc.

Due to the constraints of climatic conditions, this technique was rarely used in the north, and Dongguang became the main production area of ivory weaving. This technology is time-consuming, difficult to produce, and the value of the finished product is quite expensive.

To the Yongzheng Dynasty, the Yongzheng Emperor felt that its production was laborious and wealthy, and its function was only for luxury and wealth, so he ordered to prohibit the production of zuò tooth silk products, and since then, this craft has gradually declined until it is lost. Ivory has good thermostatic properties, and is cooler and more pleasant than mats made of bamboo, grass and other materials.

Ivory woven mats, two extant sheets, are stored in the Imperial Palace Museum.

This is all said by experts, in fact, how much really exists, that is not necessarily, after all, many folk collectors you experts may not know, but one thing is certain, this ivory mat must be very few, very few, even if it is not just two, it is definitely not more than three or five, this is after all the technology that has been broken.

Ivory is characterized by being both hard and brittle, and it is difficult to imagine using it to weave mats. When I saw the three existing ivory mats, I was amazed at the craftsmanship of the ancients.

"What's wrong, Xiaoshi? What's wrong? ”

Although Zhang Tianyuan felt Xiaoshi's hesitation, he really didn't think about the ivory mat, after all, as far as he knew, there are only a few ivory mats in the world now, whether there are foreign ones, he is not sure, but it must be difficult to meet, he didn't expect that he would meet today, this is a bit too coincidental, as if the baby has been revolving around him, wherever he goes, he can meet the baby.

Regarding this matter, Zhang Tianyuan felt that it could actually be said in reverse, where there is a treasure, he will run there, which is the result of the earth qi guiding him. He didn't know the true value of this mat at this time, if this ivory mat was real, then it was a first-class cultural relic in China, and it could not be bought and sold, and this thing was definitely qualified to enter Zhang Tianyuan's private museum, because it was a priceless treasure.

"It's okay, I'll show you this thing, and if you're satisfied, just take it." In fact, Xiao Shi didn't know the true value of this thing, and felt that there should be thirty or forty thousand dollars, so he simply gritted his teeth and made a decision, if he could exchange it for the general agent of the HRE Group in Myanmar, then the thirty or forty thousand dollars would not be easily earned?

Zhang Tianyuan saw Xiao Shi's gritted teeth, it was like a strong man breaking his wrist, and he couldn't help but be a little confused, isn't it just a mat, can he be like this?

But when the mat was completely placed in front of him, he was so shocked that he couldn't speak, and after a long time, he couldn't help but say, "No wonder you are reluctant, this is an ivory mat." ”

When people think of ivory crafts, people immediately think of ivory carvings in various forms, but there is one ivory product that people rarely see, and it is a mat woven from ivory. Some people will ask, how can you use ivory to weave into a soft mat with its hard texture?

Ivory mats are ingenious and ingenious, but due to the high cost of raw materials and the difficulty of making them, the quantity produced is very scarce, and only the royal family and nobles can enjoy it. According to the records of the Qing Palace, the Qing Palace only has 5 ivory mats, so where are these 5 ivory mats now?

The early days of the new country. When the staff of the Imperial Palace Museum registered the cultural relics, they found only one ivory mat. This ivory mat is white in color and well preserved.

It's not long after. According to expert analysis, this ivory mat was originally the old collection of the Qing Palace, and it is said that it was stolen by the eunuch out of the palace and then left the people, and is now collected in the Yantai City Museum. One day in 1977, when the staff of the Palace Museum was cleaning up the old objects of the Qing Palace, they opened a roll of Taiwanese straw mats and found a tattered cloth bag inside, and opened the cloth bag. I was surprised to find that there was a rare treasure ivory mat wrapped inside, the surface of this ivory mat was flat and smooth, the texture was uniform and delicate, and in addition to the amazement, people couldn't help but ask, why did such a precious ivory mat wrap in the treasure island straw mat, who did it?

According to antiquities experts, the incident may have happened in the last years of the Qing Dynasty or the beginning of the last century, when the management of the imperial palace was chaotic. Stealing was commonplace, and it was probably the palace eunuchs or officials who took advantage of the chaos to hide this ivory mat in a straw mat in an attempt to steal it out of the Forbidden City, for unknown reasons. The thieves did not succeed, and the ivory mats remained in straw mats for decades until they were discovered in 1977. The whereabouts of the remaining two ivory mats are unknown.

In our country. The weaving of ivory mats has a long history, and there is a record in the "Xijing Miscellaneous Records" that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty gave ivory to Mrs. Li. It shows that as early as the Han Dynasty, China mastered the weaving technology of ivory mats. to the Qing Dynasty. The technology of making ivory mats is more perfect, most of the ivory mats in the Qing Palace are made by artists in Guangzhou, because the process of making zuò is very complicated, dozens of skilled craftsmen take several years to produce an ivory mat, so, how is the ivory mat woven out?

Mingren Zhu Jingzhao made a detailed description of the weaving method of the ivory mat in the "Wild Record": "All the ivory is stored in the inside one by one, the usage is boiled soft, and the one by one is extracted, soft as a thread, and the weaving is the mat." ”

The process is very cumbersome, first of all, the huge ivory is soaked in the potion with medicinal solution, according to the delicate and tender texture of the ivory, the ivory is split into a thin sheet with a width of 0.2 cm, uniform thickness, polished out of a white luster, and then woven into a herringbone pattern mat, this kind of mat is soft and cool, rich and elegant, and is deeply loved by the royal family. However, in the 12th year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Yongzheng issued an edict banning the production of ivory mats, what is going on?

Legend has it that one day, the weather was extremely hot, the Yongzheng Emperor, who was entangled in government affairs, was restless, and it was difficult to sleep at night. The ivory mat has a soft texture, cooler and more pleasant than the straw mat and bamboo mat, and the Yongzheng Emperor lies on the ivory mat and falls asleep after a while. When the ministers saw that Emperor Yongzheng liked ivory mats, they did what they liked and offered them one after another.

Among the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng was a relatively frugal emperor, he believed that the ivory mat cost a lot, the people and the money, and the extravagance, in the 12th year of Yongzheng, that is, in April 1734, he passed down the holy decree, expressly prohibiting the production of ivory mats, in order to show that he was diligent and thrifty.

At that time, Yongzheng decreed that it was forbidden: "Geng Wu, the ministers and bachelors, etc., I am in a qiē utensil, but it is simple and applicable, not gorgeous and ingenious, and the edict is very clear repeatedly." In the past, Dongguang once entered the ivory seat, I did not take it, thinking that it was just an accidental offering, and did not give an edict to cut the precepts, but now there are more and more donors, which is not my intention. The husband uses ivory weaving as a tool, or such as a fan, its body is still small, and now the system is a seat, so it takes a lot of materials, and it takes a lot of labor, and it is extravagant. It was reported to the governor of Dongguang that if the craftsmen of Dongguang did this, they would be forbidden not to be remade. If it comes from the ocean, don't buy it, then the wind of reinvention will naturally stop. ”

After the Yongzheng Emperor issued an edict, the number of ivory mats was greatly reduced, and the production of ivory mats was stopped after the Qianlong Dynasty.

This woven ivory mat is 216cm long and 139cm wide. The back of the mat is wrapped in red silk satin, and the edge is wrapped in black satin. The surface of the mat is woven with a herringbone pattern, which is made of flat ivory strips as thin as bamboo grates and only 0.2 cm wide. Although the mat surface is slightly worn, it is still largely intact. The texture of this mat is fine and uniform, the mat surface is flat and smooth, soft and comfortable, and it can be rolled freely. Its teeth are extremely thin and still white and soft. Ivory mats are cooler and more pleasant than straw mats and bamboo mats in summer.

Zhang Tianyuan was surprised, naturally I wanted to know if this mat was a real ivory mat, so he immediately used the word appreciation recipe to identify it, and his heart was even more excited, yes, this thing is the work of the Yongzheng period, after he went to the Palace Museum to visit the ivory mat before, he has always wanted to get one, and he never thought that this wish came true today. (To be continued......)