"Thank you!"

Chu Chen took the teacup, thanked him, and said with a smile: "Actually, this is nothing, mainly because my family's ancestral acupuncture technique is relatively good." ”

Hearing Chu Chen say that it was an ancestral acupuncture technique, although Professor Zhu was curious, considering the taboo, he still digressed the topic and talked about treatment.

So he asked, "Doctor Chu, when do you plan to do the next acupuncture?" ”

Chu Chen thought about it for a while: "I'm going to have surgery tomorrow, so I'll come back the day after tomorrow!" ”

"Okay......

Next, the two exchanged their views, and seeing that everything had been explained clearly, Chu Chen took a sip of tea and was about to leave, but when he was drinking tea, his eyes happened to see something on Professor Zhu's table, which immediately aroused his interest.

"Professor Zhu, this root carving of yours looks good!"

"Is this a root carving?"

Professor Zhu's expression was a little puzzled, and then he smiled: "I don't understand anything about the aspect, this thing was given to me by a parent a few days ago because I cured his child's illness." Originally, I refused, but he said that it was an ancestral thing, not worth a few dollars, and he threw it on my desk and ran away. Doctor Chu, isn't this thing quite expensive? ”

Chu Chen shook his head: "I haven't looked at the things carefully, I don't know if it's expensive or not, but it looks like the craftsmanship is pretty good." ”

"That's it!" Professor Zhu frowned: "I originally planned to find someone to help see what the value of this thing is, if it is something of a few hundred yuan, then it doesn't matter if you accept it." If it's too expensive, I'll definitely have to pay it back to that parent. ”

Yesterday, Chu Chen inquired about Professor Zhu from Liu Qinshu. I know that he doesn't accept red envelopes very much, and he basically doesn't accept gifts from patients' families. Actually, for Professor Zhu. As long as you go out for surgery on holidays or give guidance, you can have a lot of income, and there is no need to receive any red envelopes.

Professor Zhu continued: "Doctor Chu, since you understand this, please help me identify it, how about it?" ”

"No problem......"

Root carving is the traditional carving art of our country, which is based on the self-generated and distorted forms of tree roots (including tree bodies, tree nodules, bamboo roots, etc.) as the object of artistic creation. Through guò conception, artistic processing and technological processing, he creates artistic image works such as figures, animals, and utensils.

The root carving process pays attention to "three points of artificial, seven points of nature", which means that in the creation of root carving, the natural form of the root material should be mainly used to express the artistic image of xiàn, and the auxiliary artificial treatment and modification should be carried out, therefore, the root carving is also known as "the art of the root" or "the art of the root".

The root carving on Professor Zhu's desk is a bamboo root carving.

The raw material of bamboo root carving is the root of bamboo. In nature, moso bamboo is thick, with a wide variety of species and different forms, and is evergreen all year round. After decades or even hundreds of years of wind and rain, it has formed its own style with tough texture, delicate texture and elegant color. Its intriguing roots and exotic bamboo joints that grow by chance should be considered a rarity.

The key to the success or failure of the creation of bamboo root carving. It depends on whether you can use the beauty of nature to win with ingenuity. Therefore, the work requires that the artistic modeling has the key points of novel conception, ingenious discipline, appropriate trade-offs, and full of interest.

Of course. On the surface, the Takegen Theory seems to show "ugliness", and this "ugliness". However, it gives us the charm of capturing materials and displaying skills, prompting us to induce imagination, as Rodin said, "What is called ugly in nature can become very beautiful in art".

The bamboo root carving in front of you is carved from the root of the full bamboo, and the birthday star is made of standing phase, which is completely made according to the characteristics of the bamboo root, which is very decent.

The birthday star holds a fan in his left hand and a cane in his right hand, all of which are attached to his body and are made of hidden reliefs.

The lines of clothing are simple and less wrinkled. There are not many layers, the knife edge is round, strong and powerful, slightly textured, polished and smooth, and makes full use of artistic exaggeration to depict the head of the birthday star. Therefore, the proportion of the head increases, about 3 centimeters, accounting for about a quarter of the length of the whole body.

The width of the birthday star's head, almost shoulder to shoulder, and the forehead is towering, with three deep wrinkles, indicating both longevity and weather-beaten.

The birthday star's eyes, nose and mouth are wide, the ears and shoulders are large, the eyes are squinted to look downward, the face is gentle, the eyebrows are kind, the beard is short, the four aspects are physical, the spirit is dazzling and leisurely and chic, and the characteristics and inner world of the birthday star are vividly portrayed, giving people a deep impression.

This bamboo root carving birthday star, after a long time of friction and play inheritance, the pulp is rich and even, as if there is a fairy wind bones. Coupled with the exquisite carving, the knife technique looks smooth, and there is a sense of "the shape of the extreme object, the god of the object, and the fun of the object".

Therefore, after a little look, Chu Chen knew that this should be an old root carving work, and from the perspective of the carving style, it should be Jia. The work of Dingzhu carving.

Excellent. Dingzhu carving prevailed in the Ming and Qing dynasties. During the period of Ming Zhengde and Jiajing, there were famous bamboo carvers Zhu He, Zhu Ying, Zhu Zhizheng, a family of three generations, known as "three Zhu". Sanzhu into the bamboo carving with calligraphy and painting, with the knife for the pen, with the brushwork applied to the knife method, the original profound, high relief bamboo carving techniques. It has a great influence on the bamboo carving of later generations, forming a unique Jia. Set the bamboo carving genre.

It is recorded in the "Bamboo Pen Zunfu" written by Zhao Xin of the Qing Dynasty: "The city is named after bamboo carving...... The engraving method was originally Zhu Sansong's. Zhu went to the present for less than a hundred years, and rushed to imitate it, provided clothes and food, and then wrote it together with the property", this is exactly the case.

Sure enough, after a while, Chu Chen saw the "Three Loose System" Yin text engraved at the bottom. This "three pines" is Zhu Ying's second son, Zhu Zhizheng's number.

The year of birth and death of Zhu Zhizheng is unknown, and the zuò products produced have the year of Chongzhen, and the year of death may have been entered into the Qing Dynasty. Lu Fuzhao said in "Essays on Nancun": "(Sansong) is good at painting distant mountains and light stones, clumps of bamboo and dead wood, and especially likes to paint donkeys. The carving knife is not careful, and it is a tool that has gone through the years."

Although Zhu Songlin is the founder of Zhu's bamboo carving, but the development to Zhu Sansong, the technology is more refined, the engraved pen holder, arm rest, incense tube and other things are extremely precious treasures at that time, Emperor Jiaqing also has a soft spot for Zhu Sansong's works, try the title "convey the spirit only for Xiao Shu pen, endure for a long time to be simple".

Chu Chen didn't expect that he would actually encounter a work by Zhu Sansong, and this thing happened to be used to celebrate his birthday, if he could buy it, he would have a gift for the old gentleman's birthday in Jinling after a while.

As for whether he can buy it, Chu Chen is a little uncertain, judging from the quality and carving of this bamboo root carving, the market value is definitely expensive, he estimates that it should be between 35 and 400,000 yuan, and judging from Professor Zhu's character, he will definitely return this bamboo root carving to the original owner.

Therefore, if he wants to buy it, he can only ask the original owner, and when the other party hears that this thing has such a high value, he doesn't know if he will sell it, but he can't force it to buy and sell, and in the end, he can only talk about it then.

Putting down the things in his hand, Chu Chen said with a smile: "Professor Zhu, this thing of yours is indeed a genuine product carved by Zhu Sansong in the late Ming Dynasty. ”

"The end of the Ming Dynasty?" Professor Zhu was quite surprised by the results given by Chu Chen: "Isn't this thing hundreds of years old, why does it look so new and smooth!" ”

"It's not new, it's toning! It is a natural oxidation reaction caused by the previous owner's frequent play. ”

Chu Chen explained with a smile: "As for the smoothness, although the overall picture of this old root carving is clean, natural and simple, and done in one go, but because it is old and artificially used, it has the scars of natural use, you see......"

Speaking of this, Chu Chen picked up the strong flashlight and shone it on the surface of the thing, and Professor Zhu was surprised to find that there were indeed a trace of small scratches on it as Chu Chen said, and the number seemed quite large.

"This is the sign of a real antique?" Professor Zhu raised his head and asked.

Putting away the flashlight, Chu Chen explained: "This is indeed one of the signs to distinguish authenticity from falsehood, but there are many ways to do counterfeiting now, and this trace can also be imitated." Of course, it is easier to tell if something like this is true or fake, for example, the new root carving is old, the carving method is shoddy and blunt, and the knife skill has not changed. Many figures have a face, and a variety of patterns decorate a pattern, mechanical or stereotyped. ”

"The overall carving technique of the old root carving is perfect, in the same line, from the main characters to the environment (houses, furniture, trees, etc.) are carved seriously, the lines are smooth, and there is a sense of chic. It's like this statue, it looks natural and vivid, but if it's an imitation, it's hard to make it like this......"

Listening to Chu Chen say some of the key points of identification, Professor Zhu smiled bitterly and said, "This thing is very foggy, it seems that I am not the material of your line!" By the way, since this thing is real and from the Ming Dynasty, it should be very expensive, right? ”

Chu Chen said: "Antiques are not more valuable the longer they go, the key is to see how the thing is, the artistic level is low, or the popular things are not worth anything, but your thing is indeed better, Zhu Sansong I said earlier is very famous among bamboo root carving artists." I estimate that the market value of this thing should be between 35 and 400,000. ”

"Shhh

Hearing the price given by Chu Chen, Professor Zhu gasped, not that he had never seen so much money, but that he didn't expect that a statue that was only twelve or thirteen centimeters tall would be worth hundreds of thousands, which made him feel very incredible when he thought about it.

After a while, Professor Zhu asked with some astonishment, "Are all antiques so expensive?" ”

Chu Chen shook his head: "Of course it's impossible, there are good and bad things, only a small part of them are valuable, of course, hundreds of thousands of things are not too expensive in antiques, and the expensive price is hundreds or thousands, or even hundreds of millions." ”

Professor Zhu was stunned, and then asked, "I heard others say that there are any leaks that make you rich overnight, is it true?" ”

Chu Chen replied: "This kind of thing does exist, but in the antique industry, there are also a lot of fakes, if you don't study, you will step into this industry with the idea of getting rich overnight, and you will often fall into the nose and face swollen." (To be continued......)