Before Gao Chao finished speaking, Xia Qing had already taken the bronze drum from his hand, Gao Chao was still a little worried, but when he saw Xia Qing holding the bronze drum, he was already relieved, but he didn't expect that Xia Qing's movements were very skillful, and at first glance he was a professional who knew a lot about bronze.

I saw Xia Qing holding the bronze drum with his right hand, and the coarse cloth was padded in the palm of his hand, which was done to prevent direct contact between the palm and the surface of the bronze drum, because there is sweat on people's hands, and sweat contains urea, lactic acid and fatty acids, which causes sweat to be weakly acidic, which will harm metal, especially bronze.

So under normal circumstances, when touching bronze, it is necessary to wear cotton gloves, but now there are no gloves, Xia Qing had to use his left hand to gently touch the drum body through the coarse cloth, and then slowly, carefully rotate the bronze drum, carefully observe the carved patterns on the bronze drum.

Because the light in the small building was very dim, she could only see it by the moonlight, so Xia Qing looked a little struggling, but even so, the expression on her face changed from a little nervous just now to surprise and excitement.

So Gao Chao couldn't help but whisper to Xia Qing, "Miss Xia, do you see any doorway?" ”

Xia Qing raised his head at this time, and said with some excitement: "It's too coincidental, it's really too coincidental." ”

The fat man was stunned and said, "Why is it too coincidental?" ”

Xia Qing glared at the fat man, and then said: "The graduate project I applied for in Cambridge is about the historical research of the Shang people left behind in the late Shang Dynasty in China......

As Xia Qing spoke, Gao Chao and the fat man looked at each other, and the two of them shook their heads together, obviously no one understood.

Xia Qing rolled his eyes, and then said helplessly: "To put it simply, after the fall of the Shang Dynasty, there was once a Shang tribe that migrated westward into the vast Xiqiang region......

When Xia Qing said this, Gao Chao seemed to have understood what she meant, and then said, "Miss Xia, are you saying that this bronze drum has something to do with the tribe of the Shang clan?" ”

Xia Qing nodded, and then said with some excitement: "It should be, you see ......"

As she spoke, she picked up the bronze drum in her hand, and in the moonlight, she pointed to the strange words on the drum surface, and then said: "These words are golden texts, also called Zhong Dingwen, which specifically refer to the inscriptions engraved on the bronze, and these golden inscriptions are arranged from the perspective of intentional artistic typesetting together, and the performance is very exquisite and harmonious. I can preliminarily conclude that this bronze drum should belong to the late Shang Dynasty bronze, and this bronze drum was found in Yunnan, you know, bronze drums are not uncommon in Yunnan, but such a bronze drum with the characteristics of the late Yin Shang Dynasty, I have never seen or even heard of it, so I think it is likely to be related to the Shang tribe that migrated westward. ”

Xia Qing explained a lot in one breath, and Gao Chao was a little stunned when he heard it, because he was not an expert in bronze, plus what Xia Qing said, Zhong Dingwen, he was even more confused, but he had already understood, no matter what, this thing did seem to be a good thing at a glance, thinking that this bronze drum should be worth a lot of money, so he was secretly happy in his heart.

However, although Gao Chao was happy in his heart, he didn't show it on his face, he still echoed Xia Qing and said, "Oh, so that's the case, then Miss Xia, what do these golden texts mean?" ”

Xia Qing glanced at Gao Chao, as if the teacher had seen a student who was not ashamed to ask, she nodded, as if she was very satisfied.

This kind of gold text can be roughly divided into four kinds, namely Yin Jin Wen, Western Zhou Jin Wen, Eastern Zhou Jin Wen, and Qin and Han Jin Wen, but each period of Jin Wen, have some of their own typical characteristics, among which Yin Jin Wen because of the oldest age, and the most rare and precious, from the early few numbers, to the end of the Shang Dynasty and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, after more than 500 years to develop into more than 1,200 words, it can be said that the words are cherished, I have been studying in the UK, there has always been a special study in this area, so this has been discovered and deciphered more than 1,200 words, I can basically recognize it all, and the golden text on this bronze drum is a total of five words, which reads: Yinshan Great Witch Elephant. ”

Xia Qing explained a lot in one breath, nodded superbly, but didn't understand what it meant at all.

And the fat man beside him nodded his head in the same way that he didn't know how to pretend to understand, and then said: "Oh, that's what happened, Yinshan Great Witch Elephant, I said that this thing doesn't look like a drum, it turned out to be an elephant cast in bronze, hey, don't say it, look at it this way, this thing really looks like an elephant!" ”

Seeing Zhao Xu like this, Gao Chao hurriedly poked him with his elbow, gave him a blank look, and said, "Get out of the way, have you ever seen an elephant without a trunk?" It's a shame that you're still the big shopkeeper of the Wanjin Pavilion, why don't you even have this bit of common sense, can this ancient text and modern text mean the same? As far as I know, being able to find thirty or forty words on the bronze was already an extreme luxury at that time, and the amount of information recorded in those words is simply not what we can imagine now, and sometimes the meaning of a few words, I'm afraid that if you express it in modern Chinese, you have to write a report, so the five words on it, Yinshan Great Witch Elephant, must not be the elephant with a long nose that you are talking about! ”

In fact, Gao Chao is also learning and selling, because on the way back from Yunnan with the fat man before, he couldn't sleep while sitting on the train, so he kept using his mobile phone to search for relevant information about bronzes, so he also learned some unpopular knowledge.

But as soon as those words came out of Gao Chao's mouth, Xia Qing's eyes seemed to change suddenly, because Xia Qing has always had no good impression of domestic antique dealers, in her opinion, Gao Chao is a villain who forgets his righteousness, does not learn and does not know how to pretend to understand, that is, he relies on the pit to deceive and do some antique business of buying and selling, but she didn't expect that Gao Chao could also get to the point, so she had a new understanding of Gao Chao at the moment.

So Xia Qing nodded and said: "That's true, the inscriptions on the general bronzes are all about the meaning of the bronze casting, or the name of the person who belongs, or it may just be the time or place, and the five words on this bronze drum, the Yinshan Great Witch Elephant, should be the picture of the expression......"

The fat man was a little depressed because of his timidity just now, and he didn't want to continue listening to it, anyway, this thing is a valuable thing, which is enough for the fat man, but at this moment, as soon as Xia Qing mentioned the word "picture", the fat man immediately came to his senses again, so he hurriedly turned his head and asked, "Figure?" What diagram? Where is the diagram? ”

Xia Qing saw the fat man's virtue at this time, and the expression on her face immediately changed, as if she suddenly regretted what she had just said.

So she ignored the fat man's question, and continued the previous topic: "The text on this bronze drum, the Yinshan Great Witch Elephant, the two words Yinshan, are enough to explain its origin, Yin, originally a place name, the Shang Dynasty moved the capital frequently at the beginning, and only moved the capital to Yin in the Pangeng period, and since then the Shang Dynasty has ruled for more than 270 years, so the Shang Dynasty is also called Yin Shang." However, this place of Yin is now considered to be in the Anyang area of Henan Province, where it is full of plains, and there is no undulating terrain within a few hundred kilometers, let alone hills and mountains, and if it is in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the word mountain is not a small mountain, generally only the towering mountain can be called a mountain, so what this Yin Mountain represents, I can't think clearly for a while. ”

Seeing that Xia Qing ignored his stubble, the fat man wanted to continue to ask about the "picture", but Gao Chao stopped him and glanced at him, meaning to let the fat man stop talking first.

In fact, Gao Chao has already seen that Xia Qing did this on purpose, he must have felt that he had leaked his mouth and exposed the matter of "picture", but according to Gao Chao's current judgment of Xia Qing, he felt that since Xia Qing didn't want to say it anymore, even if you forced her to ask, it shouldn't make much sense, she probably wouldn't say it anymore, even if she did, she could make up a story for you, anyway, he and the fat man were both laymen, and they didn't know what she was talking about.

So Gao Chao immediately decided that instead of forcing her, it was better to follow her first, let her say something she wanted to say, and wait until the time was ripe to find an opportunity to exchange some information with her, and at that time what he got from her mouth would be meaningful and valuable.

Thinking like this in his heart, Gao Chao nodded, as if he understood what Xia Qing said, and then said to Xia Qing: "It seems that this Yin Mountain does not necessarily refer to Yin, the capital of the Shang Dynasty. ”

Xia Qing glanced at Gao Chao and nodded in agreement with him, but he didn't say anything.

Seeing this, Gao Chao hurriedly said: "Then Miss Xia, among these five words, the first two words are not clear to us now, and there are three words behind it, what does it mean?" ”