Chapter 2 Liulichang

Looked at more than half a month, has been fast approaching the traditional Chinese New Year, we had to dispel the idea of New Year in the United States, when Beijing’s New Year’s Eve, the city has not been banned fireworks, from the Eve is still far away, you can hear the sound of the cannonballs rise and fall, to the extraordinarily lively thrift market added a few points of clutter.

Panjiayuan old goods market now, than when we just came and much more lively, this person Uyayan Uyayan, one after another, of course, is also due to the New Year’s Eve, these days, food stores in the vegetable market to do the New Year’s Eve more people, there are a lot of people who have a hobby of piling up, look at the old goods market crowded, they follow to join in the fun, the weather, although the cold, the people are more and more up.

Recently, more than a year, Panjiayuan old goods market is indeed gradually into the climate, compared with the original, has long been incomparable, in addition to the broken East and West and old goods, alone counts of antiques and play ware is rich to the extreme, those who are painting and calligraphy, porcelain, ceramics, bronzes, guqin, ancient money, Xuan furnace, ancient bronze mirror, jade, ancient ink stone, ancient ink, ancient books, inscriptions, famous paper of the past dynasties, the ancient brick and tile, seals, silk embroidery, Cloisonné, lacquer, Yixing pots, enamel pieces, material, toothware, bamboo carving, fans, wooden furniture, weapons, famous stone …… piled up like a mountain, standing at the end of this can’t see that end, you look at it, a day to see ten kinds of things, may be a lifetime can’t see the end of this thrift market things.

However, unlike the origins from the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty Beijing Liulichang, there are “cultural games”, and Panjiayuan road on the wild, things are also mixed, these things inside, imitation of ancient “Xibei goods” accounted for ninety percent, want to Panjiayuan in the exchange for something real, in addition to having a Fire-eye eyes to distinguish between the real and the fake eyesight, the luck of the needle in the haystack is also indispensable.

I and the fat man’s reputation, since they can not be compared with those who pouring fake things of the second-hand dealers, some often stroll Panjiayuan old customers, do not know where they heard, seem to know that the master Hu and the fat master in the hands of Mingqi, that is the real thing – from the pit filtered out of the Mingqi, even if it is just a mediocre ancient copper coins, can not be prepared! It’s also the “money” that the gold inspector plucked out of the old dumplings’ mouths.

I see a lot of people, as soon as they see me, ask me: “There is no ancient tomb stolen out of the Mingqi? The first thing you need to do is to ask for a price, as long as it’s the real thing, you’ll never pay for it.

I thought some days did not show up in Panjiayuan, the big gold teeth abroad, certainly his customers are sent to me here, but my hands and what Ming ware, and often contact with this thing is also prohibited hooks, good from the South China Sea to get the “green head” is very much, the green head and the Ming ware in the nature of the actual is more or less the same, only one from the soil, one from the water, and the other from the water, and the other from the earth. To, a from the water, basically is the difference between the mountain bear paw and the sea shark fins, and then jumped buyers, watch the green head of the goods.

Now play collection of the Lord, all feel the jade market is rising, but they only recognize the old jade with old seepage, although the green head of ancient jade is seepage color is deep, but why was seawater soaked for a long time, the chalcedony for the salt brine occlusion, as if wrapped a layer of very heavy lime, even those who know the goods to see to shake their heads.

Is discussing the price of the time, there are old goods market familiar with the people to tell, said the Liuli factory hidden treasure hall “Qiao Er master” please we go, I think this is a little strange, that Qiao Er master in Beijing Liuli factory good name, from before the liberation of an antique store operated by the hidden treasure hall, how many years have never gone wrong, in his hands over the antiquities of countless! In Panjiayuan, everyone knows that he is the antique world of “old Yuanliang”, I had the intention to visit, but there is no way to contact the introduction of the door, I can’t imagine that he asked us to go over to talk about talking about, I don’t know what he sold in his gourd.

And then ask people, only to know that the original Qiao two masters heard that I have the South China Sea ancient jade, he is a vegetarian specializing in antiquities, in Beijing, green head of the old jade is very rare, idle is difficult to see in the market, will specially trust someone to pass a message, asked me to bring the ancient jade to his home to sit down and see how the goods.

I think there is finally a connoisseur of goods, but also have the intention to go to the second master’s home to open the eyes, with the fat man wrapped up a package of goods in a hurry, straight to the east end of the Liulichang Yanshousi Street, put the road to the mouth of a two-storey storefront, antique color, quite uncommon, a look at the black background of the signboard in gold letters, it is the old Zang Zhentang.

With the store people explain the intention, but did not go upstairs, but was sent directly away from that far from an old silo, this place is almost to the Shinanongtan, the building is dilapidated, the building is piled up with winter coal, and yards into the wall as high as the Chinese cabbage, Mr. Qiao is accustomed to living in this place, on the age of the reluctance to move, so the usual life in the living are here.

I saw that Qiao Er master is almost eighty, hair fell one not left, a long beard is snow white, and the two eyeballs are bright, hale and hearty, old and immortal, see us quickly let sit, there are workers on the tea, utensils exquisite, tea aroma, but we are accustomed to the fat man drinking a big bowl of tea, do not know the way to taste tea, coupled with the cold outside, full of cold in the heart, a hot tea, a tilted his neck on the bottom of the drink a! The tea was so hot that he drank it all in one go, and praised it under his breath, “Good tea, why don’t you have another bowl of it, and it’s best to change the big tea pot.”

Master Qiao smiled and stroked his beard, and hurriedly asked people to give Master Hu and Master Fatty on a big bowl of tea, look at the tea drinking style, we know that these two are not small-minded people who are quick.

I laughed: “Let the two masters laugh, practicing in Panjiayuan half a day, freezing enough.” A few cups of tea down, the body warmed up, which only cared to survey the surrounding area, this old building in the room, almost not the same new things, the old bookcases are full of group books and ancient books, leaning out of the edge of the white jade, crystal, Shoushan stone, Buddha statues, tooth carvings, nose and eye pots and other curiosities, appearing to be not a big house full of, if outside of the silo do not know the bottom line, who can imagine pouring a lifetime of antiques and Ming wares The second master Qiao, will live in such an inconspicuous place.

But Fatty and I see him willing to be ordinary, the heart also more than a few points of respect, both sides of the clamor for a few sentences, Qiao second master seems to know that we are doing the Golden Guardian, asked me some of the feng shui of the city of Beijing, so that I said Liulichang business weather how.

I have grown a heart, although Mr. Qiao is a well-known figure in Beijing, not Uncle Ming’s stream can be compared, but I do not want to reveal the “sixteen words yin and yang feng shui secret art” in the essence, only to pick up some of the words of the New Year’s Day out: “Beijing City, water and drought two dragons, the dragon vein situation is just right to cover the glazed factory, it is the car like water, horses like dragons, the two wealth in the middle of the place to do business, I’m afraid that we have to count the money to soft. I’m afraid I’m going to be able to count the money to my hands.”

Qiao Er master was delighted to hear, and to praise some, the fat man is eager to get rich, smacked his old man nagging, busy taking out the green head, let Qiao Er master on the eye, see what price can give, Qiao Er master took out a magnifying glass and old glasses to, repeated half a day to look at, and then in the hands of the play a time, even said: “good jade, good jade ah, really are under the sea of the thousand years of ancient jade, only a pity that there has been no disc out of the old color, the old color, and the old color, the old color, the old color, the old color, the old color. Hu Wang two for the old man, smell the flavor of your two people, is often dealing with the Ming ware, when the real person does not say falsehoods, on the truth, before the liberation of the country, I Joe someone with you are also peers, when it is not compared to the present, the hands of the real thing, how can do antique business in the glazed factory, so I know that, like this old jade, only the bottom of the sea in the monuments and mountains in the ancient tombs only have the color of the world in the workshop is absolutely no such color. ”

Fatty and I also ate a shock, I can’t imagine that Qiao Ershi speak is so lucid, the original is also an inverted bucket craftsmen, he now lives in this building downstairs, there was an ancient tomb left in the Yuan dynasty, when Qiao Ershi is to excavate this tomb, only to have the capital to do business in Liuli factory, he coveted this tomb near the feng shui is good, and can’t leave the site, and later on, the ancient tombs were shoveled flat to rise the building, he is still living in this place, please me! He asked me to come here, firstly, to collect the green head, secondly, this building is going to be demolished, and asked me to find a feng shui location so that he can move his home there.

I said, “This is a difficult task for me, for a goldsmith is not a burglar or robber, so how would he know how to read the feng shui of a mansion, not to mention the fact that since they are all craftsmen, how could they still be partial to the feng shui?

I persuaded him not to be obsessed with this road, Qiao Er master is not moved, pointing to the floor at his feet: “This Yuan Dynasty tomb is really a feng shui treasure, when I sneaked into the palace from the tomb theft, see the situation in the tomb, almost jaw dropped on the ground, then really believe that the world’s feng shui, is not a vague and mysterious theories. ……” He said here, with a sentence in the bucket line in the secret language to tell us what we saw that night: “This tomb …… has water and no fish!”

I listened to Mr. Qiao said this silo under the tomb, is “water without fish”, also feel a little strange, because I have always known that the Yuan Dynasty tomb buried deep large Tibetan, the ground is not sealed not trees, take the tantric feng shui, has always been the most difficult to find, in the secret language of the fight, the tube in the tomb of the porcelain known as “water”, the Yuan Dynasty tomb of the porcelain in the tomb of the “water”, the “water”, “water”, “water”, “water”, “water”, “water”, “water”, “water”, “water”, “water”, “water”, “water”. “, yuan tomb in the most common burial of a Ming ware, is porcelain, pouring bucket craftsmen, always will be yuan corpse generation known as “fish”, because the body of the yuan dynasty tomb owners into the convergence of burial, in the coffin are wrapped layer of fishing nets, which is also a tantric colorful people’s customs, most of today’s people are difficult to understand.

If you say “there is no fish in the water”, that is to say that the tomb only ancient porcelain, but no ancient corpse, is it a crown mound? I and the fat man is particularly interested in the bucket of things, curiosity, we asked Joe two masters to tell the details, it is best to say more about those “water” are how, worth which line of the market?

It turned out that Qiao Er masters early years with the bucket made a fortune, so far has been washed his hands for many years, specializing in the business of some antiques and paintings, he and the big gold teeth ancestor’s origin is about the same, it is not a folk thief, know some of the mud traces of discernment of the soil color of the skills of the sense of taste and smell was born sensitive, a lifetime of not touching alcohol and tobacco, to the counterparts to the bucket of the thing to, still flamboyantly, between the look of the old Yuanliang to self-consumption, looks quite proud.