Chapter 48

Even though science and technology in ancient times wasn’t as good as today, some of the skills of people in the ancient times were also unreachable to this day. Naturally, the archeologists couldn’t think that the ancient people were stupid, after all, if they were stupid, then how did they have the ability to push the land of China to the top of the world, and become the greatest country in the world in the past, for so many years? When even contemporary society isn’t able to achieve it nowadays….?

There were so many talented people in history that it’s impossible for them to be the only ones to find something wrong in history, for the past thousands of years. It’s even more impossible that they’re the only ones to notice that a piece of history has vanished from people’s sight.

However, unfounded speculation can never be written down in history without any solid evidence, so there are many unofficial, wild, stories in history. But the issue they’re dealing with, a whole Dynasty or period of time directly disappearing like that, there isn’t a single record of it. Even if someone had any speculation about it in ancient times, they didn’t dare to draw any conclusion, because it’s simply absurd. Even as modern people, they don’t dare to presume. Perhaps, someone in ancient times made guesses, but they didn’t write them due to the lack of supporting evidence. As the saying goes, ‘using other methods to express their doubts’.

Qin Cheng briefly told Wu Hai: “Pingyao should be the former capital of Great Xu. Generally speaking, the Imperial Mausoleums of the Emperors weren’t far from the Imperial City. In Ninghua Village, we’ve long discovered that there are only two large tombs surrounding the area. The tomb of an Emperor, and…. the tomb of an Empress….” After saying this, Qin Cheng paused for a brief moment, and then continued: “There’s only one Mausoleum there, which, of course, it cannot be the location of the Royal Mausoleum of Great Xu.”

Wu Hai bowed his head and frowned for a long time before asking: “You suspect that there are Mausoleums of the rest of the Royal Family of that Dynasty in Pingyao? And that’s why you want to find that tomb, to see if there’s any record of that period of history? It’s just that Pingyao is so big that the part of the County near the Fenhe River is at least a few dozen km 2 . So, where will you begin to look? Moreover, if you look at the architecture of the Ninghua Village tomb, you can see that this Dynasty built the Mausoleums under mountains by digging the mountains, which is different from a Mausoleum covered in soil.”

Indeed, compared to a Mausoleum covered with soil, the Mausoleum built by digging up a mountain is much more difficult to identify. The Mausoleum covered by soil is generally built in a relatively wide area, and the high rammed earth will naturally look like a plain hill after many years. However, if people with little archeological knowledge see such an abrupt but regular hill on the plain, they can almost conclude that it should be a Mausoleum.

However, the Mausoleum built inside a mountain was originally dependent on the natural formation of the mountain peak. Some Royal Mausoleums are even set in the mountain range. It would be difficult for him and Wu Hai to detect a Mausoleum inside a mountain with the tools they had in hand.

Su Jingmo gave Qin Cheng a more specific map, which delineated a certain range for him. However, Qin Cheng couldn’t find a topographic map of Pingyao to compare.

Moreover, more than a thousand years have passed, and especially in the last hundred years of large-scale development, mountains have exploded to build roads and expand cities…. those once iconic peaks are long gone.

“We have no other choice than to search little by little. You saw the picture of the bronze wine bottle that Wei Bofei bought, and you can also see that it was a Jue used for burial. Since someone could take something out of the tomb, I think that we will be able to do it as well.”

“Are you trying to use the holes dug by the grave robbers?”

Qin Cheng smiled and replied: “Of course, if we don’t use that path, won’t it be more difficult to walk through the tomb’s main entrance openly? Ninghua Village’s tomb’s main entrance is blocked by huge bar-shaped stones. If the Mausoleum here is built the same way, then we won’t be able to get in.”

Wu Hai couldn’t help but laugh out loud and reply: “We’re just like the grave robbers. Well, where should we start? I’ll listen to you, after all, I ran for my life with you before I could see in detail the tomb that time, so I don’t know what’s inside at all.”

When he mentioned that time, Qin Cheng thought of Su Jingmo mentioning that Tang Jiaming had seen him. It was impossible to let Qin Cheng rest assured, however, Su Jingmo had also mentioned that his concern wouldn’t be of any help. The only thing he should concern himself about, is to get a rough idea of what’s going on here. The sooner it’s over, the sooner he can also go back.

After thinking about this, Qin Cheng exhaled lightly: “There’s a town called Zhongdu 4km to the west of Pingyao. According to the map and description I saw inside the tomb, both the distance from the Fenhe River and Zhongdu Town, are similar to the one described in the map. I want to go there first, but before that, I want to go to the antique market in Zhanglan Town, at the southwest of Pingyao County.”

Since Pingyao is an ancient city, there are many antique markets here, and the Zhanglan antique market of Jiexiu County is well-known in China, having a wide range of products, which is well-known by those engaged in this field. It’s just that most fake items are also sold in the antique market, but since the water is too deep, occasionally, some real things can be found among thousands of fakes, which depends on the knowledge you have. Qin Cheng wanted to take a chance, since it isn’t certain that he’ll find Great Xu for now.

Understanding Qin Cheng’s intentions, Wu Hai nodded: “Then we’ll go there. I hope that we’ll get some useful information.”

Zhanglan Antique Market is quite close to the ancient city of Pingyao. Because of the National Day, there were a lot of people around, and they weren’t able to find a taxi, so Qin Cheng could only call an unofficial taxi for 15 yuan ¹ .

Zhanglan Antique Market covers a large area, and all of the buildings were historic buildings. The Fanggu building has two or three layers, and except for a few food speciality stores, the rest are almost all antique stores. There’s a spacious road in the middle of two rows of historic buildings, but this road is occupied by various vendors on the ground, which were divided into three crowded roads. These three roads were also packed with tourists who came to buy because of Taobao ² , taking advantage of the National Day to come here.

The weather is still hot, and the moment they stepped into Zhanglan Antique Market, the loud sounds of bargaining could be heard. Such noise made Qin Cheng’s ears numb.

¾ of the crowd were men, and the peculiar smell of men produced by sweat was almost extreme in this place.

“Holy shit!” Wu Hai was dumbfounded by the crowd in front of him. “I really didn’t know that there were so many people in the country that were fond of antiques.”

Qin Cheng looked at a man who was squatting in front of a stall full of miscellaneous objects, fiddling with a snuff bottle ³ . While listening to the vendor’s introduction that the snuff bottle was an object from the Qianlong period ⁴ , and which cost at least 1000 yuan ⁵ , the man nodded his head, seeming to like the appearance of the snuff bottle.

Qin Cheng shook his head: “I’m afraid that most of them are here for fun.”

The snuff bottle in the man’s hand had a rough workmanship. The surface was smooth and beautiful, but the middle was rough, and the bottom was even more worn-out. It actually looked like a modern imitation, and Qin Cheng estimated that it could be sold for 20 yuan ⁶ in some boutiques. Besides, why would Taobao resellers come to Shanxi to acquire Qianlong period objects? It’s not there you’ll be able to find these things here, it’s better to go to Beijing. If you check online, you’ll see that the Zhanglan Town is known to have objects from the Wei and Jin period….

Wu Hai looked around a couple of times, and nodded in agreement: “True. After seeing the people here, I realized they’re basically giving money away.”

There’s no need to say it, since it’s really true. If you want to know how to distinguish between real jade and fake jade, you’ll just have to touch it and you’ll know. Since they’re studying archeology, and even though what they dug up is considered ‘national treasure’, at least they don’t keep any of it, but at least they’ve touched the real ones. For so many years, the kind of decoration, how it feels when you touch it, and the appearance, have long been engraved into their bones and blood. Because of this, they’re able to tell what is real and what is fake with a single glance.

There were a lot of people in the antique market, and looking at the objects took a lot of time, so the crowd moved quite slowly. However, Qin Cheng wasn’t in a hurry, it just so happened that this speed allowed him to slowly search for what he was looking for.

Almost two hours later, Qin Cheng and Wu Hai merely moved less than 50 meters. On one hand, they were able to see a few valuable small objects that looked old and were in good conditions. Since they looked good, Qin Cheng and Wu Hai would naturally not miss them.

Just because they were knowledgeable it doesn’t mean that the seller was stupid. Among his pile of items, how could he not know which ones are real, and which ones are fake? Their eyes are always alert, afraid that some thief will try to steal from them.

Qin Cheng looked at a greenish black jade hairpin. The texture was very detailed, and if you touched it, it would feel very warm and moist. The luster is soft, simple and clean, and it was a very meticulous workmanship, without too much decoration. It had a few carved strokes, like a bunch of ink on top of a Clivia Miniata ⁷ . This pure and gentle ink color made Qin Cheng think of the man with the word ‘ink’ in his name ⁸ .

This greenish black jade, it’s a kind of sapphire Hetian jade ⁹ . Under a strong flashlight, the greenish black light transmits a cyan light. In natural light, this greenish black jade looks pure black.

This one is real. Although, it’s not from the second year of Hongwu ¹⁰ like the seller said.

“20.000 yuan ¹¹ is too expensive. It’s just something from the late Qing Dynasty, and it’s estimated to be more than 100 years old. It isn’t a rare treasure.”

The middle-aged man, who had set up the stall, knew that the young man in front of him, who looked like a liar, was in fact quite knowledgeable, so he simply said: “Look at the texture of this jade, it’s obviously a good jade. I won’t lower the price, it’s a real object. If you don’t want to buy it, then don’t. Someone else will buy it.”

Qin Cheng looked at the middle-aged man in front of him, and smiled: “Black jade isn’t as good as white jade. It isn’t very popular, so I wish that you will sell it.” At this, Qin Cheng put down the hairpin and prepared himself to leave.

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“Hey, wait!” The middle-aged man wasn’t able to sell one single thing, and even though this jade hairpin is in fact real, he bought it for 2.000 yuan ¹² . After all, black jade is hard to sell, and ever since he placed it, no one has asked for it. Instead, he ended up selling the fake jade made out of glass…

“10.000 yuan ¹³ then.” He’ll try to sell it this time, since black jade isn’t very good-looking, and no one is willing to buy it.

Qin Cheng smiled and looked at him with a smile on his face, but he didn’t reply.

“6.000 yuan ¹⁴ , no less.”

“2.500 yuan ¹⁵ .” Qin Cheng said the price and went back to the stall. Before the vendor could get angry, Qin Cheng said: “If you sell to me, then I’ll help you find some real items in this market.”

There wasn’t a need to say that this really made the middle-aged man stunned. He was able to see that the man in front of him knew more than him, and maybe he can get this man’s help to find good antiques….

When he thought about the greenish black jade hairpin, and how he would earn 500 yuan ¹⁶ , the man nodded: “Alright, I got something some time ago, please help me see how much it’s worth.” The middle-aged man said as he took out a jade ring from a box under the stall. As he took it carefully, he asked: “Can you tell me how much this ring is worth? It seems that there’s a year engraved on it, but it doesn’t look like the antiques that belong to the Tang Dynasty. Could it be an imitation?”

The jade ring was translucent, and it had some worn-out marks permeated with soil. The outside of the ring had a carved dragon pattern….

Qin Cheng wasn’t surprised by the authenticity of the jade ring, but he was surprised to see that this jade ring was almost identical to the one on Su Jingmo’s thumb….

(o´罒`o) ♡

Footnotes

<ol>Approx. usd $2.30 present year (2021). <b>淘宝</b> <b>táo bǎo</b> ; Is a Chinese online shopping website owned by Alibaba. <b>鼻烟壶</b> <b>bí yān hú</b> ; Snuff bottles were used by the Chinese to contain snuff. It originated in the West, and was introduced in China in the Qing Dynasty [1644-1911]. It looks like <b>THIS</b> . <b>乾隆</b> <b>qián lóng</b> ; Sixth Qing Emperor, who reigned for 60 years, from 1735 to 1799. Approx. usd $150. Present year (2021). Approx. usd $3.07. Present year (2021). It looks like <b>THIS</b> . Su Jingmo’s name has the character ‘ink’ in it = 墨 mò . This category refers to the jade produced in the Hotan prefecture of Xinjiang. The greenish black jade looks like <b>THIS</b> . <b>洪武</b> <b>hóng wǔ</b> ; Reign name of the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty [1368-1644], Zhu Yuanzhang, who reigned from 1368 to 1398. Approx. usd $ 3000. Present year (2021). Approx. usd $300. Present year (2021). Approx. usd $ 1500. Present year (2021). Approx usd $ 920. Present year (2021). Approx. usd $ 380. Present year (2021). Approx. usd $ 76. Present year (2021).</ol>