Sure enough, as they expected, Ma Gan and the other two opened the box and carefully took out the thing that was a guqin.

Zhou Xia and Xu Yaohui looked at each other again. Neither of them had much confidence in the identification of the guqin. After all, the difference was quite big from the field they were good at.

But the two of them could not give up. If it were the authentic Tang Dynasty guqin, it would be of high value. It would be okay to try to identify it.

Although I don’t understand it very well, Zhou Xia and others are quite clear in their hearts that the guqin, as the first of the four arts, is a comprehensive carrier of multiple arts. If you want to identify it, it must involve all aspects such as wood, lacquer, broken patterns, sound quality, character, and modeling aesthetics, which are indispensable. The difficulty of identifying the guqin has also doubled, which is more difficult than identifying other works of art.

The identification of guqin now mainly depends on some senior guqin players. They mostly focus on the sound quality of guqin. For Zhou Xia and Xu Yaohui, two tone-deaf, it is completely a bit like playing the guqin.

But Zhou Xia and Xu Yaohui also have their own advantages. After all, the identification of the guqin is also connected. In addition to sound quality, the material, shape, historical value, scientific value and artistic value of the guqin need to be carefully considered.

"If you don't learn to identify because you don't know how to do it, you will never have the chance to make a correct identification." Zhou Xia thought in his heart, and at the same time, he was quickly recalling some tips about the identification of guqins that he had seen before.

The first is the dynasty. In the past, the dynasty of the qin world had the saying of "Tang Yuansong Song Bian", that is, the qin body with a round body was listed as the Tang Dynasty and the qin body with a flatter body was listed as the Song Dynasty. At the same time, the era was inferred based on the shape of the broken pattern of the lacquer body and the aging degree of the qin material.

Of course, this has limitations. In fact, even if the same style of zither made by the same ancient zither maker is limited by aesthetic concepts and zither materials in different periods, the body of the zither is also round and flat. The broken patterns will be affected by factors such as time, lacquer quality, regional climate change, frequency of use, and may occur sooner or later.

Zhou Xia looked at the shape of this guqin at present, which was similar to that of the Tang Dynasty guqin. It was a typical Fuxi style, which was exactly the same as the famous Fuxi style "Jiuxiao Huanpei" guqin style in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Such shapes and styles can reflect the grand and magnificent style characteristics of the Tang Dynasty.

This momentum alone is enough to fool people who don’t know how to do things. After Zhou Xia saw it, he couldn’t help but feel that even if it was a fake, it could definitely be considered a high-quality imitation. At least, it has passed the superficial skill.

And to make an appraisal of the guqin. In addition to having certain basic theoretical knowledge, you also need to listen more and watch more.

"Listen" refers to plucking the strings with your hands and listening to the tone. Generally speaking, the precious guqin that has passed down from generation to generation generally has the characteristics of loose, transparent, round and moist timbre.

Even for the person with incomplete tone, Xu Yaohui did not give up on his efforts in this regard. He reached out to tweak the strings a few times and made a careful listening gesture. Then he praised a few loudly.

To Zhou Xia and the others, the sound was quite good, and the sound of the popping was very pleasant.

However, they could clearly see that the strings were made.

Xu Yaohui asked Ma Gan and the others, and Ma Gan also truthfully replied, "It is indeed without strings. If a guqin does not have strings, it would be a very regrettable thing. So I asked the master of guqin to help and install the strings. At the same time, I also did some repairs on the body of the guqin to make it more perfect. You should also know that this guqin was eroded a lot when it was underground. We think that as the main function of the guqin, it is still a very important factor to play. Besides, even the guqin that has been passed down from generation to generation cannot be perfect. It has basically been repaired, after all, it has been so old."

"That's a pity. It would be the best if it could maintain its original appearance. However, for us, the sound quality is actually not very important!" Xu Yaohui shook his head. As for the strings, it was understandable. If it was really an unearthed guqin, it would be not easy to preserve the silk strings intact.

Ma Gan smiled and said, "We didn't think carefully about this, but things are definitely good things. Boss Xu might as well appreciate them carefully."

Zhou Xia was thinking carefully about the meaning of the words of Ma Gan. This guy was very smart and knew to get a precaution in advance. At that time, even if it was a high-quality imitation, they could see some clues, such as the traces left by the new work, Ma Gan could also be said to be caused by the repair work carried out by the gust-making master they invited.

There is nothing we can do about this. The wood used in the guqin is determined, and it needs to be continuously repaired and improved. It is already quite difficult to pass on it.

Moreover, in the past history, many guqins have been unearthed. Now this piece is an unearthed guqin. This identification method will naturally have many differences from the guqins that have been passed down from generation to generation, but there are more similarities.

The main thing is to "look" more.

First of all, we have to look at the wood used. Whether it has been so far in the Tang Dynasty. Speaking of which, this is somewhat similar to the identification of furniture in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

However, the material of this guqin is made of sycamore with sycamore and fir as the base, which is somewhat different from the huanghuali, sandalwood and other mahogany used in furniture in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The lights were relatively dim. Zhou Xia carefully observed the various characteristics of the sycamore wood and fir with the help of a magnifying glass and a strong flashlight. He did find that there were quite a lot of aging phenomena, which were definitely not the characteristics that wood in recent years could show. Moreover, he seemed to be able to vaguely feel that there was still some undispersed gloom on this guqin, which was the characteristic of long buried underground.

From this point of view, it seems not an exaggeration to say that this is the guqin from the Tang Dynasty.

The second is to look at the paint quality on the surface of the guqin. Generally speaking, the body of the guqin before the Song and Yuan dynasties was relatively delicate, the paint color was pure, and the original fire should have faded. At this time, under the irradiation of strong light flashlight, you can also see the flickering antler frost and gold, silver, copper and other powders in the lacquer through the surface paint.

Another key point in identifying the guqin is the broken patterns of the guqin.

Broken lines, that is, cracks that appear in lacquerware due to age, are mainly caused by the frequent expansion and contraction of the body and lacquer layer. Broken lines mark the age of lacquerware. In the Tang and Song dynasties, the guqins were mostly broken by snake belly and plum blossoms. But most of them are suitable for guqins handed down from generation to generation, and Zhou Xia could not quite understand whether this was the case.

But on this guqin, Zhou Xia still saw broken marks like plum blossoms. Such broken marks indicate that the lacquer layer on it has experienced many years, and this guqin broken marks are also one of the common guqin broken marks.

Of course, with the current level of fraud, such broken patterns can also be made.

However, Zhou Xia did not have any other guqins to refer to for comparison, so he could not tell clearly whether this was artificial or natural.

Judging from the eyes of Zhou Xia, a layman, there is no special problem.

Everything seems to be perfect.

The "Feng Xue Song Tao" on the guqin is a few seal characters. The inscription is quite elegant, which is somewhat similar to the sounds played before, and the artistic conception is also very good.

However, he also noticed a problem. Regarding the guqin's signature, the "Tang Dynasty Lei Wei personally cut it."

In Zhou Xia's memory, this Lei Wei should be the most famous among the masters of Guqin making qin. He probably lived in the prosperous Tang Dynasty and even the middle Tang Dynasty, and there was still some difference between him and the Zhenguan period of Emperor Taizong of Tang in the early Tang Dynasty.

The previous few items were all from the last year of Zhenguan. Logically speaking, if this guqin was genuine, it should have been more reasonable before this.

Of course, things are not that absolute.

It is also possible to say that this is a guqin made by Lei Wei.

That is the time when the guqin and previous Buddha statues Tang Sancai and others were buried underground. It will be postponed until after the era when Lei Wei lived.

But Zhou Xia thought again and again that Tang Sancai's words basically existed as a wise weapon, and it should not have spanned hundreds of years from firing to burial.

From this point of view, if this guqin was really used as a funeral object with the previous Tang Sancai, there should be some problems.

Zhou Xia thought about it and asked Xu Yaohui next to him in a low voice, "Uncle Xu, this zither made by Lei Wei is quite famous. It was probably when the people came from the Tang Dynasty? I don't remember it very clearly."

Xu Yaohui replied that it was probably during the Kaiyuan period of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and asked Zhou Xia, "Did you find something wrong with this piano?"

Zhou Xia also replied, "I had previously judged that the previous items should be works from the early Tang Dynasty, which are somewhat different from the production period of this guqin! Especially the Tang Sancai, if it was unearthed in the same place, it would basically not be left for so long. I wonder what you think, Uncle Xu? I think we still need to be more cautious."

Xu Yaohui was shocked and did not answer him immediately. Instead, he thought about it carefully and found that this was indeed the case. The previous few things were not very problematic when they were divided into the early Tang Dynasty.

Xu Yaohui was still a little interested in this kind of guqin. If it is a genuine product or the most famous Lei Wei product among the Tangqin, the price is probably not a big problem. It is of course good to get it. If Ma Gan and the others, it will definitely raise the price, which is undoubtedly a big deal. In this way, the cost of investment will be quite huge.

If it is a fake, the loss will be huge.

Xu Yaohui recalled the layers of preparations made by Ma Gan and Mouse before, and felt that this might be a trap, in order to lead him into the trap.

Because in terms of guqin identification, looking at the entire archaeological identification industry, I am afraid that I can’t find many people who are proficient in it, let alone outsiders like Xu Yaohui. Even if it is a new high-quality imitation, there may be many things he can’t see. The other party may have calculated this accurately, so he set up such a situation.

When Zhou Xia was thinking about it, he also used the archaeological identification system to conduct a special appraisal of this "guqin".

Soon, Zhou Xia got the result, "The object was created in 2012 AD."

Zhou Xia suddenly exclaimed that he was lucky, but the system had the most accurate ability to identify the age of items.

However, when Ma Gan and the others were cheating, they also showed their strengths in order to pursue higher profits. The "Tang Dynasty Lei Wei personally cut" on the guqin carving can certainly create momentum for this guqin and increase its price, but on the other hand, it also exposes its true identity.

Otherwise, Zhou Xia would probably not be able to find a very suitable reason to persuade Xu Yaohui to give up this guqin.

Since he knew that this was made this year, Zhou Xia was thinking about why the wood of the guqin really looked quite old.

It is definitely not made of fresh wood. At least, this guqin has put in a lot of effort in selecting materials.

Zhou Xia believed in his own eyes very much. This wood should have a history of at least hundreds of years.

Otherwise, there would never be such a situation seen in the previous appraisal, and even felt like it was in the Tang Dynasty.

When Zhou Xia was thinking about it, he soon thought of another possibility, that is, the materials used to make the guqin may be wood from the Tang Dynasty.

But it is just used to make a guqin recently.

If all these things are combined, there is only one possibility, that is, the wood was also unearthed from this batch. Ma Gan and the others made of coffins in the tomb based on the principle of full use.

To be honest, this kind of coffin is really a good material for making guqins, especially this kind of wood that has been immortal for thousands of years, which is a good choice for making guqins.

In "Mengxi Bitan", Shen Kuo mentioned that in order to find the best wood, some guqin makers chose such an immortal coffin that had been used for thousands of years as materials. The guqin made in this way had a particularly mellow sound.

At present, although the materials used for this guqin are wood from the Tang Dynasty, they are made recently, so naturally they cannot be considered guqin from the Tang Dynasty.

The value between the two is also a thousand miles apart.

Zhou Xia naturally won’t collect such pianos.

He would not let Xu Yaohui be deceived, and at the moment, even if it is genuine, the two of them can't afford so much money.

Giving up this "guqin" is undoubtedly the best choice.

After thinking about it, Xu Yaohui asked Zhou Xia for his opinion again. Zhou Xia's meaning was also very clear. It would be better to stay away from such a guqin. They usually play guqin less often, and they may have some simple problems that they cannot see.

As a result, Xu Yaohui lost the intention to buy it. He also said bluntly about Ma Gan and the others that he had no research on the guqin, so just look at it like this.

This made Ma Gan and Mouse very disappointed and didn't bring anything out.

The previous transaction has been completed and there is nothing to see, so Zhou Xia and the others are ready to say goodbye. Before leaving, Zhou Xia did not forget to tell the mouse and the others that there were news about two other gilded bronze Buddha statues, and contact Xu Yaohui directly.

It is better than nothing. If the operation is done properly, the profit margin will be quite large. Ma Gan and Mouse nodded and agreed.
Chapter completed!