Chapter 14: Bright Moonlight in Front of My Bed

  Xinjiang South Antique City

  The two antique cities in Xinkou City stand opposite each other from north to south, although the circulating items are roughly the same, but there are also some differences between the two antique cities.

  The difference is that Beigong Antique City focuses on ceramics, calligraphy and painting, as well as a tea city, while Nangong Antique City focuses more on furniture, and also includes a book city.

  Of course, this is not to say that Beicheng absolutely has no furniture and other items, while Nancheng absolutely has no porcelain, calligraphy and painting, etc. In fact, whether it's south or north, almost all kinds of antiques circulating in the market are complete, they just occupy different proportions.

  Beijing Antique City has some furniture sellers, but out of dozens of stores, there may only be one or two, and they usually sell small items. In contrast, Nanjing Antique City is different, with possibly three or four out of ten stores selling furniture, and many large pieces are on display.

  However, in China's past collecting field, furniture was not considered a category. Looking at the 5,000-year history of China, there have been five waves of folk collection craze.

  The earliest craze for collecting started in the Northern Song Dynasty, the second was during the late Ming Dynasty, the third was during the reign of Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors, the fourth was from the end of Qing to the early Republic period, and the fifth is happening right now.

  In these five waves of popular collecting, even in the antique shops of the late Qing dynasty, other antiques were categorized, but no one made a living by selling ancient furniture alone, and it was slightly sold. This is mainly due to the low level of recognition of furniture among Chinese people.

  Alternatively, it may be due to the low level of recognition of architecture among Chinese people. We are not very willing to protect ancient buildings. So far, there are only a few ancient buildings that have been passed down from ancient times, such as only four Tang Dynasty buildings left in the country, and there are not many Song Dynasty ancient buildings. There are still some Ming and Qing buildings, but mainly large projects like the Forbidden City.

  The thing Chinese people like doing most is tearing down old buildings and building new ones.

  The Western concept of architecture is different. In all European countries with historical traditions, most buildings have been preserved, which is the difference between Eastern and Western concepts.

  Perhaps it is precisely because of this that the relationship between furniture and architecture is closest, so we have not paid attention to the preservation and collection of ancient furniture in the past.

  However, the earliest person to study Chinese antique furniture was a German, who published "Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Huanghuali Furniture" in 1944. This is considered the first monograph on Chinese furniture research, and it wasn't until this book came out that major museums around the world began to pay attention to collecting Chinese furniture.

  In addition, there is "Chinese Furniture" written by American Annette L. Juliano in 1971, and "Appreciation of Ming-style Furniture" published by Wang Shixiang in China in 1985.

  It was these three people, two outsiders and one insider, who linked the three books together to promote the collection of Chinese furniture, elevating it to an unprecedented height, which finally transformed folk furniture collecting into a major category in the antiques industry.

  In 1996, Christie's auctioned off a collection of Chinese furniture in New York. The sale included 107 pieces, with 37 being small items, and fetched over 100 million RMB, averaging around 1 million per piece. One piece, a Huanghuali screen, sold for $1.1 million, equivalent to 10 million RMB at the time, setting a world record for Chinese furniture sales that year.

  This shocked countless Chinese people at that time, and many nationals could not understand it. The old things that were once ignored or even thrown away by us turned out to have such amazing value.

  A screen worth just a few hundred thousand yuan domestically, how can it be sold for 10 million abroad?

  To put that into perspective, it was 10 million in 1996. If you were to convert that to today's value, it would be at least three or four times more, enough to buy a whole building!

  Playing the role of Bi Lao's guide, he arrived at Nan Guwan City. As soon as Zhou Ming Luo entered the antique city, the first thing he saw was a long street. The style of the street was roughly the same as that of Bei Guwan City, with low-rise buildings standing on both sides of the street.

  However, the biggest difference with Beiguo is that the shops on both sides of the street here are often very large, extremely large.

  Set against the entire antique city, it also looks magnificent and majestic.

  This is inevitable, most of the antiques in Beigong Ancient Play City are porcelain, calligraphy and painting, etc., although they also have large and small ones, even if they are large, they will not be too exaggerated. However, furniture is different, whether it's beds, chairs, tables, desks, or screens, they often occupy a vast space.

  If you open a small store, I estimate that two or three beds can be squeezed in and there will be no more space.

  "I'm not very familiar with furniture, old man. Now that I'm here, you should give me some pointers." Walking calmly and steadily, Zhou Mingyu looked at Bi Lao with a smile.

  This is actually true, he is most proficient in ceramics, and for furniture, it's just a half-baked level.

  This is not to say that he was uninterested in furniture, but the cultural heritage attached to furniture by the Chinese people is no weaker than that of porcelain and other antiques, and even stronger and more universal, because it is closely related to everyone's life. In the past, the Chinese did not focus on collecting antique furniture when collecting antiques, but that only refers to the fact that furniture had not yet emerged in the antique market.

  In ancient times, furniture was often a synonym for wealth.

  The most laughable example is Yan Song, a powerful minister of the Ming Dynasty. When his house was searched later, 640 beds were found... If this were placed in front of modern people, it would probably be a very difficult thing to understand. One of the top ten treacherous officials in history actually hid more than 600 beds at home, isn't that ridiculous?

  But in fact, Yan Song's collection of so many beds was not for running an inn, but because during that period, beds themselves were a symbol of wealth.

  This is also recorded in the Golden Lotus, and it's quite interesting. When Ximen Qing married his third wife, Meng Yulou, the matchmaker said, "Meng Yulou is a widow with some money on hand, and she has two Nanjing-style beds."

  What does this mean? It's like when a matchmaker introduces someone today, they'll say she has some money on hand and two German-made "Benz" cars, which is a huge asset.

  At that time, Nanjing was a very important city in Jiangsu Province. The beds produced in Nanjing were a national brand, just like Mercedes-Benz in Germany today.

  This is the status of ancient furniture. When the craze for collecting started, people in ancient times often looked down on antique furniture and thought that old things were not as good as firewood, but it doesn't mean they didn't value the furniture they used themselves.

  On the contrary, the status of "new" furniture corresponding to each period is still very high, and it is precisely because of this that Chinese furniture has been passing down the artistic essence of human culture from generation to generation, making ancient Chinese furniture renowned worldwide.

  But each profession has its own specialization. In the past, Zhou Ming had not fully grasped the art of ceramic making and only recently gained a little understanding, so he wouldn't have much time to study other things.

  However, on his way here, he did learn that Old Man Bi had done quite a bit of research in this area, and so naturally wouldn't miss the opportunity.

  "Too polite, young Master Zhou." Facing Zhou Ming Luo's joking words, Bi Lao also smiled and opened his mouth. Although he didn't have much contact with Zhou Ming Luo, Bi Lao's impression of him was quite good.

  Just as they were talking, a group of four or five people suddenly appeared from the depths of the street. The leader was a man in a suit and leather shoes, with a big belly and a bright expression on his face, exuding an air of grandeur.

  Behind him were four young men carrying a medium-sized stretcher.

  "Make way, everyone, I'm just getting started with the world's number one bed, an antique that even the great poet Li Bai has slept on. Don't make any mistakes, or it'll be embarrassing for all of us."

  The leader, a middle-aged man with a loud voice and a smile on his face that was tinged with arrogance and self-satisfaction, seemed to be particularly pleased with himself for having dug up a bed that Li Bai had once slept in, almost to the point of being proud.

  But this loud shout made many people around stunned.

  Li Bai's bed? That must be very antique, but... can this really be identified? Famous people's calligraphy and paintings have traces to follow, but famous people's beds are a bit too illusory, aren't they?

  Among the crowd who were dodging and yielding to each other, someone finally couldn't help but ask in surprise, "Brother, how are you so certain that this bed was slept on by Li Bai?"

  "Of course it's certain, there is even a poem by Li Bai above, the bright moonlight in front of the bed, suspected to be frost on the ground, this must be the bed in Li Bai's poem."

  Seeing someone ask, middle-aged people are greatly encouraged and say with a sense of pride.