Chapter 942: The national treasure that is most suitable to bring out

Facing Xia Yu's question, Hua Shengshi did not immediately answer, but frowned and pondered for a moment before saying to Xia Yu, 'Mr. Xia, this is indeed difficult to define, because if we talk about the influence on Chinese culture, there are quite a few that are comparable. I'm not sure you have any idea what I'm talking about, so if you have time, why don't you go see them for yourself and decide which one to use.'

Xia Yu nodded slightly and said, 'That's fine, I haven't seen it for a long time either.'

Afterwards, he looked at I. M. Pei and asked with a smile, "Mr. Pei, would you be interested in going together?'

I. M. Pei said with a smile, "Of course I'm interested. Although I'm overseas most of the time, I've never forgotten that I'm a descendant of the Yan and Huang peoples. I can't miss the opportunity to appreciate the splendid Chinese culture.'

'Haha, Mr. Pei, that's a great compliment!'

After saying that, Xia Yu and the others went to the car park, left the Kowloon Museum of Cultural History, and went to his villa, which was dedicated to storing antiques and cultural relics.

When there were few cultural relics, he had even built a basement in his own home for the collection, but later, considering it inconvenient, he moved the relics again and concentrated them in a dedicated villa.

Anyway, as the number one landlord in Hong Kong, apart from the Hong Kong government, he has no shortage of houses!

Because the cultural relics are of such high value, Xia Yu has also specially arranged for a security team to patrol and guard around the clock.

Soon, after the security personnel confirmed their identities, Xia Yu and the others' car entered the garage of the villa and, led by Hua Shengshi, arrived at the door to the basement.

While unlocking the door, Hua Shengshi said to Xia Yu and the others, 'Mr Xia, not all cultural relics are kept in the basement. Because there is limited space down there, only the more valuable ones are stored there.'

'DING!'

As he spoke, the sophisticated door lock opened, and Hua Shengshi pressed another button, and the more than ten centimetres thick alloy door slowly opened.

'The basement is equipped with an air circulation system, so there is no risk of suffocation.'

'Please follow me!'

After saying this, Hua Shengshi led Xia Yu and the others down the stairs, then turned left and right, and arrived outside another door. After unlocking it again, the group finally walked in.

Xia Yu had expected the place to be packed tightly, but when he entered he found it to be very spacious, with not many cultural relics on display.

But then he thought, that was normal. If the most valuable cultural relics were piled up like a mountain, they would not be displayed, and only a few pieces would be more precious.

'Mr. Xia, I think the most valuable cultural relics are here,'

Hua Shengshi said to Xia Yu, pointing at the objects in the glass cabinets.

'The first one is on the left, it is the best painting in our collection!'

Following Hua Shengshi's finger, Xia Yu looked at a long, five to six metre-long rectangular glass case on the left. Inside was a painting, and it was particularly long. At first glance, the dark yellow material didn't seem to be paper, but rather a silk cloth.

Xia Yu went closer to take a look. When he saw a few characters, his gaze sharpened and he looked up at Hua Shengshi in amazement, exclaiming, 'This is Gu Kaizhi's "Luo Shen Fu Tu" from the Eastern Jin Dynasty? Is it authentic?'

Asking, he didn't wait for Hua Shengshi to answer, but looked for the seal again on the painting to see if he could find one that could prove Gu Kaizhi's identity.

Before Xia Yu could find it, Hua Shengshi's bitter smile sounded again: 'Mr. Xia, this is not a genuine work by Gu Kaizhi. There are no genuine works by Gu Kaizhi in the world right now. It's been more than 1,500 years since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, so not to mention whether the emperors of past dynasties would have collected it, even if it had been left in the hands of the common people, it's unlikely that it would have been preserved intact.'

'That's true!'

Just as Xia Yu was a little disappointed, Hua Shengshi's next words made Xia Yu happy again.

'Although this painting is not a genuine work by Gu Kaizhi, it is probably the closest thing to a genuine work, because it was copied by Zhou Fang, a famous painter from the Tang Dynasty!'

'Zhou Fang from the Tang Dynasty was a very representative painter, and he was good at painting portraits of women.'

'Look over here, there is Zhou Fang's seal, and not only that, there is also a series of seals from famous people after the Tang Dynasty to prove the authenticity of this painting.'

Xia Yu went over to Hua Shengshi's side and looked at the seals in the area he was pointing to. Sure enough, they were exactly as Hua Shengshi had said.

Xia Yu gave a satisfied smile: 'Sure enough, there's even the seal of Tang Yin! It's even more legendary with his seal!'

'Yes!' Hua Shengshi said with a smile.

'The other seals are almost all the seals of famous people from each dynasty.'

When he found the painting in the box at the time, he trembled with excitement for a long time. Although this painting is not a genuine work by Gu Kaizhi, in the absence of a genuine work by Gu Kaizhi, it was copied by the well-known painter Zhou Fang, and there are also a series of seals from famous people. The value is already not much different from a genuine work, and it is definitely a national treasure among national treasures!

After Xia Yu and I. M. Pei had admired it for a long time, the more he looked forward to it.

If the first piece of collectible is so top-notch, anything that can be placed next to this painting will definitely not be bad.

Thinking about this, his gaze could not help but turn to the other glass cabinets.

Hua Shengshi said to Xia Yu in a timely manner, 'Mr. Xia, next you look over here.'

'These are ancient books?'

Following Hua Shengshi to another large glass cabinet, Xia Yu looked at the individually placed items in the glass cabinet and said with a frown.

Ancient books handed down in China are not uncommon, but since Hua Shengshi has singled them out and placed them next to Zhou Fang's 'Luoshen Fu Tu' (A Picture of the Goddess of the Luo River), they are definitely not simple.

At this point, Hua Shengshi's words sounded out, solving Xia Yu's puzzle: 'Mr. Xia, these are not ordinary ancient books, but copies of the Ming Dynasty's Yongle Encyclopedia, a total of 122 volumes!'

'Yongle Encyclopedia?'

Xia Yu's eyes widened in surprise as he looked at the ancient books in the glass cabinet.

Even I. M. Pei, who had lived in the United States for a long time, had heard of the fame of the Yongle Encyclopedia. He said in shock, 'The Yongle Encyclopedia is the largest encyclopedia ever published in the world. I have seen it in the Library of Congress in the United States, and there are only 40 volumes there. And I heard that there are only a few hundred volumes in the world. I never imagined that there are 122 volumes here!'

'If the news is announced, it will definitely shock the world!'

Xia Yu nodded in agreement, his face a little solemn: 'Indeed, if it were really announced, it would definitely shock the world!'

In a previous life, he had visited the Palace Museum and seen the Yongle Encyclopedia. In particular, after reading the introduction to the Yongle Encyclopedia, he was quite indignant at the time.

Because the Yongle Encyclopedia can be said to be a collection of Chinese history and culture, it was compiled by Emperor Yongle over a period of five years with the full strength of the flourishing Ming Dynasty. The entire work consists of 22,877 volumes of text and 60 volumes of tables, bound into 11,095 books, with a total of approximately 370 million characters. The book preserves the lost texts and secret classics of China from the pre-Qin period to the Song and Yuan dynasties, and down to the early Ming dynasty, there are more than 8,000 types of classic data. It is the largest ancient Chinese encyclopedia.

Unfortunately, after the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, the original disappeared without a trace, and what circulated in the world were copies that began to be copied during the reign of Emperor Jiajing.

Unfortunately, the Yongle Encyclopedia copies also had a difficult life, and only a few hundred of the original 10,000 or so volumes survived.

In later generations, the National Palace Museum had the largest collection, with only 162 volumes, followed by the Taiwan Provincial Palace Museum with 60 volumes, and then some collections in museums in the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, and island countries.

At this time, the National Palace Museum should not have collected so many, and it is possible that it has the most.

Whether or not it will shock the world if it is taken out is not known, but at the very least, the cultural circles on the mainland will definitely explode.

Xia Yu took a deep breath to calm his turbulent emotions, and asked Hua Shengshi, 'Old Hua, where did these copies of the Yongle Encyclopedia come from?'

Hu Shengshi looked a little far away and said with emotion, 'Mr Xia, these were all salvaged from the Eskenazi family's cultural relics. They were previously packed together in boxes, with more than a thousand ancient books alone. At the time, there was no time, so we just counted the boxes and took them back. We only knew that there were boxes of ancient books, but we didn't realise that they were copies of the Yongle Encyclopedia. We only discovered this when we counted them one by one later.'

Xia Yu nodded and said with a smile, 'It was worth more than 50 million pounds!'

Hua Shengshi also nodded in agreement, saying, 'Yes, it was well worth it!'

After a moment of emotion, Xia Yu looked at the other cultural relics under Hua Shengshi's guidance.

Among them was a bronze tripod from the Western Zhou Dynasty, more than 80 volumes of Buddhist scriptures from the Jin Dynasty, and Tang tri-colored pottery.

After looking at them, Xia Yu noticed that it seemed that apart from the two ancient books, there was one painting, one bronze ware, one piece of calligraphy, one piece of pottery, and one piece of porcelain.

'Mr Xia, I think everything here is of great value, and if we took them out, they would all cause a sensation. Which do you think is best?'

Hearing Hua Shengshi's question, Xia Yu's gaze wandered around the room, and finally settled on the Yongle Encyclopedia book. He nodded decisively and said,

'Let's go with the Yongle Encyclopedia. The other cultural relics are not suitable, as they could easily drive up the prices of that type of cultural relic. On the contrary, the Yongle Encyclopedia is most suitable for auction!'

After thinking about it, Hua Shengshi nodded in agreement, saying, 'That makes sense. The known copies of the Yongle Encyclopedia are all in the collections of museums around the world, so it is almost impossible for them to circulate in the market. Moreover, they are unique copies. Even if the price is inflated, there is no market for them. The antiquarian book market is also the most chaotic and difficult to distinguish. There are too many worthless modern antiquarian books. Foreigners don't understand Chinese culture, so it is difficult for them to distinguish them.'

'Moreover, there are 122 volumes here, which is a sufficient quantity. The price can be higher, but in fact, the price of a single volume will not be high.'

'If we auction off the calligraphy, paintings and porcelain, and they fetch astronomical prices, it will be difficult for us to recover the cultural relics at low prices later, which is inconsistent with our strategy of buying cultural relics at low prices.'

After hearing the conversation between Hua Shengshi and Xia Yu, Ieoh Ming Pei suddenly looked apologetic and said, 'I'm really sorry. I didn't expect my suggestion to have such consequences. Fortunately, you have taken it into consideration, otherwise I would be ashamed of you!'

Xia Yu smiled and said, 'Mr. Pei, you don't have to be like this. Your intentions are good, and besides, it hasn't had a bad impact.'

Hua Shengshi also added reassuringly, 'Yes, Mr. Pei, you don't need to think about it too much.'

Hearing the two men's successive consolations, Pei Yuming felt much better.

Hua Shengshi, in order to avoid Pei Yuming's continued embarrassment, simply skipped over the topic and said to Xia Yu, 'Mr. Xia, there is one more thing to note. If the Yongle Encyclopedia is put up for auction, I'm afraid people from the mainland will come and put relatively heavy pressure on you.'

'And there will be many people from other countries bidding as well, so will there be a lot of uncertainty?'

Xia Yu smiled calmly and said, 'Don't worry, we'll see what happens when the time comes. I'll take care of everything, so there won't be any problems. You'll have to work hard for a while, getting the Kowloon Museum of Cultural History ready as soon as possible. I'll have the security team move in tomorrow, and I'll have them follow your arrangements!'

'Okay!' Hua Shengshi replied with a relieved heart.

Since they had come to the treasure trove and there was still some time left, there was no reason to rush back.

Under the leadership of Hua Shengshi, Xia Yu and Pei Yueming and the others viewed many more cultural relics. In front of each cultural relic full of historical charm, Xia Yu received a spiritual baptism.

Before leaving, Xia Yu, who was deeply moved, was even more convinced that his decision to collect cultural relics was extremely correct, and he promised Hua Shengshi to unconditionally support him in collecting cultural relics, which made Hua Shengshi happy and couldn't stop smiling.