Chapter 270: Speaking with Data

What has Director Lv seen?

Has he seen the techniques this kid speaks of, or the actual restored objects?

Lv Chenglong sighed: he had seen neither of these; what he had seen were only the restoration recordings.

Yet the feeling they gave him was even more shocking than seeing the real objects.

Because the copper-bodied enamel restoration process in the recordings was identical to the craftsmanship and techniques of the Forbidden City's Metal Restoration laboratory: whether it was the kiln furnace temperature, the control of the re-firing process, or the techniques of filigree and Blue Pointing.

The restoration process for Blue and White Porcelain was even more impressive: the techniques and methods Lin Sicheng displayed in the recordings were more advanced than those of the Forbidden City!

To use an analogy: it is like mountain climbing, where two people walk the same path. The Forbidden City is roughly at the mountainside, while Lin Sicheng has already neared the summit.

But no matter how one thinks about it, this is an extremely inconceivable matter, even one that is impossible to happen.

The logic is simple: this is a traditional craft, purely manual work, and the focus of the craft has never been data, information, or scientific technology, but rather experience and proficiency.

Even if all the information were given to you, and all the craft steps were explained clearly, if you lack ten or several decades of practical experience and accumulation, even if you were told to copy it, what you would copy would only be a mess, and what you would repair would only be a pile of waste.

But look again at Lin Sicheng's age, twenty-one?

If he started practicing from his mother's womb, would that be enough?

Let alone repairing better than a group of old Researchers in their fifties, sixties, seventies, or eighties?

Compared to this, today is only a small scene: last year around the National Day holiday, when Wang Qi Zhi sent the recordings to the Forbidden City, saying he was asking the teachers for their corrections, a group of old Experts immediately blew their tops.

It is no exaggeration to say that Wang Qi Zhi almost got beaten up at the time.

After watching the recordings, Mr. Geng Baochang (born in 1922, a scholar of ancient ceramics and ancient Calligraphy and Painting, a national treasure-level Expert, who studied under Sun Yingzhou) pointed at his nose and cursed: Guidance?

Are you, you bastard, here to show off?

Therefore, from that time on, Director Lv had an extremely profound impression of Lin Sicheng.

Last week, the bureau notified him that there would be a lecture on Monday, and as soon as he saw the hosting unit was the "Northwest University Cultural Relics Protection and Restoration Center," he guessed it was Lin Sicheng.

He agreed to it right then, and today, upon entering the venue and seeing it: was it not as expected?

Amidst his reflections, Director Lv gestured toward the stage: "Respected teachers, don't look at me, look at the lecture!"

A group of Experts looked at each other in dismay: they were, after all, renowned scholars with international reputations; it was impossible for Lv Chenglong to tell a barefaced lie in front of everyone.

If he said he had seen it, then he must have seen it.

But to be able to develop so many craft techniques in just one year, how many Experts must this Center have, and how strong must its research capabilities be?

The key is, to let a student in his early twenties be in charge, does Xida have no one else?

Wang Qi Zhi is his teacher, and has even served as the deputy director of a key research institute at the Cultural Relics Research Institute; why not let him be in charge?

There were too many doubts, his mind was a tangled mess, and just as he was feeling suspicious and uncertain, his eyes suddenly lit up.

Several pictures appeared on the screen, all of porcelain.

There were bowls and cups, plates and jars, coarse porcelain and fine porcelain, as well as porcelain shards and complete vessels.

Lin Sicheng scrolled the mouse and enlarged two of the pictures.

Looking closely again: the first picture looked like a Blue and White Intertwining Branch Pattern Plate that had been pieced together halfway, but it was not fired very well; the body was coarse, the blue and white was interspersed with black spots, the color was very dark, and it had a grayish tint.

Everyone present was an Expert, and even if their research focus was not porcelain, they could deduce: this was folk kiln blue and white from the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was nine times out of ten from a small workshop, relatively small in scale, with substandard craftsmanship.

Looking at the other one, although it was a photo of the base, the outer contour was exactly the same; it was clearly the other half of the plate just seen, flipped over.

And it had a mark, though only half remained: Tianshun Year.

It felt like a character was missing; it should be "Made in the Tianshun Year"... eh, wait?

This is Tianshun blue and white?

Anyone in archaeology knows that in the whole world, there are only three pieces of Tianshun blue and white: one in the Forbidden City, one in the Shanxi Museum, and one in the Hubei Museum.

So, is this the fourth piece?

Even if it is only a broken vessel, even if only one-third remains...

Lin Sicheng picked up the microphone:

"In early March, the Restoration Center planned to investigate and study the Clear Inkstone Craft in Jiang County, and my teacher and I arrived in Yuncheng. It happened to be the second day of the second lunar month, and the Xiezhou Guandi Temple was holding a temple fair. We found a porcelain shard in the antique market, which is this base with the 'Tianshun Year' mark."

"After experimental comparison, whether it is the composition of the body and glaze or the craftsmanship, it is completely consistent with the Ming Dynasty Tianshun Blue and White Persian Script Cylindrical Furnace in the Shanxi Museum."

"Afterward, the owner who sold us the shard brought back five more baskets, and after comparison, we pieced together this half of the Blue and White Intertwining Branch Pattern Plate in the photo. Besides this, among the remaining shards, we discovered several White Glazed Porcelain shards."

Lin Sicheng clicked the mouse, and several white porcelain shards appeared on the screen: the glaze was lustrous and moist, both translucent and bright, and the body was extremely thin. Whether it was the body or the glazed surface, no impurities or spots could be seen.

They were all connoisseurs; one look and they knew the complete vessel would be of excellent quality, with a very high firing technique.

Lin Sicheng clicked again, and a data table appeared below the picture:

"After appraisal, these shards are 900±30 years old, dating from the end of the Northern Song Dynasty to the beginning of the Jin Dynasty. The porcelain body composition is high-aluminum, low-calcium clay, with AlO at approximately 54%, and CaO:"