Chapter 374: Wang Qizhi's Student

Lin Sicheng rolled up the scroll, and Sheng Guoan took one out from the four palm-sized boxes and opened it.

At first glance, Liu Anda was taken aback: A gold-plated bronze seal?

It was five or six centimeters in total height, with an extremely rugged design: a lion knob on top, a lotus pedestal in the middle, and various strange and abstract monsters and divine statues below.

Looking closer: The lion beast was crouching, its mouth holding a golden bead, its front paws like hands, clutching a dragon in its palm.

Looking at the divine statues below, there were twelve of varying sizes, but Sheng Guoan could only recognize three: Mahakala, Palden Lhamo, and Garuda.

He flipped it over; the seal script was very neat, but it was useless—it was all Sanskrit, and he didn't recognize a single character.

After staring for a good while, he handed it to Liu Anda: "Teacher, this should be some kind of seal from the Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism, right?"

Liu Anda squinted: "Correct, it is the Zhizha Divine Seal of Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism. Zhizha refers to the Dharma protectors; the lion beast, Garuda, Palden Lhamo, and Mahakala are all Esoteric Dharma protector beasts."

He picked up the seal and examined it against the light: "It looks like an iron-copper alloy, but the iron is extremely pure, and it is old enough—at least three or four hundred years. But logically speaking, there shouldn't have been such advanced iron smelting and forging technology at that time?"

After peering at it carefully, Liu Anda made a final judgment: "It should be copper and meteoric iron!"

As he spoke, he pushed it forward: "Teacher Jin, take a look!"

"Alright!" Following the voice, an elderly man sitting further back nodded.

With graying hair and about seventy-five or seventy-six years old, he was a senior Researcher at the Dunhuang Academy, later transferred to the Forbidden City to serve as the Group Leader of the Buddhist Cultural Relics Group, specializing in Dunhuang studies, Forbidden City Esoteric Buddhist relics, as well as the Tripitaka of the Forbidden City and the Fangshan Stone Sutras.

Nowadays, most of the Researchers in the Forbidden City who study Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism, Buddhist scriptures, temple halls, murals, and Buddhist gold-bronze statues are his students.

He walked over, sat down next to Liu Anda, and picked up the seal.

"The seal material is dark gray; the main material should be bell metal, but the meteoric iron content is also quite high, at least over forty percent."

"Where the gold-gilding layer is missing, one can see snowflake-like patterns: these are the traces left by the 'clay crucible smelting, casting into ingots, then cold forging into shape' hammer-molding technique typical of the Snow Region and Nepal used to forge the seal blank."

"The relief carving style is rugged, the knife work bold, yet the lines of the flat-engraved layers are complex and precise—this is the 'Tibetan-style Engraving System' craftsmanship of the Lhasa and Shigatse regions."

"A Heavenly Iron Dharma Seal, with all twelve Dharma protectors present; the holder of this seal must be a great Rinpoche. As for who it is, we must look at the Seal Mark—"

As he spoke, he flipped the seal over, then muttered to himself: "Heavenly King, Heavenly God?"

"Mañju, Mañju, Mañjuśrī!"

"Dharma King, Wheel-Turning Holy King."

"Heavenly King Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva Wheel-Turning Holy King—Manjushri Emperor?"

After a brief pause, Teacher Jin let out an "Eh," flipping it over and over to look.

After staring for another long while, he looked amazed: "This is truly rare; this is Qianlong's Tripitaka seal!"

What is that?

Several old Experts leaned forward in unison.

Even though this was the Forbidden City, imperial seals were not common, and furthermore, this item had not been taken from the Forbidden City.

The key was that it was not a Chinese character seal, nor was it a Manchu script seal, but a Sanskrit seal. For one to suddenly appear was indeed strange.

"It can't be wrong!" Teacher Jin picked up the seal. "Yuhua Pavilion (a place for Qing emperors to practice Esoteric Buddhism),

Fanhuahou (a Buddhist scripture hall within the Qing palace), and even many Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures in the Yonghe Temple (a Qing royal temple) are stamped with this kind of seal—"

"But not this one; the seal script is the same, but that seal was only one centimeter wide, and the seal height was no more than half an inch."

"The seal body was not a lion knob, nor was it an iron seal—look at this one, it is more than three times larger, and after stamping, the seal script is at least an inch wide!"

Teacher Jin recalled: "Little Sheng, send someone to the Yonghe Temple, go to the Falun Hall and look: the Tripitaka in the four-language version of Manchu, Mongol, Tibetan, and Han should be stamped with this very seal—have someone bring two copies over, and we will compare them!"

Sheng Guoan quickly made arrangements, and Wang Liying looked curious: "Teacher Jin, does this seal have some kind of history?"

"Yes, and it is extremely representative and historically significant—in the fifty-seventh year of Qianlong (1792), Qianlong established the Golden Urn Lottery policy (the Qing court's method for presiding over the succession of Rinpoches) at the Yonghe Temple."

"At that time, the Rinpoches of the four sects (Dalai, Panchen, Jangchub, and Jebtsundamba) gathered in Beijing, presented Buddhist scriptures and holy seals, and honored Qianlong as the 'Manjushri Emperor'; this seal is the very holy seal jointly presented by the four sects—"

Lin Sicheng was startled: He knew this was Qianlong's Sanskrit iron seal, and he had guessed it was presented by a Rinpoche (religious leader, great lama) of that sect.

But he had never imagined that this seal was jointly presented by the four sects. He had even less expected that it was related to the Golden Urn Lottery policy.

Although the Qing Dynasty had various problems, it had a groundbreaking, masterful operation regarding the Tibetan and Mongol issues.

Especially the Golden Urn Lottery; for hundreds of years, the Tibetan and Mongol regions remained relatively stable, and this policy deserved most of the credit.

But the point was not this, but this seal: now it seemed that the value of this item was far, far higher than Lin Sicheng had previously imagined.

Sure enough, the more professional an item is, the more it must be handed over to the most professional people.

In a flash, Sheng Guoan finished arranging for the people and returned to the warm chamber.

Seeing Lin Sicheng, Sheng Guoan gave a look of approval, but Lin Sicheng shook his head.

To tell the truth, he also only learned today that this item had such a major background. If he had known before, he certainly wouldn't have deliberately hidden it from Sheng Guoan.

It was a lucky strike; several Experts were huddled together around that iron seal, their enthusiasm unusually high.

"Teacher Jin, is that seal from before Qianlong, the small one, still around?"

"It's long gone; it was given to the Japanese by Puyi. Similar ones, only Kangxi's remains in the Forbidden City, but the grade is slightly lower: Mañjuśrī Emperor. It is pure copper material, and the seal script is not this large—"

"And the historical significance is also much worse: that one was presented by the Yellow Sect lamas under pressure when the Qing army entered Tibet; it is worlds apart from this one—"

"What if it goes to auction?"

"From a historical perspective, considering Qianlong's influence in the Qing Dynasty, it's worth several million. Considering it from the perspective of ethnic integration and national unity, it's at least around ten million—"

Wang Liying clicked her tongue: "Tsk tsk, ten million?"

Just assuming it was sent to the Forbidden City by other cultural and museum institutions for re-appraisal, while expensive and rare, the few old Experts were not very concerned.

But Sheng Guoan knew how this seal came to be. It was exactly the same as the Imperial Edict from two days ago: Lin Sicheng was purely...

Secretly sighing, seeing the enthusiasm of the few wane slightly, Sheng Guoan uncovered the second box and took out a small seal.

Then, he removed the paper wrapping it, placed an Incense Burner on the coffee table: "Teachers, let's put the iron seal aside for now, wait until the Buddhist scriptures are brought over to compare, let's look at this first!"

Several Experts shifted their gaze in unison: an Incense Burner, a small seal.

The Incense Burner looked like this:

The design was extremely minimalist: slanted shoulders, constricted neck, drum-shaped belly, circular, no handles, hollowed-out knob lid, and three nipple-shaped feet.

At first glance, it looks like the vessel shape of a Han Dynasty-style *ge* tripod, with extremely sharp shoulder lines, as if carved by a knife or hewn by an axe.

But it is very strange: whether it is the *Xuanhe Bogu Tupu* (compiled by imperial decree of Song Huizong and edited by Wangfu), which specializes in recording ancient bronze vessels of the Song Dynasty, or the *Xuande Dingyi Tupu*, a catalog of royal ritual vessels of the Ming Dynasty, neither contains any record of this furnace type.

The craftsmanship is quite good, made of red copper, with a symmetrical furnace shape and a smooth body showing no casting marks. When touched by hand, there is a slight, subtle matte texture.

Although the patterns are simple, they are all executed in the gold-inlay technique: the front is decorated with double cranes, the back with an ancient pine, and the edges are embellished with ocean waves and auspicious clouds.

Looking at the patina: the entire body presents a rustic, black glaze feel, very bright and lustrous, with a history of about three hundred years or so.

Looking at the carbon accumulation layer inside the furnace, it indicates that this furnace has been in constant use, with the incense basically never having been extinguished.

He Jiutian looked at it carefully: "It looks a bit like the craftsmanship of the Imperial Household Department's furnace workshop during the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods, it's just that this shape is a bit strange."

Wang Liying was stunned for a moment: "Flowed out from the palace?"

"Yes, nine times out of ten it was around the time of the founding of the country; if it were earlier, the carbon layer wouldn't have burned this thick! So the item is definitely authentic, and it must have been made before Qianlong—"

He Jiutian pointed to the furnace shoulder: "After Qianlong ascended the throne, he merged the furnace workshop into the Gold and Jade Workshop. Although copper furnaces were still fired separately, they were no longer imitating the ancients, but only imitating the Xuande Incense Burner. So after Qianlong, this type of furnace was never produced again—"

As he spoke, he flipped the Incense Burner over, revealing the mark on the bottom: Layman Pochen.

After taking a look, several old Experts were all taken aback in unison.

Some of them specialized in calligraphy and painting, some in ceramics, some in Jade, and some in gold and bronze ware. But without exception, they all followed "history first, appraisal second": appraisal was only an auxiliary, with the focus on historical research.

Therefore, although this "Layman Pochen" was extremely obscure, the several old Experts all knew that this was the Daoist name of the Yongzheng Emperor when he practiced Daoism.

The *Veritable Records of the Qing* and the *Archives of Works* both record: In the eighth year of Yongzheng, Yongzheng set up altars (for praying for blessings, fasting, and reporting to Heaven) at the Qianqing Palace, Yangxin Hall, Chengrui Pavilion, Qin'an Hall, Yonghe Temple, and other places. At that time, Yongzheng appointed himself as the altar master, with the name "Layman Pochen."

The key is this furnace: in the same year, he publicly issued an edict to the governors of all provinces to "seek out people with superb medical skills and proficiency in alchemy to come to the capital," and gathered them at the Kuoran Dagong of the twenty-four scenes of the Old Summer Palace to refine alchemy.

Kuoran Dagong is also known as the Shuanghe Studio; all vessels used for offerings, alchemy, and display were inscribed with double cranes.

Tsk tsk, Yongzheng's Double Crane Furnace?

There are quite a few copper furnaces in the Forbidden City, most of which are at the level of concubines; those exclusively for the use of the emperor account for only a very small portion.

Of course, it is just a small number, but there are still a few dozen. It is not that there are none larger than this one or with a longer history than this one.

For example, those from Kangxi, or Shunzhi.

But if comparing representativeness and historical significance, it is certainly much inferior: among the twelve emperors of the Manchu Qing, the other eleven all practiced Buddhism, and only Yongzheng practiced Daoism.

What is even more critical is: since Qin Shi Huang, among the 408 emperors of past dynasties, there were only six emperors who died suddenly due to refining and consuming alchemy pills.

It is not even a fraction, yet Yongzheng has a place among them—

"Good item!" Liu Anda tapped the Incense Burner and picked up the seal: it was just ordinary Shoushan stone, which was relatively precious in ancient times, but is sold by the pound nowadays.

The seal is extremely small, with a crouching tiger on the top knob, barely over one centimeter, just like the size of a thumb's fingernail.

Flipping it over to look, Liu Anda paused and let out a "Ha."

Standard positive-engraved Jade Chop Seal Script: *Yuanming Layman*.

The *Veritable Records of the Qing* records: "When 【Yongzheng】 was Prince Yong, he widely sought out high-minded scholars and called himself 'Yuanming Layman'—practicing alchemy and refining pills at his private residence—"

It also records: When at his private residence, 【Yongzheng】 wrote the *Fandi Collection* and *Yuanming Layman's Quotations* (Yongzheng's self-compiled insights on practicing Daoism).

Therefore, this was Yongzheng's early Daoist name, and even more so, an elegant name bestowed upon him by Kangxi, as well as a hall name: in the forty-eighth year of Kangxi, the garden bestowed upon Yinzhen was the "Old Summer Palace."

That's right, it is that Old Summer Palace; this name came about exactly like this.

By comparison, its representative value and historical significance may not be as good as that Qianlong scripture seal, but just by the two characters "Yuanming," it certainly exceeds ordinary Qing Dynasty imperial leisure seals.

Wang Liying sighed with emotion: "It is rare enough, but it's a pity it's just a leisure seal!"

The several old Experts nodded in unison.

Although Yongzheng's reign was short, his historical influence was not low; among the Qing emperors, apart from Kangxi and Qianlong, he is the one. The Cultural Relics left behind are even fewer, so as the saying goes, things are valued for their scarcity, and the value of this seal is certainly not low.

Including that Double Crane Furnace, as a landmark Cultural Relic that participated in major historical events, its value is likewise not low.

But no matter how high it is, even if the two items are added together, they cannot compare to that Qianlong Iron Seal!

This item is not only a particularly important representative Cultural Relic that reflects the important political system of the Qing Dynasty and represents social and historical development, but it is also a particularly important representative Cultural Relic that reflects the development of national social history and promotes national unity and the maintenance of the unification of the motherland.

If a grade were to be assessed, it is definitely a Level One, Grade A. So, just because of that Qianlong Iron Seal, today was not a wasted trip—

Secretly sighing, Liu Anda pointed to the last Seal Box, "Guoan, what is this?"

"This one is relatively average, of course, only relative to the previous two!" Sheng Guoan teased slightly, "A leisure seal of Qianlong!"

"Qianlong again?" The several Experts were even more interested, "Good heavens, are all the imperial seals gathered together?"

"Director Sheng, you're doing well; your tone is getting bigger and bigger now: you call Qianlong's imperial seal just average?"

"Don't listen to only half of what I say; I already said it's relative. If this were replaced by Yongzheng's or Kangxi's, of course it would be different."

The "seal-stamping maniac" wasn't called that for nothing; Qianlong created over 1,800 seals in his life, which is more than three times the total number of seals of the other eleven Qing emperors combined. Therefore, apart from those with extreme representativeness and historical significance like the Qianlong Iron Seal, ordinary leisure seals are really not rare.

Of course, just as Sheng Guoan said, it is only relative: no matter how not rare it is, this is still an imperial seal—

In a flash, Sheng Guoan took out the seal and handed it forward with both hands.

Liu Anda received it in his hands, and after just one glance, he suddenly paused: Variegated Agate Cloud Seal?

Of course he knew this seal, and furthermore, Sheng Guoan had specifically told him about it as an anecdote: the Xiling Seal Art Society, which started with seal carving, a century-old brand that had produced so many masters and grandmasters, had actually auctioned off Qianlong's imperial seal as an unknown leisure seal.

In the end, someone spent tens of thousands to pick up a bargain—

While pondering, he raised his head, stared at Lin Sicheng, and a few flashes of astonishment appeared in his eyes: "You are a student of Wang Qizhi?"