Chapter 46: Learned from Books

Seeing Shang Yan remain silent, Wang Qi Zhi smiled again: "Are you very shocked?"

Shang Yan's lips parted, wanting to ask something, but then she pressed them into a thin line.

By now, it was no longer a question of whether Lin Sicheng understood or was capable, but rather, how could he be professional to this degree?

Everything else was easy to explain, especially the last point; to put it in layman's terms: he had to measure both the bronze and the glaze, so how did he find the precise balance interval?

To put it professionally: Cloisonné has a bronze base and a glazed surface; during testing, the Cu-Ka peak in the bronze body interferes with the values of low-content elements in the glaze layer, so the substrate signal must be shielded using a collimator.

Therefore, the last sentence Lin Sicheng told Li Zhen to set the parameters was especially important: Collimator Selection: 150μm, spot interval: 5-1mm...

She could certainly calculate this value, and Wang Qi Zhi could too, but the prerequisite was: one must use software for the calculation.

Yet Lin Sicheng just blurted it out?

If one were to say this value was wrong, look at the signal acquisition: whether it was the element peaks, characteristic peak energy, or the standard deviation and standard quantification, the values were precise one after another.

Then why could Lin Sicheng get the balance value to such a precise degree without calculating it in advance?

Unless he had already performed similar experiments a thousand or eight hundred times, reaching the point where he could glance at a specimen and determine the thickness of the body to the millimeter level, while simultaneously estimating the corrosion ratio of the substrate to two decimal places.

But then the problem arose: this was Cloisonné, which had been Imperial Palace Ware from the Jingtai period of the Ming Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty's Guangxu period. Because of the small number of specimens, specific usage scenarios, and regional limitations, the only research institutions that had them were those few in Beijing.

So, where did Lin Sicheng go to perform hundreds or thousands of experiments?

In any case, Shang Yan figured she certainly couldn't do it, she didn't know if Wang Qi Zhi could, and Professor Lin... probably couldn't either.

This was just absurd...

"Where did he learn it?"

"From books!"

Shang Yan suddenly raised her head: "What?"

"He said it was from books... Professor Shang doesn't believe it either, right?"

Wang Qi Zhi smiled: "A couple of days ago, he sold me an Iron Certificate. When he said he knew how to clean, maintain, and even perform Artifact Restoration on it, I didn't believe him either...

Then, after he used the infrared imaging instrument in my lab to perform a transmission-style surface imaging acquisition of an iron specimen..."

Pausing slightly, Wang Qi Zhi looked at Shang Yan: "Does Professor Shang know this method?"

I don't know a damn thing about it; that's a method for testing ironware. I study ceramics, why would I learn that?

Shang Yan rolled her eyes: "Does Professor Wang know it?"

"I don't either, because the relevant Thesis was only published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences last year..." Wang Qi Zhi was very frank, "Besides, I study bronze; I can't even finish learning everything in my own specialty, why would I learn ironware testing methods?"

Right?

The two words had just surged to Shang Yan's lips when Wang Qi Zhi pointed inside:

"But he knows it... I asked him where he learned it, and he said from books! I didn't believe him, and then he pointed out the relevant Thesis published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the National Museum of China, the National Cultural Heritage Administration, the Beijing University of Technology, and other institutions one by one... and even asked me if I wanted him to recite them for me?"

Shang Yan had a dazed expression: Isn't this nonsense?

"Professor Wang, I remember the ironware Cultural Relics project... was only established last year?"

"That's right, so those few papers were concentrated in the second half of last year... but that's secondary... He was preparing to mix acid to wash off the rust, and after I scolded him away, he sent me a whole set of maintenance procedures regarding Desalination, Dechlorination, Corrosion Inhibition, and Sealing and Protection...

Then, the key point: I sent it to a friend in Beijing, and he told me: this technology was only patented by the Beijing University of Technology at the beginning of the year, and the National Museum of China and the National Cultural Heritage Administration are still in the trial stage..."

Wang Qi Zhi spread his hands: "My friend even asked me where I stole it from?"

"I asked him again where he learned it, and he still said the same thing: from books... Of course I don't believe it! But if I had to find another reason for him, I really couldn't find one?"

Wang Qi Zhi sighed again: "Including before, when he said he could repair Cloisonné, I didn't believe him either, and then he asked me: no matter how difficult this plate is to handle, could it be harder than that Iron Certificate?"

"I thought about it, and it really made sense... and then, we came here!"

Shang Yan stared at the figure in the Equipment Room, her eyes widening bit by bit.

Although there are few institutions that study Cloisonné, that is only relative, and their standards are not low.

But institutions that study ironware are almost non-existent.

The reason is simple: technological gaps lead to lagging research and development, making it impossible to apply what is learned, which prevents the generation of benefits, thus entering a vicious cycle.

That is why the state introduced relevant support policies and even included it in the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan Social Science Fund Project."

And even though the project was established, it is only in the initial stage; apart from journals and papers, there isn't even a single relevant monograph. Which book did Lin Sicheng learn it from?

Unless he deduced it from the papers, but honestly, if one could be that awesome, why study at all?

Wouldn't one just enter the National Cultural Heritage Administration or the Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology whenever they wanted?

Wait, hold on... that's not right?

Shang Yan was stunned for a moment: "What Iron Certificate, Dan Iron Certificate?"

"Yes, the Death Exemption Iron Certificate that Li Zicheng bestowed upon Lin Yangcheng... just the weekend before last, I watched him pick it up at Xiaodongmen. He spent forty and sold it to me for five hundred thousand... oh, and that plate..."

Wang Qi Zhi pointed into the Equipment Room again, "He bought a dog yesterday, and this plate was used as a Dog Basin, so it cost him nothing... but he sold it to my older brother for a full eight hundred thousand, plus a commission of nine hundred and forty thousand..."

"Also, the day I first met him, he also picked up a Shen Mansion internal reference book, spent thirty, and sold it to me for ten thousand... oh, and he also picked up a Chicken Feather Duster and sold it for eighty thousand, and then picked up a Buddha statue and sold it for three hundred thousand... your Teaching Assistant should know about these two items.

Professor Shang, you calculate: ancient books, ironware, Bronze, Calligraphy and Painting, wood carvings... just in terms of antique attributes, how many categories has he crossed?

So, these past few days I have been thinking: whether it is ceramic research or ceramic Appraisal, Professor Lin is definitely very professional, this is beyond doubt. But even if the student surpasses the master, can they surpass them to this degree?

But guess what he said: apart from porcelain, the rest has little to do with Professor Lin; it was all learned from books..."

Shang Yan moved her lips, really wanting to curse: if knowledge from books was so easy to learn, what would teachers be for?

Li Zhen had mentioned that she saw with her own eyes the duster and Buddha statue Lin Sicheng picked up, which eventually sold for three hundred and eighty thousand. But she didn't expect that there was even more that Li Zhen didn't know.

Adding all these up, how much is it? A full one million six hundred and ninety thousand... the key is, in just over two weeks?

Although it is vulgar to talk about money in an ivory tower, do the people in the ivory tower not eat or drink?

Her annual salary, bonuses, and project subsidies combined are just over forty thousand. She is forty-five years old this year; even if she didn't eat or drink, she would still have to work for forty years...

If she were Lin Sicheng, why would she bother getting a graduate degree?