Chapter 476

314. Imperial Pension, A Family Name Immortalized for Ages!

【Popularity】+1+1+1+1+1.

……

——【The wisdom of the ancients is truly incredible; they actually thought to sculpt such a massive hunting scene on this.】

——【I have never doubted the wisdom and craftsmanship of our ancestors.】

——【Fang Yang, can you zoom in? Is the golden stuff on this real gold? Or is it gilded?】

——【Exquisite and peerless, a real eye-opener.】

——【This artifact will definitely be a key focus for studying arts and crafts in the future.】

——【There are animals and people, but I feel like I can't make anything out.】

——【Could the "incense burner producing purple smoke" that Li Bai mentioned be this kind of object?】

——【Although this artifact might not be usable, if you put incense in it, I can already imagine the scene filled with swirling smoke in my mind; it must be very spectacular and beautiful.】

……

If China could replicate things like this in modern times, they would definitely sell very well.

At this moment, everyone couldn't help but think this in their hearts.

After packing up the items and placing them aside properly, seeing that the person in charge still hadn't arrived, he continued the excavation work.

This time, after digging for only a short while, he unearthed something that looked like ore, but in reality, it wasn't.

The color clearly looked much darker.

Fang Yang examined it carefully and immediately switched tools.

Excavating in ore is much harder than excavating in soil; Fang Yang had to switch through several tools before he finally dug the object out.

When he dug it out and held it in his hand to examine it, it was enough to shock everyone.

"Does this say 'Imperial Pension' on it?"

The cameraman rubbed his eyes hard several times, confirming it multiple times, only then realizing he hadn't misread it.

"Yeah, not only does it have 'Imperial Pension' on it, but it also has the four characters for 'Retired Emperor'."

After Fang Yang was speechless for a moment, the system also made a sound after a moment of silence.

【Qianlong Imperial Pension Tablet】

【13.5 cm long, 8.3 cm wide】

【This tablet is made of silver alloy and was given as a reward to invited elders aged 70 to 90 and above.】

【……】

"This is a Qianlong Imperial Pension Tablet. In the first year of Jiaqing, Qianlong retired and became the Retired Emperor."

"Shortly after that, he invited elders over 60 from all over the country to the Forbidden City to participate in a banquet."

"The reason for doing this was to demonstrate that the world was at peace and the people were prosperous."

"It was also to show the Son of Heaven's intention to provide for and respect the elderly."

"This large-scale banquet held this time is also the very famous 'Thousand-Elder Banquet' in history; I believe those with some knowledge of history should know about this."

"The number of people participating in this banquet reached as many as 3,000."

"Not everyone could participate in this banquet; only serving or retired officials aged 60 and above, as well as those who had made contributions to society, could attend."

"And after the banquet ended, every elder could receive this pure silver pension tablet."

"Besides the characters engraved on the front, the back is engraved with the Hall of Supreme Harmony, which refers to the location of this banquet."

"The year Bingchen refers to the first year of Jiaqing."

"Although the number of participants seems very large, in reality, when the quotas were divided among various places, it was actually very few."

"There is a story about this Thousand-Elder Banquet."

"It is said that an elder returned to his hometown after attending this banquet and was highly respected by the local government and his descendants."

"Not only that, but he was even immortalized in the family history."

"It is said that during the Qianlong era, most of these pension tablets were melted down and sold by later generations. Of course, these are just my guesses and just a story; everyone should just listen to it."

【Popularity】+1+1+1+1.

……

——【I don't think this is just a story; it can actually be inferred.】

——【It was already said that this pension tablet is silver; if you melt it down, you can exchange it for some silver. If life was really not going well, the possibility of melting it down was very high.】

——【Thousand-Elder Banquet, can old men and women from the countryside also participate?】

——【Hey you upstairs, did you listen clearly? Fang Yang explained it so thoroughly; he said only those who have made contributions to the country can participate.】

——【I guess all the participants were Eight Banners Manchus; I'm afraid Han people didn't have the qualifications to participate.】

——【I've also heard a story that when Kangxi and Qianlong held the Thousand-Elder Banquet, many elders ended up vomiting and having diarrhea, and were worn out. It is said that one elder lived very far away and walked for half a year to reach the capital, and walked for another half a year to go back.】

——【This elder definitely had no money, really.】

——【It's also possible he was carsick; didn't you see it said he vomited? If he vomited, it was either carsickness or seasickness.】

——【What the person upstairs said makes a lot of sense. This proves that only rich people could go to participate; ordinary people couldn't possibly go, as the expenses on the road would be completely unaffordable.】

——【If this imperial pension tablet were melted into silver, it would probably be over 300 grams, which should have been a huge sum of money during the Qianlong period. If it were me, I might have melted it down directly back then.】

——【I seem to have one exactly like this at home.】

——【Is that true, upstairs? If you have one, I'll buy it from you for 300 yuan.】

——【Better be careful. If you really had one exactly like it, it would probably be confiscated by the authorities directly, and you wouldn't get a single cent.】

——【I'll offer 30,000 yuan; I have channels to sell it.】

——【I have one too.】

——【I seem to have seen one at my aunt's house; it seems to be in my cousin's hands now.】

——【Are you people upstairs doing this on purpose? Knowing that 3,000 people participated, so you all popped up saying you have one in your hands; they are all fake.】

——【I think Qianlong shouldn't have held any Thousand-Elder Banquet. Going back and forth like this, the elders were so old, it really wore people to death.】

——【Was there the word 'pension' in the past? Why do I feel it's particularly unreliable?】

——【"Respect the elderly of others as we respect our own, love the young of others as we love our own." Shallow people can shut up.】

……

The live stream room was in a mess; they were constantly arguing about the term 'pension' appearing in ancient times.

Some people felt this term shouldn't appear in ancient times, while others constantly used known historical documents to refute others' claims.

The entire live stream room was lively.

315. Long-nurtured spring appearance is flourishing, a grand banquet for a thousand elders in a prosperous age!

Fang Yang felt he should say something more at this time, so he hesitated for a moment and added.

"There are many people arguing in the live stream room now, mostly revolving around whether this Imperial Pension Tablet is real or fake."

"There are also people arguing that they indeed have such a pension tablet at home."

"The Thousand-Elder Banquet was held during both the Qianlong and Kangxi periods."

"And this Imperial Pension Tablet in my hand is indeed real."

"But what some of you in the live stream room said about having a pension tablet yourselves might also be true, but it might not be from the Qianlong period."

"The pension tablets from the Qianlong period have characteristics. And what are the characteristics? It is made of silver."

"And it's 300 grams of silver."

"In order to show his status and position, Qianlong couldn't have used very ordinary things to make such a tablet, so the tablet he made was expensive."

"If some things existed in previous dynasties, then later dynasties might have imitated them."

"Things like forgery have existed from ancient times to the present."

"Some people, in order to make certain things valuable, will deliberately create artificial aging later."

"The difficulty of making this pension tablet is not high."

"It is very easy to imitate."

"However, those who imitate it certainly wouldn't really use silver to make it; most would use iron or some other inexpensive materials to make substitutes."

When Fang Yang explained to this point, he couldn't help but look towards the cave entrance again.

The person in charge had gone outside to make a phone call earlier, and until now, not even a shadow could be seen; he didn't know how long this phone call would take.

"Brother, the person in charge hasn't come yet. Should we dig or not, or should we just take a break?"

The cameraman made a few suggestions for what Fang Yang might do next, but Fang Yang just looked around the cave casually and then chose to continue digging.

The cameraman shrugged his shoulders; he wasn't surprised at all by the choice Fang Yang made now; he had guessed it would be this result.