Chapter 72: The Expert's Evaluation

  "Why always think of looking at blue and white porcelain, but not think of looking at pink glaze, single color glaze? You should know that during the Ming and Qing dynasties, many pink glaze porcelains were also good, and single color glaze reached a brilliant peak!"

  Ma hadn't finished speaking when many students around him burst out laughing again.

  "You, it was you just now, don't look back, I'm talking about you!"

  The laughter subsided a little, and Ma Weicheng pointed to a young student in the crowd again. The student who was pointed at stretched out his hand and pointed to his own nose, with a look of confusion and excitement on his face. He didn't understand why Teacher Ma had picked him.

  "Hey, yes you! Are you intentionally trying to disrupt the proceedings? Today we're supposed to be discussing Ming and Qing porcelain, why are you suddenly bringing up Yuan blue and white, that's from several hundred years ago!"

  Ma Weicheng smiled and said that the student was slightly stunned, and after other students were stunned, they burst into laughter again.

  Teacher Ma is right. The Ming Qing porcelain area we saw today is not Yuan Qinghua, although the Yuan Qinghua Museum also has some, but they are relatively rare and all are damaged pieces placed in the damaged piece area.

  The student pointed by Ma Wei scratched his head in embarrassment, he was watching his classmates all say Qing Hua, couldn't help but call out a Yuan Qing Hua, but didn't think that Yuan Qing Hua and today's theme were somewhat conflicting.

  "Hahaha!"

  Looking at him, the laughter of the surrounding students grew louder, and Liu Yi Yang couldn't help but smile, looking at Ma Wei Cheng with great admiration.

  No wonder he is an excellent appraiser who often appears on TV, a few words brought the students' atmosphere to life, and it was very different from the other two experts just now, which also highlighted his charm.

  "Since everyone wants to see the blue flowers, let's start with the blue flowers. Everyone follow me over here!"

  After the atmosphere came up, Ma Wenzhong led more than 100 students to a square pillar. Around the square pillar was a circular glass display stand with four pieces of Qinghua porcelain placed inside, each facing one direction.

  There are four pieces of Qinghua porcelain, including a large Qinghua vase, a slightly larger plum bottle, a dragon-patterned gourd-shaped bottle with a round body and a square base, and a pair of slightly smaller heaven-and-earth bottles.

  Four pieces of blue and white porcelain are all very good-looking, and they also look extremely beautiful.

  "These four pieces are the treasures of our museum. Let's take a look at the first piece, the Yongle-era 'Children at Play' blue-and-white porcelain general vase. The blue-and-white 'Children at Play' pattern originated in the Yuan dynasty, but there are few surviving examples from that period with this design. It wasn't until the Ming dynasty that the 'Children at Play' pattern was truly popularized!"

  "In the early Ming dynasty, baby play pictures mainly appeared in the Yongle and Xuande periods. Some people may ask, weren't there baby play pictures in the Yuan dynasty and also in the Yong-Xuan period? Why didn't they appear during the Hongwu period? I want to tell everyone that it's not that there weren't any during the Hongwu period, but because Zhu Yuanzhang had many children and grandchildren at that time, he wasn't worried about having no descendants. Therefore, the baby play picture patterns from that period are extremely rare, so rare that they are almost invisible in official kilns!"

  Ma Weicheng said with a smile, his speaking style is also different from the previous two experts. The previous two experts were like teachers lecturing, while he was more like chatting with family members, making it easier for classmates to accept.

  "In fact, baby-playing pictures are not common in the Yongzhen and blank periods. Baby-playing pictures are most commonly seen during the Chenghua, Hongzhi, and Zhengde periods. I'd like to ask everyone a question: what is the common characteristic of these three periods?"

  Ma Weicheng retorted with a question, and all his classmates were stunned for a moment. He was also the first expert to ask them questions today.

  "I know that the politics of the three periods were all relatively clear, without major ups and downs, but also not bad. The Hongzhi period even had the saying 'Hongzhi Zhongxing' (Prosperous Revival of Hongzhi), and although Zhengde was incompetent, at that time it still belonged to the strong and prosperous period of the Ming dynasty!"

  A student immediately raised his hand to speak, Ma Wencai smiled and looked at him without saying a word.

  "Teacher Ma, these three periods are a key moment for the rapid development of Qinghua, is that what you're referring to?"

  Ren Lijuan raised her hand and said in a low voice, her words were recognized by some people. The three dynasties' Qinghua porcelain was indeed good, in fact many artworks of the three dynasties were flourishing, developing well in all aspects.

  Ma Weicheng still smiled and did not answer. Liu Yiyang's heart moved slightly as he remembered what Ma had said before, and he immediately raised his hand to speak.

  "Teacher Ma, Chenghua, Hongzhi and Zhengde, the three emperors all have one thing in common, that is, they had relatively few children. Whether it was them personally or the ministers of their time, they all hoped to have many sons and grandsons. The art of any era is influenced by some environmental factors at that time, so that period was the peak of the development of baby play pictures!"

  Liu Yi Yang said slowly, many classmates looked at him and nodded in agreement.

  Artworks, especially ceramics, were deeply influenced by the environment at that time. Just like modern ceramics are mostly competing for beauty and splendor, or bustling scenes of people, which has a great relationship with the current peaceful and prosperous world.

  Looking back, without going far, things from over thirty years ago are very different from now.

  At that time, many things were tense with war or images of Red Guards. Younger people may not know, but those who are slightly older will have an impression. When I was young, the bowls and plates at home had **quotations or images of Red Guards printed on them, which was the environment at that time.

  Ma Weicheng finally cracked a smile and nodded at Liu Yiyang.

  "This classmate is very meticulous, what he said is not wrong. In the three periods of time, there were not many children among the emperor's offspring. At that time, both the upper and lower classes wanted more children, so there would be many baby pictures appearing. The baby pictures are all about small children, having many children also implies that there will be many descendants in the future, or simply put, let the emperor see more children and think about wanting children, wouldn't that lead to having many kids?"

  Ma's unfinished words made everyone laugh again, many people nodded in agreement, and some people looked at Liu Yiyang with envy.

  Some people were thinking that they had also thought of this point earlier, but didn't react as quickly as Liu Yi Yang, so they were robbed of the opportunity to show off in front of Ma Wei Cheng.

  People who like antiques have a lot of knowledge about history.

  Those who can come here today are also the backbone of various school antique societies. The history of Chenghua, Hongzhi and Zhengde, three emperors is very clear.

  First, let's talk about Zhu Zhanji. When he was young, he was the crown prince, but his father was captured by ethnic minorities due to carelessness, and the status of the crown prince was lost, becoming a king. Later, after his father regained power, he became the crown prince again. His father was Ming Yingzong, who was famous for being captured in the "Tumu Crisis".

  The most famous person of the Chenghua Emperor's reign was not the emperor himself, but Empress Wan. She was deeply favored by the emperor and dominated court politics for a long time, with her relatives holding power outside the palace. Later generations had nothing good to say about Empress Wan.

  The Empress Dowager was a woman who liked to eat vinegar. When any of Emperor Chenghua's other consorts became pregnant, they either miscarried or were killed after giving birth by her, so that later on even Emperor Chenghua himself cried out in lamentation that he had no son to inherit the throne. It was only later that a eunuch told him that someone had borne him a son and had been secretly raising him.

  This is the later Emperor Hongzhi, who was born to a palace maid and had a tumultuous and wandering childhood, eating at many different households and avoiding the destruction caused by Empress Wan Guifei. He eventually ascended to the throne with great difficulty. Due to his experiences in his youth, he was not satisfied with the imperial harem of three palaces and six institutes, so he only married one wife, and there was only this one empress in the entire imperial harem.

  It was unimaginable at that time, and it was not just at that time. Throughout the feudal era in China, there was only one emperor who married only one empress.

  The fewer wives, the fewer children, and Hongzhi Emperor had only one son, who was later Zhengde Emperor.

  Chenghua and Hongzhi had very few children, so the baby pictures naturally flourished during this period. However, by the time of Zhengde, they were even less than before. Zhengde never had a son until his death, and he could only choose his cousin to succeed him just before his death.

  This was the environment of the three dynasties at that time, and it was this environment that influenced the development of art. At that time, there were many baby pictures, which can be said to be the most in history.

  After Liu Yi Yang spoke out, many people remembered, but they didn't think that if it wasn't for Liu Yi Yang bringing it up, how would they have thought of these things.

  But soon, the matter of the baby pictures was thrown out of everyone's mind, and Ma Weicheng began to explain other things.

  His explanation was vivid and rich, many people were unwilling to distract themselves from thinking about other things, listening wholeheartedly, especially the interaction between him and his classmates, causing bursts of warm applause and happy laughter in the crowd from time to time.

  The four treasures of the museum were quickly introduced, and Ma Weicheng took everyone to a nearby display platform. There were Qinghua porcelain and Fencai porcelain, as well as folk kilns and official kilns, but there were more folk kilns.

  In the past, Liu Yi Yang's forehead still had a continuous influx of red mist. These four items were indeed treasures worthy of being the crown jewels of the pavilion. Each treasure emitted spiritual energy for over ten minutes, making Liu Yi Yang feel so comfortable that he almost cried out in delight on the spot.

  If he had shouted out loud, then this time it would have been a big joke.

  An hour's time passed quickly, Ma Weicheng's explanation left many people with a lingering impression, and many people gained rich knowledge, sighing that today was not in vain, and the harvest was great.

  Liu Yi Yang also had this feeling, experts' lectures are different from reading books by oneself.

  In addition, he also had a big harvest, that is, the spiritual energy he had just absorbed. He hadn't finished looking at the things in the museum, and to be strict, he only looked at a small part of them, following what the teacher said, these spiritual energies made him feel very full.

  Just now he had deliberately entered the void space to take a look at that copper mirror, and the 'Qian' character above the copper mirror was brighter than before, like a small light bulb. With so much spiritual energy, it's estimated that it will be enough for him to use for a period of time, even if he encounters another zombie or pregnant spirit person again, he won't be afraid.

  "Alright, classmates, today's explanation ends here. Finally, I'll give you a test question to see how well you've learned!"

  Ma Weicheng finished speaking about the last thing and then clapped his hands forcefully, smiling as he said a sentence. At this time, a staff member next to him temporarily left.

  "Exam questions?"

  Many students looked at each other in confusion, today only talked about studying, but didn't mention anything about the exam questions, and the student union people also didn't mention it to them.