Basic knowledge of collection: how to identify and falsify rubbings

The identification of rubbings is a complex science, involving a wide range. An appraiser must have profound cultural accumulation, and besides being clear about the historical evolution, he must also have certain accomplishments in philology, epigraphy, painting, sculpture, paper, ink and decoration. Of course, it is more important to understand the epigraph itself. When was the tablet unearthed, which tablet was broken, which tablet was burned, which tablet was lost, which tablet was damaged, which words or strokes were damaged, and where it is now, we should all know, otherwise it will bring difficulties to identification. In the old days, the collection and identification of inscriptions were mostly based on the comments of an authority or a noble person, or only on descriptions, celebrity inscriptions and Tibetan seals, lacking a comprehensive and objective examination, so they often confuse the fake with the real, resulting in many misjudged cases and jokes. Many collectors have suffered a big loss on this, which shows that the knowledge of appraisal is profound. However, we should not take it too mysterious and unattainable. If it's fake, it's definitely different from the truth. As long as the appraiser gradually has a certain vision through careful observation, grasps its forgery means, and usually looks at it more, there will be clues to be found, and various flaws different from the real thing will be found. First, fake rubbings often appear in the form of rubbings or rubbings. If you see a rubbings with white characters and yellow paper on a black background, or even a celebrity inscription, you will get a treasure, thinking that you have seen a cultural relic. Don't you know there are many fakes in it? If you don't tell the truth, you will not only waste your feelings, but also laugh your teeth off in vain. Forgery is not uncommon in the history of the development of inscriptions. Forgery, in short, is to make something out of nothing, without original stones and rubbings, and then pick out an ancient Chinese poem or poem out of thin air based on an epitaph or someone's calligraphy, and combine the two to carve stones to deceive people. For example, the legendary □ tablet in the Dayu era is actually an out-and-out fake; Zhou Muwang auspicious Tiangui has four words that were also written by later generations; During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhang Fei's Write Immediately was obviously created by later generations. It will get worse and worse for historians to revise historical facts without textual research. For forgers, because there is no original stone, it is necessary to know how it was copied from the tablet, and then infer it according to historical facts, seize the flaw in forgery and prove that it is a fake. Legal post fraud is more common. For example, predecessors criticized the editor Wang's works for their poor identification, including many artifacts, such as Cang Xie's Black Chicken Post, Chu Ling Post, Yan Ling Post, Zhang's Chen Sutie, Zhang Zhi's No.1 Scholar Post, Desire to Return to Home Post and February Post. Second, re-engraving Generally speaking, only the inscription on the stone by Shu Dan or the ink on the stone at all times is called the original engraving. The original has been destroyed or has long been lost, so re-engraving is called re-engraving. There are generally three kinds of re-engraving: 1, which are re-engraved according to the original trace, such as Yuan Zhao Mengfu's View of Blessing, that is, Wu Rongguang's re-engraving in Qing Dynasty. 2. It is still re-engraved, such as Yu Shinan's "Confucius Temple Monument". Its monument was destroyed in a few minutes, and Tang Shicheng re-engraved it with Wang Dan and destroyed it; Wang Songyanchao and others re-engraved. 3. Copy and re-engrave, such as Qin's "Fengshan Carving Stone" destroyed for a long time, and Song Zhengwenbao re-engraved it with Xu Xuan's "Southern Tang Copy". It is not uncommon for ancient monuments to be re-carved at that time. For example, there are many copies of "Fengshan Engraving Stone" that have been circulated in the world. The evaluation of later generations is as follows: Chang 'an is the first, Shaoxing is the second, Pujiang is the third, Yingtianfu is the fourth, Qingshe is the fifth, sixth and Zouxian is the seventh. In short, the purpose of re-engraving is to reproduce the original for future generations, so the engraver is more rigorous and serious, and restores the original state as much as possible. Its intention is different from the following re-engraving. Thirdly, there is another kind of lettering, the original stone is still there, which is called lettering by rubbings. There are three reasons for engraving: First, ancient famous monuments are difficult to engrave because of their long distance, so they are engraved from the old ones for easy access. For example, the Jiucheng Palace monument in Ou Yangxun was engraved in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties; Second, the original engraving was damaged too much and was copied by the old extension, such as Shi Guwen in pre-Qin, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Third, the original stone is still there, but it is inconvenient to expand, or the original stone has been lost, and the inscription is the original extension and the old extension, and the fish beads are mixed for profit, such as Wu's "Four Mountains on the Cliff", "The All-round Extension of Yunfeng Mountain" and "The Heaven is Far North". Fourth, other forgery methods In order to make the works more authentic and valuable, there are some forgery methods. If the old paper is filled with dye, that is, the new paper is dyed with tea or Liao Yan to imitate the old paper. But this practice is either too much or not enough, and it always feels uncomfortable. Another example is that the inscriptions and postscript are forged, that is, the original inscriptions and postscript are cut out and installed on the fake ones. This method of replacing trees with flowers can easily deceive some people who are superstitious about celebrity collecting inscriptions, so we must never blindly rely on inscriptions to discuss authenticity. In this case, in addition to determining the authenticity of the inscription and the original post, we should also pay attention to whether the content of the inscription is consistent with the post and whether the post has the seal of the inscription. There are also those who fill in the makeup materials with wax and stone flowers, and fill in the old ones in the rubbings with ink. This kind of fake effect is often unnatural and can be identified by careful observation. There is also the forgery of celebrity seals, which is nothing more than defrauding collectors' trust. However, apart from poor artistry and vulgar style, seals of different times often use the same printing color, and the positions of seals are also chaotic. In addition, what's more, the whole rubbing is painted with ink according to the old rubbing, and the zinc plate is also made according to the old rubbing, and then the zinc plate is rotten and then filled with ink, which is more difficult to identify. V. Distinguishing authenticity To sum up, in the face of such complicated fraudulent means, if we hold an old post that we think is good, how should we distinguish its authenticity? In this case, we should first be calm, so that we can observe carefully and consider comprehensively, and not be hasty and arbitrary. Then carefully observe whether there is a god in the mouth of the work, whether there is ink smearing, whether the paper and ink are consistent, and then observe whether there are unknown inscriptions and inscriptions at the beginning and end, whether there are seals and seals consistent with the rubbings, whether there are crowns and Dai Li, and then see whether the whole book has been dyed and whether there are traces of patchwork or description at the textual research place. If the rubbings are true, the inscriptions and seals are reliable, which may be rare and need further scrutiny. If the rubbings are good, it is a good copy printed by unknown people. But if there is something wrong with the rubbings, even if the inscription is reliable, it can only be inferior or material, and it has no cultural value. In short, there is always a certain distance between all kinds of forgeries and the original stone, no matter how clever the means are or how fine the hooks are. First, the strokes are different. Genuine products are full of energy, while fake products are sluggish. Second, stone flowers are different. Natural weathering and peeling stone marks are very natural, while the gouge marks of fake artificial spine are quite thick. If you look closely, it is inevitable that there will be omissions or typos. The old rubbings were carefully carved with the best ink at that time, with thick black ink, harmonious paper and ink and high spirits. Every exhibition is always full of ink, which makes people feel relaxed and happy, while the forgeries mostly use modern ink, which is plain and rough and has no ink fragrance. Pretending can be decorated with other things, and ink can't do anything. 6. If all kinds of indications show that this book is absolutely authentic, not a masterpiece, but it is not forged, or I don't know when it will be extended. Then, in addition to inferring from paper and ink, it is also necessary to use the fat mouth and observe the damage of stone flowers to determine the distance of the age. The monument we see today has a history of two thousand years. In recent years, although some protective measures have been taken gradually, before that, these monuments were exposed in broad daylight and suffered from wind and rain erosion. In some places, traces of natural peeling on the surface of the stone began to appear, that is, stone flowers. In some places, there are man-made scratches or natural man-made fractures, some are broken into two pieces, some are broken into three pieces, and more are gradually turned into residual stone fragments. After the continuous expansion of ink by literati, businessmen and grave robbers in the past dynasties, the monument was plump and round from the beginning and gradually became thin. These subtle changes provide a basis for us to date the inscriptions.