China News Service Client, Beijing, July 10 (Reporter Song Yusheng) Two of the hundreds of centuries-old national treasures and cultural relics were auctioned in France at a high price of 8.12 million euros. This matter has caused great concern in the collection industry. How can these two cultural relics called national treasures be lost overseas? Who is the real buyer?

Data map: "Yongle Grand Classic". Photo courtesy of the National Library

Mysterious man photographed ancient books in 11 minutes, is 8.12 million euros expensive?

　　On July 7, local time, two volumes of "Yongle Grand Prix" were auctioned at an auction house in Paris, France.

　　Before the auction, the lot had attracted the attention of many people in the field of ancient book collection, so the on-site auction was fierce.

　　The two volumes of "Yongle Dadian" started with 5,000 euros, and the bid price instantly exceeded 500,000 euros. After that, the bid price rose like a helicopter, and the price soared to 5 million euros in a few minutes.

　　"European Times" said that at that time the auction price had exceeded the limit of the auction company's display screen, the auction price could not be displayed. After an 11-minute auction, the lot was finally auctioned by a Chinese lady at the site at a bid of 6.4 million euros, which was more than 1,200 times the premium. As the commission of the auction house is 27%, the final transaction price of the two volumes of "Yongle Dadian" is 8128,000 euros (approximately 65 million yuan).

Screenshot of the auction house website

　　Ji Tao, a researcher at the Auction Research Center of Central University of Finance and Economics, said in an interview with a reporter from ChinaNews.com that the "Yongle Dadian" that can be preserved is indeed scarce. "Only from the auction point of view, if you can pay a high price, the lot must be in line with everyone's expectations."

　　However, the reporter also noticed that the starting prices of the two volumes of "Yongle Dadian" are far from the final transaction prices. Ji Tao believes that this also means that the auction house does not understand the true value of the two lots. "In our opinion, it is not an exaggeration to say that these two books are valuable."

Data map: "Yongle Grand Classic". Photo courtesy of the National Library

What book is "Yongle Classic"?

　　What kind of book is the "Yongle Classic" of "The Value of the City"?

　　"Yongle Dadian" was written more than 600 years ago. The book contains 22,877 volumes, 60 volumes, and 11095 volumes, and contains two original copies of Yongle and a copy of Jiajing.

　　In the first year of Yongle (AD 1403), Ming Chengzu Zhu Di decided to compile a large-scale book. He hopes that this book can bring together hundreds of classics, including the essence of all the books in the world, and become a great achievement in ancient and modern literature. It was not until the fifth year of Yongle (1407 AD) that this vast project was completed.

　　"Yongle Dadian" collected all the books and materials that can be seen at that time. According to "Hongwu Zhengyun", the relevant content was excerpted from one sentence, one paragraph, or the whole book, and the entire book. A total of about 370 million words were copied by hand. Seven thousand or eight thousand ancient books from the pre-Qin period to the early Ming period were preserved in China.

　　As a result, "Yongle Dadian" retains a lot of ancient book information from the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and even earlier. Chen Hongyan, deputy director of the National Library's Ancient Books Museum, gave an example to reporters: "For example, "History of the Old Five Dynasties", this ancient book no longer exists anymore. "The History of the Old Five Dynasties" is restored in "Yongle Classic"."

Data map: "Yongle Grand Classic". Photo courtesy of the National Library

Why is the Royal Collection scattered everywhere?

　　However, it is regrettable that the original whereabouts of "Yongle Dadian" has not been seen so far. Only the words "Yongle Dadian" that people talk about today refer to the copy of Jiajing, that is, the re-transcribed version of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty. But even for this copy, only 400 copies are known.

　　Since the book was written to modern times, the "Yongle Classic" as a royal collection has been scattered.

　　Compiled the "Sikuquanshu" between the Qianlong and Qing dynasties, and made an inventory of the "Dadian". There are more than 2,000 volumes missing, and nine tenths of them are still intact. Have been used.

　　During the period of the late Qing Dynasty, officials from the Hanlin Academy had been guarding against theft. Some people even sold "Yongle Classic" to foreigners.

　　In 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing. The "Yongle Grand Ceremony" was miserable. Most of them were burned down. A few survived. They were also spoiled and snatched by the invading army.

　　In the early years of the Republic of China, when the scraps of the "Yongle Classic" collected by the Hanlin Academy were transferred to the Jingshi Library (the predecessor of the National Library), the number was only 64.

Data map: "Yongle Grand Classic". Photo courtesy of the National Library

Reflow is not over yet

　　After the founding of New China, the collection of "Yongle Dadian" was put on the agenda: the Soviet Union, Germany, etc. had successively returned to "Yongle Dadian", and some private collectors in China also donated the collected "Yongle Dadian".

　　As of today, there are more than 400 volumes and more than 800 volumes of Jiajing copies of "Yongle Classic", which is less than 4% of the original volume. It is scattered in more than 30 public and private collection institutions in nine countries and regions. More than 200 of them are stored in the National Library.

　　Say back to the two volumes of "Yongle Dadian" in this auction. They are volume 2268, 2269 (2268, 2269), "mo", rhyme "hu", volume; volume 7,300,911, 7,300,90. Two (7391, 7392) "Yang" character rhyme "mourning" book.

　　Chen Hongyan, deputy director of the National Library's Ancient Books Museum, confirmed to reporters from ChinaNews.com that based on the characteristics of the existing "Yongle Dadian", as well as the photos and book shadows of the lot, the two "Yongle Dadian" should be copies of Jiajing.

　　She said: "Like this copy of the "Yongle Dadian", each volume should be unique. We also checked the existing "Yongle Dadian" related situation, which happened to be unrecorded." And the lake in the auction The appearance of the album just happened to make all the "Lake" scrolls now found connected, which is really rare.

Data map: 2018 "Kuangshihong Compiled Documents-The Exhibition of the "Yongle Classic" Documents Collection of the National Library". Photo courtesy of the National Library

　　According to reports, the auction company claimed that the two volumes were from French private collectors. Their family members were sent to China in the second half of the nineteenth century to hold the rank of colonel. They met with some officials in China in the 1870s Quite deep, many things were received, including two volumes of "Yongle Classic".

　　Many insiders in the field of ancient books and auctions revealed to reporters that it was Jin Liang, a Zhejiang entrepreneur and collector, who bought the two volumes of the "Yongle Dadian". He has donated precious ancient books to national public collection units many times. The reporter tried to contact the company whose legal representative was Jin Liang to verify the matter, but no reply was received as of press time.

　　May the national treasures come home soon! (Finish)