Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 879: Chapter 875: The Real and Fake Xuande Furnace

At this sight, the four of them, led by Huo Sining, were all stunned.

Inside the box was not something else, but an incense burner.

To the naked eye, this incense burner looked like a Qing Dynasty Xuande Furnace, clearly made of fine copper, with excellent metal quality, and its surface thick and smooth, entirely gilded.

Such a fine copper item should logically be paired with a magnificent and fluid design, but this Xuande Furnace was slightly more flattening, with a design that had glimpses of Ming Xuande’s elegance: a round drummed belly, a constricted neck, a flat bottom, with a bulging, gourd-shaped belly evenly and vertically distributed in concave and convex, dividing the gourd into many parts, each part full and smooth like a child’s bottom.

Those familiar with Xuande Furnaces would know that such a texture suggested a style from the late Qing Dynasty, during the Jiaqing period.

However, the design of this Xuande Furnace looked somewhat strange; it had the appearance of a Northern Gourd Furnace but was slightly distinct from the traditional ones. Nevertheless, Huo Sining couldn’t quite pinpoint the exact difference.

”This is a Qing imitation of a Ming Xuande Furnace. I don’t know much about these, but my late husband often said that this Xuande Furnace is a rare treasure among Qing imitations.”

Seeing Huo Sining and the others fixated on the incense burner, Madam Yan introduced it with a smile, her eyes glimmering as if reminiscing about her past with her husband.

Although Qing imitations are not as valuable as genuine Xuande pieces, the incense burner before them was indeed extraordinarily well-preserved. After hearing Madam Yan’s words, Li Quan couldn’t help but ask, ”Madam, may we take a closer look at this item?”

Madam Yan nodded, saying, ”Since I brought it out, you certainly should. Otherwise, even if I were willing to sell it to you, you wouldn’t be at ease, right? Boss Li, feel free, just don’t break it.”

Li Quan immediately laughed, ”Rest assured, we’ve all had professional training.”

The group washed their hands before resuming their seats, each taking a turn to examine the incense burner closely.

Huo Sining was the last to examine the Xuande Furnace. Initially, she shared Madam Yan’s view, assuming it was indeed a Qing imitation of a Ming Xuande Furnace. But when she held the incense burner and saw the surrounding purple spiritual energy, her hand paused involuntarily.

Back in Zhouzhuang, Huo Sining had accidentally found a Moonlight White Agate Wine Cup passed down from Shen Wansan in the Ming Dynasty. That cup had dense purple energy, unmistakably genuine early Ming Dynasty white agate.

Now, the Xuande Furnace in Huo Sining’s hand had two layers of purple energy. The outer layer was faint, likely formed during the late Qing period, while the inner layer was notably dense, closely matching the thickness of the white agate.

The two layers of purple energy of varying thicknesses made Huo Sining realize that this Xuande Furnace was definitely not as simple as she and Madam Yan had thought.

A flash of brilliance appeared in Huo Sining’s eyes as she instinctively lowered her head to reexamine the Xuande Furnace.

Using the Heavenly Eye, she scanned the incense burner inside and out, and soon noticed a peculiarity.

Inside the copper furnace, she found a strange isolating layer made of an unknown material, effectively dividing the Xuande Furnace into an inner and outer layer.

Huo Sining had seen Xuande Furnaces before, but never one with such an odd, two-layered construction. She instinctively felt something was amiss.

The outer copper layer seemed to have been deliberately added later. Whether its purpose was to protect the inner material or to mislead, she couldn’t be sure.

Finding it peculiar and doubting it, Huo Sining couldn’t help but inspect the copper furnace again. Upon examining the bottom, she made a new discovery.

Using the Heavenly Eye, she saw through the thin copper isolating layer and clearly observed the original bottom of the copper furnace, which appeared unusual.

In regular script, sixteen characters were engraved squarely at the bottom of the copper furnace.

’To atone for forgetting my ancestors and my sins, this incense burner was made by Yuntai Master in the Jiaqing era.’

These characters already explained the origin of this incense burner.

Yuntai, also known as platform, was not an ordinary place, but Jianji Hall in the Forbidden City during the Chongzhen Dynasty.

Jianji Hall was not well-known; after the Qing soldiers entered the pass and the Forbidden City was occupied, it was renamed Baohedian and served as the incense burning hall.

Thus, the Yuntai Master during the Chongzhen era was clearly Emperor Chongzhen himself.

Having clarified this, it was no longer hard to understand the incense burner.

The Jiaqing year, specifically in 1635, marked a significant event in the Ming Dynasty: bandit leaders Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng joined forces and advanced east. Zhang Xianzhong surrounded Fengyang City in the fog on the morning of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month and decimated the two thousand guarding troops within half a day, seizing the city.

Though Fengyang City was far from the Forbidden City, it housed the ancestral tombs of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor, and Longxing Temple, where he had been a monk. This place had always been regarded as the Zhu family’s lifeline.

Zhang Xianzhong not only conquered Fengyang in half a day, he also chopped down tens of thousands of pines from the imperial tombs and tore down the tombs and Longxing Temple, desecrating the royal ancestral graves.

The burning of Fengyang’s imperial tombs deeply shocked the Ming court. Upon receiving the news, Emperor Chongzhen donned mourning clothes, rushed to Tai Miao, and wept bitterly before the ancestral tablets, ordering all officials to wear plain clothing and observe a vegetarian diet while handling state affairs. He also mobilized seventy thousand elite troops to crush the rebellion.

Given the context, it’s easy to understand the meaning of the sixteen characters on this Xuande Furnace.

In the aftermath of the rebels’ desecration of the royal tombs and ancestral lifeline, Emperor Chongzhen, feeling deeply ashamed, entreated his ancestors to punish him, engraving this disgrace on the incense burner.

At this point, Huo Sining could finally confirm that someone had tampered with the Xuande Furnace, transforming an authentic Ming Dynasty Xuande Furnace into a Qing imitation.

Understanding the incense burner’s history, a peculiar smile appeared on Huo Sining’s face.

This incense burner was part of Madam Yan’s dowry, indicating that she, her husband, and even her father were all fooled.

Someone had deliberately added a copper layer to the outer surface of the incense burner, obscuring its original appearance. The Qing imitation markers were so clear that people mistook it for a Qing imitation of a Ming Xuande Furnace.

Though the reason why the original owner did this was unknown, it was good news for Huo Sining. The price disparity between a Qing imitation and a genuine Xuande piece was nearly tenfold. She would be a fool not to seize this opportunity to buy a treasure at a bargain price.