Antique Guide (Color Illustration)

Author: Zhao Ruzhen
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2007-01-01
Features: The Guide to Antique Collecting is considered the first systematic theoretical work in the field of antique collecting. It is a classic literature that has been continuously interpreted over the past six decades, allowing you to appreciate the profound depth of traditional Chinese culture in understanding the origins, appraisal, identification, and imitation of antiques. This is a concise edition of The Guide to Antique Collecting, translated into plain language, featuring 1,500 selected antique images that provide a visual feast during reading. The Guide to Antique Collecting took about three years to write, extensively introducing knowledge of antique appreciation, covering a wide variety of antique types and items. In 1942, the 200,000-character The Guide to Antique Collecting was published, and it quickly gained popularity both inside and outside Liulichang. The first 500 copies sold out within less than 20 days, and a second printing was issued in October. In March 1943, Zhao Ruzhen continued writing The Continuation of the Guide to Antique Collecting, which was also over 200,000 characters long. It sold out immediately upon release. In the same June, he wrote Distinguishing Genuine from Fake Antiques, which also received praise from readers. The purpose of writing this book was to cast a stone to attract attention, hoping to draw the attention of experts. As for this edition, whether it is good or bad is not of great importance, so no particular effort was made in the writing process. All content is derived from current reference books and examples from the author's memory, not thoroughly verified, resulting in brief and somewhat disorganized narration, with inevitable errors and inaccuracies. There were two difficulties in compiling this book: 1. Most books on Chinese archaeology and similar subjects use outdated language, making the sentences obscure and difficult for modern readers to understand. The author did not dare to arbitrarily change them to snatch the beauty of the ancients. Therefore, in this edition, all difficult passages are quoted directly from ancient texts, hoping readers will be patient and not think the author is deliberately showing off. 2. The most important aspect of this edition lies in exposing the dark of fake antique making, as the techniques of forging have been around for a long time and have become a special profession in society.