ONE IS A NEW START - QIN’S SPADE
ONE IS A NEW START -QIN’S SPADEBy：Zhou Shouyuan
The first time when I saw this lightly rusted, beautiful and extremely fine piece of spade "one", I was instantly moved by it. There were some words coming to my mind at the same time. One of them is "We'll have a fresh start for the year ahead" and the other one is "One is the child of the divine law. After one come two, after two come three, after three come all things". These two lines come from the Commentary of Gongyang and the Moral Sutra 2000 years ago.
I have read the introduction written by Professor Zhang Fengzhi from Taiwan, the previous owner of this spade. I am not only attracted by professor Zhang's collection taste, but also touched by his personality and character. Due to its excellent condition on rust and personal interest in the word "one", even though this spade isn’t a low-cost item, I am still very happy to take it and then want to write this article.
1，Less is More
"One" is the basic stroke of Chinese characters, and it is also the simplest independent character. The definition is the smallest positive integer. "One" as the finger-pointing word, is a horizontal line drawn on oracle bones, Jin Letter and Seal Script. It is the ancient notation for counting or stroke or chip. A script written in regular script after transformation is written as "一". For Chinese handwriting symmetry, then we plus representation writing as "弌".
The original meaning of the word "one" is the number one, the smallest positive integer. According to the first Chinese Dictionary, "one" is everything's beginning and everything comes from the split of "one」. This is an account of the social thought of the time. In philosophy, "one" refers to concentration and purity as dominant role in human philosophy. The First script recorded in Guanzi said: Concentration or One?
Therefore, although the "one" is simple, it is rich in meaning, such as purity and concentration on emotion, whole and full on space and time, note on music, the first time on life. The "one", as the smallest unit of digital existence, constitute the language foundation of computer and program operation with "zero".
It can be said that "one" brings the concept of "less is more" into full play. In this high-tech and heavier burden society, people are pursuing the "subtraction" of life. Something lead to a better result due to the less, so many people begin to advocate the concept of less. The word "One" is probably one of the most representative characters of traditional Oriental culture and philosophy.
This spade maintains intact appearance and pretty rusty over 2000 years by bringing the external visual experience to collectors.It also brings intrinsic cultural experience, initially as symbol of first, has a wide range of cultural and philosophical connotation, which is the physical and mental experience from collection itself.
2，The Beauty of the Pre-Qin Period
For Chinese coin collectors, ancient coins is an important category unable to skip. From The Shang Dynasty to The republic of China, the Chinese ancient coins were being changed in a variety of materials and form. The ancient coin of each period contains rich historical, cultural and financial information, as well as the productivity level, production technology and aesthetic interest at that time.
In fact, each ancient coin from different dynasty has its own characteristics, which attract so huge number of collectors. For example, in the Pre-Qin Period, there were different shapes and varieties of shell coin, spade coin, knife-shaped coin, etc. These coins turned to hundreds to thousands of varieties, which are classic and have high research value.
Among the ancient coins of the past dynasties, the ones of the Pre-Qin dynasty were favored because of its unique culture and ancient charm. Pre-Qin coin not only reflects the end of the spring and autumn period and the monetary system reform, shell coin replaced by real coins, but also reflects the time of the casting technological level, standardized system, legal safeguard. Moreover, it played an important role in unifying the measures.
Whether spades, knife-shaped coin or round coins, they reflect the social hierarchy and high position of agriculture. For instant, Spade Coins were from the "镈"(Spade) in form. In the age of barter, people often took the digging tool for something else. However, the pronounce of "镈" is the same as "布", so the spade coins were called "bu".
Each country's coin is its "National Card". The Pre-Qin period coins are the "National Card" to China because of their unique shape, huge size, ancient charm, and the portrayal of ancient production and life. The beauty and charm of ancient coins of Pre-Qin period makes people moved through more than 2000 years.
3，The Struggle of the Pre-Qin Period
Compared with Qing Dynasty Coins and Charm coins in recent years, however, the value and attention of the Pre-Qin Period Coins are being lower and lower, which means embarrassed. The reason why this happen are difficult level and speculation besides repair.
Repair is a common phenomenon in the collection and protection, many of which belong to restoration or exhibition. However, repair has become a nightmare of collector driven by huge profits. In recent years, ultra-high levels of restoration have been exposed on various platforms, and even fragments that have been torn apart or lacked can be "restored as origin". Before X-ray photography was widespread, I don't know how many collectors had been deceived.
The Spade of the Pre-Qin period was easy to fracture because of its unique form, but it also could be restored by craftsmen. Nevertheless, once under the X-ray, the trace of repair, stitched cannot hiding. Many collectors had been deceived including Professor Zhang Fengzhi. I felt sad when I saw Mr. Zhang's collection looking in good condition, but the X-ray shows fracture and repair.
This is one of the reasons why coins in the Pre-Qin period are embarrassed. But I know this situation cannot stop real collectors, especially when I saw the various sets and patterns of Pre-Qin coins of Professor Zhang Fengzhi. It is just like a historical scroll, restoring the historical scene, and also telling the collection story over thousands of years. Moreover, the research of the coin culture will fill the collection with cultural atmosphere.
If the restoration created the dilemma of the ancient money of the Pre-Qin Dynasty, then the only thing that could save them is the real collectors. Only the real collectors, who has willingness to experience its taste and connotation, have more opportunities to treat the collection and find the joy. I believe the dilemma will be no longer exist if there are more and more people like this.
One is the new start.
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