Chapter 680 Chaozhu
Lu Fei never dreamed that the flat box of Erlong Xizhu contained a plate of East Pearl and Chaozhu.
The shape of the beads is like a rosary, with a total of 108 beads. A large bead is inserted between every 27 beads. There are four large beads in total, which are called divided beads.
The beads are made of East beads, red coral, jade, amber, beeswax, etc. They are decorated with ribbons of various colors such as bright yellow, golden yellow and azurite, and hang from the neck to the chest.
Although the texture of Chaozhu is different, its style is strictly unified.
The counting unit of beads is called "plate". One plate of beads needs to be strung with 108 beads and four large knotted beads.
Imperial beads are very particular and have profound meanings. .??.
One hundred and eight beads symbolize the twelve months of the year, the twenty-four solar terms and the seventy-two seasons.
Four knotted beads evenly spaced symbolize the four seasons of the year, also known as "knotted beads".
A hou is an ancient unit of time. One hou is five days, and there are 72 hou in a year.
There are three strings of small beads attached to both sides of the bead: one string on one side and two strings on the other side, which are called "memory".
The three groups of "memory" represent the upper, middle and lower thirty days of each month, and five days are one period, so every fifth of the ten beads must be tied with a knot.
There are different ways of wearing it for men and women. Two strings on the left and one string on the right are for men. Two strings on the right and one string on the left are for women.
There is also a string of beads hanging down the back, which is called Beiyun.
In the Qing Dynasty, the beads on the back should have a festival card in the middle and a falling angle at the bottom. When wearing, the cloud on the back should be placed behind the neck. This would have a balancing effect and prevent the beads from moving left and right when worn.
Although court beads are decorations, ordinary officials and common people cannot wear them at will.
There are also strict classification and grade regulations for what kind of beads to wear. From the quality of the beads worn on the chest of an official, we can see the rank of the official.
"A Comprehensive Examination of Qing Dynasty Documents." It is recorded in "Wang Li Seventeen and Eighteen".
Only officials of the fifth rank of civil servants, fourth rank of military attachés and above, officials from the Military Aircraft Department, Guards, Ministry of Rites, Imperial College, Taichang Temple, Guanglu Temple, Honglu Temple, etc., and wives of fifth-rank officials and above can be employed.
Depending on the size and status of the official title, the beads and ribbon colors are different.
Among them, the dongzhu and bright yellow sash can only be used by the emperor, empress and empress dowager.
Even the emperor had to wear court beads of different textures on different occasions.
Wear lapis lazuli beads when worshiping the sky, wear amber or honey wax beads when worshiping the earth, wear red coral beads when worshiping the sun, and wear turquoise beads when worshiping the moon.
Among them, the most precious Dongzhu Chaozhu can only be worn by the emperor, the empress dowager, and the empress when holding grand ceremonies in the palace.
The plate of court beads in Lu Fei's hand is made of Dongzhu, and it is a men's model, so it is 100% certain that it was used by the emperor.
Because this thing is exclusive to the royal family, no matter how big or small the officials are, if they have Dongzhu Chaozhu, whether they wear it or not, it is arrogance.
In mild cases, beheading would lead to death; in more serious cases, it would be possible to have the whole family beheaded.
Among the twenty crimes against Heshen back then was the private possession of Dongzhu and Chaozhu. This was really no joke.
The plate of beads in front of me is made of 108 East beads, each one is full, round and pleasing to the eye.
It is divided into four equal sections of coral beads, with a total of eight lapis lazuli beads pierced on both sides of the beads.
One of the coral beads is connected to the turquoise Buddha head, and a yellow ribbon is connected to the clouds on the back.
On the back of the cloud, a gold cat's eye stone is inlaid, and the coral is carved into the shape of a bat to make a knot plaque. There are four East beads knotted together. The falling corner is supported by a gold thread and a ruby drops.
There are three commemorative strings of beads, each string is pierced with ten turquoises, with rubies on the corners, and one east bead and one bead on top.
On the top of the turquoise Buddha head, there is a small regular script character "Buddha" engraved, and the character "Buddha" on the right half cannot be seen at a glance.
This is the unique mark of Emperor Kangxi.
All the "Buddha" characters written by Emperor Kangxi look like this.
From this we can judge that the owner of this plate of Dongzhu Chaozhu is Aixinjueluo Xuanye, Emperor Kangxi.
This is so cool.
The book "Palace Treasures", a collection of cultural relics and treasures collected by the Palace Museum, contains a total of eight sets of court beads.
There are also a few plates in the hands of private collectors.
Lu Fei had seen a plate of lapis lazuli beads worn by the emperor when he worshiped heaven at Wang Zhenbang's place.
In addition, there are six sets in Baodao Gubo.
But adding the total number together, there are only three known Dongzhu Chaozhu.
Among these three sets, only one is the Dongzhu Chaozhu of Emperor Guangxu, and the other two are Cixi's.
In the 2010 Sotheby's Autumn Auction in Hong Kong, a plate of Dongzhu Chaozhu belonging to Emperor Jiaqing appeared, in which 39 beads were damaged.
Even so, it still sold for a high price of HK$67 million.
But whether it was the plate of Chaozhu suspected of Jiaqing, or the other three plates.
No matter from which aspect, there is no comparison with Emperor Kangxi’s present set of pearls from the East and the North.
Holding this plate of beads in his hand, Lu Fei couldn't help but feel a chill.
Damn it!
Qian Yongchang is too brave to even accept this thing!
Fortunately, this guy didn't take this thing abroad, otherwise Emperor Kangxi would have ordered thousands of little devils to skin him alive.
"Brother, this string of beads"
"I'm so timid when it comes to discussing pearls on a plate or string." Lu Fei said.
"All right!"
"Which emperor does this plate of beads belong to?" the little nanny asked.
"It belongs to Emperor Kangxi."
"Hiss——"
"so smart?"
"What, dear brother, can I wear it to look cool and have a royal air?"
"Be careful, don't break it."
"Brother, do you mean you agree?" the little puppy asked excitedly.
"Wear it or not. If not, I'll put it away!"
"Wear it, wear it!"
The little puppy carefully put the beads around its neck, held its head high, walked in a figure-step, and made a lot of noises.
"whee!"
"It belongs to Emperor Kangxi!"
"Ha ha"
"Hey, Ji Yong, do you see any changes in me?" The little puppy smiled brightly.
"No!"
"What changes can be caused by wearing Chaozhu?" Ji Yong asked.
The little milk dog curled his lips and said displeasedly.
"Impossible, this is Emperor Kangxi's property, how could it not have changed!"
"I can feel it myself. The moment I put on this plate of beads, I felt my fairy spirit floating around, as if there were nine golden dragons spinning around me."
"It feels so good."
"Hold!"
Lu Fei rolled his eyes angrily, and Ji Yong even gnashed his teeth.
Seeing the disdainful expressions on several people's faces, the little milk dog said seriously.
"Don't believe it, it feels really good!"
Lu Fei sneered.
"Wearing this thing, it's impossible to have a fairy spirit."
"It's quite possible to say that there is ghost energy."
"Maybe, Emperor Kangxi will chat with you soon and conduct an exclusive interview with you, asking you how it feels to wear his beads."
"When the time comes, calm down and communicate well with Emperor Kangxi. Don't embarrass us!"
"Oh my god!"
The little puppy was so frightened that his face turned pale. He hurriedly took off the Chaozhu and handed it to Lu Fei, saying tremblingly.
"Brother, don't scare me!"
