The ancients usually wrote calligraphy and painting on paper or silk. Therefore, if you can understand the silk and paper of the past dynasties, it will be particularly useful for identifying the authenticity of calligraphy and painting. The invention of silk in China preceded that of paper, and the use of silk for calligraphy and painting was also relatively early. However, silk has a flaw, that is, it does not last as long as paper. No matter how well it is preserved and protected from any accidental damage, the old silk will become brittle due to the natural corrosion of air. Silk that is more than a hundred years old has no toughness. Silk from the early Ming Dynasty is now too corrupt to be touched. As for the silk from the Song Dynasty, it can still be seen because of its better mounting. As for the silk from before the Song Dynasty, although it exists, its appearance is no longer identifiable. Silk made in the early Song Dynasty had single threads horizontally and vertically, but the horizontal threads were slightly thicker and looked like double threads. In the middle of the Song Dynasty, the horizontal and vertical silk threads had the same thickness, but were thicker than the early silk threads, and the color was slightly the same as that of the deep Tibetan scripture paper. Yuan your silk, the horizontal and vertical silk threads are still single, but the silk threads are thin and the texture is sparse. In the early Ming Dynasty, the vertical thread was single and the horizontal thread was double. The thread thickness was uniform and the density was regular. In the Qing Dynasty, both horizontal and vertical silk were changed to double silk, and the previous single silk silk no longer existed. Silk from before the Ming Dynasty has been passed down to this day, and its surface has absolutely no luster; the fluff on the silk has also completely faded. Its color is the same inside and outside. If the counterfeiter uses new silk, he can tell it by the thickness of the horizontal and vertical silk threads. There is a special kind of Yuan silk silk. On the surface, it is similar to the silk of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. However, the light on the surface and the fluff on the silk cannot be completely removed no matter what method is used; and its color is also different inside and outside. Different, it can never be exactly the same as silk. The situation with paper is a bit more complicated. There were several types of paper before the Song Dynasty, but there is no exact record of its materials. The ancient paper handed down from ancient times mainly includes cotton paper and linen paper. On the surface, tissue paper is somewhat similar to today's rice paper. The texture of hemp paper is rougher than tissue paper. Both tissue paper and linen paper are mixed with silk. Cotton paper has short filaments, while linen paper has long filaments. There is a simple and easy way to determine the age of paper: take an old piece of paper, soak it in water, and pick it with a needle. If it is Song paper, there must be a lot of velvet, and no matter how broken it is, it can still be framed. This is not possible with paper after the Song Dynasty. If you observe it with a microscope, the real paper is not smooth, the film looks like insect-eaten, and there is a layer of white dust that is looming. The color is consistent regardless of whether it is inside or outside, whether it is concave or convex. The forgery is peerless, because it is dyed with colors, which make it darker when thicker and lighter when thinner; lighter on the inside and heavier on the outside; convex and concave without it. Because the texture is different, the degree of color reception must be different.
Chinese calligraphy and painting art have a long history. Calligraphers and painters of past dynasties have created a large number of calligraphy and painting works, many of which are both exquisite works of art and precious cultural relics. For more than a thousand years, people have produced many fakes for various reasons. Therefore, among the actual calligraphy and paintings handed down from ancient times, there is a mixture of good and bad, and a mixture of authenticity and fakeness. For everyone who loves calligraphy and painting, whether they are studying, appreciating, purchasing, or collecting, the first question is how to distinguish authenticity. The identification of fake calligraphy and painting is closely related to the forgery of calligraphy and painting. According to records, some people forged the calligraphy of the two kings in the Southern Dynasty, and Zhang Yizhi in the Tang Dynasty had people forge famous paintings. However, before the Five Dynasties, such intentional forgery was rare. People copied and copied ancient calligraphy and painting mainly as a means of dissemination and study. In the Song Dynasty, with the unprecedented development of commerce, calligraphy and painting works became a highly profitable commodity. Cultural relics markets including calligraphy and painting appeared in some large cities. For example, the market at Xiangguo Temple in Bianjing had a market specializing in the sale of calligraphy and painting. Therefore, the phenomenon of counterfeiting for profit has become more common. Mi Fu of the Northern Song Dynasty claimed that only two of the paintings by Li Cheng in the early Song Dynasty he had seen were authentic, and the remaining 300 were fakes. According to records of the Song Dynasty, Mi Fu himself once forged ancient calligraphy and paintings to defraud others of their original paintings. This is evident. Under such circumstances, the study of identifying forgeries in calligraphy and painting flourished. At that time, many calligraphers, painters, and scholars were known for their proficiency in appreciation. When discussing calligraphy and painting works of the past dynasties, they often mentioned the issue of authenticity. "Dongtian Qinglu" written by Zhao Xigao of the Southern Song Dynasty is my country's first cultural relics appreciation work with the main content of identifying forgeries. Among them, "Identification of Authentic Ancient Calligraphy and Ink" and "Identification of Ancient Paintings" are dedicated to identifying forgeries of calligraphy and painting. From what is said in the book, it can be seen that at that time the authenticity could be distinguished based on the artistic style, paper and silk, pen and ink, format, decoration, seal and other aspects.
For example, when talking about Li Gonglin's paintings, "there are almost no sluggish brush strokes, and any handwriting that is heavy and muddy is a forgery"; when talking about the format, "most of the ancient paintings are straight, and some paintings are eight feet long, and the same is true for double paintings, with the horizontal draping starting at meters. "The father and son of the family (Mi Fu, Mi Youren) are not made in ancient times." On the color of ink, "the color of ancient paintings is black or light ink, which is caused by accumulated dust. It has an antique and lovely fragrance. If the author is a fake, he usually paints yellow, and Bright and not dark, this can be distinguished." In the Ming Dynasty, the trend of forgery in calligraphy and painting became more popular. At that time, not only were there forgery by individuals, but also workshops specializing in fake paintings appeared. Correspondingly, people were more concerned about the authenticity of calligraphy and painting. Notice. Cao Zhao's original work and Wang Zuo's supplementary "Xinxing Gegu Yaolu" include chapters such as "On Ancient Paintings" and "On Ancient Ink Marks", which discuss the issue of forgery identification of calligraphy and painting more broadly and deeply than previous authors. Gao Shen's "Zunsheng Eight Notes Yan Xianqing Appreciation Notes" contains chapters such as "Distinguishing the Authenticity of Papers and Ink" and "Miscellaneous Comments on Painters' Appreciation of Authenticity". The discussions in the book are in many respects a reference to the "New Gegu Yaolu" 》Corrected and supplemented. In addition, many books on calligraphy and painting also touch on the issue of forgery. Since the Qing Dynasty, the functions of calligraphy and painting have expanded. Celebrity calligraphy and painting are not only cultural relics and curios for appreciation and display, but also regarded as wealth that can be stored and preserved. They are even often used as bribes and gifts, becoming a kind of A means to obtain official positions and smooth relationships. This made the business of calligraphy and painting more prosperous, and the prices increased day by day, so the scale of counterfeiting became larger and the techniques became more sophisticated. Because the authenticity of calligraphy and painting is directly related to people's economic interests and the success or failure of official activities, everyone who deals with calligraphy and painting, such as calligraphers, painters, collectors, antique dealers, etc., attaches great importance to the issue of authenticity. At that time, there were many discussions and treatises on the identification of forgeries of calligraphy and paintings. Due to the development of historical textual research and identification of ancient artifacts, people's methods of identifying forgeries were more complete and their guiding ideas more correct. For example, Qian Yong once proposed the basic principle of independent thinking and looking more at the real thing, which negated the popular method of identifying counterfeiting that "requires diamond eyesight and discerns thieves' thoughts" in the past. This shows that the authenticity of calligraphy and painting in the Qing Dynasty has gradually formed a relatively complete system. During the Republic of China, the methods for detecting forgeries in calligraphy and paintings became more advanced, the level also improved, and became increasingly institutionalized and academic. Relevant monographs and monographs are constantly being published, and the knowledge of identifying forgeries has become more popular. At that time, the government's antiquities exhibitions and museums had specialized personnel engaged in systematic appraisal and identification of counterfeiting of calligraphy and paintings. In the increasingly developing antiques industry, there were also a large number of experts who were skilled in identification and identification of counterfeiting. Some people also used their own Monographs written based on experience, such as Zhao Ruzhen's "Guide to Antiques", include a special chapter on the forgery and identification of calligraphy and painting forgery, which still has certain reference value. After liberation, with the deepening of historical research and the development of cultural relics museums, the research of cultural relics, including calligraphy and painting, has made unprecedented achievements, and the identification of forgeries of calligraphy and painting has embarked on a scientific and systematic path. Many experts engaged in calligraphy and painting appraisal not only humbly absorb the experience of their predecessors, but also create and invent. Coupled with the use of modern scientific methods, such as infrared photography to display minimally contrasting pictures, impressions and ink marks, etc., thus making The study of identifying forgeries in calligraphy and painting has become more perfect. Their comprehensive and in-depth knowledge, complete and precise methods, and incisive and accurate judgments are unmatched by their predecessors.