Huang Fujiang is no stranger to swords-his father used to be an expert in heat treatment and forging in Shenyang Knife Factory. When he was young, he watched his father and workers put all kinds of high-temperature tools into different liquids for quenching, which gave him a preliminary understanding of steelmaking. However, although his parents studied and made knives and cutting tools, they never collected their hobbies. At school, Huang Fujiang, like many boys, was a fanatic of martial arts novels. The characters written by Bruce Lee, Zisaburo, Jin Yong and Gu Long in the film inspired his wonderful imagination. At that time, he began to like reading books about the history and anecdotes of swords and went to Junbo to see the real things. According to his words, his understanding of the sword at this time is "quite mysterious, and he has no feeling for the real thing." On the one hand, there were not many places to see swords at that time-it was a pipe product, on the other hand, there was no money. It was not until a few years later that he was a guest at a friend's castle in France, and the owner showed him his collection of Arab machetes and other swords. The battle formation arranged in historical order shocked Huang Fujiang, and he realized that it was a collection and a culture.
He first bought the collection on July 4th, 1998. At that time, he and his father went to an antique shop in Seattle to discuss buying German solingen knives for $699. He has negotiated the price, but his parents are used to looking at the problem from the perspective of cost and quality, and think that the knife is not worth the price and is not practical. So they had an argument on the spot, and his father turned in a rage, and Huang Fujiang spent it all. I had to walk home along the road with a knife alone. I walked along Seattle-Bellevue Road for several hours from noon. It was dusk when I got home, and my family was anxious to call the police. Although his parents disapprove of his collection, his sister and brother-in-law who are engaged in antique business are very interested in the sword his brother bought. The next day, his brother-in-law borrowed money from his credit card to buy him a batch of swords. Fortunately, Huang Fujiang soon discovered that it was also a profitable business. He sold those things again, made money, and soon paid back his brother-in-law's money.
Since then, he and his family have embarked on the road of collecting swords. He admitted that he liked the craft sword that he had just made at first, with beautiful appearance and exquisite workmanship. Later, he liked the western sword and Japanese sword, but he fell in love with China sword a year later, which was due to his affinity for the mother culture, as well as his shrewdness and "competitiveness" in collection. "Because foreign swords have a long history, many museums and private collections are very systematic.
At that time, western and Japanese swords and China antique swords popular in foreign antique shops were very cheap, but in China, they were even more unusual. Few people collect these seemingly rusty things, and there are few research works. Huang Fujiang said that this is a good thing, no one misled them, and there are not so many calligraphy and painting porcelains. Of course, there are more fake swords now. Seven or eight years ago, when he went to Shanxi, a farmer often held out a large bundle of rusty unearthed swords without having to pick them by hand. He just pulled out a pile with his feet and said he wanted it. On average, each is only a few tens of dollars. Now, according to people who go there to buy things again, the quotations given by farmers are similar to those offered by Sotheby's auction house, often tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.
From the Sword-drawing Studio to the Sword of China
Huang Fujiang devoted all his spare time to collection. At the height of his enthusiasm, he traveled all over the country in cultural relics shops and antique (second-hand) markets, handling hundreds of swords every month, and once launched a collection operation by flying all over the world. It took him about a week to set out from Guangzhou and travel all over the United States, German, Malaysian, Hongkong and Guangzhou, and he bought back nine Gu Jian, including a Persian Damascus long knife and a long-awaited China Gu Jian. He has formed a powerful information network, and he can know the China sword trading in the world's major antique markets within 24 hours. Today, their family's collection of China's iron and steel antique weapons can be compared with any national museum and private collection in the world, both in quantity and variety. In addition, he also has the largest number of Qing imperial swords outside the Palace Museum in Beijing.
With more and more collections, his mentality has changed from "curiosity" to more in-depth discussion and exploration. 1999, he took the lead in establishing the "Sword Drawing World Forum" with ancient weapons in China as the main discussion object. It is named after its fascination with the protagonist "Sword Painting Studio" in the Japanese cartoon "Rogue Sword Heart", which attracted a large number of sword lovers. Here, he found more bosom friends, which will help him compile the world's first book "The Sword of China" which systematically introduces China's sword.
From collecting to writing a book, he jokingly called it "Shangliang Mountain". At the time of collection, he noticed that Japan, Europe and the United States had made quite complete research on Japanese swords and western swords, while China swords, especially steel swords after the Han Dynasty, were hardly noticed abroad, and there were few studies at home. In several national museums in China, except for a few steel swords before Han Dynasty and after Qing Dynasty, few representative collections of other dynasties can be found. Therefore, he is determined to write a book that comprehensively introduces the essence of China's sword and popularize it, so that collectors and researchers can have a basic guide. In the book, he takes the collections of himself and the world's major museums as examples, and discusses in detail the shape, types, evolution and development, materials, manufacturing and decoration techniques of steel swords, which is the summary of his collection in the past ten years.
When traveling around the world, he always goes to local museums to see weapons exhibitions. China's precious weapons are displayed in the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum in new york, the French Military Museum in Paris, the Royal Ordnance Bureau in Leeds, Osaka, Amano Temple and Masakura in Nara. What makes him feel is that these collections have been well studied. In contrast, in terms of quantity and variety, materials, explanations, and even furnishings and maintenance are still far from satisfactory. For example, the Palace Museum in Shenyang and Beijing also has some imperial swords of the Qing Dynasty, but most of them are not open to the public. Only a small part of the exhibition, the information is too simple.
I love famous knives, but I love broken swords more.
Although there is such an impressive collection of emperors' sabres, Huang Fujiang's favorite collection is a scholar-like Sui Jian "Baiyun".
In 2004, he saw this Sui Tiejian with almost perfect appearance in the antique shop of Liulichang in Beijing, and spent 20,000 yuan to buy it, which became his favorite. This sword is tall and straight with flat shoulders, narrow blade and thick ridge, and there are silver clouds in the blood groove, so it is named Baiyun. He loves classical poetry, and often thinks of allusions of "fleeting", which evokes thousands of loneliness.
He also likes the Ming dynasty sword with rough texture, and likes to feel the flowing water and cirrus patterns on the sword with his hands. Unfortunately, most swords handed down from Gu Jian are rusty, and some antique dealers and even collectors often carry out mechanical polishing or chemical treatment to look good. When the sword shines, it often makes the pattern unrecognizable. Huang Fujiang is most opposed to mechanical polishing. "Before the Yuan Dynasty, swords were often too long and rusted too thick, so to avoid polishing, only a little surface treatment was needed to prevent corrosion from continuing to penetrate. However, if the ancient blade of Ming and Qing dynasties is not too rusty, the conditional blade can be rusted and ground. " Sometimes he will grind it by himself, and use his fingers, eyes and ears to experience the gradual infiltration of beauty, making a rusty and seemingly inconspicuous one.
It's just that he has too many collections, many of which have not been carefully read, and most of the swords have not been polished so far, because he feels that the polishing process is not perfect now, and he would rather wait.
Collecting swords, he not only pays attention to the integrity of appearance, but also cares about the material, craft and historical value of swords, and even symbolizes the essence of China traditional culture. "Even a tattered rusty iron that doesn't even have a handle can be realized. In fact, after the Han Dynasty, the sword gradually separated from the battlefield, and gradually sublimated from the weapon of killing and the symbol of identity to the symbol of benevolence, righteous war, rationality, wisdom and integrity.
In his view, China sword, which is also called "the five famous swords in the world" with Indian sword, Islamic sword, Malay sword, Japanese mountain sword and western sword, is the most gentlemanly. For example, "China's sword is mostly soft sword, which is soft, tough and sharp. There is no danger of Persian saber, and it takes the lead in stealth by using the running speed of horses; Not as arrogant as Japanese Dao, holding the knife with both hands, and doing everything possible to kill it. China's sword pays attention to holding the sword in one hand, which is elegant and intangible, with softness and rigidity. In a master fight, the tip of the sword refers to the key, not the fatal part. A sword breaks the opponent's wrist, shoots down the weapon, that is, retreats and stops, the sword is sheathed, and no one is killed. "
As an intellectual property protection lawyer of foreign wine, the bloody romance of joy, enmity and hatred has been dissolved by legal provisions, but at least, his childhood martial arts dream has been half realized.