Although many Qing dynasty printed books are now classified as rare books, most of them are official printed books before Qianlong. It will take about another hundred years for a private printed book like this one from the Guangxu period to be classified as a rare book.

That's right, Yang Jing has already authenticated this book with the ring, and it is indeed a private edition from the Guangxu period. Of course, the ring also gave a definite answer, that is, Liu Zheng Liu Shiqi was indeed a person from the Kangxi period.

Of course Yang Jing had to bargain hard for this kind of shop owner who was playing tricks on him, and directly offered a price of one thousand.

The shop owner's trick was exposed by Yang Jing on the spot. What other ways could he refute?

Obviously not.

Moreover, the price given by Yang Jing was neither high nor low, and it just hit the price bottleneck of this kind of late Qing Dynasty private edition. It is basically the most appropriate price for this kind of book at present.

The shop owner obviously realized that Yang Jing was an expert, otherwise he would not have been able to see the trick in the book at a glance and immediately tell the book's current price.

However, the boss still wanted to try his best and said, "Brother, the price you gave is really too low. How about you raise it a little bit?"

Yang Jing shook his head slightly and said, "It can't go up any more. This book is priced this way now. And this Qing edition is not an official edition before Emperor Qianlong, otherwise it wouldn't have gone up so much in recent years. I'll just buy it for collection."

If this book didn't contain some precious treasures, Yang Jing wouldn't bother talking to the shop owner.

Seeing Yang Jing's firm attitude, the shop owner was also hesitant.

"Boss, how about this? I'll read a few more books. If I find any suitable ones, I'll take them away with me."

Hearing what Yang Jing said, the boss nodded reluctantly, and then took out a few books for Yang Jing.

Yang Jing flipped through them and found that these books were all Qing editions. In fact, they were not as good as the "Miscellaneous Talks of Ancient People" just now. At least the "Miscellaneous Talks of Ancient People" just now was a block-printed edition, but these books were all printed with movable type. Although one of them was a handwritten edition, they were not as good as the "Miscellaneous Talks of Ancient People" just now that was replaced by another one.

This situation made Yang Jing sigh secretly: "There are really fewer and fewer good things nowadays."

Actually, there is no way around it. A few decades ago, the antique market in Tianqu City was still very prosperous. Although there were no professional antique cities such as the Grand Canal Antique City and Dongzi Cultural Street Antique City at that time, the Yandiankou Antique City would attract a large number of antique lovers every time it opened.

Even people from Hebei and Shanxi would come. As the popularity of the antique markets in X County and Langfang City in Hebei Province gradually faded, Yandiankou Antique City in Tianqu gradually became the most popular antique city at the junction of Hebei and Shandong, because at that time those treasure hunters could often find some good items in Yandiankou Antique City.

However, with the relocation of Yandiankou Antique City and the rise of Grand Canal Antique City, there are fewer and fewer old items worth selling on the market. Now, the owner of this shop even regards Qing edition books as precious collections...

Yang Jing really had no desire to sell those books, so he pointed at the last one and said, "Boss, could you please bring that book over so I can have a look?"

The shop owner nodded and took out the book while saying, "Little brother, this book is different from the previous ones. This book is a genuine Ming edition book and one of the treasures of my shop."

This book is the famous "Huajian Collection".

Yang Jing looked at the book and smiled, "Boss, if your book is really a Ming edition, it would be really good."

"Of course it is a Ming edition book. I can assure you of that."

Yang Jing nodded without comment, then turned his attention to the book.

This is the seventh volume of "Huajian Ji". It looks very old and is not well preserved. It can barely reach the seventh grade quality.

"Huajian Ji" has a very high status in the history of Chinese literature. It is a collection of poems compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in my country. It is also the first collection of poems by literati in the history of Chinese literature. It was edited by Zhao Chongzuo from the Later Shu Dynasty and has a total of ten volumes.

"Huajian Anthology" includes 500 poems by 18 poets including Wen Tingyun, Huangfu Song, Wei Zhuang, Xue Zhaoyun, Niu Qiao, Zhang Mi, Mao Wenxi, Niu Xiji, Ouyang Jiong, He Ning, Gu Ying, Sun Guangxian, Wei Chengban, Lu Qian, Yan Xuan, Yin E, Mao Xizhen and Li Xun, which were written between the first year of Kaicheng under Emperor Wenzong of Tang and the fifth year of Tianfu under Emperor Gaozu of Later Jin. It reflects the subjective orientation, aesthetic taste, stylistic style and artistic achievement of literati's ci creation in the early history of Chinese ci in a concentrated and typical manner, and truly embodies the overall picture of the transformation and development process of early ci from folk status to literati creation.

Moreover, Huajian Ci standardized the literary genre and aesthetic characteristics of "Ci", ultimately established the literary status of "Ci", and had a profound impact on the creation of Ci poets in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

In the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, a large number of literati published their own handwritten copies of "Huajian Ji". There were also many official editions by officials of various dynasties. It is a set of books that has been circulated very widely.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were many imperial editions of Huajian Ji, as well as private and private editions. For example, a set of ten volumes of Huajian Ji reprinted by Lu Yuanda from Suzhou was sold at a high price of 640,000 yuan at the 2014 China Guardian Spring Auction, with an average auction price of 64,000 yuan per volume.

Of course, although Ming edition books are not as valuable as Song edition books, even the most ordinary Ming edition book now costs several thousand yuan. If you happen to find a Ming edition book that can be classified as a precious ancient book, it is easy to sell a copy for over 50,000 yuan.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!