Ancient paintings are generally divided into two categories: silk paintings and paper paintings.

Silk painting is the art of painting on silk, with silk being the primary material, although damask can also be used.

Paper painting refers to painting on Xuan paper. There are two types of Xuan paper: one is raw Xuan paper, which is easy to absorb water, and the other is sized Xuan paper, which is not easy to absorb water.

Ancient silk and Xuan paper were of superior quality, with complex production processes, making them extremely durable. This is why ancient paintings have survived for thousands of years to this day.

In many films and television dramas, ancient paper is depicted as white, but this is not entirely true; it was actually apricot-yellow and dark green.

The yellowing of ancient paintings is not entirely due to oxidation, but rather to technological limitations. Ancient papermaking techniques could not produce paper that was pure white, hence the yellow hue. Even if the paintings are well-preserved, they could never be as white as snow.

Although Mr. Leng's painting was not unfolded, the paper was yellowish-red with mottled patterns, clearly indicating that it had been artificially aged.

Ancient methods of aging were not very complicated; the most common techniques were direct dyeing and fumigation.

The so-called direct dyeing method involves placing the copied painting on a glass surface and using a flat brush to repeatedly apply strong tea that has been left overnight to the painting, allowing the tea color to fully adhere to the rice paper.

On this basis, spray diluted edible vinegar on top to ensure the color is evenly absorbed by the paper.

After being coated and left for a week, the paper turns yellow. After some time, the paper turns a slightly grayish yellow, giving it the appearance of old paper.

The fumigation method involves the forger hanging the painting or calligraphy in a relatively enclosed room after it has been made, lighting coconut shells or pine wood, and using the smoke to fumigate the paper. After several days of fumigation, the paper will develop a light coffee color, which is very similar to old paper.

The patterns on this painting are clearly created using the direct dyeing method. At the time, there might not have been any difference, but over the years, the areas corroded by vinegar have deteriorated. A work whose paper has been tampered with is problematic from the outset.

After listening to my words, Mr. Leng remained calm: "The reason why there are so many different opinions about the authenticity of this painting is largely due to this. Don't just look at the paper; look at the painting as well."

When Mr. Leng spoke, Uncle Mao carefully took out the ancient painting and spread it out on the desk.

As the scroll unfolds, a picture of a mountain village after the rain leaps off the paper.

The entire painting features verdant mountains and clear waters. Ochre is used to color the platform and hillsides, ochre and ink are used to divide the surface, and then blue and green are used to further divide the surface. There are few texturing strokes and many washes, resulting in distinct layers. It is reminiscent of the style of Shen Zhou, the teacher of Wen Zhengming.

Although the paintings of buildings, trees, and figures are somewhat immature, the style of a master is already evident.

The line of regular script next to it is especially exquisite, with neatness and rigor, which is pleasing to the eye.

For a moment I was a little confused, because no matter how I looked at the painting, I couldn't find any fault with it; it was exactly the same style as Wen Zhengming.

Appraising antiques, especially ancient paintings, requires a keen eye.

In addition to determining the age of the painting and confirming that it has not been tampered with, an appraiser must also have a rich cultural background to authenticate the painting.

It is no exaggeration to say that most museums in my country still display a large number of fakes. These fakes are not replicas displayed to protect the genuine articles, but rather items that were mistaken for genuine articles and placed in the museum because the so-called experts who authenticated them lacked the necessary expertise.

These forgeries fooled countless scholars and masters until they were removed by those who knew better.

Such examples abound in museums and the collecting world, because museum scholars are experts in cultural relics, but not in authentication. They spend a lot of time in museums, studying history, rarely venturing into the market, and disdain forgery.

To authenticate ancient paintings and distinguish their authenticity, the simplest way is to have enough samples for comparison.

Fortunately, Wen Zhengming has left behind quite a few paintings, and I have also done considerable research on him. I don't know how many times I have looked at the handscroll "Peach Blossom Spring" by Wen Zhengming in the collection of the Liaoning Provincial Museum.

This person proved the importance of the saying "Heaven rewards diligence" with his entire life.

It is said that Wen Zhengming could not speak or walk until he was two years old, was still unsteady on his feet at six, and still had unclear speech at nine. He took the provincial examination nine times in his life and failed each time.

In the eyes of others, he was considered dull-witted and unlikely to succeed, but in his eyes, these setbacks became whetstones on the road to success.

In the second year of the Jiajing reign, Wen Zhengming, who was already fifty-three years old, participated in the Ministry of Personnel examination as a tribute student and was appointed as a Hanlin Academy Compiler. However, he resigned and returned to his hometown after only three years in office, devoting himself to creative writing.

Wen Zhengming devoted himself to poetry, calligraphy, and painting for more than 30 years, creating a leading example of calligraphy and painting in his era.

Throughout his life, he mastered the art of small regular script, reaching the pinnacle of skill and earning the title of the best in the Ming Dynasty.

His paintings were inspired by Shen Zhou, the founder of the Wu School of painting. After Shen Zhou's death, he supported the entire school for decades, and the artistic talents he cultivated influenced the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Wen Zhengming lived to the age of ninety. In his later years, he was already famous throughout the country and had a very high reputation. He was the leader of the literary world in Suzhou and even the entire Jiangnan region.

As a painter whose name is etched in history, Wen Zhengming was a late bloomer, but he was much luckier than painters like Van Gogh, Vieira, and Titian, who were only known after their deaths. He began to show his talent and gradually became famous in his forties.

Mr. Leng's painting "Mountain Village After Rain" has a strong Shen Zhou style, which is clearly Wen Zhengming's early painting style. I judge that he was probably under forty years old when he made this painting.

Those who study rare ancient books and paintings know that Wen Zhengming's painting style was divided at the age of forty-five. The later he painted, the more mature he became, and his style gradually formed its own school. After painting "Walking in the Courtyard under the Moon" at the age of sixty-three, his painting style was completely finalized, and he became a master of his generation.

When later generations imitated Wen Zhengming's paintings, they mostly chose works from after he turned fifty, or at the very least, works from after he turned forty. As for his paintings from the period when he was imitating Shen Zhou's style, there was no need to imitate them. If they really wanted to imitate, they might as well have just imitated his teacher, Shen Zhou.

Mr. Leng didn't come to me this time to argue, nor did he beat around the bush: "I had several experts in the field look at this painting, and their opinions differed. Some people said that the style of this painting matches Wen Zhengming, but others said that the style of this painting is not mature, and that the paper used is wrong, which has a big problem."

I picked up the magnifying glass next to me and scanned the ancient painting inch by inch: "Have you checked it using electronic methods?"

The antique market today is a den of swindlers. Ninety-five percent of the antiques on the market are fakes. As times change, the methods of counterfeiting are constantly evolving.

The electronic methods I'm referring to are scanning the entire painting with a computer, using inkjet printing as the base color, and then filling in the colors by hand. To make the painting look closer to an ancient painting, the maker will sprinkle several layers of gamboge water, use a dryer or hair dryer to blow away the excess moisture. A clever maker will repeatedly roll up the painting to create natural cracks, and then use pine needles and mugwort to fumigate it for a few days, which is enough to fool most experts.

Mr. Leng did not answer me directly: "The people I found are all famous, and such a low-level forgery method cannot fool them."

"The painting technique is fine."

After checking, I put the magnifying glass aside, and for a moment I was at a loss.

There are only two possibilities right now. The first is that the painting is indeed real, but in that case, the obvious signs of forgery on the paper would not match.

If this painting is fake, it means that the forger must have used the same trick I used when I was in Luoyang, to deceive a cripple by firing pottery fragments to make real pottery.

Could it be a beautiful woman in disguise?