At this time, three more people came into the store. They were a couple with a teenage child who came to buy study supplies. The store owner saw that Yang Jing was fascinated by the items and did not disturb him. He went over to greet the family.
"There's something wrong with this book!" Yang Jing had a vague feeling when he saw the sixth page.
The main thing is that this sixth page gives Yang Jing a different feeling.
After carefully comparing it with the previous pages, Yang Jing took out a magnifying glass and looked closely, only then did he discover the differences between this page and the previous pages.
This book is made of cotton paper, and it should be the best cotton paper.
Tissue paper is a type of parchment paper. In addition, rice paper and mulberry paper also fall into the category of parchment paper.
Since the Song Dynasty, woodblock printing has mostly used parchment or hemp paper. In the Ming Dynasty, hemp paper was used less and cotton paper was used more.
This book is made of cotton paper.
But the tissue paper on the sixth page is slightly different from that on the previous pages. Although the paper used on the sixth page is also high-quality tissue paper, it is slightly finer than the previous pages. If you don't observe carefully with a magnifying glass, it is difficult to see with the naked eye.
If Yang Jing's intuition hadn't kicked in, he wouldn't have been able to notice the difference in the paper.
The most important thing is that in addition to the slightly different paper, the words printed on this piece of paper should also be slightly clearer than the previous ones.
Of course, this difference in clarity is difficult to detect. It feels like the difference between a copy and the original.
When Yang Jing saw the sixth page, it felt like the original, while the previous pages were like photocopies. Although the difference was very subtle, Yang Jing still found the difference under the magnifying glass.
Yang Jing put the magnifying glass into his pocket, resisted the urge to use the ring for identification, and continued to look through the book.
This book "Huajian Ji" records a total of fifty poems, one poem on each page, totaling fifty pages.
But when Yang Jing finished flipping through the whole book, he found a total of five different pages. Just like the sixth page had very small differences from the previous five pages, the other four pages were also the same.
Obviously, these five pages are not original to the book!
The naughty kid in the family of three who just arrived is at the age where even dogs and cats dislike him. Even here, he is still noisy.
"I don't know how this parent raised this child. He practices calligraphy and painting with such a rough character. How can he practice calligraphy and painting well if he can't calm down?" Yang Jing looked at the naughty child with a bit of disgust, shook his head speechlessly, and refocused his attention on the book "Huajian Ji".
However, Yang Jing did not continue to flip through the book. The condition of the book itself was not very good and could not withstand repeated flipping.
"Well, those five pages are better than the other pages in terms of both paper and printing sophistication, but the difference is not obvious. It is obvious that someone deliberately inserted these five pages into the book in a disorderly order."
Yang Jing thought about it, picked up the book again, looked at the binding, but did not find any signs of new opening. This book is a thread-bound book, and the binding thread looks worn out, as if it can be torn apart with a little force.
"From the binding line, these five pages should not have been inserted by the store owner. This means that these five pages of the book were most likely inserted by someone a long time ago! Could it be..."
An idea suddenly popped up in Yang Jing's mind, and even he was shocked by his own idea.
However, if he thought about it carefully, Yang Jing felt that his idea seemed to make sense.
After all, after the disasters of the Yuan Dynasty, even in the Ming Dynasty, it was rare to see Song Dynasty printed books. Song Dynasty printed books are not only known as "one page worth one tael of gold" in modern times, but they were also very valuable books in the Ming Dynasty.
"Could it be that these five pages are the real Northern Song Dynasty edition? Someone in the Ming Dynasty got them, and in order to protect these five pages, he shuffled the order and inserted them into this "Hua Jian Ji"..."
This was the thought that suddenly popped into Yang Jing’s mind just now.
If the Song Dynasty was the general development stage of woodblock printing, then the Ming Dynasty was the heyday of woodblock printing in China, surpassing the Song Dynasty in terms of technology and other aspects. Even the private and commercial editions of the Ming Dynasty were not inferior to the official editions of the Song Dynasty in general.
With the woodblock printing technology of the Ming Dynasty, even a reprint of the Song Dynasty edition would be no worse than the original.
If this conjecture is true, then there is absolutely no problem technically.
If it weren’t for his intuition, Yang Jing would not have been able to tell the difference between these five pages and the other pages.
In order to confirm his guess, Yang Jing used the holy ring, and the holy ring really gave an answer that made Yang Jing take a deep breath.
"Page 45 of the Ming Dynasty Jiajing period edition of Huajian Ji, 1538, Xiao Yuesheng."
"Page 5 of the Shu edition of Huajian Ji during the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song Dynasty, 1145, Jingdu."
Seeing this answer, Yang Jing could only take a deep breath, for he was afraid that he would not be able to help but scream out.
The 45-page "Huajian Ji" was indeed a private edition from the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. As for who that Xiao Yuesheng was, Yang Jing was too lazy to find out.
But these five pages of the Song Dynasty edition of "Huajian Ji" are truly extraordinary.
These five pages of the book are not only a Song Dynasty edition, but also an extremely rare Shu Dynasty edition, and even more so a Shu Dynasty edition in the thin gold style that is almost invisible nowadays!
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