133 – Challenge

Fu Yaoshi showed them ten different items, mainly scrolls and a fan with different styles of calligraphy, such as seal script, clerical, regular, running, and cursive.

“Can you identify the calligrapher and date of this piece?” Fu Yaoshi asked.

Calligraphy was rather simple to identify. Most pieces had seals and dates written directly on them.

The problem was, during the three thousand years history of Chinese calligraphy, there were many calligraphers, both famous and amateurs, who had copied previous works as practice. In many cases, it made it difficult for appraisers to identify whether the work was truly original, or fake and spurious work. In some cases, the artist will insert their own seal, but in cases where they didn’t, many copies were wrongly attributed to the wrong calligrapher.

Lao Fu Yaoshi had covered the seal and signature, leaving only the painting and characters visible to the viewer.

Li Yun and Peng Shi both looked through the ten calligraphies and wrote down their answers on the paper given to them. In typical calligrapher fashion, Lao Fu Yaoshi asked them to write the answer with a brush and ink.

Peng Shi looked at the characters and studied the text carefully. The majority of the work seems to be from minor calligraphers who copied previous great masters. It was actually a tough test. These weren’t made by famous calligraphers, but that was to be expected. Lao Fu Yaoshi would not be carrying authentic works from Mi Fu or Su Shi.

Li Yun was in awe by the pieces in front of him. He wasn’t much of a museum goer. He had seen many of the calligraphies from his phone, books or reproductions, but to actually see many authentic pieces of calligraphy up close was quite different.

Like Peng Shi, he had to personally inspect the calligraphy carefully. It was better to guess the calligrapher first before using Qivi. The reason was simple. Qivi allowed him to see the moment when the calligrapher wrote the best portion of the work. The process was like looking at a random short video clip. However, if the person in the clip was completely random, it would be difficult for him to identify the calligrapher. Not all calligraphers had self portraits, and even if they did, Li Yun may not recognize them from their inked paintings.

Before using Qivi, it was best to have a list of possible calligraphers, and then remember their famous characteristics. Su Shi's portrait had a mustache and beard, but it didn’t mean he always had that characteristic. What if it was one of his works in his early twenties, and barely had any facial hair? Su Shi had defined slanted eyes.

As for Mi Fu, his eyes were much friendlier, but how true to life was his portrait?

The only thing he could be sure of was the time period. He had studied the architectural, decorative styles, and even the fashion of the different dynasties in order to better narrow down the time period.

These were all the difficulties Li Yun had to overcome, even with his ability.

Once Li Yun had a good guess of the calligrapher and time period, he used Qivi.

Suddenly, a flash of a woman appeared in a more modern time. If Li Yun was to guess, it was a  descendant of Qi Baishi. He couldn’t recall her name, so he wrote down Qi Baishi’s granddaughter.

This was the first time he had encountered a modern flash from an item. It appeared that the relative had attained a high amount of skill. She may also have access to Qi Baishi’s seal, so it wasn’t unusual for her to use an authentic seal. He was surprised she had chosen to sign her grandfather’s name instead of using her own name. 

Although it wasn’t a real Qi Baishi’s work, the content and skill were enough for it to be valued at 75k yuan. If it was a real Qi Baishi’s piece, the value would be ten times as much.

For the most part, he was able to correctly guess the other pieces.

After answering, Li Yun passed Lao Fu Yaoshi the completed paper. He was a lot slower than Peng Shi, but he wasn’t too discouraged. It wasn’t like he was a calligrapher or a Chinese literature major.

Lao Fu Yaoshi looked at the answers from Peng Shi first. Peng Shi was truly his best student, but he misidentified Qi Baishi’s work from Qi Juan. He did not expect anyone to answer that correctly since Qi Baishi had many students and relatives who studied underneath him and could copy his work fairly well.

He was surprised that Li Yun had answered 8 out of 10 correctly, including identifying it was one of Qi Baishi’s granddaughters that copied the work.

However, the one thing that blew him away was the way he wrote the answer on the sheet.

“This kid!” Fu Yaoshi thought. He had to reassess Li Yun. All the characters were almost the exact replica of the person's signature. “Not only does he know how to identify calligraphies, but he can also imitate their styles and characters!”

“Peng Shi, you got 9 out of 10, and Mr. Li got 8 out of 10,” said Fu Yaoshi.

Peng Shi nodded, as it was to be expected.

“But take a look at Mr. Li’s answer,” said Fu Yaoshi. “And let me know if we should reward Mr. Li with the discount.”

Peng Shi looked at Li Yun’s paper. All of the sudden, there were tears in his eyes.

Li Yun was also taken a bit by surprise. "What was up with this guy!"

“Can I have this?” Peng Shi asked.

“Uh, sure?” Li Yun replied. This guy was very serious about calligraphy. The elder Fu Yaoshi sure had an eye for picking students.

Fu Yaoshi also nodded, but he thought about Zhao Mengfu’s painting.

“Mr. Li, your calligraphy surprises me,” said Fu Yaoshi. “I don’t think I have seen anyone who was able to replicate other calligraphers’ style so well. You have an unbelievable grasp of calligraphy.”

Li Yun wasn’t sure if it was his training as a child, but different calligraphers exhibited different sensations and thought every time they wrote down a character. As Li Yun was practicing to display the true beauty of each Taoist text, he was able to tell that the system wasn’t particularly picky about the style, but the thought and intention. Some texts were better written in running script and some texts were better written with a regular script.

< Seal (Small), Clerical (Official), Semi-Cursive (Running), Cursive, Regular (Standard) >

As his ability improved, he was able to quickly identify the thoughts and intentions of each character written by the calligrapher. Replicating it wasn’t too difficult.

“I do not intentionally try to replicate them,” replied Li Yun. “Some characters, especially their names, are so imbued with their style and spirit that it is better to write it out the way they want the world to see them.”

Fu Yaoshi had an unbelievable expression. Was this what they considered a genius?

“Are you familiar with Zhao Mengfu’s painting?”

Li Yun thought about the Zhao Mengfu forgery case. Was Fu Yaoshi one of the experts who were invited to authenticate the painting in the Monk case that Bu Tao had mentioned to him? It wasn't much of a coincidence since Fu Yaoshi was one of the leading experts.

“Elder Fu Yaoshi was invited by the police?” asked Li Yun.

Fu Yaoshi's eyes lit up. “Mr. Li is also aware of the case?”

“I’m a consultant for the Yide Police department,” said Li Yun. “I was scouted out by a group, so I reported the event for a possible forgery scam.”

Fu Yaoshi laughed. “Ah, no wonder! This organization must be very good if they were planning to recruit you for their scam. Honestly, your signatures look more authentic than the real signatures.”

Li Yun was curious about the Zhao Mengfu’s painting. If he touched the painting, would he be able to see Zhao Mengfu, or the skilled artist who replicated the painting?

“Mr. Li, are you interested in looking at the piece?” Fu Yaoshi asked. “We have the painting stored in Imperial City during the police investigation.”

Li Yun nodded, there were other things he wanted to do in Imperial City.