Jia Wenzhong: How to identify the Buddha's gold body

Wen/Jia Wenzhong Buddha statue production materials are mainly copper, brass, bronze, gold, silver, imitation silver alloy, imitation gold alloy, iron, stone, wood, clay, porcelain, lacquer, in addition to inlaid gold and silver, turquoise, jade, gemstones; in addition to jade, amber, turquoise, bamboo carving and other materials of the Buddha statue. But at present we see the Buddha statues mainly in copper, stone, clay-based, condensing which copper Buddha statues accounted for the vast majority. Copper Buddha statue production technology from China's ancient bronze production process, the fusion of the Indian Buddha art and Chinese bronze manufacturing technology, the subsequent gradual development of a specialized industry - "Buddha as", just the industry since the Northern Wei Dynasty prevalence of Buddha statues. Since the successive dynasties have been handed down.

The reality of the Buddha's collection is often in the Buddha's authenticity, imitations and counterfeits on the debate, the author believes that the hit has its own characteristics of the Buddha's statue of the times is a kind of innovation and development of the Buddha's statue, pare should not be placed in the list of imitations and counterfeits. Just those later generations according to the former Buddha imitation, withering and in the appearance and color are imitation of the former Buddha, even if the text of the year is exactly the same as the original Buddha can be designated as an imitation. And those in the previous generation are not the style, through the imitator imagination, add to the production of the Buddha and the appearance of the old into the previous dynasty of the Buddha can be designated as a fake statue of Buddha. At present, the identification of Buddha statues is still mainly carried out by experienced experts through the traditional method of visual appraisal. Time traditional method of identifying the authenticity of the Buddha is mainly through people's long-term experience in the study of the Buddha to judge, concave through the visual identification to determine the authenticity of the Buddha, Rin which requires the identifier to have three aspects of knowledge: one, the judge of the study of Buddhism and the Buddha; two, concave to the study of the age of the Buddha's characteristics; three, the study of the Buddha's knowledge of the manufacture of the statue and the method of counterfeiting.

Overall grasp of a statue of Buddha When we first see a statue of Buddha, we should first look at the whole, just look at the statue of Buddha's overall demeanor is in line with the ancient aesthetic. General Buddha's "God" are in the face expression above, especially on the Buddha's eyes, letter eyes of the gods can sometimes let the appraiser in the heart of the hidden feeling of the Buddha's authenticity. Eider second, Feng we also want to see the overall proportion of the statue of Buddha, the statue of the charm, the casting level of the statue of Buddha, the statue of the custody of the situation and the weight, watches, as well as the whole statue of the broken situation, and so on. Frigid in addition we can not ignore some of the details of the statue, such as the manufacturing process of the statue as well as the type, shape, ornamentation, inscriptions, etc., where the appraiser to have a comprehensive judgment of the statue. The details of the above should have the consistency of the age, not contradict each other, if a Buddha set of several times in one of the characteristics of the gel, regardless of its casting process how superb, how exquisite decorations or inscriptions, how exquisite, how realistic receptacles of old gas, rust color, the creation of the artifacts should be regarded as a pseudo-artifacts.

From the specific gravity to identify the authenticity of the Buddha Buddha in the process of identification, the specific gravity of the Buddha's hand is also a basis for our identification, letter, although different periods of the Buddha's material is different, but with the new imitation of the Buddha can still be felt. Edge of the weight of the newly cast statue of Buddha than the quality of the unearthed statue of Buddha is slightly heavier, the line is called "pressure hand". The reason for this phenomenon is that the unearthed copper Buddha statue buried in the ground for a long time, in addition to the corrosion of the surface, the Buddha statue of the material within the varying degrees of erosion, the internal loosening and expansion phenomenon, the knife, so the specific gravity will be buried with the relative decline in the duration of the relative; heirloom of the copper Buddha statue will also be passed on over the years to reduce the weight; and the new casting of the forgeries, planing, regardless of how to disguise the surface of the article, Contracting Parties will not hurt the internal materials of the artifact. The weight of a newly-cast forged artifact is greater than that of a genuine one because the internal materials of the artifact will not be damaged. However, this is not an invariable rule, especially in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, when the weight of Buddha statues was relatively large. As a result of the above reasons, trimming the real and fake ware in addition to the specific gravity of the difference will be produced, knocking the body, pare issued by the sound is also different, don't fake ware sound crisp and pleasant, and real ware sound is relatively muffled. But one thing should be noted, the first "high imitation" fake, in addition to a certain proportion of lead or tin in bronze smelting, in addition to a certain amount of light metal alloy, so that the specific gravity of the fake ware as close as possible to the real ware, however, the Buddha statue in addition to lead and tin added to other metals, the color of the surface of the ware over a long period of time will be changed.

From the casting process to identify the authenticity of Buddha statues to identify the casting process characteristics. Kai Buddha casting process mainly casting marks, casting tumors, cracks, misalignment, gaskets, trachoma, weld marks, etc., 鈥凮檛 in the identification of statues of Buddha should be a detailed analysis of the above process. Phoenix observation casting marks is to identify the authenticity of a key to the Buddha, delete casting marks on the Buddha mainly refers to the line, cut the ancient copper Buddha for the vast majority of ceramic Fan method of casting, the casting method due to the outer Fan for the formation of a number of combinations of several so the Fan and the Fan's joint will inevitably appear a certain amount of clearance, casting of these gaps will be left in the surface of the device strips of fine lines, minus those fine lines is the so-called Fan line. Delete although the Buddha statue in the casting into a ware after a finishing process, the criminal ware table Fan line will be ground to remove, but the complex and not easy to grind the parts will still leave Fan line traces.

After the Song Dynasty, most of the Buddha statue casting lost wax casting method, Phoenix modern casting of the Buddha statue is also used more than this method, because of this casting method for the whole molding, so it is impossible to produce the so-called paradigm line. Net in order to achieve the purpose of the real, trim some of the fake in the use of lost wax casting Buddha directly in the wax mold to make a fake Fan line. However, the real Fan line is generally very small, and the fake Fan line of the fake ware is generally relatively thick and hard, which can be carefully distinguished to determine the authenticity of the fake. In addition, it is very difficult to make the surface of the Buddha statue smooth by casting with a ceramic model. This is because the outer model is formed by combining several pieces of the model, and each part of the model is only relatively kept in the same plane, and it is inevitable that there is a misalignment between the two parts, and the chop will produce a "step", which means that there is a subtle difference between the two sides of the model. Cutting and lost wax method is the whole molding, divided into the table are in the same plane, 鈥凙hence there is no difference in the height of the plane on both sides of the false Fan line; sand casting method is divided into the shape of the welded into a device, bright so there will be no Fan line.

In addition to the line, 鈥凬陶范 casting due to the specificity of the process may also be left on the surface of the so-called casting tumor or fracture skip. Planing casting tumor is due to the purity of copper or temperature and other reasons, 凔 so that the copper liquid flow is not smooth, withered on the surface of the tumor-like traces left behind; crack is cast, 凨 the surface of the irregular fine lines left behind; and the lost wax and sand casting method, the judgment of the surface of the device will not appear in these two phenomena. 刋另外，凎与范線不同，凞这两种现象均不可能作假，刚所以在对佛像的进一步观察时這些细微之处也應留意。 bright bright Buddha statue back left shims is pottery Fan casting unique phenomenon, planing shims used in the copper of the broken copper pieces of copper are generally different from the copper of this artifact. Edge and lost wax method or sand method of casting, amputation of the whole copper is the same, 鈥凚and it is impossible to produce pottery Fan method of casting unique shims to stay marks. Judge so observe the presence or absence of shims and the whole copper condition, is also a content of the Buddha statue identification. Judge in addition, the Fan soil is also a sign of the Buddha statue identification, convex ceramic Fan casting and lost wax casting, a few general surface are more or less residual Fan soil; sand casting, trimming the general surface with more residual sand. Liu Tao Fan Fan soil for the dark red or gray, Ling and sand method used in the type of sand is mainly graphite, eider so the surface of the residual sand for the ink color; forging method made of artifacts without residue.

In the market, the author has seen many times with fragments put together by the Buddha's image of the whole device, put together with the real piece of debris, the remnants of pieces of copper Buddha according to the history of the catalogue or with the knowledge of the combination of welding into a device, and then modify the pattern or engraved with pseudo-marks, and then finally modify the place of the old treatment. The survivors of the real piece, the remnants of the method of assembling, frozen more commonly seen in a broken Buddha's head is mainly assembled; however, there are also useful pieces, remnants of the combination of missing pieces, Feng forgers will use molds or to the real part of the local die casting out the missing parts of the parts, and then delete and then welded to the assembled artifacts. But no matter how to put together must be completed using the welding method, and the welding mouth can not be done completely seamless, the first so with a knife can often find traces of solder. Feng in addition, withered patchwork artifacts used in the debris, due to the age and copper different, frigid artifacts and frigid color will appear differences, the watches on the new copper is more so.

In the Buddha's forgery, there is also a kind of statue of the Buddha on the flower or add flowers. The flower or flower of the Buddha statue because of the flower pattern exposed copper without rust, out of the need to make a new rust, the quality of the appraisal in the attention to observe the rust color, carefully compared with the Buddha statue is not difficult to discriminate. bright, if in doubt, and can also use boiling water to pour hot can make the fake rust off, and then distinguish between the grain and the surface of the rust color differences.

From the inscription to identify the statue of Buddha The inscription is also a criterion for identifying the authenticity of the statue of Buddha. The inscription is also a criterion for identifying the authenticity of the Buddha statue. The inscription is the same as that of the decoration, where the first thing to understand the characteristics of the inscription in each period, but also according to the method of forgery of the inscription to identify its authenticity. Kai real pseudo-inscription is the most common to the chisel, including additional inscriptions or supplementary inscriptions; font and the location of the inscriptions and artifacts and decorative features of the same era style, cut but also look at the Buddha's inscription is cast or engraved words. Knife in addition to look at the word mouth and rust color, eider original engraved font is generally more natural, the word mouth is smooth, convex abrasion without knife marks, pare and later imitation of the inscription is engraved with a steel knife as a tool, the word mouth is often with the collapse of the stubble, flying edge and burrs. Look at the rust color mainly to see the word mouth rust color and the whole rust color has no difference. In addition, the use of corrosion method to add the pseudo-inscription, just in addition to observing the rust color, but also pay attention to the corrosion of the pseudo-inscription of the word mouth is uneven. The edge of the pseudo-authentic and authentic authentic authentic inscriptions are mainly from the copper and rust color to distinguish, the survivor's real inscriptions of the copper, rust color and artifacts of the copper, rust color must be absolutely the same, or else for the pseudo-authentic. Rin identifying the true and false inscription also from the overall focus, Feng is also engraved inscription, "the real inscription of the inscription of the natural strokes, chisel without hardness,処而伪铭因是摹刻，刖所以笔画拘谨谨，凾整体呆板而生硬。