Chapter 8 Jude Cao

The preacher in the mouth of the third uncle was Cox Hendrey, and his Chinese name was Jude Kao. He worked in a church school in Changsha. He was one of the Americans who came to China with the eastward tide during the Kuomintang period. However, this man had a poor six senses since he was a child. Foreign monks had no interest in them, but he was very interested in Chinese culture. Perhaps in the economic concept of Americans, cultural relics were only one of the commodities, and they could be bought and sold freely, so in the third year of China, he occasionally did some secret cultural relics smuggling activities. That year he was only nineteen years old.

Judekao's smuggling business was always very careful, and the business was not big. At that time, there were two types of smugglers, one was a flowing camp, which had a large amount of money, but the bid was very low, and the ones that were played were a transaction, which was very risky. Judekao was a "iron-smashing business", which means that the bid was high, the things were small, but it was very safe, and the transaction was made. His business style was very good to his grandfather's appetite, so his grandfather had a good relationship with him at that time.

But Jude Kao is not a friend worth making. From the bottom of his heart, he did not regard his grandfather as a friend, and even did not regard his grandfather as an equal person. My grandfather knew afterwards that in private, he called my grandfather a bed bug.

In 1949, Changsha was liberated and the Kuomintang was completely defeated. Then in 1952, the church began to withdraw from China. Many Americans stranded in China began to return home. He also received a telegram from the church to ask him to return when he was safe.

He realized that his business in China was about to come to an end, so he began to do relevant preparations and transfer his property. Before leaving, he had another sinister idea. He and his accomplices began to acquire Mingqi in large quantities, using the Chinese's mentality of trusting old relationships, and swept away a large amount of cultural relics with an extremely cheap deposit, including my grandfather's Warring States silk book.

At that time, my grandfather was unwilling to sell this piece of things that my fathers exchanged for their lives. It was Jude who lied that the money would be used to open a good house. Grandpa felt that this was accumulating virtue, so he reluctantly took action (of course, this was what my grandfather said himself, I don’t know if it was true. I think people like him are unlikely to have such kindness).

After all these goods were on board, Jude Kao knew that some of the people were not easy to deal with. In order to avoid leaving any trouble, he took a telegram on the ship to the security office at that time. He leaked all the traces of my grandfather and about a dozen other masters to the temporary garrison of the Changsha People's Liberation Army at that time.

This was the very famous "Warring States silk book case" at that time. This was not just a case of smuggling cultural relics, because Jude Kao and the Kuomintang general territorial relations before the liberation involved many factors that were unique to the era, such as spies and treason, which became very complicated and almost alarmed the central government. That day Jude Kao returned with a full load. And the group of local masters who accumulated wealth for him were shot and jailed, wailing.

Although it is also worthy of sin. But such death was too miserable. Later, the Great Leap Forward and the smuggling of cultural relics in China during the "Cultural Revolution" period were almost extinct, which was also related to the deaths of this group of people at that time.

At that time, my grandfather was smart. When he saw that the situation was not right, he fled into the mountains overnight, hid in an ancient tomb, slept with the dead for two weeks, and escaped the limelight. Later, he fled to Hangzhou. This incident hit my grandfather so much that the silk book of the Warring States Period became a taboo for him. When he was alive, he kept telling us not to talk about this matter, so our family has always been secretive about it.

After Jude Kao returned to the United States, he auctioned the cultural relics and made a fortune. The Warring States silk books were sold at a high price to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, becoming the most auctioned cultural relics at that time. Jude Kao also became a millionaire and a newcomer in the upper class. His story in China was written into a biography. It is widely circulated.

After becoming rich, Jude Kao gradually turned his interest to socializing. Around 1957, he was invited to serve as an advisor to the Far Eastern Art Department of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, providing consultant to the research on the Warring States silk books. The museum director at that time was the infamous Pu Allen. Both of them were China Communications, both of whom hired bandits to dig cultural relics in China and soon became friends. Jude Kao also sponsored a sum of money to the museum as a fund to acquire private Chinese cultural relics.

Perhaps because of his leisurely life and his love for Chinese culture, Jude later cultivated himself and gradually became addicted to the study of Chinese culture. He presided over several large-scale projects at the Metropolitan Museum, and the results were quite prominent. However, it was in 1974 that he truly left his name in history.

At that time, his research on the Warring States silk books had lasted for more than 20 years. At first, he wanted to raise the price of silk books, but later it was entirely because of interest.

At the beginning, no one thought that an American like him could unlock the ancient code of China, but Jude Kao did it with amazing perseverance.

It is a coincidence that he discovered the decoding method of the "Warring States Book Picture" by using inspiration from an ancient Chinese "Embroidery Book". This decoding method is actually similar to the method of using text to record embroidery programs in "Embroidery Book". In mathematics, it is a dot matrix to form a graph, and it is not complicated. It is entirely due to a clue that you can think of, and you can solve it. You can't imagine that even if you are proficient in ancient Chinese cryptography, it is useless.

After discovering the decoding method, Jude Kao was overjoyed and immediately summoned personnel to translate the Warring States silk book on a large scale. A month later, all the essays were untied.

However, to Jude Kao's surprise, what appeared on the decoding paper at that time was not the ancient text that he had originally expected to record the divination calendar of the Warring States Period, but a strange and completely meaningless pattern.

It is hard to describe what this pattern is strange. Later, I looked at the sketches that my uncle drew for me and couldn't figure it out. If you describe it, I can only say that the pattern is very simple, with only six curved lines and an irregular circle. The lines extend to each other, a bit like the veins of a river on the map, or the stems of a vine plant that spreads, but it doesn't feel like it is a circle. Looking at it from a distance, it seems to be an abstract text; looking at it closely, you have no idea what it is.

There is no information, if you don't say it is from a fragment of ancient Chinese books. Everyone will think that this is the line drawn on the paper by the child who just knew how to hold a pen.

After going through a lot of hard work, the translated thing turned out to be such an inexplicable pattern. Jude Kao was very surprised. He once thought that his translation method was wrong, but after repeated verification, he found that it was impossible. If it was wrong, it would be impossible to successfully convert the text into this figure seamlessly. Obviously, what was recorded in ciphertext is these seven lines.

So what do these seven lines represent? Why did the owner of this silk book hide it in the text?

With so many years of experience in China, his intuition told himself that being able to be written in cipher text in extremely expensive silk would not be an ordinary pattern. This line must have some special significance, and it may be of great significance.

He became very interested in this. He immediately began to check the information. He spent a lot of time tracing through countless libraries, and at the same time, he took this pattern to ask Chinese sinologists in the university at that time for advice. However, the group of people in the United States had limited level and had no results after half a year of struggle. Even if someone speculated, it was inappropriate and had no basis. It was nothing at all.

Just when his interest was declining and he felt no hope, a friend from college showed him a clear path. He told Jude Kao. This kind of weird Chinese thing should be asked by the old people in Chinatown. It was the Cold War period. In Chinatown, there were many old scholars from Taiwan, who were hiding and lying in the tiger, and there might be clues.

Jude Kao was right when he heard this, and held his last hope. He really went to Chinatown for advice.

There is a kind of library in Chinatown. It is a place where old people gather, so Jude Kao went to this kind of place. He read the graphics, but he was lucky to be lucky. Sure enough, he met a master.

This master is a thin old man, a celebrity in the local area. That day, he was listening to books in a teahouse. When he happened to meet Jude Kao coming to post pictures, he asked Zhang Na to see it. After seeing this, he was shocked and asked where Jude Kao got it?

When Jude Kao saw that there was a door, he couldn't help but be overjoyed. He naturally had his own set of words. After telling the old man the whole story, he hurriedly asked if the old man knew anything.

The old man shook his head and said no, but he told Jude Kao that although he did not know the origin of the figure, he had seen something similar in one place.

When Jude Kao heard this, his heart moved and asked where he saw it.

The old man said that when he was still on the mainland, he saw a elixir furnace in a Taoist temple in Qimeng Mountain in Shandong. The figure was engraved on this elixir furnace.

This figure has always been mysterious and there is no clue at all. Now that Jude Kao heard this, he was extremely excited. He immediately asked someone to make a pot of good tea and handed it over it respectfully, asking the old scholar to tell in detail.

The old scholar had nothing to do with him. Seeing that he was very interested, he became interested, so he told Jude Kao what happened at that time.

That happened thirty years ago. At that time, the old man was a professor of Chinese studies at Peking University and a member of the Kuomintang. His son-in-law was a brigade commander under Zhang Lingfu. After the reorganized 74th Division was defeated, the remnants of the Kuomintang army were broken into pieces, and his son-in-law fled into the Qimeng Mountains with the remnants, and became a bandit in the mountains for three years. Later, the People's Liberation Army suppressed bandits, and his son-in-law was forced to go to the desperate situation. He joined the Kuomintang spies and prepared to flee to the United States.

After bribing the way, the old man and his family were taken into the mountains by his son-in-law, waiting for news about the ship. Because the wind was very loud and it was inconvenient to take the family, his son-in-law settled them in a Taoist temple, disguised as Taoists, and waited for the spies to respond.

It is called Taoist temples, but it is actually the kind of folk temples. However, unlike other mountainous temples, this Taoist temple is built between two cliffs less than fifty meters apart, and it is very strange. The entire Taoist temple is similar to a huge staircase. One layer after another, there are seven layers, and the walls are covered with yellow painted mud walls, which are very simple. The top four floors are wooden boards set in the middle of the two cliffs, and there are not even railings. The shrines are covered with earth-shaped Sanqing statues, as well as Guanyin and land. It has a very Chinese characteristic.

The entire Taoist temple was managed by two old Taoist priests, the older one was the father of the younger Taoist priest. In those days, the war was in chaos and the incense was thin, so his son-in-law gave them some money as a cover.

The old professor lived in the Taoist temple for two months. The Taoist temple was in the deep mountains, and it was inconvenient to climb up and down. He had nothing to do, so he began to study the antiques in the Taoist temple. It was during that time that he discovered a strange thing. Many things in the Taoist temple were shoddy folk goods and had no value. Occasionally, there were a few antiques, which were also things from the Ming Dynasty. However, there was a bronze alchemy furnace on the top of the Taoist temple. The shape was very strange, like a lotus that turned over. Judging from the copper rust on it, it was even older, and it was very different from other things here.

The old professor did not study history, but the old master at that time had some experience in these things and was very interested. He asked the old Taoist priest where the alchemy furnace came from.

The old Taoist praised him for his strong vision. This alchemy furnace was indeed extraordinary. It was an earthquake before Liberation. It collapsed from the mountains. At that time, there were many dead skeletons falling out. The villagers were very scared and carried it here to the temple for the immortals. It has been more than 60 years. He was still young at that time and he didn't know what the situation was.

The old professor felt more and more interesting when he heard this. However, his military was in chaos and his identity was special, so he could not conduct more investigations. He thought about it in the Taoist temple for a while, and then there was no further text. However, the situation and environment at that time made him remember this matter very deeply, and he also remembered the shape and pattern of the alchemy furnace very clearly, so when he saw the graphics that Jude Kao showed him, he recognized it.

He told Jude Kao that the pattern was on the lid of the furnace, and the shape was exactly the same as this figure, and he would never remember it wrong. If he wanted to know more, he could find a way to go to the Taoist temple to understand the situation. However, the world has changed, and whether that place is still there depends on your luck.

After listening to this, Jude Kao was both excited and disappointed. What was excited was that the things behind this figure were obviously richer than he thought; what was disappointed was that after listening to these narratives, he still knew nothing about this figure.

He wanted to see the bronze alchemy furnace that the old professor mentioned with his own eyes, but this was almost impossible at that time. It was quite difficult for an American to go to China, especially a notorious cultural relics dealer like him.

However, Jude Kao was very conceited. No one could stop what he wanted to do. He still thought of a solution: he could not go to China, but after so many years of cultural relics activities, he had a strict network of relations in China. He began to try to contact China's old relationships, find someone to go to the Qimeng Mountains, go to the deep mountain Taoist temple to find a look, and learn about the situation. It is best to steal the alchemy furnace and transport it to the United States.

At that time, China had just suffered a catastrophe and was in trouble. His old relationship was gone. The older generation of Chinese masters died, fled, and cultural relics smuggling in the after-liberation purgation, had completely reshuffled. With his relationship with the Kuomintang, he almost used up all channels and could not find a person he knew.

In desperation, he could only take the risk and seek help from a few cultural relics smugglers whom he was not familiar with at the time, and asked them to introduce some newcomers in the Changsha industry.

This has gone through many twists and turns, but the effort pays off. Finally, he finally contacted a Chinese who was willing to cooperate with him.

This person is Jie Lianhuan.

Uncle San couldn't figure out how Jie Lianhuan got into this business at that time, because of the general environment at that time, even the old man of the Jie family dared not get involved in the business, and could only rely on his capital. This smuggling cultural relics is a serious crime. Like drug trafficking now, it is a work that is tied to the belt. Generally, it is not in a hurry to ask for money to help his life, and no one dares to do this.

Jie Lianhuan was a playboy at that time, completely a second-generation ancestor. The old man of the Jie family deliberately cleaned his bottom line. He had never allowed him to come into contact with family business since he was a child, nor did he let him learn anything. Therefore, regardless of courage, vision, experience or other objective conditions, he would never enter this industry, and there was no reason to be able to contact the foreign smuggling giants.

To put it simply, cultural relics smuggling requires skill in hand. The techniques of buying goods, appraising goods, and valuing them cannot become a climate without 20 or 30 years of training and accumulation. If you do not have these skills, even if you want to enter the industry subjectively, you will not be able to find any tricks, and your buyer will not pay attention to you. Therefore, if Jude Kao can contact Jie Lianhuan through an intermediary, it means Jie Lianhuan must have business dealings with these people and gain the trust of the other party. It is unlikely that this can be done by Jie Lianhuan.

This question has always troubled Uncle San. It was not until he returned from his first trip to the Xisha to investigate this matter and asked the boss of the family that he learned some of the ins and outs. However, this matter has nothing to do with Jude Kao's affairs. There is no need to mention it here.

After Jie Lianhuan joined Jude Kao, Jude Kao sent his plan to Jie Lianhuan. It was a detailed information, with a sketch of the bronze alchemy furnace drawn by the old man and an advanced camera. He asked Jie Lianhuan to first confirm whether the Taoist temple was still there - during that time, ancient temples belonged to the four old things and might have been destroyed - and then. Collect information about the alchemy furnace, take photos, and send them back to the United States to confirm, if everything is correct. Then, look for an opportunity to smuggle the thing abroad.

Although Jie Lianhuan didn't know what to do about going to the ground, he went to a place to see if the things were there, and asked about the things, and could still do it. After he got the information, he went to Shandong. Based on the old man's memories on the information, he found the mountainous area where the ancient Taoist temple was built.
Chapter completed!