The "Ju Shi Tie" is the only calligraphy handed down by Zeng Gong so far. It is a letter written by Zeng Gong to his fellow townsman when he was 62 years old. The whole "Ju Shi Tie" includes the inscription and date, with a total of 124 characters. Calculated by the transaction price this time, the value of each character is 1.67 million yuan, which can be said to be worth a thousand gold.
The "Ju Shi Tie", the only calligraphy handed down by Zeng Gong, one of the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties, was sold for 180 million yuan in the China Guardian "Daguan - Night of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Treasures" special auction on May 15, and the transaction price including commission was 207 million yuan. After the auction was completed, Hu Yanyan, chairman of China Guardian, congratulated the collector of the "Ju Shi Tie" - Mr. Wang Zhongjun of Huayi Brothers Media in the circle of friends.
The "Ju Shi Tie" is the only calligraphy handed down by Zeng Gong so far. It is a letter written by Zeng Gong to his fellow townsman when he was 62 years old. Zeng Gong was already a 60-year-old man at that time. He had been exiled for 12 years and had not been able to return to the capital. Therefore, this letter expounded the author's depressed and melancholy mood, which is meaningful to read. Not long after writing "Ju Shi Tie", Zeng Gong was finally called back to Beijing. But only three years later, he passed away. The following is the full text of "Ju Shi Tie": "Ju Shi Tie": "There is a lot of free time for the bureau, and I am happy to be away from the benefits of teaching and discussion. I have been away for three years. I am in a poor place, and I am confused and confused by the tedious official duties. How can I be happy? Although the date of my departure is close, I have not heard of anyone who will replace me, and I am looking forward to it day and night. If I can escape from the slackness, it is really the power of the wise. At the turn of summer and autumn, I left the government, so I thanked the people around me, hoping that there would be a chance. I hope you will take good care of yourself and be summoned soon. I will ask you here, but I won't announce it. Gong Zaibai Yun Gou Fengyi Wudang Xiangxian. 27th. Sincerely. ”
The whole article of "Ju Shi Tie" includes the inscription and date, with a total of 124 characters. Calculated at the transaction price this time, the value of each character is 1.67 million yuan, which can be said to be worth a thousand gold.
According to Yin Guanghua, an appraiser of ancient calligraphy and painting, "Ju Shi Tie" has been collected by many important collectors for more than 900 years, including He Liangjun, Xiang Yuanbian, An Yizhou, Wang Qisun, Zeng Yu, Fei Nianci, Xu Yuanlai, Zhang Heng, Zhang Wenkui, etc.
Collector Zhu Shaoliang mentioned in the article "My Reading of Zhang Congyu" that people like Zeng Gong's letters in the Northern Song Dynasty because this work was once collected by Zhang Congyu. According to Zhu Shaoliang, the collection seal of the work shows that this work is indeed from the hands of the appraisal master Zhang Congyu. Later, he lost "Ju Shi Tie" to collector Tan Jing because of gambling, and then it was taken to the United States.
In 1996, the "Ju Shi Tie" was bought by the famous collectors Yurun and his wife at the Christie's auction in New York for US$508,500 (equivalent to RMB 4,519,100). Later, in the 2009 Beijing Poly Autumn Auction "Important Chinese Calligraphy and Paintings from the Yurun Collection", Zeng Gong's "Ju Shi Tie" appeared again. At that time, it was estimated at 12 million to 18 million yuan, but it was finally sold for 109 million yuan. The appreciation was 23 times in 13 years. According to Zhu Shaoliang's analysis, Zeng Gong's calligraphy was once questioned, but after analysis and comparison of the records, it was identified as an authentic work, so its value has also experienced a rapid increase. Zeng Gong, Ju Shi Tie "Daguan--Night of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Treasures" has a total of 46 lots on auction, and the quality of the lots is quite impressive, including 4 national first-class cultural relics and 8 important works published and recorded in the "Catalogue of Ancient Chinese Calligraphy and Painting". The final transaction rate of the night was 67%, with a total transaction price of 667 million yuan. In addition to the focus lot "Jushi Tie" sold for 207 million yuan, Song Kelin, a calligrapher in the early Ming Dynasty, sold "Jijiu Zhang" and various inscriptions and postscripts in 12 pages for 92 million yuan, and "Tang Xian Xiejing Yimo and Modern Poems and Paintings" sold for 57.5 million yuan. There were 11 lots with a price of over 10 million yuan in the entire auction. In addition, important lots including Tang Yin's "Holding Knees and Chanting Maple", Zhu Da's "Ancient Tree and Two Birds", Shi Tao's "Reading in the Shade of Pine", and Wang Hui's "Pu'an Jinjue Tu" failed to sell.
