Ma Weidu's reputation in the collecting world is not ordinary, but basically everyone who is engaged in collecting knows his famous name. Ma Weidu's collection is extremely wide-ranging, including not only porcelain and furniture, but also some cold weapons, jade, etc. As for the Qianlong Justice Cup collected by Ma Weidu, it is worth talking about. The Fairy Cup is particularly magical. Once the cup is filled with water, it leaks out. Why is there such a design?
The word "Justice" in the Justice Cup has a big origin. It comes from the "Book of Rites. Liyun", the original text is: "The journey of the great road, the world is public." It can be seen that the Fair Cup focuses on fairness, impartiality and objectivity. This coincides with the Confucian doctrine of the mean, especially in dealing with others. Fairy cups are generally used for two purposes, on the one hand for drinking tea and on the other hand for drinking. The former is mainly used to screen the color of the tea, so that the guests feel that they are being treated fairly. The latter is used for drinking, which is the Qianlong Taibai drunken justice cup collected by Ma Weidu.
The design of the Qianlong Justice Cup collected by Ma Weidu is extremely exquisite. Li Taibai is in the middle of the wine cup, and there is a porcelain tube inside. Don’t underestimate this porcelain tube. The peculiar sight of water leaking out of the cup as soon as it is filled with water is entirely due to this unique setting. According to Ma Weidu, the voices here are alive. Ma Weidu specially conducted an experiment with a bottle of mineral water. As the water gradually increased, the "Taibai" figure inside floated. Ma Weidu pointed out that Taibai being drunk is a traditional picture.
However, there is a problem with the justice cup collected by Ma Weidu. It is filled with water but does not leak. Ma Weidu emphasized that generally speaking, after the water is filled, the water inside will leak out. The reason why it didn't leak out was that the fair cup was damaged. Let's not talk about the value of Ma Weidu's remnant version of the Fairy Cup. Let's take a look at why the water in the Fairy Cup leaks. Ma Weidu explained that the reason why water leaks out when it is full is mainly due to the siphon phenomenon in physics.
As early as the Song Dynasty, the great writer Su Shi recorded in Volume 4 of "Dongpo Zhilin" that pumps were used in Sichuan salt wells to suck salt water to the ground. Regarding the specific details of the principle of siphon phenomenon, everyone has learned it in middle school, so I won’t go into details here. The ancients were very good at playing. Whether they were drinking wine or drinking tea, the purpose was just to have fun, and it could not exceed that limit. Once it exceeds, it is unfair and water will leak out. Through the Fairy Cup collected by Ma Weidu, you can see that the ancients really knew how to play.
Although Ma Weidu’s Qianlong Taibai Drunk Justice Cup is a remnant, it also allows us to appreciate China’s unique wine culture. This also allows us to see that the Chinese people’s play does have a certain spirit of humanism. On the other hand, the Chinese people nowadays have ignored the wine culture and turned to pure drinking, which has also lost the fun of drinking. Of course, we can also feel through this special cultural relic that ancient Chinese science and technology were quite advanced. At least they did play tricks on the use of the siphon principle.
However, what we need to pay attention to is that Chinese science and technology pay attention to experience rather than theory. In other words, I can use this phenomenon to create a variety of rare objects, but it is very difficult to sort out scientific knowledge and use it at a higher level. China's science and technology was inferior to that of the West in modern times, largely because of this special limitation. This is another heavy topic.