C256 Gift (1/2)

The banquet actually passed by very quickly.

After drinking three rounds of food and drinks, the nobles on the field began to show off their gifts.

The lower class aristocrats naturally could not bring out any decent gifts, so they could only keep their mouths shut.

Thus, the introduction ceremony began with a ceremony brought by Dong Zhuo.

He was at the thirteenth level of the rank system. He was two levels lower than Xiao Wen and three levels lower than Xiao Wen.

However, nobles at a higher rank would gradually be able to control their own destinies. Thus, this noble felt that he could still give out some decent gifts.

However, when this fierce-looking aristocrat walked to the front of the stage and introduced his present, an awkward atmosphere emanated.

The fierce-looking aristocrat said, ”Great Master Zhang, I brought you a birthday present today. It's a five jin golden longevity peach. I hope you like it!”

As he spoke, the servant behind him brought out a large longevity peach buns that were made out of pure gold and showed it to Zhang Cang.

If five pounds of gold were placed in the modern era, its value would be close to one million yuan.

However, in ancient times, it wasn't strange for a noble to offer a birthday present worth a million gold coins.

However, when Zhang Cang looked at this golden longevity peach buns, his eyes did not contain any surprise.

He even clasped his hands at the man very politely and said, ”Thank you for your concern.”

However, from his observation, Xiao Wen saw a hint of disdain in his eyes.

Obviously, as a great scholar, although he did not hate money, giving it to others when giving gifts more or less made people feel that it was a bit vulgar.

This sort of vulgarity was the vulgarity of a nouveau riche.

As a result, even though he didn't have many aristocrats, Xiao Wen, who only thought that nobility made things easier for him, was extremely disgusted.

After all, not only did the aristocrats hate the nouveau riche, but the commoners also didn't like these people.

Fortunately, the nobles who came up to introduce the gifts were all nobles from the east.

Most of the gifts they offered consisted of master teachers' calligraphy and paintings, as well as fragments of ancient books. They were all extremely meticulous in nature.

As such, he did not make a joke out of it.

However, an Eastern aristocrat took out a painting scroll and said to Zhang Cang, ”Great Master, this is a painting that I obtained from the Song Kingdom. It was painted by Wu Daozi, I hope you will like it.”

Hearing this, Zhang Cang's eyes lit up.

He said, ”Can you let this old man have a look?”

”Naturally. After all, this is something that this junior has in mind.” The noble nodded his head and brought the scroll to Zhang Cang's table in a pleasant manner.

Thus, Zhang Cang started to read without any distractions.

At the same time, a trace of curiosity flashed in Xiao Wen's eyes.

After all, in the history of China, Wu Daozi was a very famous painter.

Wu Daozi was probably born in 680, the Tang Dynasty.

When he was young, his family was very poor and he was an orphan, but since then he had already drawn up the name of the painting.

He had served as a County Lieutenant of Yanzhou County (now Zuyang, Shandong Province), but he resigned shortly thereafter.

Later, he drifted to Luoyang, where he was engaged in the creation of frescoes.

During the Kaiyuan period, Kaiyuan was summoned to the court with good paintings.

Moreover, he had once learned calligraphy from Zhang Xu and He Zhizhang, and through watching Gongsun Niang's swordplay, he had experienced the way of using a brush.

It specializes in Buddhism, ghosts, characters, mountains and rivers, birds and beasts, vegetation, pavilions and other materials, especially in Buddhism, characters, and mural creation.