A number of national treasures returned from overseas, including the memorial tablet of Qianlong, the longevity account of "birds flying at the phoenix", the golden snail inlaid with precious stones, and the silk edition of Lisao Jing by Mi Fei, a painter of the Song Dynasty, will soon be auctioned in Beijing, attracting people's attention.
Recently, the reporter interviewed Huang Jing, who is in charge of this auction. She said that many people have different backgrounds and life experiences, and this is the first time it has appeared in Beijing. At first, for various reasons, jing wong kept his mouth shut about the origin of the national treasure. After repeated questioning by reporters, the identity of the national treasure gradually surfaced. Through the clues she provided, the reporter found Li Shoukun, the discoverer of Gan Long memorial tablet and longevity stamp.
Gan Long memorial tablet
Li Shoukun told reporters that Gan Long's memorial tablet was found in a German cellar, but it was no accident.
Mr. Li is an adjunct professor at the School of History and Culture of Huazhong Normal University. Six years ago, he went to Germany to give a lecture on "Comparison between Buddhism and Christianity in China". German intellectuals have a special liking for China's ancient culture, so Mr. Ma was able to make many local friends, and also met Xue, a doctor of economics who was doing business in Germany. They hit it off at first sight, and finally paved the way for Gan Long memorial tablet and Shouzhang to return to China.
Xue lived in Germany for 19 years, and his father was a famous modern poet in China. Mr. Li and Xue have the same interest in cultural relics. In Germany, there is a "King Street" with the same name as the Champs Elysé es in Paris, where dozens of antique shops are located. Small auctions often held there have become a place for them to search for various China cultural collections, and the search has also accumulated rich experience for them to cherish in the future.
A year ago, together with some German people from all walks of life who love China culture, they set up the "German China Traditional Culture Health Association" and began to advertise on TV and radio, willing to help collectors identify cultural relics and hope to acquire various China cultural relics.
From June, 5438 to February, 2004, Diak, a German who had been in contact with Xue for many years, became curious about the artworks preserved in his cellar and invited Xue to his home. Diak, 60, is a coffee agent. His home is in Duisburg, South Rhine, Germany, which is a traditional and ancient city on the Rhine River.
German wine cellar is not the basement where we imagined to store sundries, but a "safe" with good ventilation and humidity. Xue went to Diak's cellar and found a large number of artworks arranged neatly, including Buddha statues, utensils, paintings and calligraphy from China. Xue's intuition for many years told him that one of the memorial tablets and the half-life account came from the Qing royal family.
Xue told Mr. Li, who has returned to China, the details of this discovery through the Internet. Mr. Li went to Germany and then to Diak's house. After some understanding, Diak's father used to be a factory owner, and some works of art in the cellar were collected during World War II. His grandfather preached in China, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Wuhan in the late Qing Dynasty. For more than ten years, his grandfather has been looking for his favorite "treasure" everywhere. Perhaps the commander-in-chief of Eight-Nation Alliance was a German at that time, and his personal relationship prompted the memorial tablet and longevity account to become "gifts" given by the commander to the missionaries. After my grandfather returned to China, he hid these cultural relics in the cellar at home and has been hiding them ever since.
Mr. Li learned through identification that the Manchu language on the memorial tablet means "Emperor Gao Zongchun", and Gao Zongchun was the temple name of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. When the reporter asked about the origin of the memorial tablet, Mr. Li said: "Many cultural relics have been copied in history, but copying the royal memorial tablet is considered a big sin. Therefore, the royal memorial tablet can only be enshrined in four original royal locations: the Imperial Palace ancestral temple, Jehol, Yuanmingyuan and Shengjing (now the Imperial Palace in Shenyang). This memorial tablet was probably lost when Yuanmingyuan was burned. "
At the same time, the Shouzhang found 6 meters high and 3 meters wide belongs to Beijing embroidery. The red background is embroidered with patterns such as birds flying towards the phoenix, auspicious animals, peony, lotus, and longevity ganoderma lucidum. Phoenix stands on the strange stone, which is the king's demeanor. Mr. Li believes that the large area and exquisite craftsmanship can not be used by folk families, but must come from the palace collection. Shouzhang is a retractable pendant, which represents auspiciousness, harmony and wealth in ancient times. Unfortunately, only half of Shouzhang was found this time, and the other half is still missing.
After some discussion, Diak is willing to resell these two precious cultural relics from China to Mr. Li. Mr Li told reporters: "Diak has been to China. He thinks that China should return to China. If the conditions are right, he will come up with other collections one after another, but not for money. "
Right-handed snail
Jing wong revealed that the gold snail inlaid with precious stones came from a famous collector in Taiwan Province province who asked not to be named. She said: "People in many parts of the world want to collect these things, and we are helping the cultural relics lost overseas to return to China. This collector is very patriotic, and our sincerity touched him. "
Although the origin is unclear, the golden snail is a treasure. Golden snail is a kind of snail, which is a Tibetan musical instrument offered by Tibet to the Qing government in the early Qing Dynasty. Among all kinds of conch, only all-white conch can be made into snail. Normal conch grows clockwise, that is, left-handed snail, while variant conch grows counterclockwise, that is, right-handed snail, which is extremely rare. Copper is the most commonly used metal in French snail decoration, followed by silver, and pure gold is extremely rare. The golden snail in this auction is a rare right-handed white snail covered with gold.
Miffy's words
With a starting price of 50 million yuan, Mi Fei, a famous painter in Song Dynasty, became the focus of this auction. Miss Huang introduced that the word was written by a mysterious person living in Hong Kong, who did not want to reveal his identity. This is the first silk work published after Mi Fei's paper edition collected by the Palace Museum.
Eight months ago, a friend of Huang Jing showed her a local "Lisao Jing". "Due to long-term storage and moisture, the silk surface has been out of its original appearance and has some wear and tear. Judging from the new paper, it should be re-supported by Japan in recent years. " Authoritative experts have recently appraised this character, which is considered to be the largest original calligraphy in Mi Fei.
These precious cultural relics are just a microcosm of China's massive loss of national treasures. Since 1840 Opium War, the number of national treasures in China is amazing. According to the latest statistics of UNESCO, more than 200 museums scattered around the world have collected more than 1.6 million rare treasures lost in China, and the folk collection is estimated to be 10 times of the collection. Although many people like jing wong and Li Shoukun want the national treasure to return to China, there is no denying that there are more national treasures that we can't touch.
Experts found 23,000 famous paintings lost in China in 10.
There are a large number of outstanding cultural relics in China, especially the famous paintings of past dynasties. A few days ago, the reporter interviewed Lin, a professor of art history in China, Nanjing Art Institute. He told reporters that as many as 23,000 famous China paintings have been found!
80-year-old Lin went through all the hardships, and spent 10 years, putting most of his savings and accumulated funds of more than 654.38+million dollars into the search and sorting work. 1996, he compiled and published a large-scale 8-volume masterpiece "Overseas Collection of China Famous Paintings", which collected ancient China art treasures detained all over the world, from primitive times to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Reporter: When did you start your treasure hunt? How many national treasures are scattered overseas?
Lin:1In the autumn of 985, I was invited to be a visiting professor at the University of Michigan in the United States, teaching the history of China painting and inspecting the history of European art. During my one-year stay there, I often visited major museums in the United States after lectures, and I was shocked by the fine paintings and calligraphy of China collected by Americans. In Nelson Art Museum, I witnessed the reliefs of Emperor Xiaowen and Empress Zhao Wen of the Northern Wei Dynasty stolen from Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan. The broken relief gave me a strong impact inside.
1985, I am determined to find and record the national treasures lost overseas. I think even if it can't be taken back, it should be put on record to give a warning and memo to future generations. During my stay in the United States, I paid more than $30,000 as a visiting professor, visited major museums and photographed more than 3,000 slides and 3 boxes of books and materials.
At present, there are 23,000 overseas famous paintings in China, with the United States (mainly the United States and Canada), Japan and Europe each accounting for one third. Europe is mainly distributed in Germany, Britain, France, Belgium, Sweden and other countries. Most of them were taken from the Dunhuang Buddhist scriptures caves in those years, and a few were bought by foreigners in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in the1930s and before and after the Liberation War, and brought out by China people.
There are more than 20 scroll paintings in the Tang Dynasty that have been lost overseas. Confucian classics, poems, paintings and calligraphy collected in Dunhuang Grottoes 16, from the prosperous Tang Dynasty to the late Tang Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty, are all famous Buddhist paintings hanging in Dunhuang Grottoes, with Britain and France as the largest collection, and the British-French Ji Mei Museum has 300 volumes. There were also two or three hundred scroll paintings lost in the Song Dynasty, nearly two hundred in the Yuan Dynasty, about eight thousand other famous paintings lost in the Ming Dynasty and about1.20 thousand in the Qing Dynasty.
Reporter: Who brought China's national treasure overseas?
Lin: What impressed me most was the Picture of Women's History by Gu Kaizhi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which Eight-Nation Alliance took away when the Yuanmingyuan was burned. It is a high-quality product among the high-quality products, and is recognized by the world art circles as the super national treasure of China. Now it is collected by the British Museum in London, England. The earliest copy of another famous painting by Gu Kaizhi, the goddess of Luo, is now in the Flier Museum in Washington, USA.
There are about 50,000 pieces of various cultural relics in Dunhuang Tibetan Sutra Cave, which are now scattered in the world 1 1 countries. Around 1905, Englishman Stein, Frenchman Pelliott and German Laycock plundered grotto murals along the Silk Road, from Qizil Grottoes in Kuqa, Xinjiang to Boz Creek in Turpan.
American antique dealer Pu went to China to find the relief of the "Buddha statue of Empress Dowager Cixi" in Luoyang, photographed it with a camera, and found the antique dealer of Beijing Liulichang. The two sides signed an agreement to collude with Luoyang antique dealer Ma to contact local bandits to cut down the relief, cut it into pieces, and transport it to Beijing in sacks, and then transport it to the United States after splicing in Beijing. 1952 The contract signed with Pu to plunder the relief of the "Empress Buddha" was discovered in Beijing Taner Hutong Antique Store, which angered the cultural relics circle in China. More than 300 celebrities jointly demanded that the profiteer Yue Bin be punished. He was sentenced to death, suspended for two years, and then died in prison.
Reporter: What is the value of these treasures?
Lin: The Picture of Women's History is the earliest extant, internationally influential and most valuable lost silk painting. It is a national treasure among national treasures.
There are five versions of Luo Shen Fu circulating all over the world. In addition to a copy of the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Liaoning Museum in Northeast China and the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the only one that has been exiled overseas is a long scroll collected by the Flier Art Museum in Washington, DC, USA, which is the earliest one. It was bought by American activist Fu when he was a government consultant in the late Qing Dynasty.
The picture of Luoshen Fu is based on Luoshen Fu written by Cao Zhi of Three Kingdoms. The original description of Cao Zhi's affair with Zhen Shi, Zhen Shi later married her brother Cao Pi according to Cao Cao's will and became a queen, but later fell out of favor. After his death, Xelloss gave the pillow that Zhen Shi slept in to Cao Zhi, who lamented that he had turned Zhen Shi into the goddess of waterinfo and met him in his dream. The famous great painters in history all take Luo Shen's "Floating Picture" as the theme. The codex left by Gu Kaizhi is of the highest value today. In the past, when we studied silk painting and Chinese painting, we always mentioned the above.
Generally speaking, the age and authenticity of calligraphy and painting are controversial. These 400 Dunhuang works are real national treasures, completely reliable in age and of inestimable artistic and historical value. Stolen Buddhist paintings used to be hanging paintings of temples, all of which were painted by donors, including people from all walks of life at that time. There are many Buddhist stories in Buddhist paintings, as well as descriptions of landscapes, figures, buildings, customs and human feelings at that time. It is very valuable to study the tangible data preserved by the society at that time.
The emperor's ritual Buddha pictures are two huge reliefs of historical significance in the Northern Wei Dynasty, such as the stone carving "Horse Treading Xiongnu" in front of Huo Qubing's tomb in the Western Han Dynasty and the "Six Horses in Zhaoling" by Emperor Taizong, all of which are historical witnesses.
The reasons for the loss of cultural relics in China are very complicated.
Zhang Jian, director of the International Friendship Museum, has collected a great deal of information on cultural relics lost since 1985, and studied the present situation of cultural relics lost in China in the past century.
Zhang Jian, curator, told reporters that the 20th century was the most serious period of China's heritage loss. There were two brain drain peaks during the Opium War and after the reform and opening up.
Director Zhang Jian believes that the value of China cultural relics in the eyes of foreigners is not just a collection. "They will find the bones of China cemetery for anthropological research, analyze the evolution process and blood relationship of China people, and study the economy, culture and customs of China through unearthed epitaphs and land coupons. After 1840, some foreign missionaries entered China to collect China's genealogy to study China's social structure and behavior, and used the collected maps as the basis for anti-China. "
"China has been in a strong position in the world before the three generations of Kang Yong, and the cultural relics reflect the national scientific and technological level of that year. The wisdom of ancient achievements ahead of the world is embodied in every cultural relic, including bronzes reflecting skills, paintings and calligraphy reflecting China people's philosophy, and jade articles reflecting philosophy and technology. The marauders hoped to understand the life of China people by studying China's philosophy and beliefs, and to study the reasons why China was so powerful at that time. The most classic example is' Dunhuang is in China and Dunhuang studies are abroad'. "
Memorandum on the loss of national treasure
During Japan's invasion of China, more than 3.6 million cultural relics and 74 historical sites 1 0/were lost.
1860, the British and French allied forces set fire to Yuanmingyuan, and the Yongle ceremony was taken overseas.
There are more than 30 thousand rare porcelains in the British Museum.
The China Pavilion in Fontainebleau Palace has more than 30,000 pieces of China cultural relics.
There are 200,000 stolen tombs in China.
The United States has the largest collection of paintings, but China's paintings in the British Museum are the best.
The Library of Congress has more than 4,000 kinds of local chronicles. There are more than 3,000 rare books and 2,000 genealogies in the United States.
Among the nearly 30,000 pieces of Oracle bones lost overseas, there are nearly13,000 pieces in Japan.
There are only over 20,000 suicide notes in Dunhuang, China, accounting for only 30%.