Then, Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing and opened the door of the Forbidden City.
Numerous rare treasures and ancient cultural relics in China were looted by these invaders, and a large number of treasures belonging to our country were scattered overseas.
Today, our country is trying to recover these scattered cultural relics.
However, things have changed and we are trying to recover the cultural relics belonging to our own country. Some people will donate for various personal reasons.
One of the most representative figures is Weng Wanghua, the sixth generation heir of Weng's family, who donated a lot in his later years.
Then, what kind of cultural relics are collected by Weng's family, so that Weng's donation abroad will cause an uproar in China society? Why would he do that?
Today, let's walk into this story together, from patriotic overseas Chinese to "traitors" shouted by everyone to find out.
When the surname Weng is mentioned, many people in China will think of that famous historical figure, "the teacher of two generations of emperors", and one of the famous civil servants in the late Qing Dynasty, Weng Tonghe (hé).
Indeed, Weng's family collection is closely related to this famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty.
In fact, if the Weng family has not been an official for generations, how can ordinary people have the opportunity to accumulate the family collection known as "one of the nine books in the late Qing Dynasty"?
Weng's family collection originated from Weng Tonghe's father Weng Xincun.
Weng Xincun was once a scholar, an official and a college student in Tijen Pavilion, and was awarded the Tongzhi Emperor. In one fell swoop, the fate of Weng Mai was completely rewritten.
Weng's people began to have the opportunity to receive better education and more development opportunities.
Especially for the children of Weng Xincun, under the careful teaching of Weng Xincun, three brothers, Weng Shu Tong, Weng Tonghe and Weng Tonghe, successively passed the examination of Jinshi as officials.
The two brothers not only inherited their father Weng's eagerness to learn, but also inherited his father's hobby of collecting ancient books and appreciating calligraphy and painting.
Weng Xincun and Weng Shu Tong both spent a lot of money on closed research and a lot of fine books. Such a large-scale purchase has also greatly increased the number of books collected by the Weng family.
Before Weng Xincun died, he divided his family's collection into two parts and gave them to Weng Tonghe and Weng Shu Tong for inheritance.
Weng Shu Tong's inheritance went smoothly, but it was a bit bumpy when it came to Weng Tonghe.
He had no children all his life, so he chose Weng Zenghan, the son of his brother Weng Tonghe, as his successor.
Originally interested in Weng Zenghan's lively and healthy body, I didn't expect Weng Zengzhong to die young in Chinese and English. The only child was sick and died before he was one year old.
Weng Tonghe comes down in one continuous line and faces the crisis of losing his heir again. To this end, he can only do the same thing again and adopt the method of adoption.
Weng Tonghe liked Weng Zhi, the descendant of Weng Shu Tong, so he chose one of his children to adopt.
The selected baby is Weng Wange.
Weng Wanghua is nominally a descendant of Weng Tonghe, but actually a great-grandson of Weng Shu Tong. He and his biological father Weng Zhiyi are the heirs of Weng Tonghe and Weng Shu Tong respectively.
Although Weng Wanghua got a fortune from the sky, it may not be a good thing for him.
As an heir, he has to receive strict family education since he was a child, and he is familiar with the four books and five classics and documents in order to meet the high demands of the family on the heir.
But little Weng Wange didn't even get a chance to see these collections.
First, because Weng Wange is too young. According to family regulations, he must be over 30 years old to be eligible to take over Weng's family collection.
Secondly, due to the chaotic situation, Weng's descendants have been shifting the position of family treasures in order to preserve them. Except for a few core ethnic groups, no one knows the specific location of the family treasure at all.
After the death of Weng Tonghe, the collection of Weng's family has undergone two large-scale transfers.
Once I moved from my home in Beijing to my hometown in Changshu, Jiangsu, and once I moved from Changshu to Tianjin where Weng's descendants lived.
Before Weng grew up, that part of his family's library was kept by his mother Hu and his father Weng Zhiyi. Together, there is Weng Shu Tong's family collection.
1In the autumn of 948, a man who had lived abroad for 10 years crossed the ocean with his wife and daughter and returned to his hometown in the East.
His intentions. I wish I had never met the daughter of my motherland. You can come back and meet your hometown.
At the same time, he has reached the age of 30, and his family has written to him, asking him to return to China and take over a family legacy.
This man is Weng Wanghua, who has been drifting overseas because he escaped the civil war and finished his studies.
Weng Wanghua knew from an early age that he would inherit a rich collection at the age of 30, so after receiving the letter, he immediately set off for home.
Although Weng Wanghua knew that his responsibility was to protect the family's books, he was shocked when he came to the library established by his family in Tianjin.
The vast collection in front of us is not all of Weng's family. His biological father Weng Zhiyi has removed his blood collection, and the rest is what is in front of him.
When he was young, he received a traditional China education in his hometown of Changshu, Jiangsu. Later, he was admitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering of Shanghai Jiaotong University with excellent results.
The following year, 1938, he went to America to escape the war.
At that time, Weng Wang E crossed the ocean alone with only $2,000 on him. He is very lucky. He was introduced to Purdue University, which is famous for its engineering, and obtained a master's degree in mechanical and electrical engineering.
However, after studying at home and abroad for four years, Weng Wanghua deeply felt that he was not suitable for mechanical and electrical engineering, so he decided to study art and was admitted to the Fine Arts Department of the University of Wisconsin.
Then stay in America, get married and have children.
Therefore, this is the first time that Weng Wange witnessed the collections he inherited.
Weng Wanghua walked in the library, looking at ancient books, calligraphy and paintings bearing the accumulation of the times and history and culture.
As a highly educated intellectual, he knows that he must protect these collections in front of him, even if he gambles for the rest of his life, whether for the sake of historical inheritance or family inheritance.
However, Weng Wanghua, who was ready to settle down to protect the collection, soon learned a bad news in Tianjin, that is, the Liaoshen campaign was about to start and was about to fall into war.
War is ruthless, even if only one shell falls near the library, it will easily destroy these books.
Weng Wanghua had no choice but to give up the idea of settling down and immediately began to transfer these collections.
At first, Weng Wanghua wanted to imitate his ancestors and move his collection from Beijing to Tianjin. He wants to secretly transport these collections from Tianjin to Shanghai.
So he came to Shanghai with his wife and daughter, hoping to find a suitable place to collect these cultural relics and classics in Shanghai.
But his idea was quickly punctured by reality.
Due to the war, serious inflation occurred in the Kuomintang-occupied areas.
Weng Wanghua later recalled that although Shanghai was not a war zone at that time, it was also affected.
Prices are soaring and the economy is on the verge of collapse. Every day, people take a lot of money to plunder materials.
Weng Wanghua is also suffering from inflation, and his savings in the United States are gradually exhausted. Until June 5438+00, his family's life was unsustainable.
As a last resort, he can only choose to return to the United States when there is still a chance, and these cultural relics are naturally brought to the United States.
After all, at that time, the rest of the Weng family had taken care of themselves. Besides them, who can Weng Wanghua trust to keep these collections?
/kloc-in October, Weng and his wife and daughter left China by American plane.
Before leaving Shanghai, Weng Wangoto packed all his luggage.
In order to cope with the Americans' spot checks at sea, Weng Wanghua had to give up reluctantly. The only antique objects that attract attention are books and calligraphy that foreigners can't understand, and some Four Treasures of the Study in China.
Maritime transportation at that time was far less safe and slow than today, and shipwrecks often occurred.
But Weng Wange, at this time, has no choice but to leave everything to God to decide.
He prayed to heaven in his heart. If God is willing to let the Weng family escape this robbery, he is willing to spend his life guarding the treasures of these families.
After a long voyage of several months, Weng Wanghua arrived in the United States in the spring of 1949 and received all the cultural relics, which were basically intact.
As a result, Weng Wanghua also began his decades-long guardian mission.
This part of the Weng family's collection lived abroad until 1985 several decades later.
The times are constantly changing, and in the face of historical changes, Weng's clan has to rethink the way to protect the family treasure.
195 1 year, knowing that he was unable to protect Weng Shu Tong's collection, Weng Zhiyu divided his five generations of collections into five batches and donated them to the Beijing Museum.
Weng Wanghua, who is far away in the United States, still doesn't know all this happened.
He still followed Weng's low-key and undisclosed collection route, and carefully collected that part of his possessions, even his wife and daughter were not allowed to contact.
After Weng Wanghua went abroad again, he has been acting as a bridge between Chinese and western cultures.
He used his photography and film production to spread China's excellent traditional culture, hoping to promote cultural exchanges between China and the United States.
Later, Weng Wanghua switched to the film and television equipment industry and met many filmmakers.
At a gathering of business friends, Weng met a film artist named Situ Huimin, and they became friends.
Soon after, Huimin Stuart returned to China for development and broke off contact with Weng Wanghua.
At that time, neither of them knew about this friendship, and there were opportunities for further development in the future.
1978, 60-year-old Weng Wanghua retired.
In the next few years, Weng Wanghua was immersed in sorting out and studying collections.
Until 1985, an American professor discovered Weng Wange. He learned that Weng Wange had precious ancient books in China, so he asked Weng Wange to borrow an exhibition.
Weng Wanghua was not prepared to agree, but considering that this is a large-scale exhibition that many countries will participate in, borrowing books may promote the traditional culture of China. Finally, I borrowed ten books from the Song Dynasty.
It was Weng's loan that brought back the long-lost collection of Weng's family.
During the period of 1985, Weng's collection of books appeared in the "China Rare Book Fair" of the Metropolitan Museum of America. As soon as this news was sent back to China, it immediately attracted the attention of people from all walks of life.
Many experts and scholars have contacted the relevant departments, hoping that the country can buy some Weng's books and not let these precious national cultural relics wander overseas.
The person in charge of this contact is none other than Hui Minsito, who has returned to China as the vice minister of culture.
This time, Weng Wange was reminded of homesickness, so he went back to China once a year.
Every time, Weng Wange will go to different provinces and cities. It seems that he wants to see the old country he has never seen in the past few decades to make up for his regret.
During the trip, few people can discover Weng Wange's overseas Chinese identity.
Because although Weng Wanghua is over 50 years old and has been away from China for decades, his Chinese is not strange at all, and he never has a foreign accent.
With interest, he can speak a few words of Shanghai dialect. He took root in this vast land of China.
1990, Weng Wanghua donated his ancestral home to his hometown Changshu, which is now Weng Tonghe Memorial Hall.
In 2000, after many discussions, Weng reached a cooperation with China Guardian International Auction Company to transfer some of his books.
Just as at the beginning, he quietly took the books away, Weng Wange and his wife, this time quietly, returned to China with 542 ancient books.
This collection of Weng's books was successfully transferred to Shanghai Library.
As soon as Weng's ancient books were taken out, many experts could not help sighing that it was the most important and complete rare book of ancient books in China. Known as "the heaviest collection of overseas cultural relics."
It can be seen that Weng Wanghua has made great efforts in preserving books.
I live for my family, and my family becomes my life. Tao devoted his whole life to protecting family collections, and was also the heir of a collection family, bearing the mission of inheritance.
He joked that he was more careful about these collections than about his own children. Over the years, I have almost turned myself into an expert in cultural relics protection.
Later, Shanghai Library purchased this collection of Weng's books through negotiation and transfer, which cost 4.5 million dollars.
At that time, people complained about it, because compared with philanthropists who donated money, Weng Wange used auction.
This inevitably makes people feel that he has the idea of borrowing his own books for profit and is making money in the name of patriotism.
In particular, in contrast, Weng Wanghua's biological father, Weng Zhiyi's practice and Weng's behavior are inevitably a little petty.
However, most people are still very rational and think that this collection belongs to the ancestors of the Weng family.
Weng Zhiyi is willing to donate for free because others are willing. We can't force Weng Wange to donate for free. Therefore, during this period, people still maintained a positive attitude towards Weng Wange.
In 2008, Weng Wanghua came to China to hold an exhibition with a collection. This is also the first time that the people of China have witnessed the rare treasure "The Map of the Yangtze River and Wan Li".
This is Weng Tonghe's favorite collection before his death. In order to get this painting, Weng Tonghe even spent a lot of money to misappropriate the house payment.
The state has always wanted to buy these collections, but Weng Wange never agreed. For this painting, which is closely related to Weng family, Weng Wange has always been hard to give up.
In the next few years, Weng has been donating to China, some of which were collected by Weng's family.
20 10 Peking University receives Yuan Shaozan's Picture donated by Weng.
From 20 15 to 12, Shanghai Library received 47 volumes of precious Weng literature such as Diary of Weng Tonghe donated by Weng.
In 20 16, some of Weng's books left in Changshu were donated to libraries and museums by Weng's sons and nephews.
Nanjing Library has obtained more than 7,000 volumes, and Changshu Library has 1, 7 12 volumes, some of which have important historical value and have been included in Changshu Museum. For example, manuscripts such as Imperial Examination and Shuizhai Diary.
In 20 18, 100-year-old Weng Wanghua made the last two donations in his life.
Two huge paintings were donated to the Shanghai Museum, namely, the axis of Shen Zhou's Xie 'an Dongshan Map in Lin Dai in the Ming Dynasty and the axis of Du Fu's Poems and Pictures by Wang in the Qing Dynasty.
This time, Weng Wange won the praise of the domestic media.
But another donation not only made these praises disappear, but also brought him great controversy.
Just after Weng Wanghua ended his donation to China, on July 28th of the same year, on the occasion of his centenary birthday, he announced that he would donate 183 paintings and calligraphy collections to the Boston Art Museum for free.
This kind of donation undoubtedly caused an uproar in China. Most people in China can't understand Weng Wange's behavior.
They thought, as people who have experienced wars and broken mountains and rivers, how can they give China's treasures to foreigners?
You know, in American museums, the historical relics about China in the past were taken away from China by them, representing the humiliating history of China.
At that time, Weng Wange's behavior was defined as "traitorous" by angry people.
His voice on the Internet is endless, and he thinks that Weng Wange has forgotten his ancestors and is not worthy to be a descendant of Weng Tonghe who supported the Reform Movement of 1898.
Although Weng Wange explained that this is because he hopes that these collections can be better protected.
However, this explanation undoubtedly angered netizens even more. They think that Weng Wange is a museum in China, not as good as a foreign museum, and he is making excuses for his shameless behavior.
Donating cultural relics to American museums is really a bad thing for Weng Wange. He didn't understand China people's feelings for their homeland and country, and didn't consider historical factors.
But for Weng Wanghua himself, we should evaluate him with a more rational attitude.
First of all, the collection of Weng family books is of great significance in the history of ancient cultural relics collection in China.
In the turbulent situation and the smoke of war, Weng Wang E tried his best to keep these collections intact.
This in itself is a great contribution to the collection of ancient books in China. Without him, there would be no collection of historical ancient books and calligraphy and painting that we see now.
Secondly, Weng Wanghua donated many ancient books in China to give back to the society.
Although, like his biological father, he didn't donate it all out of the family's righteousness and selfless concept of protecting the collection.
However, it is really ugly and biased to say that he has forgotten his ancestors and "betrayed the country".
In fact, Weng Wange's life is very contradictory.
He was adopted as a child, although he was born in China and grew up in China. But by the time he was 100 years old, he had actually spent most of his life in America.
He has an American green card, and his children and descendants are studying and living in the United States. It's hard to say whether he is from China or American.
Even if he has feelings for his country, he will not forget his hometown, but also consider his family and children.
We can easily find that Weng Wang E's donation is very valuable to the Boston Museum.
His children can get jobs in the Boston Museum through this donation, and they can also open a road to American upper class.
This time, Weng Wanghua's donation made me see that more and more an elderly father is trying his best to plan the future for his children.
To this end, he did not hesitate to sacrifice his reputation accumulated in China for many years and his later period.
In the history of China, incidents of foreign Chinese giving back to the motherland and donating cultural relics abound.
Many patriotic collectors are also willing to donate their precious collections to the country.
Not all of them are celebrities, but most of them have been giving silently and never asking for anything in return.
For example, Zhao Tailai, a patriotic overseas Chinese who inherited his heritage at the age of 23, spent 20 years donating all the 60,000 cultural relics he inherited to the country.
Results In 2008, he was awarded the "Top Ten Outstanding Persons of the Year" of the first cultural heritage protection in China.
However, we can't force everyone who owns cultural relics to make such selfless dedication.
Weng Wange is not unpatriotic. From his past behavior, we can also see that he has deep feelings for his motherland.
It's just feelings of home and country. In the end, I didn't satisfy my inner feelings and worried about my child's future.
The deceased has passed away. Mr. Weng Wanghua died at home on February 9, 2020 at the age of 102.
The legend hidden by Weng's family also left the stage of the times with his death.
Weng Wanghua's life is both lucky and unfortunate.
He inherited Weng's family collection, which is envied by everyone, and at the same time shoulders the mission of protection, and must not be destroyed.
With the changes of the times, these treasures belong to Weng Wange and also to the country.
As the owner, Weng Wanghua is very aware of the additional significance of these cultural relics, so there are only two kinds of ownership of these cultural relics, either to continue to inherit in Weng's home or to return to the motherland.
Weng Wanghua has always planned this way. He has been donating his family's collection until he 100 years old.
It's just that when you get old, you will inevitably be soft-hearted. He values his children more than his distant motherland. He is worried about his children's future, but he is reluctant to collect it for a lifetime, too far away from himself.
A temporary chaos is a loss of life.
Although Weng Wanghua's behavior has brought tangible benefits to his children, it is still unacceptable to sell the national treasures collected by his family in exchange for all this.
I only hope that future generations can learn from it, and when such things happen again, they can consider the national justice more than personal gain.