The history of the Chinese nation has a long history, there are nearly 5,000 years of cultural heritage, there are many excellent works left over from all dynasties, and these works are collectively called cultural relics by later generations, but it is helpless that during the Japanese invasion of China, the Japanese Kou plundered millions of antique calligraphy and paintings in China, and now they are collected in a number of Japanese museums, and the Tokyo Museum alone treasures nearly 90,000 cultural relics.
In modern history, China is poor and weak, allowing the great powers to squeeze and humiliate, so that China's cultural relics continue to be lost overseas, and one of the characters I want to talk about today has made outstanding contributions to China's cultural relics construction, he donated nearly 100 billion worth of cultural relics to the country free of charge, his name is Zhang Boju.
Zhang Boju was born in Xiangcheng, Henan in 1898, he was succeeded by his father Zhang Jinfang to his brother Zhang Zhenfang at the age of 7, as the last governor of the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Zhenfang, although he was high and powerful, but had no children under his knees, so he regarded Zhang Boju as his own, doubly pampered, and Zhang Boju also lived up to expectations, attending private school at the age of 7, and writing poetry at the age of 9, known as a prodigy.
However, although he was born into a family of officials and eunuchs, Zhang Boju did not have the slightest interest in politics, and was obsessed with traditional literature and art such as qinqi calligraphy and painting and Peking opera, so his mother lamented: Sitting at home and doing nothing, he would not go out to be an official, let him go, afraid that Zhang Boju's playthings would lose his mind, Zhang Zhenfang arranged for him to hang up his post at the salt industry bank he opened.
At that time, the Salt Industry Bank, which the Zhang family participated in and founded, had a deep relationship with the Manchu Qing royal family and various politicians, so those Manchu Nobles mortgaged a large number of antique collections to the bank in exchange for loans, and Zhang Boju was able to taste many precious antiques that only the royal family could access, which also created his future extraordinary appreciation vision.
It was also in this period that began, relying on the advantages of the near water tower, Zhang Bo officially entered the collection world, unlike those second-rate collectors, Zhang Boju regarded money as dung, and even scattered his family wealth in order to collect antiques.
In the 1930s, Zhang Boju almost stayed up all night after learning the news of the "PingFu Ti", this cultural relic is the authentic handiwork of the Western Jin Dynasty's great literary hero Lu Ji, which has a history of more than 1,700 years, and is the oldest calligraphy in Chinese history, which is covered with the seals of famous masters of the dynasties and dynasties, if it is bought by unscrupulous merchants, it is not known where it went in the end.
In order to protect such precious cultural relics, Zhang Boju entrusted the relevant personnel to sincerely buy from Puru (Pu Xinqi), but Puru lion opened his mouth widely, a mouth to 200,000 oceans, Zhang Boju was extremely depressed, he did not have so much money at all, but things later had a turnaround, at the end of 1937, Puru's mother passed away, a few days later he sent someone to send the "PingFu Post" over, as long as the price is forty thousand, which makes Zhang Boju smile and can't fit his mouth.
After hearing that the "Ping Fu Ti" was purchased by Zhang Boju, the Japanese came up and said that they were willing to buy it for 200,000 silver dollars, but Zhang Boju resolutely refused, and he could not sell the national treasure to China.
In the chaotic world of the Republic of China, most of the children of the former Qing dynasty were accustomed to sitting and eating the life of the mountains and the sky, and many people were still daydreaming about reviving the Qing Dynasty, but Zhang Boju resolutely embarked on a road of collecting cultural relics in order to protect the national treasures, for which he did not hesitate to scatter his family wealth, such as the previously mentioned "Ping Fu Ti" and Fan Zhongyan's "DaoFu Praise" were collected by him.
In 1941, the Japanese, together with the infamous No. 76, kidnapped Zhang Boju and coerced him to hand over the national treasure and offer 3 million silver dollars in exchange for a way to live, but Zhang Boju vowed to die, and finally under the extensive mobilization of his family, Zhang Boju was imprisoned for a full eight months, and his family paid 400,000 silver dollars as a ransom, and the Japanese agreed to release him.
In order to protect precious cultural relics such as "Ping Fu Ti", Zhang Boju sewed the cultural relics into a quilt and fled to Xi'an with his family overnight for refuge.
Later, after the fall of the puppet state of Manchukuo, Zhang Boju heard that the "You Chun Tu" known as the first volume of the world was obtained by Ma Jichuan, an antique dealer in Beijing, and he originally wanted to cooperate with the United Nations government and the Palace Museum, but at that time, the Palace Museum was financially embarrassed, and in desperation, Zhang Boju was heartbroken, and directly sold the old house of li Lianying, the grand eunuch of the Qing Dynasty, covering an area of 15 acres, which was left to him by his father, and then he cobbled together 240 taels of gold to buy this national treasure.
In that stormy era, in order to prevent the loss of these precious cultural relics overseas, Zhang Boju scattered his family wealth and collected as many as 118 cultural relics in his personal name.
In his eyes, the value of these antique calligraphy and paintings is much higher than his own life, after the founding of New China, in 1956 Zhang Boju actually donated all these cultural relics to the Palace Museum, he donated cultural relics worth nearly 100 billion yuan free of charge, the government originally wanted to reward Zhang Boju with 20,000 yuan in cash, but he politely refused, and later the government could only issue him a commendation order.
Soon after, Zhang Boju donated some precious antique calligraphy and paintings to the Jilin Provincial Museum, which was also the same as before, and did not take anything.
However, the great collector who possessed such a noble character, but in his later years he lived an extremely desolate life, ten years of turmoil, so that he was devastated, but even if the fate was uncertain, he was still calm in the face of tribulations, only once, when someone threw his scroll into the fire and burned, this old man who had been the fourth son of the Republic of China fell to his knees, and he begged bitterly: If you want to burn me, this is the treasure of the country, and there will be no more burning.
In his later years, Zhang Boju's life was very difficult, according to the painter Huang Yongyu, when he was eating at a Moscow restaurant in the west of Beijing, he saw Zhang Boju waddling alone, sitting at a small side table, when the rich and powerful son of the world, now can only rely on a monthly salary of 80 yuan and his wife to make ends meet.
At that time, Pan Su could not go out because of illness, so Zhang Boju only ordered two slices of bread, ate one by himself, and the other piece was stained with a little jam and butter, he carefully took out a small square towel from his pocket, wrapped the bread, and prepared to take it home for his wife to eat, although he lived in poverty, he always maintained the last gentlemanly demeanor.
Just half a month later, 85-year-old Zhang Boju was sent to Peking University Hospital because of his serious illness, but because the level was not enough, the old man was placed in a ward in an eight-person room, because of the fear of cross infection, the family applied to the hospital for a single ward, but the hospital's response was not enough.
Originally, Zhang Boju's family wanted to apply for a change of hospital, the result of the procedures have not been completed, Mr. Zhang Boju suddenly passed away, a few days later, one of Zhang Boju's students was angry, ran to Peking University Hospital to find the hospital theory, he said: The things donated by Mr. Zhang Boju to the state are enough to buy several hospitals like yours.
Nowadays, the cultural relics donated by Elder Zhang are still placed in the Palace Museum, and their existence seems to tell us about the life of an old man who has gone through vicissitudes, and Zhang Boju's life fully demonstrates the style and bones of a literati, and his spirit is worth remembering and learning from future generations.