Over the past five thousand years, the diligent and wise Chinese nation has created a splendid civilization in the long river of history, leaving countless treasures.
Since the British opened the door of our country with opium in 1840, imperialism has plundered and destroyed countless treasures in China, the most infuriating of which is the crime committed by the Anglo-French coalition army in the Yuanmingyuan. To this day, in addition to those that have been destroyed, there are still many treasures that belong to China.
After the end of the Liberation War, the defeated Chiang Kai-shek also brought a treasure that was called China's most valuable treasure to Taiwan, which has not yet returned to the motherland, which is neither gold nor a cultural relic of the Forbidden City, but a large treasury file of the Ming and Qing cabinets.
What is the Ming and Qing Cabinet Archives?
The Cabinet Treasury was rebuilt from the Ming Dynasty Wenyuan Pavilion and the Library Building, and the Cabinet Library Archives refer to the archival documents stored in the Cabinet Library, the Ming and Qing Cabinet Archives, as the name suggests, refers to the central archives of the Ming and Qing Dynasties stored in the Cabinet Treasury, these archives include documents proclaimed or submitted by the Cabinet, documents recording state affairs, official books and documents collected for the repair of books, documents of the Cabinet's daily affairs, etc., it can be said that these documents record the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties for more than 500 years.
Most of these archives were destroyed in the wars of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, most of which were mostly Qing dynasty archives. Unfortunately, the Qing Dynasty archives have also been destroyed since the Guangxu Dynasty. There are more than 3,000 pieces (volumes) of the Ming archives in the First Historical Archive of China, and more than 10 million pieces (volumes) of the Qing archives, which are scattered in various provinces in China and overseas, and some of which are taken away after the defeat of the old Chiang Kai-shek and are now stored in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan.
Why is the literature so valuable?
Gold is easy to preserve and carry, and not easy to depreciate, and cultural relics, in a few years when the economy booms, can increase value, it can be said that gold and cultural relics have a very high collection value. And the Ming and Qing Cabinet archives are at best some books and materials, many people may issue such a question, according to the reason, gold and cultural relics are not worth more than books and materials? Is it inappropriate to say that this archive is the most precious thing?
In fact, if a nation loses gold, it can still earn, cultural relics are only a bunch of antiques that are slightly older, if everyone does not study, in fact, it is no different from a pile of broken copper and rotten iron, but if a nation loses its culture, it is quite a terrible thing, the reason why the world's four major ancient civilizations say that only China is left, is not because we are the only country whose culture has never been interrupted and has continued to this day? It can be seen how important the inheritance of culture is.
The Ming and Qing Cabinet Archives record the real social situation of the Ming and Qing dynasties very clearly and in detail, many major events are recorded in it, and at the same time, it also brings together the best literary works of China's literati for hundreds of years, it is the history of China's Ming and Qing dynasties for more than 500 years, is the first-hand information for the study of Ming and Qing history, and is the memory of a nation. After all, reality is not a novel, we do not have the ability to travel through ancient and modern times, and if we want to understand a past farther away in our motherland, we can only rely on these historical materials, which are much more precious than cultural relics and gold. Therefore, for our Chinese nation and even the whole world, such a treasure can never be lost.
After a twist and turn, the treasure will eventually survive
It was not easy to preserve these Cabinet archives, but in fact, as early as the Guangxu Emperor, these archives were destroyed to a certain extent, so that only the first half was preserved.
During the Beiyang government period, there was an incident of "eight thousand sacks". At that time, the Beiyang government was facing the problem of insufficient funds from the Ministry of Education and the History Museum, and it was just when booksellers at that time were looking around for Song editions. The Song edition of the book has always been a favorite collector' book, as long as you own one, the value brought by it is great.
Therefore, in order to raise funds, the Beiyang government actually sold these national treasures to these booksellers for 4,000 silver dollars, which is equivalent to scrap paper, and the booksellers also thought that they could find some Song editions of books, and if they did not find them, these books could also be used as pulp to re-make paper. At that time, the Ming and Qing archives sold contained a total of 8,000 sacks, about 150,000 kilograms, so it was called the "8,000 sacks" incident, which was simply stunning.
Fortunately, a scholar named Luo Zhenyu knew about it and redeemed these archives at a high price, but he had already lost a lot. You know, at that time, Luo Zhenyu was not rich in hand, and in the long run, he could not afford such a high price, and later because the funds could not be turned around, he sold these materials to Li Shengduo.
It was not until 1928, when the Academia Sinica was established, and the Institute of History and Linguistics bought back these archives from Li Shengduo at a high price, and the archives of the Ming and Qing Cabinet Archives, which had been in exile for 8 years, were returned to the public.
Before the Liberation War, Chiang Kai-shek had a telephone conversation with Fu Sinian, an important member of the Kuomintang and also a historian, when Fu Sinian told the old Chiang that the archives of the Ming and Qing cabinets in Beiping City were very precious and must be shipped out as soon as possible, otherwise he would become a historical sinner. Chiang Kai-shek followed his advice and transported the archives by plane before the Battle of Pingjin.
After Chiang Kai-shek's defeat in Taiwan, with the help of Fu Sinian, a total of 310,000 archives were selected and brought to Taiwan, which can be said to be the best in the archives of the Ming and Qing dynasties. In 1950, the National Palace Museum in Taipei was established, and the archives of the Ming and Qing Cabinet Archives became the treasures of the town hall and have been preserved to this day.
In fact, when these archives were transported to Taiwan at that time, many media reporters in Taiwan talked about it, believing that the Archives of the Ming and Qing Cabinet Treasury were far less valuable than gold and other Forbidden City cultural relics, questioning Fu Sinian's professional vision, and Fu Sinian at that time did not give a rebuttal, only said a sentence, time will prove all this.
A few decades have passed, and now the Ming and Qing Cabinet Archives have become the most valuable books in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and many scholars at home and abroad must come here to study the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Time finally gave the answer, and the vision of Fu Si Nian was indeed poisonous.
epilogue
For more than 5,000 years, China has left world-renowned treasures in politics, economy, science and technology, and culture, and these treasures cannot simply be limited to a certain piece of jewelry, gold, cultural relics and equipment, and more importantly, cultural wealth. After all, antique artifacts give us the most essential thing, but also to let us identify with traditional Chinese culture from the heart, and the inheritance of culture is far more important than these antique artifacts. I think that if you understand this, you may also be able to better appreciate the value of this Ming and Qing Cabinet archives.