We read all the lead to present a different history.
As we all know, China has a long history and has many precious cultural relics, which are not only valuable in themselves, but also contain immeasurable important historical research value. Of course, these cultural relics are not only valuable now, but also valuable in ancient times, so they are generally used and appreciated by princes and nobles. As the residence of the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Forbidden City has a large collection of cultural relics, but in the turbulent years of the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, from the Sun Emperor Puyi down to the ordinary eunuchs, the palace Chinese were transported and sold to enrich their own pockets or maintain their lives. One of the precious cultural relics was forced to be sold by Puyi to raise funds when he got married.
▲Glimpse of the Forbidden City
Love Shin Kyora. Puyi, the last emperor in Chinese history, was only three years old when he succeeded to the throne, and until he abdicated, he was still a child who did not know the world. When Puyi ascended the throne, the Qing Dynasty was already in turmoil, the social chaos and people's minds changed, and the ruling Empress Longyu and the regent Zaifeng lacked political skills, so the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty was already doomed, and Puyi became a victim of the times. After only three years of Puyi's reign, revolutionaries launched uprisings in various places, and Empress Longyu finally issued an abdication edict in puyi's name.
▲Wax figure of Puyi's ascension to the throne scene
In order to thank the Qing Dynasty for taking the initiative to abdicate, the Government of the Republic of China specially formulated the "Preferential Conditions for the Qing Chamber", decided to spend four million silver dollars a year to subsidize the living expenses of the members of the Qing Chamber, and allowed them to continue to live in the Forbidden City, but the Forbidden City was no longer Puyi's private property in nature, but state property. For ordinary people, the annual allocation of four million silver dollars is already a huge amount of money, but for the Manchu Qing royal family, which is accustomed to a luxurious life, this is not enough for their daily expenses, so they often face the embarrassing situation of tight money.
▲Puyi's youth stills
In the eleventh year of the Republic of China (1922 AD), Puyi had reached the age of sixteen, and according to feudal traditions, he had reached the age of marrying a wife and having children. Although the Qing Dynasty had fallen, Puyi's title as emperor was still there and still had a certain status, so the manchu qing courtiers wrote to the Republic of China government, hoping to make Puyi's wedding more solemn according to the pre-Qing etiquette. Although the Beiyang government approved this request, it refused to allocate special funds for this purpose. According to the past practice, a royal wedding will cost millions of taels of silver, and even if it is frugal at present, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver will certainly be indispensable, but at this time, the qing room simply cannot afford this cost.
▲The red wall of the Forbidden City
In order not to lose the face of the royal family and continue to maintain the luxurious life of the palace, Puyi decided to exchange the treasure for silver two like those princes outside the palace. Of course, What Puyi sold was not an ordinary treasure of the royal palace, but a top national treasure in the palace. At the behest of Puyi and Minister of internal affairs Rong Yuan, Shaoying and Qi Ling signed a loan agreement with Yue Qianzhai, manager of beijing salt industry bank, to transport a large number of top treasures out of the Forbidden City by car and to the warehouse of Beijing salt industry bank.
▲The Forbidden City Taimiao Temple
Among these treasures, there is one cultural relic that is particularly precious, that is, the exquisitely crafted gold chimes, which is one of the favorite treasures of the Qianlong Emperor during his lifetime. This group of chimes was cast in the fifty-fifth year of the Qianlong Dynasty (1790 AD), and was cast with gold donated from various provinces, costing a total of 11,439 taels of gold to celebrate the eightieth birthday of the Qianlong Emperor and to show off his prosperity. Usually, this set of chimes is treasured in the Taimiao Temple, and only in the event of a pilgrimage, feast, and festival, will it be taken out to play music with the jade rock.
▲ The golden chimes in the Forbidden City
▲Exterior view of the Treasure Museum of the Forbidden City
With the outbreak of warlord melee, the city of Beijing was in chaos, and in just a few years, Puyi was forcibly driven out of the Forbidden City by Feng Yuxiang with guns, and since then he has lived a wandering life and no longer has the ability to redeem the golden chimes. On the other hand, the golden chimes were also ill-fated, first transferred by Yue Qianzhai to the Tianjin Salt Industry Bank, where the manager Of the Bank, Chen Yihou, was responsible for its safekeeping, and after the "Lugou Bridge Incident", Chen Yihou and the patriotic capitalist Hu Zhongwen joined hands to transfer them to a secret vault in the basement of the Sihang Savings Association building managed by Hu Zhongwen. After the liberation of Tianjin, Chen and Hu handed over the chimes to the people's government and returned to the Forbidden City in 1953. Nowadays, people can see the unique style of golden chimes in the treasure hall of the Palace Museum.
Resources:
"The First Half of My Life", "National Treasure Archives"