Our Chinese nation has a long history of 5,000 years, in the long river of years, we have accumulated countless rare treasures, these cultural relics have witnessed the rise and fall of the motherland, have a high value, but also become the object of people's collection. Some antique lovers have reached the level of obsession with cultural relics, and they will not hesitate to spend thousands of dollars in exchange for their beloved things. There is such a person, although he cherishes his collection very much, but in the face of national interests, he chose to sacrifice personal small profits and become a national righteousness. This is the famous folk collector Zhang Boju.
China in 1898 was still under the rule of the late Qing dynasty. Zhang Boju was born in this year to a large family in Xiangcheng, Henan Province. His uncle was Zhang Zhenfang, the minister of Beiyang at the time. The cousin is Yuan Shikai, who and his sister have been passed on to their uncle since childhood, living a life of fine clothes and food, and have the conditions for a good education. Zhang Boju, known as a child prodigy, has been reading poetry since childhood, can recite poetry at the age of 9, enter the Tianjin New Academy at the age of 13 to receive a new education, and at the age of 20 has been familiar with history books. In addition, he grew up with his family growing up watching dramas in the tea garden, and he also had a very high attainment in opera, full of talent coupled with Swen Junxiu's appearance, which made him very famous in the cultural circle at that time, and was known as one of the four princes of the Republic of China.
However, he had no intention of staying in the corrupt officialdom at that time, so his father arranged for him to enter the salt bank opened by the family, and he made a spare time, devoting his spare time to the hobby of studying calligraphy and painting, and from then on, he began to collect. Because of his style of not being stingy about money and only seeking treasures, he soon became famous in collecting circles. But don't look at his generous approach to collecting, but he never pays too much attention to life, completely without the clumsiness of a rich man, simple dress, no pomp and circumstance, and is very decent.
In 1941, Zhang Boju was kidnapped by the secret service organization of the Wang puppet regime, and Zhang Kou demanded a ransom of 3 million yuan from his wife. At that time, the Zhang family was not as brilliant as before, coupled with his years of indulgence in collecting, money could only come and go, the family had little left, to make up for the ransom, the best way was to paint the family calligraphy. Nevertheless, when his wife tried to visit him, Zhang Boju still told his wife not to sell his collection, otherwise he would rather die. In desperation, Madame had to bargain with the secret service organization, and he finally regained his freedom with 400,000 yuan, which showed that Zhang Boju regarded his collection as more important than life.
In 1946, Zhang Boju happened to hear that someone was going to sell "You Chun Tu" to foreigners, and he thought that the national treasure would be lost, and he was distraught, so he decided to buy this map at any cost. But at this time, the Zhang family had already been defeated, even if he poured out his family wealth, it was not enough to pay, so he borrowed all his relatives and friends, and barely managed to scrape together two hundred and twenty-two gold. The person who sold the painting also made concessions under the influence of patriotic public opinion at that time, and sold the painting to Zhang Boju "cheaply", and he changed from a noble prince to a poor and acidic literati with a lot of debt.
After the founding of New China, Zhang Baiju, who lived an extremely depressed life, made another amazing decision to donate a large number of collections to the state free of charge. Many of the exhibits in the Palace Museum today come from him. Each one is worth a fortune, including the above-mentioned "You Chun Tu", all of which add up to hundreds of billions of yuan. Only then did people understand that his original intention of collecting cultural relics was not for his own selfish desires, but for the sake of national righteousness.
After the age of 80, Zhang Boju's health deteriorated, and he was seriously ill and hospitalized once, and was arranged in a general ward. Thinking that he was old, incapacitated, and in critical condition, Madame applied to the hospital for a single ward for him. Unexpectedly, the doctor said that he was not high enough and refused their request. Mrs. Zhang Boju had to turn to the Palace Museum for help, so she changed the ward.
Despite this, Zhang Boju believes that this is just a trivial matter without teeth and does not feel aggrieved. The old man has been honest and low-key all his life, and he has made great contributions without expecting anything in return. In him, we feel the feelings of home and country of the older generation of intellectuals and the infinite love for our national culture.