"Either by taking the cheap value, or by taking the convenience of convenience, because of the greed for the bait, the blame is not entirely on the person."
This is a self-deprecating sentence of Ji Xiaolan, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, after suffering a secret loss in the collection of cultural relics. It can be seen from this that the collection of cultural relics has been widely welcomed by the world since ancient times.
The Chinese nation has a long history, and its cultural splendor is like the most brilliant pearl in the world, which makes the world marvel. It has not only left countless precious cultural treasures to future generations, but also left countless precious cultural relics to future generations.
Those cultural relics not only carry history, but also inherit culture, they record the wisdom of the ancestors, write the civilization process of the Chinese nation, and are a real treasure house of civilization that belongs to us.
When it comes to cultural relics inheritance, we have to talk about the people who collect cultural relics. In their own way, they intercepted and preserved civilization from historical inheritance, so that cultural relics can be passed on to future generations, so that civilization can be passed on through the ages.
Some people will pass on the collection of cultural relics and treasures as heirlooms from generation to generation, while others will resell the collection of cultural relics for high profits. Of course, there are also people who donate their treasured cultural relics.
For example, a man named Weng Wange once donated 183 Chinese cultural relics to the United States free of charge.
So, who is this man named Onwango?
Don't look at this name is not remarkable, but his origin is unexpected by many people. He was the fifth grandson of Emperor Weng Tonggong of the two emperors of Tongzhi and Guangxu.
First, Onwango
Weng Wange is the fifth grandson of Weng Tonggong, which means that he is the sixth generation of Weng's collection. From the available information, it can be seen that the Weng collection began with the same book of Weng Wange's pro-Gao Zu Weng. Weng Tongshu was weng Tongshu's eldest brother, and because Weng Tonggong had no queen, he inherited one from the fifth brother Weng Tongjue, but because the third generation also had no descendants, he borrowed a fourth generation of Weng Zhilian from the eldest brother Weng Tongshu.
Weng Zhilian was Weng Wange's uncle, but because he had no queen, he also took Weng Wange to the past. But within two years Weng Zhilian died. And Weng's collection also fell into the hands of Weng Wange.
That is to say, in 1919, when Ongwango was just two years old, he was a veritable "collector".
However, due to his young age, weng's collection of collections and artifacts was nominally managed by Weng Wange's biological father. In the subsequent process of growing up, because his biological father was a painter, Weng Wange gradually became interested in art such as calligraphy and painting. By the age of twenty, Weng Wange had completely taken over the Weng family's possessions.
It is the influence of such a growing environment that has fascinated him all his life in the study of Chinese culture and has a great love for art culture. Because of this, he attaches great importance to the cultural relics that can be preserved and passed down from the Weng family collection, and he believes that this is a treasure of Chinese culture, something left by the ancestors, and it is absolutely not to be lost.
However, why would such a person who loves and loves Chinese culture donate 183 national treasures and cultural relics to the American Museum free of charge?
In fact, judging from Weng Wange's lifelong behavior and advocacy, he should have wanted to promote Chinese culture in this way.
2. Promote Chinese culture
Weng Wange was admitted to Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1936, but because of the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War soon after, he had to go to Purdue University in the United States to continue his studies in order to complete his studies.
At the same time, it was precisely because of the war that Weng Wange took his family and Tianjin's collection to the house in the French Concession in Shanghai in 1948 to avoid disaster.
However, the French Concession in Shanghai was still affected, so in order to preserve the cultural relics handed down from the ancestors, Weng Wange finally had to decide to bring the collection to the United States together. That is to say, because of the impact of the war, in order to preserve the Weng family collection, Weng Wange was not allowed to bring those cultural relics to the United States.
During his study in the United States, Weng Wange began to spare no effort to promote Chinese culture in the United States since the 1940s. He not only made films and translated films, but also served as president of the Chinese American Association. In addition, he also exhibited the cultural relics collected by the Weng family through the Exhibition of the Millennium Monument to let people understand traditional Chinese culture.
In this way, he continued to promote traditional Chinese culture in the United States through his own way. At the same time, it has also made outstanding contributions to Sino-US cultural exchanges.
It is probably for this reason that Onwango announced on the day of his 100th birthday that he would donate 183 Pieces of Chinese artifacts from his family's collection to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and it was donated free of charge.
Of course, after Mr. Ongwango announced the news, many people in the country were in an uproar. Many people think that even though Weng Wange has made outstanding contributions to the promotion of Chinese culture, it is unacceptable that more than 100 precious cultural relics have been donated to the United States free of charge.
It is reasonable to say that Weng Wange donated his family collection of cultural relics to the American Museum, and the purpose is to promote Chinese culture, people should understand it, so why do many people think that Weng Wange's behavior makes people feel "unacceptable"?
In fact, this also involves a batch of cultural relics that Weng Wange once "donated" to China.
3. "Donate" cultural relics to China
As mentioned earlier, Weng Wange went to the United States to study in 1936, but because of the war, he has been living in the United States and has never returned to China for more than thirty years. But because he loves traditional Chinese culture in his heart, he has been busy promoting Chinese culture.
In 2000, he donated more than 80 kinds of weng family collections and 542 rare ancient books of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties to China. However, the donation was actually transferred to the Shanghai Library for $4.5 million through China Guardian Auction Company.
Although $4.5 million is not a small number, in any case, this batch of "transferred" ancient books and artifacts is of extraordinary value, and $4.5 million is not a reflection of the value of this batch of artifacts.
Therefore, the Chinese people are very praised for Weng Wange's "donation" behavior. After all, this batch of ancient books and cultural relics is collected by people, and it is understandable to charge a transfer fee of 4.5 million.
However, in 2018, Onwango donated his collection to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Although there is no fault for this "private act". But in the eyes of the Chinese people, especially after a comparison, they always feel that their hearts are particularly unhappy.
After all, it costs $4.5 million to donate to China, but it is a gratuitous donation to the United States, which is a bit "unacceptable" to look at.
Of course, what is the truth of the matter, what are the differences between the details of Mr. WengWango's two donations, and what kind of mentality he had when he donated his family's Chinese cultural relics to the American Museum free of charge, we do not know.
But from the information we can get, the obvious results of these two differences do make the Chinese people feel frustrated and "angry". After all, the value of 183 Chinese cultural relics is simply unimaginable.
In today's era when China wants to go to overseas countries to find ways to "recycle" cultural relics, the "homecoming" of cultural relics and national treasures is obviously the expectation of every Chinese.
In recent years, there have been many cases on the Internet of private collectors and entrepreneurs who have purchased cultural relics and national treasures from overseas at large prices and donated them to the country, but Weng Wange has donated a total of 183 Chinese cultural relics to the United States free of charge, which is a serious act of punching all Chinese in the face.
epilogue:
In general, from the information that can be obtained so far, although Weng Wange is Chinese-American and has also made many contributions to the promotion of Chinese culture, his behavior on his centennial birthday has aroused the indignation of many Chinese people.
No matter how much he loves Chinese culture, no matter how much he has contributed to the promotion of Chinese culture, his behavior is really difficult to agree with.
As for why he donated more than 100 Chinese cultural relics to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts free of charge, Weng Wange himself did not disclose any information, and the reason for this is unknown. Maybe he had a good reason to do it, maybe there were other factors that influenced him.
But in any case, the Chinese people are not aware of it at present, and his behavior will not be "forgiven" by the Chinese people.
So, what do you think about this?
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