In 1860, the Anglo-French coalition launched the Second Opium War, invading China and directly attacking the Yuanmingyuan.
The Anglo-French forces brutally plundered and burned the Yuanmingyuan, a large imperial garden in the Qing Dynasty. According to rough statistics, the number of rare treasures in the Yuanmingyuan was about 1.5 million.
In 1900, the eight-power alliance of Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Russia, Japan, Italy, and Austria brazenly launched a war of aggression against China.
After the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded the capital, everywhere it went, there was no evil, burning and looting. The Forbidden City and the Summer Palace were looted, and countless treasures were stolen and looted by the Eight-Nation Alliance. In the unprecedented catastrophe, Countless cultural and artistic treasures in China were looted by the invading army, and millions of treasures were lost abroad.
The British Museum is the museum with the largest number of lost treasures in China after the looting of the Eight-Nation Alliance, with tens of thousands of Chinese cultural relics in its collection. At the British Museum, there is a top treasure lost by China that had the opportunity to return to China, but was rejected by Chiang Kai-shek.
This top treasure is the famous character painting, illustration scroll, and the famous work "Female History Proverbs".
"Female Shi ZhenTu" is a silk painting on silk background, which is the work of Gu Kaizhi, a famous painter of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The content of the "Female Shi Zhentu" comes from a poem by Zhang Hua, a minister of the Western Jin Dynasty, mainly to warn court women on how to respect women's virtue.
Calligraphy Wang Xizhi, painting Gu Kaizhi, for Gu Kaizhi's paintings, in the "World Speaks New Language" is evaluated in this way: Gu Kaizhi's paintings, there are nothing in the sky. There are no ancients before, and there are no people who come after.
The Female History Zhentu is the founding work of Chinese painting and is known as the "open volume map" of Chinese art history. The brushwork is like a spring silkworm spitting silk, the shape of the god has, the picture is elegant and quiet, but there is no lack of bright and lively. Since its creation, it has been sought after by emperors and generals and scholars.
But unfortunately, the original work has long disappeared, only a few imitations have survived, the British Museum's collection of "Female History Zhentu", most scholars believe that this is the Eastern Jin Dynasty Gu Kaizhi's "Female History Zhentu" Tang Dynasty facsimile, is recognized as the closest to Gu Kaizhi painting style, is one of the most precious scroll paintings in ancient China.
The Tang Dynasty facsimile of "Female History Zhentu" was respected by the literati of all generations, and it was also a cherished object of the emperors of various dynasties, and the emperors of various dynasties left a large number of seals on it, the most exaggerated one was Qianlong, who knocked 37 chapters in this painting and also painted an orchid by hand.
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the original collection of the Female History Zhentu was the Imperial Study of the Forbidden City, which was later treasured by Empress Dowager Cixi in the Summer Palace.
In 1900, when the Eight-Power Alliance invaded China and looted the Summer Palace, the famous painting "Female History Proverbs" was stolen by a British captain.
The British captain, unaware of the painting's value, sold it to the British Museum for £25.
After the British Museum got the painting, it chose the restoration method of Japanese screen painting and cut the "Female Historiography" into several pieces. It didn't take long for museum researchers to learn, and they picked up a big "leak."
Later, the "Female Historiography" became the "treasure of the town hall" of the British Museum.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, China had the opportunity to take the Chinese treasure "Female History Proverbs", but because of Chiang Kai-shek's words, it led to a missed opportunity.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Chinese Expeditionary Force entered Burma to fight.
In February 1942, four divisions of the Japanese-Kou Army broke into Burma. The British First Division in Burma retreated in a hurry under the ferocious japanese offensive.
The British 1st Division and the Tank Battalion, under the leadership of Division Commander Scott, were forced by the Japanese 33rd Division to take advantage of the situation when they retreated to the Nhamangqiang area in northern Burma. After that, the Japanese quickly occupied the vicinity of the Ren'anqiang oil field area, cut off the British army's rear road, and surrounded the anglo-Burmese 1st Division in the northeast of the Ren'anqiang oilfield and south of the Jiqiang River.
Another Japanese force also crossed the Wall River, established a blockade line on the north bank, cut off all the support lines of the British army, and adopted a double-line blockade, so that the British army, which had already suffered heavy casualties, was completely on the verge of collapse.
There were more than 7,000 British troops under siege, and after a desperate situation, they ran out of ammunition and food, and the water source was cut off, and the situation was critical.
Late on the night of April 15, Admiral Alexander, commander-in-chief of the Anglo-Burmese army, urgently requested the Chinese Expeditionary Force to send troops to help.
Sun Liren, commander of the New 38th Division of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, expressed his willingness to send troops to Ren'an Qiang.
On April 17, Sun Liren ordered Liu Fangwu to lead the 113th Regiment (actually about 800 soldiers) to Ren'an Qiang.
On 18 April, Liu Fangwu took a frontal attack, flanked around, sneaked in and encircled, and blocked the ambush.
After three days and nights of fierce fighting, the Japanese suffered heavy losses and retreated in a hurry.
In this battle, Liu Fangwu fought against more than 10,000 Japanese troops with the strength of a regiment! Not only more than 7,000 British soldiers were rescued, but more than 500 American journalists and missionaries captured by the Japanese army were also rescued.
Later, in order to thank Sun Liren and Liu Fangwu for their life-saving grace, the British proposed to send the "Female History Proverbs" back to China as a great gift to thank China.
However, the British also knew that this was a priceless treasure, and they were a little reluctant to do so, so they said to Chiang Kai-shek: "If you don't want this painting, then we can also send you a submarine." Choose between a submarine and the Female Chronicle. ”
Antiques of the world, gold of the troubled world. It was during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression that Chiang Kai-shek felt that weapons and equipment were important, submarines were important, and what was the use of asking for a painting? No, it's useless! So he chose the submarine.
Today, the "Female History Proverbs", the top famous painting in Chinese history, is still displayed in the British Museum. Due to poor storage, the picture appears cracked, stiff and fragile, unable to withstand fiddling and stretching.