As the saying goes, "a chaotic world produces a hero", indeed in a turbulent era, most of them are self-conscious, a small number of them are unveiled, the chaotic world can be described as a mirror of the demon, all kinds of human brilliance or ugliness will be exposed in this mirror of the demon.
In the chaotic world, there will indeed be a large number of heroes who will save the people from water and fire; in the same chaotic world, there will also be a group of traitors, who will either collude with the enemy to betray intelligence and become traitors; or resell cultural relics and sell those Chinese treasures abroad to make a fortune.
The one I want to talk about today, his name is Lu Qinzhai, is the largest antique dealer in China's modern history, the biggest smuggling of cultural relics leader. His life can be described as absurd, especially his private life is chaotic, and he eventually dies in a foreign country.
Lu Qinzhai was born in 1880 in Huzhou, Zhejiang, he lost his parents very early at a young age, he grew up in his relatives and parents, perhaps from childhood to the love and teaching of his parents, young Lu Qinzhai appeared to be particularly sensible and diligent.
He came out very early to work to earn money to support himself, the first job he came into contact with was to be a primary school apprentice in the antique shop, Lu Qinzhai who came to the antique shop was like a sponge frantically absorbing all kinds of knowledge, seeing the rich historical precipitation contained behind the antiques, Lu Qinzhai seemed to open a new world.
Here he learned antique identification, learned about antiques, mastered historical attributes, and during that time Lu Qinzhai grew wildly.
Playing with antiques and imagining the historical depth behind them, Lu Qinzhai felt intoxicated and could not extricate himself.
At that time, Chinese antiques were not only the playthings of the princes and nobles, but also attracted the favor of many foreign Westerners, many of whom came from the West to invade, but Lu Qinzhai did not care so much, he worked hard to learn English, French and other foreign Chinese, and established good communication with these foreigners.
In 1902, Lu Qinzhai ushered in a historic turning point in his life, his former employer Zhang Jingjiang was sent to France by the Qing Dynasty as a counselor, Zhang Jingjiang took Lu Qinzhai to Paris with him.
In the beginning, Zhang Jingjiang opened a company in Paris, selling antiques such as porcelain and jade from China, and donated the funds raised to Sun Yat-sen to fully support the Xinhai Revolution.
During this time of following Zhang Jingjiang, Lu Qinzhai saw a way to make money.
After returning to China, the Qing government has fallen, many princes and nobles in order to maintain the previous luxurious life, the antique calligraphy and paintings in their homes have been sold, Lu Benzhai seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to set up Lu Wu Company, specializing in antique resale.
The establishment of this company has greatly improved Lu Benzhai's antique appreciation level and ability, and at that time he has become a master of domestic antique appreciation, on the one hand, he is very familiar with the domestic market, on the other hand, he relies on his superb communication skills and language skills, and also understands the preferences of foreigners.
Lu Qinzhai, who tasted a certain sweetness, founded the Laiyuan Company in 1908 to fully seize the French market. He also built a Parisian Red Chamber in France, which was filled with all kinds of rare treasures he had collected from all over the country.
In the resale of cultural relics again and again, it began to be antiques sold by some princes and nobles, and later Lu Qinzhai developed to buy antiques from tomb robbers, resulting in the outflow of many very precious antiques, which indirectly led to the malicious destruction of some cultural relics in China. These include the National Treasure Relics of the ZhaoLing Tombs.
Lu Qinzhai's business has become bigger and bigger, he has almost established his own cultural relics empire in Paris, and his wealth has increased exponentially, although he has funded the Xinhai Revolution, but the national treasures lost from his hands are countless and undeserved.
With the accumulation of wealth, Lu Qinzhai's private life is also quite chaotic. Shortly after arriving in France, he met Olga, a French widow. The French woman, from a poor family, came out of social work early and gave birth to a young child, giving birth to her daughter at the age of 19.
Olga was only 36 years old when Lu Qinzhai was established, and it was when the charm was still there, when she still had a bunch of her own affair debts, and at the same time, she admired that this oriental man was rich, and if she could always be with him, she might be able to live a carefree life in the future.
So Olga married his 15-year-old daughter Mary Rose and Lu Qinzhai so that they were still a family and it was more convenient for him to meet lu Qinzhai.
Poor Mary was arranged by her mother after marriage, she began her own housewife life with peace of mind, and later gave birth to 4 daughters for Lu Qinzhai in succession, but she did not get Lu Qinzhai's heart, under the influence of traditional Chinese thought, Lu Qinzhai was not very satisfied with these 4 daughters, after all, there was no son to inherit his family wealth.
Therefore, Lu Qinzhai's 4 daughters have never come to China from beginning to end, and they can't speak Chinese, and in Lu Qinzhai's heart, they have never really regarded them as a family, but this does not affect him to continue his own affair.
In 1957, at the age of 78, Lu Qinzhai died alone in Switzerland. In his lifetime, there are tens of thousands of cultural relics sold abroad from his hands, including some very precious national treasures, and from this point of view, his behavior is comparable to that of a traitor.
However, Lu Qinzhai also invested the money he earned into the vigorous revolution, contributed a lot of his own strength to the fight against the Japanese invaders, contributed money to the War of Resistance, and eventually died elsewhere.
Now, others have already driven the crane to the west, and the merits and demerits can only be left for posterity to comment.