For thousands of years, the ancestors of the Chinese people began to cultivate and work on this land, and the ancestors began to seek spiritual pursuits after meeting the most basic living conditions of the individual, and in the long flow of history, the works of art gradually developed.
Chinese culture, after many decays, has shown its strong vitality, and the work of art is the most intuitive epitome.
In 2003, the gambling king bought a pig's head for 6 million yuan to give it to the state, and in 2007, he photographed the horse's head and gave it to the National Museum.
The Zodiac Sign of the Old Summer Palace is a record of the plundering of the British and French forces, but today there is such a person who donates his collection of cultural relics to the Boston Museum in the United States, he is - Weng Wango.
A house of high authority
Weng Wange's ancestor Weng Tonggong was a Qing Dynasty leader, a high-ranking and powerful person, who had a certain degree of achievement in calligraphy, so Weng Tonggong was extremely fond of works of art and collected works of art.
Weng Tonggong's primitive accumulation of money and his love to collect valuable collections, slowly the Weng family's family foundation became rich, so by the time of Weng Wange's generation, many high-value works of art had been saved.
So this is also the reason why the Weng family collapsed in the Qing Dynasty, and the Republic of China period was still a famous household, and the collection collected by Weng Tonggong still does not know where it came from.
Some people say that Weng Tonggong used his right to collect the people's fat and people's ointment, in short, all this became a mystery.
When it comes to Weng Tonggong, he is a typical old-fashioned scholar-doctor, and he and Li Hongzhang have different political views.
When Li Hongzhang organized the construction of a water army, Weng Tonggong was extremely opposed, and by virtue of his position, he cut off the imperial court's supply to the Beiyang water division at that time, and Li Hongzhang was powerless to face this situation.
In the later period, Li Hongzhang knew very well that he could not confront Japan hard, so he advocated peace, and Weng Tonggong, who had never managed the Beiyang Marine Division, strongly advocated fighting with Japan, and the leading power was in the hands of Weng Tonggong, so the Sino-Japanese War was lost, Li Hongzhang became a traitor, and Weng Wange's ancestor Weng Tonggong hid behind his back.
Unfortunately, Weng Tonggong's children died early, there were no descendants, and people under the feudal system hoped that their bloodlines could be passed on, and after a hundred years, someone could sacrifice themselves.
Weng Tonggong is no exception, so Weng Tonggong passed on his brother's children to his own name, and Weng Wange passed on to Weng Tonggong with his father, and Weng Tonggong gave his property to Weng Wange after a hundred years of return.
Weng Wange was born in Shanghai in 1918 and was inherited by Weng Tonggong at the age of 2, so he lived a good life from an early age and was a veritable young master.
Onwango received a new education from an early age, so he was close to the West in terms of his worldview and values.
Therefore, when he was admitted to the university, he chose the major that was most in line with the development process of the times, that is, the mechanical and electrical major of Shanghai Jiaotong University.
The family immigrated to the United States
In 1937, the Japanese invasion of China broke out, and the site of Shanghai Jiaotong University was destroyed, so Weng Wange chose to travel to the United States and chose to complete his studies in the United States.
Due to his family environment focusing on the arts, After obtaining a master's degree in mechanical and electrical engineering in the United States, Ongwango became interested in art, so he gave up seeking a job and went to the University of Wisconsin to re-study art.
After graduating from this university, Ongwango chose a job related to painting.
Weng Wange, who studied in the United States, did not abandon the cultural relics in the motherland at the beginning, but during his studies, he also returned to China to see his cultural relics.
At that time, although Japan was defeated, but the domestic situation was still severe, Weng Wange because he was worried about the cultural relics in his home, damaged by the war, so he chose to spend money to pack the cultural relics from Shanghai to Send to New York.
In this way, the ancestral relics were far away from the homeland and brought this batch of artworks that were not part of the United States to the United States.
In 1948, Onwango immigrated to the United States, in fact, Onwango's behavior of moving cultural relics at that time was also worthy of recognition, he was not only the owner of this batch of cultural relics, but also the protector of this batch of cultural relics.
Weng Wange continued to guard his property in the United States, and he also showed these cultural relics to Xie Zhiliu, Gao Juhan and others so that they could do academic research.
Committed to cultural exchanges, showing the Chinese style
Working in the United States, Weng Wange has become accustomed to the American way of life, in order to let the West better understand the profundity of Chinese culture, Weng Wange began to invest in spending money to shoot related educational films and documentaries.
Show Chinese culture to the world, so that the world has a deeper understanding of the Chinese nation.
Among them, Weng Wange's "Chinese Buddhism" is particularly famous.
"Chinese Buddhism" shows how Buddhism entered China and how it took root and spread in China, and Weng Wange also won the award in 1973 for this documentary.
In this documentary, Weng Wange is both a choreographer and a photographer, and in the post-production process of the documentary, he also has to produce titles, subtitles, etc. This documentary is his painstaking effort.
This documentary also showed the world the inclusiveness of Chinese culture, and also made the world more aware of the Chinese nation, and his behavior was also affirmed by many people at that time!
Patriotic in the early stage, "treason" in the later period
It was not until 1990 that Onwango changed his mind and began to donate the cultural relics collected in his family to the motherland.
His act of donating cultural relics one after another was warmly welcomed by the people of the country at that time, and it was time to learn from mr. Weng Wange's spirit of selfless dedication.
Until 2000, Weng Wange said that he wanted to make his own contribution to the country, and it was interesting to donate a batch of cultural relics in his own collection, hoping that domestic researchers could study this batch of cultural relics well.
The cultural relics management personnel who received this notice were extremely happy at that time, because these cultural relics are of great significance to the study of Chinese history.
Although the time of the Chinese nation from division to reunification has passed, the imprint of time is on this batch of cultural relics, which has extraordinary significance for the study of Chinese culture.
At that time, the personnel of the Shanghai authorities rushed to the United States to discuss the donation with Mr. Weng Wange, and soon they learned that there had been a big oolong incident, and Weng Wange was not "donating" but "donating for sale", that is, this batch of cultural relics was sold to Shanghai.
The staff from Shanghai were embarrassed by their understanding, but the staff knew the importance of this batch of cultural relics, so they immediately agreed to Weng Wange's request.
In the end, the cultural relics were sold to the motherland for $4.5 million.
After understanding the country, everyone supported Mr. Weng Wange's approach, this batch of cultural relics belonged to his ancestors, he owned it, and he could dispose of it as he wanted.
Living abroad also requires money, it is impossible to be free, and the value of this batch of cultural relics is far more than that.
In 2018, the Boston Museum sent a message that they had received a batch of cultural relics from China, with 183 artifacts, the largest number and highest value in the museum's history.
Among the cultural relics in this batch are the "Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangtze River" with a length of 16 meters, as well as more than 100 famous paintings and embroidery works.
Many people are very curious about which "traitor" this batch of cultural relics came from, and after everyone learned that it was WengWange who donated the cultural relics to the Americans, the domestic people began to denounce Wengwange on the Internet.
It is simply shameful that these artifacts came from China and eventually reached the United States.
This batch of cultural relics is of great significance to the study of the history of the Chinese nation, Weng Wange donated it to the Boston Museum in the United States without a word, and Weng Wange subsequently donated a batch of cultural relics, and the country was full of accusations.
In the face of the people's condemnation, Weng Wange explained: "My mission is to protect this batch of cultural relics, donate this batch of cultural relics to the United States, help the cultural exchanges between China and the United States, and also let Chinese culture go to the world, the most important thing is that the United States is better than the domestic cultural relics preservation technology." ”
Onwango's explanation is powerless for the country, the people do not want to belong to their own national things, but to the other side of the ocean, the people do not want to want to appreciate the excellent treasures of the ancestors in the future, but they have to cross the ocean to see.
In December 2020, Weng Wango passed away for a long time, and he may not have expected that a decision he made would nail him to the pillar of shame.
In fact, Weng Wange's idea is worth understanding from the perspective of cultural relics enthusiasts, and his mission is to ensure the integrity of cultural relics, but his approach is not worth supporting and advocating.
Cultural relics divorced from their own national culture will lose their unique charm, and then the people of other countries have differences between their own culture and Chinese national culture, so their protection of Chinese culture is different from the protection of domestic cultural relics.
People who hope to own Chinese cultural relics in the future can donate or sell cultural relics belonging to their own ethnic groups to their own motherland.