The Qing government lasted for hundreds of years and finally ended here in Puyi, and in the hundreds of years of controlling China, the Qing government declined more and more, and the people at home suffered a lot. In 1912, the people of the country finally overthrew the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and Puyi was ousted from the emperor's throne. Unfortunately, the revolution that shocked the whole country was not complete, and Puyi lost only the name of the emperor.
After Puyi abdicated, he enjoyed the preferential treatment of the Republic of China government, and he could regularly get living expenses from the Republic of China government, but with the increasing changes in the situation in China, Puyi's status was worse than a day, and the Republic of China government began to slowly default on Puyi's living expenses, and simply did not pay this money in the later stage.
But at that time, Puyi still had the emperor's shelf, and there was a group of eunuchs, palace women, and guards who served him, and if he didn't have money for everyone, the people's hearts would be scattered after a long time. But fortunately, when he left the palace, he brought some treasures, if the slave around him behaved well, Puyi would reward some treasures, and some slaves turned around and sold the treasures after getting Puyi's reward, but there were also some people who kept these treasures, such as the treasures in the hands of the old man surnamed Li that we are going to talk about today, which was given to his father by Puyi that year.
The old man surnamed Li received from his father the "Ten YongTu" of Zhang Xian of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the old man's father was once Puyi's bodyguard, and he was rewarded by Puyi because of his good performance. In fact, when they first got this painting, the Li family did not know that this was the authentic handiwork of the Northern Song Dynasty painters, so the two generations of the family lived in relative poverty, and Zhang Xian's authentic handwriting could be passed down to the present is undoubtedly a priceless treasure, since it is a treasure, it must be worth a lot of money, the old man thought of selling this treasure, the money was divided equally between the 7 sons and daughters, so that the family's life can be improved.
Later the old man came to an auction company in Beijing with the treasure, when the "Ten Yong Tu" first appeared, many people did not believe that this was Zhang Xian's real handwriting, some people commented that the old man wanted to go crazy for money, and casually took a fake painting to cheat money, but later after the identification of archaeologists, this painting is indeed the original handiwork of Zhang Xian in the Northern Song Dynasty, the old man said that if this painting is going to sell, at least he has to give him 8 million, otherwise he will find an auction company to bid.
At that time, the museum was too expensive, or felt that the price of the old man was too high, did not pay for the acquisition of this painting, and then the old man took the painting to the auction company to bid, this "Ten Yong Tu" was actually raised to 18 million, and finally the museum spent 18 million to buy. Although the painting ended up in the National Museum, it was a loss to the state authorities, as the work was auctioned at a higher price.