The Manchu Qing dynasty elder refused to sell the 183 treasures in his family collection to China and donated them to the United States free of charge
Cultural relics are the most intuitive evidence in the historical past of the country and the nation. Five thousand years of vicissitudes have forged the blood and cultural memory of the Chinese nation. When history entered the modern era, the decadent feudal Manchu Qing emperors only indulged in beautiful dreams all day long, never woke up to the alarm bells of the times, and failed to keep up with the pace of development. Until the West improved the smoke of gunfire firearms and carried the improved navigation tools from ancient instruments, these great inventions that China was once proud of became the "accomplices" of foreigners.
The cultural prosperity of the Tang Dynasty is not unrelated to its strong national strength; and the dynastic government, which declined in the face of strong enemies, even took its own life, not to mention protecting the "playthings" in the eyes of those flag bearers. Under the plunder of the great powers, which was enough to make the most vicious robbers ashamed, countless Chinese cultural relics were lost overseas.
Since the founding of New China, its national strength has been increasing day by day, and its prestige in the international arena has continued to climb to new heights. Under the attention of the government, generations of cultural relics workers have traveled all over the world to recover cultural relics for decades, and overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese have also worked the recovery work out of enthusiasm, and many treasures have been successfully rescued back home. In addition, some countries have also provided enthusiastic assistance, such as Italy, which recently returned 796 precious cultural relics in response to China's warm invitation to show the sincerity of cooperation. As an outsider, there is still such a pure feeling and awareness of cultural relics, but some shameless "nationals" are really infuriating.
When it comes to the Weng family, many people will think of Weng Tonggong, a heavy minister at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Their family has been a high-ranking official in the dprk for generations, and his father is the emperor of Tongzhi. Weng Tonggong himself started his family, and as the emperor of the two dynasties, his knowledge cannot be described as profound. However, this person's evaluation is somewhat contradictory, and he deliberately jammed the armament money just to fight for power, which can also be regarded as one of the criminals who failed in Jia Wu.
Weng Tonggong, as a generation of Wenzong, is also a famous collector of cultural relics. He was not a greedy and dirty official, but with his lofty official position and prestige, collecting cultural relics was naturally a hundred times easier than ordinary people. Weng Tonggong had no heirs, he inherited a child from his brother, and then two generations also relied on heirs, so it was passed on for 5 generations, and his treasures also went to the hands of the fifth generation of Sun Weng Wange.
Weng Wange was born in Shanghai in 1918, when Yuan Shikai was destroyed, not to mention the Qing Dynasty, but by relying on family traditions, he can also be regarded as a "Manchu Qing relic". In 38 years, he traveled to the Orient and studied at a prestigious school in the United States. His major was mechanical and electrical, but he did not engage in engineering in the end, but transferred to art schools, and was effective in fine arts and film. In 1948, in the sound of artillery fire, Jiang Jun was defeated and retreated, and Weng Wange and his family carefully cleaned up the cultural relics in their family collections and brought them all back to the United States.
In the field of cultural relics protection, Weng Wange did not deserve his ancestors. The Weng family's collection is mainly fragile Ming and Qing dynasty ancient calligraphy and paintings, and in the decades of war and turmoil, these cultural relics have remained amazingly intact, even if they travel to the distant other shore, there is no loss. Weng Wange once said that he had lived all his life for his family, and what he said was not false.
In his collection, almost all the famous literati calligraphers and painters of the two dynasties are covered. Among them, the most precious one is a Gongbi painting of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the author Liang Kai's heirloom works are very few, and the Gongbi painting is the only one. In addition, there is a 16-meter-long Qing Dynasty scroll, depicting the magnificent scene of the Yangtze River rushing thousands of miles, it is rumored that after Weng Tonggong found it, he did not hesitate to embezzle 400 taels of silver to buy a new house to buy it.
Since the founding of New China, cultural relics workers have often spared no expense to recover lost ancient cultural relics overseas. It is true that many patriots donate their family treasures back to China free of charge, but more often, the cultural relics department has to repeatedly go to the door to do work to buy, or redeem at a high price at auction. Weng Wange is a well-known collector in overseas Chinese circles, so the cultural relics department has visited many times, hoping to obtain the family heirloom treasures in his hands.
At first, everyone thought that as a Chinese and a descendant of a member of the Qing Dynasty, he should be able to speak better. However, unexpectedly, no matter how high the price was offered in China, Weng Wange always refused to sell. Finally, he relaxed and transferred 542 rare books of ancient books to the Shanghai Library through the auction house for a high price of $4.5 million.
The bibliophile's intention to cherish the family collection is understandable, and the cultural relics department has reluctantly given up persuasion, but feels some regret. Who would have thought that he first donated the Yangtze River painting scroll to the United States, and then in 2018, on the occasion of his 100th birthday, donated all the treasures in the collection to the museum in Boston free of charge.
Although the disposal of cultural relics is the freedom of the collector personally, we cannot force him to donate them back to China. However, he would rather donate free of charge to the United States, which has a short history and no Chinese culture, rather than send it back to the motherland, which is really uncomfortable. In any case, as a Chinese, the first thing that should come to mind is the home country. As Chinese cultural relics, their "roots" and cultural inheritance are also in China.