In order to leave the prison as soon as possible and start a new life, prisoners who have committed felonies will have a meritorious performance. In 1952, there was a death row prisoner who, with this idea, offered a treasure to the country, in fact, it was half a national treasure to be precise. We can't help but wonder what kind of national treasure makes this death row prisoner so sure that he can reduce his sentence?
The death row inmate was a Kuomintang general whose name was Zhou Pan, and he knew that the crimes he had committed were so deep that Zhou Pan had been trying to reduce his sentence. In fact, he has a cultural relic that can be used as a national treasure, which is Fang Wei gai.
Fang Mingai is indeed a national treasure, and many provincial leaders showed a look of surprise when they saw this cultural relic. The reason why Fang Mingai came to Zhou Pan's hands is also a twisty and bizarre story.
The Fang Wei Gai is an uncommon antiquity, and Zhou Wei first heard about this cultural relic in 1925. At that time, his army was stationed in Qijiahe, Taoyuan County, and a teenage child named Ai Qingyan was the one who found the bronze Fang Wei in Qijiahe.
At that time, the ten-year-old child saw a large iron lump in the dirt, although it was trapped in the sludge, but this big iron lump shone with black light. The little boy immediately developed a strong curiosity, he called the family, and everyone dug out the big black knot together.
An antique dealer soon heard the news, and when he came to the little boy's house and saw the big black lump, he immediately offered to buy the black lump for 400 oceans.
The little boy's brother was a few years older after all, and seeing that the antique dealer was willing to pay a high price for black knots, he realized that this was an extraordinary thing. Although he did not understand the price of this cultural relic, his brother immediately took the item and asked the principal of the local school to identify it.
Some ancient characters printed on the black knots attracted the attention of the principal, who believed that the artifact was extraordinary. He proposed to the boy's brother that he was willing to buy the artifact for 500 oceans.
The boy's brother would of course choose the latter, and when he happily returned to the village with the money, the antique dealer immediately realized that he had lost the treasure. But in fact, the principal only took the lid of the vessel, and the body of the vessel was in the hands of the antique dealer.
The antique dealer immediately made a decision and immediately fled with the remaining utensils. Unexpectedly, this escape directly led to the separation of the lid and body of this cultural relic for nearly a hundred years. In fact, the antique dealer did not give up on restoring this antiquity to its integrity, so he inquired about the principal's information.
The antique dealer took great pains to finally build a relationship with Zhou Pan, and he was willing to pay fifty thousand silver dollars to buy this lid, and even after the fact, he promised to give Zhou Pan a reward of thirty thousand yuan. With a keen sense of smell, Zhou Pan thought it was a priceless treasure.
Of course, Zhou Pan refused to give the treasure to him, but told his division commander He Yaozu about this matter. He Yaozu was a man who saw money and opened his eyes, and at his behest, the soldiers came to the headmaster's house. Although nothing was found after the search, the principal found Zhou Pan out of the desire to protect cultural relics and decided to dedicate this treasure to the country.
Zhou Pan thus had the opportunity to monopolize the treasure, he did not give a penny, but gave the price of 5,000 silver dollars, as well as 500 yuan promissory notes. Although the principal knew that this price was far from the actual value of the cultural relics, he did not dare to protest at all.
The principal used this money for Xingxue education, which was also a wish of his own, but the treasure fell into Zhou Pan's hands from then on. The principal was also full of hope, believing that Zhou Pan would donate protection to the country, but he overestimated the character of the other party. Fang Mu Gai thus became Zhou Pan's private collection.
The war immediately came to an end, the Kuomintang army was completely defeated under the heavy blows of our army, and Zhou Pan, as a Kuomintang general, also fled to the southwest. In a battle in 1950, Zhou Pan was captured by our army.
After the founding of New China, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and relevant departments went to great lengths to find cultural relics scattered everywhere. It is a very rare cultural relic and has great archaeological value, so it is also one of the major targets of the Cultural Relics Bureau.
Although the vessel was acquired by antique dealers, it has been transferred many times and has fallen into the hands of overseas merchants. Fang Mingai had always been in Zhou Pan's hands, but unexpectedly he used it as a condition for negotiating a commutation of sentence.
Zhou Pan was not willing to become a death row prisoner, and in 1952, during the anti-rebellion movement, he handed in a confession. Zhou Pan wrote down his experience of obtaining the Fang Qi Cover in the material, and said that he could sacrifice this treasure. After the prison director reported this material, it immediately attracted the attention of the provincial leaders.
There are many bronze vessels in the late Shang Dynasty of China, and the dish Fangmu is the most representative vessel. It has great archaeological value on its body and is called a national treasure, which is not exaggerated at all. Although Zhou Pan only had the lid of this vessel in his hand, not all of it, it was also a great thing to be able to return to the country.
The reason why Zhou Pan presented this cultural relic was because he had his own small calculation, and he was full of hope that as long as he donated the cultural relics, he would be able to usher in the opportunity to reduce his sentence. However, his wishful thinking was frustrated, because the crimes he had committed before were too many and too serious, and the cultural relics handed over and his criminal acts were two different things, and could not cancel each other out at all.
Moreover, the cultural relics themselves belong to the state, and Zhou Pan's use of abnormal means to obtain them is also a criminal act of illegally possessing cultural relics from the root cause. The state has a state system and policy, and zhou pan will not be sentenced to be commuted because he sacrificed cultural relics.
Zhou Pan committed a lot of crimes during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which finally made him pay a terrible price. In 1952, Zhou Pan's life came to an end, and he was executed by the sound of righteous gunshots. Fang Mingai has finally returned to the hands of the state and is now properly preserved by the Cultural Relics Management Council.
Finally, in 2014, the lid and the body of the vessel that had been separated for nearly a hundred years were reunited, and the people of Hunan adopted the crowdfunding method to buy back the vessel's body, spending a total of more than 20 million US dollars.
epilogue:
It is now finally a complete cultural relic, and although it has gone through the wind and frost, its body still shows a simple light. The people finally have the opportunity to see the style of this treasure and feel the cultural characteristics of the late Qing Dynasty. Every cultural relic, no matter who originally belonged to it, belongs to the state and the people.
Resources:
"The Inscription of the Return of the Vessel Fang to Xiang"