I love the interests of my country with greater respect, sacredness, and seriousness than I do with my own life—Shakespeare
Since ancient times, we have had people who have buried their heads in hard work, people who have worked hard, people who have asked for the people's lives, and people who have sacrificed their lives to seek the law...
The Chinese nation has experienced five thousand years of wind and rain baptism, five thousand years of accumulation, five thousand years of outbreak, it is precisely because of countless national backbones that we will stand firm in the wind and rain.
Since the founding of the Chinese nation, we have had countless rare treasures, which have experienced different destinies, some have become symbols of the country, and some have been scattered overseas...
However, there are always the guardians of those treasures, waiting silently.
1. Cultural relics and memory
In the First Opium War, the British broke through the gates of the mainland, plundered the mainland, and exiled countless rare treasures abroad;
In the Second Opium War, the British and French coalition forces looted the mainland's treasure cultural garden, the Yuanmingyuan, and beat, smashed, robbed, and finally, a fire, the Yuanmingyuan burned into ashes, and since then, China, which has been bullied in every way, has taken away countless precious cultural relics.
However, with the founding of New China, the Chinese people and the Chinese nation have stood up, and we have enough ability to take back our cultural relics and take back our precious cultural memories.
In order to collect the cultural relics of the mainland drifting overseas, the mainland has tried its best. Those collectors of cultural relics who hold precious cultural relics, some are Of Chinese descent, who have returned to their ancestors, have donated cultural relics free of charge, while for those who are unwilling to voluntarily donate cultural relics, we can only spend a lot of money to buy from overseas, and buy the cultural relics that originally belonged to the mainland from overseas.
In fact, for us, this is the sadness of a cultural relic, and it is also our most painful memory.
2. Free donation
In 2018, the Boston Museum released news that the museum received the largest and most important donation of Chinese paintings and calligraphy in history. And this donation is indeed of great significance, the number of paintings and calligraphy is huge, and in terms of value, it is also priceless.
In this batch of donations, 130 paintings, 31 calligraphy, 18 rubbings, and 4 pieces of embroidery are all unique to China, a total of 183 pieces. Among them, these donated artifacts have a long history, spanning multiple dynasties over the 13th century. It can be seen from this that behind this batch of calligraphy and paintings, there is not only the value of cultural relics, but also the research value behind the paintings and calligraphy.
People can't help but wonder, who donated so many valuable treasures to the Boston Museum? But the boston museum's announcement of the donor surprised us.
Ongwango
The donor, a Chinese-American, was named Weng Wango. Speaking of Onwango, everyone may feel strange, but Wengwango's grandfather has a great reputation and is almost a household name. It turned out that Weng Wange's grandfather was the teacher of Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty in China, Weng Tonggong.
In fact, Weng Tonggong is not only Puyi's teacher, he also has another identity, that is, cultural relics lovers and cultural relics collectors. During the 40 years he lived in Beijing, he has been painstakingly collecting various cultural relics, almost all valuable cultural relics, almost all of which were collected by Weng Tonggong, and even some of the cultural relics in the Qing Dynasty Imperial Palace were also included in Weng Tonggong's private collection.
After the Xinhai Revolution, the rule of the Qing Dynasty was overthrown, the Qing Dynasty was also overthrown, Weng Tonggong's patron fell, in order to save his life, he could only take his children and grandchildren and countless rare treasures to China and the United States.
Weng Tonggong's descendants have flourished in the United States, and now Weng Tonggong's grandson Weng Wango has inherited countless rare treasures, and he has become a famous donor to the Boston Museum.
In fact, the donation in 2018 is not the first donation of Onwango, before that, he has donated 21 precious works of art to the Boston Museum. Among them, a painting called "Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangtze River" is particularly precious, this 16-meter-long qing dynasty giant statue is our national cultural relics.
However, at this time, Onwango's donation caused a crusade from all walks of life.
3. Paid donations
Let's go back to 18 years ago, when the mainland attached great importance to the research value of cultural relics, so it also attached great importance to the tracing of cultural relics drifting overseas, even if it was difficult, we also tried our best to find those precious cultural relics.
Under the heavy efforts of the mainland, in 2000, Weng Wange decided to return to China the treasures taken from China during the Weng Tonggong era. After learning this news, the mainland's cultural relics department was very excited, and they came to the United States in a hurry, hoping to bring these cultural relics back to China. However, at this time, Onwango's attitude was not to donate free of charge.
After consultations between the two sides, the mainland decided to recover the cultural relics in the hands of Onwango for 4.5 million US dollars. This batch of cultural relics contains 80 kinds of collections, 542 books, including the Collection of Books from various eras such as the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which have high research value. Despite spending $4.5 million to recover the cultural relics, the China Cultural Relics Bureau at the time was still happy about the return of Chinese cultural relics, and these Chinese treasures floating overseas finally embarked on the journey home.
4. Ownership of cultural relics
However, 18 years later, wengo donated these precious cultural relics again, these precious cultural relics that originally belonged to China, actually entered the Boston Museum and became private objects in the United States.
The donor is none other than Chinese, and more importantly, more than 10 years ago, he sold cultural relics to China for 4.5 million yuan, and now he donates cultural relics to the United States for free, which is really unacceptable.
The donor, Weng Wange, was once Puyi's teacher and an upright Chinese. As a Chinese, our main task is to protect our homeland. This protection is not only to protect the motherland from insults and violations by others, but also to protect China's goods and let them return, rather than continuing to live a life like duckweed.
As a Chinese, the most basic quality of each of us is patriotism. Even though Ongwango had long since resided in the United States, this did not deny the fact that he was a Chinese.
It is true that Weng Wange has protected Chinese cultural relics, and the cultural relics he once sold to China for 4.5 million yuan have also made great contributions to China, but the act of donating to the United States without compensation is indeed suspected of double standards.
In fact, the reason why the mainland will pay a high price for those precious cultural relics that originally belong to China is because we cherish it very much, and even more because we are very grateful to the holders of cultural relics for the protection of China's cultural relics, and the mainland has a sincere heart for finding treasures, but it has not received the same equal feedback, which inevitably makes the compatriots who are also Chinese feel cold.
After thousands of years, the treasures of the mainland can still shine, and they are inseparable from the careful care of all cultural relics protectors, who are the people we should respect the most.
Text/Pillow Cat