Antiques have a very high value of carrying historical and aesthetic heritage, and the history of a country is often rejuvenated in antiquities. In the several wars of the last century, countless cultural relics were destroyed or lost overseas, and the Yuanmingyuan, which displayed countless works of art, was also destroyed, which is also the history of thousands of Chinese heartache.
Therefore, the country often attaches great importance to the preservation of antiques, and many antique collectors with a sense of family and country will resolutely donate their cherished family heirloom collections to the country.
But there are people in it who are different. In 2018, the Boston Museum held a grand centenarian celebration for an elderly Chinese man. Surprisingly, the old man made a surprising move, and on the day of the birthday party, he announced that he would officially donate 183 pieces of Chinese antiques collected by the family for generations to the American Museum.
This person is Weng Wange, who was a high-ranking official of the Qing Dynasty and had countless collections in his family, but he refused the proposal of the motherland to buy back and donated a large number of collections to the United States free of charge. What's the inside scoop?
The doorway is a treasure that has been passed down from six generations to perfection
You may wonder, who is Onwango? Collecting antiques requires huge financial support, how can he collect so many rare treasures by himself? In fact, this is indeed not the result of his own collection, but the history of the collection of an entire family.
Wanwango is the sixth grandson of Weng Tonggong.
Weng Tonggong was a well-known humeral minister of the Qing Dynasty, who mixed well in the Manchu Qing Dynasty as a Han Chinese, was elected to the cabinet twice, worshiped the prime minister as an official in the name of The Champion, and was also the emperor of the two emperors of Tongzhi and Guangxu, and his status was extremely honorable.
In addition, there are several members of the entire Weng family in important positions, Weng Tonggong's father is also an imperial master, Weng Tonggong's two brothers are feudal officials, a four-door soldier, you can imagine what a storm, at the same time Weng Tonggong is still one of the supporters of the restoration faction, actively for the sake of the country's salvation and survival, even Empress Dowager Cixi frequently extended olive branches to him.
Weng Tonggong
Weng Tonggong was in the high figure for ten years, and he was born a literati who loved to collect calligraphy, paintings, Ruyi and other cultural relics, so the imperial court was also very popular with him, and the calligraphy and paintings rewarded to him alone were innumerable, and he himself loved to go to the antique market to find treasures, forming a very rich collection accumulation.
As it passed down from generation to generation, by the sixth generation, Urn Wango had a huge treasure trove at the age of two.
Weng Wange, himself is also a famous collector of cultural relics, on the basis of the collection of his ancestors, he continued to use his wisdom to identify antiquities that flowed in the market, and then bought them at a low price. On the eve of the founding of China, in order to protect the family heirloom antiques, OngWange flew to the United States with several rare treasures to ensure the perfection of the collection.
At this time, Ou Wange had not yet made a puzzling move, but was committed to the exchange of Chinese and American cultures, and the documentary "Chinese Buddhism" he produced also won a gold medal at the International Film Festival.
The national treasure was difficult to return to the museum and was donated to the United States
Among the innumerable collections of Urn Wange, the most precious is a pair of "Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangtze River" that is more than ten meters long, and Weng Tonggong loves it so much that when he sees it, he will not hesitate to use the money to buy a new house.
This painting depicts a landscape stretching for thousands of kilometers from the mouth of the Yangtze River, with a dense composition and magnificent momentum, and its value can be compared with the "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty". In addition, other collections of calligraphy and paintings such as Dong Qichang and Zhu Yun are also of incalculable value.
So many collections hold great cultural value that the Chinese government tried to acquire his collection from Ongwango. This was supposed to be a win-win deal, but I was in trouble.
Ongwango always refused the Chinese government for various reasons, but at the birthday party, he donated 183 national treasures to the Boston Museum, including paintings and calligraphy, rubbings, embroideries, etc., spanning thirteen centuries and five dynasties.
As soon as this news came out, countless people were shocked, in fact, this is not the first time that Ou Wange has donated to foreign countries, before that, he has donated more than twenty precious collections abroad, including the rare treasure "Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangtze River".
Is it because Ofongo is generous?
This is not the case, in the face of domestic acquisitions, Weng Wange's attitude is obviously much more stingy, and the Chinese Museum pleaded to borrow the "Yangtze River Wanlitu" exhibition, but he also refused.
Although in 2012, he also donated the Ming Dynasty's "Spoon Garden" to Peking University, but his attitude towards overseas donations is still very different.
For example, in 2000, when he transferred more than 500 ancient books from his family to the Shanghai Library, he made relentless bargaining, and finally successfully changed hands at a high price of $4.5 million, and used the money to buy himself a 25-acre estate. The comparison with gratuitous donations to the United States is chilling.
The protection of cultural relics is a pretext, and the pursuit of welfare is the real chapter
Why did Ongwango make such an outrageous move?
He once said in an interview that in order to give antiques a better home, American museums are more advanced in equipment and can provide more complete protection measures than Chinese museums.
But is this really the case?
The answer is disappointing, the antiques carefully cared for by the Weng family's ancestors have not been properly preserved in museums in the United States, and even directly exposed to the air, and the antiques will be damaged more seriously after oxidation.
Compared with China's attitude towards Dunhuang murals, the temperature and light are carefully modulated during the collection process to minimize the damage of the external environment to antiquities.
In fact, the Boston Museum he chose to donate could provide very ordinary means of cultural protection, and the only advantage was that the board of directors were all political celebrities, and also provided enough benefits for Ouongwango, and his children could either be exempted from taxation or enter the board of art museums and join the American high society.
In terms of cultural inheritance and the splendid future of his children, Ou Wange realistically chose the latter. Compared with Weng Tonggong, who worked hard for the strength of the country, Ou Wange is obviously a refined egoist, he does not love China nor the United States, but just wants to exchange the antiques left by his ancestors for a perfect life for himself.
Under the trend of interests, he gave up the state.
It is true that we cannot criticize Urnwango's initiatives from the moral high ground, because in the final analysis, these antiquities are Urnwango's family collection, his personal belongings, and we have no right to force him to donate or transfer them to the state in the form of moral kidnapping.
However, his practice of causing a large number of antiques to flow overseas still greatly damaged China's cultural relics research work, and it was also a huge blow to the inheritance of national culture. What is even more chilling is his very different attitude towards Donations between China and the United States.
"The Wealth of Nations" once said, "People are always selfish animals", there is no mistake in thinking about themselves, but selfishness must always have a bottom line, and we should not do ugly deeds that damage the national system for personal interests.
Text/Pillow Cat