As the essence of Chinese history, cultural relics are conceived by each cruel era, and have been passed down through elimination to the present, showing a serious and sublime beauty flowing from the roots.
This kind of beauty not only provokes the mainstream backbone of the entire Chinese civilization, but also penetrates beyond the times and regions to the world, and its charm even makes the predators submit.
In the Japanese scholar Tomita Sheng's "Record of the Overseas Loss of Modern National Treasures", the situation of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art in London from 1935 to 1936 is recorded.
Exhibits include the Five Dynasties " Autumn Forest Deer Map "Autumn Forest Deer Map", song Dynasty Zhao Chang "Year Dynasty Map", Song Dynasty Su Hanchen "Autumn Garden Drama Baby Map" and other famous relics.
Cultural relics that once flowed from China to the world were once again gathered in London to show the whole picture of Chinese orthodox art to the world.
1
International Exhibition of Chinese Art, London
From the winter of 1935 to the spring of 1936, London held a grand international exhibition of Chinese art.
Initiated by five people who are passionate about Chinese art, in addition to cultural relics from China, they will also gather Chinese cultural relics and treasures scattered around the world in Burlington, London, to showcase the essence of Chinese art.
▲ Burlington House, Royal College of Art
Under the active promotion of Ambassador Guo Taiqi to the United Kingdom, China finally decided to fully support it, and in October 1934, it officially established the "Preparatory Committee for the London International Exhibition of Chinese Art".
Subsequently, the British side also sent David, Yumerfupoulos, and R. Hopson. L. Hobson, Bo Xihe and Oscar Raphal went to China to select cultural relics for exhibition (except for Bo Xihe, the other 4 people visited Japan).
Through consultation, it was finally decided that the Chinese side would mainly focus on the 735 collections provided by the Palace Museum, plus the collections of 6 other collection institutions, for a total of 1022 pieces, as follows.
108 pieces of bronze ware *60 pieces are from the collection of the Forbidden City, and 36 pieces are from the collection of antiquities exhibition
352 pieces of ceramics * All are from the collection of the Forbidden City
175 paintings and calligraphy *170 are in the collection of the Forbidden City
127 pieces of jade *60 pieces are from the collection of the Forbidden City, and 65 pieces are from the (private) collection of Zhang Naiji
Selected Archaeological Examples (Excellent Products) 113 * All are from the collection of Academia Sinica
50 rare books * All from the collection of beijing library
19 pieces of furniture and stationery
Cloisonné (Shippo Yaki) 16 pieces
29 pieces of embroidery
5 pieces of red (carved lacquer).
Folding fan (fan surface) 20 pieces
8 pieces of miscellaneous items
The exhibits cover all areas of Chinese art and crafts, among which ceramics and calligraphy and painting are almost all collections of the Forbidden City.
▲The preparatory committee of the London International Exhibition of Chinese Art went to Japan (the second place from the right is Yumefu Pros)
2
An internal exhibition in the British Concession in Shanghai
Once ready, according to the original plan, an internal exhibition was held in April 1935 at the Bank of China Building on the Bund in the British Concession of Shanghai, in order to disclose the contents of the exhibits to China before being shipped to Britain.
In order to do it more thoroughly, they also took pictures of the exhibits and explained them, and publicly distributed four volumes of "Illustrations from participating in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art in London", the first volume "BronzeWare", the second volume "Porcelain", the third volume "Calligraphy and Painting", and the fourth volume "Other". It was through this that we were able to learn the details of the exhibits today.
▲ The photo news report of the Shanghai Preliminary Exhibition of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art in London published in May 1935, No. 5, Volume 4, of the "Declaration Monthly"
For example, bronze ware is mainly based on Yin Zhou Yi ware, and also contains some Han Dynasty cultural relics. Ceramics are mainly Song, Ming and Qing official kilns, and it is particularly noteworthy to pay attention to a large number of public Song Dynasty official kiln celadons and Qing Dynasty enamel porcelain.
Among the calligraphy and paintings on display, the various dynasties of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties are involved, among which the famous five generations of "Autumn Forest Herd Deer Map", the Song Dynasty Zhao Chang's "Year Dynasty Map", the Song Dynasty Su Hanchen's "Autumn Garden Drama Baby Map", the Song Dynasty Xia Gui's "Yangtze River Wanli Map", the Song Ren's "Huan Yue Tu" and so on.
▲Calligraphy and paintings exhibited at the Shanghai Preliminary Exhibition of China Art International Exhibition in London
Judging from today's level of appreciation, some of the exhibits are limited by the age and the conditions of the exhibition at that time, and there are indeed some problems, but from the overall point of view, the exhibition is still a high-standard exhibit mainly based on the secret collection of the Forbidden City.
Through this internal exhibition, I think it is a good way to show the world the source of Chinese orthodox art.
3
Collections from all over the world come together
On June 7, 1935, the British warship Suffolk departed Shanghai with more than 90 boxes of well-packed Chinese exhibits.
It lasted 48 days and a voyage of more than 30,000 miles, reaching portsmouth on 25 July.
After that, exhibits from various countries took their seats.
▲ The exhibits were escorted to London by the British cruiser Suffolk
On November 28 of the same year, the exhibition opened at Burlington Palace in London, England, and ended on March 7, 1936, with 420,000 visitors.
The final cultural relics on display are as follows according to the specific details of the country.
Austria 4 pieces
Belgium 28 pieces
Britain and its dependencies 1579 pieces
786 pieces in China
1 piece in Denmark
France and Lu Qinzhai 215 pieces
85 pieces in Germany
Greece 1 piece
49 pieces in the Netherlands
45 cases in Japan
Soviet Union 13 pieces
2 pieces in Spain
Sweden 113 pieces
4 pieces in Switzerland
115 pieces in the United States
A total of 3,040 were filed in 15 countries
As the host country, the United Kingdom has the largest number of natural exhibits, more than half.
The second is China, accounting for about 1/4, and the reason why it is smaller than the number originally brought is because the exhibition hall area is limited, and it is necessary to cut 165 cultural relics mainly from archaeology and ancient books.
France, the United States, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan follow.
▲Poster of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art in London
The first thing worth noting is the huge total of more than 3,000 collections from all over the world.
Among the masterpieces of orthodox art, there are nearly 1400 ceramics, including excavations and ming artifacts that debuted in China, as well as Tang figurines from Anderson's collection. In particular, David's collection is in the hundreds, and the quality and quantity are outstanding.
In general, in addition to the official kilns handed down from the Forbidden City, new excavations have been added, and the whole picture of the history of Chinese ceramics is clearly displayed.
In terms of bronze ware, in addition to Yi ware, ancient mirrors and metal utensils and belt hooks from the Warring States to the Two Han Dynasties are also listed in the Chinese exhibits.
▲The first exhibition hall of the exhibition, Shang Zhou bronze heavy equipment gathered
It is said that as a newly excavated cultural relic, there are also many unique jade artifacts.
In addition, among the exhibits, there are also imported products from the Western Regions represented by Dunhuang.
The Chinese exhibits are mainly the relics of the Forbidden City. In contrast, the exhibits from various countries are mainly many newly excavated cultural relics, but in fact, they also contain a large number of heirlooms like the Old Collection of the Forbidden City collected by Daweide.
That is to say, in the collection of more than 3,000 pieces, in addition to the Chinese exhibits, whether it is excavations or heirlooms, almost all of them are cultural relics flowing out of China after modern times.
From the content point of view, it can be said that it is a collection of Chinese orthodox art that has gradually presented a full picture since before and after the Xinhai Revolution.
▲Exhibition Sculpture Hall
These cultural relics, which once flowed from China to the world, were once again gathered in London, where the whole picture of Chinese orthodox art was displayed to the world, clearly announcing the formation of Chinese appreciative art in the world.
China, as the source of these cultural relics, has given strong support, and the palace-level Collection of the Forbidden City is the icing on the cake.
4
Fragmented traditional civilizations
The Forbidden City and the Imperial City of Beijing, which were carefully forged by the Qianlong Emperor, have accumulated countless cultural relics and treasures. On the vast land, a long list of footprints of historical civilization has been left.
The dusty treasure house of China was forced to open under the military conquest of the modern powers.
In the summer of 1900, in addition to the Forbidden City, Beijing was encroached upon, the Imperial City was torn down, and the heirlooms began to lose and scatter. Subsequently, various excavations were unearthed in a spurt.
▲ Qianqing Palace of the Forbidden City under the occupation of the Eight-Nation Alliance (around 1901) (quoted from the "Qing Dynasty Beijing Imperial City Photo Poster")
In 1911, the Chinese dynastic system finally collapsed, and the door of the last secret vault, the Forbidden City of the Sacred Realm, was opened.
After the Xinhai Revolution, Chinese orthodox art gradually showed a full picture, and the original image of Chinese civilization emerged.
Through the layers of analysis of mainstream physical cultural relics, the world finally understands that this is the origin of East Asian civilization.
The Japanese art trend completes its pathfinder mission and retreats to the sidelines, and the protagonist, Chinese orthodox art, comes to the center of the stage.
▲ Tiger cannibal (milk tiger) 卣
Europe, the United States, and Japan successively built the foundation of Chinese art collections, and as a display of achievements, a large exhibition was held in London in 1935, and this grand banquet announced the establishment of Chinese art appreciation, which occurred 35 years after the Boxer Rebellion.
In other words, after the secluded Chinese Empire was broken, it was forcibly dragged onto the world stage.
This powerful force, which should be called western modernization, rushed to the stage of world history and disintegrated and reorganized the old global order.
▲ The Germans placed the looted astronomical instruments in front of the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam
The empire under the traditional dynastic system of the East collapsed, and the Chinese cultural relics produced under the system and accumulated over thousands of years became fragmented due to the plunder and outflow of the great powers, and were sucked away by the countries of the world.
Even the gems in the Forbidden City and the essence of the source of Chinese civilization have partially flowed to Taiwan on the other side of the strait.
The modernization forces of the West are so strong that they tear apart the Eastern Empire and have a brutal follow-up effect.
The modern era that bloomed the beauty of Chinese civilization
History is like two intertwined ropes, causing and causing each other, and it is difficult to distinguish their direction. Despite its twists and turns, the wheel of history will only move forward mercilessly and irreversibly.
Whether it is a kind persuasion or a bitter plea, history ignores it and mercilessly devours the tragedies of the past and the present. Among them, China's history is particularly tragic and tragic.
As the essence of Chinese history, cultural relics were conceived by each cruel era and have been eliminated and passed down to the present day.
They were originally intended to prove the legitimacy of the emperors, the result of the painstaking research and superb skills of various dynasties and generations.
▲ Ban (Duanfang Old Collection, Collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA)
In these extraordinary works of art, there is infinite vitality, condensing the brilliant spirit of the times, presenting a serious and sublime beauty flowing from the roots.
This strong and sharp beauty not only provokes the mainstream backbone of the entire Chinese civilization, but also penetrates beyond the times and regions to the whole world to achieve a truly universal beauty.
Its charm has even subjugated the predators, even in the modern West. This is the Chinese civilization, and this is its charm.
▲ Western Zhou Huzun (Collection of the Freer Museum of Art, USA)
Of course, in the long river of historical development, the trend of modern times is also irreversible and indisputable.
This is a scarred encounter between the strength of modern Western Europe and the traditional Chinese Empire, history and civilization, modernity and tradition, West and East - all kinds of very different elements and values are intricately intertwined, after a desperate struggle, the torrent of the times finally comes down to one point, that is, the formation of the world's modern Chinese appreciation art.
It is an equal dialogue between pure culture, pure appreciation, universal beauty and self-disciplined connoisseurs.
This may be an overly idealistic proposition for appreciating art. But I would venture to call it the modern era of beauty.
The demise of the empire led to the rebirth of China in the 20th century, which opened up the possibility of exploring new beauty to the world, but also raised sharp questions to the world.
"Record of the Overseas Loss of Modern National Treasures"
[Day] Tomita ascended
Price: 88.00
China Pictorial Publishing House
Publication date: 2021.11