In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the Western powers opened our country with artillery fire and opened the modern history of the humiliation of the mainland. Foreign guns and cannons are aimed at the innocent people and people with lofty ideals in our country, and the greedy eyes of the great powers are also aimed at the rare treasures and gold, silver and money in China, an ancient oriental country.
After all, whether it is exquisite silk porcelain or magnificent bronze products, they are long-coveted crafts of foreigners
。 Not to mention some calligraphy and paintings, all of which highlight the profound cultural heritage. When the armies of the great powers invaded our land, they either robbed or resold, leaving many of our precious treasures in a foreign land.
Until now, our country is still trying to recover the cultural relics that flowed out of the country, and the process of recycling is extremely arduous. Western countries received what they stole from their museums and strongly refused when we asked for it back.
Even more distressing is the fact that among our own compatriots, there are people who make a stumbling block for our heritage recycling efforts
。 Weng Tonggong, an official of the late Qing Dynasty, was a patriot who dedicated himself to the country, but his descendants made the move to donate hundreds of cultural relics from the mainland to the United States free of charge.
Even if our country wanted to buy it back, it was rejected by him.
Qing Dynasty officials who had hot blood in the air and were powerless to return to heaven
When it comes to weng wango, a Chinese-American who donated 183 cultural relics from the mainland to the Boston Museum in the United States, it is necessary to briefly understand the ancestor of his family, Weng Tonggong
。 Unlike Weng Wange, he was a patriot, but it was he who gave the descendants of the Weng family such a rich cultural heritage, which indirectly led to the overseas migration of these documents.
In the turbulent years of the late Qing Dynasty, the country was worried about internal and external troubles. During this period, there were two major events that affected the fate of the country: the Sino-Japanese War and the Penghu Reform Law. In these two major events, Weng Tonggong played a very important role. However, whether this effect is good or bad is controversial and extremely controversial.
As we all know, the Sino-Japanese War ended in defeat, and we were allowed to pay compensation for the land and enrich Japan with the property we lost. The Penghu Reform Law was an important ideological enlightenment movement on the mainland, but unfortunately it failed in the end. So, what role did Weng Tonggong play in these two events?
To put it simply, Weng Tonggong is a very common "qingliu" person in ancient mainland China, who thinks and acts with a glance from books, is a sage, is not grounded, and does not understand people's livelihood.
In the Sino-Japanese War, he and other officials who did not eat human fireworks resolutely took the lead in the battle, but they did not understand the true level of the mainland's navy and the strength of the enemy army, and despised the enemy, and in the end, of course, we lost very badly. After the defeat in the war, I firmly did not want to cut the ground, but at this time, I was unable to return to heaven by artificially knife me as fish meat.
In the Wushu Reform Law, it was Weng Tonggong who strongly recommended Kang Youwei to the Guangxu Emperor and called him a great talent. But because the way of speaking was too grassy, it offended the new party led by Kang Youwei. It was also because he chose the more radical Kang Youwei among Yuan Shikai and Kang Youwei that the Penghu Reform Law was quickly suppressed by the old party, and Weng Tonggong was also demoted to his home.
To borrow a sentence from Fei Xingjian's "Celebrity Biography" to evaluate Weng Tonggong as a person, it is "to accept group talk in the face of things, but not to distinguish between right and wrong, and it is inevitable that there will be two differences in arguments." ”
The rich legacy of our ancestors
But to say that Weng Tonggong is a world-class clean official with a righteous body and two sleeves? Not necessarily.
The Weng family's family collection can be said to be extremely rich. Because Weng Tonggong is not only an official, a politician, or a literati who is very good at calligraphy, painting and poetry, he has a lot of calligraphy and painting works of great artistic value.
In addition to his own creations, he also likes to collect calligraphy and paintings to play with. At that time, both inside and outside the imperial city were in danger, and many precious books, calligraphy and paintings and other cultural relics were secretly bought and sold.
As an avid collector of paintings and calligraphy, Weng Tonggong naturally bought a lot through various channels and hid them at home. "Collection of Rhymes", "Ding Ji Collection", "Songshan Residents Collection", "Shi Gu Zhu Su Poems" and other unique orphan books are listed here.
These things do not bring death or death, no matter what kind of happiness Weng Tonggong brought to him before he died, in the end it must be left to future generations.
There is also a twisted and complicated story about the descendants of Weng Tonggong
。
Weng Tonggong had no heirs in his lifetime, so after his death, his rich family foundation could only be handed over to Weng Zenghan, the son of his brother who had succeeded him. Because of the disease, Weng Zenghan died in his forties. Of Weng Zenghan's two sons, the eldest son, Weng Ansun, had no heirs, so he had to choose a successor from the grandson of the side branch of TheUng Anjue, who was Weng Wange, and eventually obtained a large collection of Weng Tonggong, and eventually donated most of it to the people of the Boston Museum in the United States.
This can explain why a Chinese American has so many valuable cultural relics collections. Because they are all collected extensively by his ancestors and left to his descendants after his death.
183 cultural relics were donated to the United States free of charge
What saddens us is that many of these cultural relics donated to the United States are unique treasures.
Among these 183 cultural relics, including 130 paintings, 31 calligraphy, 18 rubbings and 4 pieces of embroidery, these 183 cultural relics are the crystallization of the culture and wisdom of the dynasties of the mainland.
They could have been more systematic and holistic into a cultural series after being gathered in the hands of the same person, adding the aesthetics of cultural relics collection and integrating into the mainland cultural system in a better posture.
Ironically, after receiving this batch of donated cultural relics at the Boston Museum in the United States, it has become the American museum with the largest collection of Chinese paintings and calligraphy, attracting countless visitors to the museum to receive the influence of Chinese culture. Our country itself, on the other hand, was rejected when it offered to buy back these artifacts from its own pocket.
But these artifacts should have been our own treasures. Some people will also put forward different opinions: "In the end, these cultural relics are all property, the private property of others, not how to deal with them if they want to." ”
Yes, perhaps in theory, Mr. Onwango's treatment is fine. After living in the United States for many years, his heart has been biased toward the United States, and making such a great contribution to the United States can also make their family live a better life in the United States. Nor is he obliged to sell these artifacts to our country.
However, his ancestors, the people who left these cultural relics to him, worked hard for the country and worked hard all their lives, but he gave the treasures of his ancestors to the Western countries that were deeply hated at the beginning. The ironic effect of this black humor makes people sigh. Perhaps Weng Wange also has his own multiple considerations, but the final result is that the cultural relics may always be across the sea from our country.