All things are born, and the only knowledge keeps its roots. - "Huainanzi Yuandao"
"The grace of the dripping water, when the spring repays." Growing up in China, we were taught from an early age to thank the motherland for its blessings and to cherish the respect of our parents. But there was such a person, bleeding from China, but his elbows were turned outward. His ancestors were qing dynasty officials, donating 183 cultural relics to the United States free of charge, but the motherland wanted to buy them back but he refused. His name was Onwango.
Weng Wange was born an extraordinary family and was the fifth grandson of Weng Tonggong, the teacher of the two emperors of Guangxu and Tongzhi. Weng Tonggong, a man of great learning and generosity, bowed to the rule of the Qing Dynasty like his ancestors for generations, and died after his death. Remembering his hard work and high achievements, the Guangxu Emperor rewarded him with no less than a thousand treasures. After the death of Weng Tonggong, there were frequent wars in China, and the descendants of the Weng family had to flee overseas with treasures in order to ensure the continuation of the blood lineage. The treasures that Onwango donated to the United States came from this.
Since the Opium War, China has suffered too many aggressions and lost too many national heroes and cultural treasures. Over the years, a large number of rich people and overseas Chinese have rushed to find the treasures of national culture. In the museum, the luster emitted by the returned treasures seems to be the tears shed by the heroic spirits of the ancestors because of pride. However, we have lost so many treasures that searching for them one by one is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack.
In addition, negotiations with other countries are also a major problem in front of us. In this case, Onwango's act of donating 183 cultural relics to the Museum of Boston, USA, is really abominable! In the donation two years ago, in addition to the "Ten Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains Picture Scroll", there were also hundreds of calligraphy and painting works and more than ten rubbings and embroideries that were handed over to the Americans.
After the Chinese government bought it back, he refused, and the ancestors of the Weng family could not have imagined that the gifts of the ancestors and the treasures of the country would be destroyed by such a descendant in the future generations. The Chinese people could not have imagined that the compatriots with the blood of yanhuang would forget the humiliation that the country had suffered and hand over the lost treasures of China to the former enemies. In the face of everyone's questioning, Onwango gave an official answer. He believes that only at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston can the artifacts be better preserved. As soon as these words came out, many people thought of a move made by Ongwango in 2000.
Weng Wange left the motherland at the age of 20 and went to the other side of the ocean to receive education in Western ideology and culture. In his early years, Weng Wange's love for the motherland was quite enthusiastic, and he often introduced Chinese culture to his classmates and teachers. But over time, Onwango's ideas subtly skewed toward the West. In 2000, Weng Wange had the intention of returning the cultural relics of the motherland, and after contacting the experts, the experts promised to pay a certain amount, as long as they could ensure that the cultural relics were returned to Zhao. But they did not expect that Weng Wange would temporarily change his mind and auction cultural relics through high-priced bidding by auction companies.
Fortunately, those cultural and artistic treasures were eventually auctioned off by the Shanghai Library for a whopping $4.5 million. At that time, Weng Wange's behavior could still get some praise, after all, it was not easy for cultural relics to return to China, and it was nothing compared to the national historical and cultural treasures that were scattered outside. But 18 years later, his free donation of Chinese cultural relics to the United States is puzzling and infuriating. In the face of the high emotions of the Chinese people, Weng Wange himself seemed much calmer, as a Chinese bloodline, but he was so flattering, which was really sad.
epilogue:
Since the damage caused by Onwango is irreparable, our grief will not help. What we should do next is to remember history, not to forget the national shame, to strive to recover the lost treasures, and to thank and remember the lovely people who found national treasures for us in history.
bibliography:
"Huainanzi Yuandao"