On November 24, 1936, I learned that Ming Zhenzhai had the "Shi Song Gui Guǐ" of the late Western Zhou Dynasty, and the price was only one thousand and five, I could not suppress the excitement in my heart, and immediately took this "Shi Song Gui" from Ming Zhen Zhai to my friend Yu SiBo's house to let him see the true and false, Yu Si Bo specialized in the study of paleography and exegesis, and the achievements were not low, and after reading it, I also thought that this "Shi Song Gui" was genuine.
Yung Gung (1894-1983)
So on December 5th, I went into the city early in the morning to Ming Zhen Zhai and took this "Shi Song Gui" at a discount price of 1,000 yuan. But unexpectedly, after careful and repeated study, I found that this "Shi SongGui" was imitated by later generations, and I was deceived.
Late Western Zhou Dynasty Shi Songgui Collection of Shanghai Museum
Since the things were fake, Ming Zhenzhai naturally wanted to lose me money, so on March 13, 1938, I arrived at Ming Zhenzhai in the morning again, and took three things from it, Lu Xiangsheng, Gong Dingzi, and Qian Weicheng's painting axis, and the people who sued them said that they would not return the money of the fake Shi Songgui to me, and I would not give money for these three things. In this way, Ming Zhenzhai and I had a stalemate until the evening, and we did not go home until the evening, but Ming Zhenzhai did not return the money to me. The money that had been defrauded never came back, and on September 28, 1939, I sold this fake Shi Songgui for five hundred pieces, and my teeth hurt severely in the afternoon. ”
The above is the collection of Mr. Rong Geng's purchase of fake Shi Songgui, which was clearly recorded by him in the "Rong Geng Beiping Diary". Shi Songgui was composed by the historian named Song of the late Western Zhou Dynasty, passed down from generation to generation, and is now stored in the Shanghai Museum, the Palace Museum and other institutions, Mr. Rong Geng, who was helpless to defend his rights for several months for a forgery, and also ended in failure, this collection experience is really unforgettable.
01 Working class can also play collectibles
Rong Geng was born in the late Qing Dynasty Dongguan family of scholars, is a wild, outspoken person, often called himself a "wild horse", before becoming a famous collector, when he was young, he was also a humble person, "Yu Xi and Dongguan in Beijing together to listen to drama, gambling, watching movies, going to the restaurant every week at a rate of one or two days a week to take it as a rule, occasionally smoking opium, drinking for fun." Fortunately, Rong Mu had been strictly disciplined by him, and Rong Geng repented. However, on April 19, the nineteenth year of the Republic of China, Rong Geng's mother passed away, and Rong Geng wanted to raise her, and since then he hopes to repay his mother with diligent study.
Rong Geng, under the influence and guidance of his uncle Deng Erya, developed a strong interest in Jinshi calligraphy and painting, and later he studied under Wang Guowei and Luo Zhenyu, conducted a lot of research on oracle bones and Yi scripts, and entered Peking University for graduate school through Luo Zhenyu's recommendation, and with his proficiency in jinshi characters, he got the opportunity to enter the Forbidden City to identify bronzes.
Liulichang antique stalls during the Republic of China period
On April 28, 1928, Rong Geng saw a statue of Fu Er Ding in the LiuliChang Zun Gu Zhai, which was originally the old collection of the Qing Palace, and was found in the genealogy of the ancient bronzes stored in the Qing Dynasty court, "Western Qing Ancient Classics", before this, Rong Geng had never entered the door of the antique shop, because "the pocket is shy, love can not be obtained, the disciples think of people." At that time, he was teaching at Yenching University, with an annual salary of 2400 yuan, which was a well-paid working class, but to play collecting, it was still only a shyness. This Time I saw this Yi Erding, only sold for 50 yuan, Rong Geng still couldn't help but buy it, sighed "cheap to get this, special self-help", and thus embarked on a journey of about 20 years of bronze collection.
In the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, The Collection of the Guangzhou Museum
"There is a road to wealth, there is a shortcut to fame" is Rong Geng's collection experience, rong Geng of the working class, engaged in collection is more by eyesight and business acumen, in the "Rong Geng Beiping Diary" there are many collections of low-priced buying, high-priced selling records, people look at the eye, he buys at a low price, and then sells at 10 times the price. And through the strategy of "people abandon me to take", Rong Geng has found many treasures, such as the Southern Song Dynasty's anonym "Yunshan Map", the Yuan Dynasty Huang Gongwang's "Xishan Map", the Ming Dynasty Dai Jin's "Mountain High Water Long Map" and so on. In 1930, a major collector died in Shanxi, and hundreds of bronzes were sold for more than 10,000 oceans. This money is an astronomical amount for Rong Geng, but this can't stop him from a keen collector's heart. Rong Geng first managed to raise 5,000 yuan as a deposit and this batch of bronzes was transported to Beijing, he immediately summoned the same good to buy, and then half of the money resold to fill the arrears, but also because of such a bold and planned action, Rong Geng was able to rank among the head bronze collectors.
Of course, playing with collecting is impossible to go smoothly, in addition to the collection of Shi Songgui above, Rong Geng has also planted his heels in other places. In 1931, Rong Geng bought a Warring States bronze sword, there are three characters on the piece, Rong Geng read it as "Wang Peng Sword", thinking that this is an ordinary sword, the following year transferred the sword to another philologist, the great collector Mr. Yu Shengwu, but then he understood that he mispronounced the name of the sword, "Wang Peng Sword" should be "Wang Peng Sword", that is, Yue Wang Sword, regret. Fortunately, 6 years later, Rong Geng got a "Shi Xu Ding", Yu Shengwu was very interested, rong Geng took the opportunity to exchange the Yue Wang Sword with Ding. In 1956, he donated the sword to the Guangzhou Museum, which is now the treasure of the museum.
Yue Wang Sword Collection of Guangzhou Museum
02 With the ancient as an apprentice
As a university professor, he has a good salary, but Rong Geng's life is simple, every time he is paid, he always spends half of it to buy books, bronzes and calligraphy and paintings, and his daughter Rong Pu recalls her father's collection and said: "My father is not a big capitalist, his wealth is not rich, and his collection depends on salary." My father was frugal, and after paying his salary, he would always take half of the collection to buy it, and the other half would be given to my mother to take charge. My family's six siblings, every time it was time to pay the tuition, my father had to sell his books and exchange them for gold bars to pay for. ”
The bed where the four children of the Rong Geng family slept was even on bronze, "Our family has four large boxes, which are all bronzes, and there is a bed board on the top of the box, which is the bed where our four children sleep." When a guest comes, we have to help remove the mattress and bed board before we can take the bronze out for display, which is also a way for me to touch the bronze. ”
Rong Geng collected a large number of collections through purchase, ancestral inheritance, exchange, and gifts, including bronzes and calligraphy and paintings, including books, oracle bones, clumps, letters, seals, and various documents, covering a wide range of categories. According to Rong Geng's "Small Notes on The Painting and Calligraphy of Song Zhai" (Rong Geng' Song Zhai), he once collected more than 1300 pieces (sets) of collections in his lifetime, of which about 200 pieces of Shang Zhou Yi ware, on quantity, Huanghuang Grand View, on quality, there is no shortage of national treasure-level fine works.
What is even more rare is that Rong Geng is not only a collector, he has also recorded and preserved several years of collection research in the form of writing, which has a far-reaching influence on mainland archaeology and collection.
His first edition of the Shang Zhou Yi Ware Examination in 1941 was the first comprehensive and systematic examination of Chinese bronzes in mainland China, laying the initial foundation for Chinese archaeology in bronze typology. In the 1950s and 1960s, Rong Geng saw that Firecrackers in Dongguan were wrapped in paper with cong posts, sighed directly, asked where they bought them from, and then tried to buy them by themselves, collecting more than 300 kinds of cong posts and compiling "cong timu", which is the peak in the history of post research. In addition, Rong Geng has also authored dozens of books such as "Jin Wen Compilation", "General Theory of Yin Zhou Bronze Ware", "Song Zhai Calligraphy and Painting Notes" and so on, and the collection and academic research complement each other.
Rong Geng wrote the manuscript of "The Three Classics of the Western Qing Dynasty" collected by the Guangdong Provincial Zhongshan Library
03 Times Of Wind, Righteous Soldier of the Nation
"In the season of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the collectors of bronze ware rose from generation to generation, and all the more than ten families were more than 100 utensils. Since the Republic of China, the old family has been wiped out, the warlords have created disasters, and the country has no peace. The people of Guan and Luo are trapped in famine or digging false graves, taking what they hide to save their lives, and the government cannot forbid them. The powerful ones of the foreign nations, who have taken their excesses, come to buy them. So the ancient artifacts flowed out, and it was like water. Rong Geng In the midst of social turmoil, Rong Geng lamented the outflow of national ancient artifacts, but the domestic bronze research was not yet ready, "People robbed my cultural relics and overturned the mainland home." I don't learn to be ashamed of my ears. So he wrote the compilation of "Overseas Jijin Catalogue", and hissed for friends, and on September 1, 1923, he advocated the establishment of an archaeological society to collect pictures of ancient Yi ware materials, and spent eight years of effort to compile and publish the "Shang Zhou Yi Instrument Tongkao" to break the fallacy that "the treasures unearthed in China depend on Japanese studies", and when the book was published, Rong Geng said that he finally came out of this breath.
Guo Moruo To Rong Geng Shujian 21.2 × 18.3cm ink and pencil on paper, 1930 Collection of Guangdong Provincial Museum
"My salary is not high, but for more than ten years, I have devoted all my collection to these calligraphy and painting utensils. In order to study academically and protect the precious cultural relics of the mainland, so as not to leak out. As early as the 1950s, Rong Geng donated 95 pieces of bronzes to the Guangzhou Museum twice, including 9 first-class cultural relics, 37 second-class cultural relics, 2 third-class cultural relics, and 47 general cultural relics. After Rong Geng's death, his children donated Rong Geng's old collection one after another.
So far, according to statistics, Rong Geng and his family have donated nearly 200 bronzes, more than 1,200 pieces of calligraphy and paintings from past dynasties, more than 10,000 sets of rare books of ancient books, nearly 1,000 pieces of oracle bones, gold stone rubbings, cong ti, celebrity letters, as well as a large number of manuscripts, engravings and manuscripts, scattered in the National Museum of China, the National Art Museum of China, the Chinese Academy of History, the Guangzhou Museum, the Guangzhou Art Museum, the Guangdong Provincial Zhongshan Library, Sun Yat-sen University, South China Normal University, Guangzhou University and many other units. "Taken from the country, used for the country" is the belief hidden in the deepest part of Rong Geng's collection.
Shenzhen Museum "Apprentices with the Ancients: Rong Geng's Scholarship and The Times" exhibition site
When Mr. Rong Geng was in his 80s, someone wanted to write a biography for him, but he refused, on the grounds that "I am not as bad as you say, nor as good as you say." "Such a big collector with feelings and responsibility is a blessing in disguise.
Rong Geng, the word Xibai, the trumpet Song Zhai. Born in Dongguan, Guangdong Province on the sixth day of the eighth lunar month in 1894, he died in Guangzhou on March 6, 1983. In 1925, he graduated from the Institute of Chinese Studies of Peking University. In 1925, he became a lecturer at Peking University. From 1926 to 1941, he was an associate professor and professor at Yenching University, an appraisal committee member of the Beiping Antiquities Exhibition Institute, and the editor-in-chief of the Yenching Journal and the Archaeological Society. In 1942, he became a professor at Peking University. In 1946, he became a professor and head of the Department of Chinese at Lingnan University. After 1952 until his death, he was a professor at Sun Yat-sen University. He also served as the director of the Guangdong Calligraphy and Seal Engravers Association. In 1981, he was approved as the first batch of doctoral supervisors in Chinese philology. Representative works include "Jin Wen Bian" and "Shang Zhou Yi Instrument Tongkao".
References: Fine Arts Newspaper "Rong Geng and Beiping Antique Market" Shenzhen Museum "Apprentice with the Ancient - Rong Geng's Scholarship and Era" Poetic Flower City Life Circle "Do you know how high the academic height of Mr. Rong Geng, the treasure of Guangdong, is, and how cute is his daily life?" 》