He squandered his life and scattered hundreds of millions of family wealth. From the clumsy children to the fallen old people, this first loser of the Republic of China is a stunning legend. His name was Zhang Boju, the rich second generation who was once the most trench, one of the four princes of the Republic of China, and his father was a feudal official, directly subordinate to the governor. The family still opened a bank, living in the mansion of Li Lianying in the second ring road of Beijing, 10,000 square meters. But this rich second generation has a unique taste, does not smoke or drink, does not drink, and has two wives in a row, and the Qinglou woman snatched from the warlord has become the favorite of his life. There's also a hobby collection that ruins a lifetime. Without Zhang Boju, most of the national treasures of Chinese painting and calligraphy are now in Japan. Because, Japan's more than 1,000 large and small museums, a total of nearly 2 million pieces of Chinese cultural relics, only the Tokyo National Museum, there are more than 90,000 Chinese cultural relics and treasures. Seeing this, the Chinese people must be uncomfortable in their hearts, but fortunately we still have a few national treasures of calligraphy and painting in our hands. We should thank a man named Zhang Boju, China's number one collector.
At the age of 29, he received the Kangxi Imperial Pen on the side of the road, and he was out of control, generous, and only needed to say a number, and go to the door to withdraw money another day. Zhang Boju's "loser" arose from this, and as a result, this palm-sized torn paper cost 40,000 oceans, if it were not for Zhang Boju, this priceless Chinese first post "PingFu Paste" would have long been lost in the East. "You Chun Tu" offered 220 gold bars, which he sold his ancestral home, and then lay on the ground and rolled around, persuading his wife to sell jewelry before he made money to buy it. After buying it, Zhang Boju had lost all his family property, except for a pile of paintings and calligraphy, and there was no spare money available. In the years of war and chaos, some people made a fortune in the country, and when they received a change of hands, they scattered and returned. Zhang Boju's collection only hides and does not sell, and the treasures he hides are not named. Every piece of Zhang Boju in the collection regarded it as life, even if he was imprisoned and forced to die, he did not hand over the "Ping Fu Ti". But who would have thought that after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he donated all the 118 national treasures he had collected all his life, and with only one person, he supported half of the forbidden city's calligraphy and paintings, and the 200,000 yuan donation bonus was not wanted, and the last exchange for wanguan family wealth was a thin award certificate. But the contribution is so great, Zhang Boju in his later years but there is no fixed place, the old two live in a ten-square-meter cottage, the family is surrounded by walls, poor, can only rely on friends to help.
Today we will take a look at this poor old man Zhang Boju, who is more precious than a national treasure!
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Zhang Boju (張伯驹), a native of Xiangcheng, Henan, whose uncle was Zhang Zhenfang, a high-ranking governor directly subordinate to him, and was also a cousin of Yuan Shikai in terms of generations, so Zhang Boju was known as the "Fourth Prince of the Republic of China" along with Zhang Xueliang, Yuan Kewen, and Pu Dong in his early years.
Zhang Boju is indeed a good seedling, entering a private school at the age of 7, writing poetry at the age of 9, and the gentlemen call him a "child prodigy". Subsequently, he entered the British-run academy to study, and after graduation, he was sent by his father to the warlords Cao Kun and Wu Peifu, and successively served as a counselor. However, Zhang Boju was very tired of being an official in politics, and finally withdrew from the military circles despite the opposition of his parents. Since then, he has lived a "stupid" life of writing poems and paintings, watching plays and singing songs.
Although Zhang Boju was uninhibited, he was completely different from the extravagance of other rich children. He doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink, he doesn't gamble, he never wears a suit and shoes, and he wears a long shirt all year round.
When he was 15 years old, his family betrothed him. The other party was Qianjin of the Anhui Overseer's family, Zhang Boju Qinggao, and this Li clan naturally could not attract him. The second wife, Deng Yunqi, was a Jingyun drum artist, and because of her love of opera, Zhang Boju married her as a second room.
Later, he often went to the Liuli Factory in Beijing to search for all kinds of treasures and antiques, sang and wrote poems with Mei Lanfang, Yu Shuyan and others, and had close contacts with celebrities such as Yuan Kewen and Fang Dishan. After his establishment, Zhang Boju officially entered the collecting world.
At that time, most of the dignitaries did not cherish antique cultural relics, and they were ready to exchange the cultural relics in their hands for money and power. Antique dealers at home and abroad are also salivating over Chinese cultural relics, and many national treasures have been lost overseas through their resale. It was in this situation that Zhang Boju stepped forward, negotiated with the ignorant dignitaries and nobles, and competed with the greedy antique dealers, preserving a large number of cultural relics and preventing them from being lost abroad.
In 1927, the 29-year-old Zhang Boju went to Beijing Liuli Factory to hang out. Suddenly, he stopped in front of an antique calligraphy and painting shop. See the banner "Cong Bi Shan House". Zhang Boju looked at the falling model. It was actually the imperial pen of the Kangxi Emperor. After repeated deliberations, he immediately accepted it.
Since then, Zhang Boju has fallen in love with collecting. He called himself "Cong Bi" and named the house "Cong Bi Shan Fang". My mother sighed all day for this: "I don't care about anything in the family, and the officials don't do anything, but I only know how to spend money to buy calligraphy and paintings." ”
When his father, Zhang Zhenfang, was dying, he shook Zhang Boju's hand and said, "You have to support this family and take good care of your mother!" Zhang Boju only agreed to be the chairman and chief auditor of the Salt Industry Bank. After the Northern Expedition, Shanghai gradually became a financial center, and in 1935, the general management office of the Salt Industry Bank was moved from Beijing to Shanghai.
Once, while eating flower wine at Tianxiang Pavilion in Shanghai, he met the famous prostitute Pan Su. Pan Su was born in 1915, after Pan Shien, the former Prime Minister of the Qing Dynasty. After her mother was a famous person, she taught Pan Su female red and musical rhythm from an early age. When Pan Su was 13 years old, his mother died of illness. His father was a loser and soon squandered the family property. Her stepmother, Wang, sold Pan Su to a shanghai brothel. Pan Sumei was clear-eyed and played the pipa well. He soon became a popular person and was known as "Pan Fei" in Shanghai.
Zhang Boju, who has read countless women, has been wandering in the earthly world for so many years, and he has never seen a Qinglou geisha as quiet as Pan Su, who is as quiet as heaven, Gu Pansheng, but full of charm.
However, the so-called love does not know where it started, but it has always been deep, and Zhang Boju, who has been intoxicated repeatedly because of Pan Su's light and clever smile, moved his feelings and entered his heart on the spot. A glance at this beautiful lady set a lifelong.
At that time, The 20-year-old Pan Su had already been favored by a Kuomintang general named Zang Zhuo, and according to Zang Zhuo's wishes, he wanted to redeem Pan Su on another day and then adopt her as a concubine.
After hearing that Zhang Boju also had a crush on Pan Su, Zang Zhuo was afraid that the beauty's body and mind would be taken away by others, so he took Pan Su out of tianxiang Pavilion first, temporarily grounded him in the guest room of a luxury hotel, and sent 10 guards to guard the beauty's residence in turn.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Boju, who was dashing and resourceful, was completely moved by Pan Su this time, and one night, he desperately drove to Pan Su's hotel, bought the guards guarding here with a huge amount of money, and then pulled Pan Su into the car and took her back to Beijing city with her all night.
Beijing is the territory where Zhang Boju claims to be the king's hegemony, and seeing that the beauty has been robbed of Beijing, General Zang Zhuo, who has no choice but to endure the pain of cutting love. This battle for beauty finally allowed the courageous and resourceful Zhang Boju to win a complete victory.
After becoming a lover of love, the 37-year-old Zhang Boju sighed that he must give pan Su the most complete explanation, so he withstood the pressure of the world, and his parents must marry Pan Su. Therefore, Zhang Boju divided two huge sums of money to the wives of the two rooms, went through the divorce procedures, and ended the complicated family relationship. He and Pan Su quickly married.
Since then, he has been pampering Pan Su alone.
In 1937, after Zhang Boju learned that Puru had "Ping Fu Ti", he could no longer sleep well. Puru was a great-grandson of the Daoguang Emperor and a grandson of Prince Gong. Previously, PuRu sold the Tang Dynasty Han Gan's "White Picture of the Night" to others, resulting in the loss of this national treasure overseas. Zhang Boju was deeply afraid that the "Ping Fu Ti" would follow this mistake. The Pingfu Ti (平復帖) is the earliest surviving Fa-Ti, known as the "Emperor of Mo", a work by Lu Ji in the Western Jin Dynasty, dating back more than 1,700 years, 60 or 70 years earlier than Wang Xizhi's Orchid Pavilion Preface. It is the oldest calligraphy treasure that has been seen in China, and it is also the original form of the transition from Han Li to Zhang cao. It is covered with the collection seals of famous artists of past generations, and is respected by the collectors as "the first post in China".
Zhang Boju entrusted an intermediary to ask Puru for a purchase, and Puru offered 200,000 oceans. According to some people, if you calculate the 200,000 oceans at that time, you can buy 1,800 tons of rice. Zhang Boju was frustrated because he didn't have so much money. At the end of 1937, Puru's mother, Lady Xiang, passed away. Pu Ru urgently needs money to do funerals. Therefore, Zhang Boju was ready to borrow Puru 10,000 oceans, on the condition that he used the "PingFu Paste" as collateral. The next day, Fu Zengxiang brought the "Ping Fu Ti" and said that the asking price was 40,000 oceans, and Zhang Boju immediately bought it.
Soon, the antique dealer Bai Jianfu came to visit, and Zhang Boju knew that this person had sold Chinese cultural relics to the Japanese many times before, and this time he must have set his sights on the "Ping Fu Ti". Therefore, he angrily rebuked: "Money is easy to obtain, the national treasure is incomparable, this post is already in my hands, only I Zhang Boju is there, and no one can imagine it." Put away your stinky money and leave my Zhang family! "
In 1945, the last emperor Puyi was expelled from the imperial palace, took a large number of calligraphy and paintings with him, and a large number of national treasures were exiled to the people at a very low price. One of them is "You Chun Tu", which is the oldest independent scroll landscape painting in Chinese landscape painting, dating back more than 1400 years, and was painted by The Sui Dynasty Zhan Ziqian. The pen is exquisite, the meaning is infinite, and it is known as "the first picture in the world". It is regarded as a "national treasure of national treasures" by the calligraphy and painting circles. "You Chun Tu" was bought by Ma Jichuan, an antique dealer in Beijing, and will be sold overseas. After Zhang Boju got the news, he immediately suggested that the Palace Museum buy it back, but because of the lack of response due to financial problems, he was determined to buy it at his own expense. "You Chun Tu" was very high at that time, 800 taels of gold, and after they bargained, it became 200 taels of gold. Zhang Boju couldn't afford to pay so much money at all, and when he gritted his teeth, he sold the house he lived in. The mansion covers an area of 15 acres and is extremely rich, and its former owner was Li Lianying, the great eunuch of the late Qing Dynasty. At that time, it was exchanged for 21,000 US dollars, which was later converted into 200 taels of gold, but Ma Jichuan used the excuse that the gold was not good and wanted to add another 20 taels. Zhang Boju had no choice but to go home and discuss with Pan Su, "You sell me a piece of jewelry to make up for this 20 taels!" Pan Su refused, Zhang Boju lay on the ground and played Lai, Pan Su cried and laughed, and had to agree. Since then, Zhang Boju's family has moved to the old house Chengze Garden. After that, once there is a crisis of loss of precious calligraphy and painting overseas, he will give generously.
In the turbulent years, in order to avoid the loss of calligraphy and painting overseas, Zhang Boju thus exhausted the family wealth. In the end, he collected a total of 118 top calligraphy and paintings.
In 1941, Zhang Boju went to Shanghai to deal with banking affairs, but was held hostage by the Han at gunpoint on the way. The next day, Pan Su received a call from the kidnappers asking for two hundred gold bars or tearing up the ticket. Pan Su was anxious to grab her hair straight, and she couldn't get the money to think of selling paintings, but Pan Su didn't dare to make up her own mind, so she asked to see Zhang Boju.
After seeing Zhang Boju, she said her idea of selling paintings to save people, but she did not expect Zhang Boju to react strongly and said to Pan Su categorically: "Those calligraphy and paintings in my collection must be protected for me." Don't sell it to redeem me, or I'd rather die. ”
Later, fortunately, Zhang Boju's old friend Sun Yaodong came to help, and finally spent 20 gold bars, and Zhang Boju was safely released.
Pan Su said: "In the eyes of Bo Ju, the value of these calligraphy and paintings is far more than his own life. ”。
However, no one expected that since 1956, Zhang Boju, who regarded calligraphy and painting as more important than his life, had donated 118 top-level collections to the Forbidden City and the Jilin Museum. "People don't know Zhang Boju, and it is useless to go all over the Forbidden City." After the free donation, the government wanted to reward him with 200,000 yuan, but Zhang Boju directly refused to take it. The Ministry of Culture had no choice but to award him an award. At that time, many people did not understand: "Exhausted family collection, why donate free of charge?" Zhang Boju said: "Gold is easy to obtain, and the national treasure is unique." I buy them not to sell them for money, but to be afraid that they will flow into foreign countries. ”
In addition, he studied drama, learned the guqin, played chess, wrote poetry, held poetry collections, traveled through landscapes, and participated in democracy
The League, the "Anti-Persecution, Anti-Civil War, Anti-Hunger" campaign, will not fall behind. His fame in the Peking Opera circle is no less than that of the collecting world. Although he was poor in his later years, he sponsored many literati and inkers who knew each other or did not know each other. This is Zhang Boju, no matter the tide rises or falls, he will continue to guard the fundamentals of being a man. This quality is even more shining than the calligraphy and paintings he donated.
In 1980, someone built Zhang Boju Restaurant to eat, this former famous family, ordered two pieces of bread, ate one, the other was wrapped in a small handkerchief wrapped in four corners, carried slowly away, that piece was left for the lady. But in the midst of the dilemma, Zhang Boju did not take it seriously, and he did not complain about the sky, and he did not complain about people at all. Calmly, he often taught his children that a person should be patriotic, which is a big thing and cannot be rushed. In addition, it is all small things, and there is no need to worry about it.
In February 1982, he was hospitalized with a cold and was placed in a ward in an eight-room room. The ward is noisy, which is not conducive to rest and easy to cross infection. Pan Su he proposed to the hospital to change to a single room, the hospital directly refused, on the grounds that he was not enough level!
Someone ran to the door of Peking University Hospital and scolded: "Do you know who he is?" Is he not senior enough to be admitted to a high-cadre ward? bah! I tell you, what he donated to the country alone is enough to buy your hospital! ”
Some people told the leaders that they had not waited for the approval to come down, and on February 26, 1982, Zhang Boju had stopped breathing and died at the age of 84.
Two years before his death, an old friend reminded Zhang Boju to write a book and say that he would pass on his own things. Zhang Boju said happily, my things are all in the Forbidden City, don't worry about it. Zhang Boju is like a national treasure in his collection, which has been a vast smoke wave over the years. He will always be forgotten in the footsteps of history, dusty and unmembered. But whenever you suddenly think of him again, you can't help but sigh that there was once such a person who wanted to wash your heart and lungs so thoroughly and clean like it.
The great calligrapher Qi Gong once praised him: "There is no ancient person before, and there is no one who comes after him." ”
Zhou Ruchang, a red scholar, once praised him: "I have seen many cultural masters, and there are very few people like him. ”
And his life is full of legends! In the face of hardship, calm and self-assured, the tide rises and falls, sticks to the fundamentals, indulges in ancient cultural relics all his life, devotes himself to collecting calligraphy and paintings, and for the sake of national treasures, he does not hesitate to sell his property and scatter it. He once donated "half" of the Forbidden City, and in the end he could only live in a small broken house of 10 square meters.
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