At the end of 1948, the defeat of the Nationalist government on the mainland was decided, and Chiang Kai-shek began to prepare for the withdrawal of Taiwan, one of the important tasks was to transport the cultural relics of the Nanjing Museum to Taiwan. According to the current public information, Chiang Kai-shek transported a total of 2972 boxes of cultural relics to Taiwan, 1434 boxes of antiquities, 1334 boxes of books, and 204 boxes of literature.
At this moment, a person took up the case and resolutely opposed, "If there is any loss on the way or after arriving in Taiwan, the person who presides over this matter will always be a national sinner!" Although he is not responsible for this matter, he has kept the cultural relics for this court for seven or eight years, and he has a strong affection for all things and knows that there are various dangers. ”
This person does not have any political position, but stands on the position of cultural relics protection, firmly hoping to contribute to the protection of Chinese culture. This person is Zeng Zhaoyi, known as "China's first female archaeologist", who has made great contributions to the protection of cultural relics.
There is a good story about Zeng Zhaoyi, saying that when Soviet archaeologists visited in the 1950s, they asked Zeng Zhaoyi: "When is Miss Zeng going to get married?" Zeng Zhaoyi replied with a smile: "I have long been married to the museum." "A woman who is so obsessed with archaeology that she has never been married is really respectable.
Zeng Zhaoyi's great-grandfather was Zeng Guohuan, the land of Zeng Guofan, his father Zeng Guangzuo was a jinshi in his early years, the second brother Zeng Zhaocheng was a master of economics from the University of Wisconsin, and the third brother Zeng Zhaozhao was a doctor of chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. Born in such a family, Zeng Zhaoyi embarked on the road of academic research.
At the age of 20, Zeng Zhaoyi was admitted to Nanjing Central University with excellent results, first studying in the Department of Chinese Literature, and then transferring to the Department of Foreign Languages until graduation. Zeng Zhaoyi lived in an era when women were pursuing the liberation of their personality, and for the sake of the career he aspired to, he decided not to marry. At the age of 26, with a strong interest in archaeology, Zeng Zhaoyi followed his second brother to study in The United Kingdom. In his spare time, he visited museums and finally interned for a year at the Berlin State Museum and the Munich Museum.
These experiences laid the foundation for her later work in the museum. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Zeng Zhaoyi refused the high-paying employment of the University of London and resolutely returned to China to serve as a special design committee member of the Preparatory Department of the Central Museum. From this moment on, Zeng Zhaoyi and the national treasure formed an indissoluble relationship. In that war-torn era, how to preserve the cultural relics in its entirety was a heavy task for all archaeologists, and Zeng Zhaoyi was the only woman among them.
After the founding of New China, Zeng Zhaoyi naturally became the president of the Nanjing Museum. From the day he became the director of the museum, Zeng Zhaoyi made a stipulation: All personnel engaged in cultural relics work, no matter who they are, must not privately collect antiques. Zeng Zhaoyi practiced what she preached, and she herself never collected antiques, and also donated to the state the porcelain she had accidentally obtained during the Tongzhi period.
However, Zeng Zhaoyi's ending was rather bleak. On December 22, 1964, Zeng Zhaoyi, who had just left the hospital, jumped down from the pagoda of Linggu Temple on the outskirts of Nanjing, at the age of 55. In order to protect the cultural relics in his life without marrying, he poured all his efforts in the second half of his life into the cause of archaeology and literature in New China, but unfortunately chose to commit suicide and sighed.
References: "Zeng Zhaoyi's Collected Writings", "Southern Crossing and Northern Return"