In 1937, after the Japanese captured Suzhou, they went straight to a local mansion, first looted the property in the house, and then forced the owner of the house, a 32-year-old widow, to hand over the two copper dings worth tens of billions of dollars. But the widow insisted, "No! Unexpectedly, 14 years later, two pieces of copper appeared in front of the world.
The widow, named Pan Dayu and originally known as Ding Dayu, married into the Pan family, one of the four great families of Suzhou (Peng, Song, Pan, and Han) at the age of 18.
During the Qing Xianfeng period, there were 35 people with gold list inscriptions, especially Pan Zuyin in the Pan family's ancestral generation, who was an official to the Shangshu of the Ministry of Works, a military aircraft minister, and Pan Zuyin's ten minutes of love for gold stone antiques.
In the ten years of Qing Xianfeng, Zuo Zongtang, a "generation of famous ministers", was impeached by others, and Pan Zuyin went to the rescue several times, which finally freed Zuo Zongtang from the predicament. In order to show his gratitude, he sent out the Big Bowl Ding, which he had treasured for many years.
Later, Pan Zuyin also bought Da Ke Ding with heavy money, and Da Ke Ding, Da Lu Ding, and Mao Gong Ding have always been known as the "King of Ding", so it was rumored at that time: The Three Treasures of the Sea, the Pan Family has two.
In the sixteenth year of Guangxu, the 61-year-old Pan Zuyin died of illness in the capital, because he had no descendants, so his younger brother Pan Zunian secretly transported a large number of cultural relics he left behind back to the pan family's old residence in Suzhou.
Unfortunately, Pan Zunian's incense was difficult to continue, and his grandson Pan Chengjing died soon after he got married, leaving only a wife Ding Dayu, who had been married for only three months, and left no heirs.
After Pan Chengjing's death, Pan Zunian was deeply shocked, seeing that his granddaughter-in-law was smart and capable, and the whole Pan family was properly cooked inside and outside, and the old man felt comforted in his heart, so he wrote his granddaughter-in-law's name into the Pan family tree and changed his name to Pan Dayu.
Probably because of the heir problem, after only two years, the old man could not afford to be ill.
Before dying, he called Pan Dayu to the front and said in a serious tone: "I'm afraid I can't do it, I can only entrust you with one thing with my old face, Ke and Lu Erding are not only the treasures of the Pan family, but also the treasures of the country." In the future, we must guard them well, even if the Pan family is reduced to the point of asking for food, it must not be sold for money, let alone fall into the hands of gentiles. ”
Pan Dayu promised Grandpa, although rest assured, the granddaughter-in-law will certainly live up to your trust.
After Pan Zunian's death, the Pan family became increasingly weak, and outsiders saw that the Pan family was now run by a 20-year-old widow, and they all coveted the treasures of the Pan family.
One of the most difficult is the late Qing Dynasty power minister Duan Fang, this person is rich and powerful, falsely claiming that he wants to "borrow" two Baoding statues to observe for a few days, in fact, he wants to take it for himself, Pan Da Yu knew that this person could not provoke, he said that the treasure has been given away by his grandfather, as for the Pan family, most of them are just outsiders with false rumors.
Where the end of the party is willing to believe, still repeatedly begging, which makes Pan Dayu very headache. Fortunately, soon after the Xinhai Revolution broke out, the Qing government collapsed, and Duanfang was sent to the guillotine, and the matter was not resolved.
In 1930, an American from the Pan family claimed to love Chinese bronzes, and the lion opened his mouth widely, willing to exchange 600 taels of gold and a Western-style building for grams and two dings, but Pan Dayu refused, saying that these cultural relics were not my own, they belonged to the descendants of China's Yanhuang.
When the Americans saw her tough attitude, they had to slip away in ashes, and later some ill-intentioned people came to the door, but Pan Dayu cleverly refused.
In 1937, the Japanese army invaded China. In order to protect these cultural relics of the Pan family, the astute Pan Da invited two craftsmen in advance, took advantage of the night to create a large wooden box, put the grams and lu erding into it, and then stuffed the rest of the smaller gold, silver and bronze utensils in the gap.
Subsequently, an old masonry was pried open on the ground of the house, a pit several meters deep was excavated, a large wooden box was buried in it, and finally the old masonry was laid back and furniture was placed on it.
As for the other scroll calligraphy and paintings, Pandayu packed them into dozens of book boxes according to the dynasty, hid them in a dark room in the alley, and piled up debris outside.
After doing all this, Pan Dayu hid some cheap antiques in the cabinet so that the Japanese could "receive them when they saw good", and finally she called the two craftsmen and promised that the Pan family would raise them for a lifetime.
Later, the Japanese attacked Suzhou, and sure enough, they went straight to the Pan family compound, and after looting those cheap antiques and money, they did not "accept it when they saw it", but forced the Pan family to hand over the two Baoding. Panda Yu insisted: No!
The Japanese had no choice but to scaveng again and again, rummaging through boxes and cabinets in the Pan family, making a chicken and dog restless, and even digging the Pan family's yard three feet into the ground, but the result was nothing. Later, the Japanese monitored the Pan family for a long time before withdrawing.
In 1944, the wooden box rotted and the old masonry on it collapsed. Pan Dayu dug up the collection and hid it in an inconspicuous corner of the house, piled up with rags and debris, hoping that her stepson Pan Jiamao (mào) and stepdaughter Pan Jiahua would be self-reliant and could not live on the wealth left by the ancestors.
In 1951, after the liberation of New China began to vigorously restore cultural undertakings, in order to protect cultural relics and provide a place for the public to see the exhibition, Shanghai is about to set up a museum.
After hearing this news, Pan Da immediately wrote to the Shanghai Museum, willing to hand over the two "heavy instruments of the country" to the state for the public to see and study.
The staff knew that The Treasure of the Western Zhou Dynasty is a treasure of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which has a history of nearly 3,000 years, and each Ding is engraved with more than 200 words of inscriptions, which is rare in its preciousness and can be described as valuable.
In recognition, the museum awarded Pan Dayu with a certificate and a reward of 2,000 yuan, but Pandau only accepted the award, not the cash prize.
It is worth mentioning that at that time, Pan Dayu and his daughter Pan Jiahua were not rich, Pan Dayu was just an ordinary worker in the production team, and her daughter taught in school, earning only 70 yuan per month.
However, Pan Da Yu has always been poor, and in the following years, she has donated as many as 400 precious cultural relics to the museum, and according to statistics, all the cultural relics she donated are worth tens of billions.
In 2007, Panda died at the age of 102. She interprets the eternal protection and care of cultural relics with her actions, and her name has been engraved on the huge stone stele of the cultural relics donor of the Shanghai Museum, which has been passed down through the ages.