Cultural relics are the products of a certain historical period in which human beings meet the needs of production, life and other social activities. On the whole, cultural relics have historical, artistic, scientific and commemorative values.
In 1959, the "first major theft case of the Forbidden City in New China" that shocked the whole country, the Forbidden City lost 1.5 billion worth of cultural relics, the main culprit was a farmer named Wu Qinghui. This person originally traveled to the Forbidden City, but after seeing the glittering cultural relics, he had a criminal idea, for money, ignoring the value of cultural relics, stealing them from the Forbidden City and selling them.
First, the cultural relics that have disappeared
The Forbidden City in Beijing is one of the largest and most complete wooden structures in the world, is a national "five-A- level" tourist attraction, was listed as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units in 1961, and was listed as a world cultural heritage in 1987. Many tourists come to the Forbidden City and are amazed by the imagination and creativity of the ancients.
In 1949, after the founding of New China, Beijing became the capital of the entire country, and in order to preserve the ancient buildings more well, the state carried out a comprehensive renovation of the Forbidden City.
On August 16, 1959, the administrator Tian Yihe, as usual, came to the Forbidden City early to inspect, which was his daily work.
As an administrator, he liked the feeling of walking through this vast royal Forbidden City, as if he were in the middle of the time, experiencing the end of five thousand years of prosperity and the change of dynasties. However, just as he was wandering to the Treasure Hall, he suddenly saw broken glass everywhere under the north gate of the Yangxin Hall.
The Forbidden City was actually stolen, which was something that Tian Yi and Wan Wan did not expect. Immediately, he called out to his colleagues to protect the scene, and ran to the security section himself, and the colleagues of the security section reacted that they were fine during the inspection yesterday afternoon.
As soon as they learned of this incident, colleagues in the Security Section reported to the police together with him, and after the police arrived at the scene, they and the staff of the Forbidden City began to operate in two ways. The staff of the Forbidden City verified the stolen cultural relics and found that 8 of the 14 pages of the gold book displayed in the west were lost, and the gold sheath and 5 jewel-encrusted sabers were missing from the cabinet on the north side.
The Forbidden City displays very precious cultural relics, the original Yangxin Hall in the first exhibition hall of the West Hall of the Yangxin Hall mainly displays the Kangxi Emperor's golden book and other cultural relics, the gold book has a total of 14 pages, which was specially created by the Kangxi Emperor for Xiao Huizhang, not only the craftsmanship is very exquisite, but also pure gold, which has very important cultural significance.
In addition, the stolen five-handled jade carved flower golden sheath dagger, which was used by the Shunzhi Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor, was inlaid with exquisite gemstones and wrapped in a layer of gold on the sheath, which was a valuable ancient handicraft. According to comprehensive statistics, the value of the stolen cultural relics is about 1.5 billion.
After careful investigation of the scene, the police found a piece of bloody flesh in the broken glass, which should have been left by the thieves when they broke the glass.
The cultural and historical value of the cultural relics of the Forbidden City is immeasurable, the theft of cultural relics in the Forbidden City, the loss value is huge, causing an extremely bad impact on the society, all parties are paying attention to the progress of the entire case, the superior leaders attach great importance to it, and designate this case as "the first national treasure theft case of New China" and order the case to be solved within a time limit.
To this end, the Public Security Bureau, under pressure from many quarters, urgently set up a special case team. Beginning to visit the surrounding area, an old security guard on night duty at the Forbidden City recalled that when it was very late, he saw a black shadow floating on the eaves, thinking that he was blind, and ignored it.
After the police learned of this clue, they also had doubts, could it really be that someone would "fly over the wall" as written in the martial arts novel?
Second, thousands of miles to pursue the murder road
On August 17, 1959, the Beijing Public Security Bureau notified the neighboring Tianjin Public Security Bureau, hoping to help investigate the theft of national treasures. The Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau also attaches great importance to this case of a heinous nature.
At that time, the Beijing police not only found the suspect's skin and flesh during the on-site investigation, but also found the suspect's shoe prints on the display case. Fingerprints and palm prints were also extracted, but the limited investigation technology at that time made it more difficult for the police to solve the case.
In addition, the suspect also left a scratch mark on the steps of the south gate of the Yangxin Hall, and took the latch of the Xiqing Gate, and it can be judged that the suspect escaped from here. However, there has always been a question in the minds of the case-handling personnel: the height of the wall of the Forbidden City is nearly 10 meters, how did the suspect go out of the Forbidden City with cultural relics?
Meanwhile, on November 11, 1959, police officers in Tianjin spotted two very suspicious young men on a train from Shanghai to Beijing. From the moment the two young men got into the car, they looked panicked, their eyes constantly looking left and right, and according to the experience of the old criminal police, they judged that the two young people had problems.
The inspection found that they had evaded their tickets, and they still had broken gold nuggets and gold coins in their bags. After examination, the public security personnel found that the gold was engraved with words, unlike ordinary gold, and it could be clearly seen that it was broken from a whole piece of gold.
The police officer asked, "Where did this gold come from?" ”
Two young men replied, "It was passed down from our ancestors." They also explained that they had to sell it out as a last resort, and they saw that the young man was not dressed like a rich and noble person, and was obviously lying.
He also made up with the public security personnel that an ancestor who was a high official, who was once very rich, hid the gold in a jar, and his father told him only on his deathbed. However, this young man forgot that he was facing the "fire-eyed golden-eyed" public security officers, who obviously would not be confused by such a blindfold.
The Tianjin police felt that things were strange, and had a premonition that it might be related to the theft of the Forbidden City three months ago. Immediately, the two young people were temporarily left in the Public Security Bureau, notified the Beijing police, and contacted the special case team that detected the theft of the Forbidden City.
Afterwards, the Tianjin police promptly compared the fingerprints and palm prints of the two young people with the situation surveyed at the scene of the crime, and determined that they were completely consistent with one of the young people. At this point, the main culprit of the Forbidden City theft case was found, a 20-year-old young man.
It is understood that the young man's name is Wu Qinghui, 20 years old, from Shouguang County, Shandong. He is the youngest son in the family, his parents are very fond of him, and Wu Qinghui gradually develops a habit of self-centeredness in everything.
The delicious food in the family is always enjoyed by him first, and his parents are also extra tolerant of him, so that Wu Qinghui is not self-motivated, and only wants to get it for free.
When I went to school, I didn't study well, and after I finished junior high school, I didn't enter high school, so I ate and did at home and lived idly. When his parents couldn't see it, they always educated him.
Earlier, Wu Qinghui's sister married to Beijing, and his brother-in-law was a soldier, so he wanted to go to Beijing to play, avoid the nagging of his parents, and play quietly.
The brother-in-law was busy with work every day, so he gave Wu Qinghui some money and let him go to the major attractions to play by himself. Once, Wu Qinghui went to the Forbidden City to play, looked at the various cultural relics in the display cabinet and thought: If you get one thing, it will be enough to eat for a lifetime.
So, such crazy ideas formed in his mind.
On August 15, 1959, the day after Wu Qinghui visited the Forbidden City, he prepared to carry out his own theft plan.
However, a young man does not realize that the cultural relics of the Forbidden City are not only of great value, but also have cultural and historical value that cannot be measured by money.
In this way, Wu Qinghui found a large backpack with a large iron tongs in it, and once again came to the Forbidden City. First of all, in the major exhibition halls wandering on the point, looking for easy to carry cultural relics, and then, finally found that in the display cabinet of the western exhibition hall of the Yangsheng Hall, the 14 volumes of pure gold books and exquisite daggers on display were relatively easy to carry, so I decided to start from here.
Before the Forbidden City closed, he hid in the toilet near the Yangsheng Hall for 3 hours. It wasn't until dark that all the tourists had left that he sneaked out of the toilet and committed a crime. After Wu Qinghui broke up, with the help of the scaffolding of repairing the Ningshou Gate, he climbed up the wall and walked along the wall to the Xiqing Gate, thus giving rise to the saying that the folk suspects would "lightly perform", and after winning the hand, Wu Qinghui escaped from the Forbidden City from the Xiqing Gate.
Back at his sister's house, Wu Qinghui told his sister about the theft of cultural relics from the Forbidden City. However, instead of persuading her brother to turn himself in, the sister helped her brother escape Beijing in a vain attempt to escape the law.
As a result, the truth of the whole case was revealed, but there was no joyful smile on the faces of the case-handling personnel, because the damage to the cultural relics was far beyond their imagination.
Third, ignorance and ignorance will eventually be caught
We often say that the most terrible person in the world is a stupid and ignorant person, who obviously does not understand, but will do crazy things, just like Wu Qinghui.
Wu Qinghui cut and sold the gold books brought back to his hometown, and received 700 yuan, 1,000 yuan and other different amounts of stolen money, which at that time was equivalent to the salary of an ordinary worker for more than a year.
Obviously, he did not consider the value of the cultural relics of the Forbidden City, and the preciousness of these cultural relics is that if they are damaged, they mean that they disappear. Repairs are for better preservation and do not bring the dead back to life.
Among the cultural relics recovered by the police, the gold album has been completely damaged, causing irreparable damage. In the end, the court sentenced Wu Qinghui to life imprisonment for theft, destruction, and betrayal of national treasures, and his sister was sentenced to 15 years in prison for harboring.
From an early age, our parents taught us to study well and be a reasonable and useful person to society in the future. Wu Qinghui's tragedy has a lot to do with the fact that he did not study well since he was a child. Lack of knowledge and a shallow understanding of the cultural relics of the Forbidden City made him desperate to take risks and make big mistakes, so that his family was involved.
He had the opportunity to create the life he wanted through his industrious hands, but in the end he buried his life with his own hands because of ignorance and greed.
After this incident, the Forbidden City added cultural relics protection measures and adjusted the closing time to 5 p.m. Such tragedies make us regret our hearts, and what we must do is to abide by the rules set by the law, and we cannot do things that harm others and society because of a little interest.