In 1931, the 918 Incident broke out, Japan invaded China, and in less than half a year invaded northeast China.
At the beginning of 1933, the Japanese army continued to march into North China and invaded Rehe, and the people were already panicked in Beijing, which was only more than 200 kilometers away from Rehe.
With the spread of the war, many precious cultural relics of the Palace Museum in Beijing are facing the danger of being looted by the Japanese military city in the war, for the sake of safety, the leaders of the Palace Museum and many experts at that time decided to select important cultural relics for a large migration, more than 10,000 boxes of selected cultural relics of the Forbidden City were secretly transported out of Beijing, first to Nanjing and Shanghai, and then divided into south, central and north three roads, after 14 years, tens of thousands of kilometers...
In the war-torn years, the collectors of cultural relics of the Forbidden City who transported and hidden cultural relics tried their best to protect the cultural relics, and in the end, tens of thousands of boxes of cultural relics were not damaged and lost, creating a miracle in the history of cultural relics protection that shocked the world.
"The Long March of National Treasures" recalls the revered and touching history of cultural resistance by showing the stories of the collectors in the process of transferring the national treasures of the Forbidden City during the war years.
The Long March of National Treasures
Duration: 25 minutes × 3 episodes
Picture quality: HD
Genre: Historical and humanities documentary
Publisher: Jingshang Media
Qinling, trapped in mud, falling into torrents, bombarded... On September 18, the 20th year of the Republic of China (1931), the Japanese Kwantung Army raided the Beida Camp in Shenyang; The following year, he attacked Rehe and spied on North China.
In 1933, Shanhaiguan was captured, and the situation was urgent. The Palace Museum of China decided to transfer its collection to avoid the catastrophe of war. In the following 10 years, a large number of treasures and cultural relics of the Forbidden City traveled tens of thousands of kilometers on the way to the south and west, and encountered unimaginable difficulties and dangers one after another. Mr. Zhuang Ling, son of Zhuang Shangyan, the person in charge of the "migration" of the South Forbidden City, is not unreasonable, saying that it is a miracle in the history of the relocation of cultural relics in the world, and it is by no exaggeration.
In the autumn of 1932, the people of the Forbidden City began to select the cultural relics to be transferred, and the final treasures selected included nearly 9,000 paintings and calligraphy, more than 27,000 pieces of porcelain, more than 2,600 pieces of bronze, copper mirrors, copper seals, and various documents such as the Siku Quanshu. Zhang Jianhua, author of the memoir "Carrying", which uses the transfer of the Forbidden City as the theme, said, "At that time, it took the people of the Forbidden City to pack more than half a year, and a total of 13,427 boxes were typed. Each artifact is packaged in at least 4 layers: paper, cotton, straw, wooden boxes, and sometimes a large iron box on the outside. This step ensures that no matter whether the vehicle rolls over or floods during transportation, the loss is minimal. ”
Zhang Jianhua said that such a sophisticated packaging project mainly came from the Forbidden City's own exploration and experimentation. "Due to the lack of worry, almost all of the more than 13,000 boxes of cultural relics were personally handled by cultural relics experts and old employees in the Forbidden City, including the leaders at the time, and each piece and box was very tight." After the people of the Forbidden City repeatedly fell in the air and confirmed that it was correct, the seal of the government and the Peiping Palace Museum was stamped on the outside of the box, and the seal recorded the date of sealing. In this way, from the selection of "southward migration products" to such time-consuming packaging, it took nearly a year for the people of the Forbidden City.
In 1931, Japan occupied Northeast China, and in 1933, Shanhaiguan fell, and the Japanese army approached North China.
On the evening of February 5, 1933, the whole city of Peiping was under martial law, and 13,491 boxes of cultural relics from the Palace Museum set off from Shenwumen Square and were transported to the railway station by dozens of board wheels.
In February and March 1933, when the cultural relics were transported to the south by rail, the expert group decided to transport the boxes containing the paintings and calligraphy to Shanghai for preservation.
In late 1932, while the Forbidden City staff were focused on moving cultural relics south, several British collectors began planning a major exhibition of Chinese art in London.
In 1934, China's Ministry of Education agreed to an offer to hold an international exhibition of Chinese art in London, and set up a special censorship committee to select the best works of art for the British to choose. The London Chinese Art Exhibition is the first time that Chinese treasures have been exhibited abroad on a large scale, and this exhibition has caused great repercussions in other countries.
On April 8, 1936, 80 boxes of artifacts on display were safely returned to China from London. At this time, a great catastrophe was spreading across the land of China, forcing these treasures to be transferred again. As a result, the Palace Management Committee adopted a plan to transfer the cultural relics (along with the government) west to Chongqing and Sichuan in three ways.
On August 14, 1937, the 80 iron boxes that had been shipped to London for display became part of the first group of artifacts to be shipped out of Nanjing, barely escaping destruction just before the Nanjing Massacre.
Between 1938 and 1947, the artifacts were transported to a hidden cave near Anshun, Guizhou. Here they spent a long time.
In the smoke of more than ten years of war, the cultural relics of the Forbidden City have been displaced, but none of them have been damaged.
Through images and precious historical materials, expert interviews, and the memories of descendants who experienced the war years, the three-part documentary "The Long March of National Treasures" tells today's audience the great contributions and touching stories made by Chinese scholars to protect cultural relics.
The Long March of National Treasures
Behind the complete return of 13,000 national treasures is the patriotic blood of Chinese cultural relics and scholars, who made indelible contributions to the protection of China's cultural assets in that era of artillery.
The documentary "The Long March of National Treasures" uses the lens of tracing history to present the story behind the return of national treasures.
The documentary "The Long March of National Treasures" consists of 3 episodes, each 25 minutes long, distributed by Beijing Business Media.