Chen Mengjia (1911-1966)
He and Zangkejia are both disciples of the famous literary scholar Wen Yiduo, but Wen Yiduo once commented on him: "A talented person is willing to use hard work, and Chen Mengjia can be regarded as a successful example." At the age of 36, he became a professor at Southwest Associated University, but the Zang Ke family couldn't ask for it, and was ridiculed by Wen Yiduo.
In the summer of 1927, before graduating from high school, Chen Mengjia was admitted to the law department of the "National Fourth Sun Yat-sen University" (later renamed "Central University") in Nanjing. Here, he met Wen Yiduo and Xu Zhimo, who taught at Chung-Ang University, and Chen Mengjia often attended lectures, and his early creations and life paths were impregnated with the influence of the two teachers. In the summer of 1931, Chen Mengjia graduated from Central University, obtained a lawyer's license, and moved from Xiaoying in Nanjing to live in Lanjiazhuang, a suburb of the city. In July, at the invitation of Xu Zhimo, he went to Shanghai and lived in Tiantongan, where he was responsible for compiling and selecting the main representative work of the Crescent Poetry School - "Selected Poetry of the Crescent Moon".
Chen Mengjia, 1946, Catalogue of Chinese Bronzes in the Buckingham Palace Collection
Changed careers in archaeology: In September 1936, Chen Mengjia obtained a master's degree and stayed in the Department of Chinese of Yenching University as a teaching assistant, and since then he has devoted himself to the research of Chinese paleography and ancient history, opening the road of archaeology. In the autumn of 1944, Professor Fairbank of Harvard University and Professor Jin Yuelin of Tsinghua University went to the University of Chicago to give lectures on Chinese paleography. In the summer of 1947, he traveled to Britain, France, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and other countries. With great patriotic enthusiasm and amazing perseverance, he devoted himself to collecting mainland bronze materials scattered in Europe and the United States, and systematically annotated the cultural relics lost abroad according to their types, sizes, sizes and ages, forming the book "Catalogue of Overseas Chinese Bronzes", which opened a window for the Chinese to understand the loss of cultural relics.
Ming Huanghuali chuck tenon painting case Chen Mengjia's old collection is now in the Huzhou Museum
Ming Dynasty Furniture Collection: Chen Mengjia has not only achieved rich results in literary creation and academic research. He was also a collector of Ming Dynasty furniture. After the liberation, he earned a lot of manuscript fees by publishing archaeological books, bought a large mansion in Beijing, and at the same time purchased a lot of Ming Dynasty furniture, the most important of which is a Yuan Dynasty Huanghuali round back chair, which is the earliest existing chair, which is really precious, it is said that two trucks were pulled when raiding the house. It is said that in the 90s, the Shanghai Museum gave more than 20 million to the heirs of Chen Mengjia and his wife, which shows the high value of the collection.
Mr. and Mrs. Chen Mengjia
Embarrassing ending: In 1936, Chen Mengjia and Zhao Luorui, known as the first beauty of Yenching University, got married. However, in 1957, he published an article entitled "Be Cautious and "Reform" Chinese Characters", in which he did not approve of the abolition of traditional Chinese characters and the implementation of simplified characters, so he was condemned as a "rightist". In 1966, Chen Mengjia was criticized, punished to kneel, insulted, and imprisoned, and one night after being criticized, he watched Zhao Luorui (she suffered from severe schizophrenia in 57) laugh madly, and chose to hang himself in despair, and the former fairy couple ended gloomily.