Yin Ruins is a wonderful book, an eternal history, but Yin Ruins also have their own regrets, before the founding of the Country, due to poor protection, local excavation and antique dealers, as well as foreign invaders robbery and plunder, resulting in a large number of Yin Ruins of oracle bones and bronzes, jade lost overseas, a latest survey in China shows that Yin Ruins currently has at least more than 50,000 cultural relics lost overseas. On July 13, 2006, after The Anyang Yin Ruins successfully entered the list of world cultural heritage, these 50,000 cultural relics lost overseas became an eternal pain in the hearts of the Yin Ruins and the people of Anyang.
How many Yin Ruins cultural relics have been lost overseas
Text/Tang Jigen
How many Yin Ruins cultural relics have been lost overseas?
Historically, many scholars have tried to investigate the overseas cultural relics of Yin Ruins, such as Umehara Suji's compilation of "Omi Chu China Bronze Essence" (1933), Chen Mengjia's compilation of "China's Yin Zhou Bronze Collection Plundered by US Imperialism" (1963), Li Xueqin and Ai Lan's compilation of "Chinese Bronze Relics in Europe" (1995), but these works only captured some of the essence of overseas public and private collections. Although Western museums have published catalogues of their collections over the past half-century or so, making it possible to gain a more comprehensive picture of important Chinese artifacts lost overseas, it is still difficult to estimate the number of artifacts lost. How easy is it to publish its collection and confirm that a certain cultural relic is from Yin Ruins? In particular, the origin of some of these cultural relics that were not recorded when they were entered into Tibet may always be a mystery. If I were allowed to speculate on the basis of years of experience in reading various catalogues and visiting overseas museums (including some museum warehouses), the total number of relics lost overseas is at least conservatively 50,000, including bronzes, jade, oracle bones, boneware, pottery, stone tools, pottery for casting bronzes, and other types. Oracle bones account for most of them, and the collection of oracle bones in Japan alone amounts to more than 10,000 pieces.
Human Face Dragon Pattern (he) Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins excavated from the Collection of the Freer Sackler Museum of Art in Washington, D.C
Although we cannot estimate the total number of lost overseas cultural relics, some of these important Relics of yin ruins are often quoted or deliberately mentioned. For example, the tripartite cup from the Nezu Museum of Art in Japan, the engraved bone dagger from the Royal Canadian Museum, the Nandan Yao from the Museum of Decorative Arts in Copenhagen, and the bone ruler from the Art Institute of Chicago in the United States.
Back-patterned white pottery (lei) Late Shang Dynasty Legend Excavated in 1939 from the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan, Usa, at the Freer Sackler Museum of Art in Washington, D.C
The world's most famous museum for Chinese cultural relics is often the museum with the largest collection of Yin Ruins cultural relics. The exhibits in various museums vary widely from country to country. Collections in the United States are very scattered, and there are no less than 30 museums in the country that have collections of Yin Ruins. For example, the Louvre in Paris originally collected a lot of Chinese cultural relics, and later all of them were "allocated" to the Jimei Museum, so visitors to the Louvre can see the shocking cultural relics of the Two Rivers Valley and ancient Egypt in the Louvre, and see less than 1 Chinese cultural relic, the Jimei Museum focuses on the cultural relics of Asian countries, and Chinese cultural relics are arranged to be displayed in important spaces.
Ya Xu (jiǎ) Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Wuguan Village North Excavated Collection of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, USA
Listed below are the 40 museums or collectors with the highest number of overseas collections of Yin Ruins:
Freer Museum of Art, USA: Bronze, Jade
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA, bronze and jade
Sackler Museum of Art: Bronze, Jade
Kansas State Museum: Bronze, Jade
Institute of art at Chicago: Bronze, jade
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Bronze, Jade
San Francisco Museum of Art: Bronze, jade
Washington State Museum (Seattle): Bronze, jade
Florida State Museum: Bronze, jade, oracle bones, pottery, pottery
Princeton University Museum: Bronzes
Harvard University Fogg Museum: bronze, jade
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA: Bronze, jade
St. Louis State Museum: Bronzes
Museum of East Asian Art, San Francisco, USA: Bronze, Jade
San Francisco City Museum: Bronze, Jade
Field Museum, Chicago, USA: Bronze, Jade
University of Chicago Museum: Bronzes
Nezu Museum of Art, Japan: Bronze ware (famous is the famous copper square ao, large copper urn)
Izumiya Hirokokan, Japan: Bronze and jade
Japan White Crane Museum of Art: Bronze and jade
Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, Japan: Oracle bones, bronzes
Japan Bu Yan Tang: Bronze Ware
Tenri University Museum, Japan: Bronze ware
British Museum (British Museum) Bronzes, pottery, jade, oracle bones
British Library: Oracle bones
Albert-Victoria Museum, UK: bronze, jade
Museum of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK: Bronze, jade, oracle bones
Glasgow Museum, UK: Bronzes
Eskenach line, England: Bronze
Royal Museum of Ontario, Canada: Bronze, Jade, Bone, Oracle, Pottery, Pottery
Museum of Gemme, France: bronzes, jade, pottery, bone ware, oracle bones
Sernuski Museum, France: bronzes, jade, oracle bones, pottery
Museum of East Asians, Berlin, Germany: bronzes, jade, oracle bones
Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, Germany: Bronzes
Folk Art Museum Stuttgart, Germany: Bronzes
Folk Art Museum, Munich, Germany: Bronzes
National Museum of Oriental Art, Italy: Bronzes
Museum of the Far East: bronzes, jades, bone ware, pottery
Lytterburg Museum, Zurich, Switzerland: Bronzes
State Museum of Russia: oracle bones, bronzes
Museum of Decorative Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark: Bronzes
Oracle Bones Late Shang Dynasty Anyang Yin Ruins unearthed in the British Museum collection
In addition to the above-mentioned museums, other countries that house yin ruins include Norway, South Korea, and Singapore. Judging from the number of collections, the cultural relics of Yin Ruins are more concentrated in the Eight Countries of the United States, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Canada, Russia, and Switzerland. It should be mentioned that between overseas museums, between private collectors and museums, cultural relics transactions occur from time to time, and sometimes we see cultural relics that were originally in a collection unit and will appear in the hands of another collector decades later. Therefore, the Chinese cultural relics in the hands of collectors will change with the loss of time.
Chinese Side Cup, Left Side Cup, Right Side Cup Late Shang Dynasty Tomb No. 1001 In the North Of The Military Officer Village in Anyang, Henan Province, was excavated from the collection of the Nezu Museum of Art in Japan
Whether the cultural relics exhibited in the West indicate the source is at the discretion of the museum. For example, the 3 bronze cups exhibited at the Nezu Art Museum in Japan clearly state "Tomb No. 1001 in Anyang, Henan"; more museums (especially in the United States) usually mark the donor or former collector of the cultural relics (such as "Wenthrop" written), even if the source is not stated at the time of exhibition, usually the museums have recorded the source of the Chinese cultural relics in the collection, unless the source is no longer available.
Animal face pattern (yue) Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins unearthed In cologne, Germany, the museum of East Asian Art collection
Based on the clues of the collection registration, it is easy to find that most of the cultural relics in overseas museums are donated by or purchased from some famous collectors. Mainly from the Canadian missionaries James M. Menzies and William Charles White, while the basic collections in the Guimet Museum and the Cernuschi Museum in France, namely from Mr. Jimmy and Mr. Xenuschi. But how did the artifacts get lost from China to these private collectors?
The issue is extremely complex. In short, the channels are different and the methods are diverse, and there are generally the following situations:
Animal Face Pattern 卣 (yǒu) Late Shang Dynasty Excavated from the Yin Ruins of Anyang, Henan, collection of the White Crane Museum of Art in Japan
1. Overseas collectors buy from Chinese antique dealers or collectors
It is clearly impossible to count how many cases of Chinese collectors or Chinese antique dealers reselling cultural relics to overseas collectors. Most of the records available in overseas museums today are in this case. This method may be the most important way for the loss of yin ruins overseas in the early 20th century. The original artifacts lost in this way were mainly oracle bones. After the Yin Ruins were known to the world as the land of the oracle bones, more and more collectors went to the Yin Ruins to collect cultural relics, and the scope of the loss of the Cultural Relics of the Yin Ruins gradually expanded from the oracle bones to bronzes, jades, boneware, pottery, etc.
Elephant head animal face pattern (gōng) Late Shang Dynasty Legend excavated in 1933 in Dasikong Village, Anyang, Henan, collection of the White Crane Museum of Art in Japan
Before the 19th century, the oracle bones of Yin Xu were sold as "keels" for malaria or "knife tip medicines" for treating wounds. In 1899, after the Beijing scholar Wang Yirong identified the oracle bones as "actually the object of the Yin Dynasty", the oracle bones were valued by the academic community, and the collectors increased day by day, from Wang Yirong, Wang Xiang, Meng Dingsheng, Liu E to some overseas collectors, such as the American missionary in Weixian County, Shandong Province, and the British Baptist missionary Ku Shouling in Qingzhou, whose main way was to buy through antique dealers. Recognizing the value of Oracle, they made high bids. In his early years, Wang Yirong did not hesitate to ask antique dealers for a high price of two or two silver per word (in 2004, a domestic auction house auctioned 20 pieces of oracle bones collected by Wang Xiang in his early years, which was reported to be sold for as much as 48 million yuan, setting a record for the highest price ever for an oracle bone collection). In order to monopolize the business, antique dealers regarded the location of the oracle bone excavation as a "trade secret" and kept it secret. It was not until 1908 that the academic community determined that the site of the oracle bone excavation was actually Yin Ruins.
Iris (yuān) Ding Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins unearthed in the United States Harvard University Fogg Art Museum collection
The acquisitions apparently sparked a wave of looting by locals. Most of the Yin tombs excavated after 1950 have a rectangular robbery pit, and some bases have even stolen more than 80% of the Yin tombs. Until the end of the last century, some local elderly people in Anyang can still tell the story of villagers robbing tombs and antique dealers who came to Anyang to buy antiques. Shang Wentong, a native of Anyang Wuguan Village, who participated in tomb robbery in the 1940s, was called to participate in the "Transformation Study Class" in the 1950s, and because of his good performance, after participating in the study class, he became a technician at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. According to him, in the 1940s, antique dealers often went to the Xiaotun area of Anyang to buy cultural relics, mostly Chinese antique dealers, and sometimes foreigners.
Owl (xiāo) pattern (zhì) late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins excavated from the Collection of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, USA
After antique dealers bought cultural relics from Yin Ruins, some of them were sold to domestic officials or scholars, and the other part was sold to overseas collectors. The Artifacts of the Yin Ruins in the Museum of Gemmer, the Senusky Museum in France, the Museum of the Far East in Sweden and the Royal Museum of Ontario in Canada, including bronzes, jade, oracle bones, etc., many of which were purchased from Chinese antique dealers. At that time, China's antique dealers were not very honest. While they sell cultural relics, they also imitate or fake some cultural relics and sell them to overseas collectors together. I had the privilege of visiting the warehouses in the above museums, and found that many of the "Cultural Relics of the Shang Dynasty" were actually fakes.
Animal face pattern axe (jiǎ) Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins unearthed in the collection of the White Crane Art Museum in Japan
2. Missionaries, explorers or scholars purchased directly from the residents of Xiaotun, Anyang
In the past, Western museums often commissioned explorers or missionaries to China to acquire cultural relics, the most famous explorers including the British Hungarian M.A. Stein, the Frenchman Paul Pelliot, the Swede J.C. Anderson and Sevn Hedin, but these most famous explorers did not participate in the collection of artifacts from the Ruins. Before the discovery of the Yin Ruins as the site of the oracle bone, Japanese scholars also operated in locations other than Anyang, such as torii Ryuzo in Liaodong and Sekino Yu in Shandong.
Fang Wei (lei) Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins unearthed in the Collection of the Art Center of Chicago, USA
In 1908, after Yin Ruins was confirmed as the land of oracle bones, Anyang became the most interesting place for Western collectors. The direct acquisition of Western collectors in Anyang has also become another important way for Yin Ruins to lose cultural relics overseas.
Gu (gu) Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins excavated from the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne, Germany
The Swedish scholar Karlbeck once described in an article his visit to Anyang in the early 19th century. He talked about when he appeared in Xiaotun Village in Anyang, immediately some villagers peddled antiques to him. Tao Fan, now in the Swedish Far East Museum, was purchased directly from the villagers of Xiaotun. Ming Yishi bought a lot of cultural relics from the villagers of Xiaotun, especially the oracle bones. As a presbyterian priest in Ju'anyang, Canada, he often rode a white horse on the banks of the Huan River to inspect or collect relics from Yin Ruins, and collected as many as 35,000 oracle bones from Xiaotun over the years, some of which were transferred back to Canada.
In 2002, the Taiwan academic community published Shi Zhangru's memoirs: Oral History Series: Records of Mr. Shi Zhangru's Visits. Mr. Shi was an important figure in the excavation of Yin Ruins in the 1930s, and he recalled that when he went to Houjiazhuang in Anyang to excavate in 1934, villagers told Houjiazhuang that three "anti-aircraft guns" had been unearthed and sold to the Japanese. "Anti-aircraft cannon" is actually the villagers' common name for the Cultural Relics of the Shang Dynasty at that time, for example, the copper yao is shaped like a vase, they will call it "flower arrangement"; the copper square Yi has a roof-like cover, resembling a house, they call it a "small temple"; but what is the thing called "anti-aircraft cannon"? When I read Mr. Shi Zhangru's memoirs, I didn't understand it either.
Late Shang Dynasty Tomb No. 1001 in the North Of the Military Officer Village in Anyang, Henan Province, excavated from the Collection of the Nezu Museum of Art in Japan
Left Fang Lu Late Shang Dynasty Tomb No. 1001 In the north of The Military Officer Village in Anyang, Henan Province, was excavated from the collection of the Nezu Museum of Art in Japan
Right Fang Lu Late Shang Dynasty Tomb No. 1001 In the North Of the Military Officer Village of Anyang, Henan Province, excavated from the Collection of the Nezu Museum of Art in Japan
In 2003, I was invited to attend the annual meeting of Chinese archaeology in Japan, and when I visited the Nezu Museum of Art in Tokyo, I saw that there were 3 bronze cups on display, and it turned out that these three bronze cups were the "anti-aircraft guns" that Shi Zhangru mentioned and were sold to Japan by the villagers of Houjiazhuang. This event may be one of the typical events of the loss of cultural relics from yin ruins overseas in the early 20th century.
Ning Fang Yi (yi) Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins unearthed in cologne, Germany, Museum of East Asian Art collection
3. Proceeds from plunder during the war
How many of the cultural relics of yin ruins were lost overseas in this way is unknown.
Yi Gui (guǐ) Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins excavated from the Collection of the Friar Museum of Art, USA
When the Anglo-French army burned the Yuanmingyuan in 1860, it plundered a large number of Chinese cultural relics, including the bronze ware of the Yin Ruins.
Oracle Bone Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins Excavated Collection of the Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, Japan
After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Japanese troops occupied Anyang, and since then Japanese scholars have begun to visit Yin Ruins frequently. In 1938, the Faculty of Literature of Gyeongwishok University in Japan organized a North Branch Academic Investigation Mission, led by Oyama Bai to anyang archaeology; in the autumn of the same year, the Institute of Oriental Culture Kiyoichi, Iwama Tokutoku and others also went to Anyang Houjiazhuang to investigate and excavate; from 1940 to 1941, the archaeology classroom of Tokyo Imperial University also excavated Anyang, and the cultural relics obtained during this period should be shipped back to Japan: In 1939, Simu Pengding was stolen by local villagers, and the Japanese tried to obtain it, but it has not been successful Later, from 1942 to 1943, the Japanese army in Henan also used local bandits to excavate the cultural relics of Yin Ruins, and it is said that they were all transported back to Japan, and their income included oracle bones, jade, bronzes, and white pottery.
Travel Pan Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins excavated from the Collection of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, USA
4. After the 1950s, overseas collectors bought from domestic cultural relics smugglers
After the end of the war in 1949, China entered a period of peaceful development. In 1982, the Chinese government promulgated the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics: in 2002, the Chinese government further revised the law. However, there are still a small number of people who are greedy for profit and smuggle cultural relics abroad in violation of the law, which is distressing. Some of the yin ruins were sold through Hong Kong to Japan, Britain, the United States, France and other places.
Father Yi Jue (jue) Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins excavated from the Collection of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, USA
In recent years, international cooperation has been strengthened, and many people in the archaeological community have opposed the purchase of smuggled cultural relics by museums. For example, the Macdonald Institute of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom once organized a 3-person team to investigate, write, publicize and oppose the purchase of pirated cultural relics and smuggled cultural relics by departments such as museums. The Center for East Asian Archaeology at Boston University in the United States has also repeatedly advocated that museums should not buy smuggled cultural relics. Museums in many countries have echoed this positive advocacy by refusing to buy smuggled artefacts. When I visited the Far East Museum in Sweden in 2001, I was confronted by someone peddling Chinese artifacts to the Far East Museum, and Mr. Ma Sizhong(Magnus Fisksjo), who was the director of the Far East Museum at the time, explicitly rejected the seller in front of me. The loss of cultural relics abroad in this way is decreasing.
Hundred Milk Thunder Pattern (bù) Late Shang Dynasty Excavated from the north of The Military Officer Village in Anyang, Henan Province, collected by the Jimei Museum in France
In the eyes of Westerners, Chinese cultural relics are usually collected as fine art. Yin Ruins cultural relics are also collected, displayed and studied by Western collectors as fine art works, so on the whole, Yin Ruins cultural relics are highly valued and carefully protected in the West. The author has visited most of the more than 40 museums mentioned above, and each museum has properly numbered, registered, stored or displayed the relics of Yin Ruins. Many museums in the West have a department for the protection of cultural relics, which is responsible for the renovation and protection of collections. In general, most of the cultural relics collected overseas are not ill-protected.
Triangle cicada pattern Ding Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins excavated from the Collection of the Sackler Museum of Art in the United States
Most Western museums also attach great importance to the publication and research of collected cultural relics. Since the 1930s, overseas museums have gradually published their collections of Chinese cultural relics in the form of catalogues. For example, the "Catalogue of the Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Bronze Ceremonial Vessels borrowed by Roche Kushi" edited and published by the Detroit Institute of Fine Arts in the United States (1940); Bone Culture of Ancient China (1945), Ancient Chinese Jade in the Royal Museum of Ontario (1971), Shang Dynasty Oracle Bones collected by Ming Yishi (1972), and White et al. Collection of American Oracle Bones (1979), published by the Royal Museum of Ontario, Canada; "Freer Collection of Chinese Bronze Ware" (1967) by the Freer Museum of Art, USA: "Arthur Sackler's Copper Ritual Vessel of the Shang Dynasty" (1987) by the Sackler Museum in the United States; "Prehistory to Qing Dynasty Chinese Jade" published by the British Museum (British Museum) (1995), "The Essence of Chinese Dynasties" published in Japan (2004), etc. In addition to the catalogue form, some sporadic Shang Dynasty artifacts are found in art history publications, and many collections of Yin Ruins have been published in publications such as the Archives of Asian Art and Orientation.
Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins unearthed in cologne, Germany, collection of the Museum of East Asian Art
Research work is often open-ended, researchers are not necessarily the museum's own researchers, and important research projects are often undertaken by renowned scholars from all over the world. For example, the Art Institute of Chicago invited Mr. Chen Mengjia to study his collection of Chinese collections, while the Minneapolis Museum invited Swedish sinologist Bernhard Karlgren to study his collection of bronzes. Since the academic tradition of Western scholars is different from that of China, their research is also very different from the traditional Chinese study of antiquities. Chinese artifact research has focused more on inscription interpretation, resulting in some cultural relics without writing being ignored for a long time. Western scholars, on the other hand, see Chinese artifacts as works of art. Therefore, its research focuses more on form, ornamentation, production process, function, etc., so its research work largely makes up for the lack of traditional Chinese "epigraphy", and even cultural relics such as oracle bones, in addition to publishing rubbings and facsimiles, also attach great importance to the image research of the "drill chisel" form on the back of the oracle bone.
Inlaid with dragon pattern copper jade go Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins excavated from the collection of the Freer Art Museum in the United States
The staff of various museums are very friendly to chinese visiting scholars. When Chinese scholars come to visit, they usually treat each other warmly and without reservation. If you are a scholar specializing in Chinese cultural relics, they will even take them or even take you to the storeroom, please take a closer look at their collection.
Xiaochen Yixu (jiǎ) Late Shang Dynasty The Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province, were unearthed from the collection of the St. Louis Museum of Art in the United States
In any case, tens of thousands of Yin Xuwen logistics have landed overseas, which is a pity for Chinese who are deeply attached to local culture. For historical reasons, many of the relics of yin ruins may have to be permanently settled overseas.
Lost overseas Relics of Yin Ruins
Father 癸爵 late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins excavated from the Collection of the Friar Museum of Art in the United States
Animal face pattern Fang Yi Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins unearthed in the collection of the White Crane Art Museum in Japan
Yǒu Late Shang Dynasty The Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province were unearthed from the collection of the Sackler Museum of Art in the United States
Gōng (gōng) Late Shang Dynasty Heirloom Anyang Yin Ruins in Henan Province excavated from the collection of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, USA
Lei (lei) Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins unearthed in the collection of the White Crane Art Museum in Japan
The late Shang Dynasty was unearthed from the Collection of the Freer Museum of Art in the United States
Yazhou Ding Late Shang Dynasty Chuan Henan Anyang Yin Ruins excavated from the Collection of the Freer Art Museum in the United States
Anyang Ancient Capital Society contributed by Tang Jigen teacher authorized to release
Author: Tang Jigen, a native of Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province, born in 1964. Professor of Southern University of Science and Technology, Researcher of Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.