Wen | Zhou Ran
Weng Tonggong was born into a family of officials and eunuchs, and was an official for more than 40 years, tired of relocating the Shangshu of the Household Department and co-founding university scholars, and was the emperor of the late Qing Dynasty, who was busy and idle at the same time in the official field, and spent a lot of effort and financial resources on such "residual things" as literary and entertainment collection. Weng Tonggong's house in Beijing is located in Nanheng Street, close to the Liuli Factory, and he has to go for a walk almost every day, and he is a regular visitor to the antique market. If there is nothing to gain or it is too late, he will be annoyed in the diary, encounter the high cost of treasures, and will examine himself for playing too much, lamenting that "doing this useless thing is hindering the right karma, and silently ashamed of himself." In this way, while warning himself not to lose his mind on playthings, he also created the Tired Family Collection, which became a large collector who attracted the attention of future generations.
"Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangtze River" (partial), Qing, Wang Yi, silk
Searching the history of China's private collections, Weng's collection is famous, but for a long time, it was a mystery. In 1907, the Japanese sinologist Shimada Han wrote an article on the existence of nine major bibliophiles in China: the Liaocheng Yang clan, the Qiantang Ding clan, the Changshu Zhai clan, and the Gui'an Lu clan, plus the Qing Dynasty Ai Xin Jue Luo Sheng Yu, linqing Xu clan, Wujin Dong clan, Xiangtan Yuan clan and Changshu Weng clan, and lamented that the Weng clan's collection of books was "now without a foot hoof piece of paper". The Dictionary of Chinese Bibliophiles (1989) only verifies that Weng Tonggong was "listed in the family picture books" in his later years, and after the founding of New China, his brother Weng Tongshu's descendants donated more than 3,000 copies to the Beijing Library.
According to rumors in the bibliographic circle, the collection left by Weng Tonggong "has many orphan secret books that scholars have longed for in the past hundred years and do not know whether they exist or not." In specialized works such as "China Library" and "Suzhou Library History", although the names and general situations of Weng's descendants are counted, it is still impossible to say where Weng's massive collection of books is now. Until 1985, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York held an exhibition of rare Chinese books, and a man named "Weng Wange" appeared in front of the world, and he brought a large number of Weng's books, which seemed to confirm the long-standing rumors.
Chinese-American Weng Wango
Weng Wange, a Chinese-American, is the fifth generation descendant of Weng Tonggong. Weng Tonggong had no heirs before his death, and he had a son from the fifth brother Weng Tongjue, but he did not think of the third generation and no heirs, and from the eldest brother Weng Tongshu lineage, he inherited the fourth generation of Weng Zhilian, weng Zhilian had no descendants, and from his younger brother, he inherited his nephew Weng Wange, who had just been born. In 1919, Weng Zhilian died, and Weng Wange, who was only 2 years old, became the heir to Weng Tonggong's huge family collection. At the age of 20, he took over the ancestral home caiyi hall in his hometown of Changshu. If you count from the generation of Weng Tonggong's father, Weng Xincun, Weng Wange is already the sixth generation of the family collection. Ongwango often said to people: "People say that I am a collector, but in fact I hide and do not receive." Because I basically don't buy artifacts. "I'm the keeper —I got it, and I'm there, hiding."
Weng Wange was born in Shanghai, received private school and junior high school education in Tianjin, graduated from Beijing Huiwen Middle School in 1936, studied mechanical and electrical engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and went to the United States to study in 1938. In December 1948, Weng Wange and his wife Cheng Huabao returned to Tianjin, and because they felt that war was coming, they decided to sort out the cultural relics under their names and relocate their families. The Weng family fixed a separate cabin for a coal ship of the Kailuan Mining Bureau, packed the cultural relics into boxes on the ship, and first returned to the Old Residence caiyi Hall in Changshu, where they found that it had been converted into a hospital for wounded soldiers by the Kuomintang army, and the ancestral tomb was desolate and the houses were in tatters. Weng Wange had no choice but to go to Shanghai again and quickly go through the immigration formalities and air tickets to the United States.
In his later years, Weng Tonggong
The Weng family repacked the ancient paintings and calligraphy and handed them over to freight intermediaries to transport them by water to the United States. There is no formal formalities, no insurance, no safety, Weng Wange and his family arrived in the United States by plane anxiously waiting, 3 months later, the cultural relics arrived late, fortunately intact. After arriving in the United States, Weng Wange has been engaged in the shooting and production of cultural film and television educational films and documentaries, because of the background of his family collection, he began to study and research ancient calligraphy and paintings, and enjoyed and observed with his friends. Onwango's home in New Hampshire, USA, often held art collections, scholars and friends are rich, and he also painted a "Laixi Ya Collection" by himself, reproducing the elegance of the time. Weng's collection gradually became internationally famous, and after 1950, scholars from the United States, Europe, and Japan continued to visit, including cultural relics experts from the Boston Museum in the United States. Onwango once said that the Boston Museum was the first museum he first went to the United States, had a special affection, and he was also a long-term patron of the Boston Museum.