On November 5, 1924, Puyi was suddenly deposed by Feng Yuxiang as emperor and expelled from the palace under extremely harsh conditions: he was required to move out of the Forbidden City within three hours, or else he would fire.
It can be said that the emperor was forced to flee the palace in a hurry. So in a hurry, how did he take away such a huge number of antique treasures?
Puyi photo
In fact, as early as the first two years, Puyi had already premeditated and rewarded countless ancient books and paintings to his younger brother Pujie, who took these treasures out of the palace.
Feng Yuxiang
Soon after being expelled from the palace by Feng Yuxiang this time, Puyi fled to Tianjin to meet his treasures. Puyi, who was freed from the shackles of the palace wall, had a more colorful life. He was immediately attracted to the outside world of flowers and flowers and consumed heavily.
In order to continue his honorable and extravagant royal life, and to bribe the foreign powers, he naturally extended his hand to the box of treasures. Rare books, calligraphy and painting hand scrolls, various treasures...
Since then, one after another national treasures have begun to fall into the folk, and many of them have since disappeared and disappeared. The essence of China's five-thousand-year culture accumulated to the end of the Qing Dynasty began their turbulent and displaced journey, which also became the largest loss of cultural relics in the history of the Forbidden City.
The national treasure that Puyi lost during his time in Tianjin, which we can trace back today, is the "Danqing Myth" Yan Liben's "Map of The Emperors of Past Dynasties".
Part of the "Map of the Emperors of the Past Dynasties"
This painting can be called a divine model for the portraits of later emperors, painting a total of thirteen emperors in Chinese history, from the Han Zhao Emperor to the Sui Dynasty Emperor. It fell into the hands of the Americans and is today in the collection of the Museum in Boston, USA. But when I was on the other side of the ocean, trying to see its brilliance, I pounced. It turned out that it was not in the daily display of the exhibition hall, and I don't know how many years it would take to come out once, at first sight.
There are also many masterpieces such as "Step Chart" and "Langyuan Female Fairy Diagram", or they are mortgaged by Puyi for money, or rewarded to people, and even some are sent out as gifts simply because he is satisfied with the transaction.
Part of Yan Liben's "Step Map" is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing
"Bu Yuan Tu" is a famous painting of Yan Liben in the Tang Dynasty, now in the Palace Museum in Beijing, depicting the scene of Tang Taizong receiving the Tubo envoy Lu Dongzan who came to marry Princess Wencheng, which has high historical and artistic value.
Five generations Ruan Gao's "Langyuan Fairy Figure" is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei
The Langyuan Female Immortal Figure is the only surviving work of Ruan Gao of the Five Dynasties, which is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. It depicts the scene of the fairy's amusement life in the Langyuan garden of Xianshan Mountain, showing the five generations of classical fantasy painting style for future generations.
During this period, there were nearly a thousand palace treasures with similar fates.
After the outbreak of the September 18 Incident, Puyi was persuaded by the Japanese to hurried out of the customs and went to the northeast to prepare to rule the puppet state of Manchukuo. He did not carry a large number of national treasures on this trip, and planned to leave the remaining treasures as a way back in case of failure. However, the Japanese had already set their sights on this batch of treasures, and under the supervision of the Japanese, more than 70 boxes of national treasures were once again displaced and transported to Changchun, where they were placed in an inconspicuous small white building in the puppet Manchu Palace.
In 1945, Japan lost the war, and the Soviet Red Army sent troops to the northeast. Puyi retreated with the Japanese army.
At this extremely chaotic and tense moment, he could only hastily select four boxes of calligraphy paintings and a batch of treasures, and together with the Japanese, fled to the Big Chestnut Ditch on the border between China and North Korea. Here, Rare calligraphy and paintings such as Han Gan's "Shenjun Tu" and Zhao Mengfu's "Water Village Picture Scroll" have since been lost to the people.
Tang Dynasty Han Gan's "Shenjun Tu" is now in the Liaoning Provincial Museum
Han Gan's "Shenjun Tu" of the Tang Dynasty records the interesting style of monks who supported the cultivation of horses without riding them, and occupied an important position in the history of horse painting in Chinese dynasties.
Yuan Zhao Mengfu's "Water Village Picture Scroll" is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing
"Water Village Picture Scroll" is a famous work of Zhao Mengfu in the Yuan Dynasty, which is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing, which can be called a collection of Zhao Mengfu's ink painting style.
More things that could not be taken away were left in the puppet Manchu Palace, and after the emperor left, they were robbed and robbed.
In this sweep, a large number of ancient calligraphy and painting books were lost and destroyed. Some of them escaped the disaster and eventually flowed abroad, becoming the treasures of the major museums.
Northern Song Dynasty Mi Youren's "Ink Opera Of Yunshan Mountain" is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing
In the Song Dynasty, Mi Youren's "Ink Play of Yunshan Mountain", now in the Palace Museum in Beijing, depicts the beautiful landscape of the Jiangnan region with hazy water mist, and this painting has had an important influence on the style of Chinese landscape in ink painting technique.
More national treasures suffered miserably. It is in this catastrophe that only fragments remain of Mi Fu's "Amaranth Thesis". The unique national treasures that have since disappeared into the long river of history cannot be counted.
Mi Fu's "Thesis of Theory" is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing
Within a few days of fleeing, Japan surrendered. Puyi once again came to the end of the road. This time, he boarded the plane with only two carefully selected boxes of treasures, ready to completely abandon the country and flee to Japan. However, when the plane transited at Shenyang Airport, he was not greeted by the Japanese, but by the Soviet Red Army.
Since then, a generation of puppet emperors has finally become a special war criminal. The last two boxes of national treasures he brought to Shenyang were finally intercepted at the moment before leaving the motherland, and it was not seen again until after liberation, with the "Qingming Upper River Map", "The Picture of the Lady of the Hairpin Flower", and "The Picture of Lady Yu Guo's You Chun" that we are familiar with today.
Northern Song Dynasty Zhang Zeduan 《Qing Ming On the River Map》
Tang Zhoufang's "Picture of a Lady with a Hairpin Flower" is now in the Liaoning Provincial Museum
Tang ZhangXuan's "Lady Yu Chuntu"
After being captured in the Soviet Union, Puyi still hid the last bit of treasure in the box he carried with him. When he was imprisoned, in order to please the Soviets, he donated these last treasures to the Soviet government free of charge on the grounds of "supporting Soviet production and construction". Others were sent to the Soviet soldiers who imprisoned him, and in exchange for what may have been a Russian-style meal.
On November 5, 1924, Puyi walked out of the Forbidden City, which also began the catastrophe of the suffering of the Chinese nation's five-thousand-year national treasure.
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