As we all know, China has a long history of more than 5,000 years, and as the only country in the "four ancient civilizations" whose civilization has continued to this day, it has a lot of glorious history. In this vast land of 9.6 million square kilometers, there are many brilliant achievements of civilization left for us by our ancestors, as well as rare treasures accumulated for thousands of years. In these 5,000 years, we have experienced the glory of the Han and Tang dynasties, and also experienced the humiliation of the last years of the Qing Dynasty. Since the outbreak of the Opium War in 1840, China has entered an era of humiliation, and the great powers of various countries have burned and plundered in China and done whatever they want.
Ruins of the Old Summer Palace
In 1900, eight major countries led by Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Italy, and Austria carried out armed aggression against the Qing Dynasty in the name of suppressing the Boxers. On August 14, 1900, Beijing completely fell, the Eight-Power Alliance army went to the sky, wailing, Beijing Forbidden City, Zhongnanhai, Summer Palace and other places were stolen and looted countless treasures, of which the Yuanmingyuan, known as the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens", was completely destroyed by the British and French coalition forces, and the rare treasures were even more taken by the army, and smashed if they could not be moved. The French writer Victor Hugo wrote in 1861:
"One day, two robbers broke into the Yuanmingyuan, one looted and the other set fire. It seems that after victory, you can start stealing... Two winners, one stuffed with a fanny bag, which was visible, and the other filled with boxes. They went back to Europe arm in arm and grinning... The two robbers who will be sanctioned by history, one is called France and the other is called English. ”
Ongwango
After nearly a hundred years of war and turmoil, China has become the world's two largest economies, with the country's international status, China's patriots gradually attach importance to the lost cultural relics of that year, and began to join the ranks of the search for national treasures, some do not hesitate to spend a lot of money to buy back, and then hand it over to the state. But there is a different kind, his ancestors were once a qing dynasty official, but then he emigrated abroad, and donated Chinese cultural relics to the United States free of charge, this free donation caused an uproar in China's collection circles, and this one who was disgusted by the Chinese collection circles was Weng Wange.
Weng Wange is the fifth grandson of Weng Tonggong (Hé). Weng Tonggong was in the sixth year of Xianfeng (1856) examination in the middle of the Yuan, after which he successively served as the Minister of Households, the Ministry of Works, the Minister of Military Aircraft and the Minister of State Affairs, was the emperor of the Tongzhi and Guangxu dynasties, and his father Weng Xincun was also a major minister of the imperial court, who taught the Xianfeng Emperor and the Tongzhi Emperor, so the father and son were known as "father and son scholars" and "father and son imperial masters". In addition to his father, the brothers in the Weng family also held important positions in the imperial court, so the Weng family was called "one door four scholars, one door and three inspectors; father and son university scholars, father and son Shangshu, father and son emperor".
Image of The Old Man
In addition to being a politician, Weng Tonggong was also an influential calligrapher in the late Qing Dynasty, and he was also very rich in terms of books, and his father Weng Xincun was also a collector, who once purchased the famous bibliophile Chen Yu's "Ji Rui Lou" collection, which contained more than 40,000 volumes. And Weng Tonggong inherited most of his father's collection of books, coupled with his own accumulation, the number is more objective. Since Weng Tonggong had no heirs, he succeeded Weng Zenghan, the son of the second brother Weng Tongjue, and two more descendants had no heirs, so they had stepsons from the eldest brother Weng Tongshu. In 1920, the 2-year-old Weng Xingqing was passed on to Weng Zhilian, Weng Xingqing is Weng Wange, so Weng Wange inherited Weng Tonggong's family collection.
In 1938, Onwango went to the United States to study at Purdue University. In 1948, in order to escape the war, Onwango came to New York with his family and family heirloom collection. In 2000, Weng Wange transferred 542 rare and ancient books of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties to the Shanghai Library through China Guardian International Auction Co., Ltd. for an auction price of 450 US dollars. At that time, many people thought that the price was very low, which was very commendable, and many domestic media praised his patriotic behavior. But there is no harm without comparison, in 2018, at the age of 100, Weng Wange donated a total of 183 cultural relics to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, including 130 paintings, 31 calligraphy, 18 rubbings and 4 pieces of embroidery, in fact, in the past ten years, Weng Wange has donated 21 important Chinese works of art to the museum, including the "Yangtze River Wanli Map" that is more than 16 meters long.
The modern painter Ye Qianyu commented on the "Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangtze River": "Handling such a grand layout and pinning on a deep feeling of national sentiment is not something that ordinary landscape cultivation with hills and valleys can do, and it must have the mind to swallow mountains and rivers and full of patriotic enthusiasm to play it to the fullest..."
《Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangtze River》
Now that Weng Wange is 101 years old, he said about the donation of cultural relics: After I donate it, everyone who says anything will have to do it, and I can't hear it at all. What he means is that everyone likes to say what to say, whether you praise, criticize, or scold, he doesn't know.