The surging news reporter learned from Ms. Xu Nianchu's relatives and friends that Ms. Xu Nianchu, a veteran soldier of the New Fourth Army and former minister of the Fourth Ministry of Machinery Industry, died in Beijing at the age of 96 due to ineffective treatment.
According to public information, Xu Nianchu, formerly known as Lu Tingyan, was born on January 7, 1922, female, a native of Chuansha, Shanghai, joined the New Fourth Army in November 1939, joined the Communist Party of China in January 1940, and served as deputy head of the "Jiangkang" service group during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, a member of the taicang County Fourth District District Committee, a district party secretary, a member of the county party committee, a director of the county women's work department, and a secretary of the Six Prefectures Committee.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Xu Nian was initially appointed as an officer of the Cadre Section of the Organization Department of the Central China Branch Bureau. After the liberation of Shanghai, Xu Nianchu successively served as the chief of the Huzhou Municipal Culture and Education Section of the Jiaxing Prefectural Committee, the president of the Jiaxing Nursery School, a member of the Prefectural Committee, a deputy secretary of the Women's Committee, the director of the Women's Federation of the Special District, and the secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Women's Federation.
After that, Xu Nianchu also served as the chief of the Academic Affairs Section of the Education Department of the Ministry of Industry of East China, the chief of the Academic Affairs Section of the Education Department of the First Machine Ministry, the deputy director of the Secondary Technical Department of the Education Bureau, the principal of the Shanghai Machine Manufacturing School in May 1959, the deputy director of the Education Bureau of the First Machine Ministry of the People's Republic of China in March 1980, and left in May 1983.
Ms. Xu Nianchu's husband, Qian Min, served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Sixth and Seventh National People's Congresses, formerly the Minister of the Fourth Ministry of Machinery Industry, and was also a famous collector of ancient paintings and calligraphy.
According to a February 1996 report by China Cultural Relics Daily, Qian Min and his wife Xu Nianchu donated 101 ancient calligraphy and paintings they had treasured throughout their lives to the Wuxi Museum in Qian Min's hometown. These ancient calligraphy and paintings are basically the inkblots of famous artists in the Ming and Qing dynasties, including 45 paintings, 54 calligraphy works, and 2 calligraphy and painting albums.
According to the appraisal of Mr. Xu Bangda, then a member of the State Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee and a famous calligraphy and painting appraiser, the precious calligraphy and paintings donated by Qian Min and Xu Nianchu have high historical and artistic value.
Among them, the famous cursive calligraphy of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Yunming's "Cursive Lezhiming", Chen Jiru's "Plum Blossom Poetry Han Album", Lu Shidao's calligraphy volume, Gui Changshi's "Ink bamboo axis", the Qing Dynasty's "Yangzhou Eight Monsters" Zheng Banqiao, Wang Shishen's calligraphy works, Wang Yun's "Landscape Map Axis" of the "Four Kings of the Qing Dynasty", He Shaoji's "Xingshu Screen" and so on are all framed as new and well preserved. In the early Qing Dynasty, Yu Jiang's "Yiguangju Poetry Book Tuyi" and Zhang Yujian's "Codex of Letters" also have unique historical value.
The above-mentioned "China Cultural Relics News" report revealed that Comrade Qian Min was an old comrade who participated in the revolution in the 1930s. He has a wide range of interests and hobbies, is good at photography, and has taken many precious historical shots in his long revolutionary career, leaving valuable materials for future generations. The collection of ancient calligraphy and painting originated from the family, especially since the 1950s, Qian Min and his wife were diligent and thrifty after work, relying on wage income, paying attention to collecting celebrity calligraphy and paintings scattered in the folk, and spending a lot of effort and energy on protecting the traditional culture and art of the motherland.