Jewels scattered over the crown of Chinese cultural relics overseas

On February 16, 1861, the London News Illustrated article described the scene of a British officer purchasing antiques at the Liulichang Antique Street in Beijing, with a sketch.

According to the book published by Beijing Times Hua’s Bureau of Books, Lost Chinese History in the West

British Museum collection of Ming Dynasty banknotes

The British Museum’s collection of "History of Women"

Since ancient times, China has had close cultural exchanges with countries around the world. With normal cultural exchanges, Chinese art has been brought to the rest of the world. However, since the first Opium War in the late Qing Dynasty, many unusual ways such as war, theft, and smuggling have caused many precious cultural relics in China to begin to be largely lost overseas. For example, about 50,000 kinds of cultural relics in the Dunhuang Cangjing Cave have been scattered in more than a dozen countries, and this has also produced the world-famous “Dunhuang Studies”. In the process of cultural relics in the late Qing Dynasty, as a veteran capitalist country, the Chinese cultural relics obtained were among the highest in quantity and quality.

Out of control, out of control cultural relics

There are four main ways of cultural reefs

Since the first Opium War, Chinese cultural relics have been lost overseas. There are roughly three ways to get out.

First, in the second half of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century, the cultural invaders from the West, Stein and others, carried out the “cultural investigation” and carried out arbitrary theft and illegality of Dunhuang grottoes, murals and ancient cultural sites in the northwest. Digging.

Second, the war looting and leaving the country. In 1860, the British and French coalition forces carried out brutal plundering and burning of Yuanmingyuan and looted a large number of cultural relics. In 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces again ransacked royal treasures in Beijing. During the Japanese invasion of China, a large number of cultural relics were also looted.

The third is the theft and piracy of domestic lawless elements, allowing antique dealers to illegally traffic out of the country.

As early as the first Opium War, a large number of foreign antique dealers and collectors entered China, and they aimed at the cultural relics scattered around the people. For example, in the 38th volume of the London News Illustrated on February 16, 1861, a letter sent by a special correspondent from China was published, detailing the scene of the British officers purchasing antiques at the Liulichang Antique Street in Beijing. Unforgettable... The bustling streets are crowded with people. Cars, horses, donkeys and wheelbarrows are blocking the roads everywhere, and the arrival of some British officers adds to the chaos, and most of the officers are draped China's mink coats. The guys in the Beijing shop are just as smart as the men's servants in London and Paris. They are always ready to serve the customers and send their purchased goods anywhere. There are stalls and crafts on both sides of the street. Exquisite gold-plated shop facade. There are countless signboards hanging under the dense faucet. Those with gold-plated faucets and pillars are all pawnshops."

In fact, before the 1930s, China did not have a related cultural relics law. The phenomenon of cultural relics was “whoever took it first, and whoever has the money can take it away”. At the beginning of the founding of the Republic of China, the Beiyang government had plans to prevent the outflow of cultural relics. When Yuan Shikai was the president in 1914, he published a presidential decree on the "Declaration", which mentioned the prohibition of the export of antiquities and ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to immediately conclude A regulation on the export of antiquities. But obviously, this big presidential order without legal support has not been implemented well. In the 1930s, China’s tombs and antiques were popular. In Anyang, foreign antique dealers are waiting for the people to dig the bronzes of the Shang Dynasty. Once brought back to the United States, a bronze can often sell for a high price of 100,000 dollars.

Of course, there is also a way for cultural relics to flow out through natural cultural exchanges, which have existed since ancient times, such as trade, gifting and other legitimate channels. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, Kaiyuan and Tianbao were the prosperous periods when Chinese culture and cultural relics were imported into Japan. Today, Japan also has an ancient brush that was passed from China at that time.

Statistics show: 1.64 million pieces of Chinese cultural relics in more than 200 museums in 47 countries

Statistics show that the major museums and libraries in the UK have collected about 1.3 million pieces of Chinese cultural relics. Among them, the British Museum has collected many precious cultural relics such as the "History of Women's History" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. French museums and libraries have collected about 2.6 million Chinese cultural relics. The Louvre Museum has more than 30,000 Chinese cultural relics. Japan has more than 1,000 large and small museums, collecting nearly 2 million pieces of Chinese cultural relics.

According to the statistics of the Chinese Cultural Relics Society, since the Opium War in 1840, more than 10 million Chinese cultural relics have been lost to Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia and other countries and regions due to the looting of cultural relics and theft of piracy, piracy, and improper trade. The first and second grade cultural relics reached more than 1 million.

The statistics of UNESCO are another number: there are 1.64 million Chinese cultural relics in more than 200 museums in 47 countries, and the number of folk cultural relics in China is even more amazing. These “overseas Tibetan cultural relics” cover almost all kinds of cultural relics, including calligraphy, painting, porcelain, pottery, sculpture, bronze statues and other treasures.

Two "Jiangsu" collections of the British Museum

In 2010, the British BBC Radio broadcasted a series of "British History of the British Museum" series, detailing the collection of foreign collections. Later, the content of the program was organized into books for publication. Last year, China’s Xinxing Publishing House introduced and published the book, which contains 100 collections from all over the world. The “History of Women” and a Ming Dynasty banknote have a very close relationship with Jiangsu.

Gu Yuzhi, the author of "History of Women's History", has "three musts"

The painter of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Gu Yuzhi, has been hailed as a three-piece, "painting, talent, and obscenity", the most prominent of which is "painting."

Regarding the legend of Gu Yuzhi, the most famous one is the story of painting donations in the Nanjing Waji Temple. At that time, Gu Yuzhi pledged millions of money to the temple. His family is poor and everyone thinks he is talking. Gu Yuzhi asked the monks to choose a wall for him. He spent a month drawing a huge portrait of Vimalaki on the wall. When he was painting, he said to the monks, after the painting was completed, the first day to watch, Please let him apply 100,000 yuan to the temple. The next day, he will pay 50,000 yuan to watch the money. On the third day, he can do whatever he wants. After painting, the Vimalaki statue is vivid, according to the "Legend of the Past Dynasties", "Gusheng's first creation of the Vimalaki statue, there is a clear indication of the disease, hidden a few words of forgetting." The crowd who came to watch this portrait blocked the temple gate and was crowded with monasteries. The temple quickly raised millions of dollars.

The British amnesty sold the "History of Women" in two pounds

According to the "History of Women" in the Western Jin Dynasty, Zhang Huan promotes women's morality and ethics and teaches future generations. The "History of Women's History" collected by the British Museum is considered to be a transcript of the Tang Dynasty. Some people think that it may be the original. The scroll is about 3.5 meters long and is kept in the preservation room of the East Asian paintings specially built by the British Museum. . Because the light will damage the crepe used in the scroll, the "History of Women" is rarely exhibited publicly.

The "History of Women's History" style is simple and simple, and the picture is bright and colorful. It has been treasured by the palace aristocrats. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the "History of Women" and left a personal inscription at the end of the scroll. In 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces entered Beijing, and this picture was taken away. In 1903, the British monk John sold the painting to the British Museum for two pounds.

The banknotes issued by Zhu Yuanzhang are slightly larger than the A4 paper.

The British Museum also holds a banknote in the early Ming Dynasty. This banknote made of mulberry is one foot high, six inches wide and cyan, slightly larger than A4 paper, soft in texture and velvety gray. One side of the banknote is printed with Chinese characters and decorative patterns in a black-and-white black ink strip frame. At the top is six eye-catching characters "Da Ming Tong Xing Bao", below which is a circle of dragon-shaped flowers around the edge of the paper. There are two columns of text in the dragon flower bar, the right column is "Da Ming Bao Bao", and the left column is "World Pass". There are several rows of words under the banknotes, ending with "Hongwu Years and Months".

Hongwu is the year of Zhu Yuanzhang of Ming Taizu. Zhu Yuanzhang established the Banknote Promotion Division in Nanjing in the 7th year of Hongwu (1374). In the second year, the Ming Dynasty began to issue the banknote “Da Ming Tong Xing Bao Ban”. The banknote printing organization of the Ming Dynasty was sound and the printing team was huge. At that time, there were as many as 580 craftsmen who printed banknotes at the Bank of China.

After the Emperor Yongle moved to Beijing, he set up a treasure bank in Beijing, and still issued banknotes. At that time, the minister proposed to change the Hongwu year of the currency to Yongle. Zhu Xi did not adopt it.

A large number of banknotes were issued at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.

After Zhu Yuanzhang issued the banknotes, he immediately faced two challenges. The first one was fraud. To this end, the Ming Dynasty's banknotes were specially printed with incentives for counterfeit money reporters, on the one hand to lure the people, on the other hand to intimidate potential counterfeiters: "The forgery is awkward. The arrester rewards the silver two hundred and fifty-two. "In order to prevent counterfeiting, the back of the Daming Banknote is also printed with the three-party Zhu Wenguan.

In addition to counterfeit currency, Zhu Yuanzhang is also facing the challenge of depreciation of banknotes. The banknotes of the Ming Dynasty were divided into five categories: consistent, five hundred, four hundred, three hundred, two hundred, and one hundred. The Ming Dynasty banknotes collected by the British Museum are consistently displayed in denominations. There are ten strings of copper coins on the banknotes (ten string of copper coins is consistent). At that time, the consistent banknotes could be exchanged for one thousand coins and could be exchanged for one or two silver coins. A four-way banknote can be exchanged for one or two gold. If the banknotes are damaged due to prolonged use, the holder can take the damaged banknotes to the relevant department set by the government to redeem the new banknotes. Of course, when you redeem, you will charge a nominal fee. It is a good thing to exchange money between banknotes and metal currency. However, as the Daming Dynasty printed the banknotes unrestrainedly, the banknotes began to depreciate. After fifteen years of issuing the banknotes, there were records showing that a banknote with a nominal value of only one hundred yuan could be exchanged for two hundred and fifty cents. In other words, the actual use value of banknotes is only a quarter of the value of the currency.

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