Cultural relics plundered by Japan
The first season of the TV series " Antique Bureau Middle Game " focuses on Japan's return of the Buddha heads that it plundered from China in modern times. The source is that Japan once compiled a cultural relic called "Chinese Antique Account" list, the Japanese government allows Japanese invaders to come to China to plunder according to the list. Of course there is no such name as "Chinese Antique Account" in history, but Japan's systematic plundering of Chinese cultural relics does indeed exist. Unlike other powers who only seek wealth, Japan's plundering of cultural relics in China shows four characteristics: organized, planned, private, and official. It has caused the most serious harm to China. Japan has also become the country that plunders the most cultural relics from China. In humankind, Countless crimes have been committed in the history of civilization.
1. Japan’s love for Chinese cultural relics
Japan has worshiped Chinese civilization since ancient times. Before modern times, items made in China were called "Tangwu" in Japan, and they were all high-end goods that could only be used by Japanese rulers. For example, in " The Tale of Genji ", if Genji wants to steal someone, he must first write an ambiguous love letter to the woman. In order to show his importance to the woman, Genji specially asked for a piece of "Tang paper" that was scented and printed with butterfly patterns, and wrote love words on the Tang paper. As soon as the woman saw the "Tang Paper", her mind was immediately moved. After reading the affectionate words, she agreed to Genji half-heartedly, and then Genji accomplished good things. The charm of Tangwu is evident.
Genji
If Japan’s aggression against China is to be traced back, it can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty. Invasion is accompanied by plunder and the loss of cultural relics. This is certain. However, during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese invasion along the coast was still considered a Japanese folk behavior. The Japanese rulers did not dare to show their fangs to China. Therefore, although the nature of the loss of folk cultural relics was equally despicable, the Japanese government was not responsible for the loss. , until 1894, when Japan dared to openly challenge China. This year, the Japanese regular army set foot on the coveted territory of China for the first time. Since then, it has begun a half-century-long plunder of national cultural relics. Japan's plundering of China has also risen to the level of national hatred.
2. The Sino-Japanese War , the initial formation of the plan to plunder cultural relics
In modern times, although Japan surpassed China in politics and military, unlike other Western powers, Japanese culture was born out of Chinese civilization. In modern times, Japan is still a dwarf in terms of culture. , will always be the younger brother of Chinese culture. This kind of worship and admiration for Chinese culture made the Japanese invaders in modern times pay special attention to plundering the entities of Chinese culture - cultural relics.
In 1894, Kuuki Ryuichi, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan wrote the "Methods for the Collection of Treasures of the Qing Dynasty during Wartime". This book is the prototype of the "Chinese Antique Account" in "Antique Bureau Middle Game", and Kuuki Ryuichi is the first person in modern Japan to systematically think about plundering Chinese cultural relics. The "Measures for the Collection of Treasures of the Qing Dynasty during Wartime" served as a guide for Japan to plunder Chinese cultural relics in the future, and Japan's national policy of plundering cultural relics was initially formed.
Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Later, Japanese Military Ministry issued the "Measures for the Management of Enemy Products". What is enemy production? This not only refers to the Qing army's industry, but as long as the Japanese army takes a fancy to something, the Japanese army can forcibly receive it in the name of "enemy property." The "Measures for the Management of Enemy Property" stipulates that soldiers can plunder, but commanders must be present to supervise. The plundered books and cultural relics must be handed over to the state and treasured by the state. Other gold, stone, and jades can be kept by themselves. The Sino-Japanese War was the beginning of the Japanese government's first large-scale looting of cultural relics.
Japanese Invading Army
3. The Eight-Nation Invasion of China, The Looting after the Russo-Japanese War
To the Eight-Nation Allied Forces' War of Invasion of China broke out, Japan invaded the Forbidden City, and first plundered the Empress Dowager Cixi's palace Yiluan Hall , get countless treasures. Later, the Japanese army set up its headquarters in Jingxinzhai, Beihai, and used it as the center of the circle to plunder surrounding cultural relics.
In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out and Japan invaded Northeast China. In 1905, the Japanese army discovered the Honglu Well Monument of the Tang Dynasty in Lushun, and immediately invited the famous scholar Naito Hunan to come to China to appreciate it.This inscription corrects the erroneous view of foreign scholars that the Bohai Kingdom is an independent country that is completely equivalent to the Tang Dynasty, and shows the territorial unity and national integration of our country. Under Naito's full planning, the Japanese army formulated a plan to smuggle the stele. In April 1908, the Japanese Navy sent the Honglu Well Stele to the Japanese Imperial Palace as a "trophy."
The stele is hidden in the Japanese Imperial Palace. There are no photos. You can only see the place where the stele was excavated.
After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan took over the "Southern Manchuria" area and established the "Manchuria" Club. With the establishment of the "Manchurian Railway" Affiliated Library in 1907 as a symbol, Japan's plunder of cultural relics in Northeast China entered a new stage. The library's mission is to invade culturally, enslave colonial people, and plunder Northeastern cultural relics.
4. During the Sino-Japanese War to The Revolution of 1911 , the plunder of Japanese civilians
was carried out at the same time as the official large-scale plunder of cultural relics, and there were also the arrival of Japanese civilian "adventure groups" in China. After the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese also became first-class foreigners and received super-national treatment. Through private channels or colluding with traitors and scum, tomb robbers, and using money as a temptation, these Japanese came to China and began to plunder folk cultural relics.
Japanese treasure thieves and warlords
militia looters, Otani Mitsui are the most notorious. From 1902 to 1914, the "adventure group" organized by Otani went to northwest my country to plunder cultural relics. The first looting began in 1902. In Xinjiang, it lasted four months. The Thousand Buddha Cave, Tunguska and Subash ruins in Kizil were all looted. The second time was in 1908, still in Xinjiang, and lasted for 18 months. In the hometown of Beiting Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty, they discovered the complete biography of Jindan and the Mahaprajna Sutra. A large number of precious texts from the Tang Dynasty At the Loulan site, they plundered the Eastern Jin "Li Bai Documents " that shocked the world. This book proved in written text that the Wei and Jin dynasties still controlled Xinjiang, proving that Xinjiang has been the territory of China since ancient times. . The third time was the Mogao Grottoes catastrophe that began in 1911. In the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, they looted a large number of Buddhist scriptures and documents, and even the Dunhuang murals were pried off and taken away in whole pieces. By July 1914, the Japanese, filled with large and small parcels, embarked on the road back to Japan.
Mogao Grottoes
5. The looting of cultural relics from the early Republic of China to the July 7th Incident
During this period, compared with the Sino-Japanese War of 1898 and the Eight-Power Allied Forces' invasion of China, the relationship between China and Japan was relatively peaceful, but it was by no means a foreign land. The wind and the moon are in the same sky. In 1914, Japan attacked Qingdao. In the name of attacking the German army, the Japanese army occupied the Jiaozhou Library and the Dehua University Library and wiped out all their collections. Most of the books were assigned to Tokyo University and are still stored in Tokyo University . In 1929, the Japanese consul in Hangzhou used dual pressure from ronin and the military to forcibly acquire all the books in Zhejiang Donghai Library at a low price. These ancient books are now in the collection of the Tokyo Institute of Oriental Culture.
University of Tokyo
In 1924, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs became the third Japanese official department after the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the Military Ministry to set up a specialized agency to plunder Chinese cultural relics. In this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan established the "Department of Counter-Cultural Affairs"; in 1927, the Japanese government established the East Asian Archaeological Society; in 1928, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs established the Institute of Oriental Culture. The only role of these agencies is to detect and loot Chinese cultural relics.
After the September 18th Incident, the Manchuria Railway Library ransacked the collection of books from Zhang Xueliang Marshal's Mansion. After the Japanese occupied the Forbidden City in Shenyang, they looted all the more than 10,000 copies of the "Siku Quanshu" in Shenyang. After the Songhu Anti-Japanese War ended in 1932, the Japanese Military Ministry established the "Central China Occupied Areas Book and Document Acceptance Committee". In addition, Japan also established Japan's Mojin Colonel, "Scientific Investigation Team", "Cultural Relics Agent" and other various The looters of cultural relics are like ants attacking on all sides of the land of China, plundering everywhere.
Zhang Xueliang's Commandery
From the June and July 7th Incidents to Anti-Japanese War Victory
After the outbreak of the all-out Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese army became more unscrupulous in plundering China, and Chinese cultural relics were lost like a flood.
After the Nanjing Massacre, Japan also carried out a cultural looting in Nanjing. According to the memories of Minoru Aoki, who participated in the plunder, Japan plundered all books in Nanjing and burned those that could not be taken away. A total of 8,803.99 million volumes of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign books were looted, and countless others were destroyed. Since then, various Japanese universities have publicly requested the Wang Puppet Government to provide cultural relics designated by each university for "research" purposes.
In 1937, Japan asked the Puppet Manchukuo to issue the "Instructions on the Unified Management of Old Records", requiring all documents and books in the Puppet Manchuria to be centralized and registered in the Shenyang Archives. However, during the registration process, 2,362,779 documents were smuggled into Japan.
The "Russian-Mongolian Boundary Map" stored in of Peking University was forcibly "borrowed" by the Japanese army, and its whereabouts are still unknown; there are also skulls of Pekingese people that were looted by the Japanese, and their whereabouts are also unknown. However, it is said that because Hirohito loves archeology, the skull was actually secretly transferred to the Japanese Imperial Palace and secretly treasured by the Japanese royal family.
Restored picture of the skull of the Peking Man
Mr. Wen Shi said
There were several cultural catastrophes in Chinese history. One was the burning of books to embarrass Confucian scholars, the other was the Qing Dynasty's revision of the "Sikuquanshu", and the third time was Japan's plunder of Chinese cultural relics. Unlike Europe and the United States, Europe and the United States plundered Chinese culture in a relatively scattered manner, mostly plundering real money and antiques. However, Japanese plunder showed the characteristics of cultural plunder, mainly robbing books and other civilization carriers. If you want to destroy your country, you must first destroy its history. This is the most abominable thing about modern Japan. According to the "Catalogue of Chinese Cultural Relics Flowed into Japan after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894", in more than half a century from the Sino-Japanese War to the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Japan plundered as many as 15,245 cultural relics of all kinds, and these only have names, models and regulations. , is just the tip of the iceberg of Japan’s plundering and destruction of Chinese cultural relics. Today’s statement is that Japan has plundered a total of 3.6 million pieces of various cultural relics from China, including 13,000 pieces of oracle bone inscriptions and more than 8,000 famous paintings. Japanese officials, universities, private citizens, etc. still preserve a large number of Chinese cultural relics, and the way for cultural relics to return to China is still Long.
References
Guan Jianwen, "The Damage of the Japanese War of Aggression to China's Library Industry", "Research on the Anti-Japanese War", Issue 03, 1994.
Song Dynasty "Otani Guangrui and Three Central Asian Expeditions", "Journal of Inner Mongolia Agricultural University", Issue 12, 2010.
Li Na: "The Functions of the Manchuria Railway Library and its Aggressive Activities in Northeast China", "Foreign Issues Research", Issue 03, 2008.
(Author: Haoran Literature and History·Zi Ju)
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