is located in the center of the central axis of Beijing , formerly known as Forbidden City . It is the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. 24 emperors lived and ruled here, and contained many national treasures from the palaces of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. After the Revolution of 1911, the Palace Museum was established in 1925 on the basis of the Forbidden City. Due to the later reasons of the War of Resistance and Civil War, many of the essence of the Forbidden City were moved to Taiwan, forming a pattern of "one palace and two courtyards".
Migration south: avoiding the war
1931 After the September 18th Incident, Japan invaded the Northeast, and the situation in Ping and Tianjin was in danger. The Palace Museum is preparing for the future, selecting important cultural relics to pack them, and preparing to move south. In 1933, the Japanese army captured Shanhaiguan . Late at night on February 5, the whole city of Beiping (now Beijing) was martial law, and boxes of cultural relics were transported from Tiananmen out of the Forbidden City to be loaded onto the train. The next morning, the cultural relics train quietly headed south from Zhengyangmen West Railway Station.
This is the longest, largest and most difficult cultural relics migration in the history of world civilization.
From February 6 to May 23, there were 13,427 boxes of Forbidden City cultural relics, which were transported to the French Concession in Shanghai in five batches. 6,194 boxes of cultural relics including the Peking Antiquities Exhibition Institute, the Central Research Institute, the Ministry of the Interior, the Summer Palace, the Imperial College, and the Xiannongtan also moved south.
In order to avoid Japanese attacks, the special train avoided Tianjin. From Pinghan Railway to Zhengzhou, turn Longhai Railway to east, and then take Jinpu Railway to Xuzhou, then take Jinpu Railway , and unload it to Nanjing Pukou Railway Station and load it to Shanghai.
Before moving south, the Forbidden City sent a secret telegram to the Executive Yuan and the local military and political chiefs, requesting protection along the way. The special train has a machine gun on the roof, and the military police in each carriage are on guard. Armed horses galloped along the route and escorted them with chariots. Every time a stop arrives, local officials send people to get on the bus and take the job.
After the cultural relics were transported to Shanghai, the new president of the Palace Museum Ma Heng decided to re-check the cultural relics and compile the "National Beiping Palace Museum Shanghai Collection List". In December 1936, the Chaotian Palace Preservation Library of the Nanjing Branch of the Forbidden City was completed, and all cultural relics moved south arrived in Nanjing for preservation.
Western Movement: Antiquities have spirits
1937 Battle of Songhu broke out, Shanghai fell, and Nanjing was in danger. Cultural relics that had been in Nanjing for less than a year were moved west again. The westward migration route advances side by side with water and land, divided into three routes, south, central and north, and transported to Anshun, Guizhou, Chongqing, Sichuan, and Hanzhong, Shaanxi. Later, it travels to Sichuan , Ba County , , Leshan and Emei to store it.
On August 14, 1937, the first batch of 80 boxes of cultural relics (South Road) were shipped from Xiaguan Wharf, Nanjing. After going to Wuhan along the Yangtze River , it was transported to Changsha by train and stored in the Hunan University Library. Because the Japanese army attacked Changsha, it was transferred to Guiyang, Guizhou via Guilin . In 1939, due to frequent bombing of Japanese troops in Guiyang, it was transferred to the safer Huayan Cave of Anshun, and the Anshun Office of the Palace Museum was established. In 1944, the battle of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi was lost, endangering Guizhou. This batch of cultural relics was moved to Feixianyan, Ba County, Sichuan in December of that year.
When the second batch of cultural relics (middle road) moved westward, the Japanese army had already arrived in Nanjing. Hang Liwu, Director-General of the Nanjing Security Zone International Committee, who received the approval of Chiang Kai-shek, was ordered to become the person in charge of rescue cultural relics in the face of danger. On November 19 and December 3, 1937, the second batch of 9,331 boxes of cultural relics were transported from the Yangtze River to Yichang respectively, and the small ship was replaced in batches and transported to Chongqing in May 1938. Because the heavy fog and rain in Chongqing were not conducive to the preservation of cultural relics and were repeatedly bombed by the Japanese army, it was transported to the Ancient Buddha Temple and six ancestral halls in Angu Township, Leshan, Sichuan in September 1939. At the same time, the Leshan Office of the Palace Museum was established.
The third batch of cultural relics (North Road) moved westward, with a total of 7,287 boxes, loaded into three trains. They were all transported out two days before the Japanese army's general attack on Nanjing, that is, on December 8, 1937. It is transported from Xiaguan Wharf to Pukou Railway Station, followed by Jinpu Railway and Longhai Railway through Zhengzhou and Xi'an, and arrived in Baoji. Soon the Japanese army approached Tongguan , Guanzhong was in a hurry, and the cultural relics of the Forbidden City crossed Qinling and transported to Hanzhong . The Japanese army bombed Hanzhong and moved to Chengdu.Like Chongqing, Chengdu is rainy and foggy. In July 1939, it moved to Emei and stored it in Emei Big Buddha Temple and Wu Temple, and established the Emei Office of the Palace Museum.
In the tragic war environment, millions of national treasures have been wandering around 11 provinces and cities including Peking, Hebei, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Hubei, Henan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Sichuan, etc., and have experienced many difficulties and dangers, but fortunately, the losses are very small.
South Road cultural relics left Changsha, and the Hunan University Library was immediately blown up by the Japanese army. The cultural relics on the middle road were transported from Yibin. When the rope broke when sailing against the current, the ship immediately went backwards. If it was washed into the river, the consequences would be unimaginable. Fortunately, the ship suddenly crossed over and stranded the beach. The North Road is even more dangerous. The cultural relics train was attacked by Japanese air force while stopping at Zhengzhou Railway Station. The driver decisively set off and rushed out of the sea of fire. Just moved out of Hanzhong Confucius Temple , and Confucius Temple was razed to the ground by Japanese air strikes. After Mianyang , a car overturned from the bridge. Fortunately, the car was equipped with documents that were not afraid of falling. Fortunately, the overturned land is close to the watery river, and all the national treasures are safe. Everyone in the Forbidden City said: This is "ancient objects have spirits" and "the country is blessed with blessings."
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the national treasure that embodies the cultural soul of the Chinese nation for thousands of years returned to the Chaotian Palace in Nanjing. From January 1946 to March 1947, three cultural relics in Baxian, Emei and Leshan were transported to Chongqing to concentrate, waiting for the Yangtze River to rise and the large ships could be shipped. From May to December 1947, most of the cultural relics were transported back to Nanjing along the Yangtze River. Only heavy cultural relics such as stone drums were taken by land. When you arrived at Nanchang , you took the route to Jiujiang and took the water transportation.
Moved to Taiwan: One palace and two courtyards
No one expected that these cultural relics that were not too late to breathe were destined to be separated from their hometown. Just a year after returning to Nanjing, they embarked on a distant journey again due to the ensuing civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
After the outbreak of the Huaihai Battle, Nanjing was threatened by the People's Liberation Army. Weng Zhihao, President of the National Government and Chairman of the Palace Museum, invited Executive Directors Zhu Jiahua, Wang Shijie, Fu Sinian , Xu Hongbao , Li Ji , Hang Liwu and others to hold a discussion. In the absence of Ma Heng, President of the Palace Museum (who has returned to Peking to preside over the work of the Palace Museum's hospital), the Council made the decision to choose the best cultural relics transportation platform of the Palace Museum.
From December 21, 1948 to January 30, 1949, 2,972 boxes of cultural relics in the Palace Museum were transported by warships and China Merchants Bureau merchant ships, accounting for 22% of the cultural relics migrated south. Cultural relics, books and treaty archives of the Central Museum, the Central Research Institute, the Central Library, the Peking Library, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be loaded and relocated at the same time.
In Peking, Ma Heng received several orders from the Executive Yuan, requiring the important cultural relics of the Palace Museum to be packed and air transported to Nanjing in batches to arrange for the evacuation of the transport station, but Ma Heng decided to part ways with the National Government. On the one hand, he pretended to catalog and record high-quality cultural relics to Nanjing to prepare for the southward migration of cultural relics. On the other hand, he adopted a delay to slow the packaging progress and delayed the outbreak of the Pingjin Battle. On December 14, 1948, Ma Heng ordered the shutdown of all external traffic of the Forbidden City and strictly prohibited vehicles from passing, so that no selected fine cultural relics were shipped out.
cultural relics moved to Taiwan start from Xiaguan Wharf. The difference is that the destination was in the southwest rear, and this time it was Keelung, Taiwan. The 10,455 boxes of cultural relics moved south in the Forbidden City that remained in Nanjing have been transported back to the Palace Museum in Beijing since 1950. Currently, 2,221 boxes are still retained in the Nanjing Museum.
Because of the rainy weather on Keelung, the cultural relics arrived in Taiwan and were transported to Taichung for storage. Open for visiting in 1957. In 1965, all of them were transported to Taipei to build new warehouses and established the Taipei Palace Museum. At this point, the Forbidden City has formed a pattern of "one palace and two courtyards".
