1912 New Year's Day, the Republic of China was founded. On February 12, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty Puyi abdicated. The Qing Dynasty was destroyed, but Puyi did not move out of the Forbidden City and continued to use the emperor's name. 12 years later, in 1924, Feng Yuxiang launched a coup in Beijing and reached the Forbidden City, and drove Puyi out of the Forbidden City.
The cultural relics of the Forbidden City were stolen from the palace
In the past 12 years, the rare treasures in the Forbidden City have become the target of stolen and sold. The biggest thing Puyi did was to steal and sell precious cultural relics of the Forbidden City on a large scale. It was his younger brother Pujie who cooperated with Puyi's actions. In this way, Puyi asked Pujie to bring a large number of rare treasures out of the palace every day in the name of "reward". The treasures that Pu Jie carries are the most valuable cultural relics in the Forbidden City.
After sorting out the list, it was found that in the 73 days from November 16, 1922 to January 28, 1923, Pu Jie brought 1,285 calligraphy and painting hand scrolls and 68 albums. Among them, the calligraphy and paintings include " Cao E Stele " by Wang Xizhi , "Er Xie Tie" by Wang Xianzhi , "Er Xie Tie" by 歌 Yao, Ouyang Xun , Song Gaozong , Mi Fu , Zhao Mengfu and other original works, including "Map of the Yangtze River" by Ma Lin , Zhang Zeduan "Hong Kong River During the Qingming Festival", and also works by Yan Liben , Song Huizong and others, and the original manuscript of "Zizhi Tongjian" by Sima Guang was also stolen and transported out.
Wang Xizhi's Rubbing of "Cao E Stele"
The bumpy and dispersal history of stolen cultural relics
1925, after being driven out of the Forbidden City by Feng Yuxiang, Puyi transported the cultural relics hidden in Prince Chun's mansion to Tianjin Concession .
While in Tianjin, in order to continue to enjoy the life of the emperor, he began to sell these national treasures at a low price. We don’t know how many national treasures were sold by Puyi in Tianjin. The famous works such as “commissions” are awarded to the staff as famous “Step of the Celestial Arts”, “Ancient Emperor Picture Scroll”, and “Langyuan Female Fairy Picture Scroll”.
On March 8, 1932, under the control of Japan, Puyi became the emperor of the puppet Manchukuo. These national treasures were also moved from Tianjin to Changchun and were hidden in the pseudo-Imperial Palace, which lived in Changchun Puyi, which was the Xiaobailou. It lasted for 13 years.
Puyi during the pseudo-Manchukuo period
In 1945, Japan surrendered unconditionally and Puyi began to flee. These national treasures began to be lost in large quantities, either wandering among the people, or sold to European and American countries, some were taken to the Soviet Union, and some were damaged or missing.
After Puyi escaped from Changchun, some of the attendants and soldiers who were left in Changchun began to enter Xiaobai Building and robbed them. Since most of these people have no education, they first rob gold and jade, and then calligraphy and paintings, and rare ancient books are trampled on by chance. Due to the competition, many famous works that have been passed down for thousands of years have been torn to pieces or to pieces. Among them, , the masterpiece "Three Horses Picture" by the great painter Li Gonglin of the Northern Song Dynasty was torn into three pieces, and the famous "Palace Entertainment Picture" was also torn into five pieces. It is now hidden in several large museums abroad, and countless cultural relics were destroyed. A few days later, Xiaobai Building was looted.
Changchun Xiaobai Building
The rare calligraphy and paintings in Xiaobai Building were robbed, and their fate was miserable. After the team was disbanded, these soldiers either fled back to their hometown to hide the treasures, or wandered around to sell the treasures. Those calligraphy and painting works have not been well preserved. Later, some so-called collectors and antique merchants emerged, and even some foreign businesses participated in the process of reselling and stealing cultural relics. Many of the treasures were finally lost abroad. When Puyi escaped from Changchun to Dalizigou next to Yalu River, he installed 57 small suitcases and a box originally used to hold movie projectors. Most of them were diamonds, gems, pearls, jade and gold, and platinum products. On August 16, 1945, Puyi took a plane from Dalizigou to flee to Japan. Because the plane was too small, Puyi only took away the movie projector box. Except for selling part of the money, the rest were all distributed to the entourage staff, and some were also stolen by local bandits.
DalizigouPuyi's pseudo-Imperial Palace
When a turnaround in Shenyang, Puyi was captured by the Soviet Red Army and was immediately sent to the Soviet Union. During the Soviet Union, Puyi sent some of the treasures to please the guards of the Soviet Union. Later, in order to keep himself in the Soviet Union and not be sent back to the country, he took the initiative to present a large amount of treasures to the Soviet government. All the rest were hidden in the mezzanine of the movie projector box, and the boxes could not be hidden everywhere, looking for places to hide, and even a few large diamonds were hidden in the soap.
Puyi was captured by the Soviet army in Shenyang
Later, he couldn't find a suitable place to hide it. He was afraid that the Soviets would say he was not honest when they found these things, so he began to discard and destroy these treasures. Thousands of large pearls were thrown into the boiler by him. A gold bracelet inlaid with gems was thrown into the river while he was walking. After the founding of New China, Puyi was sent back to China by the Soviets.
The final whereabouts of national treasure cultural relics
In August 1950, the Soviet Union handed over some of the cultural relics brought to the Soviet Union to China.
1951, under the patient education of Fushun War Criminals Management Office, Puyi's nephew Yu Yi exposed what Puyi hid in the mezzanine of the movie projector box. Puyi had to hand over the treasures he had hidden, including the famous national treasure "Qianlong Tianhuangshi Sanlian Chapter".
Qianlong Tianhuangshi Sanlianzhan
In October 1964, the Fushun War Criminals Management Institute handed over 1,169 items confiscated from Puyi and the puppet Manchukuo ministers to Palace Museum . So far, nearly 1,300 cultural relics taken out of the Forbidden City by Puyi were collected and donated by some collectors and overseas patriots. The Palace Museum has successively recovered more than 800 pieces. This includes "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", "Adventure in Spring", "The Scroll of the Female Fairy in Langyuan", "The Scroll of the Geely Side", etc.
"Spring outing" part
",000 Tongtian Tie " was saved because it was buried in a group of combat maps used by troops. In 1954, Zhou Huan, then deputy political commissar of the Shenyang Military Region, was discovered in military maps and archives, and later entered the Liaoning Provincial Museum .
"Long Live the Sky Sticker"
"Five Kings Drunk Return" flowed into the hands of Liulichang Antiques merchant Hao Baochu. In 1948, this national treasure was taken to the United States. Later, it was transferred to German collector Hou Shitai. Until Hou Shitai died in 2007, the Hou family auctioned the volume. In 2016, "The Five Kings Returning Return" was finally won by the famous collector Liu Yiqian and entered the Zanglong Art Museum, which was considered to be a return to China.
"Five Kings Drunk Return"
To this day, more than 300 treasures of the Forbidden City cultural relics brought out by Puyi have been damaged or wandered overseas. It is known that the Metropolitan Museum of the United States has 17 collections, including Qu Ding's "Summer Mountain Picture" by the Northern Song Dynasty, Southern Song Dynasty "Super Duke Wen of Jin", Ma Hezhi "Shitu of the Wild Goose", Anonymous man in the Southern Song Dynasty, Mi Youren "Yunshan Picture", Qianxuan "Hong Kong Xizhi's Goose Picture ".
"Wang Xizhi's Goose Picture"
The Princeton University Art Museum in the United States also contains many other isolated calligraphy and painting books, such as the calligraphy work Zhong Yao 's "Recommendation of Ji Zhibing", Song Gaozong's "Seven-character Quatrains on Running Script", the "Huangzhou Cold Food Post" by Su Dongpo 's "Huangzhou Cold Food Post" and the "Scroll of Running Script Gift to Zhang Datong", the paintings include the "Eight Commendations Picture Scroll" by Chen Hong of the Tang Dynasty, the "Yang Fei's Horse Picture Scroll" by Qian Xuan of the Yuan Dynasty, etc.
"Huangzhou Cold Food Sticker"
"Ancient Emperor Picture Scroll" is said to be a painting by Yan Liben in the Tang Dynasty. It is an existing copy. After being bought by the Japanese, it is now in the Boston Museum in the United States.
"Ancient Emperor Picture Scroll"
In January 2019, Tokyo National Museum will hold the exhibition " Yan Zhenqing : Famous pens beyond Wang Xizhi". The "Five Horse Picture" volume of Li Gonglin of the Northern Song Dynasty has been listed for a long time!
"Five Horse Picture"
The horses written by Li Gonglin have a profound impact on future generations, and "Five Horse Picture" is his representative work."Five Horses Picture" was already famous all over the world during the Southern Song Dynasty. It was in the Yuan and Ming dynasties. By the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, it entered Tibet for the Forbidden City and was secretly taken out by Puyi, and its whereabouts were unknown since then. Until this time, the National Museum of Tokyo released the exhibition news.
In the turbulent era, these cultural relics that have been circulating for hundreds, thousands, or even thousands of years have suffered such disasters. Many cultural relics have finally returned after hardships, but a considerable number of them have been wandering overseas, and have even been damaged or missing. May our great motherland always be stable and prosperous!
