The world is full of wonders.
In 1970, an old woman named Yu Yuzhen picked up a strange butterfly on the way back to her parents' home. She gave the butterfly to her brother. Incredibly, 
years later, the butterfly was sold To 1.27 million! It's really a joy that comes from heaven.
Although it sounds a bit fanciful, this thing actually happened. Why is this butterfly worth so much?
Portrait of Yu Musheng in the Insect Museum
In the 1970s, it had just rained. The old woman Yu Yuzhen was walking on the way back to her parents' home. She suddenly saw a strange-looking butterfly, which stopped motionless in the middle of the road. Yu Yuzhen After taking a closer look, it turned out that the butterfly's wings were stained with rainwater and could not fly. Yu Yuzhen thought that her brother liked to study butterflies, so she took the butterfly back and gave it to her brother Yu Qingjin.
Country Butterfly
Yu Qingjin was born in Taiwan Province. His father Yu Musheng was an excellent entomologist and established the largest butterfly museum in Taiwan: Musheng Entomology Museum.
In 1895, after the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, the sluggish and corrupt Qing government was forced to sign the "Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki", ceding Taiwan to Japan.
For a period of time thereafter, Taiwan became Japan's territory, and Japanese people could come and go freely in Taiwan. In 1917, the Japanese Kiyomatsu Kurasa came to Taiwan to work as a masseuse. A friend asked him to help collect butterflies in Taiwan, so Kiyromatsu Kurasa took the initiative to find Yu Musheng, who had just turned 15 years old.
Portrait of Yu Musheng with sticky butterfly wings
Yu Musheng is full of energy. He can earn five or six Taiwan dollars by catching butterflies for a day. It is not only fun but also makes money. Why not do it?
But the cunning Japanese are ungrateful. After Kiyomatsu Asakura transported the butterflies captured by Yu Musheng to Japan, he found that there were many butterfly species that were still blank in the international research community. Driven by profit, he named these butterflies after his own name. To name them, such as Asakura Papilio butterfly, Asakura Lesser Purple Gorge butterfly, etc. In this way, a large number of Taiwanese butterflies were packaged with names and became Japanese.
Yu Musheng from the left
Yu Musheng has been catching butterflies for many years. Gradually, he has memorized all kinds of butterflies in Taiwan and has a good understanding of their living habits and environment. Yu Qingjin's childhood memories are all about catching butterflies with his father Yu Musheng. Influenced by his ears and eyes, Yu Qingjin has been familiar with the habits of various butterflies since he was a child. When Yu Qingjin grew up, he took over his father's butterfly business.
Young Yu Qingjin
He knows that the living habits of different types of butterflies are also different. For example, butterflies like the smell of ammonia, but the inconspicuous dead leaf butterfly likes to drink beer, and is an out-and-out alcoholic. Swallowtail butterflies live by feeding on nectar. The energy for their flight comes from sunlight. The scales on their wings are equivalent to miniature solar energy storage. Without sunlight, butterflies lose the energy to fly.
Country Butterfly
In 1939, World War broke out. Yu Qingjin collected many precious butterfly specimens. Because there were no mothballs in the storage, when they were taken out after the war, they were found to have been eaten away by moths and destroyed. Yu Qingjin endured the heartache and poured all the butterfly specimens into the sewer.
After that, Yu Qingjin began to collect butterflies again. He made exquisite bookmarks from various butterflies and sold them to Japan. He earned a lot of money and made himself comfortable with food and clothing.
Butterfly Bookmark
In 1942, Yu Qingjin was innovative again. After wrapping the butterfly in cellophane, he stuck it on an envelope and sold it to the United States, which also made him a lot of money.
Butterfly specimen
But what really made Yu Qingjin rich overnight and became a household name was the butterfly given to him by his sister.
It had just rained on this day in 1970. Yu Qingjin's sister was walking back to her parents' home when she was blocked by a strange-looking butterfly. The butterfly's wings were wet with rain and could not fly. The sister thought that her brother liked butterflies, so she decided to He carefully brought the butterfly to his brother Yu Qingjin.
Country road
When Yu Qingjin received this butterfly, he was surprised after careful observation. It turned out that this butterfly was very different from the previous butterflies. At first glance, it was a female white swallowtail butterfly with a yellow belly, but it was incredible. This butterfly actually has the grip of a male butterfly. What's more impressive is that one side of this butterfly's tail has the female butterfly's tail shape, while the other side has the female butterfly's tailless shape. Yu Qingjin consulted a large amount of information and found that this is a unique three-in-one white butterfly swallowtail in the world, which is a priceless treasure.
The three-in-one white swallowtail butterfly given by my sister
Three years later, in 1973, Yu Qingjin took the white swallowtail butterfly given by his sister to Japan to participate in an exhibition. Once the three-in-one white swallowtail butterfly was unveiled, it immediately aroused heated discussion in the audience. .
When the famous butterfly collector Neidhoefer saw this butterfly, he was so surprised that he immediately proposed to spend 200,000 US dollars to bring the butterfly to the United States. You must know that 200,000 US dollars is worth 1.27 million yuan when converted into RMB!
Elderly Yu Qingjin
But faced with such a high financial temptation, Yu Qingjin was calm after hearing this. He said that he was about to set up a butterfly museum, and he wanted to put this butterfly in the Chinese Museum. Yu Qingjin lived up to expectations and established his own museum, and the butterfly became the museum's treasure.
After that, Yu Qingjin established 13 insect museums in mainland China. In 2019, despite the objections of his children, Yu Qingjin, who has entered an octogenarian year, insisted on traveling all over the country, collecting various butterflies, and contributing his last effort to the museum.
Things are rare and valuable. It is said that the three-in-one white swallowtail butterfly given by my sister is the legendary Yin-Yang butterfly. The chance of its birth is one in 10,000, and you are lucky to encounter it.
