The story of Wu, the first president of the Forbidden City in Beijing after the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC).

Wu is the first director of the Palace Museum after the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), and also a ceremonial corporal, a cultural relic worker who cares about the museum.

/kloc-0 In the autumn of 927, Wu studied at Shanghai Law School (now the predecessor of East China University of Political Science and Law), joined China the following year, and then returned to his hometown to work underground. Since 193 1, he has worked in Shanghai and Jiangsu successively. After the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Wu worked in several anti-Japanese base areas in the Communist Party of China (CPC) successively, and made great contributions to the establishment of Maoshan anti-Japanese base area, the establishment of guerrilla base areas on Jiangnan East Road, and the development, development and consolidation of liberated areas in southern Jiangsu.

But little known is that during the Liberation War, especially during Wu's tenure as Secretary-General of the Central China Branch of the Communist Party of China and Chairman of the Shandong Provincial Committee for the Administration of Ancient Cultural Relics, he also collected and preserved a large number of precious cultural relics for the Party and the people. In the diary of A Ying, a famous scholar who joined the New Fourth Army, we can see that his complex of cultural relics protection came into being during the war years.

A Ying's Diary Behind the Enemy recorded on December 21st, 16th: (Lomi) There is a Lomi Temple in the village and a monument built by Yongzheng, hence the name Zhuangdang. Choose a room in Zhuangkou to rest Yun (Qian Xiaoyun). I went to Xitou to visit Comrade Li Yimou and met with Secretary-General Wu. According to Comrade Yimeng's instructions, the Central China Bureau has decided to follow suit. Knowing that this is the rear of the Central China Bureau, Secretary-General Wu is in charge and went to visit the Secretary-General.

Volume 17: I went to Secretary-General Wu's place for dinner, where I ate. He told a village in southwest Iraq that this was the old city of a king in the state of Jin. There are many antiques, and a Hanlin family has many ancient books, all of which were acquired by the Japanese. There are also many Ming editions and calligraphy and painting.

Volume 18 May 15: I got up around 7 o'clock, and the security guard of Secretary-General Wu said that there were many ancient books in the next room. If you are in a hurry, all the books are in Japanese, and there are more than 10 thousand books in a mess. Comrade Xuan Zengzhai, Zou Lushan, Song Zhi and Kuang Yaming came one after another and chatted with a self-preservation brother. After dinner, I sent it back to Secretary-General Wu's office in Dazhai. On May 19, I bought 30 postcards of Ancient Bronze Ceramics at the cold stand and gave them to Secretary-General Wu.

Wu is the "Secretary-General Wu" who frequently appeared in Diary Behind the Enemy during the War of Liberation, which shows that his complex of cultural relics protection has a long history.

Bo Gu Hall opened in Dalian to collect cultural relics.

Wu not only paid attention to the collection and collection of cultural relics during the Liberation War, but also opened a special shop name in Dalian in Northeast China on 1947 to collect cultural relics for the public.

1In the summer and autumn of 947, due to the development of the third revolutionary civil war, a group of cadres of the East China Bureau of the Communist Party of China led by Tan Zhenlin and Li Yimang were evacuated from Weihai, Shandong Province to Dalian in the northeast under the control of Soviet troops. Secretary-General of Ng? Thì Nh?m North Withdrawal Cadre Management Committee. Dalian is an important seaport in the northeast of China. At the beginning of this century, it was coveted and occupied by Japan and Russia. For a long time, it is not only the residence of the elderly, dignitaries, Japanese and Russian expatriates, but also the distribution center of cultural relics and antiques. The Guandong Guild Museum (now the predecessor of Lushun Museum) and the Manchu-Mongolian Resource Museum (now the predecessor of Dalian Natural Museum) were established on this basis to some extent. Luo Zhenyu also spent time in Dalian from 1929 to 1940 (Luo opened an antique shop "Mo" in Dalian in his later years). After Japan surrendered, the Dayun Library built by Roche in Fusang Town, Lushun on 1928 was occupied by the Soviet Union, and a large number of books, calligraphy and paintings, bronzes, woodcuts of the date of the Song Dynasty, and inscriptions were damaged.

Wu Pingping pays great attention to all kinds of cultural relics lost in society. In the previous war, he was responsible for guarding his carefully collected cultural relics. At that time, the liberation of Dalian was just around the corner, officials sold a large number of antique cultural relics, and the cultural relics scattered on the market were a dime a dozen, which was unattended. In the past, underground party organizations often used antique shops for revolutionary activities. 1928 In May, he and Deng also dressed as antique dealers and took a Japanese cruise to Dalian. After that, they left Manzhouli by the Nanman railway train through the relationship of traffic policemen and went to Moscow to attend the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Based on this experience, Wu reported to the organization and proposed to open an antique shop in Dalian and purchase a large number of scattered cultural relics as a contact point for hidden underground party organizations. Therefore, through the relationship of Han Tongru, who teaches at Huazhong Construction University in the border area of Jiangsu and Anhui, Wu implemented this plan by using several street-facing houses in the antique shop "Bo Gu Hall" opened by Mr. Ma Zepu, an antique dealer near Dalian Oriental Hotel today. At the beginning of 1948, Bo Gu Tang antique shop was formally established. In order to collect all kinds of information, a teahouse was set up in the corner of the shop as an eye and ear. At that time, the manager was Zeng Dazhai, a comrade-in-arms of Wu Bei, who worked in northern Jiangsu and southern Shandong. The deputy managers are Ma Zepu and Han Tongru, with a total of 8 staff members. Mazep is responsible for the actual identification and selection of business. Ma Zepu (1894- 1976) is from Beijing. Long-term engaged in antique industry, good at ceramic identification. 1936, he and his nephew Chen Deshun went to Dalian to open an antique shop and often traded antiques between Dalian and Beijing.

At that time, our party also set up a semi-public Tongli company in Dalian, which was used as a cover to provide activities funds for the Northeast Bureau of the Communist Party of China. As a result, the Bo Gu Church, nominally a subordinate office, is actually led by Tongli Company, which is also responsible for allocating funds, including the acquisition of cultural relics, and stipulates that it only engages in acquisitions and does not participate in auctions and sales.

Exhibition of cultural relics in the war years

1in the spring of 949, with the complete liberation of Dalian after the Liaoshen Campaign and the successive victories of the Huaihai Campaign, the comrades of the East China Bureau of the Communist Party of China who went north to Dalian went south to meet the new struggle for the liberation of New China due to the development of the revolutionary situation in the Liberation War, and Wu and other cadres who withdrew from Dalian from the north returned to Shandong in Jiaodong Peninsula to carry out revolutionary work. Wu used to be the chairman of Shandong Ancient Cultural Relics Management Committee. During this period, the collection and preservation of Shandong cultural relics were organized in an orderly manner and achieved remarkable results. At the beginning of the same year, the Shandong Provincial Committee for the Administration of Ancient Cultural Relics held an exhibition of ancient cultural relics in the provincial library near Daming Lake in Jinan. More than 320 ancient paintings and calligraphy, more than 30 rare books, more than 30 bronzes of the Qin and Han Dynasties, more than 250 ceramics of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, more than 0/00 pieces of ancient jade/kloc, more than 300 pieces of coins of past dynasties and several boxes of Oracle bones were exhibited. This is the first time that such a large-scale exhibition of cultural relics was held in wartime.

In order to continue collecting cultural relics in Liaodong, before going south to Shandong, Wu specially instructed Ma Zepu to buy cultural relics in Dalian as usual. Thanks to this great trust, Ma Zepu stayed in Dalian to collect cultural relics until 195 1. In just over two years, Bo Gu Hall has purchased more than 200 boxes of various cultural relics for the country, including three generations of bronzes, Jun kilns in Song Dynasty, Longquan kiln porcelain, Japanese calligraphy and painting, gold and silver utensils, wood products, jade stoves and so on. Part of the collection was later transferred to the Shandong Provincial Museum for safekeeping, and the other part was transferred to the Beijing Palace Museum for collection.

After Wu was transferred to Shanghai as the Secretary-General of the East China Bureau of the Communist Party of China, Ma Zepu and Chen Deshun were introduced to Shanghai by Wu, who is also a member of the Shanghai Ancient Cultural Relics Management Committee, to serve as the ceramic appraisal work of the Shanghai Cultural Relics Management Committee, and to assist the customs in seizing precious cultural relics prohibited by many countries. At the end of 1949, Ma Zepu was entrusted by Chairman Li Yanong and Vice Chairman Xu Senyu to go to Huai 'an, northern Jiangsu Province to receive 49 boxes of pre-existing cultural relics such as Wu, buy a batch of jade, stone tools, ceramics and lacquerware, and transport them back to Shanghai by the Grand Canal. According to Mr. Xia, an old expert of the late Shanghai Museum who participated in the custody work in Shanghai, these 49 boxes of 2,853 cultural relics from Huai 'an became the first batch of bulk cultural relics received by the Shanghai Ancient Cultural Relics Management Committee at the beginning of its establishment.

With the support and training of Wu, Ma Zepu has grown from an antique dealer with a sense of justice to a hero who has made contributions to the cause of cultural relics museums, especially the cause of the Shanghai Cultural Relics Museum in New China. Therefore, his deeds are recorded in 1997' s Journal of Shanghai Museum of Cultural Relics, Volume 4, Chapter 1, Biography of People. Because he donated cultural relics to the Shanghai Cultural Relics Management Committee in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, his name has been engraved on the list of cultural relics donors in the lobby of the Shanghai Museum.

Mr. Yang Kuan, the curator of Shanghai Museum before the founding of the People's Republic of China and an expert in pre-Qin history who devoted himself to the establishment of Shanghai Museum and served as the first deputy curator after the founding of the People's Republic of China, also deeply recalled in his autobiography "Turbulence and twists and turns in the torrent of history" written in the United States in the 1980s: "In order to complete the work of establishing Shanghai Museum, … among our exhibits, bronzes, pottery and paintings are the most, so we need to strengthen our study in this field. In our research, we not only attach importance to the research results of various experts, but also attach importance to the long-term accumulated experience of antique dealers in identifying antiques. The experience of antique dealers' appraisal is originally to make money. When appraising antiques, they pay special attention to the market price. Such appraisal is very useful for our work of purchasing cultural relics. At that time, our association (Shanghai Cultural Relics Management Committee) had a porcelain expert Ma Zepu. He was originally an antique dealer and had rich experience in identifying Jingdezhen porcelain in different periods of Ming and Qing Dynasties. We asked him to select the representative works of each period and clearly pointed out the characteristics and market prices of the appraisal. I often listen carefully because we lack experience in this field. "

The first president of the Palace Museum after the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC).

It is precisely because of Wu's outstanding contributions to the country and people in the field of cultural relics collection and protection that from September 65438 to September 0949 after the liberation of Shanghai, he was appointed as Deputy Secretary-General of the East China Bureau of the CPC and Vice President of the Party School of the East China Bureau of the CPC. At the same time, he was hired as a member of the first Shanghai Ancient Cultural Relics Management Committee with Li Yanong as the director and Xu Senyu as the deputy director. /kloc-in the winter of 0/954, due to the cancellation of the East China Bureau of the Communist Party of China, Wu went to the Palace Museum to preside over the hospital affairs, and later served as Assistant Minister of Culture. After being transferred to the Palace Museum, he served as dean and party secretary for a long time. During his tenure, he paid more attention to knowledge, and respected and cared about the intellectuals with special skills in Guangdong University.

He once said humorously: "Experts should be protected like pandas, a rare animal." Mr. Qi Gong, a contemporary calligrapher, is therefore called "Giant Panda"-a rumor that once spread widely in Beijing. It is said that Mr. Qi Gong was annoyed by the constant visitors, so he refused the uninvited visitors on the grounds of poor health, and with his usual humorous style, he inserted a sentence between the outer walls of the door: "The giant panda is sick, and he refused to visit!" When the newcomers saw this note of closing the door and thanking the guests, they all took a long leave with a smile and stopped bothering them. This joke is very serious and convincing. However, according to Qi Gong's explanation, this is slightly different from the facts. For outsiders, this is not sincere enough for humanitarianism. He said: "In fact, I wrote these four sentences:' Began to hibernate and refused to visit. Knocking on the door and pushing the door will be fined one yuan. "The note was only posted on the door for one day, and then it was taken away. Since then, more people have come to visit. According to Qi Gong, the anecdote about "Giant Panda" has its own origin and a long history. From 65438 to 0954, when Wu Chu came to the Forbidden City, he recruited talents from the Cultural Relics Department of National Cultural Heritage Administration (at that time, the physical distribution system was implemented) with high salary, and hired a painting and calligraphy appraisal expert who had worked as a business secretary and was hired as a special consultant of the Shanghai Ancient Cultural Relics Management Committee at the beginning of liberation as a researcher in the painting and calligraphy research department of the Forbidden City. At that time, some people thought that the standard was set too high. When Wu heard the news, he patiently explained, "Don't lower the standard. These people are rare creatures and know how to distinguish ancient paintings and calligraphy. Museums need such people very much. " Therefore, a friend joked with Qi Gong, "Wu Diwen said that Lao Xu is a rare creature. Isn't that a giant panda? "Later, Qi Gong fell ill, and some kind people were afraid that his entertainment would affect his rest, so they took advantage of the topic and posted a note on his door:" The giant panda is sick and declined to visit! "As a result, people actually write for success. Later, Mr. Qi Gong said modestly, "I still know myself. How dare I call myself a national treasure? "It can be seen that Wu, president of the Palace Museum, has given high status and necessary respect to skilled people, regardless of their status and qualifications.

In the Palace Museum, Wu often said that the Palace Museum needs a large number of experts and business backbones, otherwise such a large museum can't be run well, and it can't be run. To this end, he has special respect for experts with expertise, entrusts them with a heavy responsibility, fully trusts their support, and allows experts to release their talents. He specially transferred Liu Jiu 'an (19 15-1999), a former apprentice of Yueguzhai who had been doing antique business in Liulichang antique shop in Beijing for a long time, and Sun Yingzhou (1894-1968), the boss of Dongsi Dunhuazhai. Let them give full play to their skills in the collation and appraisal of cultural relics in the Forbidden City, and give corresponding care and inclination in terms of treatment and professional titles. Mobilize their enthusiasm for work, teach while appraising, impart appraisal experience to young people, make their career successful and make the Forbidden City sustainable. For example, Sun Yingzhou, who made great achievements in the identification of porcelain in Yuan and Ming Dynasties, was transferred to the Forbidden City and soon promoted to assistant researcher. Wu's thought and experience in discovering, exploring and using talents obviously came from his time in Dalian when he fostered Bo Gu Hall and met Ma Zepu. The reason why he dared to use Sun Yingzhou and Geng in an eclectic way was also related to their close cooperation with Ma Zepu in antique management in their early years. Today, the living Mr. and Mr. Geng are the only living experts in the field of ancient ceramics identification.

Wu donated cultural relics to the Shanghai Museum twice during his tenure as a member of the Shanghai Ancient Cultural Relics Management Committee at 1950 and later at 1952. During the critical period, he asked me to leave his savings to the Palace Museum where he worked for a long time as a research award fund. In Nanhui Museum in Pudong, Wu's hometown, people can also pay tribute to the relics donated by the Wu family and deeply cherish the memory of this doyen who has been engaged in cultural relics and museums for a long time.