Chapter 69 3. From division to combination

The Anti-Japanese War was won, and the national treasure returned to the east.The cultural relics were moved westward in three ways to avoid bandits. After several transfers, they survived the robbery, and finally moved to Baxian, Leshan, and Emei in Sichuan.The return of cultural relics will be concentrated in three places, and will be held in Chongqing for a year.Beginning in May 1947, the first batch of cultural relics was transported from Chongqing to the east, traveling both by water and land, a total of 10 batches; on December 8, the last batch of national treasures moved south and arrived in Nanjing for storage.

Three places in one.The three cultural relics in Baxian, Leshan, and Emei returned to the east. They did not seek urgency, but only considered safety. They first gathered in Chongqing.The order of concentration is Shouba County, then Emei, and then Leshan.For the distribution of centralized warehouses, in Xiangjiapo, Chongqing, the houses are built according to the mountain situation, and are divided into three groups: A, B, and C according to the upper, middle, and lower floors.Group A warehouses are kept by the former Ba County Office; Group B warehouses are kept by the former Leshan Office; Group C warehouses are kept by the former Emei Office.Warehouse repairs completed, concentrated work, and started immediately.The difficulty encountered is how to gather—water transportation, flood season, short time, small ships and low capacity, it is difficult to do it within a five-month period; normal water season, only wooden boats can be used, which is very dangerous.Railway transportation, transfer back and forth, time-consuming and labor-intensive, easy to break.Car transportation is more convenient.So it was decided to transport the cultural relics from Baxian, Leshan, and Emei to Chongqing by car, and then transport them by landing craft, and return to Nanjing along the river.

Baxian cultural relics were shipped on January 21, 1947, with a total of 80 boxes and a journey of 20 kilometers. After eight days, they were shipped to Chongqing.Three months later, on May 15th, the cultural relics of Emei were dispatched in a light car with a special number, and the field survey was carried out along the way. Follow the Lexi (Xichang) Highway to reach Leshan, turn to Le Nei (Neijiang), Cheng (Chengdu) and Chongqing (Chongqing) highways and go straight to Chongqing.Commercial vehicles were hired, and buses were added. They were divided into 21 batches and 9,447 boxes were transported to Chongqing.Afterwards, the cultural relics from Leshan were transported on the day when the collection of cultural relics from Emei was completed, and the transportation between Leshan and Angu still had to be carried by water.Therefore, due to the limitation of objective conditions, the whole transportation process is divided into two stages: between Angu and Leshan, the transfer by water; between Leshan and Chongqing, the land journey by car.The transfer procedure of cultural relics stored in Leshan starts with the Xu Temple, then the Tuzhu Temple, and finally the Wu Temple.The Xu Temple and the Tuzhu Temple are about one li away from the Lexi Highway. The field ridge is narrow and difficult to open to traffic, so a temporary station was set up beside the road to prepare for loading.The loaded cars were gathered in the square in front of the county library outside Xinnanmen, and they were ready to go.The transfer of cultural relics will be carried out in two phases.In the initial stage, from September 10 to 30, 1946, work was suspended for five days due to rain in the middle, and 16 days were counted as transfers.At that time, there were few land vehicles, and the transfer was not enough to connect, so the temporary transfer station warehouse was full of storage boxes, and the water transfer was suspended.In the second period, from November 22 to 29 of the same year, the work was suspended for three days due to rain, and the transfer was counted for five days.All cultural relics relocated to Liuku, Angu Township, were divided into 33 batches and 7,286 boxes, and finally arrived in Chongqing.According to the statistics of cultural relics collected in Baxian, Leshan, and Emei, according to Ouyang Dadao's "Forbidden City Cultural Relics Avoiding Bandits", due to slight changes during the period, there are few differences in the figures and are for reference only.The cultural relics of Baxian, Leshan, and Emei have all been concentrated in Chongqing, and then assembled in Nanjing.

Gather in Nanjing.There are 16,815 boxes of national treasures from Baxian, Leshan, and Emei, all of which were returned to Nanjing in the east.The national treasure avoids bandits, travels thousands of miles, has several thrilling adventures, returns safely, comes and goes, and it has been exactly 10 years.In the process of gathering cultural relics, the road passed through wind and rain, and there was no surprise.For example, the cultural relics transferred for the first time coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival, when the moon rose and the weather was refreshing.Each raft is covered with bamboo mat (dian, mat) and tarpaulin.After midnight, the weather changed suddenly, with violent wind and rain, and it stopped at dawn.All the employees, when they heard the wind and rain for the first time, called each other up, led the same crew, and covered each raft with tarpaulins in the rain.Check again at dawn, some are wet.Immediately unload and store, unpack and inspect one by one.After inspection, one or two boxes of cultural relics were partially wet, and they were immediately dried to dry and repacked.However, after unpacking, the cultural relics are in good condition, only the grass lining, cotton and paper are damp, and they can be replaced and repacked at any time.After investigation, all the boxes that did not seep through the water were blocked by the kraft paper covered by the liner inside the box.What a blessing in misfortune.

The cultural relics warehouse of the Nanjing Branch of the Palace Museum was used as a weapon depot and a hospital for wounded soldiers during the enemy and puppet times.There were 2,954 boxes of cultural relics in the original warehouse, which were stored in four places including the Arctic Pavilion. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, the cultural relics preservation library and scattered cultural relics were quickly recovered.After January 21, 1946, cultural relics were checked and received.All the personnel were divided into seven groups, and on January 25, they took inventory of the cultural relics of the Arctic Pavilion.The remaining three places were collected one after another and completed by May 10.The national treasures collected in Chongqing from Baxian, Leshan, and Emei in Sichuan were also safely and intact collected in Nanjing.During the Second World War, most of the British Museum's collections arrived at designated hiding places before the official declaration of war on September 3, 1939; on September 5, all important items were evacuated.After the United States attacked Pearl Harbor in Japan, the most valuable collections, such as the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, were transferred and hidden.

Cultural relics are divided again.The national treasure moved westward and experienced many dangers: like a car overturned, like rain, like hitting a rock, like a bomb, after untold hardships and hardships, it finally returned east, separated for ten years, and reunited once.However, after the cultural relics were moved back to Nanjing, the domestic war became increasingly tense, and it was decided to move the national treasure to Taiwan.The National Treasure moved to Taiwan was divided into three batches: the first batch of 320 boxes, the second batch of 1680 boxes, and the third batch of 972 boxes, totaling 2972 ​​boxes. (Na Zhiliang's "Guarding the National Treasures of the Palace Museum for Seventy Years") This accounts for about 15.6% of the total 18,970 boxes of cultural relics moved to the south. Of course, most of them are high-quality goods.

The process of moving to Taiwan also has stories.The first batch of cultural relics was transported by naval warships, and the families of the naval personnel rushed to hear the news, dragging their children and carrying luggage, and the ship was crowded.No matter how much I persuaded him, he didn't get off the boat.Commander Gui Yongqing was invited to comfort him in every possible way, and he made a wish to send another boat, so they all disembarked.The second batch is a merchant ship, which is fairly simple.The third batch was warships again. As soon as the ships arrived, the cabins were crowded with the families of naval officers and soldiers.The boxes were loaded onto the ship, and the objects and people were mixed together.The escort invited Commander Gui again.He enlightened everyone and hoped that everyone would disembark.The family members of the officers and soldiers begged and said: I hope the old sir will help them—men, women, old and young, cry together.At that miserable scene, Commander Gui also shed tears, so he had to allow them to accompany the ship.According to the memory of the person concerned, the waves were beating against the boat, the dogs were barking, the sound of the wind and the waves, and the crying of children seemed to be the end of the day. (Na Zhiliang's "Guarding the National Treasures of the Forbidden City for Seventy Years") This ship is not dedicated to transporting cultural relics. It must stop at ports along the way. It departed on January 29, 1949, and arrived in Keelung on February 22.Soon the cultural relics were transferred to Taichung, first temporarily borrowed and stored in the warehouse of the sugar factory, and then transferred to the warehouse and basement of Wufeng Beigou in Taichung.I had the pleasure of visiting this humble and abandoned basement in 1997.

In November 1965, the new building of the National Palace Museum in Taipei was completed, located in Shuangxi, Shilin, Taipei City.The national treasures moved to Taiwan have been checked and found to be in good condition with no loss. This is because "custodians can take antiquities as part of their lives."Later, caves were dug and basements built. In 1992, I was honored to be invited to visit the cultural relics of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, especially the National Treasure Basement in the cave.Stored cultural relics, such as treasured porcelain, are wrapped in silk and stuffed with cotton, and placed in iron-clad wooden boxes, wrapped in layers with silk cotton or cotton paper, densely packed, fireproof and anti-theft, and kept in constant temperature and humidity. People admire.Currently, the National Palace Museum in Taipei has about 650,000 pieces of cultural relics, which are divided into three categories: utensils, calligraphy and painting, documents and archives (including the collection of cultural relics collected later).

The national treasure was moved south and west to avoid the invaders, the Anti-Japanese War was won, and the cultural relics returned.The main distribution status after that is: First, more than 600,000 items in 2,972 boxes of the National Palace Museum in Taipei have been moved and relocated.Second, there are 2,176 boxes of 104,735 pieces of cultural relics moved to the south of Nanjing Museum.Third, the Nanjing branch of the Palace Museum has 11,178 boxes, most of which were returned to the Beijing Palace Museum in 1950, 1953 and 1958.These three places are an overview of the collection of cultural relics moved to the south after their return.

The cultural relics of the Forbidden City were originally combined into one.The sea has changed, the current situation is turbulent, and now it is hidden on both sides of the strait.The opening chapter said: "The general trend of the world, divided for a long time, must be united." Separately, they are all part of the Great Forbidden City; collectively, they are all cultural relics of the Great Forbidden City: in short, they jointly guard the treasure of China's 5,000-year civilization.