China is one of the four ancient civilizations in the world with a history of 5000 years. Although it has experienced many ups and downs, it comes down in one continuous line, creating a splendid oriental civilization and leaving a rich cultural heritage. However, since the Opium War, China has been invaded by western powers for many times, during which numerous cultural relics have been plundered and destroyed, and a large number of precious cultural relics have been lost overseas.

The so-called "loss" of cultural relics refers to those cultural relics smuggled abroad through illegal channels. Of course, the "loss" of cultural relics in China does not include gifts given by normal cultural exchanges between countries over the years, nor does it include China porcelain imported in large quantities by many European countries in the past.

How are China's cultural relics lost overseas?

The massive loss of China's ancient cultural relics overseas dates back to the Opium War. 1860, British and French troops invaded Beijing. They looted first, and then burned the "round place" of Yuanmingyuan. Yuanmingyuan is the royal paradise of the five emperors of Manchu Dynasty-Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang and Xianfeng. After 1.50 years of construction and repair, it is a masterpiece of garden architecture in Ming and Qing dynasties, including many western architectural styles. It has become a pearl of the Qing Empire and the greatest and most famous large-scale palace-style royal garden in the history of China. There are countless mahogany furniture in more than 50 halls in Yuanmingyuan, including brocade, carpet, Shang and Zhou bronzes, ceramics, lacquerware, tooth carving, agate, crystal, amber, wood carving jade, precious stones, calligraphy and painting, clocks and watches, ancient books and so on. The British and French allied forces burned Yuanmingyuan, but the fire didn't go out for three days. The nearby Qingyi Garden, Jingming Garden, Jingyi Garden, Changchun Garden and Haidian Town were all burned into ruins. Rare treasures collected in the Qing Dynasty were destroyed and robbed. The British and French allied forces plundered a large number of cultural relics from Yuanmingyuan, and the number could not be counted. French writer Hugo once said: "Even if all the places of Notre Dame in our country are added together, it can't compare with this magnificent Oriental Museum." After the looting of Yuanmingyuan, a large number of rare treasures were scattered overseas, the most concentrated of which were the British Museum and Fontainebleau, France. Museums in the United States, Japan and Western Europe also collected a large number of precious cultural relics of Yuanmingyuan. At present, there are more than 30,000 rare items in China in the British Museum, including the rare treasure of ancient scroll paintings in China-The Picture of Women's History by Gu Kaizhi, a great painter in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and many works of Yuanmingyuan art collected by Victoria and Albat Museums, another famous museum in London, England. China Pavilion of Fontainebleau Palace in France was built by Eugénie, the queen of French emperor Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte, to store the cultural relics looted from Yuanmingyuan in China. At present, there are more than 30,000 famous paintings, gold and silver jewelry, porcelain, incense burners, chimes, precious stones and gold and silver vessels in China. In today's foreign cultural relics market, you can often see some China royal instruments, such as official kilns. Quite a few of these royal things were stolen from Yuanmingyuan at that time.

Eight-Nation Alliance 1900 invaded Beijing. Allied forces did whatever they wanted for three days, and the ancient capital suffered an unprecedented catastrophe, no matter whether it was the forbidden palace or the houses and shops of residents. After the Forbidden City was looted, more than half of the collections were lost and valuables were looted. "Three Seas"-After the South China Sea, China Sea and North Sea were robbed, there were few collections left; The treasures displayed in the Palace and the Summer Palace have almost been looted, and countless precious cultural relics and ancient books in the Palace, including Sikuquanshu and Yongle Dadian, have been looted by the powerful. After this catastrophe, Beijing's "savings since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, from laws and regulations to treasures, were swept away", and "hundreds of thousands" of cultural relics were lost nationwide. It's impossible to count now. At that time, the intruders set up a temporary auction house in Beijing to auction their stolen goods and then return to China because they plundered too much. Most of the treasures were taken back to China as "trophies", while some soldiers sold other cultural relics to private collectors and people who like China art.

Around the 1920s, some foreign explorers came to China in the name of scientific investigation. These foreign explorers who come to China are proficient in human geography and have a high appreciation of cultural relics. Therefore, the cultural relics lost through them are not only large in quantity, but also high in quality, and countless China cultural relics have been brought back to China, resulting in a large-scale loss of ancient China cultural relics overseas. According to statistics, from 1865 to 1932, explorers from Russia, Britain, Germany, France, Japan, the United States, Sweden and other countries sneaked into the northwest of China as many as 66 times.

1900 On June 22nd (May 20th, 26th Guangxu), the Tibetan Sutra Cave (now numbered 17 Cave), which had been sleeping for hundreds of years behind the north wall of CaveNo. 16 in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, was inadvertently discovered by the host Wang Daoshi, and a treasure house that shocked the world suddenly opened.

Russian Obruchev was the first to take away the Dunhuang suicide note. 1905, 10 In June, he used only six packages of inferior paraffin as bait and got two packages of precious manuscripts from Wang Daochang.

Then, the most famous plunderer of Dunhuang, Mark Aurel Stein, came to Dunhuang. He stole thousands of exquisite Buddhist scriptures and silk paintings with four ingots of horseshoe silver (about 200 taels of silver) and used a huge caravan. 19 14 years, Stein came to Dunhuang for the second time and bought more than 570 valuable hand scrolls from Wangdao people for 500 taels of silver. Because of his special "contribution", Stein was knighted by Queen Victoria of England and won great honor in the world archaeology. Some of the China cultural relics he plundered were collected in the British Museum, some in the British Library, and some in the Indian Affairs Library.

After Stein came pelliot, a Frenchman. Pelliot, a young sinologist, is proficient in Chinese. In Dunhuang, he browsed for three weeks, and stole all the essence of the Tibetan scriptures for 500 taels of silver, totaling more than 6,000 volumes, including some scrolls, which are now mainly collected in the French National Library.

Swedes Sven Hedin and Stan also had excavation activities in the western regions of China, taking away a lot of treasures, including lost western languages and precious bamboo slips; Germans Greenweddell and lecocq investigated and excavated in Xinjiang and stole a large number of murals from Qizil and Baizixi Grottoes. Japanese Ju Ruichao defrauded a batch of written documents from Dunhuang Grottoes, which led to a large-scale loss of China ancient cultural relics overseas.

Some overseas cultural relics dealers colluded with domestic antique profiteers and warlords to steal, cheat or buy cultural relics at low prices, resulting in the loss of a large number of cultural relics in China. In 1930s, the Japanese savagely stole 300 Buddha heads from Tianlongshan Grottoes in Taiyuan, and instructed China antique dealers to bribe local warlords to knock off the Buddha heads in Longmen Grottoes and transport them back to Japan. In Longmen Grottoes, Buddha heads are stolen wherever they are stolen. The famous statue of the Empress Dowager Cixi in Longmen Grottoes is an artistic treasure of the Northern Wei Dynasty. At that time, a cultural relic dealer named Yue Bin bribed the warlords, smashed the stone carvings and shipped them to the United States. Now, this Buddha statue is collected in Pennsylvania State University.

1922, the last emperor Puyi stole 1200 fine paintings and calligraphy from the palace, most of which have been lost overseas.

1928, the tomb of Empress Dowager Cixi in the Qing Dongling was savagely excavated by warlord Sun Dianying, and all the things in the tomb were looted, most of which were lost because of arms trading.

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Japanese plundered 3 million books and 15245 important cultural relics from China. There are as many as 26,700 pieces of Oracle bones unearthed in Xiaotun, Anyang, which have been lost overseas. There are only12,443 pieces in Japan. From 65438 to 0937, Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China and carried out large-scale excavations in its occupied areas, and a large number of cultural relics were robbed. During this period, Americans used the social unrest in China to buy China cultural relics.

/kloc-in the past 50 years, countless cultural relics, including a large number of national treasures, have been lost overseas, and how many cultural relics have been lost is always a mystery. In 2003, the Global Report on Preventing Illegal Trafficking in Cultural Property published by UNESCO pointed out that among the 2 18 museums in 47 countries around the world, China has1630,000 cultural relics, all of which are excellent cultural relics. China's precious cultural relics scattered among people all over the world should be ten times that of China in museums. According to the statistics of China Cultural Relics Society, millions of precious cultural relics have been lost in China, and more than 6,543.8+0,000 pieces have reached the national first-and second-class cultural relics standards. The number and high grade of cultural relics lost overseas are staggering and deeply regrettable.

Cultural Relics Smuggling in China

Cultural relics smuggling has led to a large number of cultural relics in China being lost overseas. Cultural relics smuggling is a common phenomenon all over the world. People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded in 1949, and China once bid farewell to the history of cultural relics outflow. However, since 1980s, stimulated by huge profits, criminals at home and abroad colluded with each other, which set off an upsurge of stealing and smuggling cultural relics. In the past 20 years, an unimaginable number of cultural relics have been smuggled out of Hong Kong alone. Countless cultural relics are smuggled out of China every year, and Hongkong, China has become a transit point for cultural relics smuggling. After 1980s, Hong Kong became the third largest cultural relic art center in the world with a large number of smuggled cultural relics from the mainland. Behind the smuggling is the prevalence of grave robbery, which once reached a crazy level in China. It is reported that about 65,438+0,000 ancient tombs were looted by local farmers in the suburb of Xi 'an. 1986, farmers in Henan illegally excavated 500 ancient tombs in1-4th century BC. From February 1990 to February 165438+ 10, a gang stole 46 ancient tombs. "Customs in Chinese mainland and Hongkong often intercept cultural relics, and it is impossible to count how many cultural relics have been smuggled out of Chinese mainland, but judging from the cultural relics appearing in the cultural relics market, this figure is undoubtedly amazing."

Value Geometry of Lost Cultural Relics in China

Cultural relics are the materialization of a country and national culture, and their value is immeasurable. China cultural relics have extremely unique value and high reputation. On July 12, 2005, at Christie's art auction in London, England, the blue-and-white pot "Ghost Valley Down the Mountain" of China in the Yuan Dynasty was sold for15,688,000, setting a new high for art auction in China.

In the autumn auction of Beijing Zhongmao International Auction Co., Ltd. in 2002, the Palace Museum bought Yan Mingshan, a beautiful cultural relic written by Mi Fei in the Song Dynasty, for 29.99 million yuan. It has been calculated that if there are 2 million pieces of cultural relics lost overseas in China, it will cost an average of 6.5438+0.5 million yuan to buy back one piece, then 2 million pieces will cost as much as 30 trillion yuan. In 2005, China's GDP should be 15 trillion RMB, so the value of cultural relics lost overseas in China is twice that of China in 2005.

According to incomplete statistics, among more than 200 museums in 47 countries, there are more than one million cultural relics in China. As far as painting is concerned, the Metropolitan Museum of America has the most Chinese paintings, while the British Museum has the best. The earliest book A History of Women by Gu Kaizhi is here.

1900, Eight-Nation Alliance plundered numerous precious cultural relics and ancient books collected by the imperial court, including Sikuquanshu and Yongle Dadian. According to incomplete statistics, nearly 200,000 pieces of Oracle bones were unearthed in Xiaotun, Anyang, and 26,700 pieces were lost overseas, covering Japan, the United States, Britain and other countries 12. Among them, Japan has the largest number, reaching 12443 tablets. After the Revolution of 1911 (19 1 1), cultural relics flooded out of the country. 1922, the last emperor, Puyi, who was greedy for luxury, stole most of the six boxes of more than 200 fine paintings and calligraphy from overseas. This is the famous "lost case of palace calligraphy and painting" in modern history. 1928, the tombs of Emperor Qianlong and Empress Dowager Cixi in Qing Dynasty were brutally excavated by warlord Sun Dianying, and the treasures of various countries gathered in the tombs were looted. Most of them were scattered abroad because they were used by Sun Dianying to buy arms, and the losses were huge, so far it is impossible to estimate.

Dunhuang has countless treasures. At present, there are only 20,000 Dunhuang suicide notes left in China, and 13700 is kept in the Oriental Writing Headquarters of the British Library. 6,000 pieces of the National Library of Paris, France; Institute of Asian Nationalities in St. Petersburg, Russia 12000 pieces; Nearly2,000 pieces are hidden in the library of the British Indian Affairs Department; In addition, Japan, the United States, Sweden, Austria, and South Korea also have Dunhuang cultural relics collections, and the figures are incalculable.