Chinanews client, Beijing, February 6th (Reporter Shangguanyun) Decades back in time, in the era of wars, there was a major event in the history of the Palace Museum, that is, the "Forbidden City cultural relics moved south," and Ma Heng experienced it personally. One of them.
He is also the second dean of the Palace Museum, and he worked with the Palace Museum to do his best to protect cultural relics.
This is also recorded in the recently published "Ma Heng Chronicles".
In the narration of the book's author and Ma Heng's grandson Ma Simeng, the story of Ma Heng and the Forbidden City at that time also gradually became clear.
An epigrapher without a degree
Ma Heng devoted his life to the study of epigraphy and was hailed as "the pioneer of modern Chinese archaeology".
He was born in 1881, his father was a county magistrate.
He received a good education since he was a child, and often went to the bookstore next to the county government to read.
According to his second brother Ma Yuzao, Ma Heng was admitted to Nanyang Public School, a modern higher education school at the time, but did not officially graduate.
Through other people's matchmaking, Ma Heng married two thousand gold Ye Weiqing, the Shanghai "hardware king" Ye Chengzhong, as his wife.
"Father-in-law's wealthy family has provided Ma Heng with the necessary funds for the study of Jinshi studies, so that he has no worries about his livelihood." Ma Simeng said that Ma Heng likes to study antiques, collect rubbings of rubbings and ancient books, and study calligraphy and seal cutting.
Later, he was hired at Peking University. "He has no academic qualifications and basically relies on self-study."
Later, Xuantong Emperor Puyi was expelled from the palace. Not long after, the Provisional Government issued an order to establish the Qing Dynasty Rehabilitation Committee. As an epigrapher, Ma Heng was appointed to the Rehabilitation Committee along with many professors from Peking University to participate in the inspection of the palace’s belongings.
In October 1925, the Palace Museum was established.
Ma Heng was elected as a member of the interim council and concurrently as the deputy curator of the Antiquities Museum.
Ma Simeng said that from the beginning of the establishment of the academy to his official dean in 1934, Ma Heng did not receive salary in the Forbidden City and was a voluntary service.
Image source: Photo courtesy of the Palace Press
Great migration! Cultural relics of the Forbidden City start a journey to the south
After serving as the deputy curator of the Palace Museum for several years, Ma Heng formally took over as the dean in 1934 and resigned from all social work positions.
In addition, he personally experienced the southward migration of the mighty Forbidden City cultural relics.
"Moving south of the Forbidden City cultural relics" is a major event in the history of the Palace Museum.
After the "September 18th" Incident, the situation in North China was in a hurry. In order to avoid the war and ensure the safety of national treasures, the Board of Directors of the Palace Museum at that time decided to move the fine cultural relics of the Palace Museum south.
For the three museums of books, literature, and antiquities, the difficulty of packing is quite different. The antiquities museum is the most difficult: if it is not packed well, cultural relics, such as porcelain, are easily damaged.
Under the auspices of Ma Heng, the staff of the Antiquities Museum worked together to find a way and finally completed the task on time.
"For example, the National Gem Drum, which was originally stored in the Imperial Palace, was transported by the Palace Museum. Ten stone drums, one weighing about one ton, after more than two thousand years of wind and rain, the stone skin and the drum body have been separated. It will peel off." Ma Simeng said.
After consulting many materials, he found that after consulting many antique dealers, Ma Heng decided to glue the stone drums with Korean paper, wrap them with cotton quilts, and tie them with straw ropes to ensure the safety of the stone drums.
In addition, he personally supervised the transportation of a batch of cultural relics from the south to Shanghai.
Wherever the cultural relics go, people go
In 1934, Ma Heng formally took over as the president of the Forbidden City.
At that time, the relocation of cultural relics to the south had come to an end. After taking office, he immediately organized and carried out the inventory of the cultural relics left in Peiping of the Palace Museum and the collection of cultural relics that were moved south to Shanghai, and made detailed records.
He is also calling for efforts to build a repository of cultural relics from the south.
It is mentioned in the preface of "The Chronicle of Ma Heng's Chronicles" that in March 1936, the construction of the Nanjing Chaotian Palace Reservoir Project started and completed in August.
This three-story steel-reinforced concrete building houses the cultural relics of the Forbidden City transferred from Shanghai.
However, the national treasures failed to settle down.
After the "July 7th" Incident, the situation in Nanjing became increasingly tense, and the cultural relics of the Palace Museum that moved to the south were ordered to be evacuated to the southwest rear, or "westward migration".
"This westward migration was carried out in three ways, and there were also the Forbidden City staff who accompanied the cultural relics to the rear to be responsible for the daily storage and maintenance of the cultural relics. Ma Heng was mainly responsible for overall planning and scheduling in Chongqing, and he repeatedly inspected the specific storage locations of cultural relics. After confirming." Ma Simeng introduced.
He said that in order to preserve the complete historical data on the migration of some of the fine cultural relics in the Forbidden City during this period of war, Ma Heng appointed Ouyang Daoda to be responsible for recording the entire migration process of all cultural relics in a realistic manner in order to prepare for the country and people in the future.
The conditions at the time were very difficult and people had to overcome many difficulties.
For example, Na Zhiliang was responsible for the preservation of cultural relics in Emei. Since the family was still in Peking, the family's livelihood was once a problem, so he wrote to Ma Heng asking to return to Peking.
"Ma Heng wanted to sell the things in his home as much as possible, and sold the money to Na Zhiliang's family. He wrote to Zhang Tingji, then the Director of General Affairs of the Forbidden City, and said this idea, but in the end it did not come true. Na Zhiliang was moved, and then I didn't mention going back to Peiping either." Ma Simeng felt that at that time, the people of the Palace Museum had always had a belief: wherever the cultural relics go, people will go there.
Image source: Photo courtesy of the Palace Press
Treat the Forbidden City as home
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Ma Heng presided over the demobilization of the Palace Museum and the eastward return of cultural relics moved westward.
"He originally advocated that the cultural relics should be returned to Peiping directly, but the Executive Yuan of the National Government ignored Cai Maheng's opinion."
Ma Heng knew in his heart that there was no hope for the cultural relics to be moved back to the Peking Forbidden City, so he handed over the work of the Nanjing Branch of the Palace Museum to Xu Senyu, the curator of the Museum of Antiquities, and stayed in Peiping to preside over the work of the Palace Museum.
"On the eve of the liberation of Beiping, the Nationalist Government ordered Ma Heng to select the fine cultural relics from the Palace Museum to be shipped to Taiwan, and repeated calls to urge Ma Heng to pack and airlift to Nanjing in batches. However, Ma Heng used the pretext of listing the fine cultural relics in the box as an excuse for delay. , And repeatedly urged the staff that the cultural relics are very delicate, and you must be careful when packing them, and you must not be anxious." Ma Simeng said.
With the excuse "the airport is not safe and cannot be shipped out temporarily", Ma Heng tried his best to delay until the traffic was interrupted. Later, he ordered that the Forbidden City be closed to all external traffic, and none of the selected cultural relics could be shipped out; I also excused. She was sick and refused to go to Taiwan.
After the liberation of Peiping, Ma Heng continued to serve as the president of the Palace Museum. In 1952, he was transferred to the chairman of the Beijing Cultural Relics Committee. It was also in this year that he donated a large number of oracle bones, rubbings and other cultural relics in his collection to the Palace Museum.
"He regards the Palace Museum as his family. The literature that Pu Yi brought out of the palace is distributed to the people, and Ma Heng has repeatedly proposed funds to the Executive Yuan for acquisition." Ma Simeng said that after Ma Heng passed away, his family members followed his wishes and collected his collection for many years. All cultural relics are also donated to the country.
Decades have passed.
In Ma Simeng's view, Ma Heng has a philosophy: All cultural relics and documents left over from Chinese history should belong to the state and be kept by the state. "He has been striving for this goal for the rest of his life." (End)