The Wu Family Compound in Jingyang, Shaanxi Province, found paintings worth tens of millions of characters
This article is written by Ni Fangliu
There is a question: if the old mansion is returned to the public, who should belong to the ancestral relics found?
This is the famous Jingyang Wu family compound in Shaanxi, encountered a new problem, during the renovation actually found tens of millions of ancestral treasures, the Wu family descendants asked to return to them.
Anwu Fort Wu Family Compound
But so far, there has been no final result.
Some netizens may not be very clear about the Wu family compound, but if you have watched the TV series "That Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Round" in 2018, no one should know that this story happened in the Wu Family Compound.
Wu Family Compound is located in An Wu Bao Village, Jiang Lu Township, Jingyang County. During the Yuan Dynasty, there was a near-xiang palace, named "An Wu Fort", and the posterity wrote "An" as "An", "An" and "An" were pronounced the same, and it became "An Wu Fort" after a long time. Another saying is that "An Wu" was raised by the ancestors of the Wu family, which means that the descendants of the Wu family will always be at peace here.
Stills from "That Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Round"
There is SagaYama, good feng shui.
Saga Mountain, known as Jingshan Mountain, is one of the famous mountains in Guanzhong. The mountain has five peaks, and the top of the mountain is close at hand, and the waters of the Jing, Wei and Huang rivers are close at hand. After the death of Emperor Dezong of Tang, the imperial feng shui master searched for dragon veins around Chang'an and turned to Mount Saga. It is really "nowhere to find to step on the iron shoes, it takes no effort to get there", looking south at the top of the mountain, the master found that the location of the Chongling Tomb is now condescending, surrounded by mountains and waters, like a "nine-petal iron lotus". The imperial master walked down to the top of the mountain, placed a compass at the southern foot, pierced the needle and led the hole, and pointed out the Wanshi Anji Chongling Tomb of Tang Dezong.
The master prophesied at that time: "The nine-petaled flower of the iron lotus, whoever gets the fortune; the gold and silver are like mountains, and they are pulled home every day." ”
Tang Chongling in the southern foothills of Saga Mountain
Although this is a legend, after the Wu family ancestors who moved from Jiangsu during the Tang Dynasty settled in Anwu Fort, it was really like getting the "Iron Lotus", making fortune from generation to generation, and gradually becoming one of the richest rooms in the local area. By the Qing Dynasty, the Wu family was already a family family.
The Wu family was one of the representatives of qin merchants, starting out in the cloth and tea business. Later, salt, Chinese medicinal materials, porcelain and other businesses were done, and pawnshops were opened, and all day the car pulled out the silver pull, accumulating huge wealth, building the Wu family manor, like a castle, "An Wu Fort" place name came from this.
Wu Family Compound (Current Status)
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Wu family was divided into gardens, and the five rooms lived in five courtyards in the east, west, south, and north.
Now the Wu Manor is known as the "Wu Family Compound".
The Wu family was "rich but not obscene, expensive but not luxurious", generous and generous, in today's words, a house of charity, with the reputation of "Great Qin Yishang".
The greatest "generosity" was in the late Qing Dynasty (1900 AD). In that year, the Eight-Nation Alliance army entered the capital, and history called it "Gengzi National Difficulty". Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor were so frightened that they hurried out of the city and fled west to Xi'an, known as the "Western Hunt". The Wu family donated 500,000 taels of silver (one says 100,000 taels), which relieved the royal emergency and won the favor of Empress Dowager Cixi. The widow Zhou Shi of the Wu family's East Courtyard was recognized by Cixi as a righteous daughter and was given the title of "Lady Yipin", and she was the prototype of Zhou Ying played by actress Sun Li in "That Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Round".
Zhou Ying, played by Sun Li
There are many celebrities in the descendants of the Wu family, such as Wu Mi, who became a famous master of traditional Chinese studies during the Republic of China and one of the founders of Tsinghua University's School of Chinese Studies, who came from the Wu Family West Courtyard and was called "Harvard Three Masters" with Chen Yinke and Tang Yongtong.
When the Wu family passed to Wu Huaixian of the Republic of China (the adopted son of the Zhou clan), it was not as good as in the past, and it lost its glory of that year.
But Wu Huaixian was very open-minded, had good relations with both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, funded the Kuomintang, and covered up the underground party of the Ccp.
In the twenty-fifth year of the Republic of China (1936), Wu Huaixian donated his family property to support the anti-Japanese resistance.
After the "Lugou Bridge Incident" in the sixteenth year of the Republic of China (1937), out of the need for the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to prepare a training course (hereinafter referred to as the "Youth Training Class") in Yunyang Town, Jingyang County, aimed at cultivating young cadres and developing anti-Japanese forces. From the fourth stage, the youth training class was moved to Anwubao Village in Jiang Lu Township, which was then called "An Wu Youth Training Class".
The Wu family lent the house to the youth training class as a teaching place, and in April 1940 the youth training class evacuated Anwu Fort.
Youth class scene (wax figure)
After the founding of the Republic in 1949, the Wu Family Compound was used as the Jiang Lu Township Commune Health Center.
In September 1980, the Wu Family Compound was announced as a cultural relics protection unit of Jingyang County as the site of the AnWu Youth Training Class.
In April 1992, it was announced as a key cultural relics protection unit in Shaanxi Province.
In March 2013, it was announced by the State Council as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units.
But before 1993, the ownership of the Wu family compound was unknown.
It was not until 1993 that it was clarified that in February of that year, the Jingyang County Cultural Relics Bureau (An Wu Wen Guan Office) applied for a state-owned land use certificate for the site of the An Wu Youth Training Class, which belonged to the Jingyang County People's Government. In other words, the Wu family compound is state property.
Today's Wu Family Compound has become the "An Wu Youth Training Class Site Museum (Memorial Hall)".
However, the descendants of the Wu family have always had opinions on the ownership of the old house.
In the 1980s, the descendants of the Wu family went to the higher authorities to report the problem. Because the Wu family compound has been listed as the old revolutionary site of the "Youth Training Class", the relationship is more complicated, and the local government cannot be the master, and finally reported to the province.
In 1984, after the General Office of the Shaanxi Provincial Government and the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Culture and Cultural Relics were mainly responsible for consultation, and asked the main leaders of the then provincial party committee and provincial government, after approval, to give a one-time subsidy of 20,000 yuan to Liu Yongpei, the daughter-in-law of Wu Huaixian, a descendant of the Wu family.
Works by Cixi
At that time, this money was allocated in the name of "living hardship subsidy", which was considered a fortune in the era of "ten thousand yuan households".
At this point, the matter in the Wu family compound had calmed down, and the descendants of the Wu family did not make any more demands.
But by 2016, Wu Guoxian, Wu Guohua and seven other descendants of the Wu family sued the Jingyang County Cultural Relics and Tourism Bureau and the Jingyang County Museum. Among them, Wu Guohua was the fourth-generation granddaughter of the Zhou clan, who was recognized by Empress Dowager Cixi as a righteous daughter, and was also the author of the first draft of the script of the TV series "That Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Round".
What's going on?
Originally, in 1998, when renovating the Wu family compound, a number of cultural relics were accidentally found, including inscriptions, characters, paintings, etc., a total of 42 pieces.
The descendants of the Wu family have not known about this matter, and only learned about it when they visited the museum.
It is estimated that the current market price of 42 cultural relics is 10 million yuan. Wu Guoxian and other descendants of the Wu family believe that these things are the items buried in the ancestral residence of the Wu family ancestors, and the descendants of the Wu family can inherit and legally occupy them according to law, and should be returned to the descendants of the Wu family.
However, the museum refused to return it.
Wu Huaixian's "Wangyue Building"
In the case of negotiations and demands failing, Wu Guoxian, Wu Guohua and other 7 descendants of the Wu family sued the Jingyang County Cultural Relics and Tourism Bureau and the Jingyang County Museum in court.
The reason why the museum refused to return it was that the Wu family compound was no longer the residence of the Wu family before liberation (before 1949). Moreover, in 1984, the government had given a one-time subsidy to Wu Huaixian's daughter-in-law, Liu Yongpei, and the issue had been resolved, and there should be no dispute between the two sides.
At the first instance, the descendants of the Wu family lost the case, but they were not satisfied and were still appealing.
What do you netizens think?
The back garden of the Wu family compound
Wu Family Dean Gallery
Wu Family Courtyard Theater Stage