Wen | Zhou Ran
Weng Tonggong was born into a family of officials and eunuchs, and was an official for more than 40 years, tired of relocating the Shangshu of the Household Department and co-founding university scholars, and was the emperor of the late Qing Dynasty, who was busy and idle at the same time in the official field, and spent a lot of effort and financial resources on such "residual things" as literary and entertainment collection. Weng Tonggong's house in Beijing is located in Nanheng Street, close to the Liuli Factory, and he has to go for a walk almost every day, and he is a regular visitor to the antique market. If there is nothing to gain or it is too late, he will be annoyed in the diary, encounter the high cost of treasures, and will examine himself for playing too much, lamenting that "doing this useless thing is hindering the right karma, and silently ashamed of himself." In this way, while warning himself not to lose his mind on playthings, he also created the Tired Family Collection, which became a large collector who attracted the attention of future generations.
When he returned to the field in the year of Wu Shu, Weng Tonggong took the ancient books, calligraphy and paintings, inscriptions, porcelain, jade, etc. from his home in Beijing, or sold them or packed boxes, and brought the remaining items back to his hometown of Changshu, and made a self-made inventory of the remaining items. According to the statistics in the catalog, Weng's collection of about 360 paintings and calligraphy, 125 kinds of books, and about 123 kinds of inscriptions has been increasing since then.
The Weng family collection has been passed down for 6 generations, and although it has been turbulent for more than 100 years, it has rarely been lost. The collection is divided into several categories: first, the handwriting of Weng Tonggong's works, including diaries, poetry manuscripts, and letters, which are important references for the study of political culture in the late Qing Dynasty; second, the good books, including a variety of Song editions of ancient books, which can be called the largest private collection of ancient books and rare books outside Of Asia; the third is the calligraphy and painting inscriptions, including many inkblots of Famous Ming and Qing Artists such as Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Dong Qichang, Chen Hongshou, and Zhu Yun; fourth, seals, which have more than forty prints for Weng Tonggong's own use, and others are also from the hands of Wu Changshuo, Jin Cheng, and other famous artists such as Wu Changshuo and Jin Cheng.
Mr. Ongwango
Weng Tonggong had no heirs before his death, and he had a son from the fifth brother Weng Tongjue, but he did not think of the third generation and no heirs, and from the eldest brother Weng Tongshu lineage, he inherited the fourth generation of Weng Zhilian, weng Zhilian had no descendants, and from his younger brother, he inherited his nephew Weng Wange, who had just been born. In 1919, Weng Zhilian died, and Weng Wange, who was only 2 years old, became the heir to Weng Tonggong's huge family collection.
In October 1997, Wang Yannan of Beijing Guardian Auction Company visited Weng Wange in the United States and visited the Weng family's library in the basement, expressing his willingness to provide him with the best book collection entrusted auction service. Previously, Weng Wange had attended the auction of ancient paintings and calligraphy in Beijing Guardian in a low-key manner, which seemed to release some kind of signal. However, Weng Wange said that he was in good health and did not consider this matter for the time being. On this trip, Wang Yannan only brought back a fragment of the Song Chunxi First Year Jinxi Zhang's Magazine Box Edition "Mr. Changli Collection", which was engraved with Song seals and had Song people's eyebrows. The book was sold at a good price at the 1998 Guardian Spring Auction, which was followed by Weng Wange's entrustment to Guardian to auction the family's collection of ancient books. In the process of contact between the two sides, Weng Wange put forward three conditions: one is that it must be auctioned as a whole, the second is that the target should be a collection unit with a considerable level except Japan, and the third is to make a good price. Weng's collection is about to change owners as a whole, which is naturally a major event in the ancient book collection circle.
Upon learning of this news, the Shanghai Museum and the Shanghai Library had jointly written a report to the municipal party committee on the purchase of books, and 12 heavyweight cultural scholars in China, including Zhang Dainian, Ji Xianlin, Zhou Zhouliang, Wang Shixiang, Zhu Jialiang, etc., also openly called for the best efforts to keep the collection in China, saying that these ancient books "have some secret collections of Weng's more than one hundred and fifty years, which scholars look up to and do not know whether they exist or not, and have high academic value, and according to domestic standards, they should be important cultural relics at the national level and are rare books that libraries at home and abroad, including China." As early as 1995, China Guardian Auction Company collected a volume of "Wenyuan Yinghua" to the auction in Beijing, but it was eventually auctioned by overseas people for 1.43 million, which made domestic scholars sad.
Eventually, Weng's collection became associated with the Shanghai Library. In February 2000, Weng Wange transferred 80 kinds of rare ancient books from the Family Collection and 542 rare ancient books of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties to the Shanghai Library for $4.5 million through auction. A large number of scholars came to the scene of the collection to see the style, and the leaders of the Shanghai Library specially took people to Beijing to hand them over, so they carried 7 boxes of national treasure-level Song carved orphan books, took a special train carriage, and were escorted back to Shanghai by armed police guards.
The catalogue of Weng's books purchased by the Shanghai Library includes nine volumes of the "Long and Short Classics", "Records of the Re-carved Footbook", "Huichang Yipin Collection", "Ding Di Collection", "Songshan Resident Scholar Collection", etc., many of which are orphan or ancestral books passed down from generation to generation, and each volume is not easy to come by.
Ji Yun (left) is an official phonological work of the Song Dynasty
Take the ten volumes of the southern Song Dynasty's first engraved edition of "JiYun" as an example. Ji Yun (集韵) is an official phonological work of the Song Dynasty, reworked and compiled on the basis of Guang Yun (廣韵) and Yun Luo (Rhyme Strategy), and was finally drafted in the second year (1039) of Emperor Renzong of Song's reign. There are three surviving Song editions: the Southern Song Dynasty Tanzhou inscription in the collection of the National Library of China (Qing Tianlu Linlang Old Collection); the Southern Song Dynasty Tanzhou Military Periodicals collected by the Imperial Household Department of Japan; the Southern Song Dynasty Xiaozong Chunxi Fourteenth Year Tian Shiqing Ankang Jinzhou Military Periodicals held by the Imperial Household Department of Japan; and the Southern Song Dynasty Mingzhou Periodicals repurchased by the Shanghai Library (Weng Tonggong's Old Collection), which is the earliest and most numerous ancestral editions that have been handed down. In the edition of the Shanghai Library, there is a Zhu seal of "Yushan Qian Zeng Zun Wang's Collection". Qian Zengzi Zunwang was a bibliophile in the early Qing Dynasty, and like Weng Tonggong, he was a Changshu person, and there was a library building named "Shugu Lou". After Qian's death, the "JiYun" described the ancient building as hidden, and there were shadow copies circulated in the late Kangxi dynasty, until the Tongzhi period, when this Southern Song Dynasty engraving was included in the family collection by Weng Tonggong.
According to the records in Weng Tonggong's diary, on March 7, 1865, Weng Tonggong first wanted to buy 30 gold, and the other party did not sell it for a low price. The next day he went to the glass factory again, bid 40 gold, the seller did not sell, Weng's heart shouted "hateful, hateful." Things dragged on until the 13th, I don't know what kind of twists and turns it has experienced, these volumes of "Ji Yun" were finally taken down by Weng Tonggong for 34 gold. He was extremely proud, called himself Yun Zhai, and wrote in his diary: "This Yi Di thing is also ... now fall into my hands, another day to the bed to talk about the rain, when adding a period of appreciation to the ear." "Yi" refers to Aixin Jueluo Yunxiang, the thirteenth son of Kangxi who was crowned prince of Yi in the sixty-first year of Kangxi. His son Hongxiao liked to collect classics, and after his attack, he built the Leshan Hall in Fuchu as a library building. Because of his status as an imperial prince and nobleman and his strong financial resources, the ancient books he collected were superior in quantity and quality. Even when the Qianlong Emperor was repairing the Siku Quanshu, he ordered the world to dedicate the books to the collection, and Hongxiao did not give them. The collection of books in Prince Yi's mansion has gone through several generations, and when it came to Zaiyuan's generation, it encountered changes. Zaiyuan was killed in the Coup d'état of Xin You, and the yifu collection of books was scattered among the people, and folk bibliophiles such as Haiyuan Pavilion in Liaocheng, Jieyilu in Hangzhou, and Caiyitang (Weng Tonggong's Mansion) in Changshu had bought some.
Sixteen Pages of Sutai Jisheng's Book of Calligraphy and Painting (Partial), Ming, Shen Zhou
The Lingfei Liujia Jing (Lingfei Jing) during the Tang Kaiyuan period is the earliest in the Weng family's calligraphy. The Lingfei Jing was discovered in the late Ming Dynasty, copied into stone, and reprinted many times in the Qing Dynasty, which had a great influence on the calligraphy of Xiaokai in the Qing Dynasty. Weng's collection is also the ancestor of various Takumotos.
Most of the fine works in Weng Xin's collection come from the Jiruilou collection of fellow villager Chen Yu. After Chen Yu's death, his adopted son did not know how to collect, only know how to sell, most of which was purchased by Weng Xincun and another major bibliophile, Qu Shi's Iron Qin Bronze Sword Building. Fu Xinian, an expert in ancient books, said that the Changshu Weng's collection of books is the most important and the last batch of rare books of ancient China that have been circulated overseas, and it is also the last batch of rare books in private collections.