1900.
In the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty.
The Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Yanjing.
This is a relatively tragic period in Chinese history, and it is also the beginning of China's complete decline into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
In June 1900, more than 2,000 people from the British Naval Joint Task Force invaded Yanjing from the Tianjin Concession. After the Battle of Langfang, they suffered nearly 300 casualties and were forced to return to Tianjin.
On August 4, they made a comeback, starting from Jinmen, and successively captured Beicang, Yangcun, Hexiwu, Tongzhou and other strategic places, and captured Yanjing on the 14th of that month.
Just in the three days after August 14th.
Burning, killing and looting.
Among them, a captain of a certain English cavalry regiment named Johnson took a painting while burning the Summer Palace.
He couldn't understand the painting, but there was a jade button on the scroll.
It is said that the far east is a country rich in treasures.
Jade, gold, there are countless.
"Johnson, what do you have?"
An English soldier saw Johnson's little move and asked curiously.
"Oh, God, it's nothing. I'm just sorry that such a big manor was burned down like this!"
"Hahaha, we will eventually return to the British Empire. This is proof of our victory!"
Sudden,
Something caught Johnson's eye.
"Huh? Wilson, come and see, what is this?"
They saw a glass display cabinet in their sight. They had seen this kind of cabinet before. Some good things were stored in this kind of cabinet before.
Gas tanks were invented in the 1970s, but there is no such thing in the world now, so neither of them knew it.
"Is what is placed in the cabinet a mysterious treasure from China?"
The two were attracted by the light blue thing, which they had never seen before.
Subconsciously,
Both of them thought it was some kind of treasure from the mysterious East.
"It was actually burned!"
Johnson lamented.
A fire broke out from inside the glass cabinet, and they all thought they accidentally ignited this good thing while setting the fire.
"Johnson, do you smell anything?"
In the glass cabinet, the flames around the gas tank were getting stronger and stronger. Under the stimulation of the gas, the fire kept trying to disperse outwards, but because it was sealed by the glass display cabinet, only a small part of the heat wave could escape.
The remaining flames continued to burn between the gas tank and the glass.
The smell of gas is getting stronger.
"It smells so familiar? It's a bit like the smell of burning gasoline?"
"No, this thing is going to explode!"
The gas tank visible to the naked eye began to deform, and some equipment at the gas valve began to be damaged. If you listen carefully, you will find that air and flames began to flow back and pour into the inside of the gas tank.
Just when Johnson and Wilson's expressions suddenly changed.
There was a loud bang.
Bang~
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Historically, when the Summer Palace was being burned, Captain Clarence K. Johnson of the 1st Bengal Cavalry Regiment of the British Army took advantage of the chaos and stole the "Pictures of Proverbs for Women's History".
In 1902, after Johnson returned to London, he took the painting to the British Museum and wanted it to be appraised.
At that time, he did not realize the value of the painting and simply asked the museum to estimate the jade buckle.
In the end, the staff put the entire painting together, including the jade, for a total estimated value of 25 pounds.
In this way, the British Museum purchased this painting for only 25 pounds, and the thousand-year-old national treasure has since been living in a foreign country.
"Picture of Admonitions of Female History" is a silk painting created by Gu Kaizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
The original work has been lost.
Currently there are copies from the Tang and Song dynasties.
The copy from the Tang Dynasty had 12 original sections, and only 9 sections have survived to this day. The copy from the Song Dynasty is currently in the Palace Museum and has 11 sections, but the overall artistry is slightly inferior.
Some scholars believe that the last nine paragraphs of the Song copy were copied from the Tang copy.
Therefore, the Tang copy of "Pictures of Admonitions of Women" is also recognized as the painting closest to Gu Kaizhi's painting style. Its brushwork and colors are quite vivid, and it has become a treasure collected by the palaces of past dynasties and has been passed down in an orderly manner for thousands of years.
Regardless of the age of its creation or its artistic value, the Tang copy of "The Picture of Proverbs of a Female History" is even rarer. However, its fate has been full of twists and turns, and it is still hanging alone overseas with no return date.
The Tang copy was first hidden in the Tang inner court. Due to the war in the late Tang Dynasty, the painting began to flow into the public, and was later collected by Liu Youfang, an official of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Later, it was given to the Kingdom of Jin during the Song and Jin Dynasties.
After the fall of the Jin Dynasty, the Tang copy returned to the Southern Song Dynasty and was acquired by the powerful official Jia Sidao. After Jia was expelled, he returned to the inner palace of the Southern Song Dynasty.
In the Ming Dynasty, it was collected by Yan Song, Gu Zhengyi, Dong Qichang and Xiang Molin. In the early Qing Dynasty, it was handed over to Zhang Xiaosi and Liang Qingbiao, and later to the collector Gao Shiqi, and finally entered the Qing Palace during the Qianlong period.
Emperor Qianlong was very fond of the Tang copy of "The Picture of Women's History". In 1746, he reframed it, stamped it with 37 collection seals, large and small, and placed it on the desk of the Imperial Study Room. He also painted an orchid on the back of the scroll and inscribed "Tong Guan" with his imperial pen. Fang".
Since then, "Pictures of Admonitions of Women's History" has been collected in Jingyixuan of Jianfu Palace in the Forbidden City for a long time. During the reign of the Empress Dowager Cixi, "Pictures of Proverbs for Women's History" was moved to the Summer Palace.
It was 1900 in this Summer Palace.
There was a loud bang.
Blast the invading British coalition forces to pieces.
Johnson and Wilson, who were closer, were too close to the gas tank, so they died on the spot and were even burned beyond recognition.
The British coalition forces a little further away were shocked by the loud noise.
They thought this was China's secret weapon.
The sleeping dragon is still a dragon after all. When they invaded the country of China, they were cautious because there were always rumors that there was a mysterious power in the East.
But the smooth traffic along the way allowed the group to indulge.
It was nothing more than this when I thought about coming to China, but today's explosion directly caused the coalition forces of England and France to begin to re-examine the east.
In the following period of time, the armies of the two countries did not burn, kill, and loot easily.
Instead, he kept trying and investigating what the exploding object was.
Later, after testing, it was discovered that China did not have any explosives similar to that, and the pace of aggression began again.
Johnson, who had been bombed beyond recognition, had been collected and buried on the spot by the British coalition forces.
The number of soldiers they invaded this time was not large. If one of them was sacrificed, it would be a huge loss. Therefore, since they were sacrificed, they must bury their bodies properly.
It's just that the people collecting the corpses didn't notice it.
A painting that Johnson had secretly hidden disappeared into thin air.
at the same time,
In the British Museum in 2023, a cultural relic from China, the "Picture of Proverbs of Female History", was on display and disappeared in an instant.
