The Fate of Three Calligraphic Rarities

Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) named a small building by Yangxin Palace in Forbidden City “Hall of Three Rarities”. The Three rarities refer to three masterpieces of calligraphy. The first was a 28-word letter Wang Xizhi wrote after a brief snow came to an end. It is known as Fast Snow Inscription. The second rarity was Mid Autumn Inscription， a 22-word note handwritten by Wang Xianzhi， the son of Wang Xizhi. The third rarity was Bo Yuan Inscription， a 47-word letter handwritten by Wang Xun， a niece of Wang Xizhi.

The first two are ancient copies， one made in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the other in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The third is authentic.

As Emperor Qianlong housed the three masterpieces in the Hall of Three Rarities， the calligraphic artworks are known as Hall of Three Rarities. The stories of the three rarities are long and complicated. What happened to them in modern times alone can be stuff for novels and films.

On June 3， 1928， Warlord Zhang Zuolin sent an envoy to visit Yi Peiji， curator of the newly established Palace Museum. The messenger was there to get “Fast Snow Inscription”. Zhang was inaugurated on June 18， 1927 as commander-in-chief of the Republic of China， which meant he was the highest authority of the young republic. Yi Peiji was unable to turn the request down， but he lied that the safe had three different keys and one of them was in the possession of Feng Yuxiang， another warlord at war with Zhang. Zhang had been just defeated and was about to step down from power and go back to northeast. He wanted to grab the treasure. The warlord did not have time to open the safe that night. He hastily left Beijing. He was killed by a bomb in the early morning of June 4， 1928.

November 5，1924 was the day when the dethroned emperor of the Qing Dynasty left the Forbidden City. The military police examined his baggage and found the dethroned emperor tried to smuggle Fast Snow Inscription out of the palace. It was confiscated. At that time， the military was still in the palaces. The keepers thought it unsafe to return the masterpiece to the Yangxin Hall. So they bought a safe and locked the inscription in the office of the keepers.

Though Fast Snow Inscription was caught and saved， Mid Autumn Inscription and Bo Yuan Inscription were successfully smuggled also in November， 1924 out of the Forbidden City by a concubine of Emperor Tongzhi， who lived in the Forbidden City for decades after the emperor died. The concubine dared not sell the two rarities for big money. Instead， she sold it secretly to a small antique shop. Guo Baochang， a collector， ran into the two masterpieces by chance and bought them.

However， the keepers of the museum had had the slightest idea that the two rarities had been smuggled and sold and bought and now in the collection of Guo Baochang.

January 3， 1933 the Japanese soldiers seized the Shanhai Pass， a key fortress between north and northeast China. Six days after the fall of the strategic pass， the museum decided to relocate the national treasures at the Palace Museum to Shanghai as of January 31. Zhuang Shangyan， a department director at the museum， was appointed a supervisor to monitor the relocation.

Before Zhuang left with the relocated treasures， he and two of his colleagues at the museum， all prominent antique experts， were invited to a dinner at the home of Guo Baochang. After the dinner， Guo let them take a look at his collection of antiques.

The three from the museum were flabbergasted to find that the two rarities were in the hands of Guo Baochang. They learned the story. And they thought that Guo would return the two rarities to the palace museum and the three rarities could go to Shanghai together. But Guo Baochang said nothing about returning the treasures to the museum. He called his son in and asked him to swear that the rarities would be returned to the state in the future.

More than 13，000 boxes of national treasures from the Palace Museum were soon shipped to Shanghai. They were shipped to Sichuan in southwestern China after 1937.

In the spring of 1937， a collector named Zhang Boju worried about the two rarities in the hands of Guo Baochang， suspecting that Guo held the two rarities not for the sake of collection but for quick profit. What if he sold to a foreign buyer and the two rarities traveled to a foreign country? Zhang Boju decided to buy the two from Guo. With a mediator， Zhang Boju offered to buy the two rarities and four other artworks for 200，000 silver dollars (an ordinary government official earned about 80 silver dollars a month at that time). As Zhang had just bought some other precious antiques， he did not have the money to pay in one lump sum. So the two sides agreed on payment on installments. Zhang Boju paid 60，000 upfront and the arrears would be paid up in full within 12 months.

However， the Japan’s all out invasion into China on July 7， 1937 froze Zhang’s bank accounts. Knowing he would not be able to pay all the money in 12 months， Zhang returned the two rarities to Guo Baochang. In 1942， Guo Baochang died and passed the two precious inscriptions to his son Guo Zhaojun. After Japan surrendered in 1945， Zhang Boju came back to Beijing and asked about the two rarities. Guo Zhaojun asked for a huge amount of money that Zhang was unable to pay.

Soon afterwards， Song Ziwen came to Beiping to inspect. Guo Zhaojun donated some porcelain in his father’s collection to the Palace Museum. Guo received an award of 100，000 US dollars and was appointed a bank manager.

Curious about this donation and appointment， Zhang investigated and learned that Guo Zhaojun gave the two rarities as gifts to Song Ziwen. Zhang wrote a story and Xinmin Evening News published the story， which caused a big stir across the nation. Under the pressure of the media， Song returned the two rarities to Guo Zhaojun.

In September 1948， the KMT government began to ship the national treasures to Taiwan. The Fast Snow Inscription went to Taiwan. Zhuang Shangyan was one of the supervisors to monitor the safe shipping. In the early 1949 Guo Zhaojun arrived in Taiwan bringing with him the two rarities. He offered to sell the two rarities to the Palace Museum in Taipei. The amount he asked was reasonable but the palace museum was unable to buy. So Guo Zhaojun went to Hong Kong.

On October 25， 1951， Ma Heng learned that the two rarities were in Hong Kong. It turned out that Guo Zhaojun mortgaged the two masterpieces for a loan at HSBC. He dared not sell the masterpieces because of his father’s wish. The loan would be due at the end of November 1951. Zheng Zhenduo， director of the National Bureau of Cultural Relics， stopped over at Hong Kong after a visit to India and Burma and learned about the two rarities. He immediately asked the government to purchase the two rarities back. Premier Zhou Enlai approved.

Two experts from the mainland arrived at Hong Kong. With the help of people in Hong Kong， they secretly evaluated the two pieces and concluded that they were authentic. Appropriate arrangements were made. The two rarities were purchased at a price of 488，376.62 HK dollars， a huge amount of money at that time.

On December 3， 1951， the two rarities came back to Beijing. After an exhibition to the top leadership on December 23 for a day， the two rarities came back to the Forbidden City. Twenty-seven years had elapsed since the two masterpieces of calligraphy had left the Forbidden City.

Zhuang Shangyan passed away in Taipei in 1980. He told his son on the death bed that his two lifelong regrets were that the three rarities were not reunited and that he was unable to bring the treasures back to the mainland.□