劉正教授學術演講録第58講美捐贈在華收購中國文物反引發熱議——兼談我家和翁家之間的祖先世交

The topic we want to talk about today is that the U.S. donation to China's acquisition of Chinese cultural relics caused a stir. On May 10, the American Magazine published an article like this. On May 9, the New York authorities announced that the U.S. had donated two Beidao cultural relics to China. This is the latest donation to more than a dozen countries. These two cultural relics can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty in the north-south dynasty in Chinese history. In a statement, a U.S. prosecutor in the New York-Manhattan area said, These two cultural relics are around 7 centuries old and worth more than $3.5 million. There is at least one of the two Beidao cultural relics that is hard to believe. It has been stored in the New York Museum's storage room. It is covered in mud and has not been shown in public for 30 years. In his statement, Braga also said, In the early 1990s, Chinese cultural relics thieves found this cultural relic in an ancient tomb in the country. Then he used a saw to saw it off, secretly sold it and smuggled it out of the country. The collector of these two cultural relics is Mr. White, a famous art collector in New York. He collected a total of 89 precious ancient art and cultural relics from more than 10 countries. Although these two cultural relics are worth more than $3.5 million, But Mr. Braga said, The exquisite details of these two artworks are far more valuable than the market price of $3.5 million. As you can see, this is China Daily, an English-Chinese daily. It released a special message that the U.S. has returned two cultural relics to China. It also followed up on this matter. It can be seen that this matter is also very concerned from the official to the folk in China. Taiwan's TV station also immediately followed up on the news of this program. I don't know if Taiwan is sour in its heart. I think this cultural relic should be returned to them. The U.S. signed an agreement in New York. The U.S. found that in the past, It can be traced back to the Northern Dynasty of China to the Tang Dynasty. It is such an ancient relic to return to China. The New York City Government's Antique Investigation Department has carried out a long-term tracking and criminal investigation of this batch of stolen cultural relics. Now this return is one of the results of this agency's tracking and investigation. It is estimated that this time it was investigated by the New York City Government's Antique Investigation Department. The total value of the collected cultural relics is more than $6.9 million. And since January last year, The U.S. has returned more than 950 precious ancient artworks from China, India, Cambodia, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Greece, Turkey, and Italy to 19 countries. Since last year, the total value of these returned artworks has exceeded $16.5 billion. In other words, whoever buys it will be unlucky. No matter how much you pay, The New York City Government's Antique Investigation Department will immediately check and return the stolen cultural relics once they find out that they belong to the country. The FBI, the Manhattan Prosecutor's Office, and the Chinese Consulate General in New York signed a donation agreement on the morning of the 9th and held a return ceremony for cultural relics. This is a goodwill cooperation between the U.S. and China, which is in the midst of a comprehensive deterioration. Chinese Prime Minister Huang Ping said in his speech, This donation and cooperation reflect the unwavering efforts and close cooperation of the two sides in the protection of cultural heritage and career. And these two objects have a high historical, scientific, and artistic value. Of course, this news quickly aroused domestic little pinks' attention, ridicule, and insult. They asked, Some people say, why return it? Is this necessary? Since you have already bought it, you should not return it. This is obviously a show. Some people say, the big heads of stolen Chinese cultural relics are all in the British Museum. That's the concentration of stolen goods. Why don't you return it there? Of course, some people are more rational. The U.S. and Europe are the holy places for preserving ancient Chinese cultural relics. Without their preservation, the world really does not know how many precious cultural relics have been torn apart by the CCP. Of course, we see more of the nationalistic sentiment of domestic and foreign media and self-media. On the other hand, we see the famous American-Chinese collector and scholar, Mr. Morgan. He donated cultural relics to the U.S. Museum. At the same time, he sold cultural relics to China. This phenomenon also aroused widespread enthusiasm in China. Mr. Morgan is the fifth-generation great-grandson of Emperor Tongzhi and Emperor Guangxu of the late Qing Dynasty. At the end of the last century, he made a significant contribution to the exchange of culture between China and the United States. He devoted his life to the collection of Chinese antiques, inheritance and protection work. However, such an antique collector and social activist from China and the United States was sometimes criticized and criticized by the Chinese in his later life. It turns out that this is related to Mr. Morgan's donation of the collected cultural relics to the United States. In 2018, when Mr. Morgan was 100 years old, he donated 183 cultural relics to the U.S. Boston Museum of Art. In 2000, he donated 5.42 precious antiques worth 4.5 million US dollars to the Shanghai Library. He directly asked for a price for China, but directly donated to the United States. I was also involved in the domestic part of the speech. I want to tell you that this is due to tax considerations. This is something that domestic consumers have never realized. When Mr. Morgan decided to donate cultural relics to China and sell them in China, he received a profit of up to 4.5 million US dollars. If he wanted to get this money, first of all, he had to pay a total price of 25% to the Chinese government through the cultural relics auction company. 25% as tax, which is 1.25 million US dollars. In fact, he only got 3.37 million US dollars. When this money was transferred to the United States, he had to report to the U.S. Treasury Department and pay a tax rate of 4.5 million US dollars. It will also be increased by 25%. In other words, the 4.5 million US dollar transaction price was cut in half after the taxes of China and the United States. But the U.S. government has regulations. If you donate cultural relics to the U.S. universities and museums, you will have the opportunity to reduce this tax. So in order to get a total of 3.37 million US dollars, he had to donate some cultural relics to the U.S. On July 28, 2018, on his 100th birthday, he announced that he would donate 183 cultural relics to the Boston Museum of Art. The market value of these cultural relics may not be less than 1.25 million US dollars. Even if it's only 500,000 US dollars, it doesn't matter. He can get 3.37 million US dollars steadily. And this time is valid for a long time. It doesn't matter if you donated to the U.S. in 2018 and sold it 2,000 years ago. As long as you donate to the U.S. in 2018, it will be valid for the rest of your life. You can get a tax exemption according to your donation certificate at any time. This is the regulation of the U.S. government. Because I donated cultural relics to the U.S. universities and museums. I know this regulation. At 2 p.m. on December 9, 2020, Mr. Wang Ge, a famous scholar, passed away in his hometown of Anxiang. He was 102 years old. I would like to say that he and I have never known each other. Although we are both Chinese, Americans, and Mexicans, our ancestors were good friends. In ancient times, in the Qing Dynasty, we have been friends for generations. He is the fifth grandson of Wang Tonghe, a great scholar of the late Qing Dynasty. His calligraphy is basically from the old collection of Wang Tonghe. My great-grandfather, Liu Zhonglin, and Wang Tonghe and his brother, Wang Tongshu, are good friends and officials of the same dynasty. Among them, Wang Zengyuan, the son of Wang Tongshu, is also a classmate of my great-grandfather. He is also a good friend of my great-grandfather. Here I would like to say that Empress Dowager Cixi, in order to attract and thank Wang Tonghe and Wang Tongshu, gave Wang Tonghe and Wang Tongshu a special award. Wang Tonghe and Wang Tongshu were given the title of Nan Ding, which means a great man. Wang Tonghe did not receive the title of Nan Ding, while Wang Tongshu received the title of Wang Zengyuan, which means a great man who has been unqualified. Wang Zengyuan is a good friend of my great-grandfather. Empress Dowager Cixi rewarded him with the title of Juren, and then directly ordered him to attend the National Congress of 1863, which is the Jinshi. My great-grandfather was a Juren who passed the exam in the same year as Zhang Zhidong in 1857. Then in 1863, he passed the exam in the same year as Zhang Zhidong. At that time, due to Wang Zengyuan, Empress Dowager Cixi rewarded him with the title of Juren, and then directly ordered him to attend the National Congress of 1863, which is the Jinshi. Therefore, the new officials, this can be said to be the new spiritual assembly, there is no doubt that Wang Zengyuan is a great man. Therefore, my great-grandfather once privately told his family that his great-grandfather was rewarded by Empress Dowager Cixi, but it doesn't mean that he doesn't admit that he is not good enough. However, at that time, some of the thoughts in everyone's mind brought a lot of pressure to Wang Zengyuan himself. So after he became a Juren, he quickly became sick and resigned. He did a great job. After he got the title, he knew that he was in trouble, so he resigned at home and made a living by selling calligraphy and painting. And in 1887, when he was in his prime, he died of depression at the age of 54 or 50. So he was also very miserable. So I don't know if Empress Dowager Cixi's great-grandmother harmed him or helped him. Anyway, Wang Zengyuan became the second Juren the Wang family was looking forward to. This is to give glory to the Wang family. But Wang Zengyuan himself probably felt that his knowledge was not to that extent, and he was always pointed out by others, so he was depressed. And he took the initiative to resign. He did a very good job. He didn't say, I don't understand. Empress Dowager Cixi rewarded me. Jia Gu, a father, a uncle, are all first-class Jurens. I will be promoted. He didn't do that. So Wang Zengyuan is very rational and very self-confident. He resigned and became ill. He relied on self-improvement for the rest of his life. So we can see. But later, in Wanqing's officialdom, it was Zhang Zhidong and his classmates who were really active in academic affairs and officialdom. Including me, President Gao, I was with Zhang Zhidong. Zhang Zhidong's great-grandmother, his original position immediately was given to me, President Gao, to inherit. So this is the example of Wanqing's officialdom, so we do this show today to make everyone understand why Mr. Wang Wanke sold it back then. Because he sold it. He had to donate 4.5 million dollars to the US. He didn't want to donate everything. He should have donated all to the US or all to the Chinese Communist Party, but he had to leave some property to his family, We can understand that. And maybe no one would have thought that if you donate these cultural relics, you think it's over? For example, I have a lot of letters and paintings, from ancient times to the present. My family left them. I also have my own letters and diaries. These are from Feng Youlan and Liang Shuming. I also keep the letters they gave me, including those of Yu Yingshi now. I also have a lot of letters from some famous universities from the U.S. and China. They told me, it's great that you want to donate. We accept it. But we hope that you can donate more money so that we can buy a higher-end storage bookcase. Storage. Then I won't have to look for trouble. Right? Why should I not give it to my children, or the descendants of my family? Right? The same goes for Mr. Weng. The storage of his paintings, his precious books, is more strict than the general storage of letters. Right? If you want to buy a high-end storage bookcase, you don't have to look for trouble. In other words, if you donate money, I'll be satisfied. In order to donate my paintings, letters, and cultural relics of my family, I have to spend money to buy a bookcase for a university museum. I think you've gone a little too far. So now, even if you ask me to give you a commission, I think it's too much. Whether I can donate money, or I can donate it for a long time, I've done it with love. This kind of family that releases the nobles at night. But you can't ask us to do too much. We have to live, right? I'm telling the truth. Thank you, everyone. Before the end of this program, If you are satisfied, please subscribe to this channel. Your subscription is the greatest support to me to work hard every day to make the program. Let's spread the truth together, understand the real historical, cultural, and realistic political process of the world and China. Thank you for watching.