Ｚｈａｎｇ　Ｂｏｊｕ：Ｃｏｌｌｅｃｔｏｒ　ｏｆ　Ｎａｔｉｏｎａｌ　Ｔｒｅａｓｕｒｅｓ

ＨＵＯ　ＪＩＡＮＹＩＮＧ

EVERY lifetime has its unforgettable moments. My visit to Zhang Boju (1898-1982) in 1981 was among them. Although just one of many interviews during my career as a professional photographer, it was special. Zhang was one of the few celebrities that I truly looked up to, respected and admired. He was, and remains, the greatest art collector of modern China. His dedication to protecting Chinas historical and cultural relics and artifacts transcended not only the value he placed on family property, but also his life.

An Extraordinary

Collector

I met with Zhang Boju at his shabby courtyard house in Houhai Nanyan, in Beijings Shichahai area. The humble courtyard, having survived the “cultural revolution” (1966-1976) and the Tangshan earthquake (1976), was pitifully the worse for wear. It was shared by several households and had become disfigured by various arbitrary makeshift constructions.

Zhangs wife, Pan Su, came to the door to greet me. Dressed as a typical housewife, her refined manner and elegant bearing denoted an essentially artistic background. Pan Su was an extremely gifted artist. I once heard the story of how a friend of Zhang Boju asked him to restore a damaged ancient painting. Finding it beyond repair, Zhang asked Pan Su to paint a replica. When Zhang presented her work to a few of his prominent artist friends, they had no inkling that it was a reproduction.

Although aware that Zhang Boju lived a frugal life and was in poor health, I was nonetheless shocked at what I beheld: he sat motionless, a look of calm resolution radiating from his emaciated features. He was clad in a black cotton-padded coat in early 19th century style; I was unable to tell whether its luster was an aspect of the fabric or the result of years of wear.

Zhangs study was in old-world style, littered with books and scrolls of painting and calligraphy; hardly anything in it was contemporary. I heard later that a thief, obviously untutored in the arts, once broke into Zhangs house, but found nothing, other than a 12-inch-screen black and white TV set, worth stealing. I thanked Zhangs good fortune that he had been robbed by such an ignoramus. I noticed two pieces of antique carved hard wood furniture. They had been confiscated by Red Guards as “remnants of feudalism, capitalism and revisionism” during the “cultural revolution,” but eventually returned to the Zhangs. When Pan Su went to claim them, the clerk asked her to show proof of ownership. Pan answered, “Go anywhere, and ask whomever you like if anyone other than Zhang Boju would own such pieces of furniture.” Speechless, the clerk meekly allowed Pan to take the furniture home.

I had gone to visit Zhang Boju in order to photograph the weiqi (go) set that had formerly belonged to Chen Yi, one of the 10 marshals who were decorated in 1955. Marshall Chen Yi was well known as an intellectual with a fine appreciation of poetry, art and calligraphy. He was an intimate friend of Zhang Boju. Chen, on his deathbed, bequeathed his weiqi set – a rare relic of fine workmanship that he had cherished and kept with him all through the war years – to the Zhangs. When Marshal Chen died in 1972, Zhang Boju wrote an elegiac couplet that hung in a discreet corner of the mourning hall dedicated to the late marshal. Its rhetorical grace and exquisite calligraphy caught the eye of Chairman Mao Zedong, who attended the funeral ceremony. When he asked Zhang Qian, Chen Yis widow, who the writer was she answered: “An old friend of Chen Yi who has donated both Chinas most valuable surviving piece of calligraphic art and scroll painting to the country.” Mao Zedong knew at once that the artist was Zhang Boju. In the depths of her grief, Zhang Qian nevertheless took this opportunity to inform Mao of the Zhangs abject situation. Chairman Mao immediately instructed Premier Zhou Enlai to make appropriate arrangements that would improve the Zhangs living conditions and enable them to continue their work. It was only then that the Zhangs fortunes took a turn for the better.

Two Superlative

Collectibles

The ancient works that Zhang Qian spoke of were the Pingfu Calligraphy and the scroll painting Spring Outing. These two works of art are still appraised as the most valuable of ancient Chinese art relics.

Pingfu Calligraphy is 23.7cm in length and 20.6cm in width. Its nine lines of 80 or more characters are brushed in a variant style that features both lishu (official script) and caoshu (cursive hand). It is a letter from Lu Ji, a personage of the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316) to one of his friends. This work of calligraphy dates back 1,700 years. It is valued both for its antiquity and artistic worth as a classic masterpiece that testifies to the calligraphic evolution from lishu to caoshu. The characters are unintelligible to other than experts, due to their “bald brush dry ink” style of application. Lu Ji was a grandson of Lu Xun, a famous Wu Kingdom general during the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), and commander of the fateful battle in which Liu Bei, founder of the Kingdom of Shu, met his downfall. Lu Ji was also a “gifted person seldom met.” He was a peerless poet who left a legacy of more than 100 poems, also an accomplished historian. His Pingfu Calligraphy was a cherished item in imperial collections throughout the succeeding dynasties. By the late Qing Dynasty, it had entered the Prince Gongs Mansion collection.

Zhang Boju kept track of the Pingfu Calligraphy, but it was not until the 1930s that he actually set eyes on it. At that time the work was in the possession of Pu Xinshe, grandson of Prince Gong. This was a matter of great anxiety to Zhang. Pu Xinshe had in 1936 sold the Tang Dynasty (618-907) painting Zhao Ye Bai Tu (Night-illuminating Whiteness, the name of the most valued steed of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty). The painting was eventually taken out of China. Zhang conveyed to Pu on several occasions his sincere desire to buy the precious Pingfu Calligraphy, but could not afford the price that Pu demanded. Zhang, however, reminded Pu that it was as a consequence of his actions that a precious Tang Dynasty painting had been lost to a foreign collector. He warned Pu to deal more carefully with this calligraphic masterpiece.

When Pus mother died in late 1937, he was badly in need of cash. Zhang Boju brought 10,000 silver dollars to help him out in his time of need. Moved, Pu agreed to sell the Pingfu Calligraphy to Zhang for 40,000 silver dollars – one fifth of his original demand. Zhang immediately sold one of his houses in order to obtain the necessary cash. Upon achieving ownership of the treasure, the happy couple named their dwelling Pingfu Hall. Zhang later wrote of the purchase, which was headline news in the capital: “Having failed in my efforts to prevent Zhao Ye Bai Tu from going abroad, I feel rewarded by this transaction, which is a big event in my life.”

Zhangs fame, however, made him a target for bandits and robbers. He was abducted in Shanghai in 1941, and his kidnappers demanded an exorbitant ransom. When Pan Su was allowed to see Zhang, he sternly warned her not to sell a single item of their ancient art collection, particularly the Pingfu Calligraphy. The Zhangs had by that time expended all their family wealth on purchases of art treasures, but Zhang was adamant that none should be sold. After an eight-month-stalemate, the kidnappers realized that Zhang would rather lose his life than relinquish his art collection. They eventually compromised and lowered the ransom. Pan Su borrowed and raised through various means the required amount, and Zhang was freed. The couple donated the Pingfu Calligraphy to the country in 1956. It is now part of the Palace Museum collection.

Spring Outing was painted by Zhan Ziqian, a celebrated artist of the Sui Dynasty (581-618). As its name suggests, the work depicts an aristocratic spring outing. As human figures are dotted amid a prominent motif of bright spring scenery, the work has always been regarded as a landscape painting.

Deposed emperor Puyi took the painting, most valuable among the total 1,200 art relics he removed from the Forbidden City in the 1930s, and transported it to Northeast. When the Japanese invaders surrendered in 1945 and Puyi fled, most of these precious relics changed hands. Zhang Boju heard that a Beijing antique dealer had gone to the northeast to buy Spring Outing. He immediately contacted him, asking to buy the painting. The dealer demanded a price of 800 taels of gold. After several rounds of negotiation, the price fell to 220 taels (approximately 7,000 grams) of gold. Zhang sold a luxurious residence that had formerly belonged to Li Lianying, eunuch and confidante to Empress Dowager Cixi, to raise the money. As it was wartime, the house sold cheaply. Pan Su needed to sell some of her jewelry before the couple could finally take possession of the painting. They donated Spring Outing to the state in 1952. It is also now part of the Palace Museum collection.

The State Treasure House

Zhang Boju donated scores of paintings and calligraphic pieces by famous ancient artists to the country during his lifetime. All these precious pieces are regarded as national treasures. One of them is the Shangyangtai Calligraphy by Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai (alias Taibai, 701-762). It comprises 24 characters in five lines and bears the signature “Taibai.” It is the only authentic Li Bai calligraphy extant.

Li Bai was, and still is, the most celebrated of Chinas ancient poets. He is known as the “Immortal Poet.” More than 1,000 of his poems are to this day still widely read and recited by both young and old. His Shangyangtai Calligraphy shows him to be not only a great poet but also an accomplished calligrapher. The work is executed in an unrestrained and vigorous style, the size and script of the characters changing according to the free flow of the artists mind and artistic passion. It is representative of Li Bais distinctive personal style that neither his predecessors nor successors were ever able to achieve or carry forward.

Another work by a famous Tang Dynasty poet, Du Mu, was also in Zhangs collection. It was a poem that Du Mu dedicated to Zhang Haohao, a well-known professional dancer of the Tang Dynasty. Du first met her in Nanchang at the residence of one of his friends. He was deeply impressed with her beauty and artistry. He met her again six years later. She was working as sales assistant at a Luoyang wine shop, and the years had tarnished her beauty and charm. Both were moved by this unexpected encounter. Du Mu wrote a poem expressing his nostalgic sentiments and sent it to Haohao. This poem is also the only authentic calligraphic work of Du Mu known to exist. It is executed in elegant, deft and youthful xingshu (running hand) calligraphy – a style that also characterized Dus poetry. Zhang Boju donated this calligraphic piece to the Palace Museum in 1956.