TREASURES THROUGH SIX GENERATIONS
Chinese Painting and Calligraphy from the Weng Collection FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LEGACY OF A FAMILY: THE WENG COLLECTION Lisa Blackburn 626 -405-2140 [email protected] Excerpts from the essay by Hao Sheng in Treasures through Six Generations: Chinese Thea M. Page, 626-405-2260 Painting and Calligraphy from the Weng Collection, Huntington Library Press, 2009. [email protected]
Feb. 23, 2009
The history of the Weng family and their art collection reads like an epic novel, mirroring the tumult of 19th- and 20th-century China and its ensuing diaspora. Assembled primarily in the second half of the 19th century, the collection is legendary not only for its superb selection—it contains masterpieces of brush and ink spanning 900 years—but also for the remarkable individuals who have been responsible for its formation and safe-keeping. The works of art have survived repeated dynastic changes, protracted warfare, and journeys across continents, remaining almost miraculously unscathed under the care of this family. The Weng collection has been in the same family for six generations, beginning with Weng Xincun (1791–1862). Xincun’s son Weng Tonghe (1830–1904) and the collection’s current owner, Wan-go Weng (b. 1918), are particularly celebrated for their remarkable achievements. Weng Tonghe, the family patriarch who formed the nucleus of the collection, was a preeminent figure in late Qing China. He rose to prominence when he placed first in the 1856 metropolitan exams for the jinshi degree and became a zhuangyuan (“First Scholar of the Nation,” as Wan-go Weng likes to say). Weng went on to tutor two emperors, Tongzhi (r.1862–74) and Guangxu (r. 1875–1908). The latter studied with him for a total of 24 years and regarded him as his closest adviser. In addition, Weng also held some of the highest positions in the government. He is remembered in history as the leader of the pro-war faction during the Sino-Japanese war in 1894–1895 and, through his introduction of the radical reformer Kang Youwei (1858–1927) to Guangxu, for his early influence on the emperor’s Hundred Days’ Reform in 1898. Weng Tonghe’s collection was passed down to Wan-go Weng, who brought it to the United States in 1948. Wan-go Weng is himself a modern-day Renaissance man—filmmaker, poet, scholar and civic leader—whose English films and publications on Chinese history and art have been widely influential among both scholars and general readers. Under his leadership in the mid 1980s, the New York–based China Institute rebuilt its reputation as one of the leading centers for the promotion of Chinese culture in the United States . . . .
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens I 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108 I 626.40 5.2100 2 LEGACY OF A FAMILY
The majority of works in the collection were acquired by Weng Tonghe during his tenure in Beijing, then the imperial capital of the Qing dynasty (164 4–1911). For almost 40 years, between 1861, when he assumed office, and 1898, when he left the court, Weng Tonghe made weekly, or at times daily, visits to the dealers in the large cluster of antique and book stores in the Liulichang area in Beijing . . . . In the afternoons, after concluding his lessons with the emperor at about 1:30 p.m. (the young emperor’s daily lessons began at 5 a.m.), Weng would stop by these stores on his way home. When he found interesting artworks, he would ask to take them home for closer inspection and would frequently make copies after them. The Weng collection includes a copy Weng Tonghe casually made in 1860 of a self portrait by Shitao (1642–1707), which makes an interesting compar- ison to the original, now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. He became so absorbed in these visits that he facetiously described himself as “a kid getting candies.” Over the years, as the dealers became more familiar with his preferences, they brought works directly to his house, offering him the right of first refusal . . . . On the 27th day of the 4th month in the wuxu year (1898), just days after drafting the imperial edict that declared reform as the national policy, thereby commencing the Hundred Days’ Reform, Weng Tonghe was unexpectedly banished from court. In the pages of his diary Weng matter of factly recorded this fateful day: upon entering the court as usual, he was abruptly stopped by an imperial edict, written in red ink, announcing his immediate dismissal. Historians have still not reached a consensus on the cause of this banishment. Some regard it as the backlash from the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) in reaction to his role in the reformist movement. Others, including Wan-go Weng, explain the decision as a rebellious gesture made by the young Guangxu emperor, who sought independence from his elderly teacher. Weng Tonghe returned to Changshu, but instead of staying at his ancestral home, he built a simple retreat on the grounds of the Weng family cemetery, and named it the Tomb Hut (Mulu)…. The collection passed to Wan-go Weng in 1920, after the death of Weng Zhilian (1883– 1919), the adoptive great-grandson who had inherited it from Weng Tonghe. Wan-go Weng was legally entitled to the collection from the age of three, but did not see its full extent until much later. In the fall of 1948, he returned to China for the first time after ten years of study and work in the United States. The shifting tide in the civil war between Mao Zedong’s Communist forces and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist army led Weng and his family to pack up the collection. It was shipped from Tianjin to Shanghai, and then from Shanghai to New York. To this day, Wan-go Weng vividly remembers the long and agonizing wait for the cargo. It arrived in early 1949—surprisingly, every trunk intact. The decision to remove the collection had been made at a critical moment: just a few months after the move, China would close its doors to the outside world and keep them shut for 30 years. 3 LEGACY OF A FAMILY
Wan-go Weng often says that he does not collect but preserves . . . . On the one hand, by birthright, Wan-go Weng has not been burdened with the desire to possess; but on the other hand, the artworks have deeply and positively affected his life, endowing it with a purpose that is uniquely his own.
Hao Sheng is Wu Tung Curator of Chinese Art, Department of Art of Asia, Oceania, and Africa, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
ABOUT THE BOOK The Huntington Library Press will publish Treasures through Six Generations: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy from the Weng Collection in conjunction with the exhibition. Edited by June Li, the lavishly illustrated 102-page catalog based on new research provides an in-depth look at 41 key works in the Weng collection of Chinese painting and calligraphy. The book includes an intro- duction by June Li and an essay by Hao Sheng. Distributed by University of California Press and available from the Huntington’s Bookstore & More ($24.95).