The surface of the Forbidden City is calm, but the order inside is a mess. I don't know what happened when I was ignorant, but since I was sensible, I have often heard about robberies, fires and murders in the palace. As for smoking and gambling, it goes without saying. By the time I got married, the theft had developed to this extent: just after the wedding, all the original treasures on the "Queen" crown were replaced by fakes. At this time, I have learned from the master that the treasures in the Qing palace have long been famous all over the world. Just talking about antique calligraphy and painting, the quantity and value are extremely considerable. Most of the treasures plundered by the Ming and Qing emperors for hundreds of years were still in the palace, except that they were robbed twice by foreign soldiers. These things are not numbered, and the numbered parts are not inspected, so no one knows if they are lost. Just from this point, it opens the door for thieves. When I think of it today, it is a disaster. The people involved in the robbery can be said to be from top to bottom, including everyone. In other words, everyone who has the opportunity to steal is not without stealing. The bolder they can steal, the better. There are many ways to steal, some are secretly carried out by prying doors and locks, and some are carried out in public according to legal procedures. Eunuchs often use the former method, while ministers and officials often use the latter legal method, such as mortgage or auction, loan appreciation, asking for rewards, etc. As for Pu Jie and me, this is the most advanced method. Of course, I would never have such an idea at that time. All I can think about is that everyone else is stealing my wealth. At that time, I already had a strong "I am good at goods" heart. When I was sixteen, one day, driven by curiosity, I asked the eunuch to open a warehouse in Fu Jian Palace. The seal of the library door is very thick, and it has not been opened for at least one hundred years. I saw that the room was full of big boxes piled to the ceiling, and the lid was covered with the seal of Jiaqing Year. Nobody knows what's inside. I asked the eunuch to open one, and it was full of very delicate and precious antique jade. Later, I learned that this is Qianlong's favorite antique. After Qianlong's death, Jiaqing sealed all his treasures and toys and filled many halls and warehouses around Fu Jian Palace. I found only one of them. Some libraries are full of Yi vessels, some are full of porcelain, and some are famous paintings, including many paintings painted by Italian ShiNing Lang for Qianlong. In the warehouse behind Yangxintang, I also found many interesting "treasure boxes". It is said that this is also a library where exquisite small pieces and antiques are kept. This treasure chest is made of rosewood. It looks like an ordinary book chest and opens like a staircase. Each staircase is divided into dozens of small squares, and each small square is the same plaything, for example, a small bottle of Song porcelain, an inch and a half book written by a famous person, a finely carved tooth ball, a walnut engraved with ancient stories, several melon seeds engraved with poems and paintings, and an ancient Egyptian coin. In a treasure chest, there are calligraphy and painting, epigraphy, jade, bronze, porcelain, tooth carving and so on. Everything is ready. Its name is Bai Bao. There are hundreds of small boxes and thousands of big boxes. I heard that there is a special mahogany kang in Fu Jian Palace. There is no news anywhere. Every news contains treasure. I didn't see it. I only brought the treasure chest I found myself, about forty or fifty boxes, and went to Yangxin Hall. Then I thought of this question: how many treasures do I have? I have what I can see. How much can't I see? What about the treasures in the whole library and yard? How many were stolen? Send someone to check, is it reliable ... This series of questions makes me miserable. But you can't do it without counting. You don't know how many things you have, let alone how many things you have lost. Master Johnston told me that many antique shops have opened on Di 'anmen Street where he lives. Where did you get those antiques? I heard that some were run by eunuchs, and some were run by officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or relatives of officials. ...
Finally, I accepted the advice of the masters and decided to make an inventory. In this way, the trouble is even bigger. First, there are many thefts. Even the locks of Yuqing Palace warehouse were smashed and the rear window of Gan Qing Palace was opened. Things are getting worse and worse. The big diamond I just bought at Yangxintang is missing. In order to trace the theft, the imperial concubine once asked the respectful room to take care of the eunuch in charge of the joint hearing of the nine courts, and even took punishment, but neither torture nor hanging four rewards had any effect, and no one admitted it. Moreover, the inventory of Fu Jian Palace has just begun. On the night of June 27, a big fire broke out suddenly, and all the counted and uncalculated things were burned up. The fire alarm was first discovered outside the Forbidden City. The fire truck of the Italian fire brigade in Minxiang, the eastern suburb, drove to the Forbidden City to call the door. I don't know what was going on inside. The fire was put out by local fire brigades all night, resulting in a large number of buildings in the palace, including Beijing, Lou, Jiyun Building, Bilin Pavilion, Miaolian Room, Yanchun Pavilion, Jicui Pavilion, Guangsheng Building, Ninghui Building and Xiangyun Pavilion, being burnt to ashes. This is the place where the most treasures are stored in the Qing palace. How many things were destroyed in the fire is still a mystery. Some muddled accounts released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs later claimed that 2,665 golden buddhas, 1 157 calligraphy and paintings, 435 antiques and tens of thousands of ancient books were burned. God knows what account this is based on. When putting out the fire, China people, foreigners, people from the Forbidden City and people outside the city come and go, boiling and busy. As you can imagine, you are busy with everything except fire fighting. But the Forbidden City is grateful for all this. A foreign lady also went into battle in person, and when she was directing China firefighters, her fan was also splashed with China's blood. Later, she asked someone to show me this fan to show her courage, and I wrote a poem on it to show my gratitude. After the fire broke out, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, with double gratitude, not only entertained firefighters with refreshments, but also spent another 60,000 yuan on "reward" fees. If we want to estimate the loss this time, we might as well talk about the disposal of the burned "touched" garbage. I was looking for a vacant lot to build a stadium, and Johnston taught me to play tennis. According to him, it belongs to the British nobility. This fire can be used just for this purpose, so I asked the internal affairs department to clean it up quickly. Of course, there are no calligraphy and painting, ancient porcelain and other things in that pile of ashes, but there are still a lot of gold, silver, copper and tin burned. The Ministry of Internal Affairs invited people from Beijing Gold Store to bid, and a gold store won the bid at a price of 500,000 yuan. It is said that only the melted gold nuggets were picked up at that time, and more than 17 thousand taels were found. After the gold shop picked up these things, the Ministry of Internal Affairs put the remaining ashes in many sacks and distributed them to the people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Later, a government official told me that his uncle gave two gold "altar cities" to the Lama Temple and Bailin Temple in Beijing at that time, each with a diameter of one foot and a height of one foot, which were extracted from ashes by sacks. The cause of the fire is as hard to find as the truth of the loss. But I suspect that the thief deliberately set fire to destroy the traces. A few days later, a fire alarm was found on the window of Wuyi Zhai, the east yard of Yangxintang where I lived. Fortunately, I found it early. A mass of cotton soaked in kerosene just caught fire, which is not a disaster. My suspicion immediately went one step further. I don't think not only did someone set fire to destroy the trace, but they also tried to kill me. In fact, stealing and arson are both facts, and the masters have not avoided this, and the murder of me may be my own nervousness. My suspicious character has been exposed at this moment. According to the ancestral system of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor was very busy every day and had to read a page of hadith (these things were kept in the emperor's bedroom all the year round). At this time, I especially admired Yongzheng's imperial edicts. Yongzheng once said: "A trustworthy person is a human being, and a faithless person is also a human being. If you don't trust someone, you will fail yourself. If not, there will be no employment. " He once criticized E Ertai, a loyal minister, on the throne: "Not trusting people is the first move of employing people. I never knew a suspect or a believer. " He also said that for people, "even after a few things, they can only trust their past, so they should pay attention to their future." If you can't trust them, you will never change. " These words are deeply imprinted on my mind. I also remember Kangxi's words: "If you are an expert, you should trust your employer, but you should not trust him." Kangxi specifically said that eunuchs can't be trusted. He said: "Eunuchs have been few and good since ancient times. To prevent their slow progress, we should be cautious from the beginning." These instructions from my ancestors were introduced into my mind through these fires.