From the Island Owner to the King

Yenching Normal University.

Liu Zhenhe's office.

A dozen people sat around a round table.

Among these people are Chinese historians, scholars, archaeologists, cultural relic experts, researchers of the Palace Museum, etc.

Each of these people has a very large reputation and prestige in the corresponding circle, and has very high attainments in a certain aspect of research.

"Lao Liu, I saw the pictures of the bronze plate, bronze tripod, and bronze sword that you sent to my mobile phone. I have also carefully studied the bronze ware on the picture in the past few days, and deciphered some of the inscriptions. These They are all important weapons of the Xia Dynasty, very important things, what is going on with this." Wu Zheng picked up the teacup, took a sip of tea, and asked Liu Zhenhe.

Everyone looked at Liu Zhenhe.

"Everyone will know by looking at this paper." Liu Zhenhe sent a copy of the paper to everyone present and said.

Everyone took the paper and began to read it.

In this paper, the contributors demonstrate the argument of 'whether the Xia Dynasty exists and whether the Xia Dynasty has entered the threshold of civilization', as well as the pedigree of the Xia Dynasty, very detailed, clear and organized, combined with the hundreds of pictures inserted in the paper The real-world example pictures are very reliable.

After half an hour, everyone read the paper.

More than 100 pages of thesis if you read carefully, think carefully, and study it for at least a few days.

However, today Liu Zhenhe called everyone together, obviously not for them to read the paper. There are very important things to discuss with everyone.

Everyone just took a cursory look at the paper. Got an idea of ​​what happened.

Even so, everyone was surprised and shocked.

"The significance of this batch of bronzes is no less than the oracle bone fragments of Yin Ruins." An old professor said with emotion.

"Old Yang is right. The Shang Dynasty was generally recognized by the international academic community because of the unearthed oracle bone fragments of the Yin Ruins. I think the emergence of this batch of bronzes is enough for the international academic community to redefine Chinese civilization and let the world re-understand China. Civilization, its significance is very important."

"For half a century, finding evidence of the Xia Dynasty has been the goal of Chinese scholars. They have always believed in the existence of the Xia civilization.

With the appearance of this batch of bronzes, I think their efforts and efforts were not in vain. "

......

"Old Liu. Where were these bronzes excavated?" A professor asked Liu Zhenhe.

"These bronzes were not excavated in China, but suddenly appeared overseas." Wu Zhenhe said.

"What, this batch of bronzes has been lost overseas." A scholar suddenly said with sorrow.

It was not only the scholar who was heartbroken, but more than a dozen people present felt this heartache.

Let’s talk about the cultural relics that China lost overseas. That is an extremely large number, big enough to make the people of the country jump, enough to make the world dumbfounded.

Major museums and libraries in the United Kingdom have a total of 1.3 million+ pieces of Chinese cultural relics from the past dynasties.

Among them, there are not a few treasures and national treasure-level cultural relics.

There are more than 2.6 million items in French museums and libraries.

Japan, as many as 2 million pieces.

United States, 2.3 million+ pieces.

Germany, 300,000+ pieces.

......

This is still a small part of the records, and most of the Chinese cultural relics were secretly collected or kept in the hands of private collectors after they were lost overseas.

When it comes to the cultural relics lost overseas by China, any Chinese who know about this situation will be heartbroken.

These Xia Dynasty bronzes were lost overseas. The possibility of wanting to get back is very small.

You must know that there are not a few national treasure-level cultural relics lost overseas by China, but very few can be recovered.

A simple example. Egypt, which has encountered the same situation as China.

As one of the four ancient civilizations in the world, Egypt has a large number of precious cultural relics. These cultural relics have always been coveted by overseas cultural relic collectors and cultural relic smugglers. Especially after the frequent wars in the last century, many Egyptian national treasures have been invaded by invaders. Take overseas.

There are no less than 100,000 Egyptian cultural relics collected in the world's three major museums - the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Louvre in France.

Dozens of times as many Egyptian artifacts are housed in other museums, in secret collections, or in private hands. to millions of pieces.

But over the past 50 years, Egypt has recovered only a few thousand cultural relics. Among them, there are less than 100 large, important and high cultural relics.

Millions of Egyptian cultural relics have been lost overseas, but only a few thousand have been successfully recovered.

1000:1, a simple data comparison, one can imagine how difficult it is to recover the lost cultural relics overseas.

There are two important obstacles to making it so difficult.

First, the lack of legal basis.

Second, the resistance of cultural relic holders.

For example, in 2002, 18 museums around the world, including the Louvre Museum in France and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, issued statements publicly opposing the return of lost cultural relics.

Everyone can imagine that this batch of Xia Dynasty bronzes of great significance to China was lost overseas, and it is very likely that they will stay overseas forever and will never be recovered.

"There is a possibility of recourse." A scholar asked Liu Zhenhe.

Liu Zhenhe shook his head and said, "Almost none, this batch of Xia Dynasty bronzes was salvaged from a British merchant ship called 'Gail Sopa' that sank in the mid-Atlantic waters.

From the logbook of the 'Gelsopa' and the list of items shipped on board provided by the owners of this batch of bronzes, and I also checked some materials and information about the 'Gelsopa' in the archives.

It can be clearly shown that the British merchant ship 'Gelsopa' departed from Guangzhou, China, on June 9, 1841, and went to Liverpool, England, and carried a batch of Chinese bronzes and porcelain on board. "

In other words, this batch of bronzes was lost overseas in 1841, 174 years from now.

According to some regulations and principles of international law, it is almost impossible to successfully trace these bronzes.

Hearing Liu Zhenhe's answer, everyone was very disappointed, a little heartbroken and indignant.

"But..." After turning around, Liu Zhenhe said, "There is good news, the holder of this batch of bronzes is a Chinese named Chen Rui. I think everyone knows about Chen Rui. , He is very famous internationally and has contacts with prime ministers, presidents and kings of many countries, and has a very good reputation in the international community.

His main achievements are adventure and treasure hunting.

He once searched for a Spanish gold carrier sunk during the colonial period on the seabed off the coast of Cuba. (To be continued)