Saving the Forbidden City: Ma Heng’s Legacy in Protecting Cultural Heritage

Today, we’ll continue to talk about how the Forbidden City transformed into the Palace Museum. Specifically, we’ll introduce Ma Heng, the longest-serving director of the Palace Museum, whose leadership during key historical events preserved the Forbidden City as China’s largest museum.

Transcript

Saving the Forbidden City: Ma Heng’s Legacy in Protecting Cultural Heritage

Today, we’ll continue to talk about how the Forbidden City transformed into the Palace Museum. Specifically, we’ll introduce Ma Heng, the longest-serving director of the Palace Museum, whose leadership during key historical events preserved the Forbidden City as China’s largest museum.

Three days after Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City, the provisional government organized a Qing Dynasty Restoration Committee to inventory the palace’s public and private property in preparation for the establishment of the Palace Museum the following year. On October 10, 1925, the 14th National Day of the Republic of China, the Beijing Palace Museum was officially founded. The three main halls and the rear palace of the Forbidden City were turned into national public property, marking a century of its transformation into a museum.

Li Shizeng was chosen to be head of the Qing Dynasty Restoration Committee. Li Shizeng’s father was Li Hongzao, who, despite his name being similar to the famous late Qing official Li Hongzhang, was not a relative of him. Li Hongzao was the leader of the Qing reformist faction. As the third son of Li Hongzao, who had served as the tutor to the Tongzhi and Guangxu emperors, Li Shizeng had the privilege of freely entering and exiting the Forbidden City from a young age and enjoyed the favor of Empress Dowager Cixi. After growing up, Li Shizeng went to France to study, embraced revolutionary ideals, and became one of the great founders of the Kuomintang. Due to his unique family background, Li Shizeng became one of the most knowledgeable individuals about the Qing Palace. He was also famous for two other matters.

One of Li Shizeng’s notable achievements was initiating the movement for Chinese students in France to work and study. Many prominent figures from both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, such as Zhou Enlai, Chen Yi, and Deng Xiaoping, participated in this movement, which was launched by Li Shizeng and others. However, due to the large number of students and insufficient funds, the movement later became unsustainable. The students in France, particularly in Lyon, clashed with the school authorities over funding issues. Without a solution to their financial woes, some of the students were absorbed by Soviet Russia, and a significant number of the French-educated elites eventually turned to the Communist movement.

Another of Li Shizeng’s famous endeavors was founding a well-known “Chinese state-owned” company in France. Today, Chinese state-owned companies include giants such as China Petroleum, China Petrochemical, China Mobile, and China Bank. However, over a century ago, Li Shizeng founded a company named the China Tofu Company. A biologist by training, with a focus on soybeans, Li Shizeng had a deep affection for China’s unique tofu-making techniques. He even dreamed of promoting it across Europe, believing that tofu could not only be delicious and profitable but also help Chinese students and workers who had come to Europe during World War I to survive. Thus, he founded the China Tofu Company, hoping it would contribute to the prosperity and strength of the nation. Unfortunately, this company, to which he had dedicated so much passion, failed to help him realize his vision of “industrial salvation for the country” and instead earned him the nickname “Doctor Tofu.”

The Qing Dynasty Restoration Committee, led by Li Shizeng, consisted of 14 members in total, with nine prominent figures representing the Nationalist government and five Qing loyalists representing Puyi’s “Little Court.” The committee quickly discovered that Puyi had been embezzling from the imperial palace, and they compiled a list of the stolen items.

After the Palace Museum was officially nationalized, the first priority was to inventory the cultural relics, followed by the establishment of the museum’s management team, especially the selection of its first director. Initially, the management was determined by the Provisional Board of Directors of the Forbidden City, with Li Shizeng serving as its chairman. In practice, the decision-making process fell largely on him, and there were two main candidates for the director position: Yi Peiji and Zhang Ji. Both were members of the board and former revolutionary comrades from the late Qing Dynasty, having been part of the Tongmenghui, the Revolutionary Alliance. Yi Peiji had previously served as the Minister of Education and as the principal of Hunan First Normal School, which was also the alma mater of Mao Zedong. Zhang Ji, on the other hand, had been a close follower of Sun Yat-sen and was considered a founding figure in the Kuomintang, but after the First National Congress of the Kuomintang, he became opposed to Sun’s belief.

After the Nationalist forces’ successful Northern Expedition, the first official director of the Palace Museum, appointed in 1928, was Yi Peiji. Zhang Ji, however, felt slighted, believing that Li Shizeng had used his influence to support Yi Peiji, who was also his son-in-law, and had deliberately blocked Zhang Ji from the position. Furthermore, because Yi Peiji was busy with government duties and unable to take up the position immediately, the vice director, Zhang Ji, was supposed to take over as acting director. However, Yi Peiji remarked, “Puqian (Zhang Ji’s courtesy name) is too influenced by his wife, the ‘Neurotic Madam,’ and cannot be entrusted with the leadership,” which ultimately led to Zhang Ji’s exclusion from the role.

Feeling bitter about this, Zhang Ji, together with his “Neurotic Madam” Cui Zhenhua, sought revenge. Not long after, they orchestrated the infamous “Palace Museum Theft Case,” which shocked the public at the time.

In 1933, when the Japanese Kwantung Army attacked Rehe and the War of Resistance along the Great Wall began, Beijing was in imminent danger. The Nanjing government proposed moving the Palace Museum’s treasures to safety. Initially, two plans were proposed: Yi Peiji’s plan was to move the treasures south to Shanghai, and Zhang Ji’s suggestion was to relocate them west to Xi’an. In hindsight, the plan to move the treasures west seemed more reasonable, but at the time, the Nationalist government supported the southward relocation. Yi Peiji was given full responsibility for the packing and shipping of the cultural relics.

This gave Zhang Ji an opportunity. His wife, Cui Zhenhua, secretly colluded with the Chief Prosecutor of the Central Supervisory Commission to search the cultural relics that were being packed for transfer. They deliberately made things difficult for Yi Peiji, and fabricated accusations that he, along with his son-in-law, had “stolen” treasures from the Forbidden City, replacing real items with fakes, and that they had stolen over ten thousand pearls. They further claimed that all the relics in the Forbidden City were genuine, and any fake items in the package were the result of Yi Peiji’s manipulation.

At this point, Zhang Ji had seized his “opponent’s” weakness, and Yi Peiji could not clear his name, no matter how hard he tried. Given the vast number of treasures in the Forbidden City, many of them were presented to the palace by foreign officials over the years, and some had been tampered with by the eunuchs. After the abdication of the Qing Emperor, the “Little Court” period followed, and even Puyi himself had to engage in the theft and mismanagement of the treasures. So, who could guarantee that every relic in the Palace Museum was genuine? The “fakes” identified by the prosecutor were all pinned on Yi Peiji.

However, the government could not openly admit that there might be counterfeit items among the Palace Museum’s collection. Even if they did, it would not be understood by the public. As a result, Yi Peiji lost the lawsuit, had to resign from his position as director of the Palace Museum, and most of his property was confiscated. He even found himself unable to pay for his legal fees. Spiritually crushed and consumed by resentment, Yi Peiji eventually succumbed to depression and died in Shanghai in 1937 at the age of 57.

Yi Peiji’s wrongful conviction was not cleared until after 1949, and the person who helped clear his name was none other than his former “prized student,” Mao Zedong, who had by then become the Chairman of the People’s Republic of China. When Yi Peiji was the principal of Hunan First Normal School, he had placed great trust in Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong himself once mentioned that his decision to follow the revolutionary path was partly due to the support of a “backstage boss” who was “strong enough,” and this “backstage boss” was Yi Peiji. Yi Peiji had helped Mao during financially difficult times by arranging for him to take charge of a primary school affiliated with Hunan First Normal School, thus providing crucial support for Mao’s basic living needs.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Mao Zedong, despite his busy schedule, personally took up the old case of Yi Peiji. This was one of the biggest “treasure theft” cases since the establishment of the Palace Museum. The facts were clear, and the evidence was undeniable, with even the telegrams that Cui Zhenhua had used to bribe the prosecutor and frame Yi Peiji being found. However, given that some of the key figures involved in the case had already passed away and others had fled to Taiwan, it was not easy to exonerate a wrongful conviction under the laws of the new China, and doing so seemed to have little practical meaning. Nevertheless, under Mao Zedong’s direct instruction, Yi Peiji’s name was publicly cleared. This was not only an official rectification for Yi Peiji, but also a formal closure for the historical incident and the Palace Museum.

The specific action taken was for Yi Peiji’s successor, Ma Heng, who had been one of the witnesses to the “Palace Museum Theft Case,” to write an article. Ma, who became the second director of the Palace Museum, detailed the entire event and, from an authoritative perspective, officially declared the case to be a miscarriage of justice. This served as a final and authoritative resolution to the sensational case, bringing closure to the matter once and for all.

Ma Heng, like Yi Peiji and Zhang Ji, was one of the early members of the Provisional Board of Directors of the Palace Museum. However, unlike the other directors, Ma Heng did not study abroad. He was a native Chinese scholar, renowned in the fields of epigraphy, calligraphy, and seal cutting. He was also a pioneer in the transition from epigraphy to archaeology in China. Ma Heng held significant academic positions, such as the director of the Archaeological Research Office at Peking University, and later became the second director of the Palace Museum. Additionally, he served as the second president of the Xiling Seal Society, a prestigious academic organization based near West Lake in Hangzhou.

The Xiling Seal Society, though small, is considered the “tip of the pyramid” in Chinese academic circles. The selection process for its president was incredibly strict. The founder, Wu Changshuo, was a master of modern Chinese art, and after his death, the position remained vacant for 20 years. The successor had to be a master of both art and scholarship, as well as a cultural luminary. Even Ma Heng, who had already become the second director of the Palace Museum, was selected for the role after more than a decade of dedication, particularly during the wartime relocations of cultural relics. His efforts in safeguarding the treasures of the Forbidden City during the relocation were immense, earning him the title of “Guardian of National Treasures.”

During the Chinese Civil War, the preservation of Beijing as a cultural capital, with the Palace Museum remaining undamaged, was directly tied to the efforts of Ma Heng and a group of other so-called “guardians of national treasures.” After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Ma Heng continued his role as director of the Palace Museum until 1952. His contributions to preserving Chinese cultural heritage remain deeply respected.

Ma Heng was not only the longest-serving director in the history of the Palace Museum, with a tenure of 18 years, but he was also the most important one. During his term, the museum witnessed some of the most significant events in modern Chinese history, including the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the relocation of national treasures to southern China, the peaceful liberation of Beijing, and changes in government. Without his leadership, it’s difficult to imagine how so many priceless cultural relics could have been preserved amid the chaos of war. Furthermore, without Ma Heng’s efforts, it is hard to imagine that the Forbidden City would have remained in Beijing rather than following the Nationalist government’s order to relocate to Taiwan.

Thanks to Ma Heng, we are able to witness, more than a century later, a complete royal palace, the Forbidden City, transformed into the largest museum in China – the Palace Museum in Beijing. Ma Heng’s contributions to the preservation of Chinese cultural heritage during tumultuous times have left an indelible mark on both the museum’s legacy and China’s cultural history.

Well, that’s the end of our podcast on the Forbidden City. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Song Yimin, translator Wang Yuyan, and copy editor Pu Ren. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.