Cultural assets

Now a selection of 120 artifacts from that donation to the National Museum of China, including the sword, are up for public viewing at a permanent exhibition titled Affections Toward His Nation, which marks the 120th anniversary of Zhang Naiqi's birth.

Zhang Naiqi was known as an influential banker, and one of the seven leaders of a national salvation alliance who were arrested in 1936 by the Kuomintang-led government for criticizing its policy of nonresistance against Japanese aggression.

What is less known to people is that his interest in collecting antiquities had intensified over the years.

The exhibition shows a connoisseur whose collection hierarchy covers almost every category of Chinese artworks, and who believed his cultural assets should ultimately be shared with the public.

The objects on display include sophisticated bronze ware dating to the Shang (c. 16th century-11th century BC) and Zhou (c. 11th century-256 BC) dynasties, ceramics, bronze mirrors that feature beautiful carvings on the back and jade artifacts, the earliest of which can be traced back to Neolithic times.

Zhang Naiqi donated his collections twice to the Palace Museum in the 1950s and 1960s.

His family made a third donation to the National Museum of China in the 1980s.

Zhang Naiqi was a frequent customer at antique stores in the Longfu Temple and Liulichang areas in Beijing, and he was also a regular visitor to street vendors.

Zhang Lifan says his father told him that the streets of Beijing were awash with cultural objects, but the good and the bad, the real and the fake were all mixed together.