(1) the original journal Nature,No. 1980,No. 1.
Champions creativity
Zhang Jian, the champion of the Sino-Japanese War in the late Qing Dynasty, was a member of Shanghai Strong Society. He is not only an insightful politician, but also an industrialist and educator with practical spirit. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, China was faced with a critical situation of foreign invasion and domestic troubles, and many people of insight put forward various plans to save the country. Sun Yat-sen advocated revolution, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao demanded political reform, while Zhang Jian was keen to learn from Europe, America and Japan, and put forward the idea of popularizing education and saving peril. Popularizing education costs money. He believes that only by running an industry can this fund be provided, and the textile industry is the most beneficial. In this way, Zhang Jian started from "saving the country through education" and embarked on a capitalist road that the top scholar had never taken.
Starting from 1898, he founded a textile factory in Nantong, which promoted the industrialization of the city. Zhang Jian used industrial profits to set up a series of cultural and educational undertakings. From 65438 to 0904, he came back from an investigation in Japan and set up universities, middle schools and primary schools. In order to develop cotton planting and textile industry, he also founded the Department of Agricultural Textile of Nantong University. At the same time, he thinks it is necessary to establish museums and libraries to popularize knowledge and cultivate talents to supplement the lack of school education. In the thirty-first year of Guangxu (1905), he wrote to the Qing court twice, proposing to set up an "Expo Hall" in Beijing and other provinces. Of course, the corrupt and conservative Qing court will not pay attention to this suggestion. So he established himself and founded this "Nantong Museum".
Zhang Jian did not change the existing social system by revolutionary means, but fantasized about saving China through "industry" and "education". This road to improvement naturally won't work. But through his personal efforts, he still left us a valuable cultural heritage.
Historical overview
Nantong Museum was founded in the 31st year of Guangxu reign of Qing Dynasty (1905), formerly known as "Gong * * * Botanical Garden", and originally belonged to Tongzhou Teachers College. Located on the Haohe River in the south of Nantong, the park covers an area of 23,000 square meters, with buildings such as China Pavilion, South Pavilion and North Pavilion, which respectively display four cultural relics: nature, history, art and education.
China Pavilion is the earliest building in the garden. There used to be an open-air weather station above, so China Pavilion was once called "weather station". Since Xuantongyuannian (1909) 1 month 1 day, the institute has been formally engaged in climate observation, which is recorded daily and published in newspapers. This is not only the official beginning of recording climate observation results in the park, but also "there are weather stations in all counties!" After the meteorological equipment was transferred to other places, the meteorological monitoring work in the park stopped. China Museum mainly displays animal specimens. Later, the South Pavilion and the North Pavilion were built one after another.
South Pavilion, formerly known as "Museum Building", collects and displays the fine works of the whole park. The history department and the art department are upstairs, and the natural resources department is downstairs. Ancient paintings are displayed upstairs in the North Pavilion, and whale bones and fossils are displayed downstairs. Later, some auxiliary buildings were built one after another, planting all kinds of flowers and trees, raising all kinds of birds and animals, building rockeries, opening lotus ponds, building greenhouses, pavilions and waterside pavilions. So that there are museums, zoos and botanical gardens, and gardens, so it is named "Natural History Garden".
Up to now, there are still some important historical materials about the museum, such as Zhang Jian's Proposal Form of the Qing Court, Early Plan of Nantong Museum, and Catalogue of Museum Products. Among them, Nantong Museum Catalogue 19 10 was published and printed in lead, which was divided into two volumes. The first volume is the Ministry of Natural Resources, which records 460 species of animals, 307 species of plants and 1 103 species of minerals. The second volume consists of three parts: history, fine arts and education. The historical part includes gold, jade, ceramics, rubbings, civil engineering, costumes, music, portraits, divination, military weapons, torture devices and prison devices. The art department includes painting and calligraphy, ceramics, sculpture, lacquer sculpture, embroidery, silk weaving, weaving, ironware, branding, pencil drawing, paper and ink, etc. The Ministry of Education includes imperial examinations, private schools and schools. The total collection of four books is 2973.
By 1930, according to the information in Tong Tong Daily, the museum has been expanded to cover an area of 32,000 square meters, with an annual expenditure of 2,000 yuan, greatly expanding the exhibits. As far as the Ministry of Natural Resources is concerned, there are over 1000 kinds of minerals, over 1400 kinds of gold minerals and over 700 kinds of non-gold minerals. There are more than 4000 kinds of plants with obvious flowers and hidden flowers; Among the animal specimens, there are 100 kinds of mammals, more than 300 kinds of birds, more than 500 kinds of reptiles and fish. There are more than 400 species of invertebrates, of which insects account for 1. "3。 Roughly speaking, the so-called natural resources department, that is, the natural part, has nearly 10 thousand exhibits From these catalogues, we can know that the collections at that time were indeed various and rich in content.
The display outside the museum is another scene. All kinds of plants are planted according to types, mostly medicinal materials, and there are specially set up "medicine gardens"; Followed by flowers, there are many bamboos, each with a brand indicating its name and place of origin. Among the animals raised, birds include domestic chickens, golden roosters, turkeys, ostriches, white pigeons, ducks, egrets, mandarin ducks, emus, peacocks, storks and cranes. Animals include deer, rabbits, monkeys, goats, bears and mice. At the same time, there are many mine rings on the hill; All kinds of Buddha statues, ancient bronzes, ancient ironware and fossils are displayed around the museum.
It can be seen that Nantong Museum is not only a museum of historical relics, but also a museum of natural science, with the characteristics of folk museum and the pattern of zoological and botanical gardens. There are not only collections and exhibitions in the park, but also field scientific experiments such as breeding and cultivation. In a region, it is of great significance to have such a museum with rich contents in all aspects to enrich people's cultural life and improve their scientific knowledge.
go through all the vicissitudes of life
With the change of the current situation and the collapse of Zhang's forces, Nantong Natural History was transferred from Tongzhou Normal School to Nantong College, and later it was managed by Tongzhou Normal School, and the situation became more and more serious. According to the report of Tongguang Daily on September 4 1932, it can be seen that: "... the animal room in the east of the North and South Pavilion is also ten rooms and nine empty rooms, only lonely monkeys and curled hedgehogs adorn it. There are houses, pavilions, ponds and two water towers everywhere, which are dilapidated and desolate. Most of the Buddha statues around Nange are in the open air and are eroded by wind and rain. They are big crystals and cold water stones displayed in the rockery and heather, and there is no trace of them. I don't know where to go. " Finally, the author sighed and wrote, "... in the near future, this museum will not only collapse, but also flowers and trees will wither and birds and animals will disappear;" I am afraid that most of the better antiques will be renamed. "
This ending has really come. 1in the spring of 938, the Japanese invaders occupied Nantong, and the museum faced the fate of being destroyed. Zhang Jian's home to the west of it became the headquarters of the Japanese army, and the museum itself became a stable. Except for a small part of the cultural relics collected by the museum, all the others were destroyed. Today, several photos of historical relics in the museum also record the horror of the museum under the rule of the Japanese invaders.
After War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's victory, the Kuomintang government was busy with looting and civil war. How could it care about the restoration of the museum? On the eve of the liberation of Nantong, this historical museum with a certain foundation has become a ruin!
be reborn
1February 2, 949, Nantong was liberated and Nantong natural history was reborn.
In the early days of liberation, everything was in ruins, and the people's government made great efforts to restore the museum, which was renamed Nantong Museum on 195 1. In addition to the China Pavilion, the South Pavilion and the North Pavilion, there are two pavilions, the East Pavilion and the West Pavilion, and several exhibition rooms. The botanical garden, which originally belonged to the museum, has become the People's Park since 195 1, and there are also management institutions and zoos. Although the present museum and People's Park belong to two institutions, they are still integrated in layout.
Nantong Museum holds two basic exhibitions of historical and revolutionary cultural relics, mainly using local cultural relics to reflect the history of the region. In addition to several treasures of the original museum, many important cultural relics were collected after liberation. For example, 1973 In the civil air defense project in Nantong City, a celadon jar imitating the daily necessities of northern nomads was unearthed, which was an important cultural relic from the late Tang Dynasty to the Five Dynasties and the crystallization of cultural exchanges between the North and the South. 1978, Pan Tie, a tool for frying salt in Song Dynasty, was unearthed in Guanhe Commune, Nantong County. The excavation of Pan Tie not only helps us to understand the production process of ancient salt industry, but also provides information about the coastal extension of this area.
Chen Shigong, a famous doctor in Ming Dynasty who wrote Classic of Authentic Surgery, was from Nantong, and his medical research was collected in this museum with blue and white mortar. Li was a famous painter in Nantong in Qing Dynasty, and one of the "Eight Eccentrics in Yangzhou". This is his calligraphy scroll. Among these cultural relics, it is particularly worth mentioning that in 1976, archaeologists of Nantong Museum discovered a Neolithic site in Qingdun, Hai 'an County, which is more than 5,000 years ago. A large number of elk fossils, polished stone tools, many pottery and human bones have been unearthed. Nantong area is a part of the alluvial plain in the Yangtze River Delta, so people used to think that it was a latecomer and its history would not last long. The discovery of the Neolithic site in Qingdun changed this view.
The natural science section of Nantong Museum is located in Wenfeng Tower, and now there are two exhibition halls: one is the whale exhibition and the other is the ancient corpse exhibition. In addition, a textile museum is under construction. Nantong cotton cloth spun by hand is famous in history, but it has developed into Nantong textile industry in modern times and still occupies an important position in the country. Nantong Museum has always preserved all kinds of textiles from Ming Dynasty to modern times. In order to vividly explain this history and promote the continuous progress of China's textile industry, it is of great significance to build such a textile museum, which will add a new flower to various professional museums in China.
* * * Take the initiative
Nantong Museum is basically a museum with geographical nature. Nantong Museum, based on local conditions, has played its due role in collection, scientific research and exhibition, setting an example for realizing the four modernizations.
Representatives attending the preparatory meeting of the National Association of Natural Science Museums visited Nantong Museum and spoke highly of it. Professor Pei Wenzhong, a famous paleoanthropologist in China, left a passionate inscription: "The First Museum of China is the most precious wealth." In order to better preserve this treasure, carry forward the pioneering spirit of China No.1 Museum, and strengthen the needs of international cultural exchange, many representatives, including all the staff of Nantong Museum, have the same desire, and put forward that such a museum with historical significance and influence at home and abroad should keep its original appearance and restore its original organizational system as much as possible. It is necessary to combine the people's park with the museum, and even restore its name.