Reminiscences of My Uncle

The year 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the death of my maternal Uncle Shen Zhiyu. In recent years， I have read his works and biography sorted out and published by my Aunt his wife Chen Qiuhui and the memoirs written by some of my uncle’s relatives and friends and colleagues. By reading these texts， I am able to glance into the other side of his life: his contribution to the cause of museums and archaeology of New China， his tireless pursuit of revolutionary ideals and truth， his honesty and dedication as a high-ranking party official. My maternal uncle Shen Zhiyu was the oldest son of the family. Under his influence and guidance， his younger brothers and my mother joined the revolution. My mother joined the New Fourth Army and later became a preeminent writer. How I admire him， my oldest uncle.

Shen Zhiyu studied art in Shanghai before he joined the Communist Party in 1940. When Shanghai was liberated in 1949 he was appointed director of the art office under the military authority that ruled Shanghai for a short while before the full-fledged government came into being. In 1950， Mayor Chen Yi instructed to find the site where the inaugural national congress of the Communist Party of China was held in 1921. Shen Zhiyu was put in charge of the task with Yang Chongguang， a colleague. Shen Zhiyu went to the library and consulted a book by Zhou Fohai， one of the first 13 deputies at the first national congress. Zhou mentioned very briefly in his memoir about his activities at that time: “meeting every evening at the house of Li Hanjun at Rue Amiral Bayle”.

Zhou’s wife was in prison at that time. She was let out of jail to help the search of the site. She remembered the whereabouts， but was unable to recall the accurate address. Thirty years before there was a vegetable garden in front of the house， but in 1950 there were rows of houses. Shen Zhiyu accompanied her to walk along Rue Amiral Bayle， looking around and trying to fresh her memory. While reaching Rue Wants， she saw two lanes there and said it looked like the back gate of the Li’s family. Before， all had been known was that the congress took place in the French Concessions in Shanghai. Now it was narrowed down to Rue Amiral Bayle and then further down to an area around Rue Wants. Finally， Zhou Fohai’s wife pointed to the house standing where Rue Wants and Rue Amiral Bayle met. The house bore a shop sign saying Heng Chang Fu Noodle. Shen Zhiyu visited residents in the neighborhood and found out that the house had belonged to a Mr. Li and that Mr. Li was Li Shucheng， an older brother of Li Hanjun. He worked as an advisor to Dr. Sun Yet-san. When Li Hanjun came to Shanghai， he stayed with his brother at Rue Wants. So Finally， Shen Zhiyu was able to determine that the site was 106-108 Rue Wants. At the same time， the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Youth League in Shanghai， the dorms for the deputies of the first national congress of the CPC were also found. In October 1951， the three sites became memorials in honor of the communist activities in early 1920s in Shanghai.

In 1952， Shen Zhiyu represented the government to take over China’s oldest museums in Shanghai. One was the Heude Museum (Musee Heude) established in 1868 by a French priest named Pierre Heude (1836-1902) and the other was a museum established in 1857 by Royal Asiatic Society. The two museums had collections of specimens of fauna and flora specimens. Shanghai Nature Museum was founded on the basis of these two museums after the takeover.

In 1958， Shen Zhiyu became the deputy curator of Shanghai Museum in charge of daily operations of the museum. He was in this post for more than 30 years. Though the city underwent a few chaotic political movements during this long spell of time， the museum managed to salvage a large quantity of precious cultural relics.

From December 2002 to January 2003， the National Palace Museum in Beijing， Liaoning Provincial Museum and Shanghai Museum jointly staged an exhibition of national-treasure paintings and calligraphic works of various dynasties in Shanghai. I stood in a queue for more than 3 hours before entering the exhibition. One of the highlights at the exhibition was Shangyu Inscription. It was originally handwritten by Wang Xizhi. On display was a copy of the great inscription done in the Tang Dynasty. It was in royal collections through various dynasties. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty， it came into the possession of Liang Qingbiao， a private collector. In the last years of the Qing Dynasty， it came into the collection of Cheng Dingyi， also a private collector. After the libration in 1949， it changed hands and came into the possession of a private collector in Jing’an District， Shanghai. And someone somehow thought it was a fake. During the Cultural Revolution it was confiscated. In 1969， a working group in Shanghai was set up to sort through the confiscated cultural relics and books. While going through the confiscated things， Wan Yuren， an expert of painting and calligraphy with Shanghai Museum， spotted the inscription and thought it looked genuine， conveying a majesty that couldn’t be faked. The inscription was retained. As soon as my uncle was restored to his previous post at the museum in 1975， Wan reported the case to him. Shen immediately organized a group of experts to evaluate the inscription again and instructed to send it to Beijing if experts in Shanghai failed to determine. The inscription was sent to Xie Zhiliu， a master authenticator in Shanghai. Xie was overjoyed to see that it was an authentic artwork.

Encyclopadia Sinica lists 19 Chinese museologists of yesterday and today. My maternal uncle Shen Zhiyu is honored by this list.□