Lu Dongzhi was born in Beijing in 1962. On June 15th, 1997, one of the first private museums in Chinese mainland, the Museum of Ancient Pottery Civilization, was founded. He died of a sudden heart attack on October 24, 211, at the age of 49.
Chinese name: Lu Dongzhi
Nationality: China
Birthplace: Beijing, China
Date of birth: 1962
Date of death: October 24, 211
Occupation: calligrapher
Graduation institution: Northwest University
Major achievement: founding the Museum of Ancient Pottery Civilization
. In fact, he was born on October 18th, 1962 in Gregorian calendar, but he was used to the summer calendar and the old year number. October 18th of that year was September 2th of the old calendar, and he also celebrated his birthday according to the old calendar, so he claimed to the household registration staff that his identity card date was also 9-2) and he was born in Beijing. Established one of the first private museums in Chinese mainland-Museum of Ancient Pottery Civilization.
Walking on the Inner West Street of You 'anmen, Xuanwu District, Beijing, and crossing a narrow alley, you inadvertently saw the "Museum of Ancient Pottery Civilization". My mind is still imagining the grandeur it may have, but my mind is frozen by this quaint and dignified antique building. The lush pines and cypresses in front of the museum witness its history. The overgrown weeds on the wall, the patterns on the wall that are eclipsed by disrepair and the sparse tourists all seem to tell its loneliness and loneliness. Compared with the striking advertising signs and lively crowds in the Grand View Garden next to it, this corner is too deserted.
low-key performance
as the curator of the museum of ancient pottery civilization, he has tens of millions of wealth, but he still keeps a low-key and simple life. No matter how rich people around him are, he is unmoved and insists on not selling a collection.
"I am a museum, which is different from any investment project. I don't sell collections, and I never thought about making money from them. Therefore, collection is the love of my life, not investment."
However, whether it is admitted or not, the more than 3, artworks collected by Lu Dongzhi are only in the Wadang series of the Han Dynasty. Due to the increasing scarcity, the market price of each piece is more than 2, to 3, yuan, and the estimated total value has exceeded 1 million yuan. Objectively speaking, he has left a lot of wealth to future generations, but the beneficiary of this investment is not himself, but the whole society.
personal experience
Lu Dongzhi taught himself poetry and calligraphy in middle school. In 1981, he studied calligraphy with Mr Ouyang Zhongshi. In 1982, he learned to write poems from Mr. Xiao Lao, and then he learned poems, songs and fu from Xiao Lao-centered classical poets such as Jin Jishui, Ma Liqian, Kong Fanzhang and Liu Yuxuan. In 1985, he won the first prize in reportage of "International Youth Year Essay".
In p>1986, he won the first prize of the First National Mini-novel Competition. Joined the Beijing branch of the Chinese Writers Association and went to Lu Xun College of Literature of the Chinese Writers Association for further study. In 1987, he entered the writers' training class of Northwest University and began to collect cultural relics and study archaeology by himself.
In p>1988, I worked as a part-time editor for Writers Publishing House. After graduating from Northwest University in 1989, he left his post to concentrate on novels, poems and paintings, and was obsessed with collecting archaeology. In 1992, a collection of poems and paintings was published, and the Beijing Writers Association and China Youth Publishing House jointly held a seminar on the collection of poems by Lu Dongzhi.
In p>1993, he participated in the preparation for the publication of Collectors magazine and held the "Ludong Collection Tile Exhibition". In 1994, he participated in the "94 Oriental Collectors Cultural Relics Annual Exhibition". In 1995, 6 original rubbings of Wadang in the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties collected by Lu Dongzhi were made, and Qin Fengni was found and fully collected, protected and preliminarily sorted out. In 1996, he held the "Exhibition of Ludong's Collection of Tile Mud Sealing", cooperated with Professor Zhou Xiaolu on the academic topic of Qin Mud Sealing, co-authored the Collection of Qin Mud Sealing, founded the Museum of Ancient Pottery Civilization, organized the "First Academic Seminar on Newly Discovered Qin Mud Sealing" with Northwest University, and announced the major findings of Qin Mud Sealing. He was applied as a part-time associate professor of Northwest University.
In p>1997, the Museum of Ancient Pottery Civilization was opened, and a series of special exhibitions, such as "Cave of Painted Pottery, Grand View of Wadang, Unique Seal of Mud, Ancient Pottery Sequence", were launched.
In p>1998, he completed 8 original rubbings of "Dream Zhai in the East of the Road", and was invited to visit Japan to give a special lecture on mud sealing, and held many academic and artistic exchange activities in Tokyo, Osaka and other places.
In p>1999, he made 6 original rubbings of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the Dream of the Road East. In 2, the "Dismantled Structure and Others-Art Exhibition of Ludong" and the "Special Exhibition on the Third Anniversary of the Opening of the Museum of American-Austrian Ancient Pottery Civilization" were held. In 21, he wrote columns such as "Dream Zhai Miscellaneous Words" for China Cultural Relics Newspaper and Cultural Relics World magazine, designed the logo, and made 8 original rubbings of "Bricks Collected in Ancient Ceramic Civilization Museum". He found that the clay seal of Xincai Warring States was fully collected, protected and arranged, and visited the site.
In p>22, he cooperated with Professor Zhou Xiaolu on the topic of "Study on the Dredging in the Warring States Period in Xincai", and * * * organized a site inspection and jointly published a series of articles such as "Discovery of Original Dredging".
in p>23, we made 6 original rubbings of the ancient pottery civilization museum. In 24, he put forward the theory of "ancient pottery civilization coordinate system" and began to preside over the basic work of "ancient pottery civilization coordinate system project". In 25, we held the "Exhibition of Acrylic Rock Paintings by the Gods or Witches-Ludong" and the "Exhibition of Art Works by the Gods or Witches and Others-Ludong".
In p>26, she published a collection of works "Possibility-A Lonely Traveler's Poem Journey".
in p>27, the exhibition of ancient pottery civilization-the 1th anniversary exhibition of the opening of the museum of ancient pottery civilization was held.
In p>28, he published "A Journey to Ask Tao —— Collection of Ancient Pottery Civilization Museum".
Strange fate or choice
"There is a kind of suffering is choice", which is a sentence in a poem written by Lu Dongzhi in his early years. He installed this poem and other poems into works of art and hung them in the exhibition hall of the museum, which was particularly eye-catching. It is from these poems that we can read his loneliness and detachment and his inner world full of ideals and dreams.
It is an inexplicable fate and the result of choice to embark on the road of collection. It is the dream of all young people to resume the college entrance examination after the Cultural Revolution and enter the halls of universities. Lu Dongzhi failed in the first college entrance examination in Sun Shan, but the physical examination revealed a heart attack, which ruined his possibility of taking the second college entrance examination, which was a great blow at that time. As a result, he had to make a determined effort to self-study. In order to achieve something in literature and art such as calligraphy, painting and poetry, he sought teachers and friends to travel all over Beijing. In this process, he got to know many famous teachers such as Ouyang Zhongshi and Xiao Lao, and soon, his calligraphy works won prizes one after another. In 1985, his reportage work won the first prize of "International Youth" essay, when he was only 23 years old. Wang Meng, Tang Dacheng, Cong Weixi and other literary elders especially appreciated him, so he joined the Beijing branch of the Chinese Writers Association and was recommended to the Luxun College of Literature of the Chinese Writers Association for further study.
In p>1987, Lu Dongzhi was admitted to the writers' class of Northwest University. Originally, I wanted to achieve something in literature, but also to get a paper diploma. But when he set foot on the land of Feng Shui in Xi 'an, he was attracted by the thick and mysterious atmosphere of ancient civilization, and collecting archaeology became his dream. During his school days, he devoted his main energy to treasure hunting and dreams, and started his initial "archaeology" at the library site of Northwest University. At that time, he carried a backpack every day to look for it in the deep pit of the library site of Northwest University, which he felt somehow, so that he forgot to eat and sleep, and gradually got residual pottery tiles, which filled the desks and beds in the dormitory. This became a temporary legend and joke among his classmates who struggled to realize their dream as writers.
However, he is not satisfied with what he has got in front of him. He believes that what he is looking for has not yet appeared. Finally, one day, he kicked out a piece of Tang stele with three lines and six words on it: the first line is "You", the second line is "Bodhisattva" and the third line is "Buse". He felt that the soul of his soul was touched, and suddenly he was calm, and he felt a sense of detachment and longing. He decided that this was the psychic artifact that he was infatuated with and destined to belong to. "There is a bodhisattva who can't stop looking", what a complete sentence, an Oracle. Since then, he has been more devoted to the collection, and his infatuation has not changed, and his romance has never stopped. "Collection" changed his life and life.
It's hard to realize a dream
From the very beginning, Lu Dongzhi's collection escaped vulgarity, ornateness and popularity, and thus tended to be lofty, elegant and unpopular, and always put academic value in the first place. He found that history is opening a mystery, a slim seam with strange light. It is history that has helped him to be a scholar, allowing him to accumulate treasures in all directions in more than ten years, and quickly establish a collection system with elegant taste and huge structure that is comparable to those predecessors who gathered knowledge, power and money 5 years ago. In 198s, China people began to wake up from the nightmare of the "Cultural Revolution", culture began to revive, and personal consciousness and wealth consciousness gradually awakened. A collection craze with the attributes of popular culture has been rapidly generated nationwide. More and more people feel happiness, beauty and value from the collection behavior and make achievements, and Lu Dongzhi is one of them. He named his house, which is less than 2 square meters, "Meng Zhai". In less than ten years, Meng Zhai has become a cultural relic warehouse, full of all kinds of magical treasures, as well as his big dream of collecting 5, years of civilization. His original collection was a tile. In 1993, he held the "Exhibition of the Collection of the Road East" in Beijing, which was the first special exhibition about the ancient tile in China. With the great discovery of "Meng Zhai Qin Feng Mud" and the large-scale entry of painted pottery of the Yellow River civilization in Neolithic Age, he began to dream of setting up his own museum.
In April, 1996, Lu Dongzhi planned to establish the "Museum of Oriental Civilization" with the collection of Mengzhai and Renmin University of China, but it failed for various reasons. Just as he was suffering for it, history once again opened the gap. With the continuous efforts of many collectors, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage decided to set up the first batch of private museums in China. He started the substantive planning of establishing a museum, and after a comprehensive and serious investigation, appraisal and demonstration by the National Cultural Heritage Administration expert group, on October 3, 1996, the first batch of four private museums in China, including the Museum of Ancient Ceramic Civilization in Ludongzhi, was his 35th birthday. For a time, he became a news figure, and people wanted to interview and visit him every day. They can't understand that there is still a long distance between the establishment and opening of the museum in Qian Shan, and that the cruel reality is giving Lu Dongzhi, the last scholar immersed in dreams and poems, a great test. Maybe it's a great mission from heaven, but it's amazing. Maybe it's "a bodhisattva can't help but be angry". It experienced unimaginable hardships in advance. On June 15, 1997, the Museum of Ancient Ceramic Civilization was grandly opened. People flocked to the exhibition hall, no matter the preciousness and exquisiteness of the exhibits, or the degree of specialization, cultural taste and artistic style of the exhibitions, they really exceeded people's expectations. A few years later, a chairman of the international exposition association pointed out that "miniaturization, specialization and privatization" is the basic direction of the future development of global museums. The ancient pottery museum is just in line with it.
Going Lonely
The noise and excitement of opening the museum are fleeting, followed by going lonely and persisting in loneliness. Indeed, private museums were still new things in China at that time. Not many people can really understand and treat it correctly, especially from the perspective of public welfare. First of all, the house is rented for money, and the water and electricity are also paid at commercial prices.
Lu Dongzhi recalled that people often met him and asked, "Is business good?" "Are you still working?" "Can you do this thing?" He said that it can be seen that this is still a "sale" in most people's consciousness. Especially when people know that they are losing money, they often ask, "Why are you still doing it when you lose money?" Don't say that the public, even the cultural and art circles, also have many misunderstandings that lead to discrimination. An expert from the Museum of Cultural Relics wrote an article, clearly arguing that private museums should not buy unearthed cultural relics. However, in Lu Dongzhi's view, it is the duty and duty of private museums with cultural relics as the main body to buy, rescue and sort out the unearthed cultural relics scattered among the people in time, which is their reason for existence. Over the years, he has always regarded the rescue, collection, arrangement, publicity and display of unearthed cultural relics scattered among the people as his responsibility and mission. In his view, "cultural relics do not lie in who owns them, but in the attitude of the possessor." No matter who he is, as long as his attitude towards the cultural relics he owns is sincere, good-natured, beautiful, of lofty significance, and can be fair to the public, he is reasonable and should be respected; No matter where it is placed, as long as it is proper, open and conducive to public viewing and research, it is meritorious and should be helped. On the other hand, even if it is a national scientific excavation, even if it is owned by the most advanced state-owned cultural and art institutions, as long as it is long-term oblivion and cannot serve the public, as long as it is unduly damaged, it is not a crime! In the same way, the museum is not about who runs it, but about how it is done and whether it meets the universally recognized definition of a museum. "
Facing the reality, Ludong is more about understanding and tolerance. He said: "The museum itself is a lonely cause, especially in our country. Unlike the developed countries in the west, there is a relatively complete foundation system. The newly rich people are not so far-sighted, and they can't see the value and light of private museums for a while. Everything requires us to work alone, and we need to move forward alone and make wonderful things. " So, he personally demonstrated the splendor of his museum. Every year, the "souvenirs" they sell are the most popular in the "May 18th International Museum Day" activities. His "Dream Zhai Yuan Tuoben" series is published every two years, and each book is limited to 6 or 8 books, which has brand significance and has been collected by collectors, artists, scholars and cultural research institutions mainly in Japan. This has also become a major source of income for him to maintain the survival of the museum.
Ideal is still a dream
Perhaps it is the insistence on collection and art, and Lu Dongzhi in life seems a bit "stingy". He is the father of two children, but he lives in a two-bedroom house. Although he is the owner of a special museum with thousands of cultural relics, he still travels by taxi. He admits that in this era of material surplus, most people need to "lose weight", their basic life is already good, and the secular values of a good house and car are not enough to tempt him.
regarding the future of the museum of ancient pottery civilization, Lu Dongzhi said, "Success means socialization, and I hope it will become the wealth of mankind.". Since I was founded, I have belonged to the society. I only have this great fate, and I became attached to it at the moment of my life, and I tried my best to carry it forward, enhance and realize its value and dignity. This is the goal of my work. "
At the end of p>22, he sent a Letter of Intent for the Development Cooperation of the Museum of Ancient Pottery Civilization to Director Dan Jixiang, and wrote in the letter: "It can be said that we have an extremely important and special cultural relics collection system with profound and rich connotations, which is almost complete and self-contained; We also have a deep understanding of the museum cause, sincere and advanced operation concept and comprehensive working ability, but we just lack funds and no suitable' place'! In order to realize the ideal, we urgently need a space for survival and development that can be fully used. With people's growing concern, understanding and need for museums, and with Beijing becoming an international cultural center and an international metropolis.