After Wen Bin's rule, his grandfather Gu Qishi (1865- 1930) inherited a third of the Tibetan paintings left by Wen Bin and further expanded them. Gong Zu Kistler himself is an artist who is proficient in calligraphy and painting, especially his landscape paintings are elegant and rich, and his name is more important than the world. With rich artistic accomplishment and keen vision, he collected a wide range of paintings and calligraphy works, and collected more than a thousand paintings, reaching the peak of the painting collection of Yunlou. Qi Shigong's efforts and success in collection can be seen in the compilation of "The Story of Continued Painting and Calligraphy in Guoyunlou". It has been difficult to start a business since ancient times, and it is even harder to keep it. There have also been many great collectors who looked down on their generation in history, such as Ming Xiangzi Jing, Qing 'an Yizhou and Liang Qingbiao. Its wealth was once brilliant. However, due to the extravagant winds of later generations, disputes over property, social unrest, changes of the times, or disasters of fire and water, they could not live together from generation to generation, causing losses and damage, which made them suffer from the sufferings of their ancestors.
In the past 100 years, the predecessors of the first three generations have worked hard to create a treasure house of calligraphy and painting that can stand out in the south of the Yangtze River. How to preserve this historical and cultural heritage completely for a long time is a difficult problem for future generations. At the beginning, Wen Bin's famous Tibetan studio was named Yunta, which not only showed his open-mindedness of regarding calligraphy and painting as floating clouds, but also contained the hidden worry of floating clouds. As expected, after the Republic of China, warlords scuffled and foreign invasions continued. Especially during the Japanese invasion of China, Jiangnan fell and the environment was sinister, and the paintings and calligraphy collected by Guoyun Building experienced disasters again and again.
My late father Ze Yang (word Gongxiong, 1897- 195 1) and my late mother Shen Tongyue (1896- 1978) inherited a quarter of the collection of paintings and calligraphy analyzed by their parents, with more than 300 pieces. I lived in Zhujiayuan, Suzhou at that time. 1On August 6th, 937, the Japanese army carried out an air raid on Suzhou. A bomb landed in my yard, blowing up windows and sundries in the yard. Fortunately, the paintings and calligraphy in the study were not hurt. Afraid of another disaster, parents hurriedly brought some exquisite paintings and calligraphy to avoid the light in Lishu Town. Later, they hired a boat, transported a painting box and moved to Guangfu Mountain. At the beginning of 1938, with the help of my aunt Gu Yan, my father decided to move calligraphy and painting to the concession in Shanghai with his family. Unexpectedly, the truck sent to transport had an accident halfway and stopped on the road outside Changshu, where it was questioned by Japanese soldiers. Fortunately, a Japanese friend who came with the car handled it and sent them away. Seeing this critical situation, my father hurried to Shanghai with a truck full of paintings and calligraphy. Two sons were left in a small shop in Changshu bus station, because the car was full of painting boxes and there was no place. It was not until another truck came the next day that their family took them back to Shanghai.
Under the protection of father and mother, these paintings and calligraphy have gone through difficulties and obstacles, and finally avoided disasters and were safely preserved. Our family spent seven long years in Shanghai. At that time, the economy was tight and life was hard, but my parents were frugal and never sold a single ancient painting. They said that these paintings and calligraphy are the essence of China art preserved by ancestors and must be preserved and carried forward.
After liberation, social stability and national construction are flourishing. We have seen hope and don't have to worry about passing away. 195 1 year, when my father was dying, he expressed his thoughts for a long time and made a decision: "Let's give it away and dedicate our collection of paintings and calligraphy to the country." According to my father's wishes, my mother and five of our brothers and sisters (Gu, Gu Liu, Gu Buddha, Gu, Gu) donated 308 famous calligraphy and paintings to Shanghai Museum in 195 1 year and 1959 respectively. At this point, a number of well-preserved paintings and calligraphy in Yunta paintings have got the best home. If Gu's ancestors in the previous generations devoted countless efforts and financial resources to the collection of ancient paintings and calligraphy for the purpose of loving them, then the ancestors in the latter two generations went through hardships to protect, collect and enrich these treasures, which is really hard for outsiders to perceive. Because of this, we regard the collection of Gu Shuhua as a sacred duty to protect China's historical culture and the cultural heritage of the motherland, rather than private property. These calligraphy and painting treasures can be better preserved if they are included in the National Museum. At the same time, it can play a role in in-depth study and further promotion of excellent cultural traditions. It can be said that they are "passing clouds" and become "reflecting the world", and our hearts feel extremely gratified.