The 26th lecture of Lingnan Culture was recently held at Nanfeng Academy in Guangzhou. Hong Kong collector and founder of "Famous Master Hanmo", Xu Liping, told the story of the return of national treasures. The picture shows Hong Kong collector Xu Liping (left) at the lecture venue. According to statistics from the Chinese Cultural Relics Society, over 10 million Chinese cultural relics have been lost overseas since the Opium War, including more than 1 million national first and second level cultural relics. For over 70 years, China has successfully facilitated the return of over 300 batches and 150000 lost Chinese cultural relics overseas through various means. Xu Liping introduced that in the late 1940s, some antique shops from Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places relocated to Hong Kong, and mainland collectors also brought a large number of precious cultural relics, making Hong Kong one of the world's centers for trading Chinese cultural relics and artworks. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, in order to prevent the country from losing its treasures forever, under the concern of Premier Zhou Enlai, the Cultural Relics Bureau of the Ministry of Culture established the "Hong Kong Secret Cultural Relics Acquisition Group". After several efforts, precious cultural relics such as Han Huang's "Five Bulls", Wang Xianzhi's "Mid Autumn Letter", and Wang Xun's "Boyuan Letter" have returned to the embrace of the motherland. Wang Xianzhi's "Mid Autumn Poem", Wang Xun's "Boyuan Poem", and Wang Xizhi's "Clear Snow Time Poem" are collectively known as the "Three Xis" and are regarded as rare treasures by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. They are among the national treasures. Among them, the "Zhongqiu Tie" and the "Boyuan Tie" were known as the "Two Xis" and scattered among the people, falling into the hands of Guo Baochang, who was by Yuan Shikai's side. Afterwards, "Er Xi" went through twists and turns and was detained by Guo Zhaojun, the son of Guo Baochang, at HSBC in Hong Kong, unable to move. As the deposit period progressed, "Erxi" was scheduled to be publicly auctioned by the end of November 1951. Xu Liping once met with the key figure in the repurchase of "Erxi" in 1990- Zhuang Shiping, founder of Nanyang Commercial Bank in Hong Kong. Zhuang Shiping recalled that he learned that "Erxi" was pledged to an Indian, and if it was not redeemed within the mortgage period, it could be lost overseas. So he made a report, which was forwarded by Nanyang Commercial Bank to the head office of Bank of China, and then to Zhou Enlai. On November 5, 1951, Zhou Enlai issued instructions on this matter: "Agree to repurchase Wang Xianzhi's' Mid Autumn Letter 'and Wang Xun's' Boyuan Letter'. However, responsible personnel and experts must be sent to verify their authenticity, and through our reliable bank in Hong Kong, we must investigate whether the owner Guo Zhaojun has cheated or raised the price of the two letters, in order to ensure their smooth repurchase." The successful repurchase of 'Erxi' greatly encouraged the confidence of the domestic recycling of lost cultural relics. Xu Liping introduced that the rescue of scattered cultural relics in Hong Kong began in 1952 and was nearing completion in the second half of 1956. With the successful completion of several major acquisitions, most of the famous products on the market have already been acquired. More than 70 years ago, it was a large number of cultural elites who took great care of cultural relics and responsibly allocated special funds to purchase these items Xu Liping said. In December 2019, a batch of letters exchanged between Zheng Zhenduo and the "Hong Kong Secret Cultural Relics Acquisition Group" during the early days of the founding of New China were collected in the National Library. These 166 page documents reflect the history of cultural relic workers rescuing scattered cultural relics in the 1950s. (New Society)