Recently, due to the impact of typhoon weather, Beijing has experienced heavy rainfall for several consecutive days, causing some roads to be flooded ankle-deep and inconveniencing local residents. On June 14th, a netizen reported that the “Lovely Woods and Quaint Springs” exhibition hall in the Forbidden City in Beijing suffered from leaks during the heavy rain, with exhibit items becoming soaked by dripping raindrops, leading to the temporary closure of the exhibition.
According to reports from various media outlets such as Mainland Elephant, Upstream, and New Capital, on June 14th during the heavy rain in Beijing, a video posted by netizens showed that due to the sudden downpour, the “Lovely Woods and Quaint Springs” exhibition in the Forbidden City had a scroll of the “East Garden Map” in an exhibition case get wet. The left part of the character “East” in the scroll was suspected to have been soaked by raindrops. Subsequently, staff urgently cleared the area and announced the temporary closure of the exhibition.
A netizen with the username “Muddy of Youth” posted saying it was embarrassing, as many people were saying that rain at the Forbidden City was a good thing and that the Forbidden City is waterproof. However, several netizens revealed that the exhibition hall at the Forbidden City’s Meridian Gate was directly closed due to leaks, with raindrops dripping onto the calligraphy and painting works of Wen Zhengming that were being exhibited.
One netizen who was present at the scene stated that while walking around the exhibition hall of “Lovely Woods and Quaint Springs,” they faintly felt raindrops splashing on their face. Initially thinking it was a mirage, they looked down and saw bean-sized raindrops on the “East Garden Map” scroll. The clearing process began shortly after, leading to the temporary closure of the Lovely Woods and Quaint Springs exhibition.
It is reported that from early April to the end of June this year, the “Lovely Woods and Quaint Springs – Chinese and Western Garden Culture Exhibition” was being showcased in the main hall of the Meridian Gate and the East and West Annex Halls at the Forbidden City. The exhibition featured over 200 Chinese and Western exhibits, with the “East Garden Map” being one of them.
Former professor Li Yuanhua from Capital Normal University, interviewed on June 15th by a reporter from Dajiyuan, expressed that “as a national key cultural heritage protection unit, the Forbidden City has always been under official guardianship, and the Palace Museum is a professional place with decades of exhibition experience.” “The leakage at the Forbidden City leading to Ming Dynasty calligraphy and painting works being soaked is not a minor mistake and should not have happened. For such important cultural relics, the Forbidden City should have various contingency plans to ensure their safe exhibition and should take measures from all aspects.”
Li Yuanhua believes that “perhaps a lot of allocated funds were not properly arranged, and various positions did not fulfill their duties properly, resulting in such relatively minor loopholes. If it were a mature, responsible, and strictly regulated organization, it should learn from similar incidents, improve its systems, to prevent similar or more serious issues in the future. It is crucial to seriously consider, strictly enforce regulations and systems.”
“Similar incidents may have occurred before but were not reported,” Li Yuanhua said. “Under the Communist Party system, power is above everything, so sometimes, leaders in charge may make violations against the rules, and even at the Forbidden City, there have been cases in the past where people drove cars inside to show off their wealth, which was later reported by the media. It was evident of privilege, and upon investigation, it was found that the official position of the person driving the car far exceeded that of the managers of the Palace Museum, leading to the ludicrous actions taken to cater to their superiors.”
The “East Garden Map” is a work by Wen Zhengming, one of the four painters of the Ming Dynasty, completed at the age of 61 in 1530 (9th year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty), also known as the “Wen Zhengming’s East Garden Map,” depicting the elegant gathering scenes in the East Garden.