On WANG Guowei's Selling Collections of Paintings in Shanghai

WANG Guowei's life was characterized by financial constraints, as a result of his dedication to scholarship and negligence of making efforts to earn a living. However, from August 1916 to early 1917, with his unsuccessful cooperation with Hardoon Garden, WANG hesitated to continue compiling the Academic Series. Once the cooperation was terminated, he had to find another way to survive in Shanghai. Just then, the stock price of the Commercial Press skyrocketed. WANG decided to sell out all his purchased commercial stocks and made a considerable profit. To ensure a stable livelihood for future, taking the equity income as his principal and under the guidance of LUO Zhenyu, WANG Guowei purchased antique paintings on two separate occasions, including one by FANG Fanghu (FANG Conyi) and one by TANG Liuru (TANG Yin), both of which were sent to LUO for sale on a commission basis. Back then antique business was not easy. Despite the difficulties to sell his own collections and the economic distress, LUO painstakingly supported and planned the selling of WANG's two collections. Ultimately he seemed to have kept them in his own collections by paying a higher price. In order to promote the national scholarship, LUO Zhenyu was actively involved in the heritance of ancient civilization; in order to help WANG Guowei, the genius scholar, to pursue his studies without distraction, LUO strived to ensure WANG's financial stability. LUO's painstaking efforts were rooted in both the depth of friendship and the vastness of academy, and his passion, vision and courage are awe-inspiring.