Letter from Beijing: For five generations, the Liang family have been utterly loyal protectors of China's heritage: the priceless collection of paintings, calligraphy, porcelain and books that make up the treasures of the Imperial Palace Museum, writes Clifford Coonan
The Liang family's tale is that of a China in transformation. Their sense of responsibility to the valuables of Beijing's imposing Forbidden City has spanned 150 years and thousands of kilometres.
During the confused last years of the Qing dynasty, the Liangs quietly carried out their duties. They were still there in the ill-fated Republic of China, tending to the collection they love. Their sense of responsibility protected the collection against the brutality of the civil war, and kept it safely on the move during the Japanese invasion.
Their loyalty survived years of separation across the Straits of Taiwan and years of banishment during the Cultural Revolution.
"Five generations of my family have 'eaten the Forbidden City rice'. We have a duty to the collection. It's something I love," says Liang Jinsheng, the fifth generation of Liang to work in the museum, who is director of the collection management department.
The Palace Museum collection was first set up during the 10th century Song dynasty, when the second Song emperor built a pavilion to house his collection of books and paintings.
It grew and grew until, in the early 15th century, the collection settled in the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Ming dynasty palace where it stayed for over 500 years.
Among the works in the collection are 52 paintings by Liang Jinsheng's great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather, Liang Shien and Liang Derun. They were born during the Qing dynasty and managed the Imperial Palace's painting museum. Both were well-known artists.
"Liang Derun was the first generation to work in the Forbidden City, as far as we know. This is the fifth generation," said Liang.
When China's last emperor, Pu Yi, was forced out, and after the Republic of China was established in 1911, Liang Jinsheng's grandfather helped turn the Forbidden City into a new Palace Museum, which opened its doors to the people in 1925. But six years later Japan invaded Manchuria and the Nationalists ordered the collection be evacuated in 13,000 boxes.
Liang Jinsheng's father, Liang Kuangzhong, accompanied the boxes, first to Shanghai and Nanjing, then to Sichuan and Guizhou in the west.
Now in his 80s and retired, Liang Kuangzhong, is too ill to be interviewed but he has told fabulous stories of the long, perilous journeys they took during those years, protecting the cases of priceless artefacts, including calligraphy, paintings, books and clothes.
By the time the second World War was over the entire collection had spent 16 years criss-crossing China, running from the Japanese, and covering more than 10,000 kilometres by road and rail in the process.
The material was stored on trains with machine-gun nests to fight off marauding Japanese troops and Communist guerrillas, as well as bandits.
Despite the long, rough journeys and regular inspections, Liang says little if anything was broken during the odyssey. The crates were eventually stored on two holy mountains, Emeishan and Leshan in the inland Sichuan province.
When the war ended in 1945, the collection was on the move again. This time it was the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists.
Chiang Kai-shek initially ordered his soldiers to move the collection back to Nanjing but by late 1948, when it was clear the Communists would win China's civil war, he ordered the Nationalists to retreat to Taiwan.
In 1949 Chiang's defeated forces shipped around 3,000 crates containing 600,000 of its most precious objects to Taiwan, where they are now housed in Taipei's National Palace Museum.
They form the backbone of today's National Palace Museum collection. With the treasures went Liang Kuangzhong's father, Liang Tingwei, and his eldest son, Liang Esheng, to carry on the family line.
The family was split for decades by the Strait of Taiwan. Another 2,200 boxes were kept in Nanjing, where they still are today.
Left behind on the mainland, Liang Jinsheng suffered during the Cultural Revolution (1968-78) even though his family had always insisted their loyalties lay with the collection, not with Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang army. During the Cultural Revolution, Liang Jinsheng was sent to the countryside to be "re-educated" by farmers. His destination was particularly hard: Inner Mongolia, where he would stay for 10 years.
In 1974 he married a Beijing woman also exiled there.
Towards the end of his detention, Liang says he despaired of ever being allowed to return to the capital, even though he was desperate to carry on the family tradition of working in the Palace Museum.
In 1978 Liang Jinsheng received his longed-for permission to return to Beijing. Too old to work as a curator, he passed the examination for another job at the museum and gradually advanced to his current position managing the collection.
However, a venerable line looks set to end with Liang Jinsheng's retirement.
To stop nepotism, anyone with relatives already working there cannot join the staff of the Palace Museum, which means his son, Liang Jun, cannot carry on the family business, although he still works in the Forbidden City occasionally as a tour guide.
"I think it's a pity my son can't work in the Forbidden City after my family has given so much to the Imperial Palace museum."
For Jiang Jinsheng, his dream is to see the collection united again in the Forbidden City.