A Man Who Guarded China's Porcelain Legacy With Silence And Grace

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Born in 1896 in Hebei Province, Sun arrived in Beijing at age 14 to seek his fortune. He apprenticed in a furniture shop, then joined two respected antique firms – Tongchun Yong and Baoju Zhai – where he learned the arts of appraisal, accounting and, more importantly, discernment. After over a decade of study, he opened his own store, Dunhua Zhai, on Dongsi South Street, specializing in Ming and Qing porcelains.

Though wealthy, Sun remained humble in every aspect of life. His gloves were sewn by his wife from worn socks. His family ate meat only once a week. He adored Hebei bangzi opera but refused to buy proper seats – always opting for the cheapest tickets on the stairs.

A theater manager once asked him, half in jest, why a man of such means wouldn't buy a better view. Sun replied, with a smile,“As long as I can hear the voice, I'm satisfied.”

Sometime in the 1930s, Sun was offered a pair of Three Months of Autumn cups in exchange for forty gold bars. At the time, that sum could have purchased five grand courtyard houses in the center of Beijing. He did not hesitate. He acquired the cups – and then locked them away. For decades, even his own family never saw them. It wasn't until the eve of his donation, in 1956, that he placed them on the table in the family's main hall and quietly let his children view what he had kept hidden for decades.

The story behind the cups is as poetic as their brushwork. Legend has it that Emperor Chenghua, made timid and melancholic by years of palace conflict, found emotional refuge in his senior consort, Lady Wan – his elder by 17 years. She shielded him as both protector and companion. For her, he commissioned these cups at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen. They were delicate and introspective – an autumn garden captured in porcelain, both intimate and eternal.

Fifty years later, during the reign of the Ming Jiajing emperor, the cups were already considered legendary. They embodied the highest aspirations of Jingdezhen's imperial kilns – technical perfection united with lyrical sensitivity.

In 1956, Beijing's then-mayor Peng Zhen, who was asking prominent collectors to support the young republic through cultural donations, personally visited Sun. Sun agreed, again without hesitation. He donated 3,940 relics – 2,700 of them porcelain – including 25 first-tier national treasures. It took the Palace Museum over 45 days to catalogue the collection. Twenty-five trucks were dispatched to transport the trove. It remains one of the most generous private donations in China's modern history.

The Qing Dynasty Qianlong Famille-Rose Vase with Lotus and Eight Auspicious Symbols in Branching Design, a national first-class cultural relic donated by Sun Yingzhou to the Palace Museum Beijing. Image courtesy of the Palace Museum

Zhang Hongwei, president of the Forbidden City Publishing House, once remarked with emotion that Sun Yingzhou had made the most outstanding contribution in donating porcelain to the Palace Museum.

A Qing Dynasty Qianlong Teapot with Green Ground and Famille-Rose Lotus Scroll Pattern, a National First-Class Cultural Relic Donated to the Palace Museum by Sun Yingzhou. Image courtesy of the Palace Museum

The Three Months of Autumn cups now rest quietly in the Palace Museum, among its most venerated holdings.

But Sun's contribution went beyond objects. He was a mentor, too. One of his early apprentices was a young man named Geng Baochang, who later would become one of China's foremost porcelain scholars. Geng, forever grateful, often repeated the Chinese adage:“A teacher for one day, a father for life.” That phrase, imbued with Confucian reverence, still echoes in the ceramic halls of Beijing.

China's leading antique ceramic authentication expert Geng Baochang with Sun Yingzhou's granddaughter Li Run – image provided by Li Run