Author: Huang Chongkai, writer

 

Until recently, seals were widely used to sign documents and packages. Although most seals found on ancient calligraphy work, paintings and plaques express the individual style and character of the owner, seal impressions of the President, however, display few distinguishing characteristics. They were stamped on official documents, delivered, and passed from hand to hand. Eventually they became smudged and altered, ultimately vanishing with the passage of time. The owner of this collection of seals was the longest serving president in the history ROC. For a long time, whenever the title “President” was heard, whether in abuse, praise or ridicule, it had to refer to the old President Chiang.

 

The Academia Historica has in its current collection nearly thirty Presidential seals of President Chiang Kai-shek. When arranged by date, the seals more or less reveal stories of the old President’s life. From the earliest seals engraved with the words “Height is achieved from the base, the massive is accumulated from the insignificant” or “At twenty, one should delve into the art of writing and read extensively,” scenarios of his youth in Wuling are called to attention. Then, there is the “Chiang Chung-cheng” seal presented to him by the first graduates of Whampoa Military Academy. Later, we find the “Commander-in-Chief of the National Revolutionary Army” seal from when he took his oath before the Northern Expedition, and the “Chief of the Resettlement Committee of the 1st Army of the National Revolutionary Army.” Still another seal states, “Chief Chiang ended internal turmoil, established the foundation of the nation, glorified the party and the nation, and spread his fame across the seas. His excellent conduct and command of the army, his high moral standards matching past heroes, all establish him as a model soldier. Suppressing the communists, his contribution was hard-fought and his merits formidable. With his triumphant return, this seal was carved in testament to his exploits.” Finally, we come to the Presidential Seal recasted in 1976, carved by Yang Pengsheng in Nanjing.” Some of the seals were gifts from Yang, who was an old friend. The seals attest to their intimate friendship. One particularly noteworthy fact is that the old president did not dispose of these seals praising his name after Yang joined the Communists in 1949, but rather kept them close. Seals do not tell us much, but in their silence they reveal fragments of history, just as it was not known until later that the president, besides attending to matters of state, was an amateur photographer.

 

It is not easy to imagine how the old president spent his later years in Taiwan dreaming of the liberation of China—a dream that became nothing more than a fantasy. The two lenses—one for framing, and the other for shooting—staring from Chiang’s classic Rolleiflex 120 antique camera (grandfather of Twin Lens Reflex Cameras), give clues to how the president spent his time. This antique camera does not frame images on a small screen like modern digital cameras, but from a waist-level viewfinder that offers a view from above. Two other cameras, a Leica 135 and a Canon Model 7, both Twin Lens Reflex cameras, use a more conventional viewfinder. Imagine the old president gazing through the framing lens, adjusting the shutter speed, ranging the finder and aperture -- what exactly was he trying to capture? Take a look at the Graflex Speed Graphic, a single-lens reflex camera with bellows, the ultimate professional camera from 1930 to 1950. Who would suspect that it once was part of the old President’s collection? Where, then, are the photos taken by this amateur photographer? Perhaps, as he looked through the viewfinder, he would sometimes see another, more professional camera, a Graflex Super Speed Graphic, trained on him by his own professional photographer, Hu Chongxian.

 

The seals bear witness to the rise of Chiang Kai-shek, and the cameras framed the time he spent looking out. These memoranda of the old president then became pieces of history, framed by time into the archives of memory.

 

 

 

Item Name: Seal of the President (Registration No. 002000000001C)

Subject and Keywords: Artifacts of President Chiang Kai-shek

Description: Silver square seal with handle. Inscribed with the words “Seal of the President” in positive carving. The lower-left corner has been cut off.

Serial Number: 00210010000001000

 

 

Item Name: Seal of the President (Registration No. 002000000002C)

Subject and Keywords: Artifacts of President Chiang Kai-shek

Description: No handle. Wooden square seal inlaid with red copper. The seal inscription in positive carving reads “Seal of the President.” The lower right corner has been cut off. On the back is a tag with the number “1.”

Serial number: 00210010000002000