Nanjing Museum
By admin on 2015-01-12

Nanjing Museum (nán jīng bó wù yuàn 南京博物院) is the first large-scale comprehensive National Museum that has been established by the state, which is located at the southern foot of the Zijin Mountain (zǐ jīn shān 紫金山) in Nanjing, north of the Zhongshan Gate (zhōng shān mén 中山门), covers an area of more than 70,000 square meters.

The two exhibition halls (the main hall of Nanjing Museum and art exhibition hall), which build up an area of 35,000 square meters, is the grand architecture that accurately imitated the ancient palace of the Liao dynasty’s style. Constructed with yellow tiles and red pillars, the museum stands solemn and magnificent. Various carved stones and cultural relics spot the luxuriant growth of vegetation in the garden, making the cultural landscape and natural landscape a delightful contrast with each other.

The hall occupied the area of 2390 square meters, hold 3 display open to audience throughout the year basically, including “the 5,000 year civilization exhibition of lower reaches of Yangtze River”, "our yesterdays–the exhibition of the national history, nationality and culture”, "display of Jiangsu archaeological studies”. In the front, a palatial artistic exhibition hall similar with the original hall was in the west, which was just the craft hall in the original plan in the thirties with the area of 12,600 square meters, setting up 11 special exhibition hall such as Modern Art Hall (xiàn dài yì shù guǎn 现代艺术馆), Ancient Chinese Jade Hall (yù qì guǎn 玉器馆), Ancient Chinese Painting Hall (shū huà guǎn 书画馆), Ancient Chinese Lacquer Hall (qī yì guǎn 漆艺馆), Jiangnan Silk Product Hall (zhī xiù guǎn 织绣馆), Treasure Hall (zhēn bǎo guǎn 珍宝馆), Qing Garden (qìn yuán 沁园), Sculpture, Ancient Chinese Earthen Ware Hall (táo yì guǎn 陶艺馆), Bronze Ware Hall (qīng tóng guǎn 青铜馆) and Folk Art Hall (mín sú guǎn 民俗馆).

Collections and Objects

There are various kinds of 420,000 pieces of collection totally, among which are more than 2,000 pieces of the national first-class culture relic and the national most favorite treasures. The relics from archaeological excavation, ethnic minority historical relic, foreign historical relic, palace ware, documents in Qing dynasty and historical relic of Japanese invader in surrender rite, all of them are national unique rare products, which the scientific value is relatively high.

The collection of books of china and foreign countries in the museum has reached to nearly 300,000 volumes, among them there are national rare valuable books and hall edition books. Ancient calligraphy and painting that collect newly over the years, have reached the total amount in 30,000 above also, including the treasures in Song and Yuan dynasties. No matter on the quantity or on quality, they come out top around the country.

The Daxian village (dà xián zhuāng 大贤庄) ancient stone implement (jiù shí qì 旧石器) of the East Sea in China, which unearthed newly after the foundation of the state, the ancient painted pottery (cǎi táo qì 彩陶器) of Qiu County (qiū xiàn 邱县), the bronze ware (qīng tóng qì 青铜器) in the time of Westen Zhou (xī zhōu 西周) and the Spring and Autumn Period (chūn qiū shí dài 春秋时代) unearthed from Yizheng (yí zhēng 仪征), Dantu (dān tú 丹徒) and Lvhe (liù hé 六合), the Golden Beast of Western Han Dynasty (xī hàn 西汉) from Xuyu (xū yí 盱眙), the silk jade clothes (yín lǚ wáng yī 银缕王衣) and the golden seal (jīn yìn 金印) of "Guangling King” (guǎng líng wáng xǐ 广陵王玺) from an emperor tomb of Eastern Han Dynasty (dōng hàn 东汉) in Xuzhou (xú zhōu 徐州) and Yangzhou (yáng zhōu 扬州), the celadon porcelain (qīng cí 青瓷) and "seven bamboo grove virtuous and honor” (zhú lín qī xián yǔ róng qǐ qī 竹林七贤与荣启期) mural painting of brick (mó yìn zhuān huà 模印砖画) engraving in Nanjing and Anyang (ān yang 安阳) of the six dynasties and the pottery shaped of the image of dancer and reader (táo wǔ song 陶舞诵) from two tombs of Southern Tang Dynasty (nán tang 南唐) in Zutang Mountain (zǔ táng shān 祖堂山) of Nanjing are all treasures attracted attention by the domestic and international academia. With two third of its collections at national levels, the museum’s largest collection are Qing-Court porcelains, its most distinctive collection are culture relics from ethnic minority groups in southwest China and its most valuable collections in terms of scientific research values are unearthed objects from the remains of Kingdom of Yin (yīn 殷). In addition, the museum also boasts many valuable artworks including bamboo engravings, embroideries, paintings by “eight Nanjing masters” (jīn líng bā jiā 金陵八家) and “eight Yangzhou eccentric painters” (yáng zhōu bā guài 扬州八怪) and masterpieces by modern painters Fu Baoshi (fù bào shí 傅抱石) and Chen Zhifo (chén zhī fó 陈之佛).

Moreover, the ten theme exhibitions in the art hall and temporary exhibitions in the three special exhibition halls attract numerous visitors from home and abroad.

History

The predecessor of Nanjing Museum was the preparatory department of the National Museum, which established in 1933, under the purpose of Mr. Cai Yuanpei (cài yuán péi 蔡元培), who are the modern democratic revolutionary (mín zhǔ gé mìng jiā 民主革命家), educationist and the president of the national academy under central authorities of state. He have held the president of the first council concurrently in person and taken over the land for use of 12.9 hectares in the Half Hill Garden (bàn shān yuán 半山园) of the Zhongshan Gate. He proposed to build three major halls of “humanity” (rén wén 人文), "craft” (gōng yì 工艺) and “nature” (zì rán 自然) originally. Because of the current political situation, only “the humane hall” (rén wén guǎn 人文馆) has been established. This is just the present audience hall of Nanjing Museum.

Through purchasing, appropriating, exploring, Nanjing Museum centralized the first class national treasure in the amounts of two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand, including "the portrait of emperors and empresses in the past dynasties” (lì dài dì hòu xiàng 历代帝后像), "Sichuan Province visiting of emperor Tangming” (táng míng huáng xìng shǔ tú 唐明皇幸蜀图) of painting; rare national treasures, such as “Mao Gong Din” (máo gōng dǐng 毛公鼎), "Simuwu Pot” (sī mǔ wù dǐng 司母戊鼎) in the bronze, etc. Many famous experts also gathered here. They have being work for archaeology, exploring and national investigation, publishing a lot of monograph in the period of the national southwest investigation in Anti-Japanese War (kàng rì zhàn zhēng 抗日战争). Nanjing Museum, subordinating by Ministry of Education (jiào yù bù 教育部) at that time, was the comprehensive large-scale museum, which followed example of the first class museum of American and Europe at that time.