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National treasures on exhibit
By Xu Wenwen |
December 22, 2009, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE new Wulin branch of the Zhejiang Museum is open and its high technology makes possible the secure display of 80 treasures from the National Museum of China and many other relics never publicly shown. Xu Wenwen reports.
Eighty treasures from the National Museum of China and priceless art and artifacts from the Zhejiang Museum are on display in Hangzhou.
The "National Treasures" exhibition is making its 10th stop in the new Wulin branch of the Zhejiang Museum, which opened today. It runs through March 10.
More than 3,000 other objects are also on display in six exhibitions.
The treasures include the 59-centimenter-high "Four Sheep Square Bronze Zun" (zun is ancient wine vessels), the Jade Emperor Burial Cloth and other objects seen only in Beijing or in textbooks.
The exhibitions mark the 80th anniversary of the Zhejiang Museum.
Admission is free but numbers are limited to avoid crowding.
The new 21,000-square-meter branch covers three floors and a basement. The national treasures are exhibited on the lower level.
National Treasures
The National Museum of China selected 80 items from among its 600,000 items: 80 chosen for the museum's 80th anniversary.
The Four Sheep Square Bronze Zun dates from the Shang Dynasty (16th century-11th century BC) and appears in many textbooks. At 59 centimeters in height, and 60 kilograms in weight, it is the largest known zun of that dynasty and was unearthed in Hunan Province in 1938.
Four sheep are carved in relief on four sides; the sheep's legs reach the base; the edges are decorated and its shoulders ornamented with four dragons. Delicate patterns cover the sheep and dragons.
Two relics that were unearthed in Zhejiang Province have returned to the museum. They are the Qian Liu Iron Certificate with Gold Characters (Qian Liu Jin Shu Tie Quan) and the Gold-Gilded Copper Statue of Guan Yin (Liu Jin Shui Yue Guan Yin Tong Xiang).
Qian Liu was the founder and first king of the Wuyue Kingdom during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (AD 907-979) in southern coastal China. The certificate pardoned him in advance for crimes that called for the death penalty - this was granted because he was in service of the emperor. It also pardoned his offspring from three capital offenses.
The certificate contains 333 gold characters that still glitter.
The provincial museum had sought the national exhibit for three years, but placement was only possible after the Wulin branch was built. It provided the necessary environment for preservation (temperature, humidity, light) and security of the relics.
In addition to the "National Treasures" exhibit are six permanent exhibitions of the Zhejiang Museum's new outlet.
Four special exhibitions are landscape paintings from Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, guqin (a seven-stringed zither), Zhejiang folk sculpture and carving, and dowry furniture from Ningbo and Shaoxing cities. All are on the third floor.
The two basic and permanent exhibitions are the Zhejiang history and culture exhibition on the first floor and the Zhejiang modern revolution exhibition on the second floor.
The high-tech Wulin branch makes possible the public exhibition of treasures that had been stored. The museum spent 3 million yuan (US$439,264) on a dozen Glasbau Hahn display cases that control temperature and humidity.
Ten of the most precious treasures of the Zhejiang Museum will be exhibited in the six displays.
One of them is the magnum opus landscape painting "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" by Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) painter Huang Gongwang (1269-1354). It is one of the few surviving works by the acclaimed artist.
Huang experienced the turbulent dynastic change from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) to the Yuan Dynasty. Many artists at that time sought refuge and tranquillity and Huang's painting embodies that sentiment.
Painted between 1348 and 1350, it was literally burned into two pieces during the reign of the Shunzhi Emperor (1644-61) in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Its keeper Wu Hongyu loved the painting so much that he ordered it burned so it he could take it to the afterlife when he died.
Wu's nephew rescued the painting, which was aflame and turn into two parts. The first smaller piece, slightly more than half a meter in length, was renamed "The Broken Mountain" (Sheng Shan Tu).
The first part is kept by the Zhejiang Museum, while the other is kept in the museum in Taipei. The entire painting together would measure 691 centimeters in length.
Museum authorities in Taipei will not part with the larger part, so a reproduction has been made by Japan's Nigensha Publishing House, known for fine reproduction of calligraphy and traditional painting.
Relics include the sword of the king of the Yue in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-467 BC), the 6.5-kilogram "King of Jade" cong (a ceremonial object) unearthed from Liangzhu, Yuhang District (Zhejiang), and a gilt sedan chair used to collect a bride; it is made of more than 400 parts assembled without a nail.
Venue: Zhejiang Museum's Wulin branch, west building of West Lake Cultural Square
Opening hours: Daily, 9am-12pm (1,500 visitors limit), 12-5pm (2,500 visitors)
How to get there: Take buses 502, K76, K156 to Hangzhou Tower or Zhongshan Road N., walk northward to the X-building (main building of the square) and walk westward to the building.
Eighty treasures from the National Museum of China and priceless art and artifacts from the Zhejiang Museum are on display in Hangzhou.
The "National Treasures" exhibition is making its 10th stop in the new Wulin branch of the Zhejiang Museum, which opened today. It runs through March 10.
More than 3,000 other objects are also on display in six exhibitions.
The treasures include the 59-centimenter-high "Four Sheep Square Bronze Zun" (zun is ancient wine vessels), the Jade Emperor Burial Cloth and other objects seen only in Beijing or in textbooks.
The exhibitions mark the 80th anniversary of the Zhejiang Museum.
Admission is free but numbers are limited to avoid crowding.
The new 21,000-square-meter branch covers three floors and a basement. The national treasures are exhibited on the lower level.
National Treasures
The National Museum of China selected 80 items from among its 600,000 items: 80 chosen for the museum's 80th anniversary.
The Four Sheep Square Bronze Zun dates from the Shang Dynasty (16th century-11th century BC) and appears in many textbooks. At 59 centimeters in height, and 60 kilograms in weight, it is the largest known zun of that dynasty and was unearthed in Hunan Province in 1938.
Four sheep are carved in relief on four sides; the sheep's legs reach the base; the edges are decorated and its shoulders ornamented with four dragons. Delicate patterns cover the sheep and dragons.
Two relics that were unearthed in Zhejiang Province have returned to the museum. They are the Qian Liu Iron Certificate with Gold Characters (Qian Liu Jin Shu Tie Quan) and the Gold-Gilded Copper Statue of Guan Yin (Liu Jin Shui Yue Guan Yin Tong Xiang).
Qian Liu was the founder and first king of the Wuyue Kingdom during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (AD 907-979) in southern coastal China. The certificate pardoned him in advance for crimes that called for the death penalty - this was granted because he was in service of the emperor. It also pardoned his offspring from three capital offenses.
The certificate contains 333 gold characters that still glitter.
The provincial museum had sought the national exhibit for three years, but placement was only possible after the Wulin branch was built. It provided the necessary environment for preservation (temperature, humidity, light) and security of the relics.
In addition to the "National Treasures" exhibit are six permanent exhibitions of the Zhejiang Museum's new outlet.
Four special exhibitions are landscape paintings from Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, guqin (a seven-stringed zither), Zhejiang folk sculpture and carving, and dowry furniture from Ningbo and Shaoxing cities. All are on the third floor.
The two basic and permanent exhibitions are the Zhejiang history and culture exhibition on the first floor and the Zhejiang modern revolution exhibition on the second floor.
The high-tech Wulin branch makes possible the public exhibition of treasures that had been stored. The museum spent 3 million yuan (US$439,264) on a dozen Glasbau Hahn display cases that control temperature and humidity.
Ten of the most precious treasures of the Zhejiang Museum will be exhibited in the six displays.
One of them is the magnum opus landscape painting "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" by Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) painter Huang Gongwang (1269-1354). It is one of the few surviving works by the acclaimed artist.
Huang experienced the turbulent dynastic change from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) to the Yuan Dynasty. Many artists at that time sought refuge and tranquillity and Huang's painting embodies that sentiment.
Painted between 1348 and 1350, it was literally burned into two pieces during the reign of the Shunzhi Emperor (1644-61) in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Its keeper Wu Hongyu loved the painting so much that he ordered it burned so it he could take it to the afterlife when he died.
Wu's nephew rescued the painting, which was aflame and turn into two parts. The first smaller piece, slightly more than half a meter in length, was renamed "The Broken Mountain" (Sheng Shan Tu).
The first part is kept by the Zhejiang Museum, while the other is kept in the museum in Taipei. The entire painting together would measure 691 centimeters in length.
Museum authorities in Taipei will not part with the larger part, so a reproduction has been made by Japan's Nigensha Publishing House, known for fine reproduction of calligraphy and traditional painting.
Relics include the sword of the king of the Yue in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-467 BC), the 6.5-kilogram "King of Jade" cong (a ceremonial object) unearthed from Liangzhu, Yuhang District (Zhejiang), and a gilt sedan chair used to collect a bride; it is made of more than 400 parts assembled without a nail.
Venue: Zhejiang Museum's Wulin branch, west building of West Lake Cultural Square
Opening hours: Daily, 9am-12pm (1,500 visitors limit), 12-5pm (2,500 visitors)
How to get there: Take buses 502, K76, K156 to Hangzhou Tower or Zhongshan Road N., walk northward to the X-building (main building of the square) and walk westward to the building.
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