The National Palace Museum in Taipei houses over 696,000 pieces of Chinese art and artifacts spanning over 8,000 years of history. It contains paintings, calligraphy, antiquities like bronzes, jades, and ceramics from various dynasties. The collection was originally housed in the Forbidden City in Beijing but was relocated to Taipei after the Chinese Civil War. The museum aims to educate people about Chinese history and culture through its vast and diverse collection. It plays an important role in preserving cultural heritage and helping people understand their identity.
3. Background History
National Palace Museum
國立故宮博物院
antique museum in Shilin, Taipei, Taiwan
Houses a permanent collection of more
than 696,000 pieces of ancient Chinese
Over 8,000 years of Chinese artifacts and artworks
history from the Neolithic
age to the late Qing Dynasty.
The National Palace Museum and
Palace Museum, located inside the
The institution in Taipei is
Forbidden City in Beijing, share the
distinguished from the one
same original roots, which was split
in Beijing by the additional
in two as a result of the Chinese
"National" designation.
Civil War.
4. National Palace Museum
國立故宮博物院
● Paintings and Calligraphy
● Antiquities
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Ceramics
Jades
Bronzes
Curios
● Rare books and documents
these artifacts and items are from the different dynasties of ancient China
5. Paintings and Calligraphy
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date from the Tang Dynasty (618–907) to the modern era.
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collection covers over one thousand years of Chinese paintings
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Wide range of genres:
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flower and bird,
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figure painting
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landscape
boundary painting
Most famous paintings:
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Qing Palace version of Zhang Zeduan's Along the River During the Qingming
Festival. this is a copy (the original is in the Palace Museum in Beijing),
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Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (Wu-yung version) by Huang Gongwang of
Yuan Dynasty is one of the most dramatized pieces.
6. Paintings and Calligraphy
The museum has a vast collection of calligraphy works from the hands of major
calligraphers, scholars and important courtiers in history. The calligraphy
works date from the Jin (265–420) and Tang (618–907) dynasties, with a
variety of styles.
7. Antiquities
Bronzes -- Zong
Zhou Zhong
commissioned
by King Li of
Zhou, is the
most important
musical
instrument cast
under his royal
decree.
Ru wares were made exclusively
for the court and were ranked
among the Ding, Jun,Guan and
Ge as the "five classic wares" of
the Song Dynasty
Major collection site
for the
aforementioned
kilns.
Official kilns of the
Ming and Qing
dynasties (E.g. the
Mao Gong Ding of
doucai porcelains
the late Western
of the Chenghua
Zhou Dynasty
reign in the Ming
carries the longest
Chinese bronze
inscriptions
Dynasty) are of
excellent quality.
8. Antiquities
"Jadeite
Cabbage"
A piece of jadeite carved into the shape of
a cabbage head, and with a large and a
small grasshopper camouflaged in the
leaves.
Ruffled semi-translucent leaves attached
is due to the masterful combination of
various natural color of the jade to
recreate the color variations of a real
cabbage
9. "Meat-shaped
Stone"
■ often exhibited together with the
Jadeite Cabbage. A piece of
jasper, a form of agate, the
strata of which are cleverly used
to create a likeness of a piece of
pork cooked in soy sauce.
■ The dyed and textured surface
makes the layers of skin, lean
meat, and fat materialized
incredibly lifelike.
11. Rare books
range from the Song and Yuan dynasties to the
Ming and Qing dynasties, amounting to over
200,000 volumes
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Yongle Encyclopedia and Siku Quanshu
(Complete Library of the Four Treasuries)
are among the examples.
12. Historical documents
Jiu Manzhou Dang, a set of Manchu archives that
are the sourcebook of Manwen Laodang and a
primary source of early Manchu history.
The court archives are available for research in the
history of the Qing Dynasty.
13. The museum’s 3 floors
First- It consists of galleries dedicated to
Qing dynasty furniture, a vast array of
religious sculptural art and rare books.
Second- Han to Qing Dynasty: Here a
range of artwork, mediums and
materials expands dramatically from
porcelain and ceramics, to fine art,
jewellery and sculpture. The rare
collection of silk-screen painting and
calligraphy is truly magnificent.
Third- Early China: This charts the
beginnings of Chinese civilisation in
the Neolithic period through to the
end of the Han dynasty in 220 AD.
Early pottery and exquisite jade
pieces are expected to be seen here.
14. Significance of the National Palace
Museum, Taipei
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The full collection, which consists of some 650,000 pieces, spans over many
dynasties.
○ Each exhibit, however, puts on display only about 1,700 pieces at a time.
Many of the artifacts on display were possessions of the former imperial
family. One very familiar one would be the Qin Dynasty.
The famous jade cabbage was found as part of the Concubine Jin’s dowry.
This museum acts as a memorial to the many
priceless pieces of history for the world to view.
15. What we hope to learn from
National Palace Museum
❖ to appreciate Chinese history and
culture
❖ to understand how the Chinese culture
has evolved over the many dynasties
16. Importance of a museum
● Permanent institutions which acquire, conserve, research, and exhibit, for
purposes of study, and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their
environment
● Bear out a relationship with the past that attaches value to tangible traces
left by our ancestors, and aim to protect them
○ Such collections now constitute the major part of what is universally
known as the cultural heritage.
■ Heritage -- our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and
what we pass on to future generations
■ Irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration
○ Museums safeguard and preserve the heritage as a whole
○ Essential in allowing a deeper understanding and establishing both its
meaning and its possession
17. Importance of a museum
● helps in the preparation of a global ethic based on practice for the
conservation, protection and diffusion of cultural heritage values.
● Presents the interactions between culture and nature
● Works for the endogenous development of social communities whose
testimonies it conserves while lending a voice to their cultural aspirations.
○ Attentive to social and cultural change, helping us to present our
identity and diversity in an ever-changing world.
18. How do we preserve our own
heritage?
raise awareness among the people of the
country - by relaying the importance of the
country’s heritage to the people, so that they
would feel the duty to protect it too
