12 best relics in the Shanghai Museum
With hundreds of exhibits and very few explanatory panels, navigating the Shanghai Museum can be a daunting task. You go in, spend hours and come out knowing little more than when you started.
Not exactly the cultural experience you were hoping for.
That’s why Daniel Newman, of the Shanghai-based Newman Tours, initiated his tour of the Shanghai Museum last year.
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“If you don’t know the context and how the piece fits into the bigger picture, the museum can be rather lifeless,” he explains.
Newman, who has a master degree in Modern Chinese studies from Cambridge and a clear love of the country’s past, uses history, stories and amusing anecdotes to bring the pieces to life. We catch up with Newman to hear some of those tales.
1. What you're looking at: Fu yi gong (wine vessel)
Exhibition hall: Bronze
Period: Late Shang Dynasty, 13-11 century B.C.
Why you should care: This vessel was used to make offerings to the gods and ancestors. Objects like this are so well-preserved because they were buried with the kings in chambers that were often airtight.
This one is particularly interesting because you can clearly make out the animal motifs found on such vessels.
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“The animals they picked are symbolic of the connections between the living and the dead,” Newman says.
The birds are flying to the heavens, the snakes shed their skins in a death and renewal ritual, and the phoenix dies and is reborn.
2. What you're looking at: Bells of Marquis Su of Jin
Exhibition hall: Bronze
Period: Western Zhou Dynasty, mid ninth century B.C.
Why you should care: These bells are an example of the gift-giving culture in the Western Zhou dynasty, the predecessor of the modern day hongbao.
King Li gave nobleman Marquis Su some land and other goods after performing well in a war. In return, the nobleman commissioned these bronze bells for the king, with his "thank you" message and name inscribed.
“This is a thank you, but it’s also a way of showing off how close you are to the king,” Newman explains.
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The bells themselves illustrate just how sophisticated bronze casting had become -- the spikes on the exterior could be filed down to create the perfect pitch.
The head of the Shanghai museum discovered 14 of these bells in a Hong Kong antique shop. The other missing two were eventually discovered and are now housed in the Shanxi Museum.
3. What you're looking at: Da ke ding (food vessel)
Exhibition hall: Bronze
Period: Western Zhou, 10th century B.C.
Why you should care: This commonly-used vessel has an uncommon story: it’s cursed.
When a senior official dug it up and took it home during the Qing Dynasty, his sons began dying one after another. Later, a widow named Pan Da Yu inherited the vessel.
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Soon thereafter, Japan invaded China, and she was forced to hide and protect it. Ultimately, in the early 1950s, she donated the ding to the museum -- which itself was actually built to be shaped like a ding.
“By then, she had enough of the darn thing,” Newman says. “I like the story of this ancient vessel’s afterlife.”
4. What you're looking at: He of Fu Chai (wine vessel)
Exhibition hall: Bronze
Period: King of Wu State (early 6th century, 476 B.C.)
Why you should care: This bronze is linked to the story of King Fu, and how he turned a defeated enemy -- Gou Jian of Yue -- and turned him into his servant, only to have the tables reversed.
The story goes that after years of humiliation, Gou Jian (who was earlier defeated in battle by Fu) persuaded King Fu to set him free. But Gou Jian wasn’t ready to make peace. He sent King Fu a gift: one of ancient China’s four great beauties named Xi Shi.
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While King Fu was focusing on this beautiful woman, Gou Jian invaded the kingdom, leading to King Fu’s defeat and ultimate suicide.
Inscribed on this bronze, which belonged to King Fu, are the words: “For a beautiful woman.” Historians like to guess it was made for Xi from King Fu.
“Xi Shi is seen as the key to his downfall,” Newman says. “It’s rather sexist, but it’s still a good story.”
5. What you're looking at: Buddhist stele stone
Exhibition hall: Sculpture
Period: Northern Wei, 386-534 A.D.
Why you should care: This stone marker is typical of the Buddhist sculptures found along the Silk Road, a beacon wishing travelers good karma and success in business.
“In this and similar sculptures we see how Buddhism is becoming more and more materialistic,” Newman says.
The scene at the top of the stele has its origins in the Indian text called Vimalakirti Sutra.
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Vimalakirti, an influential preacher, pretended to be bedridden so that he could persuade well-wishing visitors of his philosophies. In this scene, he invited Manjusri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, for a debate.
Although Indian Buddhists considered this sutra minor, Chinese gravitated toward its humor: a comic scene punctuated by a fool’s pedestrian remarks.
6. What you're looking at: Bodhisattva stone
Exhibition hall: Sculpture
Period: Tang, 618-907 A.D.
Why you should care: Look closely at this Bodhisattva. Is it male or female? The original Indian version of Pusa Guan Yin-- Avalokiteśvara -- was male. But, at the time the story spread to China, Daoist fertility goddesses were popular.
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“That’s one of the major reasons we believe he slowly became a woman,” Newman explains. “You can see a degree of gender ambiguity here.”
There is a soft, yet still masculine face and just a hint of breasts. The changes reflects how religion was morphing to fit with China's culture identity.
7. What you're looking at: Celadon jar with modeled human figurines
Exhibition hall: Ceramics
Period: Wu State of Three Kingdoms, 222-280 A.D.
Why you should care: The purpose of a soul jar like this is to nourish spirits in the afterlife.
The five openings at the top correspond to various food types, such as millet, hemp and wheat.
One legend says the origin of the jar stems from the story of a minor king’s two sons.
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Bo Yi and Shu Qi ran away to avoid becoming the king’s successor. Later, they starved themselves to protest a competing king’s war. That king created the soul jar to nourish their spirits in the afterlife.
“The idea caught on, and soon soul jars became a way to appease one’s ancestors and gods,” says Newman.
8. What you're looking at: Vase with design of peaches and bats
Exhibition hall: Ceramics
Period: Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng Reign, 1723-1735 A.D.
Why you should care: During the Qing Dynasty, there was an emperor named Yongzheng who loved ceramics. He’s credited with cracking the secret of enamel making, and for adding nine colors to the traditional enamel palette.
“It’s said that at the end of a hard day’s work, Yongzheng’s favorite pastime was to look at the new ceramics that had been sent to Beijing,” Newman says.
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This piece is symbolic for its peach and bat depictions.
Peaches were considered a sign of longevity, while the Chinese name for bat -- bianfu-- sounds like the word for luck, fu.
9. What you're looking at: Oracle bone inscriptions
Exhibition hall: Calligraphy
Period: Shang Dynasty
Why you should care: Oracles bones like this were an ancient fortune-telling device.
First, the king would ask the bone a question, such as this one’s: “Will there be a bumper harvest?”
The shaman would then crack the bone with heat to get the answer. Depending upon the direction the crack traveled, it’d be a yes or no. The problem was, the cracks would often be hard to interpret.
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“It wasn’t a very efficient system since they’d have to ask the same question over and over,” Newman says.
We have grave robbers to thank for the preservation of so many Shang Dynasty oracle bones. Thieves unearthed the ancient ox remains and sold them to pharmacists, claiming they were dragon bones.
10. What you're looking at: Xiping scriptures by Cai Yong
Exhibition hall: Calligraphy
Period: Eastern Han
Why you should care: Originally, Chinese carved their scripts into bamboo, a material that would eventually rot. That changed with Cai Yong, an officer who began etching texts into stone. That way, future generations could trace and preserve ancient texts.
“It suddenly becomes much quicker to produce texts that are official,” Newman says. “This is comparable to the creation of the printing press.”
It was a timely invention. Soon after the onset of stone etchings, the Eastern Han dynasty collapsed. During the violent Three Kingdoms period that followed, fighting destroyed much of the bamboo texts.
11. What you're looking at: Display cabinet with engraved bird design
Exhibition hall: Furniture
Period: Qing, 1644-1911
Why you should care: In the 1940s, this intricately-designed cabinet was abandoned in a cardboard box in a Shanghai shipping warehouse.
Experts believe it was left by accident when Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan with many of the mainland’s relics. When it was re-discovered in the last decade, the detective work began.
The Qing Dynasty cabinet is made of zitan, or red sandalwood, a material only used by emperors. If you look closely, there is a phoenix, a symbol used to represent an empress, at the top of the cabinet. That phoenix is placed above two dragons, a common representation of an emperor.
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“For that reason, they think it belonged to Cixi,” Newman says. “This is an acknowledgment that she was the one in power.”
In general, excessively detailed furniture pieces like this were a way for the increasingly insecure Qing emperors to project their power.
12. What you're looking at: Square table and stools (carved floral design)
Exhibition hall: Furniture
Period: Qing, 1644-1911
Why you should care: Since zitan was restricted for imperial use, what was a rich nobleman to use for his furnishings?
“Nobels had to come up with an alternative to show off their wealth,” Newman says.
The next best thing: lacquer.
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Lacquer furniture is constructed with wood, and then covered with 100 layers of wax. Since each layer took about three days to dry, pieces could take up to a year to finish.
“What’s even more ridiculous was that, when they were finished, you couldn’t sit on them or you’d get a red bottom,” Newman explains.
That waste and increasing wealth gap were contributing factors leading to the Qing Dynasty collapse.
