The Shanghai Museum

The Shanghai Museum has research departments for Chinese bronzes, ceramics, paintings and calligraphy and other artifacts, and a scientific laboratory for preservation of cultural relics, with researchers and associate researchers over fifty in number.

With a collection of over 120,000 pieces of cultural relics in twelve categories, the Shanghai Museum is especially famous for its treasures of bronzes, ceramics, paintings and calligraphy.

As for the scholarly research, the Shanghai Museum has published over 80 special museum catalogues. Nineteen research subjects of the cultural relics preservation have won awards.

The new Shanghai Museum has set up ten special galleries:

bronze
calligraphy
ceramics
furniture
jades
minority art
numismatics
paintings
seals
sculptures

The Shanghai Museum has installed advanced security and fire alarm systems and has educational services, and a computerized library. Besides this, it has facilities for multi-media guide, an information center, a High Definition Graphics system, and a multi-lingual audio tour. The lecture room is equipped with a system of spontaneous interpretation. The library in the museum has 200,000 volumes of books in its collection.

The Gallery of Ancient Chinese Bronzes, the Gallery of Ancient Chinese Ceramics and the Gallery of Ancient Chinese Sculpture in the Shanghai Museum have been open to the public since December 30, 1995. By October 1996, the complete Shanghai Museum was opened to the public. The museum warmly welcomes visitors from home and abroad.

The Gallery of Ancient Chinese Bronzes shows about 440 pieces of various kinds of ancient Chinese bronzes, including the bronze wine vessel, food vessel, musical instrument, water vessel, weapons and some other vessels from the Xia Dynasty (ca, 21st century B.C.) to the Warring States Period (221 B.C.) The distinctively shaped and beautifully decorated bronzes, some with historic inscriptions, are important marks of ancient Chinese civilization and a marvelous treasure of the Chinese cultural heritage respected highly in the world.

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The Gallery of Ancient Chinese Calligraphy shows eminent personages' original handwritings. Chinese calligraphy can be traced back to Shang Dynasty and it matured in Dongzhou Dynasty. Official script was popular in the Han Dynasty, while cursive script, regular script and running hand emerged during Weijing Period. The latter three reached their peak in the Tang and Song Dynasty. All the later scripts were patterned after them and developed with their distinguished styles. About 100 essential pieces of calligraphy that are displayed here mirror the history of the art of Chinese handwriting.

The Gallery of Ancient Chinese Ceramics displays over 500 pieces of various fine ceramics from the Neolithic times to the end of the Qing Dynasty. A large number of them are high-quality products from famous porcelain making kilns. Some have never been shown before and some are very rare. This is a comprehensive ceramics gallery introducing the Chinese ceramic history, the Chinese ceramic art, the connoisseurship knowledge of the Chinese ceramics, and much scientific research on Chinese ceramics.

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The Gallery of Chinese Furniture in Ming and Qing Dynasty displays over 100 pieces of various styles of furniture made in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Furniture made in the Ming Dynasty is famous for simple modeling, gracious lines and well-balanced scale, while furniture made in the Qing Dynasty is noted for its extravagant material and splendid decoration. There are also some models of valuable furniture and wooden buried warrior figures of the Ming Dynasty unearthed in the area around Shanghai. In the gallery, there is also a hall and a study room imitative of the style of that time.

The Gallery of Ancient Chinese Jades displays over 400 pieces of various jade wares and treasure. There are jade wares and treasure used on ceremonious occasions by the Hongshan Culture and Liangzhu Culture during the Neolithic Age. The heyday of Chinese jadeware is the Shang Dynasty. Jadeware made in the Zhou Ages is the most elegant, its style was copied until after the Han Dynasty. After the Donghan Ages, the technique of jadeware making went downhill. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, jade was more used in daily life, which is believed to be well accepted among the users.

The Gallery of Arts and Crafts by Chinese Minority shows about 600 pieces of work of art, such as dress and personal adornments, dyed and woven embroidery, metal art ware, sculpture, ceramics, and bamboo wares used by the various minorities in China. Different styles, remarkable color and creative conception embody the pursuit of a happier life. All of these form an essential part of Chinese tradition in the field of art.

The Gallery of Ancient Chinese Coins shows the historical change and development of Chinese coins. The gallery displays about 7,000 pieces including bronze coins( which have the longest history), gold, silver, black copper, iron coins and paper money. At the same time, there are some foreign gold, silver, and copper coins that were circulated widely in China. For the time being, this is the largest and most complete exhibition of Chinese coins.

The Gallery of Ancient Chinese Paintings showcases about 140 pieces of masterpiece paintings, ranging from famous original paintings in the Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty to the masterpieces of the Zhe School, Wumen School and Songjiang School during Ming Dynasty, the four masters, the four monks, the Yangzhou School in the early period of Qing Dynasty and the Haishang School at the end of Qing Dynasty. These works with varied styles and ingenuity mirror the tradition and evolution of Chinese culture. The decoration of the gallery embodies ancient architectural and scholar's style.

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The Gallery of Ancient Chinese Seals displays more than 500 seals that can be traced as far back as the Zhou Dynasties and as late as the Qing Dynasty. It is a fine selection of the 10,000 seals the museum owns. These differently styled signets reflects the long history of seals in China and embody profound cultural sophistication of the nation.

The Gallery of Ancient Chinese Sculpture presents 127 pieces of ancient Chinese stone, wood, clay pottery and cast-bronze sculptures from the Warring States period to the Ming Dynasty. The whole gallery is divided into four sections with Chinese Buddhist sculptures and figurine-modeling art as the main subject.