Introduction of Shaanxi History Museum

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Shaanxi History Museum. First, I want to give you a brief introduction of this museum. Shaanxi History Museum is a sizable national museum with a wide range of artifacts, about 375,000 historical and cultural relics, which were all excavated in Shaanxi Province. It covers an area of 70,000 square meters, with a floor space of over 50,000 square meters. Shaanxi Province had been the cradle of the ancient Chinese civilization. And people often say that the ancient history of Shaanxi is a microcosm of Chinese history.

The museum shows a great deal of elegance and originality in style. It was designed by Zhang Jinqiu, a very famous female architect in China, and assumes the architectural features of ancient Chinese palaces and courtyards of Tang Dynasty.

PREFACE HALL

Now we are in the hall. The giant stone walking lion was originally erected in front of Shunling Mausoleum, the tomb of Empress Wu Zetian’s mother of the Tang Dynasty. With its exquisite craftsmanship and imposing appearance, the lion is believed to rank the first in Asia. Since lion and their carving skills were introduced to China from Afghanistan through the Silk Road in ancient times, so this lion also represents the cultural exchange between China and other countries.

THE MAP OF SHAANXI PROVINCE

Lying in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, and in the eastern part of the northwest region of China, Shaanxi Province serves as the gateway to the northwest of the country, and offers a link of communication between the Southwest, Northwest and East China. Shaanxi Province covers the area of about 205,800 square kilometer, and has the total population of 37 million.

Topographically, Shaanxi Province can be divided into three natural regions. The top part is the Loess Plateau in the northern part of Shaanxi Province. The middle part is Guanzhong Plain, and here is Xi’an city where 13 dynasties set their capitals during 1,100 years in Chinese history. The southern part of the Shaanxi Province is mainly about some mountainous regions. This is Qingling mountainous region, which is not only the natural boundary in separating the northern and the southern part of China but also the watershed of the two greatest water systems in China—the Yellow River system and the Yangtze River system.

THE PREHISTORIC AGE

(1,150,000 years ago—21st century B.C)

The first section focuses on the history of Shaanxi Province during the Prehistoric Age, which ranges from 1,150,000 years ago to the 21st century B.C. Shaanxi is an important source of information on the origin of the human race in Asia.

In 1964, the fossil of a human skull and jawbone were discovered in Liantian County. The archaeologists put these together and shaped this female figure around her 30’s. The Liantian Ape-man had a much smaller brain capability comparing with people living today, only 780 milliliters about half the size of people today. And the thickness of their skull is twice as much as people today. All of these tell us that the intellect of Liantian Ape-man is not well developed. However, the results of the latest research grogram prove that Liantian Ape-man lived about 1,150,000 years ago and was the earliest known Homo erectus in North Asia. This background picture shows Gongwangling, where the fossil of Liantian Ape-man was discovered. In the display case are the pointed stone implements excavated from the site, which were made and used by Liantian Ape-man. These stone implements, thought slightly chipped and irregularly shaped, were used for multiple purposes. And all of these stone tools belonged to the Paleolithic Age.

After the discovery of the fossil of Liantian Ape-man, the fossil of a rather complete hominid skull was found in Dali County, Shaanxi Province in 1978. The brain capability of the Dali Men was larger, reached to 1120 milliliters, only 300 less than people today. Dali Men lived about 200,000 years ago, and belonged to a new stage of human evolution, known as Homo Sapiens. The stone implements ever used by the Dali Men are relatively small in size.

The earliest Neolithic cultural heritage in Shaanxi is known as Laoguantai Culture, which originated about 8,000 years ago. The Neolithic Culture is different from the Paleolithic Culture in three major respects: the use of polished stone implements, the invention of pottery utensils, and the emergence of settled habitation and primitive farming. The appearance of these early pottery utensils provided the human being with the cooking vessels, and helped a lot to improve the living condition at that time. The polished stone spades and knives on display indicate that at that time people made a living not solely by gathering and hunting, but by means of slash-and-burn.

Yangshao Culture dates about 7,000-5,000 years back. In Shaanxi Province, the representatives of Yangshao Culture are the Banpo site and the Jiangzhai site. Now let’s see a typical artifact of Yangshao Culture, the tip-bottomed bottles. The ancient people used it as water vessel. First they used strings to tie on the ears and then put the vessel directly on the surface of the river. As soon as the bottle touched the water, it would naturally fall down and let the water flow in. Then it would stand upright after being filled with water, due to the shifting of its center of gravity. Because people at that time lived along the riverside, so they made the bottle into such shape—they could hold it and push it into the sand, made it more stable. Here are some stone implements of Yangshao Culture. Comparing with those of Laoguantai Culture, these stone tools seem relatively small in size. At that time, there was an advance that was people began to use the stone tools attached to the wood stick, which could be easier and safer for people to use it. These are some bone needles for the ancient people to sew their clothes, and there are some patterns of their sewing. According to the archaeological study, it is believed that the materials for sewing then were possibly linen and hides. And this necklace made of thousand of small animal’s bone was found in a girl’s tomb. Because Yangshao Culture was a typical matriarchal clan community in which women played a dominant role in every aspect of social life, so the archaeologist found a lot of burial objects in even young girl’s tomb, but not in male’s tomb. Yangshao Culture is also known as the culture of painted pottery. The patterns of the painted pottery are mainly about some animal patterns and some geometric patterns, like the wave of the river. Now we will see a first-class artifact in our museum—this pottery basin. Inside of this basin there is a people’s face and with two fish in his mouth. This design depicted Baopo people’s strong ties and special emotion with fish. It was most likely the totem of the Banpo people. And if we see closer we can find there are two little holes at the bottom of this basin. Since the infant death rate was very high in those days because of tough natural conditions. When children died, their parents would bury the corpse in pottery jars, and put such basin over the jar. The two holes were served as passage for the soul of the child to come or go freely. From this we can see that 6,000 years ago the primitive people already generated the conception that everybody had a soul. With the progress of the material civilization, they began to strive for a spiritual civilization. The pottery wind instrument unearthed from the site of Banpo Village is the earliest musical instrument in China. The upper hole was for people to blow, and the other two holes were used for changing the tunes. Writing did not come into being in Banpo days, but the archeologists have found a lot of symbols on the edge of some pottery utensils. Comparing these symbols with the inscriptions on oracle bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty, we may see a few of them bear some resemblance to each other. Though the archeologists have not figure out the actual meaning of these symbols, it is believed these symbols were possibly the earliest Chinese script.

China went into the Longshan Culture period about 5,000 years ago. The village ruins typical of Longshan Culture are scattered extensively in Shaanxi Province and chiefly centered in the area of the Wei River. Starting from the period of the Longshan Culture, mankind moved into the age of patriarchal clan community. With social and economic development, men began to play a dominant role in social activities instead of women. With the invention of a new method of pottery making, the earthenware ever made was uniform in thickness and varied in style. In addition, painted pottery wares gave way to their grey pottery counterparts. A lot of wine vessels appeared at that time because of the agriculture development. This is a typical wine vessel which has three legs and hollowed inside, so people could pour more wine into it and people also could make a fire under it to warm up the wine. These are some jade utensils mainly used in some sacrificial ceremonies because jade was very rare at that time.

This picture shows the Yellow Emperor’s Mausoleum, which is located in Huangling County in Northern Shaanxi. The Yellow Emperor was born about 4,700 years ago. He was a legendary leader of Huaxia tribesmen in the patriarchal clan community during the Longshan Culture period. Shaanxi was then the central area of their activities. Under his leadership, the Huaxia tribesmen unified the Yellow River Valley after fighting 52 battles. Therefore, the Yellow Emperor was worshipped as the forefather of the Chinese nation. Every year on the Pure Brightness Festival, the people of Chinese origin come from different parts of the world to search for their roots and offer sacrifices to the Yellow Emperor.

Zhou Dynasty

(21st century B.C—770 A.D)

The Zhou Period includes three different stages: the Zhou Clan, the Zhoufang State, and the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Several small tribes lived on the banks of the Jing and Wei rivers. During the late period of the Longshaan culture, these tribes formed the Zhou Clan. Here on display are cultural relics of the early Zhou Period.

This is the Oracle bone. In ancient times, people used this bone to predict the future. This is a well-preserved scapula of an ox. During ancient times, the ox and the tortoise were regarded as divine beasts. Tribes practiced divination by chiseling holes into tortoise shells or animal bones. Then they would light up twisted grass and put it under the chisel holes. The bone would then crack under the heat, and the diviner would interpret the shapes and direction of the cracks. Finally, the diviner would carve the results into another bone. These carvings became the first known characters in China. We called it “inscriptions on tortoise shells or animal bones”.

To avoid the nomadic tribe’s invasions in 16th century B.C., they settled down in the present Fufeng and Qishan countries where they established their capital, official ranking system, and government. This settlement was acknowledged by the Shang Dynasty and was appointed the title of “Fang state”.

Here are some building materials from the Zhou Yuan Site. Here is a hollow brick. People used this brick to build the steps and the walls of their homes at that time. These bricks had many benefits. They reduced noise, kept people warm, and reduced the weight of the building.

At that time Shaanxi Province was very rainy. Because of this, people invented these nails to secure tiles in the mud of the roofs, making it more stable. In the early period of the Zhou Dynasty, tiles were only placed on the edge of the roof. Later on, the tiles were placed all over the roof.

Here we see pottery sewer pipes. People connected and buried them under ground for water to run.

On the east side of the Zhou Fang State, there was the Shang Dynasty. The Shang Dynasty was famous for bronze wares. Here is a typical one. The one in the corner we call a tripod. On one leg of the tripod there is an animal’s face. This animal is one son of a dragon and is a divine beast. We called it “taotie” in Chinese. It loved to eat people, but one day it ate up all of the people and began to eat itself. When it ate the lower part of its body, it could not swallow itself and became a monster that only had a head. People put this figure on the surface of the bronze wares to warn people to not eat too much, and not to be too greedy.

Guifang Culture was a culture that belonged to the nomadic Hun tribe in Zhou Dynasty. You can see that the patterns on these artifacts are mainly animal patterns. We can clearly observe the pictures of wild animals on grasslands on the bronze artifacts. This is goat headed ladle with a tiger hunting a sheep. This shows us the food chain in nature and is a very typical grassland scene.

Bashu culture was in the northern part of the Zhou Fang State. We saw a lot of “li” made of pottery before. All of them had three legs. This one here has four legs and is the only one in China up to now with four legs.

Here we see some bronze masks on the wall. Archaeologists have three theories about how they were used. The first is that people wore these in ceremonies. The second is that they wore them at parties. Finally, they should be placed on the face of the dead in the tombs as burial objects.

In the 11th century B.C., the Shang Dynasty died and the Zhou Dynasty came into existence instead. It established its capital in Feng and Hai, which were separated by the Feng River. This spot marked the founding of the ancient city of Xi’an.

These artifacts were excavated from the Feng Hao site. This plate is called “he” in Chinese. In ancient time, people used these two artifacts together because at that time people did not have chopsticks. The royalty would have one slave hold this, and another hold this. They would then use flowing water to wash their hands before the meal.

This is a food container. We call it “dou” in Chinese, because the container is in a similar shape of the Chinese character of “dou”.

Here is a very interesting wine cup. It has two ears, and there are a lot of theories about how to use the ears. One is very interesting. It says that when the guests drink wine, if the ears touch the cheek of the guest then the cup is empty.

Shaanxi History Museum houses 18 national treasures. This is our first national treasure on display. In this tripod, there are 207 characters inside and the characters tell the story about a law dispute during the Zhou Dynasty. It is very important because it provides us detail of the ancient law system in China.

During that time, bronze wares were no longer used as a food container. Bronze wares served as a symbol of rank and were things used by royal family members. According to Chinese historical records, the emperor owned 9 tripods and 8 gui. Such tripods are called “ding” in Chinese, and they were used as a cooking vessel to boil meat. Such wares we called “gui” and are similar to bowls we use today. Nine ding and eight gui symbolized the position of the emperor. Seven ding and six gui symbolized the position of a duke. Here on display, there are 5 ding and 4 gui, which is equal to the level of a governor of a province today.

During this period, there were a lot of harsh punishments to slaves. Under this plate, there are four slaves with one foot missing. To cut off the feet of a slave was a common punishment called “yue” and was very cruel. It was often used for slaves attempting to escape.

Now we see the second national treasure on our display. This tripod is called DouYou tripod. There are 279 characters inside this tripod. It is mainly about a record of war that occurred between the Zhou Dynasty and nomadic tribes. The battle was won by General DouYou of the Zhou Dynasty. The general put his name and the details of the battles inside this tripod as a medal.

Here we see the earliest porcelain in Zhou Dynasty. Though it is still rough and not very smooth, it was made 3,000 years ago.

Those jade utensils were all used in ceremonies. At that time, such shape was called “bi” in Chinese. It symbolized the male, the heaven, and the sun. Here we see a “zong” in Chinese. It symbolized the female, the earth, and the moon. Together they were used in ceremonies as sacrifices to the heaven and the earth.

The shell money was the earliest currency in Shaanxi province. Shaanxi province is very far from the sea, so the shell was very precious during that period and became the currency used by royal families.

Here we see an ornament that was part of the wheel of a chariot. On the shoulder of the man there are two tattoos of animals. According to Chinese historical record, people began to wear tattoos during that period and believed they would help fend off evil spirits.

Here we can see an ancient Chinese musical instrument called the Chime Bell. At that time, people used a wood stick to tap it to make sounds. In the middle people can make one sound, and at the edge people can make another sound. Each chime bell had two sounds. This Chain Bell has five sounds of which most repeat.

Here we see some wine vessels. This is a wine vessel with two birds as handles. The birds are the earliest image in China of the phoenix. Back then it looked like a chicken which was the prototype of phoenix.

Here you can see another first class artifact, also a wine vessel. This is a tiger on the back of an ox. Because the ox is scared, it opens its mouth and eyes so people can pour wine through it’s mouth. The tiger is also the lid of the wine vessel. The tail of the ox served as the handle for people to hold. People also can make a fire under it to heat the wine.

Qin Dynasty

(770 B.C—206 B.C)

The Qin period covers three historic periods: The Spring and Autumn, the Warring States, and the Qing Dynasty.

The Qin was an ancient tribal clan that used to live in Tianshui--Gansu Province. The forefather of the first Qin emperor was called Xianggong. In 770 BC, King Ping of the Zhou Dynasty bestowed a favor upon Qin Xianggong and appointed him an imperial duke. Later, Qin Xianggong established Yongcheng as his own capital, which is presently Fengxiang country in Shaanxi Province. The artifacts here were excavated from the site of Yongcheng.

This is called a stone drum. These two are replicas as the original ones are national treasures and are kept in the Forbidden City. These are called stone drums only because of their shape; they have nothing to do with musical instruments. They are the equivalents of stone tablets. The content is mainly stories about nobles hunting. These stone drums were excavated very early in the Tang Dynasty. People at that time didn’t want to waste it, so they cut them into two parts to mill grain.

Now you can see the pottery pipe has gotten much stronger and solid than before. This shows us that the construction of the city was growing.

Here we see some woodwork joints made of bronze which was used in architecture during this time. The exact position and method of the woodwork joints is shown in the picture. The patterns on these bronze wares were called panhui, which means snakes.

Now we see some tile-ends which protect the end of wood roofs from rain and other elements. These early tile-ends are somewhat thin and have very simple animal patterns. We will compare them to tile-ends in the Han Dynasty later.

Agriculture was integral to the economy of the Qin state. Unearthed quantities of iron farm tools reveals the extensive use of these tools, which replaced bronze items at that time. Iron was only used for agriculture, not for military tools. In order to develop agriculture, the emperor of Qin Dynasty gave these farming tools to farmers for free.

Here is another first class artifact. This is a wine vessel. Archaeologists found this artifact in a dump in the 1970’s. It is a gourd shaped wine vessel with a lid in the shape of a bird. The bill of the bird will open automatically when wine is poured. The pattern on this vessel is also the symbol of the snake.

Here are some bronze mirrors. These are all the backs of the mirrors. The early bronze mirrors were very thin, and the pattern is hard to see. We will compare these with others used later in the Han and Tang dynasty later.

When the Qin unified all of China, the Qin state moved its capital to Xianyang, very near Xi’an’s current airport. These building materials are from the Xianyang Site. Here are fragments of some of the earliest murals found in a palace.

Here are some weapons. These played a very important role in the conquering of the six other states for the Qin Dynasty. This is a bronze sword. After being buried for 2000 years, it retains its sharpness and glitter without a sign of rust. After technical inspection, the archaeologists found a thin layer of oxidate chromium on the surface of the bronze sword to prevent it from rusting. The Germans and Americans only invented the technology of chromium coating in the 1930’s. Even today we don’t know how these people did it 2000 years ago.

Here we see a tiger tally. The body of the tiger tally can be divided into two halves. The left was held by the general while the right was held by the Emperor. When both pieces were matched together, the general was allowed to move the army. Whenever the general wanted to move more than 50 men, he was required to do this. There are also 51 golden-inlaid inscriptions engraved on it. The 51 character inscription says that this is a military tally with the right half in the hands of the emperor and the left half in Du. During the Qin dynasty, the right was considered the side of honor. The gold inlaid inscription also reflects the level of gold craftsmanship at that time.

Here we can see a bronze crossbow on the wall. It was the most powerful weapon before the use of gun power. The bronze part is the actual artifact; the wood structure is refurbished.

Here you can see four terracotta warriors. All four are original warriors. Each warrior has a different facial expression, each individual has a unique expressions.

When Emperor Qin Shi Huang was alive and Qin Dynasty unified, he standardized everything from currency to characters to measurement tools. Here is the currency, and the middle is the currency used in the Qin Dynasty. The circle is the symbol for the heaven, and the square is the symbol for the earth. They thought the sky was larger than the earth, so they made the coin into such shape. The coins were called Banliang, which signifies weight. The coin was made in this shape throughout China’s history until the last dynasty, the Qing Dynasty.

This map shows the roads built by the emperor of the Qin Dynasty. All of the roads are straight because that was the fastest way to transfer food or military troops.

Archaeologists found many burial objects around the area of the mausoleum of the Emperor. The archaeologists found these pottery figures, and each was buried with a horse. Their purpose was to raise the horses for the royal family in the after world.

Han Dynasty

(202 B.C—220 A.D)

The Han Dynasty is a very important historical stage in China’s history. The Han nationality was officially formed during this historical period. The Han exerted a far-reaching influence on the development of the succeeding dynasties in Chinese History. That is why “Han” is a synonym with Chinese people and civilization in the world today. Han Dynasty chose Xi’an as their capital, located just northwest of present day Xi’an. At that time it was called Chang’an, which means permanent peace. Here is a water container that was used at a famous palace called ShangLin Palace. That palace served as the imperial yard for hunting.

These are the most famous tile ends of the Han Dynasty. Compared with the Qin Tiles, the Han tiles are larger with wider edges and are grayish in color. Also there was an increase in the number of ends that were inscribed with characters. These characters describe the names of many palaces and include many lucky words. These tile ends were carved with 12 characters, which shows us that people had hoped for an everlasting life.

This seal is a national treasure and was made of Jade. This one belonged to a queen in Han Dynasty. Called LuZhi, she was a very powerful woman at that time. She controlled the Han Dynasty for 23 years before her son inherited the throne.

Here you see the female pottery figures from the Han Dynasty. At that time, people didn’t have furniture and just sat like this. This gesture also shows that people were obedient and gentle. The clothes of the females at that time were very plain and simple, but also elegant.

The Han Dynasty attached great importance to the development of agriculture.

Before the millstone was created, people ate grains without crust. The development of the millstone allowed people to eat cooked wheat products, such as noodles.

Here are some iron farming tools. In Han Dynasty, iron was widely utilized in areas such as military and agriculture. The soldiers of the Han Dynasty began to use weapons made of iron.

People in the Han Dynasty treated the dead as well as they treated the living. They believed that when a man died, he was merely changing his living place and should be provided all things for daily use. People were even buried with pigsties and toilets. The upper part of this house was the toilet, the lower was a pigsty and there was even a pig in it. This indicates that people were already aware of the need to collect manure, and they already realized that manure could increase grain production. Here you can see painted pottery. The color of this vessel is still very bright because the cinnabar was painted on the vessel before it was fired which helped preserve the color.

Here are some porcelain jars. In the very beginning, people used porcelain jars to weigh grain. Later, they became burial objects. These porcelain jars often were filled with grain and put them in the tombs to show the wealth and identity of the dead.

We have already seen a lot of burial objects, so now we will get to see some burial jade. The second one here we call the jade cicada, and often they were placed in the mouth of the dead as a symbol for the circle of life. The jade pig at the end was held in the hands of the dead because it was a symbol of wealth at that time.

Here we see more bronze mirrors. The design on these got more delicate with more details.

Here are coins from the Han Dynasty. They are the same shape as in the Qin Dynasty but have a different name. The gold coins were shaped like horse hoofs. These were not used in circulation just used as an honor given by the emperor.

Here are some terra-cotta warriors from the Han Dynasty. Compared to those in the Qin Dynasty, they are much smaller in size. Using the same model enabled all of the faces to look the same. These warriors feature more mounted troops. This indicates that cavalry was used in the Han Dynasty. Finding fine horses was important for the Han, and influenced the creation of the Silk Road. Because of the cavalry, the Han were able to defeat the invincible nomads, the Huns.

Here is the model used to make money at that time.

Now you can see this is also an animal face. This animal is a son of dragon, called JiaoTu in Chinese. It was a very shy animal, so people put this on their gate as a knocker.

This lamp was very famous in Han Dynasty. At that time people lit a oil light on the round part. The smoke would collect in the stem and then would be filtered in the water filled body.

In ancient China we had four very important inventions: paper making, block printing, the compass and gunpowder. Many people believed the first paper was made in 105 A.D, but it was made in 118 B.C., in the Han Dynasty. It was made of plant fiber and was used for packaging the bronze mirrors.

In Han Dynasty, the Silk Road opened. The beginning was here in Xi’an. In allowed Chinese silk to be traded to western countries. In return, Chinese got good horse breeds, plants, music and dance. Chang’an became the largest center in Asia for international exchanges.

Here are some ornaments that belong to the Nomadic tribes. This is another first class artifact, a gold monster. It has holes at the bottom so it may have been an ornament on a helmet of a leader. It has a face like horse, a body like sheep, and a mouth of eagle, the tail was like scorpion, and a pair of deer’s antler. On the antlers, there were 8 birds on each side, and one on a tail. There are 17 birds on this small animal.

Wei, Jin, South and North Dynasties

(220 A.D—589 A.D)

During this period a lot of wars happened, so a lot of dynasties co-existed at the same time. China experienced a long period of social upheaval with frequent wars during these 400 years. Shaanxi province experienced almost 10 different leaders, and where we can see a lot of artifacts with strong military influences.

These are cavalry traps. No matter how you throw them, they will land on three of their spikes so that the fourth will always point upwards. This weapon was effective and used to attack cavalry.

During the Sixteen States period, a number of successive minority nationality regimes established authority in Shaanxi. This is a picture of TongWan city, the capital of Daxia, which is located in Jingbian Country, Northern Shaanxi. It is one of the best-preserved castles in the desert region of China.

This multi-faceted seal is made of jet, and there are 26 faces all together. 14 of the square sides have been carved with characters. The owner of the seal was DaGuXin, a renowned general of the eastern Wei tribe and a high-ranking Xianbei Nationality official. The Dugu family was a very celebrated family in Chinese History. Dugu Xin’s three daughters were married to the northern Zhou ruler, the emperor of the Sui Dynasty, and the father of the first emperor of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore people call him as the first father in law in ancient China.

At this time in history, a lot of people suffered from the constant fighting, so during this time people had no energy and had no extra time to create art. The number of pottery figures during this time declined and were replaced by military figures. In this display case are some armored soldiers and horses. Armor was introduced into China from Persia, and armor became very common by the time of the Northern Wei.

These are tomb-guarding animals. Tomb-guarding animals were placed in the tombs to fend off evil spirits and ensure the tranquility of the dead. In ancient times the unicorn was a symbol of the fairness in law and the horn signified justice.

Porcelain developed a lot during this period. Porcelain became varied in shapes and size, and also became very smooth.

Religion-related artistic works were one of the most popular forms of art during the Wei, Jin, South and North dynasties era. Buddhism was brought into China during the Han Dynasty and was enthusiastically promoted and encouraged by various minority regimes. People who suffered greatly from the wars wished to seek some kind of relief by worshiping Gods and Buddha. Therefore, both Buddhism and Buddhist arts underwent tremendous changes. The making of Buddhist statues is a major form of Buddhist art. The statues were made from a number of materials such as gold, silver, bronze, and jade. Buddhist figures do not have Chinese facial figures in this period, and look more like Indian people.

This map shows the route that a very famous monk traveled during this period. He was called Faxian and he was brought up in a temple. After he grew up, he found a lot of mistakes in the inscriptions of Buddhism, so he decided to go to India by himself to seek the truth of the Buddha. He spent thirteen years on his trip.

Sui and Tang Dynasties

(581 A.D—907 A.D)

The Sui and Tang Dynasties was a period when China’s feudal society was at the height of its power and splendor. It also marked a golden era in the history of Shaanxi. Chinese residing overseas still regard themselves as the descendants of the Tan Dynasty. This, to some extent, reflects the enormous impact the Tang Dynasty has had on its descendants.

This map shows the layout of Chang’an. The city was built on the basis of the Sui Daxing City with further improvements and expansion. Chang’an was divided into three zones, the palace area, the administrative area, and the residential area. The white lines show the boundary of Chang’an City. The blue lines on the surface show us the map of Xi’an City now. The palace areas of Chang’an City are called Taijin Palace, the Daming Palace, and the XingQing palace. The emperor used all those three palaces, and under the TaiJin Palace there was a royal court that housed the officials of the government. The other small squares were residential areas for the common people. There were 11 vertical streets and 14 horizontal streets that divided the city into 108 square plots. In the middle there were two markets, east and west. In the West market, people sold things from the Silk Road, while in the East market people sold items made in China. Even today, the Chinese words for “buy things” literally means buy east and west. The city of Chang’an was three times larger than Chang’an in the Han Dynasty, and was seven times larger than Byzantium and six times larger than Baghdad. Chang’an also provided other nearby nations a model for city construction. Japan and Korea built similar cities.

In the Tang Dynasty, farming was one of the most important activities and the QuYuan plough, made of iron, was the most commonly used farming implement. Its design was very effective and today many farmers still use its technology.

China’s archaeological studies have proven that China began her primitive porcelain manufacturing in the Shang Dynasty over 3,000 years ago. In the Tang Dynasty, porcelain was exported to foreign countries. Here are many Tang tricolor glazed potteries. The tricolor glazed pottery of the Tang Dynasty is very well known for many unique characteristics. They are uniquely shaped, as the houses, courtyards, and figurines of people are all accurately shaped and attractively colored. Tricolor glazes may look simple, but during the firing the colors would bleed leading to irregular artistic patterns that look very beautiful. In ancient times, the pottery was often used for burial purposes because they were permeable to water.

Here we have another first class artifact – the horse. The mane of this horse has three-square parts that show us that the horse can only be ridden by the emperor. This horse also has a very small head and long legs, which shows that it was a Persian horse.

Here is some porcelain from the Tang Dynasty. At that time, gray porcelain was famous in the Southern part of China. While in the northern part, white porcelain was famous. Here is typical white porcelain made by government run kilns are very clear and white. They were used as the fruit plates for palaces at that time.

These pottery figures were also used as burial objects. Tang people admired strength and power so even the ghosts have strong muscles and fighting against with the Buddha. This figure is special because it is blue from the use of cobalt. Cobalt had to be imported from another country along the Silk Road. All blue pottery figures were very expensive and were only for the wealthy.

The Tang Dynasty marked another period of rapid development for Chinese bronze mirrors. During the Tang Dynasty the flower shape pattern also appeared, demonstrating that the detail was becoming more delicate.

This pattern seen here is the most typical pattern in Tang Dynasty. The grape is seen here, indicated that the grape was introduced to China during this time. In ancient times, the bronze mirror had to be polished, so people can see their faces very clear.

Gold and silver ware was beautifully made during this era. Tang People were crazy for golden and silver utensils for two reasons. The first is that when the Silk Road opened they found that foreign royal families used gold and silver utensils. The second is because Taoism. People believed that if they used gold and silver for a long time they would live forever.

Here is another first class artifact. This basin was made of pure gold and weighs 2,500 grams. This basin was used for the baptism for the children of the royal families. At this time, a baptism was a custom, not a religious ritual.

This golden bowl is a national treasure. There are two layers of the lotus petal pattern on the surface of the bowl. On the upper layer, the middle of each petal has an animal pattern. On the lower layer, there are flowers and grasses in the middle of each petal. Inside of the bowl, there are three Chinese characters written in ink. The characters were used to control the gold and silver wares within in the government.

This silver kettle is another national treasure. On the surface, there is a dancing horse figure with a cup in its mouth. In the Tang Dynasty people bought a lot of good horses mainly for entertainment. Around 100 horses would dance together for a performance. At the end of the performance, the best horse would pick up the cup full of wine and pass it to the emperor. The horses, unfortunately, were converted to military uses at the end of the Tang Dynasty. They would dance on the battlefield, so the general killed the horses, scared that they were possessed.

Here is the currency used in the Tang Dynasty. The Tang People, unlike the Qin and Han dynasties, named the currency after its weight. These silver bars were used to pay the tax for the central government. Before this time, people used grain to pay tax, but since grain did not transport well from long distances to Shaanxi province, the government changed it to silver.

Here are belt clips that were used by males back then. The amount of circles showed the rank of the wearer.

Here are some hair ornaments for women at that time. Even though it is very small, it is very delicate. The pattern is also very sophisticated.

In Tang Dynasty the social status of the woman was very high. Woman could wear men’s clothing and could ride horses, and some could get divorced.

Tang Dynasty was a very peaceful period because the country was very strong. There was a lot of entertainment such as hunting, playing polo and so on.

Polo was introduced to China from Persia. The polo ball was very small made of red leather. At this time female could also take part in these games.

Here is a national treasure and is a symbol of our museum. It is an ox-headed agate cup. This cup was made out of one whole piece of agate. Such agate is found in present day Iran, so this may have been a gift given to a Tang emperor. Only more than 20 pieces of ox headed agate cups have been found in the world and most of them are kept in Russia. This one is the most beautiful, so we chose it as our symbol. The cup and the silver kettle with a dancing horse, these two national treasures are not allowed to travel to foreign countries.

Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties

(960 A.D—1840 A.D)

This is the last section of our museum. Since the Song Dynasty, Shaanxi lost its position as the national capital, but it remained a place, of strategic importance for the feudal dynasties to maintain control of the country’s Northwest and Southwest on the other hand, it was still the military, political, economic, and cultural center in the Northwestern area . At that period Shaanxi province was no longer the capital city in china. Only occupied a very important position for military purposes.

Now you see a magic iron plate, on the surface of this plate, there are 36 original Arabic numerals. And we translated to this. From 1 to 36, no repeated numbers and no matter how you added, the result is always the same-111, so the ancient people thought it was quite magical. And they buried this in the foundation of the houses to fend off evil spirits.

The Ming Dynasty took over Shaanxi in 1369AD and changed the name the city to Xi’an. This is a map of Xi’an city in Ming Dynasty. The city wall, Bell tower and drum tower were built in Ming Dynasty. And Xi’an the name was first used in Ming Dynasty, because at that time, Xi’an was no longer the capital city of China.

This is examination paper. And in ancient china, people only have to pass such examinations can be the officials in the government, so some people even spend their life just for passing such examination. This examination system began in the Sui Dynasty and was normally held once every 3 years. There was always an exception, though. If such case arose, extra examination would be given. This is called “bestowed exam”. It was an additional examination in order to congratulate Emperor GuangXu on his as lending the throne.

The massive guards of honor was unearthed from the tomb of Zhuzi, the second son of Zhuyuanzhang, the founder and the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty’s. And in the beginning, each one of them holding different things made of wood to show their identities. But somehow the wooden part had rottened. Fortunately, we found some writing onto the bottom of each figures, so we could learn their identities.

The Song and Yuan Dynasties saw rapid development of Chinese porcelain. A part from the government-run porcelain kilns, private kilns began to emerge to form a system of eight different porcelain kilns, among which the Yaozhou kiln in Shaanxi province is representative of the celadon vessels in the Northern part of China.

And now we will see a national treasure from Yaozhou kiln. It is know as an inverted flow kettle, because there is no lid at the top, the opening is at the center of the vessel’s bottom, the kettle was to be turned upside down to fill in water during which time water will not come out of the sprout, when the kettle is filled with water, it will be turned upright during which time water will normally come out of the sprout, and will not leak from the bottom. The kettle marks a clever application of the physical principle that “the water leveling communicating vessels always remains level”.

Let’s go back to the art of the pot. The pot handle is a phoenix which is the king of all birds. And this sprout is a mother lion feeding her baby, and the lion is the king of all animals. The flower is Chinese peony which is the king of all flowers, so its owner must be very supreme.

This solid pillow was used as burial objects. Even today some old people still use such pillows in summer, but most of them are made of jade, because we think jade can bring good to our health.

Here we see a first class artifact. And this bowl is very thin only about 0.8 millimeters and was made of a very special technique. There are two pictures inside and outside this bowl. This is the picture inside of this bowl. And such technique was too hard to learn and follow, so later it disappeared.

Here this one, could you make a guess what martial it is? Most people thought it made of gold or bronze, but actually it is a porcelain jar and the painter painted some flowers with the gold powder. It was sold to Persia to central Asia at that time.

Religion was an important part in the life of the ancient society. Front the Song Dynasty onward, the carving of Buddhist statues and construction of grottoes in Northern Shaanxi became popular. The Buddhist status on display here are unearthed from the scattered grottoes in Northern Shaanxi.

And Buddha became more Chinese like in this period. In China, people worship this Buddha for having more children especially boys in ancient time.

And now we will see a traditional Chinese happy Buddha. At first, such image only popularized in the southern part of China, and then it was accepted by all Chinese people until today.

陕西历史博物馆英文讲解词