The dragon, the totem of the Chinese nation, has been revered and loved by people since ancient times. On the day when the Year of the Dragon is coming, it is better to walk into the eight museums of China together, go inside to find the exhibits related to the "dragon" of the ancestors of the Chinese nation, and feel the perfect combination of the museum and the dragon from these exhibits that inherit the profound historical and cultural heritage!
The Palace Museum: Blue Jade Cloud Dragon Pattern Furnace
The Palace Museum, which was established on the basis of the Forbidden City and its collection of the Ming and Qing dynasties, has been ranked first in the comprehensive ranking of various museums in China since its establishment on October 10, 1925. As one of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units, the Palace Museum has a collection of more than 1.8 million pieces (sets), including 25 categories such as paintings, calligraphy, inscriptions, bronzes, and gold rings.
As one of the treasures of the Palace Museum in Beijing, the green jade cloud dragon pattern furnace is a model of antique jade in the Song Dynasty, and Qianlong once named it "Old Jade Flying Dragon Yi Furnace". This Song Dynasty jade cloud dragon pattern furnace is 79cm, caliber 128cm, for the furnace green jade. The body is round, extravagant, neckless, hanging abdomen, circled feet outward, and the two sides are symmetrically decorated with animal heads and ears. The whole body is based on the word "work", and the relief is decorated with dragons, auspicious clouds and sea water patterns, and the front and back sides are decorated with the same. The bottom of the vessel is engraved with the first poem of Qianlong's seven words, and the end is signed "Qianlong Wuxu Mengqiu Imperial Title".
Shanghai Museum: Dragon-patterned jade
Located in the heart of Shanghai, the Shanghai Museum is a large-scale modern comprehensive art museum. It is known for its rich collections and superb exhibitions, attracting tourists from all over the world. The cultural relics collection in the museum includes 31 categories, including bronze, ceramics, calligraphy and painting, sculpture, oracle bones, sigils, currency, jade, furniture, weaving and embroidery, lacquerware, bamboo and wood tooth horns, and ethnic minority cultural relics, especially bronze, ceramics, calligraphy and painting. By the end of 2019, the number of collections in the museum reached 1.02 million sets, including 14 precious cultural relics40,000 sets.
The dragon pattern jade of the Shanghai Museum is a cultural relic of the Tang Dynasty, a bas-relief dragon, the horns, eyes, hair, mouth, whiskers and so on on the head are carved with Yin carved lines, the body is decorated with scales, the dorsal fin is arranged neatly, the body has wings, the legs are bent with hair, three claws, and the snake-shaped tail is curved. Flame-shaped orbs carved between the head and tail. On the other side, the bas-relief is carved with four ruyi-shaped moirés, and the middle of the cloud head is carved into a fan shape with a yin line.
Nanjing Museum: Dragon-shaped jade pendant
As the earliest museum in China, the predecessor of Nanjing Museum was the National ** Museum, which was established by Cai Yuanpei and others in the 22nd year (1933), which is known for its rich historical relics and unique exhibition style, and is an important window to understand ancient Chinese culture.
Nanjing Museum has a piece unearthed in Xuzhou City, Lion Mountain Chu King Tomb of the "S-shaped jade dragon pendant", this curled jade dragon, using openwork technology, the image of the dragon is depicted vividly and realistically. The side of a single dragon's body churning in a moment is shown. The shape of the dragon is slender and agile. It not only has high artistic value, but also an important material material for the study of ancient clothing culture.
Shaanxi History Museum: Red Gold Walking Dragon
Chang'an has been the imperial capital since ancient times, and there have been thirteen feudal dynasties such as Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, and Tang Dynasty in history, which have rich cultural relics on the ground and underground, forming a unique historical and cultural style in Shaanxi. On this basis, we see one of the largest and most comprehensive history museums in China, the Shaanxi History Museum.
There is an exhibition hall in the Shaanxi History Museum that is worth visiting, that is, the Hejiacun Cellar Gold and Silver Museum. One of the "red gold dragons" has a simple and plain image and more animal characteristics, unlike the majestic and terrifying five-clawed golden dragon in later generations, which is only used as a symbol of high imperial power. Although exquisite dragon patterns are often seen on murals and metal artifacts in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and some three-dimensional dragons cast in gold and copper have also been unearthed, small dragon-shaped products such as the red gold dragon of the Tang Dynasty are found for the first time. This group of pure gold dragons not only provides material materials for the study of Taoism in the Tang Dynasty, but also reflects the spiritual outlook of the Tang Dynasty society, and is a rare thing in the gold and silver ware of the Tang Dynasty, so it is extremely precious.
Hunan Provincial Museum: Blue Ground Yellow Colored Cloud Dragon Pattern Plate.
The Hunan Provincial Museum, one of the first national first-class museums in China, is one of the famous comprehensive history and art museums in China. It has attracted attention for its unique Huxiang culture and rich historical relics.
According to the seventeenth volume of the "History of the Palace of the National Dynasty", the blue ground yellow dragon ware is a daily porcelain at the level of concubines. The blue glaze inside and outside the plate is painted with yellow cloud dragon pattern, the dragon is painted domineering, the dragon head is mighty and fierce, the dragon body is strong and elastic, and the dragon claws are strong and powerful. The white glaze on the outsole is made of blue and white double circle "Kangxi Year of the Qing Dynasty" six-character three-line regular script, the words are slender and handsome, quite Dong Qichang's writing style, Kangxi likes Dong Qichang's calligraphy very much, and often copys, so that the bureaucrats compete to imitate, so Kangxi's official style has the charm of Dong characters.
Liaoning Provincial Museum: White Jade Pig Dragon
The Liaoning Provincial Museum, located in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, is one of the famous history and art museums in China. The site of the old museum is the official residence of Tang Yulin, the warlord of the Feng family. On July 7, 1949, the Northeast Museum was established here and opened to the public, and in 1959 it was renamed Liaoning Provincial Museum. The Liaoning Provincial Museum attracts many tourists with its rich historical relics and unique exhibition style in the Liaoning region.
As the treasure of the Liaoning Provincial Museum, the white jade pig dragon is a representative work of Hongshan cultural jade. The overall height of the white jade pigloon is 15 cm and the width is 102 cm, thickness 38 cm. As a large and regular piece of the jade pig dragon in the Hongshan culture, this white jade pig dragon of Bo in Liaoning Province was unearthed in the tomb and worn on the chest of the tomb owner, which is a symbol of social status, rank and rights, and is a primitive "ritual vessel" made according to certain specifications.
Zhejiang Provincial Museum: Golden Dragon of the Northern Song Dynasty
Zhejiang Provincial Museum, located in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, is one of the famous comprehensive history and art museums in China. It is highly praised for its rich historical relics in Zhejiang and its superb exhibition level. The Zhejiang Provincial Museum has more than 100,000 pieces of cultural relics and specimens, with rich cultural relics and complete chronological sequences. Among them, Hemudu cultural relics, Liangzhu cultural jade, Yue cultural relics, Yue kiln, Longquan kiln celadon, Wu Yue Kingdom and Song Dynasty Buddhist cultural relics, Han Dynasty Huiji mirror, Song Dynasty Huzhou mirror, Southern Song Dynasty gold and silver currency, calligraphy and painting and gold and stone rubbing, lacquerware, revolutionary cultural relics, etc.
Zhejiang Provincial Museum chooses the Northern Song Dynasty Golden Dragon, the Golden Dragon is one of the important tokens in the Emperor Taoist Dragon Throwing Ceremony, after holding the Zhai Jiao ritual to pray for blessings and disasters, the jade slip of prayer and the golden dragon are thrown into the famous mountains and rivers together, and the golden dragon loads the jade slip to reach the gods. The dragon throwing activity was formed in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and was popular among the people at the beginning, and entered the court in the Tang Dynasty. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the emperors respected Taoism, and every year they would throw dragons and Jane into the famous mountains and rivers, and the golden dragon came out of the West Lake. The Golden Dragon Pass is 11 centimeters tall and weighs about 80 grams. The neck is bent and the head is raised, the mouth is open and the tongue is protruded, the tail is raised, and the feet are three claws, making a walking shape. The whole body is engraved with scales, and the characteristics of the times are distinct.