The Taipei National Palace Museum has a collection of nearly 700,000 pieces of ancient Chinese imperial artifacts and artworks, which encompasses 5,000 years of history of Chinese art.

National Palace Museum is located in the northern part of Taipei City, this palace-style building with green tiles and yellow walls has inextricable ties with the Beijing Palace Museum and is a treasure trove of Chinese culture. The collection of nearly 700,000 artifacts spans 5,000 years of Chinese history. The bronzes, paintings, calligraphic works, jade, and ceramics are all rare treasures, for example, the Jadeite Cabbage, Meat-Shaped Stone, the Mao Gong Ding (Duke Mao Tripod), and the Calligraphy Model “Sunny after Snow” by Wang Xizhi.

The Grand Elegant Museum

The palace-like architecture with green tiles and yellow walls, the essence of 5,000 years of Chinese culture, and the immortal city landmark of Taipei …… This is the Taipei National Palace Museum.

Taipei National Palace Museum was completed in 1965, coincided with the 100th anniversary of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s birth, so it was once called the “Chung-Shan (Sun Yat-sen) Museum”. A plaque reading “Commemorating the Centennial of the Birth of the Founding Father – Chung-Shan Museum” still hangs on the wall of the museum. In addition, the Tian Xia Wei Gong Stone Arch at the entrance square and the Sun Yat-sen Bronze Statue inside the museum are all tributes Dr. Sun.

The Main Hall of Palace Museum is a four-story palace-style building, which is modeled after the shape of the Meridian Gate of the Palace Museum (Forbidden City) in Beijing. Its U-shaped layout is very similar to the Five Phoenix Turrets of Meridian Gate in Beijing.

However, there is a big difference in the architectural color scheme between the two, the classic combination of red and bright yellow in the Forbidden City in Beijing makes the Ming and Qing dynasties royal palaces majestic and solemn posture, while the Taipei National Palace Museum uses blue glazed tile roofs with yellow fences, making the overall feeling a little more bright and a little less weighty.

The main hall is The Most Important Exhibition Facility, where most of the exhibitions are held. The three floors of space on the ground are divided into dozens of small galleries, where the treasures are presented to visiting visitors in categories as jade, painting, calligraphic works, bronze, and porcelain, etc. The exhibits are changed every three months, and it’s said it would take a visitor more than 30 years to see all hundreds of thousands of artifacts here.

The Taipei National Palace Museum also opens a Children's Art Center, using multimedia and modern technology to introduce knowledge such as the development of writing, classifications of jade, etc.

Manywhere Trivia:
National Palace Museum in Taipei are free of charge for local and foreign students.

There are several ancient style building on the west side of the main hall, the Second Exhibition Area and Executive Building, where the museum’s library is located, has a collection of rare ancient books and archival documents, including the famous Siku Quanshu (Imperial Collection of Four). Considering the needs of disabled visitors, the museum has also set up a Forest Walk next to the stone arch at the entrance, with an extremely gentle ramp, making it easy for handicapped visitors.

The Ill-fated Chinese Treasures

The abdication in 1911 of the last emperor, Pu Yi, marked the end of the Qing dynasty’s rule, and the Forbidden City was transformed from a royal palace into a Palace Museum open to the world. The government of the Republic of China brought together all the most important cultural relics in the country to the Palace Museum for unified management, making the Forbidden City in Beijing a gathering place of Chinese treasures, a veritable “treasure trove”.

In 1931, Japan launched the Mukden Incident (September 18 Incident), in order to protect the cultural relics in the Beijing Palace Museum from the coming warfare, the Nationalist Government began a series of activities to relocate cultural relics south. In 1945, the war was won, and the cultural relics were transported to Chongqing, and then returned to Nanjing by water.

On the eve of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Nationalist Government (Republic of China) again selected more than 5,000 boxes from all the cultural relics and shipped them to Taiwan in several batches from the mainland. Until 1965, the 100th anniversary of Sun Yat-sen’s birth, these wandering relics finally found their home at the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

Built on the Mountainside, the National Palace Museum makes good use of the terrain here, carving out a 180-meter-deep, 6-meter-high, 3.6-meter-wide cave in the mountain, with several small rooms inside to keep all the relics in separate categories. The cave is equipped with fire, burglary, and moisture-proof systems, and advanced air conditioning devices that allow these valuable treasures to be properly preserved.

The Collection

The National Palace Museum in Taipei has a collection of nearly 70,000 precious artifacts spanning 5,000 years of Chinese culture, including paintings and calligraphy, ceramics, jade, bronzes, and other categories, most of which were carefully selected from the National Palace Museum in Beijing, so let’s have a look at a few of the world-famous art masterpieces below.

Jadeite Cabbage and Meat-Shaped Stone are considered the most popular treasures of the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

This carving is made of half-white and half-green emerald jade, using subtle carving techniques to create a realistic green-leaf cabbage with white stalks, and two green insects resting on the leaves. It was originally an ornament in the Yonghe Palace of the Forbidden City in Beijing, and is presumed to have been the dowry of Concubine Jin, the royal consort of the Guangxu Emperor.

“Sunny after Snow 快雪時晴帖 (Timely Clearing After Snowfall)” is a calligraphic masterpiece by Wang Xizhi 王羲之, a famous calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and was collected in Yangxin Hall of the Forbidden City along with Wang Xianzhi 王獻之’s “Mid-Autumn Post” and Wang Xun 王珣’s “Boyuan Post” in the Qing Dynasty. The Qianlong emperor loved it so much that he named his study inside the Yangxin Hall “The Three Treasures Hall 三希堂”.

The Mao Gong Ding (Duke Mao Tripod) is a simple and upright tripod of 53.8 cm in height and 47 cm in width, which was cast by Duke Mao in the late Western Zhou Dynasty and is famous for the inscriptions engraved on its interior. The 499 characters inside the tripod express the admonition and expectation of King Xuan to Duke Mao in an elegant style, and is a true witness to the historic milestone “King Xuan’s Revival 宣王中兴” 3000 years ago.

Attractions around the National Palace Museum

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• #Contemporary Architecture
• #Museum
• #The ROC Period