Shaanxi History Museum is a sizable national museum with a wide
range of modern facilities. It is located one kilometer away northwest
of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The entire building complex assumes
the architectural features of the Tang Dynasty. It covers an area
of 70,000 square meters, with a floor space of over 50,000 square
meters. It houses the cultural heritage of Shaanxi province and shows
the development of Chinese civilization. The state government invested
144 million yuan in the establishment of Shaanxi History Museum. It
was completed and open to the public in June,1991.
This is the Preface Hall. The massive picture in front of us shows
the surging and roaring Yellow river and the vast Loess Plateau, which
are reckoned to be the natural habitat of Shaanxi residents and the
cradle of their ancient civilization.
Shaanxi History Museum chiefly displays the historic artifacts excavated
in the province. The exhibition may be divided into seven major sections:
the Prehistoric age; the Zhou; the Qin; the Han; the Sui Tang e.t.
All the exhibitions vividly and systematically depict the history
of Shaaanxi Province, ranging from 150,000 years ago to the year 1840.
Back in history, 11 dynasties established their capitals in Shaanxi
Province, with a duration of more than 1000 years.
Now we are in the first section of the Prehistoric Age. The Neolithic
Culture is different from the Paleolithic Culture in three major respects:
the use of polished stone utensils, the emergence of settled habitation
and primitive farming.
Yangshao Culture dates about 7000-5000 years back.
The Zhou dynasty
The bronze vessels represented the system of rite in the slavery society.
They were the symbol of power and social strata. These are called
“ding” or tripod, a cooking utensil of ancient times. They were used
for stewing meat. Bronze tripods were derived from the pottery ones
in the primitive society. During the xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties,
bronze tripods were ritual wares only possessed by slave owners and
aristocrats, and they were mainly used on sacrificial occasions or
at banquets.
And the tripod was a symbol of privileged identity. Bronze utensils
made in this period were elaborately shaped, decorated with various
patterns, and in scribed with “epigraphs”. Some of the epigraphs were
as long as 500 characters. They are valuable data for the study of
the history of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
The Qin Dynasty
As a result of the national unification, the Fist Qin emperor enforced
a single currency, standardized units of weight and measure, contributions
to the development of feudal economy and culture in China.
Take currency for example. Before the standardization, currencies
of various forms, sizes, face values and weights had been in circulation,
and the calculation system had been quite difficult. All these caused
a serious inconvenience to the people. Once in power, the First Qin
Empeor issued a round coin pierced with a square hole in the center
as the national currency. The later dynasties and the imperial rulers
followed the pattern of Qin’s coins for the next 2,000 years until
the Qing Dynasty.
The Han Dynasty
During the reign of Emperor Wu Di, the Silk Road, which ran across
the Asian continent, was formally opened. It enabled Chinese silk
to be exported to various countries in the Western Regions. In return,
horses of fine breeds, plants, music and dance were introduced into
China. At that time, Chang’an became the largest center of international
exchange in Asia.
Seeking horses of fine breeds was one of the important motives for
the Han Dynasty to open the Silk Road.
The Sui and Tang Dynasties
The Sui Dynast was founded in 581 AD. It began to construct its capital
Daxing City, the following year. Yu Wenkai, the master architect of
minority nationality, designed and oversaw the construction of the
city. In the Tang Dynasty, its name was changed to Chang’an. This
is the plane figure of the Tang’s Chang’an City. The new city was
built on the basis of Sui’s Daxing City with further improvement and
expansion. As a magnificent and well-planned city, Chang’an was divided
into three areas: the palace city, the imperial city and the outer
city. With the Scarlet Bird Street as the axis, the city was crisscrossed
with 11 vertical and 14 horizontal streets, dividing Chang’an into
108 rectangular compounds known as Fang. This layout of Chang’an has
had far-reaching influence on later dynasties, and has served as a
model for capital cities in some other Asian countries such as Japan
and Korea.
China began her primitive porcelain manufacturing in the Shang Dynasty
3000 years ago. In the Tang Dynasty, Chinaware was exported far away
to foreign countries as major handicraft products. It is well known
that China was famed as a “nation of china”.
Here on show are Tang tri-colored glazed pottery, all being burial
objects. In the prime of the period, the Tang Dynasty produced glazed
pottery of brown, yellow and green colors. Color glaze brought Chinese
pottery craft into a new stage. However, the craft prevailed only
in a rather short period in limited areas. Therefore, the small number
of tri-colored glazed pottery is of priceless value today.
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