Broad stairs flanked by graceful balustrades lead to the impressive portals of Taipei's ready-to-open US$1.5 million National Palace Museum, home of the world's largest collection of Chinese art treasures. Doors open formally November 12 on this artistic record of China's 6,000-year history. The occasion is the start of the centennial year of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Founding Father of the Republic of China.
Glazed green tile covers the Chinese-style roof. Most of the architectural details and the interior decoration are of traditional palace style. Interior walls are of marble. The setting is as lovely as the building. Beautiful Grass Mountain rises just behind. In the vicinity are President Chiang Kai-shek's suburban residence, the Shihlin Horti-cultural Gardens of Mei-ling orchid fame, and the Christian Soochow University campus.
Under construction for three years, the four-story building is situated in the peaceful hillside village of Waishuangchi (Outer Twin Rivulets). It is faithful to Chinese classical requirements, yet satisfies modern museum needs. The 300,000 priceless masterpieces it will house are from the former National Palace and Central Museums on the mainland. They will remain in Waishuangchi until the mainland is recovered and free once more. For the Dr. Sun centennial, more than 1,000 of the choicest items will be on display both for tourists and better to acquaint the Chinese people with their cultural heritage.
The art treasures have been kept at Wufeng near Taichung in central Taiwan since the Chinese government moved to Taipei in 1949. The makeshift Wufeng museum was 30 meters long and 20 meters wide, with only 600 square meters of floor space. It was more than 100 miles and a day's journey from Taipei and off the main line of Taiwan tourism.
The new museum has 7,040 square meters of floor space, including 2,637 in eight exhibition rooms. The building, set in a 20-hectare park-like area, is only 15 or 20 minutes from downtown Taipei. Even a one-day Taiwan visitor will be able to see the exhibits.
In the main hall will be a life-size bronze statue of Dr. Sun wearing Chinese gown and seated in an armchair. A recent gift from overseas Chinese leaders in France, it is modeled after Landowsky’s marble masterpiece. The statue later will be moved to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei. Ground will be broken for the hall November 12 as another Sun Yat-sen centennial event.
The museum also contains offices, research laboratories, dining rooms, reception rooms, and a tunnel 3.6 meters wide, 3 meters high, and 180.45 meters long. This air-conditioned tunnel will provide storage space for treasures that are not on display.
Teachings of Art
Museum construction work started in June of 1962 but was suspended for about two years because of lack of funds. It was resumed in March last year. Half of the funds came from the United States. The best of materials and the finest craftsmanship were employed.
Bronze of San kingdom is 3,000 years old. (File photo)
It is sometimes said there is no better way to learn about a people than to study their works of art. In the case of China, that means the examination of bronzes and other articles that were ancient when the Christian era began. Additionally, those attending the initial display at the new museum will have the thrill of viewing many fine pieces that have never been publicly shown. Also on view will be articles that were favorites in the London exhibition of 1935-36 and the U.S. exhibition of 1961-62.
Old museum display room at Wufeng was too small. (File photo)
The London event, the first overseas exhibition of Chinese art treasures, displayed 3,080 pieces from 15 countries. China sent 1,022 items, of which 786 were actually shown. The 14-week display attracted record crowds totaling 420,048 to Burlington House.
Chosen for the U.S. tour were 253 art objects of outstanding quality. The exhibition began at the National Gallery of Arts in Washington on May 27, 1961, and then moved to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the De Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. When the curtain came down in mid- June of 1962, some 700,000 visitors had seen the treasures.
Success of the U.S. tour far surpassed the expectation, of its sponsors. "It takes a lot to make an art critic speechless," wrote Mrs. Leslie Judd Ahlander of the Washington Post, "but if anything could do it, it would be the incomparable exhibition of Chinese masterpieces... at the National Gallery. Washingtonians have an opportunity that will probably not come again in their lifetime to study the great masterpieces of China."
Florence S. Berrymay of the Washington, Sunday Star wrote: "The exhibition of Chinese art treasures is so beautiful and so rare that everyone should see it, even if it were necessary to crawl to the gallery over the iron spikes."
No one will have to crawl over any iron spikes at Waishuangchi. The environment is peaceful and perfect. Within it a brilliant sampling of China's cultural heritage will be continuously on display for all the world to see.
Treasures on Display
Among the 1,000 items to be shown November 12 are such priceless bronze vessels of ancient Chou as Mau-kung Ting, a cauldron tripod cast during the reign of the Emperor Hsuan (827-781 B.C.), and San Pan, a shallow basin of the San kingdom. The latter was buried not long after 827 B.C. and did not see daylight again until about A.D. 1770. Inscriptions on these and other bronze objects are helpful to archeologists.
Museum corridors are gracefully sculptured and painted in Chinese palace style. (File photo)
More than 100 of the best paintings of the Tang, Sung, Yuan, and Ming dynasties (A.D. 618-1644) will be displayed. They include Fan Kuan's Travelers on a Mountain Path, Kuo Hsi's Early Spring, and Wen Tung's Bamboo. All three were masters of landscape painting in the Sung dynasty (AD. 960-1279).
Chinese paintings create a feeling of tranquility and content. They transport the viewer from a world of conflict into a realm of peace. Many western visitors to the new museum will find themselves in a world they have not known before.
Great Porcelains
Porcelain is synonymous with China. The earliest extant pottery of China goes back before 3000 B.C. But true porcelain was not developed until some time between the Han (207 B.C.- A.D. 220) and Tang (A.D. 618-906) dynasties. The art of porcelain firing reached its apogee in the Sung dynasty, whose 'best products, in the opinion of some experts, have never been excelled. A number of kilns existed in the vicinity of the Sung capital, but the best wares were turned out by the imperial pottery at Ju-chou at the beginning of the 12th century. Probably less than 40 such Ju pieces are extant today. The Palace Museum alone has 26 and will display 10 of them. Most of the other famous kilns will be represented.
Blending Chinese architecture and modern design, museum has lovely setting at foot of mountain. (File photo)
Since the invention of the brush-pen some 200 years before the birth of Christ, calligraphy has flourished in China as a great art and not merely a style of writing. Perhaps the greatest of calligraphers was Wang Hsi-chih (A.D. 321-378) of the Tsin dynasty, whose work has been described as lung fei feng wu (flying as dragon and dancing as phoenix) and tieh hua yin kou (iron lines and silver hooks). None of his original works have survived, but copies and stone rubbings will be shown.
Among the other dozen or so master calligraphers whose works will be exhibited is Emperor Ming of the Tang dynasty (A.D. 713-741), one of the greatest patrons of art and culture in Chinese history. Part of his immortality stems from his love for Yang Kuei-fei, China's Cleopatra.
Jades will include the remarkably life-like representation of a Chinese cabbage, measuring 18.4 cm by 9:4 cm, that was carved in the Ching dynasty (1644-1911). Other jade pieces will enchant admirers with their cool, deep beauty. Jade is a synonym for beauty among the Chinese, and the museum displays will show why. Other exhibits will include lacquerware, enamelware, tapestry, embroidery, and carvings.
Visitors to the Palace Museum will learn their Chinese history as they admire masterpieces of art. Most of the priceless heirlooms of China were collected by monarchs. They cannot, be separated from their times, and only good fortune has preserved so many of them from the vicissitudes of war and rapine.
Thousands of these art objects were kept in the Forbidden City of Peiping after the Chings took over in 1644. In the early days of the Chinese Republic, Henry Pu Yi, the boy monarch who abdicated, was allowed to live on in his palace with a collection of treasures. This situation continued until 1924, when the government established a special committee to inventory and take over the masterpieces. Half a year later, on the 14th anniversary of the Double Tenth, the Palace Museum was born.
After the Japanese invaded Manchuria, in 1931, the museum board decided to move the treasures to southeast China for fear of war damage. From February to May, 1933, five shipments totaling 13,391 crates were sent to provisional warehouses in Shanghai. After the National Central Museum was opened in Nanking in January of 1937, the art objects were moved there, but only to stay for six months. The Sino-Japanese War erupted on July 7, 1937, and the legacy of ancient Cathay had to be sent to the interior. With enemy bombers on the prowl, the art treasures followed three slow, toilsome routes through central China. Boats, trains, buses, even sedan chairs provided transportation.
No sooner was the Sino-Japanese War over than the Communist rebellion compelled further moves. In the winter of 1948, both the Palace and Central Museums were ordered to take their treasures to Taiwan. A joint board was set up to take care of the objects. The Palace Museum moved 2,972 cases totaling 231,910 pieces and the Central Museum 852 cases containing 11,729 pieces. These are the heart of the new museum’s collection.
Once in Taiwan, the pieces of art first were stored in several warehouses of the Taiwan Sugar Corporation near Taichung. In April, 1950, the joint museum administration completed construction of its own warehouses in a Taichung suburb. A tunnel was dug out behind the warehouses in April, 1953, to provide emergency protection.
Vice President's Site
Although there was a steady demand by Chinese and foreigners to see the collection, the joint administration could display only a few items at a time for a limited number of visitors. In 1956, the Asia Foundation gave NT$668,065 to build an exhibition hall. It was completed that December.
This is only one of many precious jades. (File photo)
Taichung was chosen because of its dry climate. But the location was inconvenient. As early as in 1960, Vice President Chen Cheng proposed that the museums be moved to Taipei. At Waishuangchi, he had thought of building his own residence. He gave up the site in favor of the museum building.
Scores of designs were submitted by the nation's top architects. The building was to bring out the best in Chinese architecture and at the same time protect the art treasures from earthquakes, typhoons, the humid air of northern Taiwan, air raids, and insects. The winning design was decided by ballot.
At the ground-breaking ceremony in June of 1962, Vice President Chen expressed belief the building would become a major asset in free China's bid for more international visitors. Tourism authorities say it will be Taiwan's greatest attraction. The museum is a symbol of China's cultural excellence and will be treasured by all the Chinese people. But more than that, it is a tribute to the universality of great art and its role as a carrier of culture. The doors of the new museum will be open to all. An appreciation of the beautiful is the only card of admission.