Taiwan Today

There are nearly a quarter of a million reasons for visiting the National Museum in Taipei and every one of them worthwhile

Visitors to New York don't often head for the Metropolitan Museum of Art on their first day of Manhattan sightseeing. The Louvre is not an overpowering objective for those who find their way to the City of Light. Museums invariably are regarded as cultural assets but not usually as tourist attractions of the first magnitude.

Taiwan is the exception. The first-time tourist is more likely to ask about a visit to the Central Palace Museum than to inquire about his room number or the way to the elevator. This is true whether the visitor is a retired school teacher from Osaka or a GI from Vietnam. With rare exceptions, those who come to see Taiwan have heard about the museum and rank it first on their list of places to visit.

There are nearly a quarter of a million reasons why this should be so. The National Palace Museum houses 242,592 of China's greatest art treasures, some of them nearly 4,000 years old. The scope and heights of Chinese civilization are dramatized in the splendor of its artistic accomplishments. In the museum's collection are some of the world's most beautiful porcelains and paintings, exquisitely carved jades, bronzes with a patina thousands of years in the making, calligraphies without peer and priceless books, manuscripts and tapestries - even the souvenirs and treasured trinkets of the emperors.

The new building of the National Palace Museum was completed less than three years ago in the scenic Taipei suburb of Waishuanghsi and is already too small to accommodate the enthusiasms of its Chinese and foreign visitors. Space is available to display only about 3,000 of the masterpieces at one time. This will be remedied with a construction program to double the exhibition space. Work on two new wings is beginning this fall and will be completed within a year. A snack bar will be installed so visitors can spend the whole day at the museum.

The volume of museum attendance has reached 8,000 daily - and this means every day of the year. Holidays are omitted for the convenience of both foreign guests and the 14 million people of Taiwan. A tourist who can stay only a day need not miss the opportunity to see the heritage of Chinese culture. Students and the Chinese population in general may take advantage of Sundays and holidays to derive inspiration from the masterpieces of their forefathers.

The National Palace Museum goes back only to the mid-1920s. However, the museum concept has been known to Chinese civilization for more than 2,000 years old. Royal halls for the exhibition of portraits date at least to 53 B.C. and the Emperor Hsuan of West Han. The portraits of 28 generals were shown at the Chi-lin Ko in this period. Emperor Ming of East Han had paintings on exhibition at the Yun Tai Tower early in the Christian era.

T'ang dynasty records tell of an exhibition of the portraits of 24 meritorious officials at the Ling-yen Tower in 644 A.D. These first museums were a part of the palace compound and were, of course, only for the use of the emperor and his retinue. The architect's plans for a museum of nearly 1,000 years ago arc to be found in the National Palace collection. This was the Tai-ch'ing Lou of Emperor Sung Tseng-chung at the start of the 11th century. Paintings were exhibited.

Two catalogs were compiled by the Hsuan Ho period (1119-1125) of Sung Hui-chung, one of the paintings and the other of calligraphy in the imperial collection. Many of the works listed are still extant and some are in the National Palace Museum's holdings. Included is the painting "Early Snow on the River" by Chao Kan of the Five Dynasties. This is the oldest surviving Chinese landscape.

Museums and libraries also are mentioned in the records of the Yuan, Ming and Ch'ing dynasties. However, it was not until after the overthrow of the Manchus in 1911 and the establishment of the Republic that museums came to be for the people rather than at the service of a small elite. The National Palace Museum was established at Peiping October 10, 1925, and received the imperial art treasures from Hsuan T'ung (Pu Yi), the last emperor of the Ch'ings. Collecting of these treasures had begun in the Southern Sung dynasty during the 12th century. Some of the buildings of the Imperial Palace were used as a place of exhibition.

In 1933, the National Central Museum was established at Nanking, the capital, and became the repository for collections from the summer palaces at Liaoning and Jehol. The treasures of both the National Palace and National Central Museums were moved to distant provinces during the Sino-Japanese War. After V-J Day, these museums joined in an exhibition at a new building in Nanking. This cooperative venture was followed by joint undertakings to move their collections to Taiwan for preservation from the cultural destruction of the Communists. The transfer order was given personally by President Chiang Kai-shek.

For a decade and a half, the nearly quarter of a million items were stored and a few were shown at a makeshift museum near Taichung in central Taiwan. Finally, on November 12, 1965, the centenary of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the National Palace Museum building was opened in Waishuanghsi to house both collections until the return to the Chinese mainland.

Never have these relics of the Chinese artistic heritage been so well protected. The new museum is air-conditioned and the humidity is carefully controlled. Vaults are similarly equipped. Articles in storage will not deteriorate while waiting their appointed time for showing. Under the new construction program, many of the precious books can be placed in an enlarged library where they will be of greater use.

Exhibitions are changed every three months. However, the greatest of the masterpieces and the particular favorites of the public are never withdrawn from the galleries.

As established in Peiping, the National Palace Museum comprised the buildings and grounds of the former Ch'ing dynasty palace, the so-called Forbidden City. The collection remains the world's most comprehensive; it is unequaled by any other public or private holding. Still included are treasures preserved at the Imperial Hunting Lodge at Liaoning as well as at the Summer Palace at Jehol. Items were handed down by both Ming and Ch'ing emperors. The largest number were sought out and purchased by the Ch'ing rulers.

The former Forbidden City was located near the center of Peiping. Behind the walls and a five-towered gate house was a complex of audience courtyards and halls known as the Outer Court of the Forbidden City. Here the Chinese rulers received foreign envoys and held important ceremonies of state.

The Outer Court had three main halls. Behind the innermost hall was the Inner Court containing the working and living quarters of the emperors and his dependents. This was the area where most of the art treasures were kept.

The halls of the Outer Court first were converted into the Art Treasures Exhibition Center for public display of some the treasures there plus those from Liaoning and Jehol. This was the first time that the treasures had been seen by the public. After withdrawal of the emperor in 1924, the Palace Museum was formally established and the collection of the Inner Court brought under its supervision and also opened to public view.

Officials of both museums were alarmed when the Japanese marched into Manchuria in 1931. Packing and crating began. In 1933 the collections started on a journey that was to cover thousands of miles and finally bring these objects of art to the repository in the outskirts of Taipei. The final back-to-the-mainland journey awaits defeat of the Communists and the Republic of China's recovery of the mainland.

Also joining in this odyssey were art items from the collection of the National Central Museum in Nanking. The complete collection has a recorded history of more than 800 years. At the time of the Emperor Huitsung, the eighth ruler of the Sung dynasty, the Inner Court collection had already been inventoried. Accurate records have been kept ever since.

Histories of many of these masterpieces are often as fascinating as the works of art themselves. The painting "Early Snow on the River" is an example. The artist was Chao Kan of the Five Dynasties period (10th century A.D.) before Northern Sung. From the standpoint of art, this painting has been described as "beautifully executed. Not only are form and content satisfactorily combined, but the cold atmosphere which pervades the painting and the cringing expression of the figures and donkeys all achieve the divine".

Chin Tartars took the Northern Sung capital of Pien Ching in 1126. The court moved south and moved most of the imperial collection with it. But "Early Snow on the River" fell into the hands of the Tartar chieftain who established the Chin dynasty. Two seals of Chin Emperor Chang Tsung are to be found on the painting.

The Chao Kan masterpiece was taken from the palace when the Mongols overthrew Chin and established the Yuan dynasty. But a collector returned it to the imperial collection in 1329. There it stayed into Ming times, when it was inventoried and stamped.

Toward the end of Ming, the painting fell into the hands of a private collector. One seal reveals that it was part of the collection of An Ye-cho in the early years of the Ch'ing dynasty. Subsequently the work became part of the private collection of Liang Ching-piao and finally wound up in the imperial holdings of Ch'ing Emperor Ch'ien-lung, who left his mark with four seals and some of his own handwriting.

Bronzes in the museum's collection go back to China's earliest dynasty of historical record, the Shang, which flourished 4,000 years ago. Some of the bronzes were for ritual use. Others were utensils of daily life. Tripods include cooking vessels that were placed directly over the fire. Some of the designs reflect pottery prototypes. Other vessels were used for water, wine and food. Design became abstract toward the end of Shang and influenced the style of Chou.

Shang dynasty bronze inscriptions were brief. Chou, which was 800 years long and brought the flowering of Chinese philosophy, had early bronzes with large numbers of characters. One of the most famous is the tripod of Duke Mao, dating to the 9th century B.C. The inscription contains 497 characters and tells the Duke's posterity of an honor conveyed on him by the emperor.

A basin from the same period contains 357 characters setting forth details of a border settlement between two warring states. The museum's bronzes are well preserved. They are ornately decorated and many have acquired a lovely patina.

Porcelains are favorites with museum goers. The collection's nearly 24,000 pieces date from the Ch'ing to Northern Sung. The oldest are of the Ju ware with designs copied from bronzes. The kiln was established in the 12th century during the reign of Emperor Hu Tsung, who wanted a finer porcelain than the Ting ware then in use.

By Southern Sung times, the Ju wares had become valued art treasures. Not many of them had survived. Sung porcelains were mostly of bland blue and white shades. But the Chun kiln in Chun county, Honan, produced brightly colored porcelains. Glazes were sometimes changed to reds and violets as a result of copper impurities in the pigment. Subsequently this transmutation was carried out deliberately. The Chun kiln reached the height of its productivity under the Northern Sung.

Although quality declined somewhat, the Yuan dynasty produced good white porcelain. Colored glazes came into use toward the end of the period and then flowered under Ming. Monochrome glazes of Sung were improved upon and the so-called "bodiless" or semi-transparent "sweet whites" produced.

Kilns perfected the "Mohammedan blue" dye during the first quarter of the 15th century and began producing the famous underglaze blues. The Hsuan-te blue-and-white porcelains are renowned for the depth and vitality of glaze and design. Equally exquisite polychromes came from the Ch'eng-hua period of the mid-15th century. Underglaze reds and blues were combined in a vivid yet refined treatment. Design was free-moving.

Ch'ing porcelains at first were close to the Ming. By the mid-18th century they had become rococo and fussy. This new style was popular in Europe. Enameled porcelains of Ch'ing became famous. These wares received a preliminary firing at the Ching-te kiln in Kiangsi province, then were taken to Peiping. Court painters applied color and design preparatory to a final firing.

Jade is venerated by the Chinese and in antiquity referred to any stone that was beautiful. Many objects for ritual and ceremonial use were made of jade. The museum had old jades from ancient times - Shang to Han - and the so-called new jades from more recent dynasties and including the Ming and the Ch'ing.

Among jade holdings are scepters from Chou times. The scepter's function was to identify authority, the longer the scepter, the higher the rank. They were held in the hand, large end up, in approaching the emperor in court. Officials sent out on missions carried jade scepters as symbols of their right to command. The characters found carved in the kuei were not added until the Ch'ing dynasty.

Another notable jade piece at the museum is a flying fish of coffee color. From the Han dynasty, its workmanship breathes life into the stone. A jade cabbage from Ch'ing is also an object of permanent display. It is known the world over.

The National Palace Museum has nearly 6,500 pieces of calligraphy and painting. Among the treasures of writing is the work of Wang Hsi-chih of Eastern Tsin, usually considered the greatest calligrapher of all. Included in the collection is a 24-character example of his running script.

T'ang Emperor Hsuan-tsung also wrote in the running style. His "Ode to a Chi Ling" is on display.

Paintings range from the T'ang through the Ch'ing dynasties. The work of T'ang made heavy use of thick green and blue-green pigments. The masters of that time included Li Ssu-hsun, a landscapist. From Northern Sung came Kuo Hsi, whose "Early Spring" is on exhibition.

Yuan produced many fine painters, including Wu Chen. Poetry and visual impact were joined in this period. Wu's "Hermit Fisherman at Lake Tung-t'ing" expresses the painter's silent protest against rule of the alien Mongols.

Famous Ming paintings include the works of T'ang Yin. One of these is of a courtesan that the poet Tsui Yai called "Walking White Peony".

Many great painters were produced by Ch'ing. Yun Shou-p'ing was a landscape artist who gave up that specialty after seeing the work of a contemporary, Wang Hui. Yun took up the painting of flowers and plants.

The museum's collection is rich in lacquerware, which was one of the first of China's handicrafts. Many utensils used by the nobility in Chou times were made of lacquer. Carved lacquer was developed in Ming and Ch'ing times. Wood, tin or ramie was used as a base. Layer upon layer of paint was applied to build up a thick coat. Designs were engraved by cutting through the coat but without touching the base.

Beautiful work also has been handed down from those who worked in painted and cloisonne enamels. Enamel is a clear, colorless, transparent substance to which oxides or metal are added in the molten state to provide coloring matter. Powdered enamel is applied to a gold, silver or copper base and then fired in the making of painted enamelware. The technique was imported from Persia and the influence of the Middle East is found in the design and decoration of many of the museum's nearly 2,000 pieces.

Bamboo was engraved and carved in Ming times to make many articles, especially items for the scholar's study. Brush holders were made of bamboo and brush washers out of bamboo root. Techniques of working in bamboo were continued at a high level of artistry during the Ch'ing dynasty.

Museum tapestries go back to Sung times and are so perfect that they appear to be paintings. The names of some great tapestry weavers are as highly respected as those of painters. Not all museum tapestries are large; some of the finest are quite small.

Holdings of rare books total nearly 150,000, including the Ssu-k'u ch'uan shu, the famous four-part, 79,399-volume encyclopedia. Seven hand copies were made during the Ch'ing dynasty and the original is in the museum's collection. One set of archives from the imperial collection includes the personally inscribed approvals and disapprovals of the emperors, written in red ink. When the new library facilities are opened next year, more of the museum's manuscripts will become available to scholars. Volumes hundreds of years old have been amazingly well preserved, largely because of the excellence of the paper. Books printed from movable type are included along with those impressed from page printing blocks and those copied out by hand.

The National Palace Museum and its masterpieces must be seen to be believed. Even with only 3,000 articles to be seen at one time, visitors are finding that a day is not enough. Many are setting apart two days or several half days for a closer and more leisurely acquaintance with the collection. Even then it is necessary to pick and choose among favorites - to spend more time with bronzes and less with jades or less with paintings and more with porcelains. Some of the scroll paintings are so infinitely detailed that no amount of viewing could ever exhaust their perpetual freshness.

This is the China of 4,000 years of history, civilization and great cultural achievement. This is the answer to anyone who could think of destroying China's cultural heritage. While such museums endure, that is beyond human capability.