Changzhou Cultural Relics Highlights

Author: Changzhou Museum Editorial Board
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1998-09-01
Features: Changzhou is an ancient city in Jiangnan with a long history. Located in the southeastern part of Jiangsu Province, it borders the Yangtze River to the north and faces Taihu Lake to the east. The famous Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Shanghai-Nanjing Railway, and Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway all pass through the city. Since the late Spring and Autumn period when Ji Zha of Wu was enfeoffed as Marquis of Yanling, Changzhou has a recorded history of over 2,500 years. It has long been renowned as "the key auxiliary of Central Wu and the famous city of the eight prefectures," serving as the seat of prefectures, states, and prefectures throughout history, thus possessing profound historical and cultural heritage and producing numerous talents. Especially during the Qing Dynasty, prominent schools of thought emerged in the literary world, such as the Changzhou Painting School, the Changzhou Modern Confucian School, the Changzhou Tong School, and the Yanghu Literary School. Among them, the Changzhou Painting School represented by Yun Nantian, Zhao Obei's poetry theory, and Li Baoyi's satirical novel "The Real Story of the Official World" shine brightly in China's splendid cultural river.
Changzhou Museum was established in October 1958, supported by people from all walks of life. After four decades of vicissitudes and the joint efforts of several generations of museum staff, it has now developed into a local comprehensive history museum of considerable scale. The museum currently holds over 13,000 cultural relics, including the Jade Cong and Jade Paddle from the Liangzhu Culture of the Neolithic Age, primitive celadon guis and celadon jars of the Spring and Autumn period, the celadon piled-up nine-jointed jar of the Eastern Han Dynasty, male and female figurine bricks of the Southern Dynasties, the gilt-bronze latticed floral-pattern lacquer box and gilt-bronze fine-hooped inlaid lacquer box with floral motifs of the Southern Song Dynasty, the gilt-bronze lacquer box with rhinoceros horn handle of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Jingdezhen kiln white-glazed seated Guanyin statue of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the Yuan Dynasty lacquer bowl inscribed with Phagspa script, among which many are treasures of national significance.
On the fortieth anniversary of the establishment of Changzhou Museum, we have compiled and published this illustrated catalog, "Changzhou Cultural Relic Treasures," selecting 122 pieces (sets) of selected cultural relics from the museum's collection, including paintings, ceramics, jades, lacquer and wooden wares, and other handicrafts, to present to the general readers. This is done to honor colleagues in the cultural and museum fields and enthusiasts of cultural relics, contributing our modest efforts to promoting national culture and flourishing the cultural and museum cause.