BEIJING China’s soil is not known for its high quality when it comes to agriculture, but it is among the richest in the world as far as archaeology is concerned.
International Herald Tribune Two Chinese museums examine a priceless past Sheila Melvin IHT
by Sheila Melvin
Saturday, September 28, 2002
BEIJING China’s soil is not known for its high quality when it comes to agriculture, but it is among the richest in the world as far as archaeology is concerned. With all the road building and other construction in recent years, the earth has yielded up so many long-buried treasures that archaeologists can barely keep up.
.The National History Museum in Beijing and the Shanghai Museum have chosen to celebrate their 90th and 50th anniversaries, respectively, by holding exhibitions devoted to recently unearthed findings.
.The History Museum’s exhibition, "Treasures of the Liao Dynasty," is primarily dedicated to objects found in two tombs in Inner Mongolia, including that of a princess of the state of Chen who was buried in 1018. The Shanghai Museum’s exhibition, "Treasures of the State of Jin," dates from a much earlier period, beginning around 2000 B.C., and showcases funerary objects found in the Marquess of Jin family cemetery in southwestern Shanxi Province.
.These two important shows reflect well on both museums. The discovery of an ancient tomb in modern China is a commonplace occurrence, often as likely to annoy as to excite since an accidental unearthing can delay a construction project for years. The chance to see these recently discovered treasures is a good reminder of the importance of rescuing the past, as well as a window into eras and peoples about whom most of us know little.
.But if the Shanghai Museum and the National History Museum have displayed like thinking in their choice of celebratory exhibitions, the shows ultimately reveal more differences between them than they do similarities.
.Archaeologists from the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and the Peking University Department of Archaeology have been working together on the Jin site for more than 20 years. But it was not until 1992 that they came upon the long-sought tombs of nine generations of the Jin marquesses and their consorts, all of them laden with magnificent funerary objects that included bronze vessels, jade masks and pendants, bells and even chariots. Unfortunately, in an occurrence that is all too common, tomb robbers got to the site before the archaeologists and wreaked havoc on tombs 1 and 2. Objects that weren’t smashed in haste were smuggled overseas for the burgeoning market for Chinese antiquities.
.Experts at the Shanghai Museum – which is renowned for its bronze collection – were dismayed at the loss of these priceless antiquities. But rather than merely bemoaning the theft as many museums would, they took action and purchased back a number of the bronzes, including 14 chime bells from the tomb of the Marquess Su of Jin. These magnificent bells are now a part of the museum’s permanent collection and are also included in the Jin exhibition.
.While the Shanghai Museum itself deserves praise for its efforts in rescuing the looted treasures, its own role is hardly mentioned. Instead, the Jin exhibition is dedicated "to honor the painstaking efforts and great contributions of generations of archaeologists … who have silently dedicated their lives" to their field.
.The show does the archaeologists proud. Held in the museum’s special exhibition gallery, the objects are well displayed, beautifully lighted and informatively captioned in both Chinese and English. A tomb excavation site is authentically re-created with dirt and wooden walkways, giving viewers a sense of what the archaeologists must have seen when they gazed down on their discoveries. Haunting music wafts through the room in which the chime bells are displayed, the recording made on the bells themselves. A beautifully produced Chinese-English catalogue includes photographs and explanations of all objects in the show.
.Highlights of these objects include bronze zun vessels whimsically cast as crouching rabbits, perching birds and snorting boars. A xu vessel from among the stolen objects recovered by the Shanghai Museum is of a sort that has never before been found – four squatting men with long fingers, exaggerated facial features, pierced ears and sturdy boots hold the rounded rectangular vessel on their shoulders, while S-shaped dragons with two heads adorn the lid.
.The jade and cloth facial coverings found on the dead are curious and compelling. One uses jade plaques carved like squatting tigers for the temples, hooked cloud patterns for the eyebrows and a dragon-man for the forehead. The dead also wore stunning necklaces of jade, glass and amber and were provided with small carved jades in the shapes of humans and animals, some of which date from as early as the Shang dynasty (1766-1122 B.C.).
.The burial objects on display in the Liao Dynasty exhibition in Beijing come from an entirely different place, era and culture but are every bit as spectacular as those in the Shanghai exhibition. Whereas the Jin objects were left by members of a civilization so settled that nine generations of one family were buried in the same cemetery, the Liao objects are those of a nomadic people and testify to a life – and an afterlife – spent much in the saddle.
.The princess of the state of Chen wore flared, Mongolian-style riding boots to her grave, made of silver and inlaid with gold. These are displayed together with her silver net burial garments and silver crown, belt and pillow. Most of the objects in her tomb are of a practical bent, including silver knives, a wooden bow holder, gilded stirrups and a silver spittoon. However, she was also entombed with considerable jewelry, including an amber locket in the shape of a fish and a carved amber and pearl pendant.
.Of particular note are the glass objects buried with her, impractical possessions that must have been especially valued by a people on the move. One glass plate resembles mother-of-pearl, all pink, green and cream, and a wine decanter looks as if it is made from shards of milky ice.
.Unfortunately, fascinating though the objects in the Liao Dynasty exhibition are, minimal information is provided to explain them in either Chinese or English, and the beautifully produced catalogue is in Chinese only. Entrance to the show is through a hallway lined with tacky photo murals of horses running across a grassland and the first part of the exhibition consists primarily of copied paintings.
.Because the National History Museum does not have proper space for rotating exhibitions, the show is held in an enormous, divided hall that has windows covered by black-out curtains. The lighting is adequate, but awkward, provided by bulbs that dangle from wires strung across the ceiling.
.The anniversary exhibition is supplemented by a special show dedicated to the national History Museum’s own history. Markedly absent from this show, however, is any mention of the archaeologists or museologists who have devoted their lives to the museum. Instead, the show begins with a greeting from President Jiang Zemin in his own calligraphy and continues with a series of blown-up photographs. The first photo shows Mao Zedong visiting the museum in 1954. He is dressed in an ill-fitting Mao suit and leaning on a stick as he gazes forlornly through black-framed glasses at a bronze horse. Alone, except for the curator, he looks overweight, unhealthy and out of place – it is not the usual public depiction of Chairman Mao.
.As if by deliberate contrast, the next photo is of a healthy, beaming Jiang wearing a pin-striped suit and gesticulating animatedly at a bronze tripod. He is lecturing a group of foreigners, who listen with rapt expressions while a coterie of Chinese officials stands behind him in silent respect. The caption explains that the photo was taken in Germany, at an exhibition of Chinese relics held in 1995.
.The next display is a framed example of Jiang’s calligraphy and the next is a blown-up photo of Hu Jintao – the man many think will be Jiang’s successor – visiting the museum in 1990. More photos of political leaders visiting the museum fill up the room, and at the very back, almost as if an afterthought, there are some display cases with newly acquired relics.
.The National History Museum and the Shanghai Museum are both important institutions whose anniversaries are well worth celebrating, and the anniversary shows well worth visiting. But a visitor to both leaves with one overwhelming impression – where professionalism reigns supreme at the Shanghai Museum, it is politics that rules in Beijing.
.Sheila Melvin, a free-lance writer, divides her time between China and the United States.
