Shaanxi History Museum

Coordinates: 34°13′31″N 108°57′5″E / 34.22528°N 108.95139°E

Shaanxi History Museum
陕西历史博物馆

Established	20 June 1991
Location	Xi'an, Shaanxi, China
Director	Cheng Jianzheng (成建正)
Website	www.sxhm.com (Chinese) e.sxhm.com (English)

Shaanxi History Museum, which is located to the northwest of the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in the ancient city Xi'an, in the Shaanxi province of China, is one of the first huge state museums with modern facilities in China and one of the largest. The museum houses over 370,000 items,^[1] including murals, paintings, pottery, coins, as well as bronze, gold, and silver objects. The modern museum was built between 1983 and 2001 and its appearance recalls the architectural style of the Tang Dynasty.

History

Main exhibition hall of the museum

Detail of the museum's architecture

Shaanxi History Museum was constructed from 1983. It was opened to the public on 20 June 1991. The museum is in an area of 65,000 square meters, with a building area of 55,600 square meters, cultural relics storerooms of 8,000 square meters, exhibition halls of 11,000 square meters, and a collection of 370,000 objects. The museum is architecturally in the Tang style, with a "hall in center, storied buildings in corners". It is elegant and dignified, on a large scale, with a combination of traditional architecture and modern technology, which embodies folk tradition and local features.

Shaanxi was the ancient imperial capital of China, having been the seat of more than 13 feudal dynasties, including the Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties. The province is rich in cultural relics. With the completion of the Shaanxi History Museum, it collected over 370,000 precious relics which were unearthed in Shaanxi Province, including bronze wares, pottery figures, and mural paintings in Tang tombs.

Since the opening of the museum, it has followed the policy of collecting, conservation, publicizing, education, and scientific research, using its many historical relics, and conducted various types of display. The relics have also been exhibited overseas in cities in Japan, France, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.

Collection highlights

Highlights of the museum include:

• Fossils of the Lantian Man (preceded Peking Man),
• The Deer Pattern Eaves Tile from the Qin Dynasty,
• The Kneeling Archer, a 120 cm tall figure unearthed in 1977 from Emperor Qin Shi Huang's tomb
• The Four Footed Li, a Shang Dynasty bronze cooking utensil,
• Playing Polo, a Tang Dynasty mural of people playing polo in China,
• The Empress's Seal, a jade seal from the Western Han Dynasty, excavated near the tomb of Emperor Gao Zu, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty — one of the most important imperial seals ever found in China.

Gallery

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  Zhou Dynasty bronze Bianzhong

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  Ceramic Tang Sancai horse

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  Terracotta sculptures of ladies

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  Gold Monster from the Han Dynasty

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  Statues from Zhongshan Grottoes (钟山石窟)

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  Painted funerary guards of Prince Qinjian from the Ming Dynasty

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  Soldiers from the Terracotta Army

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  Gilt silver jar with patterns of dancing horses, from the Tang Dynasty

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  Sculptures of the twelve Chinese zodiac figures, from the Tang Dynasty

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  The back of a Tang Dynasty bronze mirror

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  Tang Sancai figures

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  An agate cup shaped in an animal head, from the Tang Dynasty

Location

The address of the museum is 91 East XiaoZhai Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China.

See also

• List of museums in China

References

1. "Introduction of the Museum". Shaanxi History Museum.

External links

• Shaanxi History Museum website
• Shanxi History Museum information