MANY people find history on the printed page boring; but I am not a history book. I present history in the round Taiwan’s National Palace Museum. It took 3,000 wooden cases to bring my treasures to their present location in the suburb of Shih Lin at the edge of Taipei. Because of the periodic changes of my displays, I cannot lead you on a room-by-room tour. Those changes take place every three months; yet it is said that if you visited during each display period it would take you ten years to see all my trove.
China’s Magnificent Memory Bank
agodaniel32 (56)in TravelFeed • 14 days ago
MANY people find history on the printed page boring; but I am not a history book. I present history in the round Taiwan’s National Palace Museum. It took 3,000 wooden cases to bring my treasures to their present location in the suburb of Shih Lin at the edge of Taipei. Because of the periodic changes of my displays, I cannot lead you on a room-by-room tour. Those changes take place every three months; yet it is said that if you visited during each display period it would take you ten years to see all my trove.
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China is one of the most beautiful countries would i visit after the COVID19 pandemic
Let us go back in time to the very fringes of human memory in the Far East. Do you see those old, dried-out buff-colored bones? They are oracle bones, used for divination. They are cracked because this was the means of gaining the sought-for answer. They would drill tiny holes in the bone, apply heat and wait for the cracks to develop. Then they would write on each bone the events concerning which questions had been asked. That was during the Shang dynasty.
My Record in Bronze
The Shang dynasty lasted perhaps 650 years, down until the time of Saul the king of Israel. Its record has been made in a most durable form: bronze. The samples I show are for ritual use and not everyday household items. The Chinese are practical. A vessel can be made to stand on three legs; therefore, our earliest containers are poised on three legs, not four. Yet these vessels are made beautifully, with rich decoration.
China’s Magnificent Memory Bank
agodaniel32 (56)in TravelFeed • 14 days ago
MANY people find history on the printed page boring; but I am not a history book. I present history in the round Taiwan’s National Palace Museum. It took 3,000 wooden cases to bring my treasures to their present location in the suburb of Shih Lin at the edge of Taipei. Because of the periodic changes of my displays, I cannot lead you on a room-by-room tour. Those changes take place every three months; yet it is said that if you visited during each display period it would take you ten years to see all my trove.
93.jpeg
6.jpeg
China is one of the most beautiful countries would i visit after the COVID19 pandemic
Let us go back in time to the very fringes of human memory in the Far East. Do you see those old, dried-out buff-colored bones? They are oracle bones, used for divination. They are cracked because this was the means of gaining the sought-for answer. They would drill tiny holes in the bone, apply heat and wait for the cracks to develop. Then they would write on each bone the events concerning which questions had been asked. That was during the Shang dynasty.
My Record in Bronze
The Shang dynasty lasted perhaps 650 years, down until the time of Saul the king of Israel. Its record has been made in a most durable form: bronze. The samples I show are for ritual use and not everyday household items. The Chinese are practical. A vessel can be made to stand on three legs; therefore, our earliest containers are poised on three legs, not four. Yet these vessels are made beautifully, with rich decoration.
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a beautiful temple in China
Like all the human family, the Chinese like music. Our earliest musical instruments are represented here in bronze bells. You may be surprised at how large they are. You would be more surprised if you tipped them up and could see that there are no clappers. They are true musical instruments because each gives a variety of tones when struck from the outside by a mallet. The tones vary from bottom to top on the bell.
Our record in bronze continues into one of the longest dynasties in history, the Chou. In it the Chinese dragon appears, and the bronzes of this era carry readable inscriptions, some running to more than four hundred characters. My history is in the form of real objects handed down through time, many carrying history written, not by historians, but by people writing in their own time about themselves.
The Ch’in dynasty was very short; just fifteen years in the third century B.C.E. However, what it left behind was very long—the Great Wall of China; fifteen hundred miles in length. No part of that wall is here, but the Chinese talent with walls is evidenced in my own facade and the grounds surrounding me. I sit upon the topmost of two man-made plateaus, backed into deeply forested mountains. Tunnels run into deep recesses in these mountains to shelter the priceless items awaiting display.
At the time, that Jesus Christ walked this earth, the Han dynasty was almost 200 years old, with yet another 200 years to go. This period is represented in bronzes too. I would like to call your attention to a bronze jar or jardiniere. It appears to be caught in a net of rope. Close inspection will show you that the “rope” is part of the bronze work itself!
“More musical instruments!” you say as you see the cases having round flat pieces of bronze with knobs in the middle. No, they are not cymbals. Try again. “Potlids?” No. Those “potlids” if turned over would offer a shining surface that long ago was used as a mirror.
Ceramic and Porcelain Treasures
A time of turmoil followed the Han dynasty as three kingdoms and six dynasties tumbled over one another in the next two hundred years. I will hurry you past these and those that followed the Northern and Southern dynasties and the Sui to bring you to the T’ang dynasty, of the eleventh century. I anxious for you to see our T’ang horse. It is ceramic. When it was made, it was surfaced with colors. Now only a hint of its brilliance remains in the red of its mane. The beauty of its form, the whole sense of artistic and physical balance overcomes the loss of color. The animal is poised with one hoof held high in a proud stance. It is a large piece: two and a half feet from hoof to mane, and a touch more than two feet from nose to tail.
Thank you