Located in the center of Shanghai in People's Square, Shanghai Museum is a large museum of ancient Chinese art. The museum style and presentation surround visitors with artifacts demonstrating ancient wisdom and philosophy. The exterior design of the round dome and the square base symbolizes the ancient idea of a round heaven and a square land.
Shanghai Museum has the research departments of Chinese bronze, ceramics, paintings and calligraphy, and artifacts, and a scientific laboratory for preservation of cultural relics, with researchers and associate researchers over fifty in number.
Gallery of Ancient Chinese BronzeGallery of Ancient Chinese Bronze shows about 440 pieces of various kinds of ancient Chinese bronzes, including the bronze wine vessel, food vessel, musical instrument, water vessel, weapon and some other vessels from the Xia Dynasty (ca, 21st century B.C.>to the Warring States Period (221 B.C.) The distinctively shaped and beautifully decorated bronzes, some with historic inscriptions, is an important mark of ancient Chinese civilization and a marvelous treasure of the Chinese cultural heritage respected highly in the world.
Gallery of Ancient Chinese CalligraphyGallery of Ancient Chinese Calligraphy shows eminent personages' original handwritings. Chinese calligraphy can be traced back to Shang Dynasty and it matured in Dongzhou Dynasty. Official script was popular in Han Dynasty, while cursive script, regular script and running hand emerged during Weijing Period. The latter three reached the peak in Tang and Song Dynasty. All the later scripts were pattered after them and developed with their distinguished styles. About 100 essential pieces of calligraphy that are displayed here mirror the history of the art of Chinese handwriting.
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Ceramics
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Ceramics displays over 500 pieces of various fine ceramics from the Neolithic times to the end of the Qing Dynasty. A large number of them are the high-quality products from famous porcelain making kilns, some have never been shown before and some are very rare in the whole world. This is comprehensive ceramics gallery introducing the Chinese ceramic history, the Chinese ceramic art, the connoisseurship knowledge of the Chinese ceramics, and the scientific researches on the Chinese ceramics.
Gallery of Chinese Furniture in Ming and Qing DynastyGallery of Chinese Furniture in Ming and Qing Dynasty displays over 100 pieces of various styles of furniture made in the Ming and Qing Dynasty. Furniture made in Ming Dynasty is famous for simple modeling, gracious line and well-balanced scale; while furniture made in the Qing Dynasty is noted for their extravagant material, splendid decoration. There are also some models of valuable furniture and wooden buried warrior figure of Ming Dynasty unearthed in the area around Shanghai. In the gallery there is also a hall and a study room imitative of the style of that time.
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Jades
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Jades displays over 400 pieces of various jade wares and treasure. There are jade wares and treasure used on ceremonious occasions at Hongshan Culture and Liangzhu Culture during the Neolithic Age. The heyday of Chinese jade ware is Shang Dynasty. Jade ware made in Zhou Ages is the most elegant; its style had been modeled after till Han Dynasty. After Donghan Ages, the technique of jade ware making went downhill. In Tang and Song Dynasty, jades were more used in daily life, which is believed to be well accepted among the users.
Gallery of Arts and Crafts by Chinese MinorityGallery of Arts and Crafts by Chinese Minority shows about 600 pieces of work of art, such as dress and personal adornment, dyed and woven embroidery, metal art ware, sculpture, ceramics, bamboo wares used by the minority. Different styles, remarkable color and creative conception embody the pursuit of happier life. All these form an essential part of Chinese tradition in the field of art.
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Coins
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Coins shows the historical change and development of Chinese coins. The gallery displays about 7,000 pieces exhibits inclusive of bronze coins (which have the longest history), gold, silver, black copper, iron coins and paper money. At the same time, there are some foreign gold, silver, copper coins that were circulated widely in China. For the time being, this is the largest and most complete exhibition of Chinese coins.
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Paintings
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Paintings showcases about 140 pieces of masterpiece paintings, ranging famous from original paintings in Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty to the masterpieces of Zhe School, Wumen School and Songjiang School in Ming Dynasty, four masters, four monks and Yangzhou School in the early period of Qing Dynasty and Haishang School at the end of Qing Dynasty. These works with varied styles and ingenuity mirror the tradition and evolution of Chinese culture. The decoration of the gallery embodies ancient architectural style and scholar's style.
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Seals
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Seals displays more than 500 pieces of seals that could be traced as far back as Zhou Dynasties and as late as Qing Dynasty. It is a fine selection of the 10,000 pieces of seals the museum houses. These differently styled signets reflect the long history of seals in China and embody profound cultural
sophistication of the nation.
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Sculpture
Gallery of Ancient Chinese Sculpture presents 127 pieces of ancient Chinese stone, wood, clay, pottery and cast-bronze sculptures from the Warring States period to the Ming Dynasty. The whole gallery is divided into four sections with the Chinese Buddhist sculpture and figurine-modeling art as the main subject.