Xi’an Museum

Xi’an was referred to as Chang’an in ancient times, having been the capital for 13 dynasties including Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang etc. for more than 1000 years in history of China and the city as capital of the largest number of dynasties for longest duration in ancient China. Xi’an is also the origin of “Silk Road” in ancient time and the first international metropolis in history of China.

Xi’an Museum highlighting history and culture of Xi’an is located in middle section of Zhuque Street in the south of Xi’an, covering an area of 245mu (a unit of area) and composed of three parts including museum, site of Jianfu Temple in Tang Dynasty and Historical and Cultural Park of Small Wild Goose Pagoda, with museum, tower, temple and park enhancing each other’s beauty and bringing out the best in each other, being distinctive among museums in China and the rare national grade I museum integrating world cultural heritage, historical and cultural relics under state protection, ancient architectural complex and modern exhibition hall.

Xi’an Museum contains more than 110,000 pieces of cultural relics, including bronze wares, jade wares, gold and silver wares, porcelains, stone sculptures, inscription on tablet, seals, earthenwares, three-color glazed wares, painting and calligraphy, sutra, rubbings, ancient and rare books, miscellaneous wares, including 10441 pieces of valuable cultural relics at no lower than grade III. The museum has collected more than 100,000 volumes of ancient books, with 37 volumes of books having been selected into Catalogue of National Rare Books in China and the collections complete in sequence and category to create a system of their own. The exhibition hall of Xi’an Museum designed under the direction of Master Zhang Jinqiu as an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering has a built-up area of more than 16000sqm and a show area of more than 5500sqm, having more than 2000 pieces of cultural relics on display, the exhibition hall has had a display pattern with focus on fundamental display of Xi’an as an ancient capital, together with special display of compassion and fascination—Chang’an Buddhist Statues Art and spirit of the universe—Selected Ancient Jade wares and various temporary exhibitions as expansion and extension thereof having shown historical features of Xi’an as a capital and cradle of Chinese civilization in various fields including politics, economy and culture etc. since Zhou Dynasty, Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty. Exhibition of Small Wild Goose Pagoda-Jianfu Temple History on central axis of Small Wild Goose Pagoda Scenery Spot shows value of Small Wild Goose Pagoda in heritage as well as historical fact and experience in exchange and innovation between orient and west in terms of culture along Silk Road in those days.

Jianfu Temple as royal temple in Tang Dynasty dates back to first year (684) in Wenming Reign of Emperor Ruizong of Tang Dynasty, having been one of the three major sites for translation of Buddhist scriptures in Chang’an (ancient name of Xi’an). A dignitary named Yijing in Tang Dynasty came back from pilgrimage for Buddhist scriptures in India along Maritime Silk Road and stayed in Jianfu Temple in 706, with 108 volumes of 32 Buddhist texts including scriptures, disciplines and theories on Buddhism translated. Small Wild Goose Pagoda as world cultural heritage was built in Jinglong Reign (707-710) of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang Dynasty with the purpose of reception and storage in Buddhist scriptures brought by dignitary Yijing, having a history of more than 1300 years and with 15 stories built-up originally but 13 stories preserved by now, at a height of 43.4m, enjoying beautiful shape, being one of landmark buildings as a result of introduction Buddhism to Central Plain and integration thereof into Han culture and considered as a classical Miyan Pagoda and listed into Directory of World Cultural Heritages in 2014, Morning Bell Chimes tolled every day in the temple have been honored as one of Eight Great Sights of Chang’an.

Small Wild Goose Pagoda in scenic spot is cloud kissing, with ancient trees reaching to the sky, green grass and zigzag lake therein, time-honored ancient music in Chang’an to underline the excellent location with lingering melodious rhythm, folk cultural relics that could be found everwhere in those days such as hitching posts and various folklore art exhibition open a window for tourists to understand Chinese traditional culture. Well-arranged and delightful park and garden around water enable tourists to enjoy cultivation of temperament in tranquil and relaxed environment in downtown area.

"Wang Jing" gold seal, unearthed in 1966 at the Han Tomb of Shapo brick factory, Beilin District, Xi'an city. In the period of Xinmang (9-23 A.D.), the gold seal was 1.1 cm long, 1.1 cm wide, 1.2 cm high and 17.1 g in weight. It is now located in Xi'an Museum.

This gold seal turtle button, a tortoise on the square pedestal, standing walking state, high nose, open eyes, raised back turtle shell, engraved with six geometric ornaments, in the hexagon and around the carved beads, four feet are full of dots. The production is fine, the shape is vivid, both realistic and exaggerated, and the shape is used to convey the spirit, and the texture and dynamic depiction of the turtle are vividly and vividly depicted. The printed surface has the two characters of "Wang Jing" and the official script, which is exquisite and strong in line.

Why is this seal used by people? We can judge from its material, buttons, characters and other aspects. According to the book of the old instrument of Han Dynasty Officials: "prime minister, liehou and general, gold seal purple ribbon, medium stone, 2000 stone, 2000 Stone Silver seal green ribbon, all tortoise buttons. The jailer is sealed as a seal. " According to this judgment, the golden seal of tortoise button is owned by special groups of prime minister, liehou and general, and the rank of official rank is higher. The printing is two characters. If it is the seal of prime minister, liehou and general, there should be corresponding printing such as "one seal" and other corresponding printing documents, corresponding to its identity. However, the printing is only two characters, which is not in accordance with the printing style, which is known for private use. According to the book "the old instrument of Han Dynasty" the prince Huang Jin Yin, GUI Nu, seal is said to be Zhang. Down to 200 stones, all are official seals. ". "Wang" may be a symbol of identity rather than a surname, or a prince's seal. However, it is unclear whether the literature is missing if the prince in Hanshu and post Han books is not known as "Jing". It is not clear why people use printing, but from the above analysis, it can be seen that the status of users of this printing is undoubtedly noble.

Square relic gold box, Northern Song Dynasty, unearthed in September 1972 in Xi'an No. 1 Middle School. It is 3.7 cm long, 3.7 cm wide, 7.8 cm high, and weighs 106.4 grams. Now in the Xi'an Museum.

In September 1972, the playground of Xi’an No. 1 Middle School on Tietasi Street, Xi’an, was leveled. Several workers found a rectangular, blue-brick pit. The top of the pit had been damaged. There was a sarcophagus in the pit and its surroundings were faintly visible. Embossed animal pattern. So the school quickly reported the discovery to the Xi'an Cultural Management Committee. After the cultural relics staff arrived at the scene, they carefully inspected the rectangular brick pit. The brick pit was measured to be 82 centimeters in length, 35 in width, and 61 centimeters in depth. The brick pit was cleaned up, and the unearthed cultural relics included a sarcophagus with four gods pattern, a golden relic box, a glass bottle and a relic, and nothing else. Combining the analysis of the characteristics of the brick pit and the unearthed cultural relics, the cultural relic staff believes that it is an underground palace with a small ancient tower base in the Song Dynasty.

The golden relic box has a plain surface. Square cylinder. The lid of the box is shaped like a top, and the lid and the box body are snapped together. One side of the box body is molded with three lines to make a vow: "The female disciple of the Yang family buried the relic of Sakyamuni Buddha, and I hope that all living beings will become Buddhas early." There is a glass bottle in the box with a round mouth and long neck cuboid, and an agate Buddha relic in the bottle. The seat of the underground palace was originally a monastery.

In the Qing Dynasty "Shaanxi General Records" and "Chang'an County Records" both mentioned that there was an "iron pagoda temple" two or three miles west of Xi'an, and there was an iron tower inside the temple. "Shaanxi General History" does not describe the style and features of the Iron Pagoda Temple. Regarding the history of the Iron Pagoda Temple, the book says that the Iron Pagoda Temple is the "Tang Zhanghuai Prince's Residence". In the "Chang'an County Chronicles", the Iron Pagoda Temple was originally called the "Tang Qianfu Temple". The Qianfu Temple mentioned here is the residence of Prince Zhanghuai Li Xian. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Buddhism prevailed. Starting from Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, many princes and nobles built temples. Prince Zhang Huai Li Xian was the son of Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi and Wu Zetian. In the first year of Emperor Gaozong's Yonglong year (680), Prince Zhang Huai was falsely accused of rebellion by Wu Zetian, and was exiled from Bazhou (now Bazhong County, Sichuan), after which he "forced suicide". As early as the fourth year of Xianheng (673 years), Prince Zhang Huai gave up his house in Chang'an City and converted it into Qianfu Temple. The claim that the Iron Pagoda Temple was once the residence of the Prince Zhanghuai cannot be verified.

Gold stove, unearthed in 1966 in Lujiakou village in Xi'an's un-central district. East Han Dynasty. 3 cm long, 1.7 cm wide, 1.2 cm high, 5.2 g weight. Xi'an Museum is now in Tibet.

The shape of the golden stove is a commonly used stove model in the life of the Han Dynasty. Through body gold. The original partial mosaic with turquoise has now come off. The gold stove is rectangular, made of gold flakes and welded. It consists of a stove door, a stove, a stovetop, a kettle and a chimney. Stove door, a pot door-shaped, with a gray plate, the furnace hollow, stove table placed a kettle, the kettle filled with brilliant gold millet, grain visible. The upper right corner of the stovetop is equipped with two turquoise stones embedded in the front sides of the chimney kettle, which are circling with fine gold wire, and have now come off, leaving inlay marks. The bottom of the stove is engraved with the word "Zhili" for the auspicious language of the book. The shape of the gold stove is relatively small, the whole piece of work is not more than an inch long, and the millet in the pot is grainy, extremely delicate and lovely. Although this gold stove is a model, small shape, but complete structure, exquisite workmanship, gorgeous decoration, complex technology, and inscriptions, with a high value of scientific research and artistic appreciation.

During the Western Han Dynasty, the shape of the stove was mostly plain noodles, a fire-eye, before the middle of the East Han Dynasty, as a burial stove, its fire-eye increased to three to four, and on the stove to imprint or carve out a variety of kitchenware and food, the shape of the stove in the middle of the East Han Dynasty before mostly round-headed, the late East Han Dynasty is popular square-headed stove. In addition, as a Ming device on the stove also appeared to pray for the rich, children and grandchildren to flourish auspicious words, reflecting that people have a generous treatment of the dead, hope that the dead in the yin life better consciousness, and with the burial stove is the product of this consciousness, is the living people of the deceased in the yin life of careful consideration, and at that time people's expectations of a rich life.

The gold millet in the kettle of the golden stove had the meaning of Jindan, a fairy treasure that could become a fairy, which was preached in fangs at that time. By the Taoists at that time, "eat Jindan to soar into the fairy" preaching demagoguery, in order to pray for a long life, to Qin Shihuang, Han Wudi as the representative of the ruling class of the upper class figures to seek everywhere can not die of the drug Sendan spiritual medicine. At that time, gold is known to be the most chemically stable metal, it is resistant to acid and alkali, corrosion resistance, it is believed that after people eat it, gold corrosion resistance and the sublimation of sendan can be transferred to the person, so that people live long, soar into a fairy. This gold stove is taken from alchemy Dan's long-life Dan stove, the meaning of millet "Jindan". In Han tombs often with the model of ceramic stove as burial products, gold stove is extremely rare, which shows the status of the owner of this gold stove noble.

Name: Gold Hufu

Time: Warring States period (475-221 BC)

Size: length 4.8 cm height 2.3 cm

Source: unearthed in Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province in 1979

It is made of gold in the shape of a crouching tiger. It has large eyes, big ears, bared teeth, four legs and curled tail. The whole body is decorated with relief and Yin carving, and the back of the ware has buckle groove. It is small in shape, but it is exquisite in production, vivid in carving and magnificent in shape. It seems to be a work of imitating tiger amulet. Tiger talisman, also known as military talisman, originated in the spring and Autumn period and Warring States period, and continued to be used until the Qin and Han Dynasties. It was still used in the Sui and later dynasties. It was used in the Tang Dynasty, tiger and leopard in the Song Dynasty, and was the gold medal in the Ming Dynasty. Hufu is a certificate used by ancient feudal emperors to dispatch troops after they granted them military power. They are mostly made of bronze or gold, but also made of jade, bamboo and wood. Generally, the right half is kept by the central government, and the left half is issued to the general in charge of the army. When used, the two halves are consistent with each other, indicating that the command is authentic and credible. It has been recorded in the literature that the history of "xinlingjun stealing the talisman to save Zhao" illustrates the important role of military talisman. At present, tiger amulets are found: the bronze Du Hu Fu of Qin State unearthed at shanmenkou in the suburb of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, is made of copper. There are 40 characters of "military armour" in the seal script of gold. The right is the king, and the left is Du. If you are interested in the armour, you will know the Royal Fu if you use more than 50 soldiers. Even if you don't know how to match it, you can't do it. " So we can know the nature and function of the tiger talisman and the scope of its authority. In addition, we also found that there are inscriptions on the new Hufu of Qin Dynasty and Hufu of Yangling of Qin Dynasty. From the inscriptions, we can know the time and the country of the three bronze tiger amulets. There is no inscription on the golden tiger. It was unearthed in Guo Town, Fengxiang county. It was originally under the jurisdiction of the pre Qin Dynasty. In addition, judging from the shape characteristics, it belongs to the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. Therefore, it is inferred that this symbol is of early shape.