The 2025 "May 18 International Museum Day" China main venue event was held at the Beijing Grand Canal Museum. The Paper learned that the final review of the "22nd (2024) National Museum Top Ten Exhibitions Promotion Event" was announced, and the "Shanghai Museum East Hall Permanent Exhibition" was selected as one of the top ten awards.
As a world-renowned top museum of ancient Chinese art, the Shanghai Museum has the most complete exhibition of the history of ancient Chinese art at home and abroad, and is an important window for displaying Chinese culture. The proportion of precious cultural relics exhibited in the Shanghai Museum East Hall has increased from about 4% in the People's Square Hall to 10.5%.
The Shanghai Museum is the museum with the most complete collection of ancient Chinese art in the world. It currently has more than 33 categories of cultural relics, a total collection of more than 1.02 million pieces (sets), and nearly 145,000 precious cultural relics. It has the most complete display of the history of ancient Chinese art at home and abroad, and is an important window for displaying Chinese culture.
Ancient Chinese Bronzes Exhibition Hall, East Building, Shanghai Museum
The Shanghai Museum's East Hall is based on the height of art history, expanding the connotation of the exhibition, making the original art special exhibitions more comprehensive, complete and refined, creating a general history display of ancient Chinese art, and better telling the profound Chinese cultural context. The proportion of precious cultural relics exhibited in the Shanghai Museum's East Hall has increased from about 4% in the People's Square Hall to 10.5%. Among them, the Bronze Hall, Calligraphy Hall, Painting Hall, and Seal Hall are the only permanent general history displays at home and abroad, and the Ceramics Hall and Currency Hall are also one of the most complete general history displays at home and abroad. Together with the Sculpture Hall, Jade Hall and other eight permanent exhibition halls, they can be called eight "textbooks of ancient Chinese art history."
The "Ancient Chinese Bronze Museum" of the Shanghai Museum was first exhibited in 1973. It is the first art museum in China and abroad to display ancient Chinese bronzes. The East Hall Bronze Museum is the sixth exhibition and reconstruction in 50 years. It has been updated and iterated on the basis of inheriting the predecessors in many aspects such as display structure, exhibit selection, interpretation, and visual environment, showing the professional spirit of "keeping the integrity and innovating" and "strengthening the foundation" in collection and research. Among them, the bronze production technology section has added a variety of technical means, supplemented by multimedia videos, interactive games, special exhibitions, etc., to intuitively explain more relevant knowledge points to the audience.
Shang Yang Fang Sheng in the Warring States Period
The latest exhibition has eight sections: the embryonic period, the growth period, the heyday, the transformation period, the renewal period, the integration period, the retro period, and the bronze production technology. The entire exhibition selects more than 500 exhibits, reflecting the 3600 years from the late Xia Dynasty in the 18th century BC to the mid-Qing Dynasty in the mid-19th century AD, and is the only most complete exhibition of the history of Chinese bronzes at home and abroad.
Most of the exhibits in the original exhibition will continue to be exhibited, such as the treasures of the museum, the Da Ke Ding, the Xi Zun, the Zi Zhong Jiang Pan, etc. At the same time, nearly 100 new exhibits have been added, including turquoise plaques and single-winged bells from the late Xia Dynasty, Jiahu with early bronze inscriptions, Shang Yang square sheng from the Warring States Period, the Tonglü, Duixie and Zhaoban from the Xinmang Dynasty, the Da Sheng chime bells from the Northern Song Dynasty, and the water-spouting fish washing basin from the Ming Dynasty.
The exhibition of the sculpture hall in the Shanghai Museum's East Hall is based on the renovation and upgrade of the sculpture hall in the People's Square Hall, which is mainly reflected in the expansion of cultural relics categories and the historical extension of the exhibition line. In terms of the expansion of cultural relics categories, the exhibition is based on the three-dimensional cultural relics in the collection. From an artistic perspective, it exhibits and explains 289 pieces/sets of three-dimensional cultural relics in the Shanghai Museum's collection, including bone carvings, jade carvings, bronzes, wooden figurines, pottery figurines, tomb carvings, gold and bronze statues, stone carvings, wood carvings, clay statues, porcelain sculptures, bamboo, wood, and ivory carvings, which is nearly twice the number of the sculpture exhibition in the People's Square Hall. Among them, one-third are on public display for the first time.
Shanghai Museum East Hall Sculpture Gallery
In terms of the historical extension of the exhibition line, the exhibition extends forward to the Shang and Zhou dynasties on the basis of the original four sections of the Sculpture Hall, namely "Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties", "Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties", "Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties", and "Song, Liao and Jin Dynasties", and enriches them into the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Qin and Han Dynasties sections; the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties sections are added to re-display the craftsmanship beauty of sculptures in this period and the fresh and secular atmosphere close to modern people's aesthetics, changing the public's stereotype of Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties sculptures being restrained, conservative and decadent. On the basis of inheriting the original classic exhibition of the People's Square Sculpture Exhibition, the exhibition is expanded and optimized to form five sections, namely "Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han Dynasties", "Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties", "Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties", "Song, Liao, Jin and Dali Kingdom", and "Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties", showing a tangible general history of ancient Chinese sculpture art.
The Chinese Paintings of Successive Dynasties and the Chinese Calligraphy of Successive Dynasties of the Shanghai Museum are the only permanent exhibitions in China and abroad that are separated into two categories and systematically display the general history of ancient Chinese painting and calligraphy. After comprehensive upgrading and innovative renovation, the two museums have achieved all-round improvement in content, function and space, and many national treasures and masterpieces of famous artists that have not been publicly exhibited for many years have reappeared before our eyes.
The first exhibition of the calligraphy and painting museum, Sun Wei's "Gao Yi Picture Scroll"
While presenting ancient classics, the Calligraphy Museum has also added a modern calligraphy section to showcase the inheritance and innovation of modern and contemporary calligraphers. These works will explain the development of calligraphy art since the 20th century, making the Shanghai Museum's calligraphy history more complete. Compared with the People's Square Museum period, the exhibition timeline of the Painting Museum has been extended further to the present, and the addition of a modern and contemporary painting section has made the display of the Shanghai Museum's painting history more complete.
Chinese Calligraphy Museum
After the full opening of the permanent exhibition halls of calligraphy and painting in the East Hall of the Shanghai Museum, the total exhibition space of the Calligraphy Hall, the Painting Hall, the Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Hall and the Special Hall of Calligraphy and Painting has reached 4,000 square meters, with a total of more than 300 pieces (196 sets) of works on display, which almost bring together the representative works of classic painters of calligraphy and painting schools and personal styles of all dynasties, and more than 70% are brand new. The exhibition hall has prepared a total of 6 sets of calligraphy and painting plans for rotation, and the exhibits will be replaced every six months. A total of 1,200 works will be exhibited in three years, and the collection of calligraphy and painting masterpieces that are debuting for the first time or have not been seen for a long time will be presented one after another.
The "Ancient Chinese Ceramics" exhibition in the Shanghai Museum East Hall is located on the 3rd floor of the Shanghai Museum East Hall, covering an area of nearly 1,800 square meters. Based on the original system framework of the People's Square Ceramics Museum, the exhibition selected 558 representative collections of fine works, of which nearly 50% of the exhibits were unveiled for the first time, and the total number of exhibits increased by nearly 100. The exhibition is divided into seven sections in chronological order, presenting the entire process of ancient Chinese ceramics from birth, development to prosperity from multiple dimensions and angles. It is not only a chronicle of material civilization, but also a "long river of history" of spiritual culture, and can be called a "general history" of ancient Chinese ceramics.
Museum of Ancient Chinese Ceramics
The "Ancient Chinese Jade" exhibition in the Shanghai Museum's East Hall is based on the permanent exhibition of the former People's Square Hall, paying tribute to classics, inheriting innovation, and simultaneously improving content and design. The East Hall Jade Hall continues the general history framework, exhibiting 360 sets of jade collections from the Neolithic Age to the Qing Dynasty (the former People's Square Hall exhibited 260 sets), and adding turquoise, agate, jadeite and other works to improve the audience's understanding of the materials and development of ancient jade.
Museum of Ancient Chinese Jade
Nearly 80 key exhibits were selected for interpretation or expanded explanation, supplemented by line drawings, rubbings, restoration drawings or animations, as well as related artworks of other categories during the same period. The multi-angle narrative and "light" academic landing enriched the exhibition content to help the audience gain a deeper understanding of the development process, functional evolution and historical and cultural value of ancient Chinese jade.
The Chinese Seal Museum of the Shanghai Museum, which opened in 1997, is the first permanent exhibition of Chinese seals at home and abroad. Its exhibition logic and display methods are scientific, academic and cutting-edge, and it quickly became a model for seal exhibition. The new exhibition was renamed the "Chinese Seal Carving Museum of Successive Dynasties".
China Historical Seals and Seal Carving Museum
The Seal and Seal Carving Museum exhibits 568 selected cultural relics, including more than 300 seals and nearly 260 seals. About 35% of them are new, and the total number has increased by nearly 100 pieces. The Shanghai Museum has about 15,000 seals and seal carving collections. Among them, the collection of ancient seals accounts for one-third of the world; and the collection of Ming and Qing seal carving works is second to none at home and abroad because of its complete context and concentrated fine works. The display system of the China Seal and Seal Carving Museum is built on the basis of this rich collection, and then integrates the cutting-edge academic research results of contemporary Chinese seal history.
The exhibition of the Chinese Currency Hall of the Shanghai Museum East Hall inherits the collections of predecessors and the latest research results, and is based on the classic exhibition of the original Currency Hall in the People's Square Hall. It is the fifth exhibition reconstruction. The area of the Currency Hall after the reconstruction is nearly 1,000 square meters, and the total amount of the collection of more than 14,000 coins is displayed, which is four times the original exhibition. It is the permanent exhibition hall with the largest number of cultural relics in the Shanghai Museum East Hall.
Currency Pavilion: Exhibition of Chinese Currency Throughout the Dynasties
This exhibition is based on the classic exhibition of the Currency Museum of the People's Square Pavilion. Based on the original historical framework from the pre-Qin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, it was expanded to the Republic of China period and before the founding of New China, further expanding and deepening the content. The exhibition is based on the development of China's currency system and is divided into seven sections in chronological order, namely the origin and unification of ancient Chinese currency, the growth period, transformation period, prosperity period, and diversified development of ancient Chinese currency, the reform of the currency system in modern times and the construction of the financial system, as well as the special section on the currency of China's revolutionary base areas, which fully presents the changes in financial currency from ancient to modern China. The coin casting and printing process section, which was originally displayed in the Currency Museum, is divided into different sections according to the era.
"Archaeology Shanghai" in the Archaeology Hall of the Shanghai Museum East Hall is the first permanent archaeological exhibition since the establishment of the Shanghai Museum. The exhibition focuses on the origin of the city, based on an archaeological perspective, using archaeological language, and from the perspective of "what is archaeology", it sorts out the urban context of "Why Shanghai" for more than 6,000 years. The exhibition hall is located on the 4th floor of the Shanghai Museum East Hall, with an area of 1,000 square meters. A total of more than 2,000 pieces/groups of cultural relics are exhibited, all of which are unearthed in Shanghai over the years. As one of the two new theme displays of the Shanghai Museum East Hall, "Archaeology Shanghai" has two main lines in content, one bright and one dark, intertwined with each other. The bright line is to show the 6,000-year history of Shanghai, and the dark line is to popularize what archaeology is.
Archaeology Museum of Shanghai Museum East Building "Archaeology Shanghai"
The "China·World: Ceramics and Sino-Foreign Exchanges" exhibition in the East Hall of the Shanghai Museum is a new permanent exhibition planned and launched by the East Hall of the Shanghai Museum. The exhibition is not only a condensed textbook on the history of trade ceramics, but also the first general history exhibition at home and abroad that uses ceramics as a medium to show the economic, political, and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries from the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The exhibition selects 365 pieces/groups of exhibits, nearly half of which are on public display for the first time, fully showing the historical changes in the appearance of Chinese trade ceramics from the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Song and Yuan Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and almost presenting all the representative varieties in one go. From the representative varieties of trade ceramics, to port changes, transportation routes, trade scope, to the interaction between Chinese and foreign kiln industries, the exhibition covers the basic appearance, core issues, and cutting-edge research of trade ceramics, and even hides some small easter eggs for porcelain identification. It can be called a vivid and comprehensive textbook on the history of trade ceramics.
Ceramics Museum
The "Jiangnan Artifacts Hall" of the Shanghai Museum East Hall is located on the fourth floor of the Shanghai Museum East Hall. The exhibition area is 1,649 square meters, including a 15.4-meter-high central atrium with an area of 290 square meters and a 30-meter-long outdoor light corridor. This is the only cultural relic exhibition hall in the East Hall that allows natural light and outdoor views. The overall style is modern and simple, interpreting the form and connotation of Jiangnan culture through deconstruction and reorganization.
Jiangnan Museum
The exhibition hall has a permanent theme exhibition of "Poetic Creations - The World of Jiangnan Crafts", which introduces the main categories, regional characteristics, cultural connotations, aesthetic characteristics, craft achievements and historical status of Jiangnan traditional handicrafts from the perspective of craft culture. After the opening of the Jiangnan Crafts Museum, the first round of exhibits had 540 pieces/sets, nearly 90 of which were precious cultural relics. During the year, some booths were rotated, and the total number of exhibits reached more than 700 pieces/sets, of which more than half of the exhibits were presented to the audience for the first time.
(The content of this article is compiled based on relevant information from the Shanghai Museum)
