Provincial
History Museum
 The
Shaanxi History Museum is located 4 kilometers
south of Xi'an, with the Big Wild Goose
Pagoda to the east. It was originally inside
the Museum of Stone Tablets. Later, because
of its great amount of relics and the small
exhibition rooms in the Museum of Stone
Tablets, which were not big enough to exhibit
them, the Museum was moved to the present
place. It was established under the personal
concern of former Permier Zhou Enlai and
officially opened to public in 1991.
The Museum is an architectural
complex in the Tang Dynasty style, covering
an area of 65,000 square meters and with
a construction area of about 60,000 square
meters. The whole museum was built in a
closed style with modern management. It
is the second largest museum next to the
Imperial Palace Museum, which is the largest
museum in China. In order to keep the relics
safe, a set of closed facilities of prevention
and auti-theft system has been installed.
The closed circuit television system was
installed to monitor every corner to the
museum and a set of infrared detection system
has been installed to control every square
centimeter of the exhibition of the halls.
In case when any anomalous event occurs,
video copiers will truly get scenes recorded
without delay.
The Shaanxi History Museum collects
a largest amount of tomb frescoes of Tang
Dynasty. For better protection and preservation
of these rare relics, the store chambers
were so designed that they were built on
rails and enclosed on all sides, with constant
temperature and moisture but without ultraviolet
radiation. The mural paintings are hung
in charmbers that run on rail. Press a button,
the chambers will silde out and back gently.
Such design is indeed ingenious.
It has a collection of 370,000
pieces of historical relics, among which
the most characteristic ones are the bronze
wares of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the
pottery figures of different dynasties,
the tomb frescoes, gold and silver utensils.
There are over 2,000 pieces of bronze wares
in the museum. Quite a few of them are national-grade
rare relics, such as a bronze tripot of
solid built called "Wai Shu Ding"
and a four legged bronze wine vessel of
unique shape. They have brought much influence
to the field of historical relics.
Pottery figure is a kind of
important relic which left over to us from
different dynasties in Chinese history.
They have been discovered constantly all
over China. But it is a rare case that the
unearthed pottery figures in Shaanxi cover
the dynasties from the Spring and Autumn
Period down to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
We cannot help to acclaim them the acme
of perfection for not only their large quantity
but also their variation from dynasty to
dynasty.
 Ever
since 1952, more than 1,000 square meters
of Tang Dynasty tomb frescoes has been taken
off completely in a special method. It has
gained high admiration and fame for its
quantity and excellence. Taking "Fresco
of Foreign Diplomatic Envoys, Fresco of
Polo Game on Horse-backs, Fresco of Maids
of Honour" as an example, they are
not only of very high art value, but also
non-fungible data of historical documents
for the study of social activities, cultural
life and clothing customs of the Tang Dynasty.
The collection of gold and silver
vessels from the Tang Dynasty in the museum
totals up to over 900 pieces, which make
it the topmost museum all over the country.
Among them, the most well-known ones are
the gold and silver wares unearthed from
the pit at Hejia Village in Xi'an in 1970.
Such as "the ox-headed agate cup"
and "the imperial gilded pot with two
punched horses attached", ect. were
ingeniously designed and showed the ingenuity
of the designers.
At the time when the museum
was opened to public, more than 2,200 pieces
of rare historical relics were requizited
from other places throughout Shaanxi Province,
which made the museum even more splendid
and well-know. Those include the Gilded
Bamboo Shaped Bronze Smother Stove unearthed
from Maoling, the Bronze Swan-goose-and-fish
Lamp unearthed in Shenmu, ect.
The magnificent of the architecture,
first-class facilities, rich and colorful
relics comprise the special characters of
the Shaanxi History Museum. And it is attracting
more and more visitors from both home and
abroad in a completely new look.
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