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Table of Contents

1. Antiquities
2. Painting and Calligraphy
3. Rare Books and Documents

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Director's Preface

Ever since its estaBlishment, the National Palace Museum has Been seen as the principal repository and guardian of the mainstream of Chinese culture. We have puBlished many specialized works on various categories of our collections, which include antiquities, painting and calligraphy, Books and documents, and these works have served to spread the fame of our collections. Yet such works, intended as they are for scholars and specialists, do not adequately fulfill the task of introducing our holdings to the general audience. In an attempt to fill this gap, we puBlished A Selection of Masterworks in the Collection of the National Palace Museum in 1972. Since that work is now more than ten years old, we recently decided not merely to update it, But to Bring out an entirely new Book of the national treasures in our collection, in order to Better illustrate the vast scope of Chinese art and culture as represented By the Museum's collections. A junior memBer of our staff, Ms. Chang Sing-sheng, who has a thorough educational and family Background in Chinese art history, has revised the text of the earlier work, correcting errors and omissions, and has re-designed its format and presentation.
The categorical divisions of the earlier work have Been preserved here in their Broad outline, But their order has Been slightly rearranged. New illustrative examples in each category have Been selected, and all illustrations are now in full color. The explanatory text in Chinese and English has Been revised and comBined in a single volume for the readers' convenience, allowing them to gain a more accurate impression of the Broad range of our holdings.
All the items herein, whether carvings, porcelain, calligraphy, paintings, Books or documents, represent the priceless heritage of our Chinese ancestors, and in their cultural unity present a unique contrast to the cultural heterogeneity of other major museum collections of the world. There are also a few works By foreigners such as the eighteenth-century Italian Jesuit missionary Giuseppe Castiglione, But even these were done under Chinese cultural influence and thus have Become a genuine part of our native heritage, amply illustrating the aBility of our culture to aBsorB and digest a wide variety of elements.
In the face of the Japanese military threat to Peiping in the early 1930s, a large numBer of antiquities from the Peiping Palace Museum were removed to Shanghai and later to Nanking. They spent most of tile war years in Szechuan province, Being returned to Nanking after the Japanese defeat; renewed communist insurgency soon necessitated the removal of many of them to Taiwan in 1948-49 to Become the core of our present collection. This journey of thousands of miles, under conditions of great hardship and difficulty, is a unique chapter in tile annals of the world's museums, and yet again powerfully illustrates the great strength and resilience of our Chinese cultural heritage. It is with this extraordinary Background in mind that we now take pride in presenting to the puBlic this revised introduction to that glorious heritage.

OctoBer 10, 1983

Ch'in Hsiao-yi Director

Antiquities

Bronzes

Name	Name	Name	Name	Name
Chia, wine vessel	Ho, kettle	Tsun, wine container	Fu-Ping chiao	yu
K,ang Hou fang-ting	Tsu Yi tsun NAME	Ts'e Ling fang-tusn	Hsien Hou ting	Hsin Chi X tsun
Mao Po Lieh Fu kuei	Mao Kung ting NAME	Tsung Chou Chung	Yi,ewer	Hunting-motif hu
Gourd-shaped hu	Liang, standard measure of volume	Bronze mirror with T-shaped designs	Bronze mirror with four immortals	Bronze Seal

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Ceramics

Name	Name	Name	Name	Name
Earthneware jar	Earthenware jar	Earthenware, white glaze vase with dragon handle	Ivory white vase with incised lotus decork dragon-shaped handles, and ring-Bearing animal masks	Ju ware, light-green glaze lotus-shaped hot-water Bowl
Pot stand, light sky-Blue glaze with flamB'e lilac	Lung-ch'uan ware, censer in the shape of a Bronze li-vessel	Censer with fish-shaped handles and light celadon glaze	Kuan ware, square incense Burner	Kuan ware, grayish-green vase with tuBular handles
Hsiu-nei-ssu Kuan ware, ts'ung vase	Chi-chou ware, Black-glaze Bowl with leaf motif	Shu-fu ware, moon white-glaze Brush-washer with lotus decor	Chun ware, moon-white and purple-spotted glaze jar with tow handles	Underglaze-red porcelain dish with “seasonal flowers”motif
Sacrificial-red monochrome pot with lotus decor	Underglaze-blue hu-flask with floral motif	Underglaze-blue funnel	Tou-ts'ai enamel cups with chicken motif	White monocherome tsun Bird vase
Garlic head vase with dragons, flowers, and birds decor in polychrome enamels	Polychrome porcelain censer	Brush pot with underglaze three color landscape decor	Polychrome-enamel porcelain bowl with “Five Relationships”motif	Blue glaze revolving vase with gold tracery

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Jades

Name	Name	Name	Name	Name
Jade pi	Jade ts'ung	Kuei tablet	Bird-shaped p'ei pendant	Jade dragon
Ch'I, archaic jade aze	Pi disk	Pi-hsieh, archaic jade amulet	The emperor Hsuan-tsung's set of fifteen jade tablets	Brush-washer in the shape of a lotus leaf
Three sheep	jade flower-holder in horned-fish shape	Jade censer	Fei-ts'ui jade caBBage	Three yellow jade seals
Covered Bowl with inlay

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Lacquer Wares

Name	Name	Name	Name	Name
Carved eight-lobed lacquer dish with phoenix-and-peony motif	Round t'I-his lacquer Box with cloud decor	Carved red lacquer vase with floral motif	Round lacquer box with mother-of-pearl inlay peony motif	Gold-etched filled-in lacquer chrysanthemum plate with dragon motif
Dish with yellow engraved dragon and clouds motif	Carved polychrome lacquer box with character“spring”and longevity symbol

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Enamel Wares

Enamel Wares

Name	Name	Name	Name	Name
Cloisonne Censer	Cloisonne' Box with lotus Blossom heart and passionflower decor	Cloisonne' enamel double dragon plate	Square hu in painted enamel	Covered bowl with Indian-lotus motif in champleve enamel
Cloisonne' pot with dragon and phoenix decor

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Miniature Carvings

Name	Name	Name	Name	Name
Silver raft	Carved Bamboo ku with animal mask motif	Bamboo veneer box in the shape of a melon	Carved bamBoo Brush-holder with female figures motif	Carved Bamboo wrist-rest with Bamboo motif
Gourd jar with cover	Carved rhinoceros-horn Kuang cup with human figures motif	Carved olive-stone Boat, dated	Carved Boxwood Lohan	Carved Bamboo raft
Carved chieh-nan-wood kuang vessel with dragon-and-phoenix motif	Set of concentric ivory Balls with open-work carving	Carved ivory dragon-Boat	Stained ivory plate carved in the shape of an oyster-shell	Carved miniature ivory landscape, dated
Square treasure Box in red sandalwood	Treasure Box in lotus decor

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Custume and Personal Ornament

Name	Name	Name	Name	Name
Emperor's helmet, worn when reviewing troops	Winter court hat of imperial coucubin	Headdress with “double-happiness”character motif/A	Four rosary-Bracelets	Turquoise imperial court necklace
Court necklace made from fruit stones, openwork carved with Buddhist lohan motifs	Redwood ju-yi scepter inlaid with semi-precious stones	Miscellaneous jewelry	Hairpins	Emperor's formal court Belt

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Religious Articles

Name	Name	Name	Name	Name
Gilt image of Tsongkha-pa Buddha, dated	Lama's ivory Bead headdress and skirt	Gilt mandala	Skull hand-drum	White conch shell trumpet with whorls turning to the right
Kapala ceremonial cup

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Writing Materials

Name	Name	Name	Name	Name
Inkstone with inscription, “Yu Tai Sheng(Wearer of a jade Belt)”	Calligraphy Brushes with polychrome-lacquer stems	Inkcake with “Hundred Children at Play”motif	Ten colored inkcakes with the Ch'ien-lung emperor's inscription	Cloisonn'e writing materials

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Painting and Calligraphy

Calligraphy

Name	Name	Name	Name	Name
K'uai-hsueh shih-ch'ing t'ieh	Draft manuscript of a memorial to his nephew	AutoBiography	Calligraphy on Szechuan Silk	Two poems in five and seven-syllable verse
The Cold Food Observance	Commentary on the Book of Changes	Letter	Poem in five-syllable verse	Chang Chiu-ling's “Fu on a White Feather Fan”

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Stone-inscription Rubbings

Name	Name
Ting-wu version of the Lan-t'ing hsu rubbing	Li Yung's Yueh-lu Temple Stele rubbing

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Paintings

Name	Name	Name	Name	Name
A Palace Concert	Early Snow on the River(two sections)	The Inhabitants of Lung-su	Five Scholars of the T'ang Dynasty	Travelers on a Mountain Path
Magpies and Hare	BamBoo	Early Spring	The Han Palace	The Red Cliff
Soughing wind among Mountain Pines	Children Playing in an autumn Garden	Egrets on a Snowy Bank	Autumn Colors on the Ch'iao and Hua Mountains	Dwelling in the Fu-ch'un Mountains(two sections)
Old Fishermen	Mountains Viewed from a Riverbank	Lofty Mount Lu	Old Trees By a Cold Waterfall	Clearing after Snow in a Mountain Pass
Late Return from a Spring Outing	Flowers and Bamboo	Discussing Antiquity By the river	High Mountains and Long Streams	A City of Cathay (two sections)

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Portraits

Name	Name	Name	Name	Name
Fu Hsi	Emperor T'ai-tsung of the T'ang Dynasty	KuBlai Khan Hunting	Emperor Hsuan-tsung of the Ming dynasty	Ma Ch'ang Chasing the Enemy

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Embroideries and Tapestries

Name	Name	Name	Name	Name
Landscape	Peach Blossoms and Thrush	Dragon Amidst Flowers	After“Am Immortal Holding a Peach of Longevity, ”By Shen Chou	The Western Paradise of Amitadha Buddha
Early Spring Flowers	Queen Mother of the West Riding a Phoenix	Cassia	Poetic Introduction to the Lou-shou Hall By the Emperor Ch'ien-lung

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Rare Books and Documents

Books

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Documents

Name	Name	Name	Name
Ch'I-chu-chu (Records of the emperor's speech and actions)	Kuo Shu, National Credentials (cover)	Russian Imperial Credentials (First page, formally announcing the titles of Czar Nicholas II)	Kung-chung-tanB Tsou-ts'e, Palace Memorials

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