National Palace Museum, Taiwan

The National Palace Museum is a very popular tourist spot in Taiwan, housing about 700,000 artifacts (spanning over 8,000 years with categories including bronzes, calligraphy, ceramics, jades, paintings, etc.) collected by the former Chinese imperial palace. Drawing from my fond experience as a docent at the museum, I will virtually guide you through four notable ceramic pieces — all displayed in the same physical gallery (Room 205).

Click here to visit the Google Museum View of the National Palace Museum. Near the bottom, there is a row of seven images. Each leads us to a famous artifact of the museum’s permanent collection. Four of them are ceramics, the focus of this tour. We will visit them in chronological order, which is also the order in which the actual gallery is arranged.

1. Click on the fourth image from the left.

Pillow in the shape of a recumbent child with white glaze, Ding ware
Northern Song dynasty (960–1127AD)
h. 18.8, base diam. 31x13.2 cm

This plump boy is wearing a gown and trousers with crossed feet connoting innocence and purity. Ceramic pillows had been popular since the Tang dynasty (618–907) with three main functions: for sleep, for checking pulses at the wrist, and for auspicious gifts or funerary goods. The Chinese believed that having sons resembles great fortune; thus, falling asleep with this pillow would lead to the birth of a healthy boy.

• What are the child-shaped pillow’s physical properties? Pay attention to how they differ from the characteristics of the upcoming porcelain pieces.

2. Click on the sixth image from the left.

Lotus-shaped warming bowl in light bluish-green glaze, Ru ware
Northern Song dynasty (960–1127AD)
h. 10.3, rim diam. 16x14.6 cm

There are five famous sites of porcelain production during the Song dynasty (960–1279): the Ru, Jun, Ding, Guan, and Ge kilns, each with a unique firing technique. The pillow we just saw is a Ding ware — it yellowish hue was caused by using charcoal as fuel in an oxidized atmosphere. On the other hand, this lotus-shaped bowl is a Ru ware — delicate, extremely rare (there are fewer than 100 complete pieces left, and the museum proudly owns 21 of them), and characterized by its subtle “ice-crackle” glaze pattern. Legend says that its dreamy color came from Emperor Song Huizong asking artisans to “make porcelains the color of the sky after rain.”

• Turn to see some Guan wares immediately to the left of the lotus-shaped bowl in the exhibition space. How are they similar to or different from the Ru wares?

3. Click on the third image from the left.

Wine cup with doucai polychrome decoration of chicken in a garden
Ming dynasty, Chenghua reign (1465–1487AD)
h. 4, rim diam. 8.3, base diam. 3.7 cm

We fast-forward 300 years to the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). In front of you is a small “chicken cup” used for drinking wine. On its surface, there is a rooster and a hen feeding worms to chickens — this symbolizes an ideal family with parents taking care of their children. It belongs to a set of about 20 chicken cups commissioned by Emperor Chenghua and currently owned by several private collectors and museums across the world.

• In 2014, a chicken cup was sold for a record-breaking US$36.05 million at an auction in Hong Kong. What makes them so expensive?

4. Finally, click on the fifth image from the left.

Revolving vase with swimming fish in cobalt blue glaze
Qing, Qianlong reign (1736–1795AD)
h. 23.5, depth 18.5, rim diam. 5.3, base diam. 8.4, body circ. 43.2 cm

During the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), Emperor Qianlong ordered the creation of this double-layered revolving vase for entertainment purposes. If we rotate the vase’s neck, the inner layer would revolve and we could see swimming goldfish through the windows of the outer layer. Compared with the previous three pieces, we observe more saturated colors and more complex structure. These are signs of technological advancement as well as an increase in western influence (for example, the cobalt blue pigment was imported from Persia).

• Look back at all four artifacts. They span over approximately 800 years. Based on your observations, how did Chinese porcelain progress over time? What can we learn about the Chinese people and their history?

That is the end of this tour. I encourage you to explore the rest of the ceramics gallery and the rest of the museum (check out the second image, the Jadeite Cabbage, the museum’s most famous artifact that always draws a crowd)!

Related Links

Google Museum View:
https://artsandculture.google.com/streetview/national-palace-museum-taiwan/ygFbC9QX5-_o4w

Museum Website:
https://www.npm.gov.tw/en/