Shanghai Museum
Right after Easter, Randy had to attend a three-day rare earth trade show. We went with him, as it was a chance for us to spend a few days in Shanghai, too. A bonus was getting to see some of our Beijing friends that moved there.
More after the jump
The first of our two visits in April we focused on the bronze collection. While I like to joke that it is 3000 years of three-legged pots, it is actually much more interesting than that.
Myles' strongest memory was of this 18th century BC yue with the cruciform inlay.
Brigid really did enjoy the three-legged vessels, which is a good thing. She and I are about to start our study of ancient China in Story of the World.
Like previous visits, Myles was most interested in the weaponry.
He did enjoy some of the more intricate designs on the not-weapons, particularly after the lost wax technique was adopted.
Brigid's favorite were the three-legged vessels that looked like, in her words, penguins eating. These two together she called a mother penguin with a baby.
One thing I really liked about the permanent exhibit was that it included some of the technical background explaining chemistry and casting techniques. It appeared that the kids, too, had interest in this as well. Of course, it doesn't hurt that metallurgy and vocabulary like runners and sprues are topics of conversation around our family.
The next day we returned to see the furniture, which we had not seen before. Some of the furniture belonged to Chen Mengjia and his wife Lucy Chao, two people whose histories were heavily featured in Peter Hessler's Oracle Bones. I told the kids a little bit that I could remember about Mr. Chen. I struggled a little, so that night I began a re-read of Oracle Bones. It all came back to me---the Zhao courtyard, Mr. Chen and his wife Lucy, Ma Chengyuan (the reason the bronze collection is particularly good), and so on. Good grief, is that book still incredible, even on repeat reads.
Anyway, I did not start the re-read until after our visit, so I was unable to point out the precise furniture that belonged to Chen and Chao/Zhao at that time. Brigid was surprisingly enthralled by this installation. She didn't care so much about the distinction between Ming and Qing furniture, though she was impressed that all the furniture was suitably old.
My favorite part of the furniture collection was this odd little arrangement of a miniature wooden procession with miniature furniture.
They were discovered in the 1960s, in a Ming-Era tomb of an official of the time. Even as miniatures, they provided a wealth of information about wood and construction to people studying Ming furniture.
The coins were a surprise to me. Myles was already sure he would like it, so he jumped in with enthusiasm. I had to spend a lot of time helping Brigid enjoy this area.
It was so much more interesting than I expected. Sure, I enjoy history and seeing the artifacts, but with coins there are so much more than date and value. What materials they used? Were the coins truly representative currency or were they really worth their understood value? What geometries were used? What was cast or pressed into the coin?
Brigid wanted to see gold money, but then she was disappointed that the gold didn't show age, nor were the examples as interesting as the other coins.
I love process. Look, kids, how the money was cast.
There was a special collection of Silk Road Coins, which included money from several central Asian kingdoms. Like the Scythian, whose coins depicting horses reminded me of Guy Gavriel Kay.
And the Kushan, with their coins bearing Zoroastrian images.
The jaw-dropping piece for all of us was a coin with Genghis Khan's head on it.
Seeing all these coins, both from China and elsewhere, really opened up a discussion for us about money and value, and what the coins told us about what was important to a given country or kingdom.
There was a little bit of the Gospel of Mark 6:21
Ancient gods. Heavenly horses. Genghis Khan. Treasure and trade. And, ultimately, tax.
We spent those three days playing Shanghai tourists. The kids listed things they were most interested in seeing, and for Myles it was really important that we returned to the Shanghai Museum. We were there twice before, in 2007 and 2009. Even though it has been several years, Myles had strong memories of going, and his agenda included departments we had seen already (the bronzes) and those we hadn't (the coins). Brigid did not remember her only previous visit, but one look at the map and she declared that she also wanted to see the bronzes and then the furniture.
Over two days we spent three hours at the Museum. Since admission is free, we were able to squeeze this in with other things we wanted to see.
Over two days we spent three hours at the Museum. Since admission is free, we were able to squeeze this in with other things we wanted to see.
More after the jump
The first of our two visits in April we focused on the bronze collection. While I like to joke that it is 3000 years of three-legged pots, it is actually much more interesting than that.
Myles' strongest memory was of this 18th century BC yue with the cruciform inlay.
Brigid really did enjoy the three-legged vessels, which is a good thing. She and I are about to start our study of ancient China in Story of the World.
Like previous visits, Myles was most interested in the weaponry.
He did enjoy some of the more intricate designs on the not-weapons, particularly after the lost wax technique was adopted.
Brigid's favorite were the three-legged vessels that looked like, in her words, penguins eating. These two together she called a mother penguin with a baby.
One thing I really liked about the permanent exhibit was that it included some of the technical background explaining chemistry and casting techniques. It appeared that the kids, too, had interest in this as well. Of course, it doesn't hurt that metallurgy and vocabulary like runners and sprues are topics of conversation around our family.
The next day we returned to see the furniture, which we had not seen before. Some of the furniture belonged to Chen Mengjia and his wife Lucy Chao, two people whose histories were heavily featured in Peter Hessler's Oracle Bones. I told the kids a little bit that I could remember about Mr. Chen. I struggled a little, so that night I began a re-read of Oracle Bones. It all came back to me---the Zhao courtyard, Mr. Chen and his wife Lucy, Ma Chengyuan (the reason the bronze collection is particularly good), and so on. Good grief, is that book still incredible, even on repeat reads.
Anyway, I did not start the re-read until after our visit, so I was unable to point out the precise furniture that belonged to Chen and Chao/Zhao at that time. Brigid was surprisingly enthralled by this installation. She didn't care so much about the distinction between Ming and Qing furniture, though she was impressed that all the furniture was suitably old.
My favorite part of the furniture collection was this odd little arrangement of a miniature wooden procession with miniature furniture.
They were discovered in the 1960s, in a Ming-Era tomb of an official of the time. Even as miniatures, they provided a wealth of information about wood and construction to people studying Ming furniture.
The coins were a surprise to me. Myles was already sure he would like it, so he jumped in with enthusiasm. I had to spend a lot of time helping Brigid enjoy this area.
It was so much more interesting than I expected. Sure, I enjoy history and seeing the artifacts, but with coins there are so much more than date and value. What materials they used? Were the coins truly representative currency or were they really worth their understood value? What geometries were used? What was cast or pressed into the coin?
Brigid wanted to see gold money, but then she was disappointed that the gold didn't show age, nor were the examples as interesting as the other coins.
I love process. Look, kids, how the money was cast.
There was a special collection of Silk Road Coins, which included money from several central Asian kingdoms. Like the Scythian, whose coins depicting horses reminded me of Guy Gavriel Kay.
And the Kushan, with their coins bearing Zoroastrian images.
The jaw-dropping piece for all of us was a coin with Genghis Khan's head on it.
Seeing all these coins, both from China and elsewhere, really opened up a discussion for us about money and value, and what the coins told us about what was important to a given country or kingdom.
There was a little bit of the Gospel of Mark 6:21
For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.And a little bit of Mark 12:15-17
Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at.” They brought one to him and he said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They replied to him, “Caesar’s.” So Jesus said to them, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” They were utterly amazed at him.
Ancient gods. Heavenly horses. Genghis Khan. Treasure and trade. And, ultimately, tax.
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