The Palace Museum

A representative art museum in China. Today, there are museums with the same name in Beijing and Taipei, but originally there was only one, which was established on October 10, 1925 in the latter half of the Forbidden City in Beijing. It was the residence of the Qing emperors and empresses, hence the name Forbidden City. It housed hundreds of thousands of paintings, books, ceramics, jade, gold and silver ware, lacquerware, dyed and woven textiles, clothing, stationery, furniture, and ritual vessels. The cultural relics housed in the Forbidden Palace are, so to speak, the crystallization of the Chinese national spirit, and were collected during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Some of the oldest items, such as bronze and jade, date back to the Yin and Zhou dynasties. In addition, the treasures that had been kept in the Forbidden Palace in Shenyang and the Temporary Palace in Jehol were moved to the Wenhua Hall and Wuying Hall in the first half of the Forbidden City, and these, along with the three main halls in the center, the Taihe Hall, the Zhonghe Hall, and the Baohe Hall, were opened to the public as an antiquities display center.

When the Manchurian Incident broke out in 1931, the Nationalist government, sensing that the flames of war would spread to Beijing, packed these important art objects and books into approximately 20,000 boxes and shipped them first to Shanghai, then to Nanjing, but as the war spread south in 1937, they were further evacuated to China's interior, including Sichuan and Guizhou provinces. With the end of the war in August 1945, the cultural relics were returned to Nanjing once again, but as the Chinese Civil War intensified, tens of thousands of treasures were transported to Taiwan in 1949, and in November 1965 the Palace Museum was established in Taipei, where some of the museum's collection is now on display. Highlights of the collection include many masterpieces, such as Fan Kuan's "Travelers in the Mountains and Streams," Zhao Mengfu's "Autumn Colors of Magpies and Flowers," Huang Gongwang's "Residence in the Rich Spring Mountains," and Shen Zhou's "Sitting at Night."

Meanwhile, the Palace Museum in Beijing has also expanded in size since the establishment of the People's Government in 1949, adding new acquisitions to the treasures that had been left behind. It is divided into the Ming and Qing Crafts Museum, the Treasures Museum, the Painting Museum, the Ceramics Museum, and the Bronzes Museum, and some of the palaces and gatehouses are open to the public for special exhibitions. Famous items in the Beijing collection include Zhan Ziqian's "Picture of a Woman Leisurely in Sex" and Zhang Zhuoduan's "Scroll Along the River During the Qingming Festival."

[Rei Yoshimura]

"Takayasu Higuchi (ed.), "Museums of the World 21: The Palace Museum" (1978, Kodansha)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国の代表的美術館。今日、同名のものが北京(ペキン)と台北(たいほく／タイペイ)にあるが、もとは一つで、1925年10月10日、北京の故宮、紫禁城(しきんじょう)の後半部に設けられたのに始まる。清(しん)の皇帝や皇后の住居であったところで故宮の名はこれによる。絵画、書籍、陶磁器、玉器(ぎょくき)、金銀器、漆器、染織、服飾、文房具、家具、祭器など数十万点があった。故宮所蔵の文物はいわば中国民族の精神の結晶ともいうべきもので、明(みん)・清代に集められた。青銅器や玉器などのように古いものは殷(いん)・周(しゅう)の昔にまでさかのぼる。また瀋陽(しんよう)の故宮、熱河の行宮(こうきゅう)に所蔵されていた宝物は、紫禁城前半部にある文華殿、武英殿に移され、これに中央の太和殿、中和殿、保和殿の三大殿を加えて、古物陳列所として一般に公開した。

　1931年満州事変が起こり、戦火が北京に波及することを察した国民政府は、これらの重要美術品や書籍を約2万個に分けて梱包(こんぽう)し、まず上海(シャンハイ)に発送、ついで南京(ナンキン)に移したが、37年に戦争が南に広がったため、これをさらに四川(しせん／スーチョワン)省、貴州(きしゅう／コイチョウ)省など中国の奥地に疎開した。45年8月、戦争の終結によって、これらの文物はふたたび南京に戻されたが、やがて国共内戦の激化につれて、49年に数万点の宝物が台湾に運ばれ、65年11月、台北市に故宮博物院が成立し、所蔵品の一部を展示することとなった。所蔵品中の圧巻は多数の名画であって、范寛(はんかん)の『谿山(けいざん)行旅図』、趙孟頫(ちょうもうふ)の『鵲華(じゃくか)秋色図巻』、黄公望(こうこうぼう)の『富春山居図巻』、沈周(ちんしゅう)の『夜坐図』などがある。

　一方、北京の故宮博物院も1949年、人民政府の樹立以来、遺留された宝物のほかに新収のものを加えて規模も拡大している。明清工芸館、珍宝館、絵画館、陶瓷(とうじ)館、青銅器館に分かれており、また宮殿や門楼の一部を公開して特別展などが行われている。北京の収蔵品では、展子虔(てんしけん)の『遊春図』、張擇端(ちょうたくたん)の『清明上河図巻(せいめいじょうかずかん)』などが著名である。

［吉村　怜］

『樋口隆康編『世界の博物館21　故宮博物院』（1978・講談社）』

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