With my visit to the National Palace Museum yesterday, I wanted to talk about a few of the items inside. If anything it can save you a trip to Taiwan, as this museum is probably the only must see thing in Taiwan. I look forward to you sending me a check for the amount of money you saved not having to come here.
The Box I Like - You can see it in the picture above. it's pretty hard to explain how impressive the box is. It's basically a box that has art and poetry on it, and then you can slide it open many times and each time exposes another set of places to hold tiny little things. Of all the things in the museum, this is the one that really transports me back in time and I can picture the rich family which owned this and their life with this box.
The Jade Cabbage - For a time everything in China was made out of jade. Thankfully not all of it is green, it actually comes in a variety of colors. At first I wasn't so impressed by them until I found out how the oldest pieces were made, basically they put a wire through it and whittle away parts from the inside. When you see how intricate the earlier ones are, you can't help but be impressed. However the most popular thing in the whole museum is a more recent sculpture of chinese cabbage. Personally I don't find it interesting at all, however it's the big ticket item and yesterday there was a two hour line to wait and see it.
Jade Pork - next to the jade cabbage is a piece of meat made out of jade and it looks so much like a real piece of meat. it's quite impressive and is my former favorite in the museum.
Fat Lady - There is a sculpture of a "beautiful" woman from over four thousand years ago. It's interesting because the woman is sooooooooo fat, especially in the face. fascinating how our ideas of beauty have changed over the years.
Swords - another one of my favorites are old weapons. the reason is they are so small. it is startling to see how just a few thousand years ago, humans were so small. the blades are not so long, but the true telling part is how small the handles are. Most seem long enough for only two or three modern man's fingers, definitely too short for a whole hand.
Poetry - I feel terrible for chinese poets. this is because you can never just be a poet, you must be a poet and something else. Almost every treasure in the museum has poetry on it. Bronze cauldrons have poetry engraved in them. Spoons, yep some poetry on them. Paintings, statues, calligraphy...poetry, poetry, poetry.
Cauldrons - yeah what? apparently bronze cauldrons were a big thing. not for cooking but for displaying and having designs and engravings on them. Must have been interesting to have a large, heavy, unmovable cauldron sitting in your living room as a decoration.
Well there are lots of other things, and probably some other important ones I'm forgetting to mention, but you can't expect me to remember everything I saw 24 hours ago.
