Museum of Cultural Relics, Beijing Normal University

Museum of Cultural Relics, Beijing Normal University

The Museum of Cultural Relics at Beijing Normal University currently houses a collection of over 30,000 items, including cultural relics and archives, many of which are high-quality pieces such as oracle bones from the Yinxu site, inscribed ritual bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, Buddhist manuscripts, Huizhou documents, and Qing dynasty porcelain. The museum also boasts relatively complete collections of currency from the Xin Mang period, coins minted by peasant regimes like those of Han Lin'er and Li Zicheng, and official seals from the Great Shun regime at the end of the Ming dynasty, all of which are quite remarkable. Among them, cultural relics such as the seal of Jinxiang County, a tri-color glazed warrior figurine, and a bronze ? are particularly precious. The seal of Jinxiang County, made of copper, stands 11 cm tall and 7 cm wide, and is a local seal from the Great Shun regime of Li Zicheng. The seal face is inscribed with the characters “Jinxiang County Seal” in seal script, which to some extent exhibits the style of nine-fold seal script. On the back, the words “Made in the second month of the sixth year of Yongchang” are written in regular script, reflecting the establishment and administrative structure of the peasant regime at the time. The seal is exquisitely crafted and serves as a rare piece of cultural heritage. Currently, the Museum of Cultural Relics at Beijing Normal University displays a total of 213 cultural relics, which is just a small portion of its entire collection. These include 54 oracle bones, 20 pieces of pottery, 55 bronze items, 26 sculptures, 13 tri-color glazed pieces, and 45 pieces of porcelain.

The quality, variety, and quantity of the cultural relics in the Museum of Cultural Relics at Beijing Normal University are quite outstanding among university museums nationwide, forming its own distinctive characteristics. Mr. Du ?, a researcher at the Palace Museum, summarized the museum’s collection as having “a continuous timeline and rich variety.” He noted that these relics span from the Stone Age to the Ming and Qing dynasties without interruption, and the collection includes a comprehensive range of types and diverse styles, making it of great academic value for fields such as archaeology, history, and cultural relic studies.

According to Shi Jianzhong, a professor in the History Department of Beijing Normal University and the person in charge of the Museum of Cultural Relics, the current museum was established on the foundation of the History Department’s Relic Room, which has a history of over 50 years. In 1995, in order to fully utilize the value of these precious cultural heritages, preparations began to establish the museum. At that time, a special committee was formed, with the renowned historian Bai Shouyi serving as the director and 14 other distinguished scholars, including Qi Gong and Zhong Jingwen, as members. In 1999, nearly three million yuan was invested in the construction of the museum. Experts from professional institutions such as the Palace Museum, the National Museum of Chinese History, and the Capital Museum were invited to provide guidance on exhibition design and content planning for the museum. Mr. Du ? visited the museum multiple times to oversee the arrangement of exhibits and resolve challenges. With everyone’s support, the Museum of Cultural Relics officially opened in October 2000.

Where do the many relics in the museum come from? Professor Shi explained that there are mainly three sources: first, items carefully collected and purchased from society during the tenure of Chen Yuan, a former president of Beijing Normal University and a renowned scholar; second, artifacts obtained by faculty and students of the History Department through fieldwork over the years; and third, allocations from sister institutions within the cultural relic and museum community.

Today, the Museum of Beijing Normal University not only plays a significant role in promoting teaching and research in disciplines such as history and museology at the university, but also serves as a window for the university’s external exchanges. Recently, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Beijing Normal University, the museum launched an exhibition of cultural relic masterpieces, featuring treasures from its collection such as a flat-footed ding vessel from the Shang dynasty, a bronze ? from the Western Zhou dynasty, a bronze sword from the Warring States period, a tri-color glazed warrior figurine from the Tang dynasty, and a seahorse and grapevine bronze mirror.