Taizhou Museum

Taizhou Museum

Established in 1958, Taizhou Museum underwent its first expansion and renovation in 1980. It is now located at No. 657 Hailing South Road, Taizhou City, covering a land area of over 1,000 square meters and a building area of more than 2,000 square meters, including an exhibition hall area of nearly 800 square meters and a cultural relics storage area of nearly 300 square meters. The museum has a staff of 19, including 3 associate senior professionals, 4 intermediate-level professionals, 8 with bachelor's degrees, and 3 with college diplomas. It includes departments such as the Exhibition and Public Services Department, Archaeology and Collection Department, Conservation Department, General Office, Security Section, and Finance Section.

Taizhou Museum is a comprehensive museum primarily focused on collecting historical relics. It houses nearly 10,000 items in its collection, among which over 800 have been identified as national first-, second-, and third-class precious cultural relics. The collection excels particularly in ancient paintings and calligraphy, Ming Dynasty costumes, and Six Dynasties celadon ceramics, and enjoys significant influence within China’s museum community. The ancient painting and calligraphy collection includes works by famous artists such as the Ming Dynasty court painter Lü Ji, Lan Ying—founder of the Hangzhou painting school—Dong Qichang, Wen Zhengming, Zhang Lu, Tang Zhiqui, Xie Shichen, Wu Bin, Cheng Sheng, Zhang Feng, as well as Qing Dynasty masters like Zhu Da (also known as Bada Shanren), Shi Tao, Yuan Jiang, Chen Zhuo, Pan Simu, Liang Shanzhou, Zhang Cining, Wu Rangzhi, Xian Nantian, Fei Danxu, and Lianxi. There are also artworks from the “Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou” including Zheng Banqiao, Huang Shen, Li Fangying, and Wang Shishen, and from the Jinling School of Painting such as Cai Ze. In addition, there are pieces from notable Qing figures like Liu Tong, Lin Zexu, Tielebao, and Li Hongzhang, as well as modern masterpieces by Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian, Chen Shizeng, and Yu Youren. The museum’s collection of Ming Dynasty costumes represents the most concentrated and best-preserved examples of civilian (as opposed to royal) textiles in China, especially silk garments, showcasing the finest civilian fashion of the mid-Ming period. Among its ceramic collections, there are many high-quality pieces of Six Dynasties celadon as well as porcelain from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Other types of relics also feature unique and distinctive collections, such as the world’s only relatively complete fossil of a male elk, Han Dynasty bronze mirrors with mythical beast motifs, hundreds of imperial archives and Qing Dynasty transport records, as well as Qing Dynasty crafts. These artifacts serve as invaluable physical evidence reflecting China’s long and splendid historical civilization. The museum also boasts a rich collection of revolutionary relics that vividly and accurately depict the history of revolutionary activities in the Taizhou region.